"But you should not lose your patience with the preachers. They are, you know, so influential in molding public sentiment; if you can convert one of them to a belief in spiritualism, you may impress a multitude."

"I do not lose patience with any one. I think, however, your estimate of the preachers' influence in molding public sentiment is in excess of the truth. I have yet to find the first one who has had the moral courage to make a fair exhibit to the public of such tests as have been given them at the writing-table or in the dark circle. As a class, they are too cowardly to speak of the interest they feel in the subject, and, Peter-like, they will deny having visited a medium before they have wiped the tears from their eyes which their 'spirit-friends have evoked. They mold public sentiment! No, sir: you are mistaken. They are miserable shams, and they know it. The multitude lead them by the nose, as it does the editors. They may play their pranks before high heaven, as painted and patched harlequins do before men, but that they either lead or mold public sentiment is a concession made purely through ignorance or charity."

"I am sorry to hear this report of the preachers. I thought them very much better than you represent."

"They are only actors, playing a part in the drama of life, affecting virtues which they do not feel. They are not what they seem, any more than is the donkey in the lion's skin."

"I hope private citizens are better than preachers and editors."

"There is not much difference.

'Mankind are unco' weak,

And little to be trusted;

If self the wavering balance shake,
It's rarely right adjusted.'

They simply lack the opportunity or the courage
Place them in the way of temptation,

to be mean.
and the sturdiest of them fall from grace.

'Is thy

servant a dog, that he should do this thing?' asked Felix, of old. Had he been acquainted with preachers, printers, and politicians of modern times, it were needless to ask this question."

"You estimate human nature very poorly, Mrs. Hollis, and, least of all, the preacher, the printer, and the politician."

"Not more so than they deserve. I have more than common opportunities for knowing these people; and I tell you, if they should get their deserts, they would suffer badly!"

"What have they done to you?”

"Slandered me! They make false statements, and are shameless in their tergiversation. Speaking of these men as a class, they riot in falsehood. The preacher and printer have given currency to lies that are little less than infamous; while the poltroon of a politician plays 'puppy,' and barks while they bite."

"But, Mrs. Hollis, you ought not to complain of these people. I suppose they pay you pretty well for your time?"

"That is the general supposition; and herein is great injustice done me. I am represented as a mercenary person, and as plying my vocation for its emol

uments. Never was there a grosser falsehood. This slander obtained such general circulation and credibility, that the municipal government of Louisville made it a punishable offense, both by a heavy fine and imprisonment, for any spirit-medium to practice their profession, without first having taken out what all considered a proscriptive city license. This was the joint work of pulpit-preachers, pothouse politicians, and boss-printers. O, they are a pretty set of mountebanks to stand in the way of God's eternal providence! Too craven to feel the galling fetters upon their necks, too stupid to read the signs of the times, as they are written on the forehead of modern science, they will be consumed as brambles in the billowy blaze of the New Era."

"But do you make no charge for your services?" "I do not; and dare not, if I would. My parlors, as you see, are filled from morning till night. The spirit of curiosity and inquiry brings to my house all kinds of people from all parts of the country. My doors are open, and my time is placed at the disposal of the multitude. In this way my family are deprived of my services, and my expenses are augmented by the employment of additional help. Yet the crowd. come and go without being reminded of the facts I have just stated. I make no charge for this new gospel of life; but the time is coming when I will. Ministers are petted and pampered with exorbitant salaries for preaching a free (?) gospel to purple-robed, shoddy pew-holders. Shall I be starved to death. because the angels of God announce themselves in my presence? Formerly it was the rack, the wheel,

the stake, the fagot, and the halter. Now it is starvation. Let us pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

'But do none pay you, Mrs. Hollis ?"

“O, occasionally a pittance, ranging in value from a dime to a dollar, is left as a charity upon my table; but in the aggregate such contributions would not pay for house-cleaning and the wear of my carpets."* “You have not as 'soft a thing' of it as I fancied, Mrs. Hollis."

"About as 'soft' as Tom Hood's shirt-maker." "Sitting at the table so constantly must exhaust you very much?"

"Yes I get tired. I can only rest myself by stirring around, or doing something."

"Your mediumship is a very great mystery, Mrs. Hollis. I do not wish to tax either your strength or your good-nature; still, when you feel like talking, and are inclined to gratify my curiosity, nothing would give me more satisfaction than to know exactly how you became a spiritualist and a spirit-medium."

"O, I can tell you that in a few minutes, and may as well do it now as at any other time."

"Do, please!"

*I was informed, by friends, that it was not unfrequent for persons who were quite able to pay, to visit Mrs. Hollis for manifestations, who, after monopolizing her time for several hours, would leave without even returning her the poor acknowledgment of their thanks for the sacrifices she had made. I therefore urged her to correct this injustice by absolutely refusing to give her time as a gratuity to such cattle; and if the spirit-world was dissatisfied with this arrangement, let them select some other medium to do their work. There is not a preacher in the land who would, in her circumstances, give his time to the rich (or poor) for nothing. It is literally "casting pearls before swine." Why should she do it?

"When a very little girl, I was considered 'a sleepy-headed child,' and I was so slow to comprehend the value of the alphabet, that it was feared by ma and others that I would never surmount the difficulty."

"That's true," said Mother Kerns, who had taken a seat with us on the porch, to listen to the narrative. "That's true. I thought at one time Mary had softening of the brain."

"Indeed! Well, you have dismissed all such apprehensions now, Mother Kerns?"

"O yes: long since!"

"But we interrupted you, Mrs. Hollis. Please go on with the narrative."

"Whenever I would attempt to study, I would either go to sleep or see a spectral man beside me." "A ghost?"

"I did not know. I was very much afraid of him, though he always spoke kindly to me. When I became reconciled to his presence, I began to talk to him, until mother would frequently say, 'Child, who are you talking to?' When I would tell her who it was, both ma and pa would say that it was only a 'trick of the imagination.' It was all a mistake. The man was only a figment of the mind, and I must'nt be dribbling talk to myself in that stupid way."

"Of course, I tried hard to obey my parents; but when I would retire to my chamber at night, and after undressing for bed, then I would see my room filled with people. These kept up a general conversation; and I became so excited and nervous that I would