ANOTHER ACCESSION TO SPIRITUALISM.
[The following article is taken from the Utica (N. Y.) Morning Herald of March 24, 1880. The great significance of spiritualism consists in its being a sign of the times, a fulfillment of those prophecies which speak of the great deception to be sprung upon the world in the last days. As to its character and tendency, spiritualism has already made a full enough revelation of itself. We look for some further physical manifestations before its wonderful career shall close, which seem in a fair way to be soon fulfilled, according to the following narrative. The editor of the Herald commiserates Mr. Hatch for believing what he reports to be true. We cannot look upon it in that light, but suppose Mr. H. to be deceived, not in regard to the reality of the appearances, but only in regard to their identity.] Spiritualism has a new and ardent supporter in a Mr. Hatch of Astoria, a wealthy gentleman, and till recently an unbeliever in spirit phenomena. He lost a daughter, three years ago, aged twenty years; and her visits in materialized form, at her parent's home and elsewhere, have converted the father. The mother was always inclined to spiritualism. Sorrow for the loved and lost daughter, Lizzie by name, led the father's thoughts to spiritualism, and with the mother he visited a Western medium. His first visit half converted him, and subsequent consultations completed the change. He now believes, and with the simplicity and enthusiasm peculiar to young converts, gives the world his testimony. There is nothing in the long recitation he makes more marvelous than has been recounted of the experience of Crookes, of Slade, the Fox sisters, the Davenports, and others. The deceptions of all these have been exposed and explained; but Mr. Hatch has seen with his own eyes, and believes he saw what he seemed to see. He is honest, undoubtedly, and as a “boom” for spiritualism his story is legitimate and will bear summarizing: When Lizzie first appeared to her parents in Terre Haute, the recognition was quick and complete, though she was more beautiful than in life. She was dressed in white, and had not neglected abundant lace trimmings, which she had always liked. She played on the piano, better than when in the flesh, and pieces unfamiliar to the parents. The new music, she said, was her latest composition in spirit land. She had named it “Peace,” by the way. At other times, at the old home in Astoria, Lizzie came frequently. Once she brought a little child, a golden-haired angel, but so thoroughly materialized that she cut a curl from its head and left it in her parents’ possession. “We have the curl now,” says Mr. Hatch. February 25 was Lizzie’s birthday, and she came to keep it with her father and mother. She was dressed in excellent style, including white kid slippers with pink rosettes, her favorites on earth. What was a little strange, perhaps, was that the white kid slippers “flashed, as she walked about the room, like stars.” From an etagere she took bouquets and passed them around, one to each of the eleven persons present. With a passion quite earthly, she spent some time before the long mirror, fixing her hair, adjusting a bit of lace here, smoothing a ruffle there, and finally she twined a vine of slimax about her head. She went with her parents to her old room and examined the trinkets left behind, told them she had her pet dog in spirit land, and was much interested in a dog-robe her mother was making. Returning to the parlor, they had music, and the evening passed pleasantly, till Lizzie was obliged to take her departure, owing to the exhaustion of the medium, who was consumptive. But these reunions with his daughter are not all the confirmation Mr. Hatch has received of the genuineness of spiritual phenomena. Mary, Queen of Scots, has visited him, “wearing a diadem and in full glory.” Also Confucius; and concerning the personal appearance of this distinguished and long-ago “heathen Chinese,” he gives this interesting detail: “He was very tall—over six feet high—and had a white beard, cut short.” No one present was able to identify Confucius, and he had some trouble in making himself known. He expressed his impatience by going behind the screen and kicking the door, “to express his disgust and chagrin.” When at last “Mr. Kiddle mentioned his name, he stepped up and shook him vigorously by the hand.” It may be worth mentioning that when somebody guessed his name was Swedenborg, he wrote with much impatience, on a sheet of paper which Mr. Hatch preserves, “No, no!” Many other distinguished visitors have come to the Astorian circle—among them St. Cecilia, Mrs. Pericles, otherwise Aspasia, and the Virgin Mary. Her attire, taken in comparison with Lizzie’s, showed that fashion is capricious in spirit land as well as with the daughters of earth. As she appeared in Astoria, the early part of the present month, “she was magnificently arrayed in a snow-white robe, around the lower part of the skirt of which were seven bright red stripes some two or three inches in width, which she said did not represent her sphere in the spirit world, but were badges of learning. She had on also a white scarf, on the lower part of the left side of which were four red stripes. She wore on her frontlet a double row of large pearls, which she permitted us to handle and examine very closely.” All of this Mr. Hatch tells with much earnestness.