Year: 1875

ing failure under tho very conditions neces-
sary to any inquiry. The too diligent and
eager searcher is told that if he does this, the
spirits will be angry and go away; or II ne
does that, the medium will become incompe-
tent and inert. The exhibitors claim the right
themselves to make all the arrangements, 10
control time, place, and action, and generally
to forbid whatever a rational inquirer would
do or wish to have done. All this is convenient
for the operators, male and female; but IL Is
also unsatisfactory as to scientific solution.
If we are not to do what it is necessary 10 do
for demonstration, then it is hard to see now
the truth can be determined at all.


We have been kindly favored by CORE
spOndcnt with some account of the doings Oh
a Mr.. Tippie, q spiritual medium in Kansas
of whose performances we also find report IN
The Western Spirit newspaper. This Mr..
Tippie has for his attendant spirit said to
be o member of "the King Tribe of People,
which existed Gin Asia 10000 years ago.
Father King, as the spirit is called, refuses
to communicate save through an ordinary
"dinner-hOrn three feet long" He is fas-
tidiOus ghost, and as he lived before the age
of voice building" Gf not indeed before any
age whatsOeveD it is observed that many of
his utterances are 80 deficient in elOcuiOnary
cearncss as to be nothing more than mar
ticulatc grunts and grOans. Moreover, anu as
usual, Father King demands that the room
shall be darkened before he will breathe q
syllable through the Delphic horn. For the
rest, the admission to the seance was fixed at
30 cents a head. And among the heads thus
admitted to the exhibition was the long
one of certain Miss Jennie Lapsey. She
seems to have acted with great fairness, for
she went privately to Tppie, and asked him
what would be the effect if, during the visit
of Father King, the room should be suddenly
illuminated. "GOOd gracious" responded Tip
pie "it might kill me by severing the electrl-
zeal current between myself and Father King"
This most needlessly frightened Miss Jennie,
who did not want to murder even Ilpple !;
but she was reassurcd when he added, " do
"not fear anything Of the kind, because Father
"King would know if there was any person
"present prepared to make q trial OF the kind,
"and therefore would not appear" SO Jennie
carried out her original plan; she procured a
dark lantern and the next night, when Father
King was uttering the most astonishing nom
sense through the horn, the bulPs-eye
was turned on. Father King didn't "know,'
it seems. Down tumbled the horn to the floor!
Over went Medium Tippie writhing with ex-
temporancous stomach-ache! The electrical
current between himself and Father King had
been severed. And the next day he left town,
taking with him the magic horn.


OF course, the reader will see the main point
of this denouement, which is the false pre-
diction of Tippie, that Father King" would
refuse to be present if any person in the room
should be armed with dark lantern. In this
case, one point is as good as hundred
Jennie with the bulPs-eye was there, and
Father King, though 10000 years old and pro-
portionately sharp, came and beloved through
the horn all the same. Tippie, besides the
access of stomach-ache is hOOred by his own
conditions. This settles the question. Father
King came once too often. Ho will never
come again, at least to that particular part of
KaOSoa