Fifty Years a Medium – Chapter 10, 3/7 by Estelle Roberts

Mrs. Edith Hammerstrom testified that she was addressed by a spirit voice which, after giving his name, spoke to her in Swedish. A message came in Dutch from Dr. Goedhart who, before his passing, had represented Holland at former international gatherings. Mrs. Helene Fry was addressed in French by her sister in the spirit world.

Described in a letter what happened, Mrs. Fry wrote: “I had the extreme joy of hearing my twenty-eight-year-old sister, Marguerite, who passed in childbirth in 1917, talking to me in the direct voice. Though I could not catch every word she said, I clearly heard her answer my questions about her baby. ‘My child is by my side,’ she told me.”

Another communicator that night was Sadie Perkins, a coloured girl, who returned to speak to her sister, Mamie, the Chicago delegate to the congress. There was no mistaking the distinctive dialect as the two girls, one living and the other “dead,” freely discussed their friends and relatives. Of the two, Sadie was the more excited. “It is too good to be true,” she bubbled with pleasure. “I am talking in my own voice.”

The last to communicate at this séance of the nations was the author, Louis M. Nesbitt, who spoke at length to his friend Eva Barrett from Rome. He told her an involved story concerning two mutual Italian acquaintances finishing with the words, “What a story for the Standard!” This we took to refer to the London Evening Standard which was serializing his book, Desert and Forest at the time of his fatal crash in an aeroplane.

This unique séance ended with Red Cloud pronouncing this benediction. “If I have made some of you happy, then I am happy. Love God, serve your fellow-men, and may the power of the Great White Spirit ever teach you the truth of man’s immortality.”

I was the medium at an extraordinary sitting which combined the direct voice and spirit writing, in a language of which I have no knowledge. My sitter was Mr. E. S. De Jonge of Holland, who was addressed by the spirit voice of his brother in perfect Dutch. Mr. De Jonge volunteered that the voice spoke in excellent, idiomatic Dutch without any trace of accent, as would be expected of his brother. This sitting was one a series. It is best described in the account which Mr. De Jonge supplied:

“At the first sitting we had with Mrs. Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud told us my brother was present and established his identity by submitting evidential details. At subsequent sittings, my brother was always present and communicated with us through Red Cloud. The notable point is that not once during these sittings was his name ever mentioned, either by Red Cloud or by us. The question of his name was never raised, other evidence having been more than sufficient.

“On the morning of January 30, we again had a sitting. Towards the close Red Cloud told us there was a direct voice séance to be held the same evening. He invited us to attend. We were very keen to do so, especially when Red Cloud promised that my brother would try to speak to us by direct voice. We said that we hoped he would this time give his name, as it would be the easiest and quickest way of establishing his identity, it never having been mentioned before.