Florence Marryat's Account of John and Katie King

In this article I am considering another firsthand testimonial about the visitors from the ascended realm known as 'John King' and 'Katie King' with passages from the books of Florence Marryat (Mrs. Ross-Church, Mrs. Frances Lean, 1837-1899).   There Is No Death (1891) is described by Marryat as "an account of the wonderful experiences I have passed through in my investigation of the science of Spiritualism."  The author mentions being the daughter of Captain Marryat and having seven children and four servants.  Marryat also wrote about her experiences and beliefs relating to Spiritualism in The Spirit World (1894), which includes commentary about 'principal control' and 'spirit' 'John King'/'Sir Henry De Morgan.'

Sir Henry was a buccaneer, or pirate, who lived during the reign of Charles the First, and through part of that of Cromwell.  He was a bold sea-rover; and, after an exciting career, was executed for treason, on the high seas.  But, whatever he may have been whilst on earth, he appears to have entirely expiated his sins now, and to have become one of the best and kindest of spirits, always working for the good of others.  I have known him through Williams, and Herne, and Eglinton, and Husk, and always the same in voice and feature and general kind-heartedness.  I derived great pleasure, a short time back, by receiving, through the goodness of M. James Tissot, the French artist, a lovely engraving of his picture, entitled "L' Apparition Mediumistique" [or Médiumnique]."  The painting represents M. Tissot's first wife, supported by John King, as he prefers to be called.  M. Tissot sat with William Eglinton, when on a visit to London, and was so charmed by the appearance of his first wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, that he invited Mr. Eglinton over to Paris, and, whilst there, he painted, from their materialized forms, the portraits of both Madame Tissot and John King.  The oil painting was, I understand, exhibited in the Paris Salon, and a favored few of M. Tissot's friends have received an engraving of it.  I am proud to number myself amongst them, and the engraving has a double value for me, not only as a memento of the giver, but because the portrait of John King is exactly as he has appeared to me, through each one of the mediums I have named.  It represents him as an exceedingly handsome man, of about forty, with high-bred Jewish features, and a most benevolent cast of countenance.  He appears as though supporting Madame Tissot, or encouraging her to come forward.  Both hold a spirit light, of the size and shape of an egg, in their hands, and, whilst the young woman is looking up shyly, John King glances down with a sort of patronizing, or paternal, air upon her.  I prize this engraving more than any other spiritualistic memento I possess.  John King told me that I could have no idea of the large number of spirits it took in order to make one seance a success.  "I have, at this moment," he said, "a band, or cordon of spirits surrounding this house, of perhaps a quarter of a mile in width, and, beyond them, I have stationed my out-posts and pickets to give the alarm, if necessary."  ''The alarm for what, John?" I asked.  "In case any malevolent spirits should try to approach the circle!  They would do so, soon enough, if they had the opportunity.  Perhaps it will astonish you to hear that there is more opposition in the spheres against Spiritualism than there is on this plane.  Many spirits consider that I, and others like me, are wrong to visit this earth after we have left it.  They say we cannot do so without carrying back a taint of mortality when we return, to the detriment of those who dwell in the spheres."

This was an entirely new idea to me, but I saw the force of it, from my own small experience.  The other world is very much like this one.  Men do not immediately part with their prejudices there, any more than with their follies and vices.  If Jones was a liar whilst upon earth, don't swallow everything he may tell you, when he returns here; for, rest assured that, by the time his spirit has been thoroughly purged of its worldly wickedness, it will have soared too high to return, except as a preacher, to his fellow-men.  But, for my own part, I should be dubious of believing him to the end of time.  So be wary.  See all you can, and hear all you can, and weigh the proofs of sincerity in a nicely adjusted balance.  But if your spirituality is in yourself; if you are sincere and circumspect, Jones (and such as Jones) will not come near you; or if your acquaintances leave them behind them (as mine did), they will cleave to you only so long as you encourage them to do so.  I got rid, during my earliest experiences, of a very unpleasant spirit who used to annoy us with his language and sentiment, by simply leaving the table whenever he appeared.  He used to attempt to disguise himself by assuming false names, and pretending to be extremely pious, but we always found him out in the end and instantly broke up the seance.  When he found we were in earnest and kept to our word, he took himself off, and, for years, I have heard nothing of him.  Treat all careless, "larking" and low-minded spirits in the same fashion, and they will not trouble you long.  But the surest remedy is to see that no careless, or ungodly, person joins your circle.  Keep your seance room free from all bad, earthly influences, and the spiritual ones will not come near you.

"L’Apparition Médiumnique" (1885) by James Tissot.

Marryat wrote about the mediumship of Cecil Husk (1847-1920) in Chapter IX of The Spirit World, including the following excerpts.
 

I found him a superior man in many respects.  He, like his sister, was a professional singer for some years, until his failing sight compelled him to give up appearing in public.  He is now so blind that, although he can distinguish forms on entering a room, he cannot recognize them until they speak to him.  Some of the opposers of Spiritualism were good enough to spread a report that Mr. Husk's blindness was assumed, for the purpose of better hoaxing his clients.  Upon this, Baroness Wauchtermeister took him to the elder Crichett, now deceased, who pronounced a cure impossible.  I consider Mr. Husk's blindness, however unfortunate for himself, a great factor in his mediumship. Any one who knows how difficult it is to "make up" properly for the stage, even with the advantage of a couple of lights, will understand how utterly impossible it would bo for a man to assume a dozen different characters, when shut up in the dark, or even in the light, when he is, unhappily, blind.  Yet, Cecil Husk's would-be detractors have insisted that, when in perfect darkness, it is quite easy for him to transform his face, from a young man's to that of an old one, or from a girl's to that of a woman; and to appear in the light, without a smudge on his face or beard, or wig awry.  When I hear people argue like that, it makes me sick to think how full the world we live in is of fools, who insist upon condemning things of which they are utterly incompetent of judging.  People, sometimes, think me disagreeable, because I refuse to give them introductions to mediums of my acquaintance, or give them their names and addresses.  A few months ago, I introduced a gentleman, of whom I entertained the highest opinion, to Mr. Husk, and, so far, my introduction was justified.  But this gentleman, in his turn, sent a couple of friends of his to Mr. Husk, who were accepted in the same good faith as he had been. These two men (for I cannot call them gentlemen) were admitted to a seance with Mr. Husk, on the same understanding as their introducer had been, i.e., that they would observe all the conditions imposed on the sitters by the controls, one of which is, as the merest tyro [novice] knows, not to strike a light whilst the manifestations are going on.  These men, however (contrary to all the rules of honor and good faith), exhibited an electric light, whilst the spirits were manifesting, and denounced the whole proceedings as fraud, because no spirits were to be seen, and the white drapery, according to their account (and I, for one, could never take the testimony of men who could commit such a breach of trust, without a very large pinch of salt), was all over the table, and Mr. Husk's head and shoulders.  Now, had these men been clairvoyant, and able to see in the dark, they would have seen that, when the spirit heads appeared over the surface of the table, they proceeded out of Mr. Husk's chest, or breast, and were linked to him.   They are partly formed out of his brain, partly from the forces contributed by the sitters.  If, when the light was flashed upon them, they had not immediately rushed back into the medium, his life would probably have paid the forfeit of the outrage committed on him by these men.  As the spirit particles mingled again with the medium's particles, the drapery (which, in dematerialization, always disappears after the form) would, naturally, be left on the table, or the medium's body.  When the full form dematerializes in sight, and goes down through the floor, the drapery, invariably, is left behind for a few seconds, till it follows suit.  I have seen it done over and over again, and know it to be a fact.  But this is the way most people go about investigating Spiritualism.  They go to discover, not a great truth, but a great fraud, and so they never discover anything, because it is too wonderful for them to grasp all at once, and they do not allow themselves to go any further.  If they only injured themselves, however, it would little signify; but the harm is, that they injure the medium.  What has been the effect of the outrage I have related upon Mr. Husk?  He had a paralytic stroke after it.  When he was waked up from his trance in that sudden way, he was paralyzed with terror, and ran about like a mad creature.  The upshot was, he was very ill for some time afterwards, and the doctor, who attended him, can bear testimony to the severe shock he received.  For months he has been unable to sit, except with friends, and all because two ignoramuses were dishonorable enough to break faith with him, and think themselves wiser than every one who had pursued the path before them.  Is it to be wondered at, after such an experience, if mediums decline to sit with people of whose good faith they are not perfectly assured?  It reminds me of Florence Cook, and Mr. Volckman, and the night I and Lady Caithness spent by her bedside, whilst two doctors were in attendance, and the medium in convulsions.  But I am not aware if Mr. Volckman ever confessed that he was wrong, in having grasped the spirit form in his arms, and thrown the medium into fits.  The men I have been writing of, and the gentleman who introduced them to Cecil Husk, went about declaring they had detected him in trickery, and made many others, doubtless, believe they were correct.  Let my testimony weigh against theirs in the scale of evidence.  Since I first sat with Mr. Husk, two years ago, I have been a very frequent visitor of his, and under trying circumstances; for, almost every friend to whom I have mentioned his name, has insisted on my being present at the first interview, when one's eyes and ears, as a rule, are all alert to discover the why, and the wherefore, of everything.  I have become well acquainted, therefore, with his controls, and their method of working.  John King is the principal control of his seance room, and the others are all under his orders.

In 1892, I sat, with about a dozen friends, at twelve sittings, with Mr. Husk.  They were held every Thursday, under very strict conditions, and all the sitters were men and women of education and social position.  The seances were cabinet ones, i.e., the medium went into a cabinet formed of a dark curtain drawn across one corner of the room, with a chair placed inside it, and the materializations were all fully formed.  As soon as ever Mr. Husk had taken his seat within the cabinet, you would hear the subordinate controls talking together, on all sorts of subjects; but, directly John King arrived, a dead silence ensued.  These subordinate controls consist of five men, who call themselves by the names of "Uncle," "Christopher," "Ebenezer," "Tom Hall," and, last, though not least, except in size, my dear old friend, "Joey," who used to manifest through William Eglinton in the olden days, and who followed me to the New World, and showed himself there.  These controls are employed in gathering the materials with which John King works, so that there may be no delay when he arrives.  As soon as that happens, you may hear him issuing his commands to one and another, such as: "Make those passes more to the right"; or, "Keep his head up"; or, "Two of you raise his shoulders, so as to place him in a more upright position"; and the other spirits' answers: "All right, John"; or, "I've done it, John," etc., etc.  To me, it is one of the most curious things, on these occasions, to hear the conversations between the spirits themselves, each one having such a distinctive voice of his own, that, after a short acquaintance with them, it would be as impossible to mistake them as it would be the voices of your different friends.  I have questioned John King as particularly as I can, without monopolizing too much of his time, as to the manner in which materialized forms are produced, and his answer was much as follows: "When the controls have collected the matter with which I work—some from everybody in the circle, but mostly from the medium’s brain—I mould with it a plastic mask, somewhat like warm wax in feel, but transparent as gelatine, into the rough likeness of a face.  You will understand that there is always a crowd of spirits ready here to show themselves to their friends—a great many more than we can allow to appear.  They are built up in their spirit forms, but would be quite invisible to the majority of sitters, unless covered with my transparent mask; without it, also, they would be unable to retain their shape or likeness, when exposed to the outer air.  I, therefore, place this plastic substance over the spirit features, and mould it to them.  If the spirits will have the patience to stand still, I can, generally, make an excellent likeness of what they were in earth-life, but most of them are in such haste to manifest that they render my task very difficult.  That is why, very often, a spirit appears to his friends and they cannot recognize any likeness.  He has not given me sufficient time to mould the mask to his features."


One very interesting apparition, which took place during these sittings, must not be omitted.  There was, at that time, a certain house, in Hammersmith, which had been badly haunted for years past; so badly, indeed, that the mistress of it, a single lady, could not persuade any servant to stay with her during the night, when the haunted spirit, an old man, used to enter her bedroom, and shake her in her bed, exclaiming: "Get out of my house.  Get out of my house!"  She must have been a plucky old lady, for she used to reply: "It is my house, not yours," and go quietly to sleep again.  Some of our circle, however, having heard of this spirit, and obtained the permission of the mistress of the house to hold a seance there with Mr. Husk, had assembled, the week before, and interviewed the ghost, who had abused them all roundly, in turn.  They had, however, extracted his history, and the reason of the purgatory he was undergoing, from him.  He said that, one hundred and fifty years before that time, he had occupied the house, with his only child, a daughter; that this daughter had been led astray, and that when she became a mother, he was so enraged, that he had put the poor, little baby on the fire and burned it to death, and the sight had so maddened the unfortunate young mother, that she had rushed upstairs and flung herself from the roof of the house, being smashed to pieces on the stones beneath.  The Thursday after this sitting had been held in the haunted house, at Hammersmith, John King informed us that this pleasant old gentleman had followed his medium home, and he had great difficulty in preventing his being annoyed by him in the intervening time; that the murderer's spirit was in the cabinet at that moment, and most anxious to manifest itself; but John would not allow him to do so, without the permission of the circle, as he was earth-bound and low, and not likely to do us any good.  But, on the other hand, if we consented to interview him, we should be helping him to rise and break the chains that held him to this world.  Of course, we all gave a hearty consent; I, for one, being most anxious to see what the old wretch was like.  In a few minutes, therefore, he appeared.  I do not think I ever saw a viler countenance.  I can only compare it to that of a decomposed "Fagin."  His eyes were small, and sunken in his head, beneath the most formidable shaggy eyebrows.  His nose like an eagle's beak; his lips protruding, sensual, and of a blue tint; his hair, matted and filthy; his nails like claws, and his hands covered with hair.  He was either deformed, or crouched, as he walked slowly round the circle, muttering to himself, in a whining voice: "Lord, how long, how long?  Will this torture never end?  Why can't I die? Why can't I die?"  This was another case, where the spirit was so human, that it could not realize it had passed out of the body.  Most of the circle shrunk from this dreadful spirit with aversion; and, indeed, he looked quite ready to murder some one else.  As he neared my side, rubbing his hairy hands together, and muttering to himself, I leaned forward, and said with one of my sweetest smiles: "My friend, don't you know that you have passed over?  You are not in the body at present.  You died years ago." He turned his lascivious, vicious face towards mine, glared at me for a moment, and then hissed out: "Damn you.  I didn't."  Which courteous return for my civil piece of information shut me up altogether.

 
Consistent blog readers will notice that the interaction of seance sitters with 'John King' and 'Katie King' presents parallels with occurrences in other chronicled cases of transcendental communication.  The preceding anecdote may remind readers of the 'Mission work' of Edward C. Randall and medium Emily S. French.  In the annals of Instrumental Transcommunication, there are the 'Technician' and 'Swejen Salter.'  Some of the quoted statements of 'John King' are obviously metaphorical and altogether the case is one where evolution and redemption are aspects of progress in the afterlife.  The extreme violence in the Earth life of 'Henry Morgan' prior to expanded spiritual awareness in the afterlife makes him a precursor figure to the contemporary Ramtha channeled through JZ Knight. 

The following passage is Chapter XVI from There Is No Death.   William Crookes is referred to as 'Alfred Crookes' throughout the book. 

 

CHAPTER XVI.

THE MEDIUMSHIP OF FLORENCE COOK.

In writing of my own mediumship, or the mediumship of any other person, I wish it particularly to be understood that I do not intend my narrative to be, by any means, an account of all séances held under that control (for were I to include everything that I have seen and heard during my researches into Spiritualism, this volume would swell to unconscionable dimensions), but only of certain events which I believe to be remarkable, and not enjoyed by every one in like measure.  Most people have read of the ordinary phenomena that take place at such meetings.  My readers, therefore, will find no description here of marvels which—whether true or false—can be accounted for upon natural grounds.  Miss Florence Cook, now Mrs. Elgie Corner, is one of the media who have been most talked of and written about.  Mr. Alfred Crookes took an immense interest in her, and published a long account of his investigation of Spiritualism under her mediumship.  Mr. Henry Dunphy, of the Morning Post, wrote a series of papers for London Society (of which magazine I was then the editor), describing her powers, and the proof she gave of them.  The first time I ever met Florence Cook was in his private house, when my little daughter appeared through her (vide " The Story of my Spirit Child").  On that occasion, as we were sitting at supper after the séance—a party of perhaps thirty people—the whole dinner-table, with everything upon it, rose bodily in the air to a level with our knees, and the dishes and glasses swayed about in a perilous manner, without, however, coming to any permanent harm.  I was so much astonished at, and interested by, what I saw that evening, that I became most anxious to make the personal acquaintance of Miss Cook.  She was the medium for the celebrated spirit, "Katie King," of whom so much has been believed and disbelieved, and the séances she gave at her parents' house in Hackney for the purpose of seeing this figure alone used to be crowded by the cleverest and most scientific men of the day, Sergeants Cox and Ballantyne, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. Alfred Crookes, and many others, being on terms of the greatest intimacy with her.  Mr. William Harrison, of the Spiritualist paper, was the one to procure me an introduction to the family and an entrance to the séances, for which I shall always feel grateful to him.

For the benefit of the uninitiated, let me begin by telling who "Katie King" was supposed to be.  Her account of herself was that her name was "Annie Owens Morgan"; that she was the daughter of Sir Henry Morgan, a famous buccaneer who lived about the time of the Commonwealth, and suffered death upon the high seas, being, in fact, a pirate; that she herself was about twelve years old when Charles the First was beheaded; that she married and had two little children; that she committed more crimes than we should like to hear of, having murdered men with her own hands, but yet died quite young, at about two or three and twenty.  To all questions concerning the reason of her reappearance on earth, she returned but one answer, That it was part of the work given her to do to convince the world of the truth of Spiritualism.  This was the information I received from her own lips.  She had appeared to the Cooks some years before I saw her, and had become so much one of the family as to walk about the house at all times without alarming the inmates.  She often materialized and got into bed with her medium at night, much to Florrie's annoyance; and after Miss Cook's marriage to Captain Corner, he told me himself that he used to feel at first as if he had married two women, and was not quite sure which was his wife of the two.

The order of these séances was always the same.  Miss Cook retired to a back room, divided from the audience by a thin damask curtain, and presently the form of "Katie King" would appear dressed in white, and walk out amongst the sitters in gaslight, and talk like one of themselves.  Florence Cook (as I mentioned before) is a very small, slight brunette, with dark eyes and dark curly hair and a delicate aquiline nose.  Sometimes "Katie" resembled her exactly; at others, she was totally different.  Sometimes, too, she measured the same height as her medium; at others, she was much taller.  I have a large photograph of "Katie" taken under limelight.  In it she appears as the double of Florrie Cook, yet Florrie was looking on whilst the picture was taken.  I have sat for her several times with Mr. Crookes, and seen the tests applied which are mentioned in his book on the subject.  I have seen Florrie's dark curls nailed down to the floor, outside the curtain, in view of the audience, whilst "Katie" walked about and talked with us.  I have seen Florrie placed on the scale of a weighing machine constructed by Mr. Crookes for the purpose, behind the curtain, whilst the balance remained in sight.  I have seen under these circumstances that the medium weighed eight stone in a normal condition, and that as soon as the materialized form was fully developed, the balance ran up to four stone.  Moreover, I have seen both Florrie and "Katie" together on several occasions, so I can have no doubt on the subject that they were two separate creatures.  Still, I can quite understand how difficult it must have been for strangers to compare the strong likeness that existed between the medium and the spirit, without suspecting they were one and the same person.  One evening "Katie" walked out and perched herself upon my knee.  I could feel she was a much plumper and heavier woman than Miss Cook, but she wonderfully resembled her in features, and I told her so.  "Katie" did not seem to consider it a compliment.  She shrugged her shoulders, made a grimace, and said, "I know I am; I can't help it, but I was much prettier than that in earth life.  You shall see, some day—you shall see."  After she had finally retired that evening, she put her head out at the curtain again and said, with the strong lisp she always had, "I want Mrs. Ross-Church."  I rose and went to her, when she pulled me inside the curtain, when I found it was so thin that the gas shining through it from the outer room made everything in the inner quite visible.  "Katie" pulled my dress impatiently and said, "Sit down on the ground," which I did.  She then seated herself in my lap, saying, "And now, dear, we'll have a good 'confab,' like women do on earth."  Florence Cook, meanwhile, was lying on a mattress on the ground close to us, wrapped in a deep trance.  "Katie" seemed very anxious I should ascertain beyond doubt that it was Florrie.  "Touch her," she said, "take her hand, pull her curls.  Do you see that it is Florrie lying there?"  When I assured her I was quite satisfied there was no doubt of it, the spirit said, "Then look round this way, and see what I was like in earth life."  I turned to the form in my arms, and what was my amazement to see a woman fair as the day, with large grey or blue eyes, a white skin, and a profusion of golden red hair.  "Katie" enjoyed my surprise, and asked me, "Ain't I prettier than Florrie now?"  She then rose and procured a pair of scissors from the table, and cut off a lock of her own hair and a lock of the medium's, and gave them to me.  I have them safe to this day.  One is almost black, soft and silky; the other a coarse golden red.  After she had made me this present, "Katie" said, "Go back now, but don't tell the others tonight, or they'll all want to see me."  On another very warm evening she sat on my lap amongst the audience, and I felt perspiration on her arm.  This surprised me; and I asked her if, for the time being, she had the veins, nerves, and secretions of a human being; if blood ran through her body, and she had a heart and lungs.  Her answer was, "I have everything that Florrie has."  On that occasion also she called me after her into the back room, and, dropping her white garment, stood perfectly naked before me.  "Now," she said "you can see that I am a woman."  Which indeed she was, and a most beautifully-made woman too; and I examined her well, whilst Miss Cook lay beside us on the floor.  Instead of dismissing me this time, "Katie" told me to sit down by the medium, and, having brought me a candle and matches, said I was to strike a light as soon as she gave three knocks, as Florrie would be hysterical on awaking, and need my assistance.  She then knelt down and kissed me, and I saw she was still naked.  "Where is your dress, Katie?" I asked.  "Oh that's gone," she said; "I've sent it on before me."  As she spoke thus, kneeling beside me, she rapped three times on the floor.  I struck the match almost simultaneously with the signal; but as it flared up, "Katie King" was gone like a flash of lightning, and Miss Cook, as she had predicted, awoke with a burst of frightened tears, and had to be soothed into tranquillity again.  On another occasion "Katie King" was asked at the beginning of the séance, by one of the company, to say why she could not appear in the light of more than one gasburner.  The question seemed to irritate her, and she replied, "I have told you all, several times before, that I can't stay under a searching light.  I don't know why; but I can't, and if you want to prove the truth of what I say, turn up all the gas and see what will happen to me.  Only remember, it you do there will be no séance tonight, because I shan't be able to come back again, and you must take your choice."

Upon this assertion it was put to the vote if the trial should be made or not, and all present (Mr. S. C. Hall was one of the party) decided we would prefer to witness the effect of a full glare of gas upon the materialized form than to have the usual sitting, as it would settle the vexed question of the necessity of gloom (if not darkness) for a materializing séance for ever.  We accordingly told "Katie" of our choice, and she consented to stand the test, though she said afterwards we had put her to much pain.  She took up her station against the drawing-room wall, with her arms extended as if she were crucified.  Then three gas-burners were turned on to their full extent in a room about sixteen feet square.  The effect upon "Katie King" was marvellous.  She looked like herself for the space of a second only, then she began gradually to melt away.  I can compare the dematerialization of her form to nothing but a wax doll melting before a hot fire.  First, the features became blurred and indistinct; they seemed to run into each other.  The eyes sunk in the sockets, the nose disappeared, the frontal bone fell in.  Next the limbs appeared to give way under her, and she sank lower and lower on the carpet like a crumbling edifice.  At last there was nothing but her head left above the ground—then a heap of white drapery only, which disappeared with a whisk, as if a hand had pulled it after her—and we were left staring by the light of three gas-burners at the spot on which "Katie King" had stood.

She was always attired in white drapery, but it varied in quality.  Sometimes it looked like long cloth; at others like mull muslin or jaconet; oftenest it was a species of thick cotton net.  The sitters were much given to asking "Katie" for a piece of her dress to keep as a souvenir of their visit; and when they received it, would seal it up carefully in an envelope and convey it home; and were much surprised on examining their treasure to find it had totally disappeared.

"Katie" used to say that nothing material about her could be made to last without taking away some of the medium's vitality, and weakening her in consequence.  One evening, when she was cutting off pieces of her dress rather lavishly, I remarked that it would require a great deal of mending.  She answered, "I'll show you how we mend dresses in the Spirit World."  She then doubled up the front breadth of her garment a dozen times, and cut two or three round holes in it.  I am sure when she let it fall again there must have been thirty or forty holes, and "Katie" said, "Isn't that a nice cullender?"

She then commenced, whilst we stood close to her, to shake her skirt gently about, and in a minute it was as perfect as before, without a hole to be seen.  When we expressed our astonishment, she told me to take the scissors and cut off her hair.  She had a profusion of ringlets falling to her waist that night.  I obeyed religiously, hacking the hair wherever I could, whilst she kept on saying, "Cut more! cut more! not for yourself, you know, because you can't take it away."

So I cut off curl after curl, and as fast as they fell to the ground, the hair grew again upon her head.  When I had finished, "Katie" asked me to examine her hair, to see if I could detect any place where I had used the scissors, and I did so without any effect.  Neither was the severed hair to be found.  It had vanished out of sight.  "Katie" was photographed many times, by limelight, by Mr. Alfred Crookes, but her portraits are all too much like her medium to be of any value in establishing her claim to a separate identity.  She had always stated she should not appear on this earth after the month of May, 1874; and accordingly, on the 21st, she assembled her friends to say "Good-bye " to them, and I was one of the number. "Katie" had asked Miss Cook to provide her with a large basket of flowers and ribbons, and she sat on the floor and made up a bouquet for each of her friends to keep in remembrance of her.

Mine, which consists of lilies of the valley and pink geranium, looks almost as fresh to-day, nearly seventeen years after, as it did when she gave it to me.  It was accompanied by the following words, which "Katie" wrote on a sheet of paper in my presence:—

"From Annie Owen de Morgan (alias 'Katie') to her friend Florence Marryat Ross-Church.  With love.  Pensez a moi.

''May 21st, 1874."

The farewell scene was as pathetic as if we had been parting with a dear companion by death.  "Katie" herself did not seem to know how to go.  She returned again and again to have a last look, especially at Mr. Alfred Crookes, who was as attached to her as she was to him.  Her prediction has been fulfilled, and from that day, Florence Cook never saw her again nor heard anything about her.  Her place was shortly filled by another influence, who called herself "Marie," and who danced and sung in a truly professional style, and certainly as Miss Cook never either danced or sung.  I should not have mentioned the appearance of this spirit, whom I only saw once or twice, excepting for the following reason.  On one occasion Miss Cook (then Mrs. Corner) was giving a public séance at the rooms of the National British Association of Spiritualists, at which a certain Sir George Sitwell, a very young man, was present, and at which he declared that the medium cheated, and that the spirit "Marie" was herself, dressed up to deceive the audience.  Letters appeared in the newspapers about it, and the whole press came down upon Spiritualists, and declared them all to be either knaves or fools.  These notices were published on the morning of a day on which Miss Cook was engaged to give another public séance, at which I was present.  She was naturally very much cut up about them.  Her reputation was at stake; her honor had been called into question, and being a proud girl, she resented it bitterly.  Her present audience was chiefly composed of friends; but, before commencing, she put it to us whether, whilst under such a stigma, she had better not sit at all.  We, who had all tested her and believed in her, were unanimous in repudiating the vile charges brought against her, and in begging the séance should proceed.  Florrie refused, however, to sit unless some one remained in the cabinet with her, and she chose me for the purpose.  I was therefore tied to her securely with a stout rope, and we remained thus fastened together for the whole of the evening.  Under which conditions "Marie" appeared, and sung and danced outside the cabinet, just as she had done to Sir George Sitwell whilst her medium remained tied to me.  So much for men who decide a matter before they have sifted it to the bottom.  Mrs. Elgie Corner has long since given up mediumship either private or public, and lives deep down in the heart of Wales, where the babble and scandal of the city affect her no longer.  But she told me, only last year, that she would not pass through the suffering she had endured on account of Spiritualism again for all the good this world could give her. 

This is one of the photos of the materialized 'Katie King' taken by William Crookes.
 

 

In a previous chapter of There Is No Death "The Mediumship of Miss Showers," Marryat explained about what had been a source of confusion for many researchers of Spiritualism.

 

. . . on several occasions, when the materialized spirit has been violently seized and held apart from the medium, it has been found to have become, or been changed into the medium, and always with injury to the latter—as in the case of Florence Cook being seized by Mr. Volckman and Sir George Sitwell.  Mr. Volckman concluded because when he seized the spirit "Katie King," he found he was holding Florence Cook, that the latter must have impersonated the former; yet I shall tell you in its proper place how I have sat in the same room with "Katie King," whilst Miss Cook lay in a trance between us.  The medium nearly lost her life on the occasion alluded to, from the sudden disturbance of the mysterious link that bound her to the spirit.  I have had it from the lips of the Countess of Caithness, who was one of the sitters, and stayed with Miss Cook till she was better, that she was in convulsions the whole night after, and that it was some time before they believed she would recover.  If a medium could simulate a materialized spirit, it is hardly likely that she would (or could) simulate convulsions with a medical man standing by her bedside.  "You see," said Miss Showers' "Florence," whilst pointing out to me the decreased size of her medium under trance, "that ‘Rosie' is half her usual size and weight.  I have borrowed the other half from her, which, combined with contributions from the sitters, goes to make up the body in which I shew myself to you.  If you seize and hold me tight, you are holding her, i.e., half of her, and you increase the action of the vital half to such a degree that, if the two halves did not reunite, you would kill her.  You see that I can detach certain particles from her organism for my own use, and when I dematerialize, I restore these particles to her, and she becomes once more her normal size.  You only hurry the reunion by violently detaining me, so as to injure her.  But you might drive her mad, or kill her in the attempt, because the particles of brain, or body, might become injured by such a violent collision.  If you believe I can take them from her (as you see I do) in order to render my invisible body visible to you, why can't you believe I can make them fly together again on the approach of danger.  And granted the one power, I see no difficulty in acknowledging the other."