“Realizing then that if it were not a Spirit beside me it was in any case a lady, I asked her permission to take her in my arms in order to verify the interesting observation that a bold experimenter had recently made known. This permission was graciously given, and I took advantage of it respectfully, as any gentleman would have done in the same circumstances. The ‘ghost,’ which made no resistance, was a being as material as Miss Cook herself.
“Katie then declared that on this occasion she felt able to show herself at the same time as Miss Cook. I lowered the gas and with my phosphorus lamp entered the room which served as a cabinet. It was dark and I groped for Miss Cook, finding her crouched upon the floor. Kneeling down, I let the air enter my lamp and by its light saw the young woman dressed in black velvet, as she had been at the beginning of the seance, and appearing completely insensible.
“She did not stir when I took her hand and held the lamp near her face, but she continued to breathe quietly. Raising my lamp, I looked around me and saw Katie, who was standing close behind Miss Cook. She was clad in flowing white drapery, as we had already seen her in the seance. Holding one of Miss Cook’s hands in mine, and still kneeling, I raised and lowered the lamp, as much to illuminate the whole figure of Katie as to convince myself fully that I really saw the true Katie, whom I had held in my arms a few moments ago, and not the phantom of a disordered brain.
“She did not speak but nodded her head in recognition. Three different times I carefully examined Miss Cook, crouching before me, to assure myself that the hand I held was indeed that of a living woman, and thrice turned my lamp toward Katie to scrutinize her with sustained attention, until I had not the slightest doubt that she was really there before me.”
Another instance of this sort is told of by Florence Marryat in her book “There Is No Death.”
“I opened the curtains of the cabinet and there stood John Powles himself, stalwart and living. He stepped up brusquely and took me in his arms and kissed me, four or five times, as a long departed brother might have done; and strange to say, I did not feel the least surprised at it, but clung to him like a sister. John Powles had never once kissed me during his life time. Although we had lived for four years in the closest intimacy, often under the same roof, we had never indulged in any familiarity.”
Unfortunately mere deception is not the only or the worst evil in these Spiritualistic materializations. Frequently they are made the means of accomplishing criminal designs. There came to my attention a case of a very peculiar nature in which a widow was robbed of a large fortune. It appears that there was a wealthy old widower, a devoted Spiritualist, who was easily influenced by certain mediums. These same mediums also had among their clients a rather weak-minded widow. At a seance they got the old man to propose marriage to this widow who, in turn, was being advised through them by the Spirit of her husband to marry the old man. The old man did not live very long after the wedding and on his death bed promised the woman that he would come back to aid her and give her financial advice. He had previously made a will giving her absolute control of his estate.
The body was taken to an undertaking establishment to be cared for until the funeral and on the day before the service the widow attended a seance at which her husband told her:
“You go to my coffin to-morrow morning before the ceremony and I will speak to you, giving you my final instructions from my mortal body.”
The next morning, accompanied by a nurse, the woman went to the undertaker’s and was taken to the room where the body lay in its casket. She spoke and to her astonishment the corpse opened its eyes and said: