The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-12-27
From the Springfield Republican,
Mr.. Case wants the Eddy Platform
Rinned LIN.

am Just now in receipt OF an extract
from your paper, in which the late elm
genious exposure Of the Eddy's in the New
York Sun" is declared to be ga hoax, and,
on the authority of the Hartford Times, is
attributed to me. If any merritt attaches
to even an "ingenious" hoax, beg permits
sion to say through your columns that
am not entitled to it in this instance, for /
am not the anthor of the said Exposure,
and / possess no knowledge concerning its
authorship. But am not of those who
look approvingly upon ''hOax" Gf 1t be
such) like that of the Sun; for though
probably no austute reader, well informed
of the history of the phenomena at esprit
Vale" was deceived by the ''explosure" in
question, the great public was grossly
trifled with thereby-not- because it related
to a ''sacred" subject, but because in its
character as an ''ingenious hoax" it was
nothing lees Than n lie, and will tend, 1
suppose, to create in the end ''paying"
bound now to say have no confidence.
The Eddys are ingenious dogs" as subtle
and sagacious, in my opinion, as the Suns
expose declared them to be. They under
stand full well the value of advertising, and
in their management of Col. Olcott, for
example, exhibited an amount of business
diplomacy which would not have done dis
credit to Barnum or Bsmark (under
spiritual" circumstances). While it was
possible for them at any one of the 200 or
more seances at which the colonel 'assist-
ed" Gin the French sence) IN his three
months tarry with them, to put the
matter of the materializations " be-
You'd all question or doubt,-as fact or
fraud,-they nevertheless so deported them
selves, and so skillfully managed their busl-
ness, as to command through him the SER
vices of the Daily Graphic and the press of
the country during all that period, without
affording him any solution of their "mys-
teries." Even Childs, A. NJ, of the Phila-
delphia Ledger, and that 'truly good man,
Dea. Smith" of the Cincinnati Gazette,
were eclipsed by the Eddys' costless noto.
riety-all the result of those "dull farmers
artfully keeping the colonel constantly on
the borders of "the land of visions,' but
holding its actual soil go sacred that he
dared not touch foot thereon, but cast his
rapt eyes all the while into the varie-tinted
clouds which clicked the mystic atmos
phere" above il Pious, honest soul
| incline to think that every part of the Eddy
performance" is a deception, -with no
great element of science in it at best. When
made public, their manifestations will,
| have no doubt, be found simple in me-
chanism. Whether the Suns expose hit
upon the right theory or not, am not pre-
pared to entertain a positive opinion. But
this desire to say now, namely, that, not
withstanding | have profound confidence
in Col. Olcott's word, believing him to be
| an honorable man; and despite the certifi-
cate incorporated in Col. Olcott's book by
Mr.. Morrell of Chelsea "a man whom /
know, OF more than ordinary intelligence,
| and evidently honorable), j do not think
that they made such an inspection of the
Eddys' cabinet and the platform (uuder-
| meath both the same, as to be able to say
beyond all doubt that the cabinet floor can
not be let down few inches and run un-
der the platform as the Exposure" SAYS.
| For, il l am not mistaken, they were
obliged to ''steal OCCASION" and had but
few minutes, perhaps only few seconds,
to investigate the matter, and remember
distinctly the methods Of examination
which they suggested to me, on kindly
giving me opportunity to investigate lin
the absence of the Eddys-and on the same
occasion, as suppose; and those methods
ought not to have satisfied anybody. But,
| as you know, hold that the Eddy mira
Giles are by no means worthless, whatever
they are for they cast their light back
upon the pages of history, and serve to
| elucidate the cherished chicancry of the
past. So, whether honest men or cheats,
am compelled to regard the Eddy's as
valuable citizens'-and shall claim, sir,
that my contribution to the spiritualistic
literature of the times through your
columns in my ''long letter. of over year
ago regarding Esprit Vale" and the glores
thereof, is the ''best thing on the subject
Notwithstanding the Suns late ingenious
exposure') which has yet appeared in
| journal or book. Such, Mr.. Editor, is my
modest estimate of it-and the measure OF
my estimate, too, Of the great service
which you, sir, CONSIDERABLY rendered to
the bamboozled in general by publishing
it But it behooves somebody now to tell
us the truth about that Eddy cabinet--we
all began at the wrong end to ''inyesti-
gate" fear. Is there nobody in Rutland
brave enough to invade the Eddy home
stead peacefully of course) and find out
the truth? l.. w. CASE.
Washington, d. c., Dec. 10, 1875.