Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-10-29

crowd who held to the opinion that physical
causes must be assigned for physical phe-
nomena, were inclined to the belief that
a huge and powerful magnet must be concealed
somewhere beneath the house. The reporter
passed the day among these exciting scenes and
returned, leaving the domestic instruction still
in progress. Mr.. Surrency entertained all COM
ers with true Georgia hospitality, refusing any
compensation, although some hundreds, it is
said, ate at his table during the two days, and
the preparation of food as well as the eating of
it, was process of extreme difficulty, since the
incoherent utensils had to he caught on the
wing, as it were, and restrained by main force
from their absurd antics while the cooking and
serving of meals was in progress. Most men
probably would have yielded 10 fate or whatever
capricious power had assumed the control Of
the household, but Mr.. Surrency, though baf
fled and harrassed, amid the wreck of furniture
and the crash of crockerv stood firm, like a
staunch old Georgia gentleman as he is, deter
mined not to be driven from bis own house by
natural or supernatural powers.
The editor of the Macon paper confesses him
self at loss to explain these phenomena. He
gives the names of many gentlemen, said to be
well known in that part of the state as witnesses
of the events he describes; he would have said
that the magnet theory of accounting for them
was untenable, because magnet does not at
tract wooden substances, but the whole affair is
so mysterious and perpleXing that his precon-
ceived opinions are seriously disarranged, and
he can only say that if magnet is the cause OF
this chattel Instruction, it must be different
kind of magnet from any he has ever heard of.
The supreme court of Illinois has attempted
an exercise of prerogative rarely ventured upon
by the courts of this country, in ordering the
proprietors of a Chicago newspaper to show
cause why they should not be punished for CON
tempt in crticisiug the granting by the court Of
a SttperSededS in the case Of a convicted and
sentenced murderer. Three judges had the good
sense to dissent from the views of theil
brethren of the bench. The proprie
tors of the paper are not probably much
alarmed, as indeed they have no reason
to be. Even judges, however arrogant and big
oted, and western judges seem quite as liable to
these fangs as those of the eastern states, be-
| come in time penetrated by a dim consciousness
that there is power stronger than their theo-
| ries of the law, to which they must yield or be
crushed by it. Any man who has inteli-
gence enough to be thought of as a judge ought
to know that the people of this country will not
consent TO have any public officer made exempt
from public criticism, nor to have the free ex-
preston Of opinion on any subject suppressed
in the summary and arbitrary manner the Hi
nos supreme court has chosen to try. Some OF
the ring judges in New York contrved two
years ago 10 have a law passed by the New
York assembly giving to judges the right 10
punish, as a contempt Of court, the publication
of matter deemed offensive, but as soon as the
nature of the act was known, it was met with
such an outburst of Indignation from the bar
and press, that Coy. Hoffman did not venture
to sign it. We venture to predict that the Hi
nos judges, finding they have stirred up hor-
nets nest, will be glad to retire from their
dangerous position.