One evening there was such an assemblage of some twenty-five or thirty persons, of whom none were misplaced in such good company. One young Quaker lad, of seventeen or eighteen, had accompanied his father. He was a fine, bright and gentlemanly youth. It was the practice that each person took his turn, as they sat, to address his questions to the Spirits. When the right came to him to ask his questions, he waived it in favor of his older neighbor, who, however, declined to accept it, and insisted on his using his privilege. Accordingly, he wrote his question, screening his paper with a book as he did so. His first question was, “Is my friend John here?” Three raps gave the answer Yes. He then asked a second question to which came the reply: “Not quite so bad as that; I haven’t smelt any brimstone yet.” This elicited a general laugh, and he was pressed to show his question, to which he objected, until he was overborne by his father. It proved to have been, “John, are you in hell?”
KITCHEN WORK BY NIGHT.
We have been awakened by the most fearful sights and sounds when no human being other than ourselves was stirring in the house. On several occasions I could not rest until I called a policeman in, and had the house searched from garret to cellar.
The manifestations were sometimes calculated to excite our sympathy, at other times they have lured us by false representations. I will give an instance.
Mother and myself were in the sitting-room on the second floor alone, quite late at night (not far from midnight), when we distinctly heard walking, talking, and opening and shutting of doors. I said to mother, “Can it be possible that the girls are in the kitchen at this late hour?” She replied, “No, I saw them go up over an hour ago, and Susie said good-night to me.” I then thought I noticed the odor of cooking from the kitchen. The girls had a habit of sitting up late, and I determined to go down and detect them in their tricks (on one occasion I had found them entertaining a large party, when they had supposed I was in bed and asleep). We started cautiously, listening as we went, and occasionally hearing movements, appearing to us slyly made, as if careful on their part not to be overheard. We took no light with us, as we did not expect to need any. The lower hall seemed lighted from a window opening into it from the front basement, and a bright light shone from under the kitchen door which enabled us to see everything around. I went cautiously to the door, opened it quickly and found utter darkness and silence. As I opened it I distinctly heard a clatter as of griddles, etc., dropping. Judge of our surprise when suddenly we were instantaneously seized and hustled about, and then both transported or lifted to the floor above by an irresistibly powerful “force.” I believe that it was a device cunningly conceived by mischievous Spirits at play, to lure us down, and then frighten and bewilder us.
“SICH A GETTIN’ UP STAIRS.”
One evening when Margaretta and I were alone in my private room (the front room of the second story), some friends wanted a dark séance; for which purpose Katie went down with them into the basement room. The parlor floor was unoccupied, and at a late hour the servants extinguished the hall light, supposing all to have gone. But the dark séance in progress with Katie in the basement continued so long past midnight, with no sign of its breaking up, that I at last sent Margaretta down to let them know the hour and put an end to it. Of course all was dark on the two lower floors, but she could easily make her way. But as she was about to knock at the lower door, she was suddenly seized by some person who hurled or shot her up, as it seemed to her, and landed her on her feet at the head of the stairs on the second floor, where her scream called me out from my room, and she related what had occurred. It was evident that there were some Spirits there who did not choose to have the séance going on below interrupted.
There is an old negro melody which tells how
“Sich a gettin’ up stairs I never did see, Sich a gettin’ up stairs,” etc.
Margaretta had been pitched, as it were, in an instant, up the two flights of stairs. The reader may refer to the next story for a somewhat similar way of being carried up stairs which once befell mother and myself.