Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 16, Number 10, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 29 August 1885 — Page 1

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Vol. 16.—No. io.

THE MAIL

A PAPER FOR THE PEOPLE.

NOTES AND COMMENT.

"Vacation day® are shipping -away. 'Make tbe most of tbem good yonng people.

Tbe shortening of the days makes us •aware that that we are booming along «c tbe down grade of 1885.

Every incoming train brings in tbe summer sojourner. (In macy, very many cases, be comes home to rest.

»Early and Duodon will probably have greater sympathy than ever befoiefor Adam and Eve. They know how it is Uxget into trouble over tbat pesky fruit known as tbe apple.

Woung men who drew on their fall salary for tbe wherewith to have a midsummer racket are wondering if the renovator can make last winterVs suit of clothes look presentable.

Police Commissioner Coffin eouldn't be found this week to sit in judgment in -the Dundoa ease. They won't be able to find any of tbem after while if the*) are many more investigations.

That is an original but true to life idea of alf'rencb artist who pictures Satan as a young woman with a yellow wig,,pen-ciled-oyebrows auddress tied baok until her kneo jolntscan be seen to work as she-walks.

The programme of the Terre Haute Literary Club is published this week and ltds very interesting. It embraces a little'of every thing,under the sun and will botacbled by theliterary gentlemen without.regard to cocsequences.

A man in Cincinnati went crazy 4ecauce he thought bis wife did not respect him sufficiently. AIM! yet he was a drunkand, gambler and very abusive. If this thing continues we will have to have a law compelling women to respeet their husbands.

A lady to this city who recently took a little trip was telling an acquaintance how perfectly delighted her husband was to Bee 4ior when she returned. "O, yes," was the heartless reply, "but you should have«een how perfectly happy he looked aU time you were gone!"

One of th« patrolmen smoked three whole cigars during one night this week. According to the rules and regulations of our Metropolitan system, two cigars tis the limit of tihe number that a policejnau can smoke during one night, and Superintendent Lawlor wiLl prefer ^charges against bim.

The dark cloud which bas hovered octter the oity for the past few weeks will vanish In thin air after to-morrow, and the«olored camp meeting and conference wlU adjourn for a year. We will then begin to put on a good deal of brass and blowour horns till the wall* fall down, all oa Account of the band tournament.

Each morning sees a party of enthusiastic sportsmen start out hunting or fishing and each evening beholds ihem return tined, hungry, dirty aud with* out any ^spoils." The only bites they get are mosquito bites and thejonly thing they catch Is a oold but they are always unanimous in declaring that they had a good time, what ever that may imply.

Sergeant Dundon was investigated and reprimanded this week for using tbe patrol wagon to carry a basket of apples down to Captain Vandevor's house. Had he exercised a little shrewdness be would have been spared the reprimand, trilling as it was, and the public would have been none the wiser, He should also have taken a basket ef spdown to Superlnteodfat Lawlor *8 house.

Missouri editors find it necessary to use domestic occurrences as a basis of appeal to subscribers. One of them says:

When a mur baby comcs like my of sunshine to gladden the editor's household, it is a mute but eloquent appeal to the delinquent subscribers to gather immediately «t the printing office aud pay fmn away hack up to the prwt'Bt, and a whole year in advance AF

a congratulation to the Impcrtant event. The delinquent sobscriber who would not moved by snch an exhortation should be—well, we can't invent any punishment sufficiently severs.

It was stated abont a month ago that black goods had gone up—several million yards aU over the country as mourning emblems. It is now stated that they have come down and are being purchased by speculation. They will be renovated and put on sale as "large bankrupt stock," and with other advertising dodge*. If ye have need of a black dress prepare to buy it now. Tbe speculator ia alwaya watching the chance to make make an honest penny and "Caesar's body, dead and turned to clay, May Mop hole to keep the wind away."

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The birds are going southward t.nd the tourists are all coming borne. It is pleasant to fly away from home once in awhile but it is very nice to get back to tbe nest once more. There te no place I quite equal te home, and tfeese chilly evenings as we gather abont tbe fire on I the hearth we think nothing will ever tempt us to go away, but ere many months the restless spirit will again demand a change.

We stop a moment to make sure tbat this is tbe nineteenth century of Christian civilization as we read of the proceedings at the death of a rich man in Cleveland. He had been excommunicated by the Catholic Church, bis daughter refused to allow a Protestant minister to condnct the funeral services, tbe Catholic priest would not allow bis bedy to be interred in consecrated grourds, and be was finally buried in the Potter Field.

When Uncle Harry Ross came to this city he went up on top of the old court house, then unfinished, and counted all the houses in tbe village. There were were just forty—lqg cabins and all. Tbat was in 1824. Should he go apaow to tbe topmost wall, eighty feet anove ground, he would see spread out 'before his eyes the prettiest city in this western country, whose houses he would »ot be able to number. Wondrous have been the changes in tbese sixty odd years.

According to Superintendent Lawlor's new order, those workingmen who are too poor to pay their fines but have money enough to get drunk, are to be taken home instead of the station boose. The wives and children can now listen through tbe night for the musieof the patrol wagon as it comes dashing up to the door and unloads its drunken burden, And the poor workingman, having no fear of the stone pile, can get drunk every night wkth the comfortable consciousness that be will be taken home in a "carriage" and safely deposited in his own little bed.

Tbe teachers are paoparing to return home and resume business at tbe old stand. The school houses are being cleaned and put in order and the cellars filled with with coal. The small boy is laying in his winter stock of cussedness. A11 things point the opening of school. The Institute begins one week from Monday and attendance is made compulsory, the teachers receiving the same tbe same pay as for a week of regular school work. Some of them object and say they would rather teach, but then there is a slight suspicion that the average school teacher is a little hard to suit.

Some of our amateur novelists should write a romance upon tbe three bodies found at the gravel pit. They can put the poor unfortunates into their unhonored grave to the unearthly music of the Indian war whoop or they can bury them darkly at the dead of night and send the murderers roaming over the world forever haunted by their crime or they can describe the hasty burial of tbe victims of small pox which swept away a whole family leaving none to mourn. Tbe oldest inhabitant must be hunted up and what he cannot remember be will manufacture in such a way as to solve the mystery.

Physicians say tbat these sudden spells of ol waatber in the midst of summer are more conducive to sickness than either very hot or very cold weather. They cause a chill which is followed by a low fever. In many instances congestion carries the patient off almost with out warning. Sore throat, neuralgia, rheumatism and many of the ills that flesh is heir to make their appearance and remind us that we are mortal. Especially do the helpless babies suffer through the ignorance or carelessness of mothers. Many a death might be avoided by a few simple rules of health, warm clothing, keeping out of tbe night air and above all having afire in the family sitting room.

Some of our modern tortures have been wonderfully modified of late years, The dentist's den doee not scare us as it used to, but perhaps the greatest change bas been made at the photographer's. There the old method of torture was to fix your head in a vise patterned after the ancient thumb screw. This fixed you so that you couldn't help yourself and enabled yon to gaee at the camera with a sort of a cast iron stare. Yon were then requested to rivet your gase on that part of the wall that contained a card reading: "We do a cash business only," and the operator would place his open watch in the palm of his hand and say, "Assume a pleasing expression, please," as he whipped off the brass tap from tbe earner*. From then on came an eternity. Daring that eternity your nose itched, you fell a tickling behind the ear, your face twitched, you wanted to aneete, you were sure your atony glare was rapidly freezing on your face, and before tbe brass cap was replaced you had an uncontrollable desire to yell a wild Indian war whoop at tbe top of your voice. Now all that is changed.

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The operator-lets you sit in a chair and assume any expression that suits you. Tbe camera winks jovially and before can wink back the thing is done. In New York they are manufacturing a detective camera tbat will take a picture on the street with the quickness o€ a pistol phot. Indeed it goes off not unlike a pistol, only with less noise, and the picture of the suspected person is taken complete in every particular in tbe infinitesimal part of a second.

Judge Mack is reported as saying that the teachers dbould work all summer just as people na other professions do. This is all very well as far as the teachers are concerned for when their work stops their pay stops also and many of them would be glad'toearn the addition* al salary. But what would become of the children? They are filled so full during ten months in the year that if the crowdiag were kept up another two months some of tbem will surely burst. Indeed tbe thought of vacation is about all that keeps them up during the year. Judge Made must not inclu4e'tbe children among the criminal classes tbat come under his jwiedicti®* and give tbe severest penalty the law allows, but must remember that all work and no play would make Jack a very dull boy.

It was prophecied by the astrologers that the -seven years following 1880 would be marked with great casualties from fire, famine, flood, pestilence, shipwreck, etc., on account of the conjunction of certain planets. The prophesy seems in fair way io be fulfilled. Never before have there «eemed to be sueh "horrors piled on horror's head," as during the past few years. Ten thousand people lost their lives in China and crops of all kinds were ruined by the flood of a few weeks ago. This week the cyclone on the south Atlantic coast went beyond any of its predecessors. It was worse that Sherman's irarch through Georgia. As if to show its contempt for modern science the storm blew the signal service apparatus all to pieces. Why will not people learn that their only safety lies in moving to Indiana. Here we have neither flood, famine, fire, nor cyclone. In fact the State is so quiet that, according to statistics, a great many of our inhabitants commit suicide just for lack of excitement. The Lord tempers the wind to the guileless Hoosier.

An eastern religious journal, the Christian Union, has been invest!gating the reason why American artisans do not attend church, and from replies given by a large number of prominent olergymen, estimates that not more than five per cent, of this class in cities habitually attend services of any kind. All but two of the letters say tbat the attendance is diminishing, and all but one that the neglect is not from unbelief in Christianity. The cause of non-church attendance, aa given by these experts, may be summed as follows: The men have to work all the week, and they recreate on Sunday. They cannot dress as well as those with whom they must associate, and therefore stay away. They think secret societies are as good as the church. They are unable to pay for tbe privileges because of tbe high prices of things which they must have. Tbe large salaries of the ministers disgust some. Some feel that the minister is a hireling, and therefore seeks to upbuild his church as a doctor seeks to increase his practice, not from the love of souls, but to increase his salary. Tbe employery of labor are so bad in their treatment of their employes that the men do not want to go where they shall meet those in whose real Christianity they have so little faith. All the letters indicate tbat especially in the large places artisans feel that they are not welcome in churches frequented by the wealthier classes.

Professor Crudell, a noted Eastern scientist, lays claim to having discovered an antidote for malaria. He advises that a decoction of lemon be made as follows Cut up one lemon, peel and all, into thin slices, put it into three glassfuls of water and boil it down to one glassful. Stain the liquid through linen, squeezing thoroughly the remains of boiled lemon, and set it aside to cool. Drink tbe whole amount when fasting.

Says the watermelon editor of the Atlanta Constitution: "In a general way, a dark green melon is known to belong to the poorest 'variety. The striped (or rattlesnake) melon, and tbe pale green variety stand at'the bead of tbe list. It ought to be known, too, tbat a melon kept on ice more than five hours begins to deteriorate."

About tbe guiltiest looking people in this world area man accused of a crime of which he is innocent, and a newly married couple trying to pass themselves off for veterans.

ANew York landscape gardener says that pine and .cedar trees belong to tbe cemetery, and not toa private yard. He thinks they indicate horribly bad taste.

A stepladder of plush is the latest thing to pat in a parlor corner.

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TERRE HAUTE, IND.SATURDAY EVENING* AUGUST 29. 1885.

|^£os Gilbert 11|5 ifii

THE DUTY OF SCIENCE TO WARD SPIRITUALISM.

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps has in article in the North American Review for September, in which, under the title "The Great Psychieal Opportunity," she urges a scientific investigation of the alleged phenomena of spiritualism. Her remarks are called out just at this time in the hope that they may, in some measure at least, stimulate to the right kind of action scientific men who have undertaken to search out tbe mystery of spiritualism, especially those who are members of a certain society in London which was organized for tbe purpose of investigating these phenomena, some three years ago.

She first calls attention to the importance of the subject. 8he asserts that there are more than 2,000,000 in the United States who accept, more or less entirely, the belief that there is communication between tbe dead and the living. The number is said to be much larger in England. Besides these, the great soul of humanity in the aggregate longs to know tbe mystery of tbe hereafter. In a word, there is a great "Psychical Opportunity." The anxiety of the writer is tbat it be, embraced and made the most of.

She asks, first, tbat scientific men shall bring to this investigation a spirit of fairness, and her words on this point aro worthy her caustic pen: "We have passed the time when a man might assume tbe name of philosopher, who did not hesitate to say that he would rather be in the wrong with Plato than In the right with his opponents. What is it, indeed, to be candid, but to be willing to see a thing turn out either way? What is the scientific spirit, but the honest spirit What is the investigating power, but the judicial power? What is it to be wise, but to be just? hat is it, then, to be great, but to be ir He who would approach a subject like this of which we write, in the sacred name of science, needs to be manned for the results, be they what they may This matter is too large for any littleness of spirit to grasp. No prepossessions are going to get at it. It is not time yet for any 'working hypothesis It is too early to have any assurances that one thing can, or another cannot be. We shall never have the truth by inventing it, but by discovering it. We must be equal to the surprise of the truth. If she beat the breath out of our dearest convictions, we must be willing to beYy. them. If she strike tbe keystone^tf ovfr firmest convictions, we must be able to climb tbeir ruins. I say, without hesitation, that no investigator is qualified to pass judgment upon psychical phenomena, who is not equally ready to admit, if admit he must, in the end, that he is dealing with tbe physiological action of cells in the frontal lobes of tbe brain, or with tbe presence of a human soul disembodied by death. He must be hospitable to a hallucination, or to a spectre. He must be, if necessary, just to an apparition as well as generous to a molecule. He must use the eyes of biB soul as well as the lense of his microscope. He must not be frightened away from the discovery of some superb unknown law, because there is a vulgar din of 'Ghoscs!' about his ears. He had better find a ghost, if ghost there be, than to find nothing at all, for fear it it may not be 'scientific' to walk about after one is dead. That does not deserve the name of the scientific attitude which assumes that the supernatural is Impossible, any more than that which assumes that it is necessary."

Having Called for this spirit of fairness she insists that the theme ia worthy investigation, especially, as compared with other phenomena that men have spent a lifetime in searching out she says: "Men have dedicated their lives to tbe classification of an insect, or the cultivation of an accent. Why not study the power which makes one man able to make another say Peter Piper, across the width of tbe house, with the doors shut? The spirit which gave to the world her great scientific gospel devoured itself till it knew why the flesh of a creature, invisible without tbe microscope, was of tbe oolor of the leaf on which it lived and died. Why, then, should not a man keep tally of the relative number of times that a blindfold subject will select the right card from a pack? 'High authorities' have wearied themselves to account for the difference in the molars and pre-molars within the jaws of the dog and the Tasmanian wolf. May not a scientist eat mustard, to see if his mesmeric recipient will say tbat his month is burnt? Or even ask why a valuable piece of property stands un rented for a generation, because a dead woman is said to be he&rd sobbing in it? In biref, are not the methods which overcome tbe mysteries of matter entitled to tbe same exercise and to tbe same respect tbat they have bad, when they are applied to the mysteries of mind Here, we say, are tbe facta. Hundreds of people, whose word of honor ia as good intellectual coin as that of tbeareader of this page or the contributor to this Review, have testified to the conveyance of 5 »-, nvrer

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thought, without visible or audible or tangible media, from embodied mind to embodied mind to the tragic or the trivial incidents of mesmerism te the coincidence of dreams to tbe prophecy of mental convictions to the visual appearance of tbe distant living to the sight or sign of what is thought to be tbe more distant dead.

Thousands of sensible anu reliable men and women to-day believe these things on the strength of personal experience and, believing, accept them with fcuch explanation of their own as they may, in default of any from silent science. It would seem as if these circumstances were of as much importance to science as the transverse lamellae in the beak of a shoveler duck, or the climate of the lowlands under the equator during the severe part of the glacial period."

As to a method of working she cites the instance of Darwin, who experimented and reflected for nearly thirty years before he gave his opinions to the world, and "Asthe apostle of evolution collected, collated colligated his enorraons array of facts before theorizing, they who undertake this other task would collect, collate, and colligate the disarray of theirfacts before they theorize."

As to the fact that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy she says: "Say what we may (and we ought to say it) of the nonsonse, say what we may of the fraud, of the jugglery, the hysteria, the blasphemy mixed to a mush with the whole matter, the significant fact remains, that here is a huge class not of the lowest or most illiterate, while not yet, to any marked extent, of the wisest or highest, who believe themselves, in our highly-illuminated times, to have found some means of access to the consciousness of their dead. Here is the massive bulwark of the mysterybe it from within or from without were it from above or from below call it abase trick or a glorious possibility— where the Prince of the Power of the Air entrenches himself tbat he gives or assumes to give, or is believed to give to tbe starving human heart, bereaved of its bread of life, the crumbs from tbe table of Love and Death. Were it not as greaj) a deed, is it not as large a duty, to hunt down the facts behind this faith, to grip tbe truth from out this error, to have this law that ties between the body and the soul, as it were to discover the link between a monkey and a man

And growing with her theme s^| adds: "The world has played with the thing long enough. Otherwise sensible human beings have been the dupes or tbe cynics of tbe subject from age to age, and from civilization to civilization. It is time that the mystery which bas baffled twenty centuries found its master.- Other secretsof force have defied and been conquered Why not this? Other dangers have been dared, other obstacles pulverized, other ridicule or indifference waived, other patience and passion spent for other conflicts with the reluctance of nature to surrendor truth. Why not these, and for this? Here is one fact: the existence from all time of a huge sum of inexplicable phenomena. Here is another: the intelligent human will. At this epoch of our development there ought, if ever, to be an equation between the two." "View it through whatever glass we may, there is a chance here for a great discovery and for a great discoverer. The day bas gone when tbe stock arguments of incredulity are strong enough to grip tbe subject. To assume tbat a large mass of our respectable fellow-dt-izens are either fools or knaves no longer quite covers the case. The jugglery hypothesis, too often a sound and necessary one, is not elastic enough to stretch over the circuit as in a case of housepossession personally known to tbe writer of this paper, which was carried to tbe leading prestidigitator of the day for his professional opinion, with the inquiry: 'Is there anything in your business which would explain these occurrences?' 'No I'was the ringing answer, with a terrible thump of the conjurer's hand upon the table. *No! And by 1 wouldn't stay in such a bouse twenty-four hours 1 ...

She closes this remarkable paper as follows: "Tbe Darwin of tbe science of tbe soul is yet to be. He bas a large occasion. It will be found greater to explain tbe dissolution than tbe evolution of tbe race. It is more to teach ns where we go to than to tell us what we came from. From tbe'Descent* to tbe 'Destiny' of man is tbe natural step. The German physicist who gave his book tbe supreme title of 'The Discovery of tbe Soul' was wiser than he knew. Tbat was a piercing satire on the materialistic pbiJosrhv which suggested, rot long since, that rnntrners hereafter be given front seats at geological lectures, and the most deeply bereaved provided with chip-hammers to collect specimens. Older than tbe classic of St. Pierre, and young as the anguish of yesterday, is the moan: 'Siuco death is a good, and

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AMUSEMENT MA TTERS.

The benefit entertainment for the St. Anthony's hospital at the opera house, Tuesday evening, was a happy success, artistically and financially. Every seat was taken on the lower floor and the family circle was well filled. Ren Early set the stage his prettiest, the Ringgold played so well as to draw out applause, the Davis family and Charley Gould sang so well as to elicit encores, and the same compliment was paid Miss Emily Allen's masterly piano playing. A feature of the evening was the singing of Miss Louise Kussner, accompanied by the full Ringgold orchestra, Prof. Kilbourn wielding the baton. This was her first appearance betore a public audience and her solo from "Lucia" revealed the fact that we

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since Virginia is happy, I would die, too, and be united to Virginia,' "Science has given us a past. Too long has she left it to faith to give us a future. Human love cannot be counted out of the forces of nature and earthbound human knowledge turns to lift its lowered eyes toward the firmament of immortal life."

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sweet songstress who should be heard oftener.

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naivette. Miss Alice Fischer and Dr. W. H. Hall repeated the Helen and Modus scene, greatly improving upon tbeir first presentation, and the very interesting entertainment ended with the farco of "Dead Shot," in which Miss Miss Alice Fischer, her sister Miss Kate, Dr. Hall, Will Morgan, George Mahare and Ira Calder took part. It was played up to the full standard of professionals,

Bending

the audience home ia

the happiest humor. The drama of "Our Folks" was played at the Opera House Thursday evening, to a large audience, by a party of amateurs, under the direction of our talented and energetic Mrs. Aydelotte. With two exceptions, none of these young people had ever before appeared in a drama, and so are not proper subjects for criticism, though all did remarkably well, considering their opportunities. George Mahare made a bit in the droll character of Hiram Small, and Mrs. Phil Brown made a great Becond. Tbe juvenile characters were played cutely and creditably by Miss Corrinne Crulkshank and Master Aydelotte. The drama is being repeated this afternoon.

Next Saturday tbe regular amusement season will open with tbe appearance of McNish, Thompson ASlavin's new minstrel company, now playing to immense business in Cincinnati. They have a large organization, including many people formerly with Haverly, Thatcher, Primrose & West and Barlow & Wilson.

Manager Naylor is putting tbe bouse in apple-pie order, sparing no needed expense, for the opening of tbe season.

THE VAN AMB UROH SHO W. Hyatt Frost has visited us for over a third of a century, always connected with a wholesome, generous tent show. This year he manages Van Amburgb, Reicbe ft Bro's new railroad shows—circus, museum and menagerie. Reicbe «fe Bro., whose houses are in New York and Germany, have importod more wild beasts to England and America than all other houses combined. Tbeir animals have graced tbe zoological gardens of many of the principal cities of the world and have been tbe attraction in the menageries of Barnum, Forepaugb and other show proprietors, for years. And now that this firm is interested directly in exhibition, they have provided the show with some of tbe finest specimens of the zoological creation, including a descendant of tbe pre-historic monsters or mammoth, which is called "Quedah," and is said to be tbe rarest animal alive. Unlike the great roofed fields of Barnum, where distance lends indistinctness rather tban enchantment to the view, and in which a confusion of acts produces a confusion of ideas and non appreciation of either excellencies or shortcomings, the Tan Amburgb show returns to tbe good old form of the Roman Coliseum—tbat is, it has a single arena or ring, so that everything going on can be seen by every one preseat. As Mr. Frost was the first to advance the price of admission with tbe Increase of canvas and multiplying of rings, so be is also tbe pioneer in returning to tbe popular price of twenty-five cents and of weeding out superfluous performances of tbe confused order and bringing meritorious attractions within reach of the average eye without tbe aid of lorgnette or spy-glass.

Tbe street parade in­

cludes performers on horseback, cages, chariots, elephants, camels, zebras, bands of music, etc. Let's 11 go up and see tbe Frost-work.—Troy Sunday Budget.

Van Amburgb, Chas. Reicbe A Bro.'s Great Railroad Shows, so happily commended by tbe genial "Oscar" of tbe Budget, will exhibit in this city Tuesday, Sept. 8th.

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MARRIAGE LICENSES. Tbe following marriage licenses havo oeen issued since our last report:

William H. Ad kins Mary K. Itoberaon. Robert G. Reynolds and Rachel E. Reynolds.

Levi B. Rnggle* and Mo!lie Prizzelle. Oasian Barxent and JeaMe Brown. (feorge Henchman and Jenetta Renebart. Hilas W. Moody and Ann CaMwelL Daniel Camp and Ella t). Scott. John Malvsnlll and Anna Coohn. Harry Uarrell and Lola Clark.

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