The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1909-07-26
GHOST
WORK ON CANVAS
PROF. HYSLOP SAYS SWAIN GIF-
FoRD's SPIRIT EXECUTES GOLD
SMITHS PICTURES.

NEW YORK, June 3O.-'The spirit
of r. Swain Clifford, the well known
artist who died several years ago, is
still painting real pictures on tangl-
BILE canvas.
This is the statement made by Prof.
James H. Hyslop head of the Ameri-
can Society for Psychical Research,
who today for the ilrst time told of
remarkable series of experiments,
extending over four years, with the
shade of the dead painter and the
personality of living goldsmith.
Frederick l.. Thompson in 1905 was
gold worker and engraver by trade. !
He had never painted picture and
had never taken an art lesson. In ,
short he did not know the first thing /
about painting. Then suddenly, he
was seized with wild craving to
execute landscapes-a craving so in
tense and strange that he was fright
ened thinking he was going insane.
The scenes which he was moved to
paint appeared to him in visions, and
he was convinced that the imaginary
scenes that acted as his models actual
ly existed.
He began to paint. The result was
astonishing. His execution was mar
velous. He surprised himself, his
wife, his friends One day while he
was at work he was gripped by the
conviction that he was r. Swain Gift
ford. He did not know that at that
time Clifford was dead, though he had
met him casually once.
The unaccountable insistauce with
in him that he was Clifford finally
frightened him, and he went to Doc
tor Hyslop for service. 1t was then
the professor realized that there
might be something worth investigat-
ing in the case, and took him in
hand.
"Thompsons work" said Doctor
Hyslop progressed astoundingly
From taste that was not in the least
artistic and an ability as a painter
y that was nil, he suddenly became a
. powerful and finished artist. l took
him to mediums. He described to
them his visionary models of land
U scapes in minute detail, and they, in
y trance state, told us where to dis
v cover the scenes he described. We
visited them and found them exactly
" as he had described them, though he
" had never before been to the places
~ Our first search was on the I'd Of
~ July, 1907, when he put into my hands
W number of sketches which he haC
made in the summer and fail of 1905
~ wrote out a note to that effect anC
70 locked them up in my files. We theI
10 went to Nonquitt, Mass, where he ex
pected to find the scenes which haC
. haunted his visions
y " He states tina he had known no
thing about the place except that il
was the summer home of Mr.. Clifford
- 1t was situated near his own home
in New Bedford. but inaccessible ex
Cept by boat. Mr.. Thompson found (;
4 few of the scenes Of his visions ant
took photographs Of them, nut ascer
tanned that Mr. Gifford's favorit
haunt was one of the Elizabeth isl
ands. He then resolved to go on
to the islands and to make a searcl
for the verification of his various ap
partitions.
But, as fortune would have it. Mrs
Clifford took him to the studio of MI
Clifford, which had not been great
altered since his death two and
half years ago before
ITO his surprise, he saw on tn
easel an unfinished sketch which wa
absolutely identical with one of tn
sketches which he had left In m
hands more than a month before. H
said in his diary at the time that
Y almost took his breath away to Sc
the identity between this painting an
= his visions and sketches. There wer
two other pictures on easels wer
identical with sketches he had made
but which had not been left wit
me.
g. Now 1t happens that this case doe
ne not wholly depend on the veracity {
Mr. Thompson. He had left tn
sketch in my hand before he saw tn
painting of Mr. Clifford Mrs. Giffor
'o1 testifies that the picture was role
up and put away until after Mr.. Gil
} ford's death, when it was taken OF
All and put on the easel. Mr.. Thompso
had no opportunity to see it, and h
impulse to paint never arose until 81
months after Mr.. Giffords death.
H0HI0IIIIII0 lIIINI