“Ah! but did you examine the inside of the camera? Did you watch the developing process? Did you watch your plate from beginning to end? Nay, did you spy everything—windows, &c.—outside thoroughly? A ghost might be shot on to the exposed camera. Did you allow any one to dress up in a sheet behind you, and do the partial exposure trick?”
Well, next time you take every precaution, and if still you get a ghost, “that gives to reflect,” as the French say; so let us reflect a little.
“Authentic” Ghost Photos.
The most authentic ghost photos are the hardest to get hold of. They are in the hands of private amateur photographers, who are shy of lending or showing them because they are shy of being accused of fraud or folly; besides, to them these photos are often sacred, or they seem to portray the features of the beloved dead. I believe Mr. Crookes, F.R.S., one of the greatest scientists living—the renowned inventor of the radiometer—has obtained spirit photos of a materialised form that appeared apart from the medium, and moved about the room freely while a continuous current of electricity was being passed through the entranced medium, so that she could not move without betraying the motion. But, like the wise man he is, Mr. Crookes, after having tasted the quality of scientific bigotry, and already suffered somewhat for his ardour in the pursuit of unpopular and novel truth—Mr. Crookes, I say, keeps certain experiences, together with his abnormal photos, to himself, and will not now even show them. It is of no importance to him what those who do not and cannot know the facts think about them. They belong to his laboratory work. Why should he bother himself with a crowd of outsiders? Of course, no spirit photo, of itself, can bear conviction, nor is it possible to produce about it in a journal any evidence that will. The two spirit photos I have been prevailed upon to allow the Editor of the Daily Graphic to use with this open letter are, nevertheless, of considerable interest. (1) The lady seated went with her daughter. She did not tell the photographer who was in her thoughts. She thought of and longed for her father to appear. She did not even tell her daughter or any one else the mental test. She thought that her father should appear wearing a peculiar black cap which he commonly used during the last days of his illness. That test was never revealed before the plate was developed; but it was answered, as may be seen in the photo (see opposite); the features also are too marked to allow of any doubt.
Lady and the Spirit of her Father.
(Lent by the Editor of “The Daily Graphic.”)