Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-04-02
The Spiritualists' Anniversary.

To the Editor of The Evening Star:
Having carefully read the article in your last
Saturdays issue. headed ''Years of Rappings,"
and believing that you would not intentionally
do an injustice to any number of your patrons,
however small. venture to send you a few
words as mild and gentle protest against the
general spirit Of the article referred to, as it
seems to me, calculated to give false impress
sion, not only of the general subject of spirit
ualism and the claims Of spiritualists, but of
the character of the people in this city, who
are organized and incorporated as 1.-The First
Spiritualist Association of Washington.
We fear that the article is liable to mislead
the public by announcing that at the meeting
to celebrate the forty-fourth anniversary of
modern spirituaiism'' there will be rap
pings by ghOstly hands and .gruesome sounds
and noises" or that there will be anything ''un-
canny" about the exercises. II any one took
this statement seriously and went to the hail
with any expectation OF seeing or hearing any
thing "gruesome" or ''uncanny" fear he was
very greatly disappointed. as / am sure
nothing of the kind was on the program, and
what one did hear we're addresses whose object
is to give the public an intelligent idea of what
modern spiritualism Is. Possibly he heard
some good music and. if he stopped long
enough, had an opportunity 70 witness or,
ii SO inclined, to join in quite an unghostiy
dance. II the representative of The STAR was
present it is hoped he will give a careful ac-
some) sounds and noises he heard, as well as
everything observed that seems unsafe" or
mot neat (uncanny.)
Would it not have been q more satisfactory
statement Of the facts if after saying what
matter If one OF the active participants in the
events Of that natal day" (the advent Of the
demonstrations in the Fox family, zone of
the Fox sisters herself, has since asserted that
the demonstration was fraud. fake; not
spiritual, but entirely PHYSICAL The true be-
levers say her confession was q leland go
ahead with their celebrating" you had added
that she herself confesses that her former
confession" was q lie, whose motive it is not
necessary now to discuss.
cannot criticise the statement as to the
number OF spiritualists in the country, as the
writer OF the article has simply quoted from an
official statement OF q census bulletin, and
simply allude to it as illustration OF the fact
that statistics" are often fearfuiiy far from
the truth.
There was a special inquiry to procure sta
tistics OF the several religious bodies of the
country. Most Of these, like the various
Christian churches. are so thoroughly organ
lied that it was easily done, and the results
give fair showing as to their relative num-
beers. But spiritualists are not organized in
any way. In many cities and towns few have
banded together Tor the purpose of supporting
public meetings. These organizations, if they
may be so called, are purely local, having no
connection with each other. They are often
not even fairly representative of the believers
In their own locality. 1t was these loosely or
ganized bodies alone that the census INQUIRY
could reach, and 1t surprises no one more than
the spiritualists themselves that SO large a
number was found. The writer was asked to
assist In taking the census Of the spiritualists
but declined because it could be done in no
other way than by asking the question of every
person by the enumerator whether he or she
was q believer.
In 1854 think it was that the Roman
Catholic convocation in the city of Baltimore
estimated the sPirltualists at ~ 600 600 In this
country. Robert Dale Owen thought this AN
overestimate and placed the number at 7. 500 :
900. There are today doubtless 20, 1000. 600 Of
people In the United States who not only be-
lieve but know they have held communication
with friends who have passed through the
change called death. There are doubtless
twice as many In the city of Boston as the
census reports in the state Of Massachusetts,
1t is frequently the case In that state that two
gatherings at the same hour a hundred Of miles
apart contain more than are reported for the
whole state. 1t would he a conservative state
ment to place the number Of believers at |, 200
III this city.
Spiritualists. however, regard IL an of very
little moment whether they are correctly
counted or not. What we do object To il such
statements as the following, quoted from the
article " last Saturday: The ranks OF the
spiri;uallsts In Washington are recruited from
the transient population coming to this CITY
from other states-oftice holders who come and
CO." and The local spiritualists hold public
meetings nearly every Sunday night and some
times one evening durisg the week." The fucts
are that for twenty-six years, with but one
slight break, such meetings have been held
every Sunday, usually morning and evening
except during the customary summer VACATION
and for the past ten years the largest halls in
the city have frequently been found too small
to accommodate those who desired to hear the
dell hal m If