The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1874-12-31

EAnrzhay. ........::;.. .Decemoof 81, 80.
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From the Philadelphia Enquirer]
KATIE KING.
a BURSTED BUBBLE.
a Full and Complete Exposure Of a Misera:
BILE SWindle = Facts from an Original
Source
For upward of year there has been more OF
less excitement in this city over what has been
designated as the. NATURALIZATION OF the Spirit
performances of '.Katie King" though the So
called mediumship OF Il man named Holmes and
his wife, of whom little is known except that
they have evidenced keen faculty of making
the spiritual business pay. The katie King
show was introduced into this city last spring,
and at first was visited only by those Of known
spirtualistio principles and tendencies. Gradu-
ally it 'slrew,'' Us it was judio,,sly advertised,
not through the public prints, but, for such aa
enterprise, in a more effective manner. AS the
attraction began to take, fancy prices OF adj
mission were charged, as for seat at the gilt
edged opera, and this seemed to serve only to
increase the attendance, the latter including
persons Of all classes and stations, from the
Vice President of the United States to the Curl
ous-minded ward politician. The success Of
the scheme was beyond the hope even OF the
projectors. The aearne ana unlearned, rich
and poor, refined Id rude nightly crowded the
rooms il. which the seances Were given. All
WAC witnessed the manifestations talked about
them to friends and acqua;ntances, who were
in turn induced to go, and the name of '.Katie
King" became almost household word. Cen
orally the appearance Of the ''spirts" at the
seances was pretty clevery managed, and even
if there were defects they could not be very
readily detected, as but little light was permit
ted in the room. Persons who were known to
be Of the spiritualistic faith were placed near
est the cabinet to prevent any unpleasant tab
leaux not counted OH, such as might have been
scallseu by any one boldly catching hold OF the
ssmaterialized spirit'' and insisting on her leav-
ing the room by the door.
By this process sudden and successful ex-
posture was batfied. Many who desire to get
at the bottom OF the hum@ug were. unabled or
unwilling to do so because of the cost OF repeat
eddy attending the seances and because, even
if they would, very little opportunity was given
them to do so. Finally, however, a gentleman
in this city, possessed Of time and means,a cool
head and q clear mind, determined to trace the
matter out. He did SO most successfully, and
from him our representative obtained the fol
lowing facts concerning his operations and
their results;
ON THE TRIAL.
This gentleman visited these seances on sew
eral occasions. and was disposed to look at the
matter more from Il scientific standpoint than
otherwise. He discovered one evening what
lie supposed to be rather a singular characters
tic OF q ''naterialized" spirit Qnite number
of spirits had made their presence known by
different manifestations. '.Dick, Rosa, Ann.
and the italian Lady, performed in the dark
seances each in their peculiar style, but the
most attractive and the one producing the great
est sensation was
''KATIE KING" ALIAS ANNIE MORGAN,
A maiden lady, upward Of two hundred years
Of age, as she stated but still having all the at
fractions of youth and beauty, in appearance
hot over twenty years Old Katie had many aa-
mrers among both sexes; all the pretty paines
such as darling, angel, pet, &C., were lavish
ed upon her, while the adjectives ''oeautiful, -
splendid" glorious" &C., were bestowed
without limit. Many we'll IN apipg lady re-
ceived her with the kind greeting, sGod bless
you, you lovely creature"
The gentleman above referred to failed to see
how spirits could cover themselves with flesh
and blood-in fact, to him such thing stands
not with the prospect Of belief" bat he is still
willing to be convinced # facts sufficient exis-
ted.
One evening, when in proximity to Katie, he
ascertained she had bad breath, which produ-
cell rather an uilfavorable impression, but still
he reflected that a lady who had been dead two
hundred years ought to have baddlsh breath,
and he was unwilling
To bear the tidings OF calamity,
Like an unreasonable stormy day,
70 others, and for the time remained quiet; in
other words. ,s'suDuttea to the conditions" inn
posed upon all visitors Of the spiritual sanetun.
Believing that ''hesh and bleed can not enter
the kingdom of heaven" and too gallant to be-
lieve that Miss King was spiritually in ''tother
place. the aforesaid gentleman concluded that
Katie must be ito tbs manner born.''
IDoLIzED.
The admirers of Katie were neither few nor
far between. In fact, the young lady had been
loaded with presents rings, lockets, pearl
crosses. beads love-letters, &c, had been freely
bestowed. No modern belle or acknowledged
beauty could have received more attention
than did Katie
A number of those who come under her in
f1uence got to writing poetry in her honor,
some Of it by what Spiritualsts call impression.
Some OF this poetry was gust as Wretehee as
could possibly be put together by presumably
sane people. The following is q sample:
''Oh gather round and let US sing
The praises of sweet Katie King,
Who, from her bright and happy sphere,
Comes smiling to us mortals here.
'CaoRUs-Then with glad voices let all sing
The praises OF sweet Katie King"
Although the evidence OF the ''machine-
make verse are in the above, many of the
.otEer lines are much worse as to time, senti-
ment, metre and rythm. Many OF the sudden
~ made poets were formerly Intelligent men
and women, who will, probably, after reading
what follows, return to their senses.
s.yATIE,, DIsAppEAPs
Things were going ON smoothly money was
flowing into the Golfers of the ''fnediuins," and
Aatie's friends were jubilant at the number of
converts daily being made to tile cause OF
spirit naturalization )" but suddenly with
out warning, Katie disappeared. Night after
night her devotees assembled to welcome her
return. The "mcdium'' with plaintive voice
sang II am coming, am coming;'' but she
did not come. Various were the reasons as
signed. Some said: .'she was offended ;sf iil-
kind remarks that had been made about ller.a'
The s'nediums" said that ''some rude fell
lows had entered the cabinet and taken all the
magnetism out; and, furthermore, that Katie
had assembled to a higher sphere and ex-
hausted her strength; Others were unclarita-
Bile enough to say that Katie Was on strike. y
FURTHER RESEARCHES
In the meantime the gentleman who was
seeking knowledge under difficulties had been
making extraordinary exertions to find her
daily Whareabouts her boarding,
house. Little by little he quietly picked I'D in,
formation that enabled him to find young la
dy whom he thought We. y much resembled IA