"SPOTTING" SPIRIT MEDIUMS.
"Among the recent utterances of spiritualistic organs is one to the
effect that 'manifestations' come in cycles--in 'great waves,' I believe
was the actual expression; and of the many fluctuations to which
spiritualistic society has been exposed of late is a very prominent
irruption of young lady mediums. The time seems to have gone by for
portly matrons to be wafted aërially from the northern suburbs to the
W.C. district, or elderly spinsters to exhibit spirit drawings which
gave one the idea of a water-colour palette having been overturned, and
the resulting 'mess' sat upon for the purposes of concealment. Even
inspirational speakers have so far 'gone out' as to subside from
aristocratic halls to decidedly second-rate institutions down back
streets. In fact, the 'wave' that has come over the spirit world seems
to resemble that which has also supervened upon the purely mundane
arrangements of Messrs. Spiers and Pond; and we anxious investigators
can scarcely complain of the change which brings us face to face with
fair young maidens in their teens to the exclusion of the matrons and
spinsters aforesaid, or the male medium who was once irreverently
termed by a narrator a 'bull-necked young man.'
"The names of these interesting young denizens of two worlds are so well
known that it is perhaps unnecessary caution or superfluous gallantry to
conceal them; but I will err, if error it be, on the safe side, and call
No. 1 Miss C. and No. 2 Miss S., premising only that each is decidedly
attractive, with the unquestioned advantage of having seen only some
sixteen or seventeen summers apiece. Miss C. has been 'out' some time;
her familiar being 'Katie King;' while Miss S. has made her debut more
recently, having for her attendant sprites one 'Florence Maple,' a young
lady spirit who has given a wrong terrestrial address in Aberdeen, and
Peter, a defunct market gardener, who sings through the young lady's
organism in a clear baritone voice. It was to me personally a source of
great satisfaction when I learnt that Miss C. had been taken in hand by
a F.R.S.--whom I will call henceforth the Professor--and Miss S. by a
Serjeant learned in the law. Now, if ever, I thought, we have a chance
of hearing what science and evidential acumen have to say on the subject
of 'Face Manifestations.' Each of these gentlemen, I ought to mention,
had written voluminously on the subject of Spiritualism, and both seemed
inclined to contest its claims in favour of some occult physical--or, as
they named it, psychic--force. This would make their verdict the more
valuable to outsiders, as it was clear they had not approached the
subject with a foregone conclusion in its favour. True, the
Spiritualists claimed both the Professor and the Serjeant persistently
as their own; but Spiritualists have a way of thinking everybody
'converted' who simply sits still in a decorous manner, and keeps his
eyes open without loudly proclaiming scepticism.
"Personally I had been, up to the date of present occurrences,
accustomed to summarize my convictions on the subject by the
conveniently elastic formula that there might be 'something in it.' I
still think so; but perhaps with a difference.
"For the former of the two exposés--if such they shall be deemed--I am
compelled to rely on documentary evidence; but I have 'sat' so many
times with Miss S., have been requested so often by the inspirational
Peter to 'listen to the whip-poor-will, a-singin' on the tree,' have
shaken the spirit hand, gazed on the spirit face, and even cut off
portions of the spirit veil of the fair Florence, that I can follow the
order of events just as though I had been present. I must confess the
wonderful similarity existing between Miss S. and Florence had exercised
me considerably, and perhaps prepared me to accept with calmness what
followed. Why delay the result? Miss S. and her mamma were invited to
the country house of the learned Serjeant. A 'cabinet' was extemporized
in the bay of the window, over which the curtains were drawn and a shawl
pinned. With a confidence which is really charming to contemplate, no
'tests' were asked of the medium, no 'conditions' imposed on the sitter.
Miss S. was put in the cabinet with only a chair, and the expectant
circle waited with patience. In due time the curtains were drawn aside,
and the spirit-face appeared at the opening. It was still the facsimile
of Miss S., with the eyes piously turned up and a ghostly head-dress
covering the hair. One by one the assembled were summoned to look more
closely. The initiated gazed and passed on, knowing they must not peep;
but, alas, one lady who was _not_ initiated, and therefore unaware of
the tacitly imposed conditions, imitated the example of Mother Eve, drew
aside the curtains and exposed the unspiritual form of Miss S. standing
on the chair; the 'spirit-hands' at the same time struggling so
convulsively to close the aperture that the head-gear fell off, and
betrayed the somewhat voluminous chignon of Miss S. herself. Hereupon
ensued a row, it being declared that the medium was killed, though
eventually order was restored by the rather incongruous process of a
gentleman present singing a comic song. The learned Serjeant still
clings to the belief that Miss S. was in a condition of 'unconscious
somnambulism.' I only hope, if ever I am arraigned before him in his
judicial capacity, he will extend his benevolent credulity to me in an
equal degree, and give me the benefit of the doubt.
"It may be in the recollection of those who follow the fluctuations of
the Spiritual 'wave' that some months ago a Dialectical gentleman seized
rudely on the spirit form of Katie, which struggled violently with him,
scratching his face and pulling out his whiskers, eventually making good
its retreat into the cupboard, where Miss C. was presumably bound hand
and foot. I must confess the fact of that escape rather prejudiced me in
favour of Katie, though I would rather she had evaporated into thin air,
and left the dialectical whiskers intact. Still it scored a point on
Katie's side, and I eagerly availed myself of the opportunity to pay my
devoirs at the shrine of Miss C.; the more so as the Professor had
asserted twice that he had seen and handled the form of the medium while
looking on and conversing with that of the spirit at the same time. If I
could retain my former faith in the Professor, of course this would be
final and my conversion an accomplished fact.
"We sat no longer in the subterranean breakfast room of Miss C.'s
parental abode; but moved up to the parlour floor, where two rooms
communicated through folding doors, the front apartment being that in
which we assembled, and the back used as a bedroom, where the ladies
took off their 'things.' This latter room, be it remembered, had a
second room communicating with the passage, and so with the universe of
space in general. One leaf of the folding doors was closed, and a
curtain hung over the other. Pillows were placed on the floor, just
inside the curtain, and the little medium, who was nattily arrayed in a
blue dress, was laid upon them. We were requested to sing and talk
during 'materialization,' and there was as much putting up and lowering
of the light as in a modern sensation drama. The Professor acted all the
time as Master of the Ceremonies, retaining his place at the aperture;
and I fear, from the very first, exciting suspicion by his marked
attentions, not to the medium, but to the ghost. When it did come it was
arrayed according to orthodox ghost fashion, in loose white garments,
and I must confess with no resemblance to Miss C. We were at the same
time shown the recumbent form of the pillowed medium, and there
certainly was something blue, which might have been Miss C., or only her
gown going to the wash. By-and-by, however, with 'lights down,' a bottle
of phosphorized oil was produced, and by this weird and uncanny radiance
one or two privileged individuals were led by the 'ghost' into the back
bedroom, and allowed to put their hands on the entranced form of the
medium. I was not of the 'elect,' but I talked to those who were, and
their opinion was that the 'ghost' was a much stouter, bigger woman than
the medium; and I must confess that certain unhallowed ideas of the
bedroom door and the adjacent kitchen stairs connected themselves in my
mind with recollections of a brawny servant girl who used to sit sentry
over the cupboard in the breakfast room. Where was she?
"As a final bonne bouche the spirit made its exit from the side of the
folding door covered by the curtain, and immediately Miss C. rose up
with dishevelled locks in a way that must have been satisfactory to
anybody who knew nothing of the back door and the brawny servant, or who
had never seen the late Mr. Charles Kean act in the 'Corsican Brothers'
or the 'Courier of Lyons.'
"I am free to confess the final death-blow to my belief that there might
be 'something in' the Face Manifestations was given by the effusive
Professor who has 'gone in' for the Double with a pertinacity altogether
opposed to the calm judicial examination of his brother learned in the
law, and with prejudice scarcely becoming a F.R.S.
"I am quite aware that all this proves nothing. Miss S. and Miss C. may
each justify Longfellow's adjuration--
'Trust her not, she is fooling thee;'
and yet ghosts be as genuine as guano. Only I fancy the 'wave' of young
ladies will have to ebb for a little while; and I am exceedingly
interested in speculating as to what will be the next 'cycle.' From
'information I have received,' emanating from Brighton, I am strongly of
opinion that babies are looking up in the ghost market, and that our
next manifestations may come through an infant phenomenon."