The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-12-23
A SPURIOUS GHOST.
from the New York Tribune ]

| The recent dismal error Of .Rr. Robert
Dale Owen in regard to the "Katie King
performances has its serious side for all Of US.
It shows not only how watchful we should
always be in regard to the details of what is
happening before us, but Sd, and still more
stronglyit demonstrates the deadly dang erthere
is in widening the limits of our credulity in
regard to spiritual things beyond the whole
some bounds prescribed by sound reason In
short, the opinion Of the mass OF intelligent
people is, that the dead do not come back to
this world If a man admits a doubt Of this
received opinion, it appears that nothing can
save him from q throng of phantasmal frauds
and possessions, SO grotesque and vulgar that
thew cannot be seen or related without exciting
emotions Of profound pity and disgust.
Take for instance this melancholy case of
Mr. Owen. With mind Of unusual activity
and caiber, with vigorous and retentive
memory, with a large experience of society
and affairs here and abroad, he is found to
have been at the mercy Of an impostor who
chose to devote few weeks of practice to
tricks Of legerdemain. It does not require
the marvellous skill and dexterity Of we'll
known showmen, like Hermann or Houdin, to
bring conviction home to such willing minds.
Nothing more than dark room with closet
| in one corner is needed for the evOcation OF
ghosts without limit. Last summer MIR.
Owen, in this state Of mind, pcedisposed to
believe anything provided it Was only impos-
sble, met pair of practitioners calling them
selves Mr.. and Mrs. Nelson Holmes. Among
| their performances the apparition OF female
called Katie King was included.
Mr. Owen was greatly edited by this, and
| applied to it every possible test, except those
which would have shown what 1t was he
| wrote for the January number OF the Atlantic
.lo..1, ,yfNy,r TN
article, establishing clearly in his own mind
the supernatural character of the performance.
| Nothing could be more impressive than the
| syllogistic form in which he embOdies his
| final conclusions. He says the only axiom to
be conceded is this: Human beings cannot
pass at will through the substance OF brick
wall or of stout wooden partition. 1T we
concede this which most people readily
enough concede though Houdin seems to do
things far more wonderfully, Mi. Owen thus
states his case--either Katie King was visi-
tant from another phase of being or conted-
crate introduced into the cabinet for purposes
OF deceit; but this was physical impossible
ity: I" therefore Katie, not being an inhabi-
tant of this world, was denizen OF another,
made visible to u.s. for the time, by some pro-
cess which has been called naturalization"
We would give very little thought to a man
who should go to a jugglers show and hear
him say, II am the Devil! can eat fire,
and apparently suit the action to the word,
and should then come home and give this as
the result Of his observations ''No man, I'M
less he is the Evil One, can eat fire and live;
Signor Trismegistus ate fire at Steinway Hall
and lived; therefore Signor Trismegistus is
the Evil One" If such man should after
ward happen to go into the dressing room and
see Mr.. Higgins putting on is false chin and
paunch to hold the live Goals of his infernsl
banquet, and should issue o card denouncing
Higgins as no true Satan, he would do pre-
cisely what Mr.. Owen has done.
He has found out that the Nelson Holiness
are what they must have been, and could not
help being and, like the perfectly honest and
truthful man that he is, has written to the
leading Spiritualist paper in the country, to
say that ''circumstantial evidence, which he
has just obtained, induces him to Withdraw
the assure noes which he has heretofore given
OF his confidence in the genuine character of
certain manifestations presented last summer,
in his presence, through Mr.. and Mrs. Nelson
Holmes. Dr.. Child, who has been Katie's
joint sponsor with mir. Owen, also refuses to
be any longer responsible for her ghostly in
tegrity.
There ara few ghost-hunters who have the
integrity and honesty Of Mr.. Owen, and few
therefore who come ont frankly and admit
the facts, when they discover that they have
been deceived. The trade Of ''mediumship'
is therefore likely to be reasonably good for
years to come. There are thousands of peo-
pie whose love Of the marvellous is not coun-
terbalanced by any sound notions of scientific
possibility or moral probability, who rarely
90 to church or to the theater, and to whom
a hushed sceance in the dark, with cheap
music and clasped hands. is delightful en-
tertainment. There is no way Of preventing
these people from enjoying themselves in
their own way.
1t is of no use to talk of bad taste or alb
surdity to these incapable Of perceiving
either, or to discuss probabilities with those
who admit no laws and no axioms, which do
not square with their own ill-regulated fam
cies. man who is too strong to believe in
Christianity, and yet who finds no difficulty |
in believing that spirits come out Of closet
and dance break-downs on a platform and
spin mosquito netting out OF the air, is
scarcely promising subject for argument.
To say that he disbelieves the Bible because
he cannot understand it, and believes in Katie |
King because he has seen her, simply shows |
that he is as vain Of the feebleness Of his
understanding as he is Of the blindness of his