.HOSTS are no longer fashionable. The rpook
I of unr fathers is out of date. No longer is tne
B I ghastly, shivery thing In white" allowed
Jl I entre Into our best circlts. The ghost as
popular tnsmuwon in ins worm ui midiia i -Iwi
k number.
Where a few years ago spiritual appar'tlons
of all kin'is wire seen and noted exuna.velj
among all classes anil manners of people, the
rich and the poor, the Ignorant and the learned, now nearly
all doors are rimed to them, and It is only with the Society
or Psychical Him arch that they are received with open arms.
Here. h-causo It Is a matter of faith with the psychista to
bcll.ve in and enthuse over the supernatural, ghosts, or
" spiritual apparitions." are still seen. Hut even here
ghosts are not allowed to go with the name which rn"?
brought thrills and tremors to one's ears, but are recorded s
(enl, "although immaterial, actuallths. So It can be snfely
said that ghosts, the old, reliable brand of ghosts. are
completely out of style.
The decline and fall of the spook has not been whnt m'ght
be termed rapid. For long years. In fact since the writings
and signs of men reach back, the apparition has had a place
In the world, and yet not of the world. There Is the writing
or the wall, of centuries ago, and the spiritualists of the day
might have all the wall writing they cared for: Csar came
u speak to Brutus on the eve of Phlllippl; and It Is' at the
present writing possible to secure an Interview with the
departed for the low sum of (1. Rut these are not ghosts,
these affairs of a modern day. They are simply manifesta
tions, and It Is seldom now one hears of a ghost or me-ts
with any one who Is strongly. Interested In them. And once
the person who had not Been at least one good, decent sized
ghost was decidedly de trop.
Belief in Occult Growing.
"The decrease In the number of ghosts seen and recorded
does not mean there has been any decrease In the number of
people who are ready, and even anxious, to believe they sea
a ghost when the occasion offers," said Or. J. O. Klernan, In
speaking of the decreasing number of ghost stories. "On the
contrary, there may be said to be an actual Increase In the
number of persons who are willing to give credence to the
supernatural and occult. Where a. few years ago any one
who thought they saw what thfy were pleased to term a
ghost went forthwith and labeled It as such, now- these things
art all made regular matters of record and observation by
the Society of Psychical Research. This society la a large
one. Its branches may be found In every English speaking
country In the world, and here In our United States there are
approximately 2,OUU,Oiio people who belong to It or who believe
In Its teachings. The tendency of the day to systematize
everything is shown by the manner In which even the ghosta
are being systematized Into sects.
" Th psychlsts are constantly adding to their number.
That Is possibly the reason why so few ghost stories are
told nowadays. Instead of relating his or her spiritual expe
riences, the person who hits seen an 'apparition now goes
to a psychical meeting and there relates and discusses ' expe
riences.' The reason for an Increase In the number of persons
with these beliefs may be laid originally to the natural
Inclination of many towards the occult, the supernatural
The belief In ghosts Is only a survival of the ancient savage
belief that every thing possessed a soul. This belief was
firmly rooted In primitive man, and apparently there are
many persons who are still primitive In this respect.
Hysterical Easily Deluded by Sensory Hypnotism.
" With this belief firmly Implanted, and with the young
person's eduaatlon from the beginning tending to Instruct
only In facts, without loglo. It la not strange the belief In the
'spiritual Is so prevalent. However, It will be generally found
that the person who Is so Inclined is of the extremely nervous.
hsterlcal type. To this class of person sensory hypnotism,
converting the subjective Impression of that which seems to
exist Into a seeming perception of that which Is, is easy
"Ghosts as the term Is generally used, are Invariably
the result directly of a fallacy of the perception. Few
persons are gifted with the proper faculties of perception and
observation. They cannot see things which are to be seen
and can see many things which seem to, but do not, exist
"With this equipment of fallacious perception and with
a real desire and anxiety to have a spiritual 'experience,' It
la quite possible for the psychlsts to see what they want
see. to make the Impossible visible, to themselves nt ln.t
and so go through life firmly convinced they have srn
. apparitions. They might be said to force tnemsclves to see
ghosts. The percentage of people who have a yearning for
that which they cannot understand Is surprisingly large
.a .1
Supernatural Explanation Only a Theory.
"Then of course there Is the ghost which is of this eartn,
generally some young fool with a sheet over his or her head,
which Is sometimes seen,- scaring some one nearly to death.
Of this class there are ghosts without number. So many o
them have been caught and exposed by the people whom
they sought to deceive It would seem the sensible, material
view of all aucb apparitions should be accepted even by the
most hysterical. The materlnl hypothesis Is obvious In all
these cases. Any satisfactory explanation must be such as
to eliminate all possible of any other hypothesis. The
supernatural explanation Is at the best only a theory, and
still allows of the material hypothesis. The haunted house
Is one form which these 'material' apparitions take, and
nine out of ten vaunted houses are found to be haunted
Sir aige MMlL LIFE
led by a THREE YEAR
OLD BOY
allK strange dual life led by Howard Wlnham
of 113 Brook avenue, Borough of the Bronx,
In New York City, is exciting the Interest of
students and professors of psychology in the
universities and colleges of the east.
Howard Winham is only il'-i years old and
Is one of twin boys. His twin brother, however,
died within a few hours of his birth. From
that hour little Howard seems to live In a strange world.
In fact, he lives as If he were two boys.
The peculiar phenomenon of his life was not particu
larly noticeable until he was able to walk That was some
time aitor he waa a year od
Demands Duplicates of Gifts.
From that time he never seemed to be alone. If he was
given a stick of candy he Invariably insisted on having two.
This, at first, was attributed to bis love for oandy. But
after awhile his puronts noticed that he never ate but one
piece of the candy. The other he laid aside. TO test his
peculiarity they would ofTer him three' sticks of oandy.
Either he would take only two or would Insist on having
four. If riven four he would eut two and lay the other two
aside.
As the little boy grew older and could sit at the table
In a high chair he would not eat unless an extra plate and
an extra spoon were laid 'beside his own, and more than that
he would cry until a vacant chair was placed beside his
own. He would not touch the extra plate or spoon. but
would not eut unless they were provided.
Little Howard was and Is a precocious child. He could
talk quite readily at 3 years and even at that age knew the
purchasing powers and sstbilltles that lay in a penny
trat universal gold of childhood. When given a penny he
would insist on urtother one. " No, no, no, Jwo, two, two,"
he would cry. If he could not have two jiemiles he would
not take one. If given two he would run to the grocery
store and spend one for candy, but would nut spend the
oilier one
Howard' parents are poor and they cannot afford many
pennies or nany toys. His first toy was a hoop taken from
a barrel, and wound with bright colored cloth. Ills mother
taught him how to roll the hoop along the nldewalk with a
slick. As soon as he learned the Joys of rolling the hoop
lie promptly demanded another hoop and refused t? b com
forted until It was made for him, but when he got It be laid
T
'"''.'V -HA '.- f , Vv.Vl.5k Wlkv !: HJkXifU Ci. iV:.'-- -...., .... n,Htl.,n which w.i never satisfactorily tf
- Y-'.? ' " tl. nWi; -1 I 3 'V ' ri?iVa !, rjm.Xfi plained. 1-nter Lord l.,tton had dre-.,ms that resulted In th
i&frmW.n - ' MI V yk& Mark Twain's Visitor a Mystery.
'AfH i7-fc il a f . t :. M&nltyfoF. 1 " MVV , ' - -!SO$M;'A V "Of comparatively recent days Mar Twain and Itudyard
-'N k$V' tffiHlS- -VAffe ' HhW ' Klplln have been among the notables ,o have spiritual ex-
'?Ifmt' iV ,l'-f?&'r5. V, f IT v 'V& ' perlences. No one could with nn uegtee of success accuse
terause of thieves or other depredators, and the cause of
the other one Is generally some one with a penchant for
scaring others. '
"There was, Mot mnny years ago, a haunted house In this
city. The owner was away, and In his absence the house was
empty. Soon after his departure the residence began to bear
all the earmarks of the regulation haunted house. Strange,
uncanny lights were seen at the windows moaning noises
were heard frequently, and even ghostly figures were snld to
appear. The reputation of the house grew to be such that no
one could be found to occupy It. and it fell Into the disuse
common to all houses that own to a ' haunt.' No one cared
to Investigate the causes until the owner returned Then
It was found that the house was Just as It had been left,
except that the lead pipe and other plumbing fixtures had
been removed. It waa quite simple to Connect the ' spirits
with their disappearance.
J
Belief in Supernatural Makes Easy Victim.
"The most typical' Instance of the ghost whose mission
on earth was to frighten that ever came under my observa-
tlon oocurred several years ago. A young countryman came
to Chicago to work who was full of a fear of the hereafter,
and who had a profound belle in all things supernatural.
His belief took the torm of active fear and constant expec
tation of the extraordinary happening. In addition to this, he
heard much of the dangers of the city, and to protect himself,
carried a large revolver. Under these circumstances It was
extre-mely easy to play the conventional ghost trick on him.
" Several erf the young people with whom he lived con- .
spired to give him a treat of the spiritual. They carefully
removed the cartridges from his revolver while he slept at
night and londed the weapon with blank cartridges. One of
the young men, attired in a sheet and other ghostly para
phernalia, then went to the sleeper's bed. The young man
was awakened with the aid of some ghostly music and upon
It aside and continued to play with his old one.
It was the same way with his first top, his first ball.
Everything has to be given him In duplicate, and yet he never
playa with more than one.
The child, however, does not Insist upon a double supply
of wearing apparel. He Is content with one cap, one pair of
shoes.
Undeterred by Punishment.
For a long time his parents failed to fathom Howard's
peculiar mental humor. At first they attributed his peculiar
ities to selfishness and to whimsicality and they even pun
ished him when he insisted on having duplicates of every
thing. The child's extraordinary peculiarity finally became
known In the neighborhood. It is generally believed by all
who know and have observed the child that his life Is Inti
mately bound up with some unexplained knowledge of his
twin brother. Ills parents, however, laugh at this theory,
and his mother even spanks him in a vain effort to break
him of what her neighbors call a " sympathy " for his dead
brother.
Of course, little Howard does not know of the little twin
brother that died. He Is not old enough to realise what it
means or would mean even if he were told.
His mother has listened to the pleadings of her friends
and neighbors to the extent of promising to keep the knowl
edge of his twin brother from him as the boy grows older.
Even when he becomes old enough to be told and to under
stand he is to be kept In gnoraiice of the fact that he ever
had a brother.
In the meantime the peculiar mental traits of little How
ard Winham attracted the attention of students of psychol
ogy at Columbia university and the University of New York.
They give it the scientific name of " alternative. personality."
From their study of psychology they say that as little How
ard grows older hlj tendency to alt rnatlve personality may
diminish and disappear. In that event he will be of no
further interest to psychological scl -ce.
If. on the other hand, the boy's tendency to alternative
personality increases rather than diminishes he. will present
on instance of which there have ben few Jn the history of
" soul science." x . .
Radical Change in Alternative Personality.
There are only a few well authenticated cases of alterna
tive personality, but thess few have excited the keen Inter
est of students of psychology In all countries of the world.
Among the more notable cases Is that of Herr Straussmann
of Alsaee, who for years before his death lived unconsciously
as two men. Like the llttl New Turk boy, Btraussraanu
i.i Ki "iti km b f V f u'
ik mi ' :i t iilll ! 1
mm , ; n ill "n1 "'
i lllll l l' tl l '
opening his eyes was treated to the sight of a terrible
specter standing at the foot of his bed, waving his arms in
the most orthodox ghost manner.
" Terror stricken, ho reached for his revolver and fired,
once, twice, and three times, right hrough the figure before
him, and the figure neVer evidenced that It noticed. Rising
In his bed, the man hurled his weapon straight at his tor
had a twin brother who died at birth. There Is no record
of Straussmann's earlier years, and his perullar mental char
acteristic was not reoognUed until he was l.'l years old and at
school In Strasbourg. He was a particularly headstrong,
vicious boy, careless of dress and manners and Indifferent
to study. His tutors had almost reached the point where
they Intended to urge his expulsion from the school.
One day young Straussmann enitred the classroom, neatly
dressed, and with modest demeanor He knew his lessons
perfectly. Ilia tutor was astonished and complimented the
youth upon his marked Improvement. The boy expressed
unmistakable surprise and denied vith unusual earnestness
that he hud ever lieen anything else than a dlllgentwtudi-nt.
The tutor let the matter rest.
For six months Straussmann was the model boy of the
school and Uide fair to carry off the honors of his class.
Then, the day fixed for the school examlmUions. he ap
peared In the claxsroom as unkempt, as Insolent is ever.
More than that, he was etitiiely Ignorant of everything he
hud studied for six months.
Solved by Scientific Study.
Prof. HerUogg, the principal of the school, divined that
there was something mytterftua in young Strausmann's
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mentor. A long, bony hand reached out from the folds of the
sheet, caught the revolver, nnd waved it threateningly above
its head. That was too much for the young man. lie
fainted, and for three months was the victim of coii'fuslonal
Insanity, such as often appears under similar circumstances,
but In the end he made a good recovery.
"And so, through the long list of famous specters of all
ages. They all have been, or might have been, explained
from the material standpoint. As Wilkes of London said,
When tho extraordinary occurs the only satisfactory
hypothesis Is the ono which precludes all possibility ot any
other hypothesis."
Visual Apparitions Well Authenticated.
rtut In spite of the array of common sense Dr. Klernan
brings to show the fallacy of all ghost belief there are many
people far above the overage in thought and logic who have a
decided leaning toward the spiritual. Mr. Andrew long,
the. English writer, In a resume of his book, " Hours with
Ohosts," says: "I have been aked the question time and
again by people whose position entitles them to be answered,
' Do you believe in ghosts?' To this I will say the popular
definitions of the term ' ghost ' are so numerous that to reply
in n general manner would be unsatisfactory. But, assum
ing that ' ghost ' Is taken to mean a visual apparition, then It
must be said that the evidences of sensory delusions result
ln in well defined hallucinations are too numerous ar.d too
well attested to be Ignoredi If these appnrltlonB are caused
by a physical effect produced by the minds of the dead then
they are distinctly supernatural.
" This hypothesis is firmly supported by the frequency
with wnich these occurrences take place in rooms and houses
where deaths have occurred, especially tragic deaths, piompt
Iiih the assumption that the sensory delusions reult from
the ambiguity of the stimuli." Mr. I.ang says In a sort of
defense explanation of 4K1 pages of "experiences":
" These experiences cover a space of several hundred
years nnd range from the wonderful to the ridiculous, the
Inexplicable to the simple tricks of n fool. Ben Jonson
ciice upon a time went to Investigate a ghost which had
made a part of England famous. He found It to be a young
girl who was venting her hysterical disposition In npoarlng
nightly In a shoot. Lord Broug-ham while on a visit to
the humorous Mark with hiving any suspicion of being
a driver into occultism, nnd yet Mark saw a real ghost. Said
ghost was seen one afternoon boldly walking up the front
steps of Twnln's residence. He ontired. according to Mark,
as If he were accustomed to entering there. Twain followed
as swiftly as he could. At the doorway his reliable butler
met him.
" ' Where Is he?" queried Mark breathlessly.
" ' Who, sir?' asked the astonished butler.
" ' The thing that Just entered.
" ' There has nobody entered here this afternoon, Mr,"
replied the faithful servitor. A search of the home was
made, hut no traces of nny one or anything were found
Twain has never mlvid the 'mystery' to his satisfaction lo
this day.
Kipling Fooled by Sensory Hypnotism.
" Kipling, when he made India his home, had been writ
ing other people's ghost stories with great success. 'The
riinntom Rickshaw' and 'The Strange Ride of Morrowble
Jukes' had come from his pen, but never had Kipling had
a real ghost experience himself until ho ran ncross his 'Own
True Ghost Story.' His experiences In this Instance sub
stantiate materially the hypothesis of sensory hypnotism
in regard to matters spiritual.
"Mr. Kipling was spending a night In nn old disused
building with only the old caretaker for company. It hap
pened that the caretaker waa gifted with tho powers of story
telling, so Mr. Kipling heard how the building wherein he
stopped had once been an otllcers' club, nnd how the officers
had died thwe of fever. At night bo woke up and began to
hear things. He henrd billiard balls clicking and rolling In
the room, heard laughs and tinkle of glasses, horses neigh
ing In tho compound and tho Jangle (ft spurs ns shostly
booted feet trod across the floor. It was a most satisfactory
experience, but In the end It was spoiled, as nre nil good ghost
stories, by the discovery that the old caretaker's tale of the
officers' club was only n fantastic piece of Imagery, that the
building had never In Its existence housed n company of
officers. The billiard bulls were a couple of scurrying mice,
the tinkling glass a rattling window pane. It was really too
bad."
Expectation Conures a Ghost.
India seems to be proline In ghosts, haunts, nnd appari
tions of many kinds. A case which long was believed to be
wonderful In its authenticity und which was hnlled with
delight by the IVybhlcal. society was that of two young
English officers of a native cavalry regiment. Tho two
were seated at a table one night and suddenly by their sides
appeared the figure of a man. Gradually the figure became
more visible and finally thfy made it out to bo the brother
of one of them, an officer who was stationed with his regi
ment at Gibraltar.
" It's Don," said the living brother. " I'll bet a horse he's
dead."
"He. had a blooming fine hnt, whoever he was," com
mented the other officer when the apparition had disap
peared. " If he's dead I wish I had asked him for It; he'll
not need It any more."
With the next mail there came a letter announcing the
death of the brother and the hour of his death corresponded
with the one of the apparition's appearance. Tills was a
" sending " if there ever was sending on earth. As proof
of the appearance of spirits It was held to be lncontestlble.
Investigation, however, revealed the fact that the death of
the brother had long been expected to occur and that the
two young officers had sot down that evening to drown their
prospective sorrows in drink.
Expecting a report of his demise every minute, they were
able to easily hypnotize their faculties of perception Into a
condition which made that which ought to appear actually
appear to them. This would have been possible without the
aid of drinking, but one of the great aids for seeing ghosts
Is that which is commonly termed " a package."
mentality and he proceeded to make a close study of the boy.
He took him Into his own family in order to be able to make
closer observations.
At the end of threp years of careful study Prof. Ilertzogg
revealed to the scientific world one of the strangest cuses of
alternative personality ever known. Young Straussmann vi
brated unconsciously between two personalities. The
changes in his character were Irregular as well as involun
tary. Straussmann the brutal. Insolent, ignorant youth
would become Straussmann the guntle, considerate, well
learned, almost In an Instant In his better moods Strauss
mann was a musician, a linguist, a gentleman. In his oppo
site mood he was an Ignorant' lout.
In neither mood did Straussmann recognize himself In
the other. In his later years he came to know of his own
strange dual character In his gentler mood he sought to
study his other self, but while he realised that part of the
time he had another existence he could not recall even for
an Instant any of the peculiarities of his other self. He never
knew when his mood changed.
Phenomena Made Famous by Stevenson.
Alternative ersoria!lty Is by no means an unrecognised
pheinonenu even by those who do not know It by that name.
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote one of his most notable books
with alternative persotulity 114 Its motive und evury theater
goer in the United States knows the book, for no play is of
more curnmun knowledge than " The Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll und Mr. Hyde."
Herr Siraussmann of Alsace Lorraine was only tho fore
runner of Dr. J' kyll und Mr. Hyde, ami little Howard Win
ham cf New York may live to supply fiction utid the drama
with another character eyually strange and mysterious.