Horatio Eddy in a personal letter to me under date of July 6, 1920, wrote:
“A book six inches thick would not hold my history. I cannot give any version of our floating in the air, but it is just as stated in ‘Communication.’ Webster Eddy is my youngest brother. My father did put live coals on William’s head and poured hot water down his back. We all used to get horsewhipped by him to prove the devil was in us.”[120]
In another letter dated July 3, 1922, he writes that he and his sister had been giving a joint exhibition with Ira Erastus Davenport, who had been ordered by the authorities in Syracuse to take out a juggler’s license, but would not.
“The result was while we were holding a private seance we were handcuffed and taken to jail; on the way the handcuffs were taken off. We did not ride to jail but were dragged along through the snow for more than a mile. They did not put us in cells, as I told them if they did I would have every prisoner’s door open before daylight, so two police sat up all night with us. In the morning a Mr. McDonald of 7 Beach Street went our bail for fifteen thousand dollars.
“Our trial was to be held in Schenectady in March. We arrived there and had to wait three weeks, then they put it over to Albany three months later and our bail was renewed. We stayed in Albany until court was almost through. The day our trial was to take place the judge stated we claimed it to be a phase of religion and ruled it out of court.”
If you are to be a Spiritualist you must believe that fifteen persons, several of them reporters, met in Mrs. Young’s parlors in 27th Street, New York City, and at the request of the Spirit several English walnuts were placed near the piano, and that the piano rose and descended on the walnuts without crushing them. Col. Olcott writes that seven of the heaviest persons in the room were asked to sit upon the instrument. The invitation being accepted Mrs. Young played a march and the instrument and the persons surmounting it were lifted several feet.
“A portfolio containing Eliza White’s Katie King note and John’s duplicate was at this time in my coat pocket, where it had been constantly since the preceding evening. John broke in upon our expressions of surprise by rapping out ‘Do you folks want me to commit forgery for you? I can bring you here the blank check of any National Bank and sign upon it the name of any president, cashier or other official.’ I thanked his Invisible Highness and declined the favor upon the sufficient ground that the police did not believe in Spiritualism and I did not care to risk the chance of convincing them in case the forged papers should be found in my possession.” (People from the Other World, Henry S. Olcott, page 458.)
“In a house on Ferretstone Road, Hornsey, London, explosions like bombs were heard, lumps of coal were propelled by some unknown agency in all directions. Brooms were thrown violently from a landing into the kitchen. Glass and china had been smashed and windows broken and to top it all off a boy sitting on a chair had been raised with the chair from the ground.” (The London Evening News, Feb. 15, 1921.)
Vincenzo Gullots, a Sicilian violinist at Batavia, Ill., well known by reason of his Chautauqua concerts, decided to take a bride chosen for him after death “by the companion of my most thrilling hours, my departed wife. She died in August and I was almost frantic with grief but in the night I could sense her presence and I followed her guidance implicitly. My new mate will comfort her.” (The New York World, May 17, 1922.)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in an interview at the Hotel Ambassador, New York City, as reported by the New York World, April 11, 1922, stated that “in ‘Summerland’ marriage is on a higher and more spiritual plane than here and is merely the mating of affinities, who are always happy. No babies are born however. The spirits as they go about their daily tasks, keep a watchful eye on earthly matters and are extremely interested in the births here.”