New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-12-12


is all we know positively about her thus far.
She says she will tell more later.
Mrs Curran. who has the lovable and pun
gent and sprghtly Patience for familiar. does
not say that Patience is the spirit OF a woman
long dead. Neither does she say that Patience
is not a name taken by her own subconseious-
ness or personality All Mrs Currsn will say
/, that she has the sense OF being In touch
with the personality of a very bright, charming
and lovable being; tina, this personality. in
her communications over the ouija board, has
never said or written anything but that con-
tributes to the comfor. and happiness, spirit
ually. Of all who have seen the message.
GOSPEL OF KINDNESS.
All know" says Mrs. Curran, is that Pa
thence comes to me as instrumentality to I'M
pack a pack apacked of Him Her gospel is
of loving kindness, universal and individual.
asked Mrs. Curran how the messages came
to her. She told me that She has peculiar
feeling as of pressure upon her mnd-upon
her mind as distinct from her brain. She says
that the communications come in combina-
ton Of vision and hearing. She sees things as
pictured and catches them as a sort Of unheard
sound. which comes with peculiar beat or
RHYTHM. Sometimes she has the vision before
the pointer spells out the words on the let
tered lines She does not know exactly how
70 explain her method Of reception OF the mes
sage but it is in a sense independent of the
ouiia board The ouija board seems to be sim
ply the easiest means Of transcribing what she
receives in a combination OF INSTALLATION
and addition.
OF course, the Spiritists insist that Pa
tience is a d.scarnate spirit OF course, Ro-
man Catholics and some others MAINTAIN thst
she may be spirit. but IL so she is spirit
not at peace and abroad to no good end
Others insist that Patience gives OH what she
gets from the individuals around the board
when she is communicating, and then there are
the psychologists, who hold 10 the theory that
everything that Patience Worth gives OH has
been taken into Mrs. Curran's subconscious-
ness in some way.
Mrs Curran is very charming woman OF
about thirty. She was born in Mound City,
H.. has lived in ST. Louis and Chicago and in
the Ozark region of Southeastern Missouri.
She has had high school education and has
studied music and taught it. She is woman
OF intelligence, but not apparently OF super-in-
tellgence She would not be classed as
"highbrow" She has none Of the stigmata OF
so many psychics. She is spontaneous, blithe,
girlish-matronly. She has read the ordinary
literature that a woman in middle class life
would ordinarily read-the standard novels,
some of the standard poets, some of the lat
ter day best sellers"-but she has no partic-
ular knowledge of any literature that is archaic
in character.
She has not been great reader of the Bible,
and she knows nothing much more than the
name of Chaucer or Langland. She never
heard of Cedmon or Beowulf until their
names were brought out in questionings for the
origin Of the Patience Worth writings. Neither
her father nor her mother was or is literary In
any distinctive sense; certainly, neither Of
them ever specialized in early English. Every
line of investigation which promised to lead
to something that would account for Patience
Worth by evidence of an unconscious acquisi-
ton OF the kind of language used by Patience
Worth has led to nothing. So far as known,
Mrs. Curran has never been placed anywhere
where she could have absorbed the language Of
Patience Worth or anything remotely reseni-
bling it.
About three weeks ago Mrs. Curran, at the
instance Of some friends, went to Boston to
visit Professor Morton Prince. The visit
amounted to nothing. Mrs. Curran sat with
Professor Prince at the ouija board and Pa
thence disported herself in perfect character
there as elsewhere. She laughed at Professor
Prince when he tried to trap her. saying that he
was trying to measure a smoke that would
drift awhither under his hand.
When Professor Prince wanted TO hypnotic
Mrs Curran and sidetrack her consciousness.
according TO his theory, so that he might get
into her subconscousness as the abiding place
OF personality OF hers calling itself Patience
Worth, Mrs. Curran refused to submit She
said that she did not want TO surrender her
will to that OF another person, being unassured
that such another person might not suggest
to her suboonscious personality explanations
which would destroy Patience Worth. She
feared that in some way submission to hypno-
sis might put stop to the message Of beauty
and love that she has been receiving. and so
the visit to Professor Prince ended.
The mystery remains. And Patience gossips
and smiles and sings and weaves away at her