736. And here I will quote a case so divergent from accepted types that the ordinary retailer of ghost stories might well be tempted to pass it over in silence as incomprehensibly absurd. As will presently be seen, however, it fits with singular appropriateness into just this place in my series.

The case was sent to Professor James, and I quote it from Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 220.

--, WIs., September 22nd, 1890.

A very unusual thing occurred to the writer and one other person - my sister, Miss Mary Q. - at the city of--, Wisconsin, on the 5th day of November 1885, at 10 o'clock p.m.

Our mother, Mrs. Mary Margaret Q. R., died at our home, in said city of Wisconsin, on the above date, at 8.40 p.m., very suddenly, of pneumonia.

Our youngest half-brother, Robert B. R., was working at S--, N. Dakota, at that time, about 700 miles distant from -- , Wisconsin. At 9.45 we retired to the guests' chamber, a room over the south parlour, and about the same dimensions as said parlour, having two windows to the south and one to the east. There were two beds in this large room, and I lay on one and my sister on the other, trying to compose our broken hearts, for we loved our mother very dearly. The night was cold and the windows were all closed, except the east was down at the top a few inches, when, lo! we both distinctly heard at the same instant my brother, Robert B. R., singing, "We had better bide a wee," in a clear, deep tenor, accompanied by a high-pitched soprano and an old-fashioned small melodeon accompaniment, and it sounded as though they were upon a level with our windows, about 15 feet from the ground; and I arose and threw up the south-west window, from whence the sounds seemed to proceed, and then they - the singing - moved to the next, or south-east, window, and sang another verse. And I threw that up and saw nothing, but still distinctly heard the words as well as the music, and so round to the east window, where they sang the last verse, and then the music seemed to float away to the north.

But the queer part of this occurrence is the fact that at the very time that we heard my brother singing in--, Wisconsin, he was singing the same song before an audience, with the identical accompaniment, an old, tiny melodeon, and a high-pitched soprano young lady - a Miss E., of North Dakota - as we learned two days afterwards, when he came home in response to our telegram announcing the death of our mother.

Any verification of the above facts will be cheerfully made.

(Signed) [MIss Q. ]

--, WIs., October 11th, 1890.

Dear Sir, - Yours of the 6th inst. was duly received, and in reply to your request for corroborative testimony relative to the "phenomenal occurrence" on the night of November 5th, 1885, at Janesville, Rock Co., Wisconsin - that is, the hearing music and two human voices, and the words distinctly audible - one voice perfectly familiar to us as that of our half-brother, Robert B. R., then of N. Dakota, and the other voice that of a strange lady - soprano, and they, my said brother R. B. R., and Miss Sarah E., of N. Dak., were singing the same song, "We had better bide a wee," at an entertainment given by a church society of S--, a printed programme of which my brother afterwards sent to us.

I am an exceedingly busy person, but a lover of the truth, and interested in the progress of the race; but my sister, Miss Mary Q., of this city, is very conservative and proud, and when I asked her for an affidavit of her experience on that eventful 5th of November 1885, she replied, " I do not wish the world to think me or you a 'crank' or Spiritualist, and do not wish our names published." I will add that my sister, who is blind, is very intuitive and clairvoyant, and there is much in her experience to deeply interest the psychical student. It seems to me that the loss of her sight has been compensated by another sense - a super-intuition.

I have written to my brother, R. B. R.,to reply to your request, and also to obtain a programme of the church entertainments at S--, N. Dak., on November 5th, 1885, at which he and Miss Sarah E. sang, "We had better bide a wee," and also to state the exact hour when they were called in the programme, for as Robert stated to us when he arrived on that sad occasion - the death of our good mother - he informed us that the telegram was brought to him, and was held by the operator so as not to spoil the entertainment by telling him before he sang, and we - my sister Mary Q. and I - both heard every note and word of that song sung about seven hundred miles away, while our mother's remains were in the parlour under our bedroom. - Cordially yours, (Signed) [MIss Q].

Miss Mary Q. writes to Dr. Hodgson as follows:-

--, WIs., November 15th, 1890.

Dear Sir, - [In reply to] your kind note of inquiry, relative to my experiences on the night of November 5th, 1885, they were such as have been described by my sister [Miss Q.], who is a lover of scientific research, and is not so timid as I and my brother; the latter is very much opposed to either of us making known our experience on that night, and has urged me not to tell any one of the occurrences of that eventful time, and he refuses to furnish the printed programme of the entertainment, at which he and Miss E. were singing, "We had better bide a wee," insisting that people will believe us all "luny" if we make known all the facts; and so in deference to his prejudices I must respectfully decline to make any further disclosures at present. - Respectfully yours, [MIss Mary Q].

Dr. Hodgson adds:-

December 19th

A letter of inquiry sent to Mr. Robert B. "R.," and an envelope, with official stamp of our Society on the cover, has been returned to me, unopened, by Mr. Robert B. "R.," so that further corroboration is lacking, at least for the present. - R. H.

It will be observed that Miss Mary Q.'s letter is virtually a confirmation of Miss Q.'s account; and that Mr. Q.'s action is in harmony with his sister's belief that he cannot deny, but does not wish to confirm, the truth of this singular narrative.

Now here the two minds aware of the mother's death were the mother's own mind and the telegraphist's. The telegraphist was certainly aware that, when the song came to an end, he should have to communicate to the singer a painful shock. But, on the other hand, the telegraphist did not know the senders of the telegram; had no means of picturing them or their surroundings. I think, therefore, that it will be more in accordance with analogy to suppose that the mother's mind was aware of the impending communication, and transmitted, perhaps scarce consciously, to her daughters the sensation of the trivial and tiresome cause of delay. I give in 736 A an incident equally grotesque, where also the indication is of impatience on the part of the deceased person, who perceives the news of his death kept back by vexatious accidents. And I add thereto Mr. Cameron Grant's case (736 B), where the date of arrival of the news of Lord Z.'s death was specially difficult to calculate by ordinary means - Mr. Grant being in a wild part of Brazil. Mr. Grant's impulse to draw what turned out to be Lord Z.'s death-scene might place this case among motor automatisms. There is naturally no clear line between seeing a scene in one's mind's eye and feeling an impulse to draw it on paper.

Finally, I quote in 736 C a case where a phantasmal appearance became visible while the percipient actually held in her hand an unopened letter, announcing, not the decedent's death, but her dangerous illness. And on the strength of all these cases, and of some less striking, I repeat my suggestion that in our ignorance as to the degree of knowledge of earthly affairs possessed by the departed, and of the causes which permit or stimulate their apparition, this possibility of their following the diffusion of news of their own death may be well worth our continued attention.