The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-08-30
A DRAMA BY SPIRITS.
THE SHADE OF hartley CAMPBELL
WRITES A PLAY.
1t Is Entitled "Miracula," and Will Shortly
Be Put on the Boards at Lily Dale, N. Y.
How Campbell Wrote the Play Through
the Medium of a Living Man.


Be Put on the Boards at Lily Dale, N. Y.
How Campbell Wrote the Play Through
the Medium of Living Man.
In the latter part of August play will
be put upoa the boards at Lily Dale,
N. Y, that everybody will be curious
to see. 1t is spiritistic drama, and it
is no ordinary flesh and blood man or
woman's production. At least SO says
its author-or, no, its scribe, I. Ransom
Sanford, western journalist and spir-
itist OF note. He says that the play,
which bears the suggestive title Of
'Miracula, was written by the shade
of BARLEY Campbell. Not that the long
dead and gone creator of "The White
Slave" ETC., actually rematerialized in
Mr.. Sanford's study and wrote the
manuscript of ''Miracula" with bor-
rowed pen, ink and paper. Oh, no! 1t
was not done in that way. The story of
its creation, as told by Mr.. Sanford, is
well worth hearing or reading. Said he:
81 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. I was student at Fort
Edward, on the Hudson, but had gone
to my home in Michigan on visit. My
stepmother was rigorous religiOnist,
and was surprised to find planchette
quietly reposing on a table in the din
ing room. What's this?' I asked her.
oh, that's a game that was given to
your sister,, she replied indifferently.
Now, l 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 i'll with ty-
phoid fever at Fort Edward Neither
of US at that time dreamed Of such
thing, and yet it afterward proved to
be the case. Another test of spirit pres
ence was given that night through the
planchette. A name was spelled which
neither my mother nor myself recog-
nized we don't know YOU, 1 said
You were too young to remember me,
was the reply. Ask your father about
me. Invent in search of my father, and
after racking his brains for awhile he
recalled the memory of the man, with
whom he had once been connected in an
important land deal
81 had always been rebel against
future damnation, and from that night
I 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
matte writer. I was sitting in a seance
room with a few friends one night,
when my hand and arm began to shake
in way that attracted general atten-
ton. Some one suggested putting pen
Gil in my hand. They did SO, and upon
a 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 in my hand, and on
taking pencil in hand 1 mechanically
wrote several pages Of essays, which
were all sigred 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 a Spiritistic play. I
laughed at the idea and replied, Il
can't Yes, you can, said the voice.
we will help you was studying to
take part in an amateur comedy which
was shortly to be produced, and few
days passed without hearing anything
more of the Spiritistic play. But one
night it occurred to me that would
dramatize popular occult novel I'm
mediately my hand was controlled and
wrote: I'VE prefer to furnish both our
plot and dialogue. We have both well
in mind and will experience no difficult
ty if you will yield implicitly to our in
fuence, signed, BARLEY Campbell.
All right, 1 said, if BARLEY 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
off in the middle of sentence, but at
every minute of leisure the influence
would take up its thread of the dialogue
exactly where it had ended and go on.
I-no, BARLEY Campbell-wrote the
play in from eight to ten days, and aft
er it had been finished several weeks he
named it 'Miracula. '"-Buffalo Elk
press.