The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 106

ft fl 1 1 bis 3 1 3 1 Conan Doyle, Who Has Been Victimized by Transparent Spirit" Frauds, Now Offers Photographic Evidence That Fairies Really Exist Just Like the Story Books niiwil' JM Mi uj "4 I'tT? Mm -W1 Pjwii'mtiM" A Little Man of the Forest. 3 9' i mm. If Elves Talk and Play, Perhaps They Paint Pictures Alsoj A Very Dainty Fairy Anybody Would Be Clad to Meet. A. -1 1 Aft Perhaps There Ar Rich and Poor -Elves.

1 ay Hare "Fairy Offering Posy of "Frances and the Leaping Fairy." "Photograph taken by Elsie in August, 1920. 'Cameo camera. Distance, three feet. Time, one-fiftieth of a second. This negative and the other adjoining it have been as strictly examined ai the earlier ones, and similarly disclose no trace of being other than perfectly genuine photographs." dren who produced these fairy pictures produced "photographs of the type of Alice and the Fairies." The Gryphon of "Alice in Wonderland." "Frances and the Fairies." "Photograph taken by Elsie.

Bright sunny day in July, 17. Distance, four feet. Time, one-fiftieth of a second. The original negative is asserted byf expert photograph ers to bear not the slighest trace of combination work, retouching, or anything whatever to mark it as other than a porfectly straight, single-exposure photograph, taken in the open aii1 under natural conditions. The negative is sufficiently, indeed, aftnewhat over-' exposed.

The waterfall and rocks are about twenty feet behind Frances, who is standing against tho bank of the beck. The coloring of the fairies is described by the girls as being of very pale pink, green, lavender and mauve, most marked in, the wings and fading to almost pure white in the limbs and drapery. Each fairy has its own special color." (The above three photographs are from Conan Doyle's new book, "The Coming of the Bells to Elsie." "The fairy is standing almost still, poised on the bush leaves. The wings are shot with yellow, and upper part of dress is very pale pink." these fairies from photographs ho had seen' taken by two young girls during the Summer and early Fall of the year 1917." Elsie Wright, sixteen, and her younger cousin, Frances Griffiths, ten, played together on the banks of- a little stream known as Cottingley Beck, which ran near their home, situated in a small village a few miles from Biugley, Yorkshire, where there are some of the most fascinating valleys in all England. The girls were accustomed to taking their noonday lunch with them, and spending the" best part of the half cycle of the sun romping through the narrow valley and playing by the little stream.

These all-day outings were used somewhat in tho nature of a health cure for Elsie, who was not very robust. When the children came homo from their daily pleasures Elsie sometimes spoke to her parents practical mjddlc-class people about seeing the fairies, but they considered her statements whimsical fancies of an adolescent mind. In the Spring of the year 1917, Mr. Arthur Wright, the father, was presented with an inexpensive camera, and there-, after spent some of his holiday time taking snapshots of the neighboring scenes. One day the children asked him for the camera, expressing the desire of "snapping" their little fairy playmates.

This request was scorned for a time, but finally Mr. Wright yielded tothe pleadings of the children, inserted a single plate in the camera, adjusted the diaphragm and explained to the children how to operate the camera. Within an hour the children returned, breathless with excitement, and begged Mr. Wright to develop the plate. While this was being done Elsie entered the darkened room, and as the chemical reaction began to take place shouted, "Oh, Frances, the fairies are on the plate." In the Fall of the year another photograph of the fairies was taken by the children.

The first picture was that of Frances, the. younger girl, standing with head and bust showing over a band of five, little winged fairies, gaily dancing about. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the picture is the striking likeness of these little creatures to the popular conception of fairies made familiar to every child in the simple story books that he first learned to rend. The second photograph taken shows tl older girl, Elsie, seated on the ground, and extending her hand to a weird, little Sir A. Conan Doyle.

gnome with pointed hat, who is just stepping on her knee. The magnifying glass 1 brought out With, startling clearness what appeared to be pipes that he was evidently playing as he danced on the knee of his earthly sister. From that time on the negatives have passed through various hands for scientific investigation. 1 Sir Oliver Lodge, who believes almost everything he hears, refused to accept them as fairy pictures, suggesting that small photographs orCalifornian classical dancers had been superimposed upon a British background. If any reader of this page happens to have a photograph of a dancer exactly like those "fairy" dancers the editor would very much like to see it.

Photograph experts have also examined the plates, and while they agreed that it Will Conan Doyle's next book show us photographs of the Queen of Hearts, the Snark, and the little oysters walking on their hind legs? Mr. Doyle already believes that the mythical faun, the dryad, the naiad and the other imaginary creatures alluded to in the classics of Greece and Korrfc, were once truly present on earth and are not merely mental figments of imagination of the ancient writers. 'Along with these creatures, will Mr. Doyle also presently produce a photograph of the Gryphon of "Alice in Wonderland," and of the little men of the Black Forest, so dear to the imagination of German children? Once accepted, Conan belief in the existence of queer little people in the world around us, the logic of the reasoning leads to unlimited possibilities. It is reasonable enough to suppose that if there are good fairies there' are also bad fairies and, of course, a witch is little else than a horrid, wicked fairy therefore we should expect to have photographs later on of black-haired old hags riding their broom-sticks, with a black cat.

As we know from the story books that elves and fairies and sprites spend a large part of their time in play, we may hope to have photographs sooner or later, showing them at play. But how do they play? For instance, do elves play golf, and little elves carry the golf bags? Will Dr. Doyle's next book show us photographs of the good and ba little people of the hitherto invisible world, playing games which perhaps would be quite a novelty and well worth adopting in our own sad world of reality? The distinguished author explains the disappearance to-day of many of the ancient creatures like the dryad and the naiad of classical times by making the statement that "as Nations advance and grow more spiritual, these lower forms of life die out from the astral plane of earth's sphere, and succeeding generations begin at first to doubt, and then deny that they ever existed," From Dr. Doyle's line of reasoning, it is fortunate that we have not advanced to such a condition of spiritual perfection that the dear little fairies have passed out of our range of vision. We have pro- SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, the distinguished creator of the famous fiction character, the great detective, "Sherlock Holmes," made a painful impression during his recent American lecture tour, in which he recounted his experiences with various spiritualistic mediums.

Conan Doyle accepted as evidence of supernatural phenomena som of the most transparent tricks which fraudulent mediums are constantly using. But now Conan Doyle's friends are dismayed by his latest book, "The Coming of the Fairies." Here the illustrious author of "Sherlock Holmes" passes out of the realm of spooks and now asserts his full belief in the existence of gnomes and fairies. Conan Doyle, who believes he has talked with dozens of spirits who have returned to chat with him from the world beyond the grave, sees no reason to doubt that the little elves and dainty sprites of our childhood dreams really exist. He offers photographs of them! Solemnly and seriously, as a lawyer lays his exhibits of evidence before the court, Dr. Doyle prints in his new volume some "fairy" photographs, which in his judgment prove that the lawns, the bushes and -the woodlands are peopled by these little creatures, just as the artists of the fairy book3 have made them in' their imagination.

Not only does Sir Conan Doyle believe in fairies, but it is intimated that he believes that the fantastic creatures of "Alice in Wonderland" exist. Mr. 11. L. Gardner, intimate friend and co-worker of Dr.

Doyle, also gives testimony as to the evidence that they have secured gen-. uine photographs of living fairies, and makes tho significant rer.nrk that the chil- "tuning in" equipment. Doylo correctly believes that all living creatures throw If vibrations, and he furthermore claims that the strange little fairies are only separated from us by a difference of vibrations. If man could "tune in" his perceptual faculties to tho -wave length of fairy vibrations, just as the tuning coil of a radio set may be adjusted to catch wire-loss waves of varied length, we could rapidly become acquainted with the little people of Fairyland. His Fairyland is a place where quaint diminutive figures, dressed in the green jackets and red caps of the nursery rhymes, but lacking the white owl's feather in their caps that tho rhymes as- -cribe to them, ride through the grasses and vault the shrubbery on little fairy horses.

"They can sing and can speak more in a sound than distinct words a language of their own. Their music is a thing we cannot translate. It exists in itself." says one of Dr. Doyle's fairy investigators. "I don't think Mendelssohn has truly caught it, but Mr.

Coleridge-Taylor's music reminds me of the music I have heard from the fairies themselves." The little creatures como in rather gor- geous colors, dainty shades of pink and blue, turning on violet, and their wings are sometimes flecked with spots of gold. It appears that Dr. Doyle, as he savs in his latest volume, "The Coining of the Fairies," obtained his first knowledge of gressed far enough so that we no longer can see and hear and photograph the classical dryad and naiad, but we are still able to see and enjoy and photograph the little sprites on the lawn and in the woodlands. Lewis Carroll, the author of "Alice in Wonderland," apparently happened to have exactly the right spiritual development to be able to see and listen to the conversation of his fantastic characters. Perhaps it is npt too much to hope that Dr.

Doyle will sooner or later dig up somebody who has a first-class photograph of the Snark or the Boojum. As in the accounts of his psychic peregrinations into, spirit land, Sir Conan evidently expects that the exposition of his latest mental wanderings into realms preternatural will meet with considerable scepticism. And so he attempts to allay critics. "The series of incidents set forth," Conan Doyle says, "represent either the most elaborate or ingenious hoax ever 'played upon the public, or else they constitute an event In human history which may in the future appear to have been epoch making in its character. "It is hard for the mind to grasp what the ultimate results may be if we have actually proved the existence upon the surface of this planet of a population which may be aa numerous as the human race." hat mere maa lacks is a proper was evident tnat tne picture was taicen with one exposure, they thought that a man acquainted with trick photography and under proper conditions could reproduce pictures exactly like the fairy photographs.

Another expert pointed out that in the first picture the little girl, Frances, seems to have concentrated her attention more on the operation of the camera than on the little creatures dancing before her. This, says one critic, is unnatural. The child would naturally look at the fairies. But to all of these objections Conan Doyle comes of ward with an explanation. Will Conan Doyle's next book give us equally authentic photographs of the whole fascinating family of creatures from "Alice in Wonderland" and perhaps "Humpty Dumpty" and "B'rcr Rabliil'' C) by WcbHt, Ire.

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