CONFESSIONS OF A SPIRITUALIST.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 89, 23 October 1869, Page 5

CONFESSIONS OF A SPIRITUALIST.

Some most amusing confessions of a spiritualist have been made public. A gentleman lately resident in London details how he cajoled some of his friends into believing him to be a medium. He got hi 3 reputation very cheaply indeed. He convinced the j inmates of his house that he was in communication with the spirit world by making hideous noises in his room at midnight ; and by turning a table with his foot, and attributing the j " manifestations " to unseen agency, he removed all doubt from the minds of the most incredulous. Ho soon became the talk of the neighbourhood, and by and by four friends of his — an artist, a surgeon, a member of the Civil Servii-e, and a candidate lor Holy Orders — sought to have a seance from him. He consented to give them one, and fixing the day, occupied the meantime in making alt kinds of inquiries. He obtained admittance to tae lodgings of one, discovered the baptismal register of another, unearthed the '" secrets " of the third, &c. He prepared a round table for the occasion, so that it easily produced raps, and bought a very small musical instrument. His friends, on the night when the manifestations were to be made, first treated the matter as a joke ; nor were they convinced when the table spun round, and a few (to them unmeaning) raps Avere heard ; but when the questions they put were answered, and those not answered skilfully parried, they began to wear grave faces, and to tuink there might ue something in the matter after all. Tae rest of the story is best told in tho words of the so-thought Spiritualist himself — " The answers were procured by my repeating the alphabet, and on the repetition of certain letters, I would press the table, which would return a knock, and the letters being put together would form the answer. ' Spirit,' I said, addressing the table, ' who and what are you ?' I put my foot under the table, lifted it off the ground suddenly, and brought it down with violence. My friends were alarmed. ' Oh,' I replied, ' they are angry with us because of asking that question. We must conciliate them.' ' Spirits,' I said, again addressing the table, 'are you angry?' The reply was given in music, as if a harp was being played. I had placed under my foot the musical instrument, and attached two strings to two keys ; by j pulling one music would be the result, by pulling the other the music ceased. After a minute's breathless pause, I secretly pulled the string, and the playing stopped. My companions were all now thoroughly convinced, and I thought the time had arrived when their excitement would allow me to make more dangerous experiments. I said, addressing the table, ' Spirits, if there are any unbelievers here, please convince them byfu.'ther manifestations.' The room iv which this occurred is small, and I had attached to several articles in the room fine threads of silk, so that by pulling these strings I could displace the things to which they were attached. The gas, which abutted from the wall, was turned on low that I might better carry on my deceptions, and by pulling a string which hung from the gas tap I could easily extinguish the light. In answer to the above request I pulled three striugs, and two articles tell off the mantelshelf, and a book moved on an adjoining table. I continued agitating the strings, and moved a picture on the wall. The surgeon ! arose from his seat to examine the ! picture more closely, when I pulled the striug attached to the gas pipe and extinguished the light. The scene of | confusion which followed it is impossible to describe. My companions all ran to the door, which I instantly locked. I then made the music-box play ; I sprinkled water over the frightened, screaming group ; I rubbed j phosphorus over my hands, and moved it about (n the dark ; I made the most hideous noises ; and finally, with, a walking-stick, thrashed them indiscriminately. Tlieir loud shrieks aroused some neighbours, and when I considered taat I had carried the joke far enough: I released them. After this I became famous as a Spiritualist, and each of my friends sent a long account of his experience to the Spiritualists' Society. One states ' that he believes in Spiritualism with the same faith that he has in his existence.' , The surgQon writes ' that the spirits, denning that he had offended them, gave him such a thrashing as to leave him still a sufferer,' and offers to show the wounds in evidence to any sceptical Didymus."

A capital story is related of a child admitted to tae cabinet de travail of the present Pope. In preparation for the CEcuinencial Council, bis Holiness ordered from his architect certain embellishments, the plan of which was brought for his inspection by that gentleman's little boy. Charmed by the plan, his holiness opened a drawer full of gold, and said to the child, " Take a handful of coin as a reward for the beauty of your father's work." "Holy Father," replied the child, "take it out for me — your hand is bigger than mine !" Piuo IX.. with the kindliness which is bis c-haraeterisLic, oouid not help smilimr. .md oboyG'l tho child. The boy ou^ht to be brought up to be a big Church dignitary.