THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS, THEIR RISE AND PROGRESS.—SPIRITUAL
ROPE-TYING.—MUSIC PLAYING.—CABINET SECRETS.—“THEY CHOOSE DARKNESS
RATHER THAN LIGHT,” ETC.—THE SPIRITUAL HAND.—HOW THE THING IS
DONE.—DR. W. F. VAN VLECK.
The Davenport Brothers are natives of Buffalo, N. Y., and in that city
commenced their career as “mediums” about twelve years ago. They were
then mere lads. For some time, their operations were confined to their
own place, where, having obtained considerable notoriety through the
press, they were visited by people from all parts of the country. But,
in 1855, they were induced by John F. Coles, a very worthy spiritualist
of New York City, to visit that metropolis, and there exhibit their
powers. Under the management of Mr. Coles, they held “circles” afternoon
and evening, for several days, in a small hall at 195 Bowery. The
audience were seated next the walls, the principal space being required
for the use of “the spirits.” The “manifestations” mostly consisted in
the thrumming and seemingly rapid movement about the hall of several
stringed instruments, the room having been made entirely dark, while the
boys were supposed or asserted to be quietly seated at the table in the
centre. Two guitars, with sometimes a banjo, were the instruments used,
and the noise made by “the spirits” was about equal to the united
honking of a large flock of wild geese. The manifestations were stunning
as well as astonishing; for not only was the sense of hearing smitten by
the dreadful sounds, but, sometimes, a member of the circle would get a
“striking demonstration” over his head!
At the request of the “controlling spirit,” made through a horn, the
hall was lighted at intervals during the entertainment, at which times
the mediums could be seen seated at the table, looking very innocent and
demure, as if they had never once thought of deceiving anybody. On one
of these occasions, however, a policeman suddenly lighted the hall by
means of a dark lantern, without having been specially called upon to do
so; and the boys were clearly seen with instruments in their hands. They
dropped them as soon as they could, and resumed their seats at the
table. Satisfied that the thing was a humbug, the audience left in
disgust; and the policeman was about to march the boys to the
station-house on the charge of swindling, when he was prevailed upon to
remain and farther test the matter. Left alone with them, and the three
seated together at the table on which the instruments had been placed,
he laid, at their request, a hand on each medium’s head; they then
clasped both his arms with their hands. While they remained thus
situated (as he supposed,) the room being dark, one of the instruments,
with an infernal twanging of its strings, rose from the table and hit
the policeman several times on the head; then a strange voice through
the trumpet advised him not to interfere with the work of the spirits by
persecuting the mediums! Considerably astonished, if not positively
scared, he took his hat and left, fully persuaded that there was
“something in it!”
The boys produced the manifestations by grasping the neck of the
instrument, swinging it around, and thrusting it into different parts of
the open space of the room, at the same time vibrating the strings with
the fore-finger. The faster the finger passed over the strings, the more
rapidly the instrument seemed to move. Two hands could thus use as many
instruments.
When sitting with a person at the table, as they did with the policeman,
one hand could be taken off the investigator’s arm without his knowing
it, by gently increasing, at the same time, the pressure of the other
hand. It was an easy matter then to raise and thrum the instrument or
talk through the horn.
About a dozen gentlemen—several of whom were members of the press—had
a private séance with the boys one afternoon, on which occasion “the
spirits” ventured upon an extra “manifestation.” All took seats at one
side of a long, high table—the position of the mediums being midway of
the row. This time, a little, dim, ghostly gaslight was allowed in the
room. What seemed to be a hand soon appeared, partly above the edge of
the vacant side of the table, and opposite the “mediums.” One excited
spiritualist present said he could see the finger-nails.
John F. Coles—who had for several days, suspected the innocence of the
boys—sprang from his seat, turned up the gaslight, and pounced on the
elder boy, who was found to have a nicely stuffed glove drawn partly on
to the toe of his boot. That, then, was the spirit-hand! The nails that
the imaginative spiritualist thought he saw were not on the fingers. The
boy alleged that the spirits made him attempt the deception.
The father of these boys, who had accompanied them to New York, took
them home immediately after that exposure. In Buffalo, they continued to
hold “circles,” hoping to retrieve their lost reputation as good
mediums—by being, not more honest, but more cautious. To prevent any
one getting hold of them while operating, they hit upon the plan of
passing a rope through a button-hole of each gentleman’s coat, the ends
to be held by a trusty person—assigning, as a reason for that
arrangement, that it would then be known no one in the circle could
assist in producing the manifestations. The plan did not always work
well, however; for a skeptic would sometimes cut the rope, and then
pounce upon “the spirit”—that is, if he didn’t happen to miss that
individual, on account of the darkness and while trying to avoid a
collision with the instruments.
To secure greater immunity from detection, and to enable them to exhibit
in large halls which could not easily be darkened, the boys finally
fixed upon a “cabinet” as the best thing in which to work. They had,
some time before, made the “rope-test” a feature of their exhibitions;
and in their cabinet-show they depended for success in deceiving
entirely upon the presumption of the audience that their hands were so
secured with ropes as to prevent their playing upon the musical
instruments, or doing whatever else the spirits were assumed to do.
Their cabinet is about six feet high, six feet long, and two and a half
feet deep, the front consisting of three doors, opening outward. In each
end is a seat, with holes through which the ropes can be passed in
securing the mediums. In the upper part of the middle door is a
lozenge-shaped aperture, curtained on the inside with black muslin or
oilcloth. The bolts are on the inside of the doors.
The mediums are generally first tied by a committee of two gentlemen
appointed from the audience. The doors of the cabinet are then closed,
those at the ends first, and then the middle one, the bolt of which is
reached by the manager through the aperture.
By the time the end doors are closed and bolted, the Davenports, in many
instances, have succeeded in loosening the knots next their wrists, and
in slipping their hands out, the latter being then exhibited at the
aperture. Lest the hands should be recognized as belonging to the
mediums, they are kept in a constant shaking motion while in view; and
to make the hands look large or small, they spread or press together the
fingers. With that peculiar rapid motion imparted to them, four hands in
the aperture will appear to be half-a-dozen. A lady’s flesh colored kid
glove, nicely stuffed with cotton, is sometimes exhibited as a female
hand—a critical observation of it never being allowed. It does not
take the medium long to draw the knots close to their wrists again. They
are then ready to be inspected by the Committee, who report them tied as
they were left. Supposing them to have been securely bound all the
while, those who witness the show are very naturally astonished.
Sometimes, after being tied by a committee, the mediums cannot readily
extricate their hands and get them back as they were; in which case they
release themselves entirely from the ropes before the doors are again
opened, concluding to wait till after “the spirits” have bound them,
before showing hands or making music.
It is a common thing for these impostors to give the rope between their
hands a twist while those limbs are being bound; and that movement, if
dexterously made, while the attention of the committee-men is
momentarily diverted, is not likely to be detected. Reversing that
movement will let the hand out.
The great point with the Davenports in tying themselves is, to have a
knot next their wrists that looks solid, “fair and square,” at the same
time that they can slip it and get their hands out in a moment. There
are several ways of forming such a knot, one of which I will attempt to
describe. In the middle of a rope a square knot is tied, loosely at
first, so that the ends of the rope can be tucked through, in opposite
directions, below the knot, and the latter is then drawn tight. There
are then two loops—which should be made small—through which the hands
are to pass after the rest of the tying is done. Just sufficient slack
is left to admit of the hands passing through the loops, which, lastly,
are drawn close to the wrists, the knot coming between the latter. No
one, from the appearance of such a knot, would suspect it could be
slipped. The mediums thus tied can, immediately after the committee have
inspected the knots, and closed the doors, show hands or play upon
musical instruments, and in a few seconds be, to all appearance, firmly
tied again.
If flour has been placed in their hands, it makes no difference as to
their getting those members out of or into the ropes; but, to show hands
at the aperture, or to make a noise on the musical instruments, it is
necessary that they should get the flour out of one hand into the other.
The moisture of the hand and squeezing, packs the flour into a lump,
which can be laid into the other hand and returned without losing any.
The little flour that adheres to the empty hand can be wiped off in the
pantaloons pocket. The mediums seldom if ever take flour in their hands
while they are in the bonds put upon them by the committee. The
principal part of the show is after the tying has been done in their own
way. Wm. Fay, who accompanies the Davenports, is thus fixed when the
hypothetical spirits take the coat off his back.
As I before remarked, there are several ways in which the mediums tie
themselves. They always do it, however, in such a manner that, though
the tying looks secure, they can immediately get one or both hands out.
Let committees insist upon untying the knots of the spirits, whether the
mediums are willing or not. A little critical observation will enable
them to learn the trick.
To make this subject of tying clearer, I will repeat that the Davenports
always untie themselves by using their hands; as they are able in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, however impossible it may seem, to
release their hands by loosening the knots next their wrists. Sometimes
they do this by twisting the rope between their wrists; sometimes it is
by keeping their muscles as tense as possible during the tying, so that
when relaxed there shall be some slack. Most “committees” know so little
about tying, that anybody, by a little pulling, slipping, and wriggling,
could slip his hands out of their knots.
A violin, bell, and tambourine, with perhaps a guitar and drum, are the
instruments used by the Davenports in the cabinet. The one who plays the
violin holds the bell in his hand with the bow. The other chap beats the
tambourine on his knee, and has a hand for something else.
The “mediums” frequently allow a person to remain with them, providing
he will let his hands be tied to their knees, the operators having
previously been tied by “the spirits.” The party who ventures upon that
experiment is apt to be considerably “mussed up,” as “the spirits” are
not very gentle in their manipulations.
To expose all the tricks of these impostors would require more space
than I can afford at present. They have exhibited throughout the
Northern States and the Canadas; but never succeeded very well
pecuniarily until about two years ago, when they employed an agent, who
advertised them in such a way as to attract public attention. In
September last, they went to England, where they have since created
considerable excitement.
If the hands of these boys were tied close against the side of their
cabinet, the ropes passing through holes and fastened on the outside, I
think “the spirits” would always fail to work.
Dr. W. F. Van Vleck, of Ohio, to whom I am indebted for some of the
facts contained in this chapter, can beat the Davenport brothers at
their own game. In order that he might the better learn the various
methods pursued by the professed “mediums” in deceiving the public, Dr.
Van Vleck entered into the medium-business himself, and by establishing
confidential relations with those of the profession whose acquaintance
he made, he became duly qualified to expose them.
He was accepted and indorsed by leading spiritualists in different parts
of the country, as a good medium, who performed the most remarkable
spiritual wonders. As the worthy doctor practiced this innocent
deception on the professed mediums solely in order that he might thus be
able to expose their blasphemous impositions, the public will scarcely
dispute that in this case the end justified the means. I suppose it is
not possible for any professed medium to puzzle or deceive the doctor.
He is up to all their “dodges,” because he has learned in their school.
Mediums always insist upon certain conditions, and those conditions are
just such as will best enable them to deceive the senses and pervert the
judgment.
Anderson “the Wizard of the North,” and other conjurers in England,
gave the Davenports battle, but the “prestidigitators” did not reap many
laurels. Conjurers are no more likely to understand the tricks of the
mediums than any other person is. Before a trick can be exposed it must
be learned. Dr. Van Vleck, having learned “the ropes,” is competent to
expose them; and he is doing it in many interesting public lectures and
illustrations.
If the Davenports were exhibiting simply as jugglers, I might admire
their dexterity, and have nothing to say against them; but when they
presumptuously pretend to deal in “things spiritual,” I consider it my
duty, while treating of humbugs, to do this much at least in exposing
them.
THE SPIRIT-RAPPING AND MEDIUM HUMBUGS.—THEIR ORIGIN.—HOW THE THING IS
DONE.—$500 REWARD.
The “spirit-rapping” humbug was started in Hydesville, New York, about
seventeen years ago, by several daughters of a Mr. Fox, living in that
place. These girls discovered that certain exercises of their anatomy
would produce mysterious sounds—mysterious to those who heard them,
simply because the means of their production were not apparent. Reports
of this wonder soon went abroad, and the Fox family were daily visited
by people from different sections of the country—all having a greed for
the marvelous. Not long after the strange sounds were first heard, some
one suggested that they were, perhaps, produced by spirits; and a
request was made for a certain number of raps, if that suggestion was
correct. The specified number were immediately heard. A plan was then
proposed by means of which communications might be received from “the
spirits.” An investigator would repeat the alphabet, writing down
whatever letters were designated by the “raps.” Sentences were thus
formed—the orthography, however, being decidedly bad.
What purported to be the spirit of a murdered peddler, gave an account
of his “taking off.” He said that his body was buried beneath that very
house, in a corner of the cellar; that he had been killed by a former
occupant of the premises. A peddler really had disappeared, somewhat
mysteriously, from that part of the country some time before; and ready
credence was given the statements thus spelled out through the “raps.”
Digging to the depth of eight feet in the cellar did not disclose any
“dead corpus,” or even the remains of one. Soon after that, the missing
peddler reappeared in Hydesville, still “clothed with mortality,” and
having a new assortment of wares to sell.
That the “raps” were produced by disembodied spirits many firmly
believed. False communications were attributed to evil spirits. The
answers to questions were as often wrong as right; and only right when
the answer could be easily guessed, or inferred from the nature of the
question itself.
The Fox family moved to Rochester, New York, soon after the
rapping-humbug was started; and it was there that their first public
effort was made. A committee was appointed to investigate the matter,
most of whom reported adversely to the claims of the “mediums;” though
all of them were puzzled to know how the thing was done. In Buffalo,
where the Foxes subsequently let their spirits flow, a committee of
doctors reported that these loosely-constructed girls produced the
“raps” by snapping their toe and knee joints. That theory, though very
much ridiculed by the spiritualists then and since, was correct, as
further developments proved.
Mrs. Culver, a relative of the Fox girls, made a solemn deposition
before a magistrate, to the effect that one of the girls had instructed
her how to produce the “raps,” on condition that she (Mrs. C.) should
not communicate a knowledge of the matter to any one. Mrs. Culver was a
good Christian woman, and she felt it her duty—as the deception had
been carried so far—to expose the matter. She actually produced the
“raps,” in presence of the magistrate, and explained the manner of
making them.
Doctor Von Vleck—to whom I referred in connection with my exposition of
the Davenport imposture—produces very loud “raps” before his audiences,
and so modulates them that they will seem to be at any desired point in
his vicinity; yet not a movement of his body betrays the fact that the
sounds are caused by him.
The Fox family found that the rapping business would be made to pay; and
so they continued it, with varying success, for a number of years,
making New York city their place of residence and principal field of
operation. I believe that none of them are now in the “spiritual line.”
Margaret Fox, the youngest of the rappers, has for some time been a
member of the Roman Catholic Church.
From the very commencement of spiritualism, there has been a constantly
increasing demand for “spiritual” wonders, to meet which numerous
“mediums” have been “developed.”
Many, who otherwise would not be in the least distinguished, have become
“mediums” in order to obtain notoriety, if nothing more.
Communicating by “raps” was a slow process; so some of the mediums took
to writing spasmodically; others talked in a “trance”—all under the
influence of spirits!
Mediumship has come to be a profession steadily pursued by quite a
number of persons, who get their living by it.
There are various classes of “mediums,” the operations of each class
being confined to a particular department of “spiritual” humbuggery.
Some call themselves “test mediums;” and, by insisting upon certain
formulas, they succeed in astonishing, if they don’t convince most of
them who visit them. It is by this class that the public is most likely
to be deceived.
There is a person by the name of J. V. Mansfield, who has been called by
spiritualists the “Great Spirit Postmaster,” his specialty being the
answering of sealed letters addressed to spirits. The letters are
returned—some of them at least—to the writers without appearing to
have been opened, accompanied by answers purporting to be written
through Mansfield by the spirits addressed. Such of these letters as are
sealed with gum-arabic merely, can be steamed open, and the envelopes
resealed and reglazed as they were before. If sealing-wax has been used,
a sharp, thin blade will enable the medium to nicely cut off the seal by
splitting the paper under it; and then, after a knowledge of the
contents of the letter is arrived at, the seal can be replaced in its
original position, and made fast with gum-arabic. Not more than one out
of a hundred would be likely to observe that the seal had ever been
tampered with. The investigator opens the envelope, when returned to
him, at the end, preserving the sealed part intact, in order to show his
friends that the letter was answered without being opened!
Another method of the medium is, to slit open the envelope at the end
with a sharp knife, and afterward stick it together again with gum,
rubbing the edge slightly as soon as the gum is dry. If the job is
nicely done, a close observer would hardly perceive it.
Mr. Mansfield does not engage to answer all letters; those unanswered
being too securely sealed for him to open without detection. To secure
the services of the “Great Spirit-Postmaster,” a fee of five dollars
must accompany your letter to the spirits; and the money is retained
whether an answer is returned or not.
Rather high postage that!
Several years since, a gentleman living in Buffalo, N. Y., addressed
some questions to one of his spirit-friends, and inclosed them, together
with a single hair and a grain of sand, in an envelope, which he sealed
so closely that no part of the contents could escape while being
transmitted by mail. The questions were sent to Mr. Mansfield and
answers requested through his “mediumship.” The envelope containing the
questions was soon returned, with answers to the letter. The former did
not appear to have been opened. Spreading a large sheet of blank paper
on a table before him, the gentleman opened the envelope and placed its
contents on the table. The hair and grain of sand were not there.
Time and again has Mansfield been convicted of imposture, yet he still
prosecutes his nefarious business.
The “Spirit-Postmaster” fails to get answers to such questions as these:
“Where did you die?”
“When?”
“Who attended you in your last illness?”
“What were your last words?”
“How many were present at your death?”
But if the questions are of such a nature as the following, answers are
generally obtained:
“Are you happy?”
“Are you often near me?”
“And can you influence me?”
“Have you changed your religious notions since entering the
spirit-world?”
It is to be observed that the questions which the “Spirit-Postmaster”
can answer require no knowledge of facts about the applicant, while
those which he cannot answer, do require it.
Address, for instance, your spirit-father without mentioning his name,
and the name will not be given in connection with the reply purporting
to come from him—unless the medium knows your family.
I will write a series of questions addressed to one of my
spirit-friends, inclose them in an envelope, and if Mr. Mansfield or any
other professed medium will answer those questions pertinently in my
presence, and without touching the envelope, I will give to such party
five hundred dollars, and think I have got the worth of my money.
THE “BALLOT-TEST.”—THE OLD GENTLEMAN AND HIS “DISEASED” RELATIVES.—A
“HUNGRY SPIRIT.”—“PALMING” A BALLOT.—REVELATIONS ON STRIPS OF PAPER.
An aptitude for deception is all the capital that a person requires in
order to become a “spirit-medium;” or, at least, to gain the reputation
of being one. Backing up the pretence to mediumship with a show of
something mysterious, is all-sufficient to enlist attention, and insure
the making of converts.
One of the most noted of the mediumistic fraternity—whose name I do not
choose to give at present—steadily pursued his business, for several
years, in a room in Broadway, in this city, and succeeded not only in
humbugging a good many people, but in what was more important to
him—acquiring quite an amount of money. His mode of operating was “the
ballot-test,” and was as follows:
Medium and investigator being seated opposite each other at a table, the
latter was handed several slips of blank paper, with the request that he
write the first (or Christian) names—one on each paper—of several of
his deceased relatives, which being done, he was desired to touch the
folded papers, one after the other, till one should be designated, by
three tips of the table, as containing the name of the spirit who would
communicate. The selected paper was laid aside, and the others thrown
upon the floor, the investigator being further requested to write on as
many different pieces of paper as contained the names, and the relation
(to himself) of the spirits bearing them. Supposing the names written
were Mary, Joseph, and Samuel, being, respectively, the investigator’s
mother, father, and brother. The last-named class would be secondly
written, and one of them designated by three tips of the table, as in
the first instance. The respective ages of the deceased parties, at the
time of their decease, would also be written, and one of them selected.
The first “test” consisted in having the selected name, relationship,
and age correspond—that is, refer to the same party; to ascertain which
the investigator was desired to look at them, and state if it was the
case. If the correspondence was affirmed, a communication was soon
given, with the selected name, relationship, and age appended.
Questions, written in the presence of the medium, were answered
relevantly, if not pertinently. Investigators generally did their part
of the writing in a guarded manner, interposing their left hand between
the paper on which they wrote and the medium’s eyes; and they were very
much astonished when they received a communication, couched in
affectionate terms, with the names of their spirit-friends attached.
By long practice, the medium was enabled to determine what the
investigator wrote, by the motion of his hand in writing. Nine out of
ten wrote the relationship first that corresponded with the first name
they had written. Therefore, if the medium selected the first that was
written of each class, they in most cases referred to the same spirit.
He waited till the investigator had affirmed the coincidence, before
proceeding; for he did not like to write a communication, appending to
it, for instance, “Your Uncle John,” when it ought to be “Your Father
John.” The reason he did not desire inquirers to write the surnames of
their spirit-friends, was this: almost all Christian names are common,
and he was familiar with the motions which the hand must make in writing
them; but there are comparatively few people who have the same surnames,
and to determine them would have been more difficult. No fact was
communicated that had not been surreptitiously gleaned from the
investigator.
An old gentleman, apparently from the country, one day entered the room
of this medium and expressed a desire for a “sperit communication.”
He was told to take a seat at the table, and to write the names of his
deceased relatives. The medium, like many others, incorrectly pronounced
the term “deceased,” the same as “diseased”—sounding the s like z.
The old gentleman carefully adjusted his “specs” and did what was
required of him. A name and relationship having been selected from those
written, the investigator was desired to examine and state if they
referred to one party.
“Wal, I declare they do!” said he. “But I say Mister, what has them
papers to do with a sperit communication?”
“You will see, directly,” replied the medium.
Whereupon the latter spasmodically wrote a “communication,” which read
somewhat as follows:
“My Dear Husband:—I am very glad to be able to address you through
this channel. Keep on investigating, and you will soon be convinced
of the great fact of spirit-intercourse. I am happy in my
spirit-home; patiently awaiting the time when you will join me
here, etc. Your loving wife, Betsey.”
“Good gracious! But my old woman can’t be dead,” said the investigator,
“for I left her tu hum!”
“Not dead!” exclaimed the medium. “Did I not tell you to write the names
of deceazed relatives?”
“Diseased!” returned the old man; “Wal, she ain’t anything else, for
she’s had the rumatiz orfully for six months!”
Saying which, he took his hat and left, concluding that it was not worth
while to “keep on investigating” any longer at that time.
This same medium, not long since, visited Great Britain for the purpose
of practicing his profession there.
In one of the cities of Scotland, some shrewd investigator divined that
he was able to nearly guess from the motion of the hand what questions
were written.
“Are you happy?” being a question commonly asked the “spirits,” one of
these gentlemen varied it by asking:
“Are you hungry?”
The reply was, an emphatic affirmative.
They tricked the trickster in other ways; one of which was to write the
names of mortals instead of spirits. It made no difference, however, as
to getting a “communication.”
To tip the table without apparent muscular exertion, this impostor
placed his hands on it in such a way that the “pisiform bone” (which may
be felt projecting at the lower corner of the palm, opposite the thumb)
pressed against the edge. By pushing, the table tipped from him, it
being prevented from sliding by little spikes in the legs of the side
opposite the operator.
There are other “ballot-test mediums,” as they are called, who have a
somewhat different method of cheating. They, too, require investigators
to write the names—in full, however—of their spirit-friends; the slips
of paper containing the names, to be folded and placed on a table. The
medium then seizes one of the “ballots,” and asks:
“Is the spirit present whose name is on this?”
Dropping that and taking another:
“On this?”
So he handles all the papers without getting a response. During this
time, however, he has dexterously “palmed” one of the ballots,
which—while telling the investigator to be patient, as the spirits
would doubtless soon come—he opens with his left hand, on his knee,
under the edge of the table.
A mere glance enables him to read the name. Refolding the paper, and
retaining it in his hand, he remarks:
“I will touch the ballots again, and perhaps one of them will be
designated this time.”
Dropping among the rest the one he had “palmed,” he soon picks it up
again, whereat three loud “raps” are heard.
“That paper,” says he to the investigator, “probably contains the name
of the spirit who rapped; please hold it in your hand.”
Then seizing a pencil, he writes a name, which the investigator finds to
be the one contained in the selected paper.
If the ballots are few in number, a blank is put with the pile, when the
medium “palms” one, else the latter might be missed.
It seems the spirits can never give their names without being reminded
of them by the investigator, and then they are so doubtful of their own
identity that they have but little to say for themselves.
One medium to whom I have already alluded, after a sojourn of several
years in California—whither he went from Boston, seeking whom he might
humbug—has now returned to the East, and is operating in this city.
Besides answering sealed letters, he furnishes written “communications”
to parties visiting him at his rooms—a “sitting,” however, being
granted to but one person at a time. His terms are only five dollars an
hour.
Seated at a table in a part of the room where is the most light, he
hands the investigator a strip of blank, white paper, rather thin and
light of texture, about a yard long and six inches wide, requesting him
to write across one end of it a single question, addressed to a
spirit-friend, then to sign his own name, and fold the paper once or
twice over what he has written. For instance:
“Brother Samuel:—Will you communicate with me through this medium?
William Franklin.”
To learn what has been written, the medium lays the paper down on the
table, and repeatedly rubs the fingers of his right hand over the folds
made by the inquirer. If that does not render the writing visible
through the one thickness of paper that covers it, he slightly raises
the edge of the folds with his left hand while he continues to rub with
his right; and that admits of the light shining through, so that the
writing can be read. The other party is so situated that the writing is
not visible to him through the paper, and he is not likely to presume
that it is visible to the medium; the latter having assigned as a reason
for his manipulations that spirits were able to read the questions only
by means of the odylic, magnetic, or some other emanation from the ends
of his fingers!
Having learned the question, of course the medium can reply to it,
giving the name of the spirit addressed; but before doing so, he
doubles the two folds made by the inquirer, and, for a show of
consistency, again rubs his fingers over the paper. Then more folds and
more rubbing—all the folding, additional to the inquirer’s, being done
to keep the latter from observing, when he comes to read the answer,
that it was possible for the medium to read the question through the two
folds of paper. The answer is written upon the same strip of paper that
accompanies the question.
The medium requires the investigator to write his questions each on a
different strip of paper; and before answering, he every time
manipulates the paper in the way I have described. When rubbing his
fingers over the question, he often shuts the eye which is toward the
inquirer—which prevents suspicion; but the other eye is open wide
enough to enable him to read the question through the paper.
Should a person write a test-question, the medium could not answer it
correctly even if he did see it. In his “communications” he uses many
terms of endearment, and if possible flatters the recipient out of his
common-sense, and into the belief that “after all there may be something
in it!”
Should the inquirer “smell a rat,” and take measures to prevent the
medium from learning, in the way I have stated, what question is
written, he (the medium) gets nervous and discontinues the “sitting,”
alleging that conditions are unfavorable for spirit-communication.
SPIRITUAL “LETTERS ON THE ARM.”—HOW TO MAKE THEM YOURSELF.—THE
TAMBOURINE AND RING FEATS.—DEXTER’S DANCING HATS.—PHOSPHORESCENT
OIL.—SOME SPIRITUAL SLANG.
The mediums produce “blood-red letters on the arm” in a very simple way.
It is done with a pencil, or some blunt-pointed instrument, it being
necessary to bear on hard while the movement of writing is being
executed. The pressure, though not sufficient to abrade the skin, forces
the blood from the capillary vessels over which the pencil passes, and
where, when the reaction takes place, an unusual quantity of blood
gathers and becomes plainly visible through the cuticle. Gradually, as
an equilibrium of the circulation is restored, the letters pass away.
This “manipulation” is generally produced by the medium in connection
with the ballot-test. Having learned the name of an investigator’s
spirit-friend, in the manner stated in a previous article, the
investigator is set to writing some other names. While he is thus
occupied, the medium quickly slips up his sleeve under the table, and
writes on his arm the name he has learned.
Try the experiment yourself, reader. Hold out your left arm; clench the
fist so as to harden the muscle a little, and write your name on the
skin with a blunt pencil or any similar point, in letters say
three-quarters of an inch long, pressing firmly enough to feel a little
pain. Rub the place briskly a dozen times; this brings out the letters
quickly, in tolerably-distinct red lines.
On thick, tough skins it is difficult to produce letters in this way.
They might also be outlined more deeply by sharply pricking in dots
along the lines of the desired letters.
Among others who seek to gain money and notoriety by the exercise of
their talents for “spiritual” humbuggery, is a certain woman, whom I
will not further designate, but whose name is at the service of any
proper person, and who exhibited not long since in Brooklyn and New
York. This woman is accompanied by her husband, who is a confederate in
the playing of her “little game.”
She seats herself at a table, which has been placed against the wall of
the room. The audience is so seated as to form a semicircle, at one end
of which, and near enough to the medium to be able to shake hands with
her, or nearly so, sits her husband, with perhaps an accommodating
spiritualist next to him. Then the medium, in an assumed voice, engages
in a miscellaneous talk, ending with a request that some one sit by her
and hold her hand.
A skeptic is permitted to do that. When thus placed, skeptic is directly
between the medium and her husband, and with his back to the latter. The
husband plays spirit, and with his right hand—which is free, the other
only being held by the accommodating spiritualist—pats the investigator
on the head, thumps him with a guitar and other instruments, and may be
pulls his hair.
The medium assumes all this to be done by a spirit, because her hands
are held and she could not do it! Profound reasoning! If any one
suggests that the husband had better sit somewhere else, the medium will
not hear to it—“he is a part of the battery,” and the necessary
conditions must not be interfered with. Sure enough! Accommodating
spiritualist also says he holds husband fast.
A tambourine-frame, without the head, and an iron ring, large enough to
pass over one’s arm, are exhibited to the audience. Medium says the
spirits have such power over matter as to be able to put one or both
those things on to her arm while some one holds her hands.
The party who is privileged to hold her hands on such occasion, has to
grope his way to her in the dark. Having reached her, she seizes his
hands, and passes one of them down her neck and along her arm, saying:
“Now you know there is no ring already there!”
Soon after he feels the tambourine-frame or ring slide over his hand and
on to his arm. A light is produced in order that he may see it is there.
When he took her hands he felt the frame or ring—or at any rate, a
frame or ring—under his elbow on the table, from which place it was
pulled by some power just before it went on to his arm. Such is his
report to the audience. But in fact, the medium has two frames, or else
a tambourine, and a tambourine-frame. She allows the investigator to
feel one of these.
She has, however, previous to his taking her hands, put one arm and head
through the frame she uses; so that of course he does not feel it when
she passes his hand down one side of her neck and over one of her arms,
as it is under that arm. Her husband pulls the tambourine from under the
investigator’s elbow; then the medium gets her head back through the
frame, leaving it on her arm, or sliding it on to his, and the work is
done!
She has also two iron rings. One of them she puts over her arm and the
point of her shoulder, where it snugly remains, covered with a cape
which she persists in wearing on these occasions, till the investigator
takes her hands (in the dark) and feels the other ring under his elbows;
then the husband disposes of the ring on the table, and the medium works
the other one down on to her arm. The audience saw but one ring, and the
person sitting with the medium thought he had that under his elbow till
it was pulled away and put on the arm!
Some years ago, a man by the name of Dexter, who kept an oyster and
liquor saloon on Bleecker street, devised a somewhat novel exhibition
for the purpose of attracting custom. A number of hats, placed on the
floor of his saloon, danced (or bobbed up and down) in time to music.
His place was visited by a number of the leading spiritualists of New
York, several of whom were heard to express a belief that the hats were
moved by spirits! Dexter, however, did not claim to be a medium, though
he talked vaguely of “the power of electricity,” when questioned with
regard to his exhibition. Besides making the hats dance, he would
(apparently) cause a violin placed in a box on the floor to sound, by
waving his hands over it.
The hats were moved by a somewhat complicated arrangement of wires,
worked by a confederate, out of sight. These wires were attached to
levers, and finally came up through the floor, through small holes
hidden from observation by the sawdust strewn there, as is common in
such places.
The violin in the box did not sound at all. It was another violin, under
the floor, that was heard. It is not easy for a person to exactly locate
a sound when the cause is not apparent. In short, Mr. Dexter’s
operations may be described as only consisting of a little well-managed
Dexterity!
A young man “out West,” claiming to be influenced by spirits, astonished
people by reading names, telling time by watches, etc., in a dark room.
He sat at a centre-table, which was covered with a cloth, in the middle
of the room. Investigators sat next the walls. The name of a spirit, for
instance, would be written and laid on a table, when in a short time he
pronounced it. To tell the time by a watch, he required it to be placed
on the table, or in his hand. With the tablecloth over his head, a
bottle of phosphorated oil enabled him to see, when not the least
glimmer of light was visible to others in the room.
If any of the “spiritualist” philosophers were to be asked what is the
philosophy of these proceedings, he would probably reply with a mess of
balderdash pretty much like the following:
“There is an infinitesimal influence of sympathy between mind and
matter, which permeates all beings, and pervades all the delicate niches
and interstices of human intelligence. This sympathetic influence
working upon the affined intelligence of an affinity, coagulates itself
into a corporiety, approximating closely to the adumbration of mortality
in its highest admensuration, at last accuminating in an accumination.”
On these great philosophic principles it will not be difficult to
comprehend the following actual quotation from the Spiritual Telegraph:
“In the twelfth hour, the holy procedure shall crown the Triune Creator
with the most perfect disclosive illumination. Then shall the creation
in the effulgence above the divine seraphemal, arise into the dome of
the disclosure in one comprehensive revolving galaxy of supreme created
beatitudes.”
That those not surcharged with the divine afflatus may be able to get at
the meaning of the above paragraph, it is translated thus:
“Then shall all the blockheads in the nincompoopdome of disclosive
procedure above the all-fired leather-fungus of Peter Nephninnygo, the
gooseberry grinder, rise into the dome of the disclosure until coequaled
and coexistensive and conglomerate lumuxes in one comprehensive mux
shall assimilate into nothing, and revolve like a bob-tailed pussy cat
after the space where the tail was.”
What power there is in spiritualism!
I shall be glad to receive, for publication, authentic information, from
all parts of the world in regard to the doings of pretended
spiritualists, especially those who perform for money. It is high time
that the credulous portion of our community should be saved from the
deceptions, delusions, and swindles of these blasphemous mountebanks and
impostors.
DEMONSTRATIONS BY “SAMPSON” UNDER A TABLE.—A MEDIUM WHO IS HANDY WITH
HER FEET.—EXPOSÉ OF ANOTHER OPERATOR IN DARK CIRCLES.
Considerable excitement has been created in various parts of the West by
a young woman, whose name need not here be given, who pretends to be a
“medium for physical manifestations.” She is rather tall and quite
muscular, her general manner and expression indicating innocence and
simplicity.
The “manifestations” exhibited by her purport to be produced by Samson,
the Hebrew champion and anti-philistine.
In preparing for her exhibition, she has a table placed sideways against
the wall of the room, and covered with a thick blanket that reaches to
the floor. A large tin dishpan, with handles (or ears,) a German
accordeon, and a tea-bell are placed under the table, at the end of
which she seats herself in such a way that her body is against the top,
and her lower limbs underneath, her skirts being so adjusted as to fill
the space between the end legs of the table, and at the same time allow
free play for her pedal extremities. The blanket, at the end where she
sits, comes to her waist and hangs down to the floor on each side of her
chair. The space under the table is thus made dark—a necessary
condition, it is claimed—and all therein concealed from view. The
“medium” then folds her arms, looks careless, and the “manifestations”
commence. The accordeon is sounded, no music being executed upon it, and
the bell rung at the same time. Then the dishpan receives such treatment
that it makes a terrible noise. Some one is requested to go to the end
of the table opposite the “medium,” put his hand under the blanket, take
hold of the dishpan, and pull. He does so, and finds that some power is
opposing him, holding the dishpan to one place. Not being rude, he
forbears to jerk with all his force, but retires to his seat. The table
rises several inches and comes down “kerslap,” then it tips forward a
number of times; then one end jumps up and down in time to music, if
there is any one present to play; loud raps are heard upon it, and the
hypothetical Samson has quite a lively time generally. Some of the
mortals present, one at a time, put their fingers, by request, against
the blankets, through which those members are gingerly squeezed by what
might be a hand, if there was one under the table. A person being told
to take hold of the top of the table at the ends, he does so, and finds
it so heavy that he can barely lift it. Setting it down, he is told to
raise it again several inches; and at the second lifting it is no
heavier than one would naturally judge such a piece of furniture to be.
Another person is asked to lift the end furthest from the medium;
having done so, it suddenly becomes quite weighty, and, relaxing his
hold, it comes down with much force upon the floor. Thus, by the
power—exercised beneath the table—of an assumed spirit, that piece of
cabinet-ware becomes heavy or light, and is moved in various ways, the
medium not appearing to do it.
In addition to her other “fixins,” this medium has a spirit-dial, so
called, on which are letters of the alphabet, the numerals, and such
words as “Yes,” “No,” and “Don’t know.” The whole thing is so arranged
that the pulling of a string makes an index hand go the circuit of the
dial-face, and it can be made to stop at any of the characters or words
thereon. This “spirit-dial” is placed on the table, near the end
furthest from the medium, the string passing through a hole and hanging
beneath. In the end of the string there is a knot. While the medium
remains in the same position in which she sat when the other
“manifestations” were produced, communications are spelled out through
the dial, the index being moved by some power under the table that pulls
the string. A coil-spring makes the index fly back to the
starting-point, when the power is relaxed at each indication of a
character or word. The orthography of these “spirits” is “bad if not
worse.”
Now for an explanation of the various “manifestations” that I have
enumerated.
The medium is simply handy with her feet. To sound the accordeon and
ring the bell at the same time, she has to take off one of her shoes or
slippers, the latter being generally worn by her on these occasions.
That done, she gets the handle of the tea-bell between the toes of her
right foot, through a hole in the stocking, then putting the heel of the
same foot on the keys of the accordeon, and the other foot into the
strap on the bellows part of that instrument, she easily sounds it, the
motion necessary to do this also causing the bell to ring. She can
readily pass her heels over the keys to produce different notes. She is
thus able to make sounds on the accordeon that approximate to the very
simple tune of “Bounding Billows,” and that is the extent of her musical
ability when only using her “pedals.”
To get a congress-gaiter off the foot without using the hands is quite
easy; but how to get one on again, those members not being employed to
do it, would puzzle most people. It is not difficult to do, however, if
a cord has been attached to the strap of the gaiter and tied to the leg
above the calf. The cord should be slack, and that will admit of the
gaiter coming off. To get it on, the toe has to be worked into the top
of it, and then pulling on the cord with the toe of the other foot will
accomplish the rest.
The racket with the dishpan is made by putting the toe of the foot into
one of the handles or ears, and beating the pan about. By keeping the
toe in this handle and putting the other foot into the pan, the operator
can “stand a pull” from an investigator, who reaches under the blanket
and takes hold of the other handle.
To raise the table, the “medium” puts her knees under and against the
frame of it, then lifts her heels, pressing the toes against the floor,
at the same time bearing with her arms on the end. To make the table tip
forward, one knee only is pressed against the frame at the back side.
The raps are made with the toe of the medium’s shoe against the leg,
frame, or top of the table.
What feels like a hand pressing the investigator’s fingers when he puts
them against the blanket, is nothing more than the medium’s feet, the
big toe of one foot doing duty for a thumb, and all the toes of the
other foot being used to imitate fingers. The pressure of these, through
a thick blanket, cannot well be distinguished from that of a hand. When
this experiment is to be made, the medium wears slippers that she can
readily get off her feet.
To make the table heavy, the operator presses her knees outwardly
against the legs of the table, and then presses down in opposition to
the party who is lifting, or she presses her knees against that surface
of the legs of the table that is toward her, while her feet are hooked
around the lower part of the legs; that gives her a leverage, by means
of which she can make the whole table or the end furthest from her seem
quite heavy, and if the person lifting it suddenly relaxes his hold, it
will come down with a forcible bang to the floor.
To work the “spirit-dial,” the medium has only to press the string with
the toe of her foot against the top of the table, and slide it (the
string) along till the index points at the letter or word she wishes to
indicate. The frame of the dial is beveled, the face declining toward
the medium, so that she has no difficulty in observing where the index
points.
After concluding her performances under the table, this medium sometimes
moves her chair about two feet back and sits with her side toward the
end of the table, with one leg of which, however, the skirt of her dress
comes in contact. Under cover of the skirt she then hooks her foot
around the leg of the table and draws it toward her. This is done
without apparent muscular exertion, while she is engaged in
conversation; and parties present are humbugged into the belief that the
table was moved without “mortal contact”—so they report to outsiders.
This medium has a “manager,” and he does his best in managing the
matter, to prevent “Samson being caught” in the act of cheating. The
medium, too, is vigilant, notwithstanding her appearance of carelessness
and innocent simplicity. A sudden rising of the blanket once exposed to
view her pedal extremities in active operation.
Another of the “Dark Circle” mediums gets a good deal of sympathy on
account of her “delicate health.” Her health is not so delicate,
however, as to prevent her from laboring hard to humbug people with
“physical demonstrations.” She operates only in private, in presence of
a limited number of people.
A circle being formed, the hands of all the members are joined except at
one place where a table intervenes. Those sitting next to this table
place a hand upon it, the other hand of each of these parties being
joined with the circle. The medium takes a position close by the table,
and during the manifestations is supposed to momentarily touch with her
two hands the hands of those parties sitting next to the table. Of
course, she could accomplish little or nothing if she allowed her hands
to be constantly held by investigators; so she hit upon the plan
mentioned above, to make the people present believe that the musical
instruments are not sounded by her. These instruments are within her
reach; and instead of touching the hands of those next the table with
both her hands, as supposed, she touches, alternately, their hands with
but one of hers, the other she expertly uses in sounding the
instruments.
Several years ago, at one of the circles of this medium, in St. John’s,
Mich., a light was suddenly introduced, and she was seen in the act of
doing what she had asserted to be done by the “spirits.” She has also
been exposed as an impostor in other places.
As I have said before, the mediums always insist on having such
“conditions” as will best enable them to deceive the senses and mislead
the judgment.
If there were a few more “detectives” like Doctor Von Vleck, the whole
mediumistic fraternity would soon “come to grief.”
SPIRITUAL PHOTOGRAPHING.—COLORADO JEWETT AND THE SPIRIT-PHOTOGRAPHS OF
GENERAL JACKSON, HENRY CLAY, DANIEL WEBSTER, STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS,
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, ETC.—A LADY OF DISTINCTION SEEKS AND FINDS A
SPIRITUAL PHOTOGRAPH OF HER DECEASED INFANT, AND HER DEAD BROTHER WHO
WAS YET ALIVE.—HOW IT WAS DONE.
In answer to numerous inquiries and several threats of prosecution for
libel in consequence of what I have written in regard to impostors who
(for money) perform tricks of legerdemain and attribute them to the
spirits of deceased persons, I have only to say, I have no malice or
antipathies to gratify in these expositions. In undertaking to show up
the “Ancient and Modern Humbugs of the World,” I am determined so far as
in me lies, to publish nothing but the truth. This I shall do, “with
good motives and for justifiable ends,” and I shall do it fearlessly and
conscientiously. No threats will intimidate, no fawnings will flatter me
from publishing everything that is true which I think will contribute to
the information or to the amusement of my readers.
Some correspondents ask me if I believe that all pretensions to
intercourse with departed spirits are impositions. I reply, that if
people declare that they privately communicate with or are influenced to
write or speak by invisible spirits, I cannot prove that they are
deceived or are attempting to deceive me—although I believe that one or
the other of these propositions is true. But when they pretend to give
me communications from departed spirits, to tie or untie ropes—to read
sealed letters, or to answer test-questions through spiritual agencies,
I pronounce all such pretensions ridiculous impositions, and I stand
ready at any time to prove them so, or to forfeit five hundred dollars,
whenever these pretended mediums will succeed in producing their
“wonderful manifestations” in a room of my selecting, and with apparatus
of my providing; they not being permitted to handle the sealed letters
or folded ballots which they are to answer, nor to make conditions in
regard to the manner of rope tying, etc. If they can answer my
test-questions relevantly and truly, without touching the envelopes in
which they are sealed—or even when given to them by my word of mouth, I
will hand over the $500. If they can cause invisible agencies to perform
in open daylight many of the things which they pretend to accomplish by
spirits in the dark, I will promptly pay $500 for the sight. In the mean
time, I think I can reasonably account for and explain all pretended
spiritual gymnastic performances—throwings of hair-brushes—dancing
pianos—spirit-rapping—table-tipping—playing of musical instruments,
and flying through the air (in the dark,) and a thousand other
“wonderful manifestations” which, like most of the performances of
modern “magicians,” are “passing strange” until explained, and then they
are as flat as dish-water. Dr. Von Vleck publicly produces all of these
pretended “manifestations” in open daylight, without claiming spiritual
aid.
Among the number of humbugs that owe their existence to various
combinations of circumstances and the extreme gullibility of the human
race, the following was related to me by a gentleman whose position and
character warrant me in announcing that it may be implicitly relied upon
as correct in every particular.
Some time before the Presidential election, a photographer residing in
one of our cities (an ingenious man and a scientific chemist,) was
engaged in making experiments with his camera, hoping to discover some
new combination whereby to increase the facility of “picturing the human
form divine,” etc. One morning, his apparatus being in excellent order,
he determined to photograph himself. No sooner thought of, than he set
about making his arrangements. All being ready, he placed himself in a
position, remained a second or two, and then instantly closing his
camera, surveyed the result of his operation. On bringing the picture
out upon the plate, he was surprised to find a shadowy representation of
a human being, so remarkably ghostlike and supernatural, that he became
amused at the discovery he had made. The operation was repeated, until
he could produce similar pictures by a suitable arrangement of his
lenses and reflectors known to no other than himself. About this time he
became acquainted with one of the most famous spiritualist-writers, and
in conversation with him, showed him confidentially one of those
photographs, with also the shadow of another person, with the remark,
mysteriously whispered:
“I assure you, Sir, upon my word as a gentleman, and by all my hopes of
a hereafter, that this picture was produced upon the plate as you see
it, at a time when I had locked myself in my gallery, and no other
person was in the room. It appeared instantly, as you see it there; and
I have long wished to obtain the opinion of some man, like yourself, who
has investigated these mysteries.”
The spiritualist listened attentively, looked upon the picture, heard
other explanations, examined other pictures, and sagely gave it as his
opinion that the inhabitants of the unknown sphere had taken this mode
of re-appearing to the view of mortal eyes, that this operator must be a
“medium” of especial power. The New York Herald of Progress, a
spiritualist paper, printed the first article upon this man’s spiritual
photograph.
The acquaintance thus begun was continued, and the photographer found it
very profitable to oblige his spiritual friend, by the reproduction of
ghost-like pictures, ad infinitum, at the rate of five dollars each.
Mothers came to the room of the artist, and gratefully retired with
ghostly representations of departed little ones. Widows came to purchase
the shades of their departed husbands. Husbands visited the photographer
and procured the spectral pictures of their dead wives. Parents wanted
the phantom-portraits of their deceased children. Friends wished to
look upon what they believed to be the lineaments of those who had long
since gone to the spirit-land. All who sought to look on those pictures
were satisfied with what had been shown them, and, by conversation on
the subject, increased the number of visitors. In short, every person
who heard about this mystery determined to verify the wonderful tales
related, by looking upon the ghostly lineaments of some person, who,
they believed, inhabited another sphere. And here I may as well mention
that one of the faithful obtained a “spirit” picture of a deceased
brother who had been dead more than five years, and said that he
recognized also the very pattern of his cravat as the same that he wore
in life. Can human credulity go further than to suppose that the
departed still appear in the old clo’ of their earthly wardrobe? and the
fact that the appearance of “the shade” of a young lady in one of the
fashionable cut Zouave jackets of the hour did not disturb the faith of
the believers, fills us indeed with wonder.
The fame of the photographer spread throughout the “spiritual circles,”
and pilgrims to this spiritual Mecca came from remote parts of the land,
and before many months, caused no little excitement among some persons,
inclined to believe that the demonstrations were entirely produced by
human agency.
The demand for “spirit” pictures consequently increased, until the
operator was forced to raise his price to ten dollars, whenever
successful in obtaining a true “spirit-picture,” or to be overwhelmed
with business that now interfered with his regular labors.
About this time the famous “Peace Conference” had been concluded by the
issue of Mr. Lincoln’s celebrated letter, “To whom it may concern,” and
William Cornell Jewett (with his head full of projects for restoring
peace to a suffering country) heard about the mysterious photographer,
and visited the operator.
“Sir,” said he, “I must consult with the spirits of distinguished
statesmen. We need their counsel. This cruel war must stop. Brethren
slaying brethren, it is horrible, Sir. Can you show me John Adams? Can
you show me Daniel Webster? Let me look upon the features of Andrew
Jackson. I must see that noble, glorious, wise old statesman, Henry
Clay, whom I knew. Could you reproduce Stephen A. Douglas, with whom to
counsel at this crisis in our national affairs! I should like to meet
the great Napoleon. Such, here obtained, would increase my influence in
the political work that I have in hand.”
In his own nervous, impetuous, excited way, Colorado Jewett continued to
urge upon the photographer the great importance of receiving such
communications, or some evidence that the spirits of our deceased
statesmen were watching over and counseling those who desire to re-unite
the two opposing forces, fighting against each other on the soil of a
common country.
With much caution, the photographer answered the questions presented.
Arranging the camera, he produced some indistinct figures, and then
concluded that the “conditions” were not sufficiently favorable to
attempt anything more before the next day. On the following morning,
Jewett appeared—nervous, garrulous, and excited at the prospect of
being in the presence of those great men, whose spirits he desired to
invoke. The apparatus was prepared; utter silence imposed, and for some
time the heart of the peace-seeker could almost be heard thumping within
the breast of him who sought supernatural aid, in his efforts to end our
cruel civil war. Then, overcome by his own thoughts, Jewett disturbed
the “conditions” by changing his position, and muttering short
invocations, addressed to the shades of those he wished to behold. The
operator finally declared he could not proceed, and postponed his
performance for that day. So, excuses were made, until the mental
condition of Mr. Jewett had reached that state which permitted the
photographer to expect the most complete success. Everything being
prepared, Jewett breathlessly awaited the expected presence. Quietly the
operator produced the spectral representation of the elder Adams. Jewett
scrutinized the plate, and expressed a silent wonder, accompanied, no
doubt, with some mental appeals addressed to the ancient statesman.
Then, writing the name of Webster upon a slip of paper, he passed it
over to the photographer, who gravely placed the scrap of writing upon
the camera, and presently drew therefrom the “ghost-like” but well
remembered features of the “Sage of Marshfield.” Colorado Jewett was now
thoroughly impressed with the spiritual power producing these images;
and in ecstasy breathed a prayer that Andrew Jackson might appear to
lend his countenance to the conference he wished to hold with the mighty
dead. Jackson’s well known features came out upon call, after due
manipulation of the proper instrument. “Glorious trio of departed
statesmen!” thought Jewett, “help us by your counsels in this the day of
our nation’s great distress.” Next Henry Clay’s outline was faintly
shown from the tomb, and here the sitter remarked that he expected him.
After him came Stephen A. Douglas, and the whole affair was so entirely
satisfactory to Jewett, that, after paying fifty dollars for what he had
witnessed, he, the next day, implored the presence of George Washington,
offering fifty dollars more for a “spiritual” sight of the “Father of
our Country.” This request smote upon the ear of the photographer like
an invitation to commit sacrilege. His reverence for the memory of
Washington was not to be disturbed by the tempting offer of so many
greenbacks. He could not allow the features of that great man to be used
in connection with an imposture perpetrated upon so deluded a fanatic as
Colorado Jewett. In short, the “conditions” were unfavorable for the
apparition of “General Washington;” and his visitor must remain
satisfied with the council of great men that had been called from the
spirit world to instill wisdom into the noddle of a foolish man on this
terrestrial planet. Having failed to obtain, by the agency of the
operator, a glimpse of Washington, Jewett clasped his hands together,
and sinking upon his knees, said, looking toward Heaven: “O spirit of
the immortal Washington! look down upon the warring elements that
convulse our country, and kindly let thy form appear, to lend its
influence toward re-uniting a nation convulsed with civil war!”
It is needless to say that this prayer was not answered. The spirit
would not come forth; and, although quieted by the explanations and half
promises of the photographer, the peace-messenger departed, convinced
that he had been in the presence of five great statesmen, and saddened
by the reflection that the shade of the immortal Washington had turned
away its face from those who had refused to follow the counsels he gave
while living.
Soon after this, Jewett ordered duplicates of these photographs to the
value of $20 more. I now have on exhibition in my Museum several of the
veritable portraits taken at this time, in which the well-known form and
face of Mr. Jewett are plainly depicted, and on one of which appears the
shade of Henry Clay, on another that of Napoleon the First, and on
others ladies supposed to represent deceased feminines of great
celebrity. It is said that Jewett sent one of the Napoleonic pictures to
the Emperor Louis Napoleon.
Not long after Colorado Jewett had beheld these wonderful pictures, and
worked himself up into the belief that he was surrounded by the great
and good statesmen of a former generation, a lady, without making
herself known, called upon the photographer. I am informed that she is
the wife of a distinguished official. She had heard of the success of
others, and came to verify their experience under her own bereavement.
Completely satisfied by the apparition exhibited, she asked for and
obtained a spectral photograph resembling her son, who, some months
previously, had gone to the spirit-land. It is said that the same lady
asked for and obtained a spiritual photograph of her brother, whom she
had recently heard was slain in battle; and when she returned home she
found him alive, and as well as could be expected under the
circumstances. But this did not shake her faith in the least. She simply
remarked that some evil spirit had assumed her brother’s form in order
to deceive her. This is a very common method of spiritualists “digging
out” when the impositions of the “money-operators” are detected. This
same lady has recently given her personal influence in favor of the
“medium” Colchester, in Washington. One of these impressions bearing the
likeness of this distinguished lady was accidentally recognized by a
visitor. This capped the climax of the imposture and satisfied the
photographer that he was committing a grave injury upon society by
continuing to produce “spiritual pictures,” and subsequently he refused
to lend himself to any more “manifestations” of this kind. He had
exhausted the fun.
I need only explain the modus operandi of effecting this illusion, to
make apparent to the most ignorant that no supernatural agency was
required to produce photographs bearing a resemblance to the persons
whose “apparition” was desired. The photographer always took the
precaution of inquiring about the deceased, his appearance and ordinary
mode of wearing the hair. Then, selecting from countless old “negatives”
the nearest resemblance, it was produced for the visitor, in dim,
ghostlike outline differing so much from anything of the kind ever
produced, that his customers seldom failed to recognize some lineament
the dead person possessed when living, especially if such relative had
deceased long since. The spectral illusions of Adams, Webster, Jackson,
Clay, and Douglas were readily obtained from excellent portraits of the
deceased statesmen, from which the scientific operator had prepared his
illusions for Colorado Jewett.
In placing before my readers this incident of “Spiritual Photography,” I
can assure them that the facts are substantially as related; and I am
now in correspondence with gentlemen of wealth and position who have
signified their willingness to support this statement by affidavits and
other documents prepared for the purpose of opening the eyes of the
people to the delusions daily practised upon the ignorant and
superstitious.
BANNER OF LIGHT.—MESSAGES FROM THE DEAD.—SPIRITUAL CIVILITIES.—SPIRIT
“HOLLERING.”—HANS VON VLEET, THE FEMALE DUTCHMAN.—MRS. CONANT’S
“CIRCLES.”—PAINE’S TABLE-TIPPING HUMBUG EXPOSED.
“The Banner of Light,” a weekly journal of romance, literature, and
general intelligence, published in Boston, is the principal organ of
spiritualism in this country. Its “general intelligence” is rather
questionable, though there is no doubt about its being a “journal of
romance,” strongly tinctured with humbug and imposture. It has a
“Message Department,” the proprietors of the paper claiming that “each
message in this department of the “Banner” was spoken by the spirit
whose name it bears, through the instrumentality of Mrs. J. H. Conant,
while in an abnormal condition called the trance.”
I give a few specimens of these “messages.” Thus, for instance,
discourseth the Ghost of Lolley:
“How do? Don’t know me, do you? Know George Lolley? [Yes. How do
you do?] I’m first rate. I’m dead; ain’t you afraid of me? You know
I was familiar with those sort of things, so I wasn’t frightened to
go.
“Well, won’t you say to the folks that I’m all right, and happy?
that I didn’t suffer a great deal, had a pretty severe wound, got
over that all right; went out from Petersburg. I was in the battle
before Petersburg; got my discharge from there. Remember me kindly
to Mr. Lord.
“Well, tell ’em as soon as I get the wheels a little greased up and
in running order I’ll come back with the good things, as I said I
would, George W. Lolley. Good-bye.”
Immediately after a “message” from the spirit of John Morgan, the
guerrilla, came one from Charles Talbot, who began as follows with a
curious apostrophe to his predecessor:
“Hi-yah! old grisly. It’s lucky for you I didn’t get in ahead of
you.
“I am Charlie Talbot, of Chambersburg, Pa. Was wounded in action,
captured by the Rebels, and ‘died on their hands’ as they say of
the horse.”
It seems a little rude for one “spirit” to term another “Old Grisly;”
but such may be the style of compliment prevailing in the spirit-world.
Here is what Brother Klink said:
“John Klink, of the Twenty-fifth South Carolina. I want to open
communication with Thomas Lefar, Charleston, S. C. I am deucedly
ignorant about this coming back—dead railroad—business. It’s new
business to me, as I suppose it will be to some of you when you
travel this way. Say I will do the best I can to communicate with
my friends, if they will give me an opportunity. I desire Mr. Lefar
to send my letter to my family when he receives it—he knows where
they are—and then report to this office.
“Good night, afternoon or morning, I don’t know which. I walked out
at Petersburg.”
Here is a message from George W. Gage, with some of the questions which
he answered:
“[How do you like your new home?] First rate. I likes—heigho!—I
likes to come here, for they clears all the truck away before you
get round, and fix up so you can talk right off. [Wasn’t you a
medium?] No, Sir; I wasn’t afraid, though; nor my mother ain’t,
either. Oh, I knew about it; I knew before I come to die, about it.
My mother told me about it. I knew I’d be a woman when I come here,
too. [Did you?] Yes, sir; my mother told me, and said I musn’t be
afraid. Oh, I don’t likes that, but I likes to come.
“I forgot, Sir; my mother’s deaf, and always had to holler. That
gentleman says folks ain’t deaf here.”
The observable points are first that he seems to have excused his
“hollering” by the habits consequent upon his mother’s deafness. The
“hollering” consisted of unusually heavy thumping, I suppose. But the
second point is of far greater interest. George intimates that he has
changed his “sect,” and become a woman! For this important alteration
his good mother had prepared his mind. This style of thing will not seem
so strange if we consider that some men become old women before they
die!
Here is another case of feminification and restitution combined. Hans
Von Vleet has become a vrow—what you may call a female Dutchman! It has
always been claimed that women are purer and better than men; and
accordingly we see that as soon as Hans became a woman he insisted on
his widow’s returning to a Jew two thousand dollars that naughty Hans
had “Christianed” the poor Hebrew out of. But let Hans tell his own
story:
“I was Hans Von Vleet ven I vas here. I vas Von Vleet here; I is
one vrow now. I is one vrow ven I comes back; I vas no vrow ven I
vas here (alluding to the fact that he was temporarily occupying
the form of our medium.) I wish you to know that I first live in
Harlem, State of New York. Ven I vos here, I take something I had
no right to take, something that no belongs to me. I takes
something; I takes two thousand dollars that was no my own; that’s
what I come back to say about. I first have some dealings with one
Jew; that’s what you call him. He likes to Jew me, and I likes to
Christian him. I belongs to the Dutch Reform Church. (Do you think
you were a good member?) Vell, I vas. I believes in the creed; I
takes the sacrament; I lives up to it outside. I no lives up to it
inside, I suppose. (How do you find yourself now, Hans?) Vell, I
finds myself—vell, I don’t know; I not feel very happy. Ven I
comes to the spirit-land, I first meet that Jew’s brother, and he
tells me, ‘Hans, you mus go back and makes some right with my
brother.’ So I comes here.
“I vants my vrow, what I left in Harlem, to takes that two tousand
dollars and gives it back to that Jew’s vrow. That’s what I came
for to-day, Sir. (Has your vrow got it?) Vell, my vrow has got it
in a tin box. Ven I first go, I takes the money, I gives it to my
vrow, and she takes care of it. Now I vants my vrow to give that
two tousand dollars to that Jew’s vrow.
“(How do you spell your name?) The vrow knows how to spell. (Hans
Von Vleet.) There’s a something you cross in it. The vrow spells
the rest. Ah, that’s wrong; you makes a blunder. Its V. not F.
That’s like all vrows. (Do all vrows make blunders?) Vell, I don’t
know; all do sometimes, I suppose. (Didn’t you like vrows here?)
Oh, vell, I likes ’em sometimes. I likes mine own vrow. I not likes
to be a vrow myself. (Don’t the clothes fit?) Ah, vell, I suppose
they fits, but I not likes to wear what not becomes me.”
It is scarcely necessary to make comments on such horrible nonsense as
this. I may recur to the subject in future, should it appear expedient.
At present I must drop the subject of female men.
At the head of the “Message Department” is a standing advertisement,
which reads as follows:
“Our free circles are held at No. 158 Washington street, Room No. 4
(up stairs,) on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. The
circle-room will be open for visitors at two o’clock; services
commence at precisely three o’clock, after which time no one will
be admitted. Donations solicited.”
On the days and at the hour mentioned in the above advertisement, quite
an audience assembles to hear the messages Mrs. C. may have to deliver.
If a stranger present should request a message from one of his
spirit-friends, he would be told that a large number of spirits were
seeking to communicate through that “instrument,” and each must await
his turn! Having read obituary notices in the files of old newspapers,
and the published list of those recently killed in battle, the medium
has data for any number of “messages.” She talks in the style that she
imagines the person whom she attempts to personate would use, being one
of the doctrines of spiritualism that a person’s character and feelings
are not changed by death. To make the humbug more complete, she narrates
imaginary incidents, asserting them to have occurred in the
earth-experience of the spirit who purports to have possession of her at
the same time she is speaking. Mediums in various parts of the country
furnish her with the names of and facts relative to different deceased
people of their acquaintance, and those names and facts are used by her
in supplying the “Message Department” of the “Banner of Light.”
If the assumed “mediumship” of this woman was not an imposture, some of
the many people who have visited her for the purpose of getting
communications from their spirit-friends would have been gratified. In
most of the “messages” published in the Banner, the spirits purporting
to give them, express a great desire to have their mortal friends
receive them; but those mortals who seek to obtain through Mrs. Conant
satisfactory messages from their spirit-friends, are not gratified—the
medium not being posted. The mediums are as much opposed to “new tests”
as a non-committal politician.
Time and again have leading spiritualists, in various parts of the
country, indorsed as “spiritual manifestations,” what was subsequently
proved to be an imposture.
Several years ago, a man by the name of Paine created a great sensation
in Worcester, Mass., by causing a table to move “without contact,” he
claiming that it was done by spirits through his “mediumship.” He
subsequently came to New York, and exhibited the “manifestation” at the
house of a spiritualist—where he boarded—in the upper part of the
city. A great many spiritualists and not a few “skeptics” went to see
his performance. Paine was a very soft-spoken, “good sort of a fellow,”
and appeared to be quite sincere in his claims to “mediumship.” He
received no fee from those who witnessed his exhibition; and that fact,
in connection with others, tended to disarm people of suspicion. His
séances were held in the evening, and each visitor was received by him
at the door, and immediately conducted to a seat next the wall of the
room.
The visitors all in and seated, Mr. Paine took a seat with the rest in
the “circle.” In the middle of the room a small table had previously
been placed, and the gas had been turned partly off, leaving just enough
light to make objects look ghostly.
In order to get “harmonized,” singing was indulged in for a short time
by members of the “circle.” Soon a number of raps would be heard in the
direction of the table, and one side of that piece of furniture would be
seen to rise about an inch from the floor. Some very naturally wanted to
rush to the table and investigate the matter more closely, but Paine
forbade that—the necessary “conditions” must be observed, he said, or
there would be no further manifestation of spirit-power. As there was no
one nearer to the table than six or eight feet, the fact of its moving,
very naturally astonished the skeptics present. Several “seeing mediums”
who attended Mr. Paine’s séances, were able to see the spirits—so they
declared—who moved the table. One was described as a “big Injun,” who
cut various capers, and appeared to be much delighted with the turn of
affairs. Believers were wonderfully well-pleased to know that at last a
medium was “developed” through whom the inhabitants of another world
could manifest their presence to mortals in such a way that no one could
gainsay the fact. The “invisibles” freely responded, by raps on the
table, to various questions asked by those in the “circle.” They thumped
time to lively tunes, and seemed to have a decidedly good time of it in
their particular way. When the séance was concluded, Mr. Paine freely
permitted an examination of his table.
In the Sunday Spiritual Conferences, then held in Clinton Hall, leading
spiritualists gave an account of the “manifestations of the spirits”
through Mr. Paine, and, as believers, congratulated themselves upon the
existence of such “indubitable facts.” The spiritualist in whose house
this exhibition of table-moving “without contact” took place, was well
known as a man of strict honesty; and it was reasonably presumed that no
mechanical contrivance could be used without his cognizance, in thus
moving a piece of his furniture—for the table belonged to him—and that
he would countenance a deception was out of the question.
There were in the city three gentlemen who had, for some time, been
known as spiritualists; but they were, at the period of Paine’s début as
a medium in New York, very skeptical with regard to “physical
manifestations.” They had, a short time before, detected the Davenports
and other professed mediums in the practice of imposture; and they
determined not to accept, as true, Paine’s pretence to mediumship, till
after a thorough investigation of his “manifestations,” they should fail
to find a material cause for them. After attending several of his
séances, these gentlemen concluded that Paine moved the table by means
of a mechanical contrivance fixed under the floor. One of this trio of
investigators was a mechanic, and he had conceived a way—and it seemed
to him the only way—in which the “manifestation” could be produced
under the circumstances that apparently attended it. Paine was a
mechanic, and these parties were aware of that fact. They made an
appointment with him for a private séance. The evening fixed upon,
having arrived, they met with him at his room. The table was raised and
raps were made upon it, as had been done on previous occasions. One of
the three investigators stepped to the door of the room, locked it, put
the key in his pocket, took off his coat, and told Mr. Paine that he was
determined to search his (Paine’s) person, and that if he did not find
about him a small short iron rod, by means of which, through a hole in
the floor, a lever underneath was worked in moving the table, he (the
speaker) would beg his (Mr. Paine’s) pardon, and be forever after a firm
believer in the power of disembodied spirits to move ponderable bodies.
This impressive little speech had a decided and instant effect upon the
“medium.” “Gentlemen,” said the latter, “I might as well own up. Please
to be quietly seated, and I will tell you all about it.” And he did tell
them all about it; subsequently repeating his confession before quite a
number of disgusted and cheaply sold spiritualists at the “New York
Spiritual Lyceum.” The theory formed by one of the three investigators
referred to, as to Paine’s method of moving the table, was singularly
correct.
Whilst the family with whom Paine boarded was away, one day, in
attendance at a funeral, he took up several of the floor boards of the
back parlor, and on the under side of them affixed a lever, with a
cross-piece at one end of it; and, in the ends of the cross-piece, bits
of wire were inserted, the wire being just as far apart as the legs of
the table to be moved. Small holes were made in the floor-boards for the
wire to come through to reach the table-legs. The other end of the lever
came within an inch or two of the wall. When all the arrangements were
completed, and the table being properly placed in order to move it, Mr.
Paine had only to insert one end of a short iron rod in a hole in the
heel of his boot, put the other end of the rod through a hole in the
floor, just under the edge of the carpet near the wall, and then press
the rod down upon the end of the lever.
The movements necessary in fixing the iron rod to its place were
executed while he was picking up his handkerchief, that he had purposely
dropped.
The middle of the lever was attached to the floor, and the end with the
cross-piece, being the heavier, brought the other end close up against
the floor, the wires in the cross-piece having their points just within
the bottom of the holes in the floor. The room was carpeted, and there
were little marks on the carpet, known only to Paine, that enabled him
to know just where to place the table. Pressing down the end of the
lever nearest the wall, an inch would bring the wires in the cross-piece
on the other end of the lever against the legs of the table, and
slightly raise the latter. One of the wires would strike the table-leg a
very little before the other did, and that enabled the “medium” to very
nicely rap time to the tunes that were sung or played. Of course, no
holes that any one could observe would be made in the carpet by the
passage of the wires through it.
For appearance’ sake, Paine, before his detection, visited, by
invitation, the houses of several different spiritualists, for the
purpose of holding séances; but he never got a table to move “without
contact” in any other than the place where he had properly prepared the
conditions.
SPIRITUALIST HUMBUGS WAKING UP.—FOSTER HEARD FROM.—S. B. BRITTAN HEARD
FROM.—THE BOSTON ARTISTS AND THEIR SPIRITUAL PORTRAITS.—THE WASHINGTON
MEDIUM AND HIS SPIRITUAL HANDS.—THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS AND THE
SEA-CAPTAIN’S WHEAT-FLOUR.—THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS ROUGHLY SHOWN UP BY
JOHN BULL.—HOW A SHINGLE “STUMPED” THE SPIRITS.
I hear from spiritualists sometimes. These gentry are much exercised in
their minds by my letters about them, and some of them fly out at me
very much as bumble-bees do at one who stirs up their nest. For
instance, I received, not long ago, from my good friends, Messrs.
Cauldwell & Whitney, an anonymous letter to them, dated at Washington,
and suggesting that if I would attend what the latter calls “a séance of
that celebrated humbug, Foster,” I should see something that I could not
explain. Now, this anonymous letter, as I know by a spiritual
communication, (or otherwise,) is in a handwriting very wonderfully like
that of Mr. Foster himself. And as for the substance of it, it is very
likely that Foster has now gotten up some new tricks. He needs them. The
exhibiting mediums must, of course, contrive new tricks as fast as Dr.
Von Vleck and men like him show up their old ones. It is the universal
method of all sorts of impostors to adopt new means of fooling people
when their old ones are exposed. And Mr. Foster shall have all the
attention he wants if I ever find the leisure to bestow on him, though
my time is fully occupied with worthier objects.
I have also been complimented with a buzz and an attempt to sting from
my old friend S. B. Brittan, the ex-Universalist minister—the very
surprisingly efficient “man Friday” of Andrew Jackson Davis, in the
production of the “Revelations” of the said Davis, and also
ghost-fancier in general; who has gently aired part of his vocabulary in
a communication to the “Banner of Light,” with the heading “Exposed for
Two Shillings.” I can afford very well to expose friend Brittan and his
spiritualist humbugs for two shillings. The honester the cheaper. It
evidently vexes the spiritualists to have their ghosts put with the
monkeys in the Museum. They can’t help it, though; and it is my
deliberate opinion that the monkeys are much the most respectable. I
have no wish to displease any honest person; but the more the
spiritualists squirm, and snarl, and scold, and call names, the more
they show that I am hurting them. Or—does my friend Brittan himself
want an engagement at the Museum? Will he produce some “manifestations”
there, and get that $500?—the money is ready!
A valued friend of mine has furnished me a pleasant and true narrative
of a fine “spiritual” humbug which took place in a respectable
Massachusetts village not very long ago. I give the story in his own
graphic words:
“Two artists of Boston, tired of the atmosphere of their studios,
resolved themselves, in joint session, into spiritual mediums, as a
means of raising the wind—or the devil—and of getting a little fresh
air in the rural districts. One of them had learned Mansfield’s trick of
answering communications and that of writing on the arms. They had large
handbills printed, announcing that “Mr. W. Howard, the celebrated
test-medium, would visit the town of ——, and would remain at the ——
Hotel during three days.” One of the artists preceded the other by a few
hours, engaged rooms, and attended to sundry preliminaries. “Mr. Howard”
donned a white choker, put his hair behind his ears, and mounted a pair
of plain glass spectacles; and such was his profoundly spiritual
appearance on entering his apartments at the hotel, that he had to lock
the door and give his partner opportunity to explode, and absolutely
roll about on the floor with laughter.
“Well, they rigged a clothes-horse for a screen; and to heighten the
effect, the assistant, who was expert in portraiture, covered this
screen, and, indeed, the walls of the room, with scraggy outlines of the
human countenance upon large sheets of paper. These, they said, were
executed by the draftsman, whose right hand, when under spiritual
influence, uncontrollably jerked off these likenesses. They added, that
the spirits had given information that, before the mediums left town,
the people would recognize these pictures as likenesses of persons there
deceased within twenty years or so. Price, two dollars each! They
absolutely sold quite a large number of these portraits, as they were
from time to time recognized by surviving friends! The operation of
drawing portraits was also illustrated at certain hours, admission,
fifty cents; if not satisfactory, the money returned.
“Other tricks of various kinds were performed with pleasure to all
parties and profit to the performers. The artists stood it as long as
they could, and then departed. But there was every indication that the
towns-people would have stood it until this day.”
Thus far my friend’s curious and truthful account.
A little while ago, there was exhibiting, at Washington, a “test-medium”
whose name I would print, were it not that I do not want to advertise
him. One of his most impressive feats was, to cause spiritual hands and
other parts of the human frame to appear in the air à la Davenport
Brothers. A gentleman, whose name I also know very well indeed, but have
particular reasons for not mentioning, went one day to see this
“test-medium,” along with a friend, and asked to see a hand.
“Certainly,” the medium said; and the room was darkened, and the
“circle” made round the table in the usual manner. After about five
minutes, my friend, who had contrived to place himself pretty near the
medium, saw, sure enough, a dim glimmering blue light in the air, a foot
or so before and above the head of the medium. In a minute, he could
see, dimly outlined in this blue light, the form of a hand, back toward
him, fingers together, and no thumb.
“Why is no thumb visible?” asked my friend of the medium in a solemn
manner.
“The reason is,” said the medium, still more solemnly, “that the spirits
have not power enough to produce a whole hand and so they exhibit as
much as they can.”
“And do they always show hands without thumbs?”
“Yes.”
Here my friend, with a sudden jump, grabbed for the place where the
wrist of the mysterious hand ought to be. Strange to relate, he caught
it, and held it stoutly, to. A light was quickly had, when, still
stranger, the spirit-hand was clearly seen to be the fleshy paw of the
medium—and a fat paw it was too. Mr. Medium took the matter with the
coolness of a thorough rascal, and, lighting a cigar, merely observed:
“Well gentlemen, you needn’t trouble yourselves to come here any more!”
He also insisted on his usual fee of five dollars, until threatened with
a prosecution for swindling.
The secret of this worthy gentleman is simple and soon told. Holding one
hand up in the air, he held up with the other, between the thumb and
finger, a little pinch of phosphorus and bi-sulphide of carbon, which
gave the blue light. If inconvenient to hold up the other hand, he had a
reserve pinch of blue-light under that invisible thumb. It is a curious
instance of the thorough credulity of genuine spiritualists that a
believer in this wretched rogue, on being circumstantially told this
whole story, not only steadily and firmly refused to credit it, and
continued his faith in the fellow, but absolutely would not go to see
the application of any other test. That’s the sort of follower that is
worth having!
Another case was witnessed as follows, by the very same person on whose
authority I give the spirit-hand story. He was present—also, this time
in Washington, as it happened, at an exhibition by a certain pair of
spiritual brothers, since well known as the “Davenport Brothers.”
These chaps, after the fashion of their kind, caused themselves to be
tied up in a rope, an old sea-captain tying them. This done, their
“shop” or cabinet, was shut upon them as usual, and the bangs, throwing
of sticks, etc., through a window, and the like, took place. Well, this
sly and inconvenient old sea-captain now slipped out of the hall a few
minutes, and came back with some wheat flour. Having tied up the
“brothers” again, he remarked:
“Now, gentlemen, please to take, each, your two hands full of wheat
flour.”
The “brothers” got mad and flatly refused. Then they cooled down and
argued, saying it wouldn’t make any difference, and was of no use.
“Well,” said the ancient mariner, “if it won’t make any difference you
can just as well do it, can’t you?”
The audience, seeing the point, were so evidently pleased with the old
sailor, that the grumbling “brothers” though with a very bad grace, took
their fists full of flour, and were shut up.
There was not the least sign of a “manifestation”—no more than if the
wheat-flour had shot the “brothers” dead in their tracks. The audience
were immensely delighted. The “brothers,” since that time, have learned
to perform some tricks with flour in their fists, but only when tied by
their own friends.
Since these facts came to my knowledge, the Davenport Brothers have
suffered an unpleasant exposure in Liverpool, in England, the details of
which have been kindly forwarded to me by attentive friends there. The
circumstances in question occurred on the evenings of Tuesday and
Wednesday, February 14 and 15, 1865. On the first of these evenings, a
gentleman named Cummins, selected by the audience as one of the Tying
Committee, tied one of the Brothers, and a Mr. Hulley, the other
committee-man, the other. But the Brothers saw instantly that they could
not wriggle out of these knots. They, therefore, refused to let the
tying be finished, saying that it was “brutal” although a surgeon
present said it was not; one tied brother was untied by Ferguson, the
agent; and then the Brothers went to work and performed their various
tricks without the supervision of any committee, but amid a constant
fire of derision, laughter, groans, shouts, and epithets from the
audience. On the next evening, the audience insisted on having the same
committee; the Brothers were very reluctant to allow it, but had to do
so after a long time. Ira Davenport refused again, however, instantly to
be tied, as soon as he saw what knot Mr. Cummins was going to use.
Cummins, however, though Ira squirmed most industriously, got him tied
fast, and then Ira called to Ferguson to cut the knot! Ferguson did so,
and cut Ira’s hand. Ira now shewed the blood to the audience, and the
Brothers, with an immense pretense of indignation, went off the stage.
Cummins at once explained; the audience became disgusted, and, enraged
at the impudence of the imposture, broke over the foot-lights, knocked
Ferguson backward into the “cabinet;” and when the discomfited agent had
scrambled out and run away, smashed the thing fairly into
kindling-wood, and carried it off, all distributed into splinters and
chips. Early next morning, the terrified Davenports ran away out of
Liverpool; and a number of the audience were, at last accounts,
intending to go to law to get back the money paid for an exhibition
which they did not see.
The very thorough exposure of the Davenports thus made is an additional
proof—if such were needed—of the truth of what I have alleged about
the impostures perpetrated by them and their “mysterious” brethren of
the exhibiting sort.
Once the “spirits” were “stumped” with a shingle—a very proper yankee
jaw-bone of an ass to route such disembodied Philistines. One day a
certain person was present where some tables were rambling about, and
other revolutions taking place in the furniture-business, when he
stepped boldly forth like a herald bearing defiance, and cast down a
common white pine shingle upon the floor. “There,” said he, coolly, “if
you can trot those tables about in that style, do it with that shingle.
Make it go about the room. Make it move an inch!” And lo, and behold!
the shingle lay perfectly still.
THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS SHOWN UP ONCE MORE.—DR. NEWTON AT CHICAGO.—THE
SPIRITUALIST BOGUS BABY.—A LADY BRINGS FORTH A MOTIVE FORCE.—“GUM”
ARABIC.—SPIRITUALIST HEBREW.—THE ALLEN BOY.—DR. RANDALL.—PORTLAND
EVENING COURIER.—THE FOOLS NOT ALL DEAD YET.
Other “spiritual” facts have come to my hand, some of them furnishing
additional details about persons to whom I have already alluded, and
others being important to illustrate some general tendencies of
spiritualism.
And first, about the Davenport Brothers; they have met with another
“awful exposure,” at the hands of a merciless Mr. Addison. This
gentleman is a London stockbroker, and his cool, sharp business habits
seem to have stood him in good stead in taking some fun out of the fools
who follow the Davenports. Mr. Addison, it seems, went to work, and,
just to amuse his friends, executed all the Davenport tricks. Upon this
the spiritualist newspapers in England, which, like the Boston Herald of
Progress, claim to believe in the “Brothers,” came out and said that
Addison was a very wonderful medium indeed. On this the cold-blooded
Addison at once printed a letter, in which he not only said he had done
all their tricks without spiritual aid, but he moreover explained
exactly how he caught the Davenports in their impositions. He and a
long-legged friend went to one of the “dark séances” of the Davenports,
during which musical instruments were to fly about over the heads of the
audience, bang their pates, thrum, twang, etc. Addison and his friend
took a front seat; as soon as the lights were put out they put out their
legs too; stretching as far as possible; and, to use the unfeeling
language of Mr. Addison, they “soon had the satisfaction of feeling some
one falling over them.” They then caught hold of an arm, from which a
guitar was forthwith let drop on the floor. In order to be certain who
the guitar-carrier was, they waited until the next time the lights were
put out, took each a mouthful of dry flour, and blew it out right among
the “manifestations.” When the lamps were lighted, lo and behold! there
was Fay, the agent and manager of the Davenports, with his back all
powdered with flour. Addison showed this to an acquaintance, who said,
“Yes, he saw the flour; but he could not understand what made Addison
and his friend laugh so excessively at it.”
The spiritualist newspapers don’t think Addison is so great a medium as
they did!
Great accounts have recently come eastward from Chicago, of a certain
Doctor Newton, who is said to be working miracles by the hundred in the
way of healing diseases. This man operates with exactly the weapons all
the miracle-workers, quacks, and impostors, ancient and modern use. All
of them have appealed to the imaginations of their patients, and no
person acquainted with mental philosophy is ignorant that many a sick
man has been cured either by medicine and imagination together, or by
imagination alone. Therefore, even if this Newton should really be the
cause of the recovery of some persons from their ailments, it would be
no more a miracle than if Dr. Mott should do it; nor would Newton be any
the less a quack and a humbug.
Newton has operated at the East already. He had a career at New Haven
and Hartford, and in other places, before he steered westward in the
wake of the “Star of Empire.” What he does is simply to ask what is the
matter, and where it hurts. Then he sticks his thumb into the seat of
the difficulty, or he pokes or strokes or pats it, as the case may be.
Then he says, “There—you’re cured! God bless you!—Take yourself off!”
Chicago must be a credulous place, for we are informed of immense crowds
besieging this man, and undergoing his manipulations. One of the Chicago
papers, having little faith and a good deal of fun—which in such cases
is much better—published some burlesque stories and certificates about
“Doctor” Newton, some of them humorous enough. There is a certificate
from a woman with fourteen children, all having the measles at once. She
says that no sooner had Doctor Newton received one lock of hair of one
of them, than the measles left them all, and she now has said measles
corked up in a bottle! Another case was that of a merchant who had lost
his strength, but went and was stroked by Newton, and the very next day
was able to lift a note in bank, which had before been altogether too
heavy for him. There was also an old lady, whose story I fear was
imitated from Hood’s funny conceit of the deaf woman who bought an
ear-trumpet, which was so effective that
——“The very next day
She heard from her husband in Botany Bay!”
The Chicago old lady in like manner, after having had Doctor Newton’s
thumbs “jobbed” into her ears, certifies that she heard next morning
from her son in California.
One would think that this ridicule would put the learned Dr. Newton to
flight; but it will not until he is through with the fools.
I have already given an account of some of the messages from the other
world in the “Banner of Light,” in which some of the spirits explain
that they have turned into women since they died. This is by no means
the first remarkable trick that the spirits have performed upon the
human organization. Here is what they did at High Rock, in
Massachusetts, a number of years ago. It beats Joanna Southcott in funny
absurdity, if not in blasphemy.
At High Rock, in the year 1854 or thereabouts, certain spiritualist
people were building some mysterious machinery. While this was in
process of erection, a female medium, of considerable eminence in those
parts, was informed by certain spirits, with great solemnity and pomp,
that “she would become the Mary of a new dispensation;” that is, she was
going to be a mother. Well, this was all proper, no doubt, and the lady
herself—so say the spiritualist accounts—had for some time experienced
indications that she was pregnant. These indications continued, and
became increasingly obvious, and also, it was observed, a little queer
in some particulars.
After a while, one Spear—a “Reverend Mr. Spear”—who was mixed up, it
appears, with the machinery-part of the business, and who was a medium
himself, transmitted to the lady a request from the spirits that she
would visit said Spear at High Rock on a certain day. She did so, of
course; and while there was unexpectedly taken with the pains of
childbirth, which the spiritualist authorities say, were
“internal”—where should they be, pray?—and “of the spirit rather than
of the physical nature; but were, nevertheless, quite as uncontrollable
as those of the latter, and not less severe.” The labor proceeded. It
lasted two hours. As it went on, lo and behold! one part and another
part of the machinery began to move! And when, at the end of the two
hours, the parturition was safely over, all the machinery was going!
The lady had given birth to a Motive Force. Does anybody suppose I am
manufacturing this story? Not a bit of it. It is all told at length in a
book published by a spiritualist; and probably a good many of my readers
will remember about it.
Well, the baby had to be nursed—fact! This superhumanly silly female
actually went through the motions of nursing the motive force for some
weeks. Though how the thing sucked—Excuse me, ladies; I would not
discuss such delicate subjects did not the interests of truth require
it.
If I had been the physician, at any rate, I think I should have
recommended to hire a healthy female steam-engine for a wet nurse to
this young motive force; say a locomotive, for instance. I feel sure the
thing would have lived if it could have had a gauge-faucet or something
of that sort to draw on. But the medical folks in charge chose to permit
the mother to nurse the child, and she not being able to supply proper
nutriment, the poor little innocent faded—if that word be appropriate
for what couldn’t be seen,—and finally “gin eout;” and the machinery,
after some abortive joggles and turns, stood hopelessly still.
This story is true—that is, it is true that the story was told, the
pretences were gone through, and the birth was actually believed by a
good many people. Some of them were prodigiously enthusiastic about it,
and called the invisible brat the New Motive Power, the Physical Savior,
Heaven’s Last Best Gift to Man, the New Creation, the Great Spiritual
Revelation of the Age, the Philosopher’s Stone, the Act of all Acts, and
so on, and so forth.
The great question of all was, Who was the daddy? I don’t know of
anybody’s asking this question, but its importance is extreme and
obvious. For if things like this are going to happen, the ladies will be
afraid to sleep alone in the house if so much as a sewing-machine or
apple-corer be about, and will not dare take solitary walks along any
stream where there is a water power.
A couple of miscellaneous anecdotes may not inappropriately be appended
to this story of monstrous delusion.
Once a “writing medium” was producing sentences in various foreign
languages. One of these was Arabic. An enthusiastic youth, a
half-believer, after inspecting the wondrous scroll, handed it to his
seat-mate, a professor (as it happened) in one of our oldest colleges,
and a man of real learning. The professor scrutinized the document. What
was the youth’s delight to hear him at last observe gravely, “It is a
kind of Arabic, sure enough!”
“What kind?” asked the young man with intense interest.
“Gum-arabic,” said the professor.
The spirit of the prophet Daniel came one night into the apartment of a
medium named Fowler, and right before his eyes, he said, wrote down some
marks on a piece of paper. These were shown to the Reverend George Bush,
Professor of Hebrew in the New-York University, who said that they were
“a few verses from the last chapter of Daniel” and were learnedly
written. Bush was a spiritualist as well as a professor of Hebrew, and
he ought to have known better than to indorse spirit-Hebrew; for shortly
there came others, who, to use a rustic phrase, “took the rag off the
Bush.” These inconvenient personages were three or four persons of
learning: one a Jew, who proved that the document was an attempt to copy
the verses in question, by some one so ignorant of Hebrew as not to know
that it is written backward, that is, from right to left.
During the last few months, a “boy medium,” by the name of Henry B.
Allen, thirteen years of age, has been astonishing people in various
parts of the country by “Physical Manifestations in the Light.” The
exhibitions of this precocious youngster have been “managed” by a Dr.
Randall, who also lectures upon Spiritualism, expounding its “beautiful
philosophy.” For a number of weeks this couple held forth in Boston,
sometimes giving several séances during the day, not more than thirty
being allowed to attend at one time, each of whom were required to pay
an admission fee of one dollar.
“The Banner of Light” fully indorsed this Allen boy, and gave lengthy
accounts of his manifestations. The arrangements for his exhibition were
very simple. A dulcimer, guitar, bell, and small drum being placed on a
sofa or several chairs set against the wall, a clothes-horse was set in
front of them and covered with a blanket, which came to the floor. To
obtain “manifestations,” a person was required to take off his coat and
sit with his back to the clothes-horse. The medium then took a seat
close to, and facing the investigator’s left side, and grasped the left
arm of the latter on the under side, above the elbow, with his (the
medium’s) right hand and near the wrist with the other hand. The
“manager” then covered with a coat, the arms and left shoulder of the
medium including the left arm of the investigator. The medium soon
commenced to wriggle and twist—the “manager” said he was always nervous
under “influence”—and worked the coat away from the position in which
it had been placed. Taking his right hand from the investigator’s arm,
he readjusted the coat, and availed himself of that opportunity to get
the investigator’s wrist between his (the medium’s) left arm and knee.
That brought his left hand in such a position that with it he could
grasp the investigator’s arm where he had previously grasped it with his
right hand. With the latter he could then reach around the edge of the
clothes-horse and make a noise on the instruments. With the drumsticks
he thumped on the dulcimer. Taking the guitar by the neck, he could
vibrate the strings and show the body of the instrument above the
clothes-horse, without any one seeing his hand! All persons present were
so seated that they could not see behind the clothes-horse, or have a
view of the medium’s right shoulder. When asked why people were not
allowed to occupy such a position, that they could have a fair view of
the instruments when sounded, the “manager” replied that he did not
exactly know, but presumed it was because the magnetic emanations from
the eyes of the beholders would prevent the spirits being able to move
the instruments at all! What was claimed to be a spirit-hand was often
shown above the clothes-horse, where it flickered for an instant and was
withdrawn; but it was invariably a right hand with the wrist toward the
medium. When the person sitting with the medium was asked if the hands
of the latter had constantly hold of his arm, he replied in the
affirmative. Of course, he felt what he supposed to be both the medium’s
hands; but as I before explained, the pressure on his wrist was from the
medium’s left arm—the left hand of whom, by means of a very
accommodating crook in the elbow, was grasping the investigator’s arm
where the medium’s right hand was supposed to be.
From Boston the Allen boy went to Portland, Maine, where he succeeded
“astonishingly,” till some gentleman applied the lampblack test to his
assumed mediumship, whereupon he “came to grief.”
The following is copied from the “Portland Daily Press,” of March 21.
“Exposed.—The ‘wonderful’ spiritual manifestations of the
‘boy-medium,’ Master Henry B. Allen, in charge of Doctor J. H.
Randall, of Boston, were brought to a sad end last evening by the
impertinent curiosity and wicked doings of some of the gentlemen
present at the seance at Congress Hall.
“As usual, one of the company present was selected to sit at the
side of the boy, and allowed his hand and arm to be held by both
hands of the boy while the manifestations were going on. The boy
seized hold of the gentleman’s wrist with his left hand, and his
shoulder, or near it, with the right hand. The manifestations then
began, and among them was one trick of pulling the gentleman’s
hair.
“Immediately after this trick was performed, the hand of the boy
was discovered to be very black—from lamp-black, of the best
quality, with which the gentleman had dressed his head on purpose
to detect whose was the ‘spirit-hand’ that pulled his hair. His
shirt-sleeve, upon which the boy immediately replaced his hand
after pulling his hair, was also black where the hand had been
placed. The gentleman stated the facts to the company present, and
the seance broke up. Dr. Randall refunded the fifty cents admission
fee to those present.”
The spiritualists of the city were somewhat staggered by this exposé,
but soon rallied as one of their number announced a new discovery in
spiritual science. Here it is, as stated by himself:
“Whatever the electrical or ‘spirit-hand’ touches, will inevitably be
transferred to the hand of the medium in every instance, unless
something occurs to prevent the full operation of the law by which this
result is produced. The spirit-hand being composed in part of the
magnetic elements drawn from the medium, when it is dissolved again, and
the magnetic fluid returns whence it came, it must of necessity carry
with it whatever material substance it has touched, and leave it
deposited upon the surface or material hand of the medium. This is a
scientific question. How many innocent mediums have been wronged? and
the invisible have permitted it, until we should discover that it was
the natural result of a natural law.”
What a great discovery! and how lucidly it is set forth! The author
(who, by the way, is editor of the “Portland Evening Courier”) of this
new discovery, was not so modest but that he hastened to announce and
claim full credit for it in the columns of the “Banner of Light”—the
editor of which journal congratulates him on having done so much for the
cause of spiritualism! Those skeptics who were present when the
lamp-black was “transferred” from the gentleman’s hair to the medium’s
hand, rashly concluded that the boy was an impostor. It remained for Mr.
Hall—that is the philosopher’s name—to make the “electro-magnetic
transfer” discovery. The Allen boy ought ever to hold him in grateful
remembrance for coming to his rescue at such a critical period, when the
spirits would not vouchsafe an explanation that would exculpate him from
the grievous charge of imposture. Mr. Hall deserves a leather medal now,
and a soapstone monument when he is dead.
A person, whose initials are the same as the gentleman’s named above,
once lived in Aroostook, Maine, and was in the habit of attending
“spiritual circles,” in which he was sometimes influenced as a
“personating medium,” and to represent the symptoms of the disease which
caused the controlling spirit’s translation to another sphere. It having
been reported in Aroostook that a certain well-known individual, living
further east, had died of cholera, a desire was expressed at the next
“circle” to have him “manifest” himself. The medium above referred to
got “under influence,” and personated, with an exhibition of all the
symptoms of cholera, the gentleman who was reported to have died of that
disease. So faithful to the supposed facts was the representation, that
the medium had to be cared for as if he was himself a veritable
cholera-patient. Several days after, the man who was “personated”
appeared in Aroostook, alive and well, never having been attacked with
the cholera. The local papers gave a graphic account of the
“manifestation” soon after it occurred.
But to return to the Allen boy. After his exposure by means of the
lamp-black test, and Mr. Hall, of the “Portland Evening Courier,” had
announced his new discovery in spiritual science, several of the
Portland spiritualists had a private “sitting” with the boy. While he
sat with his hands upon the arm of one of their number, they tied a rope
to his wrists, and around the person’s arm, covering his hands in the
way I have before described. After some wriggling and twisting (the
usual amount of “nervousness,”) the bell was heard to ring behind the
clothes-horse. The boy’s right hand was then examined, and it was found
to be stained with some colored matter that had previously been put upon
the handle of the bell. As the boy’s wrists were still tied, and the
rope remained upon the man’s arm, the “transfer” theory was considered
to be established as a fact, and the previous exposure shown to be not
only no exposure at all, but a “stepping-stone to a grand truth in
spiritual science.” Again and again did these persistent and infatuated
spiritualists try what they call the “transfer test,” varying with each
experiment the coloring-material used, and every time the bell was rung
the medium’s right hand was found out to be stained with what had been
put upon the bell-handle. By having a little slack-rope between his
wrist and the man’s arm, it was not a difficult matter for the medium,
while his “nervousness” was being manifested, to get hold of the bell
and ring it, and to make sounds upon the strings of the dulcimer or
guitar, with a drumstick that the “manager” had placed at a convenient
distance from his (the boy’s) hand.
The “Portland Daily Press,” in noticing a lecture against Spiritualism,
recently delivered by Dr. Von Vleck, in that city, says:—“He (Dr. V.
V.) performed the principal feats of the Allen boy, with his hands tied
to the arm of the person with whom he was in communication.”
Horace Greeley says that if a man will be a consummate jackass and fool,
he is not aware of anything in the Constitution to prevent it. I believe
Mr. Greeley is right; and I think no one can reasonably be expected to
exercise common sense unless he is known to possess it. It is quite
natural, therefore, that many of the spiritualists, lacking common
sense, should pretend to have something better.
