The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-07-05
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!. sitte'l 10 near with the physical ea
, sounds uttered at distances so grea
!! that II e are absolutely beyond tn
: aurlcuiar faculties of the normal eal
Just as the person gifted with tn
elalrVoyance sense is able to see Wit
me PHYSICAL eye people and scene a
! distances so far removed as to be be
: You'd the normal vision to witness.
most remarkable case of clairau
dience. and one which moreover hap
pened IN real life. is now being pre-
pared for submission to the inNestlga
tlon OF the society for psychic research
me facts of the story are attested Il
by lndlsputable authority, the stor,
itself being told by one of the witnesse,
TO the phenomenon, the daughter of
Well known physician of western Ohio
hlmsen a most matter of fact and cold
ly scientific man. AS to the yount
woman who reports the case, she is {
graduate of Ann Arbor. and, like hel
father, a Well trained observer.
The Strange Story.
The story l shall here relate can
not hope to have any one believe i'm
plicltly and in its entirety who does not
happen to know me personally or is
not familiar with the reputation l bear
not only for veracity. but for the UNI
compromising attitude which l, in COM
mon with both my father and mother,
nave always taken toward the vast
mass of alleged psychic phenomena
with which one Is RECALLED in this age
OF experiment and inquiry. 1 feel it
necessary to make this statement as
emphatic as possible so as to anticipate
any questioning in the mind of the
reader regarding my RIGHTEOUSNESS and
gulilbllity as an o~bserver-an attitude
Of mind which l am frank to confess
is. however, entirely desirable on the
part OF every one vino approaches the
honest investigation of any such case
as my own.
My story begins on November s,
1903. l had returned home from the
University of Ann Arbor, where had
graduated but a few months previous,
and was at the time convalescent from
a protracted illness, a combination of
grip and bronchitis. which had been
aggravated. no doubt, by nervous wor-
r1es incident to the financial reverses
which my family was just through. BY
an unfortunate speculation, in which
my father had invested the savings of
q forty years practice of medicine in
the rural community in which he lived,
he had been declared bankrupt a few
weeks before, and on the day previous
the sheritf'S notice of foreclosure had
been tackled upon the front door of the
big old house which had sheltered three
generations of our family. !! go into
these details thus infinitely because i'm
reading this story it is essential to
remember these distressing circum-
stances in tia. they throw a light upon
the highly wrought conGi- ion
in which at that time both my mother
and myself, as we'll as the rest Of us,
were in. For it must De remembered
that as a rule the phenomena of clair
audience, like that of clairvoyarGe. oc-
cur 10 people who are either cons1:tu-
t1onally abnormal in their organization.
such as. for example, the epileptic or
the chronic neurasthenic, or remporar-
lily so by reason of functional deran-e-
ment, physical CT mental. such as ac-
ctdentS to or Impairment of the spinal
core and it's dependent. nerve ganglia.
a sharp blow upon the head. or abb
rormali.ies of the respiratory gan
like fafnting. etc. For I wish to say
right here that I do not believe that
such a thing as l am going to relate
could possibly have happened had it
not been that we We're boil in an alb
normal nervous condition. due to the
circumstances enumerated.
The u in which we lived was one
Of those large, old fashioned dwellings
which In winter are very cold, and dur
ing my commissioned it had been the
custom OF my mother to sleep on a
that might not take any risks in
case I should need anything in the
night. I had at this time been moving
about the house and wa sufficiently
we'll to venture out on several occa-
sions, but still my mother kept up
her practice of sleeping by my side.
On the morning stated 1 had just
which at 6 o'clock at that time of the
year still enveloped the room. l say s
o'clock because just then the grand
fathers clock in the hall below struck
the hour Half awake, half asleep, I
lay thus for perhaps a minute, when
suddenly | heard a sharp cry, coming
1T might be, from some incalculable
distance, SO weird and wild and far
away it sounded. and yet so sharp and
clear that it might have been In the
next room or down stairs or outside
cur door. 1t was a woman's cry, and
very distinctly conveyed the impress
sion that it had been uttered by an
old woman No sooner had 1T sounded
h a hand stole down to my side and
I felt my mothers palm closed over
mine. AS she did so the cry sounded
again. My mothers hand strengthened
its pressure. Fknew, even without her
speaking, that she too had heard the
cry. Then came the sound as Of a
body falling against resounding wood.
Hear Cries Of Agony.
Did You hear that?" whispered my
mother. But before l could answer
there came again and with increased
sharpness two quickly succeeding FEM
inine cries, but from a different voice
two sharp, quick cries of mortal agony
accompanied by what we both later
described rs the sound which a sharp
instrument might make when struck
suddenly n flesh and bone. h lat
ter sound ii is difficult to describe, just
exactly as it is difficult to differentiate
such a sound. Then, quickly follow
ing the last cry, the sound as of a body
falling against a wooden i1oor or door
Or partition.
a1y L. Il .. ~ -. -
member, our hands had become rigidly
locked in each others. This rigidity,
l van to state, was involuntary. We
could not have unclasped our palms at
that moment if we had tried. Petrified
and in~articulate with the terror and
horror of 1T all. for a moment neither