The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-15 00:00:00

qIBNOMENA OF THE EBBING AN_D FLOWING

WELL IN

eurirsitreraarkable well is the subject of extreme
day crowds Germany. At every hour of the
proper: ..‘.B
elirmunded the well, which is encircled by a
mysterious guard, anxiously waiting the arrival of the
its begii Pheteninenon. Each person tries to detect
the shaft, I.llg' 153' ftring his eyes on the empty space in
eleven
the brim t'e or twelve feet depth of which, from
tOonth,e,water, presents nothing but "darkness
of p scarcely p
le • he black surface at the bottom, a gentle
erceptible, produced by a few bubbles
gas ;in other respects, all is still as the grave. Pre-
Y certain hollow sounds reach the ear, resembling
01 report of distant artillery, or drums, and the shaft is
elrerved to fill slowly, by the water ascending like mer-
earY in a thermometer, the surface becoming, at the
Wme time, agitated and noisy. A thick foam covers it,
theis only broken in the. centre by a rapid succession
xplosions of gas (almost carbonic acid), during which
0, water, where the foam is partially dispersed, assumes
ti'e green hue of the sea in high latitudes. In the nea
the upward progress of the water, accompanied by
sh.„.it ion continues steadily, until the great
'" is filled with water, agitated in the most violent
;Inner. To those who have looked down from the stern
411Sbi hurried along by a gale through the sea,
141:. haver seen the water foaming against, and
if ail suleg the rudder' in perpetual leaps and contortions,
afford some notion of the aspect of the moment
Pere indicated ; in short, a sailor is reminded of that
irY Phenomenon. Or the well may be compared, in
It:18 extoilinreme turbulence, to a great cauldron of 'water
on a f ace a:rapidly as possible. When this
urbulence is at its m 'mum, the emission of gas which
ll„l.,..eeeded the ascent of the water in the well abruptly
and, in a few seconds,
trap surface of the water
hers haft becomes perfectly quil ; the water de-
tie"; and continues to do so, at first rapidly, and
teen more slow until it has subsided about nine or
„„4., feet. Thispoint has but just been reached, when a
garden swelling n of the water first, and then of the
;a8,.',,i8 again observedp at the bottom. The shaft fills
ael Slowly, and the flow of water and gas continuesl for
4°l tune progressively to increase, apparent. y
full
liejal---ng their maximum until the water is at its
the first
which requires from thirty to forty minutes after
44i+54.,rat return of the stream. In this state of violent
74011 it remains for about two hours, sometimes
f
but often much less, when the preceding cycle o
eniZeplena is repeated. The period of intermission varies
aerwrrablY. In general that peculiarity has been ob-
i/An every three hours, but its recurrence is greatly
the-eneed by the number of pumps at work to extract
kiwater from the well ; the more pumps, the fewer
(48 of intermission.
ArT

lea ZCCENTRIC BEING. —A n eccentric
several
lady,years namedapeil. .bella Xitchen, who had been for .
kon
r, er of Cowley's Charity, in Lincolnshire, died a few
ea,,,E,
The deceased had long
~ ago at the ripe age of 76..
anticipated her exit from this world : many years ago
mournful habiliments pre-
her had her shroud and other u
Dan red, and latterly she had parcelled oq, the ts
the bearers, trimmed her shroud atfreensh,faenrdherorderedlaet
r coffin 1 This palpable
deBth'g-pla.ce had been " delivePreredEaraatturiheer”cohtatavignegapfaeiwd
-4' before she paid the " debt of na _
e,
.11 her other debts, even to her funeral
eand.
! xpenses, before-
The spirit-rapping
nr4- ItA.P AT THE SPIRIT-RAPPERS.
iiOCeSta we do not pretend,
-4' to explain. The modus operandi is a secret ; the
any more than other conjur-
to
e moving "media"
„.13trnaturalism simply a humbug.
(7,,re those whom we had the pleasure of beholding—one
~;-‘ thee). an elderly gentleman, announced as
-6eal and apparently a capital linguist .
of
rfrhoemtAmalkede.
a lady.
'sl'4' like a native), and another, his
rather gigantic proportions, whose principalwlfe'communica-
revious husband,
tions, naturally enough, were withs.
P his improvidence,
Who not having insured, and regretting
room,The
11'48 kindly supplying her a livelihoodinitnetahipsriwvaatye. wee,lll3le, we should say the trio, retired
flesh were seen parted
a.finize the lips of the pair still in the
1 "I Prayer, whilst a Bible and Prayer-book
of werea.ny
136'aced before' them to rouse the imaginations
After a while,
Pectators who might be susceptible.
certain
r * •es having been heard,., aen.d. some join
14, C'tiO A. rtehierntallrYe beingn?is visible, we were invited t d to
Some of
tho council and communicate with the
which two "raps"
Party did so, asking questions, to
As
waffirmative reply.
leonstituted a negative, three an
_m plain of :
(PICI as this went on there was nothing to co
d the profes-
ut at length the company got tired,
IZra adventurous. A lady thought of heal; husband ; and
Forwriting " medium" under that husband's innsapmirae.-
plo°ll Was to inscribe the deceased's Christian
r this purpose he went convulsively to work he wrote
'
I'M proclaimed Charles. The dead man called
atellh when in this world ! But it is unnecessary_
himself
r,--,iB',llY length to expose an imposture, which is only not
I,;4l4culous on account of its possibly serious effects.-- The
for
"raps"
1,111, re, orrery of the performance is that . occur _
the.c,c
.cannot account, and that there is a motion of
Upon
thin 'llrniture of which one cannot see the cause.
°tit: evidence the jugglers make their appeal, and upon no
theirer• Por our part we should be unwilling to deprive.n
of their plunder, which those whom they take i
eat
It
verY well spare
cess,f
a stupid curiosity were the sole
auee of their success. But the fact is, they have made
atedconverts, or rather fools, of grown and nominally edu-
,l7ctmen ; and the delusion of adults has had such an
upon them that even madness may result in
tilacY eases from the belief in this nonsense with which
I,,YY have haunted the minds of their children.
~ eking burls and boys have been nominated as future
Zreiedia, ' and, as a consequence, have had their nerves
Wen and their sleep destroyed With perpetual visions
oglicats, and all sorts of imagined communications
thonli,,bBPirits• This makes the matter so serious, that
lea;'thib,'" we began in irony we must end in earnest.
;,14'3Pirit rappers' pretensions appear, to say the
' of it, to be a nuisance • and if a nuisance, they
i.et to he
" put down." Let there be a judicial, and
au
°tired, a scientific investigation of their claims :
tore ox.ietarluthr---insquindilirY(:;
vbauit)ear.n act of justice to profes-