11/23/59 Article "OFFICE CAT - He Is Too Busy With Outside
Interests To Think About Himself", [See Par. R2 above, re
Tom Baugh] published in Hopkinsville, Ky., paper NEW ERA:
Seeing Tom Baugh playing a round of golf here last Wednesday
(you will recall how extremely cold it was that day) made it
difficult for us to realize that this hardy Hopkinsville
businessman will be 80 years old next May 22.
Weather means nothing to Tom, for even a little snow has
never stopped him from enjoying his favorite sport. His love
for gold, weather or no, has even attracted the attention of
the metropolitan press, you may recall. His enthusiasm for
the game with its beneficial outdoor exercise is a
contributing factor in keeping him so young in spirit.
Tom has another interest which, we think, also contributes to
his youthfulness as he approaches the octogenarian category.
It is about his hobby that we wish to tell today.
Away back yonder in 1892 Tom visited the Tennessee
Centennial. There he saw a collection of old coins that
fascinated him. From that day to this he has been an
enthusiast for collecting old money. As a result, he has an
impressive collection of both coins and paper money which he
has encased in three glass top frames.
The accompanying picture shows Tom proudly holding one of the
frames. The only piece displayed here that is not actual
money is a token that looks like a dollar. But here is the
difference: On the metal piece is printed "One Dam." Then
there is "United Snakes of America...Free Silver, 16 to 1.
The date was 1896.
That will bring back memories to some readers who will recall
the first race that William Jennings Bryan made for the
presidency of this country. He was the free silver
candidate, you remember.
Another coin that Tom points to with pride is a Mexican half
dollar. The collector explains: "That is the half dollar I
used to make an electrode for an electronic cell Edgar Cayce
used to cure a sick man." That was before the time this
Hopkinsville man, who diagnosed medical cases while in a
self-imposed hypnotic trance, became nationally famous.
Mr. Cayce would attach one electrode...it had to be a silver
one...to the arm of the ill person, and the other...of
nickel, as we recall...to his ankle. The electrodes were
attached to his cell by wires. A current would run through
the patient's body to cure stiff joints. "And it really
cured people, too," Tom told us.
Tom was so carried away on the subject of his old buddy Edgar
Cayce that he forgot his coin collection, and so did we.
"There was that fellow out in Seattle, Washington," Tom went
On. "He was stone blind with all hope gone that his sight
would ever be restored. Then someone told him of Edgar
Cayce, so the blind man wrote him."
Tom was with the clairvoyant just after the letter was
received here. "Edgar lay on the couch and went into trance.
He began talking and said that there was a growth inside the
blind man's skull that was pressing against a nerve. Edgar
said this resulted from an accident the man had two years
previously, which fractured his skull. His advice was to
have a surgeon operate and remove the growth." Tom said this
was done and that the man's sight was restored.
Not being a coin collector, much of Tom's displays went over
our head. However, we are are that Bob Woodard and other
local numismatologists will enjoy seeing his collection.
1/63 A.R.E. Bulletin article "A PIONEER OF THE CAYCE
READINGS" [with photograph of Thomas J. Baugh and Hugh Lynn
Cayce]:
Mr. Thomas J. Baugh of Hopkinsville, Kentucky was interviewed
recently by Hugh Lynn Cayce on his reminiscences of Edgar
Cayce. Mr. Baugh recalled Edgar Cayce as "just one of us
boys - a mighty fine boy." He remembered back to the first
psychic readings given by Edgar Cayce, in 1910 or '11. One
of these was given for a Hopkinsville policeman who had been
in bed for six months, hardly able to move. The readings
called, for the first time, the wet-cell appliance,
describing how to construct it.
Mr. Baugh was at that time employed with the local telephone
company but was interested in things electrical - he later
became one of the first electrical engineers. Either he
offered was asked to make up this wet-cell appliance
prescribed for the disabled policeman. It was applied as
directed. "In three days," says Mr. Baugh, "he was walking
around." It also helped another Hopkinsville person, Mr.
Baugh, continued, a woman who was paralyzed.
Yes, Mr. Baugh could remember Edgar Cayce's losing his voice,
regaining it temporarily under hypnotism, regaining it to
keep under his own clairvoyance. He also remembered having
seen the public performance of Edgar Cayce's self-induced
trance.
Mr. Baugh, now 79 years of age, plays golf nearly every day,
missed only fifteen days last year. He has played with
leading "pro's" has even played on ice. He was pleased to
know how widely the wet-cell and radio-active appliances have
been used.
Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation