New Britain herald., 1922-03-16
Believes Mary Ellen Started Strange Fires-FOund In- ilammable Fluid at Farm Reporter Did Automa- tic Writing.

Halifax. N. &. March f6.-Dr. Walter Franklin Prince of the Amer ican Research Society of New York who has been Investigating stories Of ghostly manifestations at the home of Alexander Macdonald at Caledonia Mills, N. S., made public last night his report on the subject,
 His conclusion is that there was no ghost, but that the mysterious starting of fires in the house was due to hu- man agency. He thinks that they were the work of Mary Ellen, the young adopted daughter of the MacDonalds but says she is not mentally culpable being "exceedingly young for her years in development of mind
 Girl Had Dreams
 Mary Ellen has had dream states and may have been in an "altered state of consciousness" when the acts were committed Dr. Prince says. He indicates that this condition may have been the cause also of the braidng Of the cows tails and the shifting of livestock. It is possible, he says, that discarnate intelligence impeled her.
 The girl is not held responsible for the skipping of Harold McWhidden, a reporter of The Halifax Herald, and r. c. Carroll, a detective, which they say took place in the house. Dr. Princes report is taken to suggest they may have only thought they were slapped or may have slapped each other
 Fires in Mary Ellen's Reach
 The report reads in part:
 My visit of six nights and five days at the house in the vicinity of Antigo- nish, Nova Scotia, which has attracted so much attention, ended Monday morning.
 Apart from the statements of Sig nor Marconi and othersexperts, have proved that the wireless waves theory cannot be true unless the waves are endowed with intelligence to know just when people are in the house, with a dislike for the upper part of the room walls, with a repugnance to having persons see them break out into flames, and with ability to trans port cushions from one room to an- other, and the like.
 Humans Set Fire
 The fires were undoubtedly set by human hands, judging by the unmis- takable signs left in the house. The burns are never found on the wall pa per higher than the reach of a person five feet tall. which is the height of girl in the family over the bed which fills one end of the room. They are never higher than such person kneeling could reach, and in muddy or dewy weather one would not wish to stand on the bed.
 "Other slightly higher places on the woodwork were always set on fire by pieces of cloth. which could easily have been tossed.
 "In recess over a door where a fire occurred were found the frag ments of glove, undisturbed, and in the midst of them a match, where it could not have been prior to the fire, nor could it have been placed there after it's extinguishment. The fires avoided starting before witnesses, and there was no occult reason for so do ing-and avoided all parts of the dim ing room and parlor visible from the meeting place in the kitchen. An odor- less, inHammabe liquid was found in bottle on a beam,, which produced the described effects on wet paper. Other indicia were found pointing to the same conclusion, namely, that person five feet tall secretively per formed the acts as opportunity offer ed.
 Had Chance to Move Cushion
 "The various witnesses were un doubtedly honest in believing that the acts could not have been thus per formed, but my acquaintance with er- TOTS of observation and of memory on the part of intelligent persons dealing with a large number of details in a matter quite new to them has often dem onstrated that such testimony may be vitally in error. For example it was though that a cushion which some time before had been put up stairs was placed on the bedstead downstairs by occult agency. But 1t appears that the next preceding fire was upstairs, making it likely that an opportunity was found in the inter- val to bring the cushion down.
 But l am emphatically of the opinion that the girl was not mentally culpable. She is mentally exceedingly young for her years and within the past year has had singular dream states, from which it was difficult to rouse her. It is very probable that she was the victim of altered states.
 There was wind during the night which I passed alone in the house and I examined the loose board which someone suggested vibrated and there was no movement nor sound. My own personal studies of series of raps and other sounds which lasted for months in my own house makes the testimony of Messrs. Whidden and Carroll quite credible, to the effect that the sounds werenot from or dinary causes. For reasons which I cannot here give in detail. l regard the tactual sensations which both had an effect upon their consciousness, not of the usual kind, and due to causes little understood.
 Automatic Writing by Reporter
 This new outbreak would be con sistent with the theory that the girl was prompted by discarnate agency which now found a new outlet owing to peculiar quality residing in one of the men, probably MT Whidden, which quality has been given the psychic. In that case MT. Carroll also heard and felt it because he was with u,h n |