Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania Part 16

The Commission met on Friday, February 20th, 1885, at 8 P.M., again at the house of Mr. Furness, to attend a second seance in the presence of Mrs. Lord.

On the part of the Commission were present Mr. Furness, Mr. Sellers and Mr. Fullerton. There were also present several women and men, some of whom had been present at the previous sitting. The circle, when formed, was about six feet in diameter.

A ring was given by the Medium to Mr. Sellers and another to Miss Logan to wear during the evening, with the expectation that they might be taken by the Spirits and pa.s.sed to another person in the circle, in accordance with the unexpressed wish of the one holding the ring. This was not done during the evening.

A small musical-box was also given to one of the women to hold, and a zither placed upon the lap of a man. The former was, during the seance, taken from the woman holding it, and pa.s.sed to another person in the circle. The Medium sat as before, with her hands free, while those in the circle clasped hands, as was done on the former evening, each one having his left wrist grasped by the right hand of his neighbor, or _vice versa_.

The zither was undisturbed during the evening.

Touches were felt here and there on the knees of those in the circle, and whispers were again heard from time to time.

The whispers were, as before, _never simultaneous_ with the speeches of the Medium, which were heard just after in another part of the circle.

I distinctly noticed, on several occasions, the same rustle, as of a change of position on the part of the Medium, between the whisper and the remark by the Medium.

Many Spirit forms were described by the Medium as coming to those present, with about the same proportion of success as on the former evening.

At various times during the sitting, lights were seen, which appeared and disappeared rapidly. They were indistinct and phosph.o.r.escent--such as can be produced in a dark room by rubbing a match-head, or by exhibiting an object rubbed with a match.

The lights--at least all that were clearly seen by several persons--were within the circle and about the Medium.

Occasionally the Medium spoke of lights as without the circle, and one or two of those present (not members of the Commission) a.s.sented. But, as on two such occasions, when those opposite myself described the light as above and behind me, I saw it above and in front of me, or between me and the Medium; there is no reason to believe that they were not deceived by the difficulty of judging of the distance of an indistinct and evanescent appearance in a quite dark place. The direction, but not the distance, can in such a case be readily known.

After a sitting of about two hours, the attempt to produce more striking phenomena was abandoned.

During both seances Mrs. Lord kept up an almost continuous clapping of hands--the noise was not loud, but sufficient to aid in hiding any rustle of the Medium's dress, or creaking of a chair. The Medium also talked constantly.

At the suggestion of the Medium those present joined in singing on two occasions.

The whisper heard in the circle was uniformly hoa.r.s.e.

A list of those present at these seances and the names of the ladies who searched the Medium, are appended:

Those present at Mrs. Lord's seance on Thursday were: Dr. and Mrs.

Pepper, Professor and Mrs. Fullerton, Mr. and Mrs. Sellers, Professor and Mrs. Thompson, Geo. S. Pepper, Mr. Leonard, Miss M.M. Logan, Dr.

Leidy, Mrs. A.L. Wister, Miss Agnes Irwin, Walter R. Furness, Dr. C.B.

Knerr, Dr. Koenig, Dr. H.H. Furness.

Those present at Friday's seance were: Professor Fullerton, Miss Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Sellers, Dr. Leidy, Mr. Leonard, Mr. and Mrs. F. Furness, Mrs. A.L. Wister, Miss Irwin and Miss Sophie Irwin, Miss Logan, Mr. and Mrs. F.M. d.i.c.k, Mrs. J.E. Carpenter, H.H. Furness. Mrs. A.L. Wister, Mrs. Dr. Pepper, Women Searchers.

GEO. S. FULLERTON,

_Secretary_.

May 27th, 1885.

On May 27th, The Seybert Commission held a meeting at the house of Mr.

Furness, at 8 P.M., to examine the phenomena occurring in the presence of Mr. Pierre L.O.A. Keeler, a professional Medium.

There were present on the part of the Commission, Dr. Pepper, Mr.

Furness, Dr. Koenig, Dr. White, Dr. Knerr, Mr. Sellers and Mr.

Fullerton. The following friends of the Commission were also present:

Mr. F. Furness, Mr. W.R. Furness, Mr. J. Foster Kirk, Mr. Yost, Mrs.

E.D. Gillespie, Miss Gillespie, Mrs. Dr. Mitch.e.l.l, Mrs. C.B. Rossell, Mrs. Dr. Pepper, Mrs. Sellers, Mrs. A.L. Wister, Mrs. Dr. Knerr, Miss Agnes Irwin, Miss M.M. Logan.

There were also present, as introduced by the Medium, the Medium's wife, Mrs. Keeler; Col. S.P. Kase and Mrs. Kase, and Dr. Annie D. Ramburger.

The Medium, Mr. Keeler, is a young man, apparently about thirty years of age, with well cut features, curly, brown hair, a small, sandy moustache, and rather worn and anxious expression; he is strongly built, about five feet eight inches high, and with rather short, quite broad, and very muscular hands and strong wrists. The hands were examined by Dr. Pepper and Mr. Fullerton after the seance.

The seance was held in Mr. Furness's drawing-room, and a s.p.a.ce was curtained off by the Medium in the north-east corner, thus:

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The curtain is represented by _a_, _b_; _c_, _d_ and _e_ are three chairs placed in front of the curtain by the Medium, in one of which (_e_) he afterwards sat; _g_ denotes the position of Mrs. Keeler; _f_ is a small table, placed within the curtain, and upon which were a tambourine, a guitar, two bells, a hammer, a metallic ring; the asterisks show the positions of the spectators, who sat in a double row--the two marked (1) and (2) indicate the positions taken by Mrs.

Kase and Col. Kase, according to the directions of the Medium.

The curtain, or rather curtains, were of black muslin, and arranged as follows: There was a plain black curtain, which was stretched across the corner, falling to the floor. Its height, when in position, was 53 inches; it was made thus:

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The cord which held the curtain was 1, 2, and the flaps which are represented as standing above it (_a_, _b_, _c_, etc.), fell down over _a'_, _b'_, _c'_, etc., and could be made to cover the shoulders of one sitting with his back against the curtain. A black curtain was also pinned against the wall, in the s.p.a.ce curtained off, partly covering it.

Another curtain was added to the one pictured, as will be described later.

The Medium then asked Col. Kase to say a few words as to the necessity of observing the conditions, need of harmony, etc. And then the Medium himself spoke a few words of similar import. He then drew the curtain (shown on the preceding page) along the cord (1, 2) and fastened it; placed three wooden chairs in front of the curtain, as indicated in the cut, and saying he needed to form a battery, asked Miss Agnes Irwin to sit in chair (_d_), and Mr. Yost in chair (_c_), the Medium himself sitting in chair (_e_). A black curtain was then pa.s.sed by Mrs. Keeler over Mr. Keeler, Miss Irwin and Mr. Yost, being fastened at _g_, between _e_ and _d_, between _d_ and _c_, and beyond _a_: thus entirely covering the three sitting in front of the stretched curtain up to their necks; and when the flaps before mentioned were pulled down over their shoulders, nothing could be seen but the head of each.

Before this last curtain was fastened over them, the Medium placed both his hands upon the forearm and wrist of Miss Irwin, the sleeve being pulled up for the purpose, and Miss Irwin grasped with her right hand the left wrist of Mr. Yost; his right hand being in sight to the right of the curtain.

After some piano-music, the Medium said he felt no power from this 'battery,' and asked Mrs. E.D. Gillespie to take Miss Irwin's place.

Hands and curtain were arranged as before.

The lights were turned down until the room was quite dim. Those present sang.

During the singing, the Medium turned to speak to Mr. Yost, and his body, which had before faced rather away from the two other persons of the 'battery' (which position would have brought his right arm out in front of the stretched curtain)--his body was now turned the other way, so that, had he released his grasp upon Mrs. Gillespie's arm, his own right arm could have had free play in the curtained s.p.a.ce behind him.

His left knee also no longer stood out under the curtain in front, but showed a change of position.

At this time Mrs. Gillespie declared she felt a touch, and soon after so did Mr. Yost. The Medium's body was distinctly inclined toward Mr. Yost at the time. Mrs. Gillespie said she felt taps, but declared that, to the best of her knowledge, she still felt the Medium's two hands upon her arm.

Raps indicated that the Spirit, George Christy, was present. As one of those present played on the piano, the tambourine was played in the curtained s.p.a.ce and thrown over the curtain; bells were rung; the guitar was thrummed a little. At this time the Medium's face was toward Mrs.

Gillespie, and his right side toward the curtain. His body was further in against the curtain than either of the others. Upon being asked, Mrs.

Gillespie again said she thought she still felt two hands upon her arm.

The guitar was then thrust out, at least the end of it was, at the bottom of the curtain, between Mrs. Gillespie and the Medium. Mrs.

Keeler drew away the curtain from over the toes of the Medium's boots, to show where his feet were; the guitar was thrummed a little. Had the Medium's right arm been free, the thrumming could have been done quite easily with one hand.

Afterwards the guitar was elevated above the curtain; the tambourine, which was by Mrs. Keeler placed upon a stick held up within the enclosure, was made to whirl by the motion of the stick. The phenomena occurred successively, not simultaneously.