Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-08-15
THE MYSTERY OF MRS. PIPER
England Housewife Baed Scientists With Her Remarkable
Psychic Observation-Disclosures Converted by Expert
ments-Case of Doctor Hyslop
By JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS

A MASKED man entered a modest cot
"A tage on the outskirts of Boston,
He proceeded to a room where an un-
conscious woman leaned over n table,
her head buried in pillow, her hand
clutching a pencil whose point rested
upon a pad of paper The woman's hand
commenced to write messages to the
masked man-communcations alleged
to be from his relations beyond the grave.
This mysterious visitor returned to the
New England cottage day after day,
being always announced as "AIr Smith"
At length. he became convinced that the
information written to him by the un-
conscious woman was such that no liv-
ing person but himself could possibly
have known. Much to the astonishment
of his brother savants, he announced his
belief in the power of the living TO com
municate with the dead.
The masked man was DR.. James II.
Hyslop. professor of logic and ethics at
Columbia University, New York, and the
mysterious woman who converted him
TO the spirItistic hypothesis was modest
and retiring New England housewife,
Mrs. Leanore Piper. Unlike her prede-
cessors, she had assumed her uncanny
role unwillingly, had never given public
seances, never demonstrated her powers
before other than scientific investigators.
Discovered by Prof. William James
This strange woman was the discovery
of Prof. William James, of Harvard,
brother of Henry James, the noted lit
terateur. A quarter century ago, Profes.
sor James delving into the mysteries of
psychic research, learned that she suf-
fered now and then from peculiar aberra-
tions of consciousness, during which 1t
had been accidentally discovered by her
family that she could reveal certain
truths that could not possibly have come
TO her from any living person. Pro-
fessor James tested her powers, and COM
municated results TO DR.. Richard Hodg-
son, an English psychologist living in
Boston, and in order to subject her to
an acid test, Doctor Hodgson conspired
with Professor Hyslop. whom he knew
10 be a skeptic and careful scientific
investigator. Thus 1t was arranged that
Professor Hyslop should mask himself,
disguise his voice and proceed to the
Piper homestead unknown and unan-
nounced, entering the presence of the al
legged medium only after she had lapsed
into one OF her spells OF unconscious
ness. In the course of these experiments,
during which the woman of mystery
never saw his features or heard his natu'
raj voice, Professor Hyslop alleges. the
pencil in her hands wrote a secret pass
word from his dead father, a word un'
known to any one else, and which he
was sure could never have been com
municated to Mrs. Piper by any living
consciousness. Reams Of paper, bear
ing alleged messages written by Mrs
Piper in Professor Hyslop's presence
convinced him that ner demonstrations
were absolutely above fraud, and he had
her subjected TO medical tests proving
that while writing these communications
she was beyond question In state oi
anesthesia, !nsensible to pain.
Having convinced these men Of science
that the dead could communicate with
the living. Mrs. Piper received an invi
tation to visit England, and subject her
self 10 tests arranged by the famous Lon
don Society for Psychic Research After
some persuasion she went abroad. stop
ping In Liverpool, where, at the residences
Of Sir Oliver Lodge president OF m
Unisersity of Birmingham. she vas sub