The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-03-14

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no THE spirits of the dead come back?
- Well l don't know. III did would provei
and stop the warfare that Is now nging between
the spiritualists and skeptics in Canton. saw
couple of men debating the question on the
street the other day. They were very much
agitated and were charging upon each other
with argument and accusation. The skeptic
berated the spiritualist for his superstition and
the spiritualist rallied at the skeptic for his
ignorance. This question seems to berof absorb
ing interesting just now all over the city. A
spirit of investigating Is abroad. The church
in measure has let down the bars to free
thought on the subject and the membership
has burst into the arena of investigation eager
for light. Even some of our local domnies are
said to have entered the charmed circle of the
dark room seance. All manner of means are
employed to tempt the immortal ghosts to
manifest themselves. Ouija boards and plan
chetts are manipulated nightly; mediums,
soothsayers, astrologes, clairvoyants, mesmer-
lists, psychologists and various othe. srognos-
ticators are hunted down and interrogated for
light, much to the pecuniary profit of the afor.
said diviners Of wisdom and truth.
Xxx Xxx
A secret seance was held at the home of
prominent church elder last week in the
northern part of town. A dozen or more in
vestigators with few of the faithful sat
around a table upon which were lot of
musical instruments. All Joined hands to
complete the circuit Then the lights were
shut off until the room was black as Egypt A
little singing soon set things going. The
guitar arose in the air and circled about over
the room playing all the while. Then there
were various other instruments tried and fin
ally the Spirits" began to talk through a big
trumpet. At this moment one of the skeptics
struck match and the trumpet tumbled out
of the mediums mouth. The medium was
mad and jumped up and left The unbelievers
cried fraud and said it was all a humbug. The
mediums hands, however, were held by two
skeptics during the whole evening and they
find it very hard to account for the gyrations
of the the guitar. Perhaps the whole crowd
was hypnotized.
Xxx Xxx
Let me say that while dogs and horses are
quite different do you know that we have the
fastest trotting dogs in the world? The re-
nowned dog Dock" half mile record 1871
with five companions, all driven in pneumatic
sulkys, are owned by Master Charley Kinzer,
Ia years old, who gave exhibitions at most of
the noted fairs last fall and cleared $4, 800.
Who can say as much for his string of horses?
Xxx XXX
A Canton w. G. T. U. woman deplores the
prevalence of card playing "Why the coun-
try is going daft over card playing" said she.
1T is in the churches and everywhere. The
papers are full of reports of card parties Iti
Mrs. so-and-so entertained at whist Mrs
Brown gave pedro party last Nigh, Mrs
Smith won the prize at the hearts party and
Mrs. somebody else will give a progressive
euchre party tonight 1t never was so bad be-
fore. 1t is cards, cards, cards, everywhere and
all the time"
'And I can tell you why too" said see con-
tinuing lit is all on account of that little tax.
Just as soon as they began to talk about taxing
cards, the business began to boom. Dealers
exerted themselves to sell more cards so as to
still make as much profit, and then the matter
OF taxing anything by the government serves
to attract attention to it and also to sort of es-
tablish il in favor. 1t has always been so.
When they began to tax liquors and saloons
they began to grow and the liquor power is
stronger than ever today and the higher the
tax is made the stronger il will become II
must to live and it will live if it gets chance.
Then take tobacco the tax has stimulated that
trade until every boy you meet smells like
cigar box. And when they put a tax on. ciga-
rettes last year to 'kilr the business did you
notice that one-third more cigarettes were sold
than had ever been before? That little stamp
is what created this card playing BOOM"
Xxx Xxx
With due appreciation of the force of the
ladies argument, l think that the influence
causing the card playing craze to run so high
are largely psychological. Every card party is
battery which throws out into the mental at
mosphere an electric fluid charged with
trumps, spades, clubs, pedros, aces and divers
other card table features. This mental atmos-
phere connects all minds and impresses upon
them its dominant characteristics. Thus il is
that card party made up dozen strong
minds may set whole town or county 10
wanting to play cards. An evidence of the
truth of this philosophy is found in the fact that
everybody is playing the same games. IL is
either whist pedro, hearts or euchre all over the
whole country.
There is no seven up, no old maid, no Cali
fornia jack, no casino-the mental atmosphere
is not charged with these games.
WEBB.