The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism

quet-Hair of the Emperor Napoleon I.-Hair of John C. Calhoun-Investigation at Res

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at Barnum's Hotel, corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane. (This prop

low the directions of the Spirits, and trust in Providence for protection and success. He announced our arrival in the Tribune, and published our rules of order. The editors of the Tribune and many other papers were in our rooms daily. Mr. Ripley used to say to us: "Ladies, you a

one of our attendant gentlemen. Private sittings were often extorted from us by importunity, which would begin at the earliest hours before breakfast. With what degree of exhaustion of muscles, nerves, mind and spirit, we would reach our beds (in our rooms on the floor above), where sleep was often slow to come to our over-strained systems, may be imagined by my readers. The mere pressure upon us of the three successive crowds would, alone, have been a strain hard to bear; but every individual had his or her colloquies to be held with their respective Spirit friends. The burthen of it fell upon us all, but most heavily upon our dear mother, who took it so

lick Wig, the Old Oriental, the Hippopotamus, etc., etc. By the way, the Count was also an elderly gentleman with white hair and angelic eyes, a foreigner, who at parting made me a present of a set of old china of extreme rarity, for which I have since refused a dealer's offer o

rary, as well as social distinction, which took place at the residence of the Rev. Rufus W. Griswold, for some account of which, and

f which nearly cost me my life. I was thought to be at death's door; and a week had passed before I fully recovered from th

t even now, in the open air, pass near to certain growing plants,

s," many a meeting of whom the Empire Club had broken up after the most summary of fashions, namely, through windows as well as doors. One day three men, one of them of Herculean proportions, with his shirt-collar wide open, sailor fashion, on a brown sunburnt neck, entered our parlor, after payment of their regular fee outside, and took their seats together; the Hercules next to me. His appearance was every way formidable. A certain slight commotion was manifest in the company on their entrance. I soon received from three different friends in the room (Mr. Greeley, George Ripley, and another) little billets warning me against "the most dangerous man in New York"-whose appearance "portended evil," and telling me to be "extremely careful" of all I should say and do, etc. One lady bent over me from behind, handed me a bit of paper which spoke of "black danger clouds," and a row as being imminent from "those men," and then made her escape into one of the more remote parlors of the hotel. But they sat quietly as o

ss and Julia Griffith, and their sets of Abolitionists." I told him he had been very wrong in doing so, and that those ladies were strangers here, as he and his friends were. "What, are you the Rochester knockers?" "Yes." "Why, I thought you were older. Ain't you afraid of me? What, these children!" "No, I am not a bit afraid of you," I repeated, though in my secret heart I was dreadfully afraid of the other man. "

handed the letter over to mother, saying, "Here is a letter from our dear friend Maria Rogers." Said my big neighbor, "Why, where did you ever know Maria Rogers?" "In Albany, at the Delavan House, where her husband had some business position. She is one of the sweetest women I ever knew, and I love her dearly. She was also very beautiful." "She is all that you say," was his reply, "and she is my own darling sister." The letter proved to be an invitation to spend Sunday with her at the Oceanic House. I had no further fear of her big brother, who, together with Captain Rynders, would certainly have pitched all the rest of the company out of the window in our defence, had it been necessary. Such was the conversion of o

s of the alphabet; while each in succession had the opportunity of communicating with his own friends in the spirit life. Nor do I believe that a single person passed through the experience of

objects in the air, including our own persons, etc., yet nothing of this kind occurred at these meetings, beyond the phenomenon of the sitters being touched,

the eager attention of all the company. I trembled with doubt and fear of a failure. The old gentleman opened the paper and held up a small piece of hair, and, with tears in his eyes and quivering lips, said-either he had been one of those who accompanied Napoleon on his voyage to St. Helena, or that he was a friend of the physician who had accompanied him. After this lapse of time I am not certain which, but something was said about the physician. He told how on an occasion of his hair being cut by the barber, the fallen pieces had been religiously gathered up, and this was one of them. Turning t

identified by those who had worn them in life, but though there are many whose hai

eman was at the table, and, having heard of the above incident respecting the great Emperor, produced and laid down his pocket-book

York expressly to propose it to us, telling us that the high position of his brother, Rufus W., would enable him to unite for that purpose the best elements which the great metropolis could afford. We were only too glad to comply with so kind and friendly a suggestion. In the wilderness of my papers I do not find the full records of that interesting occasion, of which no full formal report was ever issued; but I well remember that it was highly satisfactory to ourselves and our friends. Al

Dr. Hawks, Dr. Francis, Mr. Wm. Cullen Bryant, Mr. N. P. Willis, Dr. Marcy, and other literary celebrities, at the rooms of the Rev. Doctor Griswold. The responses given

, if really supernatural, would upset, among other things, the Christian Religion,[8] and

he files of that paper for 1850. I content myself, for brevity's sake, with the following extra

nent men of the city to give the subject a fair investigation. The result was, as elsewhere, the mak

re J. Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, Mr. George Bancroft, the historian, Rev. Dr. Hawks, Dr. J. W. Francis, Dr. Marcy, Mr. N. P. Willis, Mr. Wm. Cullen Bryant, the poet, and Mr. Bigelow, of the Evening Post, Mr. Richard B. Kimball, Mr. H. Tuckerman, and Gen. Lyman. These gentlemen were well known throughout the country, and the report was well calculated to carry muc

alian?' 'A Presbyterian?' 'A Unitarian?'-going over the names of the principal sects. No answer. At the suggestion of a gentleman, Mr. T. asked 'Was he a Christian?' Knocks. Mr. T. then asked the age of the person in a series of tens. 'Was he twenty years old at the time of his death?' 'Was he thi

llery Channing, the eminent and liberal Unitarian divine. He l

en several of the company exclaimed, spontaneously, 'Robert Burns.' This was the true answer; and a

?' No answer. 'A sister?' 'Yes.' Mr. C. then asked the number of years since her death. Fifty knocks were given, and the number unanimously so announced by the company. Mr. C. now asked, 'Did she die of consumption?' and nam

y that just fifty years ago that present month he had a sister thrown fro

great intelligence, drew up the report of the whole proceedings, of

ration on the panels which was felt by every one who touched them. Different gentlemen stood on the outside and inside of the door at the same time, when loud knockings were heard on the side opposite to where they stood. The ladies were at such a distance from the door, in both cases, as to render no countenance to the idea that the sounds were produced

lieve we have stated them without any coloring whatever, as they appeared to every one present; bu

know, since they were in the form of raps. Old Dr. Francis, who had sat with his chin resting on his big cane, and his eyes intently fixed on Mr. Cooper, as had been the eyes of all the company, began knocking impatiently on the floor, which example was followed by o

ephew, with a note from the great novelist, one of the last things written by his prolific pen, and a message from him on his death-bed,

ternal hell-fire, of total depravity, of vicarious atonement, of anything but One Supreme Spirit or God, and of the literal plenary inspiration of the Bible; but a vast body of the most enlightened Spiritualists (I believe