FLORA WELLMAN CHANEY.-Although this lady has been in San Francisco but a few months, still she is already very favorably known as a successful teacher upon the piano. In addition to teaching music, she also gives instruction in elocution, and we learn that quite a prominent lady of this city has commenced studying with her, with the intention of taking the lecture field on the side of liberalism and reform. Miss Dora McCord, the young lecturer who is creating so much sensation in Oregon, received her only instruction from Mrs. Chaney. See her card in another column.

THE ORIGIN OF THE CROSS-A little work of 65 pages, entitled The Masculine Cross and Ancient Sex Worship, by Sha Rocco, has just been published by Asa K. Butts & Co., of New York. It contains within a limited space many facts with which the general reader is unacquainted. Only those who have perused Inman's "Ancient Faiths," Knight's "Worship of Priapus," Layard's "Ninevah," etc., are familiar with the subject. The cross is believed by the author to be a symbol of generation, and he gives many interesting facts to prove his position. The book is for sale by booksellers generally.

ASPIRATION AND REALIZATION is the title of a story in verse for children, written by George G. W. Morgan, and printed in very neat style by Winterburn & Co. It is of three brothers, one of whom was ambitious to be a soldier, the second a man of wealth, and the third "a pure and blameless life" would lead, helping the weak, and aiding every worthy cause. The story tells how the first died on the field of battle; the second grew to be a hard, selfish

man, lived unloved and died unregretted, while the third walked in the paths of peace and all his ways were pleasantness. The story is pleasantly told, and conveys a good lesson, which is that virtue and happiness go hand in hand. For sale at the book stores.

LEGISLATION AGAINST WOMEN FOR THE PRESERVATION OF MEN.

The Evening Bulletin, in noticing the discharge of a number of women arrested for violation of the law con

Several

cerning the employment of women in saloons, says: customers, and can only intervene when females exhibit The law does not affect women employed to wait upon themselves, promenade, dance, or play upon musical instruments in any place where liquors are sold. arrests have previously been made under this Act, but, owing to defective complaints, no convictions have followed. The amended law passed by the last Legislature evidently intended that all women should be excluded from saloons; but the omission to insert the words "nor wait or attend" continues the privileges heretofore accorded to waiter girls. The Board of Supervisors can settle this matter effectually within one week, if so disposed, by passing an night. This would immediately cause a suspension of buordinance prohibiting women from attending saloons at siness along the line of the Barbary coast, and result in great good.

If it would be beneficial to pass such an ordinance against women, how much more so would be one prohibiting men from visiting saloons and other places of vile resort at night. This would not only cause "suspension of business along the line of the Barbary Coast," but among all the midnight brothels in San Francisco. It is not true that if women were not allowed in these places, men would not go there. Bar-rooms were more numerous, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, and midnight brawls more common, before women came to this country than they are now. The converse of the proposition is, however, entirely correct, viz: If men were prohibited entering these saloons, the women would certainly not be tempted to go there, and the saloons could not exist. But who is the tempter, and who is the tempted, and which one shall receive the punishment for the crimes of both, has nothing to do with the question. We leave the discussion of such matters to those who settle their disputes in regard to moral questions on biblical authority; but, leaving the matter of simple justice, (which is due as much to a fallen woman as to a fallen man,) entirely out of the question, which is the better law; that which would prevent a few miserable women from committing an act which tends to injure only themselves, or that which would prevent thousands and thousands of men from committing the same act, by which they bring misery, not only upon themselves, but upon others dependent upon them for affection and support?

The ordinance proposed by the Bulletin is not a step in advance of the enactments of the male law-makers hundreds

of years ago; in fact, the proposition bears upon its face the same stamp of dogmatic stupidity. When will people learn that laws made to bear against women, for the purpose of benefitting men, are not only grossly unjust, but

are entirely inadequate to accomplish the desired result?

The Industrial Monthly suggests that the general adoption of cremation would lead to the effectual concealment of murders.

SUBSCRIBE FOR "COMMON SENSE."

A PERSONAL APPEAL BY PROF. CHANEY.

I send the present number of this new paper to several of my personal friends, and to others of whom I have only heard, with this item marked, hoping that each one will not only subscribe, but try to induce others to do so. And I hope that all who read this, although it is not specially addressed to them, will do the same. The healthy growth and perpituity of Liberalism depend upon the dissemination of truth, and however important lecturers may be for this work, they are not superior to the press. Yet the masses do not seem to realize this fact, and hence will not do one-tenth for the support of a paper that they will for lectures. I do not mean by this that lecturers are overpaid, but that if either is neglected it is always the paper. I must even accuse the lecturers of not laboring so earnestly for the liberal publications as they should. Remember that I appeal to you for your own sakes and the sake of humanity, not that you should extend your patronage out of sympathy for the publishers, for they are only individuals. It is for the million, the victims of a false theology and contemptible superstition, that I ask your sympathy and your coin. Reader, I have no more pecuniary interest in this paper than you have, so my appeal does not originate from selfish motives. But, as one who loves his fellow man, I have a deep and abiding interest; hence this personal appeal. I shall contribute for its columns gratuitously, which will amount to far more each year than I am asking of you. Will you respond?

W. H. CHANEY.

SPIRITUAL CAMP MEETING.-The Spiritualists of Clackamas county, Oregon, are to hold a camp meeting on the 26th, 27th and 28th of this month. The Association has purchased a tract of five acres of land near the Willamette river, three-quarters of a mile from the Rock Island Station, on the Oregon and California Railroad, where they propose to erect buildings for holding spiritual meetings. The ground has been enclosed, and preparations made for the accommodation of all visitors. Article III. of the constitution of the Society says: "This Society shall never knowingly employ or retain in their employ any missionaries, lecturers, teachers or mediums who are opposed to, or whose teachings may conflict with, the present monogamic marriage laws of this State, or in the United States." * At a recent meeting of the Society, the following resolution was adopted: "Whereas, By the teachings of a few and the unqualified misrepresentations of many that Spiritualism is opposed to all marriage laws, and retains and upholds promiscuity between the sexes as a matter of right; therefore, be it resolved, That we, as Spiritualists, repudiate such propositions, and maintain that the monogamic marriage and family relation is not only the basis of happy, prosperous homes, as they should be mutual, sacred and protected, but the foundation alike of well-regulated society and good government." Mrs. Addie Ballou will leave for Oregon in time to be present at the camp meeting.

*

A TEST FOR CLAIRVOYANTS.

ED. COMMON SENSE: In accordance with your invitation I send herewith an envelope securely sealed with my own seal. It contains the names of one or more deceased persons, with one or more questions addressed to each. I have not the faintest expectation that any medium can make known to you the names and questions contained therein, so long as the one condition, that the envelope shall remain in your possession or within your sight, and unopened, is faithfully observed. I have read hundreds of accounts of spiritual seances within the last twenty years, but have never known of a well authenticated case of the delivery of messages in opposition to the proposition enunciated in my note last week, to the effect that the medium can communicate nothing, except by guess-work, not already known to the party in consultation.

The letter from "Old Man," in your last number, states very clearly the position of a large number of men who are willing to decide upon evidence, but who ask for more

severe tests than the limited and monotonous ones fur

nished to the public in this vicinity. `

In the writer's opinion, the common phenomena of Clairvoyance or Spiritualism are without any supermundane basis. They are, however, worthy of the serious attention of scientific people, for truth's sake. The test herein proposed has, you are perhaps aware, been previously offered to Spiritualists, with a reward of $500 dependent upon success; but the money has never yet been been earned.

X.

If any of our mediumistic friends feel disposed to give this proof of their powers, the editor will call on any of them with the sealed package, when notified to do so. If successful the publication of the fact will be an advertisement worth having.-[Ed. Common Sense.

SUBSCRIBERS Who are interested in sustaining this paper liberal acquaintances. In this way the subscription list can do a great deal by bringing it to the notice of their could soon be doubled. There probably is no subscriber who could not, with a little effort, procure at least one new one. While it is now certain that the paper will grow into a wide sphere of usefulness, it is none the less true that its power for good may be impaired and the day of its prosperity greatly delayed by the holding back of radicals who appear to be waiting for its firm establishment before they do anything to aid it. Now is the time. If the Spiritualists and Free Thinkers of this coast really want an organ, let them make the fact manifest in a substantial manner. Pay your subscriptions, and ask others to do the same. Circulate the paper among your friends, and induce one at least to subscribe.

A CELEBRATION in commemoration of the inauguration of the Woman Suffrage movement on this coast will be held in this city on the 27th of July. The Commitee of arrangements, selected at a preliminary meeting held on Tuesday, are as follows: Wm. M. Rider, Mrs. Sarah Wallis, Mrs. Adelia McComb, Mrs. M. Hill, Mrs. Olive M. Dawson, Mrs. D. T. Boyer, Prof. Kellogg, Mrs. R. T. Olmstead, and Mrs. A. Smith.

OUTLINES OF A LECTURE BY MRS. ADDIE L. BALLOUu.

Mrs. Ballou has been speaking during the past month to large audiences in Turnverein Hall, Sacramento, under the auspices of the Spiritual Society of that city. The following, furnished by a Sacramento correspondent, gives the points of her discourse on the Law Policy of this country. The writer says:

Mrs. Ballou's utterances, though bold and censorious in their criticisms, were enthusiastically applauded. The salient points were to the effect that the constitutional basis of the Government of the United States was, first, for the purpose of transmitting to posterity the blessings of liberty; second, to form a more perfect Union; and, third, to establish justice, to ensure domestic tranquility, and to promote the general welfare-otherwise, to secure "the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' She asserted that the recognized laws in the civil government of the separate States and of the United States stand impeached by all of the principles here set forth as the fundamental ideas of our government; first, by assuming to dictate how the subjects of the government shall be born, and by banning as "illegitimate" a large per cent. of subjects, whom it afterwards recognizes as sovereigns by granting to them the right of suffrage and conferring on them official position, to say nothing of the imposition of taxes. Under the divine law there are no "illegitimates." Government in the United States to-day also fails to fulfill the assertions of its founders, because it refuses to establish justice and equal rights to all citizens. The declaration that taxation without representation is arbitrary and tyrannical, is ignored. Taxation is made compulsory against woman, without the power of protest by the ballot. The law enforces the sale of her property to pay a compulsory tax, and imprisons or fines her for attempting to remonstrate by offering her ballot. Again, the law gives the ownership (in many States) of the woman, her children and property to the husband, and treats woman as an outlaw and a criminal if in her protest to own herself she becomes a mother while a femme sole. Again, the law inflicts penalties beyond the limit of the just power of lawmakers by inflicting capital punishment -taking life it cannot restore, thus contradicting its own. declaration of the right of individuals to "life," etc.

The purpose of law in modern society is to protect society. The purpose of penalties is or should be, first, that the offender shall not repeat the offense; second, to deter others from like crime; and, third, for the reform of the offender. Instead of which, the law authorizes open violation of its purposes by willful and deliberate committal of murder for the unpremeditated committal of the same. It often imprisons and accepts the services of the condemned a length of time far in excess of the enormity of the offense, and in many cases retains in durance vile, awaiting trial and without compensation, parties proven

provision to guard against the suffering of their families, or to prevent their becoming criminals also, in consequence of poverty and the necessity of food. Thus, and in many other ways, does it fail to promote the "general welfare.' The lecturer closed by saying that government and law abundance of law, but as yet we are not blessed with much are not synonymous; that we are afflicted with a superworthy to be called government, and that we can never hope to fulfill the promise of our declarations until man's logical deductions are rounded into symmetrical proportions by the warm sympathy and tender humanity of womanly love.

The speaker gave a number of very pointed illustrations of her theme, and commanded the closest attention from first to last.

LECTURE AND SEANCE.

The first lecture of Mrs. C. Fanny Allen under her present engagement took place at Mercantile Library Hall on Sunday afternoon, the subject being furnished by the audience. Mrs. Allen has not yet recovered her health, and it is evident that her illness has somewhat impaired her voice. Before answering the questions, which were sent up in writing, she said: "We (the spirits) answer from our own experience, and from our own belief based on facts which have come to our knowledge, but we do not give any reply as a finality; the hearers are to analyze them for themselves, and accept only what seems to be true. Spirits are not infallible. In this age of reason it is useless to set up any standard with the expectation of bringing all to be guided by it." She then proceeded to answer various questions, such as: "Is the spirit affected by the disposition of the body-that is, by cremation?" tion?" "Can a person vampyrize another without the other's knowledge?" etc. The questions generally were not very good ones, and the answers nothing remarkable. As to vampyrization, the medium said that many persons draw upon the vital forces of others with whom they come into close relations. The person affected may not be aware of it, and may, if the evil is continued, gradually lose strength and vital force, until death ensues. Some who are said to die of consumption, are actually vampyrized to death. When the cause is known, the remedy is to drop the acquaintance of the person, but if this is not practicable, then avoid contact as much as possible. A large number of subjects were treated briefly and in an able though somewhat non-committal style. The spirits do not profess to be omnicient, and can only tell what they know. After the discourse, a seance followed, in which Mrs. McKinley, Mrs. Kerns and others took part. Most of the spirits described were recognized, and several messages, of a common-place order, were accepted by the persons to whom they were addressed.

In the evening Mrs. Allen spoke again on subjects given by the audience. The responses were applicable, and many good points were made and warmly applauded. Both meetings closed with a poem improvised on subjects handed in by the people in the Hall. Mrs. Allen will speak again on Suuday, the 14th, afternoon and evening.