Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

OF THE EXISTENCK OF KPIiUTS. 351spirits to return my thimble, scissors/ or whatever was missing, and thoarticle named would drop at her side, or in her lap, within a minute.Thingsof this kind occurred very many times in the course of the time that thesephenomena were continued. If a key or knife, or any thing of the kind,was mislaid, and any person was looking for it, frequently it would bethrown to them as thougli their wants were anticipated. Dr. Phelps wasonce with Harry in the stable, when the currycomb could not be found,and he asked Harry where itwas, to which Harry replied that he did notknow. At that moment, the doctor saw it rise, as if thrown, from a pointten feet distant from them, and, describing a parabola, fall within a shortdistance of the spot where they both were standing.1720. " About the middle of May, Dr. Phelps and Harry were ridingto Huntington, a distance of seven miles. When they had proceededabout one mile on the way, a stone, about the size of a hen's egg, wasthrown into the carriage, and lodged on Dr. Phelps's hat. Soon anotherand another were thrown in. The carriage was a covered one, and theback curtain was down, and there was no way a stone could have beenthrown in by ordinary means. At one house where they stopped, the momentthe front door was opened, two stones were thrown, one of whichentered the door as it stood partly open, and the other hit one of the lightsof glass, and broke it.Harry was standing on the door-steps at the time,and there was no one in the street who could have thrown them. Twostones were also thrown against another house where they stopped of anerrand. Sixteen stones were thrown into the carriage on the doctor'sreturn, and, including those thrown against the two houses, twenty, indriving three or four hours.1721. ^' As it was now apparent that these strange things were in someway connected with Harry as a medium, it was thought best to separatehim from the family. Accordingly board was obtained for him in a familysome two miles distant. One day, when he came home, he told his mother,in great secrecy, that on the night previous he had been awakenedfrom his sleep by some person dressed in white, whom he saw standing byhis bedside. He was frightened, and was about to scream, when the personspoke and said, ^ Be not afraid, my son ; I am your father ;' and then placedin the boy's hand a silver watch, and told him to wear it for his sake. Theboy affirms that he had the watch in his hand ; that it was not a dreamand that he was entirely awake ; and that his father told him to tell noone of it but his mother and Dr. P. His mother told him it was nothingbut a dream, and turned it off as a light affair.1722. " It seems that a valuable silver watch had been left the boy byhis father, which was not in use, but had been kept locked up in a drawerof a dressing-table, to which he (Harry) had no access. A member of thefamily, having occasion to look into the drawer, saw the watch, and knowsit was there, and that the drawer was locked, and the key given to Mrs. P.