Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-19

Frank Rolf would be taken seriously ill during the
night and when, about two o clock IN the morning,
he was actually stricken with what vaguely said
have been something like a spasm and congestive
chill" she directed Rolf to hurry next door, where
he would find DR.. Stevens:
. But y protested Rolf, DIR. Stevens Is in another
part of the city tonight.
No. she said calmly, he has come back, and
YOU will find him where l say.
Quite inCredulOuS, Rolf gave his ne1ghbOrS door
bell lusty pull, and the next moment was talking
to the doctor. who, unknown to the Rotfs, was
haps worth adding, brother Frank was soon relieved
of the "spasm and congestive chill
In this way continually surprising but constantly
delighting the happy Rofs, Lurancy Vennum re-
manned with them for than three months,
protesting complete ignorance OF her identity, and
enacting with the greatest fidelity the role of the
of her. Early in Nay however w, she called Mrs.
Rolf to side and informed her in voice broken
by sobs that Lurancy was coming back" and that
they would soon have to take another farewell of
This Said, change became apparent in her. She
glared wildly around, and in agitated tone de-
manded. Where am 1? l here before.
l want to go home!"
Mrs. Rolf, heartbroken. explained that she had
been under the control of Marys spirit for the
purpose of curing her body" and told her that
her parents would be sent for But within five
minutes she had again lost all knowledge of her
true identity. and seemingly was Mary Rolf once
more, overjoyed that she had been permitted to
return.
The Return of Lurancy
FOR some days she continued in this state with only
occasional 1apses into her original self; then,
the morning of May Fl, she announced that the
time for definite eavetaking had at last arrived,
and with evident grief went about among the neigh
bors bidding them good by 1t was arranged that
Sister Nervie' should take her to Rof's Office, and
that Rolf should thence escort her home. En- route
there were sharp nterchanges of personality, with
the spirit" control dominant but when the office
was reached it became evident that she had fully
come into her own again The night before she had
wept bitterly at the thought of leaving her father
Now she addressed him calmly as Mr. Rolf" called
herself Lurancy, and said that her one wish was to
her parents possible.
Nor the Vennums were quickly to discover,
did she return to torment and alarm them by the
trary, they found her healthy and normal in mind
and body, completely cured, result. the Rofs
emphatcay declared, of the intervention of the
'spirit" of their beloved daughter.
Public Controversy Aroused
NEEDLESS to say, the people of Watseka and the
~ surrounding country had watched with breath
less interest the progress of this curious affair but it
not until three months after the possession
had ended that the public at large obtained any
knowledge of it. The first intimaton, outside of
unnoticed reports in local newspapers, through
the medium of two articles contributed by DR..
Stevens to the August and 10, 1873, issues of
The Relgio-P Philosophical Journal, of the
leading spirtualist organs of the United States.
Traversng the case in the fullest detail and en-
phasizng the fact that up to the moment of writing
the principal actor had had return of the ills
from which she had previously suffered, Dr. Stevens
gave it his unqualified conviction that the spirit
of Mary Rolf had actually revisited earth in the
person of Lurancy Vennum and had been the instru-
ment of her cure.
This view naturally commended itself to spiritual
lists; but by the unbelieving it vigorously COM
Dr. Stevens narrative was work of fiction The
veracty of the Roffs also attacked "Can the