The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-12-28

arms with EXPLANATIONS of surprise and
delight.
why, Doctor, God bless you! I
thought you were dead"
My dear boy! l didn't know that
you had escaped
Hooked at my friend in blank amaze
ment. Escaped" L cried. what. do
you mean? Escaped what?"
Flesh" cried the doctor, briefly, while
the same old laugh seemed to ring in his
kindly voice. "Bonesi' And he beamed
upon me with his face like plastic
chunk of sunshine.
looked down at my tweed suit and
| cork-soled shoes. Then gazed upon the
DOCTORS expansive waistcoat, peeping
through his half-buttoned macintosh
i don see that have even escaped my
clo;hes-or that you have, either" 1 re-
piled, obviously.
III you don't believe that you have es-
capped flesh and bones," said the doctor.
seriously, try walking through that
lamppost."
| advanced incredulously to the post.
packing OIL with a laugh. then moved up
again, with the doctors hand on nav
shoulder, and melted through the solid
IRON, or, to speak more exactly, the solid
iron melted through me.
now, follow me through this old
appIe-woman," chuckled the doctor; and
IN an instant we had permeated a half
pushel OF wormy fruit and a dame as
wIthered and gaunt as the trees that bore
it,.
Are you satisfied ~ cried the doctor.
as he dragged me through a solid wall
INTO the privacy of two closeted politi-
cans who never noticed our intrusion in
the least.
Perfectly, SO far as ocular demonstra-
IioI goes" l replied, admiring the nom
chalanca and familiarity with which the
doctor leaned upon the shoulder OF one of
The politicians and from force of habit
While in the flesh, proceeded to examine
ms tongue. 1es," l continued, Il am
satisfied that am not what | was. but
VIII you nave the Kindness to explain
why we both retain the same sembfance
as when we were in the body?"
certainly" replied my friend. 1--WE
90 not-that is, not really. In "a very
haps before these wire-pullers have
arranged their slate-you will begin
TO experience me as l do YOU. Y0ur
present notion of form is a mere reni-
nlscence. All newly escaped persons.
that Is, all who have recently rid
themselves OF the flesh, retain for
time certain sense-consciousness as
the eye, which has been gazing upon A
bright object, retains the image of that
object after the lids are closed. But as
that image gradually fades away, so
VIII your "Reminiscences of bodily
form fade. Presently you will no longer
see, but experience. which is a much
more vivid and delightful operation of
the soul. With the transformation which
ensues all the strangeness and unfamil-
larlty OF the mid-world, as we call it.
Wall pass away and you will not feel the
least Embarrassment, for instance. in
walking through the poor, dulI-sensed
bodies OF the people or treating them in
any way you please"
AS the Doctor spoke became oradu
ally cons ious that his protruding waist
coat ana volumlnous macintosh were
fading away. In their place appeared
nothing, at first, but a little whirling
column OF mist. Presently that. too
vanished, and the Doctors voice grew
fainter and fainter, till it utterly ceased.
In place OF seeing or hearing came such a
sudden, vivid realization of the presence
and reality of my friend that | glowed to
the center of my soul with an unspeak-
able warmth of love and joy. The air
about me seemed to culver with a
penetrating, yet unseen, life and light,
was about to enter into the perfect and
unutterable ecstacy of spiritual being.
when-Bromfield street opeued its slushv.
dirty length before me; compassionate
bystander assisted me to my teet, while
another brought my hat out of The gutter,
saying:
well. my friend, your head had a
pretty sharp rap on the curb! guess
you must have lain unconscious for a
minute or more. Paul sPastnor, in
Washington.