STEAD'S SPOOK.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9641, 5 November 1909, Page 5

STEAD'S SPOOK.

THE GLADSTONE INTERVIEW. MR STEAD IN EXPLANATION. NOT A RADICAL TRICK. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright, Received November 4, 8.20 a.m. LONDON, November 3. Mr W, T. Stead denies that the interview with the late Mr W. E. Gladstone, obtained at his desire through the medium of "Julia's Bureau," and published in the "Daily Chronicle," was a Radical trick. He defends its inconsistencies. Mr Stead adds that he had authority to state that Lord Bea consfield was equally ready to respond to enquiries. Lord Beaconsfield had already expressed his advice, through "Julia," that the Lords should pass the Budget. Several critics have expressed much sympathy for Mr Stead.

Reference was made on Tuesday last to this latest idea of Mr Stead's, in running a bureau by the aid of the departed spirit Julia, to bridge the gulf between this life and the "undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns." Some additional particulars are contained in the following description given by the London "Daily Mail" of this extraordinary ' * Bureau ": Sanctum: Private," is the legend on the door of one of the rooms in Mowbray House, Norfolk street, and when one learns to what use the room is devoted, the words seem particularly appropriate, as, perhaps, does the photograph of Luini's "Silence," hung on the door. The room was formerly the private office of Mr W. T. Stead, but is now used as a chamber for medium and client in connection with the extraordinary, iudeed unique, institution which Mr dtead had founded, and has called "Julia's Bureau." Here in this handsome apartment, its walls covered with photographs of the celebrities whom Mr Stead has known in Mich large numbers, persons who desire to communicate with departed loved ones can, so it is claimed, have their desire gratified should the conditions be favourable. "Julia's Bureau" was opened at the end of April for "communications between the living and the so-called dead in cases where there is a strong tie of affection, between those who have been temporarily severed by death." The combination of modprn i business methods with spiritualism is : piquant, to says the' least. In Mr Stead's offices there is nothing except some rows of "spirit photo I graphs" to suggest anything uncommon. Prisons with appointments with one or other of the mediums stay in a waiting room, which somehow reminds one of a dentist's ante i chamber, until they can i,e attended to. Each applicant must subscribe a guinea to the Borderland Library, but otherwise there ia no set charge, and Mr Stead says that on the i average each case costs him £2. It \ is claimed that the greatest pains : are taken to obtain mediums of re- j liability and honesty, and, should nothing result in a particular case from a sitting with one sort of medium, the applicant tries other kinds, until satisfaction is obtained, or the attempt is abandoned as hopeless.