The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-05-31
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, d. c.
GHOSTS IN COURT.

is accused of beating his wife to
death. and is brought before a high
tribunal for trial. Judge and jurors
and audience sit and listen in. respect
full silence while the ghost of the. dead
woman testifies that she herself pro-
cured the iron bar with which she
was killed, that she had intended to
kill her husband with it, End that he
had great provocation to kill her.
This sounds like a story of olden
times. 1t might have happened in any
of the great ages of superstition when
men believed in the supernatural even
more than they did in the natural.
Back in the seventeenth century. for
example, our ancestors used to throw
an accused witch into a pond to deter
mine whether She was innocent or
guilty Still earlier there were trials
| by combat in which the accused
| fought for his life. In either case. the
| appeal was to the supernatural 1t
was believed that the supernatural
would intervene to save the innocent
or destroy the guilty Go still further
| back 10 primitive times, and you find
man still more awe of the super
natural. The flight of birds the clouds
| of the sky, the voice of thunder are
all to him the mandates of unseen be-
| ings. He walks in constant terror of
innumerable ghosts. His life is a thing
+of fear.
Old Fears Still With Us.
Civilization is supposed to have
| freed man from these ancient fears
/, but it has not done SO. The fear is
still latent in us, waiting for a chance
to express itself. For example, the in
cident related above happened, not in
theN middle ages or in a fairy tale,
| but in the supreme court of the Dis
| trict of Columbia few days ago.
The dead woman's mother testified
| that she had gone to several medi-
/ h2
| of her daughter and had SO gotten
| the daughters story of what hap
pened. Still more astonishing, she
testified than an assistant United
| States attorney had advised her to
/ consult mediums. When you take
| this in connection with the fact that
! the supreme court evidently listened
to the ghost conversation as part of
the testimony. you cannot blink at
| the conclusion that a ghost has been
admitted to a court of justice in the
| United States. The supernatural has
come again to play formal and
recognized part in the affairs of men
| in a country which calls itself civil
| lied.
OF course, the whole question of
spiritualism is here involved. There
are many Intelligent and sincere peo-
pie who believe that the existence of
| ghosts who can communicate with us
has been proved. Sir oliver Lodge, a
| scientist of reputation is one of them.
| He proceeds by a process of elimina-
| ton. He says there are certain phe-
nomena which cannot be explained in
any way except sas communications
| from the dead Nearly all other sci
| entists disa gree with him. They say
these things can easily be explained
| in other ways. At best Sir Oliver
Lodge has advanced an interesting
| hypothesis
| But, whether it be true that the
dead survive and communicate with
the living or not. the question is arts
| ing more insistenty every day as to
how much reliance we should place
on the advice of these ghosts. Not
only have thousands of persons all
over the world accepted the belief in
| spirits. but they have added to that
belief faith that spirits are always
wise and truthful and that they are
practically omniscient.
| Arc Ghosts Reliable?
But is there any reason for this lat
ter faith? If a notorious liar dies and
departs for that limbo where com
municative spirits live, is there any
reason to believe that he will there
become a paragon of truthfulness?
| Will death make a fool wise, or a
malicious person kindly?
| Out in the west there is a certain
placer deposit of gold which has been
| the grave of many fortunes. One man
| after another has tried ITO get. this
| gold, and all have failed. Finally
along came an inventor with a most
ingenious and expensive plan for get
ting the gold. He had absolute faith
| in it. 1t appeared that he was in COM
| munication with the ghost of his dead
| sister, and that she had impaired this
plan to him. and had told him it was
sure to succeed. He spent every cent
| he owned and could borrow on the
the plan and lost it all. The ghost
was wrong. Very likely if the sister
had been alive she would have given
| just the same advice, and very likely
this man would have replied that
women know nothing about mining.
and would have kept his money in his
pocket. But since his sister had been
| translated to the spirit world he rea-
soned in some obscure manner that
she had there become an expert on
, hydraulic mining. The event indi-
| Gated that he was mistaken.
Indeed, there seems to be absolutely
no reason to believe that ghosts are
any more truthful or infallible than
| human beings, and If believers in
| spirits would only keep this in mind a
great and growing burden of trouble
would be saved the human race. Con-
suit the record of the Society for
| Psychic Research, upon which the
whole argument for spiritism is based.
You will find little evidence that
| ghosts know more than human beings
or are more truthful. and not a little
evidence that they are picayune and
sometimes malevolent, like the Living.
Is it not well, therefore, to fake the
communications of your dead friends
and relations with grain of salt, the
same as you take those of the living
A Dead But Troublesome Husband.
Here is another example of a med
] dleSOne ghost who sought ma Ike
| trouble. A young and attractive
| widow was invited by an older woman
who lived in the same boarding house
to join her in some ouija board ex-
cursions to the land of the dead. They
Immediately got into communication
with the spirit of the young woman's
dead husband He proceeded to criti-
else her goings and comings at great
! length He objected to the man she
| went viii lie tnIA her that s,,ct, and