A mild sensation has been caused by some extraordinary manifestations at the residence of Mr John Arscott, 175 Ann street. The family say they were surprised on Sunday by loud scratching on the wall. Mr Arscott procured a light and a revolver, and made his way to the cellar to see if there was anything there. He spoke loudly, and the noise stopped. The family thought it was a rat, and that it had been scared away.
But the next night the noise was heard again, and the little girl, Ada, spoke, asking what was wanted. Three loud rasping strokes came in reply. Ada is the third child of the family, and is eleven years old. She requested that two raps be given when “no” was meant, and one rap when “yes” was the answer to a question. It is claimed that by this means correct replies to many questions have been given.
The only person who produces this manifestation is the daughter Ada, and she alleges that the noise cannot be heard when strangers are in the room. A reporter visited the house yesterday, and found it thronged with curious people. He asked that his age be told. The girl Ada entered the next room, though in full sight of the visitors, and repeated the question. Twenty-two strokes were counted, the correct number.
Taking some money from his pocket, and without opening his hand, he asked how many coins it contained. The reply was likewise accurate. Innumerable queries were put by other visitors with the same remarkable results.
Mr Arscott is a tanner by trade, and he and his family are strong church-going people, and are held in the highest esteem. They have never been believers in spiritualism so called, and say they are utterly at a loss to account for the phenomena.
Toronto Daily Mail, 28th January 1895.
The strange doings at the residence of Mr John Arscott continue, and the family have become so annoyed at the intrusion of strangers that they have decided to refuse them admission, and send away the girl medium, Ada, in the hope that the noises will stop.
Hundreds have secured admission to the house, and put questions which have been answered accurately by means of the scratching on the wall at the command of Ada. Nearly all the newspaper reporters have interrogated the invisible something, and are, to say the least, puzzled.
The nervous strain is telling on the little girl, and the parents insist that she shall not be bothered by the crowd. She takes a childish pride in the manifestations.
Toronto Daily Mail, 29th January 1895.
Last night little Ada Arscott, the child medium, successfully produced the uncanny sounds that have lately made themselves manifest at her own home in the house of a neighbour, Mr Samuel Bates. Ada was accompanied by her father and a number of relatives.
Toronto Daily Mail, 30th January 1895.
The Rev. Benjamin Clement, pastor of the London West Methodist church, has investigated the mysterious rappings at the Arscott homestead, and pronounces himself puzzled. He says he muffled the hands of the girl medium, Ada, and that she produced loud noises on the wall in an adjoining room. She was in full view of him and apparently motionless while the sounds were heard.
“Correct answers,” said Mr Clement, “were given to every question I put. All sorts of things were told me about my brothers and sisters and my own family that no one in the city knew. I cannot tell how it was done.”
Toronto Daily Mail, 1st February 1895.