AMONG THE SPIRITS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1186, 17 May 1872, Page 4

AMONG THE SPIRITS.

(SATURDAY BBVIEW.) We are indebted to the New York Herald for a report of a case in a public court, in which "the workings of the spirit world" are exposed by a medium who becomes disgusted, and professes to tell all he knows. The medium was accused of stealing a gold watch, and the defence was that the charge had been i trumped up to destroy his character and discredit the testimony which it , was feared he would give against his employers. The complainant was Mrs Elizabeth Fuller, "magnetic and electric physician;" of New York, who stated on , cross-examination that she had never graduated in any college, but she understood electricity, aud thought herself cot) potent to go ahead in her profession. She believed that she was assisted by spiritualistic agencies in her treatment of disease, and particularly by the spirit of an Indian girl named Pick, "the last of the tribe of Mohicans." She said that the defendant Sproul called upon her on a Sunday evening for the purpose of spiritualistic conversation, and after his departure she missed her watch. The defendant appeared and denied taking the watch, and gave a long account of his conversation with Gordon, who is alleged to have instigated Mrs Fuller to bring the charge. He had assisted Gordon in seances, understanding that he should have a fair share in the proceeds of the speculation. The seances were opened with prayer. There was an altar, on which was a crucifix and seven lighted candles, and there was a swinging censer. Gordon was tho high priest. " The religious service at opening was that of the High Church of England." Gordon stated that he was controlled by a deceased Bishop White, and sermons I were preached occasionally by him. Faces were exposed, and if any person asked whether that was " Susan" or "Emily," the figure bowed. This was Sproul's description of the business carried on by Gordon and his associates. Gentlemen were charged a dollar and ladies fifty cents . for admission. But before long the master spiritualist and his man quarrelled. Sproul had found a pasteboard face of a pretended spirit in a trunk. He represents himself as having been up to this time deceived by Gordon ; but we may suspect that he felt a justifiable indignation at the blundering manner in which his chief operated. " There," said he to Gordon, "is your spirits. You can't sit at the table and give stances worth a cent. I am going to set up a shanty of my own and burst you up." Herenpon Gordon put rags around his head and pretended to go out of his raitid, and Sproul determined to expose the matter. At this point Mrs Fuller appeared upon the scene as a spiritual reinforcement to Gordon. She called at Gordon's residence, and seeing Sproul, she told him that spirits were around him, but wanted some medium to get into him, and she was the medium. " Wanting to have some fun," he pretended to be under mesmeric influences. Mrs Fuller then became unconscious, and "put it through," or, in other words, made a revelation \j the help of the spirit of the Indian girl Pick, that Gordon could not give a seance that night, "as things were not harmonious," which they certainly were not. She invited Sproul to visit her, promising to give him more magnetic strength, and he accordingly called next evening, when the alleged theft was committed. In cross-examination, Sproul stated j that he became acquainted with Gordon about three months ago. "He took a notion t) me, and wanted [me \o becoire his spiritual brother." At this time Sproul was working at bookbinding. Perhaps he thought that if he could live I without working it would be an improvement. He accepted Gordon's invitation, took charge of his rooms, and managed his financial affair*. He did not assist Gordon in his seances, but " acted in the audience" — a very expressive phrase. In the rooms which were placed in his charge he found cardboard pictures. They were fourteen inches one way and ten the other. One of them represented Gordon's spirit bride dressed in diamonds and lacea. The picture, apparently well known as the Queen of Beauty, was produced in Court. Another picture was of a boy, and had "Willie" underneath. People at the seances thought it was their darling little baby. Gordon held the pictures in his left hand. " The fraud was so bunglingly done that I did not think he would have the audacity to produce it." When he taxed Gordon with the fraud, he answered that Sproul was not yet far enough advanced to understand the spirits. The picture of the Queen of Beauty, adorned with a diamond stud belonging .to Gordon, " was performed one night to convince a very special gentleman." li is not stated whether he was convinced. A witness on behalf of Gordon testified his belief that the spirits were real, and not an illusion produced by pictures or other fradulent contrivances. This witness describes himself as a candid seeker after knowledge. He wanted to know whether forms of the departed could be produced, and he is satisfied after attending several seances that they can. Before following this witness through his description of what he saw, or supposed himself to see, we will remark upon the exceedingly wide field of inquiry on which the police magistrate allowed himself to enter. The only direct evidence of theft was that of Mrs Fuller, who stated that she had a watch when Sproul visited her, and could not find it after his departure. The watch was not proved to have been found in his possession, or elsewhere, nor to have been in any way handled by him ; and in the absence of any evidence beyond that of Mrs Foller, it might have been expected that the case would havo been dismissed. But American courts of justice always seem to be conducted on the principle of getting as much talk as possible out of every case. An observer of their proceedings will easily understand how it comes to pass that even lawyers of reputation can see nothing unreasonable in the claim to indirect damages for the Alabama's cruise. In their own domestic litigation they never seem to know where to stop in admitting evidence or arguing thereupon. In this case Sproul appears, and alleges that the charge against him has been got up to prevent his exposing Gordon's fraud. He describes proceedings which, if they occurred, were necessarily fradulent. But, on the other hand, the prosecution produces- witnesses who state that they did see spirits, and not merely manipulate! piotures, at Gordon's aecwwe*,

and we are told that Gordon himsel would appear, and doubtless he would assert the reality of his own spiritual influences. It is unnecessary to observe that neither Gordon nor the inquirer whom he has converted can give any evidence : relevant to' the charge which the police magistrate /has to try. If .that officer considers himself called upon to decide whether the pretensions of spiritualists are true, we should think that he would find himself sitting upon the case even after the jury in the Tichborne case have been discharged. The sceptical gentleman of whose conversion the Queen of Beauty, according to Sproul's story, was adorned with diamond studs, would be a most important witness. For every sceptic on one side a believer might be produced on the other, and unless the spirits "would appear and testify to their own existence, it is difficult to understand how the case could ever end at all. The candid inquirer, denies that the effects which he saw could be produced as Sproul pretends they were. He asserts that machinery erected at the cost of 50,000 dollars, could not produce them. He admits, indeec, that "the spirits never showed their backs," which to an impartial reader of the evidence rather indicates that they had no backs to show. At the end of the seance Gordon would appear to be in a trance. Sproul pretended that this was a contrivance to avoid moving until the company had departed. But the candid inquirer was satisfied that it was a real trance. On one occasion a spirit-child was seen in Gordon's arms. "A bloody-looking bunch appeared on Gordon's arm when he came out of the trance." Some of the company who yet lingered in the room went forward to find out what it was, and found nothing. "They explained that it was a possible railroad accident somewhere, in which a child was being cut to pieces." The report of the case which we have before us is incomplete, and we cannot feel sure that the Judge may not have admitted evidence to show that there was a railroad accident in < which a child was cut to pieces at that 1 moment. It matters little what the decision in this case may be, because belivcrs in Spiritualism will continue to believe in it, whatever estimate the Judge may form of the character or conduct of Sproul or Gordon. The cross-examination of the former was directed to show that he was a man who would do anything to avoid the necessity of working for his living. Assume that he is not what the other side say he is, and you have thiß remarkable result, that Spiritualism is in " advance of orthodoxy," and that Gordon is the high priest of an improved religion, and Sproul is his assistant. The proverb nosoitur a soclis would appear to be applicable to the case.