ROBERT SWAIN GIFFORD

 THE present chapter will summarize a set of phenomena which I have usually described as the "Thompson Gifford Case." It is not necessary to regard it as giving a final solution of the problems which it suggests: it is presented here for the sake of its psychological interest and any other conclusion which it may help to establish. The case came to my attention in the manner described below; in giving the account of it I shall follow the chronological order of events.

 Some time in the summer and fall of 1905, Mr. Frederic L. Thompson, who was a goldsmith, not an artist, was suddenly and inexplicably seized with an impulse to sketch and paint pictures. Accompanying this impulse were numerous hallucinations or visions of trees and landscapes which served as models for his work.

 Mr. Thompson had had no training in art. He had obtained only the slight education which the public schools give a boy until he was thirteen years of age. He had had a few lessons in drawing, such as the public school give. He then had to go to work, and was employed as an apprentice at engraving. He served at this work for some years. His employers discovered that he had some taste at sketching, and the foreman of the department encouraged this as a means of helping Mr. Thompson at his engraving. While employed at this task, Mr. Thompson formed what may be called a partnership with an artist to turn 'photographs into oils. Mr. Thompson did none of the finishing; his partner, Mr. Macy, executed the artistic work of the paintings. Only a few photographs were finished in this manner, as the work did not prove remunerative. This was the last of Mr. Thompson's experiences with anything like painting until, in the summer of 1905, the impulse seized him to sketch and paint. The meantime was spent in his work as a goldsmith, which he took up in New York City after he left New Bedford, Massachusetts. His experience with turning photographs into oils had taken place a number of years before.

 It is apparent that he had had no education nor important experience in painting, so that whatever merits his painting may have do not represent the usual result of education and practice. When he was seized with the impulse to sketch and paint he seemed to lose his interest in the work of a goldsmith and began to show some unusual powers as an artist in oils. While he did this work he often felt that he was Mr. Gifford, Robert Swain Gifford, and remarked to his wife at times, "Gifford wants to sketch." He did not know at this time that Mr. Gifford was dead. He had some years before been slightly acquainted with Mr. Gifford, having met him once or twice on the marshes about New Bedford while Mr. Gifford was sketching there, Mr. Thompson himself being out hunting. He talked with him a few minutes only on one of these occasions, and on the others merely saw him sketching. Once he called on Mr. Gifford in New York to show him some jewelry, but saw nothing more of him.

 Between the period indicated, the summer and autumn of 1905, and the latter part of January, 1906, Mr. Thompson kept on at his sketching and painting. In the latter part of January he saw notice of an exhibition of the late R. Swain Gifford's paintings at the American Art Galleries and went in to see them. He learned at this time and not before, that Mr. Gifford was dead. Mr. Gifford had died on January 15, 1905, some six months before the impulse seized Mr. Thompson to sketch and paint. While looking at Mr. Gifford's paintings on exhibition he seemed to hear a voice, apparently issuing from the invisible, say, "You see what I have done. Can you not take up and finish my work?" This incident may be treated as an hallucination or as a fabrication, unless evidence can be produced to make it credible. Whether genuine or not it had sufficient influence on the mind of Mr. Thompson to induce him to go on with his sketching and painting. From this time on the impulse to paint was stronger, and between this date and the next year he produced a number of paintings of artistic merit sufficient to demand a fair price on their artistic qualities alone, his story being concealed from all but his wife.

 In January, 1907, Mr. Thompson came to me with the fear that his visions and hallucinations were threatening his sanity. He had been constantly the subject of them ever since he saw the exhibition of Gifford pictures, and a scene of gnarled oak trees haunted him perpetually, with the strong impulse to paint them. He drew several sketches of them, but the insistence of these visions made him begin to doubt the normal condition of his mind. I interrogated him for two hours on all aspects of his experiences, which included the story just told. As I saw no evidence of anything supernormal in the account, I diagnosed it as disintegrating personality, that is, some type of hallucination and a symptom of mental disturbance. I advised him not to continue the work of painting, but to go on with his vocation as goldsmith, as I could not see any reason to believe that he could well earn his living in painting, especially if he had to explain how he did his work. Besides, I feared that the tendency, if not due to morbid mental conditions, would not last. But, since it would require time to prove whether the case was one of morbid hallucinations, and since we might never know, until an autopsy would show, what the real trouble was, it occurred to me that I might take a shorter path for finding out what was the trouble. The incident of hearing a voice in the American Art Galleries suggested that view of the case which many instances on record in the publications of the English Society for Psychical Research indicate, namely, the hypothesis that the dead may occasionally intrude their influence upon the living. There was no evidence of this in the story of the voice as Mr. Thompson narrated it. But I saw that an interesting set of alternatives was placed before me. I had no way of proving that his visions and the voice were purely subjective hallucinations without waiting, possibly for years, to watch their development. On the other hand, it suddenly came into my mind that I might test the matter in a very simple manner. I thought that, if the hallucinations were really inspired by the source apparently claimed for them, I ought to get traces of Mr. Gifford through a medium. If I did not get any trace of him the presumption would be ail the stronger that the phenomena were ordinary and not supernormal. As a consequence I asked Mr. Thompson if he had ever seen or consulted a medium. He replied that he had not and that he always despised the subject of spiritualism, laughing at it with others. I further asked if he would go with me to a medium, and he replied in the affirmative.

 This was on January 16, 1907. I immediately arranged for a sitting to take place on the second evening after this, the 18th. I did not tell Mr. Thompson whom he was to see nor where we were going. I had him meet me at my house at a suitable hour and took him to a medium whom I here call Mrs. Rathbun. I introduced him as Mr. Smith and took the notes myself, also requiring Mr. Thompson not to say anything and not to ask any questions until I signified permission. In a few minutes after we sat down the medium apparently described some' one whom Mr. Thompson recognized as his grandmother, the evidence not being of the kind to assure any one of its genuineness, and then allusion was made to a man behind him who was said to be fond of painting. No hint whatever had been given of either Mr. Thompson's character or the nature of his experiences. Mr. Gifford was described in terms recognizable by Mr. Thompson, and in a few minutes the locality of Mr. Gifford's birth was described, and a group of oak trees, even to the fallen branches and the color of the leaves that had appeared in his apparitions. The communicator said that it was a place near the ocean, that it was not England, but that you had to take a boat to the locality. It was this group of trees that had haunted Mr. Thompson's vision for eighteen months, and that he had described in our conversation two evenings before. The real group was afterward found in the locality described. It was on one of the Elizabeth Islands on the New England coast. (See Fig. III.)

 The outcome of this experiment pacified Mr. Thompson's mind and relieved my own, as to the cause of his hallucinations, and he resolved to go on with his painting. Before this time he has painted only six or eight pictures, but had a large number of sketches' rather crude, all of them, sketches and paintings, being based on his visions. Without telling the story of his experiences, he showed some of his paintings to a few persons interested in art and sold two or three of them. One he sold to Mr. James B. Townsend on its merits and without telling his story. In the course of his examination of the picture, Mr, Townsend remarked that the painting resembled those of R. Swain Gifford; Mr. Thompson then told him something of his story. Soon afterwards he sold another painting, under similar circumstances, to Dr. Alfred Muller, who was pleased with the excellence of the work. This experience, with the encouragement offered by my experiment with the psychic, led him to continue serving the impulse which haunted him.

 While Mr. Thompson went on with his work I resolved to make a second mediumistic experiment. I was experimenting at the time with Mrs. Chenoweth, and brought Mr. Thompson to a sitting. He was not admitted to the room until after Mrs. Chenoweth had gone into the trance, and left it before she came out of the trance, so that at no time in her normal state did she see or hear him. At 'this first sitting some twenty incidents of a coincidental character were told, many of them bearing on the personal identity of Mr. Gifford. Among them was a reference to his fondness for rugs and rich and flesh colors, a reference to a tarpaulin which it was his habit to wear when boating and painting, and more or less definite accounts of his relation to Mr. Thompson, the sitter. The latter could not be given any important evidential value, as some things were said, or implied by Mr. Thompson's questions, which might have suggested this influence to the subconsciousness of the medium. The facts mentioned about Mr. Gifford's private habits are more suggestive; but there were incidents even more pertinent than these. Reference was made to his sudden death, his unfinished work, to the condition of his studio, to apparently the same woman who had appeared in the experiment with Mrs. Rathbun, to misty scenes, which were a favorite with Mr. Gifford, and finally to the same group of trees and their locality mentioned above. This passage should be quoted.

 Mr. Thompson said to the psychic: "There is a picture of an old group of trees near the ocean. I would like to get it. Can you see it?" He had reference to his vision as before described, and said too much about it for any details to have evidential value.

Mr. Thompson thought that possibly Mr. Gifford had painted such a picture, but he wanted to find where the trees could be found that he might paint them himself. He assumed rightly enough that, if Mr. Gifford were actually present, he might tell where the trees could be found and something about them. The following was the result of the inquiry, taken down by a stenographer at the time, .the matter in parentheses representing what Mr. Thompson said:

 Do you think that it is one that he is giving you?

(I think it is, yes. I feel that I must go out into nature and paint those trees.)

"I want to tell you, little boy, I think he has seen the trees and I think he is giving you the picture of it. I think you will see them too. I don't know the place, but it looks like that to me. When you go up here on this hill, as I told you about, and ocean in front of you it will be to your left, and you will go down a little incline, almost a gulley, and then up a little bit and a jut out. This is just the way it seems. Now you have this so that you can follow, can't you? They look like gnarled old trees. There is one that stands up quite straight, and some roots that you can see, not dead, but part dead. Some are roots and gnarled and then the rest. They are nice."

(Beautiful coloring.)

"O, beautiful! But that is what you will get if you are right on the spot. You will get those soft colors, just like this old rug, that he likes very much that has some soft colors."

When the group of trees was finally found it was proved that this description was perfectly accurate, though it probably would not have led any one to either the locality or the special scene. The account supplements that given by Mrs. Rathbun. When facing the sound or ocean one had the group of trees on the left, and had to go down a little gulley to reach them. They were gnarled oak trees and standing as described. There were no dead roots nor partly dead roots visible. But there was near the ground one dead limb which resembled a very crooked root of a tree. It is represented in Figure VIII. The trees were situated on a little promontory and so a "jut out." When painted in the autumn the trees had colored leaves of the red and brown tones which were favorites of Mr. Gifford. The rug alluded to, Mr. Thompson found at the foot of Mr. Gifford's easel; it contained the same colors as the leaves in the autumn scene which he painted of these trees.

A few things were said that were pertinent to Mr. Thompson and that did not bear upon the identity of the dead. They assumed an influence over Mr. Thompson. For instance, Mr. Thompson was told that he would go out to the place where the trees were and paint them and that he would return when the weather was "crisp and cool." He did find the trees and after painting them returned to New York in December, in the "cool and crisp" weather indicated. This fulfilment of the prediction, however, may be regarded as the result of suggestion.

 But I have somewhat anticipated the story. I desired, however, to explain the incident of the trees, and to call attention to the facts which, in this first sitting, gave encouragement to pursue both the investigation and the painting. It is noticeable that these first sittings give evidence of supernormal information; and, as they took place under test conditions, we do not have to raise the issue of the mediums' character. No hint of the communicator's name was given by either psychic. One or two pertinent names were given, but no special importance could be attached to them.

 These results sustained the hypothesis which the first experiment with Mrs. Rathbun suggested, and Mr. Thompson resolved to hunt up the scenes of his visions or hallucinations and to paint them. On the second of July, 1907, he, therefore, put into my hands a number of sketches which he had made in the summer and autumn of 1905.' I wrote a note to that effect and locked them up in my files. Mr. Thompson first went to Nonquitt, Massachusetts, where he expected to find the scenes which had haunted his visions. He states that he had known nothing about this place, except that it was the summer home of Mr. Gifford. It is situated near his own old home in New Bedford, but is inaccessible except by boat. Mr. Thompson found a few of the scenes of his visions and took photographs of them, but ascertained that Mr. Gifford's favorite haunt was one of the Elizabeth Islands. He then resolved to go out to the islands and to make an attempt to verify his apparitions. But, as fortune would have it, Mrs. Gifford took him into the studio of Mr. Gifford, which had not been greatly altered since his death two and a half years before. To his surprise, he saw on the easel an unfinished sketch, which was identical with one of the sketches left in my hands more than a month before. He said in his diary at the time that it almost took his breath away to see the identity of this painting with his visions and sketches. The reader may observe this resemblance himself by comparing Figures I and II. There were on easels two other pictures identical with sketches which he had made, but which had not been left with me.

 The case does not wholly depend on the veracity of Mr. Thompson. He had left the sketch in my hands before he saw the painting by Mr. Gifford. Mrs. Gifford testifies that the picture was rolled up and put away until after Mr. Gifford's death, when it was taken out and put on the easel. Mr. Thompson had had no opportunity to see it, and his impulse to paint did not arise until six months after Mr. Gifford's death.

 Mr. Thompson then went out to the islands and accidentally on the island of Nashawena came upon the exact scene of this picture by Mr. Gifford, and painted it. He had never been on this island before and hence had never seen this particular view.

 In his rambles over another of the islands, whose name I am not permitted by the owner to give, Mr. Thompson found a large number of scenes that had appeared in his visions. He states, and the evidence is fairly conclusive, that he had never before been on this island. It is extremely difficult for visitors to get to the island without a permit, and Mr. Thompson had to obtain one to visit it. He painted several pictures of actual scenes which he had seen in his visions, and some of which he had sketched from his visions before he visited the islands. Among these is a peculiar group of trees. He stumbled upon them in his wanderings about this island and had started to sketch them, when he heard a voice similar to the one he had heard at the art gallery say: "Go and look on the other side of the tree." Though some sixty feet away he went forward and on the opposite side of the tree found the initials of Mr. Gifford carved in the bark of a beach tree in 1902.

I photographed the initials about two months later and they had long grown up and could not have been cut by Mr. Thompson.

 Finally in October he accidentally found the group of gnarled oak trees described by both psychics, and painted it. He had put, into my hands a sketch of the trees seen in his visions, as remarked, on the previous second of July (Figure III).

 The next problem was for me to find these trees and photograph them myself. The story of their finding should be told in some detail, as the facts tend to make the whole incident more evidential than it would otherwise be. 

After some directions as to where I should find the group of trees, said to be near or in the edge of what is called the Black Woods, I went out to the island. I found the place, but no tree like those desired. There were plenty of gnarled oaks and storm blown trees of all kinds, and one group of trees which Mr. Thompson had painted, but no group representing any specific resemblance to Figures III and IV, save in isolated details. I photographed a few trees, thinking that perhaps Mr. Thompson had put trees from various localities together and had made an idealized picture. The specific points of his sketch and painting, however, were not found in what I had photographed. As soon as Mr. Thompson saw the photographs he said that they did not represent the scene he had painted and that the trees he had found were all together just as painted. I therefore took him with me on a second trip to the island, and we went to the same spot. We found the group of trees which he said would serve as a guide to the place where the desired group was to be found. But there was no trace of the tree's we were searching for. There was nothing but a sandwaste. We had to give up the search and return home.

 The third trip was more successful and contained some interesting episodes. On the second trip, when he failed to find the trees I remarked to Mr. Thompson that he must have painted the picture from an hallucination; but his reply was, that this was impossible, because he had carved his initials on one of the trees. He conjectured that he might have painted it on the north shore of the island, as the day in question was stormy and foggy. We made the third trip on order to investigate this north shore. We investigated this shore for two or three miles and examined every tree and group of trees, but there was not a trace of any single tree or group of trees that had any specific resemblances to the desired scene. Nor was the shore itself sufficiently like that needed for a technical resemblance. There were gnarled oaks in plenty, but nothing that suggested the picture. We then resolved to sail around the island into Vineyard Sound and examine a small group of trees not investigated on the second trip.

 Before leaving New York, Mr. Thompson said to me that he had come to the conclusion that he could never find the trees by himself, and went to consult a psychic, a lady whom I personally know well and who is not a professional in the usual sense of that term. She told him the following, which Mr. Thompson wrote out from memory for me before the steamer left the dock in New York; I had the record in my possession from that time on.

 "I see the trees. They are on a rounding bank. The land slopes down. One limb is not there. It has blown away or been struck by lightning. It changes the appearance of the tree."

(Do you see any landmarks by which I can locate them?)

"The water bends around quickly and beyond is where men have been at work. I see something like a round building. I can't see what it is: it may be used for cattle or a bridge, like a rustic bridge. In front is a cleared place, then trees beyond."

(On what part of the island is it?)

"You face the rising sun. I see houses near it. It is not exactly east, when you face the rising sun: it is on your left hand."

(Are there trees near it?)

"When you stand on the bridge and face south they are on the left hand."

The reader may remark some resemblance to the statement by Mrs. Chenoweth, which I have quoted above. I shall not take the time or space to discuss details. But after we had examined the north shore of the island we sailed into Hadley Bay and anchored there, taking a row boat with the purpose of going into Vineyard Sound, and in trying to row under a bridge found the tide coming in so strong that we could not get through. Mr. Thompson threw his coat upon the bridge and helped us to carry the boat around and into the water. He went back for his coat, but instead of getting it took his stand on the bridge, facing east, and, ignoring three separate calls to get his coat and come on, he seemed to go into a sort of trance. Soon he ran down the bridge, leaving his coat there for some one else to get, and ran with all his might around the shore to a small promontory, shouting back that he had found the trees.

He threw into the air the old grocery box which he had said before leaving New York that we would or ought to find on the spot where the trees were. Mr. Thompson's initials were on one of the trees.

 We then photographed the trees and the shore. They are represented in Figures V and VI. One of the important limbs presenting a specific characteristic for identification had been blown down by the wind, but was found and tied in its place for the photograph. Another, the S-shaped limb in the tree at the right, had also been broken off by sheep. It too was found. The two limbs are represented in Figures VII and VIII. The limb on the tree at the left, which turns on itself, was not a part of the real scene; but, as Mr. Thompson had always said that he had himself inserted this from another tree, no importance attaches to this discrepancy. But the branched limb on the ground was there, and the cut will show the two large rocks lying in position. The decayed spot in one tree, the one at the left, was there. There was no storm at the time of our visit and hence no such appearance as the picture represents. But the group of trees were a little to the left when one faces the east, and when facing the south there was a wood on the left. The bridge was not exactly a rustic bridge, but had some resemblances to such. On the left of the bridge was a "slope down," which had to be crossed in reaching the promontory where the trees were. The houses were west of this spot and not visible.

 The reader will observe from the cuts that there is more distinct resemblance between the sketch which had been placed in my hands in July, 1907, and the painting represented by Figure IV than between either the sketch or the painting and the photographs of the real scene. But the specific characteristics which determine identity are all there, and unmistakably indicate the right trees, though the painting, as is usual, idealizes the scene.

 The two most important pictures thus seemed to bear the investigation, and the fundamental question of Mr. Thompson's veracity, which was the first thing to be determined, was settled. Of course there are other important evidences of the supernormal, not connected with his veracity, namely, the mediumistic phenomena in my own experiments. As many of the circumstances described protect the genuineness of the phenomena affecting the two pictures, we may feel less difficulty in accepting other instances where similar identity exists between sketches made from his visions and the actual scenes afterwards found. There were several of these. There was one of a forest, rather dense, which Mr. Thompson sketched from an hallucination and then found on another easel, though he did not recognize it at the time, having forgotten his sketch. There were also two sketches of a seashore and a man with an ox team, and on still another easel in Mr. Gifford's studio was a painting by Mr. Gifford representing the same scene.

 Mr. Thompson had many other interesting experiences which he recorded in his diary at the time. When he was on the island searching for the scenes which had haunted his visions, he often heard music like that of a guitar or violin and hunted about to see if it was produced by any one. He found no evidence of any human cause. In fact, there seems to be but one house on the island, except the three or four at the eastern end of it. The island has no population except the two or three families of care­takers. Besides, this music was heard at different times and places on the island, and once Mr. Thompson ran up a hill to see if he could find some one whom he fancied he heard singing, but found no one. Usually the music he heard was instrumental. A friend of Mr. Gifford states that Mr. Gifford was passionately fond of music, especially of the violin. Whether there is anything more than a coincidence in this circumstance must be determined by each one for himself.

 These incidents made it necessary to try further experiments with psychics to see if I could obtain more specific evidence of the influence of Mr. Gifford. I therefore held a number of sittings with Mrs. Rathbun and with Mrs. Chenoweth, some of them before the public knew anything about my work on the case. I shall briefly summarize the results, indicating those obtained before the psychics had any means of suspecting that I was experimenting with Mr. Thompson and before they knew anything of the case.

 The first sitting was on April 3 with Mrs. Rathbun, and was held before I had made the search for the trees mentioned above. She did not recognize Mr. Thompson, whose first sitting had occurred more than a year before. At this sitting Mrs. Rathbun soon made the following very relevant statement:

You have been questioned regarding your honesty, so far as intuitions, impressions or—some might call them hallucinations, for you have a very peculiar power." Then came an allusion to a lady who was said to be influencing him from the other side of life, practically implying what was indicated at the first sitting more than a year before. Then a! reference was made to the confused state of Mr. Thompson's "material" conditions—a statement that was exact, if it can be said to describe the effect of these impulses on his financial situation. Then a reference was made to "uniform," which might possibly be interpreted as pointing to the tarpaulin, and then he was told that he had twice nearly passed out of the body. This was exactly true, if his own feelings are to be taken as the guide. When he had finished the painting of the group of trees above described, and called the "Battle of the Elements," he had felt so ecstatic that he could describe his sensations only as dying. This impression was recorded in his diary. At another time he was nearly dashed to pieces while painting the sea in a tarpaulin, and had to lash himself to a rock to keep his position. These facts were known only to Mr. Thompson. The medium mentioned the "hurt or blow" connected with the exposure.

 A striking allusion was made to an operation upon a man who was said to be communicating; Mr. Thompson while on the island, had witnessed the funeral of a man who had died from an operation, and the scene had produced a profound emotional effect on Mr. Thompson. There was some confusion by the medium of this incident with the personality of the artist supposed to be influencing his work. Some striking statements were made about a ring which Mr. Thompson was wearing, namely, that he had made it himself and that the stones in it had been changed, and a number of other even more important incidents, which I need not mention except to indicate their irrelevance and yet evidential character for the supernormal.

 One little incident of great relevance was mentioned. It was, that there was a little woman who worried a great deal for fear that he would not be practical, and that she wanted to get him into his everyday line of work. Every word of this was true with reference to his wife, and when under this obsession Mr. Thompson was not very practical as the world goes. Then the medium went on to describe exactly the attitude of mind which his relatives had toward his experiences, saying that they thought him going insane and that they "would rather you were more practical than interested in the spiritual," adding that "they cannot stop you, because it is not hallucination or insanity." She added that his work was influenced by spirits about him, though she did not at this time know anything about the case.

 A direct allusion was made "to peculiar scenes and visions" and lots of them "that he had around him, with the remark that some extraordinary happenings had happened to him within the last ten months." Then came a spontaneous reference to the ocean and a shipwreck and again to his "uniform" and a reference to what must be taken as some one guiding him in his work from the "other side." The pertinence of this reference is apparent, whether it is evidential or not. One remark describes an exact scene in his life, when he was painting on the shore of the sound. The detailed record will be clearer and more interesting than these excerpts, and also will contain a number of incidents which, though not bearing on the issue, do show indications of supernormal information about incidents in Mr. Thompson's life.

 At the second sitting there was much relevant matter concerning Mr. Thompson's life, and a reference to a box, said not to be a satchel, but describing Mr. Thompson's means of carrying about his materials. In the first of the two sittings it was clearly indicated that he was an artist, and this idea is made still clearer in this second experiment. The most important allusion, however, was to a Latin word which the medium said had come to him. Mrs. Chenoweth at a later sitting alluded to the same word. Mr. Thompson had had a communication from an alleged spirit, giving the Latin words "alter ego," as the influence affecting him, and purporting to come from a lady. There was then an allusion to a woman and a child, representing something that he had seen in his visions and that he would paint. The fact was that, as he finished the painting of the group of trees in the "Battle of the Elements," he saw the vision of a woman and a child interfused with the scene, and had been haunted ever since by the desire to paint this representation of a madonna and child. The statement that he drew much under trees was true and pertinent. There was, however, no definite identification of Mr. Gifford. The two sittings discovered only incidents associated with the life of Mr. Thompson, with a few vague indications of the source from which his apparent inspiration came.

 The next two sittings were with Mrs. Chenoweth on the dates of April 10 and 11. Mrs. Chenoweth goes into a light trance for her oral work. Mrs. Rathbun was normal in her sittings. There was a great deal of subliminal "chaff," if I may so describe the non-evidential matter, but interfused with it were incidents that clearly represent supernormal information. Mr. Gifford was fairly well described in several characteristics physical and mental, with some errors, and the intimation was made that he was influencing Mr. Thompson. Mr. Thompson's business was indicated in fairly clear terms. The reference to a woman in the "spirit world" and the entire account of her relation to Mr. Thompson fitted what had been told through Mrs. Rathbun in her first and later sittings and also what was said the year before through Mrs. Chenoweth, though she did not know that I had brought the same sitter. We may assume that her subconscious recognized the man. Mr. Thompson's middle name was given and an allusion, like that of Mrs. Rathbun, was made to his unsettled condition of mind and body, a very pertinent statement because of the embarrassed state of his finances at the time. This was followed by a description of Mr. Gifford's work at painting, evidently to identify him, but the medium wholly misinterpreted it to refer to writing. The incident as understood by her was wholly false. But immediately thereafter she described a pocket­book, brown, old and shiny, long as a bill-book, with papers in it. Later in the deeper trance and by automatic writing the same psychic referred to it again with more details. Mr. Gifford had no such pocket-book, but he did have a sketch-book and in fact many of them, which might be so described. In the later sitting it was said that this pocket-book had a strap about it and contained a burial permit. Mr. Gifford used rubber bands about his sketch-book, but had no burial permit in it. He did carry in his sketch-book a permit to visit the island of Nashawena.

 Then came the following statement: "Did you ever have a feeling as if you were away from the body, above everything, sometimes?" Mr. Thompson replied in the affirmative, and further statements refer to the outside influences producing this effect on Mr. Thompson.

 Then came the statement: "Another thing. You have got a sort of hearing. It is not definitely unfolded yet, but there are times when you can get strains of music, just as though it floats about you. People don't seem to understand you, do they, around you?" There then followed a long and accurate description of Mr. Thompson's habits at the time, none of it specifically evidential, except the allusion to "dreams that he has sometimes" and to his "throwing himself down at night and looking and trying to see the spirits and as though he felt such dreams." The reader will recognize the relevance of the allusion to music and the "dreams," which apparently refer to his visions; he did at times exactly what is here said, throw himself down and give way to his visions.

 The next sitting contains a large amount of pertinent matter, too vague to summarize, and open to the interpretation of inference from admissions by Mr. Thompson. But there were a few incidents specific enough to attract attention. The first was a statement that he, the sitter, had a lot of unfinished canvases, and a reference to a yellow cliff and the blue sea, this being a very definite reference to a picture which Mr. Thompson had painted at Cuttyhunk and which he had long before sketched from a vision. Mr. Thompson had never seen this bluff. Following this was an apparent allusion to Mr. Thompson's occupation as a goldsmith, then to influences from older and deceased artists for which there was no specific evidence. 

The next specific incident was a reference to a vision of a woman; no mention of a child is made in connection with it, but he is told that he is to paint this. The reader will recognize the allusion to the vision Mr. Thompson had when he had finished painting the trees, and the similar reference of Mrs. Rathbun. Mr. Thompson was told that in connection with this inspiration he would slip away by, himself and cry, and that now, when off alone tears would often come, tears of joy at his work. This statement was true.

But the evidence of personal identity in these sittings with both Mrs. Rathbun and Mrs. Chenoweth is entirely unsatisfactory. There is evidence of supernormal information; and a critical analysis of the whole mass of statements, in spite of its "chaffy" character, will reveal interesting pertinence throughout. But my dissatisfaction was so great that I resolved on a different type of experiments. Those just summarized represented work previous to any possible knowledge on the part of the psychics of what I was doing and of Mr. Thompson's experience. The public, by this time, as a result of my inquiries on the Elizabeth Islands, had learned something of the case; very little that was relevant, however, got into the papers, and nothing that is attributable to that source of information came out in the records. However this may be, it was necessary to experiment further to satisfy the requirement for better evidence of personal identity in the alleged communicator, and the deeper trance afforded me a better opportunity for testing the case. The experiments were conducted without admitting Mr. Thompson to the room until after Mrs. Chenoweth had gone into her trance. The results were much better than before. I summarize them briefly.

'It took some time to obtain an adjustment at the first sitting. The communicator who first appeared through the automatic writing purported to be Professor Sidgwick. Not a hint was given of any one related to Mr. Thompson until he moved in his chair; then, as if awakened by this, the medium at once referred to some one near him and began at once to tell incidents related to Mr. Gifford. Allusion was made to a man with a whip in his hand and familiar with horses. This was not especially significant, but immediately following it was a reference to a gang-plank, a steamer, and a trip, not on the ocean, and then to the "wallet" smooth and shiny with the burial permit in it, apparently an allusion to his sketch-book, as explained above. The account of his room and desk with their papers was accurate enough, considering that he taught as well as painted, but it had no value as evidence, while the immediate statement that he had taken a little journey just before he passed away was true and quite pertinent, as he had taken a little trip with Mrs. Gifford just before his fatal illness. When the automatic writing came, the first allusion was to a woman who might have been regarded as Mr. Thompson's grandmother, though she was not evidentially indicated. Then the control took up the personality whom we were seeking and referred again to the journey before he passed out, and added that there were two services in connection with the funeral, which was true of Mr. Gifford. There arose a clear idea that I was seeking incidents to identify this personality. There followed an earnest effort to supply these, though the success for some time was not marked. An allusion was made to certain "black figures, like stellar geography" scattered through a book that was mentioned, which would fit some of Mr. Gifford's illustrating, though the incident cannot be regarded as evidential. Finally the communication became so confused and equivocal that I indicated that the whole thing was perfectly blind; in order to identify the man more clearly an allusion was made by the control to "color, more color, and more again." I hinted that they were now on the right line, and there came an allusion to the "paper hand-book again," with a statement, very true of Mr. Gifford, that the "blue and the sky were always fascinating to him." 

At this point there was an apparent attempt on the part of the communicator directly to control the writing himself, but he was unable to effect his object, though he made the remarkably interesting statement that "it was so much of an effort to keep his memory and all the work at the same time." The sitting then came to an end.

As Mrs. Chenoweth came out of the trance she said some things relevant to the identity of Mr. Thompson. She described a large horse and said it was one that he used to ride "back to," with some reference to peculiarities in Mr. Thompson that took him out of the athletic class, though he has an athletic body. All this was true about his riding a horse when a boy, and it was just such a horse as was described. She then stated that he was an artist and made a reference to the influence of colors on him, specifying his love of yellow, which was true.

On the next day there elapsed considerable time before any relevant facts appeared. Apparently the controls tried subliminal methods instead of automatic writing, hoping that identity might be better established by that means than by writing. A great many things were said that were true, but not evidential. The first incident that promised to be valuable was the following:

 "I think he smokes. It is something that he holds in his mouth. He doesn't seem to be always smoking, but it seems that he holds something in his mouth quite a lot; really, like a—like—I think it is like a cigarette. I think he gets nervous and rolls them up and then holds them there and then sits down and does a little and does that again, just that little nervous anxious way."

 Now, as fortune would have it, inquiry showed that Mr. Gifford did not smoke, and, even if he had smoked, the incident would have been without evidential importance. But I learned that Mr. Gifford was in the habit of holding a stick in his mouth when he was at work, rolling it about and chewing it as some people use cigarettes or cigars. The description of the medium does not clearly indicate assurance as to what it is, and the expressions "holds in his mouth" and "doesn't seem to be always smoking" suggest the interpretation of the passage in conformity with the facts as I ascertained them.

 Then came a reference to a "soft cap, not a skull cap" which might have meant a Scotch cap which he used to wear. The mention of his desire to paint a pearl was not verifiable. But, on being asked to describe the picture that was on his easel, the communicator, or the subliminal of the medium, made the following statement:

 "Yes, indeed, I see it. It is quite a good-sized one. Yes, indeed, there is a picture there and it is a picture of a scene. It is not a person. It is a scene and I can see away off in it. It isn't all done, you know. It is partly done, but mostly done so that you can see pretty nearly what it is. Oh, but it is beautiful, you know. But there are some trees in it and there is some foreground that is lighter and then the background seems dark, but some trees and I think I catch some glimpses of light in through. It doesn't seem like a scene around here. It seems as though there is some sky in it and that everything is very brilliant. Everything he did is brilliant, brilliant colorings. He likes those things, you know."

The reader may determine for himself the measure of accuracy in this account by comparing it with the cut represented in Figure II. This represents the picture that was on the easel and that corresponds to the sketch which Mr. Thompson made from a vision without ever having seen the original. This original was an unfinished sketch of Mr. Gifford's. The inaccuracy in the account is the reference to the background as dark. But this is apparently corrected by the allusion to light being visible through it. It is possible that the very dark field occupied by the trees might be taken by obscure perception for the background. In any case the other characteristics mentioned do apply to this picture.

 The next incident, perhaps as suggestive as that just marked, was the statement: "There is another little thing that stands up, or else it is pinned up, but it is something like a small thing. It is thinner and smaller than the picture. It is not a study of the picture. It is something different and seems to be up on one of the posts."

 Now Mr. Gifford had a smaller sketch of this same scene, from which he had painted the larger one represented in Figure II, and it too was on the easel, placed very much as indicated.

 After a number of pertinent, though non-evidential, allusions, I was told that he had illustrated poetry and had done work in "black and white," both of which I was able to verify. The allusion to "atmosphere" as characteristic of him was true and suggestive. The reference to his having many unfinished canvases was true and more or less evidential.

 After some confused allusions to travel, came an evident attempt to describe his old home and its surroundings. That it was a "good-colored" house and a landmark was true, and also that there was a "piece at the end"; there was an "L" on the house. That it was inland was true. That he could look over water from it was true and that there was "a lake near where he was" was almost correct, as Hadley Bay, shut up by the surrounding land, looks like a lake. Still more pertinent was the statement that it "had beautiful views around it, and then hills rising soft like billows."

 Another incident is very interesting. I quote it in full.

"You know. Well, do you know anything about what I would call a little loft? It seems almost like going up in a barn or a shed, and there is a smell of hay and a smell of things around, but some things are kept up there—and working there sometimes."