Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-05-09
SCIENCE CAN'T SOLVE IT.
Startling Manifestation of Mediumistie
Power.
Two Specimen Seances of the Late
Charles Foster. Which He Him
self Could Not Explain.

had a most interesting talk the other |
day with Mr.. Leigh s. Lynch upon the |
subject of the marvellous manifestations |
made by the late Charles Foster, the spirit |
medium. writes Eugene Field from London |
to the Chicago News. 1t was while was !
living in New Orleans" SAYS Mr.. Lynch. |
that | first met Foster He brought let |
tiers of introduction from friends in New
York, and he invited ME TO call upon him
at the st. Charles hotel The local papers |
were full of stories of his manifestations
and the town seemed to have gone mad on
the subject of SpirItuaiSm. One day,
while walking with friend in the vicinity
of the st. Charles hotel, | suggested that
we call upon Foster. We found that gen
tleman most cordial in his welcome; there
were two visitors already with him, and he
suggested that we have a SeanCe by way of
passing the time You understand. of
course. said |. that m no believer in
this sort Of thing, but don't mind sitting
| dcwn with the party for a half-hour or SO.
| Foster laughed and said:
We are doing this merely for amuse-
ment. And now that you have been so
! candid in conteSSIng your unbehef, Mr..
! Lynch. please write upon several bits of
| paper the names of deceased friends. and
! fold the bits of paper so that it would be
| impossible for me to read the writing
| therein l. complied with this sugges-
| ton; the first that | wrote was that of
! Edwin Forrest, that tragedian having re-
! Gently died; the second name was of my
! Aunt Susan, of whose death | had heard
only the day before; the other names
have now forgotten. | folded these
pieces of paper into little strips in such
wise as to make It utterly impossible for
-, /. -
Then Foster took up the first bit of parer
and, holding it against his forehead said:
If the spirit of the person named in this
paper is here. let Us receive notification
thereof. Immediately in divers parts Of
the room there wore knockingS-not
mere rapping, but vigorous thumping.
All, said Foster, at once, this Is evident
" the noblest Roman of them all, Edwin
Forrest,
We'll that completely knocked me out,
continues Mr.. Lynch. My friend and
watched Foster closely and we were con-
| WINGED that there had been no trickery; he
could not have seen the name written on
the paper Like the old man that the
| Hoosier poet has written about, we had
nothin at all to say" Then Foster pick
ed mp the second slip of paper and asked
for a manifestation; the knocking this
time was more subdued. 1t is evident,
said Foster. that this spirit is that of 4
lady; yes, it is the spirit of your Aunt
Susan, who died of smallpox a week ago
last Tuesday at Uniontown. Pa. That
settled me; got right up and said must
be going. Not until you We had glass
Of wine, said Foster, and he called for Il
quart bottle. Front he hotel | went direct
~ to the telegraph office and sent dis
patch to my home folks asking where and
of what my Aunt Sunan had died. That
night the answer came: At Unlontown,
of smallpox.
Some years later" says Mr.. Lynch.
Il was on my way to Australia III the
steamship of which Capt. Jack Caverly
was the commander. One time Foster 5
name happened to be mentioned, and the
captain regaled us with Renaissance to
this effect: Foster was a passenger on the
captain boat from San Francisco to
Sydney. Having heard of Fosters mys-
FERROUS practices, the captain sought him
out and said: This is to be a long voy-
age. and there are many women and IN
valids on board. Now, none of your do
ingS at all nothing to terrify the pasSen-
gers!' Foster smiled and assented. But
about week thereafter. happening to en-
ter the saloon one evening, Capt. Caverly
found a Seance in full tlast. Walking
straightup to Foster he said: Look here,
sir; this thing has got to stop: you recol-
Iect the talk we had the day we sailed
now. no more of this nonsense till after
we reach sydney Foster showed no
sign of anger, but glancing over his
shoulder at Caverly, he said: Why do
YOU speak of Sydney? You re not going
to take this ship inro Sydney
Tho Snanpp ended then and there
The captain was pretty indignant, more
over. the intimation of d disaster prayed
upon his mind. He didn't believe there
was going to be any trouble, yet Foster 5
words haunted him and worried him.
Entering the harbor of Kaudavin, one of
the Fiji group Of islands the ship ran up
on d rock and stove a big hole in her side,
necessitating the transfer Of the passen-
gers to another ship en- route to Sydney !!
An investigation proved that the accident
resulted from the shifting of bouy in the
harbor, whereby an erroneous calculation
of the course was made.
Poster subsequently died in a mad
house. He was as J recolect. a native of
Massachusetts,; his personal appearance
was peculiar; not striking; he was exceed
ingIy cOmpaniOnable and he seemed to
fear II be left alone. He would sit up all
| night IOl IDt SAKE Ol udNliS d CIONu VI
good fellows around him. He prOfessed
not to be able to explain these marvellous
manifestations and he was the only med
ium who was never was detected in
trickery. Some time after has death
went to the headquarters of the Zylonite
company in New York City upon a bust
ness errand; there | met Bartlett. who had
been Fosters business manager; he was
now head salesman for this manufacturing
concern. Come Bartlett. said !, now
that our friend Foster is dead, tell me
how he did it. Upon my word OF honor,
said he, solemnly, I do not know, nor was
| able to discover any trickery III all the
years that | was with him. We often
talked together about his powers and he
always assured me that he could not
explain them. believe he told the
truth
Foster was exceeding popularity with the
atrical people. The late Eliza Weathers-
/ by Goodwin was one of his devoted friends
and his profession generally consulted and
| believed in him.