ASPR Journal, V14 - Iapsop.com

4.36 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research.
entered into it with all of his energy; but the end came abruptly
on December 20th, 1905, and there ensued a period of much confusion,
the chief element of which was the problem of the Piper
Records and the large mass of manuscript and material which
Hodgson had accumulated in his rooms and at the office on Boylston
Place. This material technically belonged to the English Society
because we were only a Branch anq the American Secretary
a Branch officer. On the other hand the office had been selfsupporting
or supported by private donations and received no
financial aid from England. Furthermore many of the Piper
sitters objected to copies of the records being carried abroad.
Hyslop tried to get the Secretaryship in order to retain this material,
but there was much local opposition. James was in California
and sick. Such an appointment had to be made by the
English Society with the approval of James. Dorr, who was one
of Hodgson's executors, virtually blocked off all chance for other
sitters at the Piper light in his strenuous effort to get aid and
advice for the best solution of this situation fro[\1 the "other
side."
There were mutterings of law suits if attempts were made to
take the Piper records to England; on the basis that the records
belonged to the sitters, and that copies had been given to the S. P.
R. by contract only. Finally, however, James came back, Piddington
arrived from England, and on May 18, 1906, papers were
finally signed dissolving the American Branch. These also included
an agreement by which the Piper Records and other manuscripts
were amicably disposed of. The records of Piper sittings
were taken to England for future study under guarantee of suitable
privacy; all other manuscripts and material were turned over
to Hyslop, and these" filled nineteen heavy cases"; a life job for
some future worker to dig into, assort, and work over Hodgson's
half original system of stenographic pot hooks. Hyslop worked
in this mass of material somewhat, but only scratched the surface
of it.
The Piper light had sagged for want of skilled hands to hold
it up. As one lady in close touch with the situation wrote me:
" A more slip-shod, happy-go-lucky way of doing things than the
management of the trance this season I cannot well imagine."
A retrospective view of this period, and the re-reading of a
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