First National Convention of Metaphysicians Begins a Week's Session on the West Side.
An audience of about 150 people, one-fifth of whom would attract attention on the street by their peculiar appearance, assembled in the old Church of the Redeemer at the corner of Sangamon Street and Washington Boulevard, last evening. The occasion of the meeting was the opening of the first National Convention of Mental Scientists of the United States. The Chair introduced a Dr. Marston of Boston. The latter was a man with an immense amount of black whiskers and very little voice, but he managed to make it clear that he didn't know anything about the work of the Committee on Credentials. Mr. Swartz then read the call for the meeting, inviting all teachers, healers, and friends of mental cure to come together and talk their creeds over regardless of minor differences of opinion. After the speaker had worked in an advertisement for a neighboring ice-cream saloon, the choir sang a song, and a collection was promptly taken up. Again Mr. Swartz took the floor to deliver an address of welcome, which he premised by saying that he would not indulge in a metaphysical discussion, and then wandered off into an hour's talk on that very topic. The convention will hold two sessions each day of this week, with an extra one Sunday, and a social and literary entertainment Friday night.
