“Your welcome letter came to me last Tuesday. I have been very anxious to hear from you. You write so seldom, and I am always anticipating your letters long before they reach me. I am sorry to learn that you have been afflicted, but frequently wonder you are not all sick from the effect of continued application to the duties which devolve on you. I sympathize with you often in your thousand and one perplexities of mind and body. It gives me pleasure to know that the friends stand by you through all trials; and you will, I doubt not, find in your mind that appreciation of them that will secure a pleasing recollection when you shall have left them.
“You say that ‘you all wish to come home, and will probably return soon.’ Now, I wish I could believe that word has any significance in such connection; but it has become such a misnomer, in Spiritual things, that it is a great sinner.
“Sometimes I shut out the reality of things around me, and fancy you all here again. For the moment, I am pleasingly deceived, and again I stand within the charmed circle of the Rochester Seeresses. I hear your bursts of laughter, and look deep into your dark eyes to read what manner of thought is passing behind the Spirit windows. You are glad to see me. Maggie and Kate also give a like evidence. But I am only dreaming; you are away, and as far off as you were two months ago. I have little expectation of seeing you in less than two months; there are reasons which will keep you away so long, notwithstanding you speak of coming home. But I don’t wish to hasten you. You know what is best, and will act accordingly. I should be sorry if you should do anything that you would afterward regret.
“The most familiar Spiritualists—if that term is proper, now hold weekly sociables here. We have met but twice as yet, but design continuing them each Sunday evening. The last Sunday and this we met at the house of Mr. Granger, and passed the hours very much to our satisfaction. There were present Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Mr. and Mrs. Post, Mr. Hammond, Mr. W. A. Langworthy, Mr. Jarvis, Mr. Edward Jones, George Willets, Mr. Rich, and the writer of this. The design is to have these meetings tend to the mutual improvement of those present. They partake more of a social and conversational than what would be called a religious character; opportunities for the interchange of views in reference to Spiritual things. It is similar to the association in Springfield, which Mr. Munn alluded to when here. By the way, Mr. Munn has sent me the prospectus of a weekly paper—The Spirit Messenger, to be issued at Springfield next month. His motive is not speculation, as any one may well judge who knows what an up-hill business the advocacy of advanced truth is in this our age. You and your friends in New York must send on to him a list of subscribers. I hope it will be sustained by the many who are seeking for light on this and kindred subjects of deep interest. If, as intended, it covers the field heretofore occupied by the miraculous, it ought to be sustained.
“Your house on Troup Street has been closed so long it will require seeing to before you go into it. You ought to send word several days before you reach here, in order that it may be properly ventilated. If you can do so, some of your friends will attend to it.
“As ever, your friend,
“John E. R.”
ARTICLE FROM A NEW YORK SUNDAY NEWSPAPER.
The following is anonymous from a Sunday newspaper, the name of which I am not now able to give:
“We paid a visit on Sunday last to the Rochester ladies (at Barnum’s Hotel), so celebrated in this world, and in the world of Spirits, for the extraordinary revelations made to them through the remarkable knockings or sounds which have excited so much attention.