The company was treated one night to a repetition of one of Rev. James Gunn's best sermons, preached in the vicinity, the witch personating Mr. Gunn, lining the hymn, quoting his text and prayer, and preaching so much like Mr. Gunn that it appeared the minister himself was present.  A number of persons were present who attended the meeting that day, and recognized the declamation as the same sermon.  Shortly after this, Rev. James Gunn preached on Sunday at Bethel Methodist Church, six miles southeast, and Rev. Sugg Fort filled his appointment at Drake's Pond Baptist Church, seven miles northwest, thirteen miles apart, both preaching at the same hour, eleven o'clock.  It so happened that both ministers came to visit our family that evening, finding quite a crowd of people gathered in, as was the case every day during the excitement.  Directly after supper the witch commenced talking as usual, directing the conversation to Brother Gunn, discussing some points in his sermon that day.  Mr. Gunn asked the witch how it knew what he had preached about? The answer was, "I was present and heard you." This statement being questioned, the vociferator begun, quoted the text and repeated the sermon verbatim, and the closing prayer, all of which the preacher said was correct.  Some one suggested that Brother Fort had the advantage of the witch this time, that having attended Brother Gunn's service, it could tell nothing about Brother Fort's discourse at Drake's Pond.  "Yes I can," was the prompt reply.  How do you know? was the inquiry.  "I was there and heard him."  Then assimilating Rev. Fort's style, it proceeded to quote his text and repeated his sermon, greatly delighting the company.  There was no one present who had heard either sermon, but both ministers admitted that their sermons had been accurately reproduced, and no one could doubt the fact, or were more greatly surprised than themselves.

Sue was supposed to come get Brenda one night. I went to bed and I heard Sue come in and say, “Brenda, I’m sorry I was late.  I had a flat tire.  Steve had to change it.”  So I thought Brenda had left.  I come back in here an hour, thirty minutes later to get some — I said, “Didn’t Sue come get you?”  She said, “No, she’s late.”  I said, “Brenda, I just heard her come in and say she had a flat.”  Ten minutes later, she got here.  She’d had a flat and was apologizing.  It was like the house recorded the whole conversation.  It was playing it before it happened.

"I like Captain Macdonald, but not Harry Price.  He's the man who puts the kybosh on the spirits!"


"Of course I know what I am, and you are not going to get to know, and you are not going to get to know, and you are only grigged because I won't tell you.  I might let you see me some time, but thou wilt never get to know what I am."


[Notes for July 26, 1934]  Gef, in high glee, sings three verses of "Ellan Vannin," then two Spanish and one Welsh verse, then says prayer in Hebrew and a sentence in Flemish.

"Once I had a little black and white dog that Brenda gave me — an Australian Shepherd. That was the best little old dog . . . Well, one time it got so full of ticks and everything you find around here that the poor thing couldn't even walk on its hind legs.  Twyla and I were out there and she was picking ticks off of him and Michael hollered, ‘HELP ME, MAXINE’ — just like he was concerned about it."

Jesse’s wife, whom the witch called “Pots,” observed mother’s policy in humoring the warlock, incurring favor or kindly relations, and she too was treated with such consideration as to relieve her fears of any immediate harm.

The mongoose usually called Mr. Irving ‘Jim’ or ‘Pots’ . . .

I am the Lord thy God, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt;—out of the House of bondage.  I am the Physician of the Soul.  I send Physicians, and Medical Surgeons to attend to the internal parts of the body.  There have been nine Physicians, and Surgeons seeing Mary Jobson.  I am making use of her body as a trumpet.  She should have been in her grave a fortnight and three days since.  I have only one Medical Surgeon to speak to, his name is Robert Blakiston Embleton.  On the 13th, three came, but were of no use.  Mark—I am thy God, sounding out of the Heavens.  The Surgeon that knew the complaint of Mary Jobson, had been only a year in practice:—he hath greater privilege than all of the nine.  Her brain is like a scalded cloth.  I am making use of her body as a bugle . . .

After the voice had done speaking, several loud knocks were heard, as if proceeding from the bed; then a scratching, like a person, or rather several persons scraping their nails along a table.  I have now only to say, that the voice was certainly entirely different from her own natural one: and although I am incapable of describing it, I shall mention some differences which were most striking.  Previous to this time, throughout the disease, the voice was soft and feeble, and when it spoke, it was in a whining and childish tone, until this peculiar change took place; it was now on the contrary, loud and strong, and spoke as in a tone of authority:—but this was not all, for although it might more strictly said to be allied to the voice of a male, rather than a female, yet it had such a delightful sweet sound, as to render it almost an impossibility for any male to imitate it:—it certainly came more up to my ideas of the “Angelic,” than any thing I had ever before heard . . .

I am he whom thou knowest not; be not deceived, for you know not who I am: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending.  I told your child that she was going to have a long illness, and that I was going to work a miracle with her.  She is like young Samuel who kept his Father’s laws, for when you desired her to say her prayers and go to sleep, she obeyed; and when the remainder of the family was in sleep, she would arise, and on her knees, pray without ceasing, to her Father in heaven.  There will be many that will come here, who will not believe in this; some will believe, because they know that all things are possible with God; but, blessed are they who may not hear nor see, and yet believe.  There are numbers of angels in the room, I will call them by their names, but in names that you cannot understand; but as I order them to do signs, you will hear them distinctly in all parts of the room—from one to three knocks, first low, up to very loud ones—some like clashing of arms—some like fluttering of wings—some like small, and others like to immense quantities of water rushing about the room.

The voice called upon certain angels by their names, (which I do not remember,) to sprinkle water, and which to my astonishment, took place, for water was sprinkled upon the door as if one had put the hand into a basin of water, and sprinkled it upon the door, and soon afterwards the water was called to fall upon the floor, and accordingly, no sooner was the word said, then water was seen at the side of the bed, and the quilt of the bed was wetted to the extent of a small plate.  I wrung the water out of the quilt soon afterwards.  At other times, I heard different signs, some of which were loud, and others were not so loud.  There were also different sounds of voices, which we were informed were distinctive of the different Apostles.


I often heard heavenly music, which delighted me exceedingly.  Sometimes I heard sounds, as of bells ringing at some distance, during public rejoicings.  Two earthenware mugs were at different times taken away; one of them was away for a week, and was returned.

The signs continued, and the voice spoke at different periods, till the 22nd day of June, 1840.  On the morning of that day, the child was exceedingly ill, and it was thought she could not exist long: she continued so, up to five o’clock, when the voice ordered her clothes that she usually wore, to be laid out, and you shall judge what we experienced.  There were present at the time, Joseph Ragg, Ann Ragg, his wife, Margaret Watson and myself: the voice ordered all these persons to leave the room, which we did.  We were accordingly out of the room a quarter of an hour, when a loud voice, called, “Come in,” and on entering the room, we found the child sitting on a chair, with her youngest sister, an infant two and a half years old, sitting on her knee.  She was completely dressed in all her clothes that were ordered to be laid out, she appeared as though she had not had one day’s illness, and has so continued up to this 30th day of January, 1841, when this brief evidence was presented.

Shy Spirits

Alice Belle’s Table Tippers Balk on Arrival in New York

Newspaper readers scoffed last week at tales of "miracles" performed by Alice Belle Kirby, 13-year-old daughter of a cotton and corn farmer in Jonesville, La.  The stories told how 5,000 persons had gone to see Alice Belle perform such stunts as making tables dance, playing a piano without touching it, and staying suspended in the air.

A Newsweek correspondent visited Alice Belle and found her an ash-blonde, gray-eyed child with far more than usual poise for her age.  She took him into a darkened room and promptly astonished him—although the spirits had previously failed another reporter, who had been told to return for a second try four months hence.  As the correspondent reported by telegram: "Table she used with me ordinary one which had no draperies and apparently nothing attached.  I firmly held her hands and despite pressure I exerted table came up pressed against my chest."

Later the furniture repeated its dance, and the reporter learned that under Alice Belle’s promptings ten other tables had destroyed themselves—seven small specimens and three large dining-room tables.  Mystified, the Newsweek reporter interviewed seasoned and normally skeptical fellow townsmen of Alice Belle.

H. W. Wright, for 21 years education superintendent of Catahoula County, declared he had seen Alice Belle make a table leave a room, walk down the hall, through a screen door, proceed ten paces into the yard, and then return.  F. H. Shiel, Alice Belle’s school principal, testified to similarly astonishing performances.  Charles E. Smith, assistant manager of a Jonesville motor company, described the child’s levitation powers: "I saw her rise slowly into the air about 2 feet with nothing in the world to hold her."

Alice Belle begins each seance with the same incantation, her grandmother’s: "If there be any spirits present, show me a sign by tipping the table."  If the spirit is disobedient she calls it a dumb cluck.

This week the dumb clucks wouldn’t work.  After Alice Belle and her mother flew to New York Monday, the child couldn’t move any furniture despite her constant pleading: "Come, table, rise."  Although they’d accepted transportation expenses to appear on a radio program, they weren’t sure whether they’d take up a challenge by Joseph Dunninger, head of the Universal Council for Psychic Research, who maintains a $10,000 standing offer to anyone producing phenomena he can’t mechanically duplicate.

JONESVILLE, LA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE AUTHOR OF STRANGE AND ALMOST MIRACULOUS DOINGS, 13-YEAR-OLD ALICE BELL KIRBY IS SHOWN HERE.  ACCORDING TO WITNESSES THE GIRL CAN MAKE TABLES MOVE BY HOLDING HER HANDS ON THEM OR MAKE THEM MOVE WITHOUT TOUCHING THEM.  SHE CAN MAKE A HEAVY PLAYER PIANO HOP ACROSS A ROOM AT COMMAND -- AND OTHER UNCANNY STUNTS.  MORE THAN 5,000 PERSONS HAVE TREKED TO THE 425 ACRE FARM OF FARMER LEON KIRBY TO SEE HIS DAUGHTER PERFORM "MIRACLES."  SOME SKEPTICS COME AWAY CONVINCED OF HER SUPERNATURAL POWERS, BUT HERE ALICE HAS BOTH FEET ON THE GROUND, AND IN SPITE OF APPEARANCES THE FEET OF THE HALVED YOUNG LADIES IN THE BACKGROUND ARE ALSO FIRMLY BASED.