The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1901-08-15
!. The Case Of
MoMe .,G
+0nCher Marvel

I
lie did so. The young lady stepped to the
street the conductor rang the bell, the
car whirIed on. But the girl had on one
OF the hoopskirts 40 generally worn by
women in those days. II caught upon the
car step, the lady was dragged almost
block. adding one more To the tragic list
OF accidents caused by feminine long
clothes
The girl, Molle Fancher, was awfully
hurt. her spine being permanently injtr.
ed. Violent spasms began Feb 1850 al
ternating with frances and cataieptic at
tacks, which at length made her case the
puzzle of medical science.
III Is now the thirty y-sixth year that Miss
Fancher has lain In the same room upon
the same side OF the same bed and upon
the same side OF her body. The present
generation was not born when she lay
down upon that couch OF suffering Pain
is I'm her head or heart or some part OF
mat tortured body always except during
| the strange trance state which with her
takes the place of sleep. We are all spir-
It's prisoned I'm bodies. but Moll.e Fancher
is hair released so that her chains gall
and tug mercilcssly at her consciousness
In this life ~.
4 Ihe worst trouble seems 10 lie al the
base OF the brain There In a spot al the
ever so tenderly will make her uncsn-
scious. In the years she has lain upon her
bed her father, brother and sister and
t'e beloved aunt TO whose care her dy-
ing mother left in childhood have all
| passed away one by one yer for some
strange reason she. the tortured one. who
mas prayed and ionged TO 60 all these
years, remains. The terrible spasms from
which she has suffered have drawn her
lower limbs backward and twisted them
In what her physician has called three
| twist"
And yet in the appearance OF the inval-
Ia there Is no sign OF suffering She looks
nke beautiful spirit imprisoned here to
| snow mortals that there really are beauti-
| iul spirits. No one would guess her to be
more than % years old. though she Is So
Tier skin Is like an Infants. fair and rosy
| and light blond hair curls softly about
her face. Her hands and arms are of per-
fect beauty, ft for a sculptors model
Miss Fsncher affords to the psycholo-
glst case unparalleled on the earth to-
day. The one most like her was the seer
ess or Prevorst. who was chained I'm the
body In much the same way and who
said to her physician II am as one de-
tained at the moment of dissolution be-
tween lie. aua death. l seem out of my
sell, TO hover above my body and think
or II as something apart from myself"
Mollie Fancher, prisoned upon her bed.
/ ~ lAdNNiSs one never Sleeps as we un-
derstand the term but passes into
state different from ordinary unconscious
ness. Then she seems 10 ny over the earth
at VIII, 10 follow her friends TO their
homes in various places and watch their
movements as IL they We're present with
her' Time and again her report OF what
they were doing when she has thus visit
ed them has been exactly verified. She
seems 10 herself TO glide or float upon the
air from place 10 place. noting objects
and persons. IL is easiest for her TO fol-
low the movements OF those she loves
best. Persons. and they are not few.
VINO have IN sleep experienced The sensa-
ton OF flying hither and thither 10 differ
ent localities will understand. The i'm
preston OF floating through the air Is
even more vivid than the ordinary con
sciousness one has OF walking And vet
while Molhe Fancher is conscious OF
moving through the air in visiting differ
ent spots, her poor body lies upon its
bed, seeing, knowing nothing, her face
deathlike.
Which Is Mollie Fancher-that which
IS conscious OF travelling through space
lutely knowing nothing?
The strsngest episode OF this strange
IRE nte came In the nine years beginning the
latter part Of May. 1866. AT that time
Miss Fancher went into trance from
which she wakened normally. Then fol-
lowed another. In frances alternating
The cOnvulsions were so terrible that
some times for hours her body would bo
doubled around like a hoop. After the
muscular rigidity passed she would seem
10 be taken possession OF by some other
entity. Five different beings seemed Ia
manifest through her During all these
nine years her right arm remained
drawn up behind her head. Her left arm
she could move. but her hands were tight
clinched except the thumb and forennger
OF each, After time she became wholly
blind, so far as eyesight was concerned
and her physicians proved II, yet with
hands At the back OF her head. with the
two uncontracted thumbs and fingers she
did exquisite embroidery and needlework
made wax flowers and wrote in the nine
years $500 letters in a beautiful hand. Her
eyes remained tight shut and could only
he opened by force. She told those around
her that she saw out OF the top of her
head.
| would not dare to write this except
that II is as we'll authenticated as any
fact ever was.
Fancher came TO herself one day. looked
up az her faithful nurse and said: "Why
aunt. what has become of your rec
cheeks? You look so old and changed,
bers nothing OF those nine years when
she seemed TO be five persons I'm one.
Fancher, whom she had never seen be
fore. After talking TO the lady awhile
the invalid looked at her and said; You
self, haven't you? Congestion and hea,
at the base of the brain?" The lady con
fessed that she had. and was taking
trea tment for IL. Now. how could Mol
lie Fancher discover that when j myseli
did not know It?
She sees the things other people do
yet not as others do. The darker her
room Ia the more distinct objects In l.
appear TO her. Like the cat and tn
owl. she sees in the dark. but not with
her eyes. Bright light gives her pain
In the little nourishment she takes Miss
Fancher IL more spirit-like than earth
like. There have been periods OF month";
when the natural processes OF her physf
cal body have been almost suspended. A.
present she does not swallow I'm a month
as much food as many persons eat al ono
meal A morse OF homemade bread r.
ALL But she drinks quantities OF water
sometimes two gallons day.
The things here set down are faithful
and true You can depend on them. hut
I do no, account for them. Has Mollic
Fancher recovered certain faculties which
man has mostly lost through disuse IN
the course of his evolutionary progress.
ALICE w MORTIMER.