Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1890-01-25


sidered to be the work of charlatans
who should be declared Migrants and
placed on the chain-gang, while its
deyotees I rated as soft-brained people
who ought to be confined in an asylum
for imbeciles.
But I had an experience that con-
verted me. Ny wife had read of
"seances" that werc being given by a
medium, AMI proposed that we go wit
ness them. At first the suggestion so
astounded me that I though her crazy !;
but she said of course she did not be-
ieve In such nonsense, only thinking
it would be harmless way to spend
pleasant evening. She enjoyed a
sleight-of-hand performance, she said,
and she considered these spiritual"
manifestation and materializations as
nothing more. agreed to go, with
holding a desperate resolve made at
the time. am a man of powerful
physical strength and proportions
over six feet Highland would, before
this occurrence, have bargained to
hold a prize-fghter after I had once
gotten my hands on him. determin-
ed that when one of those spirits came
near me I would catch and hold it, and
prove it real flesh and blood.
We went. There was good crowd.
It was a small room. The only furni-
ture was cabinet in a corner farthest
from the auditors. The room was
darkened. To soft music spirits began
to appear. They came from the cabi-
net, in which the medium, a dried
herring old man, weighing one hundred
pounds, was seated, and were family
visible in white raiment. One, larger
than the rest, walked off from his fell
lows and came toward me. "Come a
little further" said to myself, "and I
Will see whether you are of diaphanous
material or not" It came. I grasped
it firmly around the waist. It made
noise that was neither a groan nor a
howl, but seemed like q subdued moan
struggling for louder utterances, and
dragged me to the cabinet. Here my
breath stopped short, my brain reeled,
and lost consciousness for a moment.
The next instant the spirit was gone,
the lights we're raised, and stood at
the door of the cabinet stupidity gazing
at the medium who occupied his seat
as when first he entered, sleeping as
quietly as an infant.
Trembling, scarcely able to stand, I
tottered to my seat and fell into it as
limp as a dishrag. was frightened,
but not fully converted. I felt that
nothing short of an immortal could
escape my strong hold as this had
done; but in search of a confederate,
whom, of course, L suspected, I min
utely inspected the room. / found no
place where one could be hidden. Il
had the cabinet taken to pieces. No
fraud was there.
Doctor" said the medium, who
called at my Office next day, "this was
control Your intention was under
stood, and the spirit approached you
in consequence. Are you still skep-
tic?"
"Count me henceforth as believer"
I answered. "Truly, are there more
things in heaven and earth than are
dreamt of in our philosophy. The fact
that any force can shake me off in an
instant, as did that last night, is all
sufficient proof that it is not of this
world" HORACE ADLER.
"Men who think themselves the
closest investigators are always the
most careless" said the medium"
when he had returned to his room.
"You converted him." this to the big
fellow who sat beside him, with an arm
as hard as railroad iron and hand as
big as a canvased-ham. "He was so
frightened he couldn't understand how
his breath left him so quickly"
"If he could see that, now, he'd
know" said the man, holding up a
fist as full of knots as a Zulu's club.
San speakin' of breath, do you know I
come mighty nigh suffocatin' after I
got back in that panel closet, point
ing to the wall. at tight place to be
in, in more respects than one."-Cht-
cGgo Ledger.