We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
76 S*
bined to give him a cadaverous appearance.
A curious personality, Home never worked a day in his life, though he lived well. He and his unearthly friends were accepted wherever they went. His unbelievable abilities, com' bined with his charming manner, had the best people running after him throughout his life. To this day, no one has been able to solve the mystery of his amazing feats.
Three witnesses — the Earl of Dunraven, Lord Crawford, and Captain Charles Wynne — on one occasion saw one of the most amazing seances in history. They gathered at Ashley House, London, December 16, 1868. Home floated out a window 70 feet above the ground and returned as mysteriously as he had left their presence.
Houdini, world-famous escape artist and ghost-hunter, once offered to duplicate the Home levitation. He didn't make good the offer, however, because an assistant backed out of the bargain. No one has ever duplicated or satisfactorily explained the trick.
Home obtained messages from beyond for those fortunate enough to witness his strange powers, though his forte was the movement and manipulation of inanimate objects. When Home entered a room, onlookers noticed candles dim and sway. Heavy furniture was shunted about as if it were alive. Raps seemed to come from the very walls. Wraithlike hands and figures appeared and carried out capricious tasks requested of them.
Many of Home's feats occurred in full light, an appreciable improvement over the clumsy maneuvers of most
ng January -February, 1950
mediums of his day. Their phantom visitors arrived only under the cover of darkness.
"Where there is darkness," Home was quick to point out, "there is the possibility of imposture."
Home was born March 20, 1833, 15 years before the advent of modern spiritualism as introduced by Margaret and Katie Fox. It was their spirit rappings which ushered the whole ghostly business into existence. Subsequent confessions of trickery by the Fox sisters did not quell the enthusiasm of a world anxious to communicate with the spirit domain, and the movement spread rapidly.
Home, born in a village named Currie, near Edinburgh, was the son of highly unusual parents. His mother was said to have been gifted with second sight. His father was the illegitimate son of an English nobleman. Daniel displayed his extraordinary powers at the age of four, when he predicted distant events. A childless aunt brought him to Norwich, Connecticut, when he was nine.
A very nervous child, Home was tubercular most of his life. He was musical, and played the piano well, developing noticeable manual dexterity. Critics cite this talent as characteristic of the trickster they believe him to have been.
At 18, the amazing Daniel was turned out of his home because of his strange activities, which were not so readily accepted by the New England community in which he lived as they were later by European notables and royalty. He never lacked the necessities nor the luxuries of life, however, as his wonderful gift made him wel '