The Sioux County journal. (Harrison, Nebraska) 1888-1899, April 06, 1899, Image 3
A CALIFORNIA GIRL j A Continued Story. SYNOPSIS. The story open up with Sir Roydon Qerlb, a young mining expert, in Califor nia, where he had been eenl by an Enshsb aarndlcal to develop mining properly. In the discharge of bla dutlea at Dead Ban' Oulch he had the misfortune to raak bla leg, and during his l)ln- I eared for in a rough squatter's cabin by aLh Marvel and hla son Ince. Lilac, the M man'a niece, ia ato a member of the Id man'a family. Sir Roy, Impressed by her beauty and gentleness, fait in love with her and proposes, but he, realizing the difference In their positions, refuw-s hla nr.r Afior hla rwnverv he foolishly exhibits a large sum of money which be carried In his belt. Thl aroused Lance eupldliy and he drugs Sir Roy with the Intention of robbing him. Lilac overhears Lance's plana and succeeds In arousing Mir Kav frnm hla lunr,r. helD him mount hla horse and accompanies him along the trail. She finally yields to his persuasion to marry him upon his return from a pro- Eieed prosyectlng trip to Nevada. Arrlv g In Ban Francisco he place her In the ear of Major Emmott and his daughter. Bngllah people traveling In the west, and arrangements are made that she shall ac company them to England to make the ac quaintance of Sir Roy s aristocratic moth er eurtng hla enforced absence. CHAPTER XVII. At the Seven Cents mine !n Nevada, Blr Hoy was thinking every hour of Lilac, and working hard to enable him to get home quickly to end her trial, the hardness of which he could only partly realize. It was very pleasant to It at night In his log hut over a Are of pine logs, and think of the girl who was so simple, so good and so un selfish. His loneliness In a camp of rough men, uncheered by the society of women, made him feel more than ever In love with her; and every night he wrote parts of diary-like letters, to be dispatched to Delverton as soon as op portunity offered. While Lilac was wondering at home whether the baronet really loved her. Blr Roy was every day counting more and more upon her love. He looked vrwarl anxiously to the time to eome for him to receive a letter from her saying that she had reached Eng land safely, little guessing what would accompany that letter. U was a happy evening for him when he was able to add to his long epistle, full of expressions of love and tenderness for the girl he hoped soon to make his wife: ! "My now darling little girl, thanks to the energy with which the thought of you has Inspired me, I was able to see the end of my work here definitely approaching today. In a week at the utmost now I shall be able to start for England to Join my little wife-elect a fortnight earlier than I thought possi ble. The Journey will take three weeks so that two months from today will see you my own little wife. It seems almost too wonderful to be true. I wonder whether you have been as lonely as I have, darling, and have looked forward as much to our reunion?1 He stopped when he had written these words and paused with his pen in his hand to enjoy the thoughts tha crowded Into his mind. How pleas ant it was to think that, while he was looking forward so much to the time when he could hold his little "prairie flower in his arms again, with no doubts to disturb their perfect happi ness. Lilac herself at home was look ing forward Just as eagerly to his re turn. It really did seem too wonderful to be true. If Lilac could only have seen htm as he sat thinking of her with the light of true love In his deep, grave eyes If she could only have read his words! But she was never to see them. As Sir Roy dipped his pen in the Ink again, prepar atory to writing another sentence, he paused and then laid the pen down, his attention attracted by a sound that he had listened for every evening of late the sound of a horse's hoofs on the road that led from the nearest town ahlD fifty miles away. tuiik an involuntary movement he covered the sheet on which he had revealed the tenderest emotions of his heart, and walked to the door of his loa- hut. A horseman was approach ing at a gallop, and Sir Roy hailed him as soon as he was within hearing. "Ahoy there! Letters?" His heart beat a little more quickly when the answer came that he ex ceded. He was to hear from Lilac at last, and the world looked very beau tiful to him. The man pulled up his panting horse at the door, and from the mall-bag fastened around him handed out three letters. Roy glanced at the writing quickly before he said a word. One was addressed in Evangeline's neat nana and one In a girlish hand not so well formed. This must be from his love The writing on the other he did not ,r,,i,. and he threw it with i r - -- Evangeline's upon the table behind him Lilac was the only letter he could think of at that moment. But, before he allow himself the luxury of read in It be had to offer some hospitality to tha n-ssenger after his long rldo It was ten minutes before he could tear open with reverent fingers the message sent to him; and the new comer, who had spent the time In at tending to his horse, was sitting at the table, Improvised out of a packing case, too much engrossed In doing Jus tlce to the meal which the baronet had laid before him even to speak. Roy was glad of hla silence, for It enabled him to give his undivided attention to , the letter he had waited for so long, Rut, alas, the letter was a little dis appointing! The fatal doubt In the Callfornlan girl s mind as to whether "Any letters to take back?" asked tb messenger, looking up from hla meal. "You are not going back tonight?" "No; but I shall start in the morn Ing before you are awake, I guess four at the latest." "Then I will finish my letter and bring it down to you in the camp," said Roy. "You put up for the night at Wilson's store, I suppose V "That'B so." "Then I will bring down my letters in half an hour. Good night!" as the man rose to resume his Journey. As soon as he was gone, Roy sat down again to finish his long letter to Lilac; but, as he was doing it, a thought oc curred to him that he must read his other letters first, lest they should alter his plans. Evangeline's letter was written in her pleasant, cousinly style, saying'that she would welcome Lilac as a sister, and adroitly toning down the hpstillty which Lady Garth felt toward the match. Its pleasant vivacity made Li lac's more constrained epistle seem all the colder by contrast; and a vague ." uneasiness had already crept mto the baronet's mind when he opened the third envelope and found that the con tents were from Major Emmott. He was glad that the messenger had left him, and that no human eyes could watch him as he read the bitter accu sations which the old major, urged on by his daughter, made against the wo man of his choice. His face grew white and a mist rose before his eyes which almost prevented his seeing the major's wr Hniri hn nd wrl t 1 n ir His heart was filled with a fierce resentment against Lilac; but he tried to combat it. It was not her fault, he told himself, that she could not love him, and had met In the person of Mark Mowbray a man for whom she cared more. Was it likely that In the new life that he himself had opened out for her that she would meet nobody for whom she would care more than for himself? She had liked him he felt sure that she had liked him although she ad refused to be formally engaged to im; but was it not only be cause he was the first man with a re finement like her own whom she had et in her isolated Callfornlan home? Now she must have met many, course, and it was scarcely to be hoped that he could retain his pre-eminence. Well. Lilac's happiness must be se cured, he told himself, even if It broke his heart; and Roy took the fond let ter he had been preparing for her and tore it Into fragments. If she carea for thl Mark Mowbray, for whom, ac cording to the major, she had shown her affection so unmistakably he would not stand in her way by making her feel under obligation to him or em phasizing the cruelty of the blow she was striking at his happiness. So, In place of the diary-like letter ...v,ii. hot vrcnnied him so long, he wrote a short little note, begging Lilac, if she cared for anybody more than himself, not to have any scruples on hiB account in admitting the fact; and, as soon as he had sealed it, he took it In a white heat, down to the camp, to gether with a similarly short note to his mother, announcing his almost lmmedl- at return. At all costs, he must go home now. he told himself, and ascer tain personally whether all hope of hap piness was at an end for him, as seemed only too likely. CHAPTER XVIII. Thanks to the friendship of Evange line Garth, which had become every day dearer to her, Lilac had found five weeks pass at Delverton Hall much more quickly than she had Imagined possible. Owing to Evangeline a never f(iir,. hfin as well as to her own Intuitive taste, it would have been dlf flcult for anybody to discover in her .ech or manner a single solecism due to her previous life. In each of the letters which Lilac wrote to her lover every week she al lowed more of her real self and real love to show themselves as her hopes of making the baronet a suitable wife increased. It was unfortunate that the first of these letters reached the mining camp in Nevada after Roy's departure. The feeling that, In spite of all her fears, her life was to be one of com plete, overwhe lming happiness as Roy's wife was Increased by the long, loving letters which she received from her fiancee, giving her every detail of his life at the mines in a way that toia Lilac she was always in his thoughts. She had read them over and over again till she knew every word, and could kiss the passages she loved the best without glancing at them at all. In spite of. Lady's Garth's, chilling presence, Lilac felt very happy one evening, at the end of five weeks, as she sat in the drawing room and list ened to Evangeline's sweet voice sing ing an air from "Cavallcrla Rustlcana" to the accompaniment of her harp. For the first time her ladyship had called her "Lilac" In place of the for mal "Miss Marvel," and there came Into the girl's heart a faint glimmer Ing of hope that some day she might make the old lady care for her. She wished that she had the courage to talk to her about her son, to tell her how anxious she was not to stand In the way of his prospects, how ready she was to sacrifice her own happiness n,i rslenae him from his promise. If by so doing she might benefit him. The subject of the engagement existing be tween them had been carefully avoded by her ladyship; and Lilac could not help feeling that the young baronet's mother looked upon her as anxious at all costs to keep Roy to a rash promise. tell appalled, as she would have been a few weeks before, at the prospect of a con fidential chat with the old lady. "It must about Roy," she said to herself excitedly, and she waited in a tremor of anticipation until Evange line had left the room. She crimsoned with pleasure when her ladyship came and seated herself by her side on the low settee. "You are wondering what It Is I want to talk to you about, I expect?" he said In her least formal voice, and Lilac blushed against as she answered: "I think I can guess, dear Lady Garth." "You know that he cares for you, then?" yesof course I do. I should nev er have come here if Roy had not told me that he loved me." "And so Roydon told you that he loved you, did he, dear?" she said "I was afraid that the romantic circum stances of your meeting had made him indiscreet. You must not think too seriously of what he said when he was her waa thus put ruthlessly into words, Lilac wondered how she could sit so silently listening to her companion. Her ladyship went on relentlessly. "There was only one consideration which prevented my son from arrang ing a marriage with his cousin before he left England. It was his Quixotic senee of honor which made him afraid of the very appearance of marrying for money. You are not going, dear?" for the girl had riBen from her seat, a strange dazed look in her wide-open eyes. "I should like to be alone, If you ao not mind, Lady Garth, to think over what you have said." "That is right, dear. T am sure you will do what la sensioie wneii comprehend how matters stand," said her ladyship, not ill-pleased with the Interview as a whole, and the clearness with which she had expressed herself, and she had little room in her heart for pity for the friendless girl as Lilac walked from the room slowly and as if in a dream. MADE SPIRITUALISM A STUDY her conscience would ever allow her the happiness of becoming the wife of Sne wag very eager, therefore, to the maa ahe loved could not but re strain her expressions of love. After the Impassioned words which Blr Roy himself had Just been writing, her U t ter seemed cold and formal, and the young baronet was conscious of a tans of disappointment. her tha exact state of her own mind on the subject; and when at the end of Evangeline's onV Lady Garth an nounced that aha was anxious for a little private chat with Lilac and sent the heiress unwillingly away, the Call fornlan girl was pleased rather than Lilac's flush had disappeared, leav ing her face deathly pale; but she did not reply, and her ladyship went on rather hurriedly: "It seems to me that Sir Roydon has been placed in a position In which he could not very well avoid offering you marriage as the only solution of the difficult problem what to do with you Mind I can quite understand that he waa attracted greatly by your personal charms, which I do not deny are very great." She smiled graciously, as if she expected the girl to be pleased with the acknowledgment; but Lilac's pale statuesque face did not relax. 'You must remember that 1 Know Roydon better than you do, dear. I prefer to think not, Lady Gartn, said Lilac quietly; but her ladysnip hastened on without noticing the in- terruption- My feelings are hostile to the idea of your marriage with my son; but you may pardon me when you know Its cause. It is not that I nave ine slightest dislike to you, dear. Per sonally I am becoming very rone, 01 you, in spite of the havoc you seem destined to play with the happiness of those 1 hold dear and with my own most treasured projects." There waa a pathetic tremor in her stately voice which touched Lilac. "Indeed I would rather die, Lacy Garth," she said earnestly, "than bring unhapplness to Roy's friends, if by dying I should not make him unhap py!" Her ladyship wiped her eyes. "You are a dear, good girl," she Bald, and I believe that you mean what you sawy! I cannot tell you how pain, ful it Is to me to have to speak- to you in this woy. I should not do it it i were not sure that you wished to do what is best for Roydon's Interests. Let me speak to you candidly, dear. I has always been my fondest hope that Roydon and Evangeline should marry. Not only do them seem particularly suited for each other, but the marriage would tend to reunite the estates that have been in the family tor many years. At present Roydon has not enough, apart from what he earns by his profession, to keep up the hall as H always haa been kept up. It is a ne cessity that he should marry wealth. But It is not a question of money that affects me so deeply. It Is my fear that ill be broken if she loses my son's love. The dear girl carries her troubles very bravely, I know, and possibly she has not allowed you to guess her secret." "Her secret?" "Her love for her cousin. To me, of course, It Is no secret, for I have .. hom btow uo together, and have been more anxious than I care to confess at the change which has come over my beloved Evangeline since you were first mentioned in Roy's letters. How can I help all my sympathies go ing out to the girl whom I have al ways loved aa my own child?" "Put do you not- think Evangeline cares for Roy only as a slater?" asked Lilac, who had almost persuaded her self that it was so. Lady Garth shook her head. "You cannot have observed her very closely If you have not fliFCuvtred that the poor girl la deeply In love." "I have more than suspected it. said Lilac thoughtfully; "but I did not think it was of Roy that she was alwaya thinking. There may be an other." No I am quite sure there Is no other," said her ladyship, honestly be lieving that she was speaking the truth. "I have watched her very Jeal ouely for Roy's sake." She spoke with eager conviction, stealing herself against the look of pain and fear that had come Into Li lac's eyes. The girl spoke calmly, however. "I hope you are wrong, Lady Garth, but even If you are right, It does not rest with me to confer happiness upon Evangeline. I cannot make Roy love her." "I do not think that there Is much making" required," said her ladyship quickly. "Before you crossed his path I never had the lead doubt about my son's feelings for his cousin, and that is what makes me think that you have mistaken Roydon's feeling towards yourself. Your beauty may have mo. mentarlly dazzled him pardon my speaking so, but I feel that I can be quite candid with you and the ro mantle nature of your meeting In creased the spell. But I cannot help perceiving that only a generous de sire to help you and to repay the sac rlflce of a home, which you made for his sake, led him to suggest marriage." As the haunting fear that had been with Lilac more or less strongly from the moment that Sir Roydon had first snowed her the ring he had bought for WOMEN AT WORK. Some Interesting Statistics From All Parts of the World. Women In Great Britain are well rep resented in the professions and trades, and about 4,000,000 earn their own liv ing. There are 124,000 who teach, 10,000 are bookbinders, over 3,000 are primers, nearly 600 act as editors and compilers, 1,30 are engaged In photography, civil service clerks number 2,300, nearly 38,- 000 are engaged in medical work and nursing and 347 women are blacksmiths The oldest banker in the world is a woman, aged 98; she Is Deborah Pow ers, the senior partner in the bank of D. Powers & Sons. Lanslngberg, England. Miss Cons is an alderman of the Lon don county council. A successful firm of tea merchants In England is composed entirely of wo men. The blenders, tasters ana pack ers are also women. There are twenty-three English wo men practicing medicine in India- Miss Constance Taylor of London Is a dog fancier; some of her orders come from Central America. Miss Sprules of Surrey, England, is a lavender distiller. Miss F. R. Wilkinson of London Is a landscape gardener. Miss Amy B. Bell is an English wo man who has taken up stockbroklng. Miss Constance Blaydes, an English girl, finds goat raising a profitable in dustry. Miss Leigh Spencer of British Colum bia is a mining broker. Mrs. Emma E. Forsythe is engaged In the sale of mother-of-pearl at New Britain, an island in the southern Pa cific. In Germany three women are em ployed as chimney sweeps, seven as gunsmiths, nineteen as brass and bell founders, 147 as coppersmiths, 379 as farriers and nailers, 309 as masons, eight as stonecutters, 2,000 in marble, stone and slute quarries. In all, 5,500,000 women earn their living In trades and professions. In Berlin women guides are employed by the city. Every animal slaughtered for food purposes in Berlin is subject to micro scopical examination by a corps of wo men mlcroscopists especially tratned to the work. In Holland women, instead of men, Rlirnal railway crossings. In Austro-Huns?ary about 3,000,000 women are engaged in industrial pur suits. Austria has many women barbers. Mine. Rosa Kerschbaum conducts a hospital for eye diseases at Vienna. France employs over 5.000 women In its civil service, telephone and tele graph offices. The bank of France pays aalnry to 400 women, and 200 women have ppsitlons In the Credit Fonder. Altogether 3,750,000 French women sup port themselves by their own exertions. One railway company in Russia has thirty women In Its employ. In central Russia the township of Besjukooschtschlna a territory of ten square miles, divided into seven vil lages Is run entirely by eight women, who administer all public affairs. The town of Knalzeff, Russia, is run by a woman starosta or mayor, Alex andre llyne by name. A Mohammedan woman Is a practic ing physician and surgeon at Odessa. Dr. Razle KoutlolarefT-Hanum is her name, and hers Is the first case on rec ord of a Mohammedan woman practic ing medicine by western methods. Women are employed as telegraphic clerks and ticket agents on the Trans Caspian railroad. In Turkey a native woman, who stud ted In this country, is now practicing medicine. In Burmah all women of the lowsr classes have a trade; nearly all the retail trade of the Island is in their care. In Chill all car conductors, hotel and postofllce clerks are women. Onchunga, New Zealand, has elected Mrs. Yates mayor. Miss Cree Stanley Is the first wo man member of the Sydney, Australia, trade and labor council being the del egate of the Female Employes' union. At 90 years old, and with a pontificate of twenty-one years, Leo XII comes near to breaking the papal record. The average reign of popes has been only about five years, and of the 263 who have worn the triple crown only four have done so longer than Leo XIII, to wlt! Hadrian I, twenty-three years; rius VI, twenty-four years; Plus VII, twenty-three years, and Plus IX, thirty, two years, It Is quite within the limit of possibility that Leo XUI will sur pass the record of all except his Imme diate predectssor. Admits the Possibility or r-sycnioai Phenomena, But No More. Studies in psychical research, care fully conducted, have a decided fasci- ation for the investigating mind, the idea that there may be something real ly worth considering in mental telepa- hy, thought transference and hypnot- sm has been impressed upon many in terested persons. Spiritualism nas ma ny followers, but skeptics abound. It has seemed more and more desirable that some person or aggregation of per sons find an answer to the question. What is the truth? In his book entitled "Studies in Psy chical Research," Mr. Frank Podmore, author of "Apparitions and Thought Transference," has presented his own record of a number of Investigations conducted by the Society of Psychical Research. This society was formed In 1882. In the opening chapter Mr. Pod more explains the purpose of his book, and says that "neither society nor any of my colleagues are in any way com mitted to the views expressed In this book." He says: In the chapters which follow an at tempt will be made to estimate me value of the work done up to the pres ent time by the society through its committees and by Individual members, on the several lines of inquiry thus mapped out, and to sketch briefly the conclusions reached or indicated at the present stage." Mr. Podmore's book was published Dy the Putnams some months ago mm contains a most interesting and com prehensive view of the subject. Of the spirit and method of the Investigations, the author gays: We did not, as already said, in un dertaking the Inquiry, assume to ex press any opinion beforehand on the value of the evidence to be examined Whatever the private bias of individ ual members towards belief or disbe lief, it cannot fairly be said that any such bias has been allowed to pervert the method of inquiry. To ascertain the facts of the case, at whatever cost to established opinions and prejudices, has been the consistent aim of the so cletv and its workers. If some of our investigations have resulted in the de tectlon of imposture, the discovery of -rector! fallacies of sense and memory, and the general disintegra tion of some imposing structures built upon too narrow foundations; whilst others have revealed the occurrence oi phenomena which neither chance nor fraud nor fallacy of sense can plausibly explain, and for which the present sci entific synthesis can as yet find no Dlace. It is pertlent to remember that the investigators were in each case the same, the methods pursued the same, and the object in all cases was simply the discovery of the truth. "There is another not unnatural mis conception of the nature of our work Though fraud, and fraud of a particu larly gross kind, is the most activ force in producing some of the spurious marvels which have been the subject of our inquiries, yet fraud is, on the whole, neither the prolific nor the most dangerous source of error. In our ex perimental work In thought-transfer ence and the like, we have mainly had to guard against an Innocent deception and the more insidious because inno cent the sub-conscious communication of information by Indications too sub tie to be apprehended by the normal salt, but readily seized upon and inter nreted by the automatic or somnambu Ho consciousness. And in that part of our work where experiment is preclud ed by the nature of the facts, whic has consisted, therefore, mainly in ob talning and recording the testimony of others to such spontaneous phenomena viHlnns and apparitions, the real source of error Is again the subcon scious sophistication of the record, ow Ing to the Instinctive tendency of the Imagination to dramatic unity and completeness. It is enough to say here that our researches have led us gradu ally to attach more and more import ance to tne eueci ui -tunc uu of testimony." There are some Interesting scientific hints in the conclusions of the Investi gators. The fourth dimension of space may have a bearing, upon so-called su pernatural effects. Mr. Podmore says of one Investigation. "Zollner found experimental confir mation of his hypothesis of a fourth di mension of space a dimension which should stand to the known dimensions of cubac space, height, length and breadth, in the same relation which height now bears to the two dimen sions of plane space. Given the fourth dimension, the existence of which is mathematically foreshadowed, Zollner pointed out that, to a man or a spirit endowed with the capacity of dealing with it, the abstraction of objects from a closed box, the knotting of an end less cord, or the removal Into Invlsl blllty of a solid object would be tasks of no special difficulty." Speaking of the extreme credulity of many Spiritualists, Mr. Podmore con eludes: "The attitude of Spiritualists In gen eral, then, was that of persons who had been more or less thrown oft their balance by sudden exposure to experiences of a novel and surprising kind. Being for the most part igno rant of even the rudiments of natural science, they had accepted almost with out question to only explanation which appeared on a superficial examination adequate to explain the facts; and had then exalted this explanation to the dig nlty of a religious tenet. Such a men tal attitude was likely to be more con ducive to beatific contemplation than to lahnrlous analysis. The activities of the convert naturally took the form nf missionary enterprise rather than nf scientific Investigation; and the seance-room became not a laboratory, hn a nronaa-andlst institution. "And the same childlike faith marked h Hltude of Spiritualists in general to the mental phenomena of trance speaking, and the like. But between these Is a broad distinction to be drawn. Whilst there Is little worn to doubht that the great majority at any rate of the so-called physical manifestations were due to deliberate and preconcert ed fraud, such phenomena as trance speaking, automatic writing, and the visions seen at seances were probably in many cases the genuine outcome of states more or less abnormal. . . . Perhaps the commonest form of auto matic was the inspirational address or sermon. In many cases, no doubt, these addresses were actually composea ana delivered in a state of somnambulism, or at least without the conscious co-operation of the speaker. Bot there ia rarely anything in matter of the dis course which should lead us to look for inspiration beyond the speaker's own wind." This is Mr. Podmore's suggestion aa to the prevalent belief that "mediums" are "controlled" by the spirits of the dead. "While scientific men were content, for the most part, with recording the facts which they had observed, or be lieved themselves to have observed, and awaiting for the explanation, and Ser jeant Cox and his adherents attrib uted the phenomena to psychic force radiating from the finger ends, or to the enlarged sensory powers oi ine psychic body, the mass of Spiritualists failed to find satisfaction in euner ai- inde. As the peasant referred me movement of the steam engine to the nlv motive force with which ne wa acquainted, and supposed that there were horses inside, so the Spiritualists, recognizing, as they thought, in tne phenomena the manifestations of will and intelligence, not apparently those of any person visibly present, invoked the agency of the spirits of the dead. We can hardly call this belief an hy pothesis or an explanation; it seema indeed at Its outset to have been little more than the Instinctive utterance of primeval animism. Later, when tnis explanation had become stereotyped, and had affected the attitude even of honest 'mediums,' causing them to claim for teir most trivial automatic utterances an external inspiration, 11 became difficult even for intelligent stu dents to free themselves from the pre vailing belief a belief so widely at tested by the phenomena themselves." Again Mr. Podmore says: "un me one hand, as shown in the last chapter, was an important social or even religious movement of an International charac ter, which claimed a considerable num ber of more or less credulous adherents. and was based on certain alleged occur rences, which in many cases were un questionably due to deliberate and systematic imposture. On the other hand, there was a small body of men whose opinions and testimony in any matter could not be lightly disregarded. who believed In and testified ol tneir own experience to things which seem ed, and perhaps still seem, lnexpucame by any known cause. It was not easy to dismiss the whole subject as unwor thy of investiation. The explanation, of the facts recorded by Mr. Crookes Hnd others does not lie on the surface. It may be that these facts will ultimate ly find their explanation in causes nei ther remote nor unfamiliar. But cer tainly no one at that time, and per haps not now, is in. a position to affirm. with such certainty as we oring to tne other affairs of life, what the explana tion may be." Mr. Crookes' interest In the phenome na of Spiritualism has been the source of congratulation to many believers in the wonders of the seance room. Mr. Crookes was a well known and careful scientist, an investigator oi natural phenomena, before he became interest ed in physcnicai researcn. Mr. Podmore records that many cases of disinterested fraud have been discov ered. He says: "Researches in - the squalid annals of spiritualism have broukht to light other cases where fraud was nracticed without the attrac tion of pecuniary or any obvious social advantage. Moreover, the fuller knowledge gain ed in recent years of subconscious men tal activities affords ground lor tnina ing that deception of this kind may, in the beginning at any rate, be only semi conscious. The line between what is conscious and what is not so conscious lsat all times hard to draw; since no one but the patient, and not alwaya the patient himself, is in a position to speak with authority. It is not unlike ly that seemingly motiveless deception, of the kind met with in these investiga tions may occasionally be the accom paniment of some morbid dissociation cf consciousness, such as seems to oc cur 0 certain hysterical patients. The automatic subject frequently exhibits In his utterances and actions signs of a disingenuousness foreign to his nor mal self. In considering the question, therefore, whether the phenomena oc curring in the presence cf certain per-1 sons are due to trickery or to 'psychic force' we should not be justified in pressing too far the argument drawn. f,nm the Imnrobabllitv of willful de ception. We are bound to assume ab normality somewnere, ana ui mc mu, It may be easier to suppose the medium abnormally dishonest, tnan io umiH him with abnormal 'psychic powers. Mr. Podmore formulates some geiiemi propositions, as follows: "1. The conditions under which the phenomena generally occur conditions for the most part suggested and con tinually enforced by tne meaium am such as to facilitate fraud and to ren der its detection difficult. "2. Almost all phenomena are Known to have been produced under similar, conditions by mechanical means. "3. Almost every professional medium has been detected in producing results by trickery. "4. There are several cases uu iciuiu in which private persons, with no ob-, vlous pecuniary or social advantage to secure, have been detected in trickery. "5. The condition or emotional eiciw in which Investigators have for the most part approached the subject. and the antecedent Dias pruuuceu uj reports of the marvelous, are calculat ed seriously to Interfere with calm and dispassionate observation. "6. It has Deen snown mm ij persons are capable of exercising the continuous attention necessary to de tect a conjuring trick. .,.. "7. The phenomena upon wnicn ltualists rely are such as to requira the exercise of continuous observation and experiments designed to dispense with the necessity for such observation have Invariably failed. "8. Abnormal subBtances of varloua kinds are alleged to have been seen by numerous observers, but Investigation has never revealed anything abnormal. "9. The marvels recorded Imply not one new force, but many.:" The conclusion at which Mr. Podmora has arrived after his Investigation of "nmiiiMnii and previsions" Is "That belief in the possibility of supernormal foreknowledge is not Justified." Mr. Podmore Is extremely cautious In attributing trance-Intelligence to some inffuence outside of the subject, yet he admits the possibility of a di recting Intelligence, controlling tha m dlu mor subject. That there are vast possibilities In the Investigation and cultivation of psychical forces Mr, Pod more admits frankly, but he discredit utterly most of the prevalent aptiitusV Istlc phenomena.