Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-12-11
SPIRITUALIST INFATUATION.

A WeStfeld, Mass, dispatch of the 18th
ultimo, in the New York Herald, gives the
following realistic account of the manne'
in which wife, infatuated with spiritual
ism, committed suicide in order to release
her soul from earth, while her husband
calmly kept vigil:
On a lonely road winding around Mount
Tekoa stands weather-beaten farmhouse,
in which has just been enacted a tragedy.
There, with no neighbOrS nearer than mile,
have lived for two decades Isaac f. Bron-
son and his wife some ten years or more his
Junior They have always dWelt happily
together, and had family of seven sons
and daughters, the eldest about tWenty-one
and the youngest two weeks.
Their home has been for long period
the favOrite resort for believers in spiritual
ism in the chill towns" of Montgomery,
Worthington, Huntington and other farm
ing hamlets round about. Not only were
the Bronson family firm in the faith, but the
husband and father is an eXpounder among
the believers Mrs. Bronson was woman
of considerable energy, thoroughly lndoc-
tices.
One evening last week after her husband
had gone to bed she came into the room and
asked him if he would feel very bad if her
spirit were to leave this mortal frame and
only be with him on the occasion of her
visits from the spirit land. He told her
he would not grieve if it were the will Of
God. Then, as calmly as if announcing
her intention to sleep, the wife told the
husband that she had swallowed two tea
spOonfuls of Paris Green. She asked him
to watch by her until the spirit had burst
its earthly bonds, and all the long hours of
4 +lo nj; bo liant fhfi,1 viri1 hv tho ho6-
side Of the woman he loved, watching the
spark of life flicker fainter and fainter. At
times her eXcruciating agony drew tears
from his eyes, but he called none of the 9TH
er members Of the family.
At nearly daybreak, without awakening
the children, he went to the house of his
nearest neighbors, who are spiritualists, and
rousing them up, told the woman of the
house of the condition Of his wife and the
cause, and urged her to hasten at once to
witness the "departure of the spirit"
| When Bronson's house was reached, the
visitor quickly aroused the children, and
medical assistance was summoned from
Westfeld, but before the physician could
get to the house Mrs. Bronson was dead.
The husband unhesitatingly told the sto-
nv of his wife's death to eager questiOners
with no more signs of sorrow on his eN-
pressionless face or in his calm, gray eyes,
| than if the matter had been an every day
occurrence.
When asked why he did not endeavor to
save her life his reply was: 'Her spirit
was her own She had the right to release
it from the body and l had none to prevent
her.'
The authorities of the little town of Mont
gomery, within whose boundary lines the
tragedy occurred, were notified, but could
do nothing save to call upon the medical
examiner of the district, DIR. j. II. Water
man of Westfield, who, after making the
usual examination, issued a permit for
burial. 1t was a weird scene, the funeral
on that secluded mountain side, the calm
visaeed husband surrounded by his children
and religious followers, paying the last sad
rites to the body of the devoted wife and
mother.