Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-08-31
DOES MOODY LIVE7
Has 6aIVahism Restored the Eead to
Life7
Has the Hangman Been Cheated by
the D0ctOrs7
Moody Supposed to be Haunting the
Banks of Wolf River.
His Ghost in a Church, ExpIOdes a
Prayer Meeting.

And tore the seepter from the tyrant's
hand"
Such deeds were ascribed to the
great American printer, philosopher
and statesman. Even more wonder
tut than this, the agency employed by
Franklin has revivitied the dead, and
where life may not be restored is used
to create in absolute perfection the
likeness of the loved and lost. 1t an
initiates space and leaps from CONT
nent to continent, bearing messages
from separated friends even as it
flashes across the heavens and bridges
with lurid splendOrs the archway of
the skies. 1t makes the earth quake,
shakes the solid globe, disperses and
gathers the tempestS of heaven, and
seems the life and soul of all created
things. Six centuries before the Chris
tian era, Thales, the Milesian philOsO-
pher, remarked that ekectrOh, amber,
when rubbed, drew to it light bodies,
as the lOadStOne attracts iron. Slow
ly, it has been shown through the OBJ
servations and experiments of two
thousand years that lightning is cleo
tricity. Thunder clouds and electrical
batteries produce the same effects upon
human lie. French philosophers have
often appeased the storms fury by
sending Il the clouds a kite attached
to a metallic thread, which silently
and harmlessly draws downward the
fluid lightning. The vanished stool
which supports the metallic string is
scOrched by the electric current which
often falls OVer it, a cascade of fire.
But it is with the physiological eff
fects of electricity that we have now
to deal. The story is current, (Which
may or not be true), that one of the
supposed recent victims of the hang
mans rope, who has surely expiated
his crime, whether he lives or is dead,
still Wanders about the suburbs of the
city. 1t is said that when the trap
fell, on which the negro Moody
stood, the knot on the side of his neck
was displaced, and that Ais spine was
| never broken. 1t is said that his body
was instantly spirited away by young
physicians, who had prepared every
thing for his successful termination.
Whether they used the Leyden jar or
galvanic battery we are not advised.
1t is said that a skillful electrician and
telegraph manager c~O-Operated with
the o n of Galen, and probably the
same mechanism and electrical agen-
cies, seen in the telegraph offices of
the city, were employed in revivify-
ing the strangled negro. Experiments
have shown, WITHOUT referring to those
which all have witnessed made with
the LeydeR jar and the sensation
caused by its sparks, that all animal
organization, as to sensibility, motion,
l As-n-Esv-n Ev-affapu vrrAr.Ns1-, ,r,l H.,
development of the organs, is under
the empire of electricity. 1t was Al
dina nephew of GalVani, whOgave
his name to galvaniSm, who first tried
the effect of galvaniSm-On animals
which had been killed and criminals
executed. We read in Professor Sill
mans works that the head of a bull,
detached from the body and placed
on a table, when excited by the cleo
trical current, opened its eyes, rolled
them turiOusly, Inflated its nOstrils,
and shook its ears as if the animal
were alive and prepared for combat.
On ANOTHER table the plunges OF a
dead horse begat danger to tire spec
tatOrs and broke the apparatus placed
near the animal. Some years ago, in
England, as il said to have occurred in
this city, Psychologists purchased from
d criminal, condemned TO death, his
own body, in order TO test animal
electric theories, and also with the
charitable intention of recalling the
hanged maB to life.
The motive for the intervention of
the gentlemen to whom we have re-
ferred in behalf of Moody, was even
stronger than that suggested by scien-
titc curiosity. By very many he was
deemed guiltless Of murder. A con
tessed thief, he p~ersistentiy asserted
that he was the victim Of q pefiured
william, who escaped the gallOWs by
becoming a witness for the proSecu-
ton. Even when the neck of the con-
vict has been broken the effect
Of the galvanic battery on
the body is terrific. The corpse
does not retQrn to life, but a
violent and conyulsiye respiration is
begOtten, the eye-lids open and
VulSed, and the face and features
Of the murderer, no longer obeying
any directing power of intellect, pre-
sent such strange, unearthly cOHtOr-
tons OF physi0gnOmy that the specta-
tors, as is said TO have occurred when
Moody was resuscitated, tainted with
horror, and wore only restrained from
running away by doors securely bar
red against all intruderS.
Two Of the city papers have advert
ed to vague rumOrs which asserted
the escape of Moody. In fact these
newspaper surmises may have given
origin TO the prevalent conviction
among cOlored people that Moody
still wanders abroad at might, A Doe
tor has assumed to know more of the (
matter than the dared to tell; but this
gentleman is quite as successful a hui
morist and practical joker as physi-
elan, and, as he recently proved, an
adrOit manager of a polite
al convention. Last Nednes-
day night there was a colored
prayer meeting in the Tenth Ward. /
Many blacks were assembled and re-
ligiOuS fervor was as strongly develop
ed as animal heat, The assemblage
was noisy and songs and prayers grew
and louder. A negro man en-
tered the doorway about ten o'clock.
sl0uched hat was drawn over his
eyes as he moved stealthily intoa seat.
The most eloquent of cOlored exhort-
ers was engaged in prayer, and the
congregation were bowed before the
altar. Those who occupied seats near
which the stranger had taken,
first began to leave the house. At first
they went out one by one; but the
story was soon whispered over the
house that Moody, the dead man, was
in the church, and gradually the
assemblage melted away.
When the deacon or elder arose up,
the silent unknown sat in solitude; a
few old men and women were near
the pulpit, bit the crowd had iueon-
fed. There was Titles sleep
that night in Chelsian African abodes.
There is a famous negreSs, we are told
by a policeman, known as Swayback
Bet, who frequents, as cook and
house servant, the northeastern dis
trict Of the city. She is reputed most
fearless, reckless and devilish. The
streets are her home, and moon and
stars light up heraccustomed domicil.
Swaybaek Bet is reformed. She at
tends church and sings and prays
earnestly at each prayer meeting.
she is suddenly and miraculously
changed. 1t is said that Bet saw
hanged, and standing not far
away was delighted by the exciting,
horrible, CHASTITY spectacle. Two
afterwards, as the story goes.