The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1903-06-19

using this crystal of popular wisdom
as tombstone in the matter, / would
be willing to assert that one ten
millionth of the labor wasted in base
less discussion of doubtful facts would
have suficed to give the world enough
genuine facts to satisfy all candid
minds.
Have patience with me; l am get
ting the philosophy of the subject out
of the way as fast as l can. The es-
sential point is that Hackett and |
went out to catch a real rabbit-in 9th
er words human being who had had
genuine supernatural message.
We did not care where it came from
or what it was about or how it was
transmitted so long as it could be
proved that it came and that no known
organ of this mortal body could have
enabled the individual to receive it.
When was a boy, used to hunt
rabbits in a piece of woods which
was supposed to be a particularly good
place for them. All youthful hunters
went there and as a result Visible to
me in these mature years. all sane
rabbits had gone over into another
county. One day, when the snow had
come and the rabbits had put on their
winter coats, some Jester set up the
corpse of a white cat in the edge of
the woods in an absurdly conspicuous
| position. | saw it and blazed away,
| though my common sense should have
| told me that it could not be rabbit
because such a preposterously reckless
| rabbit would have been shot long ago.
Yet l wasted my powder, and, having
done so, set the creature up again in
the same place, and every mothers
son that came that way exercised his
craftsmanship so long as there was
anything to shoot at. And next day, in
different spot, but equally conspicu-
Gus, the joker played the game once
more. l remember that for long time
afterward all the boys were ashamed
to be seen going into that piece of
woods with a gun.
1t took Hackett and me about a year
to discover that genuine psychics are
not found in the edge Of the woods be-
olOC LhC OO0lCA pain lnelI IL 10 ndIO W
find them even when one knows where
they are, for they lie low, and, like the
rabbits, they initiate the natural color
of the surroundings.
You may accept this as a general
rule: When your fellow man takes you
by the button of your coat and leads
you into corner to tell you of pro-
phet.c dream or a mysterious psychic
message, be does not believe the story
himself. Perhaps he may be trying to
believe it, but no one has to try to be-
lieve in real experience of that kind
after he has had it. He knows. And
the chances are good that he will not
talk of it to his closest intimate. 1t is
ever the element of doubt that leads to
talking.
Our hobby gave to Hackett and me
an excuse for study, an aim in travel
and an opportunity of meeting cultivat-
ed men and women. AS it was an
elected hobby and not the result of
congenital mental distortion, we rode
it calmly and were never mistaken for
cranks except by cranks. 1t is true
that some of our earlier experiences
were more or less absurd, but we were
saved from serious error by the bust
ness mans faculty of turning from the
impracticable to the practical. When
we encountered an impostor, we
promptly charged him up to profit and
loss" and passed on to the next item.
1t was while engaged in fruitless
though not embarrassing investigation
in Boston that we came quite by acct
dent upon the most important informa-
ton. We made the acquaintance of
young physician named Harold Whit
ing, who was then and is today one of
the most honest minded men in the
world. believe that Whiting would
not lie even to himself and there are
few of whom so much can be said. He
was amusing himself with experiments
in the matter of peculiar capacities and
hypnotic state, but confessed that he
had found no facts upon which con-
illusions of any Importance could be
based.
We discovered that his thought had
been turned into this channel by re-
markable occurrence which he had wit
messed, but we had considerable diff
Guilty in persuading him to say any
thing more upon the subject. 1t ap-
peared that he was under some sort of
pledge in the matter.
"There is friend of mine, now in
New York" said he, "who received a
psychic message from his brother, who
was then upon the other side of the
world. This thing happened under cir
cumstances which make doubt impos-
sible. | was present when the message
was received. l know the story in all
its details, but l cannot give you the
facts nor tell you the mans name be-
cause gave him my word that would
not disclose them"
Perceiying our disappointment, he
| expressed sincere regret, and by way OF
4 atonement he gave us the name of a
young woman in New Haven whom it
might be worth our while to see.
II received a letter about her some
time ago from an instructor in psychol'
| OSJ at 1dlS, an Olu llISuu VI hiAS,
said he. my friend and several Other
members of the faculty are investigat.
ing the case and they regard it as gen
uine and important The girls name is
| Dorothy Vaughn. She is an orphan
and lives with her aunt, Mrs. Eustis
who has had certain occult experiences
herself, as am told"
II ~. \ - LN.rr
tbs and the name of his friend. His