The herald., 1897-03-31

worry that night, at least. When l re-
tired to my room, instead of going to
bed / put on a dressing robe and sat
down. A little after II o'clock Mrs. Dal-
ton Wheeler. a kind and motherly wo-
/ man, came in and kissed me. She sail
she came to see If l was in my room;
that she liked to make the rounds and
see If the children were all right. She
chatted awhile and then left the ROOM
A MIDNIGHT INTERVIEW.
about midnight there came a slight
knock and Miss Holmes walked in She
refused to sit down in the chair prof
fered, but perched upon the side OF the
bed beside me. observed that you
suffered tonight she said, from the
dark elements around l answered that
| was unconscious of having suffered or
of being disquieted in any way. She
began to creep toward me and stroked
my hands. 1t was with repugnance that
drew away. Then Miss Holmes
sprang up and said 'Ah, you are afraid
of my current!' l said No. If you want
, there are my hands, and l put both
out towards her. She grasped them
tightly and looked into my eyes for what
seemed a long time. l felt as If there
was a band pressing around my head;
and the tension became great as l re-
sisted the strange influence. Then she
said, DO you mean to say you can re-
sist that?' I answered that / could not
be hypnotized, upon which she quickly
responded, No, no, l don't want to hyp-
notize you but can't have you looking
at my speaker and disturbing the meet
ing | said that If l disturbed the
meeting / would go away, but she pro-
tested against that, saying that dldn
understand, and that heretofore she nad
had no time to give me instruction, but
would amend to that"
For this particular amusement what
did you pay? -
sI paid my board. rendered IS gold
piece to Mrs. Wheeler. and was referred
to Mr.. Holmes. 1 asked for receipt
and Miss Holmes was called, but she
peremptorily refused"
"You spoke of some of the inmates be-
ing under domination; did you see any
men doing menial acts?'
Yes. Mr. Dalton Wheeler, the lessee OF
Belmont hall, acted as waiter and dish
washer. He went around with a white
apron on and attended, on table. was
told that the household work was given
as discipline, each one getting just what
he or she disliked doing. Mrs. Taylor
did the sweeping because she had
strong disinclination for active WORK;
The diet was purely vegetarian, Wen
cooked and served we'll, but not tempt
ing"
"Did YOU learn why they were vege-
tarians?"
Miss Holmes said that all animals
had immortal souls and consequently
were unfit for food"
THE DEVILS TEMPERATURE.
What about her spirit wanderings
and persgrinations? :,
She said she had Travelled through all
the spheres of the universe, through
heaven and hell. In one given up to the
oh rrnUad fneX
did nothing but 'cuse, cuss, cuss,' all
the time
Anything said regarding the heat of
the devil?"
zone evening I wanted a statement
from Miss Holmes of the subjects the
inmates were forbidden to talk about.
l had learned that Spiritualism and
ghosts were barred, but one night in the
parlor began telling an old legend and
Mrs. Russell entered. She stood for
moment listening, and then burst out:
Aren't you ashamed Of yourself, talking
like this? Why, the room is full OF
devils. l felt it as high as my room. AS
for strangers, there is some excuse, but
you people are inexcusable.' There was
a disposition shown to argue, but Miss
Holmes entered. She said that the heat
had become so great upstairs that Mrs.
Wallace, one of the senSitives, couldn't
stand 1t, and that the top of the room in
which we sat was hot and quivering
1 asked for an explanation, and she said
that she ought to have told me but that
talking of ghosts. ETC.. attracted devils
around. She began stroking Mr.. Ne
vado's face, remarking: See, poor Mr..
Nevada, he feels so ill, the devils are af-
fecting him. She told him to go upstairs.
and with a face deathly white he stag
gered out of the room"
In its most salient features this was
the testimony of Miss Irwin the young
lady who wrote the article objected to
and who is one of the defendants made
party to the suit. Strange to say her
ross-examination was very brief, and
served to elicit not one title of evidence
calculated to weaken the circumstantial
story told by her on direct.
That ended the case for the defense,
and this morning the plaintiff will put
in rebuttal testimony.