The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-04-05
THE LITTLE TABLE ON WHEELS.
Third ARTICLE.

tlc, dpPSdica III 0f0cE1r0O0S magazine, IN
Lodon- Whether the second version was
a clean steal, or whether the author of the
first himself re-wrote and re-published it,
l don't know; at any rate it was an un-
commonly good story.
The gist of it was, that q company of
young men of birth and education, in
Paris, were in the habit of assembling
periodically for q certain mysterious pur-
pose. An outsider having secretly obtained
admission, saw from his place Of conceal
ment behind curtain, q handsome square
room, with bare polished floor, and with
out furniture. brilliantly lighted by gas
jets along the cornices. The company of
young men, in evening dress. stood round
the room IN circle, with hands joined,
and chanted some sort of incarnation. As
it proceeded, a species of excitement was
infused into them-an electric sympathy
OF will and definite purpose. The chant
grew more intense; at length they pros
trated themselves, and bending forward,
kissed the polished floor simultaneously
Whereupon the oniooker became aware
that another figure was standing in the
center of the circle. he was very tall, of
stately figure, clad like the rest of the COM
pany in full dress; his hair was black and
crisp. and his countcnance refined, pol
ished and naughty. He glanced down at
his worshippers with an expression OF con-
descention, of scorn, OF Satanic composure,
such as could only belong TO his diabolic
majesty himself; until the profound. fas-
tidious wickedness of the whole perform
ance drew an involuntary exclamation
sarom the observer; the lights went out;
in the pichy darkness he felt himself
eized and hurried away, and by fortu-
nate accident he lived to tell the tale.
This, say, is an excellent story: but it
might conceiyabiy be true. The conjuring-
up of spirits is an ancient practice. Let
number of persons, animated by con-
sensus of purpose and desire, met to-
gether, arrange themselves in symbolic or
der and attitude, and stimulate and inten-
sify their common object BIZ harmonizing
words and gcstures-and they will pres
emily work themselves and one another up
to pitch of cxpectant attention, the effect
whereof upon their minds and senses it
would not be easy to exaggerate. The APP
partition evoked by the young Parisians
was nothing less than the essence of their
combined conception of the Eni principle:
The figure resembled them much as the
composite photographs" lately in vogue,
unite the Prevailing traits of the contribu-
ting individuals into deriyatiye of them
all; it would have been strange if an OBJ
jective result had not been obtained. We
may say, of course, that the result, while
seeming to be objective, was in fact sub
jective: but what, after all, is spirit?
Confident anticipation and concerted ac-
ton are all that is necessary to raise the
devil, or any other spectre. To the same
order of phenomena belong the 'manipu-
lations'' Of spiritualism. In spiritualistic
circles, the table becomes the medium of
sympathy or magnetic communion be-
tween the persons who sit around it. /
have been amused by the efforts of scep-
teal persons to prove that "table-tip-
ping is the result of prank or of uncon-
scious muscular action on the part of the
sitters. Il believe in God Almighty" said
one gentleman to me quite seriously, ''and
Ikaow He wouldn't come down here to
work any such NONSENSE" Neither. sup
pose, would He, through the medium of
ruffians, murder innocent people; or cause
any other Ubiquitous or ridiculous act;
nevertheless, the world is full of folly and
iniquity. The gentleman's statement had
no application to the matter in hand. The
table is moved. of course; but not by the
pushing or pulling Of hands and feet. The
alternative to physical hands and feet is
not, however, necessarily spirits. For my
own part, though have no particular OBJ