Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-10-27

| MARCY dperted her glance
came interested in a book on spiritual
ism, which she picked up in second
hand book store. She did not tell me all
that She thought and felt in the matter
l am VERY sure, but could plainly OBJ
serve q gradual alteration in her ways
and looks, and one day she nearly fright
ened me to death by going into what I
afterward found was called the trance
state. First she became rigid and then
spasmodic, and at last she began to tall,
in unnatural voices. I was utterly una
BILE to recognize my mother and l was
so terrified that ran out for doctor,
Fortunately the physician was a kind,
sympathetic man. Instead of laughing
at my alarm, he not only quoted my
fears for the time and somewhat ex-
planned the matter to me, bat he gave
me words of caution and advice for the
future which l have never forgotten:
| If You don't wish your mother to
brighten you this way again, sec that
she reads no more of the sort of litera-
ture she has INDUCED in lately and that
she goes to no more sittings l have
questioned her, and from what she tells
me, together with her evident tempera-
ment and present health, find that this
sensitive, if not dangerous, condition
into which she has brought herself is
owing entirely to an unhealthy brood
ing on one subject. Surely Won can
give her some medicine, then, said to
him, that will cure her. No. my dear
girl, he replied, this matter is beyond
medicine. She thinks the world of you.
Iou can restore her to health better than
any one else. Try to interest her in 9th
er things Once get her mind out of its
present unhealthy rut of thought, and
you will have no more trouble These
things are entirely nervous i'll their orr
gin. The only way to cure them is by
allaying the excitement In the end
found the physician had told the truth.
As long as my mother continued to be
excited about and interested in Spirit
ualistic Manifestation she was liable to
the frances. But when, by my aid and
her own determined efforts, she had ac-
customed herself to think of other things
the frances left her and never returned.
Julian, dear, l suppose you will say it
is silly and girlish, but ! have an I'M
comfortable horror and dread of these
things. They brighten me. 1 could con-
ceive of no worse fate than to replace
the sunshine of my life with the dark
ness and gloom of a mind tortured by
such specters, and my fear is greater
because fancy l am predisposed to such
things.
THAT is morbid fancy, little wife,
growing, / fear, out of your unfortu-
nately solitary and lonely childhood. A
few years of bird songs and blue sky
will cure You. Something has occurred
to you of late, dear, to remind you of
all this. Go on. Don't be afraid to tell
me-"
eyes, Julian, something did happen
to me. don't know why it was Perhaps
my head was weak from my sickness.
But in the first days Of my recovery, as
I lay there istlessly on the bed, l fire.
queutly fell into trancelike states. I
have found out since that by resisting
the feeling when it first approaches l
can break the spell, but was too weak
and lacking in discrimination then. This
grew upon me, and ] became frightened
l remembered what the doctor had told
me about my mother, and by forcing
my mind to think of other things have
succeeded in freeing myself from the
shadow. That is why have told no one
not even you. That is why do not like
to bring it back again.
But don't see what all this has to
do with the portrait" Maxey said won.
deringly.
Il will tell you, Julian. 1t was in one
Of those waking Nightmares that saw
that face Don't make me tell it. Julian!
Don't make me tell it!''
God knows l would do nothing to
cause my little wife moments uneasi-
ness; but, darling, it SO important to
our welfare-for yours and mine-that
you should speak. Let it be recalled
once and then forgotten for all time In
! one Of those dreams you saw that face?''
She answered him in low voice:
eyes, Julian. i was lying on the bed
there, in the alcove room. Something,
/ don't know what to call it, came over
me. 1t was more like q waking dream
than anything could name My eyes
were wide open all the time. saw the
, room and the things in it, just as now. -
She chung c.oser to her husband an6
went on:
II was lying there in the alcove room
t looking toward the fireplace out there
D 1t was just after l had been brought
back here, before / had told you my sto
~. ! was watcsling the red Goals in thu
l crate. Presently felt sinking, dream,
sensation coming over me. did no
l l. L
any resistance to it. 1t was in the mid
8 die Of the day, and the room was fall o
0 light. But though the knowledge Of tina
fact never left me / felt that it ha,
= suddenly become very dark. All tn
: light seemed to arise from somethin,