The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-01
THE GHOSTS MUSEUM.
A Boston Mans Search for Evidence
OF the Supernatural.

To THE NEW YORK HERALD: Several
distinguished gentlemen have been ia
voring us with so many well authenti-
Gated" cases of concordant automatisms,
ver.dical Authorizations, intuitional ac-
tivities of the cerebellum, transcendental
hypnagogicism clairaudience, clairvoy-
ance. precedence premonition. telepathy,
teleki.esis, levitation, psychometry pol
tergeist occurrences and other phenom-
ena tending TO prove survival that many
thoughtful persons are beginning to be-
lievc that our great universities should
teach these things to their students. May
! therefore offer the story of. the Ghosts
Museum?
Thirty years ago man then sixty
| years of age came to me with a letter
of introduction from Dr. Richard Hodg-
son. secretary of the American branch
of the English Society for Psychical Re-
search. He was John Curtis. a careful,
persistent investigator of the occult, liv-
| ing at the Langham Hotel, Boston. 1t
| was this man who published at his own
expense "The Vampires of Onset" though
the New England News Company placed
| its title on the cover.
He commenced his studies ut about the
time that Margaret Fox was attracting
! general attention. Later he retired from
| business with fortune and was willing
to spend two-thirds of it for reasonable
assurance that our turbulent existence
here would be followed by better life
| beyond
From the beginning Mr.. Curtis en-
countered delusion and deception and he
considered 1t his duty to uproot as much
of this as possible. He began to seize
the trick parapherralia of the physical
, mediums during seances and when he
was eventually debarred at such places
he employed others TO do the work
In few years he had accumulated
so much spirit drapery bedaubed with
luminous paint, states with false flaps
| or chemically prepared, bells, tambou-
! rines. toothorns, bolts. locks, handouts
false faces, wigs. goggles. boards, angels
wings saints halos and the like that
he found IT necessary to engage a special
room in the hotel where the booty could
be stored. A sign In gold letters was
placed over the door bearing these
words. The Ghosts Museum" This
| Ghosts Museum was all that he with
his money and time. could get out OF
| the physical phenomena, though thou
SANDS OF otherc eagerly accepted such
manifesta tons as heavenly visitations.
With the mental mediums he met with
equal disappointment. Now and then
he seemed to be close to something super
normal, for a trance medium or clair
voyant would catch him with a stray
shot. But he found. just as innumerable
others, including myself. have found,
that mediums simply cannot answer cru
cial test questions Finally Mr. Curtis
began to offer large cash rewards for
something conclusive. but In vain.
Suddenly and Unexpectedly, Charles
II. Bridge. accepted by Bostonians as
n genuine medium. decided to abandon
his spiritistic practices. Upon hearing
this Mr.. Curtis hired the Boston Globe
Theatre. where he and Mr.. Bridge ex-
hibited to a large audience the entire
contents OF the Ghosts Museum, accom-
panied by an interesting and instructive
discourse.
II was Mr.. Curtis's one desire to be-
lieve. But unfortunately he was SO con-
stituted mentally that he had TO accept
facts whether he liked them or not. II
he were engaged in the same investiga-
ton to-day do you think he would do
better7 Would ne find a real ghost for
his museum? w. s. DAVIS.
NEW York, September 30.