Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-01-21
AN INTELLECTUALLULU HURST.
With q Wonderful Power over Brutei
and Talking All Languages at VIM.

With q Wonderful Power over Brutes
and Talking All Languages at WIN.
few people met at private house in
Park avenue Saturday night, says the
New York Times, and gazed with wonder
at an intellectual Lulu Hurst. The host inv
troduced to them a young woman appa-
rently about 30 years old, with fresh,
rosy complexion, brown hair and eyes,
and rather difiident manners. He said
that she was an intimate friend of his,
Mrs. OIL Of Plainfield, n. j. For nearly
three years, he explained, this lady had
been controlled by some marvellous and
powerful influence, which gave her a
ready command of the most difficult
foreign languages, modern and dead,
without any study. She could not choose
the language she would speak at will;
sometimes she would rattle off a lot OF
Spanish, sometimes talk French for an
hour without stopping for breath, amp
again reel off Greek, Hebrew, or even
Arabic at pace that the most accom-
plished scholar found difficulty in follow
ing.
The most extraordinary thing about it
the host said in conclusion, was that Mrs.
Obi had never in her life studied any for
eign language, nor did she ever speak
word in any other tongue but English un=
til this strange spell came upon her.
Mrs. Oh's natural ditfidence deepened
to almost schoolgirl bashfulness as she
rose before her new and critical acquaint-
ance and stood upon a large wOlf-skin
rug. Without any delay, she smiled
pleasantly upon all, rolled her brown eyes
toward the ceiling, and Immediately be-
gan harangue with an imaginary street
crowd in a language that no one present
could even guess at. She talked as though
thoroughly in earnest. Next she wander
ed off into pathetic lullaby, which
gentleman present declared to be Span
Ish love song. After another mOnolOgue
in an unknown language, Mrs. Oil sang
a tenor solo and alternately carried on
bassO and a soprano sOng-dialogue, doing
all with apparent ease.
Then she rested a few minutes, and,
taking pencil and paper in her hands,
rolled her eyes skyward again. In an in
credibly short space of time she had filled
a fOOlscap page with curious locking char
acters that neither she nor anybody else
in the room could read. 1t looked like
jumbled mixture of photography, Chi
nese and Arabic, yet certain letters and
sign characters were very distinct.
Mrs. Oil said that the "spell," as she
called it, though calling for considerable
physical eXeTtiOn, seemed to refresh her.
She lived at Plainfeld with her mother
(who was in the room at the time and
her husband, who was in the employ of
Pierre Lorillard. She began to have spells
about three years ago, and had gradually
got so that she could command them at
will. She had written in Hebrew, and
on one occasion she put down
lot of Geographic characters
which the village operator read
at a glance, and which proved to be
some long desired information about a
VI, ,,.g,r che, l.. 4 Il
| Shakespeare's Julius Cesar she once
accurately recited nearly the whole of it
to her mother. Both she and her husband
were sensitive about the matter, and
would only exhibit the strange powers to
a few acquaintance, A Portuguese lady,
who was among them, would not believe,
so Mrs. Oil said, that she had not ac-
quired the Portuguese accent in Portu-
gal. She received like encOmiums from
gentlemen familiar with the languages
for her French, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew,
Greek and Arabic accent.
Mrs, Oil said, in response to a question,
that it made no difference to her whether
she sang soprano, baritone or tenor. The
only peculiar sensations connected with
the whole affair were around her throat
and chest. Her mind was clear all the
time. she said, and she saw all the people
about her. but her attention was wholly
occupied with the strange characters in
fantastic CARDS who came before her
ewes. and who seemed to speak through
her Another peculiar feature OF the
strange influence under which Mrs. Oil
did ali these ridiculous things, her mother
said, was her wonderful influence over
dumb animals. She would ride fearlessly
an untamed colt and successfully cap
ture an angry bull, which had chased
scared man across a ten-acre lot. She
was afraid of nothing but spiders. Rats
and mice were her pets. Mrs. OIL offered
the guests no explanation OF her phe-
nomenal powers.