The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1857-05-06
Explosion of the Spiritual Hum
bug in Paris.


ment, Partisan society is indulging in
spirit rapings. Mr.. Hume the Amer
lean spirit seer has played very i'm
lortant part in the highest circles, in
Guiding the Imperial family, for the
last two or three months, but has sud-
denly departed without any warning.
The cause of his abrupt departure of
the fashionable wizard is given by the
Court Journal in the following way;
Z" A few nights ago grand seance
had been prepared for him at the
house Of one Of the principal officials
about the Court, who had witnessed
the divers experiments made at the
Tuileries, and which, although failing
to convince him entirely, yet had not
left him wholly incredulous. The
company was limited, and of the first
water. The names had all been sub.
mitted to the practitioner, who had
objected to three of them-those of
Eugene Guinot, the fenilletoniste, Gen.
paraguay D. Killers, and Nedaud,
the composcr-all of them atrocious
unbelievers, infdels and scoffers, and
wholly devoid of all sensibility or i'm.
agination. Numerous were the ex-
periments tried, and all, as usual, ems
inently successful. The accordion
glidcd, as usual, from knee to knee, all
round the circle, and played tunes
most loved by the inquirers; the bell
wandered round the ceiling, and rang
its merry peal or tolled its doleful
note, according to the will of any
member Of the company who chose
to command it. But the wizard had
promised that night to evoke the spir-
its and render them visible to the
sight, and every preliminary expert
ment was attended to with Impotence,
so great was the hurry to witness the
GROWING masterpiece of the perform
ance. At length the lights were ali
extinguished but one, a solitary wax
taper on the mantelpiece, behind the
figure of the practitioner, which cast its
long, gigantic shadow on the walls and
ceiling of the room.
The silence was complete some of
the ladies crouched behind their neigh.
boIs, and resisted the temptation to
faint only by reason of their curiosity;
others stared around, hoping yet
dreading to see something awful and
terrific, that they would be driven to
Mysteries. The voice Of the wizard
was heard, amid the silence, demand
Ing whose spirit should be summoned
to appear. A faint whisper, from a
distant corner, thrilled through the
room-"Let it be Socrates, the great
est of philosophers" A pause ensued
no objection or opposition being
manifested, the wizard raised his arm,
and waving it toward the door, sol
EMMY babe the spirit of Socrates ap
pear and stand before him. Again
the silence was resumed, and the wis
ard remained, with extended arm and
muttering lips, gazing toward the door.
1t slowly opened, and, amid the ut
most terror, the company beheId the
entrance of a figure, enveloped in
kind of floating drapery, something
like winding sheet, which advanced
with noiseless tread over the carpet,
and stood before the conjurer. The
white and flowing beard, the bald head
and crushed nose were unmistakable.
Socrates stood, as in life, in the very
midst of that gay and frivolous circle,
evoked from his slumber of centuries
to furnish sport for Partisan saloon.
The awe and terror of the company
were at its highest, and the figure
glided back in silence, while yet the
effect produced was at its eliminating
point. When it had disappeared,
compliments, of course, poured in up.
on the operator, who, shaken to the
very fingers ends could not helb ex,
pressing his surprise at the unusual
promptiude with which the summons
had been answered, and, full of the
excitement Of unlooked-for success,
yielded to the entreatirs of the same
voice which had spoken before, and
which now implored the evocation OF
Frederick the Great.
The wizard again stretched forth his
hand toward tho door although doubt
tul if his electric would be strong c.
nough to accomplish two evocations,
SO rapidly one after the other. lie
was observed, however, even in the
dim light of the apartment, to turn
deadly pale, as the door again opened
at his summons, when he called aloud
for Frederick the Great, King of Prus-
sia, to appear before him. The mo
ment's pause was truly awful. BY
degrees, amid the shadows of the 70 ON,
could be seen gliding through the
doorway a figure, wrapped, like the
one which had preceded it, in a kind
of winding sheet clinging to its limbs,
and held around the waist by the grasp
of the hands. The face, however, was
nndeniably that of the great hero, and
the head surmounted by the little ira