Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-06-01
GHOSTS IN
COURT
TASHINGTON, May ga man
W. is accused of beating his wife
w to death, and is brought be-
By Frederic J. Haskin

wv to death, and is brought be-
fore a high tribunal for trial.
Judge and jurors and audience sit
and listen in respectful silence while
the ghost of the dead woman testifies
that she herself procured the iron bar
with which she was killed, that she
had intended to kill her husband with
it, and that he had great provocation
to kill her.
This sounds like story of olden
times. 1t might have happened in
any of the great ages of superstition
when men believed in the supernatur-
al even more than they did in the
natural Back in the seventeenth
used to throw an accused witch into
a pond to determine 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 super
natural. 1t was believed that the
supernatural would intervene to
save the innocent or destroy the
guilty. Go still farther back to prim-
tive times, and you find men still
more in awe of the supernatural. The
flight of birds, the clouds of the sky,
the voice of thunder are al to him
the mandates of unseen beings. He
walks in constant terror of innumer-
able ghosts. His life is thing of
fear.
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 exam
pie, the incident related above hap
pened, not in the middle ages or in
a fairy tale, but in the supreme court
of the District of Columbia a few
days ago. The dead Woman's mother
testiged that she had gone to several
mediums, had conversed with the
ghost of her daughter and had so got
zen the daughters story of what hap
pened. Still more astonishing, she
testified that 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 ghost has been
admitted to court of justice IN the
United States. The supernatural has
come again to play a formal and, rec
ognized part in the affairs of men IN
country which calls Itself clVillzeu:
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 win
US has been proved. Sir OnVer
Lodge. scientist oI IePI @t1ot, -
one of them. He proceeds by a proc
ess Of elimination. He says tnere
are certain phenomena which cannot
be explained in any way except as
communications from the dead. Near
w all other scientists disagree WIN
him. They say these things can eas+
ilv be explained in other ways. AZ
best Sir Oliver Lodge has advanced
an interesting hypothesis.
But, whether it be true that the
dead survive and communicate WIN
the living or not, the question IL
arising more ins1stently every gay ae
to how much reliance we should pace
on the advice of these ghosts. NOT
only have thousands of persons al
over the world accepted the pelleI
in spirits. but they nave auueu ~
that belief a faith that spirits are e, a. Al,
ways wise and truthful ana thaI Iney
are practically omnisclent.
Are Ghosts ReIahleP
But is there any reason Tor TINS
latter faith? If a notorious liar does
and departs for that limbo where
Communicative spirits live, IS tnere
there become a paragon or trutntiu ua
ness? viii death make fool wise,
or a malicious person kindly?
Ont in the west there IS a Ger.
tain placer deposit of gold Wnlch
has been the grave OF many i tn :,
tunes. One man az. atter o ano: All have
failed. Finally along came an IN
ventor with most ingenious anu
extensive plan for getting the goio'
He had absolute faith in It. IL ap-
peared that he was in comnun r;e.
ton with the ghost OF his deaa t si2
ter. and that she had impaired TINS
nIan to him and had told him IL was
sure to succeed. He spent every
cent he owned and could borrow on
tho nlan and lost it all. The ghoSl
was was wrong. very likely if the sister
had been alive she would have given
inst the same advice. and very llkely
this man would have replied luz
women know nothing about mining,
and would have kept his money IN
his rocket. But since his sister nau
been translated to the spirit world
he reasoned in some obscure InaIl-
nor that she had there become an
expert on hydraulic mining. me
event indicated that he was mlstaheu'
Indeed. there seems TO pc aps nIoats
w no reason to believe that gnoSIs
are anv more, truthful or intalllole
than human beings, and II belleveFs
in spirits would only keep TINS IN
uoind a. great and growing purdeh
Of trouble would be saved the, hu%
man race. Consult the record o.
the the Society for Psychic Research,
upon which the whole argul1eeh' 4i,od
spiritism is based. You Will Ilnu
fitt1n evidence that ghosts know
more than human beings or are more
truthfIll and not a little evidence
that they are picayune and some
times malevolent, like the living. IS
it not well, therefore, 10 take ne
communications of your dead Irlelus
and relations with a gram OIL 9@ g.
the same as you take those Oh 'ne