Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-09-03
A DRAMA BY SPIRITS.
THE SHADE OF HARTLEY CAMPBELL
 WRITES A PLAY.

It Is Entitled "aTiracula," and Will Shortly How Campbell Wrote the Play Through
 the Medium of Il Living Man
 In the latter part of August a play will be put upon the boards at Lily Dale, N. Y, that everybody will be curious to see. It is q spiritistic drama, and it is no ordinary flesh aud blood man or woman's production. At least so says its author-or, no, its scribe, l. Ransom Sanford, a western journalist and spir- itist of note He says that the play, which bears the suggestive title of "Miraeula, was written by the shade of Bartley Campbell. Not that the long dead and gone creator of "The White Slave, etc., actually rematerialized in MT, Sanford $ study and wrote the manuscript of Miracula' with bor- rewed pen, ink and paper. Oh, no It was not done i'll that way. The story of it's creation, as told by MT. Sanford, is we'll worth hearing or reading Said he:
 IT shall have to go back as far as the year 1868 and state that I was made aware of the possibility of spirit com- munion through the instrumentality of that queer little instrument that is call ed planchette. was a student at Fort Edward. OH the Hudson, but had gone to my home ill Michigan on visit. My stepmother was rigorous religionist, and was surprised to find planchette quietly reposing on table i'll the dim ing room. Whats this?' I asked her. Oh, that's game that was given to your sister, she replied indifferently Now, had heard of planchette and was a good deal amused by my stepmother's ignorance. 1 said to her, Let us sit down and see how it works She con- sented. and the result was astonishing My own mothers name was spelled out the very first thing. and then this mes- sage, Your sister Annie is ill with ty- phoid fever at Fort Edward Neither of us at that time dreamed of such a thing, and yet it afterward proved to be the case. Another test of spirit pres enee was given that night through the planchette. A name was spelled which neither my mother nor myself recog- nized. We don't know you, I said. You were too young to remember me, was the reply. Ask your father about me. I went in search of my father, and after rael<ing his brains for awhile he recalled the memory of the man, with whom he had once been connected in an important land deal
 .I had always been rebel against future damnation, and from that night 1 was a Spiritist, and soon afterward made thorough study of psychic sci ence. Two years ago very unexpected ly to myself developed into an auto matic writer. I was sitting in seance room with few friends one night, when my hand and arm began to shake ill a way that attracted general atten- tion. Some one suggested putting pen cil ill my hand They did so, and upon piece of paper it automatically and very deliberately wrote, At last the ice is broken, signed, Your Mother That was all that was written then, but after went to my room again felt the same peculiar sensation ill my hand, and on taking pencil i'll hand I mechanically wrote several pages of essays, which were all signed Spirit of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
 .'Now come to the writing of Mir acula. I was at Hazlet Park, Mich. last summer, and while there something said to me, Write Spiritistic play 1 laughed at the idea and replied, I can't Yes, you can, said the voice. We will help you. I was studying to take part i'll an amateur comedy which was shortly to be produced, and a few days passed without hearing anything more of the Spiritistic play. But one night it occurred to me that I would dramatize popular occult novel. I'm mediately my hand was controlled and wrote: We prefer to furnish both our plot and dialogue. We have both we'll in mind and will experience no difficult ty if you will yield implicitly to our in fiuence, signed, Bartley Campbell All right, I said, if Bartley Campbell wants to write play through my hand, let him go ahead. The next night my arm and hand were again controlled and wrote out cast of characters and began the play. Twas frequently inter rupted and was often obliged to break of ill the middle.of sentence, but at every minute of leisure the influence would fake up its thread of the dialogue exactly where it had ended and go on. Tho, Bartley Campbell-wrote the play in from eight to ten days, and aft CT it had been finished several weeks he named it 'Miracula. Buffalo Ex- press.