The New York herald., 1922-03-22

uSluS ulSdtHSu VI iuoNcu, tilc WidiIh
Of an Englishman. clearly visible to
Mrs. Prince, who touched him on the
left hand and admired his English
bathrobe. and raps that followed him
from home to Office and moved about
as he told them to move.
The truth is. DR.. Prince regards
these latter phenomena as vastly more
interesting and important than tie
swiftly disproved phenomena on An
tigonish; for his strange experiences
seem to him TO have been outside the
concrete realm OF psychology, and in
deed to have TO do with that other
world from which, he believes, odd
STRINGS and whispers. unintelligent
incoherent and unreasonable emerge
to confuse the minds of ordinary folk.
Sitting in the Psychological Research
Society's office at A East Twenty
third street yesterday, an enormous
heap of correspondence piled in front
Of him, Dr. Prince spoke first on Mary
Ellen and her queer doings.
IncitinS Human Prankers.
"I went to Antigonish with an open
mind" he said 1T is true that ! had
in mind long list of poltergeist mani
festations every one of which was or
could have been traced to the curious
conduct or human beings. but l did not
lei that influence me- Arriving at the
Macdonald farmhouse on March Z, |
busted myself with three associates in
preparing for a stay in virtually dis
mantled house. and in the evening. al
ter arranging system or bells tand
this was done to incite the probable hu-
man prankers rather than the ghosts) |
went seriously about looking for visible
tokens of the goings on that had thrown
the neighborhood into turmoil.
II examined the many traces of the
fires that had been supposedly set by
spirits, and l noted at once that the
greatest number of burns were over
Mary Ellens bed, and that these burns
never rose above particular level. the
level that would be reached by a per-
son five feet tall kneeling upon bed.
looked for oils and discovered three
bottles of oil. although Detective Car
roll has searched the house and had
found nothing of the kind. Then. in
recess over door. i tound n pair OF
cotton gloves burned about the fingers
and underneath the gloves, and upon
some ashes a half burned match.
by the second day ! was perfectly
sure of the human origin of the potter
geist pranks. and reasonably sure that
none other than likeable. happy go luck,
well behaved Mary Ellen was the par
ticular human responsible. Reason in
dcated that the foster mother, Mrs.
MacDond. sick for twenty years. would
never have left the house and sat for
three-quarters of an hour In the cold
rain. as she did on one OCCASION. IL she
had been the cause nor would old Mac
Donald. past 20. have submitted himself
TO the gruelling labor of a six mile
Journey every day TO care for his cattle.
THE evidence as regards Mary Ellen
herself was amply supporting, for she
was known TO be a girl of moods ever
since babyhood to go into strange rev.
cries when she would not appear TO be
conscious Of what was going on around
her or OF what she herself was doing.
When old Macdonald. anxious in his
simple way TO demonstrate the spiritist
origin of the unloosing Of his cattle.
showed me how strongly he had tied
them and what tight knots he had used.
saw Mary Ellen across the fireplace
calmly untieing the knots that the old
man had made. ] may say here that no
such things as braiding the tails OF the
cattle together ever happened