The age-herald., 1897-08-18
TECHNICS FROM
 CURRENT TOPICS

l Sioux City has one of the wonders of the
 day in bright, healthy, well-polsed girl, only nineteen years of age, through whose
 mentality, it is claimed, a lost soul speaks
 to this world of ours. This young girl
 Miss Mary Reilly, is a native of Crete,
 Neb.; she is one of six children; her par
 ents are of Irish blood and she has been
 reared strictly in the Catholic church. She
 is without any melancholy tendencies; there
 is nothing of the cynic, or pessimist about
 her; she is a wholesome fresh-hearted,
 young woman, and is at a loss to explain
 why troubled, despairing soul should de-
 sire to communicate through her with the
 living, throbbing world.
 Miss Reilly discovered her power acei- dentally by having a pencil in her hand
 which would write sentences without vo- 1 lition on her part. Later she expermentsd
 with a typewriter with very startling re- l suits. Some of the messages are of q
 high order of literary merit much higher
 and better than could be written by Miss
 Reilly, who is sensible and well-educated,
 but not particularly gifted in an intellec- tual way.
 The address of the unknown tortured l soul, which communes with Miss Reilly, is 1 always given from Hades, though the names 1 are frequently changed. The burden of all 1 the communieatons-are descriptions of that | lower region which has gone out of fashion | with many up-to-date preachers and their
 congregations. Judging from these de- | tails, the latter day theology Is no more
 in keeping with actual facts, than with
 the sound unchanging doctrines of our l family Bibles. Miss Reilly has puzzled the l clr aII fha l who have been present at her seances, there | is such unmistakable genuneness on her 1 part that the greatest doubters and critics
 are surprised and nonplussed, while spirit | ualists are very much delighted. There is | no hypothesis upon which a satisfactory l explanation can be made and psychologists 1 will make effort to induce Miss Reilly to l give exhibitions of her mysterious power | in the interest of science. Thus far, she | declines to consider any propositions which | will place her conspicuousy before the public
 l When Miss Reilly asked of the lost, agon- 1 ized soul a description of Hades and it's | horrors, this was written in reply: | "A nameless, voiceless, never-ceasing re- | gret. An agony without a name for some
 one or something forgotten. Dreariness un- 1 speakable. A~restless longing for know l not what"
 1 GfdNe you dHy pnySlcdl. oCIlodliOho'fa "Sometimes seem to have. They are aal 1 of pain. Pain caused by extreme terror
 and hardly separated from mental an- | gush"
 1 "You speak of terror. Of what?" "The awful shapes and >Sfightful sounds | that glide and ring through hell. Moans l and cries that have no fitting name to ex- | press the terror they inspire"
 -'Do you try to avoid them?"
 "Yes I avoid one by flying to another. 1 There is no escape. Sometimes there is l stiffness that you of the world have never
 known. Everything is nothing, and yet l you exist in wonder and horror. It is as 1T l you were a newborn child with the mind l of a man. You cannot prove existence by l sight sound, taste, feeling, or reason. Yet 1 you know you are something, somewhere, with an overpowering desire to use, all your | faculties and no power to do so. ' Oh,' the | awfulness of being nothing, and yet remen- l bering you were something"
 'What foundation is there for the doc l Urine of hell fire,?"
 "It is all crude mind can conceive as | terrible. I would like to burn. It would 1 be something real. Your reason is only power given you to accustom you to your 1 surroundings. Life without reason is he'll" 1 The Lynn and Boston railroad has issued | the following order: 'On and after this l l ing women passengers, shall substitute the l word "madame' for lady" The cause of l this order is said to have been the habit | of conductors and motormen round and l about Boston to call women passengers by l all possible ''entitles'' which could be ap- | piled to a female. They were Misses, | Miss" Mrs" Lady" and on through | the list Carmen without discrimination | or who had neglected to put on their eye | glasses made woeful mistakes as to terms | applicable to the apparent age of the wo- | men addressed. Elderly, unmarried wo- men objested to the implication contained in | the harmless sounding word Madame" | and pretty vivacous girls rebelled at be- ing addressed as Mrs" while bride in the full flush of her wifely dignity, lost all | interest in her bridal trousseau when some | heartless motorman addressed her as | Miss Something had to be done and
 done quickly by the railroad officials or the
 women of Boston would boycott the street cars, hence the above order. Perhaps if the
 superintendent of the Boston railway had | lived at the south he could have adjusted
 satisfactorily the manner of distinguishing | between the ladies of this section and the | negro women. A man of iron nerve with power to enforce his decrees, would have l prevent ted the former becoming only white
 'omen," while the latter loomed up as ''la-
 dies of color," in the vocabulary of the | freedmen of the south. He might have | kept the long-suffering ''white omen" from l being ''called out of their entitle," as the
 aspiring negro expresses 1t. The Boston l women had better emigrate to this section | and see how others fare. Southern wo- | men would not condescend to contend for | a small point, such being addressed as
 Mrs. Madame" Miss" or Misses" | they have accepted their fate and are re- 7, signed; they only white omen" in the present day of vernacular. only this and
 nothing more. BALL. l ON VARIOUS TOPICS.