The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-04-05
TRUE And STRANGE
Stories of the Supernatural by
Julian Hawthorne.
SATAN In EVENING DRESS
The Work Of The Planchette-How it Makes
Frivolous Remarks-Ghost
Lore Galone.
SATAN IN EVENING ORES
For TIE SUNDAY HERAnD-Copyrighted. ]

same tale, with the same title, appeared IN
BlGckwood's magazine, in London. Whether
the second version was clean steal, or
whether the author of the first himself re.
wrote and republished it, l don't know; at
any rate it was an uncommonly good story.
The gist of it was, that company OF
young men of birth and education, in Paris,
were in the habit of assembling periodically
for a certain mysterious purpose An out
slider having secretly obtained admission,
saw, from his place Of concealment behind
a curtain, handsome square room, with
a bare polished floor, and without furni-
ture, brilliantly lighted by gas jets along
the cornices. The company of young men
in evening dress, stood round the room in a
circle, with hands joined, and chanted some
sort of incarnation. AS it proceeded, a
species of excitement was infused into
them-and electric sympathy of will and
definite purpose. The chant grew more in
tense; at length, they Frustrated them
selves, and bending forward, kissed the
polished floor simultaneously. Whereupon
the onloolzer became aware that another
figure was standing in the centre of the cir
Gle. He was very tall, of stately figure,
clad like the rest of the company in full
dress; his hair was black and crisp, and his
countenance refined, polished and naughty.
He glanced down at his worshippers with
an expression of condescensiou, OF scorn,
of satanic composure, such as could belong
only TO his diabolic majesty himself; until
the profound, fastidious wickedness of the
whole performance drew an involuntary
exclamation from the observer; the lights
went out; in the pitchy darkness he felt
himself seized and hurried away, and by
a fortunate accident he lived to tell the
tale.
This / say is an excellent story; but il
might conceivably be true. The conjuring
up of spirits is an ancient practice. Let 8
number of persons, animated by a consen
sus OF purpose and desire, meet together.
arrange themselves in symbolic order and
attitude, and simulate and intensity theii
common object by harmonizing words and
gestures-and they will presently work
themselves and one another up to pitch OF
eypectant attention, the effect whereof
upon their minds and their senses it would
not be easy to eXaggerate. The apparatior
evoked by the young Parisians was moth
less than the essence of their combined con
ception of the Eni principle: The figure
resembled them much as the composite
photographs lately in vogue unite the pre-
vailing traits of the contributing individu-
ais into derivative of them all: it would
have been strange if an objective resul
had not been obtained. We may say, of
course, that the result, while seeming to be
objective, was in fact subjective; but what
after all, is spirit:
Confident anticipation and concerted &C
ton are all that is necessary to raise the
devil, or any other spectre To the same
order of phenomena belong the "manlpula-
lion" of spiritualism. In spiritualistic cir
cles, the table becomes the medium of sym
patty or magnetic communion between th'
amused blythe efforts of skeptical person:
to prove that ''table-tipping'' is the result
of prank or of unconscious muscular actor
on the part Of the sitters. Il believe il
God Almighty" said one gentleman to me
quite seriously, land | know He wouldn'
come down here to work any such non
senseln Neither, l suppose, would He
through the medium of ruffians, murder in
nocent people; or cause any other iniqui
tous or ridiculous act; nevertheless, uh
world is full of folly and iniquity. Ia,
gentleman's statement had no application
to the matter in hand The table is moved
of course; but not by the pushing or pull
ing of hands and feet. The alternative T.
physical hands and feet is not, however
necessarily spirits. For my own part
though have no particular objection to th
spirit theory, it seems to me gratuitous. L
the force must have a name, the old one o
animal magnetism suits me as well as any
] don't know what 1t means; but It seem
to point to living human beings as thu
source of the phenomena, and that is salts
factory as it goes.
Who the genius was who invented tn
little table on Wheels with pencil on it,
have never heard. He deserves the thank
of the many people who have been enter
tanned by the little instrument. A man 0
an inventive turn might doubtless great.
improve upon it. thirst heard of planchett
about thirty years ago; but the first on
that possessed was made by my own han,
out of the bit of cigar box, 1884. Sum
mer visitors were staying with US, an
there were a half dozen children always Of
hand. l expected to amuse them for a.
evening or two, but the fun lasted three o
four months and was even renewed the fol
lowing year.
The grand initial march is, that plano
bette will move. When you first sit DOW
TO it, the idea seems so palpably aosur
that it is with difficulty you compel your
self to remain in position. After ten min
utes of silence and immobility, you ar
tempted to give the thing a second jerk o.
your own account, and you are morbid.
suspicious of your partner in the trarsac
ton. All of a sudden, planchette, with
faint preliminary crash, starts off an
makes longing, swinging sldelong move
ment, marked by the pencil with a straigh
dash. 1t takes you by surprise, and yo
know you are innocent in the matter; bu
you are convinced your partner is guilty
He meets your glance, and you see in hi
eyes his own corresponding conviction re
garding you. No; you are both alike blame
less. But then, what made planchett
move?