The Republican journal., 1885-03-05
Scientists Beginning to Study the Supernat-
FEW NEW GHOST STORIES WHICH ARE
AMPLY VOUCHED FOR.

Every week witnesses the birth of some
new society in or around this modern
Athens ever agog for some new thing.
One of the positively latest additions to
the long roll Of voluntary organizations
is the Society for psychical research
just started at Cambridge, an association
which comprises in it's membership learn
ed college dons, curious and cultured
citizens, both of Cambridge and Boston,
and other students of uneXplainable phe-
nomena. The new society is modelled
closely on that of the same name which
has its headquarters in London, and
which prints quarterly journal full of
strange ghost stories and weird occur
rences. Happy now will be the man or
woman vino has mad dealings with the
inhabitants of the debatable land, that
dark continent of spirits of which we
know 50 very little. The new society
will print an abstract of the matter, and
it will be debated by the learned pundits
of the university. The proceedings" Of
the society will afford material for filing
odd corners of the papers with kind of
matter that is always interesting, for
whose blood has not grown cold and
whose hair has not exhibited perpen-
dicular inclination at strange things seen
or heard Men who haven't the pa
tlence to study queer bugs may be inter
ested in ghosts impaled on the point of
pen, and kept there awaiting jury of
inquest. | have no doubt that the So
clety for psychical research will have its
hands full, for as far as material goes
there is an embarrassment of riches.
Our old New England towns have plenty
of legends Of uncanny happenings and
could show the managers Of the new so
clety little coast town in Maine where
ghost stories are as common as the white
pebbles on its beaches. Just, for spec
linen, take this one Somewhere back in
the "si&ties"-I think, Just after the VAL
the family OF sea captain, absent on a
long cruise, lived in the town | speak OF.
This family comprised a wife and sever
al daughters. | would give names and
/ places, were it not for making public
what was given me in contdence.) Well,
| one night, when the family had gone to
bed, one of the daughters named Carrie,
had a very impressive dream she start
! ed in her sleep, and finally arose from her
bed, her eyes open but fixed; her whole
manner that of a person who sees some
dreadful vision. She moved from cham
| Der to chamber arousing the different
members of the family, and led them to
the sitting room. A lamp was lighted,
and the lutte gathering, clad in night
| dresses and shaWls, wonderingly obeyed
the directions of the dreamer. She call
ed for sheet of paper. and pen and ink.
No writing paper could be found in the
house, but at last a piece of grocer's
wrapping paper was brought, and the
somnambulist appeared satisfied. TAX
ing the pen, she began writing in a large,
masculine hand There was profound
silence in the little group, and feeling
of terror and dread settled upon mother
and daughters None dared look over
the shoulder of the writer, who at last,
finishing, gave sigh of relief and went
directly upstairs to her chamber. The
mother, no longer able to restrain her
curiosity, yet fearing something dreadful,
took up the brown sheet and began to
read, ''Chlldren," she exclaimed, sit is
your fathers handwriting 1t was dat
ed at sea, the longitude and latitude be-
ing given. In terse language it described
the coming up of hurricane, the horrors
Of the tempest, and final losing of every
hope, and the sinking of the craft in the
angry waters with all on board. After a
brief but pathetic message to his family
the drowned captain signed his name in
characteristic fashion.
This was the manner in which Captain
P--s, OF the little town in Maine, sent
word to his wife and daughters at home
ot the manner of his taking off. Was
there ever anything more dramatic This
is the first time that this story, known to
fully thousand people, mas ever been
put in print. 1t was given me several
years ago by an intimate friend of the
family. Did that ship go down No one
knoWs-all that is certain is that she
never came into any earthly port This
story would give the society for psychi-
cal research month Of solid work. The
splrtuallsts will see nothing wonderful
In it, Perhaps it is only one of the com
monplaces of the supernatural
\ gentleman of veracity told me that
for three nights he dreamed that man
with full, red face appeared to him in
his dreams, carrying a hammer which he
held over his head in a menacng man
her. On the morning after the last dream
the gentleman went to his place of bust
ness as usual on his way he passed a
shop. The door was open and there
stood, with hammer uplitted, the man
seen in the dream. The two men stop
ped and looked at each other and said
nothing A queer coincidence.
Massachusetts State senator, man
of ultra skeptical views, went a while
ago to visit noted spiritualist who has
puzzled the ear in his winter palace. The
senator was asked to seat himself in a
large and very heavy armchair. While
there seated he was lifted up by force
unknown to him SO that his head nearly
touched the ceiling. He was not cured
OF his skepticism, bat he fully believes
that he was not the victim of delusion.
Every family has its legend every hui
man being Of adult age has seen some
thing not easily to be explained. The
proceedings of the new society will have
an interested audience to listen to its re-
ports.
Our scientific men here do not thrust
these topics contemptuously aside as
they once did. The attitude of the
Savants is no longer one Of hostility
toward the supernatural. They want to
take an excursion into its shadowy realms
and annex them to positive science
"Nothlng is outside Of nature" said a
wise man. The "fath" cures which are
perpexing New England just now merit
the attention of the new society. Right
about us people are being cured almost
daily OF battling maladies by the faith
scientists. The doctors affect to see
nothing in all this but few manifesto
tons OF popular credulity. But what
are you going to do with people who find
Wlthered arms growing plump and strong
again, with women who from being I'M
able to walk a step now go round brisk
ly trying to find still suffering people to
cureg | know personally of a lady who
has for several years been the victim of
spinal disease, pronounced to be incur
able She had to crawl about her
chamber on her hands and knees She
was told of the faith cure, ridicued it,
and finally allowed curer to come to
her house, with the result that perfect
and marvellously speedy cure was effect
ed. Perhaps it is a new form of the old
| maOnptio If