Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-06-29
SPIRITUALISTIC SWINDLING.
The ArchangeI GabriePs Visits to a
PrOfeSsOr-WantS Of the Great Ce-
leStial Trumpeter.

The Archangel GabriePS Visits to a
PrOfeSsOr-WantS OF the Great Ce-
leStial Trumpeter.
The European mail reports Of June
LIST, announce that a certain NJ. Val
ente, of Naples, has been condemned
by the correctional court of that city
to six months imprisonment for
spiritualisticn swindling. This Val
ente, formerly an officer in the service
of his Bourbonic majesty, was, says a
Naples correspondent, the spiritual
medium of small but select gather
ing. Valente, when in his state of
eestatie coma, was favored by visits
from no less a person than the Arch
angel Gabriel, dignity whose celes-
tial functions do not, it seems, afford
him the means of making both ends
meet, for the burden of his song was
still that he wanted more money, and
the money was always forthcoming
and delivered to Valente for trans
mission to the Archangel, or to be
applied as he might direct. In this
way Valente became by degrees the
cashier of the society, and, incredible
as it may appear, the richest, softest
and most fervent adept, one AgillO
Braga, suffered himself to be stripped
by degrees of all his worldly posses
sions, being, however, duly rewarded
for his self-denial by the receipt of an
archangel diploma, comforting upon
him the dignity of Nuntius, or Grand
Master of the little community. VAL
ente had the keys of the money chest,
and when poor Braga wOnted q pocket
stamp, or two pence, to replenish his
snnff box, he had to prefer his request
in writing, for presentation to the
Archangel.
But while in the hey-dey of his
prosperity, Valente fell a victim to
the passion that rules the court, the
cottage and camp. In an evil hour
for him a widow lady, one Geronimo
Merici, in age somewhere upon the
confines of gorgeous summer and mel
low autumn, was admitted to the
members of the society. She was a
widow of recent date, and all her
thoughts were set on one object, to be
put in communion with the spirit of
her departed lord. The Archangel
was willing to arrange the matter
upon the payment of certain stipu-
lated fees, and at last, thanks to the
liberality of the widow and to the
intercessiOn of Valente, it was settled
that the visitor from the spirit world
should appear some night in the
lady's chamber, borrowing for the
nonce the terrestrial semblanee of
Valente himself. Enthralled Val
ente, in this thou reckonest with
out thy host. The widow hesitated,
suspected, and finally declined to re-
ceive her visitor except in a purely
ghostly and immaterial shape. Valen-
te, finding her inflexible on this point,
dropped upon his knees, confessed his
impOsture and the intensity of his
passion, and offered his hand and
f'rich booty" to the charming window,
on condition of her helping him to
make clean sweep ofwhat remained
in the pockets of the spirits commune
ty. Another and worse mistake
The lady betrayed him to Braga, who
after a severe internal struggle, opened
his feeble mind TO conviction and ap-
piled for a remedy. The trial, which
occupied some days, was full of anus
ing incidents. The court, in consid
Grafton of the temptation afforded to
the swindler by the colossal stupidi-
ty of his dupes, took lenient view of
the case and sent Valente to prison
for six months, with the addition of a
fine of fifty-nine francs