The Florence daily tribune. (Florence, Colo.) 1898-1903, 1899-08-05
SHE GAVE THE NEWS.
NINE. cABANAL KNEW bonn
BARDMENT WAS GOING ON,
Had Well Organized stan--Nine Hus-
bands in the Spirit World to Supply
Her with Information-who Can tx
plain How These Things Happen.

caused by the appointment of several
committees composed of well known
scientists, to study and report upon
these matters. says the New York Tel
egraph- Said one plain-spoken old
philosopher. as he replaced his glass
upon the table, emitting the sound of
cracked ice and the odor of mint;
That's all rot. People allow alto
gether too much weight to the indorse-
ment of these fake spiritualists by coll
lege professors and other students
men whose severe scientific training
has blunted their good, sound horse
sense" You're right" added a well
known bookie; these highly educated
folks are often the easiest marks for
the con men We all remember Hun
cry Joe's easy touch OF Oscar Wilde
and Prof. Leidy's hearty Endorsement
of the Keely motor"
One of the party. who had for many
years been a special correspondent for
one of the New York dailies, was asked
If he had ever had any strange expe-
riences with the occult during his trav-
els. He smiled-with the others-and
said: Until Prof Hyslop of Columbia
College told the other day OF the start
ling communications he recently re-
ceived from the spirit world through
Mrs. Piper. the Boston medium, using
her as a long-distance telephone and
her fingers as the transmitter and re-
ceiver. was at loss to understand
some remarkable phenomena that came
under my observation in Anam, sew
eral years ago, when following the
French army during its war with the
Black Flags of Tonkin. In Haiphong.
the chief port of Tonkin, was a small
hotel, kept by French woman-Mme.
Cabanal-who had lived there ever
since the French occupation, ten or
twelve years previously, and it was she
who seemed to be possessed of powers
somewhat akin to those claimed for
this great Boston medium. Two days
after the commissaire-general, the
civil governor of the french posses
sions in Anam, had left Haiphong with
the entire French fleet, to make what
he called "a demonstration along the
coast, telling the newspaper corre-
spondents that he would neither bonn
bard any cities nor behead any man
darins. 1 was sitting with Nine. Caba-
nal and others under the portico of
the hotel. when she suddenly re-
marked:
They are bomharding Hue nowi'
"'What do you mean by now?'
asked.
Just at this moment she replied
" But the commissaire-gene told
me he would not lombard any cities,
said 1.
Nine. Cabanal only shrugged her
shoulders and replied: They have
killed nearly a thousand natives al
ready and have themselves sustained
no loss to speak of-one man injured;
that is ALL
Hue, the capital of Anam, forth
fled city on the Chinese plan-that is,
with well built works, but obsolete
guns, weakly defended-was several
hundred miles away, and there ex-
ieted none of the modern means of
quick communication in those days in
Anam, so l paid little attention to
Nine. Cabanal's advance news, though
she told me I might cable it 20 my
newspaper as authentic.
"a few days later the fleet returned
to Haiphong, and | learned that the
very day and hour my landlady gave
me that information the bombardment
was in progress. The French fleet hau
drawn up in line of battle beyond the
range of the old smoothbore guns in
the forts protecting the Anamese cap
ital, and poured q deadly fire upon the
defenseless city beyond the walls. kill
ing, it was given out officially. about
800 men, women and children The
only casualty on board the French YES
sells was an injury to his knee sus-
tanned by young sailor boy acting as
a powder monkey. who tripped and fell
during the engagement while running
across the deck of the vessel with
loaded shell. Nine Cabanals informa-
ton was absolutely correct. and If |
had then as much faith in her occult
powers, or her good judgment, which
EVER it was. as / had later on would
have cabled her news and scored a
beat
1T must be that she, too, was
long-distance telephone. for a number
of times after that, during my stay at
the Hotel du Tonkin, this remarkable
lady gave me valuable news which it
seemed absolutely impossible she could
have obtained through ordinary chan
nels. l can well understand that if
she really did receive her information
from departed servants the service
would be good, for this unfortunate
creature had buried nine husbands.
who fell victims TO the pestiferous eli
mate of the Red river delta, and was a
widow when 1 knew her. A conspic-
uous instance of human long-distance |
of more recent date was
the information given me by Major
Pond last summer long before any
vessel or news had come down from |
Bafiin's bay and Smith sound that |
Lieut.. Peary has not succeeded in get |
ting as far north as he expected that |