Windham County Democrat. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1836-1853, 1853-02-23
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CATHARINE f. BEECHER

IHE RAPPERS AND THEIR MARvELs-There
is not probably one person in ten in the COMMUNE
ty who believe that the so-called Spirit Rappers
have the power tables. oho;rs 40 with
out the application, in some way other, of phys
ical strength. Although they always claimed this
power, and as far as spectators could see, demon
strated it in their exhibitions, yet the general run
of spectators, and others, have felt confident that
this apparent result was produced by some slight
of hand or physical force exercised on the table
in some secret and unseen manner. Nor have
the responsible writers, and among them Miss
Catharine Beecher, who have recently published
communications in the Tribune and other papers,
and confidently asserted the fact been able to COM
mand anything like general credence. And a.
mong the skeptics, Notwithstanding all that has
been said written to convince us to the contra
ry, we have honestly ranked ourself till about q
fortnight ago, when an experiment was made in
this village, which, with us, has set the matter
perfectly at rest.
A party of four or five of our most acute, intel
lgent and practical business men, being assembled
at the house of one of their number on neighbor-
ly visit, concluded while discussing these spirit
maqTels, to give the matter fair trial, according
to the method they understood to be resorted to
by the rappers to move the tables, and other arti
room. Accordingly, without the assistance or
presence of any mediums, or professors of the art
they seated themselves on different sides and ends
of a cherry table, placed their hands firmly on the
surface, and silently awaited the result. In few
minutes their arms became sensibly affected by
the currents of electricity passing down through
their hands to the table, and in about fifteen min
utes the table fairly rose from the foor A boy
Of 2 or IA years was then placed upon the Ia
BILE, but without any effect to bring the legs down
to the floor One of the men then mounted it
with the same result, though the table beginning
to crack, he dsmounted, lest his weight should
break it, and the experiment was continued with
the boy alone, who remained on the table, which,
with its load, vastly amused at his novel ride was
moved round the room at the will of the operators,
who barely kept hand upon it, but without ex-
erting strength enough to move pounds weight.
The arms of the operators, however, were made
very stiff and sore, for several days, from the nov
ell performance, and we heard some of them de-
clare they should not be caught at it again. But
they are all unanimous in their statement of the
fact and as unanimous in their belief that the re-
suit was obtained by the electricity passing from
their bodies into the table.
These facts, of which there is not a question.
remove the last doubts we had of an explanation.
on natural principles, of this much discussed phe-
nomenon Of the rappers. We could easily see
how the supposed spiritual communications were
received, on the principle Of clairvoyance, and
which are, in fact, nothing more than the refec-
ton OF the images that are, or have been, in the
mind of the questioner, or medium; but how tss-
bes of dry wood which we did not suppose could
be sufficiently charged with electricity or magnet
ism to produce any visible effect, could be moved,
we could not conceive. That they can be how
ever, we now consider established; it is certain
y new leaf in the science of the electrical phe-
nomena, and one which is well worthy of the at
tention of the scientific Green Mountain Free
man