St. Paul daily globe., 1888-01-29
"Nelse" Seymour's Spirit Appears.

The Banner of Light recOuntS the
particulars of seance given recently
by Mrs. Caldwell in New York city.
She is medium for physical manifeS-
tationS. The circle was composed of a
select number of ladies and gentlemen,
mostly strangers to us. but who we soon
found were very Intelligent and har-
moniouS persons. On being introduced
TO the medium we learned that she had
a stroke of paralysis some time ago. re-
Sulting in the permanent injury of the
bronchial tubes, and that she does not
speak above a whisper.
A spirit dressed in pure white came
from the cabinet to the center of the
room and requested gentleman in the
audience to stand beside her in order to
show that she was half head shorter
in stature than he. She then passed
into the cabinet, when another form
appeared, who stood in the same posi-
tiOn the other spirit had moment be-
fore, when it was shown that she was as
tall as the gentleman-thuS demonstrate
ing the fact of the appearance of two
spirits, not only in height, but Of differ
ent cast of cOuntenance.
The chief control of the medium was
Nelson Seymour familiarly known
while in the earth-life as "Nelse'' Sey-
mOur, who was, it Is said. up to the time
Of his decease, prominent member
of Bryant'S minStrels). Calling us to the
cabinet. he ordered more light, thus
showing his face very distinctly. We
asked him how long he had been the
cabinet spirit of Mrs. Caldwell; his reply
was, ''Three years." He spoke in a full,
distinct, masculine voice. After we
had resumed our seat the spirit reap
peared, and desired those in the audi
ence who felt so disposed to PROFOUND
any question they pleased, and he would
answer to the best of his ability. AS no
one responded, after some delay we
said that there was one question we
would like answered, and that was:
Why certain trance platform speakers
often in their public utterances con-
demned the physical mediums, and
called those people who indorSed them
nothing but phenomenalistS," etc.
The spirit fOrcibly replied at some
length, and to our view truthfully, that
in some instances such spe akerS were
welded to the intellectual phase of
mediumship exclusively, because it was
their stock in trade; that such persons
lacked in great measure true spiritu-
ality, or in other words, did not possess
in very large degree the natural affec-
tiOnS inherent in most people, while
those who did were drawn to the ma
terialiZing seanceS as well as to the
lecture rooms of the trance and normal
speakers. Besides, said the spirit with
much earneStneSS, trance speaker
might be of very affectionate nature,
true and pure lover of his race, but,
before going upon the platform-eSpeci-
ally if he were engaged to lecture for
weeks or months at the same place-his
surroundings would lead him to believe
he might please his audiences best by
ignoring the materializing phase.
In the course of the evening other
spirits appeared and were fully recog.
niZed by their friends. Mr.. Thomas r.
Hazard. Mrs. j. H. Conant and other
spirit friends appeared. and seemed to
be highly pleased that they possessed
the powers to come. The spirit mother
of the medium was introduced to us.
She herself turned on the gas in order
that we might distinctly see her face.
Another spirit, entirely unlike her, did
the same.