Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-10-29
THEY ARE NOT sPIRITUAL1sTs.

THEY ARE NOT SPIRITUALISTS.
Medium Brooks Says that the Fox Sis
tiers Fell by the Way Years Ago, and
Their Reclamation Cannot Affect
Spiritualism.
"This is our funeral and we have gathered
to give the corpse q decent burial" said Mr..
George b. Brooks, sarcastically, in opening the
meeting OF spiritualists at Grand Army Hall last
night. As he said it he glanced smilingly at
the vases OF flowers on the altar and tables
which stood on the platform. Mr.. Brooks was
about to answer the recantation of the Fox
sisters, which was published in The STAR q
few days ago, and that was what he meant
when he alluded to q funeral. There were
about 100 people in the hall, mostly spiritual
lists, evidently. After some singing and q
prayer, Mr.. Brooks closed his eyes, to indicate,
doubtless, that he had passed under spiritual
influence, and began his answer to the Fox
sisters recantstion.
The world, he declared, had been prepared
for the spiritual dispensation by the failure of
an orthodoxy, which taught the doctrine of an
eternal hell and personal devil, to rescue and
hit up mankind from blind materialism. John
Murray came to found Universalism, with
a heaven large enough to hold all
human kind, but Universalism likewise failed
| to stem the ever-rising tide of materialism
Then Mr. Brooks passed on to sketch the rise
and development Of spiritualism from the first
mysterious rappings which, forty-six years ago,
puzzled the family and friends of the three
Fox sisters in the little town of Hyde. He told
how the mother Of the girls discovered the
| spiritual intelligences" which caused the
| strange manifestations and how slowly hun
dreds and thousands had come to know and
! acknowledged the truths thus revealed. Com
munication having thus been opened, as it
were, with the spirit world, from the simple
| rapplngs the manifestations became more and
more complex and came in q hundred ways.
MEDIUMS INCREASED IN NUMBER
correspondingly, until now there was scarcely
! q household in the land which did not have a
member of it susceptible to the influences or in
which manifestations had not taken place. And
in the face Of all this, Mr.. Brooks exclaimed,
spiritualists were told that the so-called recan-
tation Of the Fox sisters in New York the other
| night had killed spiritualism. If all the medi-
| ums in the world recanted, it would not kill
| spiritualism. The orthodox religions Of the
world all had their saviors, and the world be-
| lieved that the Fox sisters were the saviors of
| spiritualism. There the world showed its ignor-
| ance, for no spiritualist believed anything of
| the kind. Indeed, for years spiritualists knew
| that two Of the Fox sisters, through luxury and
failing to live up to their higher selves. had be-
come dissolute women. The third, Mrs. Fox
Underhill. was still as steadfast in the faith as
| rock. She had striven again and again to
| rescue her two sisters, Kate and Maggie, who
had fallen by the way. She had endeavOred to
surround them with all good influences, but her
efforts were in vain. The girls went back to
ago one of them Mrs. Jenkins, had been arrested
as drunkard and her two children were taken
| from her.
| THE SPEAKER BECOMES EXCITED.
For years Spiritualists had not regarded these
| two sisters as of them, knowing that they had
| entered the Catholic Church, and it was under
Catholic influence that they had made their
recantation. OF all the religions of the world
the Catholic Church, the speaker said, most
feared Spiritualism. 1t had used these Fox
sisters in the hope of destroying Spiritualism.
At this point the speaker became quite impas-
stoned and warned his hearers to beware of
the Catholics, who were seeking to overthrow
our schools and our Government as well as
Splrltuallsm. In his excitement he struck
vase of flowers ON the table beside him and
knocked it over, the water running to the floor
in quite stream.
Continuing, the speaker took occasion to
warn mediums against exhausting their pow
ers, as the Fox sisters had done. leaving them
selves in a weak condition physically and men
tally, and unfit to combat temptation. He
urged spiritualists to surround mediums with
all good influences. The day had gone by
when mediums could live bad lives and retain
their standing.
REPRIMANDING THE PRESS.
Having warned his hearers against the church,
Mr.. Brooks gave little attention to the press,
which he said attacked and ridiculed spirit
ualists and instead of feeding the higher ma
ture OF man, pandered to his lower passions
Later on in his speech he returned to the press,
declaring that whereas in old times our fathers
used to believe implicitly everything they found
printed in their Bibles, their almanacs and
their weekly newspapers, nowadays a man
could believe nothing he saw in print without
danger OF falling into grievous error.
Spiritualists who were frightened by the
''recantation" OF the Fox sisters and sneaked
back into the church, Mr.. Brooks said. would
be given good radiance by their brethren.
Only steadfast men and women were wanted.
Those who were converted in a moment to
spiritualism wouldn't do; they never stuck.
The Fox sisters were no more than any other
mediums, and the truth Of spiritualism, attested
through years of redicule and investigation
and denunciation, could not be affected by
their recantation any more than it had been by
their dissolute lives. Mediumship was no
guarantee against bad morals. Anyway if
spiritualism persisted at once, it had done this
much: it had knocked the bottom out of hell
After MIR. Brooks sat down, Mr.. Wolf made
few spirited remarks in defense Of the truth of
spiritualism, the doctrines Of which he declared
he had held before the Fox sisters had been
heard of. He had long passed the allotted span
OF three-score-years-and-ten and his life had
been full Of spiritual experiences that the re-
cantatlon OF all the mediums in the world could
not affect.
Then Mr.. Brooks arose with his eyes open
and efficiently alluded to the fact that he did
not see as many flowers as before he closed
them. He said he was very sorry it had hap
Pened (alluding to his knocking the vase over);
he wished he could prevent it, but he really
couldn't. Then he gave a test of medium
ship by touching the left hands Of persons in
the audience and attempting to tell them some
thing Of their lives and character. These tests
were not very successful
Transfers of Real Estate.
Deeds in fee have been filed as follows
Amanda NJ. Dean to Geo. Truesdell, pit. Widows
Mite; s.. NJ. L. Noer to w. B. Noer, do; e.
E. Flagg to G. Truesdell, do; g. D. c. Reeves
to P. Hulehy, pit. 8, So 55S; S2,2O7.14. F. E.
Alexander, committee, to same; g. L. o.
Wood to s. NJ. Bryan, pit. Z. SO. 1872; 81, 800.
Jackson Humphrey to W. Hutchison, pit. 8, SO.
974; 81, 800. ]. ]. Darlington to J. H. Walter,
lots l and 2, SO. 1923; S127.50. c. A. Elliot to
b. L. Walker ct al, same property; S67.5O. B.
Fisher to W. Wheeler, pit. 100. BIS addition to
West Washington; 800. W. Wheeler to Mary
e. Fisher, same property; 800. Fannie I.
Myers to NJ. ]. Adler ct al, trustees, pit "a, B.
II. g addition to West Washington; 81, 500. A.
A. Lipscomb, trustee, to H. Spalding lots II
and IL, So Sill; g. C. H. Parker to John
Tp,ir;a Il a. 200. a. 7nn Tol- = r..r--