The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-06-17
The SPIRIT APPARITIONS
Many Of Them Assemble Sunday Nights
at Boston SeanCeS.
The Regulation Spooks Put In an
Appearances and Are Regularly
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS From
Departed Friends.


denly, probably with heart disease. He
tells me his name IL Charles. Yes, that IL
il. Charles - can't exactly make
out the last name"
"Does anybody recognize this spirit?"
asks the conductor la Ia deep and perfume
tory voice. There Is "a nod from some
melancholy creature seated on one OF the
benches.
at Is all right; il Is all recognized"
says the conductor. And so another SUBJ
stantial triumph TO the test medium is re-
corded.
Every Sunday evening there are a score
of meetings called spiritual meetings in
Boston. They are usually well attended,
which Is remarkable when the monoton-
Gus nature of all Of them is considered.
They are, to be sure, amusing enough for
a few visits, but after m has got well
acquainted with the ghosts who are their
stock In trade, and has heard h English
language murdered most foully for "A half
dozen times or so, the interest wanes.
The writer visited n of G meetings
not long SINCE. IL was a typical meeting,
and the goings Oh there may be said To be
the goings on at all, except at those pri-
vate u more expensive where
the dead are not only talked to, but are
played with; where the ghosts thumb
banjos and thump tables and Fighter
w~eak-nindcd people into conniptioD fits.
OF course, there are many of the attend
ants at these meetings who earnestly be-
lievc that they are spiritualists, and that
the medium is really capable OF talking
with the lead and giving advice on all
sorts of subjects, from he cradle 10 the
divorce court. These earnest people are
probably in the majority, for to them the
army of mediums look for support, and
among these true believers, too, are many
people of intelligence on almost every
other subject. How they a be habitual
visitors TO these public meetings and re-
main believers II is hard to see. But they
do il, and pay literally for their belief,
too. Let us see what the audience m
the hall look like. At n n a small
platform with q very large hair
long bunch of flowers in n vase. TN the
platform the conductor, who looks after
the mediums and acts as general mas
ter of ceremonies. Behind the piano a
singer, who sings the songs OF the day.
not hymns. As they come n the hall
some of the audience pass up to the plat
form and put something on the table. Tins
is generally a knife, ~apocketbook, a pic
ture or an article of jewelry, and is in
tended TO put the medium who picks il up
in closer rapport with the ghost, which
recognizes the jewely and wishes to be
put in communication with its owner.
Il itIt U w eP s'St's Nv $500 80
machinery in the hall, and the lights
are kept burning brightly during the
whole performance. As "A natural conse-
quence, possibly, there are no CHESTS seen
or heard except by the mediums, who can
see the hall peopled thick with them at
will. The audience is three-quarters
women, and almost invariably OF an I'M.
certain age. One of the most singular
things about Inc whole business Is The
ease with which the people who were pre-
sumably intelligent when alive are COM
plctcly upset when in the spirit world and
talk the most absolute nonsense i'm an En-
glish that must horrify old Lindley Muir
ray, il lac is anywhere within hearing,an
suggests most forcibly hat the transfer
renee of our most excellent system of edu-
cation To the spirit land would he "A mag
nificently beneiicient project.
And thisb bad English and worse sense
is i'm direct contradiction To the idea of in
d%ividuality in the spirit land.
One of the leading lights OF Boston's
brilliant circlet of ~mediumistic spiritual
lists, i'm speaking that evening OF this indi-
viduality, says: "When we pass over into
the spirit world we take our peculiarlties
with us. III we are mean and sordid here,
we will he the same there. III we are re-
vengeful here. We will he rcvengcful spir-
its. ia Il what WI are on earth so we viii
he there. only that as spirits | do NOT De-
lieve that We "A do any serious harm, iio
mattef now rcNcilgciui We may ~. nv
murderer who Is hanged on earth natu-
rally wants 10 he revcnged as soon as he
awakes in the spirit land, but ne Is not
permitted Ia do any harm Ia those VINO
see him here
This idea of individuality, IL true, must
permit n spirit To have his knowledge OF
languages intact with hlm IN the heSi
world, and yet the mediums forget all
this and present "A scholarly, well-bred
maj TO his friends as a coarse, ill-bred ig-
noramus. Is IL not more likely that the
majority of the mediums have so little
knowledge of decent English AS la be
quite unable To repeat the words of we'll
informed ghosts?
OF all the mediums who mounted the
platform. but two or three were capable
Of telling a fact iniellig,nily.. The others
had ecourse to baby talk aud Hts to exc
out a very scaniy vocabulary OF words
aud a most marvellous paucIty of ideas.
All OF these latter cases were noticeable
chiefly for their assurance. Here are sew
eral Of the visions.