THE MEDIUMSHIP OF WILLIAM EGLINTON.
In the stones I have related of "Emily" and "The Monk" I have alluded
freely to the wonderful powers exhibited by William Eglinton, but the
marvels there spoken of were by no means the only ones I have witnessed
through his mediumship. At the _seance_ which produced the apparition of
my sister Emily, Mr. Eglinton's control "Joey" made himself very
familiar. "Joey" is a remarkably small man--perhaps two-thirds lighter
in weight than the medium--and looks more like a little jockey than
anything else, though he says he was a clown whilst in this world, and
claims to be the spirit of the immortal Joe Grimaldi. He has always
appeared to us clothed in a tight-fitting white dress like a woven
jersey suit, which makes him look still smaller than he is. He usually
keeps up a continuous chatter, whether visible or invisible, and is one
of the cleverest and kindest controls I know. He is also very
devotional, for which the public will perhaps give him as little credit
now as they did whilst he was on earth. On the first occasion of our
meeting in the Russell Street Rooms he did not show himself until quite
the last, but he talked incessantly of and for the other spirits that
appeared. My sister was, as I have said, the first to show herself--then
came an extraordinary apparition. On the floor, about three feet from
the cabinet, appeared a head--only the head and throat of a dark man,
with black beard and moustaches, surmounted by the white turban usually
worn by natives. It did not speak, but the eyes rolled and the lips
moved, as if it tried to articulate, but without success. "Joey" said
the spirit came for Colonel Lean, and was that of a foreigner who had
been decapitated. Colonel Lean could not recognize the features; but,
strange to say, he had been present at the beheading of two natives in
Japan who had been found guilty of murdering some English officers, and
we concluded from "Joey's" description that this must be the head of
one of them. I knelt down on the floor and put my face on a level with
that of the spirit, that I might assure myself there was no body
attached to it and concealed by the curtain of the cabinet, and I can
affirm that it was _a head only_, resting on the neck--that its eyes
moved and its features worked, but that there was nothing further on the
floor. I questioned it, and it evidently tried hard to speak in return.
The mouth opened and the tongue was thrust out, and made a sort of dumb
sound, but was unable to form any words, and after a while the head sunk
through the floor and disappeared. If this was not one of the
pleasantest apparitions I have seen, it was one of the most remarkable.
There was no possibility of trickery or deception. The decapitated head
rested in full sight of the audience, and had all the peculiarities of
the native appearance and expression. After this the figures of two or
three Englishmen came, friends of others of the audience--then "Joey"
said he would teach us how to "make muslin." He walked right outside the
cabinet, a quaint little figure, not much bigger than a boy of twelve or
thirteen, with a young, old face, and dressed in the white suit I have
described. He sat down by me and commenced to toss his hands in the air,
as though he were juggling with balls, saying the while, "This is the
way we make ladies' dresses." As he did so, a small quantity of muslin
appeared in his hands, which he kept on moving in the same manner,
whilst the flimsy fabric increased and increased before our eyes, until
it rose in billows of muslin above "Joey's" head and fell over his body
to his feet, and enveloped him until he was completely hidden from view.
He kept on chattering till the last moment from under the heap of snowy
muslin, telling us to be sure and "remember how he made ladies'
dresses"--when, all of a sudden, in the twinkling of an eye, the heap of
muslin rose into the air, and before us stood the tall figure of
"Abdullah," Mr. Eglinton's Eastern guide. There had been no darkness, no
pause to effect this change. The muslin had remained on the spot where
it was fabricated until "Joey" evaporated, and "Abdullah" rose up from
beneath it. Now "Abdullah" is not a spirit to be concealed easily. He is
six foot two--a great height for a native--and his high turban adds to
his stature. He is a very handsome man, with an aquiline nose and
bright black eyes--a Persian, I believe, by birth, and naturally dark
in complexion. He does not speak English, but "salaams" continually, and
will approach the sitters when requested, and let them examine the
jewels, of which he wears a large quantity in his turban and ears and
round his throat, or to show them and let them feel that he has lost one
arm, the stump being plainly discernible through his thin clothing.
"Abdullah" possesses all the characteristics of the Eastern nation,
which are unmistakable to one who, like myself, has been familiar with
them in the flesh. His features are without doubt those of a Persian; so
is his complexion. His figure is long and lithe and supple, as that of a
cat, and he can bend to the ground and rise again with the utmost ease
and grace. Anybody who could pretend for a moment to suppose that Mr.
Eglinton by "making up" could personate "Abdullah" must be a fool. It
would be an impossibility, even were he given unlimited time and
assistance, to dress for the character. There is a peculiar boneless
elasticity in the movements of a native which those who have lived in
the East know that no Englishmen can imitate successfully. "Abdullah's"
hand and feet also possess all the characteristics of his nationality,
being narrow, long and nerveless, although I have heard that he can give
rather too good a grip with his one hand when he chooses to exert his
power or to show his dislike to any particular sitter. He has always,
however, shown the utmost urbanity towards us, but he is not a
particularly friendly or familiar spirit. When "Abdullah" had retired on
this occasion, "Joey" drew back the curtain that shaded the cabinet, and
showed us his medium and himself. There sat Mr. Eglinton attired in
evening dress, with the front of his shirt as smooth and spotless as
when it left the laundress' hands, lying back in his chair in a deep
sleep, whilst little Joey sat astride his knee, his white suit
contrasting strangely with his medium's black trousers. Whilst in this
position he kissed Mr. Eglinton several times, telling him to wake up,
and not look so sulky; then, having asked if we all saw him distinctly,
and were satisfied he was not the medium, he bade God bless us, and the
curtains closed once more upon this incomprehensible scene. Mr. Eglinton
subsequently became an intimate friend of ours, and we often had the
pleasure of sitting with him, but we never saw anything more wonderful
(to my mind) than we did on our first acquaintance. When he accompanied
us to Bruges (as told in the history of the "Monk"), "Joey" took great
trouble to prove to us incontrovertibly that he is not an "emanation,"
or double, of his medium, but a creature completely separate and wholly
distinct. My sister's house being built on a very old-fashioned
principle, had all the bedrooms communicating with each other. The
entresol in which we usually assembled formed the connecting link to a
series of six chambers, all of which opened into each other, and the
entrance to the first and last of which was from the entresol.
We put Mr. Eglinton into No. 1, locking the connecting door with No. 2,
so that he had no exit except into our circle as we sat round the
curtain, behind which we placed his chair. "Joey" having shown himself
outside the curtain, informed us he was going through the locked door at
the back into our bedrooms, Nos. 2, 3 and 4, and would bring us
something from each room.
Accordingly, in another minute we heard his voice in No. 2, commenting
on all he saw there; then he passed into No. 3, and so on, making a tour
of the rooms, until he appeared at the communicating door of No. 5, and
threw an article taken from each room into the entresol. He then told us
to lift the curtain and inspect the medium, which we did, finding him
fast asleep in his chair, with the door behind him locked. "Joey" then
returned by the way he had gone, and presented himself once more outside
the cabinet, the key of the locked door being all the time in our
possession.
"Ernest" is another well-known control of Mr. Eglinton's, though he
seldom appears, except to give some marvellous test or advice. He is a
very earnest, deep-feeling spirit, like his name, and his symbol is a
cross of light; sometimes large and sometimes small, but always bright
and luminous. "Ernest" seldom shows his whole body. It is generally only
his face that is apparent in the midst of the circle, a more convincing
manifestation for the sceptic or inquirer than any number of bodies
which are generally attributed to the chicanery of the medium. "Ernest"
always speaks in the direct voice in a gentle, bass tone, entirely
distinct from "Joey's" treble, and his appearance is usually indicative
of a harmonious and successful meeting. "Daisy," a North American
Indian girl, is another control of William Eglinton's, but I have only
heard her speak in trance. I do not know which of these spirits it is
who conducts the manifestations of writing on the arm, with which Mr.
Eglinton is very successful; sometimes it seems to be one, and sometimes
the other. As he was sitting with our family at supper one evening, I
mentally asked "Joey" to write something on some part of his body where
his hand could not reach. This was in order to prove that the writing
had not been prepared by chemical means beforehand, as some people are
apt to assert. In a short time Mr. Eglinton was observed to stop eating,
and grow very fidgety and look uncomfortable, and on being questioned as
to the cause, he blushed and stammered, and could give no answer. After
a while he rose from table, and asked leave to retire to his room. The
next morning he told us that he had been so uneasy at supper, it had
become impossible for him to sit it out; that on reaching his room he
had found that his back, which irritated him as though covered with a
rash, _had a sentence written across it_, of which he could only make
out a few words by looking at it backwards in a glass; and as there were
only ladies in the house beside himself, he could not call in an
interpreter to his assistance. One day, without consulting him, I placed
a small card and a tiny piece of black lead between the leaves of a
volume of the _Leisure Hour_, and asked him to hold the book with me on
the dining table. I never let the book out of my hand, and it was so
thick that I had difficulty afterwards in finding my card (from the
corner of which I had torn a piece) again. Mr. Eglinton sat with me in
the daylight with the family about, and all he did was to place his hand
on mine, which rested on the book. The perspiration ran down his face
whilst he did so, but there was no other sign of power, and, honestly, I
did not expect to find any writing on my card. When I had shaken it out
of the leaves of the book, however, I found a letter closely written on
it from my daughter "Florence" to this effect:--
"Dear Mama,--I am so glad to be able to communicate with you again,
and to demonstrate by actual fact that I am really present. Of
course, you quite understand that I do not write this myself.
'Charlie' is present with me, and so are many more, and we all
unite in sending you our love.
"Your daughter, Florence."
Mr. Eglinton's mediumship embraces various phases of phenomena, as may
be gathered from his own relations of them, and the testimony of his
friends. A narrative of his spiritual work, under the title of "'Twixt
two Worlds," has been written and published by Mr. John T. Farmer, and
contains some exhaustive descriptions of, and testimonies to, his
undoubtedly wonderful gifts. In it appear several accounts written by
myself, and which, for the benefit of such of my readers as have not
seen the book in question, I will repeat here. The first is that of the
"Monk," given _in extenso_, as I have given it in the eleventh chapter
of this book. The second is of a _seance_ held on the 5th September,
1884. The circle consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, Colonel and Mrs.
Wynch, Mr. and Mrs. Russell-Davies, Mr. Morgan, and Colonel Lean and
myself, and was held in Mr. Eglinton's private chambers in Quebec
Street. We sat in the front drawing-room, with one gas-burner alight,
and the door having been properly secured, Mr. Eglinton went into the
back room, which was divided by curtains from the front. He had not left
us a couple of minutes before a man stepped out through the _portiere_,
and walked right into the midst of us. He was a large, stout man, and
very dark, and most of the sitters remarked that he had a very peculiar
smell. No one recognized him, and after appearing two or three times he
left, and was _immediately_ succeeded by a woman, very much like him,
who also had to leave us without any recognition. These two spirits,
before taking a final leave, came out _together_, and seemed to examine
the circle curiously. After a short interval a much smaller and slighter
man came forward, and darted in a peculiar slouching attitude round the
circle. Colonel Lean asked him to shake hands. He replied by seizing his
hand, and nearly dragging him off his seat. He then darted across the
room, and gave a similar proof of his muscular power to Mr. Stewart. But
when I asked him to notice _me_, he took my hand and squeezed it firmly
between his own. He had scarcely disappeared before "Abdullah," with his
one arm and his six feet two of height, stood before us, and salaamed
all round. Then came my daughter Florence, a girl of nineteen by that
time, very slight and feminine in appearance. She advanced two or three
times, near enough to touch me with her hand, but seemed fearful to
approach nearer. But the next moment she returned, dragging Mr.
Eglinton after her. He was in deep trance, breathing with difficulty,
but "Florence" held him by the hand and brought him up to my side, when
he detached my hands from those of the sitters either side of me, and
making me stand up, he placed my daughter in my arms. As she stood
folded in my embrace, she whispered a few words to me relative to a
subject _known to no one but myself_, and she placed my hand upon her
heart, that I might feel she was a living woman. Colonel Lean asked her
to go to him. She tried and failed, but having retreated behind the
curtain to gather strength, she appeared the second time _with Mr.
Eglinton_, and calling Colonel Lean to her, embraced him. This is one of
the most perfect instances on record of a spirit form being seen
distinctly by ten witnesses with the medium under gas. The next
materialization that appeared was for Mr. Stewart. This gentleman was
newly arrived from Australia, and a stranger to Mr. Eglinton. As soon as
he saw the female form, who beckoned him to the _portiere_ to speak to
her, he exclaimed, "My God! Pauline," with such genuine surprise and
conviction as were unmistakable. The spirit then whispered to him, and
putting her arms round his neck, affectionately kissed him. He turned
after a while, and addressing his wife, told her that the spirit bore
the very form and features of their niece Pauline, whom they had lost
the year before. Mr. Stewart expressed himself entirely satisfied with
the identity of his niece, and said she looked just as she had done
before she was taken ill. I must not omit to say that the medium also
appeared with this figure, making the third time of showing himself in
one evening with the spirit form.
The next apparition, being the seventh that appeared, was that of a
little child apparently about two years old, who supported itself in
walking by holding on to a chair. I stooped down, and tried to talk to
this baby, but it only cried in a fretful manner, as though frightened
at finding itself with strangers, and turned away. The attention of the
circle was diverted from this sight by seeing "Abdullah" dart between
the curtains, and stand with the child in our view, whilst Mr. Eglinton
appeared at the same moment between the two forms, making a _tria juncta
in uno_.
Thus ended the _seance_. The second one of which I wrote took place on
the 27th of the same month, and under very similar circumstances. The
circle this time consisted of Mrs. Wheeler, Mr. Woods, Mr. Gordon, The
Honorable Gordon Sandeman, my daughter Eva, my son Frank, Colonel Lean,
and myself. Mr. Eglinton appeared on this occasion to find some
difficulty in passing under control, and he came out so frequently into
the circle to gather power, that I guessed we were going to have
uncommonly good manifestations. The voice of "Joey," too, begged us
under _no circumstances whatever_, to lose hands, as they were going to
try something very difficult, and we might defeat their efforts at the
very moment of victory. When the medium was at last under control in the
back drawing room, a tall man, with an uncovered head of dark hair, and
a large beard, appeared and walked up to a lady in the company. She was
very much affected by the recognition of the spirit, which she affirmed
to be that of her brother. She called him by name and kissed him, and
informed us, that he was just as he had been in earth life. Her emotion
was so great, we thought she would have fainted, but after a while she
became calm again. We next heard the notes of a clarionet. I had been
told that Mr. Woods (a stranger just arrived from the Antipodes) had
lost a brother under peculiarly distressing circumstances, and that he
hoped (though hardly expected) to see his brother that evening. It was
the first time I had ever seen Mr. Woods; yet so remarkable was the
likeness between the brothers, that when a spirit appeared with a
clarionet in his hand, I could not help knowing who it was, and
exclaimed, "Oh, Mr. Woods, there is your brother!" The figure walked up
to Mr. Woods and grasped his hand. As they appeared thus with their
faces turned to one another, they were _strikingly_ alike both in
feature and expression. This spirit's head was also bare, an unusual
occurrence, and covered with thick, crisp hair. He appeared twice, and
said distinctly, "God bless you!" each time to his brother. Mrs.
Wheeler, who had known the spirit in earth life, was startled by the
tone of the voice, which she recognized at once; and Mr. Morgan, who had
been an intimate friend of his in Australia, confirmed the recognition.
We asked Mr. Woods the meaning of the clarionet, which was a black one,
handsomely inlaid with silver. He told us his brother had been an
excellent musician, and had won a similar instrument as a prize at some
musical competition. "But," he added wonderingly, "his clarionet is
locked up in my house in Australia." My daughter "Florence" came out
next, but only a little way, at which I was disappointed, but "Joey"
said they were reserving the strength for a manifestation further on. He
then said, "Here comes a friend for Mr. Sandeman," and a man, wearing
the masonic badge and scarf, appeared, and made the tour of the circle,
giving the masonic grip to those of the craft present. He was a good
looking young man, and said he had met some of those present in
Australia, but no one seemed to recognize him. He was succeeded by a
male figure, who had materialized on the previous occasion. As he passed
through the curtain, a female figure appeared beside him, bearing a very
bright light, as though to show him the way. She did not come beyond the
_portiere_, but every one in the room saw her distinctly. On account of
the dress and complexion of the male figure, we had wrongly christened
him "The Bedouin;" but my son, Frank Marryat, who is a sailor, now found
out he was an East Indian by addressing him in Hindustani, to which he
responded in a low voice. Some one asked him to take a seat amongst us,
upon which he seized a heavy chair in one hand and flourished it above
his head. He then squatted, native fashion, on his haunches on the floor
and left us, as before, by vanishing suddenly.
"Joey" now announced that they were going to try the experiment of
"_showing us how the spirits were made from the medium_." This was the
crowning triumph of the evening. Mr. Eglinton appeared in the very midst
of us in trance. He entered the room backwards, and as if fighting with
the power that pushed him in, his eyes were shut, and his breath was
drawn with difficulty. As he stood thus, holding on to a chair for
support, an airy mass like a cloud of tobacco smoke was seen on his left
hip, his legs became illuminated by lights travelling up and down them,
and a white film settled about his head and shoulders. The mass
increased, and he breathed harder and harder, whilst invisible hands
_pulled the filmy drapery out of his hip_ in long strips, that
amalgamated as soon as formed, and fell to the ground to be succeeded by
others. The cloud continued to grow thicker, and we were eagerly
watching the process, when, in the twinkling of an eye, the mass had
evaporated, and a spirit, full formed, stood beside him. No one could
say _how_ it had been raised in the very midst of us, nor whence it
came, but _it was there_. Mr. Eglinton then retired with the new-born
spirit behind the curtains, but in another moment he came (or he was
thrown out) amongst us again, and fell upon the floor. The curtains
opened again, and the full figure of "Ernest" appeared and raised the
medium by the hand. As he saw him, Mr. Eglinton fell on his knees, and
"Ernest" drew him out of sight. Thus ended the second of these two
wonderful _seances_. Thus published reports of them were signed with the
full names and addresses of those who witnessed them.
William Eglinton's powers embrace various phases of phenomena, amongst
which levitation is a common occurrence; indeed, I do not think I have
ever sat with him at a _seance_ during which he has _not_ been
levitated. I have seen him on several occasions rise, or be carried,
into the air, so that his head touched the ceiling, and his feet were
above the sitters' heads. On one occasion whilst sitting with him a
perfectly new manifestation was developed. As each spirit came the name
was announced, written on the air in letters of fire, which moved round
the circle in front of the sitters. As the names were those of friends
of the audience and not of friends of Mr. Eglinton, and the phenomenon
ended with a letter written to me in the same manner on private affairs,
it could not be attributed to a previously arranged trick. I have
accompanied Mr. Eglinton, in the capacity of interpreter, to a
professional _seance_ in Paris consisting of some forty persons, not one
of whom could speak a word of English whilst he was equally ignorant of
foreign languages. And I have heard French and German spirits return
through him to converse with their friends, who were radiant with joy at
communicating with them again, whilst their medium could not (had he
been conscious) have understood or pronounced a single word of all the
news he was so glibly repeating. I will conclude this testimony to his
powers by the account of a sitting with him for slate writing--that much
abused and most maligned manifestation. Because a few ignorant
pig-headed people who have never properly investigated the science of
Spiritualism decide that a thing cannot be, "because it can't," men of
honor and truth are voted charlatans and tricksters, and those who
believe in them fools and blind. The day will dawn yet when it will be
seen which of the two classes best deserve the name.
Some years ago, when I first became connected in business with Mr. Edgar
Lee of the _St. Stephen's Review_, I found him much interested in the
subject of Spiritualism, though he had never had an opportunity of
investigating it, and through my introduction I procured him a test
_seance_ with William Eglinton. We met one afternoon at the medium's
house in Nottingham Place for that purpose, and sat at an ordinary table
in the back dining-room for slate-writing. The slate used on the
occasion (as Mr. Lee had neglected to bring his own slate as requested)
was one which was presented to Mr. Eglinton by Mr. Gladstone. It
consisted of two slates of medium size, set in mahogany frames, with box
hinges, and which, when shut, were fastened with a Bramah lock and key.
On the table cloth was a collection of tiny pieces of different colored
chalk. In the front room, which was divided from us by folding doors,
were some bookcases. Mr. Eglinton commenced by asking Mr. Lee to go into
the front room by himself, and select, in his mind's eye, any book he
chose as the one from which extracts should be given. Mr. Lee having
done as he was told, returned to his former place beside us, without
giving a hint as to which book he had selected. Mr. Gladstone's slate
was then delivered over to him to clean with sponge and water; that
done, he was directed to choose four pieces of chalk and place them
between the slates, to lock them and retain the key. The slates were
left on the table in the sight of all; Mr. Lee's hand remained on them
all the time. All that Mr. Eglinton did was to place _his_ hand above
Mr. Lee's.
"You chose, I think," he commenced, "four morsels of chalk--white, blue,
yellow and red. Please say which word, on which line, on which page of
the book you selected just now, the white chalk shall transcribe."
Mr. Lee answered (I forget the exact numbers) somewhat in this wise,
"The 3rd word on the 15th line of the 102nd page," he having, it must be
remembered, no knowledge of the contents of the volume, which he had not
even touched with his hand. Immediately he had spoken, a scratching
noise was heard between the two slates. When it ceased, Mr. Eglinton put
the same question with regard to the blue, yellow and red chalks, which
was similarly responded to. He then asked Mr. Lee to unlock the slates,
read the words, and then fetch the book he had selected, and compare
notes, and in each instance the word had been given correctly. Several
other experiments were then made, equally curious, the number of Mr.
Lee's watch, which he had not taken from his pocket, and which he said
he did not know himself, being amongst them. Then Mr. Eglinton said to
Mr. Lee, "Have you any friend in the spirit-world from whom you would
like to hear? If so, and you will mentally recall the name, we will try
and procure some writing from him or her." (I must say here that these
two were utter strangers to each other, and had met for the first time
that afternoon, and indeed [as will be seen by the context] _I_ had a
very slight knowledge of Mr. Edgar Lee myself at that time.) Mr. Lee
thought for a moment, and then replied that there was a dead friend of
his from whom he should like to hear. The cleaning and locking process
was gone through again, and the scratching re-commenced, and when it
concluded, Mr. Lee unlocked the slates and read a letter to this
effect:--
"My Dear Will,--I am quite satisfied with your decision respecting
Bob. By all means, send him to the school you are thinking of. He
will get on better there. His education requires more pushing than
it gets at present. Thanks for all you have done for him. God bless
you.--Your affectionate cousin, R. Tasker."
I do not pretend to give the exact words of this letter; for though they
were afterwards published, I have not a copy by me. But the gist of the
experiment does not lie in the exactitude of the words. When I saw the
slate, I looked at Mr. Lee in astonishment.
"Who is it for?" I asked.
"It is all right," he replied; "it is for me. It is from my cousin, who
left his boy in my charge. _My real name is William Tasker._"
Now, I had never heard it hinted before that Edgar Lee was only a _nom
de plume_, and the announcement came on me as a genuine surprise. So
satisfied was Mr. William Tasker Edgar Lee with his experimental
_seance_, that he had the slate photographed and reproduced in the _St.
Stephen's Review_, with an account of the whole proceedings, which were
sufficient to make any one stop for a moment in the midst of the world's
harassing duties and think.