Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-21
A ST. LOUIS OUIJA BOARD
BREAKS ALL KNOWN RECORDS
It Writes 300 O0OO-Word Novel of the Time of the
Christ-The Operator Said to Act as the
Amanuensis of Ghost

| scribed as archaic, yet II is such dialec
as no one ever before used In writin
English. She uses nouns in place
verbs, makes grammatical errors an
sometimes is incoherent. Casper s. Yos
editor of the st. Louis Globe-Democra
wrote a book about her a few month
ago. In July of 1916 she began to di'
tate a novel As It was spelled out wit
the planchette Mrs. Curran's husban
wrote 1t down. Mrs. Curran always ha
| her hands on the planchette when II wa
writing. She was not disturbed by cor
versaton in the room, and she even en-
| gagged in it while her hands moved tn
| planchcttc. Patience would spell ou
from $500 to $500 words of her story Il
an hour and half or two hours"
THAT is more than / could write will
n PEN" said Doctor McFabre.
ut is pretty fast writing. One eve
ming she spelled out 5000 words. Dicken.
used TO think that 500 words was a goot
days work, but he had to think about
what he was writing. Patience admitted
that she prepared in advance what she
had to say and 1t flowed forth as If she
were reading 1t from manuscript"
How do you explain it?" asked Dor
othy.
81 don't" said ]. "If Professor Boirat
should be able to make an investigation
with his knowledge of telepathy and sug
gestion he might form theory which
would explain Patience Worth. He says
that when Il name is given to a subcon
conscious personality it manifests itself
moro readily than when anonymous. II
is worth noting. however that the book
about Patience and Mrs. Curran was writ
ten at about the time Patience is said to
have begun debating her long novel. You
may draw what differences you please
from this"
as the novel worth reading?" The Lady
wanted to know
Yes, If you have time to spare. It Is
not easy reading because Of the curious
style. Tho story is about Jesus and
begins with His birth and ends with His
crucitiXion. A man who read the manu-.
script says it has every characteristic of
contemporaneous document, but it is
difficult to believe that Greek slave,
who is one of the characters, could have
been able to talk about the infant Jesus
In the terms which orthodox clergymen
have been in the habit of using since the
Christian religion assumed definite FORM
The story might be called an allegory,
for the Greek slave bears q son in Beth
lehem on the same night that Jesus was
born. She names him Hate and says that
Jesus, who Is Love, will overcome hate
and that 1t will disappear from the world.
II 1t had been written in straightforward
English the story would doubtless be as
popular as Ben Hur.' 1t Is as dramatic
as Lew Wallaces story It's style Is awk.
ward and involved. save now and then
when Patience. or whoever wrote II.
seems to forget herself Then there is
half page or so that moves ahead in
straightforward English. The author
might have studied John Lyly's 'Eu-
phues,' for she has written In euphuisms.
This is a fair sample" And read:
And the Night came sad, and robed
black, until the late hour when mid her
quiet, at the deep Of earths sleep, she
brought forth her Jewel and set It upon
the bosom Of the sky. And the still was
broken by the sorrow-breath of THETA.
And Panda brought forth his pipe and
whispered unto the night And the notes
sobbed and dripped with tears. And the
Day drank from out the Nights challce,
ana drained the star-wine and the check
or morn burned with its gold
"Theia is the Greek slave and Panda Is
her Arabian servant. The book is full of
this sort of thing. There is poetic imagi
nation, as in the description of the notes
or the shepherds pipe sobbing and drip
ping with tears, and there Is sophomoric
bathos. If the book had been edited to
one-half its size and put into simpler
English it would undoubtedly have been
n great popular success, provided nothing
had been said about Patience Worth ard
the ouija board. And somebody might
have dramatized it and enticed tho non.
theatregoing people to see a religious
play. This may happen even under the
circumstances in which the novel has
been put forth. You never can tell how
far interest in the occult will carry peo.
pie"
Il should like to interview Patience"
said Doctor McFabre.
scores of persons have interviewed
her. said l, but she is a woman of quick
wit and has never been betrayed into
saying anything which would throw any
definite light on her Identity"
GEORGE w. DOUGLAS
THE SORRY TALE: A Story OF the Time of
Christ. BY Patience Worth Fdited ,nith VI
brief Introduction by Casper S. Yost New
YORK; Henry Holt & Co. s180. "
OUR HIDDEN FORCES: An Experimental Study
OF the Psychic Sciences. BY Emil Roiracs
rector or the academy at Dion. Transiatad'
WITH an INTRODUCED lon, by w. deKerior Nevy