The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-09-14
Do Spirits Protect us 2

Waterbury American, quotes some Of
the cases cited by the Times to prove
the inaccuracy Of the Hartford Cou-
rant contention that no case of spirit
communication has ever occurred
which was not trivial or made up Of
circumstances already known to the
recipient or to some one present. The
fact in these cases that We cited were
very certainly not known to any one
present, nor could they be, for two Of
them saved the recipients from being
killed, one by the bursting Of a big
gun, the other by steamboat explo-
sion, while the third case revealed to
a father in Rhode Island the death Of
his son in California, which had oc-
Cured only three days before the mes
sage (purporting to be from the sony was
given in Providence, and it required.
in those days, at least three weeks to
hear from California. But the Amer
ican proceeds to say:
"Giving to the Times's claims and
illustrations all the weight they seem
entitled to, they seem by their rarity
and average insuficiency to prove
rather than disprove the Courant's
contention.
This is like the Arkansas lawyers
arguments for his client, that whereas
only one witness had testified to see
ing the prisoner in the act of robbery,
all the other witnesses had not seen
him in the act-therefore he must be
judged innocent. The "rarity" Of an
actual occurrence, if that occurrence is
sustained by actual proof, does not
impair its force. 1t outweighs athou-
sands negative testimonials. In the
remarkable California cage (in 1851, We
think the witness was United States
Senator James F. Simmons, of Rhode
Island, who, though disbelieving the
message, took means to decide the
matter, and the body Of his son was
actually found, hidden in the hollow
log, where the giver Of the message,
that had been spelt out in Rhode Is-
land only three days after the murder,
had said it was placed. OF the Gin
suficiency" Of such case every can
did mind can Judge.
The witness in the case Of life-sav-
ing in the bursting Of the "Peace-
MAKER" on board the United States
steamer Princeton, on the Potomac,
February %, 1874, was United States
Senator Talmadge, Of New York. 1t
was his life that was saved, and the
man who took T.'s place near the big
gun, after Mr.. Talmadge had been
forced away for the third time by an
invisible power, was cut in two by q
fragment of the gun. In the case Of
the steamboat explosion at St. Louis,
the witness was judged. W. Edmonds,
Of the New York Supreme Court.
Judge Edmonds said he was led to
turn back when on his way to the
steamers dock and abandon his trip
to Cincinnati, by voice that seemed
speaking in his ear, and told him to
20 back to his hotel and not to go near
the steamer. He added that the ex-
plosion occurred just az the time he
would have been likely to have reached
the steamer, and he was convinced
that he owed his life to chat mysteri-
Gus warning voice. Do such cases
amount to nothing simply because peo-
pie who do not know about them call
them trivial and false? The Amer
lean says:
I'VE understand that the greater
number Of this kind Of experiences
can be explained on natural grounds,
and that the few apparently authentic
and otherwise inexplicable cases are
only exceptions, which prove the rule
that supernatural agencies Of such pro-
found possibilities, if active at all, are
not, so far as most Of us can see, doing
anything worth while.
If our Waterbury friends can Eek
plain on natural grounds" such occur
rences as these-and there are scores,
if not hundreds, of similar impressive
interventions that have saved life
the field is all open to him to go ahead
and make such an explanation. The
attempt to make it, has already chang
ed the attitude of such men of science
as Oliver Lodge, the ex-president Of
the British Scientific Association; Sir
William Crooks, the present president
of the Psychical Research Society of
England, and prospective head of the
Royal Society; Alfred Russell Wallace,
the eminent author and scientists; DIR.
Hodgson, and others not less widely
known. These gentlemen, who we're