The Sioux protest against this outrage, and have appealed to the National Indian Defence Association at Washington, D. C., to protect their rights. This association has resolved to test the constitutionality of this bill in the Supreme Court of the United States, and asks all friends of justice to sustain them in this legal contest.
Miscellaneous Intelligence.
The Seybert Commission has reported against the claims of Spiritualism. Their report will not even have the effect of the French Academy report against animal magnetism, which checked its progress in the medical profession but not among the people; but before the century passed, the medical profession has taken up the science in earnest, and re-named it hypnotism. The Seybert report will not even be a temporary damper, for while thousands of inquirers, fully as competent as the commission, and many of them far more competent to the investigation, have made themselves familiar with the facts, the commission has done nothing but to emphasize the fact already familiar among the intelligent, of the prevalence of fraud among mediums. Notwithstanding the wonderful powers of Slade, no one acquainted with his history would place any reliance on his integrity. The more intelligent Spiritualists understood such matters, and the Ladies’ Aid (Spiritualist) Society of Boston, recently had considerable amusement in the exhibition in their parlors of the materializing and dematerializing wire apparatus used by the fraudulent medium, Mrs. Ross, which was said to have been carried in her bustle. Mrs. Ross when prosecuted for her frauds was found to be protected by the law of coverture which makes the husband alone responsible. This is a relic of the idea of female subordination and obedience which ought to be abolished. The progress of spiritualism has been marked by as many follies as that of any popular movement, and the bequest of $60,000, by Mr. Seybert, to the old fogies of the Pennsylvania University was among the stupidest of these follies. If a friend of Galileo had made such a bequest to the Catholic church in his time, to get an opinion of the new astronomy, it would have been as sensible a proceeding. It will however have one good result; it will erect a permanent monument to the ignorance of the universities, a record from which they cannot hereafter escape. Prof. Leidy was one of the salaried commissioners whose mental status was thus exhibited in the last journal:
"Your doctrine of life eternal,
And everything else supernal,
Might well be pronounced an infernal
Delusion!"
The Evils that need attention, mentioned in the Journal for May, are as rampant as ever. The big combination in Chicago to raise the price of wheat by a corner, utterly burst on the 14th of June, leaving a few ruined speculators. The Chicago News says: “What is called buying and selling futures in grain, is no more buying and selling in the innocent and proper interpretation of the words than the wagering on horse races is buying and selling horses. It is a species of gambling as pernicious to public morals as it is contrary to public policy.” The Chicago Herald says, “No one is in love with a cornerer who corners. Nobody wastes any pity on a cornerer who gets cornered himself.” Such crimes in a petty way may be punished, but we need law for the millionaire gamblers who not only rob each other, but fleece the entire nation at the same time.
Condensed Items.—Mesmerism, in Paris. M. G. de Torcy has introduced a mesmerized woman into the lion’s cage, where she unconsciously puts her head in the lion’s mouth: then, in a state of cataleptic rigidity, head and feet resting on two stools, the lion is made to jump over the rigid body, then with paws resting on her body, to pull a string by his teeth and thus fire a pistol. Of course this draws enthusiastic audiences. Medical Freedom. The attempts at restrictive medical legislation have been defeated in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine. In Maine, the bill had passed the Legislature and was approved by Gov. Bodwell, but upon re-consideration he vetoed it and the Senate then rejected it. The Allopathic State Society is quite indignant and calls it “atrocious” that they cannot enforce a law which the Senate and governor rejected. Mrs. Post in Iowa has been acquitted and will not be punished at all for the awful crime of healing a patient by prayer! The acquittal appears to be on the ground of the unconstitutionally of the law. The Victoria Jubilee in Faneuil Hall, Boston, called out an immense indignation meeting, and many eloquent protests. But for the energy of the police a riot might have occurred at the time of the festival. Delightful Homes. Asheville, N. C., 2339 feet above tide water, has a delightful climate, especially for pulmonary invalids. Northern Georgia is an elevated region of remarkable general health, and freedom from malarious and consumptive diseases. California has still more delightful homes of health and beauty. Colorado has twelve towns over 5,000 feet above the sea, and ten over 10,000.