1916
To
My Dear Master
Edmund Landolt, M.D.
HOMMAGE D'AMITIÉ
PREFACE
When travelling in France a few years ago during the summer vacation, I made the acquaintance of a professor of world-wide fame, which acquaintance soon ripened into a lasting friendship. Among the various subjects which we dealt with in our conversation, I happened to mention spiritualism. I told him how bitterly disappointed I had been at the various séances I had attended. Either the séance had passed off without any phenomena at all, or if anything did occur, it had turned out invariably to be a palpable fraud, and had left me more sceptical than ever—besides, I added, the oracular utterances delivered by the medium when in an hysterical condition, which is palmed off to the audience as a trance, were so nonsensical and meaningless as to leave me in doubt whether to be amused at the gullibility of the public, or disgusted at the time I had thrown away in listening to such nonsense.
"Yes," replied the Professor thoughtfully, "that always used to be my view of spiritualism, but since I have seriously examined the subject for myself I have entirely changed my views on the subject. So far from scoffing at it, as I confess I used to, I am now convinced that the real phenomena are far and away more astonishing than are these which these charlatans profess to exhibit or actually produce by conjuring and fraud. Now, if you wish to be convinced that there are genuine phenomena, come with me to Paris and we will investigate the subject together at the great S.... Hospital. Here we found indeed a rich field for our studies. We witnessed there all the phenomena of suggestion, second-sight, clair-audience, hypnotism, dual-consciousness, telepathy, the movement of objects without contact, and many other occurrences of such a surprising nature that in our present state of ignorance they appeared to be altogether outside the laws of Nature as we understand them; and I went away entirely convinced that certain people possess powers such as we ordinary mortals have never even dreamt of."
While I was staying at his hotel, the Professor narrated to me the extraordinary history of Professor Delapine, which he assured me was true, and which with his permission I committed to writing, and worked up into a novel. Observing the intense interest which I exhibited in his narrative, he was kind enough to introduce me to the Professor himself as well as to several of the other characters, and thereby enabled me to fill up the gaps. What I heard certainly bore out the adage that "truth is stranger than fiction." For obvious reasons I have not given the real names to the characters referred to in the novel, since Delapine, Madame Delapine, (Renée), Marcel, and Dr. Riche are still hale and hearty, and very distinguished and popular members of society.
It is needless to say that the coup at the tables related as taking place at Monte Carlo, as well as other events mentioned in these chapters, have been disguised so as to prevent identification of the parties concerned by the general public, although the actors themselves will doubtless recognise and appreciate the details of the narrative.