BUFFALO (_Continued._)
LETTERS FROM JOHN E. ROBINSON AND WELCOME WHITTAKER.
During the progress of all this, our Buffalo Campaign, it is scarcely
worth while to say that I received no end of letters of sympathy and
encouragement. The number must have counted by thousands who had by this
time witnessed for themselves, not merely the comparatively small sounds
of the ordinary rapping near our persons, but sometimes great knockings,
as by powerful arms and heavy hammers, on all parts of rooms and even
outside of them; together with ringing of bells, moving and lifting of
tables, etc.; to say nothing of the intelligent communications which
identified their Spirit friends, etc. All such persons therefore knew
that the Buffalo doctoral theory of _knee-joints_ was impossible
and absurd, and felt no uneasiness about the result of any real
investigations. But many of them naturally sympathized with us under the
harassing annoyance in which we were placed by the promulgation of even
such a ridiculous theory, under such high-sounding "scientific"
authority.
From these letters I select the following.
LETTER FROM JOHN E. ROBINSON.
ROCHESTER, February 26, 1851.
"DEAR LEAH:
"I received this evening your note (of rather diminutive proportions),
written day before yesterday. Having been on the lookout for a letter
for several days, it was very acceptable. It is written in a hopeful
and encouraging vein, and, so far as what is expressed relates to
myself, I can take no exceptions to its language. I should think it
dictated in some intervening hour of quiet; one of the few which pass
above and tranquillize for the time the unresting surface of your daily
life. Such hours, let them be passed when they may, come and go with all
of us; and the dial finger that marks their exit, registers also the
blessings which they leave upon the heart. Impulsive as you are;
accustomed as you are to excitement, and possessing (as you do) a
woman's fondness for the glare of the world's gilded exterior; there is
a part of your nature better than the rest, which would often shut out
from the chamber of its occupancy those noisy and obtrusive influences
which corrode its brightness and rob it of its rest.
"That is the part of your being (the Leah) whom I would oftenest wish
to have audience with; and in such hours as I speak of I would consider
it a luxury equal to 'Wenham ice' in the torrid zone, or a shower of
vertical sunbeams on an Arctic traveller--to _knock_ at the door of that
inner chamber, and finding entrance, to sit down at the table of your
heart and commune with you face to face. I have turned down the leaves
in my memory whereon the records of such brief communings have been
made, and it is no small pleasure to refer to them, as I often do,
during these days of denial. So seldom it is now-a-days when the Spirit
I would talk to answers my signal with the words 'at home.'
"We (your friends here) want you _and the Spirits_--who seem to think
their bread-and-butter depends on their paying court (in especial) to
you and yours--to come to us once in a while--like the chance sunlight
that struggles through the bars of the prisoner's window to reveal the
gladness of the upper world--and rub the rust from our chains.
"You ought to come home next week, at any rate, even if you are
determined on going West again. And really, I think you ought to visit
Cleveland and Cincinnati before long. You would find many good people in
both places, who would rejoice to see you and Margaretta, and who are
looking out for your advent there with no little anxiety.
"Mrs. Bush read to me last evening a portion of a letter from her
brother, resident, I believe, in the latter city, in which he urges her
to come there and speaks of things connected with Spiritualism somewhat
in detail. I observe Mr. Cogshall's book is noticed very fairly in the
_National Era_ (of Washington, D. C.), a journal of high character for
literary attainments. I will copy the notice as follows: 'We have read
this book, and have been pleased with its style, and impressed with the
sincerity of its author. Still we do not believe. Nothing short of sight
and hearing can convince us that the souls of the departed are really
rapping in such an audible and startling manner on the wall which
divides us from the Spiritual world--really moving chairs and tables and
ringing bells, and otherwise disturbing domestic order and quiet. Yet,
according to this little history, some Spirits justify themselves for
their sudden incursions into our territory, by giving comfort to the
mourner and sweet assurances of a love which could not die.'
"If all be an imposture, who can measure the depth of that depravity
which trifles thus with the holiest affections, aspirations, and
sorrows? Greeley in a late _Tribune_ has a rich joke. He says: 'Some
brainless editor out in Milwaukee not long since published the fact that
he had an interview with the Spirit of Captain West, of the steamer,
who reported that the noble steamer struck an iceberg and went to the
bottom of the ocean with all on board.' Milwaukee is a great place!
Our George (Willets) thinks 'that Spirit took some trouble to spread
the news.' It is presumable that it was one of the Auburn Apostolic
brethren. What a pity that Spirits (some of them) are not less given to
lying. However, if they are capable of falsehood (as we well know some
of them are), it is better they should show their hands, else their
communications might work much evil. The _good_ shines out with a more
glorious brightness in contrast with the darkness of its opposite.
"Enough is known already to warrant the immense interest which this
subject is now creating, and I think that there is in the future (not
very distant) a glad day approaching. I am sometimes disposed to be
depressed. I have very little from Spirits, such as I would most wish
to get communications from, and you can hardly realize the sense of
neglect--so to speak--which I feel. I hope, when you return, some of
my kindred Spirits--that delicate, pure-souled sister of mine, in
particular (a lock of whose hair I took from among my papers yesterday
and found it as lustrous as when first taken from her perishing form),
may have some message to deliver to one whose love for her is immortal.
Leah, I want to whisper in your ear. Turn from the table and the
sceptics who sit by, and lend me your ears. Last night, when my internal
senses were playing their pranks, I had a dream of you. You were at
your home, and my solicitude for the kingdom had led my steps to the
_capital_ of the New Jerusalem. My best bow had been made to the
Spirits, the last words to you had been said, and I was about going out
of the gate, when I remembered an important omission: and turning just
as you were closing the front door, I cried, 'Leah! Leah!' and awoke
with your name on my lips; pronouncing it once _audibly_ after I
awoke--just to see if you could come and answer me. But no response
came, not even an echo of my voice from the walls of my room. Leah!
Leah! I call again, and will you come?
"Yours in the bonds of patience,
"J. E. R."
LETTER FROM WELCOME WHITTAKER.
TROY, N. Y., February 24, 1851.
"MRS. FISH:
"I perceive, by the Buffalo papers, that you have had the unparalleled
temerity to call public attention, in that place, to the manifestations
of Spiritualism; and that, too, without so much as consulting for one
moment the feelings, prejudices, or _scientific accumulation_ of certain
of the wonderful Faculty there. Well, they pounced upon you as you might
well suppose such (God forgive me!) _scientific gentlemen_ would,
conscious as they doubtless are, that their position on the pyramid of
all human knowledge is nothing short of the very cap-stone itself. Not
only have they, in most _chivalrous manner_, arrayed themselves for your
disrespect, but a masterly stroke, ingeniously given, shielded the
public forever against such _gross trickery and imposition_ by an exposé
of the whole thing!
"O! never three luckier D(og)s together than the three M.D.'s of
Buffalo, who in so short a time lifted the veil and exposed to open day
the 'very mechanism' by which deluded thousands have been _led astray_,
first by a course of negative reasoning, the parallel of which, I
venture to say, cannot be found in all the annals of philosophic
research. This of itself must be sufficient to render the names of Lee,
Flint, and Coventry, at least _notorious_, if not illustrious.
"But, as if one death would not be a sufficient quietus, they give the
certain home-thrust (the mortal stab), in the _naked, positive proof_.
Now was there ever anything equal to that? When will such philanthropy,
such critical discernment, such zeal, and such science be appreciated?
And last, though not least, that highly respectable lady, 'who, by
a mental effort, can dislocate her knee-joints,' and then make the
'identical' sounds so foolishly ascribed to the Spirits, must not be
lost sight of in the words of overwhelming gratitude to these three
M.D.'s above mentioned.
"Dear, kind-hearted soul! she must possess an unbounded share of the
milk of human-kindness. No one can, for a moment, suppose that she was
solicited to expose her knees to various _gentlemen_ of the medical
profession, for they must be sufficiently acquainted with anatomy and
physiology to know all the _mechanism_ at all competent to produce
those sounds. It must, therefore, have been on her part perfectly
voluntary--prompted purely by a most benevolent desire to expose a
_humbug_. But Spiritualism will still progress, and its advocates shall
gloriously ride over all adversity, for God is omnipotent.
"If contemptible meanness, united with unmitigated scoundrelism, can be
found on this earth, it resides in the black heart of him who coins
epithets designed to rob defenceless females of their spotless
reputation, which is ever of more value to them than life itself.
"I felt, therefore, most indignant while reading the two articles in the
_Commercial Advertiser_ of the 17th, and the _Courier_ of the 18th, both
of which I believe to be palpably libellous; and for which, I have no
doubt, any able lawyer would tell you a suit for slander would bear most
beautifully.
"I thought to advise you to proceed against these libellers forthwith;
but when indignation gave place to mingled contempt and pity, I came
to the conclusion that if you could follow the example of Him whose
persecutors were the objects of his latest petition--'Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do'--it might perhaps be best in the
long run. But it is not always easy to determine the exact point where
forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
"A friend from Syracuse told me the other day, that a sum of money (he
did not say how much) had been subscribed for the purpose of having you
visit that place. I will meet you if I can.
"Yours,
"WELCOME WHITTAKER."
LETTER FROM JOHN E. ROBINSON.
"THE CITY OF THE NEW DISPENSATION,
"March 12, 1851, Anno Spirituum, 3.
"DEAR LEAH:
"What a woman you are! Why don't you write to me? You know how anxious
your friends are to hear from you, and you promised to write often and
to send _papers_ frequently. Only _one_ paper have I received from you.
Everybody whom you care a fig for here in Rochester asks me about
Buffalo and _you, and you_. But I am not _posted up_ and cannot tell
them of your triumphs or escapes from the hands of the many-headed hydra
whom you have slain so often. Not having a line from you a week ago,
in answer to my last letter, I thought you intended to return last
Saturday, but no train of cars, which I have heard of, brought you as a
part of its living freight, and _we_ (that is I) are 'a-wearied' because
you answer not our call to 'come.' Now I _command_ you, in the name
of all the gods of the heathen mythology, to come to us, either
_spiritwise_ (on a sheet of paper of ample dimensions), or _bodily_
(as would most effectually comport with our comfort and desire), by an
early departing train from our sister city, whose queenly dignity,
in thus aspiring to rob us of our Spiritual flame--the guide of our
uncertain steps--we are getting jealous of. I received a good letter
from your witch sister, my darling little Katie, this morning. She
writes with much cheerfulness. Says she has commenced another quarter
at her school (in New York). She says also she is 'crazy' to see me!
You know just about what is intended to be understood when she thus
addresses me (her friend and adviser); but Cathie is fast learning to be
a woman, and my prayer is that she may escape the bitter trials through
which you and your mother have been called to pass. She adds: 'We had a
telegraphic despatch from Maggie, saying she would be here last week
Saturday; but she don't come, and we have given up looking for her.' She
says: 'Give my love to Leah and Margaretta, and tell them I want to see
them.'
"George Willets and myself went over to see Clara (your housekeeper)
yesterday. She is getting along tolerably well, but appears unwilling to
remain much longer alone. She is evidently afraid--thinks the Spirits
annoy her at nights. More than half of that is (of course) imagination.
Why not come home, and go again, _if you must_, westward? But here I am
asking you questions and you do not answer them. Busied as you are, and
tired as you must be, most of the time, it is too much of a task for you
to write to me; and I don't know but George is right in saying, 'Leah
has found so many new loves that the winds blowing eastward come not
freighted with a thought of _us_.' Since the above was written an
old friend from the country has called in to see me, and one of his
questions was, 'Well, do your views remain the same in regard to the
rapping?' 'Yes,' I said, 'I have had no occasion or cause to change
them.' 'Why, Doctor Flint's statement has explained the whole thing,'
he said, and added, 'He writes very plausibly and conclusively on the
subject.' Now, this friend and relative of mine is a most excellent
man, and I thoroughly appreciate him as a good member of society, an
excellent husband and father, and an honest man; but the light which
illumes the pathway of his intellect is not set on a very high hill!
Leah, I ought not to write to you, wouldn't if I could avoid it, and beg
pardon of propriety for thus making a virtue of necessity.
"Mine to you--not forgetting Maggie and Calvin.
"Yours,
"J. E. R."