death, but nothing that is a contribution to existing ignorance on the subject. According to Judge Hatch, whose post-mortem pen-name is X, the present war has its parallel in a conflict of spirits, and the astral world is in dire confusion because of overcrowding, so that the souls of the slain must go through torments and struggle with demons. The most recent instance of psychography comes to us by way of the ouija-board from St. Louis, the authenticity of which is vouched for by Mr. Casper Yost, of the editorial staff of the _Globe-Democrat_. But if the ouija-board dictated the stories and plays, giving the name of Patience Worth as the spirit author, and if Mrs. Curran took them down, why does Mr. Yost appear as the author? Patience Worth says that she lived a long time ago. Mr. Yost insists that her language is Elizabethan, but it seems rather a curious conglomeration, unlike any Elizabethan style I am familiar with. She has written stories, lyrics, a long drama, and other informal compositions, a marvelous output when one considers the slow movements of the ouija-board. The communications seem to have human interest and a certain literary value, though they bring us no messages from the Elizabethan section of eternity.[171] [171] Other examples of the books that claim to be inspired by spirits are: _An Angel Message_, Being a Series of Angelic and Holy Communications Received by a Lady; _Nyria_, by Mrs. Campbell-Praed; _Letters from a Living Dead Man_, by Elsa Barker, and _War Letters from a Living Dead Man_; _Stranger than Fiction_, by Mary L. Lewis; _The Soul of the Moor_, by Stratford Jolly; _Ida Lymond and Her Hour of Vision_, by Hope Crawford; _The Life Elysian_; _The Car of Phoebus_; _The Heretic_; _An Astral Bridegroom_; _Through the Mists_, _The Vagrom Spirit_, and _Leaves from the Autobiography of a Soul in Paradise_, by Robert James Lee. This last-named gentleman seems to be in touch with spirits as rapid in composition as Robert W. Chambers. Automatic writing appears in _The Martian_ by Du Maurier, where the spirit from Mars causes Barty Joscelyn in his sleep to write books impossible to him in his waking hours. The type has been parodied by John Kendrick Bangs in his _Enchanted Typewriter_, which machine worked industriously recording telegraphic despatches from across the Styx. The invisible operator gives his name as Jim Boswell. The writer states: The substance of the following pages has evolved itself between the hours of midnight and four o'clock, during a period of six months, from a type-writing machine standing in a corner of my library, manipulated by unseen hands. It is astonishing how many ghosts are trying to break into print these days. And after all, what do the poor things get out of it? No royalties, scant praise, and much ridicule when their style fails to come up to specifications.