"An incredulous stare full in the face, the cheeks filled with wind, and a sudden bursting into a wild ironical laugh would follow, and the friend would turn away with, 'Well, Stimson, I am used up; if you are so easily humbugged as that I have nothing more to say.' "This manifestation of utter disbelief in the whole thing, we must acknowledge, nettled us a little, and we concluded to 'shut up,' and deny that we believed in anything. We began to doubt that we had been to Rochester at all, and as for seeing the girls or hearing the knockings, we were ready to swear as bravely and boldly as Peter (and with the same truth) that we knew nothing about them. "Well, time passed on, the papers had their fun, and the girls are here. What say _The Journal of Commerce_ and _The Express_ now? Do they call it all humbug? O no! some of our great men have been to see and hear for themselves, and instead of calling it humbug swallow it without gulping. Of course _The Journal of Commerce_ can't go against the great men, and _The Express_, never having had an opinion of its own, follows on the back track as tamely as an ass colt." LETTER FROM DR. C. D. GRISWOLD, M.D. _The Rappings in New York._ "_To the Editor of the Evening Mirror_: Now that a considerable number of 'the wise men of the East,' even of Gotham, have been permitted to hear the veritable 'rappings' which so confounded the 'foolish' and 'credulous' people of the 'West,' I do not see that they are any more successful in discovering the machinery, wire-work, or other means of collusion to which these phenomena have been attributed (by those who have never witnessed them), than were their western neighbors. All, or nearly all those who have investigated this matter with any honesty of purpose, have found it far exceeding their conceptions. There is often a truthfulness and exactness in these communications which are perfectly astounding, and when failures do occur they can readily be accounted for if it is admitted that they are addressed to an intelligence which reads the most secret thoughts. What is the nature of this intelligence which tells us our thoughts when sincere, and regards them not when called for with a trifling or dishonest purpose? Can it be the keen-sighted perception of the parties interested? Can it be explained by the principles of mesmerism, or is it supernatural? These are the questions to be answered. Those who cannot control their thoughts from the observations of others, may be satisfied with the first; those who do not take into consideration the physical demonstrations, may consider the second an explanation; but to explain all, it may be doubted, as some do, that the power exists in the supernatural world. This is anything but an age of reason. 'Opinion' has gained the ascendancy and sits upon 'reason's throne,' and with an assurance incompatible with everything but ignorance, despises 'facts' and evidence. Strange and