Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-02-26

I Clues.
where are the family now?'' ]
| asked, as since the Radcliffes had left
| San Francisco. some six months before,
they had, as knew, been travelling in
Europe, though l was unaeguainted
with their present location.
THAT is what l do not know" re-
| piled Ashley, in tremulous tones.
They were in New York two weeks
| ago, and since then 1 have had no letter
from Julia, though hitherto she had
| never missed week without writing. "
Julia Radcliffe, the affianced bride of
Gerald Ashley, was a charming, SYM
pathetic and impressionable girl of
nineteen summers, the only daughter
| of one of San Francisco's representa-
tive business men, who had been travel
ing with his family, and was now on
his return home. Knowing the extent
| of my friends affection for the lady, /
felt sincere sympathy for him in his
present condition.
Presently an idea struck me. Why
should not my friend make use of the
mode of communication he had just
| been explaining to me, and thus obtain
the information he stood so sadly in
need of? If it really possessed the vir-
tue he expressed such confidence in,
surely the present was the time to prove
it, and | Immediately made the sugges-
ton.
The very thing / had in my mind, :"
he returned, in answer to my observa-
ton, when | asked you to accompany
me this evening. Prof. Vehr is no or
binary scientist, / assure you. Some
of the phenomena he produces are of
the most extraordinary and startling
character"
PROF. Vehr.'' I exclaimed, in sur
prise. '.Do you mean Prof. Vehr. of
the Palace Hotel? l have already wit
messed some of his remarkable expert
ments,' recalling an episode in which
a magic mirror had figured, some few
months before. Il will willingly ac-
company YOU"
Two hours later found US in the
professors apartments in the Palace
Hotel. where we were cordially well
coined.
You have repeated your VISIT he
said, with view to further investi-
gate the occult. Good. l shall be
happy to obi ge you-the more so as l
have myself been pursuing the investi-
cations, and have arrived at even more
subtitle calculations of the energies con-
served in the fluid we call electricity
than those which you witnessed in the
case of the mirror. There this phe-
nomenon was continedsto the reproduce
ton of optical effects, with a certain
reaction on the substantial forms of
which the figure on the mirror were
the simuldcra. Now / am able to ex-
ert an actual physical control over the
voices as well as the minds of distant
persons themselves, so as, if necessary,
to even transport them from place to
place"
was struck with the last observation
of the professor, and with the resem-
blance of its claim to that of the adopts
of the Oriental Theosophy, and so init
mated.
lit is quite true he said. ssthat this
formulation of the energy have just
limited at is, in effect, the same as that
controlled by the Theosophists. 1t
may be, also, that. in one sense, they
have arrived at that more complete
mastery over nature where the mere
effort of mind and will is able to pro-
duce effects which l can only obtain in
natural corollaries of laws which the
world at large possesses. Still. even
granting that such is the case, my
mode of procedure for obtaining my
results does not entail those penalties for
their abuse to which explorers into the
realms of the occult under purely ply
steal conditions are exposed. There
are, however, penalties equally terri
bic for failure to observe the substan-
tial conditions of scientific law-penal-
ties which threaten absolute annihila-
ton of individual identity, so far as the
material person or ego can be annihi-
lated -and SO saying, the professor
turned toward the alcove which had
been the scene of the experiment with
the mirror.
1t can readily be conceived that,
while impressed with the deliberate
enunciation and careful phraseology of
the professor, / was somewhat at loss
to trace their application to a pheno-
menon which [ had not yet witnessed,
strongly tincturei as they were with
that transcendental flavor which, while
it whets the curiosity, tends rather to
obscure than elucidate the subject on
which it treats. / was not, therefore,
sorry when / saw that our host was
busying himself with the arrangement
of some apparatus in the alcOve. to
which Ashley and myself now directed
our attention, and waited.
The object which particularly arrest
ed our attention was an immense glass
bell, of something the shape and size of
a diving-bell, which occupied the center
of the alcove. This bell rested, in an
inverted position, upon solid slab of
plate-glass, touching its edges upon
every side 1t reminded one, shall l
say, of the receiver of gigantic air.
pump more than anything else. The
capacity of this immense bell was, evil
IDENTIFY, many hundred gallons, being,
as nearly as l can judge, some five feet
high by as many in diameter. Another
popularity which l noted was that it
was coated, to a height of about two
feet from its base, with some shining
opaque metallic substance; and as a
metal rod depended from its apex about
the same distance into its interior, while
its upper end projected about a foot
above the bell, l had no difficulty in
connecting the apparatus before me
with some branch of electricity, as the
whole bore marked resemblance to-
the known characteristics of a Leyden
jar-that reservoir of static electricity
whose scientific qualities are too well |
SHOWN W require iurlner description. |
One other feature was deserving of no.
namely, that through one side of |
the bell projected the ends of what |
looked like ordinary telegraphic wires, |
in those metal handles |
with which all who have experimental /
with the induction coil shock battery |
are familiar.
The professor walked leisurely round |
hah InS ha ma FOL in I