Watchman, The.
Devoted to the Interests of Humanity and Spiritualism. Also, A Mouthpiece of the American and Eastern Congress in Spirit-Life / A monthly Journal devoted to the interests of Humanity, Spiritualism, and the Spirit World.
Be Ye Just Unto All
1880--1895? Monthly
Chicago, IL, then Fort Wayne, IN, and then (1892) Buffalo, NY. Language: English.
Publisher: Boston Star & Crescent Co.. Editor: Hattie A. Cate Berry, "Amanuensis"; Spirit Editors: "Philosopher" and "Watchman"; Arthur B. Shedd, manager.
Corporate author: Mouthpiece of the American and Eastern Congress of Spirit Life1/1, September 1880. 6-8 pp., 50 cents-$1.00 a year. Receipt of the first issue is noted in Mind and Matter, September 18, 1880. It was still being advertised in Banner of Light in 1895. Each issue was dated in regular fashion and also as "M.S.," running from 1848 and the appearance of modern spiritualism.

The journal is exemplary, both its articles and its advertisements, of the more dubious, phenomenal, and credulous minor spiritualist journals of the period. Harriet A. Cate (1851-after 1930; married James H. Berry, a "medium for a band of ancient spirits," in 1884) was the medium for a variety of "Indian" spirits (Watchman, Peace Bird, Red Hand, et al., and other members of the American and Eastern Congress in Spirit Life) and contributed to most issues an excerpt from the likes of "Contrasts of Life: Spirit Habitation, or Planetary Life" or "A Brief Report of Experiences in Life, Selected and Copied from the Pages of Memory," communicated by one of her guides. These lessons conveyed the spirits' view of life and its meaning that was elegant, allusive, and largely unintelligible:

"Here we find atomic life coadhesively uniting with attractive and compensative bodies--bringing into existence animalcule formations of matter, which, during the period of gestation is wholly dependent upon a main body of supply force, that it may become self-sustaining thro' organization . . . . At conception, in the proto forces of life within the male and female organisms, as specified by the genitive, procreative functions, will be found a duality of proto forces, termed, male and female elements, which must be united in a compensative existence through the reproductive organs before there can ensue a growth of new life or being." Etc.

Much of the spirit communications was conveyed in the language of Indian spirits of the time "Me be big Indian, controllum squaw medium of Watchman paper. Me talk thro' the Cate squaw of Watchman. Me tell her, go ahead. Me help pull her canoe thro' bright waters yet," etc. The announced purposes of the journal were decidedly progressive ("We aim to instruct in the Laws of Health; and to maintain the higher and nobler Principles of Mankind and Womanhood; and to sustain the Principles of pure Spiritualism thro' the Columns of The Watchman), and the journal printed the "Constitution and By-Laws of the Chicago Association of Universal, Radical, Progressive Spiritualists' and Mediums' Society," to which the journal belonged, and was vehemently anti-Catholic ("Romish History") and anti-monopoly ("Monopoly is the Bane of Life"), and in favor of the current progressive fads ("Dress Reform," etc.). The journal carried articles on the awful post-mortem fate of abortionists, the abuse of women by too frequent indulgence in sex, whether, in reincarnation, the sex of the child is determined by the desire of the re-incarnating soul (it is not, and is determined by "the Positive and Negative forces of Nature"), and subjects like "Spirit Photography. The Spiritual and Mundane Worlds Come Together" (on William A. Keeler). Every issue featured communications from spirits (as, for example, that of Kit Carson). Each issue had several pages of advertisements for mediums, books and pamphlets on spiritualism, and the other spiritualist journals of the time. Notably, it carried advertisements for Parker's Complete Portable Cabinet (patent applied for) that was suitable "for Materializing purposes." The editors of the journal also used its pages to advertise their own services. "H.A. Cate, Spirit Medium and Psychometress. Magnetized Paper, for Medical Use and Mediumistic Unfoldment. (Send Hair of Patient as a Magnet). Each Sheet Especially Magnetized to Meet the Demands of Each Individual Purchaser." Later, after Hattie Cates married Berry in 1884, she advertised the same powerful paper as "H.A. Berry's Magnetized Paper for the cure of disease, and relief from pain," while Berry himself advertised his services as a medium ("Messages and Interpretation, $2.00; Messages without Interpretation, $1.00). A.B. Shedd, the associate editor, advertized "Mystic and Character Writing Psychometrically Interpreted" for $1.00. The journal carried contributions by John Brown (Medium of the Rockies), Elmina D. Slenker (who found no value in spiritualism), William Henry Davenport (spirit), J.M. Roberts, Thomas R. Hazard, Dorus M. Fox, La Roy Sunderland, Robert Greer, Minerva Merrick (former editor of Fountain of Light), and others.