The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-10-01
CHASIN G III.D FIRE.
a BANkER's Views OF sPooks.
AND VISIONS.

AND VISIONS.
Voc Unto Him Who Starts In Pursuit.
Of tho Dancing Ignis Fatuus Producsd
BY the Hypnotist a strange Fire That
Fascipates Dreamers.
Byia Banker: Amongst the natural
phenomena which, 50 far, have not been
satisfactorily explained by scientists,
and even at this day Of advanced
knowledge remain an unsolved mys-
terry, is the strange lambert flame
which hovers over church-yards,
marshes and undrained swamps, sci
entifically known as ignis fatuus, and
popularity termed Will O. the Wisp,
Jack O. Lanthorn and other fanciful
namea
This strange fire, IL that can be
called fire which does not burn
varies very much in appearance.
Sometimes it presents the aspect of
ball of fire dancing and rolling about
over the marsh in playful glee, now
and again, perhaps when striking
against a shrub or other obstruction,
scattering a shower OF smaller balls,
which in turn would dance and play
about, not necessarily, however, in the
wake OF the parent ball, which contin-
ues its hayward career, now shining,
with a fiery. red light, now changing
into yellow or amber, then fading
into an underlined greenish tint, to
burst out again into a, purple haze,
the cratic illumination at length, per-
haps, after gambling about in quite
frolicsome mood, ascending high up in
the air until it is lost to view. And
sometimes the mock flame presents a
more weird and ghostly appearance.
The belated wayfarer, who Is travers-
ing low-lying church-yard at 'tthe
witching hour Of midnight" sees, q
short distance from him, spectral
presence lowering about the tombs,
which his terrified imagination i'm
medlately regards as a disembodied
spirit, veritable ghost. The phan-
tom apparition family shines with a
quivering sort Of lambent flame, some
times slowly receding, sometimes adj
vancing, the frightened nerves Of the
terror-struck Wayfarer exaggerating
the harmless illumined column into a
menacing ghoul escaped from the place
of punishment, and seeking tn vain
for the mortal remains Of it's former
feshy habitation, and, resenting his
Intrusion, momentarily intending to
seize and carry him of to some terrible
inferno. With palpitating heart he
fees away, stumbling over tombs, uu-
til perhaps at length in the darkness
he plunges into an open grave and is
discovered the next morning by the
grave-diggers in pitiable plight, and
gradually recovering from the horror
Of his abject terror. And all this be-
cause he is SO utterly simple and wit
less as to believe that there are such
things as ghosts" and to imagine
that it would be permitted that lost
souls should be allowed respite from
the place Of punishment in order to
brighten a few silly girls or intellec-
tually weak men. For we may be quite
certain that souls In Paradise, even IL
they had the power, would not wish
to do so, and would prefer the glories
of the third heaven to masquerading in
a sheet in an obscure village church
yard at dead Of night. It is, however,
unQuestioned that sorcerers from the
very earliest ages have had the occult
(and Divinely forbidden) power, by
means of what is now called hypno-
tism, of making, even a number Of
persons congregated together, believe
that they can see objects which have
no real existence, and can even in some
cases compel persons to believe that
they have seen ghost" Some OF the
marvellous tricks of Indian jugg1ers ap-
pear to be produced by this agency,
as the detective camera, which cannot
be hypnotized, incontestably proves
that the extraordinary events which we
believe we have seen with our very
eyes did not take place, but were only
an hallucination produced by the wiz
Yards hypnotic power. Sometimes, in
the cleaning, the ignis fatuus playing
about at the edge OF a morass is a
strikingly attractive spectacle, but woe
to him who attempts to pursue one
of the dancing fairies, for it will prob
ably lead him into the morass, into
which he may sink deeper and deeper
down, the more he struggles, the
quicker his living entombment! And
just so it is with the silly youth who,
in the pursuit Of the so-called pleasure,
finds himself sinking deeper and deeper
into the miry morass of sin, whence the
only possible means of rescue is by lay
ing hold of the hand Of Him who has
atoned for those sins. If he refuse or
neglect to do this the horrible pit must
shut her mouth upon him for ever!