The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-04-16
COMPOSITION OF SPIRITS
An Interesting Dissertation on the
Essence Of Ghosts and
Spooks.
OF What Consists Their Person
atty and On What Do
They Bubsist
Means OF Locomotion Employed by These
observation-disclosures by tho
New York Sun.

Means OF employed oy Ineso
observation-disclosures by the
New York Sun.
-
The INV lying at full length IN \
lounge in his studio, contemplating the toe
Of his right slipper, which just then seemed
to have for him such a fascination a. = ball
OF crystal has for almost any dreamy per-
son when il is long and steadily looked
into.
''Thsre are sensitive people," said the
man, who can gaze into empty space and
sac there forms and apparitions which prob
ably have no objective existence whatever.
In saying that they probably have no OBJ
jsotivs existence l do not mean that they
do not really exist, but only that, with
equal opportunities and looking in the
same direction. two persons never see the
same apparition.''
"Is visibility to two or more persons the
proof Of the obieotivity Of . material
thing"
"Let, ~ d%iatinguish,'' said the man.
""Some material things are by their very
nature invisible, and all things are invisible
in the dark. Besides this, it il . fact that
some things-suoh for example as the stars
and the Northern lights-can be seen only
in the dark. The great majority of ghosts
come under this category. although there
are others thas are visible by. day. II
wsro I member Of any Of the various phys
ical RESEARCH societies I should sugRest, AZ a
prime necessity Of scientific research into
the nature Of ghosts, that they should be
classified ct first under two general heads.
First, those that come BY day. and second,
those that rome BY night. This would do
for q beginning. afterward other divisions
would be in order, and Investigation shosld
be entered upon to discover whether or not
some species are am%phibious, and come by
day IS we'll ~ by night. Some. and possi-
bly, . very large GLASS. would be found to be
vsspertine in their habits, coming out and
bly,. of the stuf. whatever it may be, which
affords them suitable s%ustsnance. "
Are you not very materialistic in YOU
Tendencies? II apparitionG have NO OBJ
~jsctive reality, what need have they of
food?'
Your question is natural enough" said
the man. but it displays q singular lack
Of sagaoity on your part. What reason is
there for believing that subjective ami
mated s~xistonces do not require food?
Even the larvae of ghosts need sustenta-
tion. Man needs TO eat, and what is man
but the larva of . ghost? He remains in
the larva state some sixty or seventy years.
and then, with the assistance of his asso-
ciates, ID inolosed in Z cocoon and becomes
a pupa, after which he becomes an image,
a true ghost, and occasionally comes as an
apparition to sensitive people. The ancient
truer knowledge of this fact than No mod
ems have. AS they were in ad-
vance of ~ in most things. so
they were in this. They made
mummies Of tho ghost larvae in anticipa-
tion Of coming events. Psyohical persons
incarceration in place Of burial, but it
should be sufficiently evident that inciner-
Rtion, by utterly disintegrating the larva of
a ghost. prevents the final emerRence of
the image, which the Egyptians sailed the
ska.' You may remember that the Latins
called a specter a larva, but then the an
cisnt Romans were not SO scientific as the
Egyptians, or a. VIC moderns. Scientific
ally speaking a specter is an image and not
q larva."
"Norphologioally," said the man, ''appa-
ritions must thus be classed. The far-see-
ing vision of the poets has often observed
them with wings, which, however, in most
modern instances have apparently been
atrephied through the abominable habit of
WVAAkAR OkObAC6s 1No0CA RuO2vo dI0 uO"
never seen at Undertaking. seances, and at
present not one ghost out of a Thousand
diseloses wings. In the ghost stories COL
lsotsd Of late by Mr.. Stead, the Rentlemanly
editor of the Pail Mall Gazette, not one
specter discloses other means of looomotion
than legs and feet. And yet these members
alone will not account for the rapidity with
which a ghost is known to have travelled
from India to London. Such beings must
have wings, and very possibly these NOM
beers are never seem because Of the velocity
with which they vibrate. The wings Of
some insects in flight vibrate as often as
1000 times in q second. and consequently
they can not be seen. It would not be sur-
priaing TO verify a similar fact in the case
of apparitions."
BILE as soon AZ the ghosts ceased their flight
and came to q standstill?'
THAT depends said the man. I'm the
case of tho coleoptera, tho true flying wings
are concealed under their horny Gases
when the flight ceases. and if ghosts be-
much reason for believing, their wings be-
ing concealed while at rest, could not, of
course, be seem"
But if they can be seen neither in mo
tion nor at rest, how can any knowledge of
their existence be obtained?'
The pitch of the sound emitted by the
rapidly vibrating wings might be detected
by the ear" said the man. land possibly by
using the mierophons. Having once found
tho pitch, the number of vibrations in a
second could be discovered through a sim
pie mathematical process, provided. of
course, that the dimensions of tho
wings were known. l see no way
of arriving at those Dimensions except in
Simultaneous photography, and even this
would fail if the vibrations of the wings
per second should be more numerous than
the vibrations of light. Indeed, it is very
doubtful that if the motion were consid-
erably less than this We should be able to
photograph the wings. If, for instance.
there were only a million of them in a
second. the heat evolved by their friction
against the air would be sufficient to set
them on fire and consume them, unless
they were composed of some such sub
stance as asbestos, and this would be an
anomaly in nature. unless there are suoh
things as mineral insects or insects par
tally composed of mineral substances.
And this may be 30, even if it be- anoma-
lous. Outside of mathematics every thing
is possible, and some new calculus may be-
fore long make all things possible even in
mathematician
"At present, at all events. it ia impossi :
H. 4 ~ ILL., a