New-York tribune., 1874-12-26
in 1874 will mako as curious and increat Die
volume some day as this our old folio detI''
Gated to His Majesty Charles Rex.
THE GHOSTS SIDE.

The EHOSIS olDh.
We give place this morning to a commune
cation from Elder f. w. Evans. the head OF
the Shaker Community Of New-Lebanon, avow-
ing his implicit belief in Spiritualism and those
phenomena of it called by the name of mate
rialization. OF the number Of Spiritualists
whose opinions carry any weight, we know
none moro qualified to speak of the faith that
is in them than the Shaker Elder, unless 1t be
Mr.. Robert Dale Owen. We freely give to the
former, as we have given to the latter, the use
of our columns, to SCI forth any arguments
in arrest of the Judgment which the public
has passed upon the ""Katie King" per-
formances and others like them. Mr. Owen
is q man of learning, of high charao-
ter, of extensive acquaintance with prac-
tical matters. Mr.. Evans has for several ycars
administered with marked success the atfairs.
spiritual and temporal, of a singulary Interest,"
ing and mertoriOus body OF religious cntiu-
siasts. If there is anything to be said, upon
the Spiritualists' side, in regard to these recent
performances, we could not look to any Cie
more reasonably than to these gentlemen, for
a statement of the considerations which might
remove these exercises from tho sphere of
mere mountebank jugglery, and entItle them
Both of them have written fully to TIE
TRIBUNE, and we are compelled to say thao
neither has said word in arrest OF the gen.
eral judgment upon the mummery practiced
at Philadelphia and at the home OF the Eddys
in Vermont. Both Of them seem to think
that the word of a Esprit" is as good as that
of any one else, if not better. 1t is true that
Mr.. Owen, when he found that Nelson Holmes
was common swindler who had altered
check of f8 to E8O before leaving England.
began to have doubts of his true mediumship,
while Elder Evans expressly says that tho
personal honesty or dishonesty OF the medium
has nothing to Go with the faith to be gwen
to his utterlnces. And even Mr.. owen, af'ec
telling the story of Holiness villainy. quotes
with full assent the statement OF his Engllsh
informant, "Still the HOlmeses are powerful
mediums" Il has never occurred to either or
them as in tho least remarkable that tho
justified spirits of tho happy dead who are
permitted to revisit the earth should stay away
from the households where their presence
would be so consoling, and pass their evenings
in making faces out of cabinet for the sup
port of q low swindler WHO makes his living
with seances at a dollar q head.
The mind which can swallow this marvel can
believe anything. There is no use in talking
of tests to those who sit inside such circls
of mystic credulity. Father Evans says with
a sincerity which VIC venture to say Will not
be shared by any living medium, that doubt
ers who wish sign are free to lire bullets as
the materialized specters; but he adds warm
! ing which would Scarcely terrify many of the
children of this world, that unless you fire in
good faith the bullet may rebound and kill
you! Mr. Owen frankly admits the limitations
OF tests Unless you submit to the arbitrary
conditions imposed by the mediums (Slr. Owen
of course says, the sptrits), your investigation
must end. He is simply incapable of suspect
ing that the medium himself limits investiSa-
ton according to the requirements of his trick.
No believing Spritualst sees any incongruity
in tho statement of a feed medium that unless
you put yourself in position where you cam
not detect him, "the spirits won't work." To
men in that state of mind argument and de-
monstratiOn are equally idle.