"Of course we promised, but the effect of that sitting I shall not soon forget. By-the-way, Miss Wilc.o.x "phoned and proved the truth of her message. Her mother really was ill and in need of her."
As I closed this story, Cameron said: "Garland, you tell that as if you believed in it."
"I certainly do believe in my friend. It"s no joke with her. She is quite certain that she is controlled by those "on the other side," and that to submit is to lose so much of her own individuality. You may call it hysteria, somnambulism, hypnotism, anything you like, but that certain people are moved subconsciously to impersonate the dead I am quite ready to believe. However, "impersonation" is the least convincing (from my point of view) of all the phases of mediumship. I have paid very little attention to it in the course of my investigation. It has no value as evidence. You are still in the tattered fringes of "spiritism,"
even when you have seen all that impersonation can show you."
"Well, what do you suggest as the proper method for the society?"
"As I told you at beginning, I have had a great deal of experience with these elusive "facts," and it chances that a practised though non-professional psychic with whom I have held many baffling sittings, is in the city. I may be able to induce her to sit for us."
"Oh, do, do!" cried Mrs. Cameron and Miss Brush together.
"Who is she?" asked Miller.
"I"ll tell you more about her--next time," I said, tantalizingly. "She is very puzzling, I a.s.sure you. When and where shall we meet?"
"Here," said Cameron, promptly. "I"m getting interested. Bring on your marvels."
"Yes," said Miller, and his mouth shut like a steel trap. "Bring on your faker. It won"t take us long to expose her little game."
"Bigger scientific bigots than you have been conquered," I retorted.
"All right. I"ll see what I can do. We"ll meet one week from to-day."
"Yes," said Cameron; "come for dinner."
As I was going out, Mrs. Quigg detained me. "If it had been anybody but nice little Mrs. Harris, I should say that you had made this all up between you. As it is, I guess I"ll have to admit that there is something in thought transference and hypnotism. _You were her control._"
"That will serve for one evening," I retorted. "I"ll make you doubt the existence of matter before we finish this series of sittings." And with this we parted.
II
I was a little late at Cameron"s dinner-party, and no sooner had I shown my face inside the door than a chorus of excited inquiry arose.
"Where is the medium?" demanded Cameron.
"Don"t tell us you haven"t got her!" exclaimed Mrs. Quigg.
"I haven"t her in my pocket, but she has promised to appear a little later," I replied, serenely.
"Why didn"t you bring her to dinner?" asked Mrs. Cameron.
"Well, she seemed a little shy, and, besides, I was quite sure you would all want to discuss her, and so--"
"Yes, do tell us about her. Who is she? Does she perform for a living?
What kind of a person are we to expect?" volleyed Miss Brush.
To this I replied: "She is a native of the Middle West--Ohio, I believe.
No, she does not do this for a living; in fact, she makes no charge for her services. She is very gentle and lady-like, and much interested, naturally, in converting you to spiritualism; for, like most psychics, she believes in spirits. She says her "controls" have especially urged her to give me sittings. I am highly flattered to think the spirit folk should consider me so particularly valuable to their cause. Seriously, I hope you will appreciate the wonderful concessions Mrs. Smiley is making in thus putting herself into our hands with the almost certain result of being discredited by some of us. I believe she really is doing it from a sense of duty, and is ent.i.tled to be treated fairly."
"Has she been in the business long?" asked Mrs. Quigg, with lurking sarcasm.
"Ever since she was about ten years old, I believe, but she sits only "to spread the glad tidings.""
"Is she married?"
"Yes, and has a devoted husband, and a nice little American village home. I know, for she sent me a photograph of it. She has two children "in the other world." Please don"t think all mediums the ignorant and vicious harpies which the newspapers make them out to be. I know several who are very nice, serious-minded women."
At this point dinner was announced, and the dining-room became the field of a hot verbal warfare. The members of the society were all present excepting Mrs. Harris, who had been greatly upset by her own performance. Bart Brierly, the painter, was there to defend the mystery of life against our scientific friend Miller, whose conception of the universe was very definite indeed. Mrs. Quigg supported Miller. Young Howard was everywhere in the lists, and his raillery afforded Cameron a great deal of amus.e.m.e.nt.
I contented myself with listening for the first half-hour, but at last took occasion to say to Miller: "Like all violent opponents of the metapsychical, you know very little of the subject you are discussing.
To sustain this contention, let me ask if you have ever read the account of Sir William Crookes"s experiments with psychic force?"
Miller confessed that he had not. "I have avoided doing so, for I respect Crookes as a chemist," he added.
I continued: "Crookes began by pooh-poohing the whole subject of spiritualism, very much as you do, Miller; but after three years of rigid investigation, he was forced to announce himself convinced of the truth of many of the so-called spirit phenomena. It is instructive to recall that when he was willing to hazard his scientific reputation on a report of this character to the Royal Society, of which he was a member, his paper was thrown out. The secretary refused even to enter it upon the files of the inst.i.tution."
"I know about that," replied Miller, "and I consider the secretary justified. To his thinking, Crookes had lost his head."
"No matter what he thought," I replied. "Any paper by a man of Crookes"s standing, with his knowledge of chemistry and of life, and his long training in exact observation, should have been considered. The action of the secretary was due simply to prejudice, and many of those who voted to ignore that report are to-day more than half convinced that Sir William has been justified. Each of his experiments has been repeated and his findings verified by scientific men of Europe. It is a pleasure to add that our own Smithsonian Inst.i.tution published two of his speculative papers some years ago. So it goes--the heresy of to-day is the orthodoxy of to-morrow."
"Didn"t Crookes afterward repudiate that early report?" asked Miller.
"On the contrary, in 1898, upon being elected to the presidency of the British a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science, he said (I think I can recall almost his exact words): "No incident in my scientific career is more widely known than the part I took in certain psychic researches.
Thirty years have pa.s.sed since I published an account of experiments tending to show that outside our scientific knowledge there exists a force exercised by intelligences differing from the ordinary intelligence common to mortals. This fact in my life is well understood by those who honored me with the invitation to become your president.
Perhaps among my audience some may feel curious as to whether I shall speak out or be silent. I elect to speak, although briefly. I have nothing to retract. I adhere to my published statements. Indeed, I might add much thereto." And when you realize that this includes his astounding experience with "Katie King," his words become tremendous in their significance."
"What was the "Katie King" experience?" asked Mrs. Cameron. "I never heard of it."
"It is a long and very interesting story, but in substance it is this: While in a condition of contemptuous disbelief as to the alleged phenomena of spiritualism, Sir William chanced to witness a seance wherein a young girl named Florence Cook was the medium. Her doings so puzzled and interested him that he went again and again to see her.
Dissatisfied with the conditions under which the wonders took place, he asked Miss Cook to come to his house and sit for him and his friends.
This she did. She was a mere girl at the time, about seventeen years of age, and yet she baffled this great chemist and all his a.s.sistants. You sometimes hear people say, "Yes, but he was in his dotage." He was not.
He was in his early prime. He brought to bear all his thirty years"
training in exact observation, and all the mechanical and electrical appliances he could devise, without once detecting anything deceitful."
"Even in the "Katie King" episode?" asked Harris.
"Even Katie stood the test. But before going into that, let me tell you some of his other experiments. He says (among other amazing things) that he has seen a chair move on its own account, without contact with a medium. He saw Daniel Home--another medium with whom he had sittings--raised by invisible power completely from the floor of the room. "Under rigid test condition," he writes, "I have seen a solid, self-luminous body the size of an egg float noiselessly about the room!"
But wait! I will quote from my notes his exact words." Here I produced my note-book, and read as follows: ""I have seen a luminous cloud floating upward toward a picture. Under the strictest test conditions, I have more than once had a solid, self-luminous, crystalline body placed in my hand by a hand which did not belong to any person in the room. _In the light_, I have seen a luminous cloud hover over a heliotrope on a side-table, break a sprig off, and carry it to a lady; and on some occasions I have seen a similar luminous cloud condense to the form of a hand and carry small objects about. During a seance in full light, a beautifully formed small hand rose up from an opening in a dining-table and gave me a flower. This occurred in the light in my own room, while I was holding the medium"s hands and feet. I have retained one of these perfectly life-like and graceful (spirit) hands in my own, firmly resolved not to let it escape, but it gradually seemed to resolve itself into vapor, and faded in that manner from my grasp.""
"Oh, come now," shouted Howard, "you"re joking! Crookes couldn"t have written that."
I continued to read: ""Under satisfactory test conditions, I have seen phantom forms and faces--a phantom form came from the corner of the room, took an accordion in its hand, and glided about the room playing the instrument.""
As I paused, Harris said: "Was all that in his report to the Royal Society?"