home. But the spirits were evidently wiser than the rest. The obsessed was influenced to say, "Send me to S. B. Brittan." This experienced Spiritualist, thoroughly comprehending the case, immediately sought the assistance of Dr. A. S. Haywood, who undertook the task of restoring order. Meanwhile, a prudish lady (?) of New York, whose services were sought as a necessity, declared, "The woman is base; and here is the evidence of it," she added, with a toss of the head," in this handkerchief: see the name of a man on it, - -Peebles!" So she reported Mr. Peebles to her slandering associates "a bad man." Did not that handkerchief tell the story? Could wickedness descend to greater depths? Thus do the vile seek to turn our good against us. Dr. Haywood was successful. The obsessing influences left her: she was in her right mind, and soon after wrote a letter of great gratitude to Mr. Peebles for his philanthropic protection during her days of distress. From reliable authority we learn she is now happy. Thus self-sacrifice is always rewarded; and every kind act, like a wandering minstrel, blesses some dependent soul. Writing on the subject of demons in his "Seers of the Ages," Mr. Peebles says, "Like attracts like. Every door must have a hinge to swing upon. No evil spirit can approach us unless-morally weak- we possess a magnet within, attracting corresponding influences. This, so painful to endure, is the lesson of our frailty, teaching the moral necessity of fostering better conditions for more heavenly relations. "Sensitiveness to psychological influx, susceptibility to mediumistic control, implies higher and lower use and abuse. Will not the tender flower be touched by the frost as well as by the sunbeam? The greater the capacity to rise involves a similar capacity to fall. The charm of a darkened demon is as potent as an angel's, where a point of ingress is possible. Then, according to the apostolic injunction of John, trust not, ""believe not every spirit, but try the spirits!" "If spirits uncultured and evil impress, and at times completely obsess, mortals, is not the practice of phenomenal Spiritualism dangerous? Yes, dangerous as the sunshine, that, falling alike on flowers and thorns, the just and the unjust, produces an occasional sun-stroke; dangerous as the spring rain, that, sweeping away old rickety bridges, carries rich alluvial to the valley below; dangerous as steamers, that now and then send bodies down to find graves under green sea-weeds, whilst on their beneficent missions of international commerce; dangerous as mining, railroading, telegraphing, which develop the hidden wealth of a nation. Shall we therefore dispense with them? Shall none pursue geological pursuits because Hugh Miller committed suicide? Briars abound where berries grow. It is one of the offices of guardian angels to protect their mediums from the inharmonious magnetisms of unwise, perverse spirits, and the psychological attractions of depraved mortals." Respecting the curative agencies of obsession, a Christ-like spirit thus speaks through the mediumship of Emma Hardinge : "A good spirit will not attempt to take and hold unwarrantable possession of a mediumistic organization: hence you may rest assured of what class it is from whence the phenomenon of obsession proceeds. Now, if the infesting spirit were not magnetically stronger than his subject, he could not maintain possession, however he might once gain a temporary ascendency. The true processes of cure, therefore, are obvious and dual. First, let all possible means be taken to strengthen the health of the subjects, and render their minds positive to the control of others. Good air, good diet, change of scene, association, and constant employment, pleasant society, and cheerful, active occupations, are the physical means, which steadily resorted to may alone effect a cure. If these fail, use in connection with them the aid of a strong-willed, powerful, and virtuous magnetizer. Let him continue with unflinching constancy to exert his will, and add thereto magnetic passes over his subject, and we will pledge our faith and word that he will speedily dispossess the enemy, though he were the fabled Beelzebub in propria personæ.” CHAPTER XIX. INDIAN SPIRITS AND THEIR BRETHREN WEST. "Better trust all, and be deceived, And weep that trust and that deceiving, FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE. WHEN alone in Nature's solitudes, Mr. Peebles frequently talks aloud with the spirits. One evening in California, stars as sentinels, he ascended a terrace of the Nevadas, and, standing there rapt in mystery, as an Apollo, addressed a vast concourse of spirits. His voice of persuasion echoed wildly through the rocky caverns and arches, leaping up into heaven, till it verily seemed that the entranced angels heard it, trembling. Several miners, passing the trail beneath, startled at the strange ideas, reported, as Aaron Nite afterwards said, that they "heard a crazy man on a mountain talking with the ghosts." In July, 1869, Mr. Peebles, Dean Clark, and ourself were the speakers at a mass meeting of three thousand persons held in Plymouth, Wis., -H. S. Benjamin, President, and E. W. McGraw, Secretary. Just as Mr. Peebles composed himself for a rest of brain, he was suddenly called on to speak. For a moment it roused a feeling of murmuring; he was about declining, when a gentle wave of inspiration swept over him. Hidden from the waiting crowd, tears trickled down his cheeks. He was listening to spiritvoices, which said so tenderly in sad music words, "James, have we been so long with you, and yet you doubt our presence to aid you? See these hungry souls: rise, and speak; and he obeyed with a power. "Have we been so long with you?" rang in his ears for hours. During his visit at our rustic home on the forest shore of Elkhart Here Lake, Wis., near Glen Beulah, he made a speech to the Indian spirits who years agone inhabited that picturesque locality. we built a wigwam for literary work. He thus describes it: 66 Impressed from the heavenly 'hunting-grounds' of the Indians, Brother Barrett had been moved, ere we reached those regions, to fashion a quiet and beautiful retreat near the margin of these musical waters, by bending and twisting saplings, shrubs, and larger trees into a crowning cone-form, constituting a wigwam bower of prayer, a veritable temple of inspiration." One starry evening, prior to the mass meeting, the lake waves patting the wood-tangled banks, the leaves overhead keeping up a rustling tenor, several friends assembled in this wigwam; when, after a few moments of silence, he rose, and, facing the lake, gazing off into the peopled space, addressed the Indian spirits, reminded them of their sufferings, of the bloody resolution of the whites to exterminate their brethren in the West, and of his determination to defend their rights by the establishment of industrial systems of peace. How strange it seemed, that speech! and yet responsive to the soul. After the Plymouth meeting, Brother Clark was entranced by an Indian spirit who most cordially thanked the "pale-face" for his "big talk in wigwam." Such gratitude! Were there responses to these speeches? yea, in the deep silence of impression, too eloquent for human language. But how often did the Indian spirits talk to the "pale-face" through a medium, telling him all his words and deeds of love were known in the "hunting-lands," where they were making a "fine wigwam" for him, where a "pretty squaw was waiting till he come !" Being at a séance when Mr. Peebles was present, with Dr. Dunn for medium, we asked Powhattan about his earth and spirit life: "Me had one squaw," he said; one pappoose, Kanawaubish, 'pretty water:' you call my pappoose Poc-a-hon-tas! "Me Indian; me no speak like white man; me got nice wigwam, nice canoe, and bow and arrow; me hunt; me sleep under sky; me have for me bed the Big Spirit HuntingGround; me blanket is the blue heaven; me music is the breath of the Big Spirit, as he blows leaves of trees. In morning time, the Big Spirit look out from his windows [eyes], and the Indian kiss the dew from his forehead." In the winter of 1868, Mr. Peebles lectured in St. Louis and cities farther west, where his whole soul was stirred to intense action in defense of the Indians, whom the whites in all that region were determined to exterminate. It called down upon him the ire of officials and pseudo-Spiritualists. He had been years before vicepresident of the Universal Peace Society, and a most efficient worker. True to his instincts, he went forth on his love-errand. He wrote the following letter to his friend, A. H. Love, president of the society: "Passing down the main street of Leavenworth, I saw a recruiting office; and reaching Topeka, on board the train for Lawrence were four cars loaded with cavalry officers. I saw the whitened tents of the soldiery. The army was awaiting orders to march upon the Indians. Oh, how my heart ached and my soul bled! Constituting myself a peace commissioner, I immediately called upon Gov. Crawford and the State marshal, and protested, in kindness yet in great firmness, against this proposed movement to be conducted by Gen. Sheridan. I went on still west from Topeka, towards Colorado, conversing with Judge Humphrey, Col. Smith, and other army officers. It seemed as though God's angels aided me in thought and speech. These officers admitted the wisdom and beauty of my humanitarian position; but they were' Utopian, and impracticable,' they said; ' and adapted to times a hundred years hence.' . . . 66 'Perhaps I am too enthusiastic for the red man, our brother, God's child. Perhaps I am too enthusiastic for peace throughout the world. But my soul's sympathies are stirred; and now, while I pen these lines, my eyes are suffused with tears. "Can not there be something done to flank this Western war-movement? It must start in the East. The extreme West is red for blood. "I am sorely tried. The Commissioners, save Col. S. F. Tappan, seem inclined to take retrograde steps. It is impossible to get to the Indians now personally: they suspect every body. If there could be a delegation gotten up in some way, in connection with the 'Peace Commissioners,' having the sanction of Government, I think something might be done; but between now and spring, how many will be shot down by a barbarous soldiery! I sometimes feel like flying away from this Christian civilization, so false to justice and benevolence, and going off alone into their country, devoting my life to their good." About this time, reporting his Western experiences to "The Banner of Light," he tells the story in these stinging words: "Stopping at the Planters' Hotel, Leavenworth, Kan., a very intelligent gentleman, just from Denver City, informed us, that, in an adjacent village, the citizens a few weeks previous had 'burned Gen. Sherman in effigy,' because connected with the Indian Peace Commission. He further said, it was the general purpose of the people in that region to kill indiscriminately Indian men, women, and children; for, he added, it takes but a little time for 'pappooses to make warriors." "In several Kansas cities recruiting offices were in full operation. Our train from Leavenworth to Lawrence had four cars filled with cavalry horses, for the coming war of extermination. Just to the north-east of Topeka, in full view, was the tented soldiery of the 19th Kansas, waiting the arrival of other companies for further orders. Inviting a gentleman to accompany us to the Indian country and the Western forts, he refused, because of the nightly depredations of the soldiers tenting near Topeka. 'Why,' said he, 'they are stealing every thing they can lay their hands on!' Strange, thought we, that Government |