The Portland daily press., 1884-01-03

This 10 one of the cleverest feats az the
form appears to grow gracefully shorter and
FAINTER until it becomes a mere glimmer and
meits away, leaving nothing but g rapidly
| disappearing white puddle of muslin against
Inc opening in the curtains; and it adds very
much TO the effect of the scene
another OF our party is less fortunate. No
| doubt sundry mocking whispers have shown
nus lncredulity too plainly, for when his
summons comes he has to go shamefacedly
PACK TO his seat without any response. A
ilttle later another one is raped for. and
one OF the shutters at the side of the cabinet
quickly flies back, and in the window ap-
pears white face which reminds him so
strong'y OF familiar baEber's block that it
- nara Ior him TO keep his countenance
When ne is asked if he recognizes IT, IT
must be confessed that the medium gets the
De.ler oi MIN a little later, however, when
sue comes out TO deliver some messages from
inc departed; Tor then she explains mat the
spirit mas assumed an appearance IiL@ ,bat
Oh our friend whom she addres cd in ordar
to communica e more easily with linn Th;s
was plainly fair hit, but she was no1 So
successful when she suggested that it was
the spirit of his father, as that gentleman is
sui In the flesh. She then went on to saw
Ihat TINS would be paternal spirit.wlshed to
be ms guide in life. Some might caIl him
his guardian, but he called himself his
guide but his guide was his guardian. and
ms guardian was his guide. He had come
to tell him of the Bealah-land. If he wonld
De happy ne must be good, and especially he
mus yleid 10 the spirit guidance; and so on
at considerable length, To another of MS
she said that she saw a bell over his head
shutting him in as it were, and warning him
with tongue of foreboding. The effect of
tnls was injured by a jocose INQUIRY from
another young man if she meant a belle with
an e; but the medium brought down the
house by simple rejoinder that she ALWAYS
spelt bell with an e. Before this / should
have mentioned that the spirit of the little
ncy Bully made prayer, in which his petit
ton tor daily bread was interrupted by an
lnterlude of chaff with one of the audience
who wanted to know what he wanted of
of bread when hehadn't any bread-basket.
But Billy held his own, and after little re-
partee finished his prayer with great cheer
fulness.
Altogether about a score of spirit forms ap-
peared, SO that each visitor got his MONEYS
worth. The difference in height showed
that if the spirits were of human origin at
least two persons must have been concerned !;
but they seemed to come In assorted sizes of
only two dimensions. The various spirit
voices and songs were not beyond the power
OF single flexible voice to initiate Looked
at from any point of view, it was very clev-
erly done, however, and was at times quite
thrilling.
There are many slight variations at the
different seances. Some are solemnlv dull.
and some very lively. Sometimes the sit
ting ends with spirit messages, and some
times not. One medium holds her seances
in pitchy darkness, the spirits appearing
with phosphorescent light illuminating
their white garments, which is very weird
and aotafa al IL
the supernatural effect was strongest, the
audience was very light-hearted and jocular.
There seems to be nothing left of the blood
curdling horror with which the old fashion,
ed ghost was greeted. Much fun was made
by slang addressed to the shades between the
hymns, and answered in spirit of unworld-
illness so extremely guileless as to greatly
amuse the hearers.
Underlying these minor variations, there
is great likeness in general effect, and that,
effect is both exciting and amusing; but it is
undeniablv little profane and very vulgar.
An entertainment which gives dozen or
two of such affectionate spirits for fifty
cents OF dollar is not so extravagantly high
priced, but it must be confessed that it is
not very convincing or edifying one 1t is
not as bad as the private seances, which are
often mere cover for crime. 1t is not as
silly as the physical scances, where one is
slapped Oh the back or boosted on to the Ia
Bile in the dark, with chair on ones head.
1t is indeed very well suited to attain its OBJ
ject; and the number of people who go regu-
larry to these meetings time after time to
meet some lost friend shows their ssscess.
But there is no intellectual substance to the
revelation, and it is easy sAasagn 70 see the
traces of that fEzsaalove which taints the
whole literature of spiritualism and arrests
Its progress. Evidently the Quaker poet was
far too hopeful when he wrote:
:'The power is lost to self deceive
With shallow forms of make believe
II