The Shadow World

The Shadow World, by Hamlin
Garland

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Title: The Shadow World
Author: Hamlin Garland

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Language: English
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THE SHADOW WORLD
by
HAMLIN GARLAND
Author of "The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop" "Money Magic" etc.

New York and London Harper & Brothers Publishers MCMVIII
Copyright, 1908, by Hamlin Garland. Copyright, 1908, by the Ridgway
Company. All rights reserved.
Published September, 1908.

FOREWORD
This book is a faithful record, so far as I can make it, of the most
marvellous phenomena which have come under my observation during
the last sixteen or seventeen years. I have used my notes (made
immediately after the sittings) and also my reports to the American
Psychical Society (of which I was at one time a director) as the basis of
my story. For literary purposes I have substituted fictitious names for
real names, and imaginary characters for the actual individuals
concerned; but I have not allowed these necessary expedients to
interfere with the precise truth of the account.
For example, Miller, an imaginary chemist, has been put in the place of
a scientist much older than thirty-five, in whose library the inexplicable
"third sitting" took place. Fowler, also, is not intended to depict an
individual. The man in whose shoes he stands is one of the most widely
read and deeply experienced spiritists I have ever known, and I have
sincerely tried to present through Fowler the argument which his
prototype might have used. Mrs. Quigg, Miss Brush, Howard, the
Camerons, and most of the others, are purely imaginary. The places in

which the sittings took place are not indicated, for the reason that I do
not wish to involve any unwilling witnesses.
In the case of the psychics, they are, of course, delineated exactly as
they appeared to me, although I have concealed their real names and
places of residence. Mrs. Smiley, whose admirable patience under
investigation makes her an almost ideal subject, is the chief figure
among my "mediums," and I have tried to give her attitude toward us
and toward her faith as she expressed it in our sittings, although the
conversation is necessarily a mixture of imagination and memory. Mrs.
Hartley is a very real and vigorous character--a professional psychic, it
is true, but a woman of intelligence and power. Those in private life I
have guarded with scrupulous care, and I am sure that none of them,
either private or professional, will feel that I have wilfully
misrepresented what took place. My aim throughout has been to deal
directly and simply with the facts involved.
I have not attempted to be profound or mystical or even scientific, but I
have tried to present clearly, simply, and as nearly without bias as
possible, an account of what I have seen and heard. The weight of
evidence seems, at the moment, to be on the side of the biologists; but I
am willing to reopen the case at any time, although I am, above all, a
man of the open air, of the plains and the mountains, and do not intend
to identify myself with any branch of metapsychical research. It is
probable, therefore, that this is my one and final contribution to the
study of the shadow world.
HAMLIN GARLAND. CHICAGO, July, 1908.

THE SHADOW WORLD

I
A hush fell over the dinner-table, and every ear was open and inclined
as Cameron, the host, continued: "No, I wouldn't say that. There are

some things that are pretty well established--telepathy, for instance."
"I don't believe even in telepathy," asserted Mrs. Quigg, a very positive
journalist who sat at his right. "I think even that is mere coincidence."
Several voices rose in a chorus of protest. "Oh no! Telepathy is real.
Why, I've had experiences--"
"There you go!" replied Mrs. Quigg, still in the heat of her opposition.
"You will all tell the same story. Your friend was dying in Bombay or
Vienna, and his spirit appeared to you, à la Journal of Psychic
Research, with a message, at the exact hour, computing difference in
time (which no one ever does), and so on. I know that kind of
thing--but that isn't telepathy."
"What is telepathy, then?" asked little Miss Brush, who paints
miniatures.
"I can't describe a thing that doesn't