A Good Templar’s Initiation.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 199, 2 September 1873, Page 7

A Good Templar’s Initiation.

The method of initiating a candidate a lodge of Good Templars is but a slight improvement upon the same programme so long in vogue by the ancient and honorable fraternity of the “Sons of Malta.” A “chap” who was taken from a lager beer saloon, where he got “ tight” without knowing that lager would intoxicate, was put through a cold water treatment by the p'Kjd Templars a few evenings since. He .Arches” on the Templars, and gives the folding expose of their initiation ceremony,' for which, no doubt, he will be put through another course of cold water “sprouts” at the next meeting of the lodge : —ln the first place the victim for initiation is blindfolded, bound hand and foot, and thrown into a cider press and pressed for five minutes. This is done for the purpose of clearing his system of “ old drunks.” He is then taken out of the cider press, and by means of a force pump, gorged with cistern water, after which a sealing plaster is placed over his mouth, and he is rolled in a barrel four or five times across the room, the choir at the same time singing the cold water song. He is now taken out of the barrel and hung up by the heels till the water runs through his ears. He is then cut down, and a beautiful young lady hands him a glass of cistern water. A cold water hath is then furnished him, affer which he is showered with cistern water. He is then made to read the Water Works Act ten minutes, drinking a glass of cistern water between each reading, after which the old oaken bucket is hung around his neck, and fifteen Sisters, with squirt-guns, deluge him with cistern water. He is then forced to eat a peck of snow, while the brothers stick his cars full of icicles. He is then run through a clothes-vvringer, after which he is handed a glass of cistern water by a young lady. He is again gorged with cistern water, and his hoots tilled with the same, and laid in a refrigerator for the space of half an hour. He is again taken out and given a glass of cistern water, run through a clotheswringer, and becomes a Good Templar.— American Paper .

Singular Interview with a “ Shade.” The London correspondent of the Belfast Newsletter (a sensible fellow generally) writes:—l was permitted, a few nights since, to he present when Miss ~ the now most celebrated medium in Europe (a young lady between sixteen and seventeen), was securely bound and sealed (the tape by which she was tied being held by a gentleman seated in the room), when she became entranced. A ahatvl was then hung in front of the little recess in the room, in which the young lady was seated on a stool about ten inches high, and a naked arm, apparently that of a woman, but larger than that of the medium, appeared above the shawl near the ceiling of the room. This was in a dim light; but in a few minutes afterwards the shawl was drawn aside, and the figure of a woman much larger than Miss appeared. She was dressed in white (the medium in black) ; her eyes were blue, and those of the medium hazel. She spoke to us, and on asking her whether she could bear a strong light she said she could. A magnesium light of intense brillianc}'- was then burned, and under this fierce ordeal the figure stood longer than we ourselves could bear the light. A distinguished physician was seated close to the shawl with his ear to it, and he states that the medium could not by any possibility have divested herself of a single garment (even if her hands had not been tied), or could she have risen from her seat without his hearing the motion. The gentleman who held the string assorted with equal positiveness that the medium could not have moved her body an inch in any direction without his becoming sensible of it. The figure was that of a good-looking woman or girl of about two or three-and-twenty, tall and well-formed. She did not speak to us iwhile the magnesium light was burning ; but afterwards, when the light was reduced to two mineral oil lamps, she spoke repeatedly, and, advancing from the recess, shook -hands with two of the company present. I do not pretend to give a.nv solution of this curious circumstance—l sin ply relate the facts as they occurred. 1 When questioned as to the mar ner in which the apparition materialised herself, j shesaid thatshe first entranced her medium, I and then, taking power from her and from { all present, was enabled with the assistance ! of sprits unseen by us, to show herself to | us. T'he most wonderful part of the story, howe\er, remains to be told, and it was that a her the apparition had come out three times, md had been photographed under the magies ium light, she held the shawl back, anl her figure seemed to us to melt away like a cloud all but the head, which went down gradually down to the floor. | Hero it spoke to us again, saying, ‘ You 1 may now waken the medium very gently.’ ! A gentlemui present instantly pushed |aside the curtain; but we could see no- | thing but tin young girl in a deep trance, 1 with her hands tied and sealed as we had {secured her an hour before. I ought perhaps to add that Miss is an unprofessional median—that no fee or reward of any kind can he offered or would be accepted, and that die lives with her family, who are persons of the highest respectability. It is extremely difficult to get to her seances, the circle being opened only to those who are specially introduced, and who sincerely desire to investigate the ! phenomena.”