The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1872-03-30
AMONG THE SPIRITS.
Masked Niu(ldIed ManifesiaiiSn .'.
SSAPPIS,i AT 40 lie.
"Be thou a spirit ec health, or goblin dam ed

I'll speak TO thee --Saal..
In an upper room in this city, not over stone 5
throw from the court house, meetings are held
each Sunday evening, under the auspices of a
notability knownsas the "Snap Doctor" These
gatherings are spiritualistic. Last Sunday even
ing, sreperter of the FREE TRADER, having dur
ing the day visited several rest.your-aunts, was
naturally enough spiritually inclined, and deter
mined TO visit the place in question. Finding
the door locked, be applied his knuckles to it
with such vigor that his summons was answered
by the Cerberus within, who denied admission
because, as at popular theatres, there was "not
even standing ROOM" Tbs door, however, being
opened wide enough to give our reporter a
glimpse of a vender of material spirits within,
the janitor was referred to him to the general
soundness of our reporter on spiritual things
by which maneavre, after some noise and coniu-
sion, our reporter gained ingress, and, like Tom
Sayres, "came up smiling" to the side of his ma.
terial friend, in the shadow of whose pertly form
he felt safe.
The believers were sitting in circle with
hands clssped. The sexes were. as far as practl-
rangement TOR general hsnd-squeezing. But this
did not seem to conduce to their hilsrity, for
their faces were very dsnupe, and the only peo-
pie who seemed TO be happy were the uuoelievers
along the wall. The "circle' wa. composed of
angular women-these spiritual women are gene.
rally angulsr-snd vacant looking men, each Of
the latter being evidently in want of about four
hugers OF the spirit Of the lamented Rye Of Ken
lucky. The centre of the circular space was oc.
eupied by table, 1t which sat two women and
man with y child on his knee. Round these wsd-
died low.sized, beet!e-browed, thick.set man.
This was tho presiding genius. This Was the
'Snappi.t'
The two women vt the table were mediums"
That may not be the correct plural for "medi.
um" 1t has been above said that spiritual VIC.
men are generally angular. One Of the mediums
was so muchly-in fact was decidedly homely
the other was otherwise. To roundness OF figure,
Characteristic Of the Verus De Medicis, khe added
that full. plump development of form which is
usually deemed attractive in Vcnuses that are
not made Of marble. She wore CAV q cen dress,
cut so IS to show the throat well, with broad
faring pink bow at the BOSOM while = narrow
ribbon Of the same Elaring color confined her
short cork..crew rinelets. When she stood up.
abe always had one little foo. advanced so as to
display q very low slipper with just sufficient
CLINT of the stocking to be suggestive. During
the se1ncs she was addressed by the ghoul Of the
ring Is" d. though it Was not stated for what
ills 70 which flesh IL heir she prescribed the
medicaments 1t 10 needless TO add she was
the trump.ca-d OF the evening. She was
evidently considered by all, believers and un.
bel'evers,-especially by the m.les-to be q
"well.developed medium" The "Snappist" had,
OF course the best opportunity of any present 70
demonstrate hi. appreciation, which he did from
time to time by sundry little sfectiona,e taps
on her neck, shoulders. &c.
Our reporter an1iously awaited the promised
" m .nifestations." which, however. seemed loath
70 come In vain, for some time did the pre.id-
ing gross mountain Of flesh make nnumerable
passes around the mediums. So slow, indeed.
were the tests in coming that the "Snappis.'
said, l. make some excuse, their tsrdiness was
owing to the presence of "unbelievers" bu. he
declared he Was surrounded by influences in the
Air tina. would ovecome it, and added, with a
.hrestning witch up of his coat sleeves and a
scowl at the pleasantly beeming face Of the re.
porter, that he was q "man of muscle" This
made the dminutlve reporter quail, and at the
same time, decreased his belief in the Wanted
prowess of the aerial influences.
After much ado, the medium in the pink bow
began to indulge in certain jerks and uneasy
witches, which were more expressive than ele.
gtnt. These became more violent; then she
arose and, with first one foot and then another
we'll advanced and displayed, as aforesaid. sd.
dressed the meeting in coarse voice, with much
swayins of the body aud arms, and loud clap.
ping Of the hands. The speech. if worthy Of
being so called, Was mostly TRADE of abuse di.
rected against tho unbelievers' present v ho
were disturbing the spirits She said the Ghoul
the man who did the patting part of the per.
formance-was going TO have trouble, which
was undoubtedly true, seeing that, at the time,
"Old Grimes" was not dead, but advertised to
appear this week agsinst spirituslism. Under
whatever spiritual influence she may have been
laboring, it is certain it could not have been 'the
ghost of Lindley Murray" for never was heard
such atrocioas grammar, and, to make the Ian.
guage and sense III any more obscure, fantest
attempts at rhyme-s long way after Pope
were tangled into the har~ngue.
This finished, and while paying mysterious
attentions to the other medium, abe was sad.
denly "possessed" with another d. spirit, |
which was pronounced to be I.disn. Under its
power she j.bbsrel the lingo which, in ten.cent
novels, ia considered the favori,e method of
speech Of "the noble red man of the forest"
She assured the prototype of Falstsff she was al.
ways with him.-s fact which few doubted.
Her demonstrations ended, the other medium,
who was stated to have been such for fourteen |
years, bat had never before appeared in public.
began to show sigss Of influence The two
" Drs." vigorously patted her, and che wrote
eoineth hing called n Communication" The way |
in which it was written iorcibly reminded one of
the game Of dot, in which lot OF people round |
= table try TO make 40 many single dots as
words uttered by y reader or speaker. The
" message wss subsequently, read by the medi.
UNI in the green dress, but was pronounced to
be unsigned. which awkward fact wne, Of course,
NN.st 49, Nh.ss kalsa