The Northwestern standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1885-1886, 1886-01-09

certain person had been the robber.
4 That night | asked at the table about
! Tit. / was the only person in the room
j who knew anything about the matter.
I. The table told the story Of the robbery
4 just as it had been told me, gave the
day and the exact hour OF the occur
renee, and charged The very same person
] had thought OF as the thief. I found
out afterwards that my friend had been
! completely misinformed upon the sub
4 ject A robbery, it5was true, had taken
place, but nearly every one of the de-
{ tails that he had told me and that the
table had repeated We're wrong, and
/ The person under suspicion was not in
the neighborhood at all at that time.
1t simply amounted to this, that had
repeated the story bold me by my friend,
/ through the table, and That is all table
rappiug ever anountsto. And when it
comes to prophesying, the table is
worse than Moses Oates, and that's
! saying q good deal.
! I think science will turn over a new
leaf some Of these DAYS when it discov-
ers the secret OF the power Of mind
oyer matter. as Illustrated III taDle-rap-
/ ping. ! don't Wantto go into specu
lation as to what we will know about
these things fifty years from now, but
this much ! viii say, that there should
! be in nature no more difficulty in over
coming weight. the inertness ia matter,
than III overcoming distance. I'm
afraid to tell you all that [ believe on
| these subjects, or you might feel dis
| posed to discount me as a sober, sensi-
| BILE person.
While on this subject let me say
few words about spiritualists, mesmer
lists, second sight, ETC., Mostly they
are frauds, sometimes dupes, generally
clever enough to make fools out OF |
credulous people Most spiritualistic
mediums are mere poor slght-of-hand |
men. a prestidigitateur like Hermann,
for instance, or Anderson, could dis
count the whole spiritualistic tribe
twice over. You can always safely set
down professional medium as q fraud. |
[ VIII not say that there are not strang- I
Ell things in Heaven and earth than our
philosophy dreams of, but | will say
that the spirits OF just men made per
feet haven't got time in eternity to go
rambling about this country at the beck
and call of any old whisky soak who
chooses to call himself a medium, and
II they have, | must say they usually
show mighty poor taste in their selec-
ton Of an earthly tenement.
Charles Foster, the greatest spiritual
istic medium the world has yet pro-
duced, died III Salem five days ago.
Fosters fame is known in every civil
lied land, and yethe was mere child
compared with Keilar, or Hermann, or
Anderson. His greatest proof OF sup
ernatural power was in the writing that
upon his arm, but he was a
wonder in many ways. Foster was 3
native Cd bGtSJG;11 ss4i " lieIi four teen
years of age his desk at school would
rap, and the furniture of his room
would De thrown about without appar-
enJ cause. A barber named Osborne
took him in charge as a mesmeric sub
ject, and it was probably there that he
learned the tricks that afterwards
caused him to blossom out as a spirit
ualistic medium. When he visited
England he was Jhe guest Of Lord
LyttOn at knebworbh, and the young
medium formed the foundation study
for the character of Margraye IN Bull
Wer's great novel, a Strange story"
Ii had space / could expose a score !
Of Fosters tricks. Let us be satisfied
with the greatest, and it is so simple
that you can all perform it, though it 3
viii take some practice to make you
perfect. This is what Foster would do.
A visitor would attend in his reception
,oom, and would be asked to write his
,equest upon paper, fold it, and place
he paper in an envelope and retain the
Envelope i'll his hand. When this was
zone the attendant would retire, ana j
presently Foster Would appear. Upon
'eing told that the visitor had writ
en- request III the envelope within his
land, the medium would turn up bis
reeve, take an enYe2ope ,ruD nus bare arm
marty, ana there would appear the :.
nsWer to the request III letters OF )
iO0d upon The flesh, a most striking