Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-03-09
MIR. STOREY AND THE SPIRIrs
The Great Editor a Firm Believer
in the Supernatural.
PoLiNTo's "REMINISCENCES.

Po!into, one of the men whose writings
helped to place the Chicago Times in the
forefront of western journalism, during
the life of Wilbur f. Storey, contributes
the following "Reminiscences of his great
chief TO the Chicago Herald:
The afternoon OF Saturday, the day be-
fore the outbreak Of the fire Of 1871, |
left Storey in his Office on Dearborn
street. He was her in perfect health.
bis eyes were bright and clear, his voice
firm and his form erect. Monday fore
noon | fought my way through the
flames, smoke, ~reeking.ruins and tumbling
walls, over blackened corpses to Mr..
Storey's house on Michigan venue Ii
was south of the line of fire and was ur-
touched.
Mr.. Storey, Judge Lambert Tree and
one or two other men sat on the piazza.
The stalwart editor, whom | had parted
with on Saturday, had disappeared and
IN his place was an old maj with dulled
eyes, face scanned all over, open mouth,
and STOPPING lhoulders. He shook hands
with indifference, and in a feeble voice
said:
Chicago is gone up and am
ruincdl'
This was the initial blow of a series
that was destined to fatally shatter his
ROBUST life.
Mr.. Storey was then married to his sec
ond wife, a woman with a questionable
| reputation, but who. when married to
him, became faithful, and gave him a de-
voted attenlio. and affection. She so en-.
dearcd herself 10 him that he grew fond
of her and came nearer loving her than
any otner woman he ever knew.
She made herself indispensable TO his
comfort. She studied his needs and pecu-
liarities and how 20 crafty them. She
coddled him az if he had been an infant.
Having lived the most Of his life by him
self, the new situation was especially de-
lightflu. 1t was at a time when he was
surrounded by all kinds Of gentle atten
ton, when, perhaps, for the first time in
his life lie was entirely happy, thai his
wife suddenly sickened and died.
The blow nearly drove him insane.
Not long after her death he broke his leg,
and which, o being properly set, left
him with a crooked limb, which tor
mented his pride and seriously interfered
with his movements. This aggregation
Of calamities wrought serious evils on his
nature, and he grew moody and morbid.
Greatest among all the disasters was the
death Of his wife He could not forget
her; he missed her smiles, her soothing
voice, her caressing hands every moment.
He could not give her up.
One day, some months after the death
of Bonnie" AS he always called her, he
said to me one evening at his house:
Have you ever looked into spiritual
ism? What do you think of it?"
Il replied that | had given a good deal
attention to the new faith, but was rather
inclined TO doubt its genuineness. He
then said:
Il don't believe anything in il, and yet
would like to test it. ! have heard of a
medium. as they call it, l believe, and /
shall make some tests. Suppose We 90
over there this evening"
| agreed, of course. He ordered his
carriage, and in company with a medical
friend of his from Springfield, We drove
to a house whose locality | do not re-
member. There was q circle" gathered
when we entered. There were two me.
uliDlD III II 0hOlIh ~
"A man and his wife.
The "Circle' broke up for a moment,
and was then reformed by the addition OF
an air Of solemn expectancy. The lights
were turned down, and, after a few min
utes of singing, a guitar, which waslyiDg
on a table in the vicinity, rose in the air,
fioated over the heads of the audience,
.nI uao fuynnn0A with uinnr Thnra
were raps on the wall, on and under the
table; spirit fingers" touched the hair
and cheeks of the s~ltters, and messages
were delivered through an alphabet OF
tappings.
II was the old familiar thing which !
had SO often seen and knew to be y dc.
ception. / was trying TO smother my
contempt when suddenly, directly over
our heads on the ceiling, there appeared
a space Illuminated by a pale blue light
Everybody glanced up and saw written
across the lighted portion the name
stale that unconsciously ] uttered in {
voice heard al over the room:
"Oh, h-lr'
The lights were instantly turned up
and Storey at once glanced nj me s.ernly
dlu itilHlhtN III III lllNAlGHdul tOut.
You must have drunk too mucd o
that claret at dinner"
he never after that invited me to visi
anv spiritual scances in his company il
fact, for nearly a year he did not invlt
me 10 his house. J learned that durini
this period OF my absence the medium
whom we had visited had been i~nsta!le
in the Storey residence as the guests @
the proprietor.
u was while he was thus mourning til
loss of his wife that he became pOssesse
with the belief that nr. Hosmer Johnson
who attended Mrs. Storey in her final i'll
ness, had not given her due attention
that. instead Of calling, he should hav'
devoted his entire time TO her case. Thi
conviction, ia time, developed into one Il
the effect that the physician had giver
her culminative doses Of acoaite. One.
possessed of these ideas, he proceeded t,
assault the physician through his pape
in a manner which few of the citizens 0
that day will fail to remember.
johnson stood the unjust and frightfu
attacks for some months in silence, an,
then replied to them in an article in
city newspaper, which was me of tn
most terrible that ever appeared in print
He amply refuted the assertion rs to lacl
of attention to the patient; and from hi
note Of the case proved that the medicine
was what il should be, and conclude,
by showing that the cause Of her malad,
ls~~-.