Mrs. L. C. Moulton, London correspondent of the _Boston Herald_, sends
the following, published July 17:
"Like every body else, in London they are interested in
hypnotism, spiritualism, etc.--interested, I mean, as inquirers,
not as believers, and I saw a table move round briskly under the
pretty fingers of Mrs. Hunt and a young lady cousin of hers.
"The latest feminine sensation is Miss Ramsey, the Girton girl
of twenty, who beat all the men at Cambridge this year in Greek;
and what makes her success still more triumphant, is that the
pretty little creature had only learned her Greek alphabet four
years ago, while the men had all been pegging away at the
language for ten years.
"Prof. Stainton-Moses of University College, London, is
certainly a trained scientist, and a man accustomed to weigh
evidence, and tells me that with him spiritualism is not a
matter of mere belief, but of actual, personal knowledge. A
great deal of spiritual writing has been done through his own
hand; not professionally, but for his own satisfaction. Holding
Zoroaster or Aristotle in his left hand, and reading
attentively, he has written out most extraordinary things with
his right. For instance, one day--in answer, he thinks to a wish
on his part for an especially strong test--his hand wrote of the
death of a woman of whom he had never heard, giving her name and
the time and manner of her passing away, etc. 'But,' he said, as
he read it over, 'I don't see that this is a test. I could find
it in a newspaper; I may have read it, and unconsciously
remembered it.' Instantly it was written, 'No, that cannot be;
she died but an hour ago, and when you see it in the paper you
will have had your test.' The next day he searched the papers in
vain, but on the second morning, there, in the death column, he
found the announcement of the death, corresponding with what had
been written through him, in every particular of name, date, and
disease. Also he has seen spirits in friendly
converse--entertained them at his own fireside.
"I went, by invitation of Prof. Stainton-Moses, to a festal
reunion of the 'Spiritual Alliance,' of which he is president,
and I am bound to say that I met there men and women who seemed
to me as sincere and earnest, and intelligent as one finds
anywhere. Oh, and I saw Eglinton--the medium who is now what
Home was--though he told me last night he meant soon to get out
of the professional part of spiritualism. He is a singularly
agreeable man, handsome, and with a look in his dark eyes as if
they might easily see visions. I am told that he has lately
married a very rich wife, and this may account for his intention
to withdraw from spiritualism as a profession."
Mr. Eglinton has published in the _London Medium_ a very interesting
narrative of his seances with the Emperor and Empress of Russia, the
royal family and nobility. In the first royal seance, the Grand
Duchess Vladimir proved to be a medium, and was lifted in the air,
screaming the while. 'As she continued to ascend,' says Mr. Eglinton,
'I was compelled to leave her hand, and on returning to her seat, she
declared that she had been floated over the table without anything
having been in contact with her.'
The Grand Duke Vladimir brought a new bank-note in an envelope to have
its number told, which he did not know. The number was correctly
written by the spirits, between slates, 716,990.
At the seance with the emperor there were present a party of ten, the
empress, Grand Duke and Duchess of Oldenburg, Grand Duke and Duchess
Sergius, Grand Duke Vladimir, Prince Alexander, and Gen. Richter. All
hands being joined, a spirit voice conversed with the empress in
Russian. A female form materialized near the Princess Oldenburg. A
music-box weighing about forty pounds, was carried around and placed
on the emperor's hand. Other phenomena occurred, but the chief
incident was the levitation. Mr. Eglinton was lifted in the air, the
empress and Prince Oldenburg holding his hands and standing on their
chairs, until his feet rested on the shoulders of the emperor and the
Grand Duke Oldenburg.
Mr. Eglinton was overwhelmed with invitations from the nobility and
professors. M. de Giers the great Foreign Minister and his two sons
(mediums) were spiritualists of many years standing.
The JOURNAL could not contain half the marvellous things that are
happening.
The Louisville _Courier-Journal_ reports that in Bracken County, Ky.,
(on the Ohio river, between Louisville and Cincinnati):
"Excitement is at fever heat in the Milford neighborhood, in the
southern portion of this county, over the mysterious appearance
of the most wonderful faces and figures upon the window glass of
the houses in that section. The first appearance of these
singular and most extraordinary pictures on the glass was at the
residence of William Showalter, where the window panes all at
once showed the colors of the rainbow, on which two days later
the heads of people and animals were clearly visible. On the
glass of another house a head and face resembling President
Lincoln's were to be seen. On another the form of a young girl
bending over an infant, the body of a lion, the figures
twenty-two, and a landscape were all visible, as distinctly
outlined as any artist could have drawn them. Some of the most
striking pictures are on the windows of the Milford Baptist
Church, which are protected with shutters that are kept tightly
closed. The people of Bracken county have not in years been more
worked up over anything than they now are over these pictures."