Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1877 — SPIRITUALISM. [ARTICLE]

SPIRITUALISM.

Its Birth, Development and Decay—The Table-Tippings, Spirit-Rappings, Writing Mediums, Cabinet Materializations, Etc. [From the Milwaukee Sentinel.] The death of Robert Dale Owen recalls public attention to a subject now apparently fast dying out of the public mind. We allude to what is known as Spiritualism. Within the past year it has almost been lost sight of entirely, a fact which is gratifying to most sensible people. Its history is peculiar and interesting, and the story of its birth, development and decay contains much food for thought. A belief in spiritual intervention in human affairs has always obtained among all races, and, so far as may be now seen, always will. But the peculiar form of it known of late years had its origin in the table-tippings and spirit-rappings of twenty-five years ago. In the beginning the new doctrine raged chiefly among the very ignorant, or half-educated classes of America and Europe. In a little while everyone was table-tipping, and the spirits had no rest. But this was unsatisfactory to all but the blindest believers ; it was too easy. Open frauds were practiced and exposures were frequent. Spirit-rapping became unfashionable, ami, of course, sank into oblivion. A lull was followed by a fresh outbreak, aud the trance medium came to the surface. Marvelous were their manglings of the language they used in uttering communications from the other world. These usually spoke under the influence of some particular spirit, Indian chieftains and American statesmen preferred. A fact that tended to bring the speaking mediums into disrepute was that the grammar of great spirits was so bad. The craftier interpreters stuck to Indian chiefs, for their language, as everyone knows, was always monosyllabic, and their nouns and verbs were not expected to agree. The writing mediums followed, but their reign was brief. Many of the most promising apostles were barred because they couldn’t write, and among those who could there was wont to be a painful likeness between the orthographical idiosyncracies of the spirit and the medium. While this didn’t shake the faith of the more ardent believers, it had a tendency to cast obloquy upon the movement, and prevented proselytes. Within ten years a wonderful improvement in the machinery of spiritual communication has taken place. The cabinet was introduced, and from it came the most wonderful proofs of the truth of the new doctrine, and also the seeds of its downfall. Wo all remstpiber the furore that was created by the first “ materializations” reported. It seemed impossible that Such wonderful things as hands and faces could be exhibited at a small and somber opening in a cabinet at the farther end of a very dimly lighted room, when it was known that the only person inside the cabinet was more or less securely tied to a chair. Then bells were rung and musical instruments sounded by the same mysterious agency. Could anything more be wished? The only other requisite, of course, was credulity, and this was usually plenty enough. There were skeptical persons who wished to investigate, but they were usually warned off ou the ground that the spirits would not bear watching, and that faith was necessary to their encouragement. But the scientific unbelievers forced their way into the dark circle ; they invaded the sacred cabinet; they lifted the veil of darkness, and with the aid of printer’s ink, lampblack and sudden lights they showed what a fraud the materializing medium' was. It is a perfectly safe assertion that not a single one of these charlatans who achieved notoriety escaped exposure. The most advanced of all, the famous Katie Kiug, was most fully shown to be a fraud. With her downfall the whole fabric of Spiritualism in America collapsed as far as the general public is concerned. There are still in every community little knots of people who adhere to the belief iu mediums, but they are rapidly growing fewer. Robert Dale Owen was one of the men of education and position who was carried away by this form of delusion and did much to spread it. In common with many others, lie was taken in by Katie King, but lie had the manliness as soon as he found that lie had been deceived to acknowledge it publicly. Viewed simply as a wide-spread, popular delusion, the subject possesses much interest, and is a fruitful subject of thought for the student of sociology. Its decadence can only be regarded as a benefit, for it unquestionably had a bad effect on weak minds, and its free-love phase had a bad effect on society.