THE SEANCES WITH MRS. WRIEDT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 65, 3 August 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE SEANCES WITH MRS. WRIEDT.

MR. W. T. STEAD MATERIALISES. (By M. Chedo Mivatovicli, in London "Light"). After some hesitation, from personal reasons, I have arrived at the conclusion that it is my duty to the undying memory of my dear friend, William T. Stead, and my duty to a great cause, to address this letter to vou for publication in Light. By profession I am a diplomatist, having had the honor to represent my country( Servia) at the Court of the King of Roumania, at the Sublime Porte of the Sultan of Turkey, and three times at the Court of Queen Victoria and once at the Court of King Edward VII., besides having been entrusted by my Government with several important diplomatic missions and representations at international conferences. lam a member of several learned societies on the Continent, and a honorary member of the Royal Historical Society in London. I mention these personal facts to claim from your readers the credit that I am a man accustomed to weigh the facts and my own words in full consciousness of my responsibility. I ought to add that for many years I have been interested in the scientific study of occult phenomena, but was not yet a convinced spiritualist. Having heard that at Mr. W. T. Stead's house at Wimbledon the remarkable American medium, Mrs. Wriedt, with whom Vice-Admiral Moore experimented, was staying, I asked that lady 1 for permission to pay her my respects, and eventually to have a seance with her. She gave me an appointment for Thursday, May 16, at 10.30 in the morning. I went there, accompanied by my friend, Mr. H. Hinkovitch, doctor of law, and a distinguished barrister at Agram (Croatia), who had just arrived in London. Mrs. Wriedt took us to Julia's Bureau, and told us that she is what is called a voicing medium, but that under good conditions the materialised spirits may also show themselves. She asked us to examine the cabinet and the room if we liked. As I have been on a previous occasion in that room, and examined the cabinet with several German doctors, I did not think it necessary to do that on > this occasion. j I and Dr. Hinkovitch took seats near I each other in the centre of the room, j facing the cabinet. Mrs. Wriedt did not enter the cabinet, but sat all the j time on a chair near me. She placed a j tin speaking tube (megaphone) in front I of my friend. She started an automatic I musical clock and put all the lights out, S so that we sat in perfect darkness. (

When a beautiful melody of a somewhat sacred character was finished by the clock, Mrs. Wriedt said to us that the conditions were very good, and that we should be able not only to hear, but also to see spirits. "She," she continued, "here is the spirit of a young woman. She nods to you. Mr. Miyatovich; do you not see her?" I did not see her, but my friend saw a piece of oblong and illuminated fog. "She whispers to me," continued Mrs. Wriedt, "that her name is Mayell—Adela or Ada Mavell." I was astounded. Only three weeks ago died Miss Ada Mayell, a very dear friend of mine to whom I was deeply attached. But in that moment there was no other manifestation of her. She disappeared without saying anything more except her name. Next moment a light appeared from behind the medium and moved from the left to the right of the cabinet, as if carried slowly by a soft breeze. There, in that slowly moving light, was not the. spirit : but the very person of my friend William T. Stead, not wrapped in white wrappers, as I have seen spirits at other seances, but in his usual walking costume! We both, I and Mrs Wriedt, explaimed loudly from joy. My friend Hinkovitch, who only knew Mr. Stead from photos, said: "Yes, that is Mr. Stead!" !

Mr. Stead's spirit nodded to me in a friendly manner and disappeared. Half a minute later he appeared again and stood opposite me (but somewhat higher above the floor). looking at me and bowing to me. And a little later lie appeared again, for the third time, seen by us all three still more clearly than before. At his third disappearance I felt that the speaking tube was moved towards my face, and then we all three heard distinctly these words: '"Yes, I am Stead —William T. Stead! And, my dear friend Miyatovich, I am so pleased you came here. I myself come here expressly to give you a fresh proof that there is life after death, and that spiritualism is true. I tried to persuade you of that while here, but you always hesitated to accept that truth." There T interrupted him by saying: "But you know I always believed what you said to me!" ■'"Yes." lie continued, "vou believed because I was telling you something about it, 'but now I come here to bring you a proof of what T was telling you, that you should not only believe, but know (pronouncing that word with great emphasis) that there is really a life after death, and that spiritualism is true! Now, good-live, my friend! Yes, here is Adela Mayell. who wishes to speak to you!"

Stead never knew Miss Ada Mayell in his life, nor had he evey heard her name before. She then spoke to'me in her affectionate and gi-nerou® manner, trying to assure me on certain questioms which have sadlv preoccupied my mind since her death, and telling me that she was happv now. There is no need to report here all she said to me. Mrs. Wriedt and Mr. Hinkovitch heard every word she said. Then, to my own and my Croatian friend's astonishment, a loud voice began to talk to him in the Croatian language. It was an old friend, a physician by profession, who died suddenly from heart disease. My friend Hinkovitch could not identify who that might have been, but thev continued for some time the conversation in their native tongue, of which, naturally, I heard and understood and heard every word. Mrs. Wriedt for the first time in her life heard how the Croatian language sounds, Mr. Hinkovitch accidently overturned the speaking tube, and although he tried to replace it in the original position, and thought he had succeeded in, doing so. the talking manifestations were not continued. When the light was turned on Mrs. Wriedt found that the speaking tube was not placed properly, and that circumstance, according to her, explained the cessation of further manifestations.

I and my Croatian fripnd were deeply impressed by what we witnessed on that day. May 1(5, between 11 and 12 o'clock at noon. T spoke of it to many of my friends as the most wonderful experience of my life. I spoke of it to the most scientific woman of German, Frau Professor Margarette Selenka, who had just returned from TenerifTe, where she was establishing a station for the scientific observation of apes. Mme. Selenka came to London to hear all the details of the Titanic catastrophe, in which her great friend, W. T. Stead, perishe<l. We arranged to have a private seance with Mrs. Wriedt on Friday, May 24, at one o'clock. That seance was held in Julia's Bureau, but excepting that a voice shouted once, "Sit quiet on the chair!" no other manifestation took

place. By arrangement with Mrs. Wriedt, I and Mine. Seleka returned in the evening, and at eight o'clock we had a seance, at which, besides me and Mine. Selenka, Mrs. and Miss Harper and a very charming lady, whose name I did not ascertain, were present. After a short time from the beginning of the seance we all saw Mr. Stead appear, but hardly for more than ten seconds, He disappeared, to reappear again somewhat more distinctly, but not so clearly as he appeared to me on May I<>. That was the only materialisation phenomenon of that evening, but as compensation we had wonderful and various voicing manifestations. Mr. Stead had a long conversation with Mme. Selenka and a short one with me, reminding me of an incident

which, two years ago, took place in his office at Mowbray House. Then, again, Miss Ada Mayell spoke to me, telling me, among other things, that she knew that | her sisters and her niece wrote to me, las she wished them to do. After her j my own mother came and spoke to me in | our own Servian language most affectionately. Mme. Selenka had a very affecting conversation with her husband, Professor Lorentz Selenka, of the Munich University, and also with her own mother, who died last year in Hamburg; both these conversations were carried on in. German. A friend of Mme. Selenka came singing a German song, and asked her to join him, as they used to sing together in old times, and Mme. Selenka did join him singing. Then we had an Irishman, once a naval officer, who had a long, cheerful, and, indeed, quite a sparkling talk with the charming lady, whose name I unfortunately do not know, but with whom the brilliant Irishman seemed to be everlastingly in love. Naturally, although I heard clearly all the conversations in German and in Eng-' lish, I am not justified in reporting them here. Not even the long statement which Julia made concerning certain suggestions to keep the Cambridge House as a centre for psychic research in memory of Stead, can I properly reproduce here. All I wish to state publicly is that I am deeply grateful to the wonderful gift of Mrs. Wriedt for having enabled me to obtain from my unforgettable friend. William T, Stead, a convincing proof that there is a life after death, and that spiritualism is true, and for having given me almost a heavenly joy in hearing the affectionate words of my own dear mother in our own tongue, and in getting another and sacred proof of the continuance of the living individuality of one of thn most charming, most selfless and generous women whom I have ever known so far in my life.