The following clever verses (published in The New York Sunday Dispatch) were from the pen of a gentleman who had been a vehement opponent, but who, being an honest and good man, had not been able to resist the evidences of the truth of “the Communion of Spirits.” In inserting them, the Editor exercises his prerogative in disregard of the objections and vain veto of the author who was the subject of them.
When first Leah Brown
Became talked of through town,
And compared to the famed witch of Endor,
I thought ’twould be best
To apply the old test,
And to fagot and fire to send her.
In my zeal orthodox
To trap this sly Fox,
A terrible pit-fall I planned,
But she every one foils,
I was caught in her toils,
And, I own it, completely trepanned.
’Tis no wonder her spell
Should on every one tell,
And worm out our secrets by scores,
Her eye’s such a piercer,
I never saw fiercer.
It made me leak out through my pores.
’Twas plain she saw through me,
Though Heaven beshrew me,
If I even myself could divine.
In my visage dyspeptic
She saw but a sceptic,
Her own was the reflex of mine.
For my doubts it was clear
I was soon to pay dear,
To this point all her efforts were pitched,
And I own it with shame,
She has managed that same,
For now I am fairly—bewitched.
[9] Yaupy is Low Dutch for Jacob; the writer of the letter originally employed it as a nom de plume.