Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-09-25
IN THE MATTER QFsA CURSE

The doctor had be listening to con-
versation -en ghostsss presentiments spirit
visitations and moresof the same kind Of
talk until he seemed osbe in a bad hunor
about somethin6
by jove." he$roke in at last. "all these
weird stories mike me want to swear at
the credulity of9eople. I've made study
of the spirit question. and am here to
assert that ghostx are subjective, and never
objective. 1 NJ Fan by that that the ghosts
are In US. not out of us. have hun
dred instances to prove it. but shall give
you the last one under my observation as
"a fair sample. Three years ago a man
committed suicide in New York, leaving
note to the. effect that he had been
driven to it byst editors who had per-
slstently refused to accept his work and
used their influence so he alleged, in pre-
sen vaege Others ana . from doing So He was
, Wnom knew weflsan he was a firm be-
never In ghosts and,spiritS - He had pois-
oned himself, and was called in when he
was almost gone. for he had taken Il quick
poison. found a note addressed to nv
sell on the table, and one addressed to one
OF the editors IN question. AS it vas
Stamped ready for the mail l had it sent
at once: 1t turned out to be curse of the
most yindictive and yiruIent TYNE and as
tiie man was really strong writer he had,
worded 1t in style calculated to make any
man man wish II had not been addressed to
nm. IN the note the writer told the editor
ne would visit him night and tay in the
spirit and so hfest his life with evil thai
ne would finally throw it away as the
wife" .n ha9 been compelled to do.
TAXED 10 the man about the note hrt
ne ne was strong and lusty fellow and mere
~ iaushed at the vagaries of a crank as
ne ne pu. 1t. Dut he would not let me take
t tni ie. .,;,, as wanted to do Once or
81 u-n
ms office, and each time he made some
JoCular reference to the curse and the
spirit that was lowering over him. but 7
i Ioant;;l mat he dill not laugh quite SO
i.eai lily ABOUT ii as he did in the begin
hing. In addition he had told everyday
apout II and showed the letter, and there
were tnose among his friends who Thought
Tue letter portended evil and hey said
tehd TO improve matters
me other editor in the meantime was
concentrating himself on not being under
fn 100000 and l was glad of it myself.
lof ne was a nervous, peculiar kind of
HAIL. Whom such letter would certaipIv
nave affected seriously, despite all rational
argument against it. None of us could nm
oe . tI why he had not received letter
as tle other mad done, but two weeks after
the suicide i discovered the reason xhv
py discovering letter in the suicides desk
worse. II possible. than the other. which
ne had overlooked and not left to be mailed
III. /
reconsidered soon. and determined to watch
Tor results until 1 had proved my case to
N! own satisfaction. And it was not a
S S while either The man who had
peen cursed fought it off for a month or
more but at the end Of that time he had
begun 10 take occasional drinks; he was
nervous when alone in the house at night.
NV, ne wanted somebody to be with him all the
.ihie' ne iauSned when the curse was men
tched. and pooh-poohed it; he smoked
DOZENS OF cigars a day, and at the. end of
three months he took a vacation of a week.
liz. MS was eNtenQed Two weeks; aHd'ethen
tHee' ana when he did finally come back
to his desk hei=was not the same man 7
had khoWta' before the spirit mad begun to
..yoodcO' him. p
Now was my time, to come to the rescue.
IL ever, Tor month more of this and the
man would kills himself l was sure" So I
got the other. half of the combination ono
evening to come to- my house to dinner,
ana an TO meet hip | invited the cursed man.
mere was only the party of three, and
"ien was ready to- try my cure / sent the
servants out ofothe fffnint, room and very
briefly | told the cursed man that he was
letting his ina gination kill him He argued
against the thought of his, permitting such
thing TO affect him. but he couldn't stand
1t, and in minute or two broke down and
confessed that unless relief came he would
do what the curse had imposed upon him
to do. Then + laughed at him, much to his
pain and surprise, and, calling attention
to the fair mental and physical condition
oi tne other editor, who had been even
guiltier than he in the opinion of the sui
eide. pulled out the letter l had discovered
and read it.
AS piece of literary work it was power
full but as curse it was absolutely sgith-
out effect for the object of it, not knowing
that he had been so deliberately cursed,
and that the spirit of the suicide was con-
stantly lowering over him to drive him 10
destruction. had gone right ahead with his
daily business, and was having better
health than he had had in years. The other
man cursed. not SO profoundly, but in
formed of the fact that he was cursed,
was rapidly letting his Imagination do the
rest. Fortunately, l struck my man at the
right time and in the right place, and be-
fore he left the house that night he was
more like himself than he had been since
the curse and in a month he was just as
gcQd as he ever was.
Now. that is one of the reasons" con-
cludedi the doctor, why say that ghosts,
spirits ct al. are in US and not out of us,
and will not be argued out of my belief"