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Show . ..". " u 1 I WLPL? I friths MiM jiwjW CST I I SPIRIT L ANDIy I Pretty Bride ' Tells How She Met Husband's I Spirit Before They Had Ever h Been Formally Introduced. f BY CHARLES A. LOVZTT. I HE spiritual played no II : V- small part in the ro- mance of pretty Irma If 1 1 Pols and her spiritual i II "" lover, Charles J. Koch. 3f: Wis . An unromantic section In ; f New Jersey, not flji far distant from New York City, It formed the setting for their strange t : affair. 31 1 Their first meeting was incorporeal I '. in spirit. Theirs was a spiritual court- $ ; ship. Now, married by a spirit message, j 1 they have begun housekeeping in a truly ej ' spiritual sense. They began their mar- ; ried life with the "blessing of Alham- oj i bra" as the sanction for their wedded : bliss and bliss they insist it is, al- tfi ; , though no physical manifestation of I affection, not even so much as a kiss or a hug, has passed betweeu them. Not that the young people are not thoroughly infatuated. On the con trary, ther declare their love is moro real than the material. Their terms of endearment may be. for the most part, transmitted through spiritual mediums, but they are none the less fervent, if the principals in the unusual romance are to be believed. Irma, 17, and of Holland Dutch descent, de-scent, is unmistakably attractive. Though, perhaps, a bit serious of mien for her years, she is bright, an interesting interest-ing conversationalist, and not in the least the easilv convinced, daring to the point of mischievousness, sort of girl one might imagine from hearing the histor3r of her marital venture. A favorite in the Jerscj City social circles in which she traveled, Irma Pols took an active part in the young peo-pic's peo-pic's affairs of the church of German : Lutheran denomination which she at tended until about a year ago. Mrs Marguerite Pols, the mother of the St spiritual bride, has been a medium for rfjj i long. The younger of Irma's two iujji brothers, "William, 16, is credited with 5p remarkably strong spirit control. So it was quite natural that the girl should yield to environment and develop an in-jgl in-jgl jerest in spiritualism. I It was in June of last year that the II adventure, or, as she chooses to know II it, "the great adventure," came to b Irma Pols. It was during one of the H I sessions of the Mount Pitcairn Spir. II f -itualistic Church of Jersey City, to I which she had accompanied her mother 11 and brother. On that day William ,: Pols was to exhibit his occult powers. I Irma, all the while, had an ideal an II ideal of the masculine type. She had ; reached definite conclusions as to nil ; that he should be. She had fixed upon the color of his eyes and hair, decided : upon his proper stature and had fixed Si ideas even of the manner in which he HI' should be attired. i And that part of the spiritualistic f service was reached where the trance lit mediums bring forth the spirits of the HI departed, and act as intermediaries in HP conversations between the loved ones HI agonc and those in the congregation HI who asked for them. But the spirits life were slow in responding to the conjur- ttp ing process, and Irma, who had made III 110 inqUiiy a Visitatin fr0m "I am Charles J. Koch and am very much interested in you'1 ihe spir it told Miss Pols. spirit world, experienced one which she perhaps is best in describing: c Like a Bolt of Lightning. T T came to me like a bolt of lightning, -- this visitation," she told the writer-on her wedding day. "It was my ideal man, and he appeared before me as if in material form, conforming in every particular to my fanciful ideals. No one else could see him ; others oth-ers around me claimed to have been able to hear him when he spoke to me. I should like to disbelieve that they, too, heard, but in the light of the weird, almost uncanny visitation from him, I could not but believe that the-, too, might possibly have seen him as well as heard his voice. "Previously I had been skeptical of spiritualism. I had been sort of a 'doubting Thomas,' I guess, but I never have doubted the sincerity of spiritualists since that wonderful hour. There had been moments of uiet that morning, a period in which ihe mediums medi-ums were seeking to call up certain inhabitants in-habitants of the spirit world who for-nierly for-nierly had been ethereal. And I remember re-member that, not having spiritualism at heart, and for want of something better to do, I had fixed my mind upon my ideal man. "No one who had not experienced it can conceive of my emotions when that man appeared as if in a cloud before me that is, surrounded by waves or billowy substances of some kind, but none the less natural and seemingly material. "And when he spoke to me, calling i me by name, I must have been rigid with fear and wonderment; pale, no ; doubt, and certainly trembling. Precisely Pre-cisely what he said when he addressed me I never will be able to recall, but he bowed slightly and introduced him- self. " 'I ara Charles J. Koch,' he said, ! 'and I am very much interested in you. I would be very pleased to call at your home "Wednesday evening.' "Strangely enough I dared to tell mother of it, and she was pleased be-3rond be-3rond measure. Before "Wednesday came I had had pumped into me so much of spiritualism that I awaited rather eagerly nightfall. I was more than skeptical, yet I wanted with all my heart to see the phantom promise kept. At mother's bidding I dressed w for company, but I could hardly keep from laughing at the folly of it all. I still was a disbeliever. "Surely enough, in came my spirit visitor of the Sunday before, and when mother introduced us I boldly shook hands to make sure he was real. He had come to see my elder brother on a business matter. ' ' The story of Mr. Koch's subsequent visits to the Pols home has no- place here. The swain soon became interested interest-ed in spiritualism through the story of his strange appearance before Irma at the church. He joined the church a few weeks before they were married shortly ago, and they were married without even having so much as embraced em-braced one another. It was a wedding of the spirit, and the message making them one was written writ-ten out in a trance by Mrs. Annie Stew- -A:Mm mm J.. KOCH" I art, who is pastor of the Mount Pitcairn II Spiritualist Church. fl The marriage was performed in the 'mH parlor of the Pols home in Sherman IjH avenue, Jersey City. Mrs. Stewart led JlH the bride to one corner of a large, dark- encd room, according to the account H given by a few friends, who were in- yH vited to the ceremony, and later sub- stantiated by the bride herself. Mrs. VH Stewart also led Mr.' Koch to a nompr jH opposite from that in which Miss Pols stood, and, between them, the spirit-ualistie spirit-ualistie leader passed into a trance, m the course of which she took down this message: ."We ask Ihe Father that his best blessings on you descend, and kindly angels on every path 11 attend. You have before you all the years iH that span your life, with all the Joys, the jH changes and the strife. iH as spirit, pronounce you husband and 'H wife and givz you my blessing, 'JM "ALHAMBRA." M It occurred to the writer to inquire if Mr. and Mrs. Koch would settle the customary marital differences spiritual- 3 ly. But, of course, they are not suffi- ! caently acquainted as yet to have or to n 1H contemplate differences, although they 1 i admit an ability so to mediate might liM add spirit to their decidedly spiritual- frH istic married existence. jftfl |