The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-07-07
Causes Unknown Are Supplied
BY SuperstitiOns.
Wonders Often Found Due 10
Mere Natural Causes.
Strange Circumstances Lead 10
Belief in Spirits.
From Saturdays Daily.


uous term with which most people now
adays are wont to designate countless
ideas of the supernatural that existed in
the minds of people two and more cen
turtles ago. The once prevalent beliefs
in witches, fairies, genii and other beings
OF this earth, that were endowed with
mysterious powers far beyond human
ken, are now almost universally ridicu-
led among civilized peoples, and the
memory of them preserved only for the
sake of little children, whose vivid
imaginations love to revel in the UNI
real and the impossible. Yet even as one
stone must rest upon another in the
process of masonry so much each sue
oeeding age be close in contact with its
predecessor and partake to some de-
gree of the same character. Beliefs in
things supernatural still persist. Today
il is no unusual occurrence to hear peo-
pie of more than ordinary intelligence
and culture, narrating events that can
be accounted for only on the supposition
that beings beyond the knowledge and
understanding of living mortals, have
produced these marvellous phenomena.
Spiritualsts find ready believers. and
though some are at times found to be
mere clever schemers, whose miracles
turn out to he nothing but trickery yet
Others have performed feats that nave
led countless thousands to believe just
what the spirituals desired, and have
puzzled the most skeptical.
A gentleman, who has not been long
in Mankato, a man of pleasing address
and delightful conversationalst, tells
of an occurrence at a spiritualist meet
ing that he attended in Chicago. The
spiritualist approached him and said, 81
see somebody sitting beside YOU" The
chair was empty and the gentleman said
ne could see nothing. "Yes," said the
spiritualist,' he is an elderly gentleman
and he calls you John" "Jonn is my
name to be sure" said the other. ''What
does he look like" ''He is of medium
height and elderly" rejoined the spirit
ualist, "and he has a gray mouStache. He
is clad in Masonic robes" "YOu are de-
scrbing nv uncle in England" the other
rejoined 'but his spirit cannot be here.
He is alive" "No; he is dead and mere, "
was the answer.
Some time after this the gentleman
happened to be looking over some news
papers that had come from that part of
England, where this uncle lived. There
was one that he had not read, though it
had been received by him some time be-
fore. His eye happened to catch an
article that was marked, an article tell
ing of the death of his uncle. 1t was
with great surprise that he read this.
for he had not even known that the un-
Gle was i'll. The spiritualist had told
the absolute truth That certainly had
not been case of mind reading on the
part of the spiritualst, for the gentle
man really believed at the time that the
uncle was still alive 1t may be that
the spiritualist had by some means OBJ
tanned knowledge of the uncle and his
death, though the nephew thought that
hardly possible.
The writer of this article used to know
family of Virginians, who had re-
Gently lost their father. One day about
noon, one of the sons was looking upon
a chair where the old man used to sit on
the porch, when, to the observers ut
most establishment, he perceived the
fathers figure seated in the chair. The
figure remained there but a few min
utes an dthen faded away. Many a day
after that the son watched the chair but
failed to perceive any such phenomenon
as had once met his gaze. He remem-
bered the day and the hour, however.
on which this strange occurrence took
place, and at the same time in the fol-
lowing year he watched again. A hard
thunder storm was raging, whereas the
same day year before he'd been clear.
No figure appeared. The rest of the fam
lily fancied the son had been dreaming.
The latter would not give up, however
but on the same day of the next year
at the critical hour he watched again
The day was clear and the sun was
bright Once more he perceived his
fathers like though dim form seat
ed in the chair. He hastily called the
other members of the family, and they
too could see the father seated there
After a few minutes the form of the
old man vanished.
One of the younger members of the
family suggested that the figure was the
precise image of a large painting that
stood on an easel at the parlor window,
painting of the old man seated in the