The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-01-24

time, rap third time, and all three
times, when the door was opened,
there was nothing found there, the
knocking having been made seeming
~ by invisible knuckles. In that same
house there was a young woman who
had cold hand passed over her face,
and, there being seemingly no arm at
tached to it, ghostly suspicious were
excited.
After awhile Mr.. Fox with his family
moved into that house, and then they
had bangIngs at the door every night
One night Mr.. Fox cried out: ''Are you
spirit?'' Two raps-answer in the
affirmative. "Are you an injured
spirit?' Two raps-answer in the af-
firmative. Then they knew right away
that it was the spirit Of peddler who
had been murdered in that house years
before and who had been robbed of his
$500. Whether the spirit of the peddler
came back to collect his $500 or his
bones l do not know.
The excitement spread. There was
universal rumpus. Hon. Judge Ed
monds declared in a book that he had
actually seen bell start from the
top shelf of a closet, heard it ring over
the people that were standing in the
closet; then, swung by invisible hands,
it rang over the people in the back par
lor and fioate9 through the folding
doors to the front parlor, rang over
the people there and then dropped on
the floor. A senator of the United
States, afterward governor of Wiscon-
sin, had his head quite turned with
spiritualistic demonstrations. The ia
bles tipped, and the stools tilted, and
the bedsteads raised, and the chairs
upset, and it seemed as if the spirits
everywhere had gone into the furni-
ture business! Well, the people said:
"We have got something new in this
country. 1t is n new religion!" Oh,
no, my friend, thou-ands of years ago,
we find in our text, spiritualistic
seance!
Still further, We learn from this text
how it is that people come to fall into
spiritualism. Saul had enough trouble
to go for relief. After awhile he re-
solved to go and see the witch of En-
dor. He expected that somehow she
would afford him relief. 1t was his
trouble drove him there. And 1 have
to tell you now that spiritualism finds
it's victims in the troubled, the bank
rupt, the sick, the bereft. You lose
your watch, and You go to the fortune
teller to find where it is.
You lose friend; you want the spir-
itual world opened, SO that you may
have communication with him. In a
highly wrought, nervous and diseased
state of mind you go and put yourself
in that communication. That is why
l hate spiritualism. 1t takes advan-
tage of one in moment of weakness,
which may come upon us at any time.
We lose friend. The trial is keen
sharp, suffocating, almost maddening,
If we could marshal host and storm
the eternal world and recapture our
loved one, the host would soon be mar
shaled. The house is so lonely. The
world is so dark. The separation is so
insufferable. But spiritualism says:
'We will open the future world, and
your loved one can come back and talk
to you.' Though we may not hear his
voice, we may hear the rap of his hand
So, clear the table. Sit down. Put
your hands on the table. Be very quiet
Five minutes gone. Ten minutes. No
oe 4 +,L
the future world. Twenty minutes
Thirty minutes. Nervous excitement
all the time increasing. Forty min
utes. The table shivers. Two raps
from the future world. The letters OF
the alphabet are called over. The de-
parted friends name is John. At the
pronunciation of the letter J, two raps
At the pronunciation of the letter O.
two raps. At the pronunciation of the
letter II, two raps. At the pronuncia-
tion of the letter N, two raps. There
you have the whole name spelled out
John, John. Now, the spirit being
present, you say: John, are you hap
py?" Two raps give an affirmative an
swer.
Pretty soon the hand of the medium
begins to twitch and toss and begins
to write out, after paper and ink are
furnished, a message from the eternal
world. What is remarkable, the de-
parted spirit, although it has been
amid the illuminations of the Heaven,
cannot spell as well as it used to. 1t
has lost all grammatical accuracy, and
cannot write as distinctly. l received
letter through a medium once. ]
sent it back. l said: "Just please to
tell those ghosts they had better go to
school and get improved in their or
biography" Now, just think of spirits.
that the Bible represents as enthroned
in glory, coming down to crawl under
the table and break crockery and ring
tea bells before supper is ready and rap
the window shutter on gusty night! /!
What consolation in such miserable
stuff as compared with the consolation
that our departed friends free from, toll
and sin and pain are forever happy, and
that we will join them, not in mystic
rious and half utterance which makes
the hair stand on end and makes cold
chills creep the back, but in reunion