Paris Anxious to See Spiritualists

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

Paris Anxious to See Spiritualists is an article published in the Buffalo Courier on 7 september 1925.

About the International Spiritualist Congress.


Paris Anxious to See Spiritualists

Buffalo Courier (7 september 1925, p. 2)

Vast Crowds Jam Hall to Heckle Delegates

Paris, Sept. 6 (By Associated Press). — Four thousand people took part in a near riot tonight in their eagerness to obtain admission to the opening session of the International Spiritualist congress, and police reserves had to be summoned to handle the crowd trying to force an entrance into the already packed hall.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the principal speaker, and most of those attending were more interested in seeing the creator of Sherlock Holmes than in spirits, and they did not spare jocular comments when lantern slides of "spirit photographs" frequently went wrong in the hands of an unskilled operator.

The photographs included many of the Boston medium Margery and one of Sir Arthur with the "spirit" face of his son, who was killed in the war.

Every attempt to applaud the "spirit photographs" was hissed by most of the audience, with cries of "no claque!" The audience roared with laughter when, during a silence, a Frenchman suddenly cried out, "Look out! You're walking on my ectoplasm."