Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

6 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

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.-PEMBROKESHIRE AND HAVERFORDWEST…

SPIRIT RAPPING.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

SPIRIT RAPPING. The following appeared in the Tmes of Monday :— SIR,-On the Tunes of March 22, 1862, you published a letter about 4 spirit rapping.' Thme who cltre can refer to the tetter, but as the judgment in lyonn Home now accords with former eKprriences of spiritual con- juring, it may not be unfair to remind your readers of the lormer communication. A party* of people devoid of any spccial scientific or other knowledge, but with cool wit and sound senses. detected a medium who was then famous in London, and who very lately was still trading successfully on well- known sonorous English names in America. It would be a shame to spoil his little game by naming him. This mRn rapped by pressing the back of the nail of his middle finger against an edge cut on the side of a pencil, the point of which he pressed upon an uncovered mahogany table, by resting his thumb heavily upon the butt end. When the bent nail slipped past the edge it made a ticking sound, which wat increased and spread by the bare table as by a sounding board, lie leant his head thoughtful,), upon his left hand, and with his left arm he masked his right hand, which WHS clostd about the pencil; butoneoftheau lier.ee who had sharp eyes saw muscular contraction* it; part of the wtizt which happened to be exposed; and so the trick was found out. As the medium made the niKe which he asserted to be inixde by spirits, he was a humbug: and the rest of his performance was only tolerable conjuring. Any printer ustd to read letters upside down could h-ave read the names of the deceased, which were written on slips of paper orenly upon the tatilp. Any thimblerigger might have I paimed a (inzan of the p$per>pi!ls which the me- dium made by roil ng up the ¡.ips which were laid in a piate before him, and whi-eh Were oiigiuahy cut out according to his pattern. Piiprr pellets of like pattera were seen in his loose sleeve; he pul'cd crumpled slips under the table, and read them witn the coolest t ffrontery ascommunicatinns written by the spirits who were .under the table in shoals. Tney li'ted it—with the medium's l?(t knee. One of the party who had good ''ars heard a distant whisper, which thi medium, wbo was nearer, proclaimed shortly afterwards as the name of a spirit, who then wrote the naire of the country where he died. He wrote with the inspired medium's band and pencil openly on the tab'.e. without any attempt at conjuring; and the thing was c'utie W th an amount of impudence that savoured of repeated success. According to at, h mangy family lapdog o ight to have been tnt iticii hy the proximity of all these gloats, but he quietly scratched bis ears nnder the table while the ghosts were writing, and he beat such a rat- tat-too on the njor with his tail and hind legs that the medium expelled him in a rag, FroIO the moment he emerell the room the man's whole demeanour was that of a cheat, eajzerly watching for hints in faces, dresses, pictures, photograph", books, and everything near him. Where lie saw t-trengih he recoiled; where he detected a weak nerve there he pounced and clung 8.1111 worried like a wease I on the hack of a hare. That man wM!tgt()M humbug; because he was cruel to a nervous girl, that which you printed was written, and shortly afterward? he skedaddled. The judgment In Lyo-i v Home, which you print this morning, does not directly touch the question of spiritual manifestations; it only decides as to the validity of-cer- tain illegal gifts, acts, and deeds. But we now learn on authority that certain comm inications which seemed to have been worth about £ d'),000 before this judgment, and which are not now worth one rap, were made by raps' of the old kind, which were only heard in the presence of the medium who never took money and who is a gentleman. I have not the hnnour of his acquaintance. Perhaps it is because I am still May 23. Ax E?.lB'>IHiiD SriiiiT.

Haverfordwest POSTAL regulations

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