The herald., 1896-12-14
QUEER DISAPPEARANCE
Curious Phenomena of Our
Advanced Civilization
The FRENCH LETTRE-DE- -CACAET
In Each Year Over 1000 Persons
Disappear
OFF THE STREETSOF LONDON
Varieties of Crime Account for a Small
Proportion
The Dual Personality OF an Oxford
of Crime Account for a Small
Proportion
The Dual Personality OF an Oxford |
Student
Whose Individuality is Merged in That
OF a Noted Pirate--The Subliminal
Consciousness in Operation-Phe-
nomena of the Seance Room.

ItDltHd VI lIt otctiitt INtoili.
What becomes of the persons who mys-
teriously disappear from their accustom-
ed haunts and are lost, possibly for all
time, TO their friends?
The average individual may satisfy
his or her easily satisfied mind by the
surmise that grim murder has swept an
other soul into eternity. but to the
thoughtful-those not quite so closely
enwrapped iii the SNUG complacency nf
everyday life-this explanation does
not explain.
This curious phenomena of social life
is most frequent in London, Paris, New
York and st. Petersburg, in the order
named, London being far in the lead
In the financial metropolis of the world
over 1000 individuals mysteriously dis
appear each year, and are lost to all
knowledge of their friends as effectually
as if the earth had opened and swallowed
them up.
Where do they 60 and what becomes
of them?
Within the last week little girl mys-
teriously disappeared from the home of
her parents in this city, and it seemed
as if the dark mystery that still en-
shrouds the disappearance of Geo. Han
chett, the whilom secretary of the cham
Der of commerce, was about to be du-
plicated. Inasmuch, however, as the
girl turned up safe and sound in San
Francisco, the case loses all interest in
connection with the question of mysteri
Gus disappearances.
For about one hundred years before
the French revolution the vanishing of
men almost before the eyes of their
friends was so common that it scarcely
provoked comment. But in those days
the lettre de-cachet was an instrument
used by the powerful to remove from
their path a political opponent, fa-
vored rival in love affair, or any one,
indeed, who had been unfortunate
enough to provoke the animosity of an
unscrupulous and powerful adversary.
For months or years, mayhap for life,
the individual thus spirited away would
be lost to the world, and if his conceal
ment was transient he usually was wise
enough to treat the matter as jest, lest
his fate should be made to resemble that
of the great state prisoner whose name
was hidden under the pseudonym of
THE Man with the Iron Mask"
But the lettre-de -cachet is no longer
in vogue, and yet the mysterious disap-
pearances, strangely enough, appear
like certain forms of disease to increase
in proportionate ratio with the advance
ment of our highly developed and COM
pleX civilization.
From indirect evidence which devel-
ops, sometimes at very remote date af-
ter the disappearance of a person we
know that murder, and a desire to es-
cape from the environment of unpleas-
ant business or social associates, account
for certain percentage of these vsn-
ishments. But these are a small num-
ber of the whole. and the remainder form
one of the most curious puzzles that con-
front the scientific investigator.
Among the papers of the second Lord
Ellenboro was found record of the fol-
lowing circumstances:
An Oxford student, inordinately ambi-
tious and very extravagant, looked for
ward to eminence in the church and dis
tlnction as theOlOgian, and was as no.
torious for his sensual pursuits as for
his love of study. He was rare scholar,
and while his friends admired and re-
Jolced in his intellectual ability they
grieved at those habits which threaten
ed to bar his way to preferment. One
day he suddenly disappeared from his
accustomed associations and completely
away from the knowledge of the friends
ana acqualntances who had known him.
WHITTIER he had betaken himself defied
all search and conjecture.
But almost simultaneously with his
departure a daring corsair made his ad-
vent in the Mediterranean and spread
d1smay among the peaceful merchant
men. Sweeping the waves like a falcon.
with the most desperate courage the
ships of all nations We're plundered and
this ocean scourge accumulated i'm
mense wealth upon small barren ISL
and which he made his headquarters and
home. Here he associated more or less
freely with his followers leaving them
occasionally for the company of a wom-
an whom he had made the partner of his
wild life. But the woman died, and
shortly after the island was left unten-
anted, the pirates having dispersed.
Shortly after the Oxonan reappeared
at his university with plenty of money
a wondrous display of jewels, and reap
piled himself to study and pleasure. He
was free with his money, gave heavy do
nations to charity, and, finally, entered
the church and rose to its highest hon
ors. wearing the tiara of an archbishop,
and dying in the sanctity of holy life.
Here was a case of DIR. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde n'pronounced form, and very pos
sibly 1t was from some such annal of
the past that Stevenson obtained the
idea upon which he based his marvel
ously true narrative. In the particular
instance quoted, however, while the
facts of the dual personality are clearly
enough set forth there are no means of
knowing whether the Oxford student
adopted the career of pirate out of innate
cussedness so to speak, or whether his
identity was for the time lost and the
thread of his ordinary life resumed when
the secondary personality had sunk into
allegiance.
OF persons who live double life there
are innumerable instances. Every city
has its Jean Vatican, but it Is not these
that puzzle the mind Of the investigator
seeking to explain the hidden springs of
psychological action. 1t Is of the men
who, in an instant, without warning,
lose consciousness Of their identity. and
at once assume the new role thrust upon
them.
Within the year the newspapers have
recorded the disappearance from. his
pastorata in an eastern city of most
promising young divine. His character
was beyond reproach, and there was no
reason why he should have turned his
back upon his friends. Some months
later he turned up safe and sound, and
rold the most marvellous story which,