San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-03-03
MYSTERY OF THE SEA

Clairvoyance is too often looked upon as
being a peculiarly daring phase Of impos-
ture with which the art of the begging let
ter writer compares favorably. Authors
of manuals on conjuring furnish their
readers with elaborate instructions how
they may best produce the various phe-
nomena hat are grouped under the head
of ~clairvoyance. AS these details of infor-
nation consist chiefly of how eyeholes may
be arranged and catchwords made to serve
for stage cues | am not concerned with
them. Such manifestation of what is pro-
fessedly an occult art are only deceitful
displays of degraded powers.
. Clairvoyance is a reality. Now and
again the practical hypnotist, in the exer-
else of his vocation, will meet with it. 1t
may be that u thousand hypnotic subjects
will only furnish one lucid somnambulist.
Consequently, while that one may be sufi-
cient for the purposes of the operator, the
skeptical world, which is condemned to
kick its heels outside the scene Of mysteri-
Gus operations, refuses to believe in the
reality of the phenomena which are pro-
duced. Not many persons have witnessed
these.
It has been my privilege, or my misfor-
tune, not only to see, but also to conduct
certain clairvoyant experiments Of an as
tonishing nature. Several of these | have
described in the columns of the weekly and
daily press.
The most extraordinary of them I will
now proceed to relate.
Let me promise that l had, at the time
which | write, a servant who was one of
the most wonderful clairvoyants l have
ever met with. A single word would at
any time suffice to throw her into a state
of hypnosis. From this she would pass al
most Immediately into the state of som
nambulism which nearly approaches to
ecstacy. When in this condition her mind
seemed to be utterly untrammeled by the
limits of either time or space. The girl,
when she was in her normal condition,
was not conscious of the fact that she was
clairvoyant.
1t was in the middle of February, 1885.
The brig Audacious, of N~orthwood, was
lying at anchor in the French port of
Havre. The vessel had her ballast on
board and appeared all taut and trim.
She was waiting to run out ON the turn of
the tide. The time was Sunday evening.
The captain and mate, Fred and Harry
Colwood (they were b%rothers), were still on
shore.
Havre, in common with man English
and foreign seaports, possessed a sailors
mission. In this work a Lady Beauchamp
and her daughters took great interest. The
two officers had been present at the serY-
ice, which closed at o o'clock. An hour
later they returned to the ship. Precisely
at midnight the Audacious left Havre with
a fair wind.
Two days later the brig showed her col
ors off Aldeburgh. From that hou moth
ing was seen or heard of her. She van
ished utterly from human ken. 1t is Ger
tain she never entered Yarmouth roads.
In due course the Audacious was written
off the Northwood mutual maritime list,
and, except by the few who were most
nearly interested, was forgotten.
| had known Fred Colwood from his in
fancy. His aged father and mother sat
weekly under my teaching in the little old
fashioned chapel at Northwood. ! had
been present when the good, homely old
mother had wept over her son and had
placed the Bible in his sea chest on the
memorable occasion of his going foreign"
for the first time. When Fred had sue
cessively taken his certificates as first
mate and as captain, no one could have re-
joiced more heartily and unaffectedly than
| had done, unless it were his mother. Not
the least of my ministerial pleasures had
been to unite him in marriage to Bessie
Ambrose, the rustic belle of u fishing
village.
Nearly a month had elapsed before the
anxiety respecting the Audacious ap
preached the acute stage. We were a pa
tient, slowly moving people, who had been
taught many lessons in long suffering.
Gray haired men loved to tell the story
of how, in their young days, the Hawk had
been blown away right up into the Gulf OF
Finland. When she came back in the fol-
lowing spring, with all her crew safe and
well, the women, who feared lest they had
been bereft of their husba. Is, were wear
ing black-all of them, that was, but one,
and she, the heartless jade, was on the
point of marrying again.
Young seamen congregating in the par
lor of the Bear and Bacon" loved over
their pipes to tell admiring visitors how
the schooner Alexander Adams had lain
wind bound for nine weeks in Boston deeps,
and everybody had thought her lost. The
events. it must be admitted, lay back in