Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-11-06
PLANCHETTE.


The Message Which Cured Our
Aunt of a Dreadful Malady.
Other people have different SMILES
for obstinacy, but in our family we
always said: "As obstinate as Aunt
Eliza" Let an idea, no matter how
preposterous, once get a good foot
hold in my aunt's brain, and there was
mn n OF the matter; argument, en-
treaty, opposition. ridicule-each one
made a worse failure than the other.
Yet my aunt Eliza was the lindest.
bcst-tcmpered soul living. 1t was she
to whom every one always ran in case
OF sudden trouble or sickness. The
sight OF her comely and ample person,
and handsome, fresh-tinted face, the
cheerfulness of which her widows CAP
softened and digniicd, but could not
shadow, was better than medicine to
the patient. The poor blessed her in a
dozen languages. And the departing
clergyman regularly commended herto
his successor as a pillar of the temple.
Aunt Eliza being thus obstinate and
lovable, We. her own kindred, took
care not to run our heads against her
whims. Therefore. five years ago.
when she fished a belated planchette
out of some rubbish in the garnet, and
took to consulting the little wheeled
monsters scrawls, we merely looked
on in respectful neutrality. Mhen she
and her circle of wonder-workers made
the scrawls into communications from
her late husband, my uncle Eldred, we
discussed Aunt Eliza's new freak du-
biously among ourselves. but in the
presence we were silent. We even
tried to keep Basil Ferris quiet, because
he was in love with Aunt Eliza's only
child, Lyde. and we wished him we'll,
he being a capital fellow. of good fam
lily, who had inherited one of the largest
foundries on the Ohio River.
''Give her her head. Basil, and she'll
come out all right" counseled my
father, whoacame from Kentucky. and
carried his fondness for horses into his
metaphors.
Its just because she's so lonesome
and misses Brother Eldrel," my moth
er pleaded.
Tim and 1, both youngsters then,
thought P%lanchette great fun. and. to
our own proper shame be it spoken.
were not above getting Uncle Eldred
TO advise birthday treats and ~circuses
with reckless l. berality.
But Basil would not be checked. He
derided Planchette openly, told Aunt
Eliza that she was being swindled. and
called Uncle Eldred's messages ''twad-
de That put the c%ap-sheaf on his
iniquities. An insult to herself, my
aunt said. she might have pardoned.
bat one to her dead husband-neuer!!
She informed Basil that the engage
ment was over, and told Lyde that if
she married that 'sacrilegious young
man." she (Aunt Eliza) would die of a
broken heart. and move out of town
and never see her again. Lyde was a
mother, without the obstinacy; there
fore the sweetest girl in the world. She
was devoted to her mother, and she be-
sought Ferris to be patient. He was
patient at first. but as time went by re-
lentlessly, and the day that was to
have been his wedding day drew near,
without the least abatement of my
aunt's rancor, he began to feel the Bit
tcrness of his fate. Then something
happened awful enough to scare away
even lovers Impotence. 1t happenedin
this Sc. We live in q little Ohio
town in the iron country; the town
is hardly more than a cluster of foun-
dries and their dependencies, the tor
Iorn cabins of the negroes and the
operatives, the pretty cottages OF The
better class of workmen. the manu-
f%acturers' villas and square, spacious,
piazza-surrounded houses built in the
Southern fashion, and the shops which
supply such a populace. All day the
sky is smirched by the heavy, black
smoke. all night it is painted by the
flames that pour out of the huge
chimncys. The place is SO far south
that summer fingers long and flowers
thrive in the dingy air. My aunt, who
had travelled. used to say that there
are no l~ovelier roses in Florence than
ours. OF ali our roses the most beau
tiiul grew in Pirate Haines' garden.
Pirate lila mes was SO called on &C.
count of a grim legend current IN the
town, which was rendered the more
credible by his morose temper Inc
mysterious wealth. He lived all n
in a big ugly brick house on a hlgn
bank overlooking the river. The Pi-
azza, which was as large as a snip .
deck. was decorated in a grotesquc
and sinister by two carfon-
AIDES. A NEGRO Man and his VIE
lived in a cottage on the grounus.
and served the pirate, and there was
q savage do1 to guard the garoei.
Nhv the nirate cared for roses lean