"In the published account I omitted to state that my brother Joseph, prior to his death, had retired for the night in his berth; his vessel was moored alongside the levee, at the time of the collision by another steamer coming down the Mississippi. Of course my brother was in his _nightgown_. He ran on deck on being called and informed that a steamer was in close proximity to his own. These circ.u.mstances were communicated to me by my brother William, who was on the spot at the time of the accident."
In addition to these accounts, Mr. Podmore says:--
"I called upon Dr. Collyer on March 25th, 1884. He told me that he received a full account of the story verbally from his father, mother, and brother in 1857.... He was quite certain of the precise coincidence of time."
A sister also writes corroborating all the main statements.
Other senses besides that of sight may receive the telepathic impression.
In the following cases the sense of hearing was so impressed. The first account is from Commander T. W. Aylesbury, late of the Indian Navy. It is from Mr. Gurney"s collection in _Phantasms of the Living_.
"The writer when thirteen years of age was capsized in a boat when landing on the Island of Bally, east of Java, and was nearly drowned. On coming to the surface after being repeatedly submerged, the boy called out for his mother. This amused the boat"s crew, who spoke of it afterwards and jeered him a good deal about it. Months after, on arrival in England, the boy went to his home, and while telling his mother of his narrow escape he said, "While I was under the water I saw you all sitting in this room; you were working on something white. I saw you all--mother, Emily, Eliza, and Ellen." His mother at once said, "Why, yes, and I _heard_ you cry out for me, and I sent Emily to look out of the window, for I remarked that something had happened to that poor boy." The time, owing to the difference in longitude, corresponded with the time when the voice was heard."
Commander Aylesbury adds in another letter:
"I saw their features (my mother"s and sisters"), the room and the furniture, and particularly the old-fashioned Venetian blinds. My eldest sister was seated next to my mother."
The following is an extract from a letter written to Commander Aylesbury by one of his sisters and forwarded to Mr. Gurney, in 1883:--
"I distinctly remember the incident you mention in your letter (the voice calling "Mother"); it made such an impression upon my mind I shall never forget it. We were all sitting quietly at work one evening; it was about nine o"clock. I think it must have been late in the summer, as we had left the street door open. We first heard a faint cry of "Mother"; we all looked up and said to one another, "Did you hear that? some one cried out "Mother."" We had scarcely finished speaking when the voice again called "Mother" twice in quick succession, the last cry a frightened, agonizing cry. We all started up and mother said to me, "Go to the door and see what is the matter." I ran directly into the street and stood some few minutes, but all was silent, and not a person to be seen; it was a lovely evening, not a breath of air. Mother was sadly upset about it. I remember she paced the room and feared something had happened to you. She wrote down the date the next day, and when you came home and told us how nearly you had been drowned, and the time of day, father said it would be about the time nine o"clock would be with us. I know the date and the time corresponded."
In the next case three of the senses--sight, hearing, and touch were concerned. It is from Mr. Gurney"s collection.
"From Mr. Algeron Joy, 20 Walton Place, S. W.
"Aug. 16th, 1883.
"About 1862 I was walking in a country lane near Cardiff by myself, when I was overtaken by two young colliers who suddenly attacked me.
One of them gave me a violent blow on the eye which knocked me down, half-stunned. I distinctly remembered afterwards all that I had been thinking about, both immediately prior to the attack and for some time after it.
"Up to the moment of the attack and for some time previously, I was absorbed in a calculation connected with Penarth Docks, then in construction, on which I was employed. My train of thought was interrupted for a moment by the sound of footsteps behind me. I looked back and saw the two young men, but thought no more of them, and immediately returned to my calculations.
"On receiving the blow, I began speculating on their object, what they were going to do next, how I could best defend myself, or escape from them; and when they ran away, and I had picked myself up I thought of trying to identify them and of denouncing them at the police station, to which I proceeded after following them until I lost sight of them.
"In short, I am positive that for about half an hour previous to the attack, and for an hour or two after it, there was no connection whatever, direct or indirect, between my thoughts and a person at that moment in London, and whom I will call "A."
"Two days afterwards, I received a letter from "A," written on the day after the a.s.sault, asking me what I had been doing and thinking about at 4:30 P. M., on the day previous to that on which he was writing. He continued: "I had just pa.s.sed your club and was thinking of you, when I recognized your footstep behind me. You laid your hand heavily on my shoulder. I turned, and saw you as distinctly as I ever saw you in my life. You looked distressed, and in answer to my greeting and inquiry, "What"s the matter?" You said, "Go home, old fellow, I"ve been hurt.
You will get a letter from me in the morning, telling you all about it." You then vanished instantaneously.
"The a.s.sault took place as near 4:30 as possible, certainly between 4:15 and 4:45. I wrote an account of it to "A" on the following day, so our letters crossed, he receiving mine, not the next morning as my _double_ had promised, but on the succeeding one at about the same time as I received his. "A" solemnly a.s.sured me that he knew no one in or near Cardiff, and that my account was the only one he had received of the incident. From my intimate personal knowledge of him I am certain that he is incapable of uttering an untruth. But there are reasons why I cannot give his name even in confidence.
"ALGERON JOY."
Apparitions are perhaps more frequently seen by a single percipient; there are, however, numerous well authenticated cases where they have been seen by several persons at the same time, sometimes by the whole and sometimes only by a part of the persons present.
Such cases are called _collective_. Here are two such cases reported to Mr. Gurney by physicians.
First, one from Dr. Wyld, 41 Courtfield Road, S. W.
"December, 1882.
"Miss L. and her mother were for fifteen years my most intimate friends; they were ladies of the highest intelligence and perfectly truthful, and their story was confirmed by one of the servants, the other I could not trace.
"Miss L., some years before I made her acquaintance, occupied much of her time in visiting the poor. One day as she walked homewards she felt cold and tired and longed to be at home warming herself at the kitchen fire. At or about the minute corresponding to this wish, the two servants being in the kitchen, the door-handle was seen to turn, the door opened, and in walked Miss L., and going up to the fire she held out her hands and warmed herself, and the servants saw she had a pair of _green_ kid gloves on her hands. She suddenly disappeared before their eyes, and the two servants in great alarm went upstairs and told the mother what they had seen, including the green kid gloves. The mother feared something was wrong, but she attempted to quiet the servants by reminding them that Miss L. always wore black and never green gloves, and that therefore the "ghost" could not have been that of her daughter.
"In about half an hour the veritable Miss L. entered the house, and going into the kitchen warmed herself at the fire; and she had on a pair of _green_ kid gloves which she had bought on her way home, not being able to get a suitable black pair.
"G. WYLD, M. D."
The next case is from Dr. Wm. M. Buchanan, 12 Rutland Square, Edinburgh.
He writes:--
"The following circ.u.mstance took place at a villa about one and a half miles from Glasgow, and was told me by my wife. Of its truth I am as certain as if I had been a witness. The house had a lawn in front of about three or four acres in extent, with a lodge at the gateway distinctly seen from the house, which was about eighty yards" distant.
Two of the family were going to visit a friend seven miles" distant, and on the previous day it had been arranged to take a lady, Miss W., with them, who was to be in waiting at a place about a mile distant.
Three of the family and a lady visitor were standing at one of the dining-room windows waiting for the carriage, when they, including my wife, saw Miss W. open the gate at the lodge. The wind had disarranged the front of a pelisse which she wore, which they distinctly saw her adjust. She wore a light gray-colored beaver hat, and had a handkerchief at her mouth; it was supposed she was suffering from toothache to which she was subject. She entered the lodge to the surprise of her friends, and as she did not leave it, a servant was sent to ask her to join the family; but she was informed that Miss W.
had not been there, and it was afterwards ascertained that no one except the woman"s husband had been in the lodge that morning.
"The carriage arrived at the house about ten A. M., and Miss W. was found at the place agreed upon, in the dress in which she appeared at the lodge, and suffering from toothache. As she was a nervous person, nothing was said to her about her appearance at the gate. She died nine years afterwards."
Sometimes an apparition seemingly intended for one person is not perceived by that person, but is seen by some other person present who may be a stranger to the agent or person whose image is seen. The following case is in point. It is from Mrs. Clerke, of Clifton Lodge, Farquhar Road, Upper Norwood, S. E., and also belongs to Mr. Gurney"s collection:--
"In the month of August, 1864, about three or four o"clock in the afternoon, I was sitting reading in the verandah of our house in Barbadoes. My black nurse was driving my little girl, about eighteen months or so old, in her perambulator in the garden. I got up after some time to go into the house, not having noticed anything at all, when this black woman said to me, "Missis, who was that gentleman that was talking to you just now?" "There was no one talking to me," I said. "Oh, yes, dere was, Missis--a very pale gentleman, very tall, and he talked to you and you was very rude, for you never answered him." I repeated there was no one, and got rather cross with the woman, and she begged me to write down the day, for she knew she had seen some one. I did, and in a few days I heard of the death of my brother in Tobago. Now the curious part is this, that I did not see him, but she--a stranger to him--did; and she said that he seemed very anxious for me to notice him.
"MAY CLERKE."
In answer to inquiries Mrs. Clerke says:--
"(1) The day of the death was the same, for I wrote it down. I think it was the third of August, but I know it was the same.
"(2) The description "very tall and pale" was accurate.
"(3) I had no idea he was ill. He was only a few days ill.
"(4) The woman had never seen him. She had been with me about eighteen months and I considered her truthful. She had no object in telling me."
Her husband, Colonel Clerke, corroborates as follows:--
"I well remember that on the day on which Mr. John Brersford, my wife"s brother, died in Tobago--after a short illness of which we were not aware--our black nurse declared she saw, at as nearly as possible the time of his death, a gentleman exactly answering to Mr. Brersford"s description, leaning over the back of Mrs. Clerke"s easy-chair in the open verandah. The figure was not seen by any one else.
"SHADWELL H. CLERKE."
In this instance, looking upon the dying brother as the agent and the sister as the _intended_ percipient, the question arises, why was _she_ unable to perceive the telepathic influence which presented the likeness of her brother, while the colored nurse, an entire stranger to him, sees and describes him standing by his sister"s chair and apparently anxious that she should recognize him?
In another of Mr. Gurney"s cases, of four persons present in a business office where the phantasm of a fifth well-known person appeared, two persons saw the phantasm and two did not.
Abridged from Mr. Gurney"s account the circ.u.mstances were as follows:--
The narrator is Mr. R. Mouat, of 60 Huntingdon St., Barnsbury, N., and the incident occurred in his office on Thursday, September 5th, 1867. The persons concerned were the Rev. Mr. H., who had a desk in the same office and who may be considered the _agent_; Mr. Mouat, himself, and Mr. R., a gentleman from an office upstairs in the same building, the _percipients_; while a clerk and a porter who were also present saw nothing.