He urged Samantha to come to the table, which she did after much persuasion. When it came Mr. Decker’s turn to ask questions he called on the Spirits to “touch Samantha,” but he had scarcely uttered the words when he disappeared from the circle and was seen coming out, feet foremost, from under the table at the very farthest extremity, causing a great scattering among the visitors. Mrs. Ward fainted, and two other ladies had to be taken out of the room. The séance was broken up for that afternoon.
Mr. Horace Dresser was one of the party, and Mrs. Ward had accompanied him to my house.
This seems to have been a counter practical joke, played upon himself by some humorous Spirit (of whom there are many) for the one with which he was persecuting poor Samantha.
“I FEEL MY HANDKERCHER TIED TIGHTER EVERY MINIT.”
When I first moved into Ludlow Place I met, in the street, a colored woman with a brush and pail in her hand. She was very pretty and jolly, and I engaged her to help clean the house. I set her at work in the china closet, and, before she had been ten minutes there at work, she turned to me and said, “What yer got in dis yer house?”
I replied, “I don’t know what you mean. Explain yourself.”
She muttered awhile, and in a moment more she said, “Well, mebby yer don’t know, but I feels my hankercher tied tighter every minit.”
“NO BRIMSTONE YET.”
It has often struck me that there was something more than mere chance in classes of persons who would gather round the table in my circles. There would be occasions when none but persons of superior intelligence and elevation of character would meet there, as though some kindred influences had prompted them thus simultaneously. When a few persons of this order began to come, I have often said to mother, “We are going to have good manifestations this evening, as a galaxy of fine heads and noble faces are gathering round the table.”
Mr. Greeley has more than once remarked upon this to me, saying, “Leah, I never, in any assembly, meet so many noble heads and the same order of intelligence I meet at your receptions.”