The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1872-03-30

I'll speak to thee r'-Shal-.
In an upper room in this city, not over a stones
throw from the court house, meetings are held
each Sunday evening, under the auspices Of
uotability knownsas the "Snap Doctor These
gatherings spirituastic. Last Sunday even
ing, reporter of the FREE TRADER, having dur
ing the day visited several res..your-aunts, was
naturally enough spiritually inclined, and deter.
mined to visit the place in question. Finding
the door locked, he applied his knuckles to i.
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" This door, however, being
| opened wide enough TO give our reporter a
glimpse of q vender of material spirits within,
the janitor was referred to him as to the general
soundness of our reporter On spiritual things
by which mangavre. after some noise and c9niu-
sion, our reporter gained ingress, and, like Tom
Sayres, 'came up smiling" to the side of hi. ma
terial friend in the shadow of whose pertly form
he felt safe
| The believers were sitting in circle with
hands clasped. The sexes were. as far as practl.
cable, alternated-a pleasant and convenient ar.
raugement FOR general hsnd-squeezng. But this
did not seem to conduce TO their hsrity, for
their faces were very dsnupe, and the only PEG.
pie who seemed to be happy were the un0elievers
along the wall. The "crcle' 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
fingers OF the sp,rit of the lsmented Rye of Ken.
| lucky. The centre of the circular space was oc.
eupied by table, 1t which sat two women and
man with = child on his knee. Round these wsd.
died low.sized, beetle browed, thck.eet man.
This was th' presiding genius. This the
'Snappi.t'
| The two women 1T the table were mediums"
! That may not be the correct plural for "med.
UNI |. has been above said that spiritual VIC.
men are generally asgul.r. One Of the mediums
was nuchly-in fact. was decidedly hornelv
the other WAS otherwise To roundness OF figure,
aracteristc Of the Vesus de Medicis she added
that full. plump development OF form which is
usually deemed attractive in Ncnuses that are
not made Of marble. She wore gay gleen dress,
| cut so So 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.screw ringlets. When che stood up,
she always had one little foo, advanced so as to
CLINT Of the stocking to be suggestive. During
the ssance she was addressed by the ghoul Of the
ring as Dr. though it was not stated for what
| ills 20 which flesh ~ heir she prescribed the
medicaments 1t is needless to add she was
the trump.ca-d Of the evening. She was
evidently considered by all. believers and un.
by the m.les-to be a
well developed medium" The "Snappist" had
OF course, the bes, opportunity of any present 10
7 1av IN h,.. LILO ~; h.
time to time by sundry little attectiona.e taps
on her neck, shoulders. &c.
Our reporter sn1ously awaited the promised
manifestations" which, however. seemed loath
20 come. In vain, for some time did the pre.ii.
ing gross mountain of flesh make nnumerable
passes around the mediums. So slow, indeed.
were the tests" in coming that the Snappiss'
said. l. make some excuse, their tsrdiness was
owing to the presence OF " unbelievers," but he
declared he Was surrounded by influences in the
Air that would ovecome it, and added, with
threstning witch up of his coat sleeves and
scowl at the pleasantly beemng face sf the re-
porter, that he was man of muscle This
made the diminutve reporter quail, and, at the
same time decreased bis 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.
g,nt These became more violent: then she
arose and, with first enc foot and then another
we'll advanced and displayed, as aforesaid. sd-
dressed the meeting in a coarse voice, with much
swayins of the body aud arms, and loud clap
ping OF the hands. The speech. if worthy ef
being so called, Was mostly TRADE of abuse di.
rected against the unbelievers" present who |
were disturbing the spirits She said the Ghou
the man who did the patting pa-t 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 ngsinst spiritu.lism. 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 atrocious grammar, and, to make the Ian. |
guage and sense III any more obscure, faintest
attempts at rhyme-a long way after Pope
were tangled into the har~ngue.
This finished, and while paying mysterious
attentions to the other medium, abe was sud.
denly "possessed" with another d, spirit,
which was pronounced to be Isdisn. Under its
power she j.bberel the lingo which, in sen.cent
novels, ia considered the favorite method Of
speech of 1.-THE noble red man of the forest"
She assured the prototype of Fnlstaff she va. al.
wsys with him-a fact which few doubted.
Her demonstrations ended, the other medium,
who wss stated 70 have been such for fourteen
years. bat had never before appeared in public.
began to show sigaa Of influence. The two
"Drs" vigorously pAtted her, and she wrote
something called Communication" The way
in which it va written iorcibly reminded one of
the game of dot, in which lot Of people round
. table try TO make ~ many single dots as
words uttered by = reader or speaker. The
{" message" wss Subsequently read by the medi.
um in the green Dress but was pronounced to
be un.iy ned, which awkward fact wne, OF course,
~ % Nf hA ,,Oh alt