Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1884-03-14
The Strange Georgia Girl.

The Strange Georgia Girl.
Miss Lula Hurst, of Cedartown, Ca,
has given one of her remarkable entertain
ments in GAINESVILLE, Ga. 1t was per.
Torrance that she had previously given in
public on several occasions. and that has
everywhere been witnessed with the great
est establishment.
She first held the handle of an umbrella
| while four citizens held cords that we're
tied to the umbrella, suspendine it in the
air.
| In about two min utes the umbrella be-
gan to squirm and twist, and soon the
staff was wrenched into two parts. and the
umbl ella was broken to pieces. Then Mr..
Middlebrooks, weighing over 200 pounds,
sat down in chair ON the stage. She
placed her open hands upon the back of
the chair, and presently the chair began
to move, and ION Mr.. Middlebrooks was
thrown upon the floor. Another chair was
then placed OH the stage, and Colonel
Murphey attempted to hold it still, She
placed the palms of her hands on the seat
of the chair and soon it began moving
across the stage, and finally escaped from
Colonel Murphey's grasp and fell on the
| floor. The same fact was repeated with
two men, then with three, and finally with
! five, with the same result each time.
A rod about six feet long was placed in
the hands of strong man, who was skep-
tical as to the powers of Miss Hurst. Soon
| the rod began to move in spite of all his
efforts to keep it still. It hustled him
ACROSS the stage in a ludicrous manner.
After several similar performances with
different men, who tried in vain to hold
the chairs and rod still, the exercises
| closed. About five hundred citizens wit
messed the performance, and the, we're
| convinced that there was no sleight of
| nand in What Miss Hurst did.
| Miss Hurst was born in 1858 in McMinn
county, Tenn. When she was year old
her parents removed to Cedar Valley. Polk
county, Ga, where they have since re-
sided. She has gone to school but ten
months in her life, but was remarkably
apt scholar while in school. she united
with the Missionary Baptist Church when
she was twelve years old, and is devout
Christian. She succeeds best in her per-
formances when everything around her IS
quiet. She cannot bear unkind treatment
on the stage, and her strange powers desert
her when the spectators appear to be I'M
friendly. When exerting her peculiar gifts
she does not know what is happening
around her, and blindly follows the object
moving from her. She often has to be
caught to prevent her from running off at
the front of the stage or against the wall.
She is brunette with long black hair and
brown eyes, weighs 125 pounds, and is
modest girl of retiring disposition.
Her unnatural powers were developed
last August. One day she heard peeu-
liar rafting noise about the head of her
bed and told her mother about it. Mrs.
Hurst went to the room, heard the noise,
and concluded that there were rats inside
the bed. She ripped open the bed. but
found nothing in it. Miss Hurst became
so frightened one night at the noise in her
apartment that she left her room and
slept elsewhere A few nights later a
young friend of Miss Hurst was spending
the night with her, and both Of the girls
became considerably frightened. MIR.
Hurst and his wife concluded that the
cause of thu phenomena must inhere In
their daughter.
Lula was asked on one occasion to sit
down on trunk at one end of the room
and soon the noise was heard about the
trunk. Soon after pebbles and specimens
of iron ore on the mantel began to move
about, and some of them would fall off on
! the floor when she entered the room. Ar
ticles of clothing would disappear for two
or three days, and then suddenly be found
hanging on nail or picture in the family
room. The dishes and cutlery were greatly
disturbed when she went into the dining
room. She would lie down on bed, and
soon it would move about the room as she
wiIled. Or she could think of some tune,
going over the notes mentally and the
music would be heard from the head of
her bed, as if FROM some musical instru.
ment.
These and other wonderful performan-
ces we're noised abroad, and people began
to assemble in crowds to witness the
strange phenomena. The Atlanta Consti-
tuition sent a reporter to her home to learn
il the reports we're true. The reporter
was convinced, wrote an account of the
affair. and after much persuasion. per-
prevailed on Mr.. Hurst to take his daugh
ter to Atlanta and give a public exhib1-
tion of her powers. Three successful ex-
hibitions we're given in Atlanta.
Lula Hurst and her parents are plain
country people, and they are as much as
tonished as anyone else. They do not be-
lieve that it is the result of spiritualistic
influences. Spiritualists have written to
Miss. Hurst, insisting that her strange
powers are the results of spiritualism. but
she treats their letters with contempt.
The phenomena. it was said at first, were
produced by her muscular powers, but
physicians at Atlanta and elsewhere
have placed their hands between hers
and the chair to be moved, so that only
the tips of her fingers touched the oh air
but the results were not changed. 9th