The Missing Link In Modern Spiritualism Part 45

Referring back (see page 75) to my great-grandmother's visions of phantom funerals (sometimes more than a year in advance of their actual occurrence), I desire to add that such _pre-visioned_ funerals were not of persons whose age and state of health might have suggested such antic.i.p.ation, but that they were of persons of all ages, and on two occasions the deaths were by accident, namely, by drowning and by a fall from a house.

In the case of Mr. Urie (page 82), the runaway that caused his death was not that of a single horse, but of a high-spirited span of horses.

The mistake was an accidental one made by a copyist.

I may add, generally, in regard to many of the strange occurrences related in this volume, there are witnesses still living who can attest the correctness of my statements.

JAMES A. GARFIELD.

One of the most pleasant of my reminiscences of our Ohio campaign, about three and thirty years ago, is my intercourse with the great and good man whose honored name heads this paragraph. He was a frequent visitor to my seances, to which he used to bring also members of his family and friends. He combined, with his eminent intelligence, culture and love of the truth, great geniality of temperament and manners. He was a convinced and warm Spiritualist, and his autograph name is a frequent one in my register.

Not a few also of the representatives of foreign countries visited us at Was.h.i.+ngton and New York, and were surprised to receive communications in their several languages.

To the above array of the Author's "Miscellaneous Incidents" I will add one of recent occurrence, for the sake of the evidence which it involves of two points, namely,

First, of the reality of Mrs. Underhill's still continued mediums.h.i.+p;

And secondly, of the interest really taken by her controlling Spirits in this work of hers.

In the course of our united labors over it, extending through a period exceeding four months, there have arisen a number of occasions on which we have differed over various points of expediency in regard to the arrangement and treatment, the insertion or suppression, of her voluminous materials or notes, and have discussed them freely, with some tenacity of opinion on both sides, while with reasonable candor and openness to conviction, certainly on her side. She has generally maintained that her Spirits had "impressed" and directed her so and so (the chief of them seeming to be Dr. Franklin and her grandfather), and a Spirit claiming to be Dr. Franklin has sometimes intervened in these discussions, either voluntarily or on being appealed to by us. I will describe one of these occasions, to afford the reader the opportunity of judging for himself of the genuineness of this Spirit intervention in these friendly discussions between two mortals still in the flesh, both of them actuated by an equal sincerity of zeal for the truth and for the good of humanity.

We were sitting in her library, on the opposite sides of a library table. The only other person present was a most highly estimable friend of hers, lending her his friendly aid in copying, who was seated some seven or eight feet off. Both of her hands were on the table. My knee was suddenly grasped by a strong, firm hand, evidently to call my attention. "Is this you, dear Dr. Franklin?" I asked. "Yes," was the reply given by three pressures of the hand which held my knee strongly between its thumb and fingers. I did not doubt the Spirit to be what he claimed to be, and I asked his opinion on the point in question. He usually addressed me as "my son" or "my dear son." He did not habitually seem to impose his will, but rather to give his opinion, which I must say was generally on the lady's side, and to which I generally conformed, even when saying that I still thought differently.

Presently I felt my knee again grasped in the same way, but this time by what was evidently a smaller and a female hand. It proved to be that of my "sister Mary," of whose existence Mrs. Underhill knew nothing. Her object was to tell me to write to another sister, Adelaide (still in the flesh, and at some three thousand miles of distance) because, as she said, the latter was "distressed and suffering" on account of my recent silence (for which there had been special reasons causing procrastination). Of these private family names and matters, Mrs. U. had no means of knowing anything. Her hands, I repeat, were on the table, and there was no human agency through which, in either of the two instances, the grasping of my knee could have been caused. The knowledge of my private family matters goes far to prove that in the one case it must have been really done by my sister (a Spirit), and this identification of her in the one case goes far to confirm that of the other as Dr. Franklin, both having in the same way declared who they were.--ED.

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

ACTION OF SPIRITS THROUGH THE MEDIUMs.h.i.+P OF A FIVE-MONTH'S-OLD INFANT.

VARIOUS MANIFESTATIONS AROUND THE BABY--WRITING IN GREEK THROUGH HIS HAND.

In the preceding Chapter VI., I have mentioned some marvels about the infant mediums.h.i.+p of my little nephew, the elder of Cathie's two boys, Ferdinand Diedrich Loewenstein Jencken. Since the writing of that chapter and its consignment to unchangeable type, I have come across a copy of a newspaper which had got mislaid and was supposed lost, the London _Medium and Daybreak_, of May 8, 1874. The possibility of such things as were mentioned on my pages 89 to 95 having been done through the dear little fingers of a babe in arms, must have been hard to many readers to believe or to realize; though it ought not to be so difficult to those who pause to reflect that it was not those five-months-old fingers that thus acted, but the force and the will of Spirit powers controlling and guiding them. For the double purpose of supporting what I have written and of carrying still farther the marvellousness of this perfectly attested case, I now quote from page 290 of the _Medium and Daybreak_ the following article, which, on its face, bears the direct testimony of Mr. Jencken himself and of J. Wason, Esq., a respectable English solicitor. Of Mr. Jencken's unimpeachable authority enough has been said on page 90.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Katie Fox Jencken._]

_From the London Medium and Daybreak, May 8, 1874, p. 290:_

MEDIUMs.h.i.+P OF A BABY.

"A brief account, for which we are indebted to Mrs. and Mr. Jencken, of the progress of their infant boy, may not be uninteresting to the Spiritualistic public. We hence render it, _ipsissima verba_, as received by us.

"The baby medium, whose writing we have had engraved, was born on September 19, 1873. Of a sensitive and delicate organization, great difficulty was felt in preventing the life-cord snapping during the first few weeks of his existence. Care and a good nurse, however, saved the little fellow, who is now a healthy, blue-eyed baby, with a singularly well-formed head and large forehead.

"Six weeks after his advent, the wet nurse complained of constant noises, resembling gentle knocks or taps. These were at first ascribed to rats or mice; finally, the truth could not be resisted, and the gentle rappings on the doors of the wardrobe, on the iron head-rail of the bedstead, were admitted to be by unseen beings. On the 16th of November last, Mr. Jencken, desirous of testing the fact of the medial powers of his boy, obtained distinct raps and messages, holding his little boy near to a small round pedestal table. Soon afterward the alarmed nurse related how luminous hands had been seen by her making pa.s.ses over the baby; the rappings increasing in intensity; shadowy forms had likewise been seen moving from the hearth to the bed. A whistling sound then attracted attention; whispered words and other mysterious manifestations were observed. On one occasion, during the absence of Mrs. Jencken, a Spirit-form opened the door of the nursery, entered, and left the room all but immediately, quietly gazing at the little boy with luminous eyes.

"During the month of December, small articles were frequently taken from the nurse; on one occasion a shadowy form appeared bending over the bed on which the nurse and baby were lying. Terribly frightened, the nurse grasped the child to leave the room; soft echoes, however, warned her not to fear. On December 16th, shortly after Mrs. Jencken arrived at Brighton, the little fellow uttered his first spoken words--'Ma-ma, darling ma-ma'--much to the alarm of the nurse. On February 2d, the little fellow was carried by a Spirit-form from the nursery, on the same landing, to the door of the drawing-room, where Mrs. Jencken, who had been impressed to go to the door, received him into her arms.[24] A half-suppressed cry of anguish from her informed Mr. J. Wason and Mr.

Jencken what had happened. On entering the bed-room the nurse was found asleep on the bed. During the whole of this time the rappings continued.

On one occasion a halo of light was observed to surround the baby's head, finally enveloping his whole form. On other occasions clear luminous rays of light were noticed to stream from the eyes of the baby.

On March 6th, he wrote for the first time. This was done in the presence of Mr. Wason, whose account is now published. A few days subsequently, two sentences were written by the baby medium, under the following circ.u.mstances: Mr. and Mrs. Jencken were seated at the dinner-table, the nurse with the baby occupying an armchair some eight or ten feet off.

Suddenly a pencil was seen between the fingers of his hand. 'Ah, he is going to write,' exclaimed Mrs. Jencken, and placed a sheet of paper on the nurse's knee; his little tiny hand then moved rapidly, and wrote the words:

"'I love this little boy, G.o.d bless his Mamma. J. B. T.

"'I am happy.'

Shortly afterward the pencil was again placed in his hand by an invisible agency, a sheet of paper fluttered through the room and settled on the nurse's knee; the little fellow then wrote:

"'I love my Grandmamma,'

signing the paper with a mark the late Dr. Jencken used to employ when on earth. The paper and pencil were then jerked into the middle of the room. Since then, owing to Mr. Jencken's strong objection to any tests being applied, no further writings have been obtained. The rappings, however, continue, so also that strange luminosity of the eyes, so intense at times as to alarm his mother and nurse. Numerous letters have been received by Mr. Jencken from different parts of England, Holland, Russia, and other places, asking him to test this marvellous power of his little boy, who, not six months old, has written messages; but to all these applications the answer has been a polite refusal, the medical gentleman attendant having warned the parents against any trial of strength of this singularly gifted child.

[24] See Medium 206, page 167.

"In conclusion we may repeat the prophecy respecting this boy, which prediction was spelt out at the house of Mr. H. P. Townsend, New York, some five years ago, the message received then being to this effect: that Kate Fox would go to Europe, marry, give birth to a child, whose medial powers would be unexcelled; so great indeed would they be, that compared to her child the mother would be a mere cipher. Jocosely, for years afterward, Kate Fox was called the cipher in the house of Mr.

Townsend. Thus far this prediction has been verified. If this little fellow be allowed by Providence to attain to years of maturity, he may perhaps verify all that the Spiritual beings, who foretold his birth within ten hours of its occurrence, have foreshadowed.

"Dear Mr. Burns:--The sentence signed 'Susan,' photographed [and now reproduced in our engraving.--ED. M.], was written through the hand of the infant boy, aged five months and fifteen days, of Mr. and Mrs.

Jencken, on March 6th last, at No. 5 Lansdowne Terrace East, Brighton, by invisible agency, in my presence and that of Mrs. Jencken and her nurse, the pencil having been placed in the baby's right hand by invisible agency, when I caused a memorandum of the fact to be written at once as a record, and afterward had the writing by the baby's hand and the memorandum with the signatures of the witnesses photographed, and I send you a copy of the whole, which you are at liberty to publish in the _Medium_, together with this letter, if you think fit. The circ.u.mstances under which the photographed doc.u.ment was written are as follows:

"Mr. and Mrs. Jencken and the child were taken from London to Brighton for the benefit of Mrs. Jencken's and the baby's health, and they had been, on March 6th before mentioned, at Brighton over three months; and I was at this time their guest, or rather sharing their lodgings with them. Mrs. Jencken's and the baby's health improved, but Mr. Jencken became seriously ill at Brighton; violent nervous headaches with neuralgia and a general derangement of the stomach and digestive organs.

I told him I thought his travelling from his chambers in the Temple to the lodgings in Brighton--105 miles daily, which, by calculation, showed he had travelled over 8,000 miles while at Brighton within four months--was the probable cause of his illness; but he took a different view, and consulted his friend, a German physician of note, who agreed with him that these rapid journeys daily were not the cause of his ill-health. I contended that a German M.D., however able, had no experience as to the effect on health of daily long journeys by cab, omnibus, and railway, but I could make no change in Mr. Jencken's view.

On the day in question, viz., March 6th last, baby's nurse was holding baby on her lap in the parlor, by the fire, about 1.30 P.M. I was writing at a table near. Mrs. Jencken was in a room adjoining and opening into the parlor, the door between being half open. Suddenly the nurse exclaimed, 'Baby has a pencil in his hand!' She did not say that the pencil had been put into the baby's hand by invisible agency, and I having had experience of babies clutching my finger pretty tightly, took no notice, but continued my writing. Nurse almost immediately after exclaimed, 'Baby is writing!' in a still more excited voice, which drew Mrs. Jencken's attention, and she rushed into the parlor to the nurse and baby, and this roused me, when I got up and walked to the nurse, and looking over Mrs. Jencken's shoulder, I saw the pencil in the child's hand and the paper under it with the writing as photographed.

"I may add that 'Susan' was the name of my departed wife, who was remarkably fond of children, and her Spirit (as is believed) had on several occasions previously manifested itself by writing and by raps through Mrs. Jencken, who, before her marriage, as most of your readers are aware, was the celebrated American medium, through whose family at Rochester, U. S., the truths of Spiritualism (now so stupendous) were first manifested.

"The value will now be seen of the advice given by 'Susan' to Mr.

Jencken, 'to go back to London,' which Mr. Jencken did, and almost immediately recovered his usual health and strength, which are those of a strong, healthy man.

"Hoping your readers may take the same interest in this anecdote that you do, and that it may conduce to increase the interest felt in Spiritualism, believe me, sincerely yours,

"J. WASON, _Solicitor_.

"Wason Buildings, Liverpool."

SPIRIT WRITING.

"_Photograph of a Sentence written in Greek characters by Direct Spirit-Agency, without the Intervention of a Human Hand, at H. D.

Jencken, Esq.'s, Rooms in Brighton, February 28, 1874._

"Paper (marked by a sceptic with his initials) and a pencil were placed on the table, all the circle (one sceptic and five Spiritualists) joining hands; lights extinguished, a scratching noise, as of a pencil writing on paper, was heard. On the candles being relighted, the sentence, as photographed below from the original writing, was found written on the initialed paper. Time occupied, about five minutes.