The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism — John Shaqi
The Missing Link in Modern SpiritualismUnderhill, A. Leah (Ann Leah)
Religion
The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism
Underhill, A. Leah (Ann Leah)
Fox family; Spiritualism
After this things changed somewhat. We heard the sounds at all times of
day and night, variously located in different parts of the house, but in
a much milder form; unless some of us attempted to go contrary to their
wishes. Often at meal-time the table would be gradually agitated, and
Calvin in particular would be more disturbed than the rest of us. Once
he arose from his chair and reached across the table for a heavy pitcher
of water, when the chair was instantly removed and he sat down on the
floor, spilling the water all over himself. He instantly arose and with
an execration denounced the whole thing as the work of the devil and his
imps. Of course we laughed at his calamity, and he thought we should not
encourage such things by laughing at them. He often laughed about it,
years afterward, as heartily as we had done.
[Illustration: A, Handrail to landing from second floor. B, Bed occupied
by Calvin. C, Our mattresses laid together on the floor. D, E, Beds. F,
A store-room. The dotted lines, with arrows, show the route taken by the
vegetables from the store-room or kitchen floor to their destination two
stories above.]
We had stored our winter provisions in the cellar. Among them were
several barrels of apples, potatoes, turnips, etc. From this cellar came
the apples, potatoes, and turnips flying across our room, hitting all
in precisely the same place every time. It will now be remembered that
these articles were in the cellar on the ground floor, and had to come
from the rear of the cellar, through the door, into the kitchen, through
the kitchen, up the stairs, into the pantry on the second floor, through
the pantry into the dining-room, up the second flight of stairs, into
the large room in which we slept, hitting us as we lay in our beds near
the front window. The reader can trace their pathway from departure to
arrival at their destination on the diagram of the three stories.
A cabinet shop was the next thing represented by the Spirits. They
seemed to be possessed of all kinds of tools to work with. After sawing
off boards they would let them fall heavily on the floor, jarring
everything around them. Then after planing, jointing, driving nails, and
screwing down the lid of a coffin, they would shove the hollow sounding
article about the room. (This we understood at a later day.) Often, to
our utter amazement, pickets from the discarded lots in the cemetery
came flying through the room over our heads, on our beds, like débris in
a tornado. They came from the extreme west side of the burying-ground,
through _that_ lot, and the distance of two hundred feet through _our_
lot; an entire distance of about four hundred feet. That they came by no
visible means, we knew; as no human power could have thrown them through
the air into our chamber window, hitting us on our beds, in the same
place every time.
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