The Missing Link In Modern Spiritualism Part 44

"Mr. Thompson took a seat on the opposite side of the table from you, and commenced asking questions by writing them. A very warm friend of his, who had travelled extensively with him in India and elsewhere, purported to be in communication with him. Many incidents of their travels were recalled to his memory by the Spirit. I distinctly remember one question which Mr. Thompson asked orally. It was this. 'What was the present which you sent to my wife from India?' Answer, 'A cashmere shawl.'

"Afterward we asked Mr. Thompson if his answers were all satisfactory?

He replied promptly, 'They were quite right, quite right.'

"The fact in this case was, that the questions put, and answers given, were not known to you or any one present, or in the United States of America; and all the answers given were 'quite right.'

"Will sceptics explain, satisfactorily to themselves and others, how this is done?

"JOHN KEDZIE.

"NEW YORK, June, 1884."

A CHILD'S LETTER.

Letter from a child eight years old. I insert this letter from a darling little child partly for love of her, but chiefly because she soon after, as I have been informed, developed, without any instruction, into a splendid musical medium.

"NEWARK, O., July 20, 1851.

"MY DEAR FISH:

"I promised to write you a letter, and I have a few words to say to you, it is not very long; and I hope you are well, and I send my love to you all. I think that I'll never forget you. I wish that you'll never forget me. We are all well and the baby has three teeth. Now you must come back, we all want to see you.

"I hope that Mr. Brown is better. You must remember your promise to me.

I have been looking anxiously for a letter from you. I hope you will excuse me, for this is the first letter I've ever written before. Tell Maggie that she must not forget her promise to me.

"My dear Fish, I love you very much. I want to say something to you but I don't know what. The fields are green, the woods are grand, and home is dear to me, but I would give a year for one sweet month to talk with the Spirits. O I would clap my hands for joy. Mr. Blackman has acted the part of a coward. He has not the independence of a man to come out and publish the truth like a gentleman. I would have sent you one of his papers if they had pleased me.

"Good-bye, my dear Fish.

"LOUISE MOONEY."

EXTRACTS FROM DANIEL UNDERHILL'S MINUTE BOOK, BEARING DATE JUNE 5, 1862.

"While Leah and myself, with a few friends, were sitting at the table conversing, the following communications were spelled out:

"'There must be some desperate struggles before the Union army can hold the Rebellion under control. Then many treacheries will be perpetrated through the semblance of peace; after which many new and arbitrary enforcements will be carried into effect, so that the difficulties cannot be determined for some time. Rebellion is among you everywhere, and the only curb is the law and the right to control. Even your leading journalists are not reliable, and their loyalty is speculative.

(Signed) "'RED JACKET.'"

"'No more peace; no more love; no more truth; all is gone. My spirit sorrows, my light grows dark, my hope fails, and my form no more appears on earth among my tribe. My feather gone, my axe dull, my arrow broke, and my hand no more pull the string. My eyes no more take aim. My work to do, and I no power.

"'Great Spirit make pale-face look up where help can come, and then we will fly through air in cars of fire, to call the light and heat down to wake up the love, hope, charity, and faith which have no power now, to conquer in the war of hatred, envy, and rebellion.

"'I have spoken.

(Signed) "'WAR EAGLE.'"

EXTRACT FROM COMMUNICATION PURPORTING TO COME FROM D. UNDERHILL'S FATHER.

"If every grain of sand on the sea-sh.o.r.e were a dime, and every dime should be doubled at every second, it would not be half the value to you a few years hence, that one evening's sitting with your guardian Spirit will be to you when you are as I am now.

(Signed) "LEVI."

PRACTICAL JOKES PERFORMED AND REBUKED.

Though it is my rule not to introduce trifling incidents which were constantly occurring to us in our domestic privacy, yet, finding them in my private papers of 1849, I will here insert the following two because it occurs to me that it may have had a significance intended as a lesson to me.

One evening, being for a wonder without callers, Maggie and I thought we would have a little fun at mother's and Cathie's expense. (Mother was very easily disturbed by any unusual manifestations.) It will be seen that, though we began it for our fun, the Spirits took it soon out of our hands and carried it out themselves in pretty strong earnest.[23]

[23] They probably meant it as a reproof of the girls' attempt to mix up their childish nonsense with a subject too great and grave for such trifling on their part.--ED.

Maggie went into the parlor bed-room, and I laid down on the sofa. She took a cane and I a sh.e.l.l from the table to rap with. I precautionally placed matches near me in case of need. She rapped _once_ (with the cane) upon the ceiling, but before I could make any attempt at using my sh.e.l.l the house was in an uproar. The piano was violently sounded, the match-box rattled against the ceiling. I called to Maggie to know if it was she who was pounding the piano so violently. Mother cried out, "G.o.d have mercy on us!" She saw a very tall man--or the form of one--standing in the open doorway, and recognized him as her father. Mother was so frightened that she started up, and as she did so tore down the window-shade, which let in the light of a bright moon. I was unceremoniously seized upon and lifted through a circular aperture in the ceiling (large enough to admit four small pipes, leading from the parlor stove into a sheet-iron drum in the room above, in which Calvin slept). (See diagram on page 209.) I was there held suspended for several minutes by two iron hands (as they seemed to me), the one felt icy cold, and the other almost burning hot. Calvin, in bed in the room above, lay quietly listening to the uproar, but made no remark. I entreated him to come down to us, but he positively refused, saying, "No, you have raised the Devil, and must take the consequences."

This uproar continued all night, and people gathered around the house to listen to it. We found, by experience, that nothing we could do in our attempt at a little fun played off on mother, would equal the performances of the Spirits at our expense.

The second of these private domestic incidents, designed perhaps for rebukes and lessons, was as follows:

To make this story understood, it will be necessary to describe the situation of the old homestead. The public road runs north and south; and both houses face eastward. The old house stands about two hundred yards from the road, surrounded by trees. Father's house (which was being built at the time he was living in Hydesville) stands near the road, with ample yard room surrounding it. When turning into the lane, there is a slight descent until you reach a little bridge, called the "Tell-tale Bridge," over a small stream, which in wet seasons runs through the vale; after which you gradually ascend until you reach the level on which the main buildings stand. It is called the Tell-tale Bridge because the hoofs and wheels always announce the approach of visitors.

It was Sunday evening. A party of David's friends drove over from Newark to have a seance with the Spirits. It was decided that they should hold their meeting at mother's, with the girls (Maggie and Katie). I remained at David's, with Uncle John, Calvin, and the children--the youngest being a babe ten months old. My brother and his wife joined the party.

Uncle John suggested that some refreshments would be acceptable and help to while away the time. By the time we got through supper it was near twelve o'clock, and the hired man came home belated. The servant girl was tired, and all save myself retired for the night. The baby fretted for its mother, and I walked the floor with him until he fell asleep.

Still there were no signs of the adjournment of the party. I could hear the sounds distinctly, and concluded they had entirely forgotten to notice the time (it was then two o'clock). So I slipped on the hired man's coat and hat and ran down, to learn if there were any intimations of the party breaking up. I did not wish to be observed. The night was lovely, and the moon shone brightly; and my only refuge of concealment was a few shocks of sweet corn left standing between the window and the fence. They could have seen me through the window if they had looked out from the sitting-room in which they were holding their seance.

I procured a number of small stones and practised throwing very successfully, hitting the mark between the windows a little distance from them. Having thus acquired confidence in my aim, I threw one larger than the others, which went through the window cras.h.i.+ng the gla.s.s into fragments. A general scream broke from all in the room. I ran down into the hollow near the bridge, and hid in the tall, wet gra.s.s, knowing well enough that mother would soon be out to explore the grounds. I heard her say, "I do not believe that a Spirit did it. I know it was some of those good-for-nothing, mean c.o.o.n hunters; they have heard us, and they have done this to annoy us." Then father said: "They have no business to throw stones through the windows. If that stone had hit any one, it might have proved a serious thing."

I shuddered, and was thankful it was no worse. Mr. Codding said, "No, Mrs. Fox, I think you are mistaken. I heard several electric explosions just before it hit the window." (Those were my smaller pebbles.) Father said, "Do you believe a Spirit threw that stone through the window? If it was a Spirit it was an evil one."

By this time they were all out in the yard looking for the culprit, and not more than twenty feet from where I lay cowering in the long gra.s.s wet with dew. As soon as they all re-entered the house I ran for dear life, doffed my hat and coat, and jumped back into the bed with the baby. I had lain there but an instant when the most terrific rumbling explosion went through the house, shaking it to its foundations and waking every sleeper. I have never witnessed, before or since, such a manifestation. Uncle John rushed to my room, saying, "In heaven's name, what has happened?" The parties from the other house came in and related what had happened there; but I was so shocked by the manifestation just made that I found no difficulty in suppressing my laughter. I had been well punished for my folly. I had not intended to carry the joke so far, and I prayed to be forgiven. I did not dare to confess. I knew it would not do at that time, as the public would have regarded us as impostors, and this as a specimen of our tricks. I suffered alone for my sin. I heard them discuss the matter frequently.

One day, full fifteen years afterward, my brother was giving me his opinion, saying, "Leah, I do believe that was a mischievous Spirit that threw the stone and smashed father's window." I looked at him quizzically, and said, "Yes Dave, I believe it was too."

He caught me by the hand and said, "You did it! you rogue. I know you did!"

I confessed, and we have had many a hearty laugh over it since; but I had not ventured to confess it to the family for fifteen years.

A PROPHETIC DREAM.

On pages 76-77 above, in the chapter devoted to the "Mediumistic Vein in our Family," is given an account of my aunt, Mrs. Elizabeth Higgins, having seen a prophetic vision, miscalled "dream," which nearly nine years afterward was actually enacted over her grave, which now speaks for itself in the cemetery of Sodus, Wayne Co., N. Y. I omitted there to mention another instance in which she "dreamed" of a strange event, some weeks in advance of its actual occurrence. I was a child at the time, but perfectly remember it, besides its having often been talked about in the family.

When the family migrated from the city of New York to Sodus, Wayne County, N. Y., it had been intended to go by the ca.n.a.l. Grandfather had preceded the removal of the family by about a year. One morning Aunt Bessie (afterward Mrs. Higgins) announced that, "We shall not make our journey by water." "Why not?" asked her mother. "Because I dreamed last night that we travelled by land, and there was a strange lady with us.

In my dream, too, we came to Mott's tavern in the Beech Woods, and they could not admit us because Mrs. Mott lay dying in the house. I know it will come true." She always felt that certainty in regard to _certain_ dreams. "Very unlikely indeed," was the reply, "for but a year ago, when you stopped there, Mr. Mott's wife lay dead in the house." "You will see." "Then he must have married again, and he will lose his second wife."

Every particular came to pa.s.s as she had predicted. Mrs. Johnson, a stranger to the family at that time, accompanied them. By a change of plan they made the journey by land, as by that means (by grandfather's orders) they took the horses (three teams) to use in the new home in the "West."

When they reached Mott's tavern, late in the evening, they were told they could not be accommodated, as the house was full, and Mrs. Mott was dying. Bessie said to the clerk, "I was here just one year ago to-day, and Mrs. Mott lay dead in the house." He replied, "Mr. Mott was married two months ago, and it is his second wife who is now dying." It was arranged, however, for them to stay in the adjoining house, owned by Mr.

Mott and occupied by his son.