Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-11-26
MERCENARY sPIRITUALIsM.

The value of spirit communication from
business standpoint of view will have q
fair opportunity to pass under judicial
scrutiny in the trial of suit instituted by
Helen Fairchild against one j. W. Has.
kins for S25, 900 damages for an alleged
breach of contract.
Helen Fairchild claims to be medium
of communication between the celestial
and mundane spheres. She processes to
be a connecting link between those who
watch and wait below and those who glory
and sing above. She says che was earning
$50 per day when the defendant, ]. w.
Haskins, employed her to go to New York
to attend to his business.
There is nothing in the complaint indi.
eating the character of the business Helen
Fairchild, the ghost sharp, was to trans
act. We do no violence to presumption,
however, in assuming that the astute Has
kins intended, through the medium OF the
Sybil-like Helen, to enlist the spiritual
realm upon his side against the bulls and
bears of Wall street. From the
higher standpoint and broader intel
lgence of spirit life aud the
omnipresence of spirit being, better and
clearer survey of commercial fields could
be obtained, and Helen, as q commitment
with these higher intelligences, could in
form Haskinu Of fr1En aIu ord 40
clines, and by her cIsirvoyant powers pene.
trate the little games put up by the bulls
and bears.
Thus the cunning Haskins would enlist
all heaven in his business undertakings,
and his purse grow plethoric from the celes
tial sources. II the serceress Helen could
only conjure up the spirits of Commodore
Vanderbilt and Jim Fisk, and the long ar
ray OF dead bankers and brokers, she would
be the equal of Jay Gould in both cunning
and dishonesty and the sharp Haskius
saw the point He agreed to pay Helen
$50 per day, and find her steady business
for six months. Considering the service
that one so gifted would be able to render,
the wages cannot be regarded as exorbi.
tant. OF course Helen would have a chance
to avail herself OF the information she OBJ
tanned from heaven upon the prospective
value of stocks, the inside intention of
pools and rings, and could speculate little
on her own account. But Haskins was to
have the full benefit of her sagacity, her
mediumistic ability, her clairvoyant FORE
sightedness, and the exercise of other oc-
cult powers of which she might be pos
sessed and in exchange she was to have
$50 per day of Haskins' gsins-and every
thing was serene and happy.
Under this contract the fair sorceress
prepared to migrate to the wicked Gotham
and enter upon the career of batting the
bulls and bears of Wall street with her
supernatural powers. In this preparation
she expended $500, when, for some reason,
the defendant Haskins, as is alleged by the
siby', refused to carry cut his part of the
agreement, whereupon action was brought
to recover the money expended and wages
for the term of the employment agreed
upon in the contract
This was thrifty undertaking. shrewd
scheme to array all the celestial hosts against
all other brokers. 1t should have been
successful, but it had weak point. The
device is as old as the hills. There are
brokers in New York OF low intelligence,
superstitious temperament and sordid in.
stincts, who employ mediums in their bust.
ness; so, while Helen FAirchild would
have been engaged in coaxing Jim Fisk to
give her power in the interest of her en-
ployer Haskins. the sorceress Of some
other broker might have been working the
same spirit to mislead Haskins medium
and give her fellow the true point
During the mining stock craze in this
State there were hundreds, even thousands,
of people who made investments by ad.
vice of fortune.tellers, necromancers, clair
voyants and other spirit mediums. Their
experiences in this line are still prolific of
anecdotein conversations and "reminiscences
of the Safeguarding period.