t the story of Peter Grimm's return
had converted him and that (with some slight temporary financial
assistance from me) he was prepared to renounce liquor and mend his
ways. He looked like a penitent. He talked like a penitent. But he most
assuredly did not _smell_ like a penitent. And I sent him about his
business.

This was but one of many irritating interruptions upon my parish work to
which Dr. McPherson's use of my name has subjected me.

In view of all this, I deem it advisable to save myself from further
annoyance and to stop the rumour that a minister of the Gospel has
turned Spiritualist, by issuing the following brief statement:

Dr. McPherson is desirous that my wife and myself endorse his belief
that the occurrences at the home of the late Peter Grimm were of a
supernatural nature.

We shall do no such thing.

For the single reason that neither Mrs. Batholommey nor myself, after
mature reflection and dispassionate discussion, can find one atom of the
Supernatural in any of the events that transpired there. Perhaps I can
best make clear my point of view by rehearsing the case and my own very
small connection therewith.

The fact that Dr. McPherson is of a different denomination from myself
in no way biases my feelings in this case. I am an Episcopalian. And I
am of liberal views toward those who are not;--with the possible
exception of Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists,
and members of a few other denominations outside the direct Apostolic
Succession. Yet I confess I was shocked at the conversion (or
perversion) of my old neighbour, McPherson, to a cult which, for want of
a better word, I must designate as "Spiritualism."

He told me of a compact he had made with my dear friend and parishioner,
Peter Grimm, to the effect that whichever of them should first leave
this mortal life was to return and make known his presence to the other.
I told McPherson to his face that I regarded such a compact as being
even more sacrilegious than senseless. My good wife echoed my
sentiments. McPherson, who has not the admirable control over his temper
so needful to a medical man, chose to become angry at my outspoken
opinion and said several cruelly unjust things concerning my own
behaviour toward the late Peter Grimm.

I shall not stoop to denying or even repeating what he said; far less to
justify myself. Yet I should like to mention, in passing, that his
coarse gibe concerning my fawning on a