Legend
< Remarkable Spiritual Manifestations in the House of the Rev. E. Phelps, D.D. (continued from page 7-231) >
adjoining that room. They were replaced in the trunk when removed from the bed the day before. As they were conversing in relation to the disposition of the things as above stated, Mrs. Phelps looked under the bed, and discovered articles there, partially concealed by the bed, resembling those in question. They were taken out and pronounced to be the same. Dr. Phelps had not before examined them, but then took them, noted the name and number on each, as they were marked, folded and placed them again in the trunk, remarking that he would put them where they would stay; did not lock the trunk, not having a key, but locked the closet and placed the key about his own person; then requesting the family to all leave the room first, which they did, the doctor, following, locked the door of the room, and kept the key. Having observed that Mrs. Phelps seemed a little troubled as to the mystery, he thought to convince her that there was no mystery in the matter, and, having secured the closet and room, he descended to the rooms below, following them all. After the lapse of fifteen minutes, some person spoke to the doctor, upon which he went up to the chambers. At the head of the stairs, out in the hall, he found the same articles which he had left as before stated. He examined them, and was 'positive they were the same. He went to the door; found it locked; entered by applying the key from his pocket; went to the closet; found it locked; took the key from his pocket; opened the door; looked in the trunk; and the articles were gone! Dr. Phelps states that he was confident there was no deception in the case, and that he then, for the first time, felt there was a mystery about the affair. He had never believed in the appearing of ghosts or departed spirits, warnings, or anything of that nature, and, at the age of three score, had never seen or heard anything connected with that class of phenomena. The evidence upon which superstitions, as he termed them, rest, he had never examined, and while he had no proof positive that they were impossible, and never did occur, he had no evidence to found a belief upon that they ever had. His idea of spiritual manifestations seems to have been that most, if not all, followed by a strict scrutiny, might be accounted for on natural or known principles, or some physical means, which would disrobe them of the mysterious altogether. But it was not to rest here.
On the same day (March 11th) the moving and throwing of furniture commenced. An umbrella, standing at the end of the hall, leaped, without visible assistance, a distance of, at least, twenty-five feet. Dr. Phelps saw the movement, and knows there was no perceptible agency by which the motion was produced. A bucket, standing at the head of the stairs, was thrown into the entry below. Smaller articles, such as nails, forks, knives, spoons, bits of tin, iron, and keys, were thrown from different directions about the house. He says, “There were times when they came from such directions that they might have been thrown by some person in the house”—at least that may be admitted—but in very many cases the motion and point of starting were such as to preclude all possibility of deception on the part of persons in the rooms. During the afternoon Dr. and Mrs. Phelps had occasion to go to Bridgeport, a distance of some three miles. During their absence the shovel and tongs, standing in the dining-room, were thrown violently down the basement stairs; a piece of mourning crape fastened to the knocker of the back door, and the mirrors in the front chambers covered with sheets and tablecloths, as is the custom in some parts of the country while a person lies dead in the house. The crape on the door Dr. Phelps did not see, but the covering on the mirrors he removed with his own hands. The position of the mirrors in one room was such that the coverings could not, without great difficulty, have been placed there by any person about the house. Various articles were said to have been thrown about the room—the phenomena continuing in his’ absence about the same as when he was present in the fore part of the day. Soon after sundown all was again quiet, and so continued through the night.
The next morning (March 12th)., soon after the family were up, the same phenomena began again: knives, forks, spoons, blocks of wood, nails, &c., &c., were thrown from different directions, and with increased frequency, attended by still stranger circumstances, and those of a still more mysterious character. Mrs. Phelps expressed some alarm, and a wish that some of the neighbours might be called in. Dr. Phelps called on a retired clergyman of Stratford, a man of extensive information, much experience, and sound judgment, who was universally admitted to be capable of rendering correct judgment and good advice in such a case. He requested him to call and spend an hour at the house, to which he cheerfully consented. Dr. Phelps told him that his family had been a little excited by some occurrences in the house, but did not state any details of the matter, but desired that he would sit with them for a short time and witness for himself. He remained all day, but was, at first, firmly of the opinion that the occurrences were produced, in some way, through the agency of the girl, or some other person about the house, and his main attention was directed to the girl in the kitchen, or the children, in the expectation that he should detect them in doing it.
The door leading from the parlours to the kitchen was, by his request, locked, and all communication between it and the other parts of the house cut off; still, the throwing of articles went on as before. The children were sent out of the room, and the doors locked; but this made no difference. He stayed through most of the day on Thursday, and returned soon after breakfast next morning, and remained most of the time for nearly three weeks. He became satisfied, before the close of the second day, that neither the girl in the kitchen nor the children had any agency in producing the strange movements. During the day (March 12th) some of the neighbours were in the house, and small blocks of wood were seen to fall in different places in their presence; but only one person noticed them in a way to excite inquiry, and that person was requested not to mention what she had seen.
On Wednesday, March 13th, the manifestations commenced early in the morning, in the middle chamber, the room in which two children slept, and began while they were both asleep. A book, standing in the library, ten or twelve feet from the bed, leaped from the shelf into the middle of the room. The blower, which was in the grate, leaped out on the floor, a distance of at least six feet, the noise of which first awakened the children. At the breakfast- table several articles were thrown; among them a large potato, which had been sent from Pennsylvania, and laid up in a closet in the east chamber, fell on the table directly by the side of Dr. Phelps’s plate, in a manner that no person could have done it without instant detection. The doctor’s curiosity was much excited, and he watched, with all the scrutiny he was capable, every person in the room. He took up the potato and let it fall from different heights, in order to determine how far it must have fallen to have made the concussion that it did; and it was adjudged by all that the distance could not have been more than twelve or fifteen inches.
The Rev. Mr.— came in soon after breakfast, and remained during the day. Several Bibles were opened at different passages, which seemed to be selected with a great deal of care, and indicated either by placing pieces of paper on them or turning down a leaf. These things first occurred in the middle chamber where the library stood. While the family were at dinner similar things were done in the parlour adjoining the dining-room. Two Bibles and an Episcopal prayer-book were opened at different passages, chairs turned forward on the floor, two solar lamps placed on the floor, a hat and man’s cap put one on each; nearly everything in the room had been moved, and in so short a time, that it seems wholly inadmissible that any person about the house could have done it; besides, the whole household were in the dining-room, all seated at the table, except the servant, and she was employed waiting on the table.
In the afternoon the demonstrations were confined to the middle parlour, Dr. and Mrs. Phelps, and Mr.—, and a part of the time the eldest daughter, being present; in the absence of the daughter the doors were locked, and the three f first-named only were present.
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