Readers of the Spiritualistic literature of the present day cannot fail
to have their attention frequently called to the remarkable power
attributed to certain Mediums, not only of reading the contents of
envelopes which are securely gummed and sealed, but of returning to the
questions therein contained pertinent answers from friends in the other
world. It is far from uncommon to hear of conversions to faith in
Spiritualism wrought by these remarkable proofs of Spiritual power. At
this hour, in many a loving home, responses to letters, thus sealed and
answered through these Mediums, are treasured as tenderest, completest
proofs that love survives the grave and still encircles the living and
the dead.
Recognizing in this phase of Mediumship a department of Spiritualism
capable of plain, matter-of-fact investigation, which could be conducted
in writing and demanding no special powers of observation, the duty of
investigation devolved mainly upon the Acting Chairman.
There are only four of these special Mediums whose advertisements I have
seen in Spiritual papers. He who has probably the widest reputation is
Dr. James V. Mansfield, Boston. A second is Mr. R.W. Flint, New York
City. A third is Mrs. Dr. Eleanor Martin, Columbus, Ohio; and lastly,
also of the same name, Mrs. Eliza A. Martin, of Oxford, Massachusetts.
Through the Mediumship of the first, I have seen it stated that upward
of a hundred thousand securely sealed letters have been answered; and
the names of men high in our business and financial world have been
cited to me as of those who had received proofs of his power which could
not be questioned, nor explained on any other ground than that of
clairvoyance, or of Spirit communication. To him, therefore, I concluded
to apply first.
The choice of a subject whereon to communicate with a denizen of the
other world is not easy. To follow in the well-trodden path and ask
after the welfare of departed friends would only end, I well knew, in
turning on that stream of generalities, not glittering, but very dull,
in which a large experience had taught me that disembodied Spirits
chiefly delight when expatiating on the conditions of their changed
existence. Furthermore, it was desirable that from the investigation
should be eliminated all elements of thought-transference or of
mind-reading. I must select a subject on which my own mind was a blank,
and where the responses would have to be definite and unambiguous, and
withal quite within the scope of Spiritual knowledge.
At last, as fulfilling, in all honesty and sincerity, the requisite
conditions, a skull in my possession was fixed on.
This skull is a relic, interesting from its dramatic associations. It
has been used for fifty or sixty years as a 'property' at the Walnut
Street Theatre, whenever 'Hamlet' has been performed, and as 'Yorick's
skull' has been handled in that play, from Edmund Kean down to Henry
Irving and Edwin Booth. It is preserved with care, and mounted on a
piece of polished black marble. Surely here is a skull whose experiences
are singular above all ordinary skulls, and in whose career its original
owner might be not unreasonably expected to cherish some interest or to
have followed its fortunes with some little attention. Untold
possibilities for the vindication of Spiritualistic truth and power hang
around it, should there be an unwavering agreement by all Spiritual
authorities, as to the circumstances, when alive, of its original owner.
Surely, I concluded, the translated inhabitants of the 'summer-land'
cannot have doffed the homespun honesty of mortal life; all will either
confess ignorance with regard to this skull, or display their
truthfulness by a substantial harmony in their reports, and thereby
furnish an indisputable, irrefragable proof of the truth of
Spiritualism.
Sincere in this trust, I wrote on a small sheet of paper this question:
"What was the name, age, sex, color or condition in life of the owner,
when alive, of the skull here in my library? 28 February, 1885." This
paper was put in an envelope, whereof the flap was then gummed to within
a small distance of the point, under this point some sealing-wax was
dropped, and enough was added above it to form a large, heavy,
substantial impression. At the four corners additional seals, with
different impressions, were placed. Thus gummed, and sealed with five
seals, the envelope was enclosed to Dr. J.V. Mansfield, with a request
that it be subjected to his Mediumistic power.
In a few days the following was received:
'Boston, March 2d, 1885.
Dear Furness.--Your package came duly to hand most respectfully say I
have given the package two sittings and re'd from two different spirits
(purported) answer one coroberating [_sic_] the other statement One from
Robt Hair [_sic_] the other from Dr B. Rush for the two communicates my
charge is 5.00 which if you will send me per registered mail I will
remit you per return mail Respfy J.V. Mansfield I judge from the com. it
relates to a skeleton.'
With this letter the sealed envelope was returned, apparently in exactly
the same state in which it had been sent; the seals were intact, with
the exception perhaps of a few trifling fractures, for which the transit
to and from Boston, through the mail, would readily account. Upon closer
inspection, however, and upon turning the envelope so as to catch the
light, I thought that a slight glazing of gum was discernible around the
central seal, and from beneath its edge a minute bubble of mucilage
protruded. The fee demanded was at once forwarded, and by return of mail
the following 'communicates' were received, written in pencil on long
strips of common paper, and in two different hands:
Dear Furness.--Yours of 28 Feby before me--as to this matter under
consideration I have looked it over and over again Called my old friend
Geo Combe and we are of the mind it is the skull of a female--Combe says
he thinks it was that of a Colored woman--the age--about 40 to 44 the
name of the one who inhabited it--it would not be possible for any
spirit but the one who the skull belonged to If it was colored--Cornelia
Winnie might know. Respfy ROBT HARE Mch 2 '85.'
In a larger, bolder hand on the second slip was the following:
'My dear Townsman--pardon what may seem an intrusion--but seeing your
anxiety to get the Aage [_sic_] sex--col and name of a skull in your
office and seeing the conclusion that Dr. Hare and Proffr Combe have
arrived at--I will say that I have looked the same over and fully concur
in their conclusion save in the color of the one who once annimated
[_sic_] that skull. Fowler Spurzeheim [_sic_] and Gall agree in saying
that Hare and Combe have nothing to base an opinion upon, as to the
color--yet in sex they agree Yours with Respect