Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1901-12-12
PSYCHOLOGICAL RIDDLE THAT
PUZZLES INVESTIGATORS.
M'CAFFREY'S ODD CASE
Extraordinary Visions Which Prof.
Hyslop of Columbia University
Admits He Cannot Expain-A
BewiIdering Gift Which Battles
Its Owner.

! continents, in which she declared
| that she does not believe that heI
| wonderful trance demonstrations are
| evidence Of communication from the
! spirit world but thinks them at
| tributable to telepathy and hypnotism
| comes, says the st. Louis Republic
the case Of Michael Mccartney, one #
the most battling phenomena upon
which the men who seek to read the
dim riddle Of the mind and spirit
| have ever turned the light of n
! yestigation.
| Mrs. Piper's explanation of her own
bewildering gift may offer a hypoth
esis to explain what befeIl Michael
Mccartney, but even then the mystery
would be greater than ever.
Michael Mccartney, of Bangor, n
| Y, is the principal in this great
! psychological mystery, which scien-
lists have studied and been CON
founded by. His experiences with
! dream manifestations which led to a
tentative claim of $5,OOO,OO0 on the
! bank Of England are so at variance
! with scientific classification, the
! repetition with which they appeared
so logical, that even so high an au-
| thOrity as Prof. James H. HyslOp Of
| Columbia university, owns himself
At loss to advance the shadow of an
explanation.
In a dream a British soldier Of the
Colonial period appeared to Mccartney
and told him to dig under an old pine
stump on his farm. The vision was
clear and distinct, and none of the
haziness Of the usual dream The
farmer had impressed wildly upon him
every detail of the soldiers features
and his dress, the quality of his
voice and the pecuIiarities of gesture,
Mccartney did as directed and found
a certificate On the bank of England
dated 1775, for 10000, with interest
Then the soldier appeared to him
again and told him to dig deeper
This time another certificate for.
$4,000, was unearthed. Five times
afterWard came the soldier down the
highway Of sleep and spoke to Nc
Caffrey, and 50 convincing, so rea'
was his presence that the dreamer
began to doubt that he slept at all.
The certificates, with intoras+
would call for $5,O00,OOO. When they
were presented to the bank of Eng
land ii was found that there were me-
outstanding obligations of that nature
The bank officials also made the dis
cOvery that the water-mark was not
made until 25 years after 1775.
There is no ground to believe that
Mccartney was party to any fraud, and
it was to determine this that Pro
fess0r Hyslop conducted series If.
experiments upon him. The man of
science owns himself baffled after tWCI
years Of the most searching investiga-
ton. The history of the case and The
part he played in trying to solve the
mystery will be embodied in a mono
graph to be submitted to the Society
of PsychicaI Research.
The Mccartney home is about folly
miles from Bangor, N. Y, near tbs
Canadian frontier. There on a farm
Of 35 acres live Michael. now a man oil
40, his mother and a brother and 4 !
sister
Michael had lived the life of the |
average country boy and man up toI
the dream visions. There was moth |
ing whatever to distinguish him from
other farm laborers. His ancestors |
for generations had been farmers.
To this Unsophisticated rustic the !
vision Of British soldier appeared in |
a dream one night, telling Michael tC |
dig under the pine stump, where he |
would find a paper Not only was
this made distinct, but the soldier ex
pressly ordered him to dig there on
July 2. The soldier, according to !
Michael's description, looked like q !
middling-sized man who used to live
at Brushton.
He was smooth-faced and was
dressed in a red jacket and a big. tall |
hat, sCmethink like those band men |
wear at the Fourth of July celebra |
ton at Brushton. I had never seen
anything like that red jacket, and he |
wore those things (meaning epauIets) |
on his shoulders.
No; never had seen any British |
uniform and had never read any de, !
sCription Of it.
He said he was a soldier and that
he had been killed by the Indians and |
that he had no relations whatever !
The dream vanished and I woke IN !!
l didn't think it was worth while !
thinking upon and I went blowing
that morning without giving it an
other thought"
But again and again the vision oil
the British soldier reappared, with
exactly the same context, the same N
structions to dig on July 2 Each
time the dream impressed Michael
more and more, and, after the fourth
manifestation. he told his folks.
We were drawing potatoes" hoi
tells, and when I described thei
dream to my folks they laughed at M
and told me I was surely a-dreaming
and James Sabin, who was there, tol i
me 1 was going daft
\ fifth time the soldier appeared. /
There was the same look, the SAM
attitude, the same words e8 in the
previous dream. Michael then, foTi
the first time was overcome by the
realization that there was something
to it,
He went on July to the old pine
stump, which, by the way, is the only
ono on rae farm Not CARING To RIM