The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1853-09-02

| INVOKED Inc alo OF stle2ce and with The
assistance of an1ccompished eleclricial
and his machilery, and eight or ter
intelligent, educated, Shrewd persons, ex
amined The matter. We pursued ouI
inquiries many days, and established lc
our satisfaction Two things First, thai
the sounds were not produced by the
agency ofany person present or near us
and, second, fiat they weroinot forth,
coming at our will and pleasure.
10 the meantime another feature al,
tracied my attention, and that was "phy
steal manifestations" as they are termed
Thus, | have known a pine table with
four legs, lifted bodily up from the floor,
in the center ofa circle of Six or eight
persons, turned upside down and
laid upon its top at our feet. then lifted
up over our heads, and put leaning
against the back Of The sofa on which we
sat. ] have known that same table TO be
tilted up on two legs, its Top at an angle
with the floor of forty five degrees, when
| it neilber fell over of Itself, nor could any
person presen, put il back on ils four legs.
have seen u mahogany table, having
only center leg, and with lamp burns
ing upon it, lifted from the floor at least
a foot, in spite of The efforts oflhose
present, and shaken backward and fo:-
ward as one would shake q goblet in his
hand, and the lamp retain IFS place, though
its glass pendants rang again. have
seon the sane table tipped up with The
lamp on il, so far tha, the lamp must
have fallen off unless restrained there BY
something else Than its own gravity, YET
il fell not, moved moi. have known
dinner bell ,aken from shelf in closet !;
rnng over The heads Of four or five per.
sons in that closet, then rung around The
room over the heads of twelve or Gf'een
persons in tic back parlor, and then
bone through The folding doors TO the
farther end of The front paror, and there
dropped on the floor. | have frequently
known persons pulled abou, with force
which i, was impossible for them 10 resist,
and once, when all my strength was adj
ded in vain 10 that Of the one thus afft CT.
ed. | have known mahogany chair
thrown on its side and moved swiftly
back and forth on the floor, no one touch
ing it, ,hrougha room where there were
al lenst dozen people sitting. yet no one
was touched, and il was repeatedly Stop
ped within few inches of me, when i,
was coming with violence, which, if no,
arrested, must have broken my legs.
This is not a tithe-nay! not hun
dred,h part of what have witnessed Of
the same character. | have heard from
others, whose testimony would he credit
ed in any human transaction, accounts Of
still more extraordinary transactions,
There appeared in the newspapers
various explanations Bnd "exposures of
the humbugs," as they were termed. J
read them with care. They were like
the solution lately given by learned
professor in England, who attributes the
tipping Of tables TO force in the hands
which are laid upon them, overlooking
the material fact that tables quite as fro-
qnently move when there is no hand
upon them.
What | have thus mentioned has hap.
pened in the presence Of others as well
ds myself l have not alluded to any Of
the thugs which have occurred to me
when have been alone.
Whence comes The intelligence there is
behind ii all? For that intelligence was
remarkable feature Of The phenomenon.
have known frequently mental ques,
,ions answered, questions merely framed
in The mind of,he in,errogalor, and moi
revealed by him. Preparatory 10 meet
ing circle, have sal down alone in my
room and carefully prepared series o
questions 10 bo propounded, and ! have
been surprised TO find my questions an
sweted, and in the precise order in which
wrote them without my even taking my
memorandum out Of my pocket, and when
| knew that not a person present even
knew ,ha, | had prepared questions
much less what they were. My mos
secret thoughts, those which | have never
uttered TO mortal man or woman, have
been freely spoken TO as if l hud uttered
them. Purposes which | have privily
entertained have been publicly revealed
and have once aud again been admon.
ished that my every thought was known
to and could be disclosed by the intelli>
gence which was thus manifesting itself
i have heard the mediums use Greek
Latin, Spanish, and French words, when
knew they had no knowledge Of any
language but their own, and it is fac
that can be atlested by many, that often
there has been speaking and writing III
foreign languages and unknown tongues
by those who were unacquainied with
either.
Still the question occurred, may not al
this have been, by some mysterious ope
talion, the mere reflex of the mind o
some one present? The answer was
that facts were communicated unknown
then, but aflerward found to be true; like
this, for instance, When | was absent las
winter in Central America, my friends ir
| ,nun heard ,,f mn whoraa n honta and nf thf