WCP7110

[1] [p. 194]

General Lippitt's Narrative.

My dear Mr. Wallace,

In reference to my slate seance at Onset on August 23rd last, I promised to send you an account of the various experiences bearing on the question of the iddentity of the soi-distant Napoleon III., from whom the remarkable French writing was said to have come; and I now fulfil my promise.

The medium's "Control" had stated at a previous seance that Napoleon III., was present, and would communicate with me. Though at the same time an accurate description of his person was given me, I supposed it to be one of those ridiculous inventions, either of the Control or some mishcevous spirit that often perplex us, coming as they do, through mediums of undoubted honesty. It seem to me wildly impossible that Napoleon III. in his earth-life could not be supposed to have even known of my existence. But when it appeared, on opening the slates, that the spirit claiming to be he promised to write for me at some subsequent seance a message in French to be send to his connections in America, my disbelief was somewhat shaken; since the spirit apparently knew that members of my family had been on terms of warm intimacy with those connections for many years past; a fact which the medium, an entire stranger to me, could not possibly have known.

But the evidence of identity, standing by itself, is extremely slight, because it may have been a more random guess of the Control —- too slight to weigh against the extreme improbability of the late Emperor coming to a stranger in a foreign land, whom he had never known, and presumably had never heard of.

Now, the experiences I am about to relate will go far, I think, to remove this a priori objection, by strongly tending to show it to be highly probably that, in his spirit-life, he has become, in a certain sense, aquainted with me, and with the fact of my family's intimacy with his relations in America. These experiences consist partly of events in my own life and partly of communications through the spirit mediums. They are independent facts unconnected with each other, yet, all pointing to the same conclusion; and, viewed as a whole they thus constitute, I think, under the doctrine of chances, the strongest kind of circumstantial evidence.

The question of identity now raised applies to two distinct manifestations of the alleged spirit:—(1) That of August 23nd, when the French writing was given, and stated by the Control to have been dictated by Napoleon III. In corraboration of this staement you will find some evidence coming through spirit controls; and (2) the [2] [p. 195] previous one of August 3rd, when the Control announced the presence of the Emperor and of his son, correctly describing the person of the father, who was said to state that they had come to thank me for kindness "tho his people" — an expression perfectly unintelligble to me until afterwards explained in the slate-writing as meaning "his relatives in America" — and which contained a promise to write at a subsequent seance a message to them in French. And it is to this manifestation that the evidence I offer chiefly applies. I mean by this, evidence tending to make highly probable, at the least, which was prind pacie incredible; to wit, that the professed Louis Napoleon was really Louis Napoleon himself.

I regret that it never occured to me to inquire why he failed to fulfil his promise of a message to his friends here instead of dictating the French poetry.

Sceptics would readily explain away to their own satisfaction the psychical experiences I now send you. And one of their explanations would doubtless be that the facts purporting to come from a "control" were all known to the medium. On this point, let me state what precautions I have always used to prevent the happening of such a thing; which would, of course, vitiate results in appearance most conclusive. I have habitually refrained from all intercourse with mediums, except in the seance room, in order that not a word I might let drop should imprart to them any knowledge respecting myself or my surroundings, or my friends in the spirit-world. And I use the same retience towards the Control during the trance; and I also refrain from all mention to the medium, after the trance, of what has come from the Control that might be used as capital in a future seance. And for some years past it is only in rare and exceptional cases, with a special object in view, that I have written at a seance the name of any departed spirit whatever. As to the explanation of thought-transference, under its various names, I franky admit that we are still in the dark, and perhaps destined to remain so for a long time to come. I am, therefore, not prepared to say how much thought-transference may have to do with what is recieved through trance-mediums. I can certainly conceive the possibility of thoughts, events, persons, and names — present at the time in my own mind — being conveyed by some sort of brain vibratins to the "sublieminal conciousness" of the medium. But I cannot conceive the possibility of thoughts, persons, and names of longo ago, and long forgotte, being conveyed by brain vibrations that existed in a time past, and actually suppressing the comparatively intense vibrations of the present moment. Let me here state a fact having direct bearing on this question. Occasionally, like many others, I have had communications and proof of identity from spirits, referring to events long past and almost entire ly forgotted — as in the West Point incident, after fifty years, particulars of which you will find further on. But whenever I have earnestly desired a certain spirit to come, or to give a certain test of identity, almost inveraiably that spirit does not come, and that particular test of identity is not given. And it required an experience of years to teach btaie that my best chance of obtainined what I longed for lay in banishing the thought of it from my mind.

My mental constitution cannot reasonable be presumed to be so different fromt hat of other investigators that this experience should be attributed to a idiosyncracy; and, indeed, so far as I made inquiry, I find what I have now stated to be general fact. Now, in telepathy, the more vivid the image in the mind of the operator, the more successful is the experiment; and so as to the explanation of phantoms of the dying. Does not this show that what comes to us through trance-mediumship must belong to a wholly different class of phenomena?

I was in Paris from 1832 to 1835. The family with which I was especially intimate was that of Mr. James Thayer, an American borb, but a resident of Paris since early in the French Revolution, and whose constant kindness to me I shall never forget. His two sons, Amidee and Edoard, resided with their father Amedee, the elder, was the husband of Hortense daughter of General Bertrand, Napoleons "fidus Achates" Edoard was married shortly before I left Paris to Mille. de Parouse, daughter of the Duc de Padouse, formerly known as the Lieutenant-Gernal Arrighi, cousin of the first Napoleon. Both he and General Bertrand commanded Army Corps in the disastrous battle of Leipsie in 1813. Mlle. de Pardoe had been the fiancee of Louis Napoleon when he was know as "The Vagabond Prince". Of the two brothers, Edouard was my particular friend. Of Hortense, his sister-in-law, I have always had an affectionate rememberance. She was a lovely woman in person and in character. In the picture of the Death of Napoleon she is the little girl, then about eight years old, whose head is buried in her mother's lap. The chronic gastritis which she often suffered was attributed, justly or not, to the unsuitable diet at St. Helena. Being a very frequent visitor of the family, I sometimes met General Bertrand there when visiting his daughter; who by the way was named Hortense, after Hortense, the Empress Josephene's daughter, who had stood as her god-mother.

I give these details because they fully explain the close intimacy of the two brothers and their wifes with Louis Napoleon after he became Emperor, and their being created Senators.

Most of the facts tending to show that Napoleon III., since he entered on his spirit-life, may have, pouri anoni dire, become acquainted with me, consist of certain experiences at seances of Mrs. Cowing, a trance medium in the city of Washington, and of Mrs. Wheeler Browne, whom I had met at Onset Massachusetts. In over two years of sittings with Mrs. Cowing I have never noticed anything that could raise the slightest suspicion of her honesty and trufhfulness, and she has always had my sincere regard and esteem. Taken from school and married, when a mere child, she has had but a limited education, and the adverse circumstances of her life have not permitted her to acquire much knowledge from books. Of the French language she has no knowledge whatever; and when I have questioned her as to her knowledge of French history she has assued me that she never read a line of any history in her life, and that all she knows of French history is that "Josephine was Bonaparte's wife"; and I have no reason to doubt that her statement is true.

The Control who speaks through her calls herself "Swannie" and claims to be a half-breed Indian. In fact her language and pronounciation are those of an Indian girl. Though very bright, she has apparently no book-knowledge whatever. She is generally unable to pronounce correctly long words, especially proper names; but as tho these she is often so nearly right as to show that it is only her toungue that is at fault. Though generally truthfull, when conditions are unfavourable for distinct seeing or hearing she is not above fishing and guessing; and this has been my experience with all spirit controls. In entereing in my diary what has come from her at a seance — which I habitually do immediately on my return home — I rarely recollect her exact language, but have always been careful to record fully and accurately the substance of what she has said.

The hour's seance is usually crowded with evidences of spirit return; but I copy from my notes only what relates to the question now at issue.

I must begin with a seance of Mrs. Ross', in Washington on April 16th, 1892. [3] [p. 196] Mrs. Ross is a medium for materlisations, whom I have known for about eleven years, and with hom I have had numerous sittings, some of which have been for private circles of from two to five sitters: the summer seances being at Onset, the winter ones in Washington. All of these seances have been held under the strictest text conditions, verified by me beforehand, and rendering the use of confereates a physical impossibility. I have attended some of them in private houses, where Mrs. Ross had never before been, and where, as usual in her seances, two or three, and occasionally, four or five, different forms came out of the cabinet at once; sometimes of children of tender age as well as adults. And never have I witnessed anything in her manifestations that caused me to suspect their genuinness (however it may have been with sceptics who had not troubled themselves beforehand to ascertain whether fraud was possible or no). Moreover, through my long acquaintance with her, I know her to be an honest and nonourable as well as a kind-hearded woman.

Seance of Mrs. Ross, of April 16th , 1892.

There were seven sitters of us. Of the other six I recall only Madame von Brandis, a German lady. I much regret to state that some three years ago she returned, as is supposed, to Germany, and that I have lately made every effort, but without success, to learn her address. Mr. Ross, at the curtain, announces " a man in uniform who can’t understand what I say; seems to be a foreigner. [To me] : If you will come up, perhaps you can make out who he is.’ I go up. Curtain opens, and those stands before me a fine-looking man of from thirty-five to forty, height about 5ft. 9in., in a close-fitting uniform frock-coat with one row of buttons; a mien graceful and eminently soldier-like; a delicate complexion, and a gentle kindly face, with a pleasant expression. Could respond only by gestures.

'Are you an American?'

'No.'

'French?'

'Yes.'

From that moment I spoke to him only in French.

'Did I know you in this life?'

'Yes'

'In France?'

'Yes.'

I could not recall any army officer I had known in France. I thought of General Boulanger, whom I had met in Washington in 1881, and whose 'dandified' figure resembled the one before me.

'General Boulanger?'

'He answers "No!" with a most indignant gesture'

I said that I was very sorry not to be able to recognise him. At this moment comes up Madame von Brandis, looks him in the fact and exclaims:—

'I know who it is!'

'Who?'

'I don't know his name, but he is one of a group of French officers standing on the deck of a ship with Napoleon in a picture I saw at Kensington two years ago. It is exactly the same face and same figure.'

After a moment's reflection, I said 'General Bertrand?' Instantly he bows in assent, patting me on the shoulder as if to express his gratification at being recognised. In response to me questions he answered by signs that he remembered me at the Thayers', in Paris; that his daughter had not forgotten me, and that she was well and happy. He promised to convey my kind remembrances to her, and disappeared.

I have no recollection of mentioning this manifestation to anyone until after a seance with Mrs. Cowing, on April 25th 1893. My small circle of friends —my own family included— are such invincible sceptics that I seldom or never venture to speak with them of even my most remarkable psychical experiences.

Seance with Mrs. Cowing, of April 25th, 1893.

Swannie: 'There's a man here in uniform — says he knew you in france'

'His name?'

'I can't get it'

'Try.'

'The first letter is a big B.'

'The next?'

'A little e. This is all I can see; says he has already manifested to you.'#

'How many rows of buttons in front?'

'One; a fine-looking man.'

'His rank?'

'Sounds to me lieutenant; but he notes his head, No.'

'Lieutenant-General?'

'Yes, yes, he says; and he says some more words I can't make out — sounds something like Marseilles'

[General Bertrand was sometimes been called in books 'Marshal Bertrand'; but he was simply Marechal du Palais. Perhaps this is what he added.]

'What great man was his friend?'

'Poleon; and he is here too.'

'What has General B. to say to me?' [I have never once called him anything else in Swannie's hearing.]

'He says he wants to have it known that they never fought but for what they believed to be the righteous cause.'

'I knew General B.'s daughter, and liked her very much.'

'She is here, too; lovely, tall and dark eyes [true]. She was with her mother on a certain island with 'Poleon. Yes, General B. says, during his exile his wife came and joined him. [But his wife and childred went with him.] The daughter likes Americans.'

'Her name?'

'I can't get it.'

'Her husband's name?'

'It is so queer, I can't pronounce it.'

[Thayer, pronounced by a French tongue, would no doubt sound queer to her.]

'His first name?'

'That's a queer name, too. I can't get it; but it begins with a big A.'

Now, I had Amedee on my tongues end, and was earnestly hoping she would pronounce the name. If she could read the first letter in my mind, why could she not read the whole name? And so as to the name 'Bertrand' which she has tried often to give me, but without success.

The next day, I called on Colonel Jerome Bonaparte (grandson of King Jerome through his American wife, Madame Patterson-Bonaparte), a graduate of West Point, afterwards commissioned a lieutenant in the French Army of Napoleon III., before the Crimean War, rising afterwards to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. I was hoping he had a copy of the Kensington picture. I found that he was familiar with the picture, but had no copy of it. He said the figures were known to be all portraits. From him I learned that an engraved copy was in possession of Mr. Gardiner Hubbard, a citizen of Washington, then at his country seat, four miles from the city.

The next day I found a volume giving 1775 as the year of General Bertrand's birth, which would make him forty years of age in 1815. But that was merely a volume of dates. His biography in 'Le Dictionnaire Universel' states that he was born in 1773, which would make him forty-two. So that he must have appeared to me as when he stood on the deck of the Bellerophon. But when I knew [4] [p. 197] him in Paris he was a man of sixty, and much spread out both in the face and figure, as was to be expected at that age. It is not strange therefore that I had failed to recognise him at the Ross seance.

On May 1st, on Mr. Hubbard's invitation, I visted him at his country seat, where he showed me his engraving of the Kensington picture. It is about three and a-half feet long by three feet wide. I did not permit myself to glance at the names of the figures on the margin below; but, looking through them in the picture from left to right, I instantly recognised the officer on the right as the one that had appeared to me at the Ross; seance — the same figure, the same military pose, the same close-fitting uniform and the single row of buttons. Then looking at the name given in the margin underneath, I found it to be 'General Bertrand'. A glance at the diagram I sent you* will show that the face is drawn on too minute a scale to permit any certain identification, but the general effect of it corresponds with my memory of the face of the materialised figure.

(To be continued.)

[5] [p. 211]

A series of remarkable Seances.

Messages from Napoleon III., several members of his family, and some of his Generals.

By General. F. J. Lippitt

(Continued from page 197.)

Seance with Mrs. Cowing of May 9th, 1893.

Swannie: 'That General B. is here, and his daughter.'

'Her name?'

'Hortense.'

'Present my kind regards to her, and ask her to remember me to her husband, his brother, and her father-in-law.'

'They are all here; and so is Josephine, with her daugther Hortnese.'

I hummed the hair of 'Partant pour la Syrie,' and asked her if Josephine's Hortense had ever heard it.

'She says Yes; that she composed it herself, and liked it next best to the Marseillaise. A Louisa is here.'

'What Lousa?'

'Louisa of Prussia. She says you were reading about her in some history last evening. [True.] She says, "I cared chiefly for my people."'

'Has she forgiven Napoleon?'

'Yes; and in proof of it, she and 'Poleon, and Josephine, and 'Poleon's son, who died when he was about twenty two, are often together.'

Seance with Mrs. Cowing, of May 17th, 1893.

Swannie: 'Hortense, General B.'s daughter is here, and her brother-in-law. [At my request she tried her best to give me his name, Edoard, which was, of course, on my tongue's end, but failed.] 'She came with Bessie.' [My first wife, who died in 1859.]

'Does he remember a kindness he did us once when we visited Paris together?'

'Yes; he made a scratchen, or kind of pass, that admitted you into a great building. Oh what a splendid sight! Great crowds of people! Many of the men in uniform, all the women in low neck dresses.'

In 1855 I arrived in Paris with my young wife from Brussels. All Paris was wild about the last ball to be given by the city of Paris to the Emperor and Empress at the Hotel de Ville. Fifteen thousand invitations had been issued, and it was officially announced that not another one would be granted to any person whomsoever. A Prussian Count, a military attache to the Prussian Embassy, told us that he had not been able to obtain one through his Ambassador. So that when a formal invitation, unasked for, came to each one of us it caused us no little surprise, and we were glad to avail ourselves of this intervention by an unknown powerful friend, who, I afterwards concluded, could be no other than Edouard Thayer. I had called on him immediately after our arrival, and he and his brother were both Senators and known to be personal friends of the Emperor. I had no time to see him again, for a day or two after the ball a letter announced the loss of all my property by the embezzelment of my agent in California, who obliged us to make a hurried departure from France.

Seance with Mrs. Cowing, May 26th, 1893.

Swannie: 'Who do you think is here?'

'I have no idea.'

'Why, a great man — Lafayette.'

'I am happy to greet him. Ask him what was the connecting link that brought him to me?'

'He says he heard Hortense speak of you'

This answer was unexpected, and at first, disappointing. Lafayette, during our War of Independence, was on terms of close intimacy with the family in RHode Island from which I am descended. One of the daughters, tradition says, was his particular favourite, and when in my youth I was his guest at La Grange his first inquiry was about 'Miss Polly.' then living at a very advanced age, and I suppossed that it was she that was the connecting link, and it was her image that was in my mind. It was not till after the seance that I remembered that Layafette had given me a long and kind letter of introduction to the Thayer family, and that Hortense's husband was then a lieutenant-colonel on his staff as commander-in-chief of the National Guard. And this is one instance in my experience, out of a very many, where mind reading was entirely out of the question.

Seance with Mrs. Cowing, June 8th, 1893.

Swannie: 'Poleon here with two generals.'

'What generals?'

'General B. and Beteral Mon—Monto—Monto— I can't pronounce it.'

'Montholon?'

'Yes, that's it. 'Poleon, shortest, then B., then Monto—Monto— by two inches. They say they are three veterans.'

As to the name Montholon, it is plain that Swannie had heard it from a French tongue; for that she somewhere had seen it printed or written she would have pronounced it a l'Anglais, Montho. It is important to state here that his name had never yet been mentioned, and that I did not recieve the diagram of the picture on which it appears till August 21st following. And it should be borne in mind that Monotholon not only accompanied Napoleon to St. Helena, but afterwards accompanied Louis Napoleon in his attempt at Boulonge in 1840, and was his fellow prisoner at the Chateau of Ham.

'Does Napoleon know that he has a nephew at Washington?'

'Yes; but he says that he is not his nephew, but his brother's boy's boy.'

[Colonel Bonaparte was the grandson of Napoleon's brother. He died in the August following this seance.]

Seance with Mrs. Cowing, June 12th, 1893.

At a previous seance Swannie had announced the presence, wholly unexpected by me, of Dr. Hahnemann. She gave his name rather imprefectly, but added that he said he was the father of homeopathy, Swannie seeming quite proud of having pronounced such a long word. The doctor identified himself to me as being the same 'Dr. Hahnemann' that had come to me before by reminding me many years ago — in 1852, in San Francisco — he 'had done me some good.' He had then given me a prescription which cured me permanently, and from the time of the first teaspoonful, of a malarial feverl of five and a-half year's standing, during all which time the dictors had been treating me unsuccessfully.

Swannie: 'Father of homeopathy here.'

'Dr. Hahnemann?'

'Yes.'

'Does he remember Dr. Wiedenhorn who studied under him?'

'Yes.'

'Ask him to tell Dr. Wiedenhorn that I want to ask his pardon if I wronged him.'

'He is here himself.'

'Do you remember feeling hurt at something I had said about you?'

'Yes.'

'I don't remember what it was; but do you forgive me?'

'Entirely; it was of no consequence.'

'Do you remember my introducing you to a family in Paris, where a lady named Hortense was living?'

'Yes; it was said to that family.' [6] [p. 212]

'True.'

'Did you treat any of that family?'

'Yes; her brother-in-law.'

'Anyone else?'

'Yes; herself. She was a great sufferer [pointing to the medium's stomach], I did her some good'

Swannie: 'That General B. is here, and General Monto-Monto——'

'Montholon?'

'Yes; they say there were 'Poleon's body guard. Was 'Poleon a Corsican?'

'Yes.'

'He and Wellington are good friends now. They admired each other [!] 'Poleon here now. He says this beautiful June day reminds him of Waterloo. Wellington was Irish [alughing] Corsicans beaten by an Irishman; Wellington knew of spirit return before he left. At a seance 'Poleon came to him.Louisa here too, and 'Poleon's son — good friends all — no anomosity [repeating this long word with self-satisfaction. Hortense here.'

'Which one?'

'Josephone's— says she was very unhappy in this life — had to marry one she didn't love; but happy now — no compulsion on spirit's side. 'Poleon's sister here — points to a marble bust covered with a veil. [She could not explain what this referred to.] 'Poleon's nephew gone away for health. [True.] 'Poleon say he has been wrongly treated; but that he could cure him "if he could get hold of him."'.

Seance with Mrs. Cowing, June 23rd 1893.

Swannie: 'Josephine's Hortense and the other one here. They tell me you are held in kind remembrance.' [But Queen Hortense I never met.]

Seance with Mrs. Cowing, June 24th, 1893.

Swannie: 'General B.'s Hortense here.'

'Does she know where I went last evening?'

'To a thearte?'

'No; a private house.'

'Oh a very big house. I see a great many pictures there.'

'Any one in particular?'

'Yes; one where her father is on a boat. He is one of several soldiers—I mean men in uniform; and 'Poleon on one side, very sad, his head bent down.'

It was a card reception at Mr. Hubbard's country seat. Swannie then, unasked, correctly described two of the persons I talked with, and the subject of my conversation with one of them. But was all this only Swannie's retrospective clairvoyance, supposing there to be such a thing?

Seances with Mrs. Cowing after my return from Onset.

Seance, October 16th, 1893.

Swannie: 'Jerome Bonaparte here. He passed away very lately. [True— in August previous]. He wishes he had known as much about Spiritialism as he does now. WIll come again.'

Seance, October 24th, 1893.

Swannie: 'Jerome Bonaparte here — says he is a Catholic; but, if where he is now is Purgatory then he is willing to stay there. [A pleasantry characteristic of the man.] Hortense here with her father and her mother and General Monto—. He is a good man. And 'Poleon here.'

Seance, November 6th, 1893.

I placed in the medium's hand a photograph — a duplciate of the one I sent you—of the French slate-writing of August 23rd, through Algeston, at Onset, and asked Swannie from whom the writing came. After pondering a moment she said:—

''Poleon the Great is here; he brings with him another Poleon. It was from the other 'Poloeon.'

Then I read over to her the writing in French, not saying not a word as to its purport.

'He says he recalled his last thoughts in view of his death. While you were reading, Madame Gradlin [This was as near as she could ever pronounce the name of Madame du Girardin, who had come to me at Onset through a non-professional meidum, and afterwards through Swannie — each time giving her name and otherwise identifying herself.] was standing by you, her hand resting on your shoulder. She says it was "inspiring"—that there are many Spiritualists in France, but no mediums; and she wants you to write an account of this to be published in France.'

Seance, November 20th, 1893.

I placed in the medium's hand the diagram I had recieved from the Kensington Gallery, simply asking Swannie to look at it. Glancing her eye apparently over it from left to right, she at once put her finger on the figure of General Bertrand,: —

'There are three here I know; for I have seen them before—General B., 'Poleon, and —- —, ' putting her finger on Montholon without naming him. Pointing to another of the figures, she said, 'That one is here too.' On examination I found the figure to be that of Savary.

This was rather curious. During the four years in all I spent in Europe I attended but two funerals (that counting that of my baby boy at Brussels), that of Lafayette in 1834, and that of Savary, Due de Rovigo, in 1833. At his grave I stood near Marshal Clauset.

'I knew a young lady to whom Prince Louis Napoleon was once engaged. Will Hortnese B. tell me whom she afterwards married?'

'She says it was her brother-in-law, who is ehre now. What a queer name he had!'

'His first or his last name?'

'His last name. [ Thayer — she must have heard its French pronounciation.] I can't pronounce it, but it has six letters in it.'

Seance, December 22nd, 1893.

'How do spirits communicate through you?'

Swannie: 'Generally, they talk to me. Sometimes theys pell words in the air. Sometimes the spirit can't come into the medy's atmopshere— as when there has been a sitter with a sensual mind, or when he is even a good person but the conditions are not good. Sometimes they have to tell me by signs or symbols. Your daughter has sometimes to talk to me in that way.'

'Do you sometimes make mistakes from not understanding the symbols?'

'Yes.'

Seance, December 27th, 1893.

Swannie: 'Mr. Lyman is here with Josephine.'

'Can she tell me the nature off the connection between Louis Napoleon and Hortense B.?'

After some groping, but wholly unadided by me, she said:

'Louis Napoleon's mother was her godmother.'

'Could they have been married?'

'No. The Church would forbit—- like brother and sister.'

Seance, January 2nd, 1894.

Swannie: 'Louis Napoleon is here. Says he would not have died but for improper treatment. He had undergone an operation that was successful, but the doctor insisted on his taking a certain medicine after it—and this killed him.' I have read this somewhere, but I was not thinking of it at the time.

Seance, June 14th, 1894.

Swannie: 'Colonel Jerome Bonaparte is here.'

'Where is his wife now?'

'Going abroad.' [7] [p. 213]

'To visit anyone?'

'Yes.'

'Whom?'

'Eugenie.' [True.]

Seances with Mrs. Wheeler Browne at Onset, Massachusetts.

Mrs. Browne is a trance medium, and a very estimable lady of unusual intellectual culture. The one of her controls that most usually speaks through her is 'Snow Drop,' another bright half-breed Indian girl.

Seance with Mrs. Browne, July 28th, 1894.

Snow Drop: 'An officer here in uniform —[Apropos of buttons. All our own general officers have two rows of buttons, which a confederate would no doubt have shown through Mrs. Ross, or a masquerader probably through Mrs. Browne] — seems to be French'

'How many rows of buttons?'

'I wish you to see him as he appered on the deck of the Bellerophon in 1815.'

'He seems about forty-five, very straight, and a fine figure. Not very tall, but taller than you — very high rank.'

'His expression?'

'Kindly, but firm — nose aqualline.'

Seance with Mrs. Browne, August 4th, 1894.

I put into the medium's hand a newspaper print of the Bellerophon picture, on which no name appeared, asking Snow Drop if there was anyone on it she had ever seen. She instantly pointed to the figure of General Bertrand.

Snow Drop: This is the one that came to you at the last seance — and I have seen two of the others' [pointing to Montholon and Savary].

In July 1894, the two Bangs Sisters, slate-writing mediums from Chicago,a rrived at Onset, where neither of them had ever before been. WIth Miss May Bangs I had many seances. I found her to be a perfectly honest and fruthful, but almost illiterate person. For instance, one of the messages that came to me through her was signed 'Lafayette'. She inquired who he was. She had heard the name, but knew nothing about him. She knew nothing of history, she said, and accounted for this by stating that she had been a public medium ever since she was five years old, and that consequently she had had very little schooling. She is a marvellous slate mediunm; and I never had more conclusive proofs of the reality of independent slate-writing or of spirit identity than those I recieved through her.

Seance at Onset with Miss May Bangs

August 24th, 1894.

Miss Bangs hands me two slates, which I carefully examine, and find to be perfectly clean on both sides. We hold them together over the table for two or three minutes more or less. I hear and feel writing going on between them, and presently three taps. I seperate the slates, and on one of them I find a message from my mother, who died in my infnacy, signed 'Caroline' her true name, which the medium could not have possibly known. On the other slate I find as follows:—

'Genius must only be great in death. My success is an immortal memory. — Richard Wagner.'

'My language so sweet, so expressive, so imaginative, clothes the mind with its beautiful ideality — unsubstansial, evanescent fancy, fleeting among the metaphysical theories of existence. I am your friend. — Hortense'

'The soul is immortal. — Manning C.'

All the above were in different handwritings. I ask the guide who was the Hortense the writing was signed by. Miss Bangs and I then hold the slates together as before a second or two, and on seperating them I find 'Queen of Holland.'

It is hardly necessary for me to add that to neither of the Bangs Sisters had I ever mentioned this name or alluded to any communications recieved through Mrs. Cowing or Mrs. Browne.

I will not mention another seance with Mrs. Browne, simply to show the reality of her mediumship, and at the same time offer a problem to those who explain that all that comes through trance mediums by thought-transference.

Seance with Mrs. Brown at Onset, August 28th 1894.

Snow Drop: 'There is one here named Tom.'

'His other name?'

'He gives me only "Tom". He says he doesn't remember your name, but has been seeing you about here and he now recollects seeing you thrown over a horse's head and injured at West Point many years ago; and that then he was a cadet in one of the lower classes.'

This incident really did occur at West Point in August, 1844. It was not only not in my mind, but had not been so for a long time before.

I will end by extracting from my notes an occurance at a seance at Onset on August 2nd, 1893. But to make it intelligble I must first enter into some particulars.

Mrs. Cowing remained in Washington during the whole summer of 1893. WIthout any fault of ther own, her life, for years past, had been a most unhappy one, owing to certain distressing maritial conditions which deprived her of the means of going to Onset, as she intende.d She had never been there but once, several years before, for two or three days only, and giving no sittings.

Let me here state that Onset is about 500 travelling miles from Washington.

Mrs. Gertrude Johnson (nee Berry), from Providence, RHode Island, was visiting her sister, Miss Helen Berry at Onset, and while there gave a few materialisation seances at her sister's house. The Berry Sisters have been known for many years as mediums of the highest order, and as ladies of refinement and culture. Their home had always been in Boston; and so far as I know or have reason to believe, they had never met Mrs. Cowing or had even heard of her or of her control.

Seance with Mrs. Johnson at Onset, August 2nd, 1893.

The cabinet w as on the east side of the seance room. Opposite, on the west side, was a door opening on verandah. From the verandah a door opened on a flight of steps that led into the garden at the rear of the house. My seat was on the north side of the seance room, a few feet from the west door, and about three yards from the cabinet. My friend, General X., was seated near the west door, diagnoally opposite men. IN the course of the seance he directed my attention to the floor a foot or two to my left from which was rising a form in white drapery. On its attaining its full height I asked:—

'Who is it?'

'Swannie.'

'How is your medy?'

'Better.'

She then ran into the cabinet, saying to me 'Sing!' I sang a line or two of 'What Fairy-like Music' when she rushed out of the cabinet, seized my hand, then General X.'s hand, and hurriedly led us through the west door, thent rhough the door leading down the steps into the garden, and finally halted us at some fifteen yards, more or less, from the steps. Her complexion was that of a half-breed. She seemed to be a girl of about seventeen. Her arms were bare, and her whole form was most gracefully moulted. For two or three miniutes, she spoke to us in her Indian-English about her 'medy'. Her speech was a torrent of indignation at the treatment her medy was undergoing. She spoke rapidly and with the eloquence of [8] [p. 214] deep emotion. (I omit details, as irrelevant to the present question.) She then rushed back with us to the house, and onre-entering the seance room retired into the cabinet.

Now, if after all, Swannie is only Mrs. Cowing's 'subliminal conciousness' it is evident that 'sublimiation conciousnesses' have solid bodies, that can travel, walk and talk.

Feburary 28th — I had written thus far when it occured to me to look into St. Helena literature, where might possibly be found particulars bearing on some portion of my narrative; and this is what I have found :—

1. As to Napoleon's opinion of Wellington—

In Sir Hudson Lowe's 'Napoleon at St. Helena' it is stated (p.171) that, after the Emperor's death, COunt Montholon expressed regret that a certain document could not be found, which he had long before written under Napoleon's direction,a dnw hich was a eulogium of Wellington.

2. As to General Savary —

Passages in 'Montholon's Memoirs' and in ' Las Cases' Journal,' and more particulaly in 'Le Dictionnaire Universel' (under 'Rodvigo, Due de'), all show that the two of his friends whim whom his ties were the closest were Generals Bertrand and Savary.

3. As to General Bertrand —

I extract the following from 'Captain Maiitland's Narrative,' at P. 225:—

'Count Bertrand was a man of about fourty-four years of age, five feet ten inches in height, of a slight make, and prepossessing appearance; his manners extremely placid and gentle, though evidently of a warm temper, and showed himself rather hasty in his conduct to Sir George Cockburn aout searching the baggage as Sir George was not acting upon his own authority, but by direction of his superiors, and was inclined to conduct himself with as much consideration as his orders would admit. He was an affectionate and attentive husband, and much attached to his children.'

March 1st — I had to go to Washington to-day., and was there informed by Mrs. Byron that she herself was one of the sitters at the Ross seance in 1892, at which the French officer appeared: but that her memory of it was quite imperfect. She promises to write to me allshe can remember about it. From her I leanred that Madame von Brandis, the German lady, has returned to Washington, and she promises to hunt her up. I asked her, if she found the lady, to request her to write to me all she could remember about the Ross seance of three years ago, 'in which a military man appeared who she recognised, and by what means she was able to recognise him,' not mentioning his name nor any other particulars.

I had never met Madame von Brandis after the seance.

March 7th — Within a day or two I recieved the corraborative letters I was expecting from General X., Madame von Brandis, and Mrs. Byron. I enclose them herewidth to be appened to this narrative.

General X. had never had a sitting with Mrs. Cowing and knew nothing about Swannie, except what he had heard from me from time to time. He is at present unwilling that his name should appear in print, but allows me to communicate it to you in cofidence.

It is not surprising that the statements of the two ladies should slightly vary from my own, cosndiering that they have only their respective memories to guide them; while my own, on the other hand, consists of notes made by me at the time.

Mrs. Johnson's seance of August 2nd, 1893, was a public one; and General X. is the only one of the sitters whose name I can now recall.

Francis J. Lippitt.

U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.A.