"My Experiences at the MacDonald Homestead"
by H. B. Whidden

...page 6

Every pencil available was used—four in all, I think, The movement of the hand became so fierce at times that the points were broken a few seconds after they were grasped. On two or three occasions, short pieces of broken lead were picked up and held in the marble-like hand, writing as legibly as a long pencil, and sometimes even at great speed.

Soon after the pencil began to shape words, I called to McRitchie and asked him to come into the room, saying, I believe:
“Come if you want to see something that you may never see again in your life.”
He, Mrs. Macdonald, Mary Ellen Macdonald, and Dan MacGillivray came immediately to the room.

Twenty-six words had been written before they came. As I recall the strange event now, I am inclined to believe that they entered the room just as this question was asked. First my lips—not controlled by me—told Dr. Prince to ask: “Who set the fires in Alexander Macdonald’s house.” This was written automatically, besides being asked verbally

       Dr. Prince asked: “Do you know?”

       Instantly, “Yes” was written.

       My recollection is that Dr. prince asked: “Can you tell?”

       The answer came at once, punctuated emphatically as shown here:
       “Spirits!”

       Dr. prince asked “Why?”

The apparent attempts to answer failed. The pencil tapped impatiently and with force on the paper. Frantic efforts were made to write, but instead black blotches were made. A few significant words were written but the sentence was not finished. The pencils (as fast as the point of one was broken, my hand picked up another) tapped harder and more impatiently than ever. My voice—not of my own will—shouted to every- body to be quite, and later told all to leave the room. Mrs. Macdonald, Mary Ellen, Dan MacGillivray and Mr. Ritchie went into the dining room; Dr. Prince closed the door, the impetuous tapping and scrawling continued for a few seconds, when it subsided. The pencil began to write the answer again, but the sentence was not completed.

Dr. Prince then asked the following question in, I believe, slightly different words;

       “Did you slap Harold Whidden on the arm the second night he and Mr. Carroll were in the house?”

        The answer “Yes” came instantly.

        Dr. Prince asked: “Why?”

The answer was: “Because I wanted to show him that the mystery fires were caused by spirits!” The exclamation mark was included.

Thereafter, in response to questions asked by Dr. Prince it wrote the reason for causing the mysterious fires and gave its name. Neither of us had had any previous intimation of the reason as communicated in this manner. I was entirely new to us.

        “Who unfastened Alex Macdonald’s cows?”. was written automatically, the question coming from the unseen communicator. The answer, “I did!!”, punctuated as shown and undescored six times, followed in great haste.

Considerable writing and scribbling followed.