tate where angelic
ministry might not be spoken of.

Mrs. Hardinge passed through Mobile, leaving many warm hearts behind
her, who would fain have exchanged these profane caricatures for the
glad tidings which beloved spirit friends were ready to dispense to
the world.

In passing through the capital city, Montgomery, a detention occurred
of some hours, in forming a railway connection _en route_ for Macon,
Georgia, when Mrs. Hardinge and some friends travelling in her
company, were induced to while away the tedious time by visiting the
State House. The Legislature was not sitting that day, and one of the
party, a Spiritualist, remarked that they were even then standing in
the very chamber from which the recent obnoxious enactment against
their faith had issued.

The day was warm, soft, and clear. The sweet southern breeze stirred a
few solitary pines which waved on the capitol hill, and the scene from
the windows of the legislative hall was pleasant, tranquil, and
suggestive of calm but sluggish peace.

At that period--January, 1860--not an ominous murmur, not the faintest
whisper, even, that the war spirit was abroad, and the legions of
death and ruin were lighting their brands and sharpening their
relentless swords to be drenched in the life-blood of millions, had
made itself heard in the land.

The long cherished purposes of hate and fratricidal struggle were all
shrouded in the depths of profound secrecy, and the whole southern
country might have been represented in the scene of stillness and
tranquility that lay outstretched before the eyes of the watchers, who
stood in the State House of the capital city of Alabama, on that
pleasant January afternoon.

There were present six persons besides the author, namely: Mr. and
Mrs. Adams, of Tioga County, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Waters and her son, a
Scotch lady and gentleman from Aberdeen; Mr. Halford, of New York
City; and Mr. James, of Philadelphia. All but the mother and son from
Scotland were acquainted with the author, and more or less sympathetic
with her belief; all are now living, and willing to testify to what
follows.

Suddenly Mrs. Hardinge became entranced, when the whole scene, laying
outstretched before her eyes, appeared to become filled with long
lines of glittering horse and foot soldiers, who, in martial pomp and
military discipline, filed, rank after rank and regiment after
regiment, through the streets of Montgomery, and then passed off into
dist