Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-06-24
staunto,, Spectator.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE oath, 1891.
Superstition.

We have been surprised to find persons,
otherwise sensible and intelligent, giving
credence to the professions of those who
claim to exercise miraculous powers in heal
ing the sick, "lame. halt, and blind" 1t
seems so strange to us that we can scarcely
avoid the suspicion of insincerity on the
part of intelligent men who lend their coun-
teuance to such absurd proceedings. The
Lynchburg Advance SO well expresses our
views that we adopt its article in lieu of one
of our own, for with it-as we have said in
another article, written before the Aduance
was receive6-we consider it "a reprosch
to the boosted enlightenment of our age
and country that thousands of people are
yet found credulous enough to give credence
to the preposterous claim of miraculous
ower. The scenes and incidents recently
reported at Pittsburg prove that the age OF
superstition is not yet past. The recita-
takes us back to the Middle Ages, which
men call dark, when the deluded pilgrims
travelled many weary miles to the tomb OF
some noted saint, or sought to touch some
widely advertised relic with the vain hope
of obtaining instant relief from bodily all
ments. But that such scenes should be re-
paated in the last decade of the nineteenth
century in enlightened America, the land OF
free schools, free speech and free press,
can but create establishment. The school,
the pulpit and the press have proved pow
erless to eradicate superstition from the hU-
man mind. The mslady is not confined to
the ignorant, uneducated class. The re-
ports of spiritualistic manifestations in the
large cities and the thousands of votaries
claimed, by the spiritualistic pretenders
and the extravsgant assertions OF the 90
called 's'mediums," prove that superstition
is as rife to day amongst educated people in
the centres of population as it is amongst
the ignorant inhabitants of the rural dis.
tricts. 1t is not confined to the adherents
of any religious creed. Protestants as well
as Catholics are obnoxious to the charge oil
superstition. Witness the craze here IN
Virginia only few years ago over one Mil
Ter, pretended faith healer. Hundreds OF
people travelled many miles to receive the
benefit of his touch and be cured of their
diseases. True, his fame collapsed as
rapidly as it rose, and nobody now hears OF
him as miracle. worker; but the incidents
at Pittsburg prove that all the fools are not
dead yet, and any man who has the audacity
to put forth preposterous claims will find
dnpes enough to believe him. We verify
believe that if some man here in Lynehburg
should boldly come forward to day and
claim to cure all manner of diseases by q
touch, if he would only say it loud enough
and stick to it with apparent honesty, poo
pie would flock to him and many Of them
would go away declaring that they were
perfectly cured of their infrmities. Really
there seems to be no limit to human credu.
lity, and there is little reason to believe that
the increase of culture and the spread OF
general education will have power thor
oughly to eradicate this strangesS, most un'
accountable of all mental infrmites. 1t is
remarkable that side by side of this exces
sive credulity exists spirit of sgnosticism,
doubt of all things, human and divine
Verify, in this age extremes meet-extremes
of credulity and skepticism. 1t is wonder
full how these opposite traits of the human
mind can co-exist in the same age and same
country and under the same conditions OF
civilization. 1t is problem which the
psychologists will find it hard to explain. "