THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, JUNE 37. 1909.
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HV JOHN" ELFRHTH WATKKS.
WHiRTIlKH our Hheetcdi dead do
really return to Kqiioak and gib
ber through highway and byway,
or rattle thfir bones in our haunted
house?, you may believe, or you may not.
Vhether direct mind-to-mind communi
cation can be n-iHintained between the
quick and the dead, you may seriously
doubt. Ton mny have sniffed and
sneered at all accounts that you hare
hitherto beard or read of spirit or spec
ter, spook or shade, boggard or banshee,
RhoKt or KOblin. it matters not. "Whether
the strange, oi-cui rences hero to be set
down are the products of minds that are
dlseaae-warpe (i or minds pitted by super
normal Bcnw who knows? The gentle
reader doth not; no more doth the hum
ble writer, and. as for the latter, all that
he can say is that these strange- ac
counts have been compiled from the tes
timony of recent cases filed with our
new American Society for Psychical Re
search. And that profound association
of ghost-hunters assumes no direct re
(iponplhilUy for these weird phenomena
Klves thorn no indorsement beyond its
Lvowal that they have been furnished
by apparently trustworthy contributors.
Tho Violet Ghost.
First I will give you the pith of the
Flrar.se story of the violet "ehost. A per
sonal friend of Professor James H. Hys
lop, secretary of the society, was sitting
by the deathbed of her 10-year-old son.
In the death chamber was a small vase
filled with violets, which the mother sev
eral times during the day brought to the
ledsldo, and the last time she did so he
whispered that he would devote his time
to raising violets when he was well.
Then in u very little while the. black an
Kel came, and with her his soul floated
.way throuKh. the violet-scented air.
"1 laid the violets on his breast, and
Ihere they were when ho was laid in his
grave." writes the mother. "This was
arly In March. In Ausrust of the
same year I was alono In my room. sew-.
liiK, when all at once, first a faint and
then a very pronounced odor of violets
filled the room. There certainly were no
violets anywhere. It was not the season.
"What was it? 'Charlie Is here.- some
thing sniid within me. and just then my
remaining son, who had been upstairs in
a little den wherein the boys had always
done their studying, cume down and
said: 'Mother, have you any violets here?
.lust now it smelled so strong of them up
In my room. It was so nice.'
Kvery now and then, at long intervals,
this fragrance of violets would thus sud
denly bo with us. and whosoever hap
pened to be hero Just then would smell
It and know It to le violets."
Then to this haunted house came a
keptic tho bride of the youngest son.
Hhe scoffed at tho stories of the violet
Khosi until ton years after its first
haunting, when, so she testifies, she her
self met with it in the sitting-room. She
nnd her husband were standing in won
der when the mother slipped into the
room, and tho latter' adds: "Oh. the
sweetness of it! A basketful of violets
could not have filled tho room with that
fragrance. . w stood and mar
veled, but I knew in truth that Charlie
had come again. Since we could not see
Mm. this was surely a beautiful way for
him to impress us with his presence."
The Ghost of Kate Field.
Indeed it was a "beautiful '"way" com
pared with that alleged to be employed
bv the ghost of Kate Kleld. the author
llss Agnes C. 13.. a correspondent of the
Society for Psychtcal Research, after
dining with tho Boston author Lillian
Whiting, sat in a dark room with the
latter. They were chatting of Kate Field.
Near the close of the narrative." savs
Miss I!., "for an insfant I had a ruriouj
numb feeling run through my left arm.
similar to the shock experienced from
gratping the handles of an -electric bat
tery. It was such a strange happening
that when Miss Whiting finished. I told
her of it, and her reply somewhat stag
gered me, for she said: 'Oh. yes Kate Is
here; I felt her. That's how I know.
Khc doesn't mean to give that little
shock, but she can't help it.' I could
hardly accept It wilt, the same equanim
ity that Miss Whiting did. Never before
f nor since has the same feeling come As I
; was resting easily in a comfortable chair,
it could not be numbness resulting from
-ramp It did not last long enough."
Wraith or Joe Jefferson.
Joseph Jefferson's wraith employs
more pleasurable means of signaling
hts earthly friends, according to an-
wther correspondent of the society, who
While recently attending: a lecture, was
tnnyd by the repetition of the word
U,-lre' fro"onced over and over.
! " "cn stranRe voice said: "Tell her
Fliow much 1 love her Joseph Jeffer
son.1 she confided her weird experience
... .iuns nexi to her. who
i.i..enea to no a former actress who
inart known Jefferson well and at whose
rhome at Martha's Vineyard, the veteran
tnctor had visited a week before hU
F?rf th" 'NWnle'" word by which
Tills phantasm announced Itself was
?he name of the daughter of the late
it.ctr'r. favo'i'o stage character. Rip
. r an Winkle.
A ghostly signal, even more peculiar
Was that reported recently bv Here
1 w-ard Carrington. the young" Anglo
Amtrl.nn scientist and author, in this
case, the thing, whatever It was
heralded Its coming by making the'
tantalizing sound of a coin spinning
tipon hardwood.
Ghost of a Kiss.
Hut hoe is a phantasmal salutation
of a kind most devoutly to be wished
for. especially inasmuch as it is em
ployed by the specter not of a de
ceased, but of a living: person and
that Individual of the fair sex A
gentleman stopping- at a Buffalo hotel
was awakened during the night by
the phantasm of his wife, which stood
at the foot of his bed. She could be
distinctly seen, although the room was
entirely dark.
"What are you doing here?" cried
the haunted man. half springing out
of bed.
"I thought I would come, out and
see hew you were getting along" re
plied the shade. Then It walked to the
head of the bed. bent over and kissed
f ie startled man. who thereupon broke
into a cold sweat and suffered a ner
vous chill. , Indeed, so nervous did he
become that he trumped up a pretext to
wire his wife a business question Her
reply indicating that she was safe and
well, ho remained away several days
longer and on his return home noted
his wife's curiosity as to whether he
experienced anything on the verv nlht
hia visitation. Pressed for her rca-
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son for inquiry, she admitted that on
the nig-ht In question she had read of
a method of mentally projecting one's
phantasm through space and upon re
tiring had concentrated her mind upon
the desire to appear to him and kiss
him at 1 o'clock in the morning.
Projected Double Through Space.
Another , who projected his own
phantasm through space was "an able
and respected professor in Harvard
University," a colleague of Professor
William James, who reports the case.
One evening, while alone. in his room,
the un-named professor opened his
window, which overlooked a young
woman's house a half mile away
and, while sitting in the dark, tried
as hard as he could to wish himself
into her presence. At the same hour
the young woman while at supper ex
claimed: "There is Blank lookin;
crack of the door!"
through the
"He can't be there, he would come
rijrht in," replied her vis-a-vis, turn
ing round. But she could not be con
vinced until she had gotten up and in
vestigated for herself.
Phantasm of Would-Be Suicide.
But in the strange case now to be
told such a phantasm of the living
went on no idle business. Rather It
saved a Buffering mortal from a mad
and reckless death. Professor Hyslop
gets this, case from what he terms "a
most intelligent source" a minister
who recorded the details in his diary
shortly after their occurrence. On a
Saturday evening, while trying to write
his next day's sermon, lie had an im
pulse to go out upon his porch, which
overlooked a misty marsh lying be
tween his house and a lonely beach. It
was a heavy night and a dense gray
fog gave a gloomy, desolate aspect to
all around. He felt a mad impulse to
leap the railing, and while he was try
ing to overcome this his blood was
curdled by "a low. mournful cry that
seemed to come out of the fog envelop
ing tho lowland. ... At the same
instant," lie reports, "the gloom seemed
to give way to a narrow streak of
Intense white' light, through which I
peered startled and wild-eyed, until
the path leading to the beach, and
then the beach itself, became as dis
tinct as at noonday: then suddenly at
the end of the narrow streak, at the
very water's edge a man. In an in-
J recognized Mm; it was
senior warden."
my
The minister leaped the railing, ran
to the beach and after grophvg through
the darkness came upon his warden
just as the latter raised his hand to
blow out his brains.
Schurs and Lincoln's Ghost.
A ghost. experience of Carl Schuri. al
though happening a generation back, is
one of the most interesting reported to
the society. On his way to Washington
to answer a summons of President
Johnson he stopped over in Philadelphia
with his friend, Herr Tfedemann, son
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of the eminent professor of medicine
at Heidelberg, and after supper he
was entertained by Frauleln Tiede
mann, a beautiful child of 15, who had
developed some alleged talent as an
amateur writing medium. A circle
having been formed round the table a
shiver passed over the child and, after
impulsively grasping a pencil, held out
to her, she wrote in a jerky way.
Abraham Lincoln's spirit was an
nounced and in answer to questions
stated that President Johnson would
want Mr. Schurz to undertake an im
portant journey for him; also that Mr.
Schurz would one day sit in the United
States Senate.
"From what state?'" asked Schurz.
"From Missouri." answered the girl's
pencil, with another jerk.
And President Johnson did surprise
Schuri next day by sending him on a
journey. And two years later the great
German-American was surprised by an
entirely unsought and unexpected busi
ness proposition which took him to
Missouri, from which state he was
elected to the Senate.
Cat Fights Dog's Ghost.
A clairvoyant cat's attack upon a
dog"s ghost is the unique case reported
by Hereward Carrington. mentioned
above in connection with the spinning
coins. A man and two women were
walking down a lane in a New York
village, where Mr. Carrlngton was
visiting, when one of the women saw a
yellow, long-nosed, curly-tailed dog
running along the path just ahead and
in what to her was plain sight. Al
though it was perfectly light and the
ground was open and flat, her two com
panions could see nothing, in spite of
her pointing to the middle of the road,
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Copyright Cfr.Gii6er(. 902
right before them, and
describing the
animal minutely. The
group was dis-
cussing the mystery when a cat came
suddenly from a house, ran ahead of
them, raised its back, spat and struck
with its paw. The one woman dis
tinctly saw the angered animal strik'e
the dog, but the other two pedestrians
saw the cat merely strike the air.
Only when she moved her eves to now
watch the fleeing cat back into the
house did she lose sight of the dog
which, by the time she had returned
her gaze toward it, had disappeared.
So here were a cat and a woman who
could see a dog which . was invisible
to a man and woman. It is claimed
i that the woman was a clairvoyant. So.
j then, must the cat have been, also.
te colored folks are right,
after all in their estimate of the psychic
powers of the. feline!
We have read of the "writing on tho
wall," at Belshazzar's feast, but have
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accepted that as a miracle which cannot
be repeated In these material times.
But Professor Hyslop knows personally
a young woman who claims to have
profited by such .a miracle, again and
again. But we will let her tell her
own story:
"I went into Roman history class
without having looked at my lesson.
I was not in the habit of bluffing, so
when the teacher called upon me to
answer a question I rose and com
menced to say: 'I do not know my les
son today,' when suddenly on the black
board behind me appeared in red let
ters, the answer to the question. I
hesitated and then read aloud what
was written on the board. It proved to
be the correct answer. The red let
ters did not look like chalk but like
ink- This occurred several times dnr.
ing the year, but only the one subieet
Roman history."
v
That was a handy ghost
to have
SOME OF THE lEflY
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around, as is this sporty specter which
now and then does a good turn for
W. H. S-, another correspondent of the
society: "1 made a mental request that
the colors of the winner of the Su
burban be shown to me," he reports.
"The request was shortly followed by
a mental picture of a Jockey on a horse,
the colors of the jockey being rather
a brilliant blue and broad yellow strine.
1 The race took place three or four days
afterward, with 16 to 20 horses, and
I only one entry had colors as above,
j That was John A. Drake's Savable. blue
i and gold. I. had no faith in the picture
received and when I found that Savable
was 40 to 1 In the betting I paid no
further attention to the matter.
Savable was played down to 15 to 1
and came in first." This gentleman
had greater faith in a later experiment.
"I closed my eyes while lying down."
he goes on to say, "and two blurs of
color, suddenly showed up before my
face gray and magenta ... When
I got a programme on the way to the
track I knew for the first time that
these colors belonged to the Thomas
stable, which had Hermes entered for
the race. His price was 4 to 1 to win
and even money for. second place. I
bet $5 each way and won $25, as he
came out first." j
Sent Ghost to London on Business.
Another accommodating ghost influ
enced a dying father in London to favor
his son in America in the making of
his will. . This shade was "Dr. Phinult,"
the alleged spirit control of Mrs. Leo
nore Piper, the celebrated non-profes-slonal
medium of Boston, with, whom
the British .Society . for Psychical Re
search has lately subjected to close
study. Mrs. Piper, after telling the
sons wife that the father would die
in a few weeks, was asked to inter
cede with the old gentleman in favor
of the son. The spectral "Dr. Phinuit"
was commissioned as .Intermediary and
within the time intimated the father
died suddenly of heart failure. The
son started for London after learning
from "Dr. Phinuit," through Mrs.
Piper, the exact .state of the will and
the intelligence that the principal
executor would make a disposition in
his (the son's) favor, subject to the
consent of - the other two executors.
"Three weeks afterward." testifies
the son, "I arrived in London and found
the principal executor to be the man
Dr. Phinuit had described. The will
went materially, as Dr. Phinuit had
stated. The disposition was made in
my favor, and my sister, who was
chiefly at my father's bedside the last
three days of his life, told me he had
repeatedly complained of the presence
of an old man at the foot of his bed,
who annoyed him by discussing his pri
vate affairs."
i That the ghostly Dr. Phinuit was this
oia man is the belief of those con
cerned. This, too, is weird: Mrs. A. B. Quen
tin is troubled by a constant dream, in
which the water comes up and covers
the lawn of the home of her ancestors,
at Great Neck, L. I. Once when she
told her grandmother of this dream
the old lady exclaimed: "Why. have
you had that old dream! 1 dream It.
too. and my mother did before me."
And lately Mrs. Quentin was amazed to
discern that her own little daughter,
aged 12. had had the same dream. "It
was the same thing, word for word,"
says' Mrs. Quentin. "and I am positive
she had never heard either my grand
mother or myself speak of It."
Ghastly Ghostly Hands.
But for ghostly ghastliness and
ghostliness here is the creme de la
creme of tho whole collection:
On the eve of his death William
P.. of Tottenvllle, N. Y., longed to hear
a young lady play Braga's "Angel Sere
nade." She on the same night, al
though 200 miles away, had this ex
perience: "I was lying on a couch in my library
thinking of him when hie hands (I saw
them distinctly) took mine and led me to
the piano." states the young woman her
self, recalling that same sad night. "I
at once began to play 'Angel Serenade.'
and his hands followed mine all through
the notes till I became hysterical and
had to stop playing;
"Now comes the strangest part," she
continues. "His mother tells me he kept
wishing to hear mo play, and suddenly
he became very quiet and his fingers
seemed to be playing upon a piano. All
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at once he gave a great sign and said;
'How beautiful,1 and dropped into a coma
tose condition, from which he never
wakened."
An hour after his death next day the
young woman, still 200 miles away, was
reading in her room when a draught of
icy air blew between the blue curtain"
of her room. Her little dog raised his
head, began to whine and then crawled
under her chair. Then she looked up. and
there between the curtains stood her
newly deceased friend with outstretched
hands and a most heavenly smile upon
his face. , .
"I stared at him spellbound for a few
minutes," she continues, "and as the clock
struck 9 he vanished. Just then our door
bell rang and I went to the door to re
ceive a telegram saying:
"Willie died at 8. Come at once."
Phantom fashions are as fickle as those
in feminine finery, and but few now re
main of these good old-fashioned death
wraiths of the creepy sort that bring out
the cold sweat and the gooseflesh, that
cause our teeth to chatter, that make us
shake all over with the shivers and that
force our "each particular hair to stand
on end like quills upon the fretful porcu
pine." PORTIAVD.
If perchance you've bought your tickets
For a trip out in the West.
And you've creased the Rockies' summit
And the Continental Cret.
And K'a then you hav forgotten
By what line your tickets read.
And you And your train is gliding
With a smooth and even speed
Then you may know you're bound for Port
land By the line the water took.
When the band of the Creator
Started river, rill and brook.
But if you nnd your meditation
Interrupted by the shock
Of the sharp exhausting engine
As it climbs along the rock.
And you feel the car a-swaylng
Round a curve, reverse-compound.
Then you may know that you've missed
Portland
And for some other port are bound.
Or If from your car window
Xou should glance a moment back.
And should see a freight train stretching
Long a mile -or more of track.
With Its engine gently purring
At the task It has ahead.
Then you may know you're bound for Tort
land. Down the famous watershed. .
But if you see a freight train cllmfclng,
Of a dozen cars or less,
with two mighty engines purring
Up the steep In sore dlMress,
Then you may know you've made a blunder
And for Portland you're not bound
But you'll surely land la Frisco
Or the Northern Puget Sound.
Or, when you've passed the Rockies' mmntt
And descended to the plain,
A?..y,'u asain 5"u.' breath to tighten
V 1th & gaerp that gives you pa.ln
And you know from your sensation.
You're a mile up In the air
And you feel that any moment
You may catch the Golden Stair.
Then you may know without consulting
Either time card, sheet or map.
That you're not bound for good, old Portland
Down the famous water gap.
If you now In meditation
Wonder what city Is te he
The. future Kreat metropolis
Of the great Pacific Sea,
Ju recall lt you're from college
Newton solved it full and (air.
VV hen he said for bodis falling
"S equal one-half g t square."
And the force that hurls the p'.anets
Through the mighty realms of space
And keeps- them moving onward.
Ever In their appointed place.
Has decreed that here at Portland
By the Law of Gravity
6ha!I eland the future greatest city
Of the great Pacific ea.
Oregon City. " A"
Advice to Correspondents.
Selected.
If you ve got a thing that's happy.
Boil it down;
Make it short and crisp and snappy.
Boil It down;
When your brain Its coin has minted.
rown the pag-a your pen has sprinted,
ir you want your effort printed.
Boil It down.
Take out every surplus letter.
Boll It down;
Fewer syllables the better.
Boll It down:
Make your meaning plain express it
ti Know, not merely guess it:
xnen, ray friend, ere
Boll it down.
you address it.
Cut out all the extra trimmings
Boll it down:
Skim It well, then skira the skimmings
Boil it down;
When you're sure 'twould He s
Cut another sentence in two
Send it on and we'll begin to
Boll it down.
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