The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-08-12

The Shady Side Of Detroit.

row. "And most of them are for.
Yeigners." he added. gazing about,
A fat lady soon mounted the
platform and began addressing the
congregation with a distinctly Ger.
man accent. She explained that in.
stead of hearing a lecture from
her. as had been the custom, thew
were to be edited by talks from
various members of the society
who were not of course. trained
public speakers like herself. but
who was comm out wonderful"
To lend emphasis to this announce.
ment one Of the few males present
brought huge pitcher of ice wa
ter and set it ON the small plat
form table. after carefully drapiny
a scarf over it.
ut looks like the setting for a
prestidfgitator act" suggested our
friend irreverently. Keep an eve
on your watch
But two other ladies'. one Of them
pale and emaciated, the other of
ponderous girth, were now on the
platform. The latter, who looked
a trifle dusty, took the center Of
the stage, folded one plump arm
behind her in the best oratorical
manner, and gave a dramatic &C
count Of the great spirit lake, in
which all protesting spiritualists
would be washed winter than snow.
The Whispering Ghosts.
At this juncture, however, the
thin. emaciated lady raised our
hopes by announcing that she was
a medium. That was the reason
she could not speak above a mild
whisper. she said. The spirits had
simply worn out her vocal cords
in their frenzy to communicate
with this world. Since she could
not be heard from the platform,
she drank a glass of water, and
then came down among the audi
ence to deliver the ghostly words
OF wisdom that she said were be-
ginning to reverberate around her.
The first object of spirit solicit
tude was bashful young man who
looked as if he had just left some
old country, and who was much
embarrassed at being singled out
The spirit of an old man was pres
ent, the medium said; she did not
know who he was, as he had some
reason for Withholding his name.
but he wanted Johan to be very
careful during the month of Au-
gust. In September everything
would come out all right, but in
the meantime Johan was to watch
his step.
The next was a young girl, also
foreigner. You are thinking of
leaving Detroit. aren't your in
Quired the medium. mo? Well.
you have thought of leaving-ah. 1
thought so. There is a spirit here
II can't quite see her face, but
she says her back hurts her some
thin awful. She says It would be
bad thing for you to leave the
city right now, and on no account
are you to go before September"
This was practically the gist of
all the spirit messages. Almost
everyone in the audience, with the
exception of ourselves, whom the
visiting shades carefully ignored,
was warned to be cautious about
something and invariably August.
probably because it was most i'm
minent, was the fatal month. A
few were told that their husbands
or wives or uncles or cousins want
ed them to know that they were
happy, and only waiting for them
to join them on the other side.
where everything was serene and
beautiful. Once, the impartial
Bright Eyes drifted into converse
ton, and occasionally the medium
was seized with a headache or a
choking sensation, which greatly
aided members of the audience in
identifying the spirits. Two ladies
of the congregation nearly came to
blows over a spirit who was sup
posed to be lame, each claiming
that it was a relative of hers. but
the medium quickly restored order
by banishing this particular shade
and producing another one.
After that the audience was
brought sharply back to this mum
dane sphere by the announcement
of the pastor that the expenses OF
the society were heavy and that
the collection plate was about to
ha naSSed.