The Elwin March Case of “Poltergeist”.
By J Allen Gilbert, Ph.D., M.D., Portland, Ore.
– The present case of “Poltergeist” excited a wide interest at the time of its occurrence, and as reported by Dr Gilbert, was taken up by the Portland Oregonian,the most important newspaper on the Pacific Coast, and perhaps west of the Mississippi River. Its interest was great enough for an article in the Pacific Monthly, a standard publication in the far west, and, with the growing curiosity about psychic research, received attention that marked it for investigation. I at once asked Dr Gilbert and Mr Thacher to make the proper inquiries and the results must speak for themselves.
– In the reports of witnesses Dr Gilbert incorporates their defective grammar with their testimony and it is allowed to stand here as a part of the record.
– The most important feature of the case is its relation to human testimony. Not that it proves such testimony usually to be false, but that it is a good illustration of mal-observation, and this, too, regardless of the interpretation of the phenomena, unless we have trained minds to make the observations [sic]. It is this characteristic of it that obliges us to publish every detail of the report. Without this investigation the case would have passed as one of the mysteries of the locality, and some features of it may still have that characteristic. But the present record is an instructive illustration of the rights of scepticism. — Editor.
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On October 29, ’09, the Morning Oregonian of Portland, Oregon, published an account of a case of “Poltergeist,” which attracted marked attention, not only locally, but also very generally where the associated press held sway. In discussing the case with Dr. S.A. Robinson, who was deeply interested in the case also, it seemed advisable to make more accurate investigation of the phenomena than could be had through the reports of the press. Inquiry on the part of Dr. Robinson disclosed the fact that the boy had been under the care of a physician for some time, and through the physician I obtained access to the family. The boy had been treated for certain queer attacks supposed to be of epileptic nature. These attacks will be mentioned later. Subsequent history shows them not to be epileptic seizures.
Numerous affadavits were taken and close observation was taken of the boy who seemed to be the centre of the interesting developments. He seemed to be the only one of the group of individuals connected with the affair who was at all places when the manifestations occurred. He himself disclaimed all power to do the things which seemed to have been done by some unseen force at play.
In the following narrative data merely will be given, thus allowing the individual reader to follow his own conclusions as to the nature and cause of the phenomena involved. Attempt will be made to give practically a copy of my own notes of the case as it developed under rather close observation. Owing to a reticence in the family and witnesses to have their names made public, all names of witnesses used in the following narrative, except those of Mrs Gilbert and Mr Thacher, will be substitutes. The pseudonyms thus used will, however, represent real signatures in my possession. All witnesses are adults. Only one, I should judge, was younger than twenty-three.
At the time of the occurrences Elwin March, a boy of eleven years, was living with his grandparents, Mr and Mrs Jas. P. Sawyers, Portland, Ore. The phenomena in question occurred Oct. 28 ’09, and created great excitement in the neighbourhood. The house immediately attracted crowds of people and it required the services of a policeman to clear the house of curious on-lookers. To get Elwin away from the throng he was removed to his mother, Mrs Annie March, at the Valley Hotel, where she was housekeeper. Here I found him hidden away from the throng of people eager to see him.
Some saw in him a wonderful medium. Others desired access to him “to take the devil out of him.” The various cults saw in him a verification of their pet beliefs. I suggested that Elwin and his grandparents come to our home for a while till public excitement died down. Thus his whereabouts could be kept secret and at the same time opportunity would be afforded for close observation of the boy. It was hoped, of course, that the phenomena might repeat themselves in my home where it was arranged that a number of physicians should meet in case there should be any important developments.
His whereabouts were kept secret for about a week when the press finally scented him out. Then the inquiries began anew at our door. However, he was kept secluded in our home for just a month. Part of the time his two grandparents kept him company and part of the time his mother was with him. Elwin refused to stay with us alone. It was suggested that one of his companions be selected to keep him company while in our home, but we were told that he had no associate, generally played alone and had no close companions other than his own relatives.
In order to aid me in getting testimony from the various witnesses the grandfather gave me the following note.
Nov. 2. To whom it may concern: – I would consider it a kindness if you will aid Dr Gilbert in any way you can to help him investigate the occurrences at my home recently. Signed, J.P. Sawyers.
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Statement of Jas. P. Sawyers (Elwin’s Grandfather).
The start of it was in the kitchen and pantry. A can of Carnation cream that was partly empty – I set it on the window sill in the pantry. After we got through eating I heard something like water. I went into the pantry and thought it was a running faucet. The window was open. I saw this can tipped over on the sill, running out. It was nearly emptied. I gathered that up as good as I could and took care of it and set it back where it was to keep it cool. Then I noticed at the drain-board the knives and forks began to slip on to the floor, not one at a time, but all at once, slipped on to the floor. (Grandfather, grandmother and Elwin were all there). Right then the platter began to slide off the long shelf in the pantry. They went three and four at a time.
A tin bread can sitting on the table in the corner as far back as it could sit slid across the table till it toppled over on to the floor. Table width was twice the length of the can. A lard can sat on top of this tin bread can. It had meat in it with a cover on it. That also fell over on the floor. The cover would rise from the lard can before the bread can topped over. I replaced the tin bread can as much as three times anyway, that I am pretty certain of. It fell each time.
Plates on this same table slid off on the floor and broke in pieces. A kitchen cabinet sits in against the wall of the pantry. On this was a basket of dry onions. This would come off on the floor. Behind the basket were two cans of Carnation cream, one on top of the other close up in the corner. These fell at the same time as the basket and were replaced also three or more times. On the top pantry shelf at least five feet high there was a large platter 18 x 20 inches in size. This slid, sitting flat, right off the shelf and struck edgewise on the projecting shelf below and from there to the linoleum on the floor. It did not break. No one nearer than six feet from any of these objects.
Then the chairs began to be upset in the dining-room. These did not all turn over at once. It lasted from 1.30 to 5.30 p.m at intervals. In the parlour, which was not furnished, the Morris chair tipped over on the floor. A rocker and high-backed four-legged chair also tipped over. A writing-desk sitting by a window at one end of the room tipped over on its face and knocked the top loose off of it. In the dining-room a large lounge tipped up on edge and leaned up against the window. Square extension table five-legged (five feet by four feet with a leg at each corner and one in the middle) tipped so that it sat on two legs till it struck the chairs which kept it from falling.
The sugar bowl and spoons on the table shook and rattled before the table moved. The sugar bowl turned over and spilled the sugar right before the table tipped. We kept straightening things up but the chairs were thrown over several times. Table and lounge sat up some time before they were replaced. I was too busy trying to save dishes in the pantry to tend to them. We took the dishes off the shelf that were left and placed them in the cupboards below. A stack of plates went down all in a bunch. Cups, saucers, mush-bowls and smaller plates were thrown and broken before they could be saved.
We heard a racket upstairs. Elwin said, “There goes Samuel’s table in his room.” Nobody was up there at the time. Elwin had been up there and come down a short time before. It was the table that fell over. How could Elwin have known this? In that same room there was a small stand fell over, and if I remember right there was a small chair fell over. Then in the south bedroom there was another chair tipped over. Nobody was upstairs at all. I went up to see what had happened.
When I came down the tea-kettle was sitting on the range half full of water nearly boiling. (It holds a good-sized pail of water.) It sat on the back hole of the stove. It slid straight off the stove, stayed upright till it came to the edge of the stove and then turned over before it struck the floor. Several dishes of graniteware, some on the stove and some on the gas range, slid off in the same manner as the tea-kettle. One of the granite kettles had meat in. It fell on the linoleum and scattered the meat. I would have given a good deal for somebody to have seen the mess. We cleaned up the worst of it.
Chairs also tipped over as Samuel Page, J. Holmes and Mrs Abel came in. A heavy sewing machine in the dining-room toppled over on the floor. A picture two feet by three feet loosened itself from the moulding seven feet above the floor and toppled down. A cuckoo clock, hanging on a nail driven in the wall, turned off sideways and stopped the clock. As it swayed off that way the weights (cast iron) struck together so hard it broke one of them in two. I got up on a chair and took it down and set it on the floor so it could not be broken further.
In the unsettled room (parlour) there were two bronze statues eighteen inches high which were sitting against the base board side by side. One toppled over sideways and the other stood up. This all occurred at intervals. At one time two chairs sitting eighteen to twenty inches apart slid together so hard you could have heard it out of doors. One dining-room chair raised straight up a foot from the floor and down again without toppling over.
During this time I had straightened the lounge again. One end raised about twelve inches from the floor and went down again. This went down so hard that Mr Corbin, standing at the front door, asked what it was that happened. He came in and sat down for probably a half hour. Don’t know whether he saw a chair move or not. I did not see the hat-rack in the front hall when it fell. My wife was there. She tried to catch it and hold it but couldn’t apparently hold it and get it down where she wanted it, and so she called in a Salvation army man who had a wagon out on the street. He stayed some little time.
The telephone in the hall toppled off on the floor. Close to it was a chair. The box on which the telephone was sitting was about a foot from the floor. Telephone and chair toppled over. I replaced them as often as three times myself. It went over oftener than that. Phone not broken at all. The man that Geourtz sent up to measure the carpet was there for a while and saw chairs topple over.
That is about all I can tell about and be positive. There were things occurred which I did not see myself so that I could give a fair description of it. So many people came in toward the last and refused to get out so that I could lock the door. My son came and he and the policeman got them out. I am sure the following persons saw things move. Samuel Page, J. Holmes, Geourtz’s man (Mr Jacobs), Salvation Army man, Mr Southey (the owner of the house), Elwin and Mrs Sawyers. I am pretty certain that others saw things move. They were strangers that I did not know.
Signed, J.P. Sawyers, Nov. 2, ’09.
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Questions.
Q. Did small things move faster than large things? A. Everything moved slowly. Chairs did not fall in the same direction. Chairs fell backward and sideways.
Statements picked up from Mr Sawyers during the general conversation which followed.
Phenomena occurred first in one place and then in another. Seemed to be no system in them. Elwin was generally where the things took place. No apparent contact to the things. I stopped one chair as it was falling over and there was no unusual resistance. I saved it from striking the folding door. Never was close enough to catch anything else before it fell entirely.
The commencement of the phenomena would usually be preceded by a sneezing cough (by Elwin). Elwin did not seem to think he was the cause. Would look at things with half a laugh. Elwin would always raise his hand as the phenomena occurred. Things that slid off the stove and table seemed to slide toward Elwin as he passed.
Plaster in house where we lived in September would fall off in pieces and fly twelve feet from the wall from which it blowed out. Can’t remember of anything of this kind that happened before.
There was no vibration of the house or swaying of the floor that I noticed. Nothing was disturbed in the basement. There is no attic.
….
Statement of Elwin March.
First thing that I saw of it was a basket of onions sitting there on the little table by the door and it went off on the floor. Then there was a sugar bowl full of sugar on the shelf. I saw that turn over and spill some of the sugar out of it. The next thing I saw was a tea-kettle walk off the stove. The three of us stood there and watched it. Just as if it were alive it walked off. Then the kettles and the tea-pot and coffee-pot went off on the floor. And there was some dishes settin’ on the drain-board and some knives and forks; they went off on the floor. Saw a big platter turned up sideways on the shelf that fell down on the floor and didn’t break.
Then there was a bowl of gravy set down in the cupboard. I saw that tip over three times. And a pitcher full of milk up on the shelf turned over three times after grandmother set it up. She set it up three times. And I saw the bread can settin’ there. I saw that go off on the floor. And there was a pail full of doughnuts settin’ there. They fell to the floor and the cover fell off after they struck the floor.
And there was a big picture upon the wall. I saw it goin’ off and tried to catch it but it got away from me and went down to the floor. And the lounge didn’t tip over when I saw it but it raised up at one end. When it tipped over I was out on the front porch; I didn’t see that. And there was a telephone settin’ on a kind of a box and it went off on the floor and there was a chair settin’ in the kitchen. It didn’t fall over but just fell against the door. And then I saw two chairs rise up in front of the carpet man when he was in there. And there was another chair settin’ in the dining-room. It went up into the air about two or three feet, turned clear over and landed on its legs again without upsetting. Jess Homes saw this too. He was there. He laughed and said, “There goes the chair.”
There was a writing desk went over and broke a piece on it. There was a kind of a hall seat settin’ in the hall. It went over. It didn’t go clear over. Grandma stopped it. And there was a statue set up and that went up and didn’t break it. That’s all I saw of it. Signed, Elwin March, Nov. 3, ’09.
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Questions.
Q. Did you feel that you had anything to do with it? A. No. I was just walking around and didn’t feel anything.
Q. Do you remember of coughing? A. I did have a little spell but it didn’t amount to much.
Q. Try to raise this chair by raising your hand. A. Tried repeatedly. No result.
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At Valley Hotel, Saturday, 1.30 to 2 p.m.
First thing of all that started was upstairs. I was looking out of the window. I was quite a ways from a heavy four-legged chair when it fell over. I was just standing. I wasn’t looking at it at all, and it fell over three times. Hattie set it up three times and it went over each time. She got scared and hollered. A chair settin’ in the kitchen went over as I was in there takin’ my medicine. And there was a table loaded up with some clothes on it. It went over and Hattie thought it turned over because the clothes turned it over and it wasn’t. She set it up again and took the clothes off. It went over three times. Everything seemed to fall over just three times. There was a chair rose up in my mother’s room when I was about as far away as that bookshelf (six or seven feet).
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At my home, 541 5th St., Portland, Ore., Monday, November 1.
I was settin’ on the piano stool. All at once the large rocker (piled high with cushions from the couch) started moving. Grandma got me in this room and made me lie down and a chair fell over against the clothes horse. I did not see the chair fall over. I was on the lounge. I heard it fall.
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Experiments, Nov. 3.
1. Tried moving Elwin’s hands in all directions over chairs and small pieces of paper without moving them. Seems to have no voluntary control over them.
2. With finger on Mrs Gilbert’s forehead he failed to find what we had hidden or tell what she was spelling in her mind.
3. Automatic writing tried. No avail, often repeated tests.
4. He has no number form.
Q. Do you always have a coughing spell when these things happen? A. Sometimes just a little bit. I always have a little cough before anything happens.
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Excerpts from Conversation.
Elwin: Over on 17th Street (in Sept. and Oct., 09) plaster would come off in big bunches. It didn’t drop but shot across the room. It knocked a tailor’s goose [a flat iron] off the kitchen cabinet. I think it sat on the stove once and was knocked off the same way. No objects moved at that house.
Mr Sawyers: The plaster struck the goose with such force that it knocked the goose off the cabinet once and off the stove another time. The plaster would go off sideways from the wall. It didn’t drop down at all. We set boards up in front of the cupboards with glass doors. The plaster would dent the boards and knocked the boards down and finally broke the glass. Largest pieces of plaster were four inches by four inches.
Question to Elwin: Close your eyes loosely and what do you see? A. Nothing. Q. Imitate the cough you always hand. A. Can’t. It seems to be a sneeze and a cough. (He could, and did so perfectly, later. It is like a half sudden sneeze and then snoring by inhalation through nose.)
Mr Sawyers: Sometimes he keeps up that sneezing and coughing till he is nearly exhausted. He would get so weak and tired he would fall over on the sofa. He complained of pain in the side, around the diaphragm.
Elwin: Can’t stop the coughing. It stops when it wants to. It hurts when I try to stop it.
Mr Sawyers: That coughing once kept up for three-quarters of an hour. Tried peppermints. They seemed to relieve it a while but it came on again. After the coughing something always followed shortly afterwards. The cough appeared to be a warning for the starting point of it (i.e. for the moving of objects).
Mrs Sawyers: The coughing and sneezing did not occur on 17th Street. That occurred first on Marshall Street. He coughed and sneezed here (i.e. at our home, 541 5th, when the things noted above occurred).
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Experiment.
Hands on table for levitation. Failed. Hands joined. Asked questions to be answered by raps, three for yes, one for no. Failed. Had Elwin cough and sneeze voluntarily to see if movements would follow. The coughs were one to the second. Doesn’t hurt his side when he does it voluntarily. The “cough and sneeze” is a combination of a sneeze with an inhalation snore with the mouth shut all the time. Pain in region of diaphragm.
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Statement by Mrs Jas. P. Sawyers.
The first thing I saw was the dishes and knives and forks. They all went down together. They slid off on the floor. Saw the picture slide down from off the partition. Chair that I was sitting in went over when I got up out of it. Saw the tea-kettle slide off on the floor. Saw the phone fall over once. They said it fell over a dozen times. Saw the hall seat fall over. Saw the large platter fall from the top shelf of the pantry. The clock turned to the side on the wall. The picture that came down from the wall did not seem to fall. It seemed to slide down easily. Everything that fell seemed to go over easy. The most I saw was in the buttery. I stayed there most of the time. Signed, Mrs Sawyes, Nov. 5, ’09.
(Note – The above was given reluctantly and signed more reluctantly. Possibly because of poor writing of name. Note the spelling of name, r is omitted.)
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Excerpts from Conversation, Nov. 5, 09.
Mrs Sawyers: “Elwin was standing near the dishes when they fell. He stood there with his hands in his pockets and laughing like everything.”
Elwin: “I was near the telephone once when it fell. I was near the kettle on the stove when it fell.”
Mrs Sawyers: “Most of the time he had his hands in his pockets.”
Elwin: “I was in the basement when the machine went over (machine in the dining-room). I was down there with the Salvation Army man.
Mrs Sawyers: “The Salvation army man carried pictures down (to the basement for me.”
Elwin: “I was near the bread can and set it up again.”
Mr Sawyers: “I did not feel any vibration in the house at all.”
Elwin: “I was not near many of the things when they moved.”
Mr Sawyers: “Mrs Sawyers had baked a cake and set it hot on the drain board to cool. When we went to it the center was dug out. A piece about three inches in diameter. The crubs were scattered on the floor. I commenced to look for cats, supposing they did it. We had been bothered by cats. About five minutes later we went to see the cake again. The whole cake was taken out of the pan and had fallen to the floor and was scattered all of six feet. I took a ball bat to look over the house for cats. This was the very beginning of the trouble. This was before lunch. The rest began about 1 p.m. We did not see the cake move. We only saw it on the floor. The pan was about ten inches by twelve inches and was not removed from the drain board. The cake was taken out clean except for a little that stuck on the edge. Mrs Sawyers scolded and cuffed Elwin for letting cats in.
“Before lunch also the can of meat on the bread can had the lid off and meat out on the table. I thought it was cats again the same as with the cake. Elwin was out in front sweeping leaves when the last happened.”
Elwin: “I was not in front when both of them happened. I was nowhere near it.”
Myself: “Then your grandmother boxed your ears after you came in?
Elwin: “Yes, for letting the cats in.”
Mrs Sawyers: “The cake was hot, just out of the oven.”
(therefore, no cats did it).
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Nov. 6. 09.
Mr Thacher called. We experimented with Elwin with hands on table. Elwin and I got no sensation. Mr Thacher got a tingling sensation.
Mr Sawyers: “There always were from five to fifteen minutes between repetitions of the same object falling. Usually something else would happen before there was a repetition of a former happening. Phenomena were scattered over the house in time and location.”
Elwin: “I was in the dining-room when the tailor’s goose was knocked from the cabinet in the kitchen.” “Plaster also knocked tea-kettle and meat kettle off the stove on 17th Street. The tea-kettle was full of water.”
Mrs Sawyers: “There were three weeks between the falling of plaster on 17th Street and the things that happened on Marshall Street.”
Elwin: “Plaster hit us in the back of the head as we were picking things up.”
Mrs Sawyers: “It didn’t hurt me very much. Some of them got hurt pretty bad.”
Mr Sawyers: “Plaster came off all the rooms and even in the toilet out on the porch.”
Elwin: “No, I don’t have very many (dreams).”
Myself: “What kind of plaster was it?” Mr Sawyers: “He (Mr Dietrich, the landlord) said it was wood-fibre plaster. Once he said it was good hair.”
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As illustrating the attitude of many regarding the case, inquiries of all sorts were continually made. From several sources there came the inquiry whether it was really a fact that four street cars were off the track in front of our house the first evening Elwin was there. They did run off but had been doing so for several days before he came. The track was bad and was repaired. This stopped all further trouble. One “Oregonian” reporter called me by phone to inquire if it was true that while Elwin and our little girl were playing together he threw a stone into the air and it stayed there. All sorts of suggestions were given as to how to treat the boy and how to develop his power.
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Statement of Mrs Gilbert.
(Note. – As will readily be seen throughout the manuscript, Mrs Gilbert has been of decided importance and a great help in the prosecution of the work.)
Sunday morning, November third, Elwin, with his granparents, Mr and Mrs Sawyers, came to our home. Monday afternoon, November fourth, a business errand called me from home. I left them alone with much inner hesitancy for fear that some of the manifestations might occur in my absence. It was for the purpose of constant observation that we had him with us. When I returned an hour later I found the three in the middle of the home away from all doors and windows with any outlook upon the street. They were nervously apprehensive of being seen and of there being a recurrence of the torturing publicity of the week before.
Mrs Sawyers said: “I am so glad you are at home again.” So was I, but I laughed and said, “Why, were you afraid something would happen?” She said “yes,” and was evidently troubled. I had attributed the troubled atmosphere which I noticed soon after coming in to their fear of the door-bell and of being seen. But I began to feel that it was not wholly due to that. Mr Sawyers said, “You see if anything would happen you would both (Dr. Gilbert and myself) be away and you would have only our word.” I told them that I had thought of all these possibilities, but had gone from necessity, and assured them that I would not again leave them alone. It was not until an hour or more afterwards that Mrs Sawyers came to me and said almost in a whisper so as not to be overheard, “A chair fell over while you were gone.”
Later she told me that while she was lying on the living-room couch and Elwin was at the piano near by, a rocking-chair between them, but much nearer her than Elwin, began to rock so violently that she thought the couch pillows piled on it would be thrown to the floor. She made Elwin go into a room adjoining the dining-room and lie down on a couch. Soon after this they discovered a chair in this same room where he was lying tipped over against the wall. This, then, was the concealed explanation of that perturbed state of mind noticeable when I had come home.
The next morning Mr Sawyers, who had been sitting around very quietly all morning, not reading but seeming to be brooding over something, called me aside privately and related in detail what Mrs Sawyers had already told me without his knowledge, presumably. I think that in private conversation with him upon retiring the evening before she had advised letting me know.
Since the freedom from the restraint of a stranger’s presence seemed to be a factor in the Monday afternoon happenings, I suggested a plan which met the approval of Dr Gilbert and both grandparents and was subsequently carried into effect. Our great wish was to see the manifestations. The plan suggested was to send our little girl away from home for the afternoon, and after Dr Gilbert had gone to the office, for me to dress as if for the street, go out of the front door, passing to the back of the house, enter and conceal myself in a back bedroom unknown to Elwin. Here I would be within immediate reach if anythign occurred and yet seemingly no one would be in the home but Elwin and his grandparents. The emphatic word was given by both that I should be told immediately should any phenomena begin.
Soon after I was in the bedroom I heard a crash in the kitchen. I could distinctly hear both grandparents hurry out. “Elwin, did you do that?” “You did that,” I heard them say, but I did not know until I came out that it was a chair that had fallen in the kitchen. I was not called at the time. It was not long before I heard Elwin say, “This chair is rocking.” “It is, too.” “It is, too,” as if someone were contradicting him. I waited and soon I heard a little sneezing and coughing sound which we had been given to understand accompanied the Marshall Street house happenings. Then I heard his grandmother say, “Elwin, keep still. Elwin, stop that, stop that!”
Soon after Elwin said (I could distinctly hear whatever was said in the kitchen as the room adjoining the dining-room on the back hall), “This chair is falling over in here!” His grandmother came toward him and said, “It is not. It is not.” “It is!” Elwin said. “It is!” were bandied back and forth. “Elwin, you did that!” “I did not! I tell you it fell over! You don’t believe me, do you?” he said in reply. “No I don’t. You did it.” Then the grandfather came in and said, “We don’t want anything of that kind to happen here.”Still I was not called. In a few minutes I heard low voices, apparently in the kitchen, but too low for me to distinguish and then the grandmother came to my door and said, “I don’t believe anything is going to happen this afternoon.” I opened the door and said, “Don’t you?” “No,” she said. “Nothing has happened?” I asked. “No,” she repeated. “No chair rocked, or fell over as on last Monday?” “No. Elwin tipped over one.” “He did?” I said, quite interested. “Did you see him do it?” “Yes.” “Soon after I came in here something crashed in the kitchen,” I said, “what was that?” “Elwin tipped a chair over and then laughed at us. But that was all that did happen,” she replied.
Signed, Mrs J. Allen Gilbert.
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Nov. 7, 09. On Thursday, Nov. 4, Dr — came to my office. He acted somewhat queerly. I said, “What have you got in your head now?” He said he had been talking with Mrs March and asked me how I would like to play the black hand and get a third man to exhibit Elwin March on the stage and charge admission and that way we could make some money out of the affair. I was surprised, and said, “Off hand I would say no to such a proposition for several reasons.” 1. It would ruin the boy. 2. It would not be honorable in us, for a certain amount of fake would have to be introduced. 3. The problem would be lost to science if there was anything bona fide in the phenomena. I told him I would think it over but that I felt certain that I could have no other answer. He did not come to me again and I did not bring the subject up again.
On Friday arrangement had been made to give Elwin a physical examination at my home. Dr Birney, who was attending her during her sickness, told me this had greatly excited Mrs March because rumours had reached her that we were going to operate on Elwin. He asked me to go along with him to see her and try to quiet her. She seemed satisfied when she learned my general attitude in the case. All the relatives have opposed the physical examination of Elwin, not knowing what was to be done.
In my call today on Mrs March I guardedly steered the conversation to her meeting Dr — regarding exhibiting Elwin on the stage. She casually in the midst of conversation spoke of having told Dr — that she would be glad if I could “keep Elwin and find out about him. Maybe if there is something new you could give a lecture on it and have Elwin there.” Dr — said to her, “I will speak to Dr Gilbert about it.” He then came to me, as related above, and in rather confused and embarrassed way presented to me the above mentioned scheme of getting a third party to handle Elwin while we “played the black hand.” I have never learned just what part Mrs March played in the scheme.
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The Plaster on 17th Street House.
Last evening I went over to see Mr Dietrich whose house the Sawyers family occupied during the plaster episode. He became greatly excited and denounced Elwin in the strongest terms. He claimed that Elwin had deliberately dug the plaster off with a knife and chisel. He gave them back a month’s rent ($20) if they would move out, which they did. He said the plaster was only off as high as the boy could reach. He had no use for the family because of the meanness of Elwin. (So far I had seen nothing mean or deceitful in Elwin). He claims he found marks of the point of a knife on the exposed laths. Today I went out to see the house. Mr Dietrich went to the house with me. Some plaster had been off of each of the six rooms and hall. (Now repaired but the spots of new plaster could be seen). It was not true about the plaster being off only where the boy could reach. In the upstairs front bedroom a small piece was even out of the ceiling. This, however, was just above a gas jet where heat might have been the active agent. In other rooms pieces were out up at the picture molding, which was only a few inches from the ceiling. In the hall some was off at the highest point above the stairway on a level with the ceiling of the second storey, probably fifteen feet above the steps below. It could not have been reached except with a ladder or a pole. I called Mr Dietrich’s attention to it and asked him how he imagined the boy reached that. He said, “Ach, he must have used a pole!”
In Elwin’s bedroom he showed me some smoke along the top of the base board on the plaster which decided him to get them out because he was afraid of Elwin setting the house on fire. I asked him wehther there were any bugs in the house because it looked as if someone had run a match along the crack to search out bugs. He said there were no bugs. I just now asked Elwin “What is that smoke on the plaster above the base board in the room you slept in at Dietrich’s house?” He said, “That is where grandma tried to catch a bed bug with a match.” The plaster had surely been broken badly in the house. It was now repaired.
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Statement of David T Carson. Portland, Oregon, Nov. 7, 09, 648 Marshall St.
On Thursday, October 28, at about 6 p.m. I was in Mr Sawyers’ house at 546 Marshall Street, where disturbances had been reported, and while I was standing in the doorway between the dining-room and kitchen and Mrs Sawyers was standing by a window, I saw several knives and forks, perhaps eight or ten, raise up an inch or two from the drain-board of the sink and fall over on to the floor. At about the same time a small basket with several things in it resting on the drain-board raised up a little and tumbled on to the floor spilling out a part of the things in it. I was about six or seven feet away when the things moved. Mrs Sawyers was at about the same distance from the sink. The boy was not in the room. I said to Mrs Sawyers, “Did you see that?” and she said, “Yes, that’s just the way the rest of them go.” No one was near the sink when the knives and forks and the basket were tumbled off.
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Statement of Carl E. Spalding.
It was on the afternoon of October 28, 09. I went into the drugstore and Abel was telling some old gentleman about it. I asked him what he was trying to give us. He said, “There is the house, you can go and see for yourself.” So we both went over there (this old gentleman and I ) and walked through the hall into the dining-room. I had been in the house about ten minutes, I guess. The boy was in the kitchen. The door was open between dining-room and kitchen. Two heavy upholstered chairs in the parlour deliberately turned over, one following the other, five to ten seconds apart. That convinced me there was something in it and I left. That was all I saw of it. I didn’t believe it could be done till I saw it. It looked to me as if there was somebody behind them pulling them back, but there was no one there, of course.
Q. “Where were the grandparents?” A. “In the dining-room. The boy was in the kitchen.”
Q. “Was anybody in the parlour?” A. “No.”
Q. “Did you hear any groans or noises?” A. “No, I didn’t feel any electric shocks either when I was in there.”
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Nov. 7, 09. Statement of C.C. Jacobs.
My experiences at the Sawyers’ residence, 546 Marshall Street. I arrived at the house at about 2.45 p.m. on the 28th day of October, 1909, and left about 3 p.m. The first thing I saw upon entering the place was the furniture all upset and scattered on the floor. I saw a couch in the dining-room leaning against the wall, a table and chairs, writing-desk, Morris chair, crockery, and cooking utensils scattered upon the floor. Surprised at seeing all this, we walked through the house and then down to the basement and while there we (the boy on the landing) heard a loud crash and upon coming back upstairs to the dining-room I saw it was the sewing machine that had overturned and after that we (boy downstairs, nobody upstairs) were all standing in the parlour and then another crash upstairs. Upon going upstairs we found a table with a lamp setting on it had overturned and smashed lamp.
Then we walked to the kitchen and there I saw a tea-kettle slide from the back of the stove to the floor. I saw a chair standing in front of the telephone fall to the floor and in turning around then in about the same time I saw a chair fall on its side in the dining-room and then I walked over to where it fell and picked it up, examined it closely and found it to be an ordinary chair. I placed the chair on thefloor in its right position and then I started to measure for a carpet in the parlour. For that purpose I was sent to this house by the firm I am working for. I got ready and placed my tape line on the floor and on looking back I saw the same chair that I had examined and placed on the floor jump and wabble and then topple over and fall.
Then standing in the front hall I saw another chair placed in the back hal move and fall, and by this time I had my measure for the room taken and thought I’d take a last look. (I was then standing in the dining-room). I saw the pantry door swing open and slam shut with a great force, and at the same time I heard the knives and forks, I suppose they were. I did not see them but heard them rattle. Very respectfully yours, C.C. Jacobs. 311 Sherman Street, City.
Q. “Was the boy near any of these objects?” A. “Boy was not near any of the objects I saw move.”
Q. “Was anybody near them?” A. “No one was near any of the objects I saw move.”
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Mrs Armstrong’s Account Taken by Mr Thacher.
On November 5 I had a talk with Mrs Armstrong at 548 Marshall, next door to the Sawyers’ home. She said she was in the Sawyers’ home on the afternoon of October 28 and saw the smashed crockery strewn about and the overturned furniture. I asked her if she saw anything move without being touched and she said that she saw two chairs tip over. I asked about the position of the boy when the chairs moved and she said one tipped over just after he passed it. I asked if he touched it or was near enough to touch it. She said that he passed near enough to touch it but that she did not see him touch it. I asked her how far beyond the chair he was when it fell and she said, “About one step beyond it.”
I asked if the chair raised up in the air and she said it did not. I asked about the other chair and she said no one was near it when it fell. She said there were several people in the room at the time.I asked how near anyone was to the chair when it fell and she hesitated, but thought about four feet. I asked if it was within reach of anyone standing there and she said it was not. I asked if the chair rose up from the floor and she said it did not, but that it moved about a little on the floor and then tumbled over. I asked if the boy was in the room and she said he was.
Mrs Armstrong declined to sign any statement and in fact declined to give me her name but she admitted she was the lady of the house. Mr Abel told me her name.
George A. Thacher.
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Mrs A.R. Fisher’s Account, Taken by Mr George A. Thacher.
On November 5 I talked with Mrs A R Fisher about the occurrences at the Sawyers’ home on October 28. She keeps a grocery at Seventeenth and Marshall, one block from the Sawyers’ home. She was in the house on the day of the occurrences. I asked her if she saw anything move without being touched. She said she saw a chair tip over slowly and that Elwin March ran and caught it before it struck the floor and placed it upright. She said she was not facing the chair, but happened to turn in time to see it begin to slowly tip over and to see the boy move quickly towards it and catch it. I asked her if anyone was near the chair and she said no one was close to it. I asked the distance between the chair and the nearest person when she saw it begin to move, and to show me she placed herself a little byond arms’ reach of a chair. I asked where the boy was and she said she did not know but thought he was near her. She did not notice him until he ran to catch the chair.
Mrs Fisher is an intelligent woman and she expressed herself as convinced that the chair moved without the agency of any person in the room. She declined to sign any statement concerning the matter. George A Thacher. November 8, 09.
Q. “Did things have a tendency to move towards Elwin?” A. (Mr Sawyers) “Sometimes they did.” Q. “Give an instance.” A. “The things on the range did.”
Q. “Was Elwin always around when the plaster fell on Seventeenth Street?” A. “Sometimes it fell when he was at school. Elwin was not in the house when the goose fell off the table.” Q. “Where was Elwin when the plaster fell from way up in the top of the hall?” A. “I don’t think he was in the house.” Elwin: “I was in the wood shed.”
Took automatic writing with the planchette. Successful. (See sheets of automatic writing.) Signs of fraud in his writing.
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Statement of H.J. Grant.
Portland, Oregon, November 12, 09.
As I was going past the place the lady and a boy were standing outside and asked me to come in and see what was the matter with her furniture and then she took me in the kitchen where the dishes were broken. I did not see them but I saw a chair jump right up off the legs a couple of inches and tipped over. Then I took the chair and set it up again and said to the boy, “Now we will see if it tips over again.” In about five minutes it tipped over again. Nothing fast to the chair at all. The boy was six or eight feet from the chair when it happened.
Then he went around through the kitchen to show another fellow what had happened and just as I went through the kitchen the kettle jumped off the stove. It gave a couple little jumps toward the edge and then slid right off. Boy ten feet away in the pantry. And then what seemed peculiar, the boy went around to the front hall. Just as he was passing the telephone it jumped off the shelf. Boy four feet from it. I am sure he did not touch it.
Then I stood a chair up by it to keep it from falling off, and then he happened to come past it again and the chair tipped over. And then everything was quiet for a moment. He ran upstairs, him all alone, too, and just as he got to the top of the stairs something began tumbling upstairs. There was a big sewing machine. I said to the boy, “It is a wonder this is not tipped over. I guess it is a little too heavy.” I went out into the other room and I was talking to one of the boys out there. Then we went down into the basement to see whether anything had happened down there. Just as I got down there I heard a noise upstairs. The boy was not with us. I am pretty sure he was in the front room. This noise was the machine that turned over on its side. I asked the boy if he was scared. He said, “Yes, I am.” I put my hand on his head, too. That is about all I can think of. The boy never touched a thing that I saw move.
H.J. Grant. Soldier in Salvation Army.
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November 17, 09. Further tests with automatic writing were taken. These show their value to be very questionable. Signs of fraud. (See sheets).
This morning I arranged with Drs Robinson, Birney, Pettid and Cott, to meet at my home to examine Elwin. Mrs Sawyers, who had gone home to stay, was telephoned to be present if she cared to. In the afternoon Mr Sawyers said he would go to the Valley Hotel (where his daughter stayed). When he came back he said Frank (his son) had by some means found out about the examination and objected to it till Elwin’s mother could be present. (She had been removed to the hospital for an operation). Mr Sawyers seems to be the cause of this obstruction, though for some unaccountable reason Frank has obstructed rather than helped the investigation. He refuses to give any statement of what he saw move during the disturbances on Marshall Street. Scott Perry (a cousin of Frank and rooming at their house) also refuses to give any statement “because the folks don’t want him to.”
J. Holmes, associated with Samuel Page, also refuses to give any signed statement. Samuel Page’s father (brother of Elwin’s grandmother) seems also to oppose the investigation. He has the money value of the boy in view as a medium to be publicly demonstrated.
The examination of Elwin had been postponed till Mrs March can be present.
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Statement of Mr R. Southey (Owner of the House).
Portland, Oregon, Nov. 13, 1909.
I went over there (to the house which was next door) early in the business and of course there were a great many things upset before I got over there. There were three distinct articles that I saw plain. I saw a chair in the middle of the dining-room jump up and down about three times. It had been turned over on its side and I saw the sewing machine sitting against the wall. I heard it jump. Just as I turned around I saw it flop right over on its face and I saw the telephone dumping over off of a little box they had it sitting on in the hall. I put the chair up against it to keep it up and that chair – I stood pretty close to it just to watch it – that chair would tumble up against me. I ketched it several times and held it up. When I left go of it and stepped back a little ways it flopped right over, chair and telephone booth.
Well, I saw some knives and forks sliding along the dry-board on the sink in the kitchen without anybody near them. I heard a big knock upstairs. I went up and found a big lounge toppled over. Nobody touched the things I saw move. All that time nobody was in the house except the family. They hadn’t started to come yet. Nothing was near the chair. No strings or anything touching it. I didn’t feel no movement of the house. Not a tremble. No motion whatever. R. Southey.
P.S. – Everything jumped before it fell over. There was no possible chance for fraud over there.
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Statement of Harold Meyers (a Delivery Boy).
Portland, Oregon, Nov. 13, 1909. As I was coming down Marshall Street I saw Grant’s wagon. I stopped my horse and lighted my pipe standing outside. The wood-pile across the street fell over toward the Sawyers’ house. The wood-pile was across the street. Then I heard a big racket in the house and Galhue came to the door and called me in to show me. I went inside and saw everything dumped over and I went into the kitchen. A large boy (not Elwin) was standing in the pantry. The little kid was somewhere around there. I don’t [know] where he was. As I went through the kitchen into the hall I heard a noise and looked back and saw the kettle rolling on the floor. It was on the stove as I went through the kitchen. Then the little kid went through the hall. I went behind him. The chair by the phone fell over. The chair was against the phone to hold it on. We was in the basement (Grant and I) to see whether there was any signs or cracks for earthquakes and we could not see anything nor feel any jar at all. Then we came upstiars and beat it out of there before I got killed.
I am sure nothing touched the articles I saw move and nothing was fast to them. Harold H. Meyers.
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Statement of Hattie Sawyers (Sister of Elwin’s Mother).
Portland, Ore., Nov. 13, 09. At Marshall Street. I saw the Morris chair tip over on its side. Saw a straight-backed chair fall backwards. Saw another plain dining-room chair fall backwards. The telephone fell off the shelf and I picked it up. Saw the coffee pot and tea-kettle fall off the stove. It kept kind o’ raisin’ up and then slid off. Elwin was not near the kettle when it fell off. He was in the dining-room. He said, “There goes the tea-kettle!”
At Valley Hotel. Here I saw a small straight-backed chair tip over three times. Elwin was standing with his back to it three feet away and was having a “coughing and sneezing spell” when it fell. A rocker tipped over in one of the rooms upstairs. Nothing was touching the things I saw move. Hattie M. Sawyers.
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Statement of Mrs Annie March (Elwin’s Mother).
St Vincent’s Hospital, November 16, 09.
At Marshall Street House. The first thing I saw was the tea-kettle slide off the stove. It gave a hop and hopped off till it got on the floor. The next thing I saw was the hall-tree. It ended right around. It would have fell but they caught it. The next thing I saw was the two chairs that upset right over backwards and then the coffee-pot went off the stove on to the floor. And then the telephone, I saw it fall on the floor. The chair next to it raised about a foot from the floor and then set down as straight as could be. Then I heard the lounge when one end of it raised up and came down. I was at the front door and did not see it. That is all I saw.
At Valley Hotel. I saw a chair raise up from the back about two inches. Then it went back again straight up and down and then turned over on its side. Elwin was sitting in the rocker at the foot of the bed. He was not near enough to the other chair to touch it. That is all I saw down there. Mrs Annie March.
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Statement of F. J. McDonald (Reporter).
Portland, Ore., Nov. 16, 1909. Dr J Allen Gilbert, Portland, Oregon. Dear Sir: – Giving in detail my experience in the Sawyers home on Marshall Street, which seemingly on Oct. 28 was made topsy-turvy by an unseen force, I have to state as follows:
Sent by The Oregonian to write the story of the disturbance I arrived at the house about 3.45 o’clock and found everything in turmoil throughout the seven rooms of the two-storey edifice. Furniture was upturned, everything was awry in every room. I remained in the house for more than an hour to “see with my own eyes” what the elderly Sawyers folks said had happened, that inanimate things moved of their own accord.
After waiting about an hour I was in the kitchen looking out a window when a chair a little less than a yard from me tipped back by itself and leaned against the wainscoting, only one leg touching the floor. Little Elwin March, both his grandparents and two or three women were present at the time. I righted the chair to see if it would repeat the movement but it remained still thereafter.
Soon after this had transpired and while I was still in the kitchen I heard something fall, evidently in the parlour, and as I turned to investigate I heard another noise behind me. Turning quickly, I saw an agate plate and some knives and forks drop on the floor. A minute before these articles were on the drain-board. I did not see them leave the drain-board but just caught their impact with the floor as I turned.
Respectfully, F. J. McDonald.
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Mrs Gilbert phones me at 4 p.m. to come home as soon as convenient after office hours. On arrival at home I found numerous objects overturned just as they had fallen. Mrs Gilbert had left them so purposely. At Mrs Gilbert’s request I at once took the following statement from Elwin as to what had happened.
Statement by Elwin March.
I was out in the kitchen. I had just come down from the attic and I had a key in my hand and I went in the hall and dropped the key and I turned on the light and found the key on the floor and then I came in here (dining-room) and I thought everything looked all right and I looked in the parlour and the chair had been turned over. I called Mrs Gilbert’s attention to it turned over. I went back in there (kitchen). I came into the dining-room and saw a chair in the bedroom turned over. Saw the leg sticking out beyond the door. I walked in here again and told her and then I thought I would see if anything had gone off in the front hall. There the chair was lying in the double door. Went back out into the kitchen and told her (Mrs Gilbert) and she came in and then she went in and said she would go down and see if the fire was all right in the furnace. As I was looking out of the window I heard a noise and I turned and looked and the table was turned over.
She told me to call her up from the basement if anything turned over. She heard the noise down there too. So she came up to see what had been turned over and didn’t go back down again. And then she went into the bedroom to make the bed and the Chinese lunch case on the front mantel had slid to the front partly over the edge of the mantel. I went in there to the hall and you (Mrs Gilbert) heard a noise. It was the Chinese lunch case. I went back in again to the hall. When I came back the china tea-pot and two silver pieces, pitcher and sugar bowl, were sitting on the floor. She went in to finish the bed and some of them books there (on shelves) started to go off the shelves. She came in. She didn’t get the bed finished. She set there in that chair writing out about the doings and she had to tend to something on the stove that was cooking.
As I went to go through the pass pantry a whole lot of books fell. (Just to the left of the door as you pass by them into pass pantry). She hollered in the kitchen when they fell. She went in to make the same bed again. She hadn’t got it finished. There was some meat set on the stove and I was going to see if she got the bed made yet. I heard a noise and turned around and it was too late to see the skillet of meat turn. It did not fall. She told me to watch the meat and see if I could see it move. I said, “I wonder if anything else will fall,” and she said “Well, you see if it does.” I saw it move next time. It was pretty near on the verge of going off.
She went and sat down to put that down on the book what happened. I was standing there to see if it would come off again and it did and went all over and got some on me, and the cat was there and he got out of the way and went into the other room there. She went to pick up the meat. I was looking at her picking up the meat and a dish cloth and a carving knife went off. That’s my story for it. I didn’t see anything more myself even except the meat. I saw it move.
(Note. – Mrs Gilbert and Elwin were in the house alone. Grandpa had gone over to the home on Marshall Street.)
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We decided not to call anyone to see it because of the evident fraud as manifested by the above and by the following account written by Mrs Gilbert while the overturning was in progress.
Saturday, November 20, 1909. Dr Gilbert had gone to the office. Mr Sawyers had gone to the Marshall Street house; our little girl was away for the afternoon. As we had no maid at the time, Elwin and I were alone. Moreover, I was very busy all afternoon at household duties as the woman hired to come that day had disappointed us. As a consequence Elwin was thrown largely upon his own devices.
Two little incidents occurring shortly after two o’clock, though regarded as of no importance at the time, are significant for explanation of what later occurred. Elwin coming down from the attic, said, “I dropped the key, Mrs Gilbert, but I hunted for it and found it in the yard.” Supposing that the key had accidentally dropped while he was looking out of the window. I thought nothing of this remark. A few moments later he came from the lavatory, handed me the key and said, “You had better take it, Mrs Gilbert, before it is lost. It dropped again and I had to pull the light to find it.” Again I thought nothing of either the happening or the remark. But in the light of succeeding events it was meant by him to be the first indication that “things were going to happen,” for in telling his account of the happenings of the afternoon to Dr Gilbert later, he began by telling of the queer behaviour of the attic key.
At 2.40 he came into ktichen from the front part of the house and said, “Look, Mrs Gilbert, did you turn this chair in the parlour over?” The big leather arm chair was tipped with its back resting on the couch. I said, “Did you do it?” “No I didn’t do it.” I set down in a little note book the time and the occurrence, he standing by and watching me. When I had resumed my work he walked into the other room and finally out into the back hall saying, “I wonder if anything has turned over out here.” Communicating with this hall, also was one door of a front bedroom. He found a chair tipped over on its side just within this door in the bedroom. He said, “I said to grandpa he ought not to go away. Something might move.” I told him to leave everything as it fell and keep on walking around the house.
Again I noted carefully the happening, his action and comment. This was continued throughout the afternoon, he always standing by while the things were written down. Nothing ever happened while he was so engaged.
Pretty soon he said, after being alone for a while, “I wonder if anything has happened in the front hall. I haven’t looked in there yet.” He went in and almost immediately said, “Come, Mrs Gilbert, here is another chair.” A small mahogany hall chair had tipped over towards the hall clock and book-case. On the floor was the book which had been on the chair. It was Thackeray’s “Newcomes” wand had been open on the chair where I myself had been reading something some time during the forenoon. He remarked that the book had just set itself down on the floor. “It fell – a funny way,” he added, “Right at the place.” I wondered how he could tell. He said, “Hadn’t we better call Grandpa? Things seem to have begun.” I said, “O no, I think not. We’ll wait a while, anyhow.” And then he said, “And Dr Gilbert isn’t here. Don’t you think we had better call him?” “No, Elwin, not until I see things move.”
I went to the kitchen and he walked around the house. I heard him say, “Whitney’s German Grammar” as if reading the title from a work on the shelf. Soon he said, “Look, Mrs Gilbert, I was standing looking out of the window and turned just in time to see these books move. They’ll tumble out pretty soon. Two German books, one of them the German Grammar, were tilted outward from a shelf of the case on the west wall of the dining-room. I noted the occurrence while he stood by and remarked, “Everything is so quietly done. Nothing broken yet.” And, “I just turned around in time. I was looking out of thewindow and just turned in time.”
Before anything had begun to move he had said to me, “Dorothea (our little girl) will have a fine time there all afternoon, won’t she?” It came back to me now with meaning when he said, “Dorothea is to be gone all afternoon, isn’t she? It always seems to happen when there are few to see it,” he went on. It is noteworthy that in every account he himself gave of every happening anywhere he always said “it” as if it were a purely impersonal power.
Before the books came out he had talked about the fish-bowl’s possible overturning and wondered if it would kill the fish. I had used all the suggestion at my command against the idea, assuring him that it would not only in all probability kill the fish to flounder around on the floor but also ruin my carpet. He had already said more than once, “I wish Dr Gilbert were here.” Now he said to me laughingly, “Keep you writing all afternoon.” He was in high good spirits and walked around evidently studying plans. Nor did I fail to make easy opportunity for him. Going down stairs to regulate the furnace I heard footsteps above, then a terrible crash, followed by running footsteps and the cry “Mrs Gilbert, Mrs Gilbert, the table went over.” I rushed upstairs and found that the big dining-room table had gone over on its side. Elwin was standing by the living-room front window when I came in. He said, “I was standing by the living-room front window when Iheard a crash and there it was the table. I didn’t see that either, funny I don’t see things here. I did over at the other house.” The table was tipped away from the living-room toward the butler’s pantry.
He wanted to call his grandfather but I said, “No, Elwin, not until I see things move. Not until I see something go over.” He said, “I don’t see things go over myself. I guess it’s started all right. Funny I can’t get to see ’em myself. I did at the other house. I’m mad because they went over when I couldn’t see ’em. Now things over there I could see them, but here I don’t seem to get a look at them when they go over. I am going to tell Dr Gilbert when he comes that I’ve got things to moving for him but he can’t see them when they go. I suppose if the newspaper reporters knew this they’d be right up here.”
He was half laughing but was visibly a little more excited for him, phlegmatic as he always is. “I’ll walk around and see if anything more will go down. I don’t want to make any more things go down if I can help it.” Then he said, “How is the fire is the furnace?” “Out,” I said. “We won’t need,” he said, “any more fire in the furnace this afternoon, will we?” Thinking, doubtless, of the opportunity that would be his while I would be rebuilding it. Bye and bye, as I still sat with him thinking over the happenings he said, “Maybe this is the end of it.”
Not willing to be an obstruction to further interesting developments which might serve for analysis of the case as a whole, I went into Elwin’s bedroom to do the work crowded out of my busy morning. Soon he called, “Yes, here’s something more gone over. Some more books.” Four had tilted in the same way as the others out of the same book-case. This particular case had no doors. “Well, I will keep you writing all afternoon, Mrs Gilbert,” he said. “Did you see these start out of the book-case, Elwin?” “No, I was in the front hall.”
Always it will be noticed, no matter in how unlikely a place a thing had occurred, Elwin knew of it at once and called me. Nor were there every any accumulated disturbances. I was informed of them one by one. I went back into the bedroom. He said, “Guess I’ll go into the front room.” Pretty soon he came sauntering into the room where I was. “Anything happen in here?” “No.” He walked slowly back but was no sooner in the dining-room than he called in apparent excitement, “Why, look here, here’s the queerest thing you ever saw. These were sitting on the sideboard.” A little Irish tea-pot and two pieces of silver set were carefully set in a little triangle on the floor all right side up.
Earlier in the afternoon when at one time Elwin was leaning against the sideboard and had remarked what a crash it would make if it went over, by suggestion I had tried to avert any disturbance of it or things on it, I called attention to the cut glass, opened the door below and showed a set of china and gave the history of some other articles mentioning, often, how I valued them.
I went back into the bedroom. He walked into the back hall communicating with it and said, “I hear a noise, Mrs Gilbert.” I went with him into the living-room at the front of the house and he said, “See, I told you.” A Chinese compartment lunch case of porcelain which stood on the mantel was pushed forward to the edge, almost balancing upon it.
Concerning the things on this mantel, I had earlier in the afternoon found it necessary to use suggestion, for he had spoken about how things would break if they fell from this on the tiling below and had warned me to take them off. But I had thought it sufficient to tell the story of the lunch case to him, show him the rice cups there and explain how we came by a brass dragon candlestick and how we valued them. “I am sure nothing will be broken, Elwin,” I had said. Now he again said, “You had better take it down, Mrs Gilbert.” I protested again, disliking to remove a single article, but he said, “Well, I think you better. Notelling what will happen.” So I yielded and put it on the floor. But even so, he was not satisfied, and said, “You know things on the floor went over at the Marshall Street house.” So I took the lunch case up and put it away.
I sat with him a little while after that, thinking things over. I wanted him to go on and yet, while I was willing to sacrifice anything in the house if movement should be in view without contact, I wasn’t willing to sacrifice one thing to mischievousness or willful destruction. He took a book, as I sat there, and sat down to read, but I told him to get up and walk around and I went again into the back bedroom. It was now 3.40 p.m., an hour since the movements of objects began. I came back to see if he had gotten up again. He had. I heard the roast which I was cooking and went into the kitchen, he following. As he came through the butler’s pantry a sharp crash sounded. I cried, “What is that?” He said, “There,” and pointed to a pile of books on the floor. Books and pamphlets in the same book-case mentioned had been pulled out on the floor, seven or eight of them. They were just at his left hand as he went through the dining-room doorway of the butler’s pantry. I said, after writing this down, “Well, I’ll go in and finish that bed.”
I left Elwin in the kitchen by the stove. He said, “Well, if anything else moves i’ll call you.” I said, “Well, you see it move, if it does.” In half a minute I heard a noise and Elwin ran a step or two into the back hall and said, “O, look, I saw it move. Look at that!” The vessel in which I had been pot-roasting the meat was pulled half off the stove, handle toward Elwin. By and by after the account was written he said, “Well, is that bed made, Mrs Gilbert?” in another effort apparently to have me leave the room. I said, “Really, Elwin, I don’t know. It seems to me I have been in there making it a dozen times. I can’t say whether it is made yet, or not. I’ll take the jackets off these red-beets before I go in anymore.” “Alright, and I’ll watch this, now,” meaning the meat.
I scarcely was turned away from the stove when Elwin screamed, “Look at that!” “The whole pot of meat, gravy and all, was on the floor and spattered up the wainscoting. I said, “Did the cat get scalded?” He said, “I don’t know.” But I noticed that the kitchen chair on which my angora was sitting was moved about two feet toward the sink from where it had been standing, that the cat was in the dining-room and that the meat had fallen exactly where the chair and the cat had been. The cat otherwise would have been scalded. It is a great favourite and pet of Elwin’s and he would not willingly injure it.
While I was cleaning the mess up a butcher knife and cloth fell to the floor from the sink board. Elwin was behind me as near the sink as to be almost touching it, but he said he did not see them fall. “The meat was the only thing I saw,” he said. “It went off just like at Grandpa’s.”
I was growing tired, so I told Elwin to sit on my high kitchen stool out of reach of anything while I wrote down these last happenings. Anxious to leave everything untouched that had been moved during the afternoon until Dr Gilbert should come home and afraid that the kitchen chair thrust out in front of the doorway just before the meat fell might be moved, I said, “Don’t move this chair, Elwin.” He looked at me quickly and said, “What?” I repeated, “Don’t touch this chair to move it from this position.” He said, “Oh!” as if he had thought that I was accusing him of moving objects. It was in a relieved “Is that all you mean?” tone, at any rate.
After this he settled down in the living-room with the cat on his lap as if everything were over. But his foot was conveniently near the gold fish stand, even resting upon it at times, so I sat down near him. Sitting there quietly reviewing the afternoon certain facts obtruded themselves. Each thing fell, or at least moved downward. Nothing was projected into space. Each thing moved was either in close proximity to Elwin’s position or could easily have been so. Things fell either when I was out of the room altogether, as was usually the case, or when I had my back turned as in the last instance. I saw nothing but the completed act. Surrounding objects were never disturbed.
He denied seeing anything but the meat. In the case of the meat I had just said to him, “You see whatever moves when it moves.” Nothing ever occurred when he was watching me note down occurrences.
About 4.30 I had telephoned Dr Gilbert asking him to come home immediately after office hours if he could, but not telling him the reason. He came in now, and I showed him hurriedly the condition of things throughout the house and asked him to take Elwin’s account of the happenings at once. This he did and immediately after left home again.
While he was taking Elwin’s statement Mr Sawyers came in. everything was still upturned. It happened that our little girl was waiting at a friend’s for her papa to call for her to bring her home. Upon leaving, he asked me to telephone them that he would be a little late. After he had been gone a little while Elwin said to me, “Are you going to telephone?” I was picking up the fallen books and, afraid if I left him, that something more would be done, to engage him I said, “Won’t you please telephone? The number is M.7329.” But he hesitated, said something about he didn’t think he could and did not do it. I did not press the matter. Soon he again reminded me. Still I did not go but sat down in the lighted room with him instead and suggested checkers. Always before he had accepted any such offer with alacrity, but now it was very evident something of a different nature was on his mind.
Mr Sawyers went down to the furnace. Elwin started up with an animated manner and said, “Aren’t you going to telephone, Mrs Gilbert?” I said, “No, she will wait until her papa calls anyway.” So then he got the checker board and we started a game. When his gradfather came up he stood looking at the game and I left Elwin and hurried to the phone. When I came back he was giving that peculiar little high-keyed giggle which I had learned meant his advantage in play. I sat down thinking he had a good move in mind, but in less than a minute he said, “Why, look! was that book out like that, Mrs Gilbert, when you went out into the kitchen?” A book in the same book-case disturbed before was tilting forward about to fall. He had evidently gotten up, passed behind his grandfather, pulled the book out and gotten back before I came in.
Query. Did his grandfather see him? It passed without comment other than my saying in an indifferent tone, “O, I don’t know, maybe it was.” A moment later his grandfather passed around his chair into the living-room saying “Mysterious kid.”
This ended the occurrences. As I said, I had repeatedly given him opportunity for doing things unobserved, but the account shows that he also tried to make tham as when he asked me if I were going down to look at the furnace again, if the bed were made, and if I were going to telephone. For the last few days, Elwin, contrary to all the time previous, had openly expressed a wish that things would turn “endwise.” More than one day lately he has said. “Today they surely will.” He has often said, too, “It seems to happen about every three weeks. Maybe it is about time for something to happen now.” He knew, too, that on the following day his grandfather was to leave and his mother come.
The afternoon and evening before this day on which the “things moved” had been rich in suggestion for him. Mr Thacher had stayed with him in the afternoon while I went out and had read to him portions of Andrew Lang’s “Book of Dreams and Ghosts.” Among other cases that of the Amherst case especially interested him. They had written also with the planchette. Mr Thacher stayed to dinner and in the evening we again read from Lang’s book, tried table tipping and levitation, crystal gazing, etc. Undoubtedly this evening before had its effect upon the following day.
Never in any way did Elwin allude to the happenings as things done by himself.
Mr Sawyers asked if I were frightened when “things moved.” Mrs March asked if I were frightened. Elwin’s uncle, Harry, asked if I were frightened. Elwin’s uncle, Harry, asked if I were frightened. Mrs Sawyers asked over the telephone if I were frightened. But not once, at any time, asked or intimated any desire to know if I thought the manifestations genuine.
Mrs J. Allen Gilbert.
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Nov. 20. Invariably when the planchette was asked for a name it would write “midnight hour” and also said in automatic writing that things would happen at the midnight hour. Following this clue I determined to sit up till midnight to see if anything would happen. I let Elwin sleep till 10 p.m. in the Morris chair where he fell asleep at 7 p.m. We then played checkers and crokinole till 11.55, after which we waited till 12.15 a.m. Nothing happened.
Nov 21. Elwin, in describing the raising of the sofa on Marshall Street, said, referring to himself and grandma, “I was afraid it would fall on us before we could get out of the way.” He had before said he was not near it and when asked regarding it he said, “I meant Grandma. I was not near it.” Mrs March came from the hospital to our house at 3.30 p.m. Mr Sawyers went to his home on Marshall Street.
Nov. 22, 8 p.m. There had always been a seeming opposition to giving Elwin a physical examination and consequently the other physicians told me to go ahead with it without them whenever opportunity offered. Consequently this evening I asked Dr Robinson to come over and be present during the physical examination. His presence helped in obtaining the examination. His presence helped in obtaining the examination because the relatives have always had implicit confidence in him. He has taken deep interest in the case and has from the beginning been a great help.
Physical Examination.
Pulse 84, but slightly irregular as to rate. No intermittance. Only change in rate. Pulse good in quality.
Left pupil slightly larger than the right. Ocular muscles normal in activity. Slight blinking of eyes because of a slight soreness from some cause unknown. Can’t read long without blinking.
Decided scar on left side of tongue one inch from the end. Cut in when four years old by falling on the stairs. Tongue free from coating.
Good appetite and sleeps well. Hard and soft palate normal. Tonsils decidedly enlarged. Adenoids present. Snores in sleep. Hearing normal. No glandular enlargements. Chin reflex normal – possibly a little exaggerated. Patella reflexes present with eyes open. More marked under reinforcement. No ankle clonus. No patella clonus.
Seven chicken-pox scars on chest, one on left arm, one on left scapula, one on right shoulder. Sounds of heart normal. Temperature 97.8F. Liver normal in size but slightly high. Dermatographia marked and persitent. Apex beat of heart in normal position. Heart, spleen and lungs normal. No anaesthetic areas. Upper half of ears hang forward and outward similar to the Foul type. Helix and antihelix not well marked.
Incisor teeth normal. Abdominal reflexes marked. Cremasteric reflex slight. Redundant fore-skin.
Circumference of head 21 1/4 inches. Transverse from ear to ear 12 inches. Forehead 2 inches. Face from line of hair to chin 6 1/2 inches. From ear to ear over occipital protuberance 9 inches. Height 4 feet 11 inches. Weight 98 3/4 lbs (clothed). Born March 28, 1898. Dark hair, almost black. Hazel eye. Spine straight. No Romberg sign.
Urinalysis. Sp. gr. 1016. Phosphates. Colour normal. Reaction, acid (slight). No albumen. No sugar.
Blood count. Reds 5,275,000. Whites and haemoglobin count unsatisfactory on first trial and he objected strenuously to repeating the necessary puncture. The point was not pushed.
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Mrs March asked Elwin whether the large platters at home were broken. He said not, but he added that he had a hard time keeping them from hitting him. In Mr Sawyers’ statement of it he said no one was nearer than six feet.
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Nov. 25. Mrs March and Elwin went to Marshall Street for Thanksgiving dinner.
Nov. 26. They were to return last night. We called them by phone at 9.15 p.m. They said they would not be over till the next day, the 28th, when she felt strong enough to resume her work at the Valley Hotel.
December 7, 09. On Saturday, Dec 4, Mrs March telephoned Mrs Gilbert that a lot of things had been moving and to tell me to call after office hours. I went and got her statement given below. I asked her why she had not called me and she gave excuse that she did not have my number, etc., etc. She really had no excuse she cared to give. Today Mr Thacher came to the office and when I asked him why he had not told me of all the happenings at Valley Hotel on Friday he said Mrs March had asked him particularly not to tell me. He said he had just come from there and learned to his surprise that she had told me all.
Nothing ever happens in my presence and it seems they do not want me there when things do happen. Mr Thacher said that everything he saw done there was done fraudulently by Elwin. A number of things happened but all were done by Elwin himself and then he would lie about it. He says Hattie (sister of Mrs March) also proved herself deceitful in that today she told him before he saw Mrs March that nothing had happened except what happened on Friday when he was there. When he saw Mrs March she began telling of things which happened on Saturday. When he confronted Helen with it she gave incoherent and inconsistent excuses for her statement which showed she had tried to deceive him. Mr Thacher thinks Mrs March is thoroughly deceived by Elwin and does not suspect his trickery. Helen, however, several times openly accused Elwin of trickery.
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Statement of Mrs March. Dec. 4, 5 p.m.
At Marshall Street, Dec. 3.
The stand tipped over. A hand-glass came off on the floor and sat up as if some one set it there. It was not broken. It was on the floor when we found it. I did not see it move. The stand was turned when I found it also. I did not see it move. Went down into the kitchen. The dish pan on the drainboard went on the floor. Elwin, pa and ma and I were in the kitchen. Elwin kept teasing his grandfather to go out with him and he would not do it. Elwin wanted to go alone. I had him sit down on the chair till I got ready to come away with him to Valley Hotel. My work basket was on the kitchen table. It just gave a hop and spilt the things on the floor. I saw it begin to hop and then saw it fall on the floor.
At Valley Hotel, 4.30 p.m. Dec. 3.
The chair in the kitchen tipped over. I don’t know how many times. The liquid veneer fell off the window sill. Elwin and Mr Thacher were here when that fell. It fell after Mr Thacher had returned. He had gone away and we called him back because just as he left a chair fell over. He came back and before he got back up here a chair in the kitchen fell over on its side and then turned over on its front.
A box of gold-dust on the sink board went right down into the sink. (Elwin says he don’t know anything about where he was when it happened. Mrs March says Elwin was in the kitchen somewhere. Just then Helen entered the room and siad, “Elwin was standing right there by me by the sink.”)
When Mr Thacher was here there was a pail of compound (a common lard can) out in the hall fell over. Elwin was standing in the doorway about four feet from the can. It slid off the stand toward him. Elwin was standing by the sink about four or five feet from the stove when a kettle of lemon for lemon pie fell from the stove on the floor. Once when we came in the room the tea-pot set on the floor. Nothing was spilled out at all.
At Valley Hotel, Dec. 4.
A stand in Mr Stevenson’s room was found upset. Nobody saw that, and then chairs kept going over all the forenoon. And then there were two tin pails and a box of raisins sitting on the cupboard shelf. They slid off on the floor. Elwin was about there (four feet away). The dishpan was found sitting in front of the sink just as if somebody had set it down there. It had two spiders (skillets) in it with water. The water was not spilled.
I had the table partly set for lunch. There were some spoons on it. The table cloth was partly off and scattered the spoons on the floor. It made an awful noise. Elwin was in the kitchen (about three or four feet away) and just as we were to sit down to lunch the lemon pie on the treasure shelf fell off on the floor. This is the first time it has kept up like that so long. Began at 8.30 a.m. and lasted till 1.45 p.m.
Mr Dumback and Helen took him out most of the afternoon so nothing would happen. He had quite a coughing spell at lunch when the pie went off but the coughing was not like it used to be. Then after lunch he was standing behind my chair and that vestibule dish (in top shelf of treasure) started to come off and he pushed it back (two feet away and five feet from the floor) and then that pie tin sat there on the end of the table and that shot off over in the corner. Everything except Stevenson’s table happened in the kitchen and Elwin was present. Elwin was out in the hall a couple of times when chairs went over. The chair was right by the door (leading to hall where Elwin was) and usually fell right across the door. I never seen the like the way it kept up. This mornin he said he could see unusually well, and the last chair he tipped over Mr Daniels took him and went out with him.
(No signature asked. Not necessary).
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I made tests again on Elwin for voluntary movement of things. All failed. After leaving Mrs March I went to see the men (Messrs. Daniels) who had been watching Elwin. They were the proprietors of the hotel. Their statements are given below.
Statement of Geo. A. Thacher. (Note. – Mr Thacher has helped me greatly in obtaining several of the statements and in investigating many phases of the problem. He is a thoroughly frank and honest investigator).
Portland, Oregon, Dec. 4, 1909. Last evening at 4.30 p.m. I called on Mrs March at the Valley Hotel and spent half an hour talking with her and her sister Hattie and the boy, Elwin. Mrs March voluntarily told me that she was afraid the doctor would hypnotise Elwin and “do things to him” if they got him by himself.
As I went downstairs I heard a loud noise apparently in or near the room I had just left. I had not gone fifty feet on the sidewalk before Elwin cauht me and told me a chair had fallen over. I went back with him and found that the chair I had been sitting in close to the door of the room was tipped over forwards. Miss Hattie Sawyers said it fell on its side and then rose up and turned half over. She said she had left the room with Mrs March and that Elwin followed her. Mrs March admitted that things had been “happening” since about half-past two. At that time she and Elwin were at the Sawyers home on Marshall Street. A stand was found upset in Samuel Page’s room and her work basket was upset. She said Elwin was not near enough to disturb the basket.
Elwin March went to get a letter to show me. I proposed to Elwin to walk into the hall and see if anything happened in the room where we were. We left the room but nothing occurred. Mrs March came back with two letters and we returned to the room, Elwin stopping in the doorway. I had walked ahead of him and turned in time to see the handle of a carpet sweeper, which had stood across the narrow hall just opposite the door, strike the floor at Elwin’s feet. “There, it hit me on the arm,” he exclaimed. I think it did, probably, but he could have reached towards it and pulled it in his direction by taking hold of the middle of the handle and received the blow from the end of the handle as it described an arc of a circle with the hinge on the sweeper as a centre. I replaced the handle of the sweeper in an upright position.
Elwin pointed out how a five pound lard pail on a box in the hall near the door had moved to the edge of the box nearest to the door. As he stood in the doorway, or more accurately in the hall, I noticed that he made a motion towards the box on which the pail rested. I should not have thought of it again if he had not said as he straightened up, “This pipe is not hot at all,” referring to the steam heating pipe. There was such an obvious lack of connection between his remark and the motion he had just made that I thought he was trying to direct my attention in childish fashion. I responded as if interested in the new subject and began to read a letter Mrs March handed me and to watch Elwin at the same time. In a moment he began to cough and half doubled up with a spasm. At the same time making a sideways motion toward the pail. I heard a noise precisely similar to one that would have been made by the pail being tilted partly over and then falling back on its base. He repeated the coughing and doubling up motion, at the same time moving perceptibly towards the pail, and the same sound was repeated. He was standing close enough to the door post so that I could not see his left arm when he doubled up, as I sat to his left and only half facing him.
He repeated the performance and then again. The last time instead of hearing the pail settle back on its base we heard it clatter on the floor. The coughing stopped and also the spasmodic motions, and Elwin exclaimed, “There, the pail fell again.” Mrs March insisted that Elwin come into the room, and he came in and took a chair diagonally across the table (a large dining-room table) from the place where I sat. His coughing fits returned and he doubled over forwards in his chair at each spasm. A heavy bottle flew from the window sill at his riht hand at one spasm and the table was jarred at the others. The table was finally moved directly away from him coincidently with a spasm and I changed my position so that I could watch his feet. It did not move again, but the bottle which had been set on the floor by him was thrown from under the table into the room just as he doubled over almost to the floor with a coughing spasm. At the time of the violent moving of the table Miss Sawyers said to Elwin, “You did that with your foot.” Elwin replied, “I did not,” and lapsed into sulky silence, adding as an afterthought to his aunt, “you did it.”
Mrs March was fully convinced apparently of the genuineness of the phenomena and expressed satisfaction that I had witnessed it. I told Miss Sawyers that what I wanted to see was a movement of an object entirely out of Elwin’s reach in every way; that to tell of a movement which Elwin might have caused in normal fashion would be simply to invite people to laugh at me. I added that “the things that have moved today have been easily within Elwin’s reach.” I asked her if she had seen anything move that was entirely out of Elwin’s reach and she said that she had; that she had seen the tea-kettle move on the stove at the Marshall Street house when Elwin could not have caused it.
Attempting to look at the day’s silly performance from the point of view of the family, my impression is that they saw enough at the houses on 17th Street and Marshall Street to thoroughly convince them that the happenings were supernormal and that now they do not even attempt to observe what goes on, but accept everything as the “Act of God,”as the legal term has it. That may argue undue simplicity on my part, but betwixt that estimate and the one involving deliberate fraud by all the members of a large family I think that preferable.
On December 7. I called at the Valley Hotel this afternoon and asked to see Hattie Sawyers. I reminded her that she told Elwin on Friday (the 4th) that he moved the table and added that I felt certain that he had moved all the things that were moved that afternoon. I asked her to watch him closely and see if she could catch him in the act. She replied that she thought that he did move some things “just for fun” but that she was sure he did not move the chair on the day when I was called back. Later I saw Mrs March who told me of the movement of the objects on Saturday the 4th of which there was an account in Monday’s paper. The performance lasted for several hours, and it seemed to me reasonable to believe from the answers to my questions that all movements were caused by Elwin, as on Friday. Mrs March was satisfied that Elwin did not move the things in normal fashion.
George A. Thacher.
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Statement of Jacob W. Daniels. December 9, 09.
The boy stood about ten feet from a chair standing by the kitchen door and it raised up perhaps five or six inches and fell down on its side and made a terrible racket. I was two feet from the chair watching it. The mother was also ten feet away at the gas stove. I saw a lot of kitchen utensils on the floor but did not see them move. I did not believe any of it till I saw that chair move. Mrs March turned around and said “Now will you believe it?” I said, “Yes, now I do.” I had been watching him all morning. I saw nothing else move. I heard a racket and saw things move. I saw him at a trick too. His mother told him to leave down a leaf of the table. He left the leaf down and caught the table cloth underneath and started to pull the ketchup bottle off. I caught him at it and told his mother. I did not catch him at anything else but my brother did. His name is J. L. Daniels. Signed, Jacob W. Daniels.
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Statement of J. L. Daniels. Valley Hotel, Dec. 9, 09.
On last Saturday I watched pretty close but did not see anything move at all. He (Elwin) came up here .I was watching pretty close. The minute I turned my back and came out then the things began to move, chairs fell over, tea-pot came off at one time and then once his mother was standing in the kitchen door. He was back of his mother. He kept his eye on me. He knew I was watching him, and while he was standing back of his mother he moved his arm and the chair went over. I picked it up and said, “We’ll see it go over again.” It did not move. That was all there was out there.
Then Joe brought him up here in the office. He stood and looked out of the window all the time. I was shaving. He was standing so against the window that his right arm was free. All of a sudden the chair near him went over. I had been telling him all day I wanted to see it. He said, “Did you see that chair go over?” Then I says, “Yes, we’ll pick it up and see it go again.” While I was picking up the chair my hat and gloves were on the table. When I turned round the hat and gloves were on the floor. He said, “Did you see that?” I made the same remark, “We’ll pick them up and see them go again.”
After these things happened I said to myself, “Boy, I will watch you.” I started to put on my collar after shaving. I was looking in the glass. He went back to the window and stood at the same chair. I could see all his movements in the glass. Then when he was standing there by the chair I saw him push the chair over sideways as it was before. He made the same remark, “Now,” he says, “did you see that?” When he made that remark I said “Yes, and I saw you do it.” I says, “Now, didn’t you?” He says, “Yes, I was just trying to fool you.” Then I accused him of throwing my cap and gloves on the floor. He said “Yes, I did.” Then I says, “How about the first chair? I have been watching you. I have been looking in the glass. I can see a whole lot. You pushed over the first chair, didn’t you?” He said, “Yes I did.”
Then we will go back to the first chair that went over in the kitchen. Then I said to him, “The last chair that went over in the kitchen when you were standing by your mother, you pushed that chair over, didn’t you?” He says, “Yes, I did, but that is all I did do.” Then I says to him, “How about the pie, tea-kettle, pot and other things that went over? You had a hand in that, didn’t you?” He said, “No, I did not.” Then I gave him a little lecture and told him it was bad enough for things to be moving around without you taking a hand in it, etc. etc. Signed, J.L. Daniels.
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Statement of John P. Sawyers. Portland, Oregon, December 9, 09.
Last Friday, I think it was Friday, the first I noticed I was standing in the kitchen and a dishpan setting on the drain-board slid right off and set right on the floor. It did not upset. I saw where it started. It was near the middle of the table. Elwin was standing right there close to me, just a few feet from me.
A stand upstairs in the front room had some books on it and tipped over. I did not see that. The boy seen that first and came down and told his mother about it. There were other things out of place right there in the same room. The other things was a hand-glass came right down on the floor in the alcove without breaking. It set right straight up on its brace. The lamp chimney the same way. It did not topple over. It set right up straight on the carpet. There was a large box set on the table with some postal cards in it. The box came off on the floor and did not spill the postal cards out. It looked as if somebody had set it down there. It was not toppled over, even. I know Elwin had not been up there to misplace anything in the room. This is all that I saw that day. His ma got ready and took him off over to the roomin house.
Question. “On October 28th did you see things start to move or were they already in motion when you saw them?” Answer. “I saw the tea-kettle, platters, and a number of chairs and other things start to move. Some of the things were in motion when I saw them first.”
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Statement of Dr. R. F. Ainley. Portland, Oregon, Dec. 22, 09.
On or about the 28th day of October, 1909, I was called over there (546 Marshall Street) knowing I did not believe in anything of the kind. They wanted to see if I could explain it. I was standing in conversation with Mrs Southey and the uncle of the boy in the kitchen viewing the wreck. Mrs Southey was explaining to me what he had seen. My first opinion was a surcharge of electricity. The boy who was supposed to contain the mysterious power was standing at my side having entered the room from the parlour to the kitchen through the hall, when I noticed for the first time a movement of the phone from a box in the hallway and there was a little noise accompanying it. The phone fell off this shelf. The boy had just come through the hall. I saw it after it was in motion. I did not see it start. The chair by the phone fell over to the north. I did not see this start to fall. It was just falling. I said, “Look there!”
I saw nothing start to move. Both the chair and the phone were in motion. However, the boy could not have done it because Father Sutherland, the boy, the preacher’s wife and I were standing in a row six feet away. The boy was right by me. He could not have touched it. He could have pulled the phone off as he came through the door to me. This is all I saw move. The chair fell after the phone was replaced. I don’t know where Elwin was at this time. I think he was there but I would not be positive about that. R. F. Ainley (Physician).
(Note – The above was taken knowing Dr Ainley had previously given Mr Thacher a statement. Hence, instead of writing his dictation without interrupting his at all as was my custom in the other signed statements I asked questions occasionally. For example, his statement that he saw nothing start to move was in answer to a question from me regarding that point. Later in conversation Dr Ainley said that the boy came through the door, to the left of which the phone stood on a box, and just as he came through he said “Hello, Doc!” and just then he (Dr Ainley) saw the phone falling. In that case it was very easy for Elwin to have dislodged the phone as he passed it. Evidence leaves no doubt that he did this in a number of instances at our home, at Valley Hotel and probably at Marshall Street.
(The above statement was taken from Dr Ainley without his knowing any of the developments of the case since his first statement given to Mr Thacher on Oct. 30th, 09. I add that statement below to show the difference between the two. In the statement to me he dictated in answer to a question whether Elwin could have pulled the phone from the box as he passed it, that Elwin could have done it because the phone fell just after he passed it and said, “Hello, Doc!”)
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Statement of Dr R. F. Ainley to Mr Geo. A. Thacher. Portland, Oregon, Oct. 30, 1909.
On Thursday afternoon I was in the house of Mr Sawyers at 546 Marshall Street and while five or six of us were standing near the door in one of the rooms the telephone fell from its stand to the floor. The boy, Elwin March, was pointed out to me in the group of persons near me. He had come through the door just before and was standing near me when the telephone fell. It was picked up and put back in place and soon after a chair near the phone stand rose up and fell on the floor on its side. These objects were moved without anyone touching them. The movements occurred plainly in my sight. No one of the group in which I was standing was nearer than four feet to the chair and phone when they were moved and fell to the floor. The phone stand and chair were close to the open door and were in the next room (hall) in plain sight. I have read this account which I related to Mr Thacher and certify that it is correct. The occurrences were on Oct. 28, 1909. R. F. Ainley.
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There is a slight inaccuracy in Dr Ainley’s statement for which I am responsible. He was in a hurry, he said, to catch a train, and I wrote out a statement as rapidly as possible and handed it to him to read. After reading about half of it he stopped to talk with a patient, and when he came back to me in the waiting room he asked me to read the balance to him, which I did. As I read “no one of the group in which I was standing nearer than four feet to the chair and phone when they were moved and fell to the floor” he interrupted me and said, “It was six feet.” I said I would change it but he said, “No, leave it as it is.” He then signed it. Geo. A. Thacher.
(Note. – Mr Thacher is a careful observer and a good recorder. I cite the two statements of Dr Ainley thus one after the other to show the effect of memory and also to show the different light thrown on the testimony as a whole by the asking of a few questions to determine whether Dr Ainley saw things start to move and whether the boy was in such position that he could possible have dislodged the phone. My experience with the boy led me to suspect the possibility of this, and Dr Ainley’s later testimony confirms that possibility. Dr Ainley also says the phone stand was in plain sight in the next room. It is impossible to see the phone stand from the kitchen where he was standing).
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Statement of Orton E. Godding (Oregonian Reporter). Jan 29, 10.
Dear Dr Gilbert, – The following statement will, I trust, give you the facts you desire. While the occurrences mentioned are true to fact, they may not be mentioned in the precise order they occurred, owing to the lapse of time. Since you last telephoned I have been, and am still, confined to bed. Sincerely, Oliver E. Gidding.
On the afternoon of October 28, 1909, I left the Good Samaritan Hospital and walked down Marshall Street towards town. There was quite a crowd gathered around a house which I later noticed to be No. 546. Inquiry elicited that something mysterious was going on. I easily obtained admittance. This was probably about 2.15 o’clock. As I stood in the front room a heavy chair spun around on one leg. It was in plain view and moved so fast that, like a top, the outline could not be made out. It stopped suddenly with a crash. There were at least half a dozen people in the room at the time and they pecipitately retired. As I entered the room the boy afterwards pointed out as Elwin March ran out and was not there while the demonstration went on.
While this happened, and indeed during the course of the several other occurrences I witnessed at the house, there was a creaking and groanin sound with which the house seemed to be filled. I have been considerably at sea and it reminded me of the creaking and groaning to be heard in a gale if one sits in the after cabin of a sailing ship. I imagined at the time the house was pitching like a ship but I am convinced this was imagination for I did not notice it later while still wondering at the other assemblage of sea noises, apart from the crashing it was said was the result of furniture and utensils coming in contact.
In the kitchen there were a number of articles of cutlery on the table. Although I believed it to be imagination at the moment, I saw a number of knives, four at least, rise up on the tip of the blade. They glided towards the edge of the table then floated toward the floor, stopping at least ten seconds in mid-air on the way. That it was not my imagination, I became convinced because a Mrs Euring, living in the vicinity, crashed to the floor in a dead faint. I am not certain whether young March was present at the moment or not. However, I believe he was. But at that time the thought of March having any connection with the phenomena had not struck me. With March present – he laughed this time at me – a plate seemed to be flung at me from a shelf. It crashed behind me on the wall as I dodged. First the plate plainly floated towards me from the shelf. It was in full view and moved slowly. I half reached to grab it. It was rapidly withdrawn and a moment later literally seemed to throw itself at me, in that semi-circular motion it would have taken had some one hurled it. It passed me so rapidly as I dodged that the air it raised fanned my cheek and the fragments of crockery splashed over my clothes.
I rather hurriedly left the kitchen, pursued by the boy’s laughter. The moment my back was turned several chairs crashed to the floor, another leaned in an easy manner against the wall. I did not see the action but observed the result. In the front room all the furniture had changed position, but, although I waited some little time, I did not actually see anything move, while I heard crashing and groaning that miht have come from furniture in the room had it been thrown together, as indeed seemed to have happened each time. But although the furniture changed position, I never saw it crash back.
Young March was with me all this time. I went back to the kitchen but the phenomena seemed to be over. At any rate I observed nothing further. After being in the house approximately an hour I left. I intended obtaining an electrician for his opinion as I was convinced that would furnish an explanation. I was unsuccessful. In an hour or a little longer I returned to the house. The occupant declined to allow me to enter.
Although I was in a somewhat weak state of health I am absolutely confident the facts are as stated. I am also certain that these phenomena happened and in their happening that no force, as commonly applied, was used. In the cases I have mentioned I know no person touched any of the articles at the time any of the phenomena occurred. Orton E. Godding. (Reporter for The Morning Oregonian).
(Note. – The above was slow in coming because Mr Godding kept forgetting to send it in. After repeated reminders I finally obtained it. He was one of the main witnesses and it is to be regretted that the report could not have been obtained when memory was fresh. However, practically the same report was given for an article in the Pacific Monthly just after the occurrences of the phenomena.)
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Statement of A.W. Abel. Portland, Oregon, Jan.25, 1910.
I was in Mr Sawyers’ house at 546 Marshall Street on October 28, 1909, early in the afternoon. I went into the pantry at the rear of the dining-room. There is a wide shelf something over three feet from the floor running along the south wall and at right angles to the pantry shelves enclosed by glass doors. There were, say, half a dozen small dishes, saucers and plates on the shelf and while I was in the pantry these dishes slid off the shelf and fell to the floor and were broken. The boy, Elwin March, was not in the pantry at the time.
Soon afterwards I was in the front room (the parlour) and saw a chair rise up in the air some six inches from the floor without being touched, and then fall as if it had been propelled to one side. Elwin March had just before walked through the room. A.W. Abel.
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Statement of Mr Sanford (Teacher). (Note. – Mr Sanford says the following statement is accurate but refuses to sign anything.) Portland, Oregon, Jan 27, 1910.
I was in Mr Sawyers’ house at 546 Marshall Street on October 28, 1909, between half-past four and six o’clock p.m. While standing in the doorway between the dining-room and pantry I saw through the doorway from the pantry to the kitchen a bunch of knives and forks and a dish which were resting on the drainboard of the sink slide off and fall to the floor without being touched by anyone that I could see. They appeared to be raised up slightly from the drain-board but no noise was made by them until they struck the floor. A little later in the parlour I saw two dining-room chairs slide together striking their backs.
There were several people in the room, among them being Elwin March. Some one accused him of moving the chairs but he denied it. I saw them move but could not see that anyone moved them. A little later, in the same room, I saw the Morris chair tip over on to the floor. I did not see anyone touch it.
I heard the lounge moved in the dining-room but did not see it, and I got into the kitchen in time to see the tea-kettle on the floor but I did not see it fall from the range. I saw no indications of anyone in th ehouse moving the objects and was inclined to credit th emovements to electricity though I could not understand how it happened.
Quesetion: “Did you notice if the knives and forks and dish on the drain-board of the sink rested on a cloth when they moved or if they rested directly on the wood?” Mr Sandford says that the knives and forks rested on the wood. G.A.T.
(Mr Thacher could not prevail upon him to sign this statement though his verbal assurance of its accuracy is just as good for practical purposes.)
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Statement of James C. Holmes. Portland, Oregon, February 1, 1910.
I was at Mr Sawyers’ house at 546 Marshall Street on the afternoon of Oct. 28, 1909. When I was in the dining-room I saw a chair which was standing near the door go right up in the air as much as three feet, and then while it was poised in the air it turned half over to a horizontal position and then fell to the floor. There were several persons in the room but no one was near the chair when it went up in the air. Elwin March had just gone out of the door and was outside when the chair which was in the room rose up and fell. The chair was plainly in my sight and I am sure that no person in the room touched it during its movements.
While in the kitchen I heard some knives and forks fall to the floor. I saw them on the drain-board of the sink a little time before they fell, but I was looking in another direction when they fell. No one was near the drain-board when they fell. Later while I was in the hall opposite the door leading into the dining-room I saw through the open door two chairs which were about a foot and a half apart rise up in the air at the same time. They went up about a foot and then struck together, afterwards falling apart to the floor. I saw the movements of the chairs distinctly, and they were made without any assistance from any person in the room.
I had heard the noises made by the dishpan in falling and by some chairs that fell over and by dishes that were moved, but I did not see them move. I saw the wood-pile across Marshall Street from the front of the house fall down but cannot believe that Elwin March had anything to do with it or that it was anything more than an accident which might have occurred at any time. Elwin was standing in the front door at 546 Marshall Street at the time that the pile of wood fell. I was immediately behind him in the hallway and saw the wood-pile collapse.
I have hesitated about signing any statement concerning these matters because I have frequently been asked if I saw things move without being touched and whenever I responded and said that I did, I was apt to hear the response, “Well, you must be crazy!” These things actually happened, however, as I have described them. James C. Holmes.
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Statement of Samuel Page (Elwin’s Cousin First Removed). Portland, Oregon, February 7, 1910.
In the matter of movement of objects without their being touched, which has been discussed in connection with Elwin March in the house at 546 Marshall Street and also in th ehouse in which the Sawyers family lived on 17th Street, I have to say that plastering flew from the wall and objects moved without any assistance from any human being.
Of those facts I have personal knowledge, but the talk about spirits and mediums has made me disgusted.
In response to further solicitations to state the bare facts of which I was a witness, I will say that I lived in Mr Sawyers’ family and that while we lived in the house on 17th Street owned by Mr Dietrich the plastering flew from the wall. I saw the plastering on the floor in the front hall which came off the wall in the parlour and was carried across the room and out of the open door into the hall. I did not, however, see it fly off the wall. I did see plastering fly from the wall in the pantry and break the glass in the cupboard doors in the north end of the pantry (where the cupboard is) at an angle of about thirty-five degrees and broke the glass. The plastering flew with a good deal of force. The doorway in which I stood opens from the south end of the pantry into the kitchen. There was no one in the pantry at the time the plastering flew from the walls and broke the glass.
The plastering came off the walls in the different rooms as high up as the tops of the door frames in the kitchen and pantry, and from both walls and ceiling in the dining-room and from several places close to the ceiling in the front room upstairs.
I was called over to the house at 546 Marshall Street on October 28, 1909, by Mr Sawyers, who said that things were being moved about without anyone’s touching them. I laughed at the idea but went to the house. The first thing I saw was a kettle on the range with a piece of meat in it cooking, upset and spilled the meat and broth on the floor. No one was near enough to the kettle to upset it. Elwin was in a corner of the room at th etime. Later while I was at the west end of the kitchen Elwin passed by me to the east end of the kitchen and then into the hall. As he went by the range, or after he had gotten by, the tea-kettle twitched along as if it were following him and tumbled to the floor. I did not see him touch it but the suspicion was aroused in my mind that he might have touched it.
I saw a chair in the dining-room rise up about a foot and then settle back in place again. Elwin was standing by my side. We were three or four feet from the chair. I proposed to Mrs Sawyers to send Elwin to his mother and see if anything happened when he was out of the house, but she did not want to because he had a cold.
We heard the Morris chair tip over in the front room and went in there. While there I saw two chairs in the dining-room – there are wide folding doors between the two rooms – which were about a yard apart, slide together and strike. Elwin did not move the chairs together for he was in the front room with me.
I found a round table in my room upstairs turned completely upside down, with the articles underneath and some of them broken. Two small articles, however, were not under the inverted table that had stood on it when it was in place. I did not see the table overturned.
I was in the hall when the wood-pile across the street collapsed. Elwin was also in the hall as well as Holmes. We were well back in the hall. I have no doubt but that the falling of the wood-pile was an accidental occurrence which might have happened at any time.
At night an attempt was made to get supper and the tea-kettle was placed on the range and a fire kindled. The tea-kettle slid off the stove and fell to the floor. There were several members of the family in the room at the time. I saw the kettle fall but I did not see anyone touch it and did not suspect anyone of touching it.
About a month after these happenings I was washing my hands near the prescription counter in the drug store where I work, when a small bottle dropped from a shelf to the counter and from there it dropped to the floor, landing on its base both times, and after it struck the floor it slid along on its base as much as a foot. There was no normal cause for the performance. Unsigned.
(Note. – Mr Page refused absolutely to write out any statement or sign one. The above was written by Mr Geo. A. Thacher from conversation with Mr Page. The statement as recorded above was given to Mr Page to read and he certified its accuracy in the presence of Mr Thacher and myself but refused to sign it.)
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Notes.
Elwin has proven himself dishonest at least part of the time. He cheats playing checkers also.
Probably the automatic writing is all fraudulent as suspected and noted on the sheets used for the writing.
Possibly the relatives know more than they want to tell. Fred (Elwin’s uncle), Samuel Page (Fred’s cousin), and J. Holmes refuse to give any signed statement of what they saw. Except Mr and Mrs Sawyers, Samuel Page probably saw more phenomena than anyone else. Mrs Sawyers gave her statement of the happenings very reluctantly.
Maybe it was part of the general scheme to put Elwin on the stage for money as indicated by the conference between Mrs — and Dr —.
Why are the family always so suspicious and averse to having Elwin examined?
It looks as if Mr Sawyers carried the news to Fred of Elwin’s examination and then blamed it on to Frank.
Mrs Sawyers not entirely frank as shown by Mrs Gilbert’s observation on Nov. 4th.
Elwin does not look you long or straight in the eye. His head is usually down and his eyes turned up to meet yours.
Why did Mrs March want Mr Thacher not to tell me of the occurrences at Valley Hotel on Dec. 3? She had promised to call me if anything happened and she did not.
The occurrences on Marshall Street were of the same type as those at our home and at Valley Hotel. The latter being largely fraudulent at least throws doubt upon the rest of the same class.
Hattie (Mrs March’s sister) was guilty of deceit in misleading Mr Thacher. They have never asked whether we thought the phenomena genuine notwithstanding the fact that Hattie openly accused Elwin of trickery several times and Mr Thacher told Hattie that Elwin had done some of the things.
During the time that Elwin was at our house he seemed impatient for things to happen. When they did happen he said, “Wouldn’t the reporter like to know this!” He scanned the paper each morning for new accounts of it and was steeped in the notoriety and missed it when the paper contained nothing. The grandparents seemed glad for the seclusion afforded by our home and regretted it very much when the newspaper finally discovered their whereabouts.
Feb.1, ’10. Being thoroughly convinced of Elwin’s dishonesty and trickery in many of the phenomena and having enough data to defend myself in that opinion, I decided to probe him. Up to the present time he has had no idea that I suspected him of trickery. I have purposely avoided anything which might make him suspect that I distrusted him in the least. In fact notwithstanding the fact I was certain of some fraud, I could scarcely believe that he, an eleven-year-old boy, had done all the things mentioned by witnesses.
On Sunday, Jan. 30, ’10, I invited Dr Robinson to be present with Mrs Gilbert and me at our home. I then went to Elwin’s home and brought him to our house without telling him what I wanted. After some time in general conversation I told Elwin that I knew how many of the things had been done and told him plainly that I knew he did them. I had sifted evidence till I was able to explain how many of the things were done and I told him how he did them. At first he denied emphatically having done anything at all at the Marshall Street house. Seeing that I knew more than he thought I did he admitted having done the things I described. Further cross-questioning led him into such a maze of inconsistencies and contradictions regarding the things he denied that he finally admitted having done numerous things. Cornered still further by his own contradictions he finally admitted having done all the things at the Marshall Street house except two. These were the jumping of the chair described in the testimony of R. Southey, and the falling of the table in Samuel’s room upstairs. At first he denied having been upstairs at all. Then when cornered by contradictions he admitted having been upstairs and overturning the chair which was supposed to have fallen when no one was up there. He also admits having been up to the toilet just before the table in Samuel’s room fell though he says the door was closed.
Though he denies still that he made the chair jump which is mentioned in R. Southey’s testimony, he admits that “it might have been done by two kids who were standing there” and he told how they might have done it. He did not know the names of the two kids.
In the beginning of my cross-questioning I had said that some things I was still unable to explain and mentioned these two things as examples. Probably if I had not admitted that I was unable to explain them he would have confessed to them, too. From his contradictions regarding them it is practically certain that he did those two things also. After the cross-examination and confession I told him to think carefully now and tell me of anything that happened which he did not do. He could only mention the two things cited.
There is a possibility that he may have had a confederate in the work though he denies this. The nature of the testimony of the various witnesses makes it almost incredible that a boy of eleven years could have fooled so many witnesses so thoroughly. However, I am not interested in ferreting the affair further. I was only desirous of determining the genuineness or fraud of the phenomena involved.
Elwin still denies having caused the plaster to fall on 17th Street, but there seems to be no way of investigating this affair since only members of the family were witnesses to the happenings. Elwin says he does not know what led him to start in the trickery but no dependence can be put on his word. Even after crying and pofessing his sorrow for ever having done it at all I caught him in two falsehoods which were entirely unnecessary. He has, however, promised “never to do it anymore.” I asked his permission to tell his mother about it all. At first he refused and asked to be allowed to think it over. Today he said I could tell her, thinking she would probably find it out anyhow. She has been thoroughly deceived, I think, and has at no time doubted the genuineness of the phenomena.
Such a case is of interest in demonstrating the unreliability of testimony from witnesses under excitement or expectancy. There is, however, a possibility to be kept in mind. Having been forced to confession after confession by his own contradictions he may have tired of the affair and relieved himself of further cross-examination by a complete confession. The circumstances of the cross-examination and confession, however, give even this possibility but very slight credence.
Feb. 22, ’10. To cover any possibility of Elwin’s full confession having been given to relieve him of further cross-questioning I determined to see him again and get a statement from him of how the various things were done. After he failed to keep three appointments agreed upon at a definite time, today, instead of waiting for him to keep the fourth at 4 p.m. as agreed, at my request his mother sent him to me at the office at 11 a.m. He did not know what I wanted till he came.
He explained how the various things were done. There was a similarity in the method of moving all the different objects. He simply watched for a chance when he would escape observation, moved the things while passing or gave them a quick jerk and then either jumped away a sufficient distance to appear not to have had anything to do with it, or else hurried to another room and there showed himself so as appear to a witness not to have been in the neighbourhood of the object in motion. This method covered such movements as chairs, table, dishes, kettle, bread can, knives and forks, hall tree, lounge, sewing machine.
The telephone was tipped off the shelf passing from hall to kitchen. The picture falling from the wall was raised with one hand and thus loosened from the wall. He then grabbed it as if trying to save it from falling. The chair mentioned by Mr Southey, was moved by reaching round behind him and then jumping away. The two chairs that were said to slide together Elwin threw together by a quick jerk. In describing it he gave his characteristic laugh and said, “It scared Uncle George pretty near to death.” I said, “Were all the dishes that fell where you could reach them?” He said, “Yes,” and dropped his head as if half ashamed. Many dishes were broken. He ascribes the falling of the wood-pile to mere chance or coincidence, and laughed at the idea of people thinking he did it.
The jumping of the chair denied in his confession of Jan. 30, was accomplished by him before anybody saw it. This leaves only one thing which he still denies having done on Marshall Street, viz., – the upsetting of the table in Sam’s room upstairs. He says “Sam was upstairs a little before the table fell. He might have put it on a balance and then come down.” Though there is no direct proof of it it is my opinion that Elwin did this also, for reasons stated above. Also in his confession Jan. 30 he said two kids might have made the chair jump and today he admits having made the chair jump himself.
He still denies having done anything to the plaster on 17th Street. He says, “That might have been done by the house settling.” This is, however, out of the question.
At the close of the conference I said to Elwin, “Well, you surely had them fooled all right.” He said with a grin of satisfaction, “You bet I did.” No dependence can be put in his words, but today’s re-affirmation of his confession with the additional facts given leaves practical certainty as to the validity of his confession.
For those that question his confession I can see but three possible ways of explaining the phenomena. 1. Elwin did them all fraudulently. 2. He had a confederate. 3. Some were done fraudulently while others were genuine, “Poltergeist” phenomena. I simply submit the data. Take your choice. There are points in favour of all. I choose either the first or second. It is immaterial which, but I prefer the second.
March 7, ’10. After repeatedly postponing the dreaded day Elwin finally set today for the time that I should tell his mother. She and Hattie assert most positively that it was impossible that Elwin could have done some of the things. Mrs March says that once Elwin was immediately behind her when the hall tree turned around and almost fell over. She admits that he did some of the things but feels it impossible under the circumstances that he could have done others.
March 9. Mr Thacher and I called on Mrs March today to see what Elwin’s excuse was to his mother. She said he told her he simply confessed to get rid of me because I dogged him so. Anyone witnessing the cross-examination and confession would give this no credence.
March 10. Case was reported to the Portland Academy of Medicine.
March 14. This evening L.S. Ellwood, a student of psychology, came to me and said he found torn sewing thread strings at the west window the next morning and found a heavy cord like a fishline fastened to a knot on one of the sticks of wood in the wood0pile that fell down. He also claims that one of the relatives is a leader in the local Spiritualistic circles but is unwilling to put this latter statement in writing because of lack of absolute proof of the fact. After considerable unavoidable delay I obtained the following:
Statement of L.S. Ellwood. Portland, Oregon, March 30th, 1910.
On October 28th, 1909, after reading the morning “Oregonian” re movement of objects by some mysterious forces at 546 Marshall Street , this city, I went to the house above mentioned to investigate the so-called mystery. Having graduated from the Copenhagen University, Denmark, and Upsola University, Sweden, as Master of Psychology, I have always been interested in Psychological Phenomena or anything which would tend to prove interest in that line. I have lectured and demonstrated Psychology for a number of years through Europe, Canada and the United States. I am also an admirer of the Philosophy of Spiritualism, being a member of different societies of Spiritualism and Psychical Research. Therefore I went to investigate the above named case with an unbiased mind; interested only in finding the true cause of the disturbances.
When opening the door to the house I found myself confronted by two young men whom I noted could not look me “square in the face.” I put several questions to them but was met with an evading answer to each question and noted that they go uneasy when I asked them “Why did that furniture move?” The door was slammed in my face as an answer.
I walked around the house noticing everything in particular. When I came to the west side of the house I found that a window there was opened and a match laid under it holding it up about one-sixteenth of an inch. Another match had been inserted from the inside to press it outward allowing an opening of about one sixteenth of an inch. The ground was trodden much directly under said window, showing mostly one kind of foot-prints. As close as I could determine of size 7 1/2 or 8 shoes. I also found a large amount of black thread (common sewing thread) lying on the ground in several pieces. Each piece had a loop at one end which had been broken. The thread was double twine, consisting of two threads spun together. In each case the thread had been broken in the loop, and on investigating I found that the one-half thread had been cut with a sharp instrument so as to insure a break in a certain place. I gathered the threads up and have them in my possession.
I found further that a part of a fish-line (heavy) was attached to one of the upper pieces of wood in a wood-pile which was located across the street from the house. This string had been cut identically in the same manner as the other strings found but it had not broken at the end, but about five or six yards was left hanging to the wood. The wood-pile had fallen. From the evidence at hand I concluded that it was magic or black art act of no interest to science in itself but for the fact that such acts are represented to the public as “Scientific Proofs” while they are misleading in the extreme and cause an earnest investigator to look with suspicion of fraud on all psychic or spiritual phenomena, thereby creating disinterest among laymen and men of Science in the investigations and possible valuable discoveries along these lines.
When I returned with my wife from the above mentioned house I went to the office of MRs Lula Baker, Chief of the Y.W.C.A. Protectin Dept., and reported the facts. Mrs Baker asked me to see also Mr Price, city editor of the “Morning Oregonian” and gave me a card of introduction. Mr Price, however, refused to accept my evidence, stating that it was a most wonderful act of real “spirits.” On the following Sunday I delivered a lecture at the “Auditorium Hall,” 3rd Ave., City, under the auspices of the “Ministers and Mediums Protective Association” (Spiritualistic). I included in my remarks above mentioned in my lecture. About five hundred persons were present. L.S. Ellwood.
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Since considerable importance necessarily attaches to the validity of Elwin’s confession I annex hereto the statements of the other two witnesses to the confession.
Statement of Mrs Gilbert. March 30, ’10.
On Sunday, Jan. 30, in our home in the presence of Dr Robinson and myself Elwin was questioned by Dr Gilbert as to how he caused the movements of the articles in the home on Marshall Street. He at first flatly denied having caused any of them but upon being reminded of the way in which he had done things both in the Valley Hotel and in our home he said, “Well, I didn’t do all of them.” Apparently seeming to feel that he was in the presence of those who understood and that further denial or concealment would be useless, as the conversation went on he admitted having done all but two. His confession was not a forced one. He was simply entangled by his own statements until even he saw that there was but one way out – acknowledgement. Mrs J. Allen Gilbert.
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Statement of Dr S.A. Robinson. 800 Northup Street, Portland, Oregon, April 2nd, 1910.
Immediately after reading the newspaper reports of Elwin March, I began to investigate the phenomena ascribed to his influence. When Dr Gilbert invited Elwin and his grandparents to his home, I was pleased, knowing that both Doctor and Mrs Gilbert were deeply interested in the case, thoroughly qualified to study it and very conscientious. They gave much time to entertaining Elwin and he soon felt quite at home with them. I saw him and his relatives there often, was present during a physical examination of him, and when he told Dr Gilbert about having done the things which seemed so weird. When Elwin confessed his strange conduct he knew that he was with friends, only Doctor and Mrs Gilbert and myself being present. The interview was entirely friendly. His actions were not criticized and he was not subjected to a cross-examination or to anything like the so-called “third degree” and he did not appear annoyed or confused.
During more than fifty years, most of them spent in active medical practice, I had studied many cases of the kind, but none so promising as this, for it seemed incredible that so many persons could have been mistaken regarding what they saw so near them, and in the full light of day. But I could not doubt the truth of Elwin’s confession, and knew that I was again disappointed. Samuel Adams Robinson, M.D.
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Portland, Ore., April 6th, 1910.
Dear Dr Hyslop: Elwin was yesterday (April 5th, 1910) given into the hand of a spiritualist to be trained as a medium. Yours, J. Allen Gilbert.
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Notes by the Editor.
I made inquiries of Dr Gilbert for further information on various points not mentioned in his Report and it seems that they were considered and the proper investigation made at the time. In reply to my inquiry whether he and MRs Gilbert had tried to detect the boy at tricks by watching him in a mirror, Dr Gilbert says: – “It is gratifying also to know that we have in a large measure forestalled you in your suggestion regarding the mirror method. We watched Elwin repeatedly by mirror. Our parlour has a large mirror and the mirrors in the dining-room are so arranged at an angle that every part of the three rooms can be controlled except the corner near the hall. We used the mirrors without avail. In fact Elwin never even tried anything when I was at home and if you will notice, what he did do in our home was at an opportune time when observation was difficult. Only once did I catch him cheating in checkers, tho I know absolutely that he did so a number of times. Others caught him often, but rarely in the act.”
In reply to the inquiry about possible hysteria in the boy Dr Gilbert replies as follows: “Just what can be said regarding hysteria other than that there are no evidences whatever of it I cannot say. The whole picture of the boy, his physical examination and action in general give not the slightest evidence of hysteria. One is impressed to the contrary by all evidence.”
My interest to know what the boy’s reading had been was met by the following statements by Dr Gilbert: – “I questioned Elwin clearly as to his reading and what conversation he may have heard that led him to play such tricks. All I could get was the negative reply, ‘I don’t know how I got started’. He denies having read any such thing and I could determine no cause for his tendencies. From general impressions I feel that there are older heads back of him. For example: during his cross examination a thing occurred which it is impossible to put into words and yet the impression obtained by me was very marked. I intentionally let drop a remark which indirectly intimated that I thought his uncle was implicated in the affair. Like a flash and with a half-angry expression, Elwin said: ‘You don’t mean to say that you think Frank had anything to do with it?’ These may not be his exact words. I could take no note of them at the time, as taking notes would have spoiled the results. A boy of his age would not have been anxious to clear anybody unless there was some reason for it. I had not accused Frank, and yet he picked the indirect insinuation out of my remark and responded with a denial.”
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Dr Gilbert made no special investigation as to whether the boy had a confederate, saying that he had neither time nor taste for this kind of work, and, moreover, after satisfying himself that there was fraud in the phenomena, he did not care to pursue the question of confederacy.
Mr Podmore will find in the case a delightful illustration of his “naughty boy,” and no one will begrudge the sceptic his triumphant satisfaction at the evidence for his hypothesis. The early mystery of the case quickly dissolved into very doubtful phenomena, and whatever concessions have to be made to the actually unexplained facts the incidents less clearly explicable than others and the strict scientific judgment must concede this even if it weakens the confidently sceptical desire to impeach the whole group of phenomena.
One of the interesting features of the case is the exposure of the sceptic to the same accusation which he is so ready to throw at believers in the supernormal. The man whose property was injured by the removal of the plaster from the walls was ready with very plausible explanations, but he took no trouble either to be truthful or to see that his theories were facts. His observations on the negative side were no better than the more “glamored” believers in “poltergeists.” One can sympathise with him for his financial losses, but not for his readiness to make charges which he could not sustain. Of course, he was not ready to admit that his plaster may have been so loose as to fall off when people walked across the floor, a supposition quite as possible, tho probably not true, as any that he proposed.
But people will accept such hypotheses without question and indulge their imaginations rather than inquire as to the exact facts, and throw all the credulity upon the poor believer in ghosts. In a scientific question proof is just as important and obligatory on the side of the natural as on that of the supernatural, tho a man can indulge his imagination more safely against reproach on the side of the natural. No doubt the most ordinary explanations should be sought first, but they should fit the facts, and the same fitness must apply to any other hypothesis tried. But there is no excuse for making fools of ourselves on one side more than on the other. A sense of humour and a confession of ignorance are often wiser courses than the most natural explanations.
The incident which will promise the most for filling up gaps in the nature of the phenomena is the story of the Spiritualist who said he found strings outside the window. The supposition of these means for producing the effect might well explain many a gap in the narratives which conceive the phenomena in relation to Elwin March and conceal their relation to unobserved causes. The hypothesis based upon these discovered strings accounts for many an appearance which seems not to have yielded to other theoreis and it is one that is fruitful in suggestion. The only thing to be remarked here regarding the hypothesis of a confederate with strings tends to contradict the confession of the boy, or to involve a wholly different explanation of some of the phenomena. It will be dealt with more fully in the report of Mr Thacher, which will be published in the next number of the Journal.
Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, Vol. IV, January 1910.
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The March Poltergeist Case.
By George A. Thacher.
(The present Report, as the reader will remark, is by another informant and represents further inquiries than those of Dr Gilbert. It substantially agrees with that of Dr Gilbert, tho it contains the accounts of more witnesses, and more incidents. There is slightly more evidence for the existence of independent physical phenomena, tho the principal incident of this kind, exposed to accident, is not connected with the boy who has been the chief object of interest in the case. The reader will have to note the facts which suggest this and the defects of it. All that we can say is that, whatever the explanation of some of the facts, the boy cannot be accused of being the agent in any such way as is apparent in others. In no single incident do we find satisfactory evidence for the supernormal and perhaps we could not regard it as any better collectively. But apart from the question whether there is anything to support the existence of the supernormal the case has an important interest in the care with which the incidents have been investigated while all the parties could give their testimony and while it was fresh in mind. – Editor.)
In the Morning Oregonian of Portland, Ore., for October 29, 30, 31, and November 1, 1909, there was given a rather full account of alleged movements of objects without contact which occurred in two different houses occupied in succession by Mr J.P. Sawyers and family. The facts concerning the movements were established by reliable testimony outside of the family, tho the question remained as to whether they were produced by ordinary physical agencies or not. Practically all of the witnesses were convinced that the movements were produced by supernormal agencies, and the witnesses were numerous enough and intelligent enough to create a presumption in favor of genuine poltergeist phenomena.
I owe to the courtesy of Dr and Mrs J Allen Gilbert the privilege, very soon after the events, of seeing the boy who was regarded as the unconsious agent in the case. I began to collect testimony on October 29, and have watched closely all developments for a period of several months.
I wrote out the story in full immediately after the events narrated and offer it here with but a few verbal changes which I make for the sake of clearness. It is in substance a diary and reflects the mental attitude of the investigators and witnesses at the same time, which gives it a certain value in the final analysis and conclusion. There is always a consistency about an account written in this fashion which leads to an approximately correct conclusion, and that must be my apology for the lack of classification of incidents.
The newspaper account follows:
Portland, Oregon, Friday, October 29, 1909.
Topsy-turvy from the first floor to the garret, the seven room, two-storey house at 546 Marshall Street, near Sixteenth Street, is evidence of a mysterious, uncanny presence which from 1.30 o’clock yesterday afternoon until 5.30 o’clock whisked everything movable as if it were a chip. Mr and Mrs J.P. Sawyers, occupants of the dwelling, ascribe the strange manipulations to an electric storm.
George R Perry, a brother of Mrs Sawyers, has a different story. He declares little Elwin March, the 11-year-old grandchild of Mrs Sawyers, who lives with her, is the innocent cause in that he is “possessed of the devil.” R Sutherland, owner of the house, accepts the occult theory and has warned his tenants to find another home for the lad or vacate his premises.
Whatever the cause of the most odd doings in the Marshall street home, they happened. That’s all there is to it. It was not necessary to rely solely on the word of the occupants, who, strangely, throughout it all, did not gape in wonder or take the precaution to step out of the way of things that were hurled and moved by an unseen power. Attracted by the noise, neighbours rushed in and were confronted by chairs that danced jigs, pictures that dropped from the walls mysteriously and knives and forks that scaled the edge of a big table as if they were things of life.
Exerted by no visible power a six-foot extension table raised itself on two legs and fell on its side. An old-fashioned sofa snug against the wall moved from its place and careened on its side. The cuckoo clock on the wall shook like a spasm and turned almost completely around, stopping at 2.50 o’clock. Dishes on even surfaces stood up and rolled to the floor in a thousand pieces, heavy platters on edge on the sideboard crashed to the floor, every piece of china in the house, upstairs and down, impelled by the uncanny, unexplained thing, rolled or jumped to the floor. In half an hour everything in the house was out of kilter.
While the wreck downstairs was most in evidence the rooms upstairs did not escape. A table on which rested a big lamp upturned in a jiffy, a Morris chair keeled over, table-chairs bounced up and down or leaned back against the walls.
Most peculiar of all the antics brought about by the invisible force were the spasmodic jumps of a tea-kettle and a coffee-pot on the stove. Both these utensils, half full of water, insisted on rising on edge, skating across the stove and falling on the floor. They would not stay put and forced the Sawyers family to forego supper last night, both kettle and pot scurrying across the stove to the floor as often as they were placed over the fire.
On the drain-board in the kitchen was a basket of dry onions. Not only once but a dozen times this basket gathered mysterious feet, traveled across the drain-board and dropped to the floor. Put back in place it tumbled again and again until 5.30 o’clock when after several hours of tumult the house of mystery became quiet.
Little Elwin March, the lad termed a medium and blamed for all the havoc, walked about the house and saw it all undismayed. When he passed the telephone which reposed on a small shelf the phone toppled, and as he walked by two chairs a foot apart they crashed together with a resounding thud. To keep the phone in place a chair was braced against it. Soon thereafter the boy coursed through the hall and both phone and chair fell to the floor. “Don’t pick things up, grandma,” he said to Mrs Sawyers, “They will only fall down again.”
Thus from 1.30 o’clock yesterday afternoon when the first rain of the day fell until 5.30 last night every inanimate thing in the Marshall-street domicile, moved, upturned, crashed or fell. Nothing was exempt from the touch of the most odd power and many pieces of furniture were subjected to continual moves by the unseen hands.
Great as was the havoc, it was not new to the Sawyers family or the 11-year-old who is said to have the peculiar power within him. Only around the corner from their present home the Sawyers experienced a similar plight and were forced to seek new quarters, their former landlord, it is said, paying them a half month’s rent to move. At 223 Seventeenth street, where they lived until two weeks ago, plaster jumped from one wall to another and shot through windows, wrecking four rooms of the house, as well as demolishing every breakable dish. In yesterday’s strange action the plaster of the Marshall-street house remaiend intact throughout.
For every pot and kettle in the Sawyers household there is a strange story, every knife and fork had its own experience; every piece of furniture, no matter how big, figured in the day’s mystery. And the boy blamed for it all is not a yard and a half high. He is subject to spasms, suffering the last attack last Sunday. That is all his people know about the mystifying affair, and they express ignorance of the cause of the oddity. “The devil’s in him,” said his uncle. “Elwin has always been strange,” said his grandmother. “It was an electric storm,” said the boy’s mother.”
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Sunday night the boy was given a place of retreat with his grandparents, Mr and Mrs Sawyers, at the home of Dr Gilbert on Fifth Street. I saw Dr Gilbert from day to day and he told me of the fear shown by the grandparents that some one would discover their whereabouts. The reporter did locate them on November 7. Dr Gilbert mentioned some instances of alleged movements of chairs, saying that on one occasion Mr and Mrs Sawyers denied that anything had occurred during his absence and that of MrsGilbert, and then within twelve hours they voluntarily changed their statements. Dr Gilbert said he wanted me to see the boy as soon as Mr and Mrs Sawyers would consent. I talked with one witness on October 29 and got the first signed statement on October 30. It follows:
” Portland, Oregon, Oct. 30, 1909.
On
Thursday afternoon I was in the house of Mr Sawyers at 546 Marshall
Street and while five or six of us were standing near the door in one of
the rooms the telephone fell from its stand to the floor. The boy,
Elwin March, was pointed out to me in the group of persons near me. He
had come through the door just before and was standing near me when the
telephone fell. It was picked up and put back in place and soon after a
chair near the phone stand rose up and fell on the floor on its side.
These objects were moved without anyone touching them. The movements
occurred plainly in my sight. No one of the group in which I was
standing was nearer than four feet to the chair and phone when they were
moved and fell to the floor. The phone stand and chair were close to
the open door and were in the next room (hall) in plain sight. I have
read this account which I related to Mr Thacher and certify that it is
correct. The occurrences were on Oct. 28, 1909. R. F. Ainley.”
There is a slight inaccuracy in Dr Ainley’s statement for which I am responsible. He was in a hurry, he said, to catch a train and I wrote out the statement as rapidly as possible and handed it to him to read. After reading about half of it he stopped to talk with a patient, and when he came back to me in the waiting room he asked me to read the balance to him, which I did. As I read, “no one of the group in which I was standing was nearer than four feet to the chair and phone when they were moved and fell to the floor,” he interrupted me and said, “it was six feet.” I said I would change it but he said, “No, leave it as it is.” He then signed it.
(An examination of the premises showed that while the chair must have been in plain sight the phone was not, though when it fell it must have come within range of vision).
The next statement contains no testimony as to movements of objects but describes conditions in the house and the mental attitude of the family.
“Portland, Oregon, Oct. 30, ’09.
This is to certify that upon the 28th day of October, ’09, hearing of a disturbance in Mr Sawyers’ house 546 Marshall street caused by unseen forces, I hastened to said house and found the occupants frightened and bewildered, dishes on the floor in pieces, having fallen from the sideboard. Chairs, tables, sofas and pictures upset on the floor on the first and second floor, the cellar being undisturbed; that many reliable witnesses known to be trustworthy people testified to me that they had witnessed these articles above mentioned perform unexplainable motions to get to their places or positions as seen by me. I did not see anything move. John C. Ross, M.D.”
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The next statement is of the same general nature though Mr Corbin heard the sounds.
Mr Jesse Corbin, proprieter of a wood and coal company at 13th and Marshall street, Portland, said to me on Nov. 5th, 1909, “I was going home from my office Thursday afternoon, Oct. 28, and stopped at the Sawyers home and greeted two ladies on the piazza, and said I hear you have been victims of a visit from the spooks.” They admitted the fact and expressed regret at the unpleasant notoriety it was bound to give the family. I understood that I was talking to the mother of Elwin March and her sister. As we were chatting about the happenings I heard loud thumps and blows in the house and they said, “There it goes again.” I ran into thehouse as quickly as possible and as I entered the dining room, a distance of about twelve feet from the front door, I found three people in the room. Mrs Sawyers was sitting at the table in the middle of the room and the boy, Elwin March, was standing near her while Mr Sawyers was standing in one corner of the room holding the clock in place on the wall and looking back over his shoulder at the lounge which was in the opposite diagonal corner. {Mr Corbin described his position and that of the family by comparing the room with his office and pointing out the relative positions of the family and the lounge and clock.}
Mrs Sawyers and the boy were also looking at the lounge as if they were wondering what would happen next. The lounge was several feet from the wall and one end was farther from the wall than the other. They told me that the lounge had reared up on one end and then fallen back on the floor. I went in to the room very quickly from the front door where I was standing when I heard the sounds and I consider it a physical impossibility for Mr Sawyers to have moved the lounge and then got to his position of holding the clock where I saw him. The lounge was a heavy one and neither Mrs Sawyers nor the boy was strong enough to have moved it so as to make the sounds I heard. No one was in the room but the three persons mentioned when I went in. I did not see any of the movements myself.”
{Note: – The lounge is not a heavy one and could have been raised without difficulty by either Elwin or Mrs Sawyers. I say this from personal knowledge though I did not know the fact at the time of Mr Corbin’s statement – G.A.T.}
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Mrs Armstrong’s statement.
I had a talk with Mrs Armstrong on Nov. 5. She lives next door to the Sawyers house on Marshall St. She said she was in the Sawyers house on the afternoon of Oct. 28, and saw the smashed crockery strewn about and the overturned furniture. I asked her if she saw anything move without being touched and she said that she saw two chairs tip over. I asked about the position of the boy, Elwin, when the chairs moved and she said one tipped over just after he passed it. I asked if he touched it or was near enough to touch it. She said he passed near enough to touch it but that she did not see him touch it.
I asked how far beyond the chair he was when it fell and she said about one step beyond it. I asked if the chair rose up in the air and she said it did not. I asked about the other chair and she said no one was near it when it fell. She said there were several people in the room. I asked how near any one was to the chair and she hesitated about the distance but thought about four feet. I asked if it was within reach of any one standing there and she said it was not. I asked if the chair rose up in the air and she said it did not but that it moved about a little on the floor and then tumbled over. I asked if the boy, Elwin March, was in the room and she said he was. Mrs Armstrong declined to sign any statement in regard to the matter. She lives at 548 Marshall Street. Mrs Armstrong declined to give me her name but admitted she was the lady of the house. Mr Abel told me her name.
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Mrs A.R. Fisher’s Account.
I talked with Mrs A R Fisher about the occurrences at the Sawyers’ home
on October 28. She keeps a grocery at Seventeenth and Marshall, one
block from the Sawyers’ home. She was in the house on the day of the
occurrences. I asked her if she saw anything move without being touched.
She said she saw a chair tip over slowly and that Elwin March ran and
caught it before it struck the floor and placed it upright. She said she
was not facing the chair, but happened to turn in time to see it begin
to slowly tip over and to see the boy move quickly towards it and catch
it. I asked her if anyone was near the chair and she said no one was
close to it. I asked the distance between the chair and the nearest
person when she saw it begin to move, and to show me she placed herself a
little byond arms’ reach of a chair. I asked where the boy was and she
said she did not know but thought he was near her. She did not notice
him until he ran to catch the chair. Mrs Fisher declined to sign any statement. Mrs Fisher is an intelligent woman and is convinced that the chair moved without the agency of any one in the room.
Query: Could the boy have tipped the chair and then moved two steps away and then rushed back quickly enough to catch it before it touched the floor, and if so, would the chair have tipped slowly as Mrs Fisher asserts was the case?
https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-the-american-society-for-psychical-research_1910-11_4_11/mode/1up?q=elwin+thatcher+poltergeist&view=theater
literally a bookful