Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-12-23
After.Thought, and the Trfekery
OF Livingston.
To the Editor Of the Ledger;

An After.ThougRt, and the Trfckery
OF Livingston.
To the Editor of the Ledger,
Will you permit me TO offer some
structures on your editorial Of yesterday
touching spiritualism and the conduct Of
Livingston2 As soon as it was announced
10 the daily Journals that a stranger,
coming without letters of recommends
ton 10 spiritualists, etc, would exhibit
in the theater, the most prominent spirit
ualists warned those whom they CHANGED
TO meet not TO patropize this Livingston,
who had been denounced by the spiritual
journals Of the North. You say Brother
Watson and other sp~iritualists" did not
wait until shs 'frasd was exposed II
was not "at a little meeting that |
warned Inc people against Livingston,
but to the largest intellectual congrega-
ton assembled on Sabbath morning in
the city at the close of Mr.. PEBBLES
lecture in the Assembly Hall. stated
then what the Spiritual Scientist Of Bos-
ton and the Religo-P Philosophical Jour
nal Of Chicago said of this man Living
ston. thereby clearing our skirts Of all
responsibility in the matter. Aud | AM
eredibly informed hat there was hardly
a sprinkling of spiritualists ia the thea
ter. Investigators, thinkers and spirit
ualists, with scarcely an exception, were
at the Assembly Hall listening to Mr..
PEBBLES. Colonel McRea was told by an
old citizen at the theater that | had
pronounced Livingston a humbug, and
that be ought not to have gone. Living
ston has not been before the public
many months" and yet he has been be-
fore the public long enough to be
denounced by spiritual papers, which the
press of this city ought to have known
and published, thus preventing so many
Of our citizens from being swindled.
My spirit friends have higher employ
ment than advising" about "impos-
tors" Your reference to my warning
the truly faithful s~piritualists are OF
age and can speak and investigate for
themselves, and require no babyish
guardianship from me or any one. In
saying that $50 long as fraud sustains
itself they let it alone" you do personal
injustice to me. to your peers and TO
many influential religious-minded citi-
zens of Memphis not avowed spiritual
lists. Your assertion that exposures
are never made by s%piritualists them
selves" is not in harmony with the his
tory Of exposures l have heard Of
many exposures (so-called), n of
which | will mention. The LEDGER pub
lished an expose Of Mrs. Miller nearly
two years since, written by Captain
Gift, who never witnessed any Of the
manifestations occurring at her n
But when | invited the editor Of the
LEDGER to come to my house with the
two gentlemen Of whom he spoke, and |
would 20 with them to see Mrs. Miller,
they publishing what occurred, they
never came. When | saw the Doctor
and urged him to come he replied that
he never authorized Gift to write that
article, and be declined my proposition.
Did not Robert Dale Owen and DR..
Child, old sp~iritualists, expose the
Holmes in the Katie King affair to
which you refer2 Nor was this the oc-
casion Of his going crazy" as you are
pleased to call 1t, out the oYertaxlng
Of his mentality, which, as soon as he was
relieved from it, was restored and has been
for several months enjoying the full
vigor Of his powerful mental capacity.
The fact is, s%piritualists have more at
stake than anyone else in this matter.
They are as anxious to expose frauds as
they are to enlighten the ignorant and
disseminate the principles of genuine
spiritualism, which demonstrates a fu-
ture existence and encourages Christian
endeaYor. Perhaps if the editor of the
LEDGER knew the structural relations
between the modern. cabinet and the
{" Mosaic ark be would not write SO
glibly about the " clap-trap" Of cabinet
performances. Every argument brought
] against genuine spiritual gifts aud
manifestations is a deadly thrust at the
spiritual marvels of the Bible and tenn
PIE Of Christianity. | am, yours for
truth, SAMUEL WATSON.
P. ST. will accept your proposition
to visit Mrs. Miller upon condition that
you publish what C S. w.