WCP7109

[1] [p. 300]

Paraffin Moulds Obtained through Alleged Spirit-Intervention

From January till April 1878, J. Nelson Holmes and his wife, Jennie, gave a series of seances for materlisation of alleged spirit forms in the city of Washington, D.C., at No. 707, I street N.W. They were given from three to sight nights a week until April 3rd of that year, and under such severe test conditions that the manifold forms that appeared could not be attributed to any fraudulent agency on the part of the mediums or sitters; at least, that was the decided judgement of the persons most frequently in attendance as well as of myself. Occasional sitters were most incredulous, the surprising character of he phenomena being too great for their acceptance.

I was so well satisfied of their genuineness, so far as the absence of any intelligent agency of the mediums in their production was concerned (other than voluntary passivity), that I determined on the first convenient occasion to go to their house in Vineland, New Jersey, an there have one or more private seances with them. Opportunity offered sooner than I expected. On Saturday, April 6th, 1878, I was invited, with other officials of the United States Treasury, to be present at Chester, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia, at the launch of the ss. City of Para from the ship-yard of John Roach. I accepted the invitation, and after the launch went on to Philadelphia hoping to get a train for Vineland that evening, but failed. On the following Sunday morning, I took so early a train as to reach Vineland and the home of the Holmes's before noon. They resided at that time about three miles from Vineland Station. Their home was a small frame-house of but a story and a half in height. A door in the south front opened into a small hall in which a flight of stairs rose nearly from the door to a landing-place, on the left side of which a door opened into a bed-chamber lighted by two windows in the south of the house. The two sides of the roof ran down so rapidly from the ridge that a person of ordinary stature could not stand erect on either side of the room next the wall. In the south-east corner of this room, wooden partition separated a small apartment from the landing-place of the stairs and from the main room. A slight door that could be closed entered this apartment on the east side of the chamber. This small room, about six feet long by five in width, contained nothing movable but a chair. I aided the medium, Mr. Holmes, in draping three sides of this enclosure with black cambrie, on the Sunday of my arrival. This was to make it a cabinet from which we expected white forms to appear that evening.

The north end of this small house was on the upper floor, occupied by bed-chambers, and on the lower floor by a kitchen and sitting-room. From the lower floor another flight of stairs led to the second story, where the little cabinet was placed.

On sunday evening Mr. Homes sat in this cabinet as a medium for materialisation, with Mrs. Holmes, Mr. Samuel Stiles, and myself as the sole spectators. The sitting was a wonderful affair, fully equal to any sittings given by himself and wife in Washington. Its incidents need not now be detailed. [2] [p. 301] In the course of this Sunday I learned for the first time that in Philadelphia Holmes had give seances for paraffin moulds of hands in 1876. Though he had attempted nothing of the kind for some time, he readily lamented, at my request to make a trial for them on the following evening, Monday, April 8th.

Early the next day, Mr. Homes and myself rode to Vinewood Station where I purchased at an apothecary's store one pound eleven ounces of paraffin. At other places I bought a spring balance and two wooden pails. The balance was to weigh any paraffin moulds (should any be made) with the paraffin left over after they should be made. The pails were destined one for cold, the other for hot, water.

We returned to Mr. Holmes's residence about five o'clock p.m. While awaiting the preparations for supper, and the waning of the daylight, I strolled out to the barn near by; this with Mr. Holmes's little place of twenty acres, was in charge of Mr. Stilles. He informed me that in 1876, the pails of cold and hot water were placed in a small box. In the pail of hot water, the paraffin was dissolved. The box was locked under the direction of the sitters, who retained the key, and so locked, was placed in a dark cabinet in which Mr. Holmes was accustomed to sit. After a few minutes of quiet paraffin moulds were ordinarily produced which, when the box was unlocked by the sitters, and Mr. Holmes was relieved from the trance in which he sat, would be found in the locked box, upon the surface of the cold water in one of the pails.

On being told that the identical box was in the barn, I got Mr. Stiles to find it. I noticed, when it was brought to me, that it was of a length, width, and depth sufficient to allow two preliminary water pairs to be so placed in it as not to be in contact with each other, or with the sides of cover. The front side and cover had been perforated with five or six slots, each of less than a fingers' breadth and from three to five inches in length. Mr. Stilles told me that these slots had been made to let out the steam from the hot water containing the dissolved paraffin. But to relieve the distress of over-wise sceptics of Philadelphia, who were able to believe that Holmes could get his finger through slots too small for a baby's finger to pass through, and could with them slots mould paraffin gloves in boiling water, he called my attention to wire screens nailed under the slots within the box, which would effectually debar any human fingers other than those of conceited sceptic from reaching the cold or hot water, or rubber pail. Observing that the staple lock had been removed I asked Mr. Stiles to find it and fasten it again securely to the top in its hold place, and also get me the padlock and key, now old and rusty, with which the lock was fastened. I practised with the padlock and key upon the lock till I could work them with ease. We then carried the box, with its appliances for fastening, to the little cabinet of which I have spoken in the bed-chamber of the upper story of the house.

We sat down to supper (Holmes, his wife, Stiles, and myself). A large pot of water was kept boiling on the stove while we ate. After supper, Homes, Styles, and myself took seats in the open door of the kitchen, and, in the deepening twilight, cut our one pound and eleven ounces of paraffin into thin clippings which dropped as they were cut into one of my wooden pails. We cut up the entire batch of paraffin. Darkness had now so fallen as to require a lamp to be lighted. Mr. Homes dismissed her servant girl to her house for the night, and locked every outer door. Our pot of boiling water was emptied into the pail containing the paraffin; and that substance at once melted away, leaving, except for a little scum that rose to the surface, a pail of clear water. One of these pails was taken by Holmes, the other by Styles; I carried the lump; and we all ascended the back flight of stairs to the upper story — Mrs. Holmes following last. We moved to the little cabinet. Holmes and Stiles went in with their pails. I followed with the lamp. Mrs. Holmes remained with out the cabinet arranging three chairs in a semi-circle a few feet from the door. The two pails were carefully put in the box. Holmes took his seat in the chair about five feet from the box. Stiles stood behind me. I carefully examined the pails and every corner of the box with my lamp, to be sure that no paraffin moulds had got into pail or box by "accident". I gave the lamp to Stiles, turned down the cover drew the lamp over the stample on the front, and turned the key in the padlock, withdrew it, and put it in my pocket. I took the lamp from Stiles, and carried and set it behind the door that swing forward from the landing place of the hall stair case. As I closed the cabinet door I saw Holmes in his chair apparently asleep and breathing heavily. After putting the lamp in place I took the middle chair before the cabinet, with Mrs. Holmes on my left hand, and Stiles on my right. I drew out my watch to note the length of time for the production of paraffin moulds, which I had much hope, though but little expectation, of getting. We alternated quiet waiting with singing. Minute after minute dragged away, with not a sound from the cabinet except an occasional sigh from Holmes. I had begun to loose all hope; but exactly twenty-five minutes from my first glance at my watch, a heavy thump was heard upon the inside of the cabinet door. Stiles said it indicated the moults were finished, and was also a signal that we should remove the box. We arose and Stiles and I entered the cabinet. Holmes sat as I had last seen him, seemingly asleep and breathing heavily. We raised the box with its two pails of water, and carried it out upon the landing-place of the ball staircase with its front to the front of the steps at the stairs. I did not open the box at once. In fact I dreaded the disappointment of a failure. I doubted whether I should find anything in it but two pails of water with a quantity of melted paraffin; for this reason I wished to continue the sitting for materialised forms. So I slightly changed the position of my land behind the door (which swing inwards front he landing place), so that its light fell upon the west side of the room, and was gently reflected out upon the landing place and the little door to the cabinet on the east side. Then we all seated ourselves as before. In the course of half-an-hour four figures came successively from the cabinet. One was a lady dressed in clouds of what seemed to be gauze; another was a young man dressed in the style of a French gentleman of the time of the Consulate; a forth was a figure clearly reproducing the form, features and dress of Dr. Franklin. Madame Tussaud's gallery could have produced nothing better. Last of all came "John King" a larger figure than any of the others and in an entirely different style of dress. It is needless to say that there was nothing in the cabinet from which these lay figures could be produced.

"John King" informed me that when the box should be opened I should find floating in in the pail containing cold water, two moults of hands, one of which was complete and was made by the French gentleman who had come before me; that the other was made by his mother; but that in as much as the paraffin was reduced in amount (by making of the first mound) and as she had had but little experience in making moults, the other mould was imperfect. He then gave a few messages for old sitters at the Holmes' seances in this city, and withdrew. As soon as we heard Holmes stirring in the cabinet I took the lamp to the box on the landing-place where with much difficulty I succeeded in unlocking the padlock, and upon throwing back the cover I found in the pail containing cold water a moult in paraffin of one hand reaching to the wrist, and another mould of fingers extending only to the palm of the hand. They were of different sizes, fingers of one hand being smaller than those of the other, I still have them though they have slightly collapsed under the influence of our summer heats.

The next morning the residuum of the paraffin in the pail which had contained hot water had congealed and completely covered the surface of the water. I carefully removed it, and taking my moults and this residuum with me, on my arrival at Vineland Station, on my way to Washington, I had the whole carefully weighted on the same scales on which the unbroken mass had been weighed when purchased. The amount was one pound eleven ounces, the identical amount of the same paraffin I had melted in hot water the evening before.

Darius Lyman

Washington, D.C.

April 13th, 1888