Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1894-02-02
WHIBLEY'S SPIRIT.
His Experience with 1t Was
Rather Expensive.


I never met it myself, but knew
: whitley very well indeed, so that
came to hear goodish deal about it.
1t appeared to be devoted to whitley
and whitley was extremely fond of it.
Personally l am not interested in
spirits, and no spirit has ever inter
ested itself in me. But | have friends
whom they patronize and my mind is
quite open on the subject. OF Whib-
ley's spirit, therefore, wish to speak
with every possible respect. 1t was, |
am willing to admit, as Woodworking
and conscientious spirit as anyone
could Wish to live with. The only
thing have to say against it is that it
had no sense.
1t came with carved cabinet that
whitley had purchased in Wardour
street for old oak, but which, as mat
ter of fact, was made of chestnut wood,
and manufactured in Germany; they
turn them out by the hundred in Black
Forest towns) and, at first, was harm
less enough, saying nothing but yes
or no." and that only when spoken
to.
whitley could amuse himself of an
evening asking it questions, being
careful to choose tolerably simple
themes such as Are you thare?" Ito
which the spirit would sometimes an
swer YES" and sometimes mo,
thereby proving it's imbecility from
the very beginning), Glow are you?''
"Can you hear me?'' Are you hap
py?" will you come again?" The
spirit made the cabinet crack three
times for YES and twice for mo. y
Now and then it would reply both
'yes" and mo" to the same question
which whitley attributed to over
scrupulousness. When nobody asked
it anything it would talk to ITSELF re
peat Eyes, no"-"no, yes" over ant
over again and in an aimless, lone
some sort of way that made you fee
sorry for it
-.c After awhile whitley bought it {
table and encouraged it to launch ou
into more active conversation. IL
please whitley assisted at some O
the earlier seances, but during my
presence it invariably maintained ;
reticence bordering on positive dull
ness. gathered from whitley that
disliked me, saying that was unsym
pathetic. The complaint was unjust
was not unsympathetic-at least, no
at the commencement. came to hea
it talk, and wanted to hear it talk;
would have listened to it by the hour
What tried me was its slowness il
starting and its foolishness when it ha,
started iii using long words that it di'
not know how to spell | remembe
ON one occasion three of us, whitley
Jobstock- Whibley's partner my
self, sitting for two hours trying t,
understand what the thing meant b.
"H-e-s-t-u-r-n-e-m-y-s-f-e-a-r." 1t uset
no stops whatever. 1t never so mucl
as limited where one sentence ended an,
another began. 1t never even told IL
when it came to a proper name. 1t
idea of an evenings conversation wa
to plump down one hundred or S
vowels and consonants in front of yo
and leave you to make whatever sens
out of them you could.
We fancied at first it was talkin
about somebody named Hester; it ha
spelled Hester with a III" before w
allowed margin for spelling-and W
tried to work the sentence out on tina
basis. n"Hester ,enemys fear" w
thought it might be. whitley had
niece named Hester, and we decide
the warning had reference to her. Blu
whether she was our enemy and w
were 10 fear her; or whether we wer
to fear her enemies land, if so, VIII
were they?); or whether it was our er
emies who were to be frightened b
Hester, or her enemies, or enemies ger
orally, still remained doubtful. w
asked the table if it meant the frs
suggestion and it said: No" W
asked it what it did mean and it sale
ayes"
This answer annoyed me, but Will
ley explained that the spirit was angr
with us for our stupidity. He informe
MS that it always said first mo" an
then Eyes" when it was angry, and a
1t was his spirit and we were in h
house we kept our feelings to ourselve
and started afresh.
This time we abandoned the Hes
tur' theory altogether. Jobstock suG
gested Haste" for the first word, an
thought the spirit might have gone o
Theoretically.
"Hastel you are here, be my sfear
was what he made of 1t.
whitley asked him sarcastically
he'd kindly explain what he meant.
think Jobstock was getting irriti
BILE, We had been sitting cramped Il
round wretched little one-legged tab
all the evening, and this was almo
the first bit of gossip we had got out ,
it. To further excuse him, it shoul
also be explained that the gas had bee
put out by whitley, and that the fiji
had gone out. He replied that Il WI
hard labor CROUCH to find out what Il
thing said, without having to max
sense of it.
at can't SPELL" he added, land it
got a nasty, sullky temper. If it wa
my spirit, I'd hire another spirit |
kick it."
whitley was one Of the mildest lit