EON DON GOSSIP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4581, 1 March 1893, Page 2

EON DON GOSSIP.

" TpKOXf OUR LONDON*. CORBEBPONDBNT.] . . London, Jan. 14. • THB NBWBPIBiTrtrAIiIBJf. The attempts to boom (1) the Mattei remedies for cancer, and (2) the "much maligned Mrs Maybrick " having resulted in egregious failure, and necessitated a liberal consumption of apology pudding and humble pie, "that good man Stead" has reverted'to his old friends the ghosts, and is now appearing daily in a fresh, and he hopes an attractive and sensational t6le, viz., as " apoßtle of the new spiritualism." I sent you last mail an interview, in which Mr Stead described his experiences as a " spirit writer." Since, then I have been enquiring into the whole boainess, and experienced therefrom great edification. To tell the truth, the new spiritualism does not strike me as. differing materially from the old. Its. devotees are precisely the same nervous, excitable, emotional men and hysterical women, and it is as impossible as ever to pin any of them down to a reliable material test. The High Priest of new spiritualism (next to Mr Stead, unanimously elected Pope on his conversion) is a certain Sir Lees, who, scorning die designation of medium, calb himself . a "Psychopathic Therapeutist.'' V Mr Lees has become ; a connoisseur in spirits. He discovered that to be strictly reliable one's familiar must be old and mellow like port wine. "Fat not your trust in any spirit under a thousand years old" cries Lees.' His own private and particular "control" is an Egyptian called Cushua (sounds like a patent medicine doesn't it P), a very useful old fellaw, atat 1013. "I am/' Mr Lees recently seriously assured an interviewer, "constantly in communication with him, and spoke with him to-day. Cuehua tells me of the whereabouts of the people I want to meet. He never deceives me." "Why?" " Because 1 never deceive him. We are in sympathy. He Bervea me and I serve him." " What can you do for him P" " Thiß is what I have done. One night he appeared to me and aeked me how much money I had about me. I told him some 32a. 'I want you/ said he, 'to take 25s of that to Mrs—— at such a house.* I went to the place directed, where I found a woman with some little children in great distress. I gave her the 25a, telling her that a friend had sent it. ' Thank God for that/ was her exclamation; 'if you had not come we should have been turned out of our home. I owe a pound for rent; I can now pay that, and the rest will buy us food/"- ..... , . . : ' V " ■ i

In further conversation Mr Lees declared that he did, not, as a rule, care to have communication with a spirit who had been less than one thousand years in the spirit world. When one had been there that length of time he knew something about the laws and regulations that governed that world. The beßt spirits, and those with whom Mr Lees had moßt to do wereiEgyptiane, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks and Somans. Several ancient languages, with which he was absolutely unfamiliar, were at timeß spoken through him. Most mediums had an Indian or negro spirit attached to them, because the magnetism of such spirits was more physical than that of others, and formed an efficient link between the medium and the higher spirits, Said Mr Lees, " Mrs Dayieß* favourite spirit is an Indian. Mine is an Egyptian, but I am protected by a negro spirit— and other spirits might get hold? of me unless I were protected. Some mediums allow themselves to be used by any spirit who comes along, and when they do that it is no part, of the , duty of any spirit to protect them. No spirit can rise me ; unless he has the permission of my chief control." • ■' "Are you in the habit of sending messages throrigh the spiritß ?" asked the interviewer. : ■■'■■' " •-' • ■■ ■ '■■ ''-■■"•■■ ■ • . •' " Yes/' replied Mr Lees. " When away from home I never use the telegraph. Through Cushua I oommunicate directly with any of my children who may be at home. I have ten of them alive, and they are all mediums. My wife, although possessed of ; certain psychical qualities, is not a medium. Cushua carries my messages to my children, and my children deliver them to my wife. I have a son connected with the Associated Press in Chicago. Thereto constant communication going on between us, but we never ÜBe the cable. Cushua travels with the rapidity of thought, either on the earth or from planet to planet, and world to world. He does more than cairy messages for me, When materialised he will Bit and talk with me; he will reach a book from the bookshelf for me. He is supplying me with material for a history of the world, which is now half-way through its thirty-seventh epoch, each epoch having lasted 60,000 years." The interviewer, a shrewd young pressman, promptly suggested Mr Lees Bhould teat Cushua by there and then (without leaving the room) sending his familiar to his residence in Regent's Park to fetch Mrs Lees. The Psychopathic Therapeutist could not see his way*to giving this simple proof of his powers, but offered to "arrange" a teßt of the sort.* , Oddly enough all these miracles invariably do requirer-arrangement! Mr Stead is doing his best to boom a spiritualist revival, and the subject being more or less attractive to everybody, and the missing word craze having collapsed, who .knows but he may succeed ? Personally, I readily admit there, are probably more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy; but two things have always kept me clear of spiritualism— (l) the class of men and i women who become its devotees, and, (2), the preposterous absurdities which cha- I racterise even the moat successful eeances. ! Cool, clear-headed unemotional men (such aa formed the Seybert Commission); invari- } ably pronounce against spiritualist pheno- , men a. ' ' • ) I should have thought the unfortunate [ results of Mr Stead's practical experiment ■ ou Elizabeth Armstrong would have cured j him of ever venturing on euch tricks again. , But be is incorrigible. About this time last year somebody stuffed Stead (you remember) that the Mattei remedies were the most marvellous and efficacious known, ■ curing even cancer. Whereupon nothing would satisfy the editor of the Bevieio of Reviews save a practical . experiment on a number of: cancer - patients. The affair was inaugurated with a tremendous flourish of trumpets and came to nothing." The remedies on being analysedproved to be of the bread-pill and distillediwater order. Some .were pro-nounced-inert either for good or ill, others consisted of simple decoctions of herbs. Now the spiritualist mania has seized Stead he is experimenting with his absurd "phenomena" on invalids. Mrs

Lees (who by the way, commenced? life as a coDjuror) does not call* himself Psychopathio Therapeutist for nothing. . "When/' he told the interviewer, : " I became convinced of the reality of spiritnalistio phenomena, I said, 'To what practical use can I put this science ? * " My attention waß drawn to the promises of spiritual gifts to be given to the Church. I was told by my ' controls '—that is to eay by the spirits communicating with me— that I should be üßed more for the healing of diseases than anything else* That was practical work, and I was quite content to lend myself to that. For the past eight years I have been curing diseases of every kind by the aid of Spiritualism—paralysis, tumours, blindness, withered limbs, even cancel, to say nothing of the lesaer ailments to which humanity is subject. I operate simply by transmission of vitality through the laying. on of hands; . and the measure of success, which attends my efforts, you can estimate from this batoh of letters (showing a large number)' received quite recently. I have told you/' con»tinued Mr Lees, ''how at certain time* Mr Stead feels the power of writing automatically come upon him.. It is the san>e with me when I put my hands upon the sick. A. spiritual power controls and directs me. lam at the present time' engaged in treating a lady who is in some way connected with Mr Stead. I am doing this in order that Mr Stead may himself gauge the results of psychopathic healing. The lady is suffering from losb of flesh. . She has fallen away to a skeleton. What name, the doctors would give her malady I cannot say. lam not a medical man." " Who are the'* controls *" who, bb a rule, operate through you ?" , " "I have many controls—upwards of 70 -• —but an Egyptian who calls himself Cnshua, and who has had a thousand years' experience; in the spirit world is my favourite spirit." If Mr Stead's relative were— as it seems to me not improbable — to depart for the land of spiritß whilst under the paycho-what-do-you-call-him's treatment, it strikes me a Coroner's Jury might take a painfully prosaic and materialistic view of the situation, and oblige Mr Lees to explain his spiritualism— much as Mr Ktead had to explain his philanthropy— to the Central Criminal Court. Evidently the man, judging by the batch of letters mentioned, mUBt already have collected a sort of practice, and. who can say what harm he may not be doing. ' AN IBBITATING PEBFACB. A preface which the Grand Old Man has gone out of his way to write to an antiBritish* American book called " The Puritan in England, Holland and America," explains to a great extent why Mr Gladstone is unpopular with many men who yet believe firmly in his integrity. 'The Premier, these say, has no enthusiasm for his country. He views England through even more hyperoritioal spectacles than he looks at America, or even Russia. "The friend of every country but hia own," he has no sympathy with the uncompromising dictum, "My country : Eight, if possible; wrong if it must be; but in any case, my country." Keally, of oourse, Mt Gladstone is as patriotic rs these good folks who censure him, bub he loathes the noisy, clamant " jingoism," upon the wave of which Lord Beacortßfield rose to popularity and power. This feeling leads him, no doubt, to an opposite extreme and into occasional indiscretionsEven the Grand Old Man's moat ardent admirers find it difficult to justify the preface <jo the aforementioned " Puritan in England, Holland aad America." The author tries to show that whatever is good in American character and institutions had its source not in England but Holland. Now, why on earth should Mr Gladstone lend the prestige of his name to a work like this. He gives reasons for his approval of course, and they are very learned and in their way curious. But one feels the Queen's first minister has no right to be in such a galley. The book is an a nti- British book, and for a leading Briton's name to be associated with it is a scandal of a sort. : . i