The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-05
NEWFASHI0N IN GHOSTS
sPooKS WITH OFFICE HOURS IN
LAWYER MARSH'S HOUSE.

that She will have His House.
From the Ne,c York Sun.
Mr.. Luther r. Marsh the eminent lawyer
and head of the Commission on the new
marks in the annexed district, planned a
surprise for Christendom the other day by
sending for the representatives of the press
to meet him at his house and see the evidence
of some miracle working that. to put it
mildly, surpasses belief
Mr.. Marsh was found in his study in
Madison avenue below Thirty third street
the same old study where Blackstone and
Littleton and Abbott once reigned supreme
but now how changed! Those sacred but
tedious old authors and compilers are still
on the shelves. but the backs of their volumes
are hid behind row upon row of paintings
1t is no longer a lawyers study. 1t looks like
a picture gallery, but in truth the change
has been far greater than that, for it is the
sauctum of spiritualist, who has allowed,
as men of years should in some degree,
thoughts of celestial matters to work upon
his mind
Luther r. Marsh, the man who, ten years
ago-or fifteen at the outSide-was famous
for his shrewdness and alertness at cross
examination, and who for half century has
been trying causes and balancing proofs,
| now looks upon those pictures that hide the
| books of his profession as the work of spirit
hands-the visible, tangible proof of his
ability to correspond with the souls of those
who have died to the world. He says he
saw some of them painted, and no one
painted them. He says that the spirits, who
worked with spirit brushes invisible to his
eyes, were Rembrandt, Raphael, and
/ painters of that fame and that degree of
deafness
All this miracle working-and there are
fifty pictures, or more than painter could
paint in a year-comes to his honor (and
wonder) through the interceSsion of Mime.
Dlss Debar who has caused the marveS to
be performed within ten months. Mr. Marsh
has invited her to make his house her home,
and no wonder. So she is installed there
with her daughter and her husband: for,
supernatural as she is, she is burthened
with man and baby like any terrestrial
woman. and Mr.. Marsh says that he be-
eves she had two sets of twins when she
was the wife of a certain French nobleman
of some such name as Count Flewy, the ex-
act spelling being uncertain to him.
In his study sat MIR. Marsh, surrounded
Il by the spirit pictures and the news
paper men, looking almost precisely as all
81 New York was used to seeing him at the
# bar-a short, wel-built, kindly man, with
"a a square, firm face, enclosed between white
81 side whiskers, and with plenty of grayish-
Al brown hair rumpled above his brow He
seemed to feel that he was not going to be
H believed, but he talked in dead earnest,
though not at all boldly. His manner was
that of man who tells you something very
X decreplt and dlaphanous and says to you,
# constantly; 81 know this Is all on my word
alone, but it is the solemn truth, neverthe-
# less" He wanted very much to impress his
own conviction upon his hearers, but he APP
"a peared to ask 1t as favor, which an old
lawyer should know is not the best way to
"a do He said he was believer in God and
Our Saviour, and so was Mime. Diss Debar,
and therefore he was not a spiritualist of
NJ that common order that eschews the faith,
that conquered the Caucasian races. He is
Swedenborgian, and some spirit or other
painted a picture of Swedenborg for him
only a day or two ago.
III he says that he buys mounted canvases
and he holds them up above his head while
Nine. Debar is present, and the painting
# appears on them, all wet and sticky and
smelling of paint. The ordinary man with
"a a knowledge of art might wish that the
a spirits would paint in less degree like the
works that are sold on VeSey street, frame
and all, for 81 Is, but that does not affect
the amazing fact that he says they are
painted Will, he holds them over his head
and no one touches them or the more amaz-
ing fact that he says he has seen them grow
or paint themselves while he has looked at
the canvases were resting in the room, or
in one instance) while Nine. Diss Debar
was not present. the character of the
paintings has nothing to do with the mat tier,
and to ask for the highest grade of work
under such circumstances recalls the just
remark of the waiter to the man who COM
planned of finding brass stud in his soup:
What do you want" said he, "a gold stud
in l0c. bowl OF SOupp
Mr.. Marsh wants the truth told as the S1Gt
perceives or weighs it, and the truth is that
the pictures are not works of high art, and
are in many cases copies of familiar pictures
that clever men like Sarany or Beard could
repeat off hand at a moments notice Some
are even worse; the portrait of Miss Nelson
and that of Rembrandt, for instance, for
they do not resemble the pictures they are
copied from. RenIbrandt's paintings are
not in his style, and Raphaers method is not
even initiated in his present work
In Mr. Marsh's desk where used to lie the
reams of legal cap, the rolls of red tape the
other paraphernalia of a lawyers desk, are
now drawers full of pads. OF these Mr.
Marsh says that they are used by spirits to
write letters to him. He presses the edges
OF pad that he has just bought and knows
to be fresh, and the always-present Nine
Debar also presses it. Suddenly the sound
of writing is heard followed by two or three
soft, low raps. The pad is then opened and
found to contain twenty or thirty or even
sixty pages of writing from Abraham
Lincoln or Anne Hutchinson or Queen
Elizabeth or some ancient Greek or Roman
notable The writing is done fifteen times
as fast as the quickest stenographer could
do 1t. 1t is not all in one hand or style.
Anne Hutchinson, for instance, writes in
microscopic characters, and Queen Eliza
beth writes in two styles in one and the
same letter. The only letter Mr.. Marsh
offered to read was Elizabeth's, and in it she
says that she was the cause of Shakespeare's
writing "A Midsummer Nights Dream"
Her Majesty also pays a deft compliment
10 Mr. Marsh upon his personal appearance.
Mr. Marsh said that some of the spirits
counseled him about the future and with
8regerd to his property aud the making of
deeds of his house TO Nine. Diss Debar, to
be Kept by her and filled with spirit pictures
as a monument TO the truth.
And | have followed their counsels,"
paid Mr. Marsh
Whats" a reporter asked. "You have
leeded some of your property to the woman
N the advice given you through her as
&nediumF'
M Well, gentlemen" said Mr. Marsh, ~
refer not to say any more about that"
II is splendid, wide, old-fashioned house,
a fine neigLborhood, and it is admirably