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VOL. XLI
PORTLAND, OREGON, SUNDAY ! .'MORNING, '-'NOVEMBER 12, 1922
NO. 46
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It Is the Runted London Home of the Late
W. T. Stead to Which,His Daughter Says,
' Her Dead Father Frequently Returns.
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ACCORDING to the dictionary, a
haunted house Is a place subjected
ta visitations from the world of
spirits. In the popular imagination it is
a ramshackle wooden structure, shrink
ing behind dusty hedge - rows, with
broken windows invaded by the branches
of trees through the tops of which the
wind soughs in melancholy manner, or a
dilapidated brick structure, stern and
forbidding, with cold marble floors and
metal banisters clammy and terrible to
the visitors' touch.
But over in London, which seems to
be just now the mecca of those who have
been caught in the war-inspired interest
in spirits and psychic manifestations,
they have a different conception of a
dwelling inhabited by the souls of those
who have separated from the fleshy en
velope called the body. They have neither
terror nor curiosity for such a habitation.
In fact, they have given ghosts a head
quarters. The 20C-year-old residence in
old Saith square of Miss Estelle Stead,
daughter of W. T. Stead, has been turned
over to ghosts and this winter it is to be
dedicatee! with formal ceremonies.
Thus the invisible, save to the psychic,
denizens of the world beyond the veil
have been given a headquarters where
they may meet and hold converse with
those in the flesh. The spirit of the de
parted owner of the mansion will pre
side when the spirits hold a meeting.
That he has never left the dwelling is the
statement of his beautiful daughter. And
to prove this assertion she has the photo
graph, a copy of which is published on
this page, showing the presence of her
The "spirit" portrait of the late Professor Hyslop, which appeared on
a photograph taken by a disinterested photographer, William M Van
der Weyde. He made it at a seance in which Marie Haviland, a trained
nurse, was placed in a trance, as shown in the foreground A com
mittee supervised the photographing The members were Walter A
Roberfs, president of the Writers' dub (left foreground); Dr Edward
F Bowers, in whose heme the picture was taken (left background);
Miss Eleanor Ramos, editor of "Saucy Stories, and Mrs Robert T
Scott This photograph will be on exhibit in the "house that is to be
dedicated to ghosts."
. '- x -fathers
spirit--bi the library of Ills late
residence when the spirit pnotographer
snapped him.
This library also has been turned over
to the ghosts. It is here that Miss Stead "
and her friends who believe iu ghosts
hold their seances. Around its walls are
book shelves holding a thousand volumes
-on the subject of spiritualism. All of
these are offered as a sort of public
library on things ghostly.
"Believers" Aro Conservative.
The members of Miss Stead's circle are
professional, business and wealthy folk
who will give you sincere and very con
vincing testimony to the truth, of their
statements that ghosts are ghosts and can
and do make themselves visible and com
municative at the proper time and place.
What they have done, they 11 inform you,
is merely to give their incorporeal friends
the proper place and appointed times
when they may so manifest themselves.
They speak of the coming visit to head-'
quarters of this or that ghost in the tone
of voice that one who doesn't believe in
spirits might announce the coming of a
cousin by marriage. They become wroth
only when "double exposure" or "double
negatives" is suggested as an explana
tion of the weird "spirit" photographs?
two of which are printed on this page.
But, as the "spirit photograph" at the
top of this page bears witness, belief in
ghosts has almost as much strength here
as in England. Many of the most con
servative thinkers and persons known as
unbelievers have T)een convinced that
there is "something to it." Among those
Hi
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"My experiences
with ghosts have
been very agreea
ble," says Miss
Estelle Stead, who
turns over her fath
er's house for car
rying on psychic
research.
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A photograph of the. late Professor
Hyslop, which shows fhe resem-'
Jjlance to his "spirit" photograph
This "spirit".' photograph of W. T.
Stead, taken in the library of his
late residence, is vouched for by
the British Society for Psychic
Research.
are the witnesses to the taking of the
fore - mentioned "spirit photograph" of
the late Professor Hyslop, produced in
the course of an Investigation conducted
by Dr. Walter F. Prince, chief Investi
gator of the Psychical Research society. '
When they exhibit , this photograph
they will remind you, with a pardonable
ring of triumph In their, voices, that Pro
fessor Hyslop is the same psychologist
and spiritualist who promise he would
return after death and disclose himself to
those who have faith. They will also re
call to your mind the report that a week
after his death he appeared at a banquet
held in his honor and gave an automatic
message through one of the psychic
guests.
The circumstances attendant on the
spirit photograph of the late professor
are enough to give even the most in
credulous pause. It- was taken in the
home of Dr. Edward F. Bowers of No.
225 West End avenue, New York city.
Those present included Dr., Bowers, Miss
Marie Haviland, a trained nurse, whose
hypnotized mind conjured the supposed
ghost;. Mrs. Robert T. Scott, who didn't
believe in spirits; Misa Eleanor Rames,
editor of "Saucy -Stories,", a magazine
which doesn't publish spirit literature,
and Walter A. Roberts, president of the
Writers' club and editor of the National
Pictorial Monthly.
The photographer, William M. Van der
Weyde, who took the picture, was a
wholly disinterested party to the act.
He was called in.beeause he was known
to be an. expert in his line and he was
given the plates 'for the exposure five
minutes before he actually took the pic
ture. He declares that after he made
"the exposure the plates were taken from
him by the committee to be locked up
over night. In the morning they were
brought to him in his studio, where he
developed them in the presence of the
committee, and disclosed the "ghost."
But, in order to prove once and for
all that spirits can be "caught" by a sen
sitized photographic plate. Miss Stead, In
addition to throwing open her library of
1000 books on spirits, will, this winter,
open to the public a private studio she is
havink constructed at some expense in
the old garden to the rear of her home,
in which every facility for photographinig
spirits will be installed and every possi
ble loophole for trickery will be elim
inated. , Unlika the great majority of those who
are enthusiastic in the post-war psychic
phenomena, Miss Stead and her late
father entertained ghosts long before the
death of millions in the war accelerated
the spiritist movement to its present un
precedented popularity. She says she has
received numerous visits from the other
side.
Visits From a Ghost.
"My experiences with ghosts have been
very agreeable," she says. "The first one
who called on me was a poet named
Gordon Knight, who lived in the house
2 00 years ago. He called shortly after
' we moved In. I was awakened in the
night by the violent slamming of a door. ,
Then I heard someone or, rather, felt
someone, enter the room. I sat up in
bed. As I looked I saw the figure of
a man garbed in the style of another
period, a huge soft hat and a black cloak
being the outstanding figure of his dress,
walking into the beam of moonlight
which streamed in through the French
windows. He walked to my writing desk
and began to write. For 20 minutes I
watched him, transfixed. I was not ter
rified. I was deeply interested. Finally
he arose and vanished. In the morning
1 told my father of the occurrence. Three
nights later he appeared to me and my
father in the library and then told us
who he was. After that he made many
visits. We -looked him up and discovered
hat he had lived In the house just when
he said he had and we also found some
of his verses, which are quite good."
Miss Stead also tells of a visit paid
her father by Li Hung Chang, the famous
Chinese statesman.
"While father was dining out one
evening a Chinaman, whose appearance
convinced me he was LI Hung Chang,
called on me. I asked him if he were Lt
Hung Chang. He bowed and smiled and
said he wanted to communicate with my
father. I told him father would' be
home later. He went away. I retired
without seeing my father. But in the
morning my father informed me that the
. first to write an automatic message
through his hand that evening before
was the spirit of the Chinese statesman."
Miss Stead declares that her father
visits' her regularly and that he is dic
tating to her the chapters of a book she
will name "The Blue Island," which re
(ConiUdiid on Page &.)