Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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IP' 4 Thursday, October 1, 1931 w f % * McCOKalICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, SOUTH CAROLINA’ PAGE NUMBER TTfHEIf A Big Farmer Reminisces FIRST INSTALMENT The rather extraordinary story revealed by the experiments of the Nighborhood Club have been until now a matter only of private rec ord. But it seems to me, as an active participant in the investiga tions, that they should be given to the public; not so much for what they will add to the existing data on psychical research, for from that angle they were not unusual, but as yet another exploration in to that still uncharted territory, the human mind. The psycho-analysis have taught us something about the in dividual mind. They have their own patter, of complexes and pri mal instincts, of the unconscious, which is a sort of bonded ware- ged. '“At least, until you find my evenings dull. It gives me, during all the week before you come, a sort of thrilling feeling that the world is mine to choose from.” The result was never dull. She led us all the way from moving-pictures to modern dress. She led us even further, as you will see. On consulting my note-book I find that the first evening which directly concerns the Arthur Wells case was Monday, November the second, of last year. It was a curious day, to begin with. There come days, now and then that bring with them strange sort of mental excitement. I have never analyzed them. With me on this occasion it took the form of nervous irritability, and something bouse from which we clandestinely of apprehension. My wife, I re- ‘ ‘ member, complained of withdraw our stored thoughts and Impressions. They lay to this un conscious mind of ours all phen omena that cannot otherwise be labeled, and ascribe such demon strations of power as cannot thus be explained to trickery, to black silk threads and folding rods, to slates with false sides and a med ium with chalk on his finger nail. In other words, they give us sub jective mind but never objective mind. They take the mind and its reactions on itself and on the body. But what about objective mind? Does it make its only out ward manifestations through speech and action? Can we ignore the effect of mind on mind, when there are present none of the ord inary media of communication? I think not. In making the following state ment concerning our part in the strange case of Arthur Wells, a cer tain allowance must be made for our ignorance of so-called psychic f henomena, and also for the fact hat since that time, just before the war, great advances have been made in scientific methods of in vestigation. For instance, we did not place Miss Jeremy’s chair on a scale, to measure for any loss of weight. Also the theory of rods of invisible matter emanating from the medium’s body, to move bodies at a distance from her, had only been evolved; and none of the methods for calculation of lever ages and strains had been formul ated, so far as I know.* To be frank, I am quite con vinced that, even had we known of these so-called explanations, which in reality explain nothing, we would have ignored them as we be came involved in the dramatic movement of the revelations and the personal experiences which grew out of them. I confess that following the night after the first seance any observations of mine would have been of no scientific value whatever, and I believe I can speak for the others also. Of the medium herself I can only say that we have never qustioned her integrity. The physical phen omena occurred before she went in to trance, and during that time her forearms were rigid. During the deep trance, with which this un usual record deals, she spoke in her own voice, but in a querious tone, and Sperry’s examination of her pulse showed that it went from eighty normal to a hundred and twenty and very feeble. With this preface I come to the death of Arthur Wells, our ac- ouaintance and neighbor and the investigation into that death by a group of six earnest people who call themselves the Neighborhood Club. The Neighborhood Club was or ganized in my house. It was too small really to be called a club, but women have a way these days of | conferring a titular dignity on their activities, and it is not so bad, af ter all. The Neighborhood Club it really was, composed of four of our neighbors, my wife, and myself. We had drifted into the habit of dining together on Monday even ings at the different houses. There were Herbert Robinson and his sister Alice—not a young woman, but clever, alert, and very alive; Sperry. the well-known heart specialist, a bachelor still in spite •of much feminine activity; and therfe was old Mrs. Dane, hopeless ly crippled as to the knees with rheumatism, but one of those glow ing ^nd kindly souls that have a way of being a neighborhood nucleus. headache, and one of the stenographers had a fainting attack. I have often wondered for how mucn of what happened to Arthur Wells the day was responsible. There are days when the world is a place for love -and play and laughter. And then there are sinis ter days, when the earth is a hide ous place, when even the thought of immortality is unbearable, and life itself a burden; when all that is riotous and unlawful comes forth ANDERSON, Sept. 28.—Let those farmers, especially young ones, who may be gloomy, note the case of Thomas M. Welborn, one of the biggest land owners and farmers in Anderson County. “I began farming on my own in 1878, when I was 18 years old,” says he, talking as, with sack on his back, he picked a row of cotton the dark corners beyond the zone iS of candle-light. All of us, I re- w te 5 f !L th acre ’ member, except Sperry and Mrs. whii Dane, were skeptical as to the sup- ^f^ 0n y 12 yea v? ?]*!• ernatural, and Herbert Robinson believed that while there were so- called sensitives who actually went ^ d T into trance, the controls which took ^ possession of them were buried per- Korse for a smaller one and boot sonalities of their own, released during trance from the sub-consci ous mind. “If not,” he said truculently, “if they are really spirits, why can’t they tell us what is going on, not in some vague place where they are always happy, but here and now, in the next house? I don’t ask for prophecy, but for some evidence of their knowledge. Who are going to be the next candidates for presi dent? Is Horace here the gay dog some of us suspect?” As I am the Horace in question I must explain that Herbert was merely being facetious. “Physical phenomena!” scoffed the cynic. “I’ve seen it all—objects moving without visible hands, un explained currents of cold air, voice through a trumpet—I know the whole rotten mess, and I’ve got a book which tells how to do all the tricks. I’ll bring it along some night.” “As a matter of fact, Herbert,” enough to buy corn for the spring and summer. I haven’t been with out corn since then, and have nev er failed to produce everything I could raise for my own consump tion. I didn’t come out ahead more than $50 to $100 a year in the early years of farming but all I made was put back into what I was doing. As soon as I could do so. I got my own land and held on to it.” Today, Mr. Welborn owns around 1500 acres of good land and, though he lost some money on non'-agr- cultural investments several years ago, he is reputed one of the most financially secure farmers in the Piedmont area of South Carolina. A tenant who died recently had been with him 27 years and he now has tenants who have been with him over 20 years. While producing much cotton he always has grown many other things and builds up his land by rotating and planting legumes. “It’s a long time since I • bought even flour for my own use,” he says. He usually has made his farming expenses with products other than cotton. x National Forest watersheds under protection of the U. S. Forest Serv ice serve 90 per cent of the irrigat ed farms and 87 per cent of the ir rigation enterprises in the 12 West ern States. There are 782 munici palities dependent wholly or in part for their water supplies upon the .National Forests, and 335 water power projects are located in Na tional Forests. x The fathers of our country could have improved on the constitution by requiring that before a fool law was passed, one had to be repealed. txi A prominent physician is quoted as saying that a woman is prettiest at 45, but who ever heard of a wo man that old? X Gold coins have fewer germs than paper money, but the average person will carry either willingly. I think, looking back, that it was Sperry who turned the talk to< the supernatural. \ and bares itself to the light. This was such a day. I am fond of my friends, but I found no pleasure in the thought of meeting them that evening. I re membered the odious squeak in the wheels of Mrs. Dane’s chair. I re- is a total stranger to all of~us ex- Mrs. Dane said, “we intend to put your skepticism to the test tonight. Doctor Sperry has found a medium for us, a nonprofessional and a patient of his, and she has kindly consented to give us a sitting. She sented the way SiWirry would clear his throat. I read in the morning paper Herbert Robinson’s review of a book I had liked, and disagreed with him. Disagreed violently. I wanted to call him on the tele phone and tell him that he was a fool. I felt old, although I am only fiity-three, old and bitter, and tired. With the fall of twilight, things changed somewhat. I was more passive. Wretchedness encompass ed me, but I was not wretched. There was violence in the air. but I was not violent. And with a bath and my dinner clothes I put away the horrors of the day. My wife was better, but the cook had given notice. “There has been quarreling among the servants all day,” my wife said. “I wish I could go and live on a desert island.” We have no children, and my wife, for lack of other interests, finds her housekeeping an engross ing and serious matter. She is in the habit of bringing her domestic difficulties to me when I reach home in the evenings, a habit which sometimes renders me un- iustly indignant. Most unjustly, for ihe has borne with me for thirtv years and is known through out the entire neighborhood as a nerfect housekeeper. I can close mv eyes and find any desired art icle in my bedroom at any time. We passed the Wellses’ house on our way to Mrs. Dane’s that night, and my wife commented on the dark condition of the lower floor. “Even if they are going out,” she said, “it would add to the ap pearance of the street to leave a light ^ _ or two burning. But some it was around her that people have public feeling.” we first gathered, with an idea of forming for her certain contact points with the active life from which she was otherwise cut off. But she gave us, I am sure, more I made no comment, I believe. The Wellses’ were a young couple, with children, and had been known to observe that they con- i sider the neighborhood “stodgy.” i cept the doctor, and is a newcomer , in town.” The butler wheeled out Mrs. Dane’s chair, and led us to the ! drawing-room doors. There Sperry threw them open, and we saw that the room had been completely met amorphosed. The room had been dismantled. It opened before us, walls and chimney-piece bare, rugs gone from the floor, even curtains taken from the windows. To emphasize the change, in the center stood a com mon pine table, surrounded by sev en plain chairs. All the lights were out save one, a corner bracket, which was screened with a red paper shade. Mrs. Dane watched us with keen satisfaction. “Such a time I had doing it!” she said. “The servants, of course, think I have gone mad. All except Clara. I told her. She’s a sensible girl.” As the purely physical nhenom- ena obtained proved relatively in significant, it is not necessary to go I into the detail of the room. As I said- at the beginning, this is not a ghost story. Parts of it we now understand, other parts we do not. For the physical phenomena we have no adeouate explanation. They occurred. We saw and heard ! them. For the other part of the seance we have come to a conclu- i sion satisfactory to ourselves, a conclusion not reached, however, until some of us had gone through ' some dangerous experiences, and had been brought into contact with things hitherto outside the order ly progression of our lives. But at no time, although incred ible things hanoened. did any one of us glimpse that strange world of the spirit that seemed so often almost within our range of vision. (TO BE CONTINUED) & UR PRICES FRESH HEATS J. B. Smith’s Meat Market, the oldest meat mar ket in town, has again reduced prices on fresh meats so that the man of ordinary means, ai well as any one else, can get the choicest meats at prices he can afford to pay. Choice Steak, pound 20c Choice Stew Beef, pound 12‘ 4 c Choice Roast pound 15c Mixed Sau sage, 2 pounds 35c This market handles only the very best grades of meats to be found anywhere, and when you once get a taste of it, you’ll come back for more. Fish on sale every Friday and Saturday. Everything sani tary and at low prices. J. B. SMITH’S MEAT MARKET Corner Augusta and Pine Streets McCORMICK, S. C. Y LATEST MarsKall; Twenty or thirty years ago it was generally true thalTyou could tell precisely the vintage of a dress by the design and detail of the sleeve, because sleeves, more than any other part of a dress, changed from season to season. When, women remodeled last season’s dress so that it would do for this season they gave first thought to the sleeves. The contour of the bodice and the shape of the skirt might need no alteration at all; in variably the sleeves needed atten tion. But within the oast ten years alt this has been different. What with no sleeves at all and sleeves of the simplest sort of con- r than we brought her, and, as will And we had retaliated, I regret to be seen later, her shrewdness was an important element in solving our mystery. In addition to these four there were my wife and myself. It had been our policy to take up say, in kind, but not with any real unkindness, by regarding them as interlopers. They drove too many cars, and drove them too fast; they kept a governess and didn’t see enough of their children; and their different subjects for these neigh- English butler made our neat maids borhood dinners. Sperry was a re- look commonplace, former in his way, and on his we went on to Mrs. Dane’s, nights we generally took up civic we were early, as my wife is a questions. He was particularly punctual person, and soon after interested in the responsibility of our arrival Sperry came. Mrs. Dane the state to the sick poor. My wife wa s in her chair as usual, with her and I had “political” evenings. Not really politics, except in their re lation to life* I am a lawyer by profession, and dabble a bit in city government. The Robinsons had literature. Don’t misunderstand me. We had no papers, no set programs. On the Robinson evenings we discussed editorials and current periodicals, as well as the new books and plays. We are frequently acrimonious, I fear, but our small wrangles ended with the evening. Robinson was the literary editor of a paper, and his sister read for a large publishing house. Mrs. Dane was a free-lance. "Give me that privilege,” she beg- companion in attendance, and when she heard Sperry’s voice out side she excused herself and was wheeled out to him, and together we heard them go into the drawing room. When the Robinsons ar rived she and Sperry re-appeared, and we waited for her customarv announcement of the evening’s program. When none came, even during the meal, I confess that my curiosity was almost painful. I think, looking back, that it was Sperry who turned the talk to the supernatural, and that, to the ac companiment of considerable gib ing by the men he told a ghost story that set the women to look ing back over their shoulders into Professional Card & ft SERVICE-- We render prompt and satisfactory service to McCormick and vicinity twice each week Monday and Thursday. If you are not already patronizing us, we both are missing something. We clean all kinds of wearing apparel, and hats, at very small cost. Every job must he satisfactory, or we won't take your money. GREENWOOD DRY CLEANING CO. “Always Dependable" BOYD DALTON, Solicitor SEE , W. K. CHARLES Attorney-At-Law office, Farmers Bank Building Days at McCormick WEDNESDAYS and SATURDAYS I The cause of the last war is still being argued. More important is finding the means to prevent the next one. Eyes examin ed. Spectacles, Eye Glasses, and Artificial £yes .fitted without Drugs, Drops or Danger. DR. HENRY J. GODIN Optometristt VS6 Broad Street Augusta, Ga. Men, You’ll Find The Toilet Requisites You Want, Here J We are always mindful of the toilet needs of men and try to keep a full stock of the things you need and want. You’ll find the very best here, always, awaiting your selection. FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE—Shaving Cream, Safety Raz*- ors, Hair Tronic, Talcum Powder, Straight Edge Razors, Face Soap, Shaving Soap, Shampoo, etc. STROMS’ DRUG STORE MAIN STREET McCORMICK. S. C. struction. arm covering sank into insignificance. But now at last, after repeated efforts on the part of the dressmakers, we have finally become sleeve conscious again. And this season sleeves really are im portant. We are showing today one of the newest sorts of sleeve ornamenta tion, consisting of a small belt worn just above the elbow. The dress consists of an overblouse and skirt of bright blue crepe, and belt and sleeve trimming are made of two strips of inch-ribbon, one of red and the other of dark blue. The ribbons are sewn together and fin ished with buckles. On the blouse the belt is removable but on the sleeve it is .tacked into place to prevent it from slipping. Notice, too, that the sleeves are made with a fairly roopiy armhole and remember that deeper arm holes are oart of the present mode. Some of the dresses and the coats are made with pronounced dolman, sleeves which have the effct of ac centing the slenderness of the waistline. X- “I’D BE A BUTTERFLY” By Thomas Haynes Bayly FALL FENCE BUILDING When you build building to endure. fences with our wire you are _ It will last longer, look better, and gi^Te better satisfaction than any you can buy. The double strength strands are extra treated to resist the elements. And we ask no more for this superior fence than you pay for the ordinary kind. Get our prices now. WHITE HARDWARE CO. MAIN STREET McCORMICK, S. C. ==" * = & I’d be a Butterfly bom in a bower. Where roses and lilies and violets meet; Roving forever from flower to flow er, , » And kissing all buds that are pretty and sweet! I’d never languish for wealth, or for power, I’d never sigh to see slaves at my feet: I’d be a Butterfly born in a bower. Kissing all buds that are pretty and sweet. O could I pilfer the wand of a fairy. They sleep in a rose when the nightingale singg. Their summer days’ ramble is sportive and airy. Those who have wealth must be watchful and wary; Power, alas! naught but misery brings! I’d be a Butterfly, sportive and airy, Rocked in a rose when the night ingale sings! What, though you tell me each gay little rover Shrinks from Jhe breath of the first autumn day: Surely ’tis better when summer is over To die when all fair things are fading away. Some in life’s winter may toil to discover Means of procuring a weary de lay— I’d be a Butterflv; living, a rover. Dying when fair things are fad ing away! I’d have a pair of those beauti ful wings. We once left our troubles at home when we went out on a pleasure jaunt, but now we ride in automo biles. • .