The Snohomish Afterlife: A Spiritualist Joke
In an 1878 newspaper, a medium's séance takes a darkly humorous turn when a grieving widow asks her late husband if he is in heaven.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Herald's late Parisian letter has the following: If the dead could speak, we should really know whether matrimony is a blessed state or even a state in which man may be blessed. The following is somewhat detrimental to that theory. A lady had lost her husband. Being asked by one of these gentlemen who attend soirées as mediums who she would like to see in spirit, and having replied, 'My poor James,' the departed suddenly rose out of the centre of the carpet, as it were, and stood before the whole company. 'Oh, James, tell me, are you happy?' 'Very.' 'Are you happier now than when in Snohomish?' 'Much happier.' 'Then, James, you must be in heaven.' 'No; I'm in hell!'
“Are you happier now than when in Snohomish? ... No; I'm in hell!”
Spiritualism was a massive cultural obsession in the late 19th century, serving as a strange bridge between Victorian grief and the dawn of scientific curiosity. This brief, sarcastic anecdote highlights how Snohomish was already being cast in local and regional lore as a place one might be desperate to escape—even from beyond the grave.
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