The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-03-21
(Snec;al Cor. of The Republic.)

Especial Cor. OF The RepubncJ
New York. March 10.-There is proba-
,ly nothing so attractive as the unknown.
ME mysterious beckons to each and eve
v one of us, and we long to find out that
which is marvellous, or to become well YER
;ed in that which is magical. Thousands
IF wears ago, i'm Oriental countries, the
magician or prophet. call him what you
will. octul! lied Il position Of trust, ana was
respected and rver.Si. Whether the
world grew more material or whether 1t
grew wiser, VINO cHln say! But 1t Is GER
ain that il grew very pro>alc, and, except
1t intervals. little interest seemed to be
saken in wilai might be called the I'M
xonwn. And yet. suppose You had told
Marie Ant0iN"tte that Il message could
De sent from New France across the wa
;er to her home in Paris, the answer flash
ID back, and all within five hOurs-wOuld
she have believed it? No. She would
have said it was the work of the devil,
)r that you were dreaming. To us there
S no mystery in the telegraph or cable.
Suppose you had told your grandmother
wen as late as thirty years ago, that you
could sit in your Office in New York, and
lot only talk to your brother in Chicago,
out hear him talk to you-what faith
would she have had in your story? And
-et, how well used we are to the telephone.
Suppose you had told your own son only
ten years ago that there would be not
tricycles, not bicycles. but hansoms, Ian
daus, cabs; in fact, any style of CARR
ages, running without horses. And yet
to-day we see the hansoms worked by
electricity, or what may be the motive
power chosen, and we begin to think there
will be a heaven for the horses even on
earth. How, then. can we claim that any
thing is impossible if God wills it?
SPIRITUALISM ON THE STAGE.
And yet it was Frenchman who took
the American idea of spiritualism and
used it as a basis for play! A play per-
formed by one of the most carefully col
lected group of actors that were ever on
q stage in New York. And yet. in that
audience of well-dressed, good looking
people, there We're some who laughed
at the situations they didn't comprehend,
and others who having no brains them
selves, giggled at what they counted as
nonsense, because they We're too stupid
to see why certain types were introduced
Here, in New York city, a play written
by the foremost play writer of the day,
Sardou, was given by every paper, with
the exception of one, the Eghtest and
most FRIVOLOUS sort Of notices. l don't call
them criticisms because they were nothing
of the sort. Anybody can jeer at play,
but it takes good critic to write just
criticism.
Possibly the play may not come to you,
and so l will tell you little about it. A
man Of wealth, of brain, who has studied
much, becomes interested in spirituahsm !;
he has beautiful wife, and, while he
does not love his wife any the less, he be
comes so absorbed in his studies that
he forgets to show her all the courtesies
that are due from a husband to a wife.
She is young, handsome, and little hlase-
Like many a worse woman, finding that
her husband neglects her, she imagines
herself in love with a man who affects
a passion for her because she is indie
pendently rich. She is to go to visit a
woman friend. Instead she starts with
her friend and her maid, only to let the
maid and friend go on the train while she
flies to the house of her lover.
The husband and the remainder of the
guests concluded to try to evoke the spir
its; they do, and, by the old method of tap
ping out the letters, they are told to open
something. Soon they find out that it is
the window that is to be opened. Through
it they see great fire raging. Later ON
we know that petroleum train has col
ided with the express just at the sta
ton, and that it is believed that with 9TH
ers, the wife has been burned to death
Her husband, accompanied by his
friends, goes to the house of her lover to
find out if he knows which train she
took. Listening, hidden in another room,
the faithless wife realizes the force Of
her husbands love and his intense grief.
When he goes away cousin of hers re-
mains, and insists that she is concealed in
that house. He calls to her to come out
from her hiding place, and she appears.
Horror-stricken as she is at the situation,
she tells him that she will remain dead,
that in that way alone cam she become
mistress of herself, and will she be able to
keep from her husband the story OF her in
fidelity. Her cousin tells her he will not
encourage her in this scheme. The lover
quickly realizes that, dead, she cannot
control here fortune. and he urges her to
declare herself alive, get a divorce and
marry him. Then she compreiends it is
her money and not herself which he is
after. Scorning him, she agrees to 60
with her cousin, and to confess all to her
husband
During the time she waits for darkness
'he sees her home draped in mourning for
Ter, she hears the cries of those who loved
Ter, and she sees the body Of another wo-
man as she says, ian honest woman"
carried ON q bier to her own home as her
,elf The husband, grief-stricken, cannot
stay in his own home, and goes to small
cottage where he had spent his honey
noon. Here the cousin brings the wife,
eonceals her, and then talks to the hus-
land, that he may think out what to do.
Naturally, the conversation drifts to his
Attest study piritualism. He asks him
he has ever called up the spirit Of his
vie. The sOrrowing man tells him that
Ne has done it again and again, but with
nut getting an aucuar Then tho huGhau1