St. Paul daily globe., 1888-05-13
ABOUT SPIRIT WRITING.
a Minneapolis Medium Who Writes
Three Hundred Words
Minute.
SOME ONE-MINUTE ESSAYS
The Ministerial Warfare Upon the
Eddy Seance at the Washington
Rink Tonight.

The seance 10 be given by Kate Eddy
at the Washington rink this evening,
postponed from las5 Sunday because of
the inclement weather, has stirred up
all interesting discussion OF spiritual
ism. Tho ministers seem to think that
the medium is treading upon their pre-
serves, and at last Mondays meeting of
the orthodox pastors of the city the
''Spook business" was roundly de-
nounced. The Rev. Go Lightly Morrill,
has since given several bitter ''roasts'
of the spiritualists to the press, and
the character of those who were pres
ent at the rink. Rev. l.. G. Powers has
also intimated openly that the
so-called seance is what he
classically calls a fake" The
ministerial bombardment has called out
George l.. Woods, a well-known spirit
ualistic medium, who resides at 40l
Seventh avenue south. He had an
nounced that he intended to be present
at the rink, and if Miss Eddy proved to
be a fraud he would expose her, but if he
thought her manifestations to be gen
uine he would assist her. He offered
lul ullCl W SlSS oOliiC ICStS WHlCH IOl.
Johnson, the meSmeriSt, who CLAIMS to
be able to expose any medium, cannot
explain. johnson. it should be under
stood, is an aIl-around faElir who has been
playing engagements at Kohl & Middle
toms museums. He is a Skeptic, and says
he can produce any of the mediums
manifestations by legerdemain or me-
chanical means. The situation briefly
is that johnson has attacked Eddy,
Woods has turned loose on johnson, and
the ministers are after Woods. 1t would
appear that the latter had turned Oh the
preachers, or at least one of them, for
he threatens to sue Rev. Mr.. Morrill, for
libel, and there is the deuce to pay gen
orally. Mr.. Woods has resided in Min
neapolis eighteen years, and is very
well known, especially in Spiritualistic
circles. A GLOBE reporter called upon
him yesterday, and for his benefit the
professor gave some of his manifesto
tions. A tablet of ordinary print paper
was nailed to small table, at which
Mr.. Woods seated himself with short
stub of a lead pencil in either hand.
The first indication that he was
the violent and SpaSmodic tWitchingS
of his hands and arms. His fingers
began to drum tattoo on the table. and
finally sought the paper. Then his
breath came in gasps, while the pencil
began to wander aimleSSly over the
paper. ''Tie isn't writing noW,'' re-
marked his wife, who sat by the re-
porters side. 'Hell tell you when be
begins, and then you can time him."
Soon a leaf was torn from the tablet
and thrown upon the floor. 1t read: IF
you sit back further will try to write
for YOU" The reporter, who was about
foot distant from fbn nla1iI1p1 N tha
partially darkened room, moved his
chair a few feet, and presently Mr..
Woods cried ont ''now," and began to
culver as though he was undergoing q
violent chill. His hands fairly flew over
the paper until minute and ten sec
onds had elapsed, when he suddenly
stopped and leaned back in his chair as
if overcome by nervous prostration.
Il never knew them to use him so
hard" remarked his wife as she handed
him a glass of water.
Them? Who do you mean?" asked
the reporter.
''Why the spirits" answered the
lady. The nail which held the paper to
the table was drawn and the reporter
found two sheets to be covered with
writing in small and legihiy written
hand, the lines even and close together.
The subject matter proved to be dis
Sertation upon odic force containing
355 words. As it takes rapid writer to
put 80 words on paper in long hand, Or
| 200 words in shorthand in 60 seconds,
| it can be conjectured that the reporter
was not a little astoniShed. He had ex-
amined the paper carefully before the
test, had seen it nailed to the table. and
! had carefully watched the medium,
| but there were the fifty-one lines
of better copy" than the aver
| age newspaper hack turns in.
| The message from the clouds ended
with, I've must stop and hold all force
for Sunday evening" and was signed,
"Undine and Leland, spirit control"
| MI Woods, when he had recovered
somewhat, asked what had been writ
ten and said, 1.-The conditions were not
good, as | seldom write less than 500
words minute under spirit control" In
| proof of this assertion he exhibited a
| certificate signed by L. c. Flower and
Robert Shannon, to the effect that April
! s, at the residence OF Z. l.. Larpenter,
81 West Exchange street, st. Paul, he
wrote G6S words in a minute.
! Another test was given which was
| about as incomprehenSible. The re-
| porter was asked to write a message to
the spirits, and accordingly jotted down:
WHO will be the next governor of
| Minnesota"
He folded the paper carefully, allow
ing no one to see it, and sealed it in an
envelope, which was again sealed with
wax. Mr.. Woods then seated himself
behind the curtain and the rappings
were heard for couple of minutes,
when the following answer was thrown
out, page by page:
Now SO far as who Will be the next gov
ernor of Minnesota we will say to you that
it would be hard matter to say who it will
be. There will be bitter fight.
| SATTERLY tSpirit ControD.
These two tests Mr.. Woods stated he
means to give Prof. johnson an oppor-
tunity to explain this evening if be
can, while he has several others he
will offer if necessary. He explained
that when message is written and en-
closed in an envelope it can be stitched
| i'll sewing machine SO that its removal
from the envelope would be impossible
without detection, and still an intelli-
gent answer Will be written by him
under spirit control within few mill
ntQS