Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania Part 19

Light turned up--both slates held by the Medium under the table--no result.

The light was then turned low. Dr. Leidy was asked to sit next the Medium. Some noise and confusion resulted from making the change. Then the Medium asked Dr. Leidy to put his hand also upon a slate which the Medium was holding up under the table. Attention was then called to a scratching sound, which might have been writing. The slate was taken out by Dr. Leidy, and the light turned up. The following was written on it:

"John Smith is with you like a young son.

John Lydy."

It was, of course, possible that the writing was done before Dr. Leidy put his hand on it, as the slate was not then examined.

The Medium suggested that we ask mental questions; several did so, without result.

The light was then turned up. Hands were joined. Some feeble raps were heard; they apparently issued from under the table.

Slates were held under the table, but without result.

The light was then turned low. A slate was held under the table by the Medium. He breathed hard, and made no little noise for some time. Then Dr. Koenig was asked to put his hand on the slate. A scratching was heard. When the light was turned up the slate contained the message:

"I will help you all.

Dr. Benj. Rush."

With this the seance ended.

(Copied from notes taken during the seance. Written out the day after.)

GEO. S. FULLERTON,

_Secretary_.

April 11th, 1886.

I attended a seance at the house of Colonel Kase, 1601 North 15th Street, Philadelphia, on April 11th, at 8.10 P.M. The Medium was Mrs.

Best.

There were about a dozen persons present; at least two of them, besides Mrs. Best, claimed to be Mediums.

The seance was in Colonel Kase's sitting-room. The "Cabinet" was made by stretching a curtain, suspended to a curved rod, across one corner. It could hold a chair, and was perhaps four feet across, or more. The Medium, Mrs. Best, took her seat in the chair and drew the curtain. The room was made _totally_ dark--a cloth being used to cover the crack of the door. The spectators, who were arranged in a deep curve facing the cabinet, were asked to sing a hymn.

As we sang, a voice from the Cabinet, a deep contralto, joined in, loudly. Soon something resembling in outline a human form covered with drapery appeared at the Cabinet. It was indistinctly luminous. No face was visible; nor could the face of any other Spirit, which appeared during the evening, be discerned even in faintest outline. The light seemed to belong entirely to the drapery. The Spirit was declared to be Apollonius, and made a speech in a loud, harsh voice. Other similar forms appeared one after the other, and spoke in different tones--all the voices, however, with the exception of Apollonius's and that of another speaker, were more or less like hoa.r.s.e whispers. When the Spirit of Mr. T.R. Hazard appeared, his voice was by no means natural, and sounded like a bad imitation.

A form calling itself "Lottie" appeared, kissed a Medium present, and at my request pa.s.sed its hands over my head and face. Its hands were covered with luminous drapery which hung down perhaps a foot. I was allowed to touch it. It felt like soft tulle. A very strong odor of sandal-wood prevailed, and the smell of phosphorus, even if it had been used, could not easily, at a little distance, have been discerned. The luminous appearance of the drapery did not seem to be due to phosphorus--it did not fume. It seemed rather such as might have been produced by luminous paint--a mixture luminous in the dark after exposure to the light. I noticed on the hand, or what, from position, I inferred to be the hand, of the form, a distinctly phosph.o.r.escent appearance; it was on this account I asked it to touch me. As it pa.s.sed its hand over my face I distinctly smelt phosphorus.

At one time two forms appeared near each other and near the Cabinet.

They might easily have been produced by holding up luminous drapery.

Tall and then short forms then appeared one at a time. If the drapery were raised or lowered the appearance could readily have been produced, and the person holding it would have been quite invisible.

The different voices that spoke _never_ spoke simultaneously. A large rug on the floor in front of the Cabinet would have prevented steps from being heard, had the form been the Medium. On two occasions, when I suggested that I recognized the form by asking, "Is it ----?" the Spirit a.s.sented, and a.s.sumed the character. Both the persons I mentioned are still alive.

The seance began at 8.10 P.M., and lasted two hours and a-half. There was much singing.

The seance was regarded by several Spiritualists who were present as a very satisfactory one. I expressly asked for their opinion.

(Written out on April 13th, from notes made in the car, on my way home from the seance.)

GEO. S. FULLERTON,

_Secretary_.

January 30th, 1887.

Yesterday I visited Mrs. M.B. Thayer, an Independent Slate Writing Medium, at 1601 North 15th Street, Philadelphia, in hopes of arranging for a seance at that time. I had a conversation of about half an hour with Mrs. Thayer, who asked what I had seen before, and with what Mediums I had sat; but I was not able to get a sitting at once, Mrs.

Thayer declaring "the conditions" unsatisfactory. She made an appointment, however, for to-day at 4 P.M. In the hall I met, on my departure, Mrs. Kase, the hostess of the Medium, to whom I am personally known, and who told me in an 'aside' that she would not reveal my ident.i.ty to the Medium. This might readily have been overheard by the Medium, who was standing close by. [I visited Mrs. Thayer alone, because she had expressed an unwillingness to appear before the Commission, and we found it necessary to visit her as private persons.]

Upon calling to-day, I was ushered into Mrs. Thayer's room, in which stood a small wooden table covered with a red cloth (which hung down, perhaps a foot, on all sides from the edges of the table), ready for the seance. Ten or twelve plain single slates lay in a pile on a piece of furniture near the table.

Mrs. Thayer handed me two of these slates, which I cleaned and examined.

I then marked them on the inside, or what became, when I laid them together, the inside, and held them while she tied them together with a piece of white tape. After they were tied they could be separated an eighth of an inch without difficulty. Holding the slates in my hand, I examined the table and the furniture near it, and then took my seat at the table, Mrs. Thayer sitting opposite me. The table was about 2-1/2 x 1-1/2 feet. At the suggestion of Mrs. Thayer, I placed the tied slates upon the table under the cloth, and we both placed our hands upon the cloth above them. After waiting for some time for indications of writing, I withdrew the slates from under the cloth, and, as directed, held them, with my right hand up against the under surface of the table, Mrs. Thayer placing her left hand upon my right as I held the slates.

After holding them thus for some time I was told to withdraw them, and hold them against my forehead. Then I was told to open them and to sc.r.a.pe some pencil-dust over the inner surfaces. This I did, again closing the slates, which Mrs. Thayer tied as before. I was again directed to hold them up against the under surface of the table, and the Medium again placed her hand upon the hand with which I held them. Her hand was not wholly upon mine, but projected beyond it upon my wrist and towards my edge of the slates. After my holding the slates in this position, seemingly without result, until I was very wearied, the Medium suggested my laying them upon my lap and covering them with the table cover, which hung down more on my side than on hers. She said it was necessary that the slates should be concealed. When they were in this position we joined hands upon the table, and she placed her feet upon mine under the table, thus making, as she said, a strong "battery." This seeming to be inefficacious, I was directed to wrap the slates in a cloth given me for the purpose (apparently a small table cover) and to lay them on the floor under the table, placing my left foot upon them.

This I did, and the Medium placed one of her feet upon my left foot, taking my hands upon the table, and again forming the "battery." After some waiting, much calling upon the Spirit of Foster to write (this she did at intervals during the seance) and several requests for raps (which did not come), the Medium decided that we should get nothing during the sitting, and it was discontinued. I took up the slates from the floor, took off the cloth and untied the tape; no mark had been made upon them.

There had been much conversation during the sitting, the Medium telling me not to keep my mind on the slates, but to put myself into a condition of "pa.s.sivity." She declared me mediumistic, and said that she doubted whether she would ever be able to get results with me. She stated two or three times that she saw three forms behind me, but dimly, and could not describe them. One was a "mild and gentle lady, with a beautiful hand." To the only person whom I can remember with a markedly beautiful hand, no one would have applied these adjectives. The sitting was about an hour long.

(Copied and arranged the same evening from notes made in the car on the way home from the seance.)

GEO. S. FULLERTON.

[I arranged for another seance with Mrs. Thayer, to be held some days later, but at the time appointed she refused to see me, giving as excuse indisposition.

G.S.F.--April, 1887.]

On the evening of January 29th, 1887, in company with Dr. J.W. White, I called on Mrs. Thayer, at No. 1601 North 15th Street.

The lady seemed not to be pleased with our visit, and declared that we were no Spiritualists. She reluctantly agreed to give us a seance on the following Sunday, and on parting the gentleman of the house politely invited us to attend a flower seance to be held by the same lady on the following Thursday.

Calling on Sunday, Mrs. Thayer excused herself on account of indisposition.

The next Thursday we attended the flower seance, in which I felt much curiosity from the wonderful story that had been told to me by a Spiritualist friend, who had seen one by the same Medium several years before.

The seance was held in the second story of the back building, in a room which the proprietor of the house informed me he had devoted to the purpose of Spiritualist seances. About thirty persons were a.s.sembled, and, without any examination of the premises, they were seated around a long dining-table. In the company Dr. Koenig was the only other member of the Seybert Commission present. The seance was opened with an 'invocation' by a lady, and during the 'manifestations' the company sang popular airs, such as 'Sweet by-and-bye,' etc. The doors and windows were all securely closed and the lights extinguished. Sounds were heard of objects dropping on the table, and from time to time matches were lit and exposed, strewed before the company, cut plants and flowers. There were all of the kind sold at this season by the florists, consisting of a pine bough, fronds of ferns, roses, pinks, tulips, lilies, callas (Richardia) and smilax (Myrsiphyllum). At one time there fell on the table a heavy body, which proved to be a living terrapin; at another time there appeared a pigeon which flew about the room. The flower manifestation ceased, and the gas was re-lit. A lady then made some remarks on the wonderful phenomena exhibited in evidence of the truth of Spiritualism, and another followed with some sentimentalities on the subject. The proprietor of the house declared that the flowers and other objects brought to view in the seance were not previously in the room, and their appearance could not be explained unless through Spiritual agency. He said that in former years, at similar seances, flowers had appeared in much greater quant.i.ties. The Medium, Mrs. Thayer, said she had not before served in a flower seance for several years.

At the next act of the seance, as I understood it, a 'test' was called for. A young man, whose name I did not distinctly hear, now took the chair of the former Medium. He promptly announced the appearance of the Spirit of an Indian girl, and then personified her by a.s.suming a silly address in broken English. In this manner he expressed himself as seeing various Spirits of friends and relatives of the company hovering among them. They were announced by the first name in a rather uncertain and expectant manner, and in a few instances they were supposed to be recognized by some of the company, but mostly did not accord with their knowledge. As an example, the Medium informed Dr. Koenig that a tall man named Charley was holding something over his head and encouraging him in some great enterprise. Dr. Koenig did not recognize the man, nor could he be made to comprehend anything of the subjects of which he was informed by the materialized Indian girl. During this second act of the seance, I could detect nothing that could be attributed to other than ordinary human agency. The Indian girl retired, and the seance closed.

JOSEPH LEIDY.