Litchfield enquirer., 1877-12-06
Supernaturalisrn.


 Mr. L. V. Pnney, editor of the Winsted Press, has been having little experience as an independent investigator. It seems that Spiritnalism has good many adherents in that village and the noted medium, Mrs. Mary An drews, of Cascade, N. Y., has been recently holding seanees there at which theeditor of the Press diligently attended, and of which he has given a very full report in the last issues Of his paper. The meetings were held at the res idence of Mir. T. F. Grant on North Main St., as usual for the purpose of materiahzations Some thirty persona present
 As detailed in the Press, the performance of the first evening was perfectly absurd as a demonstration of any supernatural power on the part of the medium. At the second seance, therefore MT. Pinney asked Mrs. Andrews to allow him to tie piece of yarn to each of her wrists, he having hold of the other end of the strings thus attached, so that she could not move about the room without his knowledge.
 At this point he EPinney1 was interrupted by the medinm, who said quite tartly; Well, you can't do it; I'll put stop to that, right off" He continued by saying he had been given to understand that the medium objected to any change of conditions, but he desired to make known his request to the whole circle as well as the medium, thinking it might be ac- ceeded to if understood. Mrs. Andrews in a thoroughly angry voice broke in upon him once more saying, that smarter men" than hawas had attended her seances and never asked for anything of the kind She hadn't got to be Loo o,.l l1okfo He waited until she had finished and continued by assuring the medium that he meant no dis respect to her as woman, She interrupted again by saying it was an insult" and "a low concern" He emanaged to get in word about outside world to be convinced" but she cut him short by saying that nobody would believe him if he did say she didn't move. After she was throughly through he spoke again, and said he would hold the strings one evening and somebody else might the next and so on. He had not come there as 8 critic to find fault, or as a Spiritualist for an hours entertainment, but as an honest skeptic to investigate. That our readers may better judge of the ap parent reasonableness of the request made let us state again the situation of things. The eyes of all were completely blinded by the intense darkness, their hands were tied effectually, and during the singing, which occuuied most of the time, the sense of hearing was rendered useless for investigating purposes. Thefeet were also fettered if instructions were obeyed. The me- dium, stranger; sat alone, and untouched and was at liberty to move as she pleased. She might have danced a breakdown, declaring that a spirit did 1t, and nobody in the circle would have had the evidence of eyes, ears; touch, taste or smell to prove to himself that she spoke falsely.
 The medium was too angry at this most req sonable request to manifest" any further that evening. The Press continues to describe the performances of seven separate seances held by Mrs. Andrews, and all just as asunsatisfactory to any but the faithful as the first and second. MT. Pinney sums up the matter as follows: He would be very poor trickster indeed who could not take Mrs. Andrews place in these seances and produce every manifestation that we saw or heard. The pats, the lights, the voices, the different faces, the names, the raps, | and the Spirit conversation generally. AS we know by experiment, the dark curtain at the cabinet window alters the looks of the most fa- l miliar faces when they appear there, even in the glare of unscreened lamp light. Members of the circle went inside the cabinet and pre- sented their faces at the aperture M spirit. | We were astonished to find how little reliance could be placed upon the eyes Under such con- dtionS We have within a week attended sham materializing seance at | which phenomena in exact imitation of those | occurring at Mrs. Andrews light seances took place, and with the slightest disguises, such as we could carry in our vest pocket, three differ ent kinds of faces were produced not at all re- sembling in their dim outlipe the face of the operator.
 Nevertheless, the Press tells us that no soon- CT was the week of Mrs. Andrews original en- gagement closed than the enthusiastic Spiritu- | alists of Winsted engaged her another week, for another series of seGt,ces. It isevident from the manner in which the investigation propos- ed by the editor of the Press was repulsed that l Mrs. Andrews is a vulgar impostor, and the wonder is that educated men and women, na- tives of New England, can bs made hei dupes The evidence of Mir. Pinney is the less to be distrusted in this matter since he is counted in some sort Spiritualist himself believing that there is something in Spiritualism worthy of investigation, not as religion, but as 8 l br1nch of Science.