Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-08-11
KEE

That the room should have its own
peculiar atmosphere and influence did
not surprise me. No one who has trav-
eled much can have failed TO take note
Of the disquieting effect of certain
apartments What has been suffered
there remains. The walls have heard
the voice of human anguish and must
echo it forever. That is why you have
lain awake sometimes upon the softest
of beds in the most quiet nights listen
ing and afraid without tangible cause
| am very sensitive TO such impress
sions and quick to recognize the indi-
yiiual character of inanimate objects.
For instance, some of my most difficult
feats-never attempted even by Leste-
rel who probably ranks next TO myself
nor dreamed of by the generality of
inggIers and equilibrists-are per-
formed with ivory sphere ant extreme
" delicate crystal cups. and, though
two spheres or two cups may be pre-
eisely alike in substance and form, one
will work well for me and another i'll,
because of the souls that are in them.
As to the room | mentioned. it is
worthy of remark that the most deli
cate of the objects which | brought
there for purposes of practice seemed
70 be somewhat affected by the nature
Of the place.
As for myself, regretted having TAX
en- the lodgings as soon as | was alone
there. To the eye, however, the rooms
seemed very suitable to my purposes,
the paror, of which | speak particular
w. being large and high and we'll light
ed by two tall windows. The furniture
was seanty, the floor bare except for a
few small rugs and the whole house
uute free from noise or jar. 1t was rec
commended by the manager of the the
alter where | was to appear, and he
mentioned that the landlord was a
countryman of mine. | learned later
that he was from Val Roger, a suburb
own very pleasant villa there beside
the river 1t was not the man himself
with whom | dealt in the matter of the
rooms, but a black browed surly fell
low employed by him. Once, while
standing in the hall, | heard the land
lords voice calling down from the top
glimpse of him.
had never visited America before,
though frequently urged to do so, and,
having no friends, | spent the first
evening alone in my new lodgings. AS
tc what happened then and afterward
let me say that while many places Of
temporary abode had whispered their
secrets to me in the quiet of the night
had heard them always with the inner
ear. | was perhaps as much a skeptic
as Yourself regarding any supernatural
perception by the physical senses.
1t had been my intention to spend the
evening in reading, but had not turn
ed a dozen pages in my book before l
became aware of an uneasiness that de-
fected my attention. laid down the
book and sat for perhaps an hour star
ing into the Goals of the CRATE until my
eyes ached. Restlessness then impelled
me to rise, and l began to pace the
floor
All the furniture seemed to be hud-
died around the fire. The back of the
room was like a corridor, and | could
walk nearly 80 feet in gentle curve
from the door of the closet to the black
2ushioned bench below the window to
he left in the northern wall. The
windows, by the way, were pointed at
the top, as if in a church, and some
now that end of the room seemed IA