Home helped to build up his reputation by not charging for his mediumistic services. The claim that he did not accept fees for his sittings may, or may not, be quite true, but the fact remains that the spirits were good to him and provided for his temporal needs abundantly and sumptuously, and he subsisted on the bounty of his Spiritualistic friends who seemed to rival one another in entertaining him in their homes for long periods and showering him with gifts, a practice which began in America and was continued in England and on the Continent to an extent which made a life of positive luxury possible.
It is strongly intimated that the gifts which Home received were in many cases suggested by the Spirits he invoked and his spirit guide seems to have always kept a sharp eye on his need for earthly sustenance even to the point of satisfactorily bedecking his person with jewelry. This was always materialized for him when required, and since he, personally, could not be held responsible for what wicked spirits might do, and as they used good judgment in picking victims, nothing was said about it and he escaped the prison fate of Ann O’Delia Diss Debar.
His early life was spent in Connecticut but whether at the home of his aunt in Waterford or with his mother in Norwich, twelve miles away, is a question, but certain it is that at the death of his mother he went to the aunt’s. This was when he was seventeen, two years after the “Fox Sisters” had begun their career in New York State. How much he had heard of them is uncertain, something no doubt, and it is not strange that a youth of his characteristics might want to emulate them. Then too his mother had the reputation of being possessed of so-called “second-sight” and he may have inherited traits which helped to make the life of a medium look attractive to him. At any rate, claiming the assistance of his mother’s spirit, he tried out his mediumistic powers at the homes of the neighbors with such success that before long he announced to his aunt that he was going to set up as a professional Spiritualist. The lady, a devout Trinitarian, was so shocked and disturbed, he tells us, that “in her uncontrollable anger she seized a chair and threw it at me.” But much as she disliked the idea of the young man becoming a medium his performances soon attracted so much attention that she was reconciled to his leaving her home in Norwich to go to Willimantic, Connecticut, where he began his life-long custom of living on the bounty of friends and dupes. His first feats were of the simplest kind such as are in the repertoire of every itinerant sideshow proprietor, but his success seems to have been instantaneous. One reason for this was that while mediums as a class were a lazy lot Home was an untiring worker as well as an unflinching egotist and his personal qualities went far to disarm suspicion and inspire confidence in the minds of his dupes.
Where he obtained his early education does not appear but the records are full of indications of considerable intellectuality. He claimed to have studied medicine and obtained a degree in New York but he never practiced. In his later years he set up a studio in Italy[34] and gave his attention to sculpture between seances and “sold busts at prices quite out of proportion to their artistic merits.” He studied elocution too and is said to have given many successful readings.[35] He also had the credit of being quite a musician and playing several instruments, which partially explains his accordion trick. With it all he was considerable of a linguist, toward the last being able to speak most of the modern tongues. He was the author of two pretentious books[36] whose chief purpose seems to have been to establish the impression that while all other mediums cheated at times Home was strictly honest on all occasions, and in proof it was said that he was never exposed and never received a fee for his sittings. Nevertheless one charge of fraud was proven against him in court.[37] It may or may not be true that he was never completely exposed but many of his manifestations were discovered to be fraudulent and every one of them can be duplicated by modern conjurors under the same conditions. The principal reason why he was never completely exposed was that he gave no public sittings, always appearing as the guest of the family where he was living and as one writer expressed it, “one would no more think of criticising his host’s guest than he would his host’s wine.”
On one occasion Robert Browning, the poet, attended one of Home’s seances. He had become somewhat alarmed by his wife’s interest in Spiritualism, and when a face was materialized and said to be that of a son who had died in infancy, Browning seized the supposed materialized head and discovered it to be the bare foot of Mr. Home. Incidentally, Browning had never lost an infant son. The living son, R. Barrett Browning, in a letter to the London Times, December 5, 1902, referring to this occurrence said, “Home was detected in a vulgar fraud.” In the same letter he tells of the modification of his mother’s belief after having been deceived by a “trusted friend” and his closing words were: “The pain of the disillusion was great, but her eyes were opened and she saw clearly.”
What might be called Home’s American apprenticeship began in 1850 and in spite of his youth and inexperience he succeeded in convincing many prominent persons of the genuineness of his phenomena, among them being such men as Judge Edmonds,[38] William Cullen Bryant, and Bishop Clarke of Rhode Island. In the spring of 1855 a committee of admirers collected a sum of money sufficient to send him to England and establish himself comfortably. He carried with him a letter of introduction to a man of scientific tastes by the name of Cox who was proprietor of Cox’s Hotel, in Jermyn Street, and through whose influence he was able to arrange sittings with Lord Brougham, Sir David Brewster, Robert Owen, T. A. Trollope, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, and others equally prominent.
After only a few months’ stay in England Home went to Italy, ostensibly for his health, and for the next four years he lived on the Continent, travelling from place to place, living in luxury, being almost continually entertained in the homes of “friends,” which in almost every case were people of rank and wealth. He seems to have had little difficulty in meeting royalty and nobility on terms of intimacy even numbering among his patrons the Emperor and Empress of France as well as the Czar of Russia. From this clientele he received many and valuable gifts. At the Russian Court, with its leaning toward the occult, he was especially welcomed and lived for weeks at a time in the palace of the Czar, like the similar careers of Washington Irving Bishop, Mons. Phillipi, and Rasputin. During his stay in Russia he met a beautiful young lady of rank and with the approval of the Czar married her.[39]
Home at this time had already begun to show that fondness for precious stones which finally became so pronounced that a few years later an English writer in describing him said:
“But the salient feature of the man after all was his jewels. On the third finger of the left hand he wore an immense solitaire, which flashed imperial splendors with every movement; above that a sapphire of enormous size; on the other hand was a large yellow diamond and a superb ruby set in brilliants.”
But these were not all for the writer adds a list of others in Home’s possession which would easily arouse the envy of any multi-millionaire’s wife. In view of this fondness for jewels an incident which occurred just prior to Home’s leaving the Russian Court is interesting. The story was told me by Stuart Cumberland. I have heard him repeat it to others and he also tells it in his book, “That Other World,” from which I quote.