The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

IV. Occult Episodes in Booth Tarkington Household

For years reputable journals have periodically published articles from well-known men-such as novelist Booth Tarkingtonbearing an the occult. In a “Where Do We Go From Here?” recital, appearing in The Saturday Evening Post for August 9, 1941, as one in a series of reminiscences, Tarkington tells of a teen-ager episode in the family household where a “force unknown” began to operate. It is a casual recital, detached in tone, but it is significant. CFF2 1078.5

1. HEAVY MAHOGANY TABLE MOVES MYSTERIOUSLY

The family had all scoffed at “table tippings and inexplicable rappings an walls and tables,” and “ghost stories.” And Tarkington states that he had been the “loudest in scorn of all spectral bugaboos.” But, just as a prank, a group of six young people one day thought they would see if they could “make a table move” in the Tarkington drawing room-by the fingertips-on-the-edge technique. They took their places, standing around the heavy mahogany table. Before long it began to move slowly but erratically, zigzagging several feet at a time across the thick Brussels carpet. Young Tarkington, only fourteen, was merely looking on. CFF2 1079.1

Removing their finger tips, one person at a time, in order to discover which one was the “sensitive,” they found that it was Booth’s frail sister. When her fingers were withdrawn the movement stopped. But when she replaced them, the table moved against her, pushing her backward. They simply looked upon it as something “queer,” for the sister was weakly, and never of herself could have moved the heavy table. But the table did move. Later she several times caused it to move in the same way. CFF2 1079.2

2. CODE OF COMMUNICATION WITH “SPIRITS.”

Then came “tapping and thumping” developments from its smooth surface-and there were no drawers or any loose parts. Grandfather and Grandmother Booth were watching the developments intently. Then Tarkington’s father worked out a “Code of communication” as they contacted the “ghost” of Hum Riley who had died young. There were loud thumpings, and young Tarkington was annoyed. People would think them crazy. CFF2 1079.3

Later, Booth’s “dead uncles, Walter and Lucian,” allegedly manifested themselves as “supposedly with us.” None could explain the phenomenon-“unless they served to establish the tremendous fact that the dead were present” and “were leading interesting lives.” There were many similar episodes, with friends and relatives present. Family secrets were revealed, and mang became convinced that they were “communicating with the dead.” “What else can it be?” they asked. CFF2 1079.4

3. GRANDFATHER TARKINGTON AFFIRMS IT IS “FROM THE DEVIL.”

The one disbelieving exception was Grandfather Tarkington, who “didn’t think the dead made the raps.” But he thought “something else did.” The family had come from orthodox Episcopalian, Methodist, Congregational, and Presbyterian backgrounds, but now few any longer believed in a “personal Satan.” The “old orthodoxies were fading.” Had these happenings established “A Bridge to Eternity”? Booth’s father inquired of his own Methodist preacher father, the Reverend Joseph Tarkington. In response he drove forty miles to see what was happening. After sitting sternly throughout “an hour of afternoon rapping,” he declared flatly: “Those sounds are not made by human trickery, but they cannot be from spirits in heaven. There is no countenance for them in the Bible. They are from the Devil.” CFF2 1080.1

And, Booth added, “One didn’t argue with Grandfather Tarkington.” CFF2 1080.2

4. REMAINS THE GREAT UNSETTLED QUESTION

Nevertheless, these sittings continued for about three years in the Tarkington household. Sometimes the “raps did freakish things,” resounding thumps coming from the walls and floor and ceiling of Grandmother Booth’s room. Even voices were heard. The household sought to penetrate behind the veil to the “life beyond,” but were told they “couldn’t possibly understand.” These phenomena likewise seemed to center about the sister, and affected her to the extent that her mother took her to the family physician. But in time, after her marriage, the raps passed and the “apparent communications with the dead,” the “unseen visitors,” ceased. CFF2 1080.3

The episodes remained unexplained. The Tarkingtons never tried to settle the question. It always remained the great “perhaps”—“If perhaps there is no death.” But Tarkington adds that this “perhaps” was “to be with us the rest of our lives.” That was all. He tells it nonchalantly, just as a tale in his life. He hadn’t participated in it. However, it indicates how such episodes have occurred in respected circles. ²⁰ CFF2 1081.1