Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-02-26
ORIGIN OF SPIRrTUALISM.
The Excitement That Followed its Appear
snce in Little Town in New York


SplrituahSm in America was born in
1S47, in Hydesville, Wayne county, n.
Y, where one night there was a rap
ping at the door of Michael Weekman.
and second rapping at the door, and
third rapping at the door, and every
time the door was opened there was no
one there. Proof positive that they
were invisible knuckles that raped at
the door. In that same house there
was a man who felt a cold hand pass
over his forehead, and there was no
arm attached to the hand. Proof posi-
tive it was spiritualistic influence After
awhile, Mr.. Fox, with his family,
moved into that house, and they had
bangings at the door every night. One
night Mr.. Fox cried out. Are YOU a
spirit?' Two raps, answer in the
affirmative. Then they knew right
away that it was the spirit of peddler
who had been murdered in that house
years before. and who had been robbed
Of $500. Whether the spirit of the
peddler came back to collect his $500
or his bones do not know.
But from that time on there was a
eS, and the excitement spread all over
the land, and Judge Edmunds had his
head turned by the excitement, and he
says that he saw bell start from the
top of a shelf in the closet and heard it
ring over the heads of the people who
were in the closet, then swing to the
back parlor and ring over the heads of
the people in the back parlor, then
swing to the front parlor and ring over
the heads of the people in the front
parlor, and then drop on the floor. A
young man was said to have been lift
ed fron the earth and carried through
the air by an invisible power, and Civ
ing an account of it he says he went so
rapidly he could not count the posts of
the fence; and he held in his hand a
saw-buck and square. and he says
while he went they ratified together and
made most delightful music.
All these are matters of history. Peo-
pie said: ''Well, now we have new
religion But in all ages there have
suited the spirits of the departed,
charmers who threw people into a mes
meric state, sorcerers who, by eating
poisonous herbs, can see everything,
hear everything, and tell everything;
astrologers who found out a new dis
pensation of the stars, experts in
palmistry who can tell by the lines in
the palm of your hand your origin,
your history, and your destiny. From
the cavern on Mount ParnaSsus, it is
said, there came up an air, an atmos-
phere, that intoxicated the sheep and
the goats that came near by. and under
its influence the shepherds were lifted
into eXaltation, so that they could fore
tell future events and consult with IA
rniliar spirits.
Long before the time OF Christ the
Brahmins had all the table-rocking and
the table-quaking. You want to know
what God thinks of all these things.
He says in one place: Il will be a
swift witness against the sorcerers. -
He says in another place: Thou shalt
not suffer witch to live and lest you
should make too wide q margin be-
tween spiritualism and Witchcraft, He
groups them together and says:
''There shall not be found among you
a consulter with familiar spirits, or d
| wizard, or necrOmancer. for all that
do these things are an determination
unto the Lord;n and then the still more
remarkable passage which says: 1.-The
soul that turneth after such as have
familiar spirits and after wizards, to 90
a whoring after them, [ will even set
My face against that soul, and will cut
him off from among his people" and a
score of passages showing that God
never speaks of these evils in any
other way than with liyid thunders of
indignation. After all that, be spirit
ualist if you dare.-Dr. I'alan0ge IN
Frank Lestje's Sunday Magazi7ae.