[Gutenberg 46647] • True Tales of the Weird: a record of personal experiences of the supernatural

This account of striking and peculiar events by Mr. Sydney Dickinson testifies to careful observation and sane judgement. Mr. Dickinson had an unusual memory, a keen sense of accuracy and he was cool and practical, rather than emotional or excitable. No one who was much with him in the later days could doubt the entire sincerity of the man. There could have been no ulterior motive as the account itself will show. The narrative was written because he felt that it might be a contribution of some scientific interest. (236 pages).

Mr. Dickinson was a professional journalist and lecturer. After graduation from Amherst in 1874, he served on the Springfield Republican and the San Francisco Bulletin. Later he was prominent as an art and dramatic critic on the staff of the Boston Journal. After extended study of art in European galleries, he lectured before many Colleges, Univerities, and art associations. He spent some years in Australia, where many of the events of this accxount took place. While traveling in Europe and Australia he was correspondent for a number of papers and magazines, including Scribner's Monthly, the New York Times, the Boston Journal, and the Springfield Republican. During a visit to New Zealand he was engaged by the Colonial Government to give lectures on New Zealand in Australia and America.

The Publisher has copy-edited this book to improve the formatting, style and accuracy of the text to make it readable. This did not involve changing the substance of the text.

CONTENTS:

PREFATORY NOTE ----- INTRODUCTION ----- AUTHOR'S PREFACE

SECTION 1

A MYSTERY OF TWO CONTINENTS ----- "A SPIRIT OF HEALTH" ----- THE MIRACLE OF THE FLOWERS ----- THE MIDNIGHT HORSEMAN -----

SECTION 2 THE HAUNTED BUNGALOW

I. THE CONDEMNED ----- II. THE CRIME ----- III. THE FLIGHT AND CAPTURE ----- IV. THE EXPIATION ----- V. THE HOUSE ON THE HILL ----- VI. ON THE WINGS OF THE STORM ----- VII. A GHOSTLY CO-TENANCY ----- VIII. THE DEAD WALKS ----- IX. THE GOBLINS OF THE KITCHEN ----- X. A SPECTRAL BURGLARY ----- XI. "REST, REST, PERTURBED SPIRIT!" ----- XII. THE DEMONS OF THE DARK

Author's Preface:

.....THESE stories are not "founded upon fact"; they are fact. If I may claim any merit for them, it is this, they are absolutely and literally true. They seem to me to be unusual even among the mass of literature that has been written upon the subject they illustrate; if they possess any novelty at all it may be found in the fact that the phenomena they describe occurred, for the most part, without invitation, without reference to "conditions," favorable or otherwise, and without mediumistic intervention.

.....That disembodied spirits can at least make their existence known to us appears to me as a well-approved fact; that they are, "forbid to tell the secrets of their prison-house" is my equally firm conviction. I am aware that such an opinion can be only personal, and that it is hopeless to attempt to commend it by satisfactory evidence; those who have had experiences similar to those which I have recorded (and their number is much greater than is generally supposed) will understand how this opinion has been reached, to others it will be inconceivable, as based upon what seems to them impossible.

.....If what I have written should seem to throw any light, however faint, upon the problem of the Mystery of Existence in whose solution some of the profoundest intellects of the world are at present engaged, my labor will have been worth the while. I submit the results of this labor as a record, with a lively sense of responsibilty, I assume by its publication.