I have three or four curious incidents to tell about. They seem to come
under the head of what I named “Mental Telegraphy” in a paper written
seventeen years ago, and published long afterwards.--[The paper entitled
“Mental Telegraphy,” which originally appeared in Harper's Magazine for
December, 1893, is included in the volume entitled The American Claimant
and Other Stories and Sketches.]
Several years ago I made a campaign on the platform with Mr. George W.
Cable. In Montreal we were honored with a reception. It began at two in
the afternoon in a long drawing-room in the Windsor Hotel. Mr. Cable and
I stood at one end of this room, and the ladies and gentlemen entered
it at the other end, crossed it at that end, then came up the long
left-hand side, shook hands with us, said a word or two, and passed on,
in the usual way. My sight is of the telescopic sort, and I presently
recognized a familiar face among the throng of strangers drifting in
at the distant door, and I said to myself, with surprise and high
gratification, “That is Mrs. R.; I had forgotten that she was a
Canadian.” She had been a great friend of mine in Carson City, Nevada,
in the early days. I had not seen her or heard of her for twenty years;
I had not been thinking about her; there was nothing to suggest her to
me, nothing to bring her to my mind; in fact, to me she had long ago
ceased to exist, and had disappeared from my consciousness. But I knew
her instantly; and I saw her so clearly that I was able to note some of
the particulars of her dress, and did note them, and they remained in my
mind. I was impatient for her to come. In the midst of the hand-shakings
I snatched glimpses of her and noted her progress with the slow-moving
file across the end of the room; then I saw her start up the side, and
this gave me a full front view of her face. I saw her last when she
was within twenty-five feet of me. For an hour I kept thinking she
must still be in the room somewhere and would come at last, but I was
disappointed.
When I arrived in the lecture-hall that evening some one said: “Come
into the waiting-room; there's a friend of yours there who wants to see
you. You'll not be introduced--you are to do the recognizing without
help if you can.”