Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-04-15
Gales aud Sketehes.
FROM THE LIPS OF THE DEAD.
OR, THE SOUTHERN SOLDIER AND HIS AT
FIANCED.
CONTINUED from Yesterday

Come" she cried, remember your
promise, come whether it be IN the whis'
per of the night wind, shadowy breath
at my ear, clasp of phantom tingers-i1
thou cans't come-come!
''If God in his great goodness. lets
earth's love pure and high pass through
the ordeal of the gloomy grave,-still
will that love retain the consciousness oil
its igniter. In my soul and thine burn
the same love, now sundered. Thine is
the completion OF mine; unfinished and
useless without it. will it back; l call
it back; command it back, to the source
from which it sprung. the half from which
it hath been torn"
Stiffness stiffness everywhere
On earth in heaven. No answer
- no sign no token.
Bursting into wild sobblng, the over
wrought girl dropped down on the mar.
BILE steps. exhausted by the terrible ener.
gy of her useless appeal. PROSTATE be-
meath the crushing conviction of failure
For this too had failed.
The weeks passed Ever through the
empty chambers of her heart walled the
echoes of that urgent prayer.
Neglect nothing-try all things, dear.
est, all natural influences, all unnatural
ones, in media, in trance, in vision How
sad, should | be banished from you,
through your unkindness."
She now had recourse to the usual
channels of Spiritualism. Patiently she
set herself to study and understand the
tenets and Observances attributed to them,
and. when grown familiar with them, to
attend the seances and lectures of their
promulgators. Clairvoyance, mind read
ing, mind cure, writing and speaking me-
diums, were all earnestly taken up in turn
and thoroughly and exclusively investi-
gated
She found these methods repugnant to
her. and devoid of the dignity and awful
ness which she held prerequisite for
oracles of such lofty assumption.
She felt instinctively that it was through
no such Interpretation she should achieve
the one possible and fortunate point where
two spiritual natures might touch and re-
veal themselves, like the vivid flash when
the poles of a battery are connected. But
she had determined to leave none of the
possible means untried, and so uncom-
promisingly essayed them all, but it was
more relief than disappointment when
they had failed. She was grateful that no
mystical imperative message had come
through this means. forcing her to admit,
that spiritual essences revealing in the
first free grandeur of the perfect knowl-
edge of all mysteries, could contract their
majesty to such petty sphere, as the stage
OF theatre or lecture-room- or that a
radiant seraph winging his joyous flight
through glitter of suns and worlds, and
the farthest stars. could stoop to manifes-
tation, through the wooden thump of a
deal table; spelling by slow and clumsy
process the letters of some sterile word
Spirits these may be, but never the spirits
of our dead and loved ones.
All these were weighed and found want
ing. They fed her soul-craving with
empty husks which the kernel was gone.
Nothing occurred to convince her of per-
sonality, nor one sentence evolved which
could connect her inner consciousness
with any SPECIAL or familiar presence /;
only imperfect and shadowy outlines en-
braclng so much that they necessarily ex-
panded into barren and impalpable gener-
altles. On the verge of any revelation
that might suggest a knowledge greater
than any mortality already possesses, al
ways came the prudential clause, sit is
not permitted US to say" This ovation
might satisfy natures in less deadly and
plteous earnest, but to her it was simply a
proof that what she sought for was not
here.
Abandoning this course she turned to
lofrier and more congenial themes. She
now took up the study OF psychology, the
natural sciences, the marvels of magne-
tism and electricity.
Here was grand field, opening daily
wider and wider, with rich promise of still
further and undreamed of development.
Here was a presence chamber stately
enough tor such an audience-a meeting
of lofty and universal spirits. MANY won
derful discoveries already made, even yet
seem almost incredible to us who daily
live among them and are benefited by their
fruition.
Why should it be vain and futile hope
that these marvels should be unraveled
still further; that these discoveries should
be eliminated and urged to such an atti-
tude these subtle influences subjected to
mental manipulation, and in time. even
the communion betwixt soul and spirit at
tain a coherent possibility Not through
mysterious and supernatural agencies, nor
as public and commonplace benefaction.
but as browning success for those faith
ful and earnest workers devotng sufficient
toll and perseverance to that exalted
science-as all other great branches are
pursued by determined scholarship and
finally achieved.
In the meantime the years were passing
by, transforming the arduous and impetu-
Gus girl into serene. chastened, beautiful
woman. Her lovers bequest, in urging
her to instant mental action, had saved her
from the dwarfing and bitterness of soul
often engendered by disappointment in
the most plastic phase of development.
She found use for her healthy human
sympathy in care.taking for her friends.
For her intellect were wide ranges of the
lofty subjects she had fastened upon as
food for her cravings. For her affections
were tiocks of curly headed nephews and
nieces. who raved her round as the
florets crowd around the golden heart of
daisy. She was especially great as
purveyor of tales and legends to the little
ones. Such fairy tales, such Bible stories,
such weird fancies as this fair auntie could
dispense. were never before heard. said
the children. Sometimes they begged for
ghost stories, but there auntie drew the
line.
There are no ghosts" she said. lyon
must never bplipyp thara ara pboctc - =,