356 MY LIFE 



door, all being just as before, and affording no room or place 

 for disposing of the baby alone, far less of the other figures. 



At another special seance for friends of Dr. Xichols and 

 Mr. Brackett, with Professor James and myself — nine in all, 

 under the same conditions as before, eight or nine different 

 figures came, including a tall Indian chief in war-paint and 

 feathers, a little girl who talked and played with Miss Brackett, 

 and a very pretty and perfectly developed girl, " Bertha," Mr. 

 Brackett's niece, who has appeared to him with various 

 mediums for two years, and is as w r ell known to him as any near 

 relative in earth-life. She speaks distinctly, which these figures 

 .rarely do, and Mr. Brackett has often seen her develop grad- 

 ually from a cloudy mass, and almost instantly vanish away. 

 But w r hat specially interested me was, that two of the figures 

 beckoned to me to come up to the cabinet. One was a beauti- 

 fully draped female figure, who took my hand, looked at me 

 smilingly, and on my appearing doubtful, said in a whisper 

 that she had often met me at Miss Kate Cook's seances in 

 London. She then let me feel her ears, as I had done before 

 to prove she was not the medium. I then saw that she closely 

 resembled the figure with whom I had often talked and joked 

 at Signor Randi's, a fact known to no one in America. 



The other figure was an old gentleman with white hair and 

 beard, and in evening-dress. He took my hand, bowed, and 

 looked pleased, as one meeting an old friend. Considering 

 who was likely to come, I thought of my father and of Darwin, 

 but there was not enough likeness to either. Then at length 

 I recognized the likeness to a photograph I had of my cousin 

 Algeron Wilson, whom I had not seen since we were children, 

 but had long corresponded with, as he was an enthusiastic 

 entomologist, living in Adelaide, where he had died not 

 long before. Then I looked pleased and said, " Is it Algeron ? ' 

 at which he nodded earnestly, seemed very much pleased, shook 

 my hand vigorously, and patted my face and head with his 

 other hand. 



These two recognitions were to me very striking, because 

 they were both so private and personal to myself, and could 

 not possibly have been known to the medium or even to any 



