at
he was about to give a display of clairvoyance. Without further
prelude he pointed to various members of the audience, and described
spiritual presences he saw standing behind them. He did not say he
could see a spirit, answering to the name of James or George--or some
such equally familiar name--and then proceed to give a description of
it, so elastic, that with very little stretching it would undoubtedly
have fitted nine out of every ten people one meets with every day, but
unlike any other clairvoyants we have known, he described the
individual physical and moral traits of the people he professed to
see. For example: To a lady sitting in the third row of the stalls, he
said: "There is the phantasm of an elderly gentleman standing behind
you. He has a vivid scar on his right cheek that looks as if it might
have been caused by a sabre cut. He has a grey military moustache, a
very marked chin; wears his hair parted in the middle, and has
light-blue eyes that are fixed ferociously on the gentleman seated on
your left. Do you recognize the person I am describing?"

"I think so," the lady answered in a faint voice.

"I will spare you a description of his person," Hamar went on, "but I
should like to remind you that he met with a rather peculiar accident.
He was looking over some engineering works in Leeds, when some one
pushed him, and he was instantly whipped off the ground by a piece of
revolving mechanism and dashed to pieces against the ceiling. Am I
right?"

There was no reply--but the sigh, we think, was more significant than
words.

Mr. Hamar then turned to a lady in the next row. "I can see behind
you," he said, "an old dowager with yellow hair. She wears large
emerald drop earrings, black satin skirt, and a heliotrope bodice of
which she appears to be somewhat vain. She is coughing terribly. She
died of pneumonia, brought about by the excessive zeal of--Ahem!--of
her relatives--for the open-air treatment. Contrary to expectations,
however, all her money went to a Society in Hanover Square--a Society
for the Anti-propagation of Children. I think you know the lady to
whom I refer."

Mr. Hamar had again hit the mark.

"Only too well!" came the indignant and spontaneous reply.

Mr. Hamar then turned to a man in the fifth row. "Hulloa!" he
exclaimed. "What have we here--an Irish terrier answering to the name
of 'Peg.' It is standing upright with its two front paws resting on
your knees. It is looking up in