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CHAPTER XII
THE EDDY BROTHERS
AND THE HOLMESES
It is diffi cult within any reasonable compass to follow the rise
of various mediums in the United States, and a study of one or two
outstanding cases must typify the whole. The years 1874 and 1875
were years of great psychic activity, bringing conviction to some and
scandal to others. On the whole the scandal seems to have predominated, but whether rightly or not is a question which may well be
debated. The opponents of psychic truth having upon their side the
clergy of the various churches, organized science, and the huge inert
bulk of material mankind, had the lay Press at their command, with
the result that everything that was in its favour was suppressed or
contorted, and everything which could tell against it was given the
widest publicity. Hence, a constant checking of past episodes and
reassessment of old values are necessary. Even at the present day the
air is charged with prejudice. If any man of standing at the present
instant were to enter a London newspaper offi ce and say that he had
detected a medium in fraud, the matter would be seized upon eagerly and broadcast over the country; while if the same man proclaimed
that he had beyond all question satisfi ed himself that the phenomena were true, it is doubtful if he would get a paragraph. The scale
is always heavily weighted. In America, where there is practically no
Libel Act, and where the Press is often violent and sensational, this
state of things was – and possibly is – even more in evidence.
221
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
The fi rst outstanding incident was the mediumship of the Eddy
brothers, which has probably never been excelled in the matter of
materialization, or, as we may now call them, ectoplasmic forms. The
diffi culty at that date in accepting such phenomena lay in the fact
that they seemed to be regulated by no known law, and to be isolated from all our experiences of Nature. The labours of Geley, Crawford, Madame Sisson, Schrenck Notzing and others have removed
this, and have given us, what is at the lowest, a complete scientifi c
hypothesis, sustained by prolonged and careful investigations, so
that we can bring some order into the matter. This did not exist in
1874, and we can well sympathize with the doubt of even the most
honest and candid minds, when they were asked to believe that two
rude farmers, unmannered and uneducated, could produce results
which were denied to the rest of the world and utterly inexplicable
to science.
The Eddy brothers, Horatio and William, were primitive folk
farming a small holding at the hamlet of Chittenden, near Rutland,
in the State of Vermont. An observer has described them as “sensitive, distant and curt with strangers, look more like hard-working
rough farmers than prophets or priests of a new dispensation, have
dark complexions, black hair and eyes, stiff joints, a clumsy carriage,
shrink from advances, and make newcomers ill at ease and unwelcome. They are at feud with some of their neighbours and not liked...
They are, in fact, under the ban of a public opinion that is not prepared or desirous to study the phenomena as either scientifi c marvels or revelations from another world.”
The rumours of the strange doings which occurred in the Eddy
homestead had got abroad, and raised an excitement similar to that
caused by the Koons’s music-room in earlier days. Folk came from all
parts to investigate. The Eddys seem to have had ample, if rude, accommodation for their guests, and to have boarded them in a great
222
THE HISTORY OF SPIRITUALISM
room with the plaster stripping off the walls and the food as simple
as the surroundings. For this board, of course, they charged at a low
rate, but they do not seem to have made any profi t out of their psychic demonstrations.
A good deal of curiosity had been aroused in Boston and New
York by the reports of what was happening, and a New York paper,
the Daily Graphic, sent up Colonel Olcott as investigator. Olcott was
not at that time identifi ed with any psychic movement – indeed, his
mind was prejudiced against it, and he approached his task rather
in the spirit of an “exposer.” He was a man of clear brain and outstanding ability, with a high sense of honour. No one can read the
very full and intimate details of his own life which are contained in
his “Old Diary Leaves” without feeling a respect for the man – loyal
to a fault, unselfi sh, and with that rare moral courage which will
follow truth and accept results even when they oppose one’s expectations and desires. He was no mystic dreamer but a very practical
man of affairs, and some of his psychic research observations have
met with far less attention than they deserve.
Olcott remained for ten weeks in the Vermont atmosphere,
which must in itself have been a feat of considerable endurance,
with plain fare, hard living and uncongenial hosts. He came away
with something very near to personal dislike for his morose entertainers, and at the same time with absolute confi dence in their psychic powers. Like every wise investigator, he refuses to give blank
certifi cates of character, and will not answer for occasions upon
which he was not present, nor for the future conduct of those whom
he is judging. He confi nes himself to his actual experience, and in
fi fteen remarkable articles which appeared in the New York Daily
Graphic in October and November, 1874, he gave his full results
and the steps which he had taken to check them. Reading these, it is
diffi cult to suggest any precaution which he had omitted.
223
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
His fi rst care was to examine the Eddy history. It was a good
but not a spotless record. It cannot be too often insisted upon that
the medium is a mere instrument and that the gift has no relation
to character. This applies to physical phenomena, but not to mental, for no high teaching could ever come through a low channel.
There was nothing wrong in the record of the brothers, but they
had once admittedly given a fake mediumistic show, announcing
it as such and exposing tricks. This was probably done to raise the
wind and also to conciliate their bigoted neighbours, who were incensed against the real phenomena. Whatever the cause or motive,
it naturally led Olcott to be very circumspect in his dealings, since it
showed an intimate knowledge of tricks.
The ancestry was most interesting, for not only was there an
unbroken record of psychic power extending over several generations, but their grandmother four times removed had been burned
as a witch – or at least had been sentenced to that fate in the famous Salem trials of 1692. There are many living now who would
be just as ready to take this short way with our mediums as ever
Cotton Mather was, but police prosecutions are the modern equivalent. The father of the Eddys was unhappily one of those narrow
persecuting fanatics. Olcott declares that the children were marked
for life by the blows which he gave them in order to discourage
what he chose to look upon as diabolical powers. The mother, who
was herself strongly psychic, knew how unjustly this “religious”
brute was acting, and the homestead must have become a hell upon
earth. There was no refuge for the children outside, for the psychic
phenomena used to follow them even into the schoolroom, and excite the revilings of the ignorant young barbarians around them.
At home, when young Eddy fell into a trance, the father and a neighbour poured boiling water over him and placed a red-hot coal on
his head, leaving an indelible scar. The lad fortunately slept on.
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THE HISTORY OF SPIRITUALISM
Is it to be wondered at that after such a childhood the children
should have grown into morose and secretive men ?
As they grew older the wretched father tried to make some
money out of the powers which he had so brutally discouraged, and
hired the children out as mediums. No one has ever yet adequately
described the sufferings which public mediums used to undergo at
the hands of idiotic investigators and cruel sceptics. Olcott testifi es
that the hands and arms of the sisters as well as the brothers were
grooved with the marks of ligatures and scarred with burning sealing wax, while two of the girls had pieces of fl esh pinched out by
handcuffs. They were ridden on rails, beaten, fi red at, stoned and
chased while their cabinet was repeatedly broken to pieces. The
blood oozed from their fi nger-nails from the compression of arteries. These were the early days in America, but Great Britain has little
to boast of when one recalls the Davenport brothers and the ignorant violence of the Liverpool mob.
The Eddys seem to have covered about the whole range of
physical mediumship. Olcott gives the list thus – rappings, movement of objects, painting in oils and water-colours under infl uence, prophecy, speaking strange tongues, healing, discernment of
spirits, levitation, writing of messages, psychometry, clairvoyance,
and fi nally the production of materialized forms. Since St. Paul fi rst
enumerated the gifts of the spirit no more comprehensive list has
ever been given.
The method of the séances was that the medium should sit in
a cabinet at one end of the room, and that his audience should occupy rows of benches in front of him. The inquirer will probably ask
why there should be a cabinet at all, and extended experience has
shown that it can, as a matter of fact, be dispensed with save in this
particular crowning phenomenon of materialization. Home never
used a cabinet, and it is seldom used by our chief British mediums
225
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
of to-day. There is, however, a very defi nite reason for its presence.
Without being too didactic upon a subject which is still under examination, it may at least be stated, as a working hypothesis with
a great deal to recommend it, that the ectoplasmic vapour which
solidifi es into the plasmic substance from which the forms are constructed can be more easily condensed in a limited space. It has been
found, however, that the presence of the medium within that space
is not needful. At the greatest materialization séance which the author has ever attended, where some twenty forms of various ages
and sizes appeared in one evening, the medium sat outside the door
of the cabinet from which the shapes emerged. Presumably, according to the hypothesis, his ectoplasmic vapour was conducted into
the confi ned space, irrespective of the position of his physical body.
This had not been recognized at the date of this investigation, so the
cabinet was employed.
It is obvious, however, that the cabinet offered a means for fraud
and impersonation, so it had to be carefully examined. It was on the
second fl oor, with one small window. Olcott had the window netted with a mosquito curtain fastened on the outside. The rest of the
cabinet was solid wood and unapproachable save by the room in
which the spectators were sitting. There seems to have been no possible opening for fraud. Olcott had it examined by an expert, whose
certifi cate is given in the book.
Under these circumstances Olcott related in his newspaper
articles, and afterwards in his remarkable book, “People from the
Other World,” that he saw in the course of ten weeks no fewer than
four hundred apparitions appear out of this cabinet, of all sorts,
sizes, sexes and races, clad in the most marvellous garments, babies
in arms, Indian warriors, gentlemen in evening dress, a Kurd with
a nine-foot lance, squaws who smoked tobacco, ladies in fi ne costumes. Such was Olcott’s evidence, and there was not a statement
226
THE HISTORY OF SPIRITUALISM
he made for which he was not prepared to produce the evidence of
a roomful of people. His story was received with incredulity then,
and will excite little less incredulity now. Olcott, full of his subject
and knowing his own precautions, chafed, as all of us chafe, at the
criticism of those who had not been present, and who chose to assume that those who were present were dupes and simpletons. He
says: “If one tells them of babies being carried in from the cabinet
by women, of young girls with lithe forms, yellow hair and short
stature, of old women and men standing in full sight and speaking to us, of half-grown children seen, two at a time, simultaneously
with another form, of costumes of different makes, of bald heads,
grey hair, black shocky heads of hair, curly hair, of ghosts instantly
recognized by friends, and ghosts speaking audibly in a foreign language of which the medium is ignorant – their equanimity is not
disturbed... The credulity of some scientifi c men, too, is boundless –
they would rather believe that a baby could lift a mountain without
levers, than that a spirit could lift an ounce.”
But apart from the extreme sceptic, whom nothing will convince
and who would label the Angel Gabriel at the last day as an optical
delusion, there are some very natural objections which an honest
novice is bound to make, and an honest believer to answer. What
about these costumes ? Whence come they ? Can we accept a ninefoot lance as being a spiritual object ? The answer lies, so far as we
understand it, in the amazing properties of ectoplasm. It is the most
protean substance, capable of being moulded instantly into any
shape, and the moulding power is spirit will, either in or out of the
body. Anything may in an instant be fashioned from it if the predominating intelligence so decides. At all such séances there appears to
be present one controlling spiritual being who marshals the fi gures
and arranges the whole programme. Sometimes he speaks and openly directs. Sometimes he is silent and manifests only by his actions.
227
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
As already stated, such controls are very often Red Indians who appear in their spiritual life to have some special affi nity with physical
phenomena.
William Eddy, the chief medium for these phenomena, does not
appear to have suffered in health or strength from that which is
usually a most exhausting process. Crookes has testifi ed how Home
would “lie in an almost fainting condition on the fl oor, pale and
speechless.” Home, however, was not a rude open-air farmer, but
a sensitive artistic invalid. Eddy seems to have eaten little, but smoked
incessantly. Music and singing were employed at the séances, for it
has long been observed that there is a close connexion between musical vibrations and psychic results. White light also has been found
to prohibit results, and this is now explained from the devastating
effects which light has been shown to exert upon ectoplasm. Many
colours have been tried in order to prevent total darkness, but if you
can trust your medium the latter is the most conducive to results,
especially to those results of phosphorescent and fl ashing lights
which are among the most beautiful of the phenomena. If a light is
used, red is the colour which is best tolerated. In the Eddy séances
there was a subdued illumination from a shaded lamp.
It would be wearisome to the reader to enter into details as to
the various types which appeared in these remarkable gatherings.
Madame Blavatsky, who was then an unknown woman in New
York, had come up to see the sights. At that time she had not yet developed the theosophical line of thought, and was an ardent Spiritualist. Colonel Olcott and she met for the fi rst time in the Vermont
farm-house, and there began a friendship which was destined in the
future to lead to strange developments. In her honour apparently
a whole train of Russian images appeared, who carried on conversations in that language with the lady. The chief apparitions, however,
were a giant Indian named Santum and an Indian squaw named
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THE HISTORY OF SPIRITUALISM
Honto, who materialized so completely and so often that the audience may well have been excused if they forgot sometimes that they
were dealing with spirits at all. So close was the contact that Olcott
measured Honto on a painted scale beside the cabinet door. She was
fi ve feet three. On one occasion she exposed her woman’s breast
and asked a lady present to feel the beating of her heart. Honto was
a light-hearted person, fond of dancing, of singing, of smoking, and
of exhibiting her wealth of dark hair to the audience. Santum, on
the other hand, was a taciturn warrior, six feet three in height. The
height of the medium was fi ve feet nine.
It is worth noting that the Indian always wore a powder-horn,
which had been actually given him by a visitor to the circle. This
was hung up in the cabinet and was donned by him when he materialized. Some of the Eddy spirits could speak and others could not,
while the amount of fl uency varied greatly. This was in accordance
with the author’s experience at similar séances. It seems that the returning soul has much to learn when it handles this simulacrum of
itself, and that here, as elsewhere, practice goes for much. In speaking, these fi gures move their lips exactly as human beings would do.
It has been shown also that their breath in lime water produces the
characteristic reaction of carbon dioxide. Olcott says: “The spirits
themselves say that they have to learn the art of self-materialization,
as one would any other art.” At fi rst they could only make tangible
hands as in the cases of the Davenports, the Foxes, and others. Many
mediums never get beyond this stage.
Among the numerous visitors to the Vermont homestead there
were naturally some who took up a hostile attitude. None of these,
however, seems to have gone into the matter with any thoroughness. The one who attracted most attention was a Dr. Beard, of New
York, a medical man, who on the strength of a single sitting contended that the fi gures were all impersonations by William Eddy
229
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
himself. No evidence, and only his own individual impression is put
forward to sustain this view, and he declared that he could produce
all the effects with “three dollars’ worth of theatrical properties.”
Such an opinion might well be honestly formed upon a single performance, especially if it should have been a more or less unsuccessful one. But it becomes perfectly untenable when it is compared
with the experiences of those who attended a number of sittings.
Thus, Dr. Hodgson, of Stoneham, Mass., together with four other
witnesses, signed a document: “We certify... that Santum was out on
the platform when another Indian of almost as great a stature came
out, and the two passed and repassed each other as they walked up
and down. At the same time a conversation was being carried on between George Dix, Mayfl ower, old Mr. Morse, and Mrs. Eaton inside
the cabinet. We recognized the familiar voice of each.” There are
many such testimonies, apart from Olcott, and they put the theory
of impersonation quite out of court. It should be added that many of
the forms were little children and babies in arms. Olcott measured
one child two feet four in height. It should, in fairness, be added that
the one thing which clouds the reader occasionally is Olcott’s own
hesitation and reservations. He was new to the subject, and every
now and then a wave of fear and doubt would pass over his mind,
and he would feel that he had committed himself too far and that he
must hedge in case, in some inexplicable way, he should be shown
to be in the wrong. Thus, he says: “The forms I saw at Chittenden,
while apparently defying any other explanation than that they are
of super-sensual origin, are still as a scientifi c fact to be regarded as
‘not proven.’” Elsewhere he talks about not having “test conditions.”
This expression “test conditions” has become a sort of shibboleth which loses all meaning. Thus, when you say that you have beyond all question or doubt seen your own dead mother’s face before
you, the objector replies: “Ah, but was it under test conditions ?” The
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