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Is She Spirit or Mortal??Mer Output
Through Ouija Board Amazes
Writers and Puzzles the
Scientists?All the Centu?
ries lier Field.
jr^t* Mnaa ? ruf
V, Ppsafl petaSBJ BaSS term her or
imetiher i " ? Trrtom
_,"'??* nert art
L^a aben in ? r Ltaa?ar, i err
moeunin? net ***** ese
? ng her ?mil "'? towr
'gcmirrrt tVC* Of I far SB f? Ml f?-i
?^ ? Iks leetarj genim? ?rer
mgttftSUd ?'? '-??
flit it not to rtrav - ? n - em 9J tie
fad thai PntmrmO* I artl *???? dictated
j, ? St. 2>?"- srii??jaa? **?**?.'? 500,000
^-2'. **J .'?rra?ure ??ki.-ft h c? rrra-rfr
?i? fr? lit quolitj a* rit fas-BB, fast /_i?4^r
^ttJ-/ trlfl* Bjf <V"*-/ *nK* ^P P0*'
flrctu?h th* humble meJhnnt of a ouiia
loarcl, nitrierte regarded e* a toe, ike
Igt (Tiren tt the g* ? - <J play,
uany p.Tf-ll CT..1 ' " I'*'* M
r, . "; -a, ' rT",i~
?cet rwihrrmcrrc. I OBS,a
toar?-/ *?.?? t-^' r ? t?aee an/s
m ont en ?npomamf m i, never be>
n'a at * loe* fe*
1% her ienunu T?wy
rrtft ihr tomcat ?'? reu (he rr?.*
MMrtBSafj ?'? r? WKt ' tut* a* ta 11'm*
a'ed tSStt She lit C?>
'm?a! Hm i? ai -' *
?,-y? ale ta i ? * the
?f. and .'
?f-rer hat failed to
ieaccvra. ?, :n I - -? WS*.
aed iti p?riple.. v ?ease ?r
Scofc. afiaslrH fl* roes i ? ?? other
mAi ?. ? ' ' " Bi erntt
Yuytial" lancjuape remains eouttaui.
Patience R pttraJra te I
fron ??'?'? ? ' >''???*
'??*. ?7o?Ya //. ? virar. 71
?pveart that she be ' '
BBSS noria'? wii
| ' BB-rSBB,
irr.?-? u'flj astap
/or ijrnux/*' BBB t*
" to /irT.
" 7Tir?? person,. Prr
ll'orth" hat amaz<-<! nearly ? rj
one trh') /ta* ,4*4*1
- ? ? ?
? r)a;e rn-* ' ' '
/?lit /?a.r
eran/ o?.'/j / of
h i, l'ai. ? '3 "-'??-i ^t*
?-?</ i,i/ a N. . -."d
etrrrn! per ! Linn* art
?.,*/?/ prominence to her work.
ihed
? , critic an
r a?
much uboui I' rth ax m>:
i-aoxrs at pr?t " auii one it unlikc
?t t$ he ? i h a
ca?en ? Jm He ha? de?
voted mar,: fear* *' a brilliant life to
iqhtin " ail form*.
Et relief ..?????
atd by reato* ? ? nral mental m
dmrttii' ? f proof aqainst
deliberate cam
cone :? '
' ' ? .
?? t**?xx-*ffiitn'.- - ? mwuvicaJioTji
from t\t spirit of a ?uxtnan echa pasted
cetUtmet eg ? romgh thr ehaM-ye ire
-*-r ** dexith.
By William Marion Reedy.
THE cty o? St Loui? appear-? to have at
preaeat a patr.n sa_at other than the
canoruzed K.ng o? France. Her name
?* Psteace Won.-. E .-erybody here is Ulk
Cf sirout her. No OBM .-ai ever seen her. On
? ereruj-g of Novembee 3 the Papyrus Club,
o org-uuzatxa of local writers and artists,
"???'?' ? finer .-. bei honor at which there
*lre ?y> guests. The menu was decorated
2 l*10*-?' '"? e words and works of
P*tci-e '?'. I ?oca] celebrities made
***?** ?bout her and her message. The
?*??ol her has spread abroad even u.nto Bos
k^w!?ere I ' ? .n Prince, an emi
e?t ptychologis*. er\twhile of Harvard Uni
???:ty, ;nve?x* gsted sr, with little satisfaction
??himself and less to Patseace harsell
-?ome say ?he ?5 a spirit. Others that ? ?
? s figment of the subconsciousness of anotbei
?T . Uxtrirf lett are of the opinion that it
?eea.1 rrunet who or wr.at aba is; her utter
T?r *" WU* Md trndcr *?nd k'e-????*M *****
nm that P,?erice Worth m the greatest llt.
**** -.emu, St Louis has yet produced, har
,;nt n? '/ne ? ?he writing game in that me
^'i^eisthe.tr.r, , . . About
mn iVj Mrv joh_ Hawtrd Curran Wife
Immigration
.._' Mrs c Bdsrin HutcUaga 1
?*, f ted to amuse
? -lelve? um? a enija board while their
2??_! ' I IM "? ' 'hey ob
?"-?Wiro**, tb* boerd -?-.?ng but a few sen
^?ometin??-.
sv,,. ? ' I =ime
,n,t " n from some
i
?
&
? . ?.
realm heyend the world to the two ladies
Then cne day the pointer on the board in re
sp<-m..c to questions as to who wished to speak
speUeci out P-a-t?P-a-t, and the ladies in
? u:red if it wi?s an Irishman who had some
thing to say, when the replv came in the neg?
t;ve. A little later the pointer I I) the board
"celled out the name Pati-nce Worth. From
that tirt-.e t.ll now the intelligence calling it
self Potence Worth has continued to pour
forth a stream of the most remarkable quality
of literature that has ever come over the ouija
boanl
WHAT THE OUIJA BOARD IS.
The ouija board is a board about two and one
half ieet by one foot The letters of the alpha
be* are pa nted upon it in two concentric BC9
cirdes, and the numerals fren one to zero ap
pear or. a straight line beneath; in the upper
l;ft hand corner appears the word "nay," and
la the upper right hard corner the word "yea."
The messages are spelled out by means ota
small triangular shaped pointer resting upon
three legs, shed tritt felt to prevent rasping on
'itching the board. At this hoard Bit!
Mrs, Cuiran wilh arvbody who may be in*
tereste-d enough to alt with her. The sit'c
rest their fingers upon the triangular pointer
"en it moves about among the Ic'ters?
r,g out words with a mar?cl!, v.s rLp.d.ty.
The operations ?re conducted in a par!
fully lighted. Mrs. Curran is not blindfolded
Anybc?dy present is at full 1 berry to make any
investigaticns the situation may suggest or
to ask any questions It make? DO d..:erenc;
at what t'.rre Mrs. Curran and her vis-?-vr. s.t
dotrn to the board; the pointer begins to Bash
about and messages are reoe ved from Patience
Wert1?. These messages are taken down by
Mr. John Howard Curran and preserved in a
record which now estends to nearly 5,00,000
wcrtis.
Some of the most dstlnguished men and
womc-n of intellect in the cty of St Lcui".
have - -..-,? anf* af |],c brard and have
ne ? ced Patience Worth on every question
and over the
siin. A.mong these
Admirers Give ?inners in Her Hon?
or, Yet None Is Able to Answer
Simple Query, Who Is She??
Her Remarkable Quips
of Conversation.
Mrs. John !.. Curran, amanuensis for Patience Worth.
The language is like no written '.angvrge
with which any student of Knglish literature
is familiar. It is Patience's own. The locu?
tions are peculiar to herself. It is very fig?
urative, -ometimes symbolic. The parable is
a favorite form of expression with her. Her
style is : ontinuo.-s stream of metaphors and
simile?' None of her figures is far-fetched.
For rer the visible word xividlv exists, and
all her il'-jstraticn? are drawn from nature
with a \e:y poignant simplicity.
When >ve come to the "Sorry Tale" we get
away from this so-called early En-;iish style
and we tall into a measure which has a griver
and gramler sweep and a more sonorous
rhythm. For purposes of convenience one may
call it a Biblical style, but one should not be
held too strictly to that description or defi?
nition.
So far as any one has yet discovered there
is nothing like this story, at least in English
literature. There is no evidence of its deriva
tiveness from the New Testament apocrypha.
The old morality plays have been searched for
some clew to the origin of the story, but
they have yielded nothing. "A Sorry Tale" is
an intensely personal expression of the per
aonality called Patience Woith, as it re. f
itself both in particularities and in general?
ities through her other recorded utterances
This is the marvel of all her work. To one
well versed in literature the reading of it re?
veals echoes of many things: but no one has
yet been able, surely, to lay a finger upon any
plagiarism of any one particular writer.
PATIENCE IS A POET.
Last February Mr. Casper Yost published
in "The C'.obe-Demo rat." on four successive
Sundays, a number o! poems, parables, prayers
and a abort story or f.vo as coming from
Patience Worth. These examples of her work
and many others Mr. Yost has shaped into a
book to be published? shortly after the holi?
days by Henry Holt ?4 Co., of New York.
The poetry is not rhyming poetry, but it is
richly rhythmical. For a comparison to it we
must turn to such writers as Walt Whitman,
Edward Carpenter or some of our contempo?
rary writers of free
verse. But the like
*'>
'W-'u Worth typewrite* h 1 mils
"*rd, a popular ?imtiseniciit dex ice:
inve*:?g2t rs have
been ex-Governor
Charles P. Johnron.
a eilst nguiahed crins*
inal la ver: Pr? fes?
se: * Payne,
professor of psy?
chology in the St
Lou?s Te-ar-.1. ers' Col?
lege: C?-?; er .i. Yost.
managing editor of
"The Globe-Dem?
ocrat"; many emi?
nent medical and
legal gentlemen,
proiesscrs at Wash?
ington University
and indes
of all kinds and dis?
tinction that may
be found in a com?
mun, ty the S.2C o?
St LcHjis. All are
agreed that the com
munic-tkin.. they
have a e e n tran
senbed from that
board CCWatlinte a
body of literature
absolutely unparal?
leled in the history
of such manifesta?
tions.
I be intelligence which is always in readi
ne?>s to respond to Mrs. Curran wastes no
troe in answering fnvolous inquiries. No
one has had from her any prophecy of the
future. She has found no lost articles
and reunited no estranged lovers. Often,
though, she says tilings to inquirers which
have pertinency only to things known to
the inquirers but unknown to others around
the table. She has been put through such a
quiz as no one has been subjected to in this
ry in the last decade of investigatonal
" and "probes." She has been examined
upon all the subtleties of philosophy, upon the
mysteries of chemistry and physics, upon al
? every possible conception of life beyond
tve, and she has given responses to those
? ns which are thoroughly con?.istrnt each
with all the others. Perhaps 300 people in the
last two years have sat with Mrs Curran and
i ave put questions to the ouija board. Every
one of these ?'.nversations has been recorded.
I have read the complete record, and the as?
tounding tiling about it is the impression one
m from it of a thoroughly complete, con
tent, fully rounded personality.
I personality is a most attractive one.
Patience Worth has wit and humor, acute ob
?, keen of character and a
? -ut.ful. tender, spiritual poetry To
d tall: with her :* something like it must
have been ,i'"'- witl1 Shelley. She is
a mis ?btleties and uncannily wise in
thll : ? ? et to catch her. So far
- I rd shows she has never once con?
tad erself. On the contrary, replying
. ah. tO the s.ime ?juestion in variou?
repeats 1 n a" :n elmoe. ex
I wotds
? . , ? - ?-? bangs ?.i
? ? . ,.] irvi. ihr personality
.|Kh the ouija board will
- pu ir.e 10 4 reqnett 1 pr.i ont,
ghtssl ' Ital on, poetry and
POEMS BY PATIENCE WORTH
War.
AK thrnktrst thou to trick?
I fain would pe>cp beneath the visor.
A g<-'d of war, indeed! Thou litestI
A masquerading fiend.
The harlot of the universe?
'v*. ar. whose lips, becrirnsoned in her lover's blood.
Smile only to his death-damped eyes I
I rhallejigc thee to throw thy coat of mail.
AK, Cirxd! Look thou her.** 'V
?!d, those arris outstr? '?rhed.
That raiment over-spangle?-*! vvith a leaden rain'
0 Lovtt. trust her not!
She biddeth thee in siren song
And clotheth in a silken rag her treav
1 o mock thee and to wreak
Her vengeance at thy hearl.
Cast up the v?sot's skirt!
Ihou'lt see the snaky strands.
A >'><] of war, indeed! I brand ye as a lie I
_a_4
?1
afs Prayer?
Vast blue above, wherein the angels hide I
And rnoon, 1 fis lamp o' lovel And, cloud-fleece
white.
Art thou the wool to swaddle Him!-1
And doth
Hie mother bide upon a star-beam
That leadelh her to thee? 1 bless Thy name.
And pray Thee keep my sire to watch full well
His flock; and put a song in every coming day:
My Tina's coo, and mother's song at eve.
Good night, sweet night! 1 know He watcheth thee
and mel
I
parables and short stories and epigrams?al!
with .i peculiar personal quality, thoroughly
consistent with everything in the records and
evidently the expression of a personality thor
ougnly at one wan itself in all its multifarious
manifestations. 1 here are in manuscript two
complete works of literary art; a third cne is
in process of communication. The first is a ?
play in six acts, called "Red Wing." It is a
drama loc?->.ted somewhere in England, or per?
haps in Scotland, about JQO ye^rs ago, or may?
be earlier. It is a complete play, the characters
dearly differentiated, m.ensely individualized
?md thoroughly consistent in every changing
.-ituation of the drama. The setting; of the
scenes reveals a wonderful clearness of visual
i/anon. The description of the setting*. i* av
minute as the like feature in the work of
George Bernard Shaw, although not so pro?
fuse. The characters come and go without
conflict and the s'ory works out logically and
? ?'-utively to a beautiful conclusion.
CORRECT LOCAL COLOR.
In additiiui to this play there has been
taken down a novel entitled "Telka." While
the play runs to about sixty thousand words.
"Telka" stretches out to about eighty thou?. !
"Telka" is a story of life in England about
two hundred years ago. and it is thoroughly
correct in all its local color. The characters
have a reality ?rhicb is hard to describe, be?
cause the author docs not describe them: they
?'csiribe themselves thoroughly in their ex
- ion end in their action.
Particularly colorful and racy of the soil
?ire the descriptions of the domestic life of the
lower claSM "'? ?" of the scenes of '"I -
hic *rt in the kitchen or in the barnyird. and
the real.sm oi them is strih.ingly honcsl Brith
<.ui dee-cent Into any ?<f the dieguetini '!<-?
to which so m.?ny of our modern realists rs
? ?it for thcr strong eflect*-. 'Ttlka" is a
I eautiful story, and it moves with a rem.iir.
able swiftness through scenes of humor an
? 1 and pity to an CU lui'? which has in it
-oine of the high quality that we find, let us
say, in the work of Thomas Hardy.
To pass from the reading of "Red Wing"
and "Telka" to another work now being re*
ceived is as much of a leap as, for example,
that which we must make between "David
Copperfield" ar.d "The Tale of Two Cities."
Indeed, it is a much longer leap, for this third
tale?which Mrs. Curran calls "Panda," but
which Patience Worth calls "A Sorry Tale"?
deals with incidents in Bethlehem and Jeru?
salem under the rei?;n of Tiberius at the time
of the birth of Christ. So far, about eighty
thousand words of this tale have been taken
clown. It has been communicated in sections,
in sittings at the home of Mrs. Curran and in
various friends' houses in St. Louis, in the
tity of Washington and in Boston.
No matter when or where Mrs. Curran sits
at the board with another person, after the
usual conversational pleasantries and a few
special inquiries and answers on subjects in
x.hi.h the inquisitors think they have posers
tor Patience, ?here comes a pause and then
?oitic BOCh sentence as this: "Bake thou the
loaf or "Set thou aweave," and then straight
axxay, without any hesitation whatever, the
story reels off in sections ranging in length
from three hundred to three thousand word?.
This story is told in a language which simulates
somewhat remotely the language of the Bible.
SHORT WORDS USED.
The language in "Red Wing" and in "Telka"
has no Biblical flavor whatever. In those pro?
ductions the speech may be loosely called
"early English." Seldom do we find a word of
more th.in two syllables. The language is of
no particular past time. It is made up of the
lin lest root words that have been used as
fai . ack as the time of "Piers Plowman" and
earli? . t it ha no Latinisms or Norman
1 ms Many word arihaic. obsolete, or linger
lag :n paititular provincial localities appear
As they appeared they were looked up by
students of philology, and never once has a
xvord been found used wrongly.
/
ness is far from
close. There is no
imitation in Pa?
tience Worth's lit?
erary output. It is
much simpler than
either Whitman or
Carpenter, not at all
complicated by mod?
ern forms of thought
or expression. It
remains always what
we call archaic, al?
ways highly figura?
tive, often appar?
ently obscure, but
easily clarified by
taking a little
thought. It is al?
ways full of pictures,
and no matter how
gross the subject
matter in which she
worki there is
thrown over it an
indescribable but not
the less definite
spiritual glamour or
over-soul. I don't
know that I can bet
_ ter describe the pe?
culiar quality of this
verse than by saying
that it carries with it an atmosphere of "other
xxhereness."
The touch of Patience's individuality is eerie,
but not spooky. While her "note" is religious
it is so in a large sense. Her faith is too
?arge for dogma or doctrine. Broadly she pro?
claims a spiritual democracy attainable else?
where from present conditions, as the buttertiy
evolves from the chrysalis. Her description
of the realm from which she speaks is not ma?
terialistic. It is difficult to condense all she
says, but one gathers that where she is there
is life untrammelled and unconditioned. There
is boundless knowledge and there is a union
with the divine without the annihilation of the
individual.
SHE WAS A PURITAN.
So far as we have been able to learn Pa?
tience Worth says she lived somewhere upon
the eastern shore of this country. She was a
Puritan. She has expressed hatred for the
Ind.ans. She has intimated that she helped
build stockades against them, that she has
chewed sheepskin to make wads for m.isliets.
Once she was asked if she had been captured
and killed by the Indians. Her reply gave her
i'iterlocutcrs a flash of horror. It was: "Nay.
worse."
She describes herself here as not tall but
short; eyes brown; she wore a cap with a
crown and with nbbens on it; in her face tiere
were lines caused by sorrow and not by laugh?
ter. She says that a tree rises out of her grave
and that one man now living, of her blood but
not of her name, knows all about her.
None of the investigators has been able to
locate the date of Patience. She described
herself on?:e .*.s a "russet." meaning a Rom !
hetd. She has given COOtesnptnooa and scorn
(ul descriptions of Cavaliers. The name 1
Worth ?l quite common in records in Masvi
?Jiusetts and in Virginia. I asked her oree
to give me some t?ong she had sung at home
or in the chapel or meeting house, and she re?
sponded with a verse in Scottish dialect. She
haa used Scotticisms once or twice. And this
?S all -ve know positively about her thus far.
9 I vs she will tell more later.
Curran, who has the lovable and pun
iprightly Patience for a familiar, do?**??
ay that Patience is the spirit of a woman
long dead. Neither does she say that Patience
is not ?t name taken by her own suhconscious
less DC personality. All Mrs. Curran will say
1 ? that she has the sense of being In touch
-rsonahty of a very b.ight, charming
and lovable being; that this personality, in
her communications over the ouija board, hss
never said or written anything but that con?
tributes to the comfort and happiness, spirit?
ually, cf all who have seen the message.
A GOSPEL OF KINDNESS.
All I know," says Mrs. Curran, "is that Pa?
tience comes to me as instrumentality to 'un?
pack a pack apachad of Him.' Her gospel is
of loving kindness, universal and individual."
I asked Mrs Curran how the messages came
to her. She told me that she has a peculiar
feeling as of a pressure upon her mind?upon
her mind as distinct from her brain. She says
tint the communications come in a combina?
tion of vision and hearing. She sees things as
; Ictured and catches them as a sort of unheard
sound, which comes with s peculiar best or
rhythm. Sometimes she has the vision before
the pointer spells out the words on the let?
tered lines. She does not know exactly how
to explain her method of reception of the mes?
sage, but it is in a sense independent of the
ouija board. The ouija board seems to be sim
ply the easiest means cf transcribing what she
receives in a combination of visualization
and audition.
Of course, the Spiritists insist that Pa
tience is a d.scarnate spirit. Of course, Ro?
man Catholics and some others maintain that
she may be a spirit, but if so she is a spirit
not at peace and abroad to no good end
Other* ins.st that Patience gives off what she
gets ir m the individuals around the board
when she is communicating, and then there are
the psychologists, who hold to the t.eory that
everything that Patience Worth gives off has
been ta':en into Mrs. Curran s subconscious?
ness in some way.
Mrs. Curran is a very charming woman of
about thirty. She was born in Mound City,
111., has lived in St. Louis and Chicago and in
the ??:ark region of Southeastern Missouri.
She li.^s had a high school education and lias
studied music and taught it. She is a woman
o? intelligence, but not apparently of super-in?
telligence. She would not be classed as a
"highbrow." She has none of the stigmata of
so many psychics. She is spontaneous, blithe,
girlish-matronly. She has read the ordinary
literature that a woman in middle class life
would ordinarily read?the standard novel?.
BC n.e of the standard poets, some of the lat?
ter d?y "test sellers"?but she has no partie
ular knoxvledge of any literature that is archaic
in charricter.
She has not been a great reader of the Bible.
and she knows nothing much more than the
name of Chaucer or Langland. She never
heard of Caedmon or Beowulf until their
names were brought out in questionings for the
origin of the Patience Worth writings. Neither
her father nor her mother was or is literary in
any distinctive sense; certainly, neither of
them ever specialized in early English. Every
line of investigation which promised to lead
to something that would account for Patience
Worth by evidence of an unconscious acquisi?
tion of the kind of language used by Patience
Worth has led to nothing. So far as known,
rx.rs. Curran has never been placed anywhere
where she could have absorbed the language of
Patience Worth or anything remotely resem?
bling it.
About three week?, ago Mrs. Curran, at the
instance of some friends, went to Boston to
visit Professor Morton Prince. The viait
amounted to nothing. Mrs. Curran sat with
Professor Prince at the ouija board and Pa
tience disported herself in perfect character
there as elsewhere. She laughed at Professor
Prince when he tried to trap her, saying that he
was trying to measure a smoke that would
drift awhither under his hand.
When Professor Prince wanted to hypnotize
Mrs. Curran and sidetrack her consciousness,
according to his theory, so that he might get
into her subconsciousness as the abiding place
of a personality of hers calling itself Patience
Worth, Mrs. Curran refused to submit She
??aid that she did not want to surrender her
will to that of another person, being unassured
that such another person might not suggest
to her aabconeciessa personality explanations
which would destroy Patience Worth. She
?eared that in some way submission to hypno
*.s might put a stop to the message of beauty
and love that she has been receivinj, and so
the visit to Professor Prince ended.
The mystery remains. And Patience gossps
and smiles and sings and weaves away at her
'Sorry Tale."
Inder Mrs. Lurrnn's much it writes
"spirit" literature and ntessa<te<.