The Planters' banner. [volume] (Franklin, Attakapas Co., Lou.) 1849-1872, 1853-05-05
s E L E C 7 E D
Questions for the s. Rappers..

Good gracious what are we coming
to? What viii posterity say of the
present age, as compared with that Of
Salem memory2 Isn't it merely a
question between liUe witches and dead
ones? Now, while the Spiritual Rap
ping Delnsion y is spreading, and per
sons Of unexceptionable character and
undoubted standing are firm believers
in it, LET US permit friend 10 I" ask a
few questions. and make few re-
marks from hurried letter to the edi
tor Of the Knickerbocker
Can the advocates of spiritual rap
pings, he inquiries, have overlooked the
fact, that when they call up Shaks-
peare, Franklin, Ben johnson and 9th
ers, they have invariably lost their tai
ents, and sunk to the level of their
medium 2'' think can fancy g Ge-
notice y holding spiritual communi-
cation with the spirit of Shakespeare on
the guilt and general character of the
elder Mrs. Hamlet. Two to one he
would have the best of the argument
Let some enthusiastic individual ask
Dsvy how he finds the base of the aka
lies in the other world, and in all proba-
bility the refined knight will have for
gotten his previous knowledge in rela-
ton to his own discoveries. Think of
Gen. Washington rocking table. or
causing chair to dance hornpipe 10
amuse a company of "rappets;;" Napo-
leon Bonaparte endorsing the legtii-
macy OF Napoleon the Third BY three
raps on pine-table or Lord Bacon
profoundly writing commonplace non-
sense with lead-pencil stuck through
the finger-holes of pair of scissors!
Call up The spirit of Perkins, and ask
him what he now thinks of bis q irac-
tors of forty years ago, and if he does
not say their pro; critics are too complex
for the erudilion of The present day, he
knows nothing of the powers Of The
.rappers y Oh! what a sci Of philo-
sophers are handing our compliments
down toqoosterity!
II you wish to ascertain the extent of
this rapping and table moving delusion.
jnst try TO buy a pine-table, and you
viii and the article tnonopolized. Every
carpenter in town and country has been
engaged in making them since the
ioiners and cabinet-nakers were sold
ont. Within!a few weeks il has been
discovered that shingle. placed on two
glasses, and partly covered by the
hands, would Fevolve, and 10! shingles
are eagerly. sought for: almost eyety
young lady, and not few young gen.
fIemen also are engaged in trying The
experiment Of making the shingle re-
voive.t
4 few days since, I visited friends
house in Philadelphia, who assured me
that tables would run around his parlors
ii d most extraordinary manner, and
that persefs seated about them had no
thing to do with the movement, except
toplace their hands quietly npon them.
Another table with a marble top, with
the top removed, } would tilt on its hind
lees and piroHefie amazingly. | Went
"a 81 Ibis exhibition, and By watching
tie ends of the fingers Of the operators
as table number one, | could see that
the coloEs of the ends of the fingers of
I'll the right hands on the table was red
der than those of The left hands. or1at
least Of so many Of them as assisted the
,sble In its gyrations. This might not
have shown that the pulling with the
yIeht hand and pushing with the left
wss intentional, but at least showed that
pushing and pulling did occur, whether
iavolunsarily or not.
liable numher two was Of the kind
knomn IS . 4 pier table, and so bal.
sacsd Ia ils proportions, when relieved
e. iss marble top, shat the least furce
would tilt it backwards, whils a great
amount of force was reqniasd 10 Till il i
torwafd. One operator alone sat at The |
Esaf of this tabss. i noted particularly
The collar ard convexity Of the ends Of
his fingers and as the table tilted, the
color changed and The ternini of the
dfgiss cofvexSd! AZ the iabls turned
On the rear fees, smooth 1t the bottom, |