Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-01-02
The loss of Miss Fancher's powers Of


strange change In her physical con-
dition. This was about nine years ago.
For seventeen years she was said to
have lived ON less nutriment than a
healthy persons would have consumed
in week. For thirteen OF these years
not a particle OF solid food had entered
her stomach. In fact, her stomach and
intestines had shriveled up and virtually
disappeared, and all abdominal func-
tions ceased. Then she began to crave
the Juice Of fruits, and occasionally the
broth of mutton or beef. These she
seemed to assimilate, and the functions
OF the body were resumed. In a short
time she began to gain flesh, and from
a mere skeleton she rapidly assumed
the proportions Of woman OF robust
health.
AS Miss Frncher's physical condition
improved, her spirit, which had been
wanderer for years, staid within the
physical body, and her ciairvoyant
power left her. At the same time her
mental faculties became keener, and,
in brief, she assumed the normal condl-
tion of a bright, brainy woman. The
return of her powers OF second sight is
psychological mystery, that will appeal
to the scientific world as the original
display of those powers did fifteen years
ago.
Her right arm, which for seventeen
years had been IS rigidly fixed in bent
position behind her head as though
carved in stone, gradually relaxed, and
became normal and useful as in child
hood. Although Miss Fancher is now
forty-two years old, the physical beauty
of her body from the waist up, is per-
feet. Her bust, arms and neck are
only comparable to those Of Mrs. Lang
try in her palmiest days, when she was
the flower Of the Isle Of Jersey and
knew not the Prince of Wales set OF
England and the Freddie Gebhardt set
of America.
One day she recovered all her lost
senses for half an hour, and then lost
them again and went into trance that
lasted, with brief intervals, for nine
years. At these intervals the only
sense that remained to her was that OF
speech. The desire for food disap-
peared completely, and during those
years she did not consume a pound OF
even liquid nourishment. Frequently
she was dead to all outward appearance.
The body would be cold and rigid, and
only stethoscopc could detect the ac-
ton of the heart. At times she was
cheerful, viYacious, intelligent and en-
Pertaining, and the next hour she would
be, to all appearances, dead.
Among the scores OF men OF promi-
hence who investigated the marvellous
powers OF Miss Mollie these were the
most prominent and exhaustive in their
researches: The Rev. DIR. Joseph T.
Duryea, the Rev. DR.. Henry j. Van
Dyck, Professor Charles e. West,
George w. Benson, Henry M. Park
hurst, the astronomer; the Rev. DR..
Prime, and DR.. Il. Fleet Speir. or
these DR.. Speir and Professors West
and Parkhurst have taken yoluminous
memoranda, which will be published
after ths death of Miss Fancher.
The tests applied by the scores of
men who visited Miss Fancher would
FIJI volume. One of the earliest mani
festations OF her power was the ability
to see friends approaching the house
while still blocks away. All this time
she was blind. She would say: 81 see
closing his desk in.his Office in New
York" Then at intervals she would
CONTINUES: "He has taken the fulton
Ferry. Now he has taken Gates ave-
nue. car. He has jumped off at Gates
avenue and Is coming this way. de is
near the corner now; look out and
beckon TO him." The person in the
room would look out the window and
ace the gentleman whose movements
Mollie had described, and the accuracy
of the description would be verified oy
him. Every day, and often dozen
times q day, she would announce 10
some one IN the room the approach OF
the postman or Of some friend long be-
fore the door bell rang.
A new power was discovered one day,
when she announced the approach OF
the postman. "He has a letter Tor me
from - she said, joyfuily. The let
ter was from the person she had named,
and she demanded IL the moment her
aunt entered the room. She ran hsr
thumb rapidly across the envelope ana
then repeated, word for word, the con-
tents of the letter. This power OF read
ing the contents OF = sealed letter she
seemed to cultivate, until In short
time II was not necessary for her to pass
her hand over the envelope, but she
could read it instantly as 1t was brought
into the room. The power became more
extended every day, until she could
read a book or newspaper, unopened
apd lying in any part OF the room.
fAna ND