The Kemmerer Republican

SPIRIT
DESTROYS
HIS
HAPPY
HOME

Wife Never Had Best of Temper,
But Spiritualism Sends
Her Amuck.

LEFT
HIM
22
TIMES

Muttered at the Sink Because Water
Didn't
Run
Fast
Enough
to
Suit Her, Says Exasperated
Husband.

Detroit, Mich.- Twenty-two times in the last fifteen years Mrs. Helen Ward has packed her clothes, the family pictures and china and quit her job as the wife of John F. Ward, a middle-aged druggist and violin maker.
Twenty-one times John Ward laid aside his pestle and mortar or a partly finished violin, as the case might have been, and sought out his wife to plead until she returned and put back into their places the china and family portraits.

A few days ago, in a dingy back room of his drug store, with a partly finished violin across his knees, he told the story of how his home, his business and seven years of his life had been wrecked.

"It was seven years ago,' he said slowly, "that a woman entered my home with this spiritualism tomfoolery.
I tried to stop it, but I was too late.

"Mother took it up and wouldn't drop it.

"She never had the best of a temper, but we got along fairly well until she was medium-stricken.
After that -oh, well! temper -is a weak word after all
Spirits Bad-Tempered.

"The deeper mother got into spiritualism the uglier she became.
She never seemed to get an amiable spirit.
It wouldn't have been so bad if she had
I think it was either 'Black Hawk' or 'Red Eagle,' departed Indians, whose spirit possessed mother.
I've seen her, when she had 'em, mutter at the sink because the water didn't run fast enough to suit her.

"When I protested she would fly into a rage, pack the china and family pictures and quit.
Often it took two weeks to find her.
When I did, sometimes she was sorry and ready to return.
At other times she was ugly and I had to coax her.

"Once I thought she was nearly cured.
A daughter by my first wife attended a seance.
The next day she was possessed of the spirit of her departed mother.
Her stepmother didn't like that a little bit and the powers she summoned from below or above made the other spirit retreat over the divide.
Smashed the Vases.

"Two or three years ago, when the tight skirt had its inning, mother made one.
After she put it on she came downstairs, twisted herself before the mirror and said, 'How do you like it, John?'

"'It's all right, mother,' I answered, 'but put your foot on the chair.' She did, and then I said, 'You will make a display, mother, when you get on a street car.'

"That night when I went upstairs after closing the store, mother, her clothes, the pictures and the china were gone. I found out where she was, but she wouldn't return. She had placed the china and several hand-painted vases at a friend's and I got a writ of replevin to get them back.

"When the officer went to serve the writ mother was there.
What could he do with the spirit of Black Hawk backing mother that night?

"In addition to breaking up our home it has taken money to keep mother traveling with the spirits of redskins and doctors who died a hundred years ago.

"Mother has had to tip Caesar, Brutus and those other fellows who are conductors on the transcelestial trains, or maybe they're in the subways; I've forgotten, though mother told me once. I've paid the bills: I need money now, but-no, I don't believe that mother had a good time out of it."

She Smashed
Vases Valued at $150,
While the Officer Looked On.