Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-03-14
THE MYSTERIOUS.
Bah Says We Long to Find Out That
Which Is Marvellous or Unknown.

HANSOMS WORKED BY ELEC-
TRICITY - THE FRENCHMAN
WHO USED SPIRITUALISM AS A
BASIS FOR A PLAY BAB'S ONE
EXPERIENCE IN SPIRIT-LAND
FRIGHTENED HER - THE WON
DERFUL FORCE OF THE HUMAN
WILL - POSSIBILITIES OF THE
DEAD COMING BACK TO THIS
WORLD - EXPLAINING COINCI-
DENCES -STRANGE LITTLE
EVENTS IN LIFE THAT MAKE
US WONDER.
From Our Regular Correspondent.
New York, March 1O.-There is
probably nothing so attractive as the
/ unknown. The mysterious beckons TO
each and every one OF us, and We long
to find out that which is marvellous, or
/ to become well yersed in that which is
magical. Thousands Of years ago, in
| Oriental countries, the magician or
prophet, call him what you will, occu-
/ pied a position Of trust, and was re-
/ spected and revered Whether the
world grew more material, or whether
/ it grew wiser, who can say? But GER
tain it is that it grew very prosaic,
/ and, except at intervals, little interest
! seemed to be taken in what might De
| called the unknown. And yet, sup
/ pose you had told Marie Antoinette,
| that message could be sent from New
| France across the water 10 her home
! in Paris, the answer flashed back, and
! all within five hours-Would she have
! believed it? No, she would have said
! it was the work of the devil, or that
you were dreaming. To us there is no
mystery in the telegraph or cable.
| Suppose you had told your grand
mother, even as late as thirty years
ago, that you could sit in your office
! in New York and not only talk to
your brother in Chicago, but hear him
/ talk to you-what faith would she
have had in your story? And yet, how
well used we are to the telephone.
! Suppose you had told your son only
ten years ago that there would be not
| tricycles, not bicycles, but hansoms,
landeaus, cabs; in fact, any style Of
! carriages, running without horses.
and yet to-day we see the hanson
worked by electricity, or what may be
the motive power chosen, and we be-
gin to think that there will be a
heaven for the horses even on earth.
How. then. can we claim that any
thing is impossible ii God wills il?
SPlRITUALISM ON THE STAGE.
And yet, it was a Frenchman who
took the American idea Of spirituallsm
and used ii for a basis OF play. 4
play performed by enc O. the most
carefully collected groups Of actors
that were ever on stage in New
York. And yet, in that audience OF
. well-dressed, intelligent-looking peo-
ple there was some who laughed at
Inc situations they didn't comprehend,
and others who having no brains .
themselves, giggled at what they .
counted as nonsense, because they /
were too stupid TO see Why certain /
tvpes were introduced. Here, in New /
York City. a play written by the fore !
most play writer of the day, Sardou, +
was gwen by every paper, with the .
exception of one, the lightest and most
frivolous sort of notices. ! don't CAL |
them criticisms because they were /
nothing Of the sort Anybody can Jeer
at q NAV. but it takes a good critic TO .
write just criticism.
Possible the play may not come TO
you, and so l will tell you HUIc
about it. A man OF wealth, oil Dfalh' /
who has studied much, becomes IN
terested in spiritualism; he mas I
beautiful wife. and, while he does not
love his wife any the less he becomes Z
ca absorbed in his studies that he 1of- /
GETS TO show her all the courtesles /
maj are due from a husband to WE. ?
She is young, handsome, ana niue .
blase. Like many a worse woman /
finding that her husband neglects her' /
she jmagines herself in love WIN
man who affects a passion for her pc .
cause she is independently rlch. one
is to go to visit woman friend. IN
stead she starts with her friend ana .
ber maid only to let the maid ana ,
friend ga on the train while she nles |
10 the house of her lover. Inc nus
band and the remainder Oh the guests
conclude that
TRY TO EVOKE THE SPIRITS.
Tbev do so. and. by the old method OF |
canning ont the letters. they are told !
IN omen something. Soon they nnd out
that it. is the window that IS TO be
oDened. Through it they see a great
fro raging. Later on, We know that /
netroleum train has cOllided with the
evnress lust at the station, and that 1t /
* believed that with others the wife |
has been burned to death. her nus /
band. accompanied by his friends goes |
TO the house OF her lover to md out II /
ne knows which train she took. LIS /
tening hidden in another room, the I
faitbless wife realizes the force of her .
husbands love and his intense grief. .
When he goes away cousin OF ners .
remains and insists that she is con- [
cealed in that house. He calls her T
IN come out from her hiding-place, and 4
she appears. Horror-stricken as she is .
at rhe situation. she tells him that she .
will remain dead That in that way |
alone can she become mistress Of her
self and will she be able TO keep from /
her husband the story of her inhdelity.
Her cousin tells her he Will not en- /
courage her in this scheme. The lover /
ouicklv realizes that, dead. she cannot |
control her fortune. and he urges her /
to declare herself alive, get divorce |
and marry him. Then she compre-
bends that it is her money and not her |
self which he is after. Scornlng him, |
she agrees 10 go with her cousin, and /
10 confess all to her husband.
During the time she waits for dark |
ness she sees her home draped IN /