The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1879-07-03


Thursday, -: 3: July 8, 1879.
Intensely Dissussing and Scandal.
The eccentricities of Col. Ike Eaton, of Leav-
enwOrth, have, for some time past, attracted At
tention. An explanation is now furnished. The
fellow is insane. But we don't know that, either
"A crazy man would get up story with more
method in it, than the one lie has just INDUCED
in, and would doubtless exhibit more respect for
one of his own flesh and blood, who died in in
infancy, almost at birth, We may say. Eaton is
afflicted with that dangerous species of insanity
called Spirtualism-the more dangerous, because
law and public opinion have not yet reached the
point to conine all afflicted with it to lunatic
asylums, and therefore it is allowed to run at
large, and propagate ITSELF and call itself relis
ion.
But let us give summary of the disgusting
business. Eaton and his wife are now old, and
have been married many years. They have
had but one child, daughter, born in the year
1s45. 1t was necessary to use instruments in
assisting the birth, from the effects of which the
child died 1t the age Of three weeks. Eaton has
recently been consulting . spiritualistic fraud
in Missouri, calling himself Professor Mott, and
another in New York, named Slade. Among
them, they got up spirituslistic wedding be-
tween their dead child and a son of President
Franklin Pierce, who was killed by railroad
accident, just before Pierce came into Office.
This wedding came off at Leavenworth, on the
Goth of June. Mott ensconced himself in q pan
try, to do the pow-wowing; guests were invited;
plates were set for the spirit bride and groom;
and then they went through the Dissertation of
the memory of two dead children-even assert
ing that they saw and spoke with them. The
Temes publishes full accounts of the affair, with
all the solemnty as if it believed in it, instead
of denoHncing the disgusting business as it
should.
The vomiting part of the account, is a CON-
munication written by Eaton himself, giving q
pretended full history of how the whole thing
came about. Being on visit to a medium, his
daughter introduced herself to him, made her.
self known, and proved her identity. Then =
long spiritualistic conference ensues, in the
course of which the daughter tells him she has
o beau, and is soon to be married He impor-
tunes her, until she informs him that her in
tended is Bennis Pierce, and they come to him
together, in q materialized form, to ask his COR
sent !-as if that made particle of difference.
Then Eaton writes letter to the spirit of
Emanuel Swedenborg, asking him to perform
the ceremony. Old Emanuel consents, visits
the couple, compliments them upon their five
appearance, and announces that he is "booked"
for the job. This pretended correspondence ex-
poses the thinness of the whole thing, if any ex-
posures were necessary. Be it remembered,
that the infant died at the age of three weeks,
and went thus to the Spirit Land. She appears
to Eaton as q young lady. Now, if spirits grow
at all, they would grow year by year, the same
as bodies grow in this word and if that youn
babe-spirit grew to womanhood, instead of sp-
pearing as blooming young lady, she should
have appeared as an old maid, already wrinklsd
and faded. And, having gone to the Spirit Land
so young, her entire training and education was
the work of the angels of God. Now, assuming,
for the sake of argument, that Spiritualsm is
true, We insist that angels selected by God to
train and educate young spirits, understand the
common rules of Grammar and language, and |
arc not given to slang. But this young lady, SO
trained and educated, writes letters filled with
execrsble grammar, miserable in style, and full |
of present day slang. We may say the same of
old man Swedenborg, who was an educated, pi- |
ous man, in bis day. But he INDUCES in very |
bad grammar, and in modern slang. In fact, all |
these spirits write in the exact style of Ike |
Eaton himself! His poorly constructed romance |
might be pardoned, if he had not made his own |
dead the butt of 1t.
To put the climax of disgust on the whole mat |
ter, II. ID. Macksy, an officer in n defunct Insur-
ance Company, comes out in an "interview, !" en- |
dorsing the story. He says he was there, saw |
the performance, and saw and talked with the |
bride and groom. He has also seen a number of |
spirits of former Leavenworth people, and as
certained secrets from them but it seems that |
meme of them gave him any information for the
benefit of the stockholders of his insurance COM
pany.
We should not omit to state that Eaton gives /
n long list Of invited spirit guests who were
present at the wedding-most of them Demo-
Gratis in good standing. There were Franklin
Pierce, wife and family, Wilson Shannon and
wife, Levi Woodbury., Isaac HILL Reverdy john
son, Martin VanBuren, Joshua Atherton, Eman-
uel Swedenborg John and Charles Wesley,
Stephen A. Douglas, Felix Grundy, James X.
Polk and wife, (the latter OF whom is still liv-
ingD and number of relatives and friends of
the family. Winfield Scott, Zachary Taylor,
and Rufus Choate, were the leading men
present belonging to the Opposition" Major
Ben. Gale was also there. Gen. jackson was
slighted.
We say nothing about numerous cOntradc-
tory statements, and several fbs and false
prophesies of the young lady, lest We might cast
doubt upon the narrative!
The OLD OLD SToRY.-Now comes the report
that owing to drought, the crops have failed in
half q dozen or more Counties in Sou tn Western