The author of "Worse Than a Ghost Story" might have been Lewis J. Bates (1832-1915), an editor and poet.
I'm somewhat sorry the dates that appear to have been in the original appearance weren't used rather than the later May 1858 ones of many of the reprints: December 20, 1856 for the sworn statements and December 28 for the letter. If I get the opportunity to change that, I'd like to do so. As seen in e.g.
[Upper Sandusky, OH]. February 5, 1857: 1 cols 5-7, 2 col 1.
It got reprinted or reported on in many newspapers across the US (up to 1866 at least!), and even abroad, e.g.:
Northern Daily Times [Lancashire, England]. April 22, 1857: 6.
Belfast Mercury [Antrim, Northern Ireland]. April 24, 1857: 3.
Liverpool Albion [Lancashire, England]. April 27, 1857: 6.
Banbury Advertiser [Oxfordshire, England]. April 30, 1857: 3.
Harrogate Herald [Yorkshire, England]. April 30, 1857: 3.
"An Old Story Renewed." Adelaide Times [Australia]. July 24, 1857: 3. [citing London Times]
Francis, J. R., Ed. “A Wonderful Narration Illustrating Spirit-Life and the Change Called Death.”
Vol. 3. Chicago: Progressive Thinker, 1896 192-200
remake of ''The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar'' that turns everything up to 11. Grosser decomposition. Stronger assurances of the story's reality. As with Valdemar, there were signs in other papers that some took it to be real, while others figured it out.
An Editor Disgusted. Thanks to the humanizing influence of a Christian education, there is one political editor in this ungodly world who
can be disgusted,—That pink of moral purity is the junior editor of the Herald. Hear him:
DISGUSTING.—"A Believer in Spiritualism" who sent us the article purporting to be "Spiritual Manifestations" in Michigan, and which article first found the light in the Grand Rapids Enquirer, is informed that no
inducement could
tempt us to disgrace the Herald with such
disgusting stuff. There. Take that, Mr. "believer," and don't
tempt our virtue with such "disgusting stuff."—That is very like an old harlot who has to put on extra airs to make her pretensions go down for virtue itself. This same old primp could publish the "Laban Farkes Roorback" as all true, and did not retract it even when informed it was a hoax. There were no doubts entertained, nor disgust manifested on that occasion, because there was a little bread and butter involved. "Inducements" did "tempt" the Herald man then to cruelly deceive his readers with a hoax more transparent than that of the "Moon," or even this Michigan manifestation. In fact the Michigan affair has many credible features about it. It has precedents to induce belief. Was not Samuel raised out of his coffin by a Witch? Did not Lazarus come forth from his tomb at the call of a Spirit? It is true this took place thousands of years ago, and is testified to only by dead men, but must the operations of spirits be confined to the musty records of antiquity in order to be believed? Is not God unchangable, and truth eternal? Are not the laws which governed spiritual manifestations, in olden times, the same now? If not, mutability has crept into the policy of the Creator, and we have got to look out for a new order of things. There is another feature in this affair, easy to believe. It represents a man and woman quarreling about matters of opinion, and the woman, although she had been dead three months, rose in her rage out of her grave, just to have the last word. It merely showed an undying will, and a perseverance that could wrest the frozen teguments of the tomb. She was not only a "strong minded," but a strong handed woman.
But most natural of all, because, according to the Herald, most humane, was the final closing of this sad scene. The mortal remains of this combative compound was
burned to ashes.—This, if we recollect right, is in accordance with the Herald's views in regard to disposing of this mortal coil, when it has properly been freed of its attendant spirit. We differ with the junior in this view. Our theory is to condense defunct humanity into the smallest possible space, under such a pressure that when
kiln dried, it can be polished and worn as ornaments about our person. There is no other way to get a polish on to some people, and we fear the junior will have to undergo a pretty hard squeeze to shine. He never would do for a bosom ornament, but might answer for a dog collar, only he would be continually getting up a fight with his owner.
Of this hoax the Grand Rapids Eagle pertly says:
"One of the best jokes of the season was perpetuated in yesterday's Enquirer. A "Spiritual Manifestation," in the shape of a letter purporting to be written from Grand Traverse, by a young physician, resident of that place, giving some astonishing and startling accounts of a most thrilling character, relative to the capers cut up by sundry spirits, appeared in that paper, the whole thing backed up by affidavits and other evidences of its truthfulness. Without expressing an opinion as to the propriety or impropriety of the article, we are constrained to say that in point of real merit in production, and talent displayed in its elaboration, it is by no means inferior to “Locke's” celebrated Moon Hoax, and really "a big sell," as any one can see by reading the caption backwards. We believe its authorship can be traced to the Local Editor of that paper, who, despite his peculiarities and eccentricities, betrays a most decided ability in his productions. It is a good joke, L. J. B., and by no means hard to take."
Benedict, Grace be with you.
Plain Dealer [Cleveland, OH]. January 20, 1857: 2 col 1.
I’m not entirely sure what the “Laban Farkes Roorback” is, the thing above to which “Worse Than a Ghost Story” was compared. I’ve gotten some idea.
A Roorback is “a defamatory falsehood published for political effect […] from an attack on James K. Polk in 1844 purporting to quote from an invented book by a Baron von Roorback”.
(Laban or Laben) (Farkes or Parker) has something to do with Bleeding Kansas circa July 1856. It appears to have been Laben Parker in the first appearance (Dayton Daily Gazette?), Laban Farkes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Farkes in other Ohio newspapers thereafter and anyone copying them. The Plain Dealer kept hammering on it as a hoax for at least two years.
I’m not sure if Parker/Farkes was real, or Martin Rulex/Ruley, J.E. More/Moore, or Frederick Rooks. At the same time, I don’t take for granted that they weren’t real as some of those Ohio newspapers evidently did. However, the person Peter Odlin, Esq. who reportedly read the letter aloud in Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio was real: Peter Odlin Jr. (1798-1877)
www.findagrave.com/memorial/153111637/peter-odlin who was examined for the bar by Francis Scott Key.
Likewise, there was a Walter G. Sherwin in Montgomery County, appointed a notary by the governor in 1857, a lawyer and abolitionist in 1860, and who in 1861 while a Captain in the 124th Regiment, Ohio Infantry exhibited a model of a “Cincinnati Breech loading cannon” to Lincoln.
Parker was(?):
• a real martyr?
• a hoax cooked up by Odlin and Sherwin to support the abolitionist movement?
• a hoax cooked up by pro-slavery supporters to defame Odlin and Sherwin?
Any one of those things would seem to be of some significance to the history of the run up to the Civil War, and yet Parker (as martyr or hoax) seems to have been mentioned in passing in only two books:
Phillips, William A. and Andrew Dickson White.
The Conquest of Kansas by Missouri And Her Allies: a History of the Troubles In Kansas: From the Passage of the Organic Act Until the Close of July, 1856. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1856. 388-389.
Villard, Oswald Garrison.
John Brown, 1800-1859: a Biography Fifty Years After. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1910. 215.
Strange.
I’ll have to ask a subject specialist sometime.
More contemporary reporting on the Worse Than a Ghost Story:
Spiritual Manifestation in Michigan.
The
Republic of Monday published an article purporting to be an account of "Spiritual Manifestations" in Michigan. We set it down at once as a hoax of the first water, but one of quite too serious a nature to be paraded before intelligent readers, at least without stating it to be a "sell." The following article from the Cleveland
Herald is an expose of the whole affair and contains a merited censure of the practice of spreading such reading before the public:—
"A Believer in Spiritualism" who sent us the article purporting to be "Spiritual Manifestations" in Michigan, and which article first found the light in the Grand Rapids
Enquirer, is informed that no inducement could tempt us to disgrace the
Herald with such disgusting stuff. Our correspondent may rest assured, that if he is credulous enough to believe such nonsence, the cloth is woven which will be used in his straight-jacket. He says that if we believe not such evidence, it only proves that we will not believe "even though one should rise from the dead." In the first place we do not believe any one has risen from the dead in these modern days and should very much doubt his sanity who did believe that story. In the second place, as a hoax it is not worth publishing. We could not sleep quiet in our bed after having spread such revolting details before our readers. It is not only unfit as reading matter for people of strong nerves, but a father or mother who would permit a child to read it, is unfit to have the care of a child.
Giving publicity to such a mass of corruption as that story is made up of, is no better than selling obscene prints. The story pretends that a woman named Hayden did actually come out of her grave and appear bodily—that is so much of her body as corruption had not destroyed—to her sick husband, who was killed by the fright. The man who is base enough to invent such a story deserves a felon's cell. The tale is as devoid of talent as of decency.
Since the above was written, our eye has fallen on the Grand Rapids
Eagle of the 8th, by which it appears that the author of the hoax is a resident—and we are ashamed to say—an editor of that city. The
Eagle says:
A SELL.—One of the best jokes of the season was perpetuated in yesterday's
Enquirer. A "Spiritual Manifestation," in the shape of a letter purporting to be written from Grand Traverse, by a young physician, resident of that place, giving some astonishing and startling accounts of a most thrilling character, relative to the capers cut up by sundry spirits, appeared in that paper, the whole thing backed up by affidavits and other evidences of its truthfulness. Without expressing an opinion as to the propriety or impropriety of the article, we are constrained to say that in point of real merit in production, and talent displayed in its elaboration, it is by no means inferior to "Loucke's celebrated Moon Hoax," and really "a big sell," as any one can see by reading the caption backwards. We believe its authorship can be traced to the Local Editor of that paper, who, despite his peculiarities and eccentricities, betrays a most decided ability in his productions. It is a good joke, L. J. B., and by no means hard to take.
We cannot agree with our friend of the
Eagle that there is any talent displayed in the article, save that which any "big liar" possesses. The Moon Hoax deceived even the most scientific, and was a beautiful fiction; this is but a filthy lie.
Unless we are mistaken—not having the reference at hand—the only portion of this tale which possesses any talent is stolen from Edgar A. Poe.
Buffalo Courier [NY]. January 21, 1857: 2 col 3.
☞ SILLY HOAX.—The Grand Rapids Enquirer, some days since, contained a marvellous story of a spiritualist bringing to life the undecomposed portions of a deceased woman's remains. The disgusting story has had a run, among the papers, and some readers have taken it as truth. The revolting tale owes all its wit and all its filth to EDGAR A. POE'S "Facts in the case of M. Valdemar," a beastly composition, intended to ridicule mesmerism.
Buffalo Morning Express [NY]. January 21, 1857: 3 col 2.
Spiritualism in a New Aspect.—Dr. John Moreton relates the case of a patient who disagreed with his wife, she believing in spiritual manifestations while he scouted them. She died, telling him with her last breath that on his death-bed she would appear to him in the body. A few weeks afterwards, Dr. Moreton being then present, the husband died, and as he was gasping his last, a horrible body, through whose decaying flesh the white bones gleamed, and from whose rotten limbs dropped loathsome grave worms upon the floor, entered the room. This horrible form said, "Come, William! they wait for you—I wait," and fell to the floor, where it remained the next day, and the body of the husband being conveyed away, the house was burned. This story is supported by two or three affidavits, taken before Judge Maylor, [sic] notary public for Grand Traverse county, Michigan.
The Medical World 2(8) [Boston, MA]. May 20, 1857. 157.
“What may this mean?
That thou, dead corse, again….
Revisit’st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous…..
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?”
HAMLET.
The Crown Point Register (Lake county, Ind.,) published the following rather huge story, as “another phase of spiritualism.” The writer seems to have compounded Poe’s “M. Valdemar,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and manufactured the affidavits: […]
“A Most Horrible Narrative! Spiritualism Run Mad.”
Kansas News [Emporia]. July 31, 1858: 1 cols 1-4.
www.loc.gov/resource/sn85030219/1858-07-31/ed-1/?sp=1&r=0.008,0.212,0.294,0.148,0
If any of our readers are fond of a
marvelous story, we give them one which must fill to the brim their measure of the mysterious and wonderful. If we thought any one was foolish enough to
believe a word of this miraculous story, we would not publish it—but presuming none are green enough for this, we give it to our readers as a specimen of what wondrous tales some people will swear to.—ED. AGE. [...]
“A Marvelous Story!”
Spirit of the Age [Raleigh, NC]. September 8, 1858: 1 cols 4-7.
www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026561/1858-09-08/ed-1/?sp=1&r=0.388,0.816,0.325,0.164,0
CORPSE STORY—WHO ARE CREDULOUS?
The credulity of every person in this country has undoubtedly been challenged during the last year, by a wonderful story which has gone, we believe, the entire round of the secular press, to the effect that a man and his wife quarreled, and she threatened that if she died first, she would appear to him bodily, etc. She died, and was buried, and after several days she came to her husband bodily, and after delivering to him her message from kingdom come, her body dissolved into a mass of corruption before him, etc. This story was verified by what purported to be the oaths of several witnesses, and the certificate of a justice that the witnesses were respectable, credible persons, etc.
This story came to us through the secular papers as a
wonderful spiritual manifestation, and as such it has been bandied about from paper to paper, throughout the country, as a veritable thing
sworn to! When we first saw this story, we examined it thoroughly, but found in it no internal marks of truth, and we had no experience or philosophy which rendered such a case probable, or even possible. Notwithstanding, therefore, its pretended vouchers, and its attestations by oath, we pronounced it untrue, and we do not remember that any Spiritualist paper has endorsed it as true, or as having any probability. But it has been quite otherwise with those who are ever forward in charging Spiritualists as unwarrantably credulous. It was enough for them that the story was published in the
Tribune and other papers, and especially that a purported justice and his neighbors had made oath to it. What! doubt what is in the papers with an oath attached to it! What presumption! ’Tis conclusive evidence of insanity.
Well, this falsehood seems to have been overruled for good. God will make the work of his enemies to praise him. Many persons have been induced by this story to investigate Spiritualism, and have as readily found the truth as they would if they had not been brought to it through a lie. But we think this falsehood has done its work, and we will give what information we have of its origin and the untruthfulness of the story.
It was originated probably by an editor of a secular paper in Grand Rapids, Mich., and published in his paper under the following title, “LLESGIBA.” When it was copied into other papers, this uncouth title was omitted, and various other more respectable titles placed over it. We never saw it published under the above title. But a correspondent, who is a Spiritualist, and is in high official position in the State of Wisconsin, wrote us, under date of Nov. 3, 1858, as follows:
“It (the story) struck me very forcibly that a straightforward matter-of-fact statement, giving an account of such occurrences, would not be headed with a foreign word. I thought the translation of the word would give a clue to the origin of the story, which I began to feel was a hoax. I knew it was not French, and there my knowledge of foreign languages rested. I applied to linguists, hut no Daniel could decipher it. I thought of it all night, and the. next day I went to a neighboring village, and submitted it to the knowing ones, but no one could reveal the secret. I started to go home, and on the way, when not thinking about it, it appeared as if some one told me as distinctly as though I heard it with my ears, (which I did not,) ‘Read the word backward;’ then the humbug was transparent to my mental sight—‘A Big Sell.’ I learned afterward that there were no such persons at Grand Traverse as were mentioned in the story.”
It is a remarkable fact that all the deceptions attempted to be palmed off as spiritual, both by pretentious friends and open enemies of the cause, have been first discovered and exposed by Spiritualists, and skepticism has helped us nothing; it has only boasted of fairness, skill, and wisdom, which it had not; it has been ever credulous of mere wonder and folly, and skeptical of truth, use, and human integrity.
Spiritual Telegraph and Fireside Preacher [NY]. April 30, 1859: 7 cols 2-3.