A VISIT TO SPLIT ROCK, KENTUCKY—CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM IDA
TO HER PARENTS—ANNIE WINTERBURN TO HER BROTHER JOHN WINTERBURN,
AND HIS TESTIMONY AND HER FAREWELL TO THE MEDIUM, MRS. GREEN.

Mrs. Green’s home proper, is at Aurora, Dearborn county, Indiana. Aurora is a beautiful and enterprising little city of five or six thousand inhabitants, and is located on the western bank of the Ohio river, twenty-five miles or thereabouts below Cincinnati, Ohio. It can be reached from Cincinnati in less than an hour’s ride over the Ohio and Mississippi railroad, which passes through it. While her husband pursues the legal profession at Aurora, Mrs. G., in obedience to the wishes of her spirit guides and attendants, devotes her time and medial gifts at Cincinnati from Monday until Saturday of each week, returning to her companion and daughter each Saturday, and remaining with them over the Sabbath. This statement is deemed proper in view of and as prefatory to what I am about to relate as occurring recently, and which can not fail to be estimated as a truly remarkable spirit manifestation.

By the invitation of Mr. Green, Mr. Edwin Stebbins, of Cincinnati, and myself accompanied Mrs. Green to her home at Aurora on Saturday, August the 5th, for the purpose of joining a small party of excursionists on the day following to the celebrated Split Rock, some three miles down the river from Aurora, on the Kentucky side of the Ohio. Our host had chartered a small propeller steamboat known as the Wave, which we boarded early Sunday morning (the 6th), and it required less than a half hour to land us at our destination. Our party consisted of our host and hostess and their daughter, Cora B. Green; Mr. B. F. Vandegrift, his wife, three daughters and son; James W. Shirley, wife, and two small children.

During the afternoon we were threatened with a rain-storm, and our party divided, some going into the caves for shelter, others repaired to a farm-house near by. The rain passed around us, after which a party of five in number, namely, Mr. and Mrs. Green, Mr. and Mrs. Vandegrift, and myself, reassembled on the summit of the elevation overlooking the Split Rock. It was suggested by me that we have a spirit seance, but we had no stand, slate or pencil. The novelty of a spirit seance on that noted spot was sufficiently suggestive and interesting to induce us to improvise a seat for the medium, which consisted of a couple of stakes driven into the ground and a fence rail placed on them. I took out my annotation book and with lead pencil placed it on Mrs. G.’s lap, and she threw over them a rubber circular, making the necessary condition of darkness. We formed a semi-circle in front of the medium thus seated, and sang the “Sweet Bye and Bye,” and “Nearer My God to Thee.” In a few moments the covering over the writing material was raised up and down three times, indicating thereby that the writing had been accomplished. In this way we received in rapid succession three communications, which I hereby transcribe and number them in the order of their production.

We were not only delighted but enthusiastic over the success of our enterprise. Here on this spot, both romantic and famous in history, with illy-provided conditions, we had communed with the loved ones from the land of immortal souls.

As the spirit daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, of Cincinnati, Ohio, is mentioned as belonging to the party of tourists that visited the planet Mars, and as communicating with others at Split Rock, Kentucky, and for other good reasons, I have deemed it not inappropriate to incorporate herein a letter of Mr. Stebbins to the Spiritual Offering, a paper recently established at Ottumwa, Iowa, and which is ably conducted and devoted to the advancement of spiritualism.

[For the “Spiritual Offering.”]

INDEPENDENT SLATE WRITING,

BY

EDWIN STEBBINS.

On Christmas evening myself and wife secured an independent slate-writing sitting with Mrs. Lizzie S. Green, at 309 Longworth street, Cincinnati, Ohio, and we received the following communication from our dear spirit daughter, viz:

“Merry, merry Christmas to you all! I do not know of a better Christmas gift than to give you a spirit communication on this memorable day. I am so happy and excited I can not write good. Oh, I have a beautiful home and am advancing in music all the time. I have a beautiful library of books. I am a teacher, and have a nice little class. We do not have as many scholars here in the spirit world as you do. We can not teach every one like we did here. We have to be attracted to each other magnetically. Therefore our work is not in vain, for by this method spiritual growth must ensue. We work in harmony together, and nothing occurs to retard our progress in learning. You would be surprised, and I rather think you are now, even at my style of composition. If you could see me as I am here, and hear me talk, you would see how fast I have progressed. Oh, how happy I am in my spirit home, but my heaven is not there. It is with my dear pa and ma, but duty calls and I must obey. I have been made extremely happy by your obedience to my will and all will be well. Henney says this is quite new to him, but when he saw you and me at his funeral his happiness was beyond expression. When you laid away my form of clay you did not think to see me here to talk and write to my loved ones dear.

“When you’re sad and sometimes cry,
Remember your Ida, dear, is nigh,
To bless and comfort you while here,
And guide you to a brighter sphere.

“And when the time comes for you to go we will meet you with our golden boat, and row you safely over the beautiful river to our home that I have helped prepare for you. Now, thanking Mrs. Green for her kindness to you and Ida, I bid you good night. All the relatives are here, and send you their Christmas greetings.

“Good night, good night, to all that’s here,
I leave and go to a brighter sphere.

Wishing you all success in the new year, dear pa and ma, ever hold sacred the Christmas gift I present you to-day. Good night, Mr. Green, wife and daughter. Good night, my dear pa and ma. This indeed is the happiest Christmas I have spent since I left my earthly home. I must leave, but it is hard. Your loving daughter,

“Ida.”

“My daughter passed away on the 18th day of December, 1875, at the age of seventeen, and she was an only child. The above message from her possesses peculiar value to me, for therein are a number of valuable tests and evidences of her identity. My belief in the return of the spirits of the departed is of brief duration in point of time antecedent, and was mainly brought about, through the mediumship of Mrs. Green. I can not express the real happiness I enjoy since I have been the recipient of this new light divine and I can only say, ‘God speed the good work.’

“Cincinnati, Ohio.”

ANNIE WINTERBURN.

“Dear Brother: Oh, how happy I am to-day to be able to write you on the inner surface of a double slate with your own precious hands holding it with the medium. You did not need this as a test, for your mind is clear and your heart is in the cause, but we give it to you because others have been thus favored, and we have resolved that you shall not be neglected when the good things pertaining to spirit intercourse are being given to others. Oh, John, you do give us so much real happiness by your noble and upright conduct, and by the opportunities you give us to hold sweet communion with you. Thus our lives become interblended, and the happiness of all increased. Spirits do derive great benefit from mortals, and to that extent are dependent on them. When a child dies in the tender years of infancy unschooled in the multifarious concernments of mortal life, it is brought back into contact with human affairs that it may learn those experiences of earth which were denied it by its early and untimely departure from the form. In all the pursuits of your life each individual is constantly attended by spirits interested in the same, and in these and many other ways are spirits aided in their progress and happiness. Whenever and by whomsoever you are told differently heed it not, but rely on what I have stated. We are interested in your proper instruction, and we will not lead you astray or into error. All those near and dear to you are here, and bid me to send you their love greetings. They pray without ceasing that you may be kept steady and firm in your high resolves and noble purposes until the end, when you shall rejoice in the anthem of victory. Hold up your head, dear and precious brother; be brave and resolute in the hour of temptation. Do no harm, but all the good you can in the world. And when the blessed angel called Death shall beckon you away from the labors and vicissitudes of mortal life to the sunlit evergreen shores of the summer land, be assured that among the hosts of others who will meet and welcome you with happy and rejoicing hearts you will see and be enfolded lovingly in the arms of your loving sister,

“Annie.”

“I, John Winterburn, resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, do hereby certify that the above and foregoing communication from my spirit sister came in the manner, to wit: I examined a double slate, and found it clean and without any writing whatever upon it. A small piece of slate pencil not larger than a grain of wheat was placed upon it and the slate closed. I then held on to one side of the slate, holding it tight together as folded, and the medium, Mrs. Green, held on to the other side. Soon we heard writing, and in the course of fifteen minutes the signal was given indicating that the writing was completed, whereupon the slate was opened, and on both sides of the inner surfaces was found, neatly written, the above communication. The t’s were crossed, and the i’s were dotted. I know, as well as I am capable of knowing any fact requiring the exercise of my senses in their normal state, that the communication was written by invisible power, and I firmly believe it comes from the source it purports to come, namely: my dear sister, now in spirit life. The seance was in broad daylight, and under circumstances that precluded fraud or deception on the part of the medium or any one else in the body.

“John Winterburn, 185 Longworth street.”

“This same Mr. Winterburn has had regularly one sitting a week with Mrs. Green for seven or eight months, and among other spirit relatives and friends who were active in communicating with him was his spirit sister Annie. She seems to possess considerable poetic ability, and occasionally wrote poetry to her brother. Recently Mr. Winterburn visited his mother country, England, and the last sitting with Mrs. G. before his departure, his sister Annie addressed the medium in the following feeling stanzas, which Mr. Winterburn copied as they came on the slate, viz:

“Dear medium friend, both good and true,
’Tis hard that we must part from you,
And though we cross the surging main,
We will return to you again.
“Returning with our spirits’ love and power
From British isle or sunlit bower,
Our fond hearts’ loving blessings to impart
To comfort and cheer your noble heart.
“Dear brother’s heart you have made glad,
Dispersing sorrow and conditions sad;
And where’er we roam, on land or sea,
Our hearts shall turn in love to thee.
“Farewell, dear medium friend, farewell,
To thee our gratitude we ne’er can tell,
We can only say heart’s full of love,
We’ll meet you on the shores above.
“And there, in that bright land of joy,
Where mingles naught of earth’s alloy,
We’ll lead thy steps with blessings rare
To our homes above our joys to share.
“Angels of light, refulgent bright,
Be with you when you take you flight
From scenes of strife and sorrows here
To a just reward in a higher sphere.
“Farewell, farewell, alas! farewell,
The parting is like a funereal knell;
But when you climb the golden stair,
Your true friend, Annie, will meet you there.”