The evening world., 1891-08-05
LIVES TWO DISTINCT LIVES.
Now She Is Mary Vemum Then
Mary Koff,
a Dead Girl Periodically Takes Pos
session of Her Body.

Lovers Of the wonderful have reioiced
to- find a real flesh aud blood heroine,
whose mental phenomena have proved
al soluicty unfathomuble, says n Bcloit
kun.) correspondent of the st. Louis
Gip',- PrUocyaj.
Nearly all her life has been spent in a
prairie cabin home, and her parents are
common everyday people of the middle
clnes.
Mr. and Mrs Vcnnum, the parents of
the girl, Mary Nennum, the subject of this
sketch, Hre utterly nj loss to eXplai n the
marvellous actions of their daughter. In
her little more than fourteen years she has
eNistences. neither related in the least to
the other.
Living near the Neunums. when Mary
was about thirteen years of age. was a
family named KolT. Mary was subject to
catalertic fits. and after coming out of
one of them she became TO all intcnts aud
purposes NIury Kor. Ter pnst life WINS
entirely forgotten. and she talked, acted.
and IN every way demt aued herself as an
other person.
The Mary Kof whom she became and
remained for over n year, had died tas
vas afterwards loarned) nearly seven
wears before, Mt about the Nennum
girls age.
Vet where her life had been broken by
death Mary Nennum took ii uu and con
tlnucd Its interrupted duties, Her parents
| first noticed it when, after the fit. she
began tO tllk of things i'll the kDH resi-
dence, which neither they nor herself, 80
fnrns they knew. had ever entered.
Fay inter day she pleaded to he taken
home, and finally, as II lust experiment.
they. to satisfy her took her to the Kofi
hone. The Kons had recorniZed in her
I foCNuros slight resemblance to their
dead child, but they were thunderstruck k
when She. upon stepping inside the door,
at once treated all he members of the
houschnld as old acQunintauces.
SHE understood jhcir peculiariies ns If
she Ind been reared there. and remained
vi h her uew-iuumd parents perfect Y
/ content. recognizing he furniture. PIE
lures and various parts OF the house us If
she bad always been familiar with them.
She went nj once To the bureau in which
the dend Girl had kept her BELONGINGS
ana immediate Y recognH every object
and called II her own.
/ They say. too, that the awakening was
not less remarkable. One dav she failed
t. wake III the morning. One day passed,
the night, and half the following day, and
sun she slept.
| Along in the afternoon she give n shiver
/ and a cry of pain, and sat up in bed wide
awake, staring about her. She could rec
Ognize nothing and would not speak to
the KotIs,
She begged for her mother, and upon
being taken home was her old self again.
/ knowing nothing of her twelve months
experience. counting it all as a dreamless
sleep. Yet during the time she was as
lignt-hearted and natural as any girl OF
her age.
! Hrrsory got abroad and many students
Of rsvChicnl wonders called upon her &c
zee the range child. Among others.
DIR. Hodgson, who Is Secretary of the
English ] svchical Society, had his atten.
ton called 10 the girl.
lie Went step by step over Mary Ven.
nuns whole life, verifying every incident
a. given above and securing much addi
tIonal information bearing upon her re-
/ markable double life.
The occultists make much of the ex
perience, and claim that they can see il
II a case of transference of thought.