Page images
PDF
EPUB

A FAIR INVESTIGATION PREFERRED.

29

hands if they should touch them, one of the committee, pretending to make a last examination of the knots, rubbed the hands of both the boys with rouge. In this instance, however, the base trick availed nothing, for, aware of what had been done, the Eddys called for the audience to look at their hands before the cabinet doors were closed, and the culprit was exposed.

The reader will understand, from what I have said of their childhood experiences, that these poor creatures had little or no educational advantages, and their numerous correspondents will not be surprised at the illiteracy shown in their letters. They will be surprised, on the other hand, when I say that I have heard words in six foreign tongues spoken, and conversation sustained in the same, by rappings by some of the phantoms whose appearance before me, during my present visit to the Eddy homestead, I shall describe in future chapters of this true story.

The Daily Graphic was pleased to say of a letter of mine from this place, that "the story is as marvellous as any to be found in history," an opinion that was reiterated by several of the most respected journals in other cities. I risk nothing in now saying that what I am about to narrate is far more extraordinary in every respect, and I expect to tax the public indulgence as to my veracity to the utmost. But I shall at least take good care to be within the limits of the truth, so that my story may be verified. by any future investigator who is willing to scan closely, move cautiously to conclusions, and "nothing extenuate nor aught set down in malice." I went to Chittenden to discover the truth as to the "Eddy manifestations,"

30

THE EDDY HOMESTEAD.

and as I find things, so shall I describe them, caring nothing how much my own prejudices are affected by the result.

The sketches that illustrate this chapter represent the Eddy homestead as viewed from the south-east,* rear, and north side. The house is the first frame building erected in Chittenden township, and for many years was a wayside inn. It comprises a main building and a rear extension, or L, of two stories, of which the lower is divided into a dining-room, kitchen, and small cupboard or pantry; and the upper, thrown into one room, is known as the "circle-room," or among the profane, as "the ghost shop." In the rear view, the kitchen door is seen at the hither end of the L part, and the square window in the gable-end gives light into the "cabinet " or narrow closet in which William Eddy sits when the materializations occur.

*See Frontispiece.

[graphic][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

THE

CHAPTER II.

TREATMENT OF PUBLIC MEDIUMS.

HE story of the persecutions, mobbings, hardships and trials through which the Eddy children were

obliged to pass, carries a moral with it, which the intelligent reader can hardly have overlooked. It must have been apparent that we are not dealing with the case of charlatans who have recently taken to the business of trickery for the sake of gain, for these girls and boys seem to have inherited their peculiar temperaments from their ancestry, and the phenomena common to most genuine "mediums" of the present day, attended them in their very cradles. It will scarcely be said that children who, like Elisha, were caught up and conveyed from one place to another, and in whose presence weird forms were materialized as they lay in their trundle-bed, were playing pranks to tax the credulity of an observant public, which was ignorant of their very existence. It will not be seriously urged, I fancy, against youth, whose bodies were scored with the lash, cicatrized by burning wax, by pinching manacles, by the knife, the bullet and by boiling water,

« PreviousContinue »