Biggs, S. R. H.

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3l8 THE OPEN COURT.envelope in exactly the same manner. What a strange coincidence ! Thisshows that this is a stock trick of theirs and is performed for most subjects.The mode of operation is exactly the same in each case. This fact alone showsthat it is a trick.It will be noted that one letter was signed, "per E. D. G." The recipientdoes not know any one whom these initials would indicate. Had the me-diums' notes of information been more complete, or had they accidently hitupon other initials, this might have been cited as a most convincing test.I will not take up further space with my explanations ; but I simply assuremy readers that if any of them will take their own canvas with them, andnever let it out of their hands or sight, they will get no picture.Omaha, Neb. David P. Abbott."A PUZZLING CASE."To the Editor of The Open Court :I am glad that your correspondent, R. W. M., was satisfied with Mr.Abbott's reply to "A Puzzling Case." It was highly satisfactory to me also;for like the man of good judgment and good sense that he is he declinedto give an opinion upon something which, personally, he knew nothingabout. Undoubtedly he believes that could he have witnessed the same per-formance, he could have detected trickery in it. But if he could not it wouldby no means follow that no trickery was practiced. True, I could detectnone, and I am far from being the novice in such investigations that R. W. M.seems to suppose. My experience began, like his, in 1851-2, at a time whenBroadway, New York, was flooded with three-cornered signs, each bearing thelegend of "Spiritual Manifestations, Admission 25 cents." After two or threevisits I was able to rap the raps and tip the tables with the best of them—especially when the sitters' questions were put with the rising inflection untilthe right one was indicated by a downward inflection of the voice. As thus:Was it one year? (no), three years? (no), four years! (yes). But when thesitting was over I always claimed it to be a humbug and showed how it wasdone. O. O. Burgess.A SPIRITUALIST'S VIEW.To the Editor of The Open Court:I have been reading with interest in your magazine Mr. Abbott's "HalfHours with Mediums." These papers are excellent and needed to put peopleon their guard against imposture and will no doubt be welcomed by all truespiritualists.What Mr. Abbott has elsewhere said upon the subject of spiritualisticphenomena I do not know. But in these articles he discusses the subject onlyupon one plane, that of magic and jugglery. And to conclude from these ex-positions that the sound of no footfall on the other side of the border hasever reached us would be a great mistake.The experiences that justify the paramount claim of spiritualism arewidespread and multiform. Spirit manifestation is not wholly foreign to theOld Testament, and something very like it holds an important place in theNew. Many a family to-day has its border-land secret to reveal confiden-tially. What my parishoners told me of these mysterious occurrences inMISCELLANEOUS. 319their own homes led me to study spiritualism. I will briefly state some ofmy experience.I was standing in the hall of a large building in Chicago with a medium,an absolute stranger to me. He remarked : "You somewhere either over astore or a bank officiated at the funeral of a little black-eyed girl." I had doneso a few months before, over a bank in a village in Colorado. The mediumclaimed to be clairvoyant and to see the little girl holding a wreath of flowersfor me.A medium in Denver described to me very minutely a deceased lady relativeof mine whom I had only seen twice and in her childhood and girlhood. Thedescription included peculiarities of form and face, color of hair, eyes, and ofthe clothing she had worn. I knew nothing whatever of these details, butlearned afterward that the description was very, correct. I am completelycolorblind, having never perceived any color whatever.In their home on an aristocratic avenue in Boston, I was in conversationwith a first-class physician and his wife who was a medium. They jointlyinformed me that they had had many materializations in their own home,that they frequently occurred unsought, and became such a nuisance that theyhad to be discouraged.In Cherokee, Iowa, a gentleman and his wife informed me that aftertheir daughter died, they could get no comfort from minister nor professionalmedium, that they then set apart a room in their own house in which to re-ceive communications, that their circle was composed of only members oftheir own family and a few intimate friends, and that they were abundantlyblessed with varied manifestations, mcluding the frequent materialization oftheir daughter.My consciousness and whole being has been filled almost to suffocationwith the unmistakable presence of a dear friend some months deceased, whohad promised me to return if possible.On a still summer morning, in an upper room, in my own house, on thepaper curtain of the window near me, I have heard a series of loud rapsrepeated as if for recognition. I was sole occupant of the house, and hadbeen for nearly forty-eight hours.These are facts. And I feel it my duty to give them publicity.South Lincoln, Mass. S. R. H. Biggs.A PAGAN NUN.As Christianity has its nuns so the pagans had their virgin priestesseswhose sanctity was both greatly admired and highly respected by the peopleof all classes. Among the Homeric hymns is preserved a touching prayer ofsuch a nun of pagan antiquity, and we translate these lines as follows:"Chaste goddess, hear me that invoke thine ear,O thou who nourishest the growing year!Grant that thy maid her troth to no one plightAnd scorn all love, yet always take delightIn converse with the thoughtful grayhaired sageWho past his prime has sobered down by age."

A Spiritualist\u27s View.

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A Spiritualist\u27s View.

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