Western appeal. [volume], June 13, 1885, Image 5

About Western appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1885-18??

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
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The editor's sanctum is silent and bare,
A sadness hangs over his quaint oaken
chair
His old leaden inkstand is empty and dry,
And his porcupine quill slumbers idly by.
His porcupine quill! Ah, what language
would slip
From the long slender tube with its ivory
ti p'
What a leader the old fellow used to turn
out,
\Vr
the aid of the Times and a pint of
brown stout!
He would M'rite his own Letters from
Londonthe rogue'
And would pad them with scandala plan
much vogue
Like a charger, the battle he'd scent from
afar,
By writing a "special" direct from the war.
When matter was short and he wanted a
"hit,"
He would take up his pen and a murder
commit!
He as good at a burglary, smart at a ball,
Hut at writing up "ads" he'd no rival at
all'
He was ne'er at a loss, with all branches
he'd cope
And could handle the tar brush or wield the
soft soap
But now he's departed this valley of woe,
And has gone to the land where good
editors go.
Well, then, peace to his soul! It is under
the eye
Of the spirit's Great Editor, up in the sky
Let's hope it will join the cherubical ranks,
And not bo 'declined," but "accepted with
thanks."
kindly no longer And we'll speak of him
on earth
Will this rubicund countenance
mirth
.'I has gone far away from the world's
busy hum,
And we'll write as his epitaph, "Scissors
and Gum'"
flavor our
THE LEGENDARY SKIP.
A Tale of the Early Days of New Haven
Colony.
A unexpected and very profitable
growth of business made the immedi
ate purchase of a piece of land neces
sary. partners requested me to ne
gotiatejor a few acres in the vicinity of
Sew Haydn, and I at once began to do
so. A annoying delay occurred owing
to the illegibility of a record making
it impossible to obtain a perfect title.
I ^vas about to abandon the attempt
to mj\ the property, when I was remind
that a gentleman well known to me
might be able to give the information
hat could not be deciphered from the
record. This person was a professor
in the college, a man of wide repute as
a scholai, and an ardent student of the
colonial i"poc of the town.
1 found him in his library and-he,
%Hhout tn} hesitation, gave me the
information which I sought, and add
xae whe r* I should find such lega
1
proofs of cle ar title as I desired. I was
impressed with the accuracy of his
learning and the readiness with which it
responded to his demands, and I ven
tured to say to him that the acquisition
of such a mass of names and dates
must have cost him great labor. Tqu
my surprise he replied that I was mis
taken, the truth being that he mastered
such incidents with ease. His great
mental efforts, he said, were required
by the process es of analysis and com
parison which were necessary to sepa-*
rale truth from the rubbish and chaff of
tradition and reecord, and by the
reasoning necessary accurately to trace
causes to those results which, when
graped^constitutad trustworthy history.
"For instance," said he. I have
here a document which will cost me the
most severe applicati on before I am
through wi th it."
I had observed that there lay upon
the table a roll of manuscript. The
table was littered with pamphlets, doc
uments, aged and wormeaten books,
and I do not know why my attention
was specially fixed upon this particular
l-oll ol paper. It- was plainly an aged
manuscript. The paper was ribbed
and unruled, like that in use a century
or more agoan if it once was white,
the years had faded it to a dull, buff,
leathery hue, while the care with which
he afterward handled it indicated that
it had little tenacity of fibre. I knew
that he referred to this old roll of
manuscript, and, as I expected, he took
it up.
I have here," he continued, a
remarkable historical narrative, which
I found among some refuse in a garret,
where it has lain for more than a
hundred years. I is an account of a
strange, unnatural occurrence, of
which I have heard by tradition, and
which is even casually mentioned in
'Mather's Magnalia.' I have, however,
always regarded it as unworthy of
serious consideration, believing that
there was either no foundation for the
tradition or else that it could be traeed
to the hallucinations of a disordered
brain. I now, however, have an
account of it which I cannot ignore.
I was written by a clergyman of the
most godly character, a man who
could not, even in jest, speak false
hoods, and he asserts that he was him
self an eyewitness of what he describes.
How, then, can I refuse to accept this
record? I gives all that a historian
requires to satisfy him of the- authen-
ticity of any alleged occurrence. I is
the genuine manuscript of a man
whom I know to have lived, %&& it is
not a hearsay account. If we are to
to put faith in any of the records of the
past, we must aeept this one. I do
not know of an established fact of his
tory jhat has any better basis than this
document gives to substantiate the
wonderful phenomenon!.* which it
record's.
I confess," Ci%uedthe Professor
I with some, animation* .of spleen, "that
1 such problem a is preheated by this
.-SE&auseripthas never before* }er uriyea
to me tosfttve. A a B*atoriaai*1l am
compelled to accept as true what I jfrere'
read, while as a physicist I must regard
the record as the wildest and most iiai
^probable of romances. Were it base
on the testimony of one person it oouldt
^nail-^Un Triar.i art nan -vHcririn oi nlHMmfciMfl:
easily be rejected as a vision or aliesattoj* ifietf fey the cold, and the vessel could be
of mind, to which the austerity of the
Puritans see ms to have rendered some
of them peculiarly liable. I am con
fronted, however, with the assertion of
this writer, as well as with the inherent
proof of the assertion, that he was one
of many witnesses. I is, indee d, an
interesting problem, and the difficulty
of reconciling an account that must be
accepted as truthful histo ry with the
fact that it must be denied as a physi
cal possibility makes the task fascina
ting.
Doubtless Prof. observ ed that
he had awakened a pleasing intere st in
me. Indeed,I took no pains-to conceal
it, and told him that I would glndly
hear the story that had so puzzled him.
at once unroll ed the manuscript.
"This appears,'' said he, "to have
been written by the Rev. Dr. Prentice,
and in the year 1680. I judge it was a
letter to a friend, although the ravages
of time have made the first few sen
tences illegible. I have other manu
scripts of this clergyman, a few ser
mons, and having thus been enabled to
make comparisons, I find the handwrit
ing of all to be identical. I will not
read it in full, and will paraphrase some
of the text, for it is Written in the still,
formal manner of that day, many of the
words found in it being now obsolete.
'There had come, began the Pro
fessor, upon the tradesmen and tho se
engaged in commcre a season of adver
sity in the year 1646 ,such as they had not
known even in the earliest days of the
settlement of the New Haven colony.
The vessels lay idle in the harbor, trade
with the other colonies languished, and
and as the New Haven colonists were
familiar with commerce rather than
agriculture, they were embarrassed
even for the necessaries of life. But for
the energy and determination of some
of the men of character, the .colony
must have found its existence imper
illed, for many had determined to
depart, some even making arrange
ments to emigrate to Ireland. A less
courageous and tenacious race must
have succumbed. I was determined
as a last resort to build a ship large
enough to cross the ocean, freight her,
and send her to England in the hope
that the disheartening losses would be
retrieved by the development of com
merce with the mother country. Over
coming great obstacles they built a ship
in Rhode Island colony.
The frost had closed the smaller
streams, and the ground was whitened
with snow when the ship entered New
Haven harbor. There was great re
joicing at the sig ht of her, and her size,
being fully loO tons measurement, was
a cause for wonder, for such a monster
had never been seen before in that har
bor. With her sails all set and her
colors abroad, she came up to her
anchoring place wi th such grace and
speed as greatly delighted -the people
who had assembled at^he" water's edge
to greet her. Coinage was revived by
the sig ht of-her, and the people paid,
'N'/M? we shall again have plenty and
add to our possessions, if God be willing.'
"Tho master of the ship, Lamber
ton, was found to be somewhat gloomy,
and Dr. Prentice records that Lamber
ton told him in confidence that, though
the ship was of fine model and a fast
sailer, yet she was so wiltymeaning
thereby of such disposition to roll in
rough waterthat he feared she would
prove the grave of all who sailed in her.
However, he breather his suspicions to
no one else. The ship was laden and
ready for departure early January. 1647.
"The cold that prevailed for five days
and nights before the time fixed for
clearing for London was such as the
people had never before known. I
must have remained many degrees be
low zero, for the salt water was frozen
far down the harbor, and the ship was
rivited by the ice as firmly as though
by many anchors. There was no lazy
bones among the people, and with
prodigious industry the men out a canal
through the ice forty feet wide and five
miles long to the never-freezing waters
of the Sound. The vessel was frozen
in with her bow pointing toward the
shore, and itwes necessary to propel
her to cle ar water stern foremost.
This was an unlucky omen- Capt.
Lamberton avowed that the sea and the
conflicti powers that struggled for
its mastf ware controlled by whims
andieaks, which would be sure to be
exctid by such an insult as that of a
ship entering the water stern first. A
old sailor, too, informed them all that
a ship that sailed stern first always
returned stei*n first, meaning by that
she never came back to the harbor from
which she thus departed.
"You will observe," said the Professor
putting down the manuscript for a
moment, "that in these gloomy fore
bodings are to be detected traces of the
mythological conception of the mystery
of the sea, with which all sailors, even
to the present tim, are more or less
tincture d. I am especially impressed
with the manner in which these colon
ists acted. Believing in predestination
in spiritual matters, their lives in
wordly affairs conformed more or less
thereto. So, in spits of these omens,
there was no thought of delay. They
had fixed the time for sailing, and they
meant to sail. S godly a man as the
Rev. Mr. Davenport expressed this feel
ing in his prayer, as reported by this
writer: Mr. 'Davenport, as the ship
began slowly to move, used the se words:
Lord, if it be Thy pleasure to bury these
our friends in the bottom of the sea,
they are Thine* Save them!
1
"Men less completely under the dom
ination of their religious belief would
never have gone to sea without exor
cising in some way the evil influences
which the se omens seemed to indicate
would prevai l. There had gathered on
the ice all the people of the colo ny ex
ce pt the sick and feeble, perhaps 800 or
1,000 souls. O the departing vessel
were some of their friends and kin.
The farewells were sa id with the ex
pi-essions neither of grief nor of joy.
Restraint, the subjugation, even the
quenching of all emotions, was the rule
of life with the se peopl e, and I gather
from one or two expressions in this
account that never was there more*
formal, less demonstrative leave taking.
When the vessel reached deep water,
and just as one of the great sails was
beginning to belly with the wind, the
people with one accord fell on their
kiSfees on the ice and prayed. The ship
#afc*iive miles away. The air was elar-
April, May, and even June, brought
no woi'd of her arrival. Their suspense
could be relieved only in one way. I
^hould have asserted, even had I no
evidence of it, that the colonists sought
the relief they always thought they
found in prayer. I shou ld also have
unhesitatingly said that they id not,
in their prav ers, ask that the inevitable
be averted, but simp ly prayed that
they might be prepared to receive with
submission whatever was in store for
them to know. I should have been
justified in so afserting, as I find by
reference to their manuscript. The
account has it"here the Professor
again read from the manuscript
-The failure to learn what was the
fate of their ship did put the godly
people in much prayer, both public and
private, and they prayed that the Lord
would, if it was His pleasure, let them
hear what had done with their
dear friends, an* prepare them for a
suitable submission to His holy will.
distinctly seen, and as the people prayed as were to be given them. Suddenly,
with open eyes that were fixed upon and when she seemed right upon them[
the distant and receding ship, she sud- her maintop was blown over, noiseless-
denly disappeared, vanished as quickly ly as the parting of a cloud, and was
as though her bottom had fallen out left hanging in the shrouds. Then the
and she had sunk on the instant. 'Yes,' mizzentop went over, making great
says this writer, 'more suddenly, for destruction, and nex t, as though
where as at one moment the eyes of all by the fiercest hurricane, all the masts
of us were fixed upon he r, at the next went by the beard, being twisted as by
as in the wink of the eye. she was not. the wrenchings of a wind that blew in
W rose gazed fixedly "into the vacant resistless circles. The sails were torn
space where we last saw her and then in narrow ribbons, whirling round and
with wonder turned to each other. Yet round in the air, while the ropes snap-
in another moment she was disclosed to pedand were unraveled into shreds,
us as she was before, and we watched her and beat with noiseless force upon th
until she disappeared behind the neck decks. So on after her hull began to
of land that bound the harbor _to the caree n, and at last, being lifted a
east. So we dispersed, wondering at mighty wave, it dived into the water,
this strange manifestation, whose mean- Then a smoky cloud fell in that par-
ing was hidden from us. Some there ticular place, as though a curtain had
were who were convinced that it be- dropped down from heaven, and when
tokened that even as she had disappear- in a moment, it vanished, the sea was
on ly to be seen again so we would smooth, and nothing was to be seen
again behold her after her voyage, there. The people believed that thus
But there were many Avho were im- the Almighty had told them of the
pressed that though 'we should again tragic end of their ship, and they re-
see her the sight would be but a partial newed their thanks to Him that had
one. With reverent submition to the answered their prayer. The Rev. r.
will of God. The people repaired to Davenport, in public, declared 'that
their homes.' ot had condescended for the quieting
"You see," said the Professor, again
an
be explained by natural and staple* J?^ science teaches me that the laws ot
causes, not so the* 'phenomena -BS&felif$^taaBfflsfol% as much so now
afterward described.
1
"In all the accounts that we have
of prayer," said the Professor.***"I
know of nothing equal to that. I
contains volumes of histor y. With
that simple text the ethnologist and
histori an might conshict the history of
a people. Observe the human nature
of it, that is the intolerable burden of
suspense, and see the religious faith of
it, both of submission and the trust
that the prayer would be answered:
"These people seem to have rested
with the convie&on that this remark
able supplication would be effecthe.
Dr. Prentice continues his narrative,
after quoting the prayer, with an
account of what happened, as though
it wex-e the expected answer.
writes, too, with the vividness and
accuracy of detail to be expected of the
eyewitness, an inherent proof of the
truth of his narration. I infer that
within* a day or two after the prayer
the manifestation was received. There
aro se a great thunder storm from the
northwest, such a tempest of fury as
sometimes follows elemental disturb
ances from that quarter. I see ms to
have been accepted as the presage of
the manifestation that followed. After
it passed away it left the atmosphere
unusually clear, but it affected the
people with a solemn spirit. A hour
before sunset the reward of their faith
came. Far off, where the shores of
Long Island are just dimly visible, a
ship was discovered by a man who IT^ Tu \h
made haste to tell all the colon ste
oc
It is our vessel,' they cried. God
be praised, for has heard and
answered our prayer.'
"Yet while the}'- saw her straining
with the wind, and seemingly speedT
wiiu me wiuu, nuu seemingly speed- I
observ ed that she made no progress
Thus she continued to appear to them
for half an hour. While they were still
astounded by the mystery, they saw
that she had of a sudden approach
edd,
most reckless and foolhardy speed, for
most reckless and foolhardy speed for
she was in the channel, which is nar-
mit the passage of a vessel of her size
with skilfull handling. The children
uaiiBn UBBU^J xne naroor lies in a
southerly direction, and the channel
"The people awaited^with sober
resignation such further manifestations
th rhiladclphia Pre**,l]
3 struck
afflicted spirits this extraord^
he5
putting down the manuscript, "in all oary account of His sovereign disposal
this that inexplicable commingling of
hope and fatalism which was, I
imagine one of the inevitable con
ditions of mind of this austere and as^he carelully laid the manuscript
intensely religious people. The mere away, "what an extraordinary problem
fact of the sudden disappearance and is here presented tome. If 1 accept
renewed sig ht of the ship may perhaps
of tho se for whom so many ferve nt
prayers wei-e continually made.'
"You will see," said the Professor,
record evidence, I must accept this
as-ever'Whatfi the^truth?"
"In the natural order 6$eiSeitfc&t&e,
colonists would have had Afeme UdMgs Everything."
of their ship after three
He
i
ea1
passed. None came, how^v^^^^pft *$*) frequently made when a scholarly
that sailed from England in March, mani
v**Ything,"
is a re-
undeV(fiem^ron. How absurd
such a statement is will appear when
the fact is mentioned that in the Con
gressional library at Washington there
are over 600,000 volumes. If they were
placed side by side thev would fill a
shelf fifty miles lon g. If a man started
to read this collection at the rate of one
volume a day it would take him 1,650
years to get through. And while the
man wonld be at work on this vast
library the printers would be turning
out more than 5,000 new books a year.
From the se figures it will be seen that
it is idle to think of i-eading everything,
or even to read all the best book s. The
greatest readers among our distin
guished men have had their favorite
books, which they read and reread.
Certain books in our language are
called classics. They are models of
style and full of ideas and illustrations.
Modern writers go to these old authors
and get lumps of solid gold which they
proceed to beat out very thin.
Why should we take the gold leaf arti
cle when we can go to the original
mines and get solid nuggets? The old
novels are the best. The.old poets have
not been equaled. Too" many of our
new books are written hastily to
sell. They are of an inferior qtiality
and cannot profit us in any way. A
man therefore need not be ashamed to
say that he has not read the last new
book. When for ty new books appear
every day it is impossible to read them
all.[Atlantic Constitution.
Strange Bodies in Timber.
Cornelius Smith ha the contract for
sawing into lumber a large number of
logs cut from trees standing on the
fields of Antietam at the time of the
battle fight. says that all sorts of
missiles, from cannon balls to buck
shot, are almost daily met with in the
timber, and that it is really dangerous
to stand near the saws in his mill
when such lumber is being cut a, num
ber of saws having been snapped into
fragments, when running at a high
rate of speed by striking iron shot
embedded in the logs.
A large, angular fragment of a
shell was struck by a saw a few days
ag o, and a perfect shower of sparks
rained about the mill from the contact
of the metals,the saw being finally snap
ped in sevr ael piecesa.s I another iony ae
ance
f?* wcut through
a
ae
Thev s-athered on the short 3Zvileade bullets, which offer little or no
vessel
f\m^^^ resistance to the aw
bTtf ^^W$$XZ SdXhi^
side by reason of the strain upon the
masa nr the spewi tihn whihth
breeze carried her.
sidset
eason of
heed
straun
surface
P
ie
br
^euspe rieS of the missile. Mrny
Cr0'
sU
a
rbe
reveaed in
Ts
[Cmer]a nl
S
HI flfc
Astronomer Procter's Ideas on Tight
X.acing.
N one can reasonably hope that
those women who are foolish enough to
compre
sost
their wais
ti
a
ing with such rapidity as should brino- set-wearig) wilsl oveir bh persuad eld
her to them in an hour, they also
tl ine
cnan
A
luin out uau i suuuen approache *vm. UMU wug amci Liiey nave
and was coming with what seemed
assec
leas
ea
0
she was in the channel, which is nar- large
row and of sufficient depth only to per- i
i
lacin
ople were filled with aimrehen
sion lest she shou ld go upon the shoa ls
or be dashed upon the shore. They
thereupon made warning gestures,
although they could see no one upon
the deck.
"At last they observed something, of
which in their excitement they had
taken heed.Th harbor lies in a
fail ue
"-3 -9
by tight lacing
hhere speakng merely of cor
i waits, tey can hep it
woman of this sftrt will" nni.
A woman of this sort will not give up
tight lacing until she has given up all
idea of attracting the attention of men,
and few women of this sort gi ve up
their idea until long after they have
hfe time when it can make the
difference wheth ev therwaiss
dif
adanta gi whi ct
lar gee. or
small..
xld gw
ta So fai\as I can
omauo nti\as can
onl
rea
or is likely to derive from tight
resides in the circumstances that
inui i nanuimg. xne children """*"& i.u^auiuuiuDiauucs tu tla
There's a brave ship,' but the ^g
^s
lacin
v,uuuu
killingwhn it
kil
1 thwomn it tends to kil
necessiteven foolish,e and
offspringi,s and as the woman who
ntl
lace
her offspring is likely to inherit her
folly, there is a cause here steadily at
work to remove the more foolish sort,
and so relatively to increase the wisdom
of the world. There is always a germ
of
comforfcneirceveT
in things evilth
"=u ux wimg eucn
ei
tea
itself runs due north and south. The their own eliminntion.
vessel was making toward them with
great speed, every sail curved stiff
with the force of the wind that seemed
to come in a gale from the south, and
yet the wind was actually blowing with
great power directly from the north.
Thus holding her course due north,
they saw her sailing directly against the
wind. Then they knew that they were
witnessing a mysterious manifestation.
A she approached so near that some
imagined they could hurl a stone
aboard her, ftiey jjou ld see the smaller
details, the rivets the anchor and its
chains, the flapping of the smaller
ropes, and the rhythmic quivering of the
ribbon-li ke pennant that was flying in
the face of the wind. Yet they saw no
man aboard of her.
their own eliminatio n.
vsA
tV
eeey
evilness tv caus
The Conceit of Cooks.
The most precious sauce, for a young
cook is impudence. Boast away and
never be tired of it. A modest cook
must be looked on as a contradiction
in nature. If he be qui et and modest,
he will be held as a pitiful cook.
I is related of a famous cook that he
prepared fish so exquisitely that they
returned him admiring and grateful
looks from the frying pan.
I was doubtless the same cook who
declared that he had discovered the
principle of immortality, and that the
odor of his dishes would recall life into
the nostrils of the very dead.
I was Bechamel who sa id that, with
the sauce he had invented, a man
would experience nothing but delight
in eating his own grandfather.
3,' ^rX&^&^xf'
1
WHEN THE BOATS COME
HOME.,
There's light upon the sea to-day
And gladness on the strand
Ah! well know that hearts are ay
When sails draw nigh the land.
W followed them with thoughts and tears
Far, far across the foam!
Dear Lord, it seems a thousand years
Until the boats come home.
W tend the children, live our life,
And toil and mend the nets
But is there ever maid or wife
Whose faithful heart forgets?
W know what cruel dangers lie
Beneath that shining foam
And watch the changes in the sky
Until the boats come home.
There's glory on the sea to-day.
Tho sun&et gold is bright
Me thought I heard a grandshire say,
"At eve it shall be light'"
O'er waves of crystal touched with fire
And flakes of pearly foam
W gazeand see our heart's desire
The boats are coming home.
Sarah Doudney
PHANTOMS O THE MIND.
The Imagery and Forshadowin^s of
Death.
What is psychology? A science as
yet^unknown, sa ve that it is connected
intimately with the human soul, the
half-awakened latent consciousness of
a dual existence which we have all
experienced in tho se brief and momen
tary flashes of abnormal intelligence,
which are extinguished by the investig
ation of reason, leaving us in greater
darkness than before. what cohe
sion of occult forces are we compelled
to think of a long-forgotten friend, to
wonder and specula te as to the pos
sibility that he is yet alive, to recall
accurately his features, tone of voice
and other distinguishing characteris
tics, to dwell upon the fact of this
mental resurrection, as something
strange and foreboding, a presenti
ment that, like Banquo's ghost, will
not down, and then to learn, a few days
later, that at that particular date the
friend in question had died hundreds
of miles distant. Th is has occured to
so many people of intelligence and
veracity that4t has almost ceased to be
a matter of surprise. Sometimes the
memorv thrust upon us does not mean
death but life. W meet the person
face to face, and, after'a hearty hand
shake, lecount our promonition as a
strange coincidence. But it is not
possible that the friend coming to us
had sent out a messenger dovea
thought, a wish, an intangible, unseen
grappling-iron ot memory that in some
way touched a kindred chord in us
a vibration of the mental atmosphere
in which the soul dwells? There must
be certain conditio ns to emolve the
the phenomena, a keenness of psych ic
intelligence, an abnormally acute state
of the senses as if all the "windows of
the soul were opened and the key-note
of celestial telegraphy sounded. I is
not given unto all men to see or hear
the supernatural. There must be a
psychophysical relati on established in
the individual before any indications of
that sensitive message can reach the
consciouness. W can believe with the
poet that isolated souls can tell us:
"I see a hand you cannot see,
Which beckons me away
I hear a voice ou cannot hear,
Which says I must not stay."
The realm of fiction has set science
aside and given s, realistic detail, the
strange circumstance of vocal and vis
ual clairvoyance. When, in "Jane
Eyre," tho blind Rochester calls in des
pair, "Jane! Jane! where are yon?" the
wind wafts him back an answer: "Wait
for me. I am coming.
How many readers of this paper
have heard a voicefaV distantper
haj silent in the gravering in its old
cheery tones in the ears that had long
since ceased to listen for its tones.
The majority of people are not willing
to talk about the se things. They put
the experience aside as something
unaccountable, or cred it it to the imag
ination. I may therefore be of some
value to the reader to read a statement
of facts, which are supported by li\ ino
witnesses well known, who stand far
abo ve the dogmas of superstition, and
whose education gives them the right
to instruct others by their experience.
The first of these is related by Dr. T. A.
McGraw, one of the most distinguish ed
surgeon-physicians in the state of Mich
igan.
MIND-READING.
Of all abnormal nervous manifesta
tions," says the Doctor, in his paper
on mind-reading, "the most curious arc
those rare cases of intense perceptive
power of the brain which is called
second sight. They are indeed so rare
as to be rejected by most physicia ns as
unrealan yet there arejeases so well
authenticated as to make it impossible
to deny its possibility. I have myself
met with one instance which seemed to
be indisputable. A young lady was
seized with inflammation of the spinal
cord, in the course of which she became
sensitive to an extraodinary degree.
A she lay in a room in the second story,
with every door and window closed,
she could hear distinctly what passed
in the rooms below, even to a whisper
communication. One day about
noon she sa id to her father that she saw
her uncle and aunt getting off the cars.
These relatives were not expected, and
did not know that she was ill, and the
remark therefore passed as one of delir
ium. Half an hour afterward, how
ever, they were driven up to the house
in a carriage, and on inquiry it was
found that they had actually got off the
cars at the time named.
"There were, in the course of her
illness, one or two other such mani
festations of unusual, and by our ordi
nary experience, inexplicable perceptive
power. When questioned in relation
to the matter she could only say that
she actually saw what she described.
"This unnatural exaltation of nervous
sensibility and clairvoyant power, if
such it was, disappeared completely as
the patient grew better. I do not pre
tend to account for the phenomena,
but have to remark that they were
morbid in an intense degree, nor do I
believe that such phenomena can oecnr
in perfectly healthy persons." I will
be se en from th is that Dr. McGraw
does not allow bis appreciation of the
marvelous to run away with his
reasonbu I had it from his own lips
that the manifestation is nnaccountable,
since, even though it were the result of
a diseased and disorganized brain, it
was also an actual revelation of clair
voyance or second sight.
Almost a similar instance occurred
to ex-Postmaster-General Jewell on his
death-bed. awakened from a sleep
and told his family that something had
happened in "Henry's family," rela
tives who lived at a distance. The
kinsman he named was dead, but he
had not been informed. By what
subtle, mysterious intelligence was the
sense of misfortune conveyed to the
dying man? Who can answer?
A VOICE FROM THE DEAD.
A circumstance of recent origin, which
is vouched for by men of Christian char
acter and high social standing, confirms
this strange theory of biological condi
tions. A couple "of years ago Willie
Lord, a young man well known and
well liked in Pontiac and Detroit, lost
his life in Washington. There was no
preliminary sickness as his death was
caused by drowning. A the time he
died, a lady, the member of a family
who were all intimate friends of the
young man, was living in New Mexico.
She was formerly Miss Virginia Palmer,
of Pontiac, and is now, I think, Mr.
Andei-son. Th is lady who, in common
with her family, regarded Willie as a
dear friend, was sitting in her room in
New Mexico with open indows, when
she heard a well known whistlea
snatch from a bar of music wi th which
young Lord always announced his eom
ming. Her first thought was one of
mingled pleasure and surprise pleasure
at seeing her friend and surprise that
he shou ld be in that far distant
part of the country. But there was no
mistaking the repeated strain of the
signal whistle. She ran to the windows
he was not ther e. the door N one
had seen any person. The event so im
pressed her that she sat down and wrote
to Mrs. Lord, and the bereaved mother
answered that at that time her son
was dead. Was it then the music of the
spheres that had been conveying an un
intelligible message to eartfi-bound
ears?
A MOTIIEK1S
FOREKNOWLEDGE.
Among those who have been visited
by this rare intelligence is a saintly
woman in our midst who was the life
long friend of such men z.-, Bryant and
Longfellow and such woman as Lucretia
Mott I allude to Mrs. Eliza Leggett,
who is ever ready, out of her own
sources or experience to give that which
may benefit humanity. When that
beloved son, Percy, who^e pictu re hangs
in his boyhood' home draped with the
uniform he honored and the ilaghedied
to defend, went into the army it needed
no advance courier to tell his" mother of
his death. When the soldier who had
been detailed to bear her the ne^s
approached, cap in hand, his face im
mobile, as if he simp ly brought an ordi
nary message, the mother said calmly:
"Thee need not tell me
"They said he was ching," stam
mered the soldier, whose discipline was
not proof against a mother's, grief.
And Aunt Eli za said wi th that faini,
sweet smile of hers, and the tears well
ing to her fond eyes:
"Not dying, good soldier, but dead!"
Risi ng from her sleep one day ?he
remarked to her family, "Something
has happened to our "boys." These
boys were friends and comrades of
Percy, Dick Whitehead and Phil.
Mothersill' and in a few hours the word
came, that one had gone "into the silent
land."
These illustrations I have given iu
this paper are not the dreams of the
l-omanticist. They are not the A ague
manifestations of the spiritualist ncr'are
they used to found a hope or a religion
upon. A actual realities they lia\e
been received almost in the spirit of
agnosticism. W do not know, we
cannot explain the untranslatable lan
guage of a nrystic literature. A finer,
rarer, more subtle brain-power may jet
give us some direct clue to that missing
link of intelligence, which we now con
ceive to be will-power, or mind-reading,
or in its best and highest sense, that
which we call clairvoyanc e, M. it.
Momento of Garfield.
Some time ago Mrs. Garfield gave R.
B. Hayes a momento of her dead hus
band,'which is kept with zealous care
in Hayes, Fremont house. I is a small
brass calendar, with the months, days,
and years on little e\ linders, to be turn
ed as time go es on. This was always
on Garfield's desk, and he used it for
years in his Washington library.
took it to the White House, and made
it a rule to turn it each morning, thus
reminding himself of the right date be
fore beginning the day's work. O the
morning of July 3 he turned the cylin
ders and finished some business, before
going to his death at the depot. The
little calendar was never regulated
from that day, and remains now as he
left it on that fatal morning, markino
"Saturday, July 3, 1881. Chicago
Times.
The First Chinese School in America.
The first Chinese separate school in
America was opened in San Francisco
the other day. The attendance at the
opening was smal l, consisting only of
Mamie Tape and her little 6-year-old
brother, but in the afternoon four Chi
ne se boys appeared, two of whom could
read well and were sufficiently ad
vanced to enter the grammar grade. I
is thought that if the Chinese merchants
can get over their repugnance to vacci
nation, they will send their children to
the school. A it is. they patronize the
mission schools, where the vaccination
requirement is not in force. The new
departure in education will be watched
with much interest by the small num
ber who, in the face of popular preju
dice, believe that it is their iuty to train
up the young Chinese in Christian ways
and give them the advantages of a good
education^
"What is this man charged with?"
asked the judge. "With whiskey, yer
honor," replied the sententio us police
man.
"%-ssfr