The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1875-01-01
= spurious GhONt.


II New York Tribune.
II The recent dismal error of Ri
Robert Dale Owen in regard TO til
t''Katie King" performances has il
FERROUS side for ali of US. 1t show
not only how watchfnI we shoulC
ALWAYS be ia regard TO the detail
of " hat is happening before us, bu
also, ana still more strongly, IL dem
illustrates the deadly danger there il
in widening The limits of cur ere
dulity in regard to spiritual thing;
beyond the wholesome bounds pre-.
tecFibed by sound reason. In short
the opinion of the mass of iutelii-
gent people is that the dead do not
come back to this world. Ii 3 man
admits a doubt of this received
Iopinion, it appears that nothing can
save him from thrOag of phantas-
NAL frauds and possessions, sy gro
tesque and vulgar that they cannot
| be seen or related without exciting
emotions of profound pity and dis
4 gust, Take for instance this melan-
choly case of Mr.. Owen. With a
i mind of unusual activity and cali
Der, with q vigorous and retentiVe
| memory well stored with classical
and modern literature, with a large
experience OF society and affairs
heFe ana abroad, he is found to
have been at the mercy of an i'm
postor who chose TO devote 8 few
weeks ofpractice TO tricks of leger-
demain. It does not requite the
marvellous skill and dexterity of the
well known Snowman like Herr
man or Houdin to bring conviction
| home to such willing minds. NoIh-
ing more than dark room with a
| closet in one corner is needed for
the evocation of ghosts without linn
1t. Last summer, Mr.. Owen, in this
state of mind, predispOsed to be-
lieve anything provided it was only
impossible, met pair of practition-
ers calling themselves Mr.. and Mrs.
Nelson Holmes. Among their per-
formances the apparition of q fe-
male called Katie King was includ-
ed. Mr.. Owen was greatly edited
by this, and applied to it every pos
sible test, except those which would
have shown what it was. He wrote
for the January number of the At
lantic Monthly a singularly ingen-
ius and careful article, establishing
clearly in his own mind the super
natural character of the perform
ance. Nothing could be more i'm
pressive than the syllogistic form
i'll which he embodies his final con-
illusions. He says the only axiom
TO be conceded is this: Human be-
ings cannot pass at will through the
substance of brick wall or of
stout wooden partition. five con-
cede this (Which most people will
readily enough concede, though
lIoudin seems to do things far more
wonderfully. Mr.. Owen thus states
his case; either Katie was a
visitant from another phase of
being or a confederate intro
duced into the cabinet for
purposes of deceit; but this was a
physical impossibility: "therefore,
Katie, not being an inhabitant of
this world, was denizen of anoth-
er, made visible to us, for the time,
by some process which has been
called liberalization"
We should give very little
thought to u man who should go to
a jugglers show and hear him say,
81 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 OBJ
servations: "No man, unless 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 a man should afterwards go
into the dressing-roOm and see Mr..
Hi0Ofnn nnfftnn nm hf5 uhS,,
and paunch to hold the live Goals of
his infereal banquet, and should is
sue q card denOuncing Higgins as
no true Satan, he would do precise
ly what Mr.. Owen has done. lie
has found out that the Nelson
Holmescs are what they must
have been, and could not help be-
ing, and like the perfectly honest
and truthful man that he is, has
written 10 the leading Spiritualist
paper in the country to say that
"circumstantial evidence which he
has just obtained, induces him to
withdraw the assurances which he
has heretofore given of his conf
dence in the general character of
certain manifestations presented
last summer, in his presence,
InTOuSH MT duu NFS. nelson
Holmes" DIR. Child, who has been
Kstie's joint sponsor with Mr..
Owen, also refuses TO be any long
er responsible for her ghostly integ-
rity.
There are few ghost-hunters who
have the integrity and honesty of
Mr.. Owen, and few, therefore, who
come out frankly and admit the
facts, when they discover that they
have been deceived. The trade of
"mediumship" is therefore likely
to be q reasonably good one for
some years to come. There are
thousands of people whose love of
the marvellous is not counterbalanc-
ed by any sound notions of scien-
tific possibility or moral probabili-
ty, who rarely go to church or to
the theater, and to whom 8 hushed
seance in the dark, with cheap mu-
sic and clasped hands, is q delight
full entertainment. There is no
way of preventing these people
from enjoying themselves in their
| own way.