TWAIN'S DAUGHTER SPURNS SPIRIT BOOK
Mrs. Gabrilowitsch Incensed by Work Attributed to Her Father by Psychics.
WILL SEEK AN INJUNCTION
Says She Pronounced False Data About Which Dr. Hyslop Consulted Her.
Special to The New York Times.
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 10. - A revolutionary volume on modern science and philosophy, which the troubled spirit of Mark Twain is endeavoring to give the world through the medium of the American Society for Psychical Research, will never see the light of day if Mrs. Ossip Gabrilowitsch of Bryn Mawr, wife of the celebrated pianist and daughter of the great humorist, can prevent it.
Announcement of the book which Twain is said to be trying to address to this unhappy civilization from that mystic realm beyond the grave is made by James H. Hyslop in the January issue of the Journal of the Psychical Research Society.
It seems that Professor Hyslop and two women mediums, Mrs. Hays of St. Louis, and Mrs. Hutchings, have held frequent conversations with the spirit of Mark Twain, and have found the humorist in a state of intellectual torture because of the difficulty he is having in getting his momentous work into print. He is now greatly relieved because at last he has found a means of communication with the world which he was forced to leave before he had time to put the volume into writing. The great author is elated, Professor Hyslop says, because what he has to say to the world will shed enlightenment where now there is only darkness and dismay.
But Mrs. Gabrilowitsch, who before her marriage was Clara Clemens, is not impressed. In an interview today she unsympathetically characterized Professor Hyslop's assertions as "silly, foolish, stupid, and crazy," and announced that she has asked her attorney, Charles P. Lark of New York, to prevent the publication of the work through an injunction.
"While Professor Hyslop was engaged in his so-called research work," said Mrs. Gabrilowitsch, "he sent me many letters in which he asked me to confirm certain things which my father is supposed to have said to him. I answered a few of these letters, telling him that everything he has asked about was false, and finally the whole proceeding became so annoying I asked him not to write me any more. It was so silly and stupid that I decided I could not waste my time talking or writing about it.
"Then I placed the matter in the hands of my attorney, because I do not want any such book published. I suppose it would be harmless, but what would be the use of it? It is indescribably wild and foolish. I am sorry that even this preliminary announcement had to be made.
"In one letter the professor asked me if my father had seen a vision of his mother just before he died. I told him he had not, so far as I knew. In other communications he asked me about little personal things he is supposed to have found out - things concerning pictures, trinkets, and so forth that my father is supposed to have owned. I found that I could not verify or confirm anything he had 'discovered,' and at length I became weary of the matter."
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