Viewing page 372 of 473

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

N.Y. Tribune, June 20" 1881

FORMS WITH GHOSTLY FACES.

TALKING WITH MYSTERIOUS APPARITIONS.
AN EXPERIENCE THAT IS HARD TO EXPLAIN-REMARKABLE "MANIFESTATIONS" IN A NEW-YORK MERCHANT'S HOUSE.

In the parlor of a pleasant house in one of the suburban towns on Long Island assembled one evening recently a small party invited to witness certain mysterious phenomena, called spirit manifestation by those who believe in the close connection of the present and the future life.  The host was a prosperous New-York business man, whose household consists besides himself of only his wife and two servants.  The visitors were an ex-colonel from the West, a New-England manufacturer, and a newspaper man, all solid-looking persons of more than average avoirdupois and with no appearance of being liable to fall victims to delusion.  The medium" was a middle-aged woman from Boston, tall, slender and delicate, having a highly sensitive nervous temperament and low vital powers.  Her husband, an elderly man, was also present-the couple being friends and guests of the family  Among the spiritualists the "manifestations" of this "medium" are ranked as the most perfect of the kind known. A good deal has been published about them in the journals of the sect, but the family in whose house the mdeium is now a guest naturally object to newspaper notoriety, and their name and residence are therefore not given here.
The house is a spacious villa, standing in the midst of handsome, well kept grounds. On the main floor there are two parlors, separated from the library and dining-room by a wide hall. All the rooms were lighted during the "seance" except the front parlor, which was separated from the back parlor by heavy curtains. The door leading from this darkened room into the lighted hall was locked, and the shutters of the windows were secured. At 8 o'clock the medium came down from her room and lay upon a lounge in the dark parlor. Several shawls were placed upon her by the lady of the house, although the evening was warm. The six spectators took seats in a semicircle about twelve feet from the curtained door. First the Lord's Prayer was said by the hostess and a hymn was sung. Then a large music-box was wound and set agoing. After about ten minutes the curtains were drawn aside and there walked out a beautiful girl dressed in white with a long lace veil thrown around her head and over her bare arms. She was greeted in the most affectionate language by the host and his wife as their daughter Lizzie, who died about three years ago. The face had a curious indistinctness and the eyes could hardly be seen at all, but the hands and arms looked substantial enough, and the figure advanced with a firm step, its little white-shod feet peeping out now and then from 
-der the long white robe. Nothing more beautiful
-rance of the girl as sh-
something unsubstantial about all the forms. They did not look like so many living people decked out in gowns and white veils. A second explanation is that the spectators were in some way mesmerize- and thought they saw what they did not see. The history of mesmerism, delusions, unconscious cerebration, trance and similar phenomena, does not, however, furnish any example of three healthy, robust men sitting for two hours in the apparent full possession of their senses and fancying they see and speak with a series of ghostly forms, whereas in fact they see nothing. The third explanation is that the forms were what they professed to be, the apparitions of men and women whose spirits have left the earth. Having settled down on these theree alternative propositions, the reporter went to bed and slept soundly till the breakfast bell awoke him next morning.

to a painting of herself
an easel, and returned behind the curtain.
ing again, she came forward and threw her veil over her father's head, then passed around the rear of the chairs and touched each of the visitors on the head. Her hand was warm and of a velvety softness. As she stood under the chandelier where a single shaded light burned, the reporter stared hard at her face, but it still had a ghostly, indistinct appearance. The apparition went out into the hall, entered the dining-room, returned and again disappeared behind the curtains. Twice she held one curtain far aside so that the company could plainly see the medium lying on the lounge enveloped in her multitudinous wrappings. A third time the girl appeared. She beckoned her mother to come to the curtain. A whispered conversation was carried on between the two which the others could not hear. To the host and wife this was evidently as much their daughter as though she were stilll alive. She came at all the sittings, they said. Their affectionate delight at seeing her could not have been feigned.
In the course of the next hour and a half eight other figures came out of the curtained door. Two were recognized by the Western colonel, one by the New-England gentleman, and two by the reporter. The remaining three were strangers to all the company. All were women but one. The figures varied considerably in height, size, gait and manner, and the garments, though invariably white, were of different form and style. All the faces, though plain enough for recognition, had a curious impalpable ghostly look, and in most cases the eyes were closed. One of the most definite countenances was that of a relative of the reporter, a woman of strong features and strong character, who died at the age of seventy. She came out to where he sat, took him by the hand, beckoned him to come to the curtain, whispered two words in his ear in a strange gasping voice, gave him her cheek to kiss as she used to do in life, and lowered the curtain.
The male apparition appeared to be a young Philadelphia journalist who died a year ago. He showed great delight at seeing his old friend, the reporter, grasped his hand, and patted him on the cheek, but after a vain effort to speak at the opening of the curtain disappeared. A description of the ghostly visitants of the other members of the circle might be monotonous. They were all white-robed women, some young, some middle-aged. They nodded, waved their arms, clasped their hands as if in prayer, and extended them as in a benediction. The colonel knelt at the feet of an apparition whom he called Katie, and she put her hands on his head and when he rose kissed his forehead. The New-England man was greatly moved by one of his ghostly friends. He, too, knelt. Afterward he followed her to the curtain and holding it a little aside whispered for a little while to the form within. nearly every on of the apparitions was careful in coming out or returning to hold the curtains so as to show the recumbent form of the medium on the lounge. The reporter, though greatly interested in the whole performance, was naturally most closely observant of the forms which claimed his acquaintance. One of them, and perhaps the most distinct and beautiful of all the apparitions, was a girl with light brown hair and a singularly sweet and dignified face. The skirt of her white dress was ornamented with golden bars and disks. In her hand she held a lace veil, apparently no longer than a pocket-handkerchief. She stood before the curtain and began to manipulate the veil. "See, she is weaving lace," exclaimed the lady of the house. The veil grew longer and longer until it was about five feet square. A silver band ornamented the border. The girl came forward into the room and beckoned the reporter to advance

and kneel before her. He dropped on one knee, looked long and steadily at her face, but could not recognize it. She put both hands upon his head. "Who are you?" he asked, but got no reply. "Have I ever seen you before?" A shake of the head gave a negative answer. Taking the veil from her arm the apparition threw it over the questioner's head so that it entirely enveloped him. Then she clasped her hands as if in prayer, and again placed them on his head. She removed the veil and he rose and took her hand–a small, soft, white hand. Her bare arms were very white and beautifully formed. Her face, although the features were definite, did not have a lifelike expression, and the large eyes were too nearly closed for their color to be distinguished. Her garments were of a wonderfully fine texture and gave out an exquisite perfume. As she retired to the curtain the reporter followed her, begging her to tell her name. She stood for about a minute holding the curtain one side and partly concealed by it and allowing one hand to rest in his grasp. Then she whispered "Your guardian," and after an affectionate salutation withdrew her hand and vanished.
The last figure which appeared, also that of a young woman, did not come outside the curtain. Some one said, "The power is almost exhausted." The circle waited ten minutes, but nothing more came. A moaning sound summoned the lady to her assistance of the medium, who was found under her wrappings on the lounge. It was perhaps a quarter of an hour before she fully came out of her trance. Meanwhile the visitors went into the dining -room and talked over the phenomena to satisfy themselves that they had all witnessed the same things, so that no one might think he had been the victim of a delusion not shared by the others. Two of the visitors returned to the city. The other remained over night. As he sat in his room lulled by the lapping of the waves against the see-wall that bordered the lawn and the sighing of the night wind in the trees, the whole experience seemed like a strange and beautiful phantasmagoria of perfumed robes, white arms, waving veils and graceful, gliding forms. Recalling by an effort all the details of the strange performance, he said to himself: This can be accounted for in one of three ways only: first, it may have been a gross deception–a masquerade of living people dressed up to represent ghost. This explanation is hardly tenable, though. The character and respectability of the family are against it. Then, where could they employ nine persons to represent spirits, and how did they all get into the darkened room? Besides, there was