The New York herald., 1922-03-17
The Case Of Mary Ellen.

The report made by DR.. PRINCE Of
the American Research Society on
the weird happenings at Antigonish
will not satisfy either the confirmed
believers in ghosts or those hardened
cynics who, as DR.. PRINCE says, be
lieve that matter and force are the
sole two factors in the'universe." The
first will go on thinking that ghost,
mischievous if not evil spirit from
the realm Of the dead, caused the
forty fires in the Ma Donald house.
tied the calves tails together and
turned the cattle loose. The cynics
will prefer to believe that the strange
occurrences were the result of delib-
crate and conscious work on the part
of jester, malicious or otherwise.
DR.. PRINCE attributes the phe-
nomena to Farmer MAcDoNALD's six
teen-year-old daughter, MARY ELLEN.
But she was almost certainly with
out guilt, probably in an altered state
Of consciousness and possibly infiu-
enced by discarnate agency" The
investigator conclusion that MARY
EILEy-or rather her other person
ality-set the fires is based on cir
cumstantial evidence. She had the
opportunity. She was always in the
house when or Immediately before
the blazes were discovered. No fire,
on the walls or elsewhere, occurred
at a point which could not be reached
by a person of MARY ELLEN's height,
which is five feet. No fire occurred
in any part of the house that was
visible from the neighborhood of the
kitchen stove, the common meeting
place OF the family on the nights
when the fires broke out. DR.. PRINCE
found a match which he is sure was
used to set one of the fires; and
spirits, he seems to think, cannot use
matches.
DR.. PRINCE, in describing the girl
whom he holds physically but not
morally responsible for the mischief,
says she is very young mentally,
but a happy, fun loving child who,
her foster mother says, has always
been good child" Strangely enough
most OF the cases in which a potter
geist has seemed to be at work had
child, usually girl, as their lead
ing figure. HETrY WESLEY and ELIZA
ROSE were the centers OF celebrated
psychic mysteries; and girl OF IL
was the main actor in the Cock Lane
ghost affair, although that was a
deceit made OF whole cloth.
Why are children chosen as the
particular medium Of these uncanny
happenings, some of which have not
been as satisfactorily explained as
the Antigonish case? Is it because
the young, uniformed mind is an easy
battle-ground for the secondary or
evil personality which comes to the
top now and then, overcomes the
everyday personality, and raises hob
with the individuals surroundings?
That there are such secondary per
sonalities science no longer doubts.
There are Jekylls and Hydes and
cases OF Becky in real life.
Observers OF psychic phenomena
have wondered why. in the many ex-
amples OF dual consciousness which
have appeared, the secondary person
ality has been almost always of a
wicked bent. The girl who in her
normal state Is obedient and cheerful
becomes, when inhabited by her other
self, a maker Of mischief and some.
times OF serious damage. We're the
ancients to be blamed for accepting
demoniac possession as fact? But
we may disregard the devil and con-
slider the secondary personalities bad
habits as an illustration of what man
might be IL II were not for custom,
love and religion. The primary per.
sonality is what we have become
through the ages. The secondary,
which occasionally appears above the
surface in case like that in Nova
Scotia, is the wild soul Of the cave
period
But are there ghosts? That is
what many readers, disappointed by
DR.. PRINCES findings, will ask. The
doctor himself leaves the gate open.
Possibly, he says, MARY ELLEN was