Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-02-16
SPIRIT NATURALIZATION.


play at the hands OF the RECORD. UNION,
and for that reason ask now for hearing
which has been denied me by one of your
contemporaries. When the Chronicle s
alleged exposure of Mrs. Reynolds reached
me at once saw that all that part of it
which concerned me that is to say, the
part which purported to explain how had
been deceived, was tissue of the most i'm.
pudeut and deliberate falsehoods. Being
particularly DESTROYS that the REPUTATION Of
these falsehoods should be published where
they had been circulated, wrote to the
San Francisco Call, giving specific and de-
tailed proofs of the mendacity of the state.
ments upon which had been built up the
theory OF my delusion and Mrs. Reynolds
imposture. But the Call had, unfortunately
for its own sense of propriety, already COM
mitted itself by appending most unwar-
rantable and wholly false assertion Ito the
effect that it possessed evidence never in
existence) to another letter of mine. And
so on this occasion it coolly suppressed
every line of my explanation, and untruth.
fully stated that there was nothing new in
that which it had in this dishonest way
cut out. That was another untruth.
Every line the CAL suppressed contained
new matter for it was a demonstration of
the motive, mendacity and general COW.
ardly calumny which inspired and charac.
terized the Chronicles attack upon Mrs.
Reynolds.
San Francisco, | come to the RECORD.
UNION, where indeed l should have ap.
piled first, had l not been anxious to meet
this libel on its own ground. l have no in.
tention of attempting through your col
umns to argue the cause of Spiritualism, of
which, it is perhaps worth while to say, l
myself can advocate no further than the
phenomena. But esteem il my duty as
an honest man to protest against the I'M
founded, reckless, fimsy and altogether
improved charges upon the strength of
which so many California journals have
jumped to the most unjust and uniustifi.
able conclusions as to the mediumship of
Mrs. Reynolds.
In the first place, will call the atteu.
ton of your readers to the fact-which
seems to have escaped your notice-that
Mrs. Reynolds has Low, and has had for
several weeks, an advertisement standing
in the San Francisco papers in these words !:
d" Mrs. Reynolds offers the san of fire
hundred dollars $500 to anu qirI. or
,conlan, or person, that ,rW come fo,7garel
and sireGr andprooe HatHey erer personate3
Mr.. Parsons daughter for her,"
In the second place, desire to call at
tention to the fact that the action com.
menced against Mrs. Reynolds by one
Nielitz, who pretended to have evidence of
fraud against her, was dismissed by the
Court, for no other reason than because the
prosecution could not be brought to come
to time, though the defense was ready to
90 to trial from the first. These two facts
have a very emphatic bearing upon the
case, as you cannot fail to see. For if, as
alleged, Mrs. Reynolds is so well known to
be an impostor, and if, as alleged, there
are so many tangible witnesses to her i'm
posture, Nielitz ought to have found no
difficulty in proving her guilty, and her
advertisement would have only brought
down fresh exposure upon her.
But where, now, are these witnesses who
were so swift to declare that they had per.
sonsted my daughter? Why do they not
come forward and earn FIVE hundred dol
lars more easily than they ever did The
reason they do not come forward is that
every statement to the eff ct that any hu-
man being personated my daughter at
Mrs. Reynolds seances was a base, cruel,
malignant lie. | am reluctant to 90 over
again the gross misst atements of the Chron-
icle narrative, but l will put my finger on
IL LII
false statement. According to that nara
tive man named Smith said he attended
a seance where my daughter materialized,
and after we my wife and myselfl had
spoken to her, she called him up and when
he kissed her he found he was kissing his
own wife, Nellie Smith. Now | declare
that whole story to be fslse. No such &C.
currence ever took place. No one, spirit
or human, purporting to be my daughter,
ever at any seance called up, much less
kissed, an entire stranger. 1t is an impu.
dent fabrication from beginning to end
Yet it is upon that impudent fabrication
that the belief in the inposture, so far as
| am concerned, must mainly rest. But
every other statement made in connection
with my experience at the seances of Mrs
Reynolds was almost equally untrue, TO
my personal knowledge. Facts which had
no existence have been alleged. People
who never said what was put in their
mouths have been invoked as witnesses.
And l am informed that when several Of
these abused and misrepresented bogus
witnesses attempted to vindicate them.
selves, and asked the Chronicle to publish
contradictions, it refused to do so.
In short, there has been a concerted, de.
liberate attempt TO crush woman, and for
the purposes of this infamy the most mon.
strous falsehoods, the most worthless pre-.
lenses of testimony, have been paraded in
justification. | am careful not to speak Of
that which goes beyond my own experience
or knowledge. | cannot undertake to de-
fend Mrs. Reynolds apart from that part
OF her mediumship which have personally
observed. But as regards that part, as re.
CARDS all the phenomena exhibited at her
seances during the months in which l was
a pretty frequent attendant, | am as GER
tain as it is possible to be that she prac-
ticed no deception, and l am equally sure
that my daughter was not personated at
her seances by any human being.
Apart from this question of personal
expression, l must say that it has some.
encountering a novelty which has been
apparent in nearly all the discussions of
naturalization. For there is really moth.
ing new in that phenomenon, however sur.
prising it may be, and doubtless is. Ten
years ago Professor Crooke subjected a
materialized spirit to the most severe and
complete scientific tests. He so arranged
a cable. testing apparatus and galvanized
battery that the very slightest movement
of the medium would be instantly regis
tered. Under these conditions the sepa.
rate existence of the materialized spirit
was fully demonstrated, and its photograph
was taken by the magnesium light. Since
then naturalization has been effected
many thousands of times, and under the
most satisfactory and convincing tests of
all kinds. The idea that personstion"
could explain it, indeed, could only occur to
such as were ignorant of the manifestations.
For naturalization frequently occurs out
side the cabinet, and demsterislizations
the same way, and 1 have repeatedly seen
my daughter, at Mrs. Reynolds seances,
appear and disappear in this way. But
the evidences of identity are not to be
passed over. Does any sane or sensible
person think that could mistake the voice,
the features, the figure, the hands, the
hair, and also the substance of confidential
test communications repeatedly given? 1t
is not understood how abundant were my
opportunities of observation, nor under