Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1876 — A Bogus Medium. [ARTICLE]

A Bogus Medium.

A trustworthy correspondent sends us the following from Webster, Mass. Mrs. Huntoon, the person caught personating a spirit, is a sister of William Eddy, the famous “ materialising” meedium, formerly of Chittenden, Vt., but now of Angora, N. J., where he is practicing his Sroreesion with eminent success. Having issolved partnership with his interesting brother Horatio, the latter, in conjunction with Mrs. Huntoon, has been carrying on business at the “old stand,” maxing occasional sorties into the country round about, and turning up at last in Webster, Mass., where Mrs. Huntoon has come to grief in the manner described by our correspondent below. It may be remembered that a representative of the Herald, something over a year ago, investigated the pretensions of Mrs. Huntoon, and came to the conclusion that she was a very insignificant trijkster. Since then, however, people of supposed intelligence, who have visited her at Chittenden, came to an opposite conclusion. Even a wellknown gentleman of Boston, a member of the Suffolk bar, states without reservation that he saw in her presence and clearly recognized the phantom forms of two of his children in the other life. The statement of our correspondent is as follows: The exposure of mediums is becoming so frequent of late that the question—- “ Who will be the next?” is scarcely asked before it is followed by the report that another has fallen. This time it is Mrs. Huntoon, of “ Eddy family" fame. For some days past Mrs. Huntoon has been delighting the faithful in Worcester and vicinity by those manifestations so often described as beyond the possibility of human production. Could it be feared that the spirits would fail her here in the anally aristocratic town of Webster? as for human expectations, when dependent upon thq invisibles I She was invited to this town, and gave her first seance here on Tuesday evening People saw, or believed thev saw, the spirit hands and faces of their departed friends, and were assured of the presence of their loved ones. There were, however, some who believed they took the medium's hand instead of that of a departed relative, as was claimed. Without giving expression to this belief, however, the medium and the assistants were invited to the house of Mr. and Mrs. John Flint, persons well known in this town and vicinity through their Intimate business relations with all classes of people during the past fifteen years. She consented to go there last evening, and “the circle” was arranged accordingly. Among the prominent persons present were Courtland Wood, lawyer; Clinton W. Davis, John Heatherington, Dr. E. G. Burnett, Mr. and Mrs. - Hines, Mr. and Mrs. Butler Bates, Isaac Regan, Mrs. John Haven, Mrs. Susan Wood, Delia A. Wood, George O. Davis, Sanford Fisk, and others. At about 7:30 o’clock the circle was arranged, the lights were turned low, and the invisible soon manifested their presence, at first faintly and with interruption, “but as “conditions" improved by some rearrangement of the parties present, there was a marked change In the degree of their power and daring. At length the curtain was thrown out at one side, and some of us could see a low, bending figure, with apparently a nightcapped head, seeking recognition. It was, however, shy of the light, which it was found necessary to diminish considerably. Hands were now presented at the orifice in the curtain, faces appeared behind it, and at length an old lady, professing to be the mother of Mrs. Flint, desired recognition. Mrs. Flint approached the curtain, when the delicate, fluttering hand of the spirit could be seen in eager effort tograsp her daughter's hand, which, of course, continued by its earthly magnetism to repel the etherial form, causing it to dance before her, but to elude the grasp it professed to seek. With the

question, “Is this my dear mother?” to which was replied in a hoarse and broken whisper, “Yes, I am your mother!” Mrs. F. succeeded in arresting the attention of the supposed spirit, and at the instant seized and held the proffered hand. Instantly, Lawyer Wood turned on the gas, which had been left burning for that purpose, revealing to the audience Mrs. Huntoon secure in the hands of her captors, but endeavoring to sink upon the floor. Both Mr. Davis and Mr. Flint rushed to the rescue. Mr. Flint raised her, and succeeded in setting her on her feet, but while he was still endeavoring to support her. and in the face of the entire audience, in the full light of the gas, she threw herself from his support, with the exclamation: ‘‘There, you’ve broken both of my arms!” and fell nearly prostrate upon the floor. No sooner was she again raised than she’ declared that Mrs. Flint had nevertouched her hand until she broke into the cabinet and dragged her from her seat. Did she know, or did she not know, that every movement had been distinctly visible to that audience from the moment the light was turned on, while the same form in the hands of Mrs. Flint had been visible from the instant she was seized ? Such, however, was the fact. With the same reckless aisrega'd for the truth and of the actual knowledge of the twenty to twenty-five witnesses of the occurrence, she declared that Mrs. Flint had thrown her on the floor, when she fell or threw herself from Mr. Flint’s arms. A more stupid attempt at fraud cannot well be imagined.— Boston Herald.