James was also a drawing medium, and as such he executed many fine pictures. His method of work in this direction was quite beyond the capacity of any human being. He operated with six pencils, three in each hand, each pencil doing a separate part of the work at the same time; the consequent rapidity of execution was something wonderful. James once drew a colossal picture of Lincoln, which measured seven and one half feet in length. The sheet of paper was laid upon the floor, and upon it, without any outline or measurements, he first made an eye, and then in its proper relative position a boot. When the outlines were completed, these came into their proper places. The picture was a fair likeness of Lincoln, and represented him in the act of reading the emancipation proclamation. The pictorial heading of your paper, with its name in the letters as they now stand, Religio-Philosophical Journal, all finished and complete as it is, was done by James in the manner above stated. The engraver who reproduced it has not altered one line or mark; yet this man in his natural condition could not draw the outline of a barn.
James located the first artesian well which was bored in Chicago. He declared by his clairvoyant sight that a stream of water could be found many hundreds of feet beneath the surface. The boring was done and the water found, and this well was the originator of the numerous other wells which now supply our parks and factories. James afterward went to the oil regions of Pennsylvania, where he was successful in locating productive oil wells. Since 1869, I have lost sight of him, but wherever he may be he is a marvelous, intellectual medium, and as honest and truthful as the sunlight.
Geo. A. Shufeldt, Religio-Philosophical Journal.
Mr. Eglinton’s Mediumship.—A correspondent of the London Medium describes an interview with Mr. Eglinton, in which the following occurred. They are not extraordinary to those familiar with spiritual facts. I have held a slate in my own hand in the presence of a medium, and received messages on the slate in which every letter was written in double marks, as if written with two different colored pencils, although no pencil was furnished or seen.
“Three small pieces of writing-pencil—green, red, and white—were put upon the perfectly clean school slate, and placed under the table as before, with this difference: that G.’s left hand held the slate with Mr. Eglinton, his left being above the table. The slate was now thoroughly rolled about so as to completely displace the pieces of pencil from their previous relations. G. asked aloud that 200 might be put down in red; I called for 69 in green; and Mr. Eglinton requested that they be added up in white. Upon examining the slate, this was found correctly executed. I then took a book at random from a case containing perhaps 300 or 400 volumes. G. wrote down upon the school slate the number of a page, a line, and of a word, which she desired to be transcribed. The slate was turned over, and I placed the book, which had not been opened, across it, resting upon the frame. Under the book I placed a morsel of pencil. The slate, with the book upon it, was then passed under and pressed against the table-top as before. No one but G. was cognizant of what she had written, and, of course, as the book was never out of my possession from the time I took it from its fellows in the case until it was placed with the slate under the table-top, there was no possibility of its pages being scanned. The sound of writing soon occurred, and upon its ceasing we examined the slate, when we found ‘P. 7, L. 18, W. 6, Llanwrst.’ The other side of the slate contained ‘P. 7, L. 18, W. 6,’ as written by G. I now and for the first time opened the book, which was ‘The Irish Educational Guide and Scholastic Directory,’ for 1883 and 1884, published by John Mara, 17 Crow Street, Dublin; and upon turning to page 7, line 18, and word 6, the word there printed was ‘Llanwrst.’”
Spirit Writing.—The world is full of spiritual phenomena which are suppressed or concealed in consequence of the prejudices instilled into all minds by education and perpetuated by the dogmatism of the college, the pulpit, the press, and the votaries of Mammon. The St. Louis Globe gives a recent example, as follows:
“I have known of a great many astonishing things that I can account for in no other way than by supposing that they were brought about by some influence outside of human agency [said a believer in Spiritualism the other day to a St. Louis Globe reporter]. I know a lady—a church member—who makes no pretensions as a fortune teller, clairvoyant, or medium, and who would indignantly resent being called a Spiritualist. This lady takes a pencil in her hand and writes rapidly and legibly, with her arm extended, without looking at the paper or pencil, and gazing in an opposite direction from the work. And this is done in a way that shows no control of her arms in the operation. She writes answers to questions she could not possibly have any knowledge of in a correct and thoroughly truthful way. Even when she is separated from the questioner by a closed door she readily writes out the correct answer to a mental question with no effort of her own. This woman could not be induced to do so for any compensation. I have seen all the performances of the mediums in the way of musical instruments floating around the room in the air, but these are open to doubt. In the case of the lady I speak of, all is done by daylight without any thought of compensation or notoriety. It is a natural endowment, a spiritual control, an unseen influence, and a power outside of our ability to account for.”
Mind-Reading Amusement.
To the Editor of the Transcript: