* * * * *
February 10th, 1887.
I enter Col. Kase's house, 1601 North 15th Street, in company of Drs.
Leidy, White and Mr. Sommerville, a friend of the first. We are received
by the Colonel and pass scrutiny. The séance takes place in the second
story sitting-room. This is furnished with a large oak table, a square
piano, and one corner is made into an alcove, the curtains of which are
thrown back and reveal several drawings in black and white--one of the
young Raphael. Over the mantlepiece a painting representing the
apparition of a Spirit-form, to a young lady sitting in front of a
fire-place. On entering this room find the Medium, Mrs. Thayer, engaged
in seating the audience. She is a middle-aged lady of good proportions,
hair black, color flushed, the light eyes look weary, the lower face
rather square, deep lines around the mouth. She is evidently not in very
good humor. After a while the company, between twenty and thirty
persons, mostly women, get seated.
Owing to the many people present I could not see what preparations had
been made. Medium requests that the piano be moved against the door (to
keep off illicit Spirits?). Chair placed against the door. Light turned
out completely. Singing of "Sweet by-and-bye." Medium requests a lady to
invoke Divine blessing. Disgusting cant. More singing. Darkness
impenetrable. Sudden bumping noise on the table. Match struck by the
Colonel just as something crawls over my hand and falls to the floor. It
is a red-bellied terrapin. Some ferns appear neatly arranged on the
table in front and to the left of the Medium. Expressions of
gratification. Dark. Singing. A pine-bough is thrown against me.
Screaming on account of terrapin. Match. Several parties have large
lilies in front of them. My neighbor a lily of the valley (he states
that his wife said before he left: "I wish you would get a lily of the
valley"). Dark. Singing. Match. Dr. Leidy has some red lilies; some
smilax and a wreath are on the table. Great astonishment. Colonel Kase
says it is wonderful, but during the Centennial year they got tables
loaded with flowers (the Medium has not given a flower séance for some
years, she says, hence the rather meagre supply.) A lady points out the
fact that the flowers are quite cold and have a sort of dew on them. But
I found those before me quite dry, as if they had been in the room for
some time. The Medium is tired and retires. Mrs. X. is requested to come
under the influence of her Spirit-guides, and she does. She puts herself
in an oratorical posture, eyes closed, and reels off the common-places
of the _Banner of Light_: the Spirits are eager for investigation, but
benighted men in the flesh cannot make the conditions, and thus continue
to wallow in darkness. The Spirits are kind. They do not damn those poor
benighted ones, but still hold out, in beautiful optimism, the hope that
all those who do want to know the truth will find it!
Another lady, Mrs. Y., is now called upon to put herself under
Spirit-guidance, and she thereupon proceeds to enlighten the sheep-fold
how it is possible that these flowers and branches and turtles can come
through solid walls and closed windows. "It is all awfully simple; it is
nothing but PROJECTION! The Spirits understand the laws of electric
projection; even the electric forces themselves understand the laws of
nature and the currents. The electric force snatches the flower, or
plant, and propels it along invisible wires. There is no such thing as
solid substance, matter is permeable to these forces, and, therefore, it
is easy to see how a terrapin can come quick as lightning through a
wall." (Verbatim.)
Mr. Copeland is now called upon to give the audience some tests, a
rather inoffensive looking young man with hair standing up. The light is
turned down; he jerks his head and body, passes his hand over his eyes
and begins to talk in broken, childish sentences. A little Indian maid
now controls him. The maid describes a tall, bony, black-haired
gentleman standing near _me_, with a fatherly look; he is Charley, and
holds something, as if I were undertaking some grand enterprise. But as
I do not know Charley, Charley disappears, and the spirit of a Quaker
gentleman comes to a lady not far from me--all right. Soon, however, the
maid is at me again. This time it is William. He has something chemical,
like a discovery. Have I not been across the water where people had the
cholera and turned black and died? Did I not very much disappoint a
young lady over there? Did I give her a ring? Margaret, or some name
like that, now comes around. Have I never seen the Medium before? No.
Then I should pay him a visit. Wants to talk with me about my past and
future. Has much to say; and so on. Do I not go often into a building
where many persons work at chemistry? Am I not sceptical?--rather. Wants
to cure my scepticism, and so on, _ad nauseam_. Me is tired, me wants
go. Again the jerks, the rubbing of the eyes, and the Indian maid is
once more Mr. Copeland.
Séance terminates with the payment of one dollar, cash, at 9.30 P.M.