The Spirit LandEmmons, Samuel B. (Samuel Bulfinch)
Religion
The Spirit Land
Emmons, Samuel B. (Samuel Bulfinch)
Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Spiritualism
In the year 1804, an invisible lady and acoustic temple were exhibited
in Boston, as an "Extraordinary Aerial Phenomenon." Its body was made
of glass It gave answers to questions asked by visitors. In London, a
few years ago, there was shown an apparatus consisting of a four-footed
stand, and several trumpet-mouthed tubes, from any one of which
spectators received ready answers to questions. The answers were said
to come from the "invisible girl;" but the true explanation of the
puzzle was, that a secret tube, in the legs of the apparatus,
communicated the sounds to a girl in a neighboring apartment. Probably
something similar was arranged in the glass body exhibited in Boston;
and if we mistake not, during the sojourn of Joice Heth, of more recent
notoriety, at the Albany Museum, a shrewd Albanian, after a minute and
diligent examination, made the wonderful discovery that the old lady,
or _nurse of Washington_, was composed of _India rubber_, and was made
to breathe, speak, cry, sing, &c., by the aid of _ventriloquism_!
In a case of spirit rappings, Professor Grimes discovered that the
party had contrived to have some levers concealed beneath the floor,
and by means of certain little pegs coming through where the rappers
sat, connecting with the levers, all nicely poised on a balance, they
placed their feet upon them, and produced the raps at pleasure. And in
the case of the Rochester rappers, when their ankles were firmly held
by the committee of investigation, it is said a servant girl rapped
with her knuckles under the floor. Mrs. Culver, who had been instructed
by the Fox family, and had practised with them a while, afterwards
renounced the craft, and exposed this among other deceptions to the
world. "The girl," she says, "was instructed to rap whenever she heard
their voices calling for spirits."
SORCERERS IN THE EAST.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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