Modern spiritism; its science and religion - SpiritArchive.org

42 MODERN SPIRITISM
a North American Indian (also dead), who speaks in
negro language for some unknown reason! The
control then communicates this message to the
medium, who then makes it known to the sitter, who
then tells his friends, of whom the reader may be
one. Sometimes the "control," using the medium's
hand to write, or rapping the table himself, shortens
the process; as a rule, however, the message passes,
with more or less distortion, through four minds
the spirit's, the control's, the medium's, and the
inquirer's.
Hodgson and Moses
Later on I shall fully discuss the pros and cons
of the truth of alleged communications from the
dead; here I shall only give, very shortly, some
carefully selected facts connected with this and other
subjects.
Professor Hodgson, of Boston, is said to have
begun to speak through the medium Mrs. Piper, who
had acted solely under his guidance for twenty years,
eight days after his death, and to have continued
since.
At a sitting in August, 1874,
with an Isle
of Mr. Stainton Moses
of Wight doctor, they received a communication
from Abraham Florentin, who stated
he had fought in 1812, and died at Brooklyn, New
York, on August 5th, 1874. No one had ever heard
of him; but advertisements inserted in American
papers brought to light that a man of this name had
been in the American Forces, and the headquarters
of the U. S. Army said that a Private Abraham
Florentin had served in the American War. His