Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania Part 9

The Medium farther explained that her understanding of the second communication was that it was a translation of the Latin contained in the first.

The gla.s.s tumblers are here again produced and the Medium takes her position upon them, with Mr. Fullerton standing next to her upon the right and Mr. Furness to the left. Mr. Sellers remains for some moments kneeling on the floor to enable himself better to hear any sounds that may be but faintly audible. The Spirits are repeatedly importuned by the Medium to produce the rappings, but no response is heard until the company is about to abandon the experiment. Three raps are then audible.

The raps are very light but very distinct.

Mr. Fullerton states that he heard the raps.

Mr. Sellers: I heard a sound then, but it seemed as if it was around there. (Indicating along the wall immediately in the rear of the Medium.)

The tumblers are here moved further away from the wall and the Medium resumes her position upon them.

Mr. Sellers: Will the Spirit rap again? (No response.)

The Medium: Were any of you gentlemen acquainted with Mr. Seybert in his lifetime?

Mr. Fullerton: I saw him several times before his death. If he can give an intimation now of anything he said at that time, it will indicate that he remembers it.

A very faint rap is heard.

The Medium: There is a rap. It seems to be there again. (Indicating the spot to which attention was previously called by Mr. Sellers.)

The Medium again importunes, first, 'Mr. Seybert' and next 'the Spirits'

'to rap;' and the importunities are repeated. Three raps are distinctly but faintly heard.

Mr. Sellers: I heard them. They sounded somewhat like the others, not exactly.

The Medium: I heard one rap, but it is nothing for me to hear them; I want you gentlemen to hear them.

Mr. Sellers: Probably we will hear them again.

While Mr. Sellers and Mr. Furness are conversing, several raps are heard, though less distinct than the preceding ones.

The Medium: There they are as though right under the gla.s.s. (After a silence of forty seconds): Now I hear them again very light--oh, very light.

Mr. Furness, with the permission of the Medium, places his hand upon one of her feet.

The Medium: There are raps now, strong--yes, I hear them.

Mr. Furness (to the Medium): This is the most wonderful thing of all, Mrs. Kane, I distinctly feel them in your foot. There is not a particle of motion in your foot, but there is an unusual pulsation.

Mr. Sellers here made some inquiries of the Medium, concerning the shoes now worn by her. The replies, which were not direct, are here given.

Mr. Sellers: Are those the shoes which you usually wear?

The Medium: I wear all kinds of shoes.

Mr. Sellers: Are the sounds sometimes produced in your room when you have no shoes on.

The Medium: More or less. They are produced under all circ.u.mstances.

Following the suggestion of the Medium, all present proceed through an intervening apartment to the library where the Medium selects various positions--standing upon a lounge, then upon a cus.h.i.+oned chair, next upon a step-ladder and finally upon the side of a book-case--but all with a like unsuccessful result, no response by rappings being heard.

Upon an intimation being given by a member of the Committee that the Medium may be wearied, the further prosecution of the Investigation is temporarily deferred.

After the examination of Mrs. Kane, and after the Stenographer had left, the Commission held a conference, and commissioned Mr. Furness to lay before Mrs. Kane the question of continuing or closing the investigation, so far as she was concerned. If she were sanguine of more satisfactory results at another seance, the Commission was willing to prolong the investigation.

GEO. S. FULLERTON,

_Secretary_.

Below is given the letter from Mr. Furness, explaining why the investigation of Mrs. Kane was not continued. The decision to discontinue it came from her.

My Dear Fullerton:

You remember that the members of The Seybert Commission separated last evening with the understanding that we should meet Mrs. Kane again this evening, if Mrs. Kane desired it, and that they requested me to lay the question before her for her decision.

Accordingly, I had an interview with her this morning, of which the following is as accurate an account as I can remember.

I told her that the Commission had now had two seances with her, and that the conclusion to which they had come is that the so-called raps are confined wholly to her person, whether produced by her voluntarily or involuntarily they had not attempted to decide; furthermore, that although thus satisfied in their own minds they were anxious to treat her with all possible deference and consideration, and accordingly had desired me to say to her that if she thought another seance with her would or might modify or reverse their conclusion, they held themselves ready to meet her again this evening and renew the investigation of the manifestations; at the same time I felt it my duty to add that in that case the examination would necessarily be of the most searching description.

Mrs. Kane replied that the manifestations at both seances had been of an unsatisfactory nature, so unsatisfactory that she really could not blame the Commission for arriving at their conclusion. In her present state of health she doubted whether a third meeting would prove any better than the two already held. It might be even more unsatisfactory, and instead of removing the present belief of the Commission it might add confirmation of it. In view of these considerations, she decided not to hold another seance.

Afterward, during the forenoon (you know she has been and still is my guest), she recurred to the subject, and added that if hereafter her health improved it would give her pleasure to make a free-will offering to the Commission of a number of seances for further investigations.

I forgot to tell you, when we last met, that yesterday morning, the 6th of November, I brought away from Mrs. Patterson our sealed slate. It contains no writing, so Mrs. Patterson says. During the many months that it has been in this Medium's possession I have made to her the most urgent appeals, both in person and by letter, to fulfill her promise of causing the writing to appear in it. Her invariable excuse has been her lack of time.

I Remain Yours,

HORACE HOWARD FURNESS,

_Acting Chairman_.

7th November, 1884.

It will be seen from the last paragraph of the preceding letter that the attempt to produce 'independent writing' on the inside of the slate sealed by the Commission was without result.

The slate was sealed on May 31st, 1884 (as described in the records of the meeting of that date), was placed in the hands of the Medium, Mrs.

Patterson, the next day, where it remained until November 6th.

GEO. S. FULLERTON,

_Secretary_.

January 16th, 1885.