Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1884-07-24
THE G4KYOEAyT'

?. WY indignant when Q woman took rooms at
= No. 2o7 and hung ont q clairvoyant's sign.
y Il wasn't an aristocrstic street either For
that reason all - mogpS did it resent any
thing that could be cou6kruedas an impeach.
ment Of its tone. like the people who confess
Q their position insecure by representatives,
y TO possible contamination
3 The neghbors glanced at the single but
a Objectionable word "clairvoyantn with dis
sprrobatory interest," and prophesied the CON-
plete degradation Il the entire biloxi They
0 couldn't talk u ovr together, heoaase they
U didn't know each other; but they infiamed
their minds to dangerous degree by discuss
3 ing it Ell famille. The boarding house next
, door went into the subject heart and soul,
from the attic to the basement The school
teaehsr threetened 10 move, and the woman
with the dog denounced the order Of munich
pal government which permitted such an
outrage on reputable citisenA Even the con-
sumptive gas collector in the fourth floor
hall room, who had no future in this world
. 10 speak Of, and might be supposed to be
, without pejudices, coughsd decided disap-
prova1 Of the invader. Lfhes insurance man
and his wife who lived on the corner were
extremely bitter. Altogether the square was
very much disturbed and considered itself
seriously injured.
A family opposite the Objectionable new
tenant set themselves the thankleo task Of
watching her apartments for symptoms Of
offensive conduct, an industry that promised
but poor return as the days and weeks went
by. People went in and out at No. 207 ex-
actly as they did at all the other houses where
rooms were rented. Silks and velvets, as
well as cotton gowns, futtered up and down
the steps, aud carriages sometimes stopped
there; but nothing like a breach Of good be-
havior could be settled upon
The clairvoyant herself was scarcely seen
enough TO be identified The shabby boys
went in and out and sometimes wrnngled on
the steps, and year old baby in blue
trock lowered restlessy about her windows;
but the woman who was the hated blot upon
an otherwise excellent location" was alto
| getber unknown.
IL her outraged neighbors had penetrated
her apartments they would have been sur
pE1sed, though mot in the manner they i'm
agined. She was such very different per-
son from the usually depicted type Of seeress.
They would have found maaHyely furnished
rooens, neat to the point d Weakness, a young
and wonderfully sweet feed woman aud a
happy, rollicking 4-year-old baby. In the
evening the family circle was augmented by
the two wrangling boys, who told stories,
disputed with each other, whitfield and tink-
cred at various small machnes-which were
never perfected-and drew pictures on badly
thumbed paper until they were sent to bed.
II they, the neighbors, could have peeped In
WHOM the clairvoyant had a caller they
would have seen lier sitting motionless at a
scuned little card stand, a rapt look in her
soft, luminous eyes, and her lips uttering
curious prophecies or describing scenes in the
vanished past to the visitor who sat opposite.
Yes. the sign lured in q customer from
time 10 time. Down in every human heart
there lies a grain of faith in the occult L.
may he buried under . nioulltAin Of pro
fessed unbeief. or be but thinly concealed
from unsympathetic eyes by an affectation
Of indifference. Still it is there. 1t was
there when the people dwelt in tents and |
caves and were always rudely near to ma
ture, and it is there to-day when they live in |
splendid mansions and are tl,sdevotees OF art |
and the patrons Of artiice Being there it |
brought customers to the clairvoyant
Some went professedly to skill time" and |
hnd amusement, and, Icing struck with the
SYPHILIS gentle manner AMI st. Cecilia face. and |
interested in her symbolic utterances, went |
away, told the story, and returned bringing
Others.
The woman wss soyery, very lovely to look
upon, 30 like something from another and
better world, that when her eyes grew un-
earthly in their splendor, AMI her face took
on the look which TRANSPORTED her, even the
bitter women Of the world watched her with
rapturous admiration. Somehow, though
she said So little and asked nothing, she won
her way into the hearts Of the people whose
destiny She read. ~
Could Il he peer behind the veil which hides
even the events Of the next hour from mortal
sights Who knowsl The visions she de-
scribed seemed real enough TO her How or
why they came she knew not There they
were before her inner sight whenever sine
chose TO call them up. 1t was she said, as
though while on a journey one looks before
nightfalI from un eininence over the road
be IS to travel in the dark and sees the |
houses and mile-stones he must pass: |
only she saw them for others and not |
for herself. Thousands of men and |
women will say that such things are genuine,
and but a part OF the great book Of nature
which is yet but half open; while other
thousands as stoutly maintain that they are
the exclusive capital Of shameless charlatans,
and tine destruction Of credulous fools Any
how the clairvoyants visitors found enough
in her revelations to interest them, and they
paid their dollar per capita ungrudgingly.
They could see, too, that the battle of life
was not easy to this delicate woman who
won bread for her three hungry children
through kind of physical and mental agony .
to others. Still she COM
planned not, though the howls of the wolf ,
never quite died in her ears, and sometimes $
N fancy she saw him sitting, gaunt and ter
rible, upon her very hearthstone, his fiery
'yes fixed upon her baby brood 1t was an
awful battle, prolonged and dreadful. The
odds were always against her.
IL her neighbors could have seen her after
The closed her house against callers in the :
,vening, rocking her baby in her arms and !
wetting his yellow curls with her teafs-if | .
hey could have seen her then they might :
wen have forgiven her the objectionable :
business sign. 1t would have been a hard
.eart that, knowing all, could treasure any
against her because she fought =
lie wolf with u clairvoyant club instead OF 6
uch time shonored and emuently genteel
weapons As the pen, the paint brush or the :
eacher's wand. 4
What picture OF a mothers heroism and \
lnseltish love it was. the two boys sleeping c
. youth and health only can sleep. and the |
| d.
whose thin white hands caressed the babys
,air continually. But no one saw it The
Gene, beautiful to the angels, WAS r
hut away from the widows worl lily
leghbors, who saw everything to d
mi fault with and nothing TO u
raise. And they still resented her
presence among them II they could have (,
een more OF the rslhcking baby in the blue /
rock they might have been won away from h
heir prejudices a little, for all the world n
YARNS towards baby; and this was such 9 {
appy. healthy, noisy baby that no one could =
ono near him without catching some OF his y
,inshine. Ruddy with health and bubblng ;,
yer with misohevous activity, he was as e
trong contrast TO his pale, sweet mother, I
. a gorgeous peony would To to lily Of the q
alley. tftE II
And what plague he was to her customersl :;
lie tried his best to break up the essential r
conditions" Of every seance and usually Ii
ncceedeu. For the ~'pirits" lie had no ~ r
erence whatever. though jolly and shock J, u
nsly familiar regard. He shouted at them -
o hurry up" or ordered them TO $50 a
way" exactly as suited his within.
le called them bosterously by name, Uncle
I'M and "Ab'ham Lincoln" being treated
nth equal familiarity. He slipped up to the
tile table when the seances were under way. y
nj with his small kuuckles raped sacrelg II
,uSly In answer "a his own question "Auv te