The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1874-12-30

Mr.. Robert Dale Owen has found a
veritable ghost. He has been look
ing for one many years, and his efforts
have at last been crowned with sue
cess. More than this, he has dispell-
ed . quite popular delusion on the
subject Of ghosts in general. It is
commonly supposed that they are
airy, floating, and-not to put too fine
a point upon it-flimsy creatures; but
he has proved that they are good,
solid flesh and blood, capable of board
ing At . Philadelphia boarding house,
and getting their mocey's worth out
o. such viands rs the landlady sets
before them.
The way the matter came about was
peculiar. Mr.. Owen heard that q
ghost which, under the name of Katie
King, had appeared to sundry spiritists
in England, was also to be seen, for q
pecuniary consideration, of course, at
certain place in philadelphia.
Thither, in company with . fellow
ghost hunter-one Chllds, not Childs,
A. NJ, Of the carbolic salve and Phil
adelphia Ledger, but . Dr.. Childs-
did Owen resort. His subsequent
wonderful experiences he narrates at
length in the Atlantic Monthly, and
his story is supplemented by the sub
sequent Investigations of an anony-
nous experimenter. whose results
have been published in the Philadel-
phia newspapers.
The scene of the aparition was a
parlor on the second story Of . small
house in Ninth street, near Arch,
over a musical instrument shop. In
a hack corner of the parlor was a
walnut cabinet, seven feet wide and
eight feet high--Mr. Owens precision
in the matter of these dimensions
proving the scientific exactness of his
mind-with a door that opened into
the parlOr, and two apertures, FIVE
and six feet high respectively, boil,
curtained with black cloth. Light,
dim, but sufficient, Mr.. Owen says, to
enable him to recognize faces and see
everything that went on, was furnish,
ed BY a shaded lamp. After he and
Childs had examined the apparatus,
the medium-as the keeper Or agent
Of performing ghosts is now a-days
called-entered tho cabinet, shut him
sell in, and the exhibition began. Il
was repeated, with variations, even
ing after evening, for the benefit OIL
Mr.. Owen and his friends, and a Sc.
lection, only, of the marvels that oc.
Cured, fills several pages of the At
lantic.
The leading feature at every one o.
the exhibitions described by Mr.
Owen was, as we have said, a solic
flesh and blood ghost. Not only wa.
its face seen at the windows, but i
stepped down and out of the door O
the cabinet into the room and allowed
itself to be examined by the wonder
ing spectators. In appearance it wa,
sometimes q young woman of cighteel
years of age, with features Grecial
in their regularity, grayish blue eyes
and golden hair, and wearing whit
robes; sometimes a'young Indian girl
clad in q rich dark jacket, black leg
gins and embroidered moccasins
sometimes man of middle age with
beard and mustache, and sometimes
lad dressed sailor. boy fashion. NJ,
Owen took hold of the ghosts han,
and found it, like that Of a morta
woman, nearly OF the same tempera
ture as his own, and slightly mois,
He also, to use his own words, passe
his left arm gently round her and sus
tained her left arm, bare from tn
elbow, in his right hand. To tn
touch her garments and her perso
were exactly like those of an earthl
creature. She even cut off and CAV
him bits of her dress, which, with
lock of her hair he still possesses, an
which, he says, after . lapse of fou
months, have not melted away. Sh
also went through the process q
fading out and reappearing, like
dissolving view of . magic Lantern
dwar6ng and enlarging Der appareu
size all the way between eightee
inches and her full height. She spok,
took sundry gifts of jewelry into he
hands. and kept them, and in othe
ways behaved exactly like an ordir
ary woman. On one occasion 4 ras
spectator offered to kiss her, bu
when she next appeared her pale an