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The Jacques Romano Story – Dr Berthold Eric Schwartz

Harris Hammond was a friend of Romano’s for many years.  The following letter is from him:

"The following is an account of an incident that took place at my parents' home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where my wife and I were spending part of the summer vacation. In addition to the family gathering, father and mother had as a guest a well-known writer whom we will call Mr. X.

"One afternoon Jacques Romano telephoned from Boston to talk with me. On hearing that Jacques was in Boston, the family insisted he come to Gloucester.

"After dinner the family, who had been entertained often before by Jacques, asked him if he would do some of his sleight-of-hand card tricks, etc. This Jacques did in his own inimitable manner. Mr. X, unable to explain the baffling things that Jacques did, seemed to resent this inability on his part and became antagonistic. This attitude was expressed by his constant statements that what Jacques was doing was nothing but tricks and that Jacques's statement that he suggested certain cards to the individuals selecting them, or that he could read their minds when he asked them to think of a card, was just nonsense. Jacques replied that possibly Mr. X was right, but he would like to try an experiment with Mr. X.

The success or failure of this experiment would depend entirely on Jacques's ability and Mr. X's honest cooperation.

Jacques explained that in this test he required Mr. X to concentrate and picture in his mind some friend who had died. Then he, Jacques, would see what impression he could get of the individual selected by Mr. X. This was agreed upon, and Mr. X put his hands over his eyes for better concentration.

"Jacques walked slowly up and down for some seconds and then said to Mr. X, 'I am afraid you have two people in your mind. One is an elderly lady, and the other seems to be a man; so please concentrate on one or the other.'

Mr. X nodded that this had been the case. After two or three minutes, Jacques said 'I am beginning to get a picture.' After another pause he said, 'I see a man . . . he is tall-he is very tall . . . he must be six feet four . . . he is wearing a white suit, and it seems too big for him in spite of his size . . . he is very tanned . . . he is in the tropics . . . I think he is British . . . he is pointing at his chin. I see nothing . . . yes, he is still pointing and I see a small scar. He is nodding . . . now he is gone.'

"Mr. X removed his hand from his eyes and leaned forward in his chair. His expression was one of complete astonishment.

He said 'This is incredible. The man I had in mind was a British Consul in the Indies. He was six feet four, and it was a standing joke that even with his size he always wore his white tropical uniform sizes too large for him. The most amazing thing-while I was staying with him he cut his chin while shaving. The cut was quite small but some infection followed that caused his death.'

"A thing to note is that all during this description by Jacques, Mr. X had his hands over his eyes and never indicated by expression or word whether Jacques was right or wrong until Jacques finished.

"To the question by Mr. X as to whether Jacques thought it was the Consul's spirit he saw or a mental picture of Mr. X's Jacques replied that all he could say was he had a vivid mental picture of the things he had described."

Very truly yours,

(signed) Harris Hammond