|
|
| About | Archives | Practices | Contribute | Contacts | Search |
| Periodical: | The Camp-Meeting Guide |
|
|
| Summary: |
From Pat Deveney's database:
Camp-Meeting Guide, The. This was the guide to the doings at the then new Lake Pleasant spiritualist camp and was published daily during the camp season "at the news stand." It "contains all the information possible to obtain concerning the orders of each day. Mediums and others can have notices inserted in it daily for a small compensation, Orders lor hand-bills, cards, tickets, etc., can be left at the office of the Guide, at the news stand, and thev will be promptly attended to. The Guide will contain the daily changes or programme, hours of seances, dancing, time of meeting, etc." It contained a set text explaining the "Indian Names of Localities and Rivers," railroad schedules, sketches of the lives of Joseph Beals, the president of the meeting, and other notables and mediums, advertisements for mediums and generally for all the purveyors of foods, tents, ice cream, stables, telegrams, etc. Dances, held in the afternoons and evenings at the Pavilion (which held 500), to the music of Russell's Orchestra of Fitchburg, were a surprising and much noted attraction of the camp. Gentlemen fifty cents for 10 dances a day (ladies, presumably, without charge). The spiritualist camp meeting on Lake Pleasant, Massachusetts, was started in August 1874, the product of the energetic Joseph Beals, a Unitarian dentist, and the Fitchburg Railroad, which sought to expand its traffic from Boston and contributed buildings, a fire engine and other inducements to the project. The camp regularly attracted 2000-4000 people and was as much a social as a spiritualist event. A newspaper at the time described the meeting: "A great many tents are designated as those belonging to mediums of different kinds, and for a consideration those who choose are given a sitting, when their questions are promptly answered from the spirit world (?). There are healing mediums too, who advertise their ability to cure the many ills human flesh is heir to. The "professional" spiritualists are generally women, and a few attract the notice of visitors by their peculiarity of dress and manner. One woman has donned the bloomer attire, parts her hair on one side, and is evidently a character. There is speaking every morning at the grand stand, but time is principally occupied in dancing, and other amusements and the free and easy enjoyment of camp life.' Everyone who was anyone in the spiritualist world appeared at the Lake Pleasant camp meeting over the next quarter century and it was the scene of innumerable squabbles, exposures, dubious "developing circles," debates and fights over Free Love, lawsuits, and sexual scandals. Notable among these were the fight between J.M. Roberts (editor of Mind and Matter) and John C. Bundy (editor of the Religio-Philosophical Journal) over the frauds of James A. Bliss (editor of the N.D.C. Axe and True Key Stone). Roberts publicly yelled at Bundy "-- -- --- ---! You --- ---! ‘-- --!' and "You G-d d-d son of a b-!"), which lead to several lawsuits. Notable also was the speech by Joseph Kiddle in 1880 parts of which later appeared, unattributed, in a letter from Koot Hoomi to A.P. Sinnett. (K.H. explained he had attended the speech astrally.) American Antiquarian Society. The Lake Pleasant camp over its lifespan gave birth to several ephemeral journals:
The Campmeeting Guide (said to have been published by H.A. Budington)
|
| Issues: | Camp-Meeting Guide Aug 14 1874 |
|
|
