The Spiritualist newspaper > No.142, May 14th 1875

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THE SPIRITUALIST.
May 14, 1875.
asked them to do, but they invariably refused. For
several weeks we went to their seances to take what we
could get, since they shunned simple test conditions,
and during that fortnight dim faces came to the orifice of
the cabinet in a subdued light; these faces usually
were not recognised, although sometimes a spectator,
generally a lady, would gaze at one of them in a doubt¬
ful kind of way, and then say, hesitatingly—“ Are you
my grandmother ?” The head would nod gravely three
times, and some enthusiastic reporter present would
draw up an account of a marvellous recognition of a
departed friend, which read, beautifully in print,
although the facts appeared to be dubious to the un¬
biassed spectators present at the time. We watched
patiently for some wdeks for one face which everybody
could see in a clear light, and which some reliable
person then recognised as a relative, but no such case
occurred, consequently it was not found possible to
give one case authenticated by this journal, notwith¬
standing so much observation and expenditure of time.
All that could be done was to print one or two accounts
furnished to us by reliable people, who were present
when the conditions were more favourable. That it is
necessary to be thus cautious in recognising the
genuineness of new manifestations has since been
proved.
Another public circle for recognisable faces sat a few
times, shortly afterwards. On one occasion two ex¬
citable ladies witnessed the manifestations, and as fast
as the face of a spirit, or anything white appeared at
the aperture, one of the ladies recognised it as her
uncle, or her brother, or her aunt, or her first cousin;
the other lady wanted to recognise these faces too, but
the first lady was too quick for her, and always claimed
them before the other could get in a word, which was
very hard upon the second one who was not so sharp.
The Eddy Brothers in America are reported in
American spiritual newspapers to have obtained mani¬
festations in which a vast number of recognisable
spirits have been identified; but on critically reading
through a great number of the reports of their
seances published in the Banner of Light and the lieligio-
Philosophical Journal, we discovered and published in
these pages that the observers almost invariably kept
silence as to the amount of light, and that where they
did not so keep silence, as in the case of the report of
Dr. Ditson, they admitted that the light was so bad that
they could not see the features of the alleged spirits.^Thus
the evidence as to recognisable features in the case of
the manifestations of the Eddy Brothers depended
chiefly upon the testimony of an old Mrs. Cleveland
and a Mr. Pritchard; no doubt both very estimable
persons. They asserted that they recognised the spirits,
and they told the other persons sitting at a distance in
the darkness, what they had seen.
Mr. Robert Cooper has been to see the Eddy Brothers,
and he is known in this country as one who would be
likely to give a common-sense description of what he
saw. His experiences have been published in the
Religio-PJiilosophical Journal of May 1st, and for the
most part they agree with the accounts which have been
written by those who have been at the Eddy’s before
him. He says: “ The great dra wback to the materiali¬
sation seance is that the figures do not appear generally
in a sufficiently strong light to be satisfactorily visible.”
He says that on March 17th, “ The most interesting
event of the evening to myself, was the appearance of a
figure dressed in white who purported to be my wife;
the light was not strong enough for me to identify the
features ; all I could see was that the size of the figure
corresponded with that of my wife, and that the hair
was done in the same style, hanging down each side of
the face.”
In another part of his article, he says of the Eddy
manifestations, that “ They do away with the duplicate
theory, for in no case is there the slightest resemblance
between the spirit and the medium, either in form or
voice.”
But^ considering that it is known that portions of
bodies of mediums can sometimes be elongated and con¬
tracted, the body of Mr. Home, for instance, having
several times been elongated in the presence of wit¬
nesses ; and considering that it is an established fact
that the spirits which appear in London through well-
tested mediums, who get voice-circle manifestations,
are the duplicates in appearance of those mediums, not
only is there no duplication “ theory” in the case, so far
as London is concerned, but Mr. Cooper has not proved
that a different kind of manifestation was witnessed by
him at Chittenden, for he did not see the faces of the
spirits, and difference in size amounts to nothing. He
may ask whether it is conceivable that the spirits should
deceive by asserting themselves to be persons they are
not. All we can say is that not one of the John’s, and
Katie’s, and Florence’s, and Peter’s in London, has
proved his or her identity, and that in most cases the
stories they have told about themselves at different
times, have flatly contradicted each other.
THE LATE MRS. MARSHALL.
To the Editor of “ The Spiritualists
Sik,—As a kind of obituary notice of the late Mrs. Mar¬
shall, perhaps you may like to give , space to the following,
which is taken from the romance entitled The Coming Man,
by the late James Smith, author of The Divine Drama of
History and Civilisation, and for many years editor of the
Farfiily Herald. It is generally taken for granted that by
“ Mrs. Ferrier ” is meant Mrs. Marshall.
Red Hill. Yours faithfully, Keningale Cook. ]
A SOUTHCOTTIAN PROPHETESS.
Eva went first and opened a door on the first landing, and
called out, “Mrs Ferrier, where are you?” Betty followed,
and Edward brought up the rear, and all three soon found
themselves together in a meanly furnished apartment with
two windows, a piece of carpet on the middle of the floor, two
tables, and several chairs pretty well covered with dust, and a
number of old musical instruments, fiddles, flutes, clarionets,
guitars hanging on the wall, with a very old harp standing
near one of the windows, the strings nearly all broken and the
gilding almost all washed off, or so covered with dust that it
could not be seen. On the mantelpiece, which was of marble,
and of considerable value, stood an iron cast in bas-relief of
the woman of Samaria speaking to Christ at the well.
“ Mrs. Ferrier! ” said Eva, looking into an inner door,
which seemed to lead to the kitchen. And in a short time
Mrs. Ferrier appeared. She was a very stout woman, about
forty years of age, with dark hair and dark eyes,—eyes that
projected greatly, and seemed to be swaddled in fat. Her
manner was kind and affectionate, open, frank, and indepen¬
dent, and she spoke to Eva as a familiar friend. Betty she
treated with equal respect, shaking hands with her, and
inquiring kindly after her health. She requested them all to
sit down, and made an apology for the state of the apartment,
saying that she had no servant, and was herself unable to
work much.
“Besides,” she said, “the Word forbids me. Does this
gentleman know the Word ?”
“ No,” said Eva, “he knows nothing. We met him at the
door and brought him up; but he is a friend of ours, and you
may say what you please before him. I have no secrets.”