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As To Apparitions

As To Apparitions image
Parent Issue
Day
21
Month
November
Year
1895
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A great many people are being converted to the claims of mental telegrapliy. Mark Twaln gives a numbei of curious experiences in Harper's Magazine which indícate telepaihy. Among them if the following: "Several yeara ago I made a campaign on the platform with Mr. George W. Cable. ín Montreal we were honored with a reception. It began at 2 in the aíternoon in a long drawing room in the Wlndsor hotel. Mr. Cable and I stood at one end of the room and the ladies and gentlemen entered it at the other end, crosssd it at that end, then came up the long left-hand oide, shook hands with us, said a word or two, and passed on, in the usual way. My sight is of the telescopio sprt, and I presently recognized a familiar face among the throng 01 strangers drifting in at the distant door, and I sa.d to myself, with surprise and high gratification: 'That is Mrs. R.; I had forgotten that she was a Canadian.' She had been a great friend of mine in Carson City, Nev., in the early days. I had not seen her or heard of her for twenty years; I had not been thinking about her; there was nothing to suggest her to me, nothing to bring her to my mind; in fact, to me she had long ago ceased to exist, and had disappeared from my consciousness. Br.t I knew her lnstantly. and I saw her so clearly that I was j able to note some of the particulars o( her dress, and did note them, and they remained in my mind. I was impatient for her to come. In the midst ol the hand-shaking I snatched glimpses of her and noted her progress with the slow-moving file across the end of the room, then I saw her start up the side, and this gave me a full front view of her face. I saw her last when 3he was within twenty-flve feet of me. For an hour I kept thinking she must still be in the room somewhero and would co;ne at last, but I was disappointed. "When I arrived in the lecture hall that evening some one said: 'Come into the waiting room: there's a friend of yours there who wants to see you. You'll not be iutrociueed - you are to clo the recognizing without help if you can.' "I said to myself: 'It is Mrs. R.; I shan't have any trouble.' "There were perhaps ten ladles present, all seated. In the midst of them was Mrs. R., as I had expected. She wás dressed exactly as she was when I had seen her in the afternoon. I went forward and shook hands with her and called her by name and said: " 'I knew you the moment you apponred at the reception this afternoon.' "She looked surprised and said: 'But I was not at the reception. I have just arrived from Quebec. and have not been in town an hour.' "It was my turn to be surprised now. I said: 'I can't help it. I give yo" my word of honor that it is as I say. I saw you at the reception, and you were dressed precisely as you are now. When they told me a moment ago that I should find a friend in this room your image rose before me, dress and all, Just as I had. seen you at the reception.' "Those are the facts. She was not at the reception at all, or anywhere near it; but I saw her tUere nevertheand most clearly and unmistakably. To that I could make oath. How is one to explain this? I was not thinking of her at the time; had not thought of her for years. But she had been thinking of me, no doubt. Did ner thought flit tbrough leagues of air to me and bring with it that clear and fileasant visión of herself? I think so. That was and remains my sole experience in the matter of apparitions- I mean apparitions that come whon one ís (ostensibly) awake. 1 could have been asleep for a moment; the apparition could have been the creature of a dream. Still that is nothing to the point. The feature of interest is the happening of the thing just at that time, instead of an earlier or later time, which is argument that lts origin lay In thought-transference."

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register