New-York tribune., 1919-11-15
''Pufiez1ce Worth" Clashes
With Noted Psychologist
Ago Amazes DIR. James III. Hyslop and Indites
Verse to Ethel Barrymore and Poetry to Editor

The invisible but eloquent Patience
Worth reached the peak of her versa
tility yesterday afternoon in so far as
her performances in New York are con-
cerned when, presumably, she indited
poem of eulogy to Ethel Barrymore
crossed shadowy swords with DR..
James II. Hyslop, head of the Psychical
Research Society, and conversed flu
emily. if somewhat abstrusely, with
writer's, metaphy ysicians and psycholo-
gists.
In so far as the many men and women
gathered in the drawing room of Mrs.
Herman Behr, 1S1 East Sixty-sixth
Street. could see with the naked eye,
Mrs. James Curran, who claims to be
the earthly mouthpece Of Patience
Worth, did all the talking. But the
torrent of prose- and poetry, some of
it singularly apt and epigrammatic,
was said to come entirely from the
talkative English girl supposed to
have died $50 years ago. 1t was the
most dramatic of the nine sessions
held thus far because DR.. Hyslop, Miss
barrymore, Professor Gustav A. Gaver,
who was president of the first Society
of Applied Psychies in New York, and
John r. Rathom, editor of "The Provi-
dence Journal" were among those who
guided the ouija board with Mrs.
Curran.
Fourteen Poems in Hour
Patience outshone herself. 1t was
as If she sensed the fact that she was
on trial, for she sought madly for
self-expression. In the course of an
hour she dashed off 2.100 words, in
Guiding fourteen poems, which, ac-
cordng to Mrs. Curran, "did not need
to be doctored or edited, as they we're
the finished product ready for print"
The atmosphere was charged with
electricity when DR.. Hyslop, with a
non-committal smile on his face, took
his seat opposite Mrs. Curran. A
lively session had been anticipated.
The exponent of Patience appeared
armed with the following statements,
alleged to have been made about one
of her books bv Dr.. Hyslop, writing
in "The Journal Il the American So
ciety Of Psychical Research" in 1916:
"The book is fool adventure to in
fuence the public in behalf of ideas
which have no credentials between its
covers"
"W orthy of children and savages."
,,o%xv
fortune out of the book were the pri-.
mary influence acting upon the parties
concerned"
AS it is, the publisher edited it to
suit himself after Mr.. Yost (of 'The
st. Louis Globe Democracy had editeu
1T to suit his, making it a fraud and
delusion to any one who desires to
treat it seriously"
"The facts necessary to establish
Patience Worth are deliberately
omitted from the book, evidently be-
cause they could not stand the light
of day"
"The publisher has joined with the
original parties to perpetrate a fraud
upon the community and to hinder
scientific research
Woman's Attitude Defiant
With these statements in her mind
and typewriter copy of them in her
pocket, Mrs. Currans attitude was
rather defiant and spirited when the
psychologist put his hand on the ouiia
board.
Nov l want to show you that I'm
not the fake you called me- she
laughingly exclaimed.
81 never called you a fake" objected
DR.. Hyslop. you're quite mistaken
if you think that"
The audience held it's breath when
Patience began to talk to DR.. Hyslop,
thinking that perhaps words of re-
elimination were coming, AS matter