SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE SUPERNATURAL LADY

 "The Supernatural Lady" by Sir Philip Gibbs (first published in Cosmopolitan, January 1926; reprinted in Gibbs's collection Out of the Ruins and Other Little Novels, 1927)

1914.  Valentine Hunt, an English correspondent in Berlin, relates the story of a fraudulent -- and perhaps not so fraudulent medium -- who may, or may not have been partly responsible for World War I.

Hunt first met Anna Herz at the invitation of Karl von Schwartzkopf a young German cavalry officer whose mother was English and whose father worked in the German Foreign Office.  Schwartzkopf was entertaining two of his fellow officers and a young actress just beginning to make her name in the theatrical world when Hunt arrived.  One of the officers, Baron von Holberg, was an unpleasant man with three dueling scars on his face; the other was "a good-natured lad with a monocle and a rather charming smile, " Count Harzburg.  From the beginning Holberg was acting disrespectful to the young lady; not soon after Holberg got into a mildly heated discussion with Hunt about German imperialism.  The argument got no further due to Schwartzkopf's intervention.  Then, when Schwartzkopf left the room to answer the telephone, Holberg attempted to kiss the girl's bare arm.  She resisted but the German officer had a firm grip on her arm.  When she attempted to get away, Holberg's grip was so strong that it left marks on her as she pulled away from him, crying.  Hunt then struck Baron von Holberg across the mouth with his bare hand, leaving a trace of blood on the Baron's upper lip.  With what I assume to be righteous Teutonic anger. the Baron demanded satisfaction -- a duel the next morning, something that would spell doom for Hunt because Holberg was one of the best duelists in Germany.  Holberg left the room "with cold dignity and a swollen lip."  To lighten the atmosphere, Harzburg suggested they go visit the mysterious prophet Schwartzkopf had promised them.

It's important to note that the group arrived at Anna Herz's rooms at exactly twenty minutes past ten.  They arrived at a seance with twenty of the city's most influential people and took the four empty chairs.  Soon a man and a woman arrived from behind a curtain.  The man, middle-aged with large, coarse hands; the woman, attractive and graceful.  The man began by explaining that in their last circle, they managed to contact the spirit Beethoven "who spoke to us with that spirit majesty and harmony-compelling utterance which to all our German folk is a message of national inspiration and loyalty-creating emotion."  Tonight, he went on, his sister would once again attempt to contact any spirit presence that wished to be heard.  The lights lowered, and after ten minutes of silence, the medium began speaking in a deep, harsh, man's voice, asking if Karl von Schwartzkopf was there.  After Schwartzkopf announced himself, the medium's brother asked who the spirit was.  The voice replied, "It's funny to a spirit!  I saw my body lying dead, people said, 'He's stone-dead.'  A policeman was taking notes.  An officer stepped up and elbowed the people back and had a look at the thing they called me.  He said, 'I know him.  It's the Baron von Holberg.' "  At that point, Schwartzkopf stood up and declaimed the woman as a fraud, stating that he had dined with Holberg not an hour before.  The spirit's voice said, "poor old Karl!" and laughed in that deep tone.  Then Anna Herz announced that the spirit had left her.

Harzburg left to call Holberg's apartment.  Getting no answer, he then called the police to learn that Holberg had been struck by a vehicle and killed at five past ten that evening.

Hunt deduced a way thee medium could have learned of Holberg's death just before the seance, but he kept his thoughts to himself.  His friend Schwartzkopf, however, felt that the spirit was real and was awed by Anna Herz's powers.  Schwartzkopf began seeing Anna on a regular basis, and, as he became closer to her, she became close to him.  Schwartzkopf began hinting dire warnings about Germany's future when talking to his mother -- something that was ridiculous because Germany and England were good friends and there was nothing foreboding about.  

Meanwhile, Hunt had checked up on the medium.  It turned out that she was the daughter of  gypsy, father unknown, her real name unknown.  Sha had used several aliases and had spent time in jail for fortune-telling.  Her so-called brother was Frits Mueller, a blackmailer and drug dealer who had served five terms in prison  and now lived off Anna's earnings as spiritualistic medium.  Mueller was the son of a circus manager whom Anna had testified against on charges of child cruelty when she was twelve.  The German police felt that Anna was relatively innocent and had not yet been exposed as a fraud -- the fact that many of her clients were persons of importance may have led to that last conclusion.

Hunt confronted Anna with these facts, as well as some proof he had dug up that some of her tricks were clearly fraud.  She admitted that there were fraudulent parts of her act but that they all were the work of Mueller.  The parts tht she did were real.  She begged Hunt not to confront Mueller, fearing he would kill both Hunt and herself.

It was the spirit of Bismark (supposedly) that gave dire warnings about the future through Anna:  a red mist was approaching the earth, the color of blood -- "Germany's testing time in the furnace fires of destiny."  The German race would march from victory to victory over mighty foes and fields would be filled with death.  These predictions had a great impact on those of the inmost circle of Berlin's life.  Anna claimed that Bismark had uttered one word three times:  "August."  That was in May 1914.   Hunt pooh-poohed the entire idea; Germany and England were on the best of terms.  Then a certain archduke was assassinated in Sarajevo...

Hunt visited Schwartzkopf's apartments hoping to hear news from the Foreign Office about what was happening behind the scenes.  Anna Herz was there with Schwartzkopf.  Russia was mobilizing.  "It was the beginning of hell.  Schwartzkopf begged Anna to look into the future to see what would happen.  She did and she saw his dead body.

Hunt was still able to rationalize Anna's predictions as trickery, but part of him still wondered.  Was she a real prophet, this person he had called "the supernatural lady"?

As a coda:  Schwartzkopf died early inn the war.  Mueller was hanged after the war as a traitor.  Anna Herz was never seen again.

Like Hunt, Sir Philip Gibbs (1877-19622) was a reporter.  He began his career in 1894, published his first book in 1899, and had his first major story in 1909 when he refuted Frederick Cook's claim to have reached the North Pole. Gibbs had the distinction of being one of only five official British reporters during World War I.  (He had been reporting there earlier and had been denied permission to remain on the Western Front by the War Office; he refused and was arrested and sent back to England.  Eventually the War Office relented.)  Shortly after the war he conducted the first journalistic interview with a Pope.  Gibbs was knighted in 1920.

Gibbs published 80 books, mostly non-fiction and reportage.  Nine of his books and short storie were filmed between 1921 and 1933.

The January 1926 issue of Cosmopolitan which contains :The Supernatural Lady" is available to read online.