Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-01-28
The Purchase OF the RAILROAD

Before the war, when railro aiding was in
its infancy, there lived in OF the Northwestern
disposition sile.t and seeretiye as to business mat
| tiers, and generally uDconmunicative. He was
railroad corporation because Of these very quail
ties, and was intrusted with all the 'tnside bus-
ness OF the company which was made up OF Just
the laws, and ill the Offices. IL was q speculation
that was TO be worked up with such care 20 be-
| said, confidential clerk, and was therefore in
trusted with the private papers and correspo pond
ence of the com psuy, and was possessed of all the
secrets and intentions OF its leading members
Just as the civil war broke out he died, after
brief Illness, of a local fever Of severe tyne
His demise was so sudden that he had no time 10
turn over bis papers or make report In referehee
70 them But his employers, trusting TO his care,
coLected al thev sound on and IN his desk itself
an old sfioned piece Of furniture. and put them
IN the sale. there to remain undsturbed until
after the war, when they were taken out as neoes-
mated in 1857 contingent upon the recovery of one
that had been lost or mislais It impossible to
every safe. and every man In the employ of the
company likely to know was examined, but the
transaction could not be closed. The parties 10
1t, however, bound themselves TO consummate IL
Within gen time should It be brought to Eight.
as 70 do so would be TO buy q lawsuit Thus the
matter lay until midsummer, when one of the
while there he managed TO find some enjoyment
and amusement, and one day determined TO
advertisement had been staring him in the
lace for some Jays every morning as he
uuoped his coffee over daily newspaper.
psrlor Of the medium announced, declining to
give his name; After some desultcrt converse
man, whom we will call Smith. some telling eyf.
osnces OF his powers, he told him that the spirit
Of a man named Greyson was present and desired
10 communicate with him by writing on the slate
This he did at some length, telling him that in q
certain outoi-the;way town in the West, in a
old desk at which he worked during life, and on
the back of 1t, near the square form on which II
pasted This he was 10 tear of, and then would
find drawer which he could readily open and
there would fnd the missing paper with which the
lost no time in getting to the Western town des-
ignated, and there he found the second hand fur
chased II and had 1t moved to his room
at the hotel where he was stopping, tore off the
and there lay the coveted document The trade
was OF course contaminated, and millions of dol
which made him a confirmed spirituslist. said he
coud not tell how in the first place he came to go
to New York instead of Boston, which he pre-
aohorred the subject of spiritualisin. and he be-
heved that he h sd been insensibly TO himself un-
der spirit guidance all the time.
Spiritualists will agree with Smith in this
conclusion. Greyson was attracted by him,
but could not communicate with him.
Mime. Blavatsky, in the course of a CONVEX
sation with the writer on this subject, stated
her belief to be that spirits were attracted by
persons, sometimes by old associations, to a
house or estate, but more often by some de-
veloped taste that even in spirit life could
not be resisted. And in proof of this she
told the story Of the sudden apparition of
her aunt beside her as she stood by a drawer
full Of apples. The aunt, as she sfterward
learned, had at that moment died at a great
distance from her, and she was very fond of
apnIaa