Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-04-06

Continued from last weekly
Friends and Fellow Students" he be-
gan, pleased at the number of his audience
and warned by the visible proof of so large
a sympathy. "Friends and Fellow Stu
dents Let us congratulate ourselves
apou the magnitude and Importance of
this meeting, as proved 10y numbers only
For The first time in history, we, who de-
vote our lives to Spiritual Research and
NndeaYor after deeper and closer and
readier communication with the other
world, meet openly in public without fear
Of repression or dersion. -Four hundred
years ago they would have burned us as
sorCerers and witches two hundred years
ago we should have been small, obscure
nCdy, unable to meet, because unconscious
1f each others existence; one hundred
years ago, those who still kept alive the
sacred Lamp were reduced almost to the
point Of extinction. Only here and there
cue who prevented the spark from vanish
iug and fed the feeble light which to the
outer world seemed extinguished forever
One hundred years agot Why, no one
believed that we were still surviving Our
Cause was Il bye-Word. Even fifty years
lgO. when some of us were boys, what was
the condition of the Spiritualistsf They
we're absolutely unknown. Literature
Iad ceased to speak of them. Rldlcule no
longer chung TO them, because they were
not believed to exist. They were con
si1ere0 to belong to the Dark Ages God
WIN Lives Of the Necromancers suili-
GENTLY attests the low estimation--the
conGempt--in which they were held. Sup
pose this congress had been summoned
fifty years ago, how many would have at
tended Who would have been invited
20 speak ? Ia some obscure college room
Nxsf 4 f,r oI,riI
been found, sitting among his old booke,
one here or there who knew something of
The Mysteries and knew what wa S meant
by Initiation and what by communication
with the Spirits-but he would not dare
to speak of these things in the Hall or the
Combination Room. He would have
been locked up as a mailman. Yet, Eel
low Students, look at us to day"
The President then proceeded to sketch
briefly the history of modern Spiritualism
from its revival in 1S47, when the famous
rapplngS were first heard in America, to
the present time, dwelling upon the won
derful developments of communications
and the vast strides made in so short a
period, so that if the same rate of progress
De maintained, we may hope, he said,
within hundred years, to combine with
The Spirits as freely as with each othei,
Il which case all our books may be burn
ed, because all the learning that we want
will be derived at will and just for the
-rouble OF asking from those unearthly
teachers. He also took the opportunity of
naming, with the highest praise, those
immortal pioneers who have one after the
other taken up the Cause and labored to
reduce q mere series of experiments to an
exact science. Among these he did not
omit the illustrous Sludge Commemorate
ed in BrOwning's deathless verse;, the
devoted Home, Shade the spotess Emanuel
Chick and Lavlnia Medlock. "These men
and women," he acknowledged, "have
had, it is true, during their professional
career, to contend with much misrepresen-
tation; they have met with ridicule;
their motives have been distorted and
1erided the facts of the manifestations
have been doubted their good faith has
been denied; their antecedents have been
Inquired into and mis- stated. In short
they haze encountered enemies and de
tractors. All great men do. What then
Truth will prevail We can afford to
Wait, even to wait long after this life"
He then dwelt upon the great advance
made during the last few years, speaking
from his own knowledge of the power
possessed by Emanuel Chick and by
Lavinia Medock among the mediums of
the day. This was kind of HIM, because
everybody knew that he had now desert
ed the old paths and begun to consult
other oracles.
But now, fellow-students, have to
only TO my own knowledge and under my
OWE eyes, but actually to myself and to
those ST my own household. What follows
il a history.
Many OF you have heard part of this
history. Things have been whispered
about. Say, the. papers have. given gar
1le0 and imperfect notes of what has
been done IL my house. But it mas been
left for this Conference to hear the truth
20 ncec ming the most wonderful, the most
startling, the most extraordinary mani
festatons Of modern times.
we heard from st. Petersburg from
our friend, Anna Petrovna, that we were
TO receive a visit from young spirtualist
Of whose powers she spoke in terms which
excited our highest expectations. He
spoke, she said, all languages equally
we'll, but only that of the couhtry where
he happened to be for the time. With her
ne spoke Russian with us he would speak
English. He was coming to England
charged with a Message to me and to my
household. There would be no question
At ell of money. / was not to offer him
ices or pay nent of any kind; his wants
were amply provided for. and she begged
is TO receive him as a person of the high
est distinction, whose stay would confer
great honor upon us.
I'VE expected our guest with impa-
tience; we received him with delight
We We're not disappointed in him. We
found young man, apparently not nVe
and twenty, possessed of manners which
were charming, good breeding, the self
possession which comes Of belonging by
birth to the best society," and of beauty
which can only describe as supernatural.
have seen nothing in earthly faces
which / can compare with the face of our
visitor. His voice was soft and musical,
and the sight of his eyes, soft and lus-
JrOus, yet full of power and authority,
commanded respect and awe. For six
weeks or so we were ravished out of our
selves by a continued series of manifesto
lions, The like of which we had never
before experienced. Paul-he allowed us
q .Apglicise the German form of his
name, Herr Paulus-frst proved his
powers by reading girls thoughts, and
then showing them actually photographed
we have seen thought reading and rec
ognized it as a branch. and no mean
branch of communion between soul aud
soul-but we had never before seen such
ching as spirit photography applied tc
thought reading. Again. he made blind
girl see her brother, then at sea and he
photographed the picture of what she
saw EOn another occasion he.annihlat
ed space aud time, and actually placed in
our astonished hands the daily paper
hat very mornings. issue-published at