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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44349 ***
+
+HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS
+
+
+
+
+LEE'S LIBRARY OF OCCULT SCIENCE
+
+
+HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS; Or XIX Century Witchcraft
+
+By Henry R. Evans.
+
+
+PRACTICAL PALMISTRY; Or Hand Reading Made Easy
+
+By Comte C. de Saint-Germain.
+
+
+HERRMANN THE MAGICIAN; His Life; His Secrets
+
+By H. J. Burlingame.
+
+
+All profusely illustrated. Bound in Holliston cloth, burnished red top,
+uncut edges.
+
+EACH, $1.00
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.
+
+[Taken by the Author.]]
+
+
+
+
+  Hours With the Ghosts
+
+  OR NINETEENTH CENTURY WITCHCRAFT
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATED INVESTIGATIONS
+  INTO THE
+  Phenomena of Spiritualism and Theosophy
+
+
+  BY HENRY RIDGELY EVANS
+
+
+  The first duty we owe to the world is Truth--all
+  the Truth--nothing but the Truth.--"_Ancient Wisdom._"
+
+
+  CHICAGO
+  LAIRD & LEE, PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+Entered according to act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and
+ninety-seven. BY WILLIAM H. LEE, In the office of the Librarian of
+Congress, at Washington.
+
+
+
+
+TO MY WIFE
+
+
+
+
+"It is no proof of wisdom to refuse to examine certain phenomena because
+we think it certain that they are impossible, as if our knowledge of the
+universe were already completed."--_Prof. Lodge._
+
+"The most ardent Spiritist should welcome a searching inquiry into the
+potential faculties of spirits still in the flesh. Until we know more of
+_these_, those other phenomena to which he appeals must remain
+unintelligible because isolated, and are likely to be obstinately
+disbelieved because they are impossible to understand."--_F. W. H. Myers:
+"Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," Part XVIII, April,
+1891._
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+  Author's Preface                                                  11
+
+  INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT                                             13
+
+  PART FIRST: =Spiritualism=                                        18
+
+     _I. Divisions of the Subject_                                  18
+
+    _II. Subjective Phenomena_                                      23
+         1. Telepathy                                               23
+         2. Table Tilting. Muscle Reading                           40
+
+   _III. Physical Phenomena_                                        46
+         1. Psychography or Slate-writing                           46
+         2. The Master of the Mediums: D. D. Home                   93
+         3. Rope Tying and Holding Mediums; Materializations       135
+            The Davenport Brothers                                 135
+            Annie Eva Fay                                          149
+            Charles Slade                                          154
+            Pierre L. O. A. Keeler                                 160
+            Eusapia Paladino                                       175
+            F. W. Tabor                                            182
+         4. Spirit Photography                                     188
+         5. Thought Photography                                    197
+         6. Apparitions of the Dead                                201
+
+    _IV. Conclusions_                                              207
+
+
+  PART SECOND: =Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists=             210
+
+     _I. The Priestess_                                            213
+
+    _II. What is Theosophy?_                                       237
+
+   _III. Madame Blavatsky's Confession_                            250
+
+    _IV. The Writings of Madame Blavatsky_                         265
+
+     _V. The Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist_               268
+
+    _VI. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky_                           272
+
+   _VII. The Theosophical Temple_                                  287
+
+  _VIII. Conclusion_                                               290
+
+  List of Authorities                                              298
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                                 PAGE.
+
+  Fig. 1. Spirit Photograph, by the author                Frontispiece
+
+  Fig. 2. Portrait of Dr. Henry Slade                               47
+
+  Fig. 3. The Holding of the Slate                                  51
+
+  Fig. 4. Slate No. 1                                               65
+
+  Fig. 5. Slate No. 2                                               71
+
+  Fig. 6. Slate No. 3                                               77
+
+  Fig. 7. Home at the Tuileries                                     97
+
+  Fig. 8. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1                                 116
+
+  Fig. 9. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1                                 119
+
+  Fig. 10. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1                                120
+
+  Fig. 11. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1                                121
+
+  Fig. 12, 13, 14, 15. Crookes' Diagrams                       124-125
+
+  Fig. 16. Crookes' Apparatus No. 2                                126
+
+  Fig. 17. Crookes' Apparatus No. 2                                127
+
+  Fig. 18, 19, 20. Crookes' Diagrams                           128-130
+
+  Fig. 21. Hammond's Apparatus                                     133
+
+  Fig. 22. The Davenport's in their Cabinet                        139
+
+  Fig. 23. Trick Tie and in Cabinet Work                           143
+
+  Fig. 24. Charles Slade's Poster                              158-159
+
+  Fig. 25. Pierre Keeler's Cabinet Seance                          162
+
+  Fig. 26. Pierre Keeler's Cabinet Curtain                         163
+
+  Fig. 27. Portrait of Eusapia Paladino                            176
+
+  Fig. 28. Eusapia before the Scientists                           177
+
+  Fig. 29. Spirit Photograph, by the author                        191
+
+  Fig. 30. Spirit Photograph, by pretended medium                  195
+
+  Fig. 31. Sigel's Original Picture of Fig. 30                     199
+
+  Fig. 32. Portrait of Madame Blavatsky                            215
+
+  Fig. 33. Mahatma Letter                                          221
+
+  Fig. 34. Mahatma Envelope                                        225
+
+  Fig. 35. Portrait of Col. H. S. Olcott                           233
+
+  Fig. 36. Oath of Secrecy of the Charter Members of the
+  Theosophical Society                                             235
+
+  Fig. 37. Portrait of W. Q. Judge                                 241
+
+  Fig. 38. Portrait of Mrs. Annie Besant                           273
+
+  Fig. 39. Portrait of Mrs. Tingley                                285
+
+  Fig. 40. Autograph of Madame Blavatsky                           293
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+_There are two great schools of thought in the world--materialistic and
+spiritualistic. With one, MATTER is all in all, the ultimate substratum;
+mind is merely the result of organized matter; everything is translated
+into terms of force, motion and the like. With the other, SPIRIT or mind
+is the ultimate substance--God; matter is the visible expression of this
+invisible and eternal Consciousness._
+
+_Materialism is a barren, dreary, comfortless belief, and, in the opinion
+of the author, is without philosophical foundation. This is an age of
+scientific materialism, although of late years that materialism has been
+rather on the wane among thinking men. In an age of such ultra
+materialism, therefore, it is not strange that there should come a great
+reaction on the part of spiritually minded people. This reaction takes the
+form of an increased vitality of dogmatic religion, or else culminates in
+the formation of Spiritualistic or Theosophic societies for the
+prosecution of occult phenomena. Spiritualists are now numbered by the
+million. Persons calling themselves mediums present certain phenomena,
+physical and psychical, and call public attention to them, as an evidence
+of life beyond the grave, and the possibility of spiritual communication
+between this world and the next._
+
+_The author has had sittings with many famous mediums of this country and
+Europe, but has seen little to convince him of the fact of spirit
+communication. The slate tests and so-called materializations have
+invariably been frauds. Some experiments along the line of automatic
+writing and psychometry, however, have demonstrated to the writer the
+truth of telepathy or thought-transference. The theory of telepathy
+explains many of the marvels ascribed to spirit intervention in things
+mundane._
+
+_In this work the author has endeavored to give an accurate account of the
+lives and adventures of celebrated mediums and occultists, which will
+prove of interest to the reader. The rise and growth of the Theosophical
+cult in this country and Europe is of historical interest. Theosophy
+pretends to a deeper metaphysics than Spiritualism, and numbers its
+adherents by the thousands; it is, therefore, intensely interesting to
+study it in its origin, its founder and its present leaders._
+
+_THE AUTHOR._
+
+
+
+
+HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT.
+
+
+"If a man die, shall he live again?"--this is the question of the ages,
+the Sphinx riddle that Humanity has been trying to solve since time began.
+The great minds of antiquity, Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle
+were firm in their belief in the immortality of the soul. The writings of
+Plato are luminous on the subject. The Mysteries of Isis and Osiris, as
+practiced in Egypt, and those of Eleusis, in Greece, taught the doctrine
+of the immortality of the individual being. The Divine Master of Arcane
+knowledge, Christ, proclaimed the same. In latter times, we have had such
+metaphysical and scientific thinkers as Leibnitz, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel
+and Schleiermacher advocating individual existence beyond the grave.
+
+It is a strange fact that the more materialistic the age, the deeper the
+interest in spiritual questions. The vitality and persistence of the
+belief in the reality of the spiritual world is evidence of that hunger
+for the ideal, for God, of which the Psalmist speaks--"As the heart
+panteth after water brooks so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!" Through
+the passing centuries, we have come into a larger, nobler conception of
+the Universal Life, and our relations to that Life, in which we live,
+move, and have our being. Granting the existence of an "Eternal and
+Infinite Spirit, the Intellectual Organizer of the mathematical laws which
+the physical forces obey," and conceiving ourselves as individualized
+points of life in the Greater Life, we are constrained to believe that we
+bear within us the undying spark of divinity and immortality. Evolution
+points to eternal life as the final goal of self-conscious spirit, else
+this mighty earth-travail, the long ages of struggle to produce man are
+utterly without meaning. Speaking of a future life, John Fiske, a leading
+American exponent of the doctrine of evolution, says ("The Destiny of
+Man"): "The doctrine of evolution does not allow us to take the atheistic
+view of the position of man. It is true that modern astronomy shows us
+giant balls of vapor condensing into fiery suns, cooling down into
+planets fit for the support of life, and at last growing cold and rigid in
+death, like the moon. And there are indications of a time when systems of
+dead planets shall fall in upon their central ember that was once a sun,
+and the whole lifeless mass, thus regaining heat, shall expand into a
+nebulous cloud like that with which we started, that the work of
+condensation and evolution may begin over again. These Titanic events must
+doubtless seem to our limited vision like an endless and aimless series of
+cosmical changes. From the first dawning of life we see all things working
+together toward one mighty goal, the evolution of the most exalted
+spiritual qualities which characterize Humanity. The body is cast aside
+and returns to the dust of which it was made. The earth, so marvelously
+wrought to man's uses, will also be cast aside. So small is the value
+which Nature sets upon the perishable forms of matter! The question, then,
+is reduced to this: Are man's highest spiritual qualities, into the
+production of which all this creative energy has gone, to disappear with
+the rest? Are we to regard the Creator's work as like that of a child, who
+builds houses out of blocks, just for the pleasure of knocking them down?
+For aught that science can tell us, it may be so, but I can see no good
+reason for believing any such thing."
+
+A scientific demonstration of immortality is declared to be an
+impossibility. But why go to science for such a demonstration? The
+question belongs to the domain of philosophy and religion. Science deals
+with physical forces and their relations; collects and inventories facts.
+Its mission is not to establish a universal metaphysic of things; that is
+philosophy's prerogative. All occult thinkers declare that life is from
+within, out. In other words life, or a spiritual principle, precedes
+organization. Science proceeds to investigate the phenomena of the
+universe in the opposite way from without, in; and pronounces life to be
+"a fortuitous collocation of atoms." Still, science has been the
+torch-bearer of the ages and has stripped the fungi of superstition from
+the tree of life. It has revealed to us the great laws of nature, though
+it has not explained them. We know that light, heat, and electricity are
+modes of motion; more than that we know not. Science is largely
+responsible for the materialistic philosophy in vogue to-day--a philosophy
+that sees no reason in the universe. A powerful wave of spiritual thought
+has set in, as if to counteract the ultra rationalism of the age. In the
+vanguard of the new order of things are Spiritualism and Theosophy.
+
+Spiritualism enters the list, and declares that the immortality of the
+soul is a demonstrable fact. It throws down the gauntlet of defiance to
+skepticism, saying: "Come, I will show you that there is an existence
+beyond the grave. Death is not a wall, but a door through which we pass
+into eternal life." Theosophy, too, has its occult phenomena to prove the
+indestructibility of soul-force. Both Spiritualism and Theosophy contain
+germs of truth, but both are tinctured with superstition. I purpose, if
+possible, to sift the wheat from the chaff. In investigating the phenomena
+of Spiritualism and Theosophy I will use the scientific as well as the
+philosophic method. Each will act, I hope, as corrective of the other.
+
+
+
+
+PART FIRST.
+
+SPIRITUALISM.
+
+
+
+
+I. DIVISIONS OF THE SUBJECT.
+
+
+Belief in the evocation of the spirits of the dead is as old as Humanity.
+At one period of the world's history it was called Thaumaturgy, at another
+Necromancy and Witchcraft, in these latter years, Spiritualism. It is new
+wine in old bottles. On March 31, 1847, at Hydeville, Wayne County, New
+York, occurred the celebrated "knockings," the beginning of modern
+Spiritualism. The mediums were two little girls, Kate and Margaretta Fox,
+whose fame spread over three continents. It is claimed by impartial
+investigators that the rappings produced in the presence of the Fox
+sisters were occasioned by natural means. Voluntary disjointings of the
+muscles of the knee, or to use a medical term "the repeated displacement
+of the tendon of the _peroneus longus_ muscle in the sheath in which it
+slides behind the outer _malleolus_" will produce certain extraordinary
+sounds, particularly when the knee is brought in contact with a table or
+chair. Snapping the toes in rapid succession will cause similar noises.
+The above was the explanation given of the "Hydeville and Rochester
+Knockings", by Professors Flint, Lee and Coventry, of Buffalo, who
+subjected the Fox sisters to numerous examinations, and this explanation
+was confirmed many years after (in 1888) by the published confession of
+Mrs. Kane, _nee_ Margaretta Fox. Spiritualism became the rage and
+professional mediums went about giving séances to large and interested
+audiences. This particular creed is still professed by a recognized
+semi-religious body in America and in Europe. The American mediums reaped
+a rich harvest in the Old World. The pioneer was Mrs. Hayden, a Boston
+medium, who went to England in 1852, and the table-turning mania spread
+like wild fire within a few months.
+
+Broadly speaking, the phenomena of modern Spiritualism may be divided into
+two classes: (1) Physical, (2) Subjective. Of the first, the
+"Encyclopaedia Britannica", in its brief but able review of the subject,
+says: "Those which, if correctly observed and due neither to conscious or
+unconscious trickery nor to hallucination on the part of the observers,
+exhibit a force hitherto unknown to science, acting in the physical world
+otherwise than through the brain or muscles of the medium." The earliest
+of these phenomena were the mysterious rappings and movements of
+furniture without apparent physical cause. Following these came the
+ringing of bells, playing on musical instruments, strange lights seen
+hovering about the séance-room, materializations of hands, faces and
+forms, "direct writing and drawing" declared to be done without human
+intervention, spirit photography, levitation, unfastening of ropes and
+bandages, elongation of the medium's body, handling fire with impunity,
+etc.
+
+Of the second class, or Subjective Phenomena, we have "table-tilting and
+turning with contact; writing, drawing, etc., by means of the medium's
+hand; entrancement, trance-speaking, and impersonation by the medium of
+deceased persons, seeing spirits and visions and hearing phantom voices."
+
+From a general scientific point of view there are three ways of accounting
+for the physical phenomena of spiritualism: (1) Hallucination on the part
+of the observers; (2) Conjuring; (3) A force latent in the human
+personality capable of moving heavy objects without muscular contact, and
+of causing "Percussive Sounds" on table-tops, and raps upon walls and
+floors.
+
+Hallucination has unquestionably played a part in the séance-room, but
+here again the statement of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" is worthy of
+consideration: "Sensory hallucination of several persons together who are
+not in a hypnotic state is a rare phenomenon, and therefore not a probable
+explanation." In my opinion, conjuring will account for seven-eighths of
+the so-called phenomena of professional mediums. For the balance of
+one-eighth, neither hallucination nor legerdemain are satisfactory
+explanation. Hundreds of credible witnesses have borne testimony to the
+fact of table-turning and tilting and the movements of heavy objects
+without muscular contact. That such a force exists is now beyond cavil,
+call it what you will, magnetic, nervous, or psychic. Count Agenor de
+Gasparin, in 1854, conducted a series of elaborate experiments in
+table-turning and tilting, in the presence of his family and a number of
+skeptical witnesses, and was highly successful. The experiments were made
+in the full light of day. The members of the circle joined hands and
+concentrated their minds upon the object to be moved. The Count published
+a work on the subject "Des Tables Tournantes," in which he stated that the
+movements of the table were due to a mental or nervous force emanating
+from the human personality. This psychic energy has been investigated by
+Professor Crookes and Professor Lodge, of London, and by Doctor Elliott
+Coues, of Washington, D. C., who calls it "Telekinesis." The existence of
+this force sufficiently explains such phenomena of the séance-room as are
+not attributable to hallucination and conjuring, thus removing the
+necessity for the hypothesis of spirit intervention. In explanation of
+table-turning by "contact," I quote what J. N. Maskelyne says in "The
+Supernatural":
+
+"Faraday proved to a demonstration that table-turning was simply the
+result of an unconscious muscular action on the part of the sitters. He
+constructed a little apparatus to be placed beneath the hands of those
+pressing upon the table, which had a pointer to indicate any pressure to
+one side or the other. After a time, of course, the arms of the sitters
+become tired and they unconsciously press more or less to the right or
+left. In Faraday's experiments, it always proved that this pressure was
+exerted in the direction in which the table was expected to move, and the
+tell-tale pointer showed it at once. There, then, we have the explanation:
+expectancy and unconscious muscular action."
+
+
+
+
+II. SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA.
+
+
+1. Telepathy.
+
+The subjective phenomena of Spiritualism--trance speaking, automatic
+writing, etc.,--have engaged the attention of some of the best scientific
+minds of Europe and America, as studies of abnormal or supernormal
+psychological conditions.
+
+If there are any facts to sustain the spiritual hypothesis, these facts
+exist in subjective manifestations. The following statement will be
+conceded by any impartial investigator: A medium, or psychic, in a state
+of partial or complete hypnosis frequently gives information transcending
+his conscious knowledge of a subject. There can be but two hypotheses for
+the phenomena--(1) The intelligence exhibited by the medium is
+"ultra-mundane," in other words, is the effect of spirit control, or, (2)
+it is the result of the conscious or unconscious exercise of psychic
+powers on the part of the medium.
+
+It is well known that persons under hypnotic influence exhibit remarkable
+intelligence, notwithstanding the fact that the ordinary consciousness is
+held in abeyance. The extraordinary results obtained by hypnotizers point
+to another phase of consciousness, which is none other than the subjective
+or "subliminal" self. Mediums sometimes induce hypnosis by
+self-suggestion, and while in that state, the subconscious mind is in a
+highly receptive and exalted condition. Mental suggestions or concepts
+pass from the mind of the sitter consciously or unconsciously to the mind
+of the medium, and are given back in the form of communications from the
+invisible world, ostensibly through spirit control. It is not absolutely
+necessary that the medium be in the hypnotic condition to obtain
+information, but the hypnotic state seems to be productive of the best
+results. The medium is usually honest in his belief in the reality of such
+ultra-mundane control, but he is ignorant of the true psychology of the
+case--thought transference.
+
+The English Society for Psychical Research and its American branch have of
+late years popularized "telepathy", or thought transference. A series of
+elaborate investigations were made by Messrs. Edmund Gurney, F. W. H.
+Myers, and Frank Podmore, accounts of which are contained in the
+proceedings of the Society. Among the European investigators may be
+mentioned Messrs. Janet and Gibert, Richet, Gibotteau, and
+Schrenck-Notzing. Podmore has lately summarized the results of these
+studies in an interesting volume, "Apparitions and Thought-transference,
+an Examination of the Evidence for Telepathy." Thought Transference or
+Telepathy (from _tele_--at a distance, and _pathos_--feeling) he describes
+as "a communication between mind and mind other than through the known
+channels of the senses." A mass of evidence is adduced to prove the
+possibility of this communication. In summing up his book he says: "The
+experimental evidence has shown that a simple sensation or idea may be
+transferred from one mind to another, and that this transference may take
+place alike in the normal state and in the hypnotic trance.
+
+* * The personal influence of the operator in hypnotism may perhaps be
+regarded as a proof presumptive of telepathy." The experiments show that
+mental concepts or ideas may be transferred to a distance.
+
+Podmore advances the following theory in explanation of the phenomena of
+telepathy:
+
+"If we leave fluids and radiant nerve-energy on one side, we find
+practically only one mode suggested for the telepathic transference--viz.,
+that the physical changes which are the accompaniments of thought or
+sensation in the agent are transmitted from the brain as undulations in
+the intervening medium, and thus excite corresponding changes in some
+other brain, without any other portion of the organism being necessarily
+implicated in the transmission. This hypothesis has found its most
+philosophical champion in Dr. Ochorowicz, who has devoted several chapters
+of his book "De la Suggestion mentale," to the discussion of the various
+theories on the subject. He begins by recalling the reciprocal
+convertibility of all physical forces with which we are acquainted, and
+especially draws attention to what he calls the law of reversibility, a
+law which he illustrates by a description of the photophone. The
+photophone is an instrument in which a mirror is made to vibrate to the
+human voice. The mirror reflects a ray of light, which, vibrating in its
+turn, falls upon a plate of selenium, modifying its electric conductivity.
+The intermittent current so produced is transmitted through a telephone,
+and the original articulate sound is reproduced. Now in hypnotized
+subjects--and M. Ochorowicz does not in this connection treat of
+thought-transference between persons in the normal state--the equilibrium
+of the nervous system, he sees reason to believe, is profoundly affected.
+The nerve-energy liberated in this state, he points out, 'cannot pass
+beyond' the subject's brain 'without being transformed. Nevertheless,
+like any other force, it cannot remain isolated; like any other force it
+escapes, but in disguise. Orthodox science allows it only one way out, the
+motor nerves. These are the holes in the dark lantern through which the
+rays of light escape. * * * Thought remains in the brain, just as the
+chemical energy of the galvanic battery remains in the cells, but each is
+represented outside by its correlative energy, which in the case of the
+battery is called the electric current, but for which in the other we have
+as yet no name. In any case there is some correlative energy--for the
+currents of the motor nerves do not and cannot constitute the only dynamic
+equivalent of cerebral energy--to represent all the complex movements of
+the cerebral mechanism.'"
+
+The above hypothesis may, or may not, afford a clue to the mysterious
+phenomena of telepathy, but it will doubtless satisfy to some extent those
+thinkers who demand physical explanations of the known and unknown laws of
+the universe. The president of the Society for Psychical Research (1894,)
+A. J. Balfour, in an address on the relation of the work of the Society to
+the general course of modern scientific investigation, is more cautious
+than the writers already quoted. He says:
+
+"Is this telepathic action an ordinary case of action from a center of
+disturbance? Is it equally diffused in all directions? Is it like the
+light of a candle or the light of the sun which radiates equally into
+space in every direction at the same time? If it is, it must obey the
+law--at least, we should expect it to obey the law--of all other forces
+which so act through a non-absorbing medium, and its effects must diminish
+inversely as the square of the distance. It must, so to speak, get beaten
+out thinner and thinner the further it gets removed from its original
+source. But is this so? Is it even credible that the mere thoughts, or, if
+you please, the neural changes corresponding to these thoughts, of any
+individual could have in them the energy to produce sensible effects
+equally in all directions, for distances which do not, as far as our
+investigations go, appear to have any necessary limit? It is, I think,
+incredible; and in any case there is no evidence whatever that this equal
+diffusion actually takes place. The will power, whenever will is used, or
+the thoughts, in cases where will is not used, have an effect, as a rule,
+only upon one or two individuals at most. There is no appearance of
+general diffusion. There is no indication of any disturbance equal at
+equal distances from its origin and radiating from it alike in every
+direction.
+
+"But if we are to reject this idea, which is the first which ordinary
+analogies would suggest, what are we to put in its place? Are we to
+suppose that there is some means by which telepathic energy can be
+directed through space from the agent to the patient, from the man who
+influences to the man who is influenced? If we are to believe this, as
+apparently we must, we are face to face not only with a fact extraordinary
+in itself, but with a kind of fact which does not fit in with anything we
+know at present in the region either of physics or of physiology. It is
+true, no doubt, that we do know plenty of cases where energy is directed
+along a given line, like water in a pipe, or like electrical energy along
+the course of a wire. But then in such cases there is always some material
+guide existing between the two termini, between the place from which the
+energy comes and the place to which the energy goes. Is there any such
+material guide in the case of telepathy? It seems absolutely impossible.
+There is no sign of it. We can not even form to ourselves any notion of
+its character, and yet, if we are to take what appears to be the obvious
+lesson of the observed facts, we are forced to the conclusion that in some
+shape or other it exists."
+
+Telepathy once conceded, we have a satisfactory explanation of that class
+of cases in modern Spiritualism on the subjective side of the question.
+There is no need of the hypothesis of "disembodied spirits".
+
+Some years ago, I instituted a series of experiments with a number of
+celebrated spirit mediums in the line of thought transference, and was
+eminently successful in obtaining satisfactory results, especially with
+Miss Maggie Gaule, of Baltimore, one of the most famous of the latter day
+psychics.
+
+Case A.
+
+About three years prior to my sitting with Miss Gaule, a relative by
+marriage died of cancer of the throat at the Garfield Hospital,
+Washington, D. C. He was a retired army officer, with the brevet of
+General, and lived part of the time at Chambersburg, Penn., and the rest
+of the time at the National Capital. He led a very quiet and unassuming
+life, and outside of army circles knew but few people. He was a
+magnificent specimen of physical manhood, six feet tall, with splendid
+chest and arms. His hair and beard were of a reddish color. His usual
+street dress was a sort of compromise with an army undress uniform,
+military cut frock-coat, frogged and braided top-coat, and a Sherman hat.
+Without these accessories, anyone would have recognized the military man
+in his walk and bearing. He and his wife thought a great deal of my
+mother, and frequently stopped me on the street to inquire, "How is Mary?"
+I went to Miss Gaule's house with the thought of General M-- fixed in my
+mind and the circumstances surrounding his decease. The medium greeted me
+in a cordial manner. I sat at one end of the room in the shadow, and she
+near the window in a large armchair. "You wish for messages from the
+dead," she remarked abruptly. "One moment, let me think." She sank back in
+the chair, closed her eyes, and remained in deep thought for a minute or
+so, occasionally passing her hand across her forehead. "I see," she said,
+"standing behind you, a tall, large man with reddish hair and beard. He is
+garbed in the uniform of an officer--I do not know whether of the army or
+navy. He points to his throat. Says he died of a throat trouble. He looks
+at you and calls "Mary,--how is Mary?" "What is his name?" I inquired,
+fixing my mind on the words David M--. "I will ask", replied the medium.
+There was a long pause. "He speaks so faintly I can scarcely hear him. The
+first letter begins with D, and then comes a--I can't get it. I can't hear
+it." With that she opened her eyes.
+
+The surprising feature about the above case was the alleged spirit
+communication, "Mary--how is Mary?" I did not have this in my mind at the
+time; in fact I had completely forgotten this form of salutation on the
+part of Gen. M--, when we had met in the old days. It is just this sort of
+thing that makes spirit-converts.
+
+However, the cases of unconscious telepathy cited in the "Reports of the
+Society for Psychical Research," are sufficient, I think, to prove the
+existence of this phase of the phenomena.
+
+T. J. Hudson, in his work entitled "A scientific demonstration of the
+future life", says: * * "When a psychic transmits a message to his client
+containing information which is in his (the psychic's) possession, it can
+not reasonably be attributed to the agency of disembodied spirits. * *
+When the message contains facts known to some one in his immediate
+presence and with whom he is _en rapport_, the agency of spirits of the
+dead cannot be presumed. Every investigator will doubtless admit that
+sub-conscious memory may enter as a factor in the case, and that the
+sub-conscious intelligence--or, to use the favorite terminology employed
+by Mr. Myers to designate the subjective mind, the 'sublimal
+consciousness'--of the psychic or that of his client may retain and use
+facts which the conscious, or objective mind may have entirely forgotten."
+
+But suppose the medium relates facts that were never in the possession of
+the sitter, what are we to say then? Considerable controversy has been
+waged over this question, and the hypothesis of telepathy is scouted.
+Minot J. Savage has come to the conclusion that such cases stretch the
+telepathic theory too far; there can be but one plausible explanation--a
+communication from a disembodied spirit, operating through the mind of the
+medium. For the sake of lucidity, let us take an example: A has a relative
+B who dies in a foreign land under peculiar circumstances, _unknown to A_.
+A attends a séance of a psychic, C, and the latter relates the
+circumstances of B's death. A afterwards investigates the statements of
+the medium, and finds them correct. Can telepathy account for C's
+knowledge? I think it can. The telepathic communication was recorded in
+A's sub-conscious mind, he being _en rapport_ with B. A unconsciously
+yields the points recorded in his sub-conscious mind to the psychic, C,
+who by reason of his peculiar powers raises them to the level of conscious
+thought, and gives them back in the form of a message from the dead.
+
+Case B.
+
+On another occasion, I went with my friend Mr. S. C., of Virginia, to
+visit Miss Gaule. Mr. S. C. had a young son who had recently passed the
+examination for admission to the U. S. Naval Academy, and the boy had
+accompanied his father to Baltimore to interview the military tailors on
+the subject of uniforms, etc. Miss Gaule in her semi-trance state made the
+following statement: "I see a young man busy with books and papers. He has
+successfully passed an examination, and says something about a uniform.
+Perhaps he is going to a military college."
+
+Here again we have excellent evidence of the proof of telepathy.
+
+The spelling of names is one of the surprising things in these
+experiments. On one occasion my wife had a sitting with Miss Gaule, and
+the psychic correctly spelled out the names of Mrs. Evans' brothers--John,
+Robert, and Dudley, the latter a family name and rather unusual, and
+described the family as living in the West.
+
+The following example of Telepathy occurred between the writer and a
+younger brother.
+
+Case C.
+
+In the fall of 1890, I was travelling from Washington to Baltimore, by the
+B. & P. R. R. As the train approached Jackson Grove, a campmeeting
+ground, deserted at that time of the year, the engine whistle blew
+vigorously and the bell was rung continuously, which was something
+unusual, as the cars ordinarily did not stop at this isolated station, but
+whirled past. Then the engine slowed down and the train came to a
+standstill.
+
+"What is the matter?" exclaimed the passengers.
+
+"My God, look there!" shouted an excited passenger, leaning out of the
+coach window, and pointing to the dilapidated platform of the station. I
+looked out and beheld a decapitated human head, standing almost upright in
+a pool of blood. With the other male passengers I rushed out of the car.
+The head was that of an old man with very white hair and beard. We found
+the body down an embankment at some little distance from the place of the
+accident. The deceased was recognized as the owner of the Grove, a farmer
+living in the vicinity. According to the statement of the engineer, the
+old man was walking on the track; the warning signals were given, but
+proved of no avail. Being somewhat deaf, he did not realize his danger. He
+attempted to step off the track, but the brass railing that runs along the
+side of the locomotive decapitated him like the knife of a guillotine.
+
+When I reached Baltimore about 7 o'clock, P. M., I hurried down to the
+office of the "Baltimore News" and wrote out an account of the tragic
+affair. My work at the office kept me until a late hour of the night, and
+I went home to bed at about 1 o'clock, A. M. My brother, who slept in an
+adjoining room, had retired to bed and the door between our apartments was
+closed. The next morning, Sunday, I rose at 9 o'clock, and went down to
+breakfast. The family had assembled, and I was just in time to hear my
+brother relate the following: "I had a most peculiar dream last night. I
+thought I was on my way to Mt. Washington (he was in the habit of making
+frequent visits to this suburb of Baltimore on the Northern Central R. R.)
+We ran down an old man and decapitated him. I was looking out of the
+window and saw the head standing in a pool of blood. The hair and beard
+were snow white. We found the body not far off, and it proved to be a
+farmer residing in the neighborhood of Mt. Washington."
+
+"You will find the counterpart of that dream in the morning paper", I
+remarked seriously. "I reported the accident." My father called for the
+paper, and proceeded to hunt its columns for the item, saying, "You
+undoubtedly transferred the impression to your brother."
+
+Case D.
+
+This is another striking evidence of telepathic communication, in which I
+was one of the agents. L-- was a reporter on a Baltimore paper, and his
+apartments were the rendezvous of a coterie of Bohemian actors,
+journalists, and _litterati_, among whom was X--, a student at the
+Johns-Hopkins University, and a poet of rare excellence. Poets have a
+proverbial reputation for being eccentric in personal appearance; in X
+this eccentricity took the form of an unclipped beard that stood out in
+all directions, giving him a savage, anarchistic look. He vowed never
+under any circumstances to shave or cut this hirsute appendage.
+
+L-- came to me one day, and laughingly remarked: "I am being tortured by a
+mental obsession. X's beard annoys me; haunts my waking and sleeping
+hours. I must do something about it. Listen! He is coming down to my
+rooms, Saturday evening, to do some literary work, and spend the night
+with me. We shall have supper together, and I want you to be present. Now
+I propose that we drug his coffee with some harmless soporific, and when
+he is sound asleep, tie him, and shave off his beard. Will you help me? I
+can provide you with a lounge to sleep on, but you must promise not to go
+to sleep until after the tragedy."
+
+I agreed to assist him in his practical joke, and we parted, solemnly
+vowing that our project should be kept secret.
+
+This was on Tuesday, and no communication was had with X, until Saturday
+morning, when L-- and I met him on Charles street.
+
+"Don't forget to-night," exclaimed L-- "I have invited E to join us in our
+Epicurean feast."
+
+"I will be there," said X. "By the way, let me relate a curious dream I
+had last night. I dreamt I came down to your rooms, and had supper. E--was
+present. You fellows gave me something to drink which contained a drug,
+and I fell asleep on the bed. After that you tied my hands, and shaved off
+my beard. When I awoke I was terribly mad. I burst the cords that fastened
+my wrists together, and springing to my feet, cut L--severely with the
+razor."
+
+"That settles the matter", said L--, "his beard is safe from me". When we
+told X of our conspiracy to relieve him of his poetic hirsute appendage,
+he evinced the greatest astonishment. As will be seen, every particular of
+the practical joke had been transferred to his mind, the drugging of the
+coffee, the tying, and the shaving.
+
+Telepathy is a logical explanation of many of the ghostly visitations of
+which the Society for Psychical Research has collected such a mass of
+data. For example: A dies, let us say in India and B, a near relative or
+friend, residing in England, sees a vision of A in a dream or in the
+waking state. A clasps his hands, and seems to utter the words, "I am
+dying". When the news comes of A's death, the time of the occurrence
+coincides with the seeing of the vision. The spiritualist's theory is that
+the ghost of A was an actual entity. One of the difficulties in the way of
+such an hypothesis is the clothing of the deceased--_can that, too, be
+disembodied?_ Thought transference (conscious or unconscious), I think, is
+the only rational explanation of such phantasms. The vision seen by the
+percipient is not an objective but a subjective thing--a hallucination
+produced by the unknown force called telepathy. The vision need not
+coincide exactly with the date of the death of the transmitter but may
+make its appearance years afterwards, remaining latent in the subjective
+mind of the percipient. It may, as is frequently the case, be revealed by
+a medium in a séance. Many thoughtful writers combat the telepathic
+explanation of phantasms of the dead, claiming that when such are seen
+long after the death of persons, they afford indubitable evidence of the
+reality of spirit visitation. The reader is referred to the proceedings
+of the Society for Psychical Research for a detailed discussion of the
+_pros_ and _cons_ of this most interesting subject.
+
+Many of the so-called materializations of the séance-room may be accounted
+for by hallucinations superinduced by telepathic suggestions from the mind
+of the medium or sitters. But, in my opinion, the greater number of these
+manifestations of spirit power are the result of trickery pure and
+simple--theatrical beards and wigs, muslin and gossamer robes, etc., being
+the paraphernalia used to impersonate the shades of the departed, the
+imaginations of the sitters doing the rest.
+
+
+2. Table-Tilting--Muscle Reading.
+
+In regard to Table-Tilting with contact, I have given Faraday's
+conclusions on the subject,--unconscious muscular action on the part of
+the sitter or sitters. In the case of Automatic Writing (particularly with
+the planchette), unconscious muscular action is the proper explanation for
+the movements of the apparatus. "Professor Augusto Tamburini, of Italy,
+author of 'Spiritismo e Telepatia', a cautious investigator of psychical
+problems," says a reviewer in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
+Research (Volume IX, p. 226), "accepts the verdict of all competent
+observers that imposture is inadmissible as a general explanation, and
+endorses the view that the muscular action which causes the movements of
+the table or the pencil is produced by the subliminal consciousness. He
+explains the definite and varying characters of the supposed authors of
+the messages as the result of self-suggestion. As by hypnotic or
+post-hypnotic suggestion a subject may be made to think he is Napoleon or
+a chimney sweep, so, by self-suggestion, the subliminal consciousness may
+be made to think that he is X and Y, and to tilt or wrap messages in the
+character of X and Y."
+
+Professor Tamburini's explanation fails to account for the innumerable
+well authenticated cases where facts are obtained not within the conscious
+knowledge of the planchette writer or table-tilter. If telepathy does not
+enter into these cases, what does?
+
+There are many exhibitions, of thought transference by public psychics,
+that are thought transference in name only. One must be on one's guard
+against these pretenders to occult powers. I refer to men like our late
+compatriot, Washington Irving Bishop--"muscle-reader" _par excellence_
+whose fame extended throughout the civilized world.
+
+Muscle-Reading is performed in the following manner: Let us take, for
+example, the reading of the figures on a bank-note. The subject gazes
+intently at the figures on a note, and fixes them in his mind. The
+muscle-reader, blindfolded or not, takes a crayon in his right hand, and
+lightly clasps the hand or wrist of the subject with his left. He then
+writes on a blackboard the correct figures on the note. This is one of the
+most difficult feats in the repertoire of the muscle-reader, and was
+excelled in by Bishop and Stuart Cumberland. Charles Gatchell, an
+authority on the subject, says that the above named men were the only
+muscle-readers who have ever accomplished the feat. Geometrical designs
+can also be reproduced on a blackboard. The finding of objects hidden in
+an adjoining room, or upon the person of a spectator in a public hall, or
+at a distance, are also accomplished by skillful muscle readers, either by
+clasping the hand of the subject, or one end of a short wire held by him.
+Says Gatchell, in the "_Forum_" for April, 1891: "Success in
+muscle-reading depends upon the powers of the principal and upon the
+susceptibility of the subject. The latter must be capable of mental
+concentration; he must exert no muscular self-control; he must obey his
+every impulse. Under these conditions, the phenomena are in accordance
+with known laws of physiology. On the part of the principal,
+muscle-reading consists of an acute perception of the slight action of
+another's muscles. On the part of the subject, it involves a nervous
+impulse, accompanied by muscular action. The mind of the subject is in a
+state of tension or expectancy. A sudden release from this state excites,
+momentarily, an increased activity in the cells of the cerebral cortex.
+Since the ideational centres, as is usually held, correspond to the motor
+centres, the nervous action causes a motor impulse to be transmitted to
+the muscles. * * In making his way to the location of a hidden object, the
+subject usually does not lead the muscle-reader, but the muscle-reader
+leads the subject. That is to say, so long as the muscle-reader moves in
+the right direction, the subject gives no indication, but passively moves
+with him. The muscle-reader perceives nothing unusual. But, the subject's
+mind being intently fixed on a certain course, the instant that the
+muscle-reader deviates from that course there is a slight, involuntary
+tremor, or muscular thrill, on the part of the subject, due to the sudden
+interruption of his previous state of mental tension. The muscle-reader,
+almost unconsciously, takes note of the delicate signal, and alters his
+course to the proper one, again leading his willing subject. In a word, he
+follows the line of the least resistance. In other cases the conditions
+are reversed; the subject unwittingly leads the principal.
+
+"The discovery of a bank-note number requires a slightly different
+explanation. The conditions are these: The subject is intently thinking of
+a certain figure. His mind is in a state of expectant attention. He is
+waiting for but one thing in the world to happen--for another to give
+audible expression to the name of that which he has in mind. The instant
+that the conditions are fulfilled, the mind of the subject is released
+from its state of tension, and the accompanying nervous action causes a
+slight muscular tremor, which is perceived by the acute senses of the
+muscle-reader. This explanation applies, also, to the pointing out of one
+pin among many, or of a letter or a figure on a chart. The conditions
+involved in the tracing of a figure on a blackboard or other surface are
+of a like order, although this is a severer test of a muscle-reader's
+powers. So long as the muscle-reader moves the crayon in the right
+direction, he is permitted to do so; but when he deviates from the proper
+course, the subject, whose hand or wrist he clasps, involuntarily
+indicates the fact by the usual slight muscular tremor. This, of course,
+is done involuntarily; but if he is fulfilling the conditions demanded of
+all subjects, absolute concentration of attention and absence of muscular
+control--he unconsciously obeys his impulse. A billiard player does the
+same when he follows the driven ball with his cue, as if by sheer force of
+will he could induce it to alter its course. The ivory is uninfluenced;
+the human ball obeys."
+
+
+
+
+III. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA.
+
+
+1. Psychography, or Slate-Writing.
+
+One of the most interesting phases of modern mediumship, on the physical
+side, is psychography, or slate-writing. After an investigation extending
+over ten years, I am of the opinion that the majority of slate-writing
+feats are the results of conjuring. The process generally used is the
+following.
+
+The medium takes two slates, binds them together, after first having
+deposited a small bit of chalk or slate pencil between their surfaces, and
+either holds them in his hands, or lays them on the table. Soon the
+scratching of the pencil is heard, and when the cords are removed a spirit
+message is found upon the surface of one of the slates. I will endeavor to
+explain the "modus operandi" of these startling experiments.
+
+Some years ago, the most famous of the slate-writing mediums was Dr. Henry
+Slade, of New York, with whom I had several sittings. I was unable to
+penetrate the mystery of his performance, until the summer of 1889, when
+light was thrown upon the subject by the conjurer C-- whom I met in
+Baltimore.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2. DR. HENRY SLADE.]
+
+"Do you know the medium Slade?" I asked him.
+
+"Yes," said he, "and he is a conjurer like myself. I've had sittings with
+him. Come to my rooms to-night, and I will explain the secret workings of
+the medium's slate-writing. But first I will treat you to a regular
+séance."
+
+On my way to C's home I tried to put myself in the frame of mind of a
+genuine seeker after transcendental knowledge. I recalled all the stories
+of mysterious rappings and ghostly visitations I had read or heard of. It
+was just the night for such eerie musings. Black clouds were scurrying
+across the face of the moon like so many mediaeval witches mounted on the
+proverbial broomsticks _en route_ for a mad sabbat in some lonely
+churchyard. The prestidigitateur's _pension_ was a great, lumbering,
+gloomy old house, in an old quarter of Baltimore. The windows were tightly
+closed and only the feeble glimmer of gaslight was emitted through the
+cracks of the shutters. I rang the bell and Mr. C's stage-assistant, a
+pale-faced young man, came to the door, relieved me of my light overcoat
+and hat, and ushered me upstairs into the conjurer's sitting-room.
+
+A large, baize-covered table stood in the centre of the apartment, and a
+cabinet with a black curtain drawn across it occupied a position in a deep
+alcove. Suspended from the roof of the cabinet was a large guitar. I took
+a chair and waited patiently for the appearance of the anti-Spiritualist,
+after having first examined everything in the room--table, cabinet, and
+musical instruments--but I discovered no evidence of trickery anywhere. I
+waited and waited, but no C--. "Can he have forgotten me?" I said to
+myself. Suddenly a loud rap resounded on the table top, followed by a
+succession of raps from the cabinet; and the guitar began to play. I was
+quite startled. When the music ceased the door opened, and C-- entered.
+
+"The spirits are in force to-night," he remarked with a meaning smile, as
+he slightly diminished the light in the apartment.
+
+"Yes," I replied. "How did you do it?"
+
+"All in good time, my dear ghost-seer," was the answer. "Let us try first
+a few of Dr. Slade's best slate tests."
+
+So saying he handed me a slate and directed me to wash it carefully on
+both sides with a damp cloth. I did so and passed it back to him.
+Scattering some tiny fragments of pencil upon it, he held the slate
+pressed against the under surface of the table leaf, the fingers of his
+right hand holding the slate, his thumb grasping the leaf. C-- then
+requested me to hold the other end of the slate in a similar fashion, and
+took my right hand in his left. Heavy raps were heard on the table-top,
+and I felt the fingers of a spirit hand plucking at my garments from
+beneath the table. C--'s body seemed possessed with some strange
+convulsion, his hands quivered, and his eyes had a glassy look. Listening
+attentively, I heard the sound of a pencil writing on the slate.
+
+"Take care!" gasped the conjurer, breathlessly.
+
+The slate was jerked violently out of our hands by some powerful agency,
+but the medium regained it, and again pressed it against the table as
+before. In a little while he brought the slate up and there upon its upper
+surface was a spirit message, addressed to me--"Are you convinced now?--D.
+D. Home."
+
+At this juncture there came a knock at the door, and C--, with the slate
+in his hand, went to see who it was. It proved to be the pale-faced
+assistant. A few words in a low-tone of voice were exchanged between them,
+and the conjurer returned to the table, excusing the interruption by
+remarking, "Some one to see me, that is all, but don't hurry, for I have
+another test to show you." After thoroughly washing both sides of the
+slate he placed it, with a slate pencil, under a chafing-dish cover in the
+center of the table. We joined hands and awaited developments.
+
+Being tolerably well acquainted with conjuring devices, I manifested but
+little surprise in the first test when the spirit message was written,
+because the magician _had his fingers on the slate_. But in this test the
+slate was not in his possession; how then could the writing be
+accomplished?
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3. THE HOLDING OF THE SLATE.]
+
+"Hush!" said C--, "is there a spirit present?" A responsive rap resounded
+on the table, and after a few minutes' silence, the mysterious scratching
+of the slate-pencil began. I was nonplussed.
+
+"Turn over the slate," said the juggler.
+
+I complied with his request and found a long message to me, covering the
+entire side of the slate. It was signed "Cagliostro."
+
+"What do you think of Dr. Slade's slate tests?" inquired C--.
+
+"Splendid!" I replied, "but how are they done?"
+
+His explanations made the seeming marvel perfectly plain. While the slate
+is being examined in the first test, the medium slips on a thimble with a
+piece of slate pencil attached or else has a tiny bit of pencil under his
+finger nail. In the act of holding the slate under the table, he writes
+the short message backwards on its under side. It becomes necessary,
+however, to turn the slate over before exhibiting it to the sitter, so
+that the writing may appear to have been written on its upper
+surface--the side that has been pressed to the table. To accomplish this
+the medium pretends to go into a sort of neurotic convulsion, during which
+state the slate is jerked away from the sitter, presumably by spirit
+power, and is turned over in the required position. It is not immediately
+brought up for examination but is held for a few seconds underneath the
+table top, and then produced with a certain amount of deliberation.
+
+The special difficulty of this trick consists in the medium's ability to
+write in reverse upon the under surface of the slate. If he wrote from
+left to right, in the ordinary method, it would, of course, reverse the
+message when the slate is examined, and give a decided clue to the
+mystery. This inscribing in reverse, or mirror writing, as it is often
+called, is exceedingly difficult to do, but nothing is impossible to a
+Slade.
+
+But how is the writing done on the slate in the second test? asks the
+curious reader. Nothing easier! The servant who raps at the door brings
+with him, concealed under his coat, a second slate, upon which the long
+message is written. Over the writing is a pad cut from a book-slate,
+exactly fitting the frame of the prepared slate. It is impossible to
+detect the fraud when the light in the room is a trifle obscure. The
+medium makes an exchange of slates, returns to the table, washes both
+sides of the trick slate, and carelessly exhibits it to the sitter, the
+writing being protected of course by the pad. Before placing the slate
+under the chafing-dish cover, he lets the pad drop into his lap. Now comes
+a crucial point in the imposture: the writing heard beneath the slate,
+supposed to be the work of a disembodied spirit. The medium under cover of
+his handkerchief removes from his pocket an instrument known as a
+"pencil-clamp." This clamp consists of a small block of wood with two
+sharp steel points protruding from the upper edge and a piece of slate
+pencil fixed in the lower. The medium presses the steel points into the
+under surface of the table with sufficient force to attach the block
+securely to the table, and then rubs a pencil, previously attached to his
+right knee by silk sutures, against the side of the pencil fastened to the
+apparatus. The noise produced thereby exactly simulates that of writing
+upon a slate. In my case the illusion was perfect. During the examination
+of the message, the medium has ample opportunity to secrete the false pad
+and the clamp in his pocket. Instead of having a servant bring the slate
+to him and making the exchange described above, he may have the trick
+slate concealed about him before the séance begins, with the message
+written on it, and adroitly make the substitution while the sitter is
+engaged in lowering the light. Dr. Slade almost invariably adopted the
+first-mentioned exchange, because it enabled his confederate to write a
+lucid message to the sitter.
+
+An examination of the sitter's overcoat in the hall frequently yielded
+valuable information in the way of names and initials extracted from
+letters, sealed or unsealed. Sealed letters? Yes; it is an easy matter to
+steam a gummed envelope, open it, and seal it again. Another method is to
+wet the sealed envelope with a sponge dipped in alcohol. The writing will
+show up tolerably well if written upon a card. In a very short time the
+envelope will dry and exhibit no evidence of having been tampered with.
+
+And now as to the rest of the phenomena witnessed that evening in C--'s
+room. The raps on the table top were the result of an ingenious, hidden
+mechanism, worked by electricity; the mysterious hand that operated under
+the table was the juggler's right foot. He wore slippers and had the toe
+part of one stocking cut away. By dropping the slipper from his foot he
+was enabled to pull the edge of my coat, lift and shove a chair away, and
+perform sundry other ghostly evolutions, thanks to a well trained big
+toe. Dr. Slade who was long and lithe of limb, worked this dodge to
+perfection, prior to the paralytic attack which partly disabled his lower
+limbs.
+
+The stringed instrument which played in the cabinet was arranged as
+follows: Inside of the guitar was a small musical box, so arranged that
+the steel vibrating tongues of the box came in contact with a small piece
+of writing paper. When the box was set to going by means of an electric
+current, it closely imitated the twanging of a guitar, just as a sheet of
+music when laid on the strings of a piano simulates a banjo. This spirit
+guitar is a very useful instrument in the hands of a medium. It may be
+made to play when it is attached to a telescopic rod, and waved in
+phosphorescent curves over the heads of a circle of believers in the dark
+séance.
+
+I shall now sum up the subject of Dr. Slade's spirit-slate writing, (Fig.
+3) and endeavor to show how grossly exaggerated the reports of the
+medium's performances have been, and the reasons for such misstatements.
+No one who is not a professional or amateur prestidigitateur can correctly
+report what he sees at a spiritualistic séance.
+
+It is not so much the swiftness of the hand that counts in conjuring but
+the ability to force the attention of the spectators in different
+directions away from the crucial point of the trick. The really important
+part of the test, then, is hidden from the audience, who imagine they have
+seen all when they have not. Says Dr. Max Dessoir: "It must therefore be
+regarded as a piece of rare naiveté if a reporter asserts that in the
+description of his subjective conclusions he is giving the exact objective
+processes."
+
+This will be seen in Mr. Davey's experiments. Mr. Davey, a member of the
+London Society for Psychical Research, and an amateur magician who
+possessed great dexterity in the slate-writing business, gave a series of
+exhibitions before a number of persons, but did not inform them that the
+results were due to prestidigitation. No entrance fee was charged for the
+séances, but the sitters, who were fully impressed with the genuineness of
+the affair, were requested to submit written reports of what they had
+seen. These letters, published in vol. iv of the Proceedings of the
+Society, are admirable examples of mal-observation, for no one detected
+Mr. Davey exchanging slates and doing the writing.
+
+"The sources of error," says Dr. Max Dessoir, in an article reproduced in
+the "Open Court," "through which such strange reports arise, may be
+arranged in four groups. First, the observer interpolates a fact which
+did not happen, but which he is led to believe has happened; thus, he
+imagines he has examined the slate when as a fact he never has. Second, he
+confuses two similar ideas; he thinks he has carefully examined the slate,
+when in reality he has only done so hastily, or in ignorance of the point
+at issue. Third, the witness changes the order of events a little in
+consequence of a very natural deception of memory; he believes he tested
+the slate later than he actually did. Fourth and last, he passes over
+certain details which were purposely described to him as insignificant; he
+does not notice that the 'medium' asks him to close a window, and that the
+trick is thus rendered possible."
+
+Similar experiments in slate-writing were conducted by the Seybert
+Commission with Mr. Harry Kellar, the conjurer, after sittings were had
+with Dr. Slade, and the magician outdid the medium. The Seybert Commission
+found none of Slade's tests genuine, and officially denied "the
+extraordinary stories of his performances with locked slates which
+constitute a large part of his fame."
+
+Dr. Slade began his Spiritualistic operations in London in the year 1876,
+and charged a fee of a guinea a head for séances lasting a few minutes.
+Crowds went to see him and he reaped a golden harvest from the credulous,
+until the grand fiasco came. Slade was caught in one of his juggling
+séances and exposed by Prof. Lancaster and Dr. Donkin. The result was a
+criminal prosecution and a sensational trial lasting three days at the Bow
+Street Police Court. Mr. Maskelyne, the conjurer, was summoned as an
+expert witness and performed a number of the medium's tricks in the
+witness box. The court sentenced Slade to three months' hard labor, but he
+took an appeal from the magistrate's decision. The appeal was sustained on
+the ground of a technical flaw in the indictment, and the medium fled to
+the Continent before new summons could be served. He visited Paris,
+Leipsic, Berlin, St. Petersburg and other cities, giving séances before
+Royalty and before distinguished members of scientific societies; and
+afterwards went to Australia. He made money fast and spent it fast, but it
+took all of his ingenuity to elude the clutches of the police. In 1892, we
+find him the inmate of a workhouse in one of our Western towns, penniless,
+friendless and a lunatic.
+
+Slade's séances with Prof. Zoellner, of Berlin, in 1878, attracted wide
+attention, and did more to advertise his fame as a medium than anything
+else in his career.
+
+Zoellner's belief in the genuineness of Slade's mediumistic marvels led
+him to write a curious work, entitled, "Transcendental Physics," being an
+inquiry into the "fourth dimension of space." Poor old Zoellner, he was
+half insane when these séances were held! We have the undisputed authority
+of the Seybert Commission for the correctness of this statement.
+
+In Hamburg, Dr. Borchert wrote to Slade offering him one thousand marks if
+he would produce writing between locked slates, similar to the writing
+alleged to have been executed at the Zoellner séances, but the medium took
+no notice of the professor's letter. The conjurer, Carl Wilmann, with two
+friends, had a sitting with Slade, but without satisfactory results for
+the medium. "Slade," says Wilmann, "was unable to distract my attention
+from the crucial point of the trick, and threw down the slates on the
+table in disgust, remarking: 'I can not obtain any results to-day, the
+power that controls me is exhausted. Come tomorrow!'" That tomorrow never
+arrived for Wilmann and his friends; Slade did not keep his appointment,
+nor could Wilmann succeed in obtaining another sitting with him. The
+medium had been warned by friends that Wilmann was an expert professor of
+legerdemain.
+
+It was in 1886 that Slade created such a furore in Hamburg in
+Spiritualistic circles. A talented conjurer of that city, named
+Schradieck, after a few weeks' practice succeeded in eclipsing Slade. He
+learned to write in reverse on slates, and produced writing in various
+colored chalks. Another one of his experiments was making the slate
+disappear from one side of the table where it was held _a la_ Slade and
+appear at the opposite end of the table suddenly, as if held up to view by
+a spirit hand. Wilmann describes the effect as startling in the extreme
+and says Schradieck produced it by means of his left foot. After Slade's
+departure from Hamburg, spirit mediums sprang up like toadstools in a
+single night. Wilmann in his crusade against these worthies had many
+interesting experiences. He gives in his work "Moderne Wunder" several
+exposes of mediumistic tricks, two of which, in the sealed slate line, are
+very ingenious. The medium takes a slate (one furnished by the sitter if
+preferred), wipes it on both sides with a wet sponge, and then wraps it up
+carefully in a piece of ordinary white wrapping paper, allowing the
+package to be sealed and corded _ad libitum_. Notwithstanding all the
+precautions used, a message appears on the slate. It is accomplished in
+this way. A message in reverse is written on the wrapping paper with a
+camel's hair brush or pointed stick, dipped in some sticky substance, and
+finely powdered slate pencil dust is scattered over the writing. At a
+little distance, especially in a dim light, it is impossible to discover
+the writing as it blends very well with the white paper. In wrapping up
+the slate the medium presses the writing on the paper against the surface
+of the slate and the chirography adheres thereto, very much as the greasy
+drawing on a lithographer's stone prints on paper.
+
+In the other experiment the medium uses a _papier mache_ slate, set in the
+usual wooden frame. A _papier mache_ pad is prepared with a spirit message
+on one surface; on the other is pasted a piece of newspaper. This pad is
+laid, written side down, on a sheet of newspaper. After the genuine slate
+has been washed, the medium proceeds to wrap it up in the newspaper, and
+presses the trick pad, writing up, into the frame of the slate where it
+exactly fits into a groove prepared for the purpose.
+
+Since Dr. Slade's retirement from the mediumistic field, Pierre L. O. A.
+Keeler's fame as a slate-writing medium has been spread broadcast. He
+oscillates between Boston, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore
+and Washington, and has a very large and fashionable _clientele_. He
+gives evening materializing séances of the cabinet type three times a week
+at his rooms. During the day he gives private slate tests which are very
+popular.
+
+I had a sitting with him on the afternoon of April 24th, 1895. In order to
+gain his confidence, I went as one witnessing a slate séance for the first
+time, that is, I accepted _his_ slates, and had no prepared questions.
+
+I was ushered into a small, back parlor by the medium who closed the
+folding doors. We were alone. I made a mental photograph of the
+surroundings. There was no furniture except a table and two chairs placed
+near the window. Over the table was a faded cloth, hanging some eight or
+ten inches below the table. Upon it were several pads of paper and a
+heterogeneous assortment of lead pencils. Leaning against the mantelpiece,
+within a foot or so of the medium's chair, were some thirty or forty
+slates.
+
+"Take a seat", said Mr. Keeler pointing to a chair. I sat down, whereupon
+he seated himself opposite me, remarking as he did so, "Have you brought
+slates with you?"
+
+"I have not," was my reply.
+
+"Then, if you have no objection," he said, "we will use two of mine.
+Please examine these two slates, wash them clean with this damp cloth, and
+dry them." With that he passed me two ordinary school-slates, which I
+inspected closely, and carefully cleaned.
+
+"Be kind enough to place the slates to one side," said Keeler. I complied.
+
+"Have you prepared any slips with the names of friends, relatives, or
+others, who have passed into spirit life, with questions for them to
+answer?"
+
+"I have not," I replied.
+
+"Kindly do so then," he answered, "and take your time about it. There is a
+pad on the table. Please write but a single question on each slip. Then
+fold the slips and place them on the table." I did so.
+
+"I will also make one," he continued, "it is to my spirit control, George
+Christy." He wrote a name on a slip of paper, folded it, and tossed it
+among those I had prepared, passing his hand over them and fingering them,
+saying, "It is necessary to get a psychic impression from them." We sat in
+silence several minutes.
+
+After a little while Mr. Keeler said: "I do not know whether or not we
+shall get any responses this afternoon, but have patience." Again we
+waited. "Suppose you write a few more slips," he remarked, "perhaps
+we'll have better luck. Be sure and address them to people who were old
+enough to write before they passed into spirit life." This surprised me,
+but I complied with his wishes. While writing I glanced furtively at him
+from time to time; his hands were in his lap, concealed by the table
+cloth. He looked at me occasionally, then at his lap, fixedly. _I am
+satisfied that he opened some of my slips, having adroitly abstracted them
+from the table in the act of fingering them._
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4--SLATE WRITING.]
+
+He directed me to take my handkerchief and tie the two slates on the table
+tightly together, holding the slates in his hands as I did so. I laid the
+slates on the table before me, and we waited. "I think we will succeed
+this time in getting responses to some of the questions. Let us hold the
+slates." He grasped them with fingers and thumbs at one end, and I at the
+other in like manner, holding the slates about two inches above the table.
+We listened attentively, and soon was heard the scratching noise of a
+slate pencil moving upon a slate. The sound seemed directly under the
+slate, and was sufficiently impressive to startle any person making a
+slate test for the first time, and unacquainted with the multifarious
+devices of the sleight-of-hand artist.
+
+"Hold the slates tightly, please!" said Mr. Keeler, as a convulsive
+tremor shook his hands. I grasped firmly my end of the slates, and waited
+further developments. The faint tap of a slate pencil upon a slate was
+heard, and the medium announced that the communications were finished. I
+untied the handkerchief, and turned up the inner surfaces of the slates.
+Upon one of them several messages were written, and signed. Other
+communications were received during the sitting. After the first messages
+were received, and while I was engaged in reading them, Keeler quickly
+picked up a slate from the floor, clapped it upon the clean slate
+remaining on the table, and requested me to tie the two rapidly together
+with my handkerchief before the influence was lost. At a signal from him I
+unfastened the slates and found another set of answers. The same
+proceeding was gone through for the third set. The imitation of a pencil
+writing upon a slate was either made by the apparatus, described in the
+séance with C-- in the first part of this chapter, or by some other
+contrivance; more than likely by simply scratching with his finger on the
+under surface of the slate. While my attention was absorbed in the act of
+writing my second set of questions, he prepared answers to two of my first
+set and substituted a prepared slate for the cleaned slate on the table.
+_I was sure he was writing under the table; I heard the faint rubbing of a
+soft bit of pencil upon the surface of a slate. His hands were in his lap
+and his eyes were fixed downwards._ Several times I saw him put his
+fingers into his vest pockets, and he appeared to bring up small particles
+of something, which I believe were bits of the white and colored crayons
+used in writing the messages. His quiet audacity was surprising. I give
+below the questions and answers with my comments thereon:
+
+First Slate. Fig. 4.
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To Mamie:--
+
+Tell me the name of your dead brother?
+
+  (Signed) Harry R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+You must not think of me as one gone forever from you. You have made
+conditions by and through which I can return to you, and so long as I can
+do this I can not feel unhappy. So dear one, rest in the assurance that
+you are helping me, and that I am doing all I can to help you. Let us make
+the best of it all and help each other as best we can, then all will be
+well. My home in spirit life is beautiful and awaiting you. I will be the
+first to greet you. _I have no dead brother. All of us are living._ I am
+Mamie --. (The medium here cleverly evades giving a name by an equivoque.)
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To Len--
+
+Tell me the cause of your death, and the circumstances surrounding it?
+
+  (Signed) Harry R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+Harry! I am very glad to see you. I am happy. You must be reconciled, and
+not mourn me as dead! I will try to come again soon, when I am stronger
+and tell of my decease.--Len. (He again evades an answer.)
+
+Second Slate. Fig. 5.
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To A. D. B.--
+
+When and where did you die?
+
+  (Signed) Harry R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+This all seems so strange coming back and writing just as one would if
+they were in the earth life and communicating with a friend. What a
+blessed privilege it is. I am so happy. Oh, I would not come back. It is
+so restful here. No pain or sorrow. Dear, do not think I have forgotten
+you, I constantly think of you and wish that you, too, might view these
+lovely scenes of glorious beauty. You must rest with the thought that when
+your life is ended upon the earth, _I will be the first to meet you_. Now
+be patient and hopeful until we meet where there is no more parting. I am
+sincerely, A. D. B. (No answer at all.) Observe error in first sentence:
+"as _one_ would if _they_ were--." A. D. B. was an educated gentleman, and
+not given to such ungrammatical expressions.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 5--SLATE WRITING.]
+
+Third Slate. Fig. 6.
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To B. G.--
+
+Can you recall any of the conversations we had together on the B. and P.
+R. R. cars?
+
+  (Signed) H. R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+O my dear one, I can only write a few lines that you may know that I see
+and hear you as you call upon me. I do not forget you. When I am stronger
+will come again. I do not know what conversation you refer to in the cars.
+
+  B. G.
+
+(Again evades answering. B. G. was very much interested in the drama, and
+talked continuously about the stage.)
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To C. J.--
+
+Where did you die, and from what disease?
+
+  (Signed) H. R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+I know the days and weeks seem long and lonely to you without me. I do not
+forget you; am doing the best I can to help you.
+
+  C. J.--.
+
+(Still another evasion of a straightforward question. The lady in spirit
+life to whom the question was addressed died of consumption in a Roman
+Catholic Convent. She was only a society acquaintance of the writer, and
+not on such terms of intimacy as to warrant Mr. Keeler's reply.)
+
+In one corner of Slate No. 2 was the following, written with a yellow
+crayon: "This is remarkable. How did you know we could come?--H. K.
+Evans." Scrawled across the face of Slate No. 3, in red pencil, was a
+communication from George Christy, Mr. Keeler's spirit control, reading as
+follows: "Many are here who----G. C. (George Christy)" (The remainder is
+so badly written, as to be indecipherable.)
+
+On carefully analyzing the various communications it will be observed that
+the handwriting of the messages from Mamie--and B G.--are similar,
+possessing the same characteristics as regards letter formation, etc. It
+does not require a professional expert in chirography to detect this fact.
+One and the same person wrote the messages purporting to come from Mamie
+R--, Len--, B. G.--, C. J.--, and A. D. B. _In fact, the writing on all
+the slates is, in my opinion, the work of Mr. Pierre Keeler._
+
+The longer communications were doubtless prepared beforehand, being
+general in nature and conveying about the same information that any
+departed spirit might give to any inquiring mortal, but, as will be
+observed, _giving no adequate answers to the queries_, with the exception
+of the last two sentences, _which were written by the medium, after he
+became acquainted with the tenor of the questions upon the folded slips_.
+The very short communications are written in a careless hand, such as a
+man would dash off hastily. There is an attempt at disguise, but a clumsy
+one, the letters still retaining the characteristics of the more
+deliberate chirography of the long communications. A close inspection of
+the slates reveals the exact similarity of the y's, u's, I's, g's, h's,
+m's and n's.
+
+The handwriting of messages on slates should be, and is claimed to be,
+adequate evidence of the genuineness of the communication, for are we not
+supposed to know the handwriting of our friends?
+
+Possibly Mr. Keeler would claim that the handwriting was the work of his
+control "Geo. Christy", who acted as a sort of amanuensis for the spirits.
+If this be so, why the attempts at _disguise_, and bungling attempts at
+that?
+
+In the séance with Mr. Keeler, I subjected him to no tests. He had
+everything his own way. _I should have brought my own marked slates with
+me and never let them out of my sight for an instant. I should have
+subjected the table to a close examination, and requested the medium to
+move or rather myself removed the collection of slates against the mantel,
+placed so conveniently within his reach._ I did not do this, because of
+his well known irascibility. He would probably have shown me the door and
+refused a sitting on any terms, as he has done to many skeptics. I was
+anxious to meet Keeler, and preferred playing the novice rather than not
+get a slate test from one of the best-known and most famous of modern
+slate-writing mediums.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 6--SLATE WRITING.]
+
+After what has been stated, I think there can be no shadow of doubt that
+the medium abstracted by sleight-of-hand some of the paper slips
+containing my written questions, read them under cover of the table, and
+did the slate-writing himself. All of these slate-tests, where pellets or
+slips of paper are used, are performed in a similar manner, as will be
+seen from the exposé published by the Society for Psychical Research. In
+vol. viii of the proceedings of that association will be found a number of
+revelations, one of which throws considerable light on the Keeler tests.
+The sitter was Dr. Richard Hodgson, and the medium was a Mrs. Gillett.
+Says Dr. Hodgson:
+
+"Under pretence of 'magnetising' the pellets prepared by the sitter, or
+folding them more tightly, she substitutes a pellet of her own for one of
+the sitter's. Reading the sitter's pellet below the table, she writes the
+answer on one of her own slates, a pile of which, out of the sitter's
+view, she keeps on a chair by her side. She then takes a second slate,
+places it on the table, and sponges and dries both sides, after which she
+takes the first slate, and turning the side upon which she has written
+towards herself, rubs it in several places with a dry cloth or the ends of
+her fingers as though cleaning it. She then places it, writing downward,
+on the other slate on the table, and sponges and dries the upper surface
+of it. She then pretends to take one of the pellets on the table and put
+it between the two slates. What she does, however, is to bring the pellet
+up from below the table, take another of the sitter's pellets on the table
+into her hand, and place the pellet which she has brought up from below
+the table between the slates, keeping in her hand the pellet just taken
+from the top of the table. The final step is to place a rubber band round
+both slates, in doing which she turns both slates over together. She
+professes to get the writing without the use of any chalk or pencil. Some
+of her slates are prepared beforehand with messages or drawings. More
+interesting, perhaps, because of its boldness, is her method of producing
+writing on the sitter's own slates. Under the pretence of 'magnetising'
+these she cleans them several times, rubs them with her hands, stands them
+up on end together, and while they are in this position between herself
+and the sitter she writes with one hand on the slate-side nearest to
+herself, holding the slates erect with the other hand. Later on, she lays
+both slates together flat on the table again, the writing being on the
+undermost surface. She then sponges the upper surface of the top slate,
+turns it over, and sponges its other surface. She next withdraws the
+bottom slate, places it on top and sponges its top surface, keeping its
+under surface carefully concealed. The final step, the reversal, is made,
+as in the other case, with the help of the rubber band. Mrs. Gillett has
+probably other methods, also. Those which I have described were all that I
+witnessed at my single sitting with her."
+
+My friend, Dr. L. M. Taylor, of Washington, D. C., an investigator of
+Spiritualistic phenomena, and skeptical like myself of the objective
+phases of the subject, has had many sittings with Keeler for independent
+slate-writing. One séance in particular he is fond of relating:
+
+"On one occasion, after I had written my slips, folded them up, and tossed
+them on the table, I said to Keeler who was obtaining his 'psychic'
+impression of them, 'I wish, if possible, to have a spirit tell me the
+numbers and the maker's name engraved in my watch. I have never taken the
+trouble to look at the numbers, consequently I do not know them.' 'Your
+request is an unusual one,' replied the medium, 'but I will endeavor to
+gratify it.' We had some conversations on the subject that lasted several
+minutes. Suddenly he picked up a slate pencil, and scrawled the name, _J.
+S. Granger_ on the upper surface of one of my slates; the two slates had
+been previously tied together with my handkerchief and laid on the table
+in front of me. 'You recognize that name, do you not?' asked Keeler.
+'Yes,' I replied, 'that is one of the names I wrote on the slips. J. S.
+Granger was an old friend of mine who died some years ago. He was a
+brother-in-law of Stephen A. Douglass.' 'If you wish to facilitate
+matters,' said Keeler, 'place your watch on top of the slates, concealed
+beneath the handkerchief, otherwise we may have to wait an hour or more
+without obtaining results, and there are a number of persons waiting for
+me in the ante-room. My time you see is limited.'
+
+"I detached my watch from its chain, and placed it in the required
+position. Keeler then took a piece of black cloth, used to clean slates,
+and laid it over my slates. Finally he requested me to take the covered
+slates and hold them in my lap. I took care to feel through the cloth that
+the watch was still beneath the handkerchief. In a short time I was
+directed to uncover the slates, and untie them, which I did. Upon the
+inner surface of one of the slates the following message was written:
+'Dear Friend, Stephen is with me. I have been through that beautiful watch
+of yours, and, if I see correctly, the number is 163131. On the inside I
+see this--E. Howard & Co., Boston, 211327. And then your name as follows:
+Dr. L. M. Taylor, 1221 Mass. Ave., N. W., Washington, D. C. Signed J. M.
+Granger.'
+
+"I then compared the name and numbers in my watch with those on the slate,
+and found the latter correct, with the exception of one number. A relative
+of mine was present in the room during this séance, and I showed her the
+communication on the slate. Afterwards we passed the slate to Keeler who
+examined it closely. When he handed it back to me, I was surprised to see
+that the incorrect number was mysteriously changed to the proper one."
+
+This is a very interesting test, indeed, because of its apparently
+impromptu character. I have seen similar feats performed by professional
+conjurers as well as mediums. A dummy watch is substituted for the
+sitter's watch, and after the medium has ascertained the name and numbers
+on the sitter's timepiece, he succeeds in adroitly exchanging it again for
+the dummy, thanks to the black cloth. The writing on the slate in the
+above séance was evidently produced in the same way as that described in
+my sitting with Keeler, after he had ascertained the name on the slip. The
+name of Stephen, of course, was directly obtained from Dr. Taylor. Not
+having been an eye witness of Keeler's movements in the watch test, I am
+unable to say how closely Dr. Taylor's description coincides with the
+medium's actual operations.
+
+In May, 1897, Mr. Pierre Keeler was in Washington, D. C., as usual. My
+friend, Dr. Taylor, who was desirous of putting the medium to another
+crucial test, wrote down a list of names on a sheet of paper--cognomens of
+ancient Egyptian, Chaldean, and Grecian priests and philosophers--folded
+the paper, and carefully sealed it in an envelope. He took ten slates with
+him, all of them marked with a private mark of his own. Mr. Keeler eyed
+the envelope dubiously, but passed no criticisms on the doctor's
+precautions to prevent trickery. The two men sat down at a table and
+waited for the spirits to manifest. Dr. Taylor, on this occasion, was
+absolutely certain that his slates had not been tampered with, and that
+the medium had not succeeded in opening the envelope. In a little while
+the comedy of the pencil-scratching between the tied slates began.
+
+"Ah", exclaimed the physician, "a message at last!" Then he thought to
+himself, "can the medium possibly have deluded my senses by some hypnotic
+power, and adroitly opened that envelope without my being aware of the
+fact? But no, that is impossible!"
+
+Mr. Keeler took the slates away from Dr. Taylor, and quickly opened them,
+_accidentally_ dropping one of them behind the table. In a second,
+however, he brought up the slate, and remarked: "How awkward of me. I beg
+your pardon," etc. On the surface of this slate was written the following
+sentence: "See some other medium; d--n it!--George Christy." Dr. Taylor is
+positive, as he has repeatedly told me, that this message was not
+inscribed on his own marked slate, but was written by the medium on one of
+his own. The exchange, of course, must have been effected in the pretended
+accidental dropping of the doctor's slate by the medium. This is a very
+old expedient among pretenders to spirit power. All conjurers are familiar
+with the device. Imro Fox, the American magician, uses it constantly in
+his entertainments, with capital effect.
+
+Dr. Taylor, unfortunately, did not succeed in getting possession of the
+medium's prepared slate. Another exchange was undoubtedly made by Mr.
+Keeler, and the physician had returned to him his own marked slate. When
+he got home that afternoon, and had time to carefully scrutinize his
+slates, he found that they bore no evidence of having been written upon
+at all. Having also examined these slates, I am prepared to add my
+testimony to that of Dr. Taylor.
+
+The reader will see from the above-described séance that unless the medium
+(or a confederate) is enabled to read the names and questions, prepared by
+the sitter, his hands are practically tied in all experiments in
+psychology.
+
+When investigators bring their own marked slates with them, screwed
+tightly together, and sealed, the medium has to adopt different tactics
+from those employed in the tests before mentioned. He has to call in the
+aid of a confederate. The audacity of the sealed-slate test is without
+parallel in the annals of pretended mediumship. For an insight into the
+secrets of this phase of psychography, the reading public is indebted to a
+medium, the anonymous author of a remarkably interesting work,
+"Revelations of a Spirit Medium." Many skeptical investigators have been
+converted to Spiritualism by these tests. They invariably say to you when
+approached on the subject: "I took my own marked slates, carefully screwed
+together, to the medium, and had lengthy messages written upon them by
+spirit power. _These slates never left my hands for a second._" I will
+quote what the writer of "Revelations of a Spirit Medium" says on the
+subject:
+
+"No man ever received independent slate-writing between slates fastened
+together that he did not allow out of his hands a few seconds. Scores of
+persons will tell you that they _have_ received writing under those
+conditions through the mediumship of the writer; but the writer will tell
+you how he fooled them and how you can do so if you see fit.
+
+"In the first place you will rent a house with a cellar in connection. Cut
+a trap-door one foot square through the floor between the sills on which
+the floor is laid. Procure a fur floor mat with long hair. Cut a square
+out of the mat and tack it to the top of the trap door. Tack the mat fast
+to the floor, for some one may visit you who will want to raise it up.
+
+"Explain the presence of the fur by saying it is an absorbent of magnetic
+forces, through which you produce the writing. Over the rug place a heavy
+pine table about four feet square; and over the table a heavy cover that
+reaches the floor on all sides. Put your assistant in the cellar with a
+coal-oil stove, a tea-kettle of hot water, different colored letter wax
+and lead pencils, a screw driver, a pair of nippers, a pair of pliers, a
+pair of scissors and an assortment of wire brads. You are ready for
+business.
+
+"When your sitter comes in you will notice his slates, if he brings a
+pair, and see if they are secured in any way that your man in the cellar
+can not duplicate. If they are, you can touch his slates with your finger
+and say to him that you can not use his slates on account of the
+'magnetism' with which they are saturated. He will know nothing of
+'magnetic conditions' and will ask you what he is to do about it.
+
+"You will furnish him a pair of new slates with water and cloths to clean
+them. You also furnish him paper to write his questions on and the screws,
+wax, paper and mucilage to secure them with. He will write his questions
+and fasten the slates securely together.
+
+"You now conduct him to your séance-room and invite inspection of your
+table and surroundings. After the examination has been made you will seat
+the sitter at one side of the table with his side and arm next it. If he
+desires to keep hold of the slates a signal agreed upon between yourself
+and your assistant will cause the spirit in the cellar to open the trap
+door, which opens downwards, and to push through the floor and into
+position where the sitter can grasp one end of it, a pair of dummy
+slates. This dummy your assistant will continue to hold until the sitter
+has taken hold of it after the following performance:
+
+"Your assistant lets you know everything is ready by touching your foot.
+You now reach and take the sitter's slates and put them below the table,
+and under it, telling the sitter to put his hand under from his side and
+hold them with you. He puts his hand under and gets hold of the dummy
+slates held by your assistant.
+
+"Your assistant holds on until you have stood the slates on end, leaning
+against the table leg, and have got hold of the dummy. He then takes the
+sitter's slates below and closes the trap. He proceeds to open them, read
+the questions, answer them and refasten the slates.
+
+"You will be entertaining your sitter by twitching and jerking and making
+clairvoyant and clairaudient guesses for him.
+
+"When your assistant touches your foot you will know that he is ready to
+make the exchange again, by which the sitter will get hold of the slates
+he fastened. When you get the signal you give a snort and jump that jerks
+the end of the slates from the sitter's hand. He is now given the end of
+the slates held by your assistant, and you will allow the assistant to
+take the dummy. After sitting a moment or two longer, you will tell the
+sitter to take out his slates and examine them if he chooses. Many times
+they do not open the slates until they reach their homes.
+
+"This, reader, is the man who will declare that he furnished the slates
+and did not allow them out of his hands a minute.
+
+"The usual method of obtaining the writing is for the medium to hold the
+slates alone. When this is the case the medium passes the slates below,
+and receives in return a dummy which he is continually thumping on the
+under side of the table for the purpose of showing the sitter that the
+slates are there all the time.
+
+"It is not necessary that you should use a cellar to get this phase of
+'independent slate-writing.' You could place your table against a
+partition door and by fitting one of the small panels with hinges and
+bolts, would have a very convenient way of obtaining the assistance of the
+spirit in the next room. It is also possible to make a trap in a room that
+has a wooden wainscoting."
+
+Before closing this brief survey of slate-writing experiments, I must
+describe an exceedingly ingenious trick, indeed, bordering on the
+marvelous. It is the recent invention of a Western conjurer, and solves
+the problem of actually writing between locked slates by physical means.
+The effect is as follows: You request the sitter to take two slates, wash
+them carefully, and tie them together, after first having placed a bit of
+chalk between their surfaces. Hold them under the table for a minute, and
+then hand them to the sitter for examination. A name, or a short sentence,
+in answer to some question, will be found scrawled across the upper
+surface of the bottom slate. It is accomplished in this way. You take a
+small pellet of iron or steel, coat it with mucilage, and dip it into
+chalk or slate-pencil dust. This dust will adhere and harden into a
+consistent mass, after a little while, completely concealing the metal,
+and causing the whole to resemble a bit of chalk. Take this supposed
+pellet of chalk from your vest pocket and place it between the slates;
+hold the latter level beneath a table, and by moving the poles of a strong
+magnet against the surface of the under slate, you can cause the iron or
+steel to write a name or sentence, thanks to its coating of chalk dust. It
+is better to use slates with rather deep frames, in order that the chalked
+metal may write with facility. It requires considerable practice to write
+with ease in the manner described above. The first thing of course is to
+locate the position of the chalk between the locked slates. To enable you
+to do this, place the supposed chalk in one corner of slate No. 1 before
+covering with slate No. 2, or else exactly in the center of slate No. 2.
+In this way you will have no difficulty in affecting the metal with the
+magnet, when the slates are held under the table. There are various ways
+of holding the slates; one, is to ask the sitter to hold one end, while
+you hold the other, five or six inches above the table. The light is put
+out, and you take the magnet from your pocket and execute the writing. The
+noise of the magnet passing over the surface of the under slate serves to
+represent a disembodied spirit as doing the writing.
+
+
+2. The Master of the Mediums.
+
+One of the most remarkable personalities serving as an exponent of
+Spiritualism was Daniel Dunglas Home, the Napoleon of necromancy, and the
+Past Grand Master of Mediums. His career reads like a romance. He lived in
+a sort of twilight land, and hob-nobbed with kings, queens and other
+people of noble blood.
+
+  "Something unsubstantial, ghostly,
+   Seems this Theurgist,
+   In deep meditation mostly
+   Wrapped, as in a mist.
+   Vague, phantasmal and unreal,
+   To our thoughts he seems,
+   Walking in a world ideal,
+   In a land of dreams."
+
+He wound his serpentine way into the best society of London, Paris,
+Berlin, Rome, and St. Petersburg--"always despising filthy lucre," as
+Maskelyn remarks, "but never refusing a diamond worth ten times the amount
+he would have received in cash, or some present, which the host of the
+house at which he happened to be manifesting always felt constrained to
+offer."
+
+This thaumaturgist of the Nineteenth Century was born near Edinburg,
+Scotland, on March 20, 1833, and came of a family reported to be gifted
+with "second sight." His father, William Home, was a natural son of
+Alexander, tenth Earl of Home. Strange phenomena occurred during the
+medium's childhood. At the age of nine he was adopted by his aunt, Mrs.
+McNeill Cook, who brought him to America. He began giving séances about
+the year 1852. Among the notable men who attended these early "sittings"
+were William Cullen Bryant, Professors Wells and Hare, and Judge Edmonds.
+
+Home had a tall, slight figure, a fair and freckled face--before disease
+made it the color of yellow wax--keen, slaty-blue eyes, thin bloodless
+lips, a rather snub nose, and curly auburn hair. His manners, though
+forward, were agreeable, and he recited such poetry as Poe's "Raven" and
+"Ulalume" with powerful effect. He was altogether a weird sort of
+personage. His principal mediumistic manifestations were rappings,
+table-tipping, ghostly materializations, playing on sealed musical
+instruments, levitation, and handling fire with impunity.
+
+In 1855 he launched his necromantic bark on European waters. No man since
+Cagliostro ever created so profound a sensation in the Old World. He wrote
+his reminiscences in two large volumes, but little credence can be given
+them, as they are full of extravagant statements and wild fantasies.
+
+The London _Punch_ (May 9th, 1868), printed the following effusion on the
+medium, a sort of parody on "Home, Sweet Home:"
+
+  Through realms Thaumaturgic the student may roam,
+  And not light on a worker of wonders like _Home_.
+  Cagliostro himself might descend from his chair,
+  And set up our _Daniel_ as Grand-Cophta there--
+    _Home, Home, Dan. Home_,
+    No medium like _Home_.
+
+  Spirit legs, spirit hands, he gives table and chair;
+  Gravitation defying, he flies in the air;
+  But the fact to which henceforth his fame should be pinned,
+  Is his power to raise, not himself but the wind!--
+    _Home, Home, Dan. Home_,
+    No medium like _Home_.
+
+Robert Browning made him the subject of his celebrated satirical poem,
+"Mr. Sludge, the Medium."
+
+Some of the most celebrated scientific and literary personages of England
+became interested in his mysterious abilities, and among his intimate
+friends were the Earl of Dunraven, Mary Howitt, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Prof.
+Wallace, and Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. There is good authority for
+believing that Home was the mysterious Margrave of Bulwer's weird novel,
+"A Strange Story." Bulwer was an ardent believer in the supernatural and
+Home spent many days at Knebworth amid a select coterie of ghost-seers.
+The famous novelist relates that as Home sat with him in the library of
+Knebworth, conversing upon politics, social matters, books or other chance
+topics, the chairs rocked and the tables were suspended in mid-air.
+
+When the medium was requested to exert his power and found himself in
+condition, it is alleged, he would rise and float about the room. This in
+Spiritualistic parlance is termed "levitation". At Knebworth and other
+places, some of the most prominent people of the day claim to have seen
+Home lift himself up and sail tranquilly out of a window, around the
+house, and come in by another window.
+
+The Earl of Dunraven told many stories equally strange of performances
+that were given in his presence. The Earl declared that he had many times
+seen Home elongate and shorten his body, and cause the closed piano to
+play by putting his fingers on the lid.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 7--HOME AT THE TUILERIES.]
+
+In the autumn of 1855 the famous medium went to Florence; there, also, the
+spirit manifestations secured him the _entree_ into the best society of
+the old Italian city. In his memoirs he speaks of an incident occurring
+through his mediumship, at a séance given in Florence: "Upon one occasion,
+while the Countess C-- was seated at one of Erard's grand-action pianos,
+it rose and balanced itself in the air, during the whole time she was
+playing." An English lady, resident at Florence, in a supposed haunted
+house, procured the services of Home to exorcise the ghost. They sat at a
+table in the sitting-room, and raps were heard proceeding from that piece
+of furniture, and rustling sounds in the room as of a person moving about
+in a heavy garment. The spirit being adjured in the name of the "Holy
+Trinity" to leave the premises, the demonstrations ceased.
+
+In February, 1856, the medium joined the retinue of Count B--, a Polish
+nobleman, and went to Naples with his patron. From Naples to Rome was the
+next step, and, in the Eternal City, the medium joined the Romish Church,
+and was adjured by the Pope to abandon spirit séances forever. In 1858 we
+find Home in St. Petersburg, where he married the youngest daughter of
+General Count de Kroll, of Russia, and a goddaughter of the Emperor
+Nicholas, the marriage taking place on Sunday, August 1, 1858, in the
+private chapel attached to the house of the lady's brother-in-law, the
+Count Gregoire Koucheleff-Besborodko. It was a very notable affair, and
+Alexander Dumas came from Paris to attend the ceremony. Home's spirit
+power which had left him since his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith
+now returned in full force, it is said, and he saw standing near him at
+the wedding the spirit form of his mother. In 1862 his wife died at the
+Chateau Laroche, near Perigneux, France, and the medium repaired to Rome
+for the purpose of studying sculpture. The reports of the spirit phenomena
+constantly attending Home's presence reached the ears of the Papal
+authorities and he was compelled to leave the city, notwithstanding the
+fact that he gave positive assurance that he would give no séance. He was
+actually charged with being a sorcerer, like Cagliostro, an accusation
+that reads very strange in the Nineteenth Century. This affair embittered
+Home against the Church, and he abandoned Roman Catholicism for the Greek
+Church.
+
+After the Roman fiasco, the famous medium returned to England to give
+Spiritualistic lectures and séances. A writer in "_All the Year Round_",
+gives the following pen picture of the medium, as he appeared in 1866:
+"He is a tall, thin man, with broad square shoulders, suggestive of a suit
+of clothes hung upon an iron cross. His hair is long and yellow; his teeth
+are large, glittering and sharp; his eyes are a pale grey, with a redness
+about the eye-lids, which comes and goes in a ghastly manner, as he talks.
+When he shows his glittering sharp teeth, and that red line comes round
+his slowly rolling eyes, he is not a pleasant sight to look upon. His
+hands are long, white and bony, and on taking them you discover that they
+are icy cold." A _suit of clothes hung upon an iron cross_ is a weird
+touch in this pen picture.
+
+Home about this time intended going upon the stage, but abandoned the idea
+to become the secretary of the "Spiritual Atheneum", a society formed for
+the investigation of psychic phenomena.
+
+One of the most notable passages in the life of the great medium was the
+famous law suit in which he was concerned in England. In 1866 he became
+acquainted with a wealthy lady, Mrs. Jane Lyons. In his role of medium she
+consulted him constantly about the welfare of her husband in the spirit
+world, and her business affairs. She gave him £33,000 for his services.
+Relatives and friends of Mrs. Lyons, however, saw in Home a cunning
+adventurer who was preying upon a weak-minded woman. A suit was instituted
+against the medium to recover the money, and the case became a _cause
+celebre_ in the annals of the English courts.
+
+In the autumn of 1871, Home, who before that time, had been quite a "lion"
+at the court of Napoleon III and Eugene, followed the German army from
+Sedan to Versailles, and was hand-in-glove with the King of Prussia. His
+second marriage took place in October, 1871, at Paris, and after a brief
+honeymoon in England he visited St. Petersburg with his wife, who was a
+member of the noble Russian family of Alsakoff.
+
+On the 21st of June, 1886, the great American ghost-seer died of
+consumption, at Auteuil, near Paris, France. For years he was out of
+health, and he ascribed his weakness to the expenditure of vital force in
+working wonders during the earlier part of his career.
+
+He was buried at St. Germain-en-Laye, with the rites of the Russian
+Church. The funeral was a very simple one, not more than twenty persons
+being present, all of whom were in full evening dress. The idea was to
+emphasize the Spiritualists' belief that death is not a subject for
+mourning, but is liberation, an occasion for rejoicing.
+
+The curious reader will find many accounts of Home's invulnerability to
+fire while in the trance state, notably those of Prof. Crookes, contained
+in the proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. In the March,
+1868, number of "_Human Nature_," Mr. H. D. Jencken writes as follows
+concerning a séance given by the medium:
+
+"Mr. Home, (after various manifestations) said, 'we have gladly shown you
+our power over fluids, we will now show you our power over solids.' He
+then knelt down before the hearth, and deliberately breaking up a glowing
+piece of coal in the fire place, took up a largish lump of incandescent
+coal and placing the same in his left hand, proceeded to explain that
+caloric had been extracted by a process known to them (the spirits), and
+that the heat could in part be returned. This he proved by alternately
+cooling and heating the coal; and to convince us of the fact, allowed us
+to handle the coal which had become cool, then suddenly resumed its heat
+sufficient to burn one, as I again touched it. I examined Mr. Home's hand,
+and quite satisfied myself that no artificial means had been employed to
+protect the skin, which did not even retain the smell of smoke. Mr. Home
+then re-seated himself, and shortly awoke from his trance quite pale and
+exhausted."
+
+Other witnesses of the above experiment were Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare,
+Miss Douglas, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. W. H. Harrison and Prof. Wallace. Mr. H.
+Nisbet, of Glasgow, relates (_Human Nature_, Feb. 1870) that in his own
+home in January, 1870, Mr. Home took a red hot coal from the grate and put
+it in the hands of a lady and gentleman to whom it felt only warm.
+Subsequently he placed the same on a folded newspaper, the result being a
+hole burnt through eight layers of paper. Taking another blazing coal he
+laid it on the same journal, and carried it around the apartment for
+upwards of three minutes, without scorching the paper.
+
+Among the crowned heads and famous people before whom Mr. Home appeared
+were Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie, Queen Victoria, King Louis I
+and King Maximilian of Bavaria, the Emperor of Russia, the King and Queen
+of Wurtemberg, the Duchess of Hamilton, the Crown Prince of Prussia and
+old Gen. Von Moltke. Alexander Dumas the elder, was a constant companion
+of the medium for a long time, and wrote columns about him.
+
+Napoleon III had two sittings with Home--and it is said Home materialized
+the spirit of the first Napoleon, who appeared in his familiar cocked hat,
+gray overcoat and dark green uniform with white facings. "My fate?" asked
+Louis, trembling with awe. "Like mine--discrowned, and death in exile,"
+replied the ghost; then it vanished. The Empress swooned and Napoleon III
+fell back in his chair as if about to faint. The medium in his first
+séance with the French Emperor succeeded only in materializing some
+flowers and a spirit hand, which the Emperor was permitted to grasp.
+
+Celia Logan, the journalist, in writing of one of Home's séances at a
+nobleman's house in London, says:
+
+"On this occasion the medium announced that he would produce balls of fire
+and illuminated hands. Failing in the former, he declared that the spirits
+were not strong enough for that to-night, and so he would have to confine
+himself to showing the luminous hands.
+
+"The house was darkened and Home groped his way alone to the head of the
+broad staircase, where every few minutes a pair of luminous hands were
+thrown up. The audience was satisfied generally. One lady, however, was
+not, and whispered to me--she was a half-hearted Spiritualist--that it
+looked to her as if he had rubbed his own hands over with lucifer
+matches.
+
+"The host stood near the mantel piece and had seen Home abstractedly place
+a small bottle upon it when he left the room for the staircase. That
+bottle the host quietly slipped into his pocket. Upon examination the next
+day it was found to contain phosphorated olive oil or some similar
+preparation.
+
+"The host had declared himself to have seen Home float through the air
+from one side of the room to the other, lift a piano several feet in the
+air by simply placing a finger upon it, and had seen him materialize
+disembodied spirits; but after the discovery of the phosphorus trick he
+dropped Home at once."
+
+It is a significant fact that the medium while giving séances in Paris in
+1857 refused to meet Houdin, the renowned prestidigitateur.
+
+I shall now attempt an exposé of Home's physical phenomena. Home's
+extraordinary feat of alternately cooling and heating a lump of coal taken
+from a blazing fire, as related by Mr. H. D. Jencken and others, is easily
+explained. It is a juggling trick. The "coal" is a piece of spongy
+platinum which bears a close resemblance to a lump of half burnt coal, and
+is palmed in the hand, as a prestidigitateur conceals a coin, a pack of
+cards, an egg, or a small lemon. The medium or magician advances to the
+grate and pretends to take a genuine lump of coal from the fire but brings
+up instead, at the tips of his fingers, the piece of platinum. In a secret
+breast pocket of his coat he has a small reservoir of hydrogen, with a
+tube coming down the sleeve and terminating an inch or so above the cuff.
+By means of certain mechanical arrangements, to enable him to let on and
+off the gas at the proper moment, he is able to accomplish the trick; for
+when a current of hydrogen is allowed to impinge upon a piece of spongy
+platinum, the metal becomes incandescent, and as soon as the current is
+arrested the platinum is restored to its normal condition.
+
+The hand may be protected from burning in various ways, one method being
+the repeated application of sulphuric acid to the skin, whereby it is
+rendered impervious to the action of fire for a short period of time;
+another, by wearing gloves of amianthus or asbestos cloth. With the
+latter, worn in a badly lighted room, the medium, without much risk of
+discovery, can handle red hot coals or iron with impunity. The gloves may
+at the proper moment be slipped off and concealed about the person. A
+small slip of amianthus cloth placed on a newspaper would protect it from
+a hot coal and the same means could be used when a coal is placed in
+another's hand or upon his head.
+
+As to the marvelous "levitation", either the witnesses of the alleged feat
+were under some hypnotic spell, or else they allowed their imaginations to
+run riot when describing the event. In the case of Lord Lindsay and Lord
+Adare, D. Carpenter in his valuable paper "On Fallacies Respecting the
+Supernatural" (_Contemporary Review_, Jan., 1876) says: "A whole party of
+believers affirm that they saw Mr. Home float out of one window and in at
+another, while a single honest skeptic declares that Mr. Home was sitting
+in his chair all the time." It seems that there were three gentlemen
+present besides the medium when the alleged phenomenon took place, the two
+noblemen and a "cousin". It is this unnamed hard-headed cousin to whom Dr.
+Carpenter refers as the "honest skeptic."
+
+Many of Home's admirers have declared that he possessed the power of
+mesmerizing certain of his friends. These gentlemen were no doubt
+hypnotized and related honestly what they believed they had seen. Again,
+the expectancy of attention and the nervous tension of the average sitter
+in spirit-circles tend to produce a morbidly impressible condition of
+mind. Many mediums since Home's day have performed the act of levitation,
+but always in a dark room. Mr. Angelo Lewis, the writer on magic, reveals
+an ingenious method by which levitation is effected. When the lights are
+extinguished the medium--who, by the way, must be a clever
+ventriloquist--removes his boots and places them on his hands.
+
+"I am rising, I am rising, but pay no attention", he remarks, as he goes
+about the apartment, where the sitters are grouped in a circle about him,
+and he lightly touches the heads of various persons. A shadowy form is
+dimly seen and a smell of boot leather becomes apparent to the olfactory
+senses of many present. People jump quickly to conclusions in such matters
+and argue that where the feet of the medium are, his body must surely
+be--namely, floating in the air. The illusion is further enhanced by the
+performer's ventriloquial powers. "I am rising! I am touching the
+ceiling!" he exclaims, imitating the sound of a voice high up. When the
+lights are turned up, the medium is seen (this time with his boots on his
+feet) standing on tip-toe, as if just descended from the ceiling.
+
+Sometimes before performing the levitation act, he will say, "In order to
+convince any skeptic present, that I really float upwards, I will write
+the initials of my name, or the name of some one present, on the
+ceiling." When the lights are raised, the letters are seen written on the
+ceiling in a bold scrawling hand. How is it done? The medium has concealed
+about him a telescopic steel rod, something like those Chinese fishing
+rods at one time in vogue among modern disciples of Izaak Walton. This
+convenient rod when not in use folds up in a very small compass, but when
+it is shoved out to its full length, some three or four feet, with a bit
+of black chalk attached, the writing on the ceiling is easily produced.
+The magicians of ancient Egypt displayed their mystic rods as a part of
+their paraphernalia, while the modern magi bear theirs in secret. A
+tambourine, a guitar, a bell, or a spirit hand, rubbed with phosphorus,
+may also be fixed to this ingenious appliance, and floated over the heads
+of the spectators, and even a horn may be blown, through the hollow rod.
+
+The materialization of a spirit hand which crept from beneath a
+table-cover, and showed itself to the "believers," was one of the most
+startling things in the repertoire of D. D. Home, as it was in that of Dr.
+Monck's, an English medium. An explanation of Monck's method of producing
+the hand may, perhaps, throw some light on Home's "materialization." A
+small dummy hand, artistically executed in wax, with the fingers slightly
+bent, is fastened to a broad elastic band about three feet in length. This
+band is attached to a belt about the performer's waist and passes down his
+left trouser leg, allowing the hand to dangle within the trouser a few
+inches above the ankle. I must not forget to explain that to the wrist of
+the hand is appended an elastic sleeve about five inches long. The medium
+and two sitters take their seats at a square table, with an over-hanging
+table-cloth. No one is allowed to be seated at the same side of the table
+with the medium. This is an imperative condition.
+
+"Diminish the light, please," says the medium. Some one rises to lower the
+gas to the required dim religious light necessary to all spirit séances.
+"A little lower, please! Lower, lower still!" remarks the medium. Out the
+light goes. "Dear, me, but this is vexatious! Somebody light it again and
+be more careful!" he ejaculates. Under cover of the darkness the agile
+operator crosses his left foot over his right knee, pulls down the wax
+hand and fixes it to the toe of his boot by means of the elastic sleeve,
+the apparatus being masked from the sitters by the table cloth until the
+time comes for the spirit materialization. The three men place their
+hands on the table and wait patiently for developments. Presently a rap is
+heard under the table--disjointed knee of the medium,--and then _mirabile
+dictu!_ the table-cloth shakes and a delicate female hand emerges and
+shows itself above the edge of the table. A guitar being placed close to
+the fingers, they soon strum the strings, or rather appear to do so, the
+medium being the _deus ex machina_. The cleverest part of the whole
+performance is the fact that the medium never takes his hands from the
+table. He quietly puts his left foot down on the floor and places his
+right foot heavily on the false hand--off it comes from the left foot and
+shoots up the trouser leg like lightning. The sitters may look under the
+table but they see nothing.
+
+An ingenious improvement has been made to this hand-test by an American
+conjurer, one that enables the medium to produce the hand although his
+feet are secured by the sitter. "Be kind enough, sir," says the performer
+to the investigator, "to place your feet on mine. If I should move my feet
+ever so little, you would know it, would you not?" The sitter replies in
+the affirmative. The medium, as soon as he feels the pressure of the
+sitter's feet, withdraws his right foot from a steel shape made in
+imitation of the toe of his boot, and operates the spirit hand at his
+leisure. After the sitting, he of course, inserts his right foot into the
+shape and carries it off with him.
+
+The production of spirit music was one of Home's favorite experiments.
+There are all sorts of ways of producing this music, the most ingenious of
+which I give:
+
+The apparatus consists of a small circular musical box, wound up by clock
+work, and made to play whenever pressure is put upon a stud projecting a
+quarter of an inch from its surface. This box is strapped around the right
+leg of the medium just above his knee, and hidden beneath the trouser leg.
+When not in use it is on the under side of the leg. On the table a musical
+box is placed and covered with a soup tureen, or the top of a chafing
+dish. When the spectators are seated, the medium works the concealed
+musical box around to the upper part of his leg near the knee cap, and by
+pressing the stud against the under surface of the table, starts the music
+playing. In this way the second musical box seems to play and the acoustic
+effect is perfect. Perhaps Home used a similar contrivance; Dr. Monck
+did, and was caught in the act by the chief of the Detective Police.
+
+Home during his séances on the Continent of Europe was accused of all
+sorts of trickery. Some asserted that he had concealed about him a small
+but powerful electric battery for producing certain illusions, mechanical
+contrivances attached to his legs for making spirit raps, and last but not
+least, as the medium states in his "Memoirs:" "they even accused me of
+carrying a small monkey about with me, concealed, trained to perform all
+sorts of ghostly tricks."
+
+People also accused him of obtaining a great deal of his information about
+the spirits of the departed from tombstones like an Old Mortality, and
+bribing family servants. A more probable explanation may be found perhaps
+in telepathy.
+
+There is one more phase of Home's mediumship, the moving of heavy pieces
+of furniture without physical contact, that must be spoken of. In
+mentioning it, Dr. Max Dessoir, author of the "Psychology of
+Conjuring,"[1] says: "We must admit that _a few_ feats, such as those of
+Prof. Crookes with Home, concerning the possibility of setting inanimate
+objects in motion without touching them, _appear_ to lie entirely outside
+the sphere of jugglery." In the year 1871, Prof. William Crookes, (now Sir
+William Crookes) Fellow of the Royal Society, a very eminent scientist,
+subjected Home to some elaborate tests in order to prove or disprove by
+means of scientific apparatus the reality of phenomena connected with
+variations in the weight of bodies, with or without contact. He declared
+the tests to be entirely satisfactory, but ascribed the phenomena not to
+spiritual agency, but to a new force, "in some unknown manner connected
+with the human organization," which for convenience he called the "Psychic
+Force." He said in his "Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism:" "Of
+all the persons endowed with a powerful development of this Psychic Force,
+and who have been termed 'mediums' upon quite another theory of its
+origin, Mr. Daniel Dunglas Home is the most remarkable, and it is mainly
+owing to the many opportunities I have had of carrying on my
+investigations in his presence that I am enabled to affirm so conclusively
+the existence of this force." Prof. Crookes' experiments were conducted,
+as he says, in the full light, and in the presence of witnesses, among
+them being the famous English barrister, Sergeant Cox, and the
+astronomer, Dr. Huggins. Heavy articles became light and light articles
+heavy when the medium came near them. In some cases he lightly touched
+them, in others refrained from contact.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 8. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+The first piece of the apparatus constructed by Crookes to test this
+psychic force consisted of a mahogany board 36 inches long by 9-1/2 inches
+wide and 1 inch thick. A strip of mahogany was screwed on at one end, to
+form a foot, the length being equal to the width of the board. This end of
+the board was placed on a table, while the other end was upheld by a
+spring balance, fastened to a strong tripod stand, as will be seen in
+Fig. 8.
+
+"Mr. Home," writes Prof. Crookes, "placed the tips of his fingers lightly
+on the extreme end of the mahogany board which was resting on the support,
+whilst Dr. A. B. [Dr. Huggins] and myself sat, one on each side of it,
+watching for any effect which might be produced. Almost immediately the
+pointer of the balance was seen to descend. After a few seconds it rose
+again. This movement was repeated several times, as if by successive waves
+of the psychic force. The end of the board was observed to oscillate
+slowly up and down during the experiment.
+
+"Mr. Home now, of his own accord, took a small hand-bell and a little card
+match-box, which happened to be near, and placed one under each hand, to
+satisfy us, as he said, that he was not producing the downward pressure.
+The very slow oscillation of the spring balance became more marked, and
+Dr. A. B., watching the index, said that he saw it descend to 6-1/2 lbs.
+The normal weight of the board as so suspended being 3 lbs., the
+additional downward pull was therefore 3-1/2 lbs. On looking immediately
+afterwards at the automatic register, we saw that the index had at one
+time descended as low as 9 lbs., showing a maximum pull of 6 lbs. upon a
+board whose normal weight was 3 lbs.
+
+"In order to see whether it was possible to produce much effect on the
+spring balance by pressure at the place where Mr. Home's fingers had been,
+I stepped upon the table and stood on one foot at the end of the board.
+Dr. A. B., who was observing the index of the balance, said that the whole
+weight of my body (140 lbs.) so applied only sunk the index 1-1/2 lbs., or
+2 lbs. when I jerked up and down. Mr. Home had been sitting in a low
+easy-chair, and could not, therefore, had he tried his utmost, have
+exerted any material influence on these results. I need scarcely add that
+his feet as well as his hands were closely guarded by all in the room."
+
+The next series of experiments is thus described:
+
+"On trying these experiments for the first time, I thought that actual
+contact between Mr. Home's hands and the suspended body whose weight was
+to be altered was essential to the exhibition of the force; but I found
+afterwards that this was not a necessary condition, and I therefore
+arranged my apparatus in the following manner:--
+
+"The accompanying cuts (Figs. 9, 10 and 11) explain the arrangement. Fig.
+9 is a general view, and Figs. 10 and 11 show the essential parts more in
+detail. The reference letters are the same in each illustration. A B is a
+mahogany board, 36 inches long by 9-1/2 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. It
+is suspended at the end, B, by a spring balance, C, furnished with an
+automatic register, D. The balance is suspended from a very firm tripod
+support, E.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 9. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 10. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+"The following piece of apparatus is not shown in the figures. To the
+moving index, O, of the spring balance, a fine steel point is soldered,
+projecting horizontally outwards. In front of the balance, and firmly
+fastened to it, is a grooved frame, carrying a flat box similar to the
+dark box of a photographic camera. This box is made to travel by
+clock-work horizontally in front of the moving index, and it contains a
+sheet of plate-glass which has been smoked over a flame. The projecting
+steel point impresses a mark on this smoked surface. If the balance is at
+rest, and the clock set going, the result is a perfectly straight
+horizontal line. If the clock is stopped and weights are placed on the
+end, B, of the board, the result is a vertical line, whose length depends
+on the weight applied. If, whilst the clock draws the plate along, the
+weight of the board (or the tension on the balance) varies, the result is
+a curved line, from which the tension in grains at any moment during the
+continuance of the experiments can be calculated.
+
+"The instrument was capable of registering a diminution of the force of
+gravitation as well as an increase; registrations of such a diminution
+were frequently obtained. To avoid complication, however, I will here
+refer only to results in which an increase of gravitation was experienced.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 11. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+"The end, B, of the board being supported by the spring balance, the end,
+A, is supported on a wooden strip, F, screwed across its lower side and
+cut to a knife edge (see Fig. 11). This fulcrum rests on a firm and heavy
+wooden stand, G H. On the board, exactly over the fulcrum, is placed a
+large glass vessel filled with water. I L is a massive iron stand,
+furnished with an arm and a ring, M N, in which rests a hemispherical
+copper vessel perforated with several holes at the bottom.
+
+"The iron stand is 2 inches from the board, A B, and the arm and copper
+vessel, M N, are so adjusted that the latter dips into the water 1-1/2
+inches, being 5-1/2 inches from the bottom of I, and 2 inches from its
+circumference. Shaking or striking the arm, M, or the vessel, N, produces
+no appreciable mechanical effect on the board, A B, capable of affecting
+the balance. Dipping the hand to the fullest extent into the water in N
+does not produce the least appreciable action on the balance.
+
+"As the mechanical transmission of power is by this means entirely cut off
+between the copper vessel and the board, A B, the power of muscular
+control is thereby completely eliminated.
+
+"For convenience I will divide the experiments into groups, 1, 2, 3, etc.,
+and I have selected one special instance in each to describe in detail.
+Nothing, however, is mentioned which has not been repeated more than once,
+and in some cases verified, in Mr. Home's absence, with another person,
+possessing similar powers.
+
+"There was always ample light in the room where the experiments were
+conducted (my own dining-room) to see all that took place.
+
+"_Experiment I._--The apparatus having been properly adjusted before Mr.
+Home entered the room, he was brought in, and asked to place his fingers
+in the water in the copper vessel, N. He stood up and dipped the tips of
+the fingers of his right hand in the water, his other hand and his feet
+being held. When he said he felt a power, force, or influence, proceeding
+from his hand, I set the clock going, and almost immediately the end, B,
+of the board was seen to descend slowly and remain down for about 10
+seconds; it then descended a little further, and afterwards rose to its
+normal height. It then descended again, rose suddenly, gradually sunk for
+17 seconds, and finally rose to its normal height, where it remained till
+the experiment was concluded. The lowest point marked on the glass was
+equivalent to a direct pull of about 5,000 grains. The accompanying
+Figure 12 is a copy of the curve traced on the glass.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE OF SECONDS.
+
+FIG. 12. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE
+OF HOME.]
+
+"_Experiment II._--Contact through water having proved to be as effectual
+as actual mechanical contact, I wished to see if the power or force could
+affect the weight, either through other portions of the apparatus or
+through the air. The glass vessel and iron stand, etc., were therefore
+removed, as an unnecessary complication, and Mr. Home's hands were placed
+on the stand of the apparatus at P (Fig. 9). A gentleman present put his
+hand on Mr. Home's hands, and his foot on both Mr. Home's feet, and I also
+watched him closely all the time. At the proper moment the clock was again
+set going; the board descended and rose in an irregular manner, the result
+being a curved tracing on the glass, of which Fig. 13 is a copy.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.
+
+FIG. 13. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE
+OF HOME.]
+
+"_Experiment III._--Mr. Home was now placed one foot from the board, A B,
+on one side of it. His hands and feet were firmly grasped by a by-stander,
+and another tracing, of which Fig. 14 is a copy, was taken on the moving
+glass plate.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.
+
+FIG. 14. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER HOME'S
+INFLUENCE.]
+
+"_Experiment IV._--(Tried on an occasion when the power was stronger than
+on the previous occasions), Mr. Home was now placed 3 feet from the
+apparatus, his hands and feet being tightly held. The clock was set going
+when he gave the word, and the end, B, of the board soon descended, and
+again rose in an irregular manner, as shown in Fig. 15.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.
+
+FIG. 15. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER HOME'S
+INFLUENCE.]
+
+"The following series of experiments were tried with more delicate
+apparatus, and with another person, a lady, Mr. Home being absent. As the
+lady is non-professional, I do not mention her name. She has, however,
+consented to meet any scientific men whom I may introduce for purposes of
+investigation.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 16. SECOND CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+"A piece of thin parchment, A, (Figs. 16 and 17), is stretched tightly
+across a circular hoop of wood. B C is a light lever turning on D. At the
+end B is a vertical needle point touching the membrane A, and at C is
+another needle point, projecting horizontally and touching a smoked glass
+plate, E F. This glass plate is drawn along in the direction H G by
+clockwork, K. The end, B, of the lever is weighted so that it shall
+quickly follow the movements of the centre of the disc, A. These
+movements are transmitted and recorded on the glass plate, E F, by means
+of the lever and needle point, C. Holes are cut in the side of the hoop to
+allow a free passage of air to the under side of the membrane. The
+apparatus was well tested beforehand by myself and others, to see that no
+shaking or jar on the table or support would interfere with the results:
+the line traced by the point, C, on the smoked glass was perfectly
+straight in spite of all our attempts to influence the lever by shaking
+the stand or stamping on the floor.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 17. SECTION OF APPARATUS IN FIG. 16.]
+
+"_Experiment V._--Without having the object of the instrument explained to
+her, the lady was brought into the room and asked to place her fingers on
+the wooden stand at the points, L M, Fig. 16. I then placed my hands over
+hers to enable me to detect any conscious or unconscious movement on her
+part. Presently percussive noises were heard on the parchment, resembling
+the dropping of grains of sand on its surface. At each percussion a
+fragment of graphite which I had placed on the membrane was seen to be
+projected upwards about 1-50th of an inch, and the end, C, of the lever
+moved slightly up and down. Sometimes the sounds were as rapid as those
+from an induction-coil, whilst at others they were more than a second
+apart. Five or six tracings were taken, and in all cases a movement of the
+end, C, of the lever was seen to have occurred with each vibration of the
+membrane.
+
+"In some cases the lady's hands were not so near the membrane as L M, but
+were at N O, Fig 17.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE OF SECONDS.
+
+FIG. 18. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS (FIG. 15 AND 16)
+OUTSIDE HOME'S INFLUENCE.]
+
+"The accompanying Fig. 18 gives tracings taken from the plates used on
+these occasions.
+
+"_Experiment VI._--Having met with these results in Mr. Home's absence, I
+was anxious to see what action would be produced on the instrument in his
+presence.
+
+"Accordingly I asked him to try, but without explaining the instrument to
+him.
+
+"I grasped Mr. Home's right arm above the wrist and held his hand over the
+membrane, about 10 inches from its surface, in the position shown at P,
+Fig. 17. His other hand was held by a friend. After remaining in this
+position for about half a minute, Mr. Home said he felt some influence
+passing. I then set the clock going, and we all saw the index, C, moving
+up and down. The movements were much slower than in the former case, and
+were almost entirely unaccompanied by the percussive vibrations then
+noticed.
+
+"Figs. 19 and 20 show the curves produced on the glass on two of these
+occasions.
+
+"Figs. 18, 19 and 20 are magnified.
+
+"These experiments _confirm beyond doubt_ the conclusions at which I
+arrived in my former paper, namely, the existence of a force associated,
+in some manner not yet explained, with the human organization, by which
+force increased weight is capable of being imparted to solid bodies
+without physical contact. In the case of Mr. Home, the development of this
+force varies enormously, not only from week to week, but from hour to
+hour; on some occasions the force is inappreciable by my tests for an hour
+or more, and then suddenly reappears in great strength.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 18.
+
+FIG. 19. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17)
+UNDER HOME'S INFLUENCE.]
+
+"It is capable of acting at a distance from Mr. Home (not unfrequently as
+far as two or three feet), but is always strongest close to him.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS ON FIG. 18.
+
+FIG. 20. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17)
+UNDER HOME'S INFLUENCE.]
+
+"Being firmly convinced that there could be no manifestation of one form
+of force without the corresponding expenditure of some other form of
+force, I for a long time searched in vain for evidence of any force or
+power being used up in the production of these results.
+
+"Now, however, having seen more of Mr. Home, I think I perceive what it is
+that this psychic force uses up for its development. In employing the
+terms _vital force_ or _nervous energy_, I am aware that I am employing
+words which convey very different significations to many investigators;
+but after witnessing the painful state of nervous and bodily prostration
+in which some of these experiments have left Mr. Home--after seeing him
+lying in an almost fainting condition on the floor, pale and speechless--I
+could scarcely doubt that the evolution of psychic force is accompanied by
+a corresponding drain on vital force."
+
+Sergeant Cox in speaking of the tests says, "The results appear to me
+conclusively to establish the important fact, that there is a force
+proceeding from the nerve-system capable of imparting motion and weight to
+solid bodies within the sphere of its influence."
+
+One of the medium's defenders has written:
+
+"Home's mysterious power, whatever it may have been, was very uncertain.
+Sometimes he could exercise it, and at others not, and these fluctuations
+were not seldom the source of embarrassment to him. He would often arrive
+at a place in obedience to an engagement, and, as he imagined, ready to
+perform, when he would discover himself absolutely helpless. After a
+séance his exhaustion appeared to be complete.
+
+"There is no more striking proof of the fact that Home really possessed
+occult gifts of some sort--psychic force or whatever else the power may be
+termed--than he gave such amazing exhibitions in the early part of his
+history and was able to do so little toward the end. If it had been
+juggling he would, like other conjurors, have improved on his tricks by
+experience, or at all events, while his memory held out he would not have
+deteriorated."
+
+Dr. Hammond's Experiments.
+
+Dr. William A. Hammond, the eminent neurologist, of Washington, D. C.,
+took up the cudgels against Prof. Crookes' "Psychic Force" theory, and
+assigned the experiments to the domain of animal electricity. He wrote as
+follows:[2] "Place an egg in an egg-cup and balance a long lath upon the
+egg. Though the lath be almost a plank it will obediently follow a rod of
+glass, gutta percha or sealing-wax, which has been previously well dried
+and rubbed, the former with a piece of silk, and the two latter with
+woolen cloth. Now, in dry weather, many persons within my knowledge, have
+only to walk with a shuffling gait over the carpet, and then approaching
+the lath hold out the finger instead of the glass, sealing wax or gutta
+percha, and instantly the end of the lath at L rises to meet it, and the
+end at L is depressed. Applying these principles, I arranged an apparatus
+exactly like that of Prof. Crookes, except that the spring balance was
+such as is used for weighing letters and was therefore very delicate,
+indicating quarter ounces with exactness, and that the board was thin and
+narrow.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 21. DR. HAMMOND'S APPARATUS.]
+
+"Applying the glass rod or stick of sealing-wax to the end resting by its
+foot on the table, the index of the balance at once descended, showing an
+increased weight of a little over three quarters of an ounce, and this
+without the board being raised from the table.
+
+"I then walked over a thick Turkey rug for a few moments, and holding my
+finger under the board near the end attached to the balance, caused a fall
+of the index of almost half an ounce. I then rested my finger lightly on
+the end of the board immediately over the foot, and again the index
+descended and oscillated several times, just as in Mr. Home's experiments.
+The lowest point reached was six and a quarter ounces, and as the board
+weighed, as attached to the balance, five ounces, there was an increased
+weight of one and a quarter ounces. At no time was the end of the board
+raised from the table.
+
+"I then arranged the apparatus so as to place a thin glass tumbler nearly
+full of water immediately over the fulcrum, as in Mr. Crookes' experiment,
+and again the index fell and oscillated on my fingers being put into the
+water.
+
+"Now if one person can thus, with a delicate apparatus like mine, cause
+the index, through electricity, to descend and ascend, it is not
+improbable that others, like Mr. Home, could show greater, or even
+different electrical power, as in Prof. Crookes' experiments. It is well
+known that all persons are not alike in their ability to be electrically
+excited. Many persons, myself among them, can light the gas with the end
+of the finger. Others cannot do it with any amount of shuffling over the
+carpet.
+
+"At any rate is it not much more sensible to believe that Mr. Home's
+experiments are to be thus explained than to attribute the results of his
+semi-mysterious attempts to spiritualism or psychic force?"
+
+
+3. Rope-Tying and Holding Mediums.
+
+THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS.
+
+Ira Erastus and William Henry Davenport were born at Buffalo, N. Y., the
+former on Sept. 17, 1839, and the latter on February 1, 1841. Their
+father, Ira Davenport, was in the police detective department, and, it is
+alleged, invented the celebrated rope-tying feats after having seen the
+Indian jugglers of the West perform similar illusions. The usual stories
+about ghostly phenomena attending the childhood of mediums were told about
+the Davenport Brothers, but it was not until 1855 that they started on
+their tour of the United States, with their father as showman or
+spiritual lecturer. When the Civil War broke out, the Brothers,
+accompanied by Dr. J. B. Ferguson, formerly an Independent minister of
+Nashville, Tenn., in the capacity of lecturer, and a Mr. Palmer as general
+agent and manager, went to England to exhibit their mediumistic powers,
+following the example of D. D. Home. With the company also was a Buffalo
+boy named Fay, of German-American parentage, who had formerly acted as
+ticket-taker for the mediums. He discovered the secret of the rope-tying
+feat, and was an adept at the coat feat, so he was employed as an
+"under-study" in case of the illness of William Davenport, who was in
+rather delicate health. The Brothers Davenport at this period, aged
+respectively 25 and 23 years, had "long black curly hair, broad but not
+high foreheads, dark eyes, heavy eye-brows and moustaches, firm set lips,
+and a bright, keen look." Their first performance in England was given at
+the Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London, and created intense excitement.
+
+_Punch_ called the _furore_ over the spirit rope-tyers the "tie-fuss
+fever," and said the mediums were "Ministers of the Interior, with a seat
+in the Cabinet." J. N. Maskelyne, the London conjurer of Egyptian Hall,
+wrote of them: "About the Davenport Brothers' performances, I have to say
+that they were and still remain the most inexplicable ever presented to
+the public as of spiritual origin; and had they been put forth as feats of
+jugglery would have awakened a considerable amount of curiosity though
+certainly not to the extent they did."
+
+In September, 1865, the Brothers arrived in Paris, and placarded the city
+with enormous posters announcing that the Brothers Davenport,
+spirit-mediums, would give a series of public séances at the _Salle Herz_.
+Their reputation had preceded them to France and the _boulevardiers_
+talked of nothing but the wonderful American mediums and their mysterious
+cabinet. Before exhibiting in Paris the Davenports visited the _Chateau de
+Gennevilliers_, whose owner was an enthusiastic believer in Spiritism, and
+gave a séance before a select party of journalists and scientific men. The
+exhibition was pronounced marvellous in the extreme and perfectly
+inexplicable.
+
+The Parisian press was divided on the subject of the Davenports and their
+advertised séances. Some of the papers protested against such performances
+on the ground that they were dangerous to the mental health of the
+public, and, one writer said, "Particularly to those weaker intellects
+which are always ready enough to accept as gospel the tricks and artifices
+of the adepts of sham witchcraft." M. Edmond About, the famous journalist
+and novelist, in the _Opinion Nationale_, wrote a scathing denunciation of
+Spiritism, but all to no purpose, except to inflame public curiosity.
+
+The performances of the Davenports were divided into two parts: (1) The
+light séance, (2) the dark séance. In the light séance a cabinet, elevated
+from the stage by three trestles, was used. It was a simple wooden
+structure with three doors. In the centre door was a lozenge-shaped window
+covered with a curtain. Upon the sides of the cabinet hung various musical
+instruments, a guitar, a violin, horns, tambourines, and a big dinner
+bell.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 22. THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS IN THEIR CABINET.]
+
+A committee chosen by the audience tied the mediums' hands securely behind
+their backs, fastened their legs together, and pinioned them to their
+seats in the cabinet, and to the cross rails with strong ropes. The side
+doors were closed first, then the center door, but no sooner was the last
+fastened, than the hands of one of the mediums were thrust through the
+window in the centre door. In a very short time, at a signal from the
+mediums, the doors were opened, and the Davenports stepped forth, with the
+ropes in their hands, every knot untied, confessedly by spirit power. The
+astonishment of the spectators amounted to awe. On an average it took ten
+minutes to pinion the Brothers; but a single minute was required for their
+release. Once more the mediums went into the cabinet, this time with the
+ropes lying in a coil at their feet. Two minutes elapsed. Hey, presto! the
+doors were opened, and the Davenports were pronounced by the committee to
+be securely lashed to their seats. Seals were affixed to the knots in the
+ropes, and the doors closed as before. Pandemonium reigned. Bells were
+rung, horns blown, tambourines thumped, violins played, and guitars
+vigorously twanged. Heavy rappings also were heard on the ceiling, sides
+and floor of the cabinet, then after a brief but absolute silence, a bare
+hand and arm emerged from the lozenge window, and rung the big dinner
+bell. On opening the doors the Brothers were found securely tied as
+before, and seals intact. An amusing feature of the exhibition occurred
+when a venturesome spectator volunteered to sit inside of the cabinet
+between the two mediums. He came out with his coat turned inside out and
+his hat jammed over his eyes. In the dark séance the cabinet was dispensed
+with and the spectators, holding hands, formed a ring around the mediums.
+The lights were put out and similar phenomena took place, with the
+addition of luminous hands, and musical instruments floating in the air.
+
+Robert-Houdin wrote an interesting brochure on the Davenports, ("Secrets
+of Stage Conjuring," translated by Prof. Hoffmann) from which I take the
+following: "The ropes used by the Davenport Brothers are of a cotton
+fibre; and they present therefore smooth surfaces, adapted to slip easily
+one upon another. Gentlemen are summoned from the audience to tie the
+mediums. Now, tell me, is it an easy task for an amateur to tie a man up
+off-hand with a rope three yards long, in a very secure way? The amateur
+is flurried, self-conscious, anxious to acquit himself well of the
+business, but he is a gentleman, not a brute, and if one of the Brothers
+sees the ropes getting into a dangerous tangle, he gives a slight groan,
+as if he were being injured, and the instantaneous impulse of the other
+man is to loosen the cord a trifle. A fraction of an inch is an invaluable
+gain in the after-business of loosening the ropes. Sometimes the
+stiffening of a muscle, the raising of a shoulder, the crooking of a knee,
+gives all the play required by the Brothers in ridding themselves of their
+bonds. Their muscles and joints are wonderfully supple, too; the thumbs
+can be laid flat in the palm of the hand, the hand itself rounded until it
+is no broader than the wrist, and then it is easy to pull through. Violent
+wrenches send the ropes up toward the shoulder, vigorous shakings get the
+legs free; the first hand untied is thrust through the hole in the door of
+the cabinet, and then returns to give aid to more serious knots on his own
+or his brother's person. In tying themselves up the Davenports used the
+slip-knot, a sort of bow, the ends of which have only to be pulled to be
+tightened or loosened."
+
+This slip-knot is a very ingenious affair. (See Fig. 23.) In performing
+the spirit-tying, the mediums went into the cabinet with the ropes
+examined by the audience lying coiled at their feet. The doors were
+closed. They had concealed about their persons ropes in which these trick
+knots were already adjusted, and with which they very speedily secured
+themselves, having first secreted the genuine ropes. Then the doors were
+opened. Seals were affixed to the knots, but this sealing, owing to the
+position of the hands, and the careful exposition of the knots did not
+affect the slipping of the ropes sufficiently to prevent the mediums from
+removing and replacing their hands.
+
+[Illustration: NO. 23. TRICK-TIE IN CABINET WORK.]
+
+In the dark séance, flour was sometimes placed in the pinioned hands of
+the Davenports. On being released from their bonds, the flour was found
+undisturbed.
+
+This was considered a convincing test; for how could the Brothers possibly
+manipulate the musical instruments with their hands full of flour. One day
+a wag substituted a handful of snuff for flour, and when the mediums were
+examined, the snuff had disappeared and flour taken its place. As will be
+understood, in the above test the Davenports emptied the flour from their
+hands into secret pockets and at the proper moment took out cornucopias of
+flour and filled their hands again before securing themselves in the
+famous slip-knots.
+
+Among the exposés of the Brothers Davenport, Herrmann, the conjurer, gives
+the following in the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_: "The Davenports, for
+thirteen years, in Europe and America, augmented the faith in
+Spiritualism. Unfortunately for the Davenports they appeared at Ithaca,
+New York, where is situated Cornell University. The students having a
+scientific trend of mind, provided themselves before attending the
+performance with pyrotechnic balls containing phosphorus, so made as to
+ignite suddenly with a bright light. During the dark séance when the
+Davenports were supposed to be bound hand and foot within the closet and
+when the guitars were apparently floating in the air, the students struck
+their lights, whereupon the spirits were found to be no other than the
+Davenports themselves, dodging about the stage brandishing guitars and
+playing tunes and waving at the same time tall poles surmounted by
+phosphorescent spook pictures."
+
+The Davenports had some stormy experiences in Paris, but managed to come
+through all successfully, with plenty of French gold in their pockets.
+William died in October, 1877, at the Oxford Hotel, Sydney, Australia,
+having publicly denounced Spiritualism. Mr. Fay took to raising sheep in
+Australia, while Ira Davenport drifted back to his old home in Buffalo,
+New York.
+
+Many mediums, taking the cue from the Davenports, have performed the
+cabinet act with its accompanying rope-tying, but the conjurers
+(anti-spiritists) have, with the aid of mechanism, brought the business to
+a high degree of perfection, notably Mr. J. Nevil Maskelyne, of Egyptian
+Hall, London, and Mr. Harry Kellar, of the United States. Writing of the
+Davenport Brothers, Maskelyne says:
+
+"The instantaneous tying and untying was simply marvellous, and it utterly
+baffled everyone to discover, until, on one occasion, the accidental
+falling of a piece of drapery from a window (the lozenge-shaped aperture
+in the door of the cabinet), at a critical moment let me into the secret.
+I was able in a few months to reproduce every item of the Davenports'
+cabinet and dark séance. So close was the resemblance to the original,
+that _the Spiritualist had no alternative but to claim us_ (Maskelyne and
+Cooke) _as most powerful spirit mediums who found it more profitable to
+deny the assistance of spirits_."
+
+Robert-Houdin's explanation of the slip-knot, used by the Davenports in
+their dark séance, is the correct one, but he failed to fathom the mystery
+of the mode of release of the Brothers after they were tied in the cabinet
+by a committee selected from the audience. Anyone trying to extricate
+himself from bondage _a la_ Houdin, no matter how slippery and serpentine
+he be, would find it exceedingly difficult. It seems almost incredible,
+but trickery was used in the light séance, as well as the dark. Maskelyne,
+as quoted above, claimed to have penetrated the mystery, but he kept it a
+profound secret--though he declared that his cabinet work was trickery.
+The writer is indebted for an initiation into the mysteries of the
+Davenport Brothers' rope-tying to Mr. H. Morgan Robinson (Professor
+Helmann), of Washington, D. C., a very clever prestidigitateur.
+
+In the year 1895, after an unbroken silence of nineteen years, Fay,
+ex-assistant of the Davenports, determined to resume the profession of
+public medium. He abandoned his sheep ranch and hunted up Ira Davenport.
+They gave several performances in Northern towns, and finally landed at
+the Capital of the Nation, in the spring of 1895, and advertised several
+séances at Willard's Hall. A very small audience greeted them on their
+first appearance. Among the committee volunteering to go on the stage and
+tie the mediums were the writer and Mr. Robinson. After the séance the
+prestidigitateur fully explained the _modus operandi_ of the mystic tie,
+which is herein for the first time correctly given to the public.
+
+The medium holds out his left wrist first and has it tied securely, about
+the middle of the rope. Two members of the committee are directed to pull
+the ends of the cord vigorously. "Are you confident that the knots are
+securely tied?" he asks; when the committee respond "yes," he puts his
+hand quickly behind him, and places against the wrist, the wrist of his
+right hand, in order that they may be pinioned together. During this rapid
+movement he twists the rope about the knot on his left wrist, thereby
+allowing enough slack cord to disengage his right hand when necessary. To
+slip the right hand back into place is an easy matter. After both hands
+are presumably tied, the medium steps into the cabinet; the ends of the
+rope are pushed through two holes in the chair or wooden seat, by the
+committee and made fast to the medium's legs. Bells ring, horns blow, and
+the performer's hand is thrust through the window of the cabinet. Finally
+a gentleman is requested to enter the cabinet with the medium. The doors
+are locked and a perfect pandemonium begins; when they are opened the
+volunteer assistant tumbles out in great trepidation. His hat is smashed
+over his eyes, his cravat is tied around his leg, and he is found to have
+on the medium's coat, while the medium wears the gentleman's coat turned
+inside out. It all appears very remarkable, but the mystery is cleared up
+when I state that the innocent looking gentleman is invariably a
+confederate, what conjurers call a _plant_, because he is planted in the
+audience to volunteer for the special act.
+
+Ira and William Davenport were tied in the manner above described. Often
+one of the Brothers allowed himself to be genuinely pinioned, after having
+received a preconcerted signal from his partner that all was right, _i.
+e._, the partner had been fastened by the trick tie, calling attention to
+the knots in the cord, etc. The trick tie, however, is so delusive, that
+it is impossible to penetrate the secret in the short time allowed the
+committee for investigation, and there is no special reason for permitting
+a genuine tie-up. Once in a great while, the Davenports were over-reached
+by clever committee-men and tied up so tightly that there was no getting
+loose. Where one brother failed to execute the trick and was genuinely
+fastened, the other medium performed the spirit evolutions, and cut his
+"confrere" loose before they came out of the cabinet.
+
+The Fay-Davenport revival proved a failure, and the mediums dissolved
+partnership in Washington. Kellar, the magician and former assistant of
+the original Davenport combination, by a curious coincidence was giving
+his fine conjuring exhibition in the city at the same time. His tricks far
+eclipsed the feeble revival of the rope-tying phenomena. The fickle public
+crowded to see the magician and neglected the mediums.
+
+ANNIE EVA FAY.
+
+One of the most famous of the materializing mediums now exhibiting in the
+United States is Annie Eva Fay. She is quite an adept at the spirit-tying
+business, and like the Davenports, uses a cabinet on the stage, but her
+method of tying, though clever, is inferior to that used by the Brothers
+in their balmy days. In the center of the Fay cabinet (a plain, curtained
+affair) is a post firmly screwed to the stage. The medium permits a
+committee of two from the audience to tie her to this post, and seal the
+bandages about her wrists with court plaster. She then takes her seat upon
+a small stool in front of the stanchion; the musical instruments are
+placed on her lap, and the curtains of the cabinet closed. Immediately the
+evidences of _spirit power_ begin: the bell is jingled, the tambourine
+thumped, and the sound of a horn heard, simultaneously.
+
+The Fay method of tying is designed especially to facilitate the medium's
+actions. Cotton bandages are used, and the committee are invited to sew
+the knots through and through. Each wrist is tied with a bandage, about an
+inch and a half wide by a half yard in length; and the medium then clasps
+her hands behind her, so that her wrists are about six inches apart. The
+committee now proceed to tie the ends of the bandages firmly together,
+and, after this is accomplished, the dangling pieces of the bandages are
+clipped off. It is true, the medium is firmly bound by this process, and
+it would be physically impossible for her to release herself, without
+disturbing the sewing and the seals, but it is not intended for her to
+release herself at all; the method pursued being altogether different from
+the old species of rope-tying. All being secure, the committee are
+requested to pass another bandage about the short ligature between the
+lady's wrists, and tie it in double square knots, and firmly secure this
+to a ring in the post of the cabinet, the medium being seated on a stool
+in front of the stanchion, facing the audience. Her neck is likewise
+secured to the post by cotton bandages and her feet fastened together with
+a cord, the end of which passes out of the cabinet and is held by one of
+the committee.
+
+The peculiar manner of holding the hands, described above, enables the
+medium to secure for her use, a ligature of knotted cloth between her
+hands, some six inches long; and the central bandage, usually tied in four
+or five double knots, gives her about two inches play between the middle
+of the cotton handcuffs and the ring in the post, to which it is secured.
+The ring is two and a half inches in diameter, and the staple which holds
+it to the stanchion is a half inch. The left hand of the medium gives six
+additional inches, and the bandage on her wrist slips readily along her
+slender arm nearly half way to the elbow--"all of which," says John W.
+Truesdell,[3] who was the first to expose Miss Fay's spirit pretensions,
+"gives the spirits a clear leeway of not less than 20 inches from the
+stanchion. The moment the curtain is closed, the medium, under spirit
+influence spreads her hands as far apart as possible, an act which
+stretches the knotted ligature so that the bandage about it will easily
+slip from the centre to either wrist; then, throwing her lithe form by a
+quick movement, to the left, so that her hips will pass the stanchion
+without moving her feet from the floor, the spirits are able, through the
+medium, to reach whatever may have been placed upon her lap."
+
+One of Annie Eva's most convincing tests is the accordion which plays,
+after it has been bound fast with tapes and the tapes carefully sealed at
+every note, so as to prevent its being performed on in the regular manner.
+Her method of operating, though simple, is decidedly ingenious. She
+places a small tube in the valve-hole of the instrument, breathes and
+blows alternately into it, and then by fingering the keys, executes an air
+with excellent effect.
+
+Sometimes she places a musical box on an oblong plate of glass suspended
+from the ceiling by four cords. The box plays and stops at word of
+command, much to the astonishment of listeners. "Electricity," exclaims
+the reader! Hardly so, for the box is completely insulated on the sheet of
+glass. Then how is it done? Mr. Asprey Vere, an investigator of spirit
+phenomena, tells the secret in the following words: ("Modern Magic"). "In
+the box there is placed a balance lever which when the glass is in the
+slightest degree tilted, arrests the fly-fan, and thus prevents the
+machinery from moving. At the word of command the glass is made level, and
+the fly-fan being released, the machinery moves, and a tune is played.
+When commanded to stop, either side of the cord is pulled by a confederate
+behind the scenes, the balance lever drops, the fly-fan is arrested, and
+the music stops."
+
+One of the tests presented to the American public by this medium is the
+"spirit-hand," constructed of painted wood or _papier mache_, which raps
+out answers to questions, after it has been isolated from all contact by
+being placed on a sheet of glass supported on the backs of two chairs.
+
+It is a trick performed by every conjurer, and the secret is a piece of
+black silk thread, worked by confederates stationed in the wings of the
+theatre, one at the right, the other at the left. The thread lies along
+the stage when not in use, but at the proper cue from the medium, it is
+lifted up and brought in contact with the wooden hand. The hand is so
+constructed that the palm lies on the glass sheet and the wrist, with a
+fancy lace cuff about it, is elevated an inch above the glass, the whole
+apparatus being so pivoted that a pressure of the thread from above will
+depress the wrist and elevate the palm. When the thread is relaxed the
+hand comes down on the glass with a thump and makes the spirit rap which
+is so effective. A rapping skull made on similar principles is also in
+vogue among mediums.
+
+CHARLES SLADE.
+
+Annie Eva Fay has a rival in Charles Slade, who is a clever performer and
+a most convincing talker. His cabinet test is the same as Miss Fay's, but
+he has other specialties that are worth explaining--one is the
+"table-raising," and another is the "spirit neck-tie." The effect of the
+first experiment is as follows: Slade, with his arms bared and coat
+removed, requests several gentlemen to sit around a long table, reserving
+the head for himself. Hands are placed on the table, and developments
+awaited. "Do you feel the table raising?" asks the medium, after a short
+pause. "We do!" comes the response of the sitters. Slade then rises; all
+stand up, and the table is seen suspended in the air, about a foot from
+the floor of the stage. In a little while an uncontrollable desire seems
+to take possession of the table to rush about the stage. Frequently the
+medium requests several persons to get on the table, but that has no
+effect whatever. The same levitation takes place. The secret of this
+surprising mediumistic test is very simple. In the first place, the man
+who sits at the foot of the table is a confederate. Both medium and
+confederate wear about their waists wide leather belts, ribbed and
+strengthened with steel bands, and supported from the shoulders by bands
+of leather and steel. In the front of each belt is a steel hinge concealed
+by the vest of the wearer. In the act of sitting down at the table the
+medium and his confederate quickly pull the hinges which catch under the
+top of the table when the sitters rise. The rest of the trick is easily
+comprehended. When the levitation act is finished the hinges are folded up
+and hidden under the vests of the performers.
+
+The "spirit neck-tie" is one of the best things in the whole range of
+mediumistic marvels, and has never to my knowledge been exposed. A rope is
+tied about the medium's neck with the knots at the back and the ends are
+thrust through two holes in one side of the cabinet, and tied in a bow
+knot on the outside. The holes in the cabinet must be on a level with the
+medium's neck, after he is seated. The curtains of the cabinet are then
+closed, and the committee requested to keep close watch on the bow-knot on
+the outside of the cabinet. The assistant in a short time pulls back the
+curtain from the cabinet on the side farthest from the medium, and reveals
+a sheeted figure which writes messages and speaks to the spectators. Other
+materializations take place. The curtain is drawn. At this juncture the
+medium is heard calling: "Quick, quick, release me!" The assistant
+unfastens the bow-knot, the ends of the rope are quickly drawn into the
+cabinet, and the medium comes forward, looking somewhat exhausted, with
+the rope still tied about his neck. The question resolves itself into two
+factors--either the medium gets loose the neck-tie and impersonates the
+spirits or the materializations are genuine. "Gets loose! But that is
+impossible," exclaim the committee, "we watched the cord in the closest
+way." The secret of this surprising feat lies in a clever substitution.
+The tie is genuine, but the medium, after the curtains of the cabinet are
+closed, cuts the cord with a sharp knife, just about the region of the
+throat, and impersonates the ghosts, with the aid of various wigs and
+disguises concealed about him. Then he takes a second cord from his
+pocket, ties it about his neck with the same number of knots as are in the
+original rope and twists the neck-tie around so that these knots will
+appear at the back of his neck. Now, he exclaims, "Quick, quick, unfasten
+the cord." As soon as his assistant has untied the simple bow knot on the
+outside of the cabinet, the medium quickly pulls the genuine rope into the
+cabinet and conceals it in his pocket.
+
+When he presents himself to the spectators the rope about his neck
+(presumed to be the original) is found to be correctly tied and untampered
+with. Much of the effect depends on the rapidity with which the medium
+conceals the original cord and comes out of the cabinet. The author has
+seen this trick performed in parlors, the holes being bored in a door.
+
+Charles Slade makes a great parade in his advertisements about exposing
+the vulgar tricks of bogus mediums, but he says nothing about the secrets
+of his own pet illusions. His exposés are made for the purpose of
+enhancing his own mediumistic marvels.
+
+I insert a verbatim copy of the handbills with which he deluges the
+highways and byways of American cities and towns.
+
+    SLADE
+
+    Will fully demonstrate the various methods employed by such renowned
+    spiritualistic mediums as Alex. Hume, Mrs. Hoffmann, Prof. Taylor,
+    Chas. Cooke, Richard Bishop, Dr. Arnold, and various others,
+
+    IN PLAIN, OPEN LIGHT.
+
+    Every possible means will be used to enlighten the auditor as to
+    whether these so-called wonders are enacted through the aid of spirits
+    or are the result of natural agencies.
+
+    _SUCH PHENOMENA AS_
+
+        Spirit Materializations,
+          Marvelous Superhuman Visions,
+            Spiritualistic Rappings,
+              Slate Writing,
+                Spirit Pictures,
+                  Floating Tables and Chairs,
+                    Remarkable Test of the Human Mind,
+                      Second Sight Mysteries,
+        A Human Being Isolated from Surrounding Objects
+                    Floating in Mid-Air.
+
+    Committees will be selected by the audience to assist SLADE, and to
+    report their views as to the why and wherefore of the many strange
+    things that will be shown during the evening. This is done so that
+    every person attending may learn the truth regarding the tests,
+    whether they are genuine, or caused by expert trickery.
+
+    Do not class or confound SLADE with the numerous so-called spirit
+    mediums and spiritual exposers that travel through the country, like a
+    set of roaming vampires, seeking whom they may devour. It is SLADE'S
+    object in coming to your city to enlighten the people one way or the
+    other as to the real
+
+    TRUTH CONCERNING THESE MYSTERIES.
+
+    Scientific men, and many great men, have believed there was a grain of
+    essential truth in the claims of Spiritualism. It was believed more on
+    the account of the want of power to deny it than anything else. The
+    idea that under some strained and indefinable possibilities the spirit
+    of the mortal man may communicate with the spirit of the departed man
+    is something that the great heart of humanity is prone to believe, as
+    it has faith in future existence. No skeptic will deny any man's right
+    to such a belief, but this little grain of hope has been the
+    foundation for such extensive and heartless mediumistic frauds that it
+    is constantly losing ground.
+
+                   A NIGHT OF
+            Wonderful Manifestations
+                 THE VEIL DRAWN
+        So that all may have an insight into the
+                 _SPIRIT WORLD_
+           And behold many things that are
+               Strange and Startling.
+
+    The Clergy, the Press, Learned Synods and Councils, Sage Philosophers
+    and Scientists, in fact, the whole world have proclaimed these
+    Philosophical Idealisms to be an astounding
+
+    FACT.
+
+               YOU ARE BROUGHT
+        Face to Face with the Spirits.
+
+    _A SMALL ADMISSION WILL BE CHARGED TO DEFRAY EXPENSES._
+
+PIERRE L. O. A. KEELER.
+
+Pierre Keeler's fame as a producer of spirit phenomena rests largely upon
+his materializing séances. It was his materializations that received the
+particular attention of the Seybert Commission. The late Mr. Henry
+Seybert, who was an ardent believer in modern Spiritualism, presented to
+the University of Pennsylvania a sum of money to found a chair of
+philosophy, with the proviso that the University should appoint a
+commission to investigate "all systems of morals, religion or philosophy
+which assume to represent the truth, and particularly of modern
+Spiritualism." The following gentlemen were accordingly appointed, and
+began their investigations: Dr. William Pepper, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Dr.
+George A. Koenig, Prof. R. E. Thompson, Prof. George S. Fullerton, and Dr.
+Horace H. Furness. Subsequently others were added to the commission--Dr.
+Coleman Sellers, Dr. James W. White, Dr. Calvin B. Kneer, and Dr. S. Weir
+Mitchell. Dr. Pepper, Provost of the University, was _ex-officio_
+chairman; Dr. Furness, acting chairman, and Prof. Fullerton, secretary.
+
+Keeler's materializations are thus described in the report of the
+commission:
+
+"On May 27 the Seybert commission held a meeting at the house of Mr.
+Furness at 8 p. m., to examine the phenomena occurring in the presence of
+Mr. Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a professional medium.
+
+"The medium, Mr. Keeler, is a young man, with well cut features, curly
+brown hair, a small sandy mustache, and rather worn and anxious
+expression; he is strongly built, about 5 feet 8 inches high, and with
+rather short, quite broad, and very muscular hands and strong wrists. The
+hands were examined by Dr. Pepper and Mr. Fullerton after the séance.
+
+"The séance was held in Mr. Furness' drawing-room, and a space was
+curtained off by the medium in the northeast corner, thus, (Fig. 25):
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 25. PIERRE KEELER'S CABINET SEANCE.]
+
+"The curtain is represented by A, B; C, D and E are three chairs, placed
+in front of the curtain by the medium, in one of which (E) he afterwards
+sat; G denotes the position of Mrs. Keeler; F is a small table, placed
+within the curtain, and upon which was a tambourine, a guitar, two bells,
+a hammer, a metallic ring; the stars show the positions of the spectators,
+who sat in a double row--the two stars at the top facing the letter A
+indicate the positions taken by Mrs. Kase and Col. Kase, friends of Mr.
+Keeler, according to the directions of the medium.
+
+"The curtain, or rather curtains, were of black muslin, and arranged as
+follows: There was a plain black curtain, which was stretched across the
+corner, falling to the floor. Its height, when in position, was 53 inches;
+it was made thus:
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 26. PIERRE KEELER'S CABINET CURTAIN.]
+
+"The cord which held the curtain was 1, 2, and the flaps which are
+represented as standing above it (A, B, C, etc.), fell down over A1, B1,
+C1, etc., and could be made to cover the shoulders of one sitting with his
+back against the curtain. A black curtain was also pinned against the
+wall, in the space curtained off, partly covering it. Another curtain was
+added to the one pictured, as will be described presently.
+
+"The medium asked Col. Kase to say a few words as to the necessity of
+observing the conditions, need of harmony, etc. And then the medium
+himself spoke a few words of similar import. He then drew the curtain
+along the cord (1, 2,) and fastened it; placed three wooden chairs in
+front of the curtain, as indicated in the diagram, and, saying he needed
+to form a battery, asked Miss Agnes Irwin to sit in chair D, and Mr. Yost
+in chair C, the medium himself sitting in chair E. A black curtain was
+then fastened by Mrs. Keeler over Mr. Keeler, Miss Irwin and Mr. Yost,
+being fastened at G, between E and D, between D and C, and beyond A; thus
+entirely covering the three sitting in front of the stretched curtain up
+to their necks; and when the flaps before mentioned were pulled down over
+their shoulders, nothing could be seen but the head of each.
+
+"Before the last curtain was fastened over them, the medium placed both
+his hands upon the forearm and wrist of Miss Irwin, the sleeve being
+pulled up for the purpose, and Miss Irwin grasped with her right hand the
+left wrist of Mr. Yost, his right hand being in sight to the right of the
+curtain.
+
+"After some piano music the medium said he felt no power from this
+'battery,' and asked Mrs. E. D. Gillespie to take Miss Irwin's place.
+Hands and curtains were arranged as before. The lights were turned down
+until the room was quite dim. During the singing the medium turned to
+speak to Mr. Yost, and his body, which had before faced rather away from
+the two other persons of the 'battery' (which position would have brought
+his right arm out in front of the stretched curtain), was now turned the
+other way, so that had he released his grasp upon Mrs. Gillespie's arm,
+his own right arm could have had free play in the curtained space behind
+him. His left knee also no longer stood out under the curtain in front,
+but showed a change of position.
+
+"At this time Mrs. Gillespie declared she felt a touch, and soon after so
+did Mr. Yost. The medium's body was distinctly inclined toward Mr. Yost at
+this time. Mrs. Gillespie said she felt taps, but declared that, to the
+best of her knowledge, she still felt the medium's two hands upon her arm.
+
+"Raps indicated that the spirit, George Christy, was present. As one of
+those present played on the piano, the tambourine was played in the
+curtained space and thrown over the curtain; bells were rung; the guitar
+was thrummed a little. At this time the medium's face was toward Mrs.
+Gillespie, and his right side toward the curtain. His body was further in
+against the curtain than either of the others. Upon being asked, Mrs.
+Gillespie then said she thought she still felt two hands upon her arm.
+
+"The guitar was then thrust out, at least the end of it was, at the bottom
+of the curtain, between Mrs. Gillespie and the medium. Mrs. Keeler drawing
+the curtain from over the toes of the medium's boots, to show where his
+feet were; the guitar was thrummed a little. Had the medium's right arm
+been free the thrumming could have been done quite easily with one hand.
+Afterward the guitar was elevated above the curtain; the tambourine, which
+was by Mrs. Keeler placed upon a stick held up within the inclosure, was
+made to whirl by the motion of the stick. The phenomena occurred
+successively, not simultaneously.
+
+"When the guitar was held up, and when the tambourine was made to whirl,
+both of these were to the right of the medium, chiefly behind Mrs.
+Gillespie; they were just where they might have been produced by the right
+arm of the medium, had it been free. Two clothes-pins were then passed
+over the curtain, and they were used in drumming to piano music. They
+could easily be used in drumming by one hand alone, the fingers being
+thrust into them. The pins were afterward thrown out over the curtain. Mr.
+Sellers picked one up as soon as it fell, and found it warm in the split,
+as though it had been worn. The drumming was probably upon the tambourine.
+
+"A hand was seen moving rapidly with a trembling motion--which prevented
+it from being clearly observed--above the back curtain, between Mr. Yost
+and Mrs. Gillespie. Paper was passed over the curtain into the cabinet and
+notes were soon thrown out. The notes could have been written upon the
+small table within the enclosure by the right hand of the medium, had it
+been free. Mrs. Keeler then passed a coat over the curtain, and an arm
+was passed through the sleeve, the fingers, with the cuff around them
+being shown over the curtain. They were kept moving, and a close scrutiny
+was not possible.
+
+"Mr. Furness was then invited to hold a writing tablet in front of the
+curtain, when the hand, almost concealed by the coat-sleeve and the flaps
+mentioned as attached to the curtain, wrote with a pencil on the tablet.
+The writing was rapid, and the hand, when not writing, was kept in
+constant, tremulous motion. The hand was put forth, in this case not over
+the top curtain, but came from under the flap, and could easily have been
+the medium's right hand were it disengaged, for it was about on a level
+with his shoulder and to his right, between him and Mrs. Gillespie. Mr.
+Furness was allowed to pass his hand close to the curtain and grasp the
+hand for a moment. It was a right hand.
+
+"Soon after the medium complained of fatigue, and the sitting was
+discontinued. It was declared by the Spiritualists present to be a fairly
+successful séance. When the curtains were removed the small table in the
+enclosure was found to be overturned, and the bells, hammer, etc., on the
+floor.
+
+"It is interesting to note the space within which all the manifestations
+occurred. They were, without exception, where they would have been had
+they been produced by the medium's right arm. Nothing happened to the left
+of the medium, nor very far over to the right. The sphere of activity was
+between the medium and Mr. Yost, and most of the phenomena occurred, as,
+for example, the whirling of the tambourine, behind Mrs. Gillespie.
+
+"The front curtain--that is, the main curtain which hung across the
+corner--was 85 inches in length, and the cord which supported it 53 inches
+from the floor. The three chairs which were placed in front of it were
+side by side, and it would not have been difficult for the medium to reach
+across and touch Mr. Yost. When Mrs. Keeler passed objects over the
+curtain, she invariably passed them to the right of the medium, although
+her position was on his left; and the clothes-pins, paper, pencil, etc.,
+were all passed over at a point where the medium's right hand could easily
+have reached them.
+
+"To have produced the phenomena by using his right hand the medium would
+have had to pass it under the curtain at his back. This curtain was not
+quite hidden by the front one at the end, near the medium, and this end
+both Mr. Sellers and Dr. Pepper saw rise at the beginning of the séance.
+The only thing worthy of consideration, as opposed to a natural
+explanation of the phenomena, was the grasp of the medium's hand on Mrs.
+Gillespie's arm.
+
+"The grasp was evidently a tight one above the wrist, for the arm was
+bruised for about four inches. There was no evidence of a similar pressure
+above that, as the marks on the arm extended in all about five or six
+inches only. The pressure was sufficient to destroy the sensibility of the
+forearm, and it is doubtful whether Mrs. Gillespie, with her arm in such a
+condition could distinguish between the grasp of one hand, with a divided
+pressure (applied by the two last fingers and the thumb and index) and a
+double grip by two hands. Three of our number, Mr. Sellers, Mr. Furness,
+and Dr. White, can, with one hand, perfectly simulate the double grip.
+
+"It is specially worthy of note that Mrs. Gillespie declared that, when
+the medium first laid hold of her arms with his right hand before the
+curtain was put over them, it was with an undergrip, and she felt his
+right arm under her left. But when the medium asked her if she felt both
+his hands upon her arm, and she said, yes, she could feel the grasp, but
+no arm under hers, though she moved her elbow around to find it--she felt
+a hand, but not an arm, and at no time during the séance did she find that
+arm.
+
+"It should be noted that both the medium and Mr. Yost took off their coats
+before being covered with the curtain. It was suggested by Dr. Pepper that
+this might have been required by the medium as a precaution against
+movements on the part of Mr. Yost. The white shirt-sleeves would have
+shown against the black background."
+
+I attended a number of Keeler's materializing exhibitions in Washington,
+D. C., in the spring of 1895, and it is my opinion that the writing of his
+so-called spirit messages is a simple affair, the very long and elaborate
+ones being written before the séance begins and the short ones by the
+medium during the sitting. The latter are done in a scrawling, uncertain
+hand, just such penmanship one would execute when blindfolded.
+
+The evidence of Dr. G. H. La Fetra, of Washington, D. C., is sufficiently
+convincing on this point. Said Dr. La Fetra to me: "Some years ago I went
+with a friend, Col. Edward Hayes, to one of Mr. Keeler's light séances.
+It was rather early in the evening, and but few persons had assembled.
+Upon the mantel piece of the séance-room were several tablets of paper.
+Unobserved, I took up these tablets, one at a time, and drew the blade of
+my pen-knife across one end of each of them, so that I might identify the
+slips of paper torn therefrom by the nicks in them. In a little while, the
+room was filled with people, and the séance began; the gas being lowered
+to a dim religious light. When the time came for the writing, Mr. Keeler
+requested that some of the tablets of paper on the mantel be passed into
+the cabinet. This was done. Various persons present received 'spirit'
+communications, the slips of paper being thrown over the curtain of the
+cabinet by a 'materialized' hand. Some gentleman picked up the papers and
+read them, for the benefit of the spectators; afterwards he laid aside
+those not claimed by anybody. Some of these 'spirit' communications
+covered almost an entire slip. These were carefully written, some of them
+in a fine hand. The short messages were roughly scrawled. After the
+séance, Col. Hayes and myself quietly pocketed a dozen or more of the
+slips. The next morning at my office we carefully examined them. In every
+instance, we found that the well-written, lengthy messages were inscribed
+on _unnicked_ slips, the short ones being written on _nicked_ slips."
+
+To me, this evidence of Dr. La Fetra seems most conclusive, proving beyond
+the shadow of a doubt that Keeler prepared his long communications before
+the séance and had them concealed upon his person, throwing them out of
+the cabinet at the proper moment. He used the _nicked_ tablets for his
+short messages, written on the spot, thereby completely revealing his
+method of operating to the ingenious investigator.
+
+The late Dr. Leonard Caughey, of Baltimore, Maryland, an intimate friend
+of the writer, made a specialty of anti-Spiritualistic tricks, and among
+others performed this cabinet test of Keeler's. He bought the secret from
+a broken-down medium for a few dollars, and added to it certain effects of
+his own, that far surpassed any of Keeler's. The writer has seen Dr.
+Caughey give the tests, and create the utmost astonishment. His
+improvement on the trick consisted in the use of a spring clasp like those
+used by gentlemen bicycle riders to keep their trousers in at the ankles.
+One end terminated in a soft rubber or chamois skin tip, shaped like a
+thumb, the other end had four representations of fingers. Two wire rings
+were soldered on the back of the clasp. This apparatus he had concealed
+under his vest. Before the curtain of the cabinet was drawn, Dr. Caughey
+grasped the arm of the lady on his right in the following manner: The
+thumb of his left hand under her wrist, the fingers extended above it; the
+thumb of his right hand resting on the thumb of the left, the fingers
+lightly resting on the fingers of the left hand. As soon as the curtain
+was fastened he extended the fourth and index fingers of the left hand to
+the fullest extent and pressed hard upon the lady's arm, relaxing at the
+same time the pressure of his second and third fingers. This movement
+exactly simulates the grasp of two hands, and enables the medium to take
+away his right hand altogether. Dr. Caughey then took his spring clasp,
+opened it by inserting his thumb and first finger in the soldered rings
+above mentioned, and lightly fastened it on the lady's arm near the wrist,
+relaxing the pressure of the first and fourth fingers of the left hand at
+the same moment. "I will slide my right hand along your arm, and grasp you
+near the elbow. It will relieve the pressure about your wrist; besides be
+more convincing to you that there is no trickery." So saying, he quickly
+slid the apparatus along her arm, and left it in the position spoken of.
+This produces a perfect illusion, the clasp with its trick thumb and
+fingers working to perfection.
+
+This apparatus may also be used in the following manner: Roll up your
+sleeves and exhibit your hands to the sitter. Tell him you are going to
+stand behind him and grasp his arms firmly near the shoulders. Take your
+position immediately under the gas jet. Ask him to please lower the light.
+Produce the trick clasps, distend them by means of your thumbs and
+fingers, and after the gas is lowered, grasp the sitter in the manner
+described. Remove your fingers and thumbs lightly from the clasps and
+perform various mediumistic evolutions, such as writing a message on a pad
+or slate placed on the sitter's head; strike him gently on his cheek with
+a damp glove, etc. When the séance is over, insert your fingers and thumbs
+in the soldered rings, remove the clasps and conceal them quickly.
+
+EUSAPIA PALADINO.
+
+The materializing medium who has caused the greatest sensation since
+Home's death is Eusapia Paladino, an Italian peasant woman. Signor
+Damiani, of Florence, Italy, discovered her alleged psychical powers in
+1875, and brought her into notice. An Italian Count was so impressed with
+the manifestations witnessed in the presence of the illiterate peasant
+woman, that he insisted upon "a commission of scientific men being called
+to investigate them." In the year 1884, this commission held séances with
+Eusapia, and afterwards declared that the phenomena witnessed were
+inexplicable, and unquestionably the result of forces transcending
+ordinary experience. In the year 1892 another commission was formed in
+Milan to test Eusapia's powers as a medium, and from this period her fame
+dates, as the most remarkable psychic of modern times. The report drawn up
+by this commission was signed by Giovanni Schiaparelli, director of the
+Astronomical Observatory, Milan; Carl du Prel, doctor of philosophy,
+Munich; Angelo Brofferio, professor of physics in the Royal School of
+Agriculture, Portici; G. B. Ermacora, doctor of physics; Giorgio Finzi,
+doctor of physics. At some of the sittings were present Charles Richet and
+the famous Cesare Lombroso. The conclusion arrived at by these gentlemen
+was that Eusapia's mediumistic phenomena were most worthy of scientific
+attention, and were unfathomable. The medium reaped the benefit of this
+notoriety, and gave sittings to hundreds of investigators among the
+Italian nobility, charging as high as $500 for a single séance. At last
+she was exposed by a clever American, Dr. Richard Hodgson, of Boston,
+secretary of the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research.
+His account of the affair, communicated to the _New York Herald_, Jan.
+10, 1897, is very interesting. Speaking of the report of the Milan
+commission, he says:
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 27. EUSAPIA PALADINO.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 28. EUSAPIA BEFORE THE SCIENTISTS.]
+
+"Their report confessed to seeing and hearing many strange things,
+although they believed they had the hands and feet of the psychic so
+closely held that she could have had nothing to do with the
+manifestations.
+
+"Chairs were moved, bells were rung, imprints of fingers were made on
+smoked paper and soft clay, apparitions of hands appeared on slightly
+luminous backgrounds, the chair of the medium and the medium herself were
+lifted to the table, the sound of trumpets, the contact of a seemingly
+human face, the touch of human hands, warm and moist, all were felt.
+
+"Most of these phenomena were repeated, and the members of the commission
+were, with two exceptions, satisfied that no known power could have
+produced them. Professor Richet did not sign the report, but induced
+Signora Eusapia to go to an island he owned in the Mediterranean, where
+other exacting tests were made under other scientific eyes. The
+investigators all agreed that the demonstrations could not be accounted
+for by ordinary forces.
+
+"I have found in my experience that learned scientific men are the most
+easily duped of any in the world. Instead of having a cold, inert piece of
+matter to investigate by exact processes and microscopic inspections, they
+had a clever, bright woman doing her best to mystify them. They could not
+cope with her.
+
+"Professor Richet replied to an article I wrote, upholding his position,
+and brought Signora Eusapia Paladino to Cambridge, England, where I joined
+the investigating committee. In the party were Professor Lodge, of
+Liverpool; Professor F. M. C. Meyer, secretary of the British Society for
+Psychical Research; Professor Richet and Mr. Henry Sedgwick, president of
+the society.
+
+"I found that the psychic, though giving a great variety of events,
+confined them to a very limited scope. She was seated during the tests at
+the end of a rectangular table and when the table was lifted it rose up
+directly at the other end. It was always so arranged that she was in the
+dark, even if the rest of the table was in the light; in the so-called
+light séances it was not light, the lamp being placed in an adjoining
+room. There were touches, punches and blows given, minor objects moved,
+some near and some further away; the outline of faces and hands appeared,
+etc.
+
+"When I came to hold her hands I found a key to the mystery.
+
+"It was chiefly that she made one hand and one foot do the work of both,
+by adroit substitution. Given a free hand and a free foot, and nearly all
+the phenomena can be explained. She has very strong, supple hands, with
+deft fingers and great coolness and intelligence.
+
+"This is the way she substituted one hand for both. She placed one of her
+hands over A's hand and the other under B's hand. Then, in the movements
+of the arms during the manifestation, she worked her hands toward each
+other until they rested one upon the other, with A's hand at the bottom of
+the pile, B's at the top and both her own, one upon the other, between. To
+draw out one hand and leave one and yet have the investigators feel that
+they still had a hand was easy.
+
+"With this hand free and in darkness there were great possibilities. There
+were strings, also, as I believe, which were attached to different objects
+and moved them. The dim outlines of faces and hands seen were clever
+representations of the medium's own free hand in various shapes.
+
+"It is thought that if a medium was kept clapping her hands she could do
+nothing with them, but one of the investigators found the Signora slapping
+her face with one hand, producing just the same sound as if her hands met,
+while the other hand was free to produce mysterious phenomena.
+
+"I have tried the experiment of shifting hands when those who held them
+knew they were going to be tricked, and yet they did not discover when I
+made the exchange. I am thoroughly satisfied that Signora Eusapia Paladino
+is a clever trickster."
+
+Eusapia Paladino was by no means disconcerted by Dr. Hodgson's exposé, but
+continued giving her séances. At the present writing she is continuing
+them in France with a number of new illusions. Many who have had sittings
+with her declare that she is able to move heavy objects without contact.
+Possibly this is due to jugglery, or it may be due to some psychic force
+as yet not understood.
+
+F. W. TABOR.
+
+Mr. F. W. Tabor is a materializing medium whose specialty is the trumpet
+test for the production of spirit voices. I had a sitting with him at the
+house of Mr. X, of Washington, D. C., on the night of Jan. 10, 1897. Seven
+persons, including the medium, sat around an ordinary-sized table in Mr.
+X--'s drawing room, and formed a chain of hands, in the following manner:
+Each person placed his or her hands on the table with the thumbs crossed,
+and the little fingers of each hand touching the little fingers of the
+sitters on the right and left. A musical box was set going and the light
+was turned out by Mr. X--, who broke the circle for that purpose, but
+immediately resumed his old position at the table. A large speaking
+trumpet of tin about three feet long had been placed upright in the center
+of the table, and near it was a pad of paper, and pencils. We waited
+patiently for some little time, the monotony being relieved by operatic
+airs from the music box, and the singing of hymns by the sitters. There
+were convulsive twitchings of the hands and feet of the medium, who
+complained of tingling sensations in those members. The first "phenomena"
+produced were balls of light dancing like will-o'-the-wisps over the
+table, and the materialization of a luminous spirit hand. Taps upon the
+table signalled the arrival of Mr. Tabor's spirit control, "Jim," a little
+newsboy, of San Francisco, who was run over some years ago by a street
+car. The medium was the first person who picked up the wounded waif and
+endeavored to administer to him, but without avail. "Jim" died soon after,
+and his disembodied spirit became the medium's control. Soon the trumpet
+arose from the table and floated over the heads of the sitters, and the
+voice of "Jim" was heard, sepulchral and awe-inspiring, through the
+instrument. Subsequently, messages of an impersonal character were
+communicated to Mr. X-- and his wife. At one time the trumpet was heard
+knocking against the chandelier. During the séance several of the ladies
+experienced the clasp of a ghostly hand about their wrists, and
+considerable excitement was occasioned thereby.
+
+It is not a difficult matter to explain this trumpet test. It hinges on
+one fact, _freedom of the medium's right hand_! In all of these holding
+tests, the medium employs a subterfuge to release his hands without the
+knowledge of the sitter on his right. During his convulsive twitchings, he
+quickly jerks his right hand away, but immediately extends the fingers of
+his left hand, and connects the index fingers with the little finger of
+the sitter's left hand, thereby completing the chain, or "battery," as it
+is technically called. Were the medium to use his thumb in making the
+connection the secret would be revealed, but the index finger of his left
+hand sufficiently simulates a little finger, and in the darkness the
+sitter is deceived. The right hand once released, the medium manipulates
+the trumpet and the phosphorescent spirit hands to his heart's content.
+Sometimes he utilizes the telescopic rod, or a pair of steel "crazy
+tongs," to elevate the trumpet to the ceiling. This holding test is
+absurdly simple and perhaps for that reason is so convincing.
+
+Mr. Tabor has another method of holding which is far more deceptive than
+the above. I am indebted to the "Revelations of a Spirit Medium" for an
+explanation of this test. "The investigators are seated in a circle around
+the table, male and female alternating. The person sitting on the medium's
+right--for he sits in the circle--grasps the medium's right wrist in his
+left hand, while his own right wrist is held by the sitter on his right
+and this is repeated clear around the circle. This makes each sitter hold
+the right wrist of his left hand neighbor in his left hand, while his own
+right hand wrist is held in the left hand of his neighbor on the left.
+Each one's hands are thus secured and engaged, including the medium's. It
+will be seen that no one of the sitters can have the use of his or her
+hands without one or the other of their neighbors knowing it. As each hand
+was held by a separate person, you cannot understand how he [the medium]
+could get the use of either of them except the one on his right was a
+confederate. Such was not the case, and still he _did_ have the use of one
+hand, the right one. But how? He took his place before the light was
+turned down, and those holding him say he did not let go for an instant
+during the séance. He did though, after the light was turned out for the
+purpose of getting his handkerchief to blow his nose. After blowing his
+nose he requested the sitter to again take his wrist, which is done, but
+this time it is the wrist of the left hand instead of the right. He has
+crossed his legs and there is but one knee to be felt, hence the sitter on
+the right does not feel that she is reaching across the right knee and
+thinks it is the left knee which she does feel to be the right. He has let
+his hand slip down until instead of holding the sitter on his left by the
+wrist he has him by the fingers, thus allowing him a little more
+distance, and preventing the left hand sitter using the hand to feel about
+and discover the right hand sitter's hand on the wrist of the hand holding
+his. You will see, now, that although both sitters are holding the same
+hand each one thinks he is holding the one on his or her side of the
+medium. The balance of the séance is easy."
+
+An amusing incident happened during my sitting with Mr. Tabor. Growing
+somewhat weary waiting for him to "manifest," I determined to undertake
+some materializations on my own account. I adopted the subterfuge of
+getting my right hand loose from the lady on my right, and produced the
+spirit hand that clasped the wrist of several of the sitters in the
+circle. Mr. X-- asked "Jim" if everything was all right in the circle,
+every hand promptly joined, and the magnetic conditions perfect. "Jim"
+responded with three affirmative taps on the table top. I congratulate
+myself on having deceived "Jim," a spirit operating in the fourth
+dimension of space, and supposedly cognizant of all that was transpiring
+at the séance. Once, when the medium was floating the trumpet over my
+head, I grasped the instrument and dashed it on the table. He made no
+further attempt to manipulate the trumpet in my direction, and very
+shortly brought the séance to a close. No written communications were
+received during the evening.
+
+
+4. Spirit Photography.
+
+You may deceive the human eye, say the advocates of spirit
+materializations, but you cannot deceive the eye of science, the
+_photographic camera_. Then they triumphantly produce the spirit
+photograph as indubitable evidence of the reality of ghostly
+materializations. "Spirit photography," says the late Alexandre Herrmann,
+in an article on magic, published in the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, "was the
+invention of a man in London, and for ten years Spiritualists accepted the
+pictures as genuine representations of originals in the spirit land. The
+snap kodak has superseded the necessity of the explanation of spirit
+photography."
+
+To be more explicit, there are two ways of producing spirit photographs,
+by _double printing_ and by _double exposure_. In the first, the scene is
+printed from one negative, and the spirit printed in from another. In the
+second method, the group with the friendly spook in proper position is
+arranged, and the lens of the camera uncovered, half of the required
+exposure being given; then the lens is capped, and the person doing duty
+as the sheeted ghost gets out of sight, and the exposure is completed. The
+result is very effective when the picture is printed, the real persons
+being represented sharp and well defined, while the ghost is but a hazy
+outline, transparent, through which the background shows.
+
+Every one interested in psychic phenomena who makes a pilgrimage to the
+Capital of the Nation visits the house of Dr. Theodore Hansmann. For ten
+years Dr. Hansmann has been an ardent student of Spiritualism, and has had
+sittings with many celebrated mediums. The walls of his office are
+literally covered with spirit pictures of famous people of history,
+executed by spirits under supposed test conditions. There are drawings in
+color by Raphael, Michel Angelo, and others. In one corner of the room is
+a book-case filled with slates, upon the surfaces of which are messages
+from the famous dead, attested by their signatures.
+
+In the fall of 1895, a correspondent of the _New York Herald_ interviewed
+Doctor Hansmann on the subject of spirit photographs, and subsequently
+visited the United States Bureau of Ethnology, where an interview was had
+with Mr. Dinwiddie, an expert photographer. Here is the substance of this
+second interview, published in the _Herald_, Nov. 9, 1895.
+
+"Dr. Hansmann's collection of 'spirit' photographs is most interesting.
+There is one with the face of the Empress Josephine, and on the same plate
+is the head of Professor Darius Lyman, for a long time Chief of the Bureau
+of Navigation. The head of the Empress Josephine has a diadem around it,
+and the lights and shadows remind one of the well known portrait of her.
+On another plate are Grant and Lincoln, Among his other photographs Dr.
+Hansmann brought out one of a man who was described to me as an Indian
+agent. Around his head were eleven smaller 'spirit' heads of Indians. In
+looking at the blue print closely it seemed to me as if I had seen those
+identical heads--the same as to light, shade and posing--somewhere before.
+
+"I was aided at the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution by
+Mr. F. Webb Hodge, the acting director, who on looking at the blue print
+named the Indians directly; several of the pictures were of Indians still
+alive. This, of course, immediately disposed of the idea of the blue
+print Indians being spirits.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 29--SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.
+
+[Taken by the Author.]]
+
+"Moreover, Mr. Dinwiddie produced the negatives containing the identical
+portraits of these Indians and made me several proofs, which on a
+comparison, feature by feature, light for light, and shade for shade, show
+unquestionably that the faces on the blue print are copies of the
+portraits made by the photographer of the Bureau of Ethnology.
+
+"Mr. Dinwiddie asked me to sit down for awhile, and offered to make me
+some spirit photographs. This he did, and the results obtained may be
+considered as far better examples of the art of 'spirit' photography than
+those of the medium, Keeler.
+
+"The matter was very simply done. Mr. Dinwiddie asked one of the ladies
+from the office to come in, and, she consented to pose as a spirit. She
+was placed before the camera at a distance of about six feet, a red
+background was given her, so that it might photograph dark, and she was
+asked to put on a saintly expression. This she did, and Mr. Dinwiddie gave
+the plate a half-second exposure. Another head was taken on the other side
+of the plate in much the same manner. After this was done the other or
+central photograph was taken with an exposure of four seconds, the plate
+being rather sensitive.
+
+"The plate was then taken to the dark room and developed. The negative
+came out very well at first, and the halo was put on afterward, when the
+plate had been dried. The halo was made by rubbing vignetting paste on the
+back, thus shutting out the light and leaving the paper its original hue.
+The white shadowy heads which are frequently shown in black coats, and
+which the mediums claim cannot be explained, are also done in this manner
+with vignetting paste, the picture being afterward centred over these
+places, which will be white, the final result showing soft and indefinite,
+and giving the required spiritual look.
+
+"Mr. Dinwiddie did not attempt to produce the hazy effect, but this is
+very easily accomplished in the photograph by taking the spirit heads a
+trifle out of focus. He claims that all of these apparent spiritual
+manifestations are but tricks of photography, and ones which might be
+accomplished by the veriest tyro, if he were to study the matter, and give
+his time to the experiment. It is only a wonder that the mediums do not do
+more of it.
+
+"The photograph mediums have always claimed that they were set upon by
+photographers for business reasons, but Mr. Dinwiddie is employed by the
+government and has no interests whatever in such a dispute."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 30--SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH BY PRETENDED MEDIUM.]
+
+The eminent authority on photography, Mr. Walter E. Woodbury, gives many
+interesting exposes of mediumistic photographs in his work, "Photographic
+Amusements," which the student of the subject would do well to consult.
+Fig. 30, taken from "Photographic Amusements" is a reproduction of a
+"spirit" photograph made by a photographer claiming to be a medium. Says
+Mr. Woodbury: "Fortunately, however, we were in this case able to expose
+the fraud. Mr. W. M. Murray, a prominent member of the Society of Amateur
+Photographers of New York, called our attention to the similarity between
+one of the 'spirit' images and a portrait painting by Sichel, the artist.
+A reproduction of the picture (Fig 31) is given herewith, and it will be
+seen at once that the 'spirit' image is copied from it."
+
+
+5. Thought Photography.
+
+During the year 1896 considerable stir was created by the investigation of
+Dr. Hippolyte Baraduc, of Paris, in the line of "Thought Photography,"
+which is of interest to psychic investigators generally. Dr. Baraduc
+claimed to have gotten photographic impressions of his thoughts, "made
+without sunlight or electricity or contact of any material kind." These
+impressions he declared to be subjective, being his own personal
+vibrations, the result of a force emanating from the human personality,
+supra-mechanical, or spiritual. The experiments were carried on in a dark
+room, and according to his statement were highly successful. In a
+communication to an American correspondent, printed in the _New York
+Herald_, January 3, 1897, he writes: "I have discovered a human, invisible
+light, differing altogether from the cathode rays discovered by Prof.
+Roentgen." Dr. Baraduc advanced the theory that our souls must be
+considered as centers of luminous forces, owing their existence partly to
+the attraction and partly to the repulsion of special and potent forces
+bred of the invisible cosmos.
+
+A number of French scientific journals took up the matter, and discussed
+"Thought Photography" at length, publishing numerous reproductions of the
+physician's photographs; but the more conservative journals of England,
+Germany and America remained silent on the subject, as it seemed to be on
+the borderland between science and charlatanry. On January 11, 1897,
+the American newspapers contained an item to the effect that Drs. S.
+Millington Miller and Carleton Simon, of New York City, the former a
+specialist in brain physiology, and the latter an expert hypnotist, had
+succeeded in obtaining successful thought photographs on dry plates from
+two hypnotized subjects. When the subjects were not hypnotized, the
+physicians reported no results.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 31--SIGEL'S ORIGINAL PICTURE OF FIG 30.]
+
+As "Thought Photography" is without the pale of known physical laws,
+stronger evidence is needed to support the claims made for it than that
+which has been adduced by the French and American investigators. "Thought
+Photography" once established as a scientific fact, we shall have,
+perhaps, an explanation of genuine spirit photographs, if such there be.
+
+
+6. Apparitions of the Dead.
+
+In my chapter on subjective phenomena, I have not recorded any cases of
+phantasms of the dead, though several interesting examples of such have
+come under my notice. I have thought it better to refer the reader to the
+voluminous reports of the Society for Psychical Research (England). In
+regard to these cases, the Society has reached the following conclusion:
+_Between deaths and apparitions of dying persons a connection exists which
+is not due to chance alone. This we hold as a proved fact._
+
+The "_Literary Digest_," January 12, 1895, in reviewing this report, says:
+"Inquiries were instituted in 17,000 cases of alleged apparitions. These
+inquiries elicited 1,249 replies from persons [in England and Wales] who
+affirmed that they themselves had seen the apparitions. Then the Society
+by further inquiries and cross-examinations sifted out all but eighty of
+these as discredited in some way, by error of memory or illusions of
+identity, or for some other reason, or which could be accounted for by
+common psychical laws. Of these eighty, fifty more were thrown out, to be
+on the safe side, and the remaining thirty are used as a basis for
+scientific consideration. All these consisted of apparitions of dead
+persons appearing to others within twelve hours after death, and many of
+them appearing at the very hour and even the very minute of death. The
+full account of the investigation is published in the tenth volume of the
+Society's Reports, under the title, 'A Census of Hallucinations,' and
+Prof. J. H. Hyslop, of Columbia College, wrote an article giving the gist
+of the report and his comments in the '_Independent_,' (December 27,
+1895), from which I cull these few notable paragraphs:
+
+"'The committee which conducted the research reasons as follows: Since the
+death rate of England is 19.15 out of every thousand, the chances of any
+person's dying on any particular day are one in 19,000 (the ratio of 19.15
+to 365 times 1,000). Out of 19,000 death apparitions, therefore, one can
+be explained as a simple coincidence. But thirty apparitions out of 1,300
+cases is in the proportion of 440 out of 19,000, so that to refer these
+thirty well-authenticated apparitions to coincidence is deemed
+impossible.'
+
+"And further on:
+
+"'This is remarkable language for the signatures of Prof. and Mrs.
+Sidgwick, than whom few harder-headed skeptics could be found. It is more
+than borne out, however, by a consideration which the committee does not
+mention, but which the facts entirely justify, and it is that since many
+of the apparitions occurred not merely on the day, but at the very hour or
+minute of death, the improbability of their explanation by chance is
+really much greater than the figures here given. That the apparition
+should occur within the hour of death the chance should be 1 to 356,000,
+or at the minute of death 1 to 21,360,000. To get 30 cases, therefore,
+brought down to these limits we should have to collect thirty times these
+numbers of apparitions. Either these statistics are of no value in a study
+of this kind, or the Society's claim is made out that there is either a
+telepathic communication between the dying and those who see their
+apparitions, or some causal connection not yet defined or determined by
+science. That this connection may be due to favorable conditions in the
+subject of the hallucination is admitted by the committee, if the person
+having the apparition is suffering from grief or anxiety about the person
+concerned. But it has two replies to such a criticism. The first is the
+query how and why under the circumstances does this effect coincide
+generally with the death of the person concerned, when anxiety is extended
+over a considerable period. The second is a still more triumphant reply,
+and it is that a large number of the cases show that the subject of the
+apparition has no knowledge of the dying person's sickness, place, or
+condition. In that case there is no alternative to searching elsewhere for
+the cause. If telepathy or thought transference will not explain the
+connection, resort must be had to some most extraordinary hypothesis. Most
+persons will probably accept telepathy as the easiest way out of the
+difficulty, though I am not sure that we are limited to this, the easiest
+explanation.'
+
+"Professor Hyslop then proceeds to consider the effect of the committee's
+conclusion upon existing theories and speculations regarding the relations
+between mind and matter, and foresees with gratification as well as
+apprehension the revolt likely to be initiated against materialism and
+which may go so far as to discredit science and carry us far back to the
+credulous conditions of the Middle Ages. He says:
+
+"'The point which the investigations of the Society for Psychical Research
+have already reached creates a question of transcendent interest, no
+matter what the solution of it may be, and will stimulate in the near
+future an amount of psychological and theological speculation of the most
+hasty and crude sort, which it will require the profoundest knowledge of
+mental phenomena, normal and abnormal, and the best methods of science to
+counteract, and to keep within the limits of sober reason. The hardly won
+conquests of intellectual freedom and self-control can easily be
+overthrown by a reaction that will know no bounds and which it will be
+impossible to regulate. Though there may be some moral gain from the
+change of beliefs, as will no doubt be the case in the long run, we have
+too recently escaped the intellectual, religious, and political tyranny of
+the Middle Ages to contemplate the immediate consequences of the reaction
+with any complacency. But no one can calculate the enormous effect upon
+intellectual, social, and political conditions which would ensure upon the
+reconciliation of science and religion by the proof of immortality."
+
+
+
+
+IV. CONCLUSIONS.
+
+
+In my investigations of the physical phenomena of modern spiritualism, I
+have come to the following conclusion: While the majority of mediumistic
+manifestations are due to conjuring, there is a class of cases not
+ascribable to trickery, namely, those coming within the domain of psychic
+force--as exemplified by the experiments of Gasparin, Crookes, Lodge,
+Asakoff and Coues. In regard to the subjective phenomena, I am convinced
+that the recently annunciated law of telepathy will account for them. _I
+discredit the theory of spirit intervention._ If this be a correct
+conclusion, is there anything in mediumistic phenomena that will
+contribute to the solution of the problem of the immortality of the soul?
+I think there is. The existence of a subjective or subliminal
+consciousness in man, as illustrated in the phenomena mentioned, seems to
+indicate that the human personality is really a spiritual entity,
+possessed of unknown resources, and capable of preserving its identity
+despite the shock of time and the grave. Hudson says: "It is clear that
+the power of telepathy has nothing in common with objective methods of
+communications between mind and mind; and that it is not the product of
+muscle or nerve or any physiological combination whatever, but rather sets
+these at naught, with their implications of space and time.... When
+disease seizes the physical frame and the body grows feeble, the objective
+mind invariably grows correspondingly weak.... In the meantime, as the
+objective mind ceases to perform its functions, the subjective mind is
+most active and powerful. The individual may never before have exhibited
+any psychic power, and may never have consciously produced any psychic
+phenomena; yet at the supreme moment his soul is in active communication
+with loved ones at a distance, and the death message is often, when
+psychic conditions are favorable, consciously received. The records of
+telepathy demonstrate this proposition. Nay, more; they may be cited to
+show that in the hour of death the soul is capable of projecting a
+phantasm of such strength and objectivity that it may be an object of
+personal experience to those for whom it is intended. Moreover, it has
+happened that telepathic messages have been sent by the dying, at the
+moment of dissolution, giving all the particulars of the tragedy, when
+the death was caused by an unexpected blow which crushed the skull of the
+victim. It is obvious that in such cases it is impossible that the
+objective mind could have participated in the transaction. The evidence is
+indeed overwhelming, that, no matter what form death may assume, whether
+caused by lingering disease, old age, or violence, the subjective mind is
+never weakened by its approach or its presence. On the other hand, that
+the objective mind weakens with the body and perishes with the brain, is a
+fact confirmed by every-day observation and universal experience."
+
+This hypothesis of the objective and subjective minds has been criticised
+by many psychologists on the ground of its extreme dualism. No such
+dualism exists, they contend. However, Hudson's theory is only a working
+hypothesis at best, to explain certain extraordinary facts in human
+experience. Future investigators may be able to throw more light on the
+subject. But this one thing may be enunciated: _Telepathy is an
+incontrovertible fact_, account for it as you may, a physical force or a
+spiritual energy. If physical, then it does not follow any of the known
+operations of physical laws as established by modern science, especially
+in the case of transmission of thought at a distance.
+
+It is true, that all evidence in support of telepathic communications is
+more or less _ex parte_ in character, and does not possess that validity
+which orthodox science requires of investigators. Any student of the
+physical laws of matter can make investigations for himself, and at any
+time, provided he has the proper apparatus. Explain to a person that water
+is composed of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, and he can easily verify
+the fact for himself by combining the gases, in the combination of H2O,
+and afterwards liberate them by a current of electricity. But experiments
+in telepathy and clairvoyance cannot be made at will; they are isolated in
+character, and consequently are regarded with suspicion by orthodox
+science. Besides this, they transcend the materialistic theories of
+science as regards the universe, and one is almost compelled to use the
+old metaphysical terms of mind and matter, body and soul, in describing
+the phenomena.
+
+It is an undoubted fact that science has broken away from the old theory
+regarding the distinction between mind and matter. Says Prof. Wm. Romaine
+Newbold, "In the scientific world it has fallen into such disfavor that
+in many circles it is almost as disgraceful to avow belief in it as in
+witchcraft or ghosts." We have to-day a school of
+"physiological-psychology," calling itself "psychology without a soul."
+This school is devoted to the laboratory method of studying mind. "The
+laboratory method," says Roark, in his "Psychology in Education," "is
+concerned mostly with _physiological_ psychology, which is, after all,
+only _physiology_, even though it be the physiology of the nervous system
+and the special organs of sense--the material tools of the mind. And after
+physiological psychology has had its rather prolix say, causal connection
+of the physical organs with psychic action is as obscure and impossible of
+explanation as ever. But the laboratory method can be of excellent service
+in determining the material conditions of mental action, in detecting
+special deficiencies and weaknesses, and in accumulating valuable
+statistics along these lines.
+
+"It has been asserted that no science can claim to be exact until it can
+be reduced to formulas of weights and measures. The assertion begs the
+question for the materialists. We shall probably never be able to weigh an
+idea or measure the cubic contents of the memory; but the rapidity with
+which ideas are formed or reproduced by memory has been measured in many
+particular instances, and the circumstances that retard or accelerate
+their formation or reproduction have been positively ascertained and
+classified."
+
+That it is possible to explain all mental phenomena in terms of physics is
+by no means the unanimous verdict of scientific men. A small group of
+students of late years have detached themselves from the purely
+materialistic school and broken ground in the region of the supernormal.
+Says Professor Newbold (_Popular Science Monthly_, January, 1897): "In the
+supernormal field, the facts already reported, should they be
+substantiated by further inquiry, would go far towards showing that
+consciousness is an entity governed by laws and possessed of powers
+incapable of expression in material conceptions.
+
+"I do not myself regard the theory of independence [of mind and body] as
+proved, but I think we have enough evidence for it to destroy in any
+candid mind that considers it that absolute credulity as to its
+possibility which at present characterizes the average man of science."
+
+
+
+
+PART SECOND.
+
+
+
+
+MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THE THEOSOPHISTS.
+
+
+1. The Priestess.
+
+The greatest "fantaisiste" of modern times was Madame Blavatsky, spirit
+medium, Priestess of Isis, and founder of the Theosophical Society. Her
+life is one long catalogue of wonders. In appearance she was enormously
+fat, had a harsh, disagreeable voice, and a violent temper, dressed in a
+slovenly manner, usually in loose wrappers, smoked cigarettes incessantly,
+and cared little or nothing for the conventionalities of life. But in
+spite of all--unprepossessing appearance and gross habits--she exercised a
+powerful personal magnetism over those who came in contact with her. She
+was the Sphinx of the second half of this Century; a Pythoness in tinsel
+robes who strutted across the world's stage "full of sound and fury," and
+disappeared from view behind the dark veil of Isis, which she, the
+fin-de-siecle prophetess, tried to draw aside during her earthly career.
+
+In searching for facts concerning the life of this really remarkable
+woman--remarkable for the influence she has exerted upon the thought of
+this latter end of the nineteenth century--I have read all that has been
+written about her by prominent Theosophists, have talked with many who
+knew her intimately, and now endeavor to present the truth concerning her
+and her career. The leading work on the subject is "Incidents in the Life
+of Madame Blavatsky," compiled from information supplied by her relatives
+and friends, and edited by A. P. Sinnett, author of "The Occult World."
+The frontispiece to the book is a reproduction of a portrait of Madame
+Blavatsky, painted by H. Schmiechen, and represents the lady seated on the
+steps of an ancient ruin, holding a parchment in her hand. She is garbed
+somewhat after the fashion of a Cumaean Sibyl and gazes straight before
+her with the deep unfathomable eyes of a mystic, as if she were reading
+the profound riddles of the ages, and beholding the sands of Time falling
+hot and swift into the glass of eternity--
+
+"And all things creeping to a day of doom."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 32--MADAME BLAVATSKY.]
+
+Sinnett's life of the High Priestess is a strange concoction of monstrous
+absurdities; it is full of the weirdest happenings that were ever
+vouchsafed to mortal. We cannot put much faith in this biography, and must
+delve in other mines for information; but some of the remarkable passages
+of the book are worth perusing, particularly if the reader be prone to
+midnight musings of a ghostly character.
+
+Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the daughter of Col. Peter Hahn of the Russian
+Army, and granddaughter of General Alexis Hahn von Rottenstern Hahn (a
+noble family of Mecklenburg, Germany, settled in Russia), was born in
+Eskaterinoslaw, in the south of Russia, in 1831. "She had," says Sinnett,
+"a strange childhood, replete with abnormal occurrences. The year of her
+birth was fatal for Russia, as for all Europe, owing to the first visit of
+the cholera, that terrible plague that decimated from 1830 to 1832 in turn
+nearly every town of the Continent.... Her birth was quickened by several
+deaths in the house, and she was ushered into the world amid coffins and
+desolation, on the night between July 30th and 31st, weak and apparently
+no denizen of this world." A hurried baptism was given lest the child die
+in original sin, and the ceremony was that of the Greek Church. During the
+orthodox baptismal rite no person is allowed to sit, but a child aunt of
+the baby, tired of standing for nearly an hour, settled down upon the
+floor, just behind the officiating priest. No one perceived her, as she
+sat nodding drowsily. The ceremony was nearing its close. The sponsors
+were just in the act of renouncing the Evil One and his deeds, a
+renunciation emphasized in the Greek Church by thrice spitting upon the
+invisible enemy, when the little lady, toying with her lighted taper at
+the feet of the crowd, inadvertantly set fire to the long flowing robes of
+the priest, no one remarking the accident till it was too late. The result
+was an immediate conflagration, during which several persons--chiefly the
+old priest--were severely burnt. That was another bad omen, according to
+the superstitious beliefs of orthodox Russia; and the innocent cause of
+it, the future Madame Blavatsky, was doomed from that day, in the eyes of
+all the town, to an eventful, troubled life.
+
+"Mlle. Hahn was born, of course, with all the characteristics of what is
+known in Spiritualism as mediumship in the most extraordinary degree, also
+with gifts as a clairvoyant of an almost equally unexampled order. On
+various occasions while apparently in an ordinary sleep, she would answer
+questions, put by persons who took hold of her hand, about lost property,
+etc., as though she were a sibyl entranced. For years she would, in
+childish impulse, shock strangers with whom she came in contact, and
+visitors to the house, by looking them intently in the face and telling
+them they would die at such and such a time, or she would prophesy to them
+some accident or misfortune that would befall them. And since her
+prognostications usually came true, she was the terror, in this respect,
+of the domestic circle."
+
+Madame V. P. Jelihowsy, a sister of the seeress, has furnished to the
+world many extraordinary stories of Mme. Blavatsky's childhood, published
+in various Russian periodicals. At the age of eleven the Sibyl lost her
+mother, and went to live with her grandparents at Saratow, her grandfather
+being civil governor of the place. The family mansion was a lumbering old
+country place "full of subterraneous galleries, long abandoned passages,
+turrets, and most weird nooks and corners. It looked more like a mediaeval
+ruined castle than a building of the last century." The ghosts of
+martyred serfs were supposed to haunt the uncanny building, and strange
+legends were told by the old family servants of weir-wolves and goblins
+that prowled about the dark forests of the estate. Here, in this House of
+Usher, the Sibyl lived and dreamed, and at this period exhibited many
+abnormal psychic peculiarities, ascribed by her orthodox governess and
+nurses of the Greek Church to possession by the devil. She had at times
+ungovernable fits of temper; she would ride any Cossack horse on the place
+astride a man's saddle; go into trances and scare everyone from the master
+of the mansion down to the humblest vodka drinker on the estate.
+
+In 1848, at the age of 17, she married General Count Blavatsky, a gouty
+old Russian of 70, whom she called "the plumed raven," but left him after
+a brief period of marital infelicity. From this time dates her career as a
+thaumaturgist. She travelled through India and made an honest attempt to
+penetrate into the mysterious confines of Thibet, but succeeded in getting
+only a few miles from the frontier, owing to the fanaticism of the
+natives.
+
+In India, as elsewhere, she was accused of being a Russian spy and was
+generally regarded with suspicion by the police authorities. After some
+months of erratic wanderings she reappeared in Russia, this time in
+Tiflis, at the residence of a relative, Prince ----. It was a gloomy,
+grewsome chateau, well suited for Spiritualistic séances, and Madame
+Blavatsky, it is claimed, frightened the guests during the long winter
+evenings with table-tippings, spirit rappings, etc. It was then the tall
+candles in the drawing-room burnt low, the gobelin tapestry rustled, sighs
+were heard, strange music "resounded in the air," and luminous forms were
+seen trailing their ghostly garments across the "tufted floor."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 33--MAHATMA LETTER.]
+
+The gossipy Madame de Jelihowsy, in her reminiscences, classifies the
+phenomena, witnessed in the presence of her Sibylline sister, as follows:
+
+1. Direct and perfectly clearly written and verbal answers to mental
+questions--or "thought reading."
+
+2. Private secrets, unknown to all but the interested party, divulged,
+[especially in the case of those persons who mentioned insulting doubts].
+
+3. Change of weight in furniture and persons at will.
+
+4. Letters from unknown correspondents, and immediate answers written to
+queries made, and found in the most out-of-the-way mysterious places.
+
+5. Appearance of objects unclaimed by anyone present.
+
+6. Sounds of musical notes in the air wherever Madame Blavatsky desired
+they should resound.
+
+In the year 1858, the High Priestess was at the house of General Yakontoff
+at Pskoff, Russia. One night when the drawing-room was full of visitors,
+she began to describe the mediumistic feat of making light objects heavy
+and heavy objects light.
+
+"Can you perform such a miracle?" ironically asked her brother, Leonide de
+Hahn, who always doubted his sister's occult powers.
+
+"I can," was the firm reply.
+
+De Hahn went to a small chess table, lifted it as though it were a
+feather, and said: "Suppose you try your powers on this."
+
+"With pleasure!" replied Mme. Blavatsky. "Place the table on the floor,
+and step aside for a minute." He complied with her request.
+
+She fixed her large blue eyes intently upon the chess table and said
+without removing her gaze, "Lift it now."
+
+The young man exerted all his strength, but the table would not budge
+an inch. Another guest tried with the same result, but the wood only
+cracked, yielding to no effort.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 34--MAHATMA LETTER ENVELOPE.]
+
+"Now, lift it," said Madame Blavatsky calmly, whereupon De Hahn picked it
+up with the greatest ease. Loud applause greeted this extraordinary feat,
+and the skeptical brother, so say the occultists, was utterly nonplussed.
+
+Madame Blavatsky, as recorded by Sinnett, stated afterwards that the above
+phenomenon could be produced in two different ways: "First, through the
+exercise of her own will directing the magnetic currents so that the
+pressure on the table became such that no physical force could move it;
+second, through the action of those beings with whom she was in constant
+communication, and who, although unseen, were able to hold the table
+against all opposition."
+
+The writer has seen similar feats performed by hypnotizers with good
+subjects without the intervention of any ghostly intelligences.
+
+In 1870 the Priestess of Isis journeyed through Egypt in company with a
+certain Countess K--, and endeavored to form a Spiritualistic society at
+Cairo, for the investigation of psychic phenomena, but things growing
+unpleasant for her she left the land of pyramids and papyri in hot haste.
+It is related of her that during this Egyptian sojourn she spent one night
+in the King's sepulchre in the bowels of the Great Pyramid of Cheops,
+sleeping in the very sarcophagus where once reposed the mummy of a
+Pharoah. Weird sights were seen by the entranced occultist and strange
+sounds were heard on that eventful occasion within the shadowy mortuary
+chamber of the pyramid. At times she would let fall mysterious hints of
+what she saw that night, but they were as incomprehensible as the riddles
+of the fabled Sphinx.
+
+Countess Paschkoff chronicles a curious story about the Priestess of Isis,
+which reminds one somewhat of the last chapter in Bulwer's occult novel,
+"A Strange Story." The Countess relates that she was once travelling
+between Baalbec and the river Orontes, and in the desert came across the
+caravan belonging to Madame Blavatsky. They joined company and towards
+nightfall pitched camp near the village of El Marsum amid some ancient
+ruins. Among the relics of a Pagan civilization stood a great monument
+covered with outlandish hieroglyphics. The Countess was curious to
+decipher the inscriptions, and begged Madame Blavatsky to unravel their
+meaning, but the Priestess of Isis, notwithstanding her great
+archaeological knowledge, was unable to do so. However, she said: "Wait
+until night, and we shall see!" When the ruins were wrapped in sombre
+shadow, Mme. Blavatsky drew a great circle upon the ground about the
+monument, and invited the Countess to stand within the mystic confines. A
+fire was built and upon it were thrown various aromatic herbs and incense.
+Cabalistic spells were recited by the sorceress, as the smoke from the
+incense ascended, and then she thrice commanded the spirit to whom the
+monument was erected to appear. Soon the cloud of smoke from the burning
+incense assumed the shape of an old man with a long white beard. A voice
+from a distance pierced the misty image, and spoke: "I am Hiero, one of
+the priests of a great temple erected to the gods, that stood upon this
+spot. This monument was the altar. Behold!" No sooner were the words
+pronounced than a phantasmagoric vision of a gigantic temple appeared,
+supported by ponderous columns, and a great city was seen covering the
+distant plain, but all soon faded into thin air.
+
+This story was related to a select coterie of occultists assembled in
+social conclave at the headquarters in New York. The question is, had the
+charming Russian Countess dreamed this, or was she trying to exploit
+herself as a traveler who had come "out of the mysterious East" and had
+seen strange things?
+
+We next hear of the famous occultist in the United States, where she
+associated chiefly with spirit-mediums, enchanters, professional
+clairvoyants, and the like.
+
+"At this period of her career she had not,"[4] says Dr. Eliott Coues, a
+learned investigator of psychic phenomena, "been metamorphosed into a
+Theosophist. She was simply exploiting as a Spiritualistic medium. Her
+most familiar spook was a ghostly fiction named 'John King.' This fellow
+is supposed to have been a pirate, condemned for his atrocities to serve
+earth-bound for a term of years, and to present himself at materializing
+séances on call. Any medium who personates this ghost puts on a heavy
+black horse-hair beard and a white bed sheet and talks in sepulchral chest
+tones. John is as standard and sure-enough a ghost as ever appeared before
+the public. Most of the leading mediums, both in Europe and America, keep
+him in stock. I have often seen the old fellow in New York, Philadelphia,
+and Washington through more mediums that I can remember the names of. Our
+late Minister to Portugul, Mr. J. O'Sullivan, has a photograph of him at
+full length, floating in space, holding up a peculiar globe of light
+shaped like a glass decanter. This trustworthy likeness was taken in
+Europe, and I think in Russia, but am not sure on that point. I once had
+the pleasure of introducing the pirate king to my friend Prof. Alfred
+Russel Wallace, in the person of Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a noted medium of
+Washington.
+
+"But the connection between the pirate and my story is this: Madame
+Blavatsky was exploiting King at the time of which I speak, and several of
+her letters to friends, which I have read, are curiously scribbled in red
+and blue pencil with sentences and signatures of 'John King,' just as,
+later on, 'Koot Hoomi' used to miraculously precipitate himself upon her
+stationery in all sorts of colored crayons. And, by the way, I may call
+the reader's attention to the fact that while the ingenious creature was
+operating in Cairo, her Mahatmas were of the Egyptian order of
+architecture, and located in the ruins of Thebes or Karnak. They were not
+put in turbans and shifted to Thibet till late in 1879."
+
+In 1875, while residing in New York, Madame Blavatsky conceived the idea
+of establishing a Theosophical Society. Stupendous thought! Cagliostro in
+the eighteenth century founded his Egyptian Free-Masonry for the
+re-generation of mankind, and Blavatsky in the nineteenth century laid the
+corner stone of modern Theosophy for a similar purpose. Cagliostro had his
+High Priestess in the person of a beautiful wife, Lorenza Feliciani, and
+Blavatsky her Hierophant in the somewhat prosaic guise of a New York
+reporter, Col. Olcott, since then a famous personage in occult circles.
+
+During the Civil War, Olcott served in the Quartermaster's Department of
+the Army and afterwards held a position in the Internal Revenue Service of
+the United States. In 18-- he was a newspaper man in New York, and was
+sent by the _Graphic_ to investigate the alleged Spiritualistic phenomena
+transpiring in the Eddy family in Chittenden, Vermont. There he met Madame
+Blavatsky. It was his fate.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 35. COL. H. S. OLCOTT.]
+
+Col. Olcott's description of his first sight of Mme. Blavatsky is
+interesting:
+
+"The dinner at Eddy's was at noon, and it was from the entrance door of
+the bare and comfortless dining-room that Kappes and I first saw H. P. B.
+She had arrived shortly before noon with a French Canadian lady, and they
+were at table as we entered. My eye was first attracted by a scarlet
+Garibaldian shirt the former wore, as being in vivid contrast with the
+dull colors around. Her hair was then a thick blonde mop, worn shorter
+than the shoulders, and it stood out from her head, silken, soft, and
+crinkled to the roots, like the fleece of a Cotswold ewe. This and the
+red shirt were what struck my attention before I took in the picture of
+her features. It was a massive Kalmuck face, contrasting in its suggestion
+of power, culture, and imperiousness, as strangely with the commonplace
+visages about the room, as her red garment did with the gray and white
+tones of the wall and woodwork, and the dull costumes of the rest of the
+guests. All sorts of cranky people were continually coming and going at
+Eddy's, to see the mediumistic phenomena, and it only struck me on seeing
+this eccentric lady that this was but one more of the sort. Pausing on the
+door-sill, I whispered to Kappes, 'Good gracious! look at _that_ specimen,
+will you!' I went straight across and took a seat opposite her to indulge
+my favorite habit of character-study."
+
+Commenting on this meeting, J. Ransom Bridges, in the _Arena_, for April,
+1895, remarks: "After dinner Colonel Olcott scraped an acquaintance by
+opportunely offering her a light for a cigarette which she proceeded to
+roll for herself. This 'light' must have been charged with Theosophical
+_karma_, for the burning match or end of a lighted cigar--the Colonel does
+not specify--lit a train of causes and their effects which now are making
+history and are world-wide in their importance. So confirmed a pessimist
+on Theosophical questions as Henry Sidgwick of the London Society for
+Psychical Research, says, 'Even if it [the Theosophical Society] were to
+expire next year, its twenty years' existence would be a phenomenon of
+some interest for a historian of European society in the nineteenth
+century.'"
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 36. OATH OF SECRECY TAKEN BY CHARTER MEMBERS OF THE
+THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
+
+[Kindness of the _New York Herald_.]]
+
+The séances at the Eddy house must have been character studies indeed. The
+place where the ghosts were materialized was a large apartment over the
+dining room of the ancient homestead. A dark closet, at one end of the
+room, with a rough blanket stretched across it, served as a cabinet. Red
+Indians and pirates were the favorite materializations, but when Madame
+Blavatsky appeared on the scene, ghosts of Turks, Kurdish cavaliers, and
+Kalmucks visited this earthly scene, much to the surprise of every one.
+Olcott cites this fact as evidence of the genuineness of the
+materializations, remarking, "how could the ignorant Eddy boys, rough,
+rude, uncultured farmers, get the costumes and accessories for characters
+of this kind in a remote Vermont village."
+
+
+2. What is Theosophy.
+
+Let us turn aside at this juncture to ask, "What is Theosophy." The word
+Theosophy (Theosophia--divine knowledge) appears to have been used about
+the Third century, A. D., by the Neo-Platonists, or Gnostics of
+Alexandria, but the great principles of the doctrine, however, were taught
+hundreds of years prior to the mystical school established at Alexandria.
+"It is not," says an interesting writer on the subject, "an outgrowth of
+Buddhism although many Buddhists see in its doctrines the reflection of
+Buddha. It proposes to give its followers the esoteric, or inner-spiritual
+meaning of the great religious teachers of the world. It asserts repeated
+re-incarnations, or rebirths of the soul on earth, until it is fully
+purged of evil, and becomes fit to be absorbed into the Deity whence it
+came, gaining thereby Nirvana, or unconsciousness." Some Theosophists
+claim that Nirvana is not a state of unconsciousness, but just the
+converse, a state of the most intensified consciousness, during which the
+soul remembers all of its previous incarnations.
+
+Madame Blavatsky claimed that "there exists in Thibet a brotherhood whose
+members have acquired a power over Nature which enables them to perform
+wonders beyond the reach of ordinary men. She declared herself to be a
+_chela_, or disciple of these brothers (spoken of also as 'Adepts' and as
+'Mahatmas'), and asserted that they took a special interest in the
+Theosophical Society and all initiates in occult lore, being able to cause
+apparitions of themselves in places where their bodies were not; and that
+they not only appeared but communicated intelligently with those whom they
+thus visited and themselves perceived what was going on where their
+phantoms appeared." This phantasmal appearance she called the projection
+of the _astral_ form. Many of the phenomena witnessed in the presence of
+the Sibyl were supposed to be the work of the mystic brotherhood who took
+so peculiar an interest in the Theosophical Society and its members. The
+Madame did not claim to be the founder of a new religious faith, but
+simply the reviver of a creed that has slumbered in the Orient for
+centuries, and declared herself to be the Messenger of these Mahatmas to
+the scoffing Western world.
+
+Speaking of the Mahatmas, she says in "Isis Unveiled": * * * "Travelers
+have met these adepts on the shores of the sacred Ganges, brushed against
+them on the silent ruins of Thebes, and in the mysterious deserted
+chambers of Luxor. Within the halls upon whose blue and golden vaults the
+weird signs attract attention, but whose secret meaning is never
+penetrated by the idle gazers, they have been seen, but seldom recognized.
+Historical memoirs have recorded their presence in the brilliantly
+illuminated salons of European aristocracy. They have been encountered
+again on the arid and desolate plains of the Great Sahara, or in the caves
+of Elephanta. They may be found everywhere, but make themselves known only
+to those who have devoted their lives to unselfish study, and are not
+likely to turn back."
+
+The Theosophical Society was organized in New York, Nov. 17, 1875.
+
+Mr. Arthur Lillie, in his interesting work, "Madame Blavatsky and Her
+Theosophy," speaking about the founding of the Society, says:
+
+"Its moving spirit was a Mr. Felt, who had visited Egypt and studied its
+antiquities. He was a student also of the Kabbala; and he had a somewhat
+eccentric theory that the dog-headed and hawk-headed figures painted on
+the Egyptian monuments were not mere symbols, but accurate portraits of
+the 'Elementals.' He professed to be able to evoke and control them. He
+announced that he had discovered the secret 'formularies' of the old
+Egyptian magicians. Plainly, the Theosophical Society at starting was an
+Egyptian school of occultism. Indeed Colonel Olcott, who furnishes these
+details ('Diary Leaves' in the _Theosophist_, November to December, 1892),
+lets out that the first title suggested was the 'Egyptological Society.'"
+
+There were strange reports set afloat at the time of the organization of
+the Society of the mysterious appearance of a Hindoo adept in his astral
+body at the "lamasery" on Forty-seventh street. It was said to be that of
+a certain Mahatma Koot Hoomi. Olcott declared that the adept left behind
+him as a souvenir of his presence, a turban, which was exhibited on all
+occasions by the enterprising Hierophant. William Q. Judge, a noted writer
+on Spiritualism, who had met the Madame at Irving Place in the winter of
+1874, joined the Society about this time, and became an earnest advocate
+of the secret doctrine. One wintry evening in March, 1889, Mr. Judge
+attended a meeting of the New York Anthropological Society, and told the
+audience all about the spectral gentleman, Koot Hoomi. He said:
+
+"The parent society (Theosophical) was founded in America by Madame
+Blavatsky, who gathered about her a few interested people and began the
+great work. They held a meeting to frame a constitution (1875), etc., but
+before anything had been accomplished a strangely foreign Hindoo, dressed
+in the peculiar garb of his country, came before them, and, leaving a
+package, vanished, and no one knew whither he came or went. On opening the
+package they found the necessary forms of organization, rules, etc., which
+were adopted. The inference to be drawn was, that the strange visitor was
+a Mahatma, interested in the foundation of the Society."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 37. WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.
+
+[Reproduced by courtesy of the _New York Herald_.]]
+
+And so Blavatskyism flourished, and the Society gathered in disciples from
+all quarters. Men without definite creeds are ever willing to embrace
+anything that savors of the mysterious, however absurd the tenets of the
+new doctrine may be. The objects of the Theosophical Society, as set forth
+in a number of _Lucifer_, the organ of the cult, published in July, 1890,
+are stated to be:
+
+"1. To form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without
+distinction of race, creed, sex, or color.
+
+"2. To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions
+and sciences.
+
+"3. To investigate laws of Nature and the psychical powers of man."
+
+There is nothing of cant or humbug about the above articles. A society
+founded for the prosecution of such researches seems laudable enough.
+Oriental scholars and scientists have been working in this field for many
+years. But the investigations, as conducted under the Blavatsky régime,
+have savored so of charlatanism that many earnest, truth-seeking
+Theosophists have withdrawn from the Society.
+
+After seeing the Society well established, Madame Blavatsky went to India.
+Her career in that country was a checkered one. From this period dates the
+exposé of the Mahatma miracles. The story reads like a romance by Marie
+Corelli. Let us begin at the beginning. The headquarters of the Society
+was first established at Bombay, thence removed to Madras and afterwards
+to Adyar. A certain M. and Mme. Coulomb, trusted friends of Madame
+Blavatsky, were made librarian and assistant corresponding secretary
+respectively of the Society, and took up their residence in the building
+known as the headquarters--a rambling East Indian bungalow, such as figure
+in Rudyard Kipling's stories of Oriental life. Marvellous phenomena, of an
+occult nature, alleged to have taken place there, were attested by many
+Theosophists. Mysterious, ghostly appearances of Mahatmas were seen, and
+messages were constantly received by supernatural means. One of the
+apartments of the bungalow was denominated the Occult Room, and in this
+room was a sort of cupboard against the wall, known as the _Shrine_. In
+this shrine the ghostly missives were received and from it were sent.
+Skeptics were convinced, and occult lodges spread rapidly over India among
+the dreamy, marvel-loving natives. But affairs were not destined to sail
+smoothly. There came a rift within the lute--Madame Blavatsky quarreled
+with her trusted lieutenants, the Coulombs! In May, 1884, M. and Mme.
+Coulomb were expelled from the Society by the General Council, during the
+absence of the High Priestess and Col. Olcott in Europe. The Coulombs, who
+had grown weary of a life of imposture, or were actuated by the more
+ignoble motive of revenge, made a complete exposé of the secret working of
+the Inner Brotherhood. They published portions of Madame Blavatsky's
+correspondence in the _Madras Christian College Magazine_, for September
+and October, 1884; letters written to the Coulombs, directing them to
+prepare certain impostures and letters written by the High Priestess,
+under the signature of Koot Hoomi, the mythical adept.[5] This
+correspondence unquestionably implicated the Sibyl in a conspiracy to
+fraudulently produce occult phenomena. She declared them to be, in whole,
+or in part, forgeries. At this juncture the London Society for Psychical
+Research sent Mr. Richard Hodgson, B. A., scholar of St. John's College,
+Cambridge, England, to India to investigate the entire matter in the
+interest of science.
+
+He left England November, 1884, and remained in the East till April, 1885.
+During this period Blavatskyism was sifted to the bottom. Mr. Hodgson's
+report covers several hundred pages, and proves conclusively that the
+occult phenomena of Madame Blavatsky and her co-adjutors are unworthy of
+credence. In his volume he gives diagrams of the trap-doors and machinery
+of the shrine and the occult room, and facsimiles of Madame Blavatsky's
+handwriting, which proved to be identical with that of Koot Hoomi, or
+_Cute_ Hoomi, as the critics dubbed him. He shows that the Coulombs had
+told the plain unvarnished truth so far as their disclosures went; and he
+stigmatizes the Priestess of Isis in the following language:
+
+"1. She has been engaged in a long continued combination with other
+persons to produce by ordinary means a series of apparent marvels for the
+support of the Theosophic movement.
+
+"2. That in particular the shrine at Adyar through which letters
+purporting to come from Mahatmas were received, was elaborately arranged
+with a view to the secret insertion of letters and other objects through a
+sliding panel at the back, and regularly used for the purpose by Madame
+Blavatsky or her agents.
+
+"3. That there is consequently a very strong general presumption that all
+the marvellous narratives put forward in evidence of the existence of
+Mahatmas are to be explained as due either (_a_) to deliberate deception
+carried out by or at the instigation of Madame Blavatsky, or (_b_) to
+spontaneous illusion or hallucination or unconscious misrepresentation or
+invention on the part of the witnesses."
+
+The mysterious appearances of the ghostly Mahatmas at the headquarters was
+shown, by Mr. Hodgson, to be the work of confederates, the cleverest among
+them being Madame Coulomb. Sliding panels, secret doors, and many
+disguises were the _modus operandi_ of the occult phenomena. In regard to
+the letters and alleged precipitated writing, Mr. Hodgson says:
+
+"It has been alleged, indeed, that when Madame Blavatsky was at Madras,
+instantaneous replies to mental queries had been found in the shrine (at
+Adyar), that envelopes containing questions were returned absolutely
+intact to the senders, and that when they were opened replies were found
+within in the handwriting of a Mahatma. After numerous inquiries, I found
+that in all cases I could hear of, the mental query was such as might
+easily have been anticipated by Madame Blavatsky; indeed, the query was
+whether the questioner would meet with success in his endeavor to become a
+pupil of the Mahatma, and the answer was frequently of the indefinite and
+oracular sort. In some cases the envelope inserted in the Shrine was one
+which had been previously sent to headquarters for that purpose, so that
+the envelope might have been opened and the answer written therein before
+it was placed in the Shrine at all. Where sufficient care was taken in the
+preparation of the inquiry, either no specific answer was given or the
+answer was delayed."
+
+A certain phenomenon, frequently mentioned by Theosophists as having
+occurred in Madame Blavatsky's sitting-room, was the dropping of a letter
+from the ceiling, supposed to be a communication from some Mahatma. In all
+such cases conjuring was proved to have been used--the _deus ex machina_
+being either a silk thread or else a cunningly secreted trap door hidden
+between the wooden beams of the bungalow ceiling, operated of course by a
+concealed confederate.
+
+Madame Blavatsky's favorite method of impressing people with her occult
+powers was the almost immediate reception of letters from distant
+countries, in response to questions asked. These feats were the result of
+carefully contrived plans, preconcerted weeks in advance. She would
+telegraph in cipher to one of her numerous correspondents, East Indian,
+for example, to write a letter in reply to a certain query, and post it at
+a particular date. Then she would calculate the arrival of the letter,
+often to a nicety. Her ability as a conversationalist enabled her to
+adroitly lead people into asking questions that would tally with the
+Mahatma messages. But sometimes she failed, and a ludicrous fiasco was the
+result. Mr. Hodgson's report contains accounts of many such mystic letters
+that would arrive by post from India in the nick of time, or too late for
+use.
+
+Among other remarkable things reported of the Madame was her power of
+producing photographs of people far away by a sort of spiritual
+photography, involving no other mechanical process than the slipping of a
+sheet of paper between the leaves of her blotting pad.
+
+When stories of this spirit-photography were rife in London, a scientist
+published the following explanation of a method of making such Mahatma
+portraits:
+
+"Has the English public never heard of 'Magic photography?' Just a few
+years ago small sheets of white paper were offered for sale which on being
+covered with damp blotting paper developed an image as if by magic. The
+white sheets of paper seemed blanks. Really, however, they were
+photographs, not containing gold, which had been bleached by immersing
+them in a solution of mercuric chloride. The latter gives up part of its
+chlorine, and this chlorine bleaches the brown silver particles of which
+the photograph consists, by changing them to chloride of silver. The
+mercuric chloride becomes mercurous chloride. This body is white, and
+therefore invisible on white paper. Now, several substances will color
+this white mercurous chloride black. Ammonia and hypo-sulphite of soda
+will do this. In the magic photographs before mentioned the blotting paper
+contained hypo-sulphite of soda. Consequently when the alleged blank
+sheets of white note paper were placed between the sheets of blotting
+paper and slightly moistened, the hypo-sulphite of soda in the blotting
+paper acted chemically on the mercurous chloride in the white note paper,
+and the picture appeared. As this was known in 1840 to Herschel,
+Blavatsky's miracle is nothing but a commonplace conjuring experiment."
+
+
+3. Madame Blavatsky's Confession.
+
+The individual to whom the world is most indebted for a critical analysis
+of Madame Blavatsky's character and her claims as a producer of occult
+phenomena is Vsevolod S. Solovyoff, a Russian journalist and _litterateur_
+of considerable note. He has ruthlessly torn the veil from the Priestess
+of Isis in a remarkable book of revelations, entitled, "A Modern Priestess
+of Isis." In May, 1884, he was in Paris, engaged in studying occult
+literature, and was preparing to write a treatise on "the rare, but in my
+opinion, real manifestations of the imperfectly investigated spiritual
+powers of man." One day he read in the _Matin_ that Madame Blavatsky had
+arrived in Paris, and he determined to meet her. Thanks to a friend in St.
+Petersburg, he obtained a letter of introduction to the famous
+Theosophist, and called on her a few days later, at her residence in the
+Rue Notre Dame des Champs. His pen picture of the interview is graphic:
+
+"I found myself in a long, mean street on the left bank of the Seine, _de
+l'autre cote de l'eau_, as the Parisians say. The coachman stopped at the
+number I had told him. The house was unsightly enough to look at, and at
+the door there was not a single carriage.
+
+"'My dear sir, you have let her slip; she has left Paris,' I said to
+myself with vexation.
+
+"In answer to my inquiry the concierge showed me the way. I climbed a
+very, very dark staircase, rang, and a slovenly figure in an Oriental
+turban admitted me into a tiny dark lobby.
+
+"To my question, whether Madame Blavatsky would receive me, the slovenly
+figure replied with an '_Entrez, monsieur_,' and vanished with my card,
+while I was left to wait in a small low room, poorly and insufficiently
+furnished.
+
+"I had not long to wait. The door opened, and she was before me; a rather
+tall woman, though she produced the impression of being short, on account
+of her unusual stoutness. Her great head seemed all the greater from her
+thick and very bright hair, touched with a scarcely perceptible gray, and
+very slightly frizzed, by nature and not by art, as I subsequently
+convinced myself.
+
+"At the first moment her plain, old earthy-colored face struck me as
+repulsive; but she fixed on me the gaze of her great, rolling, pale blue
+eyes, and in these wonderful eyes, with their hidden power, all the rest
+was forgotten.
+
+"I remarked, however, that she was very strangely dressed, in a sort of
+black sacque, and that all the fingers of her small, soft, and as it were
+boneless hands, with their slender points and long nails, were covered
+with great jewelled rings."
+
+Madame Blavatsky received Solovyoff kindly, and they became excellent
+friends. She urged him to join the Theosophical Society, and he expressed
+himself as favorably impressed with the purposes of the organization.
+During the interview she produced her astral bell "phenomenon." She
+excused herself to attend to some domestic duty, and on her return to the
+sitting-room, the phenomenon took place. Says Solovyoff: "She made a sort
+of flourish with her hand, raised it upwards and suddenly, I heard
+distinctly, quite distinctly, somewhere above our heads, near the
+ceiling, a very melodious sound like a little silver bell or an Aeolian
+harp.
+
+"'What is the meaning of this?' I asked.
+
+"'This means only that my master is here, although you and I cannot see
+him. He tells me that I may trust you, and am to do for you whatever I
+can. _Vous etes sous sa protection_, henceforth and forever.'
+
+"She looked me straight in the eyes, and caressed me with her glance and
+her kindly smile."
+
+This Mahatmic phenomenon ought to have absolutely convinced Solovyoff, but
+it did not. He asked himself the question:
+
+"'Why was the sound of the silver bell not heard at once, but only after
+she had left the room and come back again?'"
+
+A few days after this event, the Russian journalist was regularly enrolled
+as a member of the Theosophical Society, and began to study Madame
+Blavatsky instead of Oriental literature and occultism. He was introduced
+to Colonel Olcott, who showed him the turban that had been left at the New
+York headquarters by the astral Koot Hoomi. Solovyoff witnessed other
+"phenomena" in the presence of Madame Blavatsky, which did not impress him
+very favorably. Finally, the High Priestess produced her _chef d'
+oeuvre_, the psychometric reading of a letter. Solovyoff was rather
+impressed with this feat and sent an account of it to the _Rebus_, but
+subsequently came to the conclusion that trickery had entered into it.
+When the Coulomb exposures came, he did not see much of Madame Blavatsky.
+She was overwhelmed with letters and spent a considerable time anxiously
+travelling to and fro on Theosophical affairs. In August, 1885, she was at
+Wurzburg sick at heart and in body, attended by a diminutive Hindoo
+servant, Bavaji by name. She begged Solovyoff to visit her, promising to
+give him lessons in occultism. With a determination to investigate the
+"phenomena," he went to the Bavarian watering place, and one morning
+called on Madame Blavatsky. He found her seated in a great arm chair:
+
+"At the opposite end of the table stood the dwarfish Bavaji, with a
+confused look in his dulled eyes. He was evidently incapable of meeting my
+gaze, and the fact certainly did not escape me. In front of Bavaji on the
+table were scattered several sheets of clean paper. Nothing of the sort
+had occurred before, so my attention was the more aroused. In his hand
+was a great thick pencil. I began to have ideas.
+
+"'Just look at the unfortunate man,' said Helena Petrovna suddenly,
+turning to me. 'He does not look himself at all; he drives me to
+distraction'.... Then she passed from Bavaji to the London Society for
+Psychical Research, and again tried to persuade me about the 'master.'
+Bavaji stood like a statue; he could take no part in our conversation, as
+he did not know a word of Russian.
+
+"'But such incredulity as to the evidence of your own eyes, such obstinate
+infidelity as yours, is simply unpardonable. In fact, it is wicked!'
+exclaimed Helena Petrovna.
+
+"I was walking about the room at the time, and did not take my eyes off
+Bavaji. I saw that he was keeping his eyes wide open, with a sort of
+contortion of his whole body, while his hand, armed with a great pencil,
+was carefully tracing some letters on a sheet of paper.
+
+"'Look; what is the matter with him?' exclaimed Madame Blavatsky.
+
+"'Nothing particular,' I answered; 'he is writing in Russian.'
+
+"I saw her whole face grow purple. She began to stir in her chair, with an
+obvious desire to get up and take the paper from him. But with her swollen
+and almost inflexible limbs, she could not do so with any speed. I made
+haste to seize the paper and saw on it a beautifully _drawn_ Russian
+phrase.
+
+"Bavaji was to have written, in the Russian language with which he was not
+acquainted: 'Blessed are they that believe, as said the Great Adept.' He
+had learned his task well, and remembered correctly the form of all the
+letters, but he had omitted two in the word 'believe,' [The effect was
+precisely the same as if in English he had omitted the first two and last
+two letters of the word.]
+
+"'Blessed are they that _lie_,' I read aloud, unable to control the
+laughter which shook me. 'That is the best thing I ever saw. Oh, Bavaji!
+you should have got your lesson up better for examination!'
+
+"The tiny Hindoo hid his face in his hands and rushed out of the room; I
+heard his hysterical sobs in the distance. Madame Blavatsky sat with
+distorted features."
+
+As will be seen from the above, the Hindoo servant was one of the Madame's
+Mahatmas, and was caught in the act of preparing a communication from a
+sage in the Himalayas, to Solovyoff.
+
+"After this abortive phenomena," remarks the Russian journalist, "things
+marched faster, and I saw that I should soon be in a position to send very
+interesting additions to the report of the Psychical Society."... "Every
+day when I came to see the Madame she used to try to do me a favor in the
+shape of some trifling 'phenomenon,' but she never succeeded. Thus one day
+her famous 'silver bell' was heard, when suddenly something fell beside
+her on the ground. I hurried to pick it up--and found in my hands a pretty
+little piece of silver, delicately worked and strangely shaped. Helena
+Petrovna changed countenance, and snatched the object from me. I coughed
+significantly, smiled and turned the conversation to indifferent matters."
+
+On another occasion he was conversing with her about the "Theosophist,"
+and "she mentioned the name of Subba Rao, a Hindoo, who had attained the
+highest degree of knowledge." She directed Mr. Solovyoff to open a drawer
+in her writing desk, and take from it a photograph of the adept.
+
+"I opened the drawer," says Solovyoff, "found the photograph and handed it
+to her--together with a packet of Chinese envelopes (See Fig. 34), such
+as I well knew; they were the same in which the 'elect' used to receive
+the letters of the Mahatmas Morya and Koot Hoomi by 'astral post.'
+
+"'Look at that, Helena Petrovna! I should advise you to hide this packet
+of the master's envelopes farther off. You are so terribly absent-minded
+and careless.'
+
+"It was easy to imagine what this was to her. I looked at her and was
+positively frightened; her face grew perfectly black. She tried in vain to
+speak; she could only writhe helplessly in her great arm-chair."
+
+Solovyoff with great adroitness gradually drew from her a confession.
+"What is one to do," said Madame Blavatsky, plaintively, "when in order to
+rule men it is necessary to deceive them; almost invariably the more
+simple, the more silly, and the more gross the phenomenon, the more likely
+it is to succeed." The Priestess of Isis broke down completely and
+acknowledged that her phenomena were not genuine; the Koot Hoomi letters
+were written by herself and others in collusion with her; finally she
+exhibited to the journalist the apparatus for producing the "astral bell,"
+and begged him to go into a co-partnership with her to astonish the
+world. He refused! The next day she declared that a black magician had
+spoken through her mouth, and not herself; she was not responsible for
+what she had said. After this he had other interviews with her; threats
+and promises; and lastly a most extraordinary letter, which was headed,
+"My Confession," and reads, in part, as follows:
+
+"Believe me, _I have fallen because I have made up my mind to fall_, or
+else to bring about a reaction by telling all God's truth about myself,
+_but without mercy on my enemies_. On this I am firmly resolved, and from
+this day I shall begin to prepare myself in order to be ready. I will fly
+no more. Together with this letter, or a few hours later, I shall myself
+be in Paris, and then on to London. A Frenchman is ready, and a well-known
+journalist too, delighted to set about the work and to write at my
+dictation something short, but strong, and what is most important--a true
+history of my life. _I shall not even attempt to defend_, to justify
+myself. In this book I shall simply say: "In 1848, I, hating my husband,
+N. V. Blavatsky (it may have been wrong, but still such was the nature
+_God_ gave me), left him, abandoned him--_a virgin_. (I shall produce
+documents and letters proving this, although he himself is not such a
+swine as to deny it.) I loved one man deeply, but still more I loved
+occult science, believing in magic, wizards, etc. I wandered with him here
+and there, in Asia, in America, and in Europe. I met with So-and-so. (You
+may call him a _wizard_, what does it matter to him?) In 1858 I was in
+London; there came out some story about a child, not mine (there will
+follow medical evidence, from the faculty of Paris, and it is for this
+that I am going to Paris). One thing and another was said of me; that I
+was depraved, possessed with a devil, etc.
+
+"I shall tell everything as I think fit, everything I did, for the twenty
+years and more, that I laughed at the _qu'en dira-t-on_, and covered up
+all traces of what I was _really_ occupied in, i. e., the _sciences
+occultes_, for the sake of my family and relations who would at that time
+have cursed me. I will tell how from my eighteenth year I tried to get
+people to talk about me, and say about me that this man and that was my
+lover, and _hundreds_ of them. I will tell, too, a great deal of which no
+one ever dreamed, and _I will prove it_. Then I will inform the world how
+suddenly my eyes were opened to all the horror of my _moral suicide_; how
+I was sent to America to try my psychological capabilities; how I
+collected a society there, and began to expiate my faults, and attempted
+to make men better and to sacrifice myself for their regeneration. _I will
+name all_ the Theosophists who were brought into the right way, drunkards
+and rakes, who became almost saints, especially in India, and those who
+enlisted as Theosophists, and continued their former life, as though they
+were doing the work (and there are many of them) and _yet were the first_
+to join the pack of hounds that were hunting me down, and to bite me....
+
+"No! The devils will save me in this last great hour. You did not
+calculate on the cool determination of _despair_, which _was_ and has
+_passed over_.... And to this I have been brought by you. You have been
+the last straw which has broken the camel's back under its intolerably
+heavy burden. Now you are at liberty to conceal nothing. Repeat to all
+Paris what you have ever heard or know about me. I have already written a
+letter to Sinnett _forbidding him_ to publish my _memoirs_ at his own
+discretion. I myself will publish them with all the truth.... It will be a
+Saturnalia of the moral depravity of mankind, this _confession_ of mine, a
+worthy epilogue of my stormy life.... Let the psychist gentlemen, and
+whosoever will, set on foot a new inquiry. Mohini and all the rest, even
+_India_, are dead for me. I thirst for one thing only, that the world may
+know all the reality, all the _truth_, and learn the lesson. And then
+_death_, kindest of all.
+
+  H. BLAVATSKY.
+
+"You may print this letter if you will, even in Russia. It is all the same
+now."
+
+This remarkable effusion may be the result of a fever-disordered brain, it
+may be, as she says, the "God's truth;" at any rate it bears the ear-marks
+of the Blavatsky style about it. The disciples of the High Priestess of
+Isis have bitterly denounced Solovyoff and the revelations contained in
+his book. They brand him as a coward for not having published his diatribe
+during the lifetime of the Madame, when she was able to defend herself.
+However that may be, Solovyoff's exposures tally very well with the mass
+of corroborative evidence adduced by Hodgson, Coues, Coleman, and a host
+of writers, who began their attacks during the earthly pilgrimage of the
+great Sibyl.
+
+On receipt of this letter, Feb 16, 1886, Solovyoff resigned from the
+Theosophical Society. He denounced the High Priestess to the Paris
+Theosophists, and the Blavatsky lodges in that city were disrupted in
+consequence of the exposures. This seems to be a convincing proof of the
+genuineness of his revelations. After the Solovyoff incident, Madame
+Blavatsky went into retirement for a while. Eventually she appeared in
+London as full of enthusiasm as ever and added to her list of converts the
+Countess of Caithness and Mrs. Annie Besant, the famous socialist and
+authoress.
+
+Finally came the last act of this strange life-drama. That messenger of
+death, whom the mystical Persian singer, Omar Khayyam, calls "The Angel of
+the Darker Drink," held to her lips the inevitable chalice of Mortality;
+then the "golden cord was loosened and the silver bowl was broken," and
+she passed into the land of shadows. It was in London, May 8, 1891, that
+Helena Petrovna Blavatsky ended one of the strangest careers on record.
+She died calmly and peacefully in her bed, surrounded by her friends, and
+after her demise her body was cremated by her disciples, with occult rites
+and ceremonies. All that remained of her--a few handfuls of powdery white
+ashes--was gathered together, and divided into three equal parts. One
+portion was buried in London, one sent to New York City, and the third to
+Adyar, near Madras, India. The New World, the Old World, and the still
+Older World of the East were honored with the ashes of H. P. B. Three
+civilizations, three heaps of ashes, three initials--mystic number from
+time immemorial, celebrated symbol of Divinity known to, and revered by,
+Cabalists, Gnostics, Rosicrucians, and Theosophists.
+
+Mr. J. Ransom Bridges, who had considerable correspondence with the High
+Priestess from 1888 until her death, says (_Arena_, April, 1895):
+"Whatever may be the ultimate verdict upon the life and work of this
+woman, her place in history will be unique. There was a Titanic display of
+strength in everything she did. The storms that raged in her were
+cyclones. Those exposed to them often felt with Solovyoff that if there
+were holy and sage _Mahatmas_, they could not remain holy and sage, and
+have anything to do with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. The 'confession' she
+wrote rings with the mingled curses and mad laughter of a crazy mariner
+scuttling his own ship. Yet she could be as tender and sympathetic as any
+mother. Her mastery of some natures seemed complete; and these people she
+worked like galley-slaves in the Theosophical tread mill of her propaganda
+movement.
+
+"To these disciples she was the greatest thaumaturgist known to the world
+since the days of the Christ. The attacks upon her, the Coulomb and
+Solovyoff exposures, the continual newspaper calumnies they look upon as a
+gigantic conspiracy brewed by all the rules of the black art to
+counteract, and, if possible, to destroy the effect of her work and
+mission."
+
+"Requiescat in Pace," O Priestess of Isis, until your next incarnation on
+Earth! The twentieth century will doubtless have need of your services!
+For the delectation of the curious let me add: the English resting place
+of Madame Blavatsky is designed after the model of an Oriental "dagoba,"
+or tomb; the American shrine is a marble niche in the wall of the
+Theosophical headquarters, No. 144 Madison avenue, the ashes reposing in a
+vase standing in the niche behind a hermetically-sealed glass window. The
+Oriental shrine in Adyar is a tomb modelled after the world-famous Taj
+Mahal, and is built of pink sandstone, surmounted by a small Benares
+copper spire.
+
+
+4. The Writings of Madame Blavatsky.
+
+Madame Blavatsky is known to the reading world as the writer of two
+voluminous works of a philosophical or mystical character, explanatory of
+the Esoteric Doctrine, viz., "Isis Unveiled," published in 1877, and the
+"Secret Doctrine," published in 1888. In the composition of these works
+she claimed that she was assisted by the Mahatmas who visited her
+apartments when she was asleep, and wrote portions of the manuscripts with
+their astral hands while their natural bodies reposed entranced in
+Thibetan Lamaseries. These fictions were fostered by prominent members of
+the Theosophical Society, and believed by many credulous persons. "Isis
+Unveiled" is a hodge-podge of absurdities, pseudo-science, mythology and
+folklore, arranged in helter-skelter fashion, with an utter disregard of
+logical sequence. The fact was that Madame Blavatsky had a very imperfect
+knowledge of English, and this may account for the strange mistakes in
+which the volume abounds, despite the aid of the ghostly Mahatmas. William
+Emmette Coleman, of San Francisco, has made an exhaustive analysis of the
+Madame's writings, and declares that "Isis," and the "Secret Doctrine" are
+full of plagiarisms. In "Isis" he discovered "some 2,000 passages copied
+from other books without proper credit." Speaking of the "Secret
+Doctrine," the master key to the wisdom of the ages, he says: "The
+'Secret Doctrine' is ostensibly based upon certain stanzas, claimed to
+have been translated by Madame Blavatsky from the 'Book of Dzyan'--the
+oldest book in the world, written in a language unknown to philology. The
+'Book of Dzyan' was the work of Madame Blavatsky--a compilation, in her
+own language, from a variety of sources, embracing the general principles
+of the doctrines and dogmas taught in the 'Secret Doctrine.' I find in
+this 'oldest book in the world' statements copied from nineteenth century
+books, and in the usual blundering manner of Madame Blavatsky. Letters and
+other writings of the adepts are found in the 'Secret Doctrine.' In these
+Mahatmic productions I have traced various plagiarized passages from
+Wilson's 'Vishnu Purana,' and Winchell's 'World Life'--of like character
+to those in Madame Blavatsky's acknowledged writings. * * * A specimen of
+the wholesale plagiarisms in this book appears in vol. II., pp. 599-603.
+Nearly the whole of four pages was copied from Oliver's 'Pythagorean
+Triangle,' while only a few lines were credited to that work."
+
+Those who are interested in Coleman's exposé are referred to Appendix C,
+of Solovyoff's book, "A Modern Priestess of Isis." The title of this
+appendix is "The Sources of Madame Blavatsky's Writings." Mr. Coleman is
+at present engaged in the preparation of an elaborate work on the subject,
+which will in addition contain an "exposé of Theosophy as a whole." It
+will no doubt prove of interest to students of occultism.
+
+
+5. Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist.
+
+The funeral of Baron de Palm, conducted according to Theosophical rites,
+is an interesting chapter in the history of the Society, and worth
+relating.
+
+Joseph Henry Louis Charles, Baron de Palm, Grand Cross Commander of the
+Sovereign Order of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and knight of various
+orders, was born at Augsburg, May 10, 1809. He came to the United States
+rather late in life, drifted West without any settled occupation, and
+lived from hand to mouth in various Western cities. Finally he located in
+New York City, broken in health and spirit. He was a man of considerable
+culture and interested to a greater or less extent in the phenomena of
+modern Spiritualism. A letter of introduction from the editor of the
+_Religio-Philosophical Journal_, of Chicago, made him acquainted with
+Col. Olcott, who introduced him to prominent members of the Theosophical
+Society. He was elected a member of the Society, eventually becoming a
+member of the Council. In the year 1875 he died, leaving behind an earnest
+request that Col. Olcott "should perform the last offices in a fashion
+that would illustrate the Eastern notions of death and immortality."[6] He
+also left directions that his body should be cremated. A great deal of
+excitement was caused over this affair in orthodox religious circles, and
+public curiosity was aroused to the highest pitch. The funeral service
+was, as Madame Blavatsky described it in a letter to a European
+correspondent, "pagan, almost antique pagan." The ceremony was held in the
+great hall of the Masonic Temple, corner of Twenty-third and Sixth avenue.
+Tickets of admission were issued of decidedly occult shape--_triangular_;
+some black, printed in silver; others drab, printed in black. A crowd of
+2,000 people assembled to witness the obsequies. On the stage was a
+_triangular_ altar, with a symbolical fire burning upon it. The coffin
+stood near by, covered with the orders of knighthood of the deceased. A
+splendid choir rendered several Orphic hymns composed for the occasion,
+with organ accompaniment, and Col. Olcott, as Hierophant, made an
+invocation or _mantram_ "to the Soul of the World whose breath gives and
+withdraws the form of everything." Death is always solemn, and no subject
+for levity, yet I must not leave out of this chronicle the unique
+burlesque programme of Baron de Palm's funeral, published by the _New York
+World_, the day before the event. Says the _World_:
+
+"The procession will move in the following order:
+
+"Col. Olcott as high priest, wearing a leopard skin and carrying a roll of
+papyrus (brown card board).
+
+"Mr. Cobb, as sacred scribe, with style and tablet.
+
+"Egyptian mummy-case, borne upon a sledge drawn by four oxen. (Also a
+slave bearing a pot of lubricating oil.)
+
+"Madame Blavatsky as chief mourner and also bearer of the sistrum. (She
+will wear a long linen garment extending to the feet, and a girdle about
+the waist.)
+
+"Colored boy carrying three Abyssinian geese (Philadelphia chickens) to
+place upon the bier.
+
+"Vice-President Felt, with the eye of Osiris painted on his left breast,
+and carrying an asp (bought at a toy store on Eighth avenue.)
+
+"Dr. Pancoast, singing an ancient Theban dirge:
+
+  "'Isis and Nepthys, beginning and end:
+   One more victim to Amenti we send.
+   Pay we the fare, and let us not tarry.
+   Cross the Styx by the Roosevelt street ferry.'"
+
+"Slaves in mourning gowns, carrying the offerings and libations, to
+consist of early potatoes, asparagus, roast beef, French pan-cakes,
+bock-beer, and New Jersey cider.
+
+"Treasurer Newton, as chief of the musicians, playing the double pipe.
+
+"Other musicians performing on eight-stringed harps, tom-toms, etc.
+
+"Boys carrying a large lotus (sunflower).
+
+"Librarian Fassit, who will alternate with music by repeating the lines
+beginning:
+
+  "'Here Horus comes, I see the boat.
+     Friends, stay your flowing tears;
+   The soul of man goes through a goat
+     In just 3,000 years.'
+
+"At the temple the ceremony will be short and simple. The oxen will be
+left standing on the sidewalk, with a boy near by to prevent them goring
+the passers-by. Besides the Theurgic hymn, printed above in full, the
+Coptic National anthem will be sung, translated and adapted to the
+occasion as follows:
+
+  "Sitting Cynocephalus up in a tree,
+   I see you, and you see me.
+   River full of crocodile, see his long snout!
+   Hoist up the shadoof and pull him right out."
+
+
+6. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky.
+
+After Madame Blavatsky's death, Mrs. Annie Besant assumed the leadership
+of the Theosophical Society, and wore upon her finger a ring that belonged
+to the High Priestess: a ring with a green stone flecked with veins of
+blood red, upon the surface of which was engraved the interlaced triangles
+within a circle, with the Indian motto, _Sat_ (Life), the symbol of
+Theosophy. It was given to Madame Blavatsky by her Indian teacher, says
+Mrs. Besant, and is very magnetic. The High Priestess on her deathbed
+presented the mystic signet to her successor, and left her in addition
+many valuable books and manuscripts. The Theosophical Society now numbers
+its adherents by the thousands and has its lodges scattered over the
+United States, France, England and India. At the World's Columbian
+Exposition it was well represented in the Great Parliament of Religions,
+by Annie Besant, William Q. Judge, of the American branch, and Prof.
+Chakravatir, a High Caste Brahmin of India.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 38. PORTRAIT OF MRS. ANNIE BESANT.]
+
+Mrs. Besant, in an interview published in the _New York World_, Dec. 11,
+1892, made the following statement concerning Madame Blavatsky's peculiar
+powers:
+
+"One time she was trying to explain to me the control of the mind over
+certain currents in the ether about us, and to illustrate she made some
+little taps come on my own head. They were accompanied by the sensation
+one experiences on touching an electric battery. I have frequently seen
+her draw things to her simply by her will, without touching them. Indeed,
+she would often check herself when strangers were about. It was natural
+for her, when she wanted a book that was on the table, to simply draw it
+to her by her power of mind, as it would be for you to reach out your hand
+to pick it up. And so, as I say, she often had to check herself, for she
+was decidedly adverse to making a show of her power. In fact, that is
+contrary to the law of the brotherhood to which she belonged. This law
+forbids them to make use of their power except as an instruction to their
+pupils or as an aid to the spreading of the truth. An adept may never use
+his knowledge for his personal advantage. He may be starving, and despite
+his ability to materialize banquets he may not supply himself with a crust
+of bread. This is what is meant in the Gospel when it says: 'He saved
+others, Himself He cannot save.'
+
+"One time she had written an article and as usual she gave me her
+manuscript to look over.
+
+"Sometimes she wrote very good grammatic English and again she wrote very
+slovenly English. So she always had me go over her manuscript. In reading
+this particular one I found a long quotation of some twenty or thirty
+lines. When I finished it I went to her and said: 'Where in the world did
+you get that quotation?'
+
+"'I got it from an Indian newspaper of --,' naming the date.
+
+"'But,' I said, 'that paper cannot be in this country yet! How did you get
+hold of it?'
+
+"'Oh, I got it, dear,' she said, with a little laugh; 'that's enough.'
+
+"Of course I understood then. When the time came for the paper to arrive,
+I thought I would verify her quotation, so I asked her for the name, the
+date of the issue and the page on which the quotation would be found. She
+told me, giving me, we will say, 45 as the number of the page. I went to
+the agent, looked up the paper and there was no such quotation on page 45.
+Then I remembered that things seen in the astral light are reversed, so I
+turned the number around, looked on page 54 and there was the quotation.
+When I went home I told her that it was all right, but that she had given
+me the wrong page.
+
+"'Very likely,' she said. 'Someone came in just as I was finishing it, and
+I may have forgotten to reverse the number.'
+
+"You see, anything seen in the astral light is reversed, as if you saw it
+in a mirror, while anything seen clairvoyantly is straight."
+
+The elevation of Mrs. Besant to the High Priestess-ship of the
+Theosophical Society was in accord with the spirit of the age--an
+acknowledgment of the Eternal Feminine; but it did not bring repose to the
+organization. William Q. Judge, of the American branch, began dabbling, it
+is claimed, in Mahatma messages on his own account, and charges were made
+against him by Mrs. Besant. A bitter warfare was waged in Theosophical
+journals, and finally the American branch of the general society seceded,
+and organized itself into the American Theosophical Society. Judge was
+made life-president and held the post until his death, in New York City,
+March 21st, 1896. His body was cremated and the ashes sealed in an urn,
+which was deposited in the Society's rooms, No. 144 Madison avenue.
+
+Five weeks after the death of Judge, the Theosophical Society held its
+annual conclave in New York City, and elected E. T. Hargrove as the
+presiding genius of esoteric wisdom in the United States. It was
+originally intended to hold this convention in Chicago, but the change was
+made for a peculiar reason. As the press reported the circumstance, "it
+was the result of a request by a mysterious adept whose existence had been
+unsuspected, and who made known his wish in a communication to the
+executive committee." It seems that the Theosophical Society is composed
+of two bodies, the exoteric and the esoteric. The first holds open
+meetings for the discussion of ethical and Theosophical subjects, and the
+second meets privately, being composed of a secret body of adepts, learned
+in occultism and possessing remarkable spiritual powers. The chief of the
+secret order is appointed by the Mahatmas, on account, it is claimed, of
+his or her occult development. Madame Blavatsky was the High Priestess in
+this inner temple during her lifetime, and was succeeded by Hierophant W.
+Q. Judge. When Judge died, it seems there was no one thoroughly qualified
+to take his place as the head of the esoteric branch, until an examination
+was made of his papers. Then came a surprise. Judge had named as his
+successor a certain obscure individual whom he claimed to be a great
+adept, requesting that the name be kept a profound secret for a specified
+time. In obedience to this injunction, the Great Unknown was elected as
+chief of the Inner Brother-and-Sisterhood. All of this made interesting
+copy for the New York journalists, and columns were printed about the
+affair. Another surprise came when the convention of exoterics
+("hysterics," as some of the papers called them) subscribed $25,000 for
+the founding of an occult temple in this country. But the greatest
+surprise of all was a Theosophical wedding. The De Palm funeral fades away
+into utter insignificance beside this mystic marriage. The contracting
+parties were Claude Falls Wright, formerly secretary to Madame Blavatsky,
+and Mary C. L. Leonard, daughter of Anna Byford Leonard, one of the best
+known Theosophists in the West. The ceremony was performed at Aryan Hall,
+No. 144 Madison avenue, N. Y., in the presence of the occult body.
+Outsiders were not admitted. However, public curiosity was partly
+gratified by sundry crumbs of information thrown out by the Theosophical
+press bureau.
+
+The young couple stood beneath a seven-pointed star, made of electric
+light globes, and plighted their troth amid clouds of odoriferous incense.
+Then followed weird chantings and music by an occult orchestra composed of
+violins and violoncellos. The unknown adept presided over the affair, as
+special envoy of the Mahatmas. He was enveloped from head to foot in a
+thick white veil, said the papers.
+
+Mr. Wright and his bride-elect declared solemnly that they remembered many
+of their former incarnations; their marriage had really taken place in
+Egypt, 5,000 years ago in one of the mysterious temples of that strange
+country, and the ceremony had been performed by the priests of Isis. Yes,
+they remembered it all! It seemed but as yesterday! They recalled with
+vividness the scene: their march up the avenue of monoliths; the lotus
+flowers strewn in their path by rosy children; the intoxicating perfume
+of the incense, burned in bronze braziers by shaven-headed priests; the
+hieroglyphics, emblematical of life, death and resurrection, painted upon
+the temple walls; the Hierophant in his gorgeous vestments. Oh, what a
+dream of Old World splendor and beauty!
+
+Before many months had passed, the awful secret of the Veiled Adept's
+identity was revealed. The Great Unknown turned out to be a _she_ instead
+of a _he_ adept--a certain Mrs. Katherine Alice Tingley, of New York City.
+The reporters began ringing the front door bell of the adept's house in
+the vain hope of obtaining an interview, but the newly-hatched Sphinx
+turned a deaf ear to their entreaties. The time was not yet ripe for
+revelations. Her friends, however, rushed into print, and told the most
+marvellous stories of her mediumship.
+
+W. T. Stead, the English journalist and student of psychical research,
+reviewing the Theosophical convention and its outcome, says (_Borderland_,
+July, 1896, p. 306): "The Judgeite seceders from the Theosophical Society
+held their annual convention in New York, April 26th to 27th. They have
+elected a young man, Mr. Ernest T. Hargrove, as their president. A former
+spiritual medium and clairvoyant, by name Katherine Alice Tingley, who
+claims to have been bosom friends with H. P. B. 1200 years B. C., when
+both were incarnated in Egypt, is, however, the grand Panjandrum of the
+cause. Her first husband was a detective, her second is a clerk in the
+White Lead Company's office in Brooklyn.
+
+"According to Mr. Hargrove she is--'The new adept; she was appointed by
+Mr. Judge, and we are going to sustain her, as we sustained him, for we
+know her important connection in Egypt, Mexico and Europe.'"
+
+In the spring of 1896, Mrs. Tingley, accompanied by a number of prominent
+occultists, started on a crusade through the world to bring the truths of
+Theosophy to the toiling millions. The crusaders before their departure
+were presented with a purple silk banner, bearing the legend: "Truth,
+Light, Liberation for Discouraged Humanity." The _New York Herald_ (Aug.
+16, 1896) says of this crusade:
+
+"When Mrs. Tingley and the other crusaders left this country nothing had
+been heard of the claim of the reincarnated Blavatsky. Now, however, this
+idea is boldly advanced in England by the American branch of the society
+there, and in America by Burcham Harding, the acting head of the society
+in this country. When Mr. Harding was seen at the Theosophical
+headquarters, he said:
+
+"'Yes, Mme. Blavatsky is reincarnated in Mrs. Tingley. She has not only
+been recognized by myself and other members of the American branch of the
+Theosophical Society, who knew H. P. B. in her former life, but the
+striking physical and facial resemblance has also been noted by members of
+the English branch.'
+
+"But this recognition by the English members of the society does not seem
+to be as strong as Mr. Harding would seem to have it understood. In fact,
+there are a number of members of that branch who boldly declare that Mrs.
+Tingley is an impostor. One of them, within the last week, addressing the
+English members on the subject, claimed that Mme. Blavatsky had foreseen
+that such an impostor would arise. He said:
+
+"'When Mme. Blavatsky lived in her body among us, she declared to all her
+disciples that, in her next reincarnation, she would inhabit the body of
+an Eastern man, and she warned them to be on their guard against any
+assertion made by mediums or others that they were controlled by her.
+Whatever H. P. B. lacked, she never wanted emphasis, and no one who knew
+anything of the founder of the Theosophical Society was left in any doubt
+as to her views upon this question. She declared that if any persons,
+after her death, should claim that she was speaking through them, her
+friends might be quite sure that it was a lie. Imagine, then, the feelings
+of H. P. B.'s disciples on being presented with an American clairvoyant
+medium, in the shape of Mrs. Tingley, who is reported to claim that H. P.
+B. is reincarnated in her.'
+
+"The American branch of the society is not at all disturbed by this charge
+of fraud by the English branch. In connection with it Mr. Harding says:
+
+"'It is true that the American branch of the Theosophical Society has
+seceded from the English branch, but as Mme. Blavatsky, the founder, was
+in reality an American, it can be understood why we consider ourselves the
+parent society.'
+
+"Of the one letter which Mrs. Tingley has sent to America since the
+arrival of the crusaders, the English Theosophists are a unit in the
+expression of opinion that it illustrated, as did her speech in Queen's
+Hall, merely 'unmeaning platitudes and prophecies.' But the American
+members are quite as loud in their expressions that the English members
+are trying to win the sympathies of the public, and that the words are
+really understood by the initiate.
+
+"The letter reads: 'In thanking you for the many kind letters addressed to
+me as Katherine Tingley, as well as by other names that would not be
+understood by the general public, I should like to say a few words as to
+the future and its possibilities. Many of you are destined to take an
+active part in the work that the future will make manifest, and it is well
+to press onward with a clear knowledge of the path to be trodden and with
+a clear vision of the goal to be reached.
+
+"'The path to be trodden is both exterior and interior, and in order to
+reach the goal it is necessary to tread these paths with strength,
+courage, faith and the essence of them all, which is wisdom.
+
+"'For these two paths, which fundamentally are one, like every duality in
+nature, are winding paths, and now lead through sunlight, then through
+deepest shade. During the last few years the large majority of students
+have been rounding a curve in the paths of both inner and outer work, and
+this wearied many. But those who persevered and faltered not will soon
+reap their reward.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 39. PORTRAIT OF MRS. TINGLEY.
+
+[Reproduced by courtesy of the _New York Herald_.]]
+
+"'The present is pregnant with the promise of the near future, and that
+future is brighter than could be believed by those who have so recently
+been immersed in the shadows that are inevitable in cyclic progress. Can
+words describe it? I think not. But if you will think of the past twenty
+years of ploughing and sowing and will keep in your mind the tremendous
+force that has been scattered broadcast throughout the world, you must
+surely see that the hour for reaping is near at hand, if it has not
+already come."
+
+The invasion of English territory by the American crusaders was resented
+by the British Theosophists. The advocates of universal brotherhood waged
+bitter warfare against each other in the newspapers and periodicals. It
+gradually resolved itself into a struggle for supremacy between the two
+rival claimants for the mantle of Madame Blavatsky, Mrs. Annie Besant and
+Mrs. Tingley. Each Pythoness ascended her sacred tripod and hysterically
+denounced the other as an usurper, and false prophetess. Annie Besant
+sought to disprove the idea of Madame Blavatsky having re-incarnated
+herself in the body of Mrs. Tingley. She claimed that the late High
+Priestess had taken up her earthly pilgrimage again in the person of a
+little Hindoo boy, who lived somewhere on the banks of the Ganges. The
+puzzling problem was this: If Mrs. Tingley was Mme. Blavatsky, where was
+Mrs. Tingley? Oedipus would have gone mad trying to solve this Sphinx
+riddle.
+
+The crusade finished, Mrs. Tingley, with her purple banner returned to New
+York, where she was royally welcomed by her followers. In the wake of the
+American adept came the irrepressible Annie Besant, accompanied by a
+sister Theosophist, the Countess Constance Wachmeister. Mrs. Besant,
+garbed in a white linen robe of Hindoo pattern, lectured on occult
+subjects to crowded houses in the principal cities of the East and West.
+In the numerous interviews accorded her by the press, she ridiculed the
+Blavatsky-Tingley re-incarnation theory. By kind permission of the _New
+York Herald_, I reproduce a portrait of Mrs. Tingley. The reader will find
+it interesting to compare this sketch with the photograph of Madame
+Blavatsky given in this book. He will notice at once how much the two
+occultists do resemble each other; both are grossly fat, puffy of face,
+with heavy-lidded eyes and rather thick lips.
+
+
+7. The Theosophical Temple.
+
+If all the dreams of the Theosophical Society are fulfilled we shall see,
+at no distant date, in the state of California, a sombre and mysterious
+building, fashioned after an Egyptian temple, its pillars covered with
+hieroglyphic symbols, and its ponderous pylons flanking the gloomy
+entrance. Twin obelisks will stand guard at the gateway and huge bronze
+sphinxes stare the tourist out of countenance. The Theosophical temple
+will be constructed "upon certain mysterious principles, and the numbers 7
+and 13 will play a prominent part in connection with the dimensions of the
+rooms and the steps of the stairways." The Hierophants of occultism will
+assemble here, weird initiations like those described in Moore's
+"Epicurean" will take place, and the doctrines of Hindoo pantheism will be
+expounded to the Faithful. The revival of the Egyptian mysteries seems to
+be one of the objects aimed at in the establishment of this mystical
+college. Just what the Egyptian Mysteries were is a mooted question among
+Egyptologists. But this does not bother the modern adept.
+
+Mr. Bucham Harding, the leading exponent of Theosophy mentioned above,
+says that within the temple the neophyte will be brought face to face with
+his own soul. "By what means cannot be revealed; but I may say that the
+object of initiation will be to raise the consciousness of the pupil to a
+plane where he will see and know his own divine soul and consciously
+communicate with it. Once gained, this power is never lost. From this it
+can be seen that occultism is not so unreal as many think, and that the
+existence of soul is susceptible of actual demonstration. No one will be
+received into the mysteries until, by means of a long and severe
+probation, he has proved nobility of character. Only persons having
+Theosophical training will be eligible, but as any believer in brotherhood
+may become a Theosophist, all earnest truthseekers will have an
+opportunity of admission.
+
+"The probation will be sufficiently severe to deter persons seeking to
+gratify curiosity from trying to enter. No trifler could stand the test.
+There will be a number of degrees. Extremely few will be able to enter the
+highest, as eligibility to it requires eradication of every human fault
+and weakness. Those strong enough to pass through this become adepts."
+
+The Masonic Fraternity, with its 33d degree and its elaborate initiations,
+will have to look to its laurels, as soon as the Theosophical College of
+Mystery is in good running order. Everyone loves mysteries, especially
+when they are of the Egyptian kind. Cagliostro, the High Priest of Humbug,
+knew this when he evolved the Egyptian Rite of Masonry, in the eighteenth
+century. Speaking of Freemasonry, it is interesting to note the fact, as
+stated by Colonel Olcott in "Old Diary Leaves," that Madame Blavatsky and
+her coadjutors once seriously debated the question as to the advisability
+of engrafting the Theosophical Society on the Masonic fraternity, as a
+sort of higher degree,--Masonry representing the lesser mysteries, modern
+Theosophy the greater mysteries. But little encouragement was given to the
+Priestess of Isis by eminent Freemasons, for Masonry has always been the
+advocate of theistic doctrines, and opposed to the pantheistic cult. At
+another time, the leaders of Theosophy talked of imitating Masonry by
+having degrees, an elaborate ritual, etc.; also pass words, signs and
+grips, in order that "one _occult_ brother might know another in the
+darkness as well as in the _astral_ light." This, however, was abandoned.
+The founding of the Temple of Magic and Mystery in this country, with
+ceremonies of initiation, etc., seems to me to be a palingenesis of Mme.
+Blavatsky's ideas on the subject of occult Masonry.
+
+
+8. Conclusions.
+
+The temple of modern Theosophy, the foundation of which was laid by Madame
+Blavatsky, rests upon the truth of the Mahatma stories. Disbelieve these,
+and the entire structure falls to the ground like a house of cards. After
+the numerous exposures, recorded in the preceding chapters, it is
+difficult to place any reliance in the accounts of Mahatmic miracles.
+There may, or may not, be sages in the East, acquainted with spiritual
+laws of being, but that these masters, or adepts, used Madame Blavatsky as
+a medium to announce certain esoteric doctrines to the Western world, is
+exceedingly dubious.
+
+The first work of any literary pretensions to call attention to Theosophy
+was Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism." Of that production, William Emmette
+Coleman says:
+
+"'Esoteric Buddhism,' by A. P. Sinnett, was based upon statements
+contained in letters received by Mr. Sinnett and Mr. A. O. Hume, through
+Madame Blavatsky, purporting to be written by the Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and
+Morya--principally the former. Mr. Richard Hodgson has kindly lent me a
+considerable number of the original letters of the Mahatmas that leading
+to the production of 'Esoteric Buddhism.' I find in them overwhelming
+evidence that all of them were written by Madame Blavatsky. In these
+letters are a number of extracts from Buddhist Books, alleged to be
+translations from the originals by the Mahatmic writers themselves. These
+letters claim for the adepts a knowledge of Sanskrit, Thibetan, Pali and
+Chinese. I have traced to its source each quotation from the Buddhist
+Scriptures in the letters, and they were all copied from current English
+translations, including even the notes and explanations of the English
+translators. They were principally copied from Beal's 'Catena of Buddhist
+Scriptures from the Chinese.' In other places where the 'adept' is using
+his own language in explanation of Buddhistic terms and ideas, I find that
+his presumed original language was copied nearly word for word from Rhys
+Davids' 'Buddhism,' and other books. I have traced every Buddhistic idea
+in these letters and in 'Esoteric Buddhism,' and every Buddhistic term,
+such as Devachan, Avitchi, etc., to the books whence Helena Petrovna
+Blavatsky derived them. Although said to be proficient in the knowledge of
+Thibetan and Sanskrit the words and terms in these languages in the
+letters of the adepts were nearly all used in a ludicrously erroneous and
+absurd manner. The writer of those letters was an ignoramus in Sanskrit
+and Thibetan; and the mistakes and blunders in them, in these languages,
+are in exact accordance with the known ignorance of Madame Blavatsky
+concerning these languages. 'Esoteric Buddhism,' like all of Madame
+Blavatsky's works, was based upon wholesale plagiarism and ignorance."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 40. MADAME BLAVATSKY'S AUTOGRAPH.]
+
+Madame Blavatsky never succeeded in penetrating into Thibet, in whose
+sacred "lamaseries" and temples dwell the wonderful Mahatmas of modern
+Theosophy, but William Woodville Rockhill, the American traveller and
+Oriental scholar, did, and we have a record of his adventures in "The Land
+of the Laas," published in 1891. While at Serkok, he visited a famous
+monastery inhabited by 700 lamas. He says (page 102): "They asked endless
+questions concerning the state of Buddhism in foreign lands. They were
+astonished that it no longer existed in India, and that the church of
+Ceylon was so like the ancient Buddhist one. When told of our esoteric
+Buddhists, the Mahatmas, and of the wonderful doctrines they claimed to
+have obtained from Thibet, they were immensely amused. They declared that
+though in ancient times there were, doubtless, saints and sages who could
+perform some of the miracles now claimed by the Esoterists, none were
+living at the present day; and they looked upon this new school as rankly
+heretical, and as something approaching an imposition on our credulity."
+
+"Isis Unveiled," and the "Secret Doctrine," by Madame Blavatsky, are
+supposed to contain the completest exposition of Theosophy, or the inner
+spiritual meaning of the great religious cults of the world, but, as we
+have seen, they are full of plagiarisms and garbled statements, to say
+nothing of "spurious quotations from Buddhist sacred books, manufactured
+by the writer to embody her own peculiar views, under the fictitious guise
+of genuine Buddhism." This last quotation from Coleman strikes the keynote
+of the whole subject. Esoteric Buddhism is a product of Occidental
+manufacture, a figment of Madame Blavatsky's romantic imagination, and by
+no means represents the truth of Oriental philosophy.
+
+As Max Mueller, one of the greatest living Oriental scholars, has
+repeatedly stated, any attempt to read into Oriental thought our Western
+science and philosophy or to reconcile them, is futile to a degree; the
+two schools are as opposite to each other, as the negative and positive
+poles of a magnet, Orientalism representing the former, Occidentalism, the
+latter. Oriental philosophy with its Indeterminate Being (or pure nothing
+as the Absolute) ends in the utter negation of everything and affords no
+clue to the secret of the Universe. If to believe that all is _maya_,
+(illusion), and that to be one with Brahma (absorbed like the rain drop in
+the ocean) constitutes the _summum bonum_ of thinking, then there is no
+explanation of, or use for, evolution or progress of any kind. The effect
+of Hindoo philosophy has been stagnation, indifferentism, and, as a
+result, the Hindoo has no recorded history, no science, no art worthy the
+name. Compared to it see what Greek philosophy has done: it has
+transformed the Western world: Starting with Self-Determined Being,
+reason, self-activity, at the heart of the Universe, and the creation of
+individual souls by a process of evolution in time and space, and the
+unfolding of a splendid civilization are logical consequences. In the
+East, it is the destruction of self-hood; in the West the destruction of
+selfishness, and the preservation of self-hood.
+
+Many noted Theosophists claim that modern Theosophy is not a religious
+cult, but simply an exposition of the esoteric, or inner spiritual meaning
+of the great religious teachers of the world. Let me quote what Solovyoff
+says on this point:
+
+"The Theosophical Society shockingly deceived those who joined it as
+members, in reliance on the regulations. It gradually grew evident that it
+was no universal scientific brotherhood, to which the followers of all
+religions might with a clear conscience belong, but a group of persons who
+had begun to preach in their organ, _The Theosophist_, and in their other
+publications, a mixed religious doctrine. Finally, in the last years of
+Madame Blavatsky's life, even this doctrine gave place to a direct and
+open propaganda of the most orthodox exoteric Buddhism, under the motto of
+'Our Lord Buddha,' combined with incessant attacks on Christianity. * * *
+Now, in 1893, as the direct effect of this cause, we see an entire
+religious movement, we see a prosperous and growing plantation of Buddhism
+in Western Europe."
+
+As a last word let me add that if, in my opinion, modern Theosophy has no
+right to the high place it claims in the world of thought, it has
+performed its share in the noble fight against the crass materialism of
+our day, and, freed from the frauds that have too long darkened its
+poetical aspects, it may yet help to diffuse through the world the pure
+light of brotherly love and spiritual development.
+
+
+
+
+List of Works Consulted in the Preparation of this Volume
+
+
+AKSAKOFF, ALEXANDER N. =Animism and Spiritism=: an attempt at a critical
+investigation of mediumistic phenomena, with special reference to the
+hypotheses of hallucination and of the unconscious; an answer to Dr. E.
+von Hartmann's work, "Der Spiritismus." 2 vols. Leipsic, 1890. 8vo. (A
+profoundly interesting work by an impartial Russian savant. Judicial,
+critical and scientific.)
+
+AZAM, DR. =Hypnotisme et Altérations de la Personnalité.= Paris, 1887.
+8vo.
+
+BERNHEIM, HIPPOLYTE. =Suggestive Therapeutics=: A study of the nature and
+use of hypnotism. Translated from the French. New York, 1889. 4to.
+
+BINET, A. AND FÉRÉ, C. =Animal Magnetism.= Translated from the French. New
+York, 1888.
+
+BLAVATSKY, MADAME HÉLÈNE PETROVNA HAHN-HAHN. =Isis Unveiled=: A Master-key
+to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology. 6th ed. New
+York, 1891. 2 vols. 8vo. (A heterogeneous mass of poorly digested
+quotations from writers living and dead, with running remarks by Mme.
+Blavatsky. A hodge-podge of magic, masonry, and Oriental witchcraft.
+Pseudo-scientific.)
+
+------ =The Secret Doctrine=: The Synthesis of science, religion, and
+philosophy. 2 vols. New York, 1888. 8vo. (Philosophical in character. A
+reading of Western thought into Oriental religions and symbolisms.
+So-called quotations from the "Book of Dzyan," manufactured by the
+ingenious mind of the authoress.)
+
+CROCQ FILS, DR. =L'hypnotisme.= Paris, 1896. 4to. (An exhaustive work on
+hypnotism in all its phases.)
+
+CROOKES, WILLIAM. =Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism.= London,
+1876. 8vo, (pamphlet).
+
+------ =Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism.= London, 1875. 8vo,
+(pamphlet). (Very interesting exposition of experiments made with D. D.
+Home, the spirit medium.)
+
+DAVENPORT, R. B. =Death Blow to Spiritualism=: True story of the Fox
+sisters. New York, 1888. 8vo.
+
+DESSOIR, MAX. =The Psychology of Legerdemain.= _Open Court_, vol. vii.
+
+GARRETT, EDMUND. =Isis Very Much Unveiled=: Being the story of the great
+Mahatma hoax. London, 1895. 8vo.
+
+GASPARIN, COMTE AGÉNOR DE. =Des Tables Tournantes, du Surnaturel et des
+Esprits.= Paris, 1854. 8vo.
+
+GATCHELL, CHARLES. The methods of mind-readers. _Forum_, vol. xi, pp.
+192-204.
+
+GIBIER, DR. PAUL. =Le Spiritisme= (fakirisme occidental). Étude
+historique, critique et expérimentale. Paris, 1889. 8vo.
+
+GURNEY, E., MYERS, F. W., AND PODMORE, F. =Phantasms of the Living.= 2
+vols. London, 1887. (Embodies the investigations of the Society for
+Psychical Research into Spiritualism, Telepathy, Thought-transference,
+etc.)
+
+HAMMOND, DR. W. H. =Spiritualism and Nervous Derangement.= New York, 1876.
+8vo.
+
+HARDINGE-BRITTAN, EMMA. =History of Spiritualism.= New York. 4to.
+
+HART, ERNEST. =Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New Witchcraft.= London, 1893.
+8vo. (Scientific and critical. Anti-spiritualistic in character.)
+
+HOME, D. D. =Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism.= New York, 1878. 8vo.
+
+HUDSON, THOMAS JAY. =The Law of Psychic Phenomena.= New York, 1894. 8vo.
+
+------ =A Scientific Demonstration of the Future Life.= Chicago, 1895.
+8vo.
+
+JAMES, WILLIAM. =Psychology.= New York, 1892. 8vo, 2 vols.
+
+JASTROW, JOSEPH. =Involuntary Movements.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol.
+xl, pp. 743-750. (Interesting account of experiments made in a
+Psychological Laboratory to demonstrate "the readiness with which normal
+individuals may be made to yield evidence of unconscious and involuntary
+processes." Throws considerable light on muscle-reading,
+planchette-writing, etc.)
+
+------ =The Psychology of Deception.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol.
+xxxiv, pp. 145-157.
+
+------ =The Psychology of Spiritualism.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol.
+xxxiv, pp. 721-732.
+
+    (A series of articles of great value to students of psychical
+    research.)
+
+KRAFFT-EBING, R. =Experimental Study in the Domain of Hypnotism.= New
+York, 1889.
+
+LEAF, WALTER. =A Modern Priestess of Isis=; abridged and translated on
+behalf of the Society for Psychical Research, from the Russian of Vsevolod
+S. Solovyoff. London, 1895. 8vo.
+
+LILLIE, ARTHUR. =Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophy.= London, 1896. 8vo.
+
+LIPPITT, F. J. =Physical Proofs of Another Life=: Letters to the Seybert
+commission. Washington, D. C., 1888. 8vo.
+
+MACAIRE, SID. =Mind-Reading, or Muscle-Reading?= London, 1889.
+
+MOLL, ALBERT. =Hypnotism.= New York, 1892. 8vo.
+
+MATTISON, REV. H. =Spirit-rapping Unveiled.= An Exposé of the origin,
+history theology and philosophy of certain alleged communications from the
+spiritual world by means of "spirit-rapping," "medium writing," "physical
+demonstrations," etc. New York, 1855. 8vo.
+
+MYERS, F. W. H. =Science and a Future Life=, and other essays. London,
+1891. 8vo.
+
+OCHOROWICZ, DR. J. =Mental Suggestion= (with a preface by Prof. Charles
+Richet). From the French by J. Fitz-Gerald. New York, 1891. 8vo.
+
+OLCOTT, HENRY S. =Old Diary Leaves.= New York, 1895. 8vo. (Full of wildly
+improbable incidents in the career of Madame Blavatsky. Valuable on
+account of its numerous quotations from American journals concerning the
+early history of the theosophical movement in the United States.)
+
+PODMORE, FRANK S. =Apparitions and Thought-Transference=: Examination of
+the evidence of telepathy. New York, 1894. 8vo. (A thoughtful scientific
+work on a profoundly interesting subject.)
+
+REVELATIONS OF A SPIRIT MEDIUM; or, =Spiritualistic Mysteries Exposed=.
+St. Paul, Minn., 1891. 8vo. (One of the best exposés of physical phenomena
+published.)
+
+ROBERT-HOUDIN, J. E. =The Secrets of Stage Conjuring.= From the French, by
+Prof. Hoffmann. New York, 1881. 8vo. (A full account of the performances
+of the Davenport Bros. in Paris, by the most famous of contemporary
+conjurers.)
+
+ROARK, RURICK N. =Psychology in Education.= New York, 1895. 8vo.
+
+ROCKHILL, WM. W. =The Land of the Lamas.= New York, 1891. 8vo.
+
+SEYBERT COMMISSION ON SPIRITUALISM. =Preliminary Report.= New York, 1888.
+8vo. (Absolutely anti-spiritualistic. The psychical phases of the subject
+not considered.)
+
+SIDGWICK, MRS. H. =Article "Spiritualism" in "Encyclopædia Britannica,"=
+vol. 22. (An excellent resumé of spiritualism, its history and phenomena.)
+
+SINNETT, A. P. (_Ed._) =Incidents in the life of Mme. Blavatsky.= London,
+1886. 8vo. (Interesting, but replete with wildly improbable incidents,
+etc. Of little value as a life of the famous occultist.)
+
+------ =The Occult World.= London, 1885. 8vo.
+
+------ =Esoteric Buddhism.= London, 1888. 8vo.
+
+SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH: =Proceedings.= Vols. 1-11. [1882-95.]
+London, 1882-95. 8vo. (The most exhaustive researches yet set on foot by
+impartial investigators. Scientific in character, and invaluable to the
+student. Psychical phases of spiritualism mostly dealt with.)
+
+TRUESDELL, JOHN W. =The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of
+Spiritualism=: Derived from careful investigations covering a period of
+twenty-five years. New York, 1883. 8vo. (Anti-spiritualistic. Exposés of
+physical phenomena: psychography, rope-tests, etc. Of its kind, a valuable
+contribution to the literature of the subject.)
+
+WEATHERLY, DR. L. A., AND MASKELYNE, J. N. =The Supernatural.= Bristol,
+Eng., 1891. 8vo.
+
+WILLMANN, CARL. =Moderne Wunder.= Leipsic, 1892. 8vo. (Contains
+interesting accounts of Dr. Slade's Berlin and Leipsic experiences. It is
+written by a professional conjurer. Anti-spiritualistic.)
+
+WOODBURY, WALTER E. =Photographic Amusements.= New York, 1896. 8vo.
+(Contains some interesting accounts of so-called spirit photography.)
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Introduction to Herrmann the Magician, his Life, his Secrets, (Laird &
+Lee, Publishers.)
+
+[2] Spiritualism and nervous derangement, New York, 1876. p. 115.
+
+[3] The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of Spiritualism, etc., New
+York, 1883.
+
+[4] Communication to _New York Sun_, 1892.
+
+[5] NOTE--These letters were purchased from the _Christian College
+Magazine_ by Dr. Elliot Coues, of Washington, D. C.
+
+[6] "Old Diary Leaves"--_Olcott_.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth
+Century Witchcraft, by Henry Ridgely Evans
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44349 ***
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+      Hours with the Ghosts, by Henry Ridgely Evans&mdash;A Project Gutenberg eBook
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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44349 ***</div>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1><small>HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS</small></h1>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="vertsbox">
+<p class="center"><span class="huge">LEE’S LIBRARY OF<br />OCCULT SCIENCE</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS; Or XIX Century Witchcraft</b></p>
+<p class="center">By Henry R. Evans.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><b>PRACTICAL PALMISTRY; Or Hand Reading Made Easy</b></p>
+<p class="center">By Comte C. de Saint-Germain.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><b>HERRMANN THE MAGICIAN; His Life; His Secrets</b></p>
+<p class="center">By H. J. Burlingame.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">All profusely illustrated. Bound in Holliston<br />cloth, burnished red top, uncut edges.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>EACH, $1.00</b></p></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.<br />[Taken by the Author.]</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="giant">Hours With the Ghosts</span></p>
+<p class="center"><small>OR</small><br />
+<span class="large">NINETEENTH CENTURY WITCHCRAFT</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Illustrated Investigations</span><br />
+<small>INTO THE</small><br />
+<span class="huge">Phenomena of Spiritualism and Theosophy</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><small>BY</small><br />
+<span class="large"><span class="smcap">Henry Ridgely Evans</span></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">The first duty we owe to the world is Truth&mdash;all the<br />Truth&mdash;nothing but the Truth.&mdash;“<i>Ancient Wisdom.</i>”</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CHICAGO<br />
+LAIRD &amp; LEE, PUBLISHERS</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Entered according to act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven.<br />
+<span class="smcap">By</span> WILLIAM H. LEE,<br />
+In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">TO MY WIFE</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="note">
+<p>“It is no proof of wisdom to refuse to examine certain phenomena because
+we think it certain that they are impossible, as if our knowledge of the
+universe were already completed.”&mdash;<i>Prof. Lodge.</i></p>
+
+<p>“The most ardent Spiritist should welcome a searching inquiry into the
+potential faculties of spirits still in the flesh. Until we know more of
+<i>these</i>, those other phenomena to which he appeals must remain
+unintelligible because isolated, and are likely to be obstinately
+disbelieved because they are impossible to understand.”&mdash;<i>F. W. H. Myers:
+“Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,” Part XVIII, April, 1891.</i></p></div>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td colspan="3">Author’s Preface</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">PART FIRST: <b>Spiritualism</b></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>I.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>Divisions of the Subject</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>II.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>Subjective Phenomena</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>1.</td>
+    <td>Telepathy</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>2.</td>
+    <td>Table Tilting. Muscle Reading</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>III.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>Physical Phenomena</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>1.</td>
+    <td>Psychography or Slate-writing</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>2.</td>
+    <td>The Master of the Mediums: D. D. Home</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>3.</td>
+    <td>Rope Tying and Holding Mediums; Materializations</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>The Davenport Brothers</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Annie Eva Fay</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Charles Slade</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Pierre L. O. A. Keeler</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Eusapia Paladino</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>F. W. Tabor</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>4.</td>
+    <td>Spirit Photography</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>5.</td>
+    <td>Thought Photography</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>6.</td>
+    <td>Apparitions of the Dead</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>IV.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>Conclusions</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">PART SECOND: <b>Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists</b> &nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>I.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>The Priestess</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>II.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>What is Theosophy?</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>III.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>Madame Blavatsky’s Confession</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>IV.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>The Writings of Madame Blavatsky</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_265">265</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>V.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>The Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_268">268</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>VI.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>VII.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>The Theosophical Temple</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_287">287</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>VIII.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>Conclusion</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">List of Authorities</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_298">298</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right"><small>PAGE.</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 1. Spirit Photograph, by the author</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#frontis">Frontispiece</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 2. Portrait of Dr. Henry Slade</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 3. The Holding of the Slate</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 4. Slate No. 1</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 5. Slate No. 2</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 6. Slate No. 3</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 7. Home at the Tuileries</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 8. Crookes’ Apparatus No. 1</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 9. Crookes’ Apparatus No. 1</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 10. Crookes’ Apparatus No. 1</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_119">120</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 11. Crookes’ Apparatus No. 1</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 12, 13, 14, 15. Crookes’ Diagrams</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_124">124-125</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 16. Crookes’ Apparatus No. 2</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 17. Crookes’ Apparatus No. 2</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 18, 19, 20. Crookes’ Diagrams</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_128">128-130</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 21. Hammond’s Apparatus</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 22. The Davenport’s in their Cabinet</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 23. Trick Tie and in Cabinet Work</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 24. Charles Slade’s Poster</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_159">158-159</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 25. Pierre Keeler’s Cabinet Seance</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 26. Pierre Keeler’s Cabinet Curtain</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 27. Portrait of Eusapia Paladino</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_178">176</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 28. Eusapia before the Scientists</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_178">177</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 29. Spirit Photograph, by the author</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_191">191</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 30. Spirit Photograph, by pretended medium</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 31. Sigel’s Original Picture of Fig. 30</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 32. Portrait of Madame Blavatsky</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 33. Mahatma Letter</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 34. Mahatma Envelope</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 35. Portrait of Col. H. S. Olcott</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 36. Oath of Secrecy of the Charter Members of the Theosophical Society</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 37. Portrait of W. Q. Judge</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 38. Portrait of Mrs. Annie Besant</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_273">273</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 39. Portrait of Mrs. Tingley</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 40. Autograph of Madame Blavatsky</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_293">293</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p><i>There are two great schools of thought in the world&mdash;materialistic and
+spiritualistic. With one,</i> <span class="smcaplc">MATTER</span> <i>is all in all, the ultimate substratum;
+mind is merely the result of organized matter; everything is translated
+into terms of force, motion and the like. With the other,</i> <span class="smcaplc">SPIRIT</span> <i>or mind
+is the ultimate substance&mdash;God; matter is the visible expression of this
+invisible and eternal Consciousness.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Materialism is a barren, dreary, comfortless belief, and, in the opinion
+of the author, is without philosophical foundation. This is an age of
+scientific materialism, although of late years that materialism has been
+rather on the wane among thinking men. In an age of such ultra
+materialism, therefore, it is not strange that there should come a great
+reaction on the part of spiritually minded people. This reaction takes the
+form of an increased vitality of dogmatic religion, or else culminates in
+the formation of Spiritualistic or Theosophic societies for the
+prosecution of occult phenomena. Spiritualists are now numbered by the
+million. Persons calling themselves mediums present certain phenomena,
+physical and psychical, and call public attention to them, as an evidence
+of life beyond the grave, and the possibility of spiritual communication
+between this world and the next.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span><i>The author has had sittings with many famous mediums of this country and
+Europe, but has seen little to convince him of the fact of spirit
+communication. The slate tests and so-called materializations have
+invariably been frauds. Some experiments along the line of automatic
+writing and psychometry, however, have demonstrated to the writer the
+truth of telepathy or thought-transference. The theory of telepathy
+explains many of the marvels ascribed to spirit intervention in things
+mundane.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>In this work the author has endeavored to give an accurate account of the
+lives and adventures of celebrated mediums and occultists, which will
+prove of interest to the reader. The rise and growth of the Theosophical
+cult in this country and Europe is of historical interest. Theosophy
+pretends to a deeper metaphysics than Spiritualism, and numbers its
+adherents by the thousands; it is, therefore, intensely interesting to
+study it in its origin, its founder and its present leaders.</i></p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>THE AUTHOR.</i></span></p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center"><span class="huge">HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS.</span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTORY_ARGUMENT" id="INTRODUCTORY_ARGUMENT"></a>INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT.</h2>
+
+
+<p>“If a man die, shall he live again?”&mdash;this is the question of the ages,
+the Sphinx riddle that Humanity has been trying to solve since time began.
+The great minds of antiquity, Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle
+were firm in their belief in the immortality of the soul. The writings of
+Plato are luminous on the subject. The Mysteries of Isis and Osiris, as
+practiced in Egypt, and those of Eleusis, in Greece, taught the doctrine
+of the immortality of the individual being. The Divine Master of Arcane
+knowledge, Christ, proclaimed the same. In latter times, we have had such
+metaphysical and scientific thinkers as Leibnitz, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel
+and Schleiermacher advocating individual existence beyond the grave.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>It is a strange fact that the more materialistic the age, the deeper the
+interest in spiritual questions. The vitality and persistence of the
+belief in the reality of the spiritual world is evidence of that hunger
+for the ideal, for God, of which the Psalmist speaks&mdash;“As the heart
+panteth after water brooks so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!” Through
+the passing centuries, we have come into a larger, nobler conception of
+the Universal Life, and our relations to that Life, in which we live,
+move, and have our being. Granting the existence of an “Eternal and
+Infinite Spirit, the Intellectual Organizer of the mathematical laws which
+the physical forces obey,” and conceiving ourselves as individualized
+points of life in the Greater Life, we are constrained to believe that we
+bear within us the undying spark of divinity and immortality. Evolution
+points to eternal life as the final goal of self-conscious spirit, else
+this mighty earth-travail, the long ages of struggle to produce man are
+utterly without meaning. Speaking of a future life, John Fiske, a leading
+American exponent of the doctrine of evolution, says (“The Destiny of
+Man”): “The doctrine of evolution does not allow us to take the atheistic
+view of the position of man. It is true that modern astronomy shows us
+giant balls of vapor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> condensing into fiery suns, cooling down into
+planets fit for the support of life, and at last growing cold and rigid in
+death, like the moon. And there are indications of a time when systems of
+dead planets shall fall in upon their central ember that was once a sun,
+and the whole lifeless mass, thus regaining heat, shall expand into a
+nebulous cloud like that with which we started, that the work of
+condensation and evolution may begin over again. These Titanic events must
+doubtless seem to our limited vision like an endless and aimless series of
+cosmical changes. From the first dawning of life we see all things working
+together toward one mighty goal, the evolution of the most exalted
+spiritual qualities which characterize Humanity. The body is cast aside
+and returns to the dust of which it was made. The earth, so marvelously
+wrought to man’s uses, will also be cast aside. So small is the value
+which Nature sets upon the perishable forms of matter! The question, then,
+is reduced to this: Are man’s highest spiritual qualities, into the
+production of which all this creative energy has gone, to disappear with
+the rest? Are we to regard the Creator’s work as like that of a child, who
+builds houses out of blocks, just for the pleasure of knocking them down?
+For aught that science can tell us, it may be so,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> but I can see no good
+reason for believing any such thing.”</p>
+
+<p>A scientific demonstration of immortality is declared to be an
+impossibility. But why go to science for such a demonstration? The
+question belongs to the domain of philosophy and religion. Science deals
+with physical forces and their relations; collects and inventories facts.
+Its mission is not to establish a universal metaphysic of things; that is
+philosophy’s prerogative. All occult thinkers declare that life is from
+within, out. In other words life, or a spiritual principle, precedes
+organization. Science proceeds to investigate the phenomena of the
+universe in the opposite way from without, in; and pronounces life to be
+“a fortuitous collocation of atoms.” Still, science has been the
+torch-bearer of the ages and has stripped the fungi of superstition from
+the tree of life. It has revealed to us the great laws of nature, though
+it has not explained them. We know that light, heat, and electricity are
+modes of motion; more than that we know not. Science is largely
+responsible for the materialistic philosophy in vogue to-day&mdash;a philosophy
+that sees no reason in the universe. A powerful wave of spiritual thought
+has set in, as if to counteract the ultra<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> rationalism of the age. In the
+vanguard of the new order of things are Spiritualism and Theosophy.</p>
+
+<p>Spiritualism enters the list, and declares that the immortality of the
+soul is a demonstrable fact. It throws down the gauntlet of defiance to
+skepticism, saying: “Come, I will show you that there is an existence
+beyond the grave. Death is not a wall, but a door through which we pass
+into eternal life.” Theosophy, too, has its occult phenomena to prove the
+indestructibility of soul-force. Both Spiritualism and Theosophy contain
+germs of truth, but both are tinctured with superstition. I purpose, if
+possible, to sift the wheat from the chaff. In investigating the phenomena
+of Spiritualism and Theosophy I will use the scientific as well as the
+philosophic method. Each will act, I hope, as corrective of the other.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PART_FIRST" id="PART_FIRST"></a>PART FIRST.<br />SPIRITUALISM.</h2>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>I. DIVISIONS OF THE SUBJECT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Belief in the evocation of the spirits of the dead is as old as Humanity.
+At one period of the world’s history it was called Thaumaturgy, at another
+Necromancy and Witchcraft, in these latter years, Spiritualism. It is new
+wine in old bottles. On March 31, 1847, at Hydeville, Wayne County, New
+York, occurred the celebrated “knockings,” the beginning of modern
+Spiritualism. The mediums were two little girls, Kate and Margaretta Fox,
+whose fame spread over three continents. It is claimed by impartial
+investigators that the rappings produced in the presence of the Fox
+sisters were occasioned by natural means. Voluntary disjointings of the
+muscles of the knee, or to use a medical term “the repeated displacement
+of the tendon of the <i>peroneus longus</i> muscle in the sheath in which it
+slides behind the outer <i>malleolus</i>” will produce certain extraordinary
+sounds, particularly when the knee is brought in contact with a table or
+chair. Snapping the toes in rapid succession will cause similar noises.
+The above was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> explanation given of the “Hydeville and Rochester
+Knockings”, by Professors Flint, Lee and Coventry, of Buffalo, who
+subjected the Fox sisters to numerous examinations, and this explanation
+was confirmed many years after (in 1888) by the published confession of
+Mrs. Kane, <i>nee</i> Margaretta Fox. Spiritualism became the rage and
+professional mediums went about giving séances to large and interested
+audiences. This particular creed is still professed by a recognized
+semi-religious body in America and in Europe. The American mediums reaped
+a rich harvest in the Old World. The pioneer was Mrs. Hayden, a Boston
+medium, who went to England in 1852, and the table-turning mania spread
+like wild fire within a few months.</p>
+
+<p>Broadly speaking, the phenomena of modern Spiritualism may be divided into
+two classes: (1) Physical, (2) Subjective. Of the first, the
+“Encyclopaedia Britannica”, in its brief but able review of the subject,
+says: “Those which, if correctly observed and due neither to conscious or
+unconscious trickery nor to hallucination on the part of the observers,
+exhibit a force hitherto unknown to science, acting in the physical world
+otherwise than through the brain or muscles of the medium.” The earliest
+of these phenomena were the mysterious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> rappings and movements of
+furniture without apparent physical cause. Following these came the
+ringing of bells, playing on musical instruments, strange lights seen
+hovering about the séance-room, materializations of hands, faces and
+forms, “direct writing and drawing” declared to be done without human
+intervention, spirit photography, levitation, unfastening of ropes and
+bandages, elongation of the medium’s body, handling fire with impunity,
+etc.</p>
+
+<p>Of the second class, or Subjective Phenomena, we have “table-tilting and
+turning with contact; writing, drawing, etc., by means of the medium’s
+hand; entrancement, trance-speaking, and impersonation by the medium of
+deceased persons, seeing spirits and visions and hearing phantom voices.”</p>
+
+<p>From a general scientific point of view there are three ways of accounting
+for the physical phenomena of spiritualism: (1) Hallucination on the part
+of the observers; (2) Conjuring; (3) A force latent in the human
+personality capable of moving heavy objects without muscular contact, and
+of causing “Percussive Sounds” on table-tops, and raps upon walls and
+floors.</p>
+
+<p>Hallucination has unquestionably played a part in the séance-room, but
+here again the statement of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> “Encyclopaedia Britannica” is worthy of
+consideration: “Sensory hallucination of several persons together who are
+not in a hypnotic state is a rare phenomenon, and therefore not a probable
+explanation.” In my opinion, conjuring will account for seven-eighths of
+the so-called phenomena of professional mediums. For the balance of
+one-eighth, neither hallucination nor legerdemain are satisfactory
+explanation. Hundreds of credible witnesses have borne testimony to the
+fact of table-turning and tilting and the movements of heavy objects
+without muscular contact. That such a force exists is now beyond cavil,
+call it what you will, magnetic, nervous, or psychic. Count Agenor de
+Gasparin, in 1854, conducted a series of elaborate experiments in
+table-turning and tilting, in the presence of his family and a number of
+skeptical witnesses, and was highly successful. The experiments were made
+in the full light of day. The members of the circle joined hands and
+concentrated their minds upon the object to be moved. The Count published
+a work on the subject “Des Tables Tournantes,” in which he stated that the
+movements of the table were due to a mental or nervous force emanating
+from the human personality. This psychic energy has been investigated by
+Professor Crookes and Professor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> Lodge, of London, and by Doctor Elliott
+Coues, of Washington, D. C., who calls it “Telekinesis.” The existence of
+this force sufficiently explains such phenomena of the séance-room as are
+not attributable to hallucination and conjuring, thus removing the
+necessity for the hypothesis of spirit intervention. In explanation of
+table-turning by “contact,” I quote what J. N. Maskelyne says in “The
+Supernatural”:</p>
+
+<p>“Faraday proved to a demonstration that table-turning was simply the
+result of an unconscious muscular action on the part of the sitters. He
+constructed a little apparatus to be placed beneath the hands of those
+pressing upon the table, which had a pointer to indicate any pressure to
+one side or the other. After a time, of course, the arms of the sitters
+become tired and they unconsciously press more or less to the right or
+left. In Faraday’s experiments, it always proved that this pressure was
+exerted in the direction in which the table was expected to move, and the
+tell-tale pointer showed it at once. There, then, we have the explanation:
+expectancy and unconscious muscular action.”</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+<h3>II. SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA.</h3>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">1. Telepathy.</p>
+
+<p>The subjective phenomena of Spiritualism&mdash;trance speaking, automatic
+writing, etc.,&mdash;have engaged the attention of some of the best scientific
+minds of Europe and America, as studies of abnormal or supernormal
+psychological conditions.</p>
+
+<p>If there are any facts to sustain the spiritual hypothesis, these facts
+exist in subjective manifestations. The following statement will be
+conceded by any impartial investigator: A medium, or psychic, in a state
+of partial or complete hypnosis frequently gives information transcending
+his conscious knowledge of a subject. There can be but two hypotheses for
+the phenomena&mdash;(1) The intelligence exhibited by the medium is
+“ultra-mundane,” in other words, is the effect of spirit control, or, (2)
+it is the result of the conscious or unconscious exercise of psychic
+powers on the part of the medium.</p>
+
+<p>It is well known that persons under hypnotic influence exhibit remarkable
+intelligence, notwithstanding the fact that the ordinary consciousness is
+held in abeyance. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> extraordinary results obtained by hypnotizers point
+to another phase of consciousness, which is none other than the subjective
+or “subliminal” self. Mediums sometimes induce hypnosis by
+self-suggestion, and while in that state, the subconscious mind is in a
+highly receptive and exalted condition. Mental suggestions or concepts
+pass from the mind of the sitter consciously or unconsciously to the mind
+of the medium, and are given back in the form of communications from the
+invisible world, ostensibly through spirit control. It is not absolutely
+necessary that the medium be in the hypnotic condition to obtain
+information, but the hypnotic state seems to be productive of the best
+results. The medium is usually honest in his belief in the reality of such
+ultra-mundane control, but he is ignorant of the true psychology of the
+case&mdash;thought transference.</p>
+
+<p>The English Society for Psychical Research and its American branch have of
+late years popularized “telepathy”, or thought transference. A series of
+elaborate investigations were made by Messrs. Edmund Gurney, F. W. H.
+Myers, and Frank Podmore, accounts of which are contained in the
+proceedings of the Society. Among the European investigators may be
+mentioned Messrs. Janet and Gibert, Richet, Gibotteau, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+Schrenck-Notzing. Podmore has lately summarized the results of these
+studies in an interesting volume, “Apparitions and Thought-transference,
+an Examination of the Evidence for Telepathy.” Thought Transference or
+Telepathy (from <i>tele</i>&mdash;at a distance, and <i>pathos</i>&mdash;feeling) he describes
+as “a communication between mind and mind other than through the known
+channels of the senses.” A mass of evidence is adduced to prove the
+possibility of this communication. In summing up his book he says: “The
+experimental evidence has shown that a simple sensation or idea may be
+transferred from one mind to another, and that this transference may take
+place alike in the normal state and in the hypnotic trance.</p>
+
+<p>* * The personal influence of the operator in hypnotism may perhaps be
+regarded as a proof presumptive of telepathy.” The experiments show that
+mental concepts or ideas may be transferred to a distance.</p>
+
+<p>Podmore advances the following theory in explanation of the phenomena of
+telepathy:</p>
+
+<p>“If we leave fluids and radiant nerve-energy on one side, we find
+practically only one mode suggested for the telepathic transference&mdash;viz.,
+that the physical changes which are the accompaniments of thought or
+sensation in the agent are transmitted from the brain as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> undulations in
+the intervening medium, and thus excite corresponding changes in some
+other brain, without any other portion of the organism being necessarily
+implicated in the transmission. This hypothesis has found its most
+philosophical champion in Dr. Ochorowicz, who has devoted several chapters
+of his book “De la Suggestion mentale,” to the discussion of the various
+theories on the subject. He begins by recalling the reciprocal
+convertibility of all physical forces with which we are acquainted, and
+especially draws attention to what he calls the law of reversibility, a
+law which he illustrates by a description of the photophone. The
+photophone is an instrument in which a mirror is made to vibrate to the
+human voice. The mirror reflects a ray of light, which, vibrating in its
+turn, falls upon a plate of selenium, modifying its electric conductivity.
+The intermittent current so produced is transmitted through a telephone,
+and the original articulate sound is reproduced. Now in hypnotized
+subjects&mdash;and M. Ochorowicz does not in this connection treat of
+thought-transference between persons in the normal state&mdash;the equilibrium
+of the nervous system, he sees reason to believe, is profoundly affected.
+The nerve-energy liberated in this state, he points out, ‘cannot pass
+beyond’ the subject’s brain ‘without being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> transformed. Nevertheless,
+like any other force, it cannot remain isolated; like any other force it
+escapes, but in disguise. Orthodox science allows it only one way out, the
+motor nerves. These are the holes in the dark lantern through which the
+rays of light escape. * * * Thought remains in the brain, just as the
+chemical energy of the galvanic battery remains in the cells, but each is
+represented outside by its correlative energy, which in the case of the
+battery is called the electric current, but for which in the other we have
+as yet no name. In any case there is some correlative energy&mdash;for the
+currents of the motor nerves do not and cannot constitute the only dynamic
+equivalent of cerebral energy&mdash;to represent all the complex movements of
+the cerebral mechanism.’”</p>
+
+<p>The above hypothesis may, or may not, afford a clue to the mysterious
+phenomena of telepathy, but it will doubtless satisfy to some extent those
+thinkers who demand physical explanations of the known and unknown laws of
+the universe. The president of the Society for Psychical Research (1894,)
+A. J. Balfour, in an address on the relation of the work of the Society to
+the general course of modern scientific investigation, is more cautious
+than the writers already quoted. He says:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>“Is this telepathic action an ordinary case of action from a center of
+disturbance? Is it equally diffused in all directions? Is it like the
+light of a candle or the light of the sun which radiates equally into
+space in every direction at the same time? If it is, it must obey the
+law&mdash;at least, we should expect it to obey the law&mdash;of all other forces
+which so act through a non-absorbing medium, and its effects must diminish
+inversely as the square of the distance. It must, so to speak, get beaten
+out thinner and thinner the further it gets removed from its original
+source. But is this so? Is it even credible that the mere thoughts, or, if
+you please, the neural changes corresponding to these thoughts, of any
+individual could have in them the energy to produce sensible effects
+equally in all directions, for distances which do not, as far as our
+investigations go, appear to have any necessary limit? It is, I think,
+incredible; and in any case there is no evidence whatever that this equal
+diffusion actually takes place. The will power, whenever will is used, or
+the thoughts, in cases where will is not used, have an effect, as a rule,
+only upon one or two individuals at most. There is no appearance of
+general diffusion. There is no indication of any disturbance equal at
+equal distances from its origin and radiating from it alike in every
+direction.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>“But if we are to reject this idea, which is the first which ordinary
+analogies would suggest, what are we to put in its place? Are we to
+suppose that there is some means by which telepathic energy can be
+directed through space from the agent to the patient, from the man who
+influences to the man who is influenced? If we are to believe this, as
+apparently we must, we are face to face not only with a fact extraordinary
+in itself, but with a kind of fact which does not fit in with anything we
+know at present in the region either of physics or of physiology. It is
+true, no doubt, that we do know plenty of cases where energy is directed
+along a given line, like water in a pipe, or like electrical energy along
+the course of a wire. But then in such cases there is always some material
+guide existing between the two termini, between the place from which the
+energy comes and the place to which the energy goes. Is there any such
+material guide in the case of telepathy? It seems absolutely impossible.
+There is no sign of it. We can not even form to ourselves any notion of
+its character, and yet, if we are to take what appears to be the obvious
+lesson of the observed facts, we are forced to the conclusion that in some
+shape or other it exists.”</p>
+
+<p>Telepathy once conceded, we have a satisfactory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> explanation of that class
+of cases in modern Spiritualism on the subjective side of the question.
+There is no need of the hypothesis of “disembodied spirits”.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago, I instituted a series of experiments with a number of
+celebrated spirit mediums in the line of thought transference, and was
+eminently successful in obtaining satisfactory results, especially with
+Miss Maggie Gaule, of Baltimore, one of the most famous of the latter day
+psychics.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Case A.</p>
+
+<p>About three years prior to my sitting with Miss Gaule, a relative by
+marriage died of cancer of the throat at the Garfield Hospital,
+Washington, D. C. He was a retired army officer, with the brevet of
+General, and lived part of the time at Chambersburg, Penn., and the rest
+of the time at the National Capital. He led a very quiet and unassuming
+life, and outside of army circles knew but few people. He was a
+magnificent specimen of physical manhood, six feet tall, with splendid
+chest and arms. His hair and beard were of a reddish color. His usual
+street dress was a sort of compromise with an army undress uniform,
+military cut frock-coat, frogged and braided top-coat, and a Sherman hat.
+Without these accessories, anyone would have recognized the military<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> man
+in his walk and bearing. He and his wife thought a great deal of my
+mother, and frequently stopped me on the street to inquire, “How is Mary?”
+I went to Miss Gaule’s house with the thought of General M&mdash; fixed in my
+mind and the circumstances surrounding his decease. The medium greeted me
+in a cordial manner. I sat at one end of the room in the shadow, and she
+near the window in a large armchair. “You wish for messages from the
+dead,” she remarked abruptly. “One moment, let me think.” She sank back in
+the chair, closed her eyes, and remained in deep thought for a minute or
+so, occasionally passing her hand across her forehead. “I see,” she said,
+“standing behind you, a tall, large man with reddish hair and beard. He is
+garbed in the uniform of an officer&mdash;I do not know whether of the army or
+navy. He points to his throat. Says he died of a throat trouble. He looks
+at you and calls “Mary,&mdash;how is Mary?” “What is his name?” I inquired,
+fixing my mind on the words David M&mdash;. “I will ask”, replied the medium.
+There was a long pause. “He speaks so faintly I can scarcely hear him. The
+first letter begins with D, and then comes a&mdash;I can’t get it. I can’t hear
+it.” With that she opened her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The surprising feature about the above case was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> alleged spirit
+communication, “Mary&mdash;how is Mary?” I did not have this in my mind at the
+time; in fact I had completely forgotten this form of salutation on the
+part of Gen. M&mdash;, when we had met in the old days. It is just this sort of
+thing that makes spirit-converts.</p>
+
+<p>However, the cases of unconscious telepathy cited in the “Reports of the
+Society for Psychical Research,” are sufficient, I think, to prove the
+existence of this phase of the phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>T. J. Hudson, in his work entitled “A scientific demonstration of the
+future life”, says: * * “When a psychic transmits a message to his client
+containing information which is in his (the psychic’s) possession, it can
+not reasonably be attributed to the agency of disembodied spirits. * *
+When the message contains facts known to some one in his immediate
+presence and with whom he is <i>en rapport</i>, the agency of spirits of the
+dead cannot be presumed. Every investigator will doubtless admit that
+sub-conscious memory may enter as a factor in the case, and that the
+sub-conscious intelligence&mdash;or, to use the favorite terminology employed
+by Mr. Myers to designate the subjective mind, the ‘sublimal
+consciousness’&mdash;of the psychic or that of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> client may retain and use
+facts which the conscious, or objective mind may have entirely forgotten.”</p>
+
+<p>But suppose the medium relates facts that were never in the possession of
+the sitter, what are we to say then? Considerable controversy has been
+waged over this question, and the hypothesis of telepathy is scouted.
+Minot J. Savage has come to the conclusion that such cases stretch the
+telepathic theory too far; there can be but one plausible explanation&mdash;a
+communication from a disembodied spirit, operating through the mind of the
+medium. For the sake of lucidity, let us take an example: A has a relative
+B who dies in a foreign land under peculiar circumstances, <i>unknown to A</i>.
+A attends a séance of a psychic, C, and the latter relates the
+circumstances of B’s death. A afterwards investigates the statements of
+the medium, and finds them correct. Can telepathy account for C’s
+knowledge? I think it can. The telepathic communication was recorded in
+A’s sub-conscious mind, he being <i>en rapport</i> with B. A unconsciously
+yields the points recorded in his sub-conscious mind to the psychic, C,
+who by reason of his peculiar powers raises them to the level of conscious
+thought, and gives them back in the form of a message from the dead.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">Case B.</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion, I went with my friend Mr. S. C., of Virginia, to
+visit Miss Gaule. Mr. S. C. had a young son who had recently passed the
+examination for admission to the U. S. Naval Academy, and the boy had
+accompanied his father to Baltimore to interview the military tailors on
+the subject of uniforms, etc. Miss Gaule in her semi-trance state made the
+following statement: “I see a young man busy with books and papers. He has
+successfully passed an examination, and says something about a uniform.
+Perhaps he is going to a military college.”</p>
+
+<p>Here again we have excellent evidence of the proof of telepathy.</p>
+
+<p>The spelling of names is one of the surprising things in these
+experiments. On one occasion my wife had a sitting with Miss Gaule, and
+the psychic correctly spelled out the names of Mrs. Evans’ brothers&mdash;John,
+Robert, and Dudley, the latter a family name and rather unusual, and
+described the family as living in the West.</p>
+
+<p>The following example of Telepathy occurred between the writer and a
+younger brother.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Case C.</p>
+
+<p>In the fall of 1890, I was travelling from Washington to Baltimore, by the
+B. &amp; P. R. R. As the train<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> approached Jackson Grove, a campmeeting
+ground, deserted at that time of the year, the engine whistle blew
+vigorously and the bell was rung continuously, which was something
+unusual, as the cars ordinarily did not stop at this isolated station, but
+whirled past. Then the engine slowed down and the train came to a
+standstill.</p>
+
+<p>“What is the matter?” exclaimed the passengers.</p>
+
+<p>“My God, look there!” shouted an excited passenger, leaning out of the
+coach window, and pointing to the dilapidated platform of the station. I
+looked out and beheld a decapitated human head, standing almost upright in
+a pool of blood. With the other male passengers I rushed out of the car.
+The head was that of an old man with very white hair and beard. We found
+the body down an embankment at some little distance from the place of the
+accident. The deceased was recognized as the owner of the Grove, a farmer
+living in the vicinity. According to the statement of the engineer, the
+old man was walking on the track; the warning signals were given, but
+proved of no avail. Being somewhat deaf, he did not realize his danger. He
+attempted to step off the track, but the brass railing that runs along the
+side of the locomotive decapitated him like the knife of a guillotine.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>When I reached Baltimore about 7 o’clock, P. M., I hurried down to the
+office of the “Baltimore News” and wrote out an account of the tragic
+affair. My work at the office kept me until a late hour of the night, and
+I went home to bed at about 1 o’clock, A. M. My brother, who slept in an
+adjoining room, had retired to bed and the door between our apartments was
+closed. The next morning, Sunday, I rose at 9 o’clock, and went down to
+breakfast. The family had assembled, and I was just in time to hear my
+brother relate the following: “I had a most peculiar dream last night. I
+thought I was on my way to Mt. Washington (he was in the habit of making
+frequent visits to this suburb of Baltimore on the Northern Central R. R.)
+We ran down an old man and decapitated him. I was looking out of the
+window and saw the head standing in a pool of blood. The hair and beard
+were snow white. We found the body not far off, and it proved to be a
+farmer residing in the neighborhood of Mt. Washington.”</p>
+
+<p>“You will find the counterpart of that dream in the morning paper”, I
+remarked seriously. “I reported the accident.” My father called for the
+paper, and proceeded to hunt its columns for the item, saying, “You
+undoubtedly transferred the impression to your brother.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">Case D.</p>
+
+<p>This is another striking evidence of telepathic communication, in which I
+was one of the agents. L&mdash; was a reporter on a Baltimore paper, and his
+apartments were the rendezvous of a coterie of Bohemian actors,
+journalists, and <i>litterati</i>, among whom was X&mdash;, a student at the
+Johns-Hopkins University, and a poet of rare excellence. Poets have a
+proverbial reputation for being eccentric in personal appearance; in X
+this eccentricity took the form of an unclipped beard that stood out in
+all directions, giving him a savage, anarchistic look. He vowed never
+under any circumstances to shave or cut this hirsute appendage.</p>
+
+<p>L&mdash; came to me one day, and laughingly remarked: “I am being tortured by a
+mental obsession. X’s beard annoys me; haunts my waking and sleeping
+hours. I must do something about it. Listen! He is coming down to my
+rooms, Saturday evening, to do some literary work, and spend the night
+with me. We shall have supper together, and I want you to be present. Now
+I propose that we drug his coffee with some harmless soporific, and when
+he is sound asleep, tie him, and shave off his beard. Will you help me? I
+can provide you with a lounge to sleep on, but you must promise not to go
+to sleep until after the tragedy.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>I agreed to assist him in his practical joke, and we parted, solemnly
+vowing that our project should be kept secret.</p>
+
+<p>This was on Tuesday, and no communication was had with X, until Saturday
+morning, when L&mdash; and I met him on Charles street.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t forget to-night,” exclaimed L&mdash; “I have invited E to join us in our
+Epicurean feast.”</p>
+
+<p>“I will be there,” said X. “By the way, let me relate a curious dream I
+had last night. I dreamt I came down to your rooms, and had supper. E&mdash;
+was present. You fellows gave me something to drink which contained a
+drug, and I fell asleep on the bed. After that you tied my hands, and
+shaved off my beard. When I awoke I was terribly mad. I burst the cords
+that fastened my wrists together, and springing to my feet, cut L&mdash;
+severely with the razor.”</p>
+
+<p>“That settles the matter”, said L&mdash;, “his beard is safe from me”. When we
+told X of our conspiracy to relieve him of his poetic hirsute appendage,
+he evinced the greatest astonishment. As will be seen, every particular of
+the practical joke had been transferred to his mind, the drugging of the
+coffee, the tying, and the shaving.</p>
+
+<p>Telepathy is a logical explanation of many of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> ghostly visitations of
+which the Society for Psychical Research has collected such a mass of
+data. For example: A dies, let us say in India and B, a near relative or
+friend, residing in England, sees a vision of A in a dream or in the
+waking state. A clasps his hands, and seems to utter the words, “I am
+dying”. When the news comes of A’s death, the time of the occurrence
+coincides with the seeing of the vision. The spiritualist’s theory is that
+the ghost of A was an actual entity. One of the difficulties in the way of
+such an hypothesis is the clothing of the deceased&mdash;<i>can that, too, be
+disembodied?</i> Thought transference (conscious or unconscious), I think, is
+the only rational explanation of such phantasms. The vision seen by the
+percipient is not an objective but a subjective thing&mdash;a hallucination
+produced by the unknown force called telepathy. The vision need not
+coincide exactly with the date of the death of the transmitter but may
+make its appearance years afterwards, remaining latent in the subjective
+mind of the percipient. It may, as is frequently the case, be revealed by
+a medium in a séance. Many thoughtful writers combat the telepathic
+explanation of phantasms of the dead, claiming that when such are seen
+long after the death of persons, they afford indubitable evidence of the
+reality of spirit visitation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> The reader is referred to the proceedings
+of the Society for Psychical Research for a detailed discussion of the
+<i>pros</i> and <i>cons</i> of this most interesting subject.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the so-called materializations of the séance-room may be accounted
+for by hallucinations superinduced by telepathic suggestions from the mind
+of the medium or sitters. But, in my opinion, the greater number of these
+manifestations of spirit power are the result of trickery pure and
+simple&mdash;theatrical beards and wigs, muslin and gossamer robes, etc., being
+the paraphernalia used to impersonate the shades of the departed, the
+imaginations of the sitters doing the rest.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">2. Table-Tilting&mdash;Muscle Reading.</p>
+
+<p>In regard to Table-Tilting with contact, I have given Faraday’s
+conclusions on the subject,&mdash;unconscious muscular action on the part of
+the sitter or sitters. In the case of Automatic Writing (particularly with
+the planchette), unconscious muscular action is the proper explanation for
+the movements of the apparatus. “Professor Augusto Tamburini, of Italy,
+author of ‘Spiritismo e Telepatia’, a cautious investigator of psychical
+problems,” says a reviewer in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
+Research (Volume IX, p. 226), “accepts the verdict of all competent
+observers that imposture is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> inadmissible as a general explanation, and
+endorses the view that the muscular action which causes the movements of
+the table or the pencil is produced by the subliminal consciousness. He
+explains the definite and varying characters of the supposed authors of
+the messages as the result of self-suggestion. As by hypnotic or
+post-hypnotic suggestion a subject may be made to think he is Napoleon or
+a chimney sweep, so, by self-suggestion, the subliminal consciousness may
+be made to think that he is X and Y, and to tilt or wrap messages in the
+character of X and Y.”</p>
+
+<p>Professor Tamburini’s explanation fails to account for the innumerable
+well authenticated cases where facts are obtained not within the conscious
+knowledge of the planchette writer or table-tilter. If telepathy does not
+enter into these cases, what does?</p>
+
+<p>There are many exhibitions, of thought transference by public psychics,
+that are thought transference in name only. One must be on one’s guard
+against these pretenders to occult powers. I refer to men like our late
+compatriot, Washington Irving Bishop&mdash;“muscle-reader” <i>par excellence</i>
+whose fame extended throughout the civilized world.</p>
+
+<p>Muscle-Reading is performed in the following<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> manner: Let us take, for
+example, the reading of the figures on a bank-note. The subject gazes
+intently at the figures on a note, and fixes them in his mind. The
+muscle-reader, blindfolded or not, takes a crayon in his right hand, and
+lightly clasps the hand or wrist of the subject with his left. He then
+writes on a blackboard the correct figures on the note. This is one of the
+most difficult feats in the repertoire of the muscle-reader, and was
+excelled in by Bishop and Stuart Cumberland. Charles Gatchell, an
+authority on the subject, says that the above named men were the only
+muscle-readers who have ever accomplished the feat. Geometrical designs
+can also be reproduced on a blackboard. The finding of objects hidden in
+an adjoining room, or upon the person of a spectator in a public hall, or
+at a distance, are also accomplished by skillful muscle readers, either by
+clasping the hand of the subject, or one end of a short wire held by him.
+Says Gatchell, in the “<i>Forum</i>” for April, 1891: “Success in
+muscle-reading depends upon the powers of the principal and upon the
+susceptibility of the subject. The latter must be capable of mental
+concentration; he must exert no muscular self-control; he must obey his
+every impulse. Under these conditions, the phenomena are in accordance
+with known laws of physiology. On<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> the part of the principal,
+muscle-reading consists of an acute perception of the slight action of
+another’s muscles. On the part of the subject, it involves a nervous
+impulse, accompanied by muscular action. The mind of the subject is in a
+state of tension or expectancy. A sudden release from this state excites,
+momentarily, an increased activity in the cells of the cerebral cortex.
+Since the ideational centres, as is usually held, correspond to the motor
+centres, the nervous action causes a motor impulse to be transmitted to
+the muscles. * * In making his way to the location of a hidden object, the
+subject usually does not lead the muscle-reader, but the muscle-reader
+leads the subject. That is to say, so long as the muscle-reader moves in
+the right direction, the subject gives no indication, but passively moves
+with him. The muscle-reader perceives nothing unusual. But, the subject’s
+mind being intently fixed on a certain course, the instant that the
+muscle-reader deviates from that course there is a slight, involuntary
+tremor, or muscular thrill, on the part of the subject, due to the sudden
+interruption of his previous state of mental tension. The muscle-reader,
+almost unconsciously, takes note of the delicate signal, and alters his
+course to the proper one, again leading his willing subject. In a word, he
+follows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> the line of the least resistance. In other cases the conditions
+are reversed; the subject unwittingly leads the principal.</p>
+
+<p>“The discovery of a bank-note number requires a slightly different
+explanation. The conditions are these: The subject is intently thinking of
+a certain figure. His mind is in a state of expectant attention. He is
+waiting for but one thing in the world to happen&mdash;for another to give
+audible expression to the name of that which he has in mind. The instant
+that the conditions are fulfilled, the mind of the subject is released
+from its state of tension, and the accompanying nervous action causes a
+slight muscular tremor, which is perceived by the acute senses of the
+muscle-reader. This explanation applies, also, to the pointing out of one
+pin among many, or of a letter or a figure on a chart. The conditions
+involved in the tracing of a figure on a blackboard or other surface are
+of a like order, although this is a severer test of a muscle-reader’s
+powers. So long as the muscle-reader moves the crayon in the right
+direction, he is permitted to do so; but when he deviates from the proper
+course, the subject, whose hand or wrist he clasps, involuntarily
+indicates the fact by the usual slight muscular tremor. This, of course,
+is done involuntarily; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> if he is fulfilling the conditions demanded of
+all subjects, absolute concentration of attention and absence of muscular
+control&mdash;he unconsciously obeys his impulse. A billiard player does the
+same when he follows the driven ball with his cue, as if by sheer force of
+will he could induce it to alter its course. The ivory is uninfluenced;
+the human ball obeys.”</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+<h3>III. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA.</h3>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">1. Psychography, or Slate-Writing.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most interesting phases of modern mediumship, on the physical
+side, is psychography, or slate-writing. After an investigation extending
+over ten years, I am of the opinion that the majority of slate-writing
+feats are the results of conjuring. The process generally used is the
+following.</p>
+
+<p>The medium takes two slates, binds them together, after first having
+deposited a small bit of chalk or slate pencil between their surfaces, and
+either holds them in his hands, or lays them on the table. Soon the
+scratching of the pencil is heard, and when the cords are removed a spirit
+message is found upon the surface of one of the slates. I will endeavor to
+explain the “modus operandi” of these startling experiments.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago, the most famous of the slate-writing mediums was Dr. Henry
+Slade, of New York, with whom I had several sittings. I was unable to
+penetrate the mystery of his performance, until the summer of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> 1889, when
+light was thrown upon the subject by the conjurer C&mdash; whom I met in
+Baltimore.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img01.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 2. DR. HENRY SLADE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“Do you know the medium Slade?” I asked him.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” said he, “and he is a conjurer like myself. I’ve had sittings with
+him. Come to my rooms to-night, and I will explain the secret workings of
+the medium’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> slate-writing. But first I will treat you to a regular
+séance.”</p>
+
+<p>On my way to C’s home I tried to put myself in the frame of mind of a
+genuine seeker after transcendental knowledge. I recalled all the stories
+of mysterious rappings and ghostly visitations I had read or heard of. It
+was just the night for such eerie musings. Black clouds were scurrying
+across the face of the moon like so many mediaeval witches mounted on the
+proverbial broomsticks <i>en route</i> for a mad sabbat in some lonely
+churchyard. The prestidigitateur’s <i>pension</i> was a great, lumbering,
+gloomy old house, in an old quarter of Baltimore. The windows were tightly
+closed and only the feeble glimmer of gaslight was emitted through the
+cracks of the shutters. I rang the bell and Mr. C’s stage-assistant, a
+pale-faced young man, came to the door, relieved me of my light overcoat
+and hat, and ushered me upstairs into the conjurer’s sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>A large, baize-covered table stood in the centre of the apartment, and a
+cabinet with a black curtain drawn across it occupied a position in a deep
+alcove. Suspended from the roof of the cabinet was a large guitar. I took
+a chair and waited patiently for the appearance of the anti-Spiritualist,
+after having first examined everything in the room&mdash;table, cabinet, and
+musical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> instruments&mdash;but I discovered no evidence of trickery anywhere. I
+waited and waited, but no C&mdash;. “Can he have forgotten me?” I said to
+myself. Suddenly a loud rap resounded on the table top, followed by a
+succession of raps from the cabinet; and the guitar began to play. I was
+quite startled. When the music ceased the door opened, and C&mdash; entered.</p>
+
+<p>“The spirits are in force to-night,” he remarked with a meaning smile, as
+he slightly diminished the light in the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I replied. “How did you do it?”</p>
+
+<p>“All in good time, my dear ghost-seer,” was the answer. “Let us try first
+a few of Dr. Slade’s best slate tests.”</p>
+
+<p>So saying he handed me a slate and directed me to wash it carefully on
+both sides with a damp cloth. I did so and passed it back to him.
+Scattering some tiny fragments of pencil upon it, he held the slate
+pressed against the under surface of the table leaf, the fingers of his
+right hand holding the slate, his thumb grasping the leaf. C&mdash; then
+requested me to hold the other end of the slate in a similar fashion, and
+took my right hand in his left. Heavy raps were heard on the table-top,
+and I felt the fingers of a spirit hand plucking at my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> garments from
+beneath the table. C&mdash;’s body seemed possessed with some strange
+convulsion, his hands quivered, and his eyes had a glassy look. Listening
+attentively, I heard the sound of a pencil writing on the slate.</p>
+
+<p>“Take care!” gasped the conjurer, breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>The slate was jerked violently out of our hands by some powerful agency,
+but the medium regained it, and again pressed it against the table as
+before. In a little while he brought the slate up and there upon its upper
+surface was a spirit message, addressed to me&mdash;“Are you convinced now?&mdash;D.
+D. Home.”</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture there came a knock at the door, and C&mdash;, with the slate
+in his hand, went to see who it was. It proved to be the pale-faced
+assistant. A few words in a low-tone of voice were exchanged between them,
+and the conjurer returned to the table, excusing the interruption by
+remarking, “Some one to see me, that is all, but don’t hurry, for I have
+another test to show you.” After thoroughly washing both sides of the
+slate he placed it, with a slate pencil, under a chafing-dish cover in the
+center of the table. We joined hands and awaited developments.</p>
+
+<p>Being tolerably well acquainted with conjuring devices, I manifested but
+little surprise in the first test<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> when the spirit message was written,
+because the magician <i>had his fingers on the slate</i>. But in this test the
+slate was not in his possession; how then could the writing be
+accomplished?</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img02.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 3. THE HOLDING OF THE SLATE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>“Hush!” said C&mdash;, “is there a spirit present?” A responsive rap resounded
+on the table, and after a few minutes’ silence, the mysterious scratching
+of the slate-pencil began. I was nonplussed.</p>
+
+<p>“Turn over the slate,” said the juggler.</p>
+
+<p>I complied with his request and found a long message to me, covering the
+entire side of the slate. It was signed “Cagliostro.”</p>
+
+<p>“What do you think of Dr. Slade’s slate tests?” inquired C&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p>“Splendid!” I replied, “but how are they done?”</p>
+
+<p>His explanations made the seeming marvel perfectly plain. While the slate
+is being examined in the first test, the medium slips on a thimble with a
+piece of slate pencil attached or else has a tiny bit of pencil under his
+finger nail. In the act of holding the slate under the table, he writes
+the short message backwards on its under side. It becomes necessary,
+however, to turn the slate over before exhibiting it to the sitter, so
+that the writing may appear to have been written on its upper
+surface&mdash;the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> side that has been pressed to the table. To accomplish this
+the medium pretends to go into a sort of neurotic convulsion, during which
+state the slate is jerked away from the sitter, presumably by spirit
+power, and is turned over in the required position. It is not immediately
+brought up for examination but is held for a few seconds underneath the
+table top, and then produced with a certain amount of deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>The special difficulty of this trick consists in the medium’s ability to
+write in reverse upon the under surface of the slate. If he wrote from
+left to right, in the ordinary method, it would, of course, reverse the
+message when the slate is examined, and give a decided clue to the
+mystery. This inscribing in reverse, or mirror writing, as it is often
+called, is exceedingly difficult to do, but nothing is impossible to a
+Slade.</p>
+
+<p>But how is the writing done on the slate in the second test? asks the
+curious reader. Nothing easier! The servant who raps at the door brings
+with him, concealed under his coat, a second slate, upon which the long
+message is written. Over the writing is a pad cut from a book-slate,
+exactly fitting the frame of the prepared slate. It is impossible to
+detect the fraud when the light in the room is a trifle obscure. The
+medium makes an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> exchange of slates, returns to the table, washes both
+sides of the trick slate, and carelessly exhibits it to the sitter, the
+writing being protected of course by the pad. Before placing the slate
+under the chafing-dish cover, he lets the pad drop into his lap. Now comes
+a crucial point in the imposture: the writing heard beneath the slate,
+supposed to be the work of a disembodied spirit. The medium under cover of
+his handkerchief removes from his pocket an instrument known as a
+“pencil-clamp.” This clamp consists of a small block of wood with two
+sharp steel points protruding from the upper edge and a piece of slate
+pencil fixed in the lower. The medium presses the steel points into the
+under surface of the table with sufficient force to attach the block
+securely to the table, and then rubs a pencil, previously attached to his
+right knee by silk sutures, against the side of the pencil fastened to the
+apparatus. The noise produced thereby exactly simulates that of writing
+upon a slate. In my case the illusion was perfect. During the examination
+of the message, the medium has ample opportunity to secrete the false pad
+and the clamp in his pocket. Instead of having a servant bring the slate
+to him and making the exchange described above, he may have the trick
+slate concealed about him before the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> séance begins, with the message
+written on it, and adroitly make the substitution while the sitter is
+engaged in lowering the light. Dr. Slade almost invariably adopted the
+first-mentioned exchange, because it enabled his confederate to write a
+lucid message to the sitter.</p>
+
+<p>An examination of the sitter’s overcoat in the hall frequently yielded
+valuable information in the way of names and initials extracted from
+letters, sealed or unsealed. Sealed letters? Yes; it is an easy matter to
+steam a gummed envelope, open it, and seal it again. Another method is to
+wet the sealed envelope with a sponge dipped in alcohol. The writing will
+show up tolerably well if written upon a card. In a very short time the
+envelope will dry and exhibit no evidence of having been tampered with.</p>
+
+<p>And now as to the rest of the phenomena witnessed that evening in C&mdash;’s
+room. The raps on the table top were the result of an ingenious, hidden
+mechanism, worked by electricity; the mysterious hand that operated under
+the table was the juggler’s right foot. He wore slippers and had the toe
+part of one stocking cut away. By dropping the slipper from his foot he
+was enabled to pull the edge of my coat, lift and shove a chair away, and
+perform sundry other ghostly evolutions, thanks to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> a well trained big
+toe. Dr. Slade who was long and lithe of limb, worked this dodge to
+perfection, prior to the paralytic attack which partly disabled his lower
+limbs.</p>
+
+<p>The stringed instrument which played in the cabinet was arranged as
+follows: Inside of the guitar was a small musical box, so arranged that
+the steel vibrating tongues of the box came in contact with a small piece
+of writing paper. When the box was set to going by means of an electric
+current, it closely imitated the twanging of a guitar, just as a sheet of
+music when laid on the strings of a piano simulates a banjo. This spirit
+guitar is a very useful instrument in the hands of a medium. It may be
+made to play when it is attached to a telescopic rod, and waved in
+phosphorescent curves over the heads of a circle of believers in the dark
+séance.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now sum up the subject of Dr. Slade’s spirit-slate writing, (Fig.
+3) and endeavor to show how grossly exaggerated the reports of the
+medium’s performances have been, and the reasons for such misstatements.
+No one who is not a professional or amateur prestidigitateur can correctly
+report what he sees at a spiritualistic séance.</p>
+
+<p>It is not so much the swiftness of the hand that counts in conjuring but
+the ability to force the attention of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> spectators in different
+directions away from the crucial point of the trick. The really important
+part of the test, then, is hidden from the audience, who imagine they have
+seen all when they have not. Says Dr. Max Dessoir: “It must therefore be
+regarded as a piece of rare naiveté if a reporter asserts that in the
+description of his subjective conclusions he is giving the exact objective
+processes.”</p>
+
+<p>This will be seen in Mr. Davey’s experiments. Mr. Davey, a member of the
+London Society for Psychical Research, and an amateur magician who
+possessed great dexterity in the slate-writing business, gave a series of
+exhibitions before a number of persons, but did not inform them that the
+results were due to prestidigitation. No entrance fee was charged for the
+séances, but the sitters, who were fully impressed with the genuineness of
+the affair, were requested to submit written reports of what they had
+seen. These letters, published in vol. iv of the Proceedings of the
+Society, are admirable examples of mal-observation, for no one detected
+Mr. Davey exchanging slates and doing the writing.</p>
+
+<p>“The sources of error,” says Dr. Max Dessoir, in an article reproduced in
+the “Open Court,” “through which such strange reports arise, may be
+arranged in four<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> groups. First, the observer interpolates a fact which
+did not happen, but which he is led to believe has happened; thus, he
+imagines he has examined the slate when as a fact he never has. Second, he
+confuses two similar ideas; he thinks he has carefully examined the slate,
+when in reality he has only done so hastily, or in ignorance of the point
+at issue. Third, the witness changes the order of events a little in
+consequence of a very natural deception of memory; he believes he tested
+the slate later than he actually did. Fourth and last, he passes over
+certain details which were purposely described to him as insignificant; he
+does not notice that the ‘medium’ asks him to close a window, and that the
+trick is thus rendered possible.”</p>
+
+<p>Similar experiments in slate-writing were conducted by the Seybert
+Commission with Mr. Harry Kellar, the conjurer, after sittings were had
+with Dr. Slade, and the magician outdid the medium. The Seybert Commission
+found none of Slade’s tests genuine, and officially denied “the
+extraordinary stories of his performances with locked slates which
+constitute a large part of his fame.”</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Slade began his Spiritualistic operations in London in the year 1876,
+and charged a fee of a guinea a head for séances lasting a few minutes.
+Crowds went to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> see him and he reaped a golden harvest from the credulous,
+until the grand fiasco came. Slade was caught in one of his juggling
+séances and exposed by Prof. Lancaster and Dr. Donkin. The result was a
+criminal prosecution and a sensational trial lasting three days at the Bow
+Street Police Court. Mr. Maskelyne, the conjurer, was summoned as an
+expert witness and performed a number of the medium’s tricks in the
+witness box. The court sentenced Slade to three months’ hard labor, but he
+took an appeal from the magistrate’s decision. The appeal was sustained on
+the ground of a technical flaw in the indictment, and the medium fled to
+the Continent before new summons could be served. He visited Paris,
+Leipsic, Berlin, St. Petersburg and other cities, giving séances before
+Royalty and before distinguished members of scientific societies; and
+afterwards went to Australia. He made money fast and spent it fast, but it
+took all of his ingenuity to elude the clutches of the police. In 1892, we
+find him the inmate of a workhouse in one of our Western towns, penniless,
+friendless and a lunatic.</p>
+
+<p>Slade’s séances with Prof. Zoellner, of Berlin, in 1878, attracted wide
+attention, and did more to advertise his fame as a medium than anything
+else in his career.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>Zoellner’s belief in the genuineness of Slade’s mediumistic marvels led
+him to write a curious work, entitled, “Transcendental Physics,” being an
+inquiry into the “fourth dimension of space.” Poor old Zoellner, he was
+half insane when these séances were held! We have the undisputed authority
+of the Seybert Commission for the correctness of this statement.</p>
+
+<p>In Hamburg, Dr. Borchert wrote to Slade offering him one thousand marks if
+he would produce writing between locked slates, similar to the writing
+alleged to have been executed at the Zoellner séances, but the medium took
+no notice of the professor’s letter. The conjurer, Carl Wilmann, with two
+friends, had a sitting with Slade, but without satisfactory results for
+the medium. “Slade,” says Wilmann, “was unable to distract my attention
+from the crucial point of the trick, and threw down the slates on the
+table in disgust, remarking: ‘I can not obtain any results to-day, the
+power that controls me is exhausted. Come tomorrow!’” That tomorrow never
+arrived for Wilmann and his friends; Slade did not keep his appointment,
+nor could Wilmann succeed in obtaining another sitting with him. The
+medium had been warned by friends that Wilmann was an expert professor of
+legerdemain.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>It was in 1886 that Slade created such a furore in Hamburg in
+Spiritualistic circles. A talented conjurer of that city, named
+Schradieck, after a few weeks’ practice succeeded in eclipsing Slade. He
+learned to write in reverse on slates, and produced writing in various
+colored chalks. Another one of his experiments was making the slate
+disappear from one side of the table where it was held <i>a la</i> Slade and
+appear at the opposite end of the table suddenly, as if held up to view by
+a spirit hand. Wilmann describes the effect as startling in the extreme
+and says Schradieck produced it by means of his left foot. After Slade’s
+departure from Hamburg, spirit mediums sprang up like toadstools in a
+single night. Wilmann in his crusade against these worthies had many
+interesting experiences. He gives in his work “Moderne Wunder” several
+exposes of mediumistic tricks, two of which, in the sealed slate line, are
+very ingenious. The medium takes a slate (one furnished by the sitter if
+preferred), wipes it on both sides with a wet sponge, and then wraps it up
+carefully in a piece of ordinary white wrapping paper, allowing the
+package to be sealed and corded <i>ad libitum</i>. Notwithstanding all the
+precautions used, a message appears on the slate. It is accomplished in
+this way. A message in reverse is written<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> on the wrapping paper with a
+camel’s hair brush or pointed stick, dipped in some sticky substance, and
+finely powdered slate pencil dust is scattered over the writing. At a
+little distance, especially in a dim light, it is impossible to discover
+the writing as it blends very well with the white paper. In wrapping up
+the slate the medium presses the writing on the paper against the surface
+of the slate and the chirography adheres thereto, very much as the greasy
+drawing on a lithographer’s stone prints on paper.</p>
+
+<p>In the other experiment the medium uses a <i>papier mache</i> slate, set in the
+usual wooden frame. A <i>papier mache</i> pad is prepared with a spirit message
+on one surface; on the other is pasted a piece of newspaper. This pad is
+laid, written side down, on a sheet of newspaper. After the genuine slate
+has been washed, the medium proceeds to wrap it up in the newspaper, and
+presses the trick pad, writing up, into the frame of the slate where it
+exactly fits into a groove prepared for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Since Dr. Slade’s retirement from the mediumistic field, Pierre L. O. A.
+Keeler’s fame as a slate-writing medium has been spread broadcast. He
+oscillates between Boston, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore
+and Washington, and has a very large and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> fashionable <i>clientele</i>. He
+gives evening materializing séances of the cabinet type three times a week
+at his rooms. During the day he gives private slate tests which are very
+popular.</p>
+
+<p>I had a sitting with him on the afternoon of April 24th, 1895. In order to
+gain his confidence, I went as one witnessing a slate séance for the first
+time, that is, I accepted <i>his</i> slates, and had no prepared questions.</p>
+
+<p>I was ushered into a small, back parlor by the medium who closed the
+folding doors. We were alone. I made a mental photograph of the
+surroundings. There was no furniture except a table and two chairs placed
+near the window. Over the table was a faded cloth, hanging some eight or
+ten inches below the table. Upon it were several pads of paper and a
+heterogeneous assortment of lead pencils. Leaning against the mantelpiece,
+within a foot or so of the medium’s chair, were some thirty or forty
+slates.</p>
+
+<p>“Take a seat”, said Mr. Keeler pointing to a chair. I sat down, whereupon
+he seated himself opposite me, remarking as he did so, “Have you brought
+slates with you?”</p>
+
+<p>“I have not,” was my reply.</p>
+
+<p>“Then, if you have no objection,” he said, “we will use<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> two of mine.
+Please examine these two slates, wash them clean with this damp cloth, and
+dry them.” With that he passed me two ordinary school-slates, which I
+inspected closely, and carefully cleaned.</p>
+
+<p>“Be kind enough to place the slates to one side,” said Keeler. I complied.</p>
+
+<p>“Have you prepared any slips with the names of friends, relatives, or
+others, who have passed into spirit life, with questions for them to
+answer?”</p>
+
+<p>“I have not,” I replied.</p>
+
+<p>“Kindly do so then,” he answered, “and take your time about it. There is a
+pad on the table. Please write but a single question on each slip. Then
+fold the slips and place them on the table.” I did so.</p>
+
+<p>“I will also make one,” he continued, “it is to my spirit control, George
+Christy.” He wrote a name on a slip of paper, folded it, and tossed it
+among those I had prepared, passing his hand over them and fingering them,
+saying, “It is necessary to get a psychic impression from them.” We sat in
+silence several minutes.</p>
+
+<p>After a little while Mr. Keeler said: “I do not know whether or not we
+shall get any responses this afternoon, but have patience.” Again we
+waited. “Suppose you write a few more slips,” he remarked, “perhaps
+we’ll<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> have better luck. Be sure and address them to people who were old
+enough to write before they passed into spirit life.” This surprised me,
+but I complied with his wishes. While writing I glanced furtively at him
+from time to time; his hands were in his lap, concealed by the table
+cloth. He looked at me occasionally, then at his lap, fixedly. <i>I am
+satisfied that he opened some of my slips, having adroitly abstracted them
+from the table in the act of fingering them.</i></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img03.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 4&mdash;SLATE WRITING.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>He directed me to take my handkerchief and tie the two slates on the table
+tightly together, holding the slates in his hands as I did so. I laid the
+slates on the table before me, and we waited. “I think we will succeed
+this time in getting responses to some of the questions. Let us hold the
+slates.” He grasped them with fingers and thumbs at one end, and I at the
+other in like manner, holding the slates about two inches above the table.
+We listened attentively, and soon was heard the scratching noise of a
+slate pencil moving upon a slate. The sound seemed directly under the
+slate, and was sufficiently impressive to startle any person making a
+slate test for the first time, and unacquainted with the multifarious
+devices of the sleight-of-hand artist.</p>
+
+<p>“Hold the slates tightly, please!” said Mr. Keeler, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> a convulsive
+tremor shook his hands. I grasped firmly my end of the slates, and waited
+further developments. The faint tap of a slate pencil upon a slate was
+heard, and the medium announced that the communications were finished. I
+untied the handkerchief, and turned up the inner surfaces of the slates.
+Upon one of them several messages were written, and signed. Other
+communications were received during the sitting. After the first messages
+were received, and while I was engaged in reading them, Keeler quickly
+picked up a slate from the floor, clapped it upon the clean slate
+remaining on the table, and requested me to tie the two rapidly together
+with my handkerchief before the influence was lost. At a signal from him I
+unfastened the slates and found another set of answers. The same
+proceeding was gone through for the third set. The imitation of a pencil
+writing upon a slate was either made by the apparatus, described in the
+séance with C&mdash; in the first part of this chapter, or by some other
+contrivance; more than likely by simply scratching with his finger on the
+under surface of the slate. While my attention was absorbed in the act of
+writing my second set of questions, he prepared answers to two of my first
+set and substituted a prepared slate for the cleaned slate on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> the table.
+<i>I was sure he was writing under the table; I heard the faint rubbing of a
+soft bit of pencil upon the surface of a slate. His hands were in his lap
+and his eyes were fixed downwards.</i> Several times I saw him put his
+fingers into his vest pockets, and he appeared to bring up small particles
+of something, which I believe were bits of the white and colored crayons
+used in writing the messages. His quiet audacity was surprising. I give
+below the questions and answers with my comments thereon:</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">First Slate. Fig. 4.</p>
+
+<p class="center">QUESTION.</p>
+
+<p>To Mamie:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Tell me the name of your dead brother?</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Signed) Harry R. Evans.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">ANSWER.</p>
+
+<p>You must not think of me as one gone forever from you. You have made
+conditions by and through which I can return to you, and so long as I can
+do this I can not feel unhappy. So dear one, rest in the assurance that
+you are helping me, and that I am doing all I can to help you. Let us make
+the best of it all and help each other as best we can, then all will be
+well. My home in spirit life is beautiful and awaiting you. I will be the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+first to greet you. <i>I have no dead brother. All of us are living.</i> I am
+Mamie &mdash;. (The medium here cleverly evades giving a name by an equivoque.)</p>
+
+<p class="center">QUESTION.</p>
+
+<p>To Len&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Tell me the cause of your death, and the circumstances surrounding it?</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Signed) Harry R. Evans.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">ANSWER.</p>
+
+<p>Harry! I am very glad to see you. I am happy. You must be reconciled, and
+not mourn me as dead! I will try to come again soon, when I am stronger
+and tell of my decease.&mdash;Len. (He again evades an answer.)</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Second Slate. Fig. 5.</p>
+
+<p class="center">QUESTION.</p>
+
+<p>To A. D. B.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>When and where did you die?</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Signed) Harry R. Evans.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">ANSWER.</p>
+
+<p>This all seems so strange coming back and writing just as one would if
+they were in the earth life and communicating with a friend. What a
+blessed privilege it is. I am so happy. Oh, I would not come back. It is
+so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> restful here. No pain or sorrow. Dear, do not think I have forgotten
+you, I constantly think of you and wish that you, too, might view these
+lovely scenes of glorious beauty. You must rest with the thought that when
+your life is ended upon the earth, <i>I will be the first to meet you</i>. Now
+be patient and hopeful until we meet where there is no more parting. I am
+sincerely, A. D. B. (No answer at all.) Observe error in first sentence:
+“as <i>one</i> would if <i>they</i> were&mdash;.” A. D. B. was an educated gentleman, and
+not given to such ungrammatical expressions.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img04.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 5&mdash;SLATE WRITING.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>Third Slate. Fig. 6.</p>
+
+<p class="center">QUESTION.</p>
+
+<p>To B. G.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Can you recall any of the conversations we had together on the B. and P.
+R. R. cars?</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Signed) H. R. Evans.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">ANSWER.</p>
+
+<p>O my dear one, I can only write a few lines that you may know that I see
+and hear you as you call upon me. I do not forget you. When I am stronger
+will come again. I do not know what conversation you refer to in the cars.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">B. G.</span></p>
+
+<p>(Again evades answering. B. G. was very much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> interested in the drama, and
+talked continuously about the stage.)</p>
+
+<p class="center">QUESTION.</p>
+
+<p>To C. J.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Where did you die, and from what disease?</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Signed) H. R. Evans.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">ANSWER.</p>
+
+<p>I know the days and weeks seem long and lonely to you without me. I do not
+forget you; am doing the best I can to help you.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">C. J.&mdash;.</span></p>
+
+<p>(Still another evasion of a straightforward question. The lady in spirit
+life to whom the question was addressed died of consumption in a Roman
+Catholic Convent. She was only a society acquaintance of the writer, and
+not on such terms of intimacy as to warrant Mr. Keeler’s reply.)</p>
+
+<p>In one corner of Slate No. 2 was the following, written with a yellow
+crayon: “This is remarkable. How did you know we could come?&mdash;H. K.
+Evans.” Scrawled across the face of Slate No. 3, in red pencil, was a
+communication from George Christy, Mr. Keeler’s spirit control, reading as
+follows: “Many are here who&mdash;&mdash;G. C. (George Christy)” (The remainder is
+so badly written, as to be indecipherable.)</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>On carefully analyzing the various communications it will be observed that
+the handwriting of the messages from Mamie&mdash;and B G.&mdash;are similar,
+possessing the same characteristics as regards letter formation, etc. It
+does not require a professional expert in chirography to detect this fact.
+One and the same person wrote the messages purporting to come from Mamie
+R&mdash;, Len&mdash;, B. G.&mdash;, C. J.&mdash;, and A. D. B. <i>In fact, the writing on all
+the slates is, in my opinion, the work of Mr. Pierre Keeler.</i></p>
+
+<p>The longer communications were doubtless prepared beforehand, being
+general in nature and conveying about the same information that any
+departed spirit might give to any inquiring mortal, but, as will be
+observed, <i>giving no adequate answers to the queries</i>, with the exception
+of the last two sentences, <i>which were written by the medium, after he
+became acquainted with the tenor of the questions upon the folded slips</i>.
+The very short communications are written in a careless hand, such as a
+man would dash off hastily. There is an attempt at disguise, but a clumsy
+one, the letters still retaining the characteristics of the more
+deliberate chirography of the long communications. A close inspection<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> of
+the slates reveals the exact similarity of the y’s, u’s, I’s, g’s, h’s,
+m’s and n’s.</p>
+
+<p>The handwriting of messages on slates should be, and is claimed to be,
+adequate evidence of the genuineness of the communication, for are we not
+supposed to know the handwriting of our friends?</p>
+
+<p>Possibly Mr. Keeler would claim that the handwriting was the work of his
+control “Geo. Christy”, who acted as a sort of amanuensis for the spirits.
+If this be so, why the attempts at <i>disguise</i>, and bungling attempts at
+that?</p>
+
+<p>In the séance with Mr. Keeler, I subjected him to no tests. He had
+everything his own way. <i>I should have brought my own marked slates with
+me and never let them out of my sight for an instant. I should have
+subjected the table to a close examination, and requested the medium to
+move or rather myself removed the collection of slates against the mantel,
+placed so conveniently within his reach.</i> I did not do this, because of
+his well known irascibility. He would probably have shown me the door and
+refused a sitting on any terms, as he has done to many skeptics. I was
+anxious to meet Keeler, and preferred playing the novice rather than not
+get a slate test from one of the best-known and most famous of modern
+slate-writing mediums.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img05.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 6&mdash;SLATE WRITING.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>After what has been stated, I think there can be no shadow of doubt that
+the medium abstracted by sleight-of-hand some of the paper slips
+containing my written questions, read them under cover of the table, and
+did the slate-writing himself. All of these slate-tests, where pellets or
+slips of paper are used, are performed in a similar manner, as will be
+seen from the exposé published by the Society for Psychical Research. In
+vol. viii of the proceedings of that association will be found a number of
+revelations, one of which throws considerable light on the Keeler tests.
+The sitter was Dr. Richard Hodgson, and the medium was a Mrs. Gillett.
+Says Dr. Hodgson:</p>
+
+<p>“Under pretence of ‘magnetising’ the pellets prepared by the sitter, or
+folding them more tightly, she substitutes a pellet of her own for one of
+the sitter’s. Reading the sitter’s pellet below the table, she writes the
+answer on one of her own slates, a pile of which, out of the sitter’s
+view, she keeps on a chair by her side. She then takes a second slate,
+places it on the table, and sponges and dries both sides, after which she
+takes the first slate, and turning the side upon which she has written
+towards herself, rubs it in several places with a dry cloth or the ends of
+her fingers as though cleaning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> it. She then places it, writing downward,
+on the other slate on the table, and sponges and dries the upper surface
+of it. She then pretends to take one of the pellets on the table and put
+it between the two slates. What she does, however, is to bring the pellet
+up from below the table, take another of the sitter’s pellets on the table
+into her hand, and place the pellet which she has brought up from below
+the table between the slates, keeping in her hand the pellet just taken
+from the top of the table. The final step is to place a rubber band round
+both slates, in doing which she turns both slates over together. She
+professes to get the writing without the use of any chalk or pencil. Some
+of her slates are prepared beforehand with messages or drawings. More
+interesting, perhaps, because of its boldness, is her method of producing
+writing on the sitter’s own slates. Under the pretence of ‘magnetising’
+these she cleans them several times, rubs them with her hands, stands them
+up on end together, and while they are in this position between herself
+and the sitter she writes with one hand on the slate-side nearest to
+herself, holding the slates erect with the other hand. Later on, she lays
+both slates together flat on the table again, the writing being on the
+undermost surface. She then sponges the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> upper surface of the top slate,
+turns it over, and sponges its other surface. She next withdraws the
+bottom slate, places it on top and sponges its top surface, keeping its
+under surface carefully concealed. The final step, the reversal, is made,
+as in the other case, with the help of the rubber band. Mrs. Gillett has
+probably other methods, also. Those which I have described were all that I
+witnessed at my single sitting with her.”</p>
+
+<p>My friend, Dr. L. M. Taylor, of Washington, D. C., an investigator of
+Spiritualistic phenomena, and skeptical like myself of the objective
+phases of the subject, has had many sittings with Keeler for independent
+slate-writing. One séance in particular he is fond of relating:</p>
+
+<p>“On one occasion, after I had written my slips, folded them up, and tossed
+them on the table, I said to Keeler who was obtaining his ‘psychic’
+impression of them, ‘I wish, if possible, to have a spirit tell me the
+numbers and the maker’s name engraved in my watch. I have never taken the
+trouble to look at the numbers, consequently I do not know them.’ ‘Your
+request is an unusual one,’ replied the medium, ‘but I will endeavor to
+gratify it.’ We had some conversations on the subject that lasted several
+minutes. Suddenly he picked up a slate pencil, and scrawled the name, <i>J.
+S. Granger</i> on the upper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> surface of one of my slates; the two slates had
+been previously tied together with my handkerchief and laid on the table
+in front of me. ‘You recognize that name, do you not?’ asked Keeler.
+‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘that is one of the names I wrote on the slips. J. S.
+Granger was an old friend of mine who died some years ago. He was a
+brother-in-law of Stephen A. Douglass.’ ‘If you wish to facilitate
+matters,’ said Keeler, ‘place your watch on top of the slates, concealed
+beneath the handkerchief, otherwise we may have to wait an hour or more
+without obtaining results, and there are a number of persons waiting for
+me in the ante-room. My time you see is limited.’</p>
+
+<p>“I detached my watch from its chain, and placed it in the required
+position. Keeler then took a piece of black cloth, used to clean slates,
+and laid it over my slates. Finally he requested me to take the covered
+slates and hold them in my lap. I took care to feel through the cloth that
+the watch was still beneath the handkerchief. In a short time I was
+directed to uncover the slates, and untie them, which I did. Upon the
+inner surface of one of the slates the following message was written:
+‘Dear Friend, Stephen is with me. I have been through that beautiful watch
+of yours, and, if I see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> correctly, the number is 163131. On the inside I
+see this&mdash;E. Howard &amp; Co., Boston, 211327. And then your name as follows:
+Dr. L. M. Taylor, 1221 Mass. Ave., N. W., Washington, D. C. Signed J. M.
+Granger.’</p>
+
+<p>“I then compared the name and numbers in my watch with those on the slate,
+and found the latter correct, with the exception of one number. A relative
+of mine was present in the room during this séance, and I showed her the
+communication on the slate. Afterwards we passed the slate to Keeler who
+examined it closely. When he handed it back to me, I was surprised to see
+that the incorrect number was mysteriously changed to the proper one.”</p>
+
+<p>This is a very interesting test, indeed, because of its apparently
+impromptu character. I have seen similar feats performed by professional
+conjurers as well as mediums. A dummy watch is substituted for the
+sitter’s watch, and after the medium has ascertained the name and numbers
+on the sitter’s timepiece, he succeeds in adroitly exchanging it again for
+the dummy, thanks to the black cloth. The writing on the slate in the
+above séance was evidently produced in the same way as that described in
+my sitting with Keeler, after he had ascertained the name on the slip. The
+name of Stephen, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> course, was directly obtained from Dr. Taylor. Not
+having been an eye witness of Keeler’s movements in the watch test, I am
+unable to say how closely Dr. Taylor’s description coincides with the
+medium’s actual operations.</p>
+
+<p>In May, 1897, Mr. Pierre Keeler was in Washington, D. C., as usual. My
+friend, Dr. Taylor, who was desirous of putting the medium to another
+crucial test, wrote down a list of names on a sheet of paper&mdash;cognomens of
+ancient Egyptian, Chaldean, and Grecian priests and philosophers&mdash;folded
+the paper, and carefully sealed it in an envelope. He took ten slates with
+him, all of them marked with a private mark of his own. Mr. Keeler eyed
+the envelope dubiously, but passed no criticisms on the doctor’s
+precautions to prevent trickery. The two men sat down at a table and
+waited for the spirits to manifest. Dr. Taylor, on this occasion, was
+absolutely certain that his slates had not been tampered with, and that
+the medium had not succeeded in opening the envelope. In a little while
+the comedy of the pencil-scratching between the tied slates began.</p>
+
+<p>“Ah”, exclaimed the physician, “a message at last!” Then he thought to
+himself, “can the medium possibly have deluded my senses by some hypnotic
+power, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> adroitly opened that envelope without my being aware of the
+fact? But no, that is impossible!”</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Keeler took the slates away from Dr. Taylor, and quickly opened them,
+<i>accidentally</i> dropping one of them behind the table. In a second,
+however, he brought up the slate, and remarked: “How awkward of me. I beg
+your pardon,” etc. On the surface of this slate was written the following
+sentence: “See some other medium; d&mdash;n it!&mdash;George Christy.” Dr. Taylor is
+positive, as he has repeatedly told me, that this message was not
+inscribed on his own marked slate, but was written by the medium on one of
+his own. The exchange, of course, must have been effected in the pretended
+accidental dropping of the doctor’s slate by the medium. This is a very
+old expedient among pretenders to spirit power. All conjurers are familiar
+with the device. Imro Fox, the American magician, uses it constantly in
+his entertainments, with capital effect.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Taylor, unfortunately, did not succeed in getting possession of the
+medium’s prepared slate. Another exchange was undoubtedly made by Mr.
+Keeler, and the physician had returned to him his own marked slate. When
+he got home that afternoon, and had time to carefully scrutinize his
+slates, he found that they bore no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> evidence of having been written upon
+at all. Having also examined these slates, I am prepared to add my
+testimony to that of Dr. Taylor.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will see from the above-described séance that unless the medium
+(or a confederate) is enabled to read the names and questions, prepared by
+the sitter, his hands are practically tied in all experiments in
+psychology.</p>
+
+<p>When investigators bring their own marked slates with them, screwed
+tightly together, and sealed, the medium has to adopt different tactics
+from those employed in the tests before mentioned. He has to call in the
+aid of a confederate. The audacity of the sealed-slate test is without
+parallel in the annals of pretended mediumship. For an insight into the
+secrets of this phase of psychography, the reading public is indebted to a
+medium, the anonymous author of a remarkably interesting work,
+“Revelations of a Spirit Medium.” Many skeptical investigators have been
+converted to Spiritualism by these tests. They invariably say to you when
+approached on the subject: “I took my own marked slates, carefully screwed
+together, to the medium, and had lengthy messages written upon them by
+spirit power. <i>These slates never left my hands for a second.</i>” I will
+quote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> what the writer of “Revelations of a Spirit Medium” says on the
+subject:</p>
+
+<p>“No man ever received independent slate-writing between slates fastened
+together that he did not allow out of his hands a few seconds. Scores of
+persons will tell you that they <i>have</i> received writing under those
+conditions through the mediumship of the writer; but the writer will tell
+you how he fooled them and how you can do so if you see fit.</p>
+
+<p>“In the first place you will rent a house with a cellar in connection. Cut
+a trap-door one foot square through the floor between the sills on which
+the floor is laid. Procure a fur floor mat with long hair. Cut a square
+out of the mat and tack it to the top of the trap door. Tack the mat fast
+to the floor, for some one may visit you who will want to raise it up.</p>
+
+<p>“Explain the presence of the fur by saying it is an absorbent of magnetic
+forces, through which you produce the writing. Over the rug place a heavy
+pine table about four feet square; and over the table a heavy cover that
+
+reaches the floor on all sides. Put your assistant in the cellar with a
+coal-oil stove, a tea-kettle of hot water, different colored letter wax
+and lead pencils, a screw driver, a pair of nippers, a pair of pliers, a
+pair of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> scissors and an assortment of wire brads. You are ready for
+business.</p>
+
+<p>“When your sitter comes in you will notice his slates, if he brings a
+pair, and see if they are secured in any way that your man in the cellar
+can not duplicate. If they are, you can touch his slates with your finger
+and say to him that you can not use his slates on account of the
+‘magnetism’ with which they are saturated. He will know nothing of
+‘magnetic conditions’ and will ask you what he is to do about it.</p>
+
+<p>“You will furnish him a pair of new slates with water and cloths to clean
+them. You also furnish him paper to write his questions on and the screws,
+wax, paper and mucilage to secure them with. He will write his questions
+and fasten the slates securely together.</p>
+
+<p>“You now conduct him to your séance-room and invite inspection of your
+table and surroundings. After the examination has been made you will seat
+the sitter at one side of the table with his side and arm next it. If he
+desires to keep hold of the slates a signal agreed upon between yourself
+and your assistant will cause the spirit in the cellar to open the trap
+door, which opens downwards, and to push through the floor and into
+position where the sitter can grasp one end of it, a pair of dummy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+slates. This dummy your assistant will continue to hold until the sitter
+has taken hold of it after the following performance:</p>
+
+<p>“Your assistant lets you know everything is ready by touching your foot.
+You now reach and take the sitter’s slates and put them below the table,
+and under it, telling the sitter to put his hand under from his side and
+hold them with you. He puts his hand under and gets hold of the dummy
+slates held by your assistant.</p>
+
+<p>“Your assistant holds on until you have stood the slates on end, leaning
+against the table leg, and have got hold of the dummy. He then takes the
+sitter’s slates below and closes the trap. He proceeds to open them, read
+the questions, answer them and refasten the slates.</p>
+
+<p>“You will be entertaining your sitter by twitching and jerking and making
+clairvoyant and clairaudient guesses for him.</p>
+
+<p>“When your assistant touches your foot you will know that he is ready to
+make the exchange again, by which the sitter will get hold of the slates
+he fastened. When you get the signal you give a snort and jump that jerks
+the end of the slates from the sitter’s hand. He is now given the end of
+the slates held by your assistant, and you will allow the assistant to
+take the dummy. After<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> sitting a moment or two longer, you will tell the
+sitter to take out his slates and examine them if he chooses. Many times
+they do not open the slates until they reach their homes.</p>
+
+<p>“This, reader, is the man who will declare that he furnished the slates
+and did not allow them out of his hands a minute.</p>
+
+<p>“The usual method of obtaining the writing is for the medium to hold the
+slates alone. When this is the case the medium passes the slates below,
+and receives in return a dummy which he is continually thumping on the
+under side of the table for the purpose of showing the sitter that the
+slates are there all the time.</p>
+
+<p>“It is not necessary that you should use a cellar to get this phase of
+‘independent slate-writing.’ You could place your table against a
+partition door and by fitting one of the small panels with hinges and
+bolts, would have a very convenient way of obtaining the assistance of the
+spirit in the next room. It is also possible to make a trap in a room that
+has a wooden wainscoting.”</p>
+
+<p>Before closing this brief survey of slate-writing experiments, I must
+describe an exceedingly ingenious trick, indeed, bordering on the
+marvelous. It is the recent invention of a Western conjurer, and solves
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> problem of actually writing between locked slates by physical means.
+The effect is as follows: You request the sitter to take two slates, wash
+them carefully, and tie them together, after first having placed a bit of
+chalk between their surfaces. Hold them under the table for a minute, and
+then hand them to the sitter for examination. A name, or a short sentence,
+in answer to some question, will be found scrawled across the upper
+surface of the bottom slate. It is accomplished in this way. You take a
+small pellet of iron or steel, coat it with mucilage, and dip it into
+chalk or slate-pencil dust. This dust will adhere and harden into a
+consistent mass, after a little while, completely concealing the metal,
+and causing the whole to resemble a bit of chalk. Take this supposed
+pellet of chalk from your vest pocket and place it between the slates;
+hold the latter level beneath a table, and by moving the poles of a strong
+magnet against the surface of the under slate, you can cause the iron or
+steel to write a name or sentence, thanks to its coating of chalk dust. It
+is better to use slates with rather deep frames, in order that the chalked
+metal may write with facility. It requires considerable practice to write
+with ease in the manner described above. The first thing of course is to
+locate the position of the chalk between the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> locked slates. To enable you
+to do this, place the supposed chalk in one corner of slate No. 1 before
+covering with slate No. 2, or else exactly in the center of slate No. 2.
+In this way you will have no difficulty in affecting the metal with the
+magnet, when the slates are held under the table. There are various ways
+of holding the slates; one, is to ask the sitter to hold one end, while
+you hold the other, five or six inches above the table. The light is put
+out, and you take the magnet from your pocket and execute the writing. The
+noise of the magnet passing over the surface of the under slate serves to
+represent a disembodied spirit as doing the writing.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">2. The Master of the Mediums.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most remarkable personalities serving as an exponent of
+Spiritualism was Daniel Dunglas Home, the Napoleon of necromancy, and the
+Past Grand Master of Mediums. His career reads like a romance. He lived in
+a sort of twilight land, and hob-nobbed with kings, queens and other
+people of noble blood.</p>
+
+<div class="container">
+<p class="poetry">“Something unsubstantial, ghostly,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Seems this Theurgist,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">In deep meditation mostly</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Wrapped, as in a mist.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Vague, phantasmal and unreal,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">To our thoughts he seems,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Walking in a world ideal,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">In a land of dreams.”</span></p></div>
+
+<p>He wound his serpentine way into the best society of London, Paris,
+Berlin, Rome, and St. Petersburg&mdash;“always despising filthy lucre,” as
+Maskelyn remarks, “but never refusing a diamond worth ten times the amount
+he would have received in cash, or some present, which the host of the
+house at which he happened to be manifesting always felt constrained to
+offer.”</p>
+
+<p>This thaumaturgist of the Nineteenth Century was born near Edinburg,
+Scotland, on March 20, 1833, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> came of a family reported to be gifted
+with “second sight.” His father, William Home, was a natural son of
+Alexander, tenth Earl of Home. Strange phenomena occurred during the
+medium’s childhood. At the age of nine he was adopted by his aunt, Mrs.
+McNeill Cook, who brought him to America. He began giving séances about
+the year 1852. Among the notable men who attended these early “sittings”
+were William Cullen Bryant, Professors Wells and Hare, and Judge Edmonds.</p>
+
+<p>Home had a tall, slight figure, a fair and freckled face&mdash;before disease
+made it the color of yellow wax&mdash;keen, slaty-blue eyes, thin bloodless
+lips, a rather snub nose, and curly auburn hair. His manners, though
+forward, were agreeable, and he recited such poetry as Poe’s “Raven” and
+“Ulalume” with powerful effect. He was altogether a weird sort of
+personage. His principal mediumistic manifestations were rappings,
+table-tipping, ghostly materializations, playing on sealed musical
+instruments, levitation, and handling fire with impunity.</p>
+
+<p>In 1855 he launched his necromantic bark on European waters. No man since
+Cagliostro ever created so profound a sensation in the Old World. He wrote
+his reminiscences in two large volumes, but little credence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> can be given
+them, as they are full of extravagant statements and wild fantasies.</p>
+
+<p>The London <i>Punch</i> (May 9th, 1868), printed the following effusion on the
+medium, a sort of parody on “Home, Sweet Home:”</p>
+
+<div class="container">
+<p class="poetry">Through realms Thaumaturgic the student may roam,<br />
+And not light on a worker of wonders like <i>Home</i>.<br />
+Cagliostro himself might descend from his chair,<br />
+And set up our <i>Daniel</i> as Grand-Cophta there&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Home, Home, Dan. Home</i>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No medium like <i>Home</i>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Spirit legs, spirit hands, he gives table and chair;<br />
+Gravitation defying, he flies in the air;<br />
+But the fact to which henceforth his fame should be pinned,<br />
+Is his power to raise, not himself but the wind!&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Home, Home, Dan. Home</i>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No medium like <i>Home</i>.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>Robert Browning made him the subject of his celebrated satirical poem,
+“Mr. Sludge, the Medium.”</p>
+
+<p>Some of the most celebrated scientific and literary personages of England
+became interested in his mysterious abilities, and among his intimate
+friends were the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> Earl of Dunraven, Mary Howitt, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Prof.
+Wallace, and Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. There is good authority for
+believing that Home was the mysterious Margrave of Bulwer’s weird novel,
+“A Strange Story.” Bulwer was an ardent believer in the supernatural and
+Home spent many days at Knebworth amid a select coterie of ghost-seers.
+The famous novelist relates that as Home sat with him in the library of
+Knebworth, conversing upon politics, social matters, books or other chance
+topics, the chairs rocked and the tables were suspended in mid-air.</p>
+
+<p>When the medium was requested to exert his power and found himself in
+condition, it is alleged, he would rise and float about the room. This in
+Spiritualistic parlance is termed “levitation”. At Knebworth and other
+places, some of the most prominent people of the day claim to have seen
+Home lift himself up and sail tranquilly out of a window, around the
+house, and come in by another window.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Dunraven told many stories equally strange of performances
+that were given in his presence. The Earl declared that he had many times
+seen Home elongate and shorten his body, and cause the closed piano to
+play by putting his fingers on the lid.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img06.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 7&mdash;HOME AT THE TUILERIES.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>In the autumn of 1855 the famous medium went to Florence; there, also, the
+spirit manifestations secured him the <i>entree</i> into the best society of
+the old Italian city. In his memoirs he speaks of an incident occurring
+through his mediumship, at a séance given in Florence: “Upon one occasion,
+while the Countess C&mdash; was seated at one of Erard’s grand-action pianos,
+it rose and balanced itself in the air, during the whole time she was
+playing.” An English lady, resident at Florence, in a supposed haunted
+house, procured the services of Home to exorcise the ghost. They sat at a
+table in the sitting-room, and raps were heard proceeding from that piece
+of furniture, and rustling sounds in the room as of a person moving about
+in a heavy garment. The spirit being adjured in the name of the “Holy
+Trinity” to leave the premises, the demonstrations ceased.</p>
+
+<p>In February, 1856, the medium joined the retinue of Count B&mdash;, a Polish
+nobleman, and went to Naples with his patron. From Naples to Rome was the
+next step, and, in the Eternal City, the medium joined the Romish Church,
+and was adjured by the Pope to abandon spirit séances forever. In 1858 we
+find Home in St. Petersburg, where he married the youngest daughter of
+General Count de Kroll, of Russia, and a goddaughter of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Emperor
+Nicholas, the marriage taking place on Sunday, August 1, 1858, in the
+private chapel attached to the house of the lady’s brother-in-law, the
+Count Gregoire Koucheleff-Besborodko. It was a very notable affair, and
+Alexander Dumas came from Paris to attend the ceremony. Home’s spirit
+power which had left him since his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith
+now returned in full force, it is said, and he saw standing near him at
+the wedding the spirit form of his mother. In 1862 his wife died at the
+Chateau Laroche, near Perigneux, France, and the medium repaired to Rome
+for the purpose of studying sculpture. The reports of the spirit phenomena
+constantly attending Home’s presence reached the ears of the Papal
+authorities and he was compelled to leave the city, notwithstanding the
+fact that he gave positive assurance that he would give no séance. He was
+actually charged with being a sorcerer, like Cagliostro, an accusation
+that reads very strange in the Nineteenth Century. This affair embittered
+Home against the Church, and he abandoned Roman Catholicism for the Greek
+Church.</p>
+
+<p>After the Roman fiasco, the famous medium returned to England to give
+Spiritualistic lectures and séances. A writer in “<i>All the Year Round</i>”,
+gives the following pen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> picture of the medium, as he appeared in 1866:
+“He is a tall, thin man, with broad square shoulders, suggestive of a suit
+of clothes hung upon an iron cross. His hair is long and yellow; his teeth
+are large, glittering and sharp; his eyes are a pale grey, with a redness
+about the eye-lids, which comes and goes in a ghastly manner, as he talks.
+When he shows his glittering sharp teeth, and that red line comes round
+his slowly rolling eyes, he is not a pleasant sight to look upon. His
+hands are long, white and bony, and on taking them you discover that they
+are icy cold.” A <i>suit of clothes hung upon an iron cross</i> is a weird
+touch in this pen picture.</p>
+
+<p>Home about this time intended going upon the stage, but abandoned the idea
+to become the secretary of the “Spiritual Atheneum”, a society formed for
+the investigation of psychic phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most notable passages in the life of the great medium was the
+famous law suit in which he was concerned in England. In 1866 he became
+acquainted with a wealthy lady, Mrs. Jane Lyons. In his role of medium she
+consulted him constantly about the welfare of her husband in the spirit
+world, and her business affairs. She gave him £33,000 for his services.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+Relatives and friends of Mrs. Lyons, however, saw in Home a cunning
+adventurer who was preying upon a weak-minded woman. A suit was instituted
+against the medium to recover the money, and the case became a <i>cause
+celebre</i> in the annals of the English courts.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1871, Home, who before that time, had been quite a “lion”
+at the court of Napoleon III and Eugene, followed the German army from
+Sedan to Versailles, and was hand-in-glove with the King of Prussia. His
+second marriage took place in October, 1871, at Paris, and after a brief
+honeymoon in England he visited St. Petersburg with his wife, who was a
+member of the noble Russian family of Alsakoff.</p>
+
+<p>On the 21st of June, 1886, the great American ghost-seer died of
+consumption, at Auteuil, near Paris, France. For years he was out of
+health, and he ascribed his weakness to the expenditure of vital force in
+working wonders during the earlier part of his career.</p>
+
+<p>He was buried at St. Germain-en-Laye, with the rites of the Russian
+Church. The funeral was a very simple one, not more than twenty persons
+being present, all of whom were in full evening dress. The idea was to
+emphasize the Spiritualists’ belief that death is not a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> subject for
+mourning, but is liberation, an occasion for rejoicing.</p>
+
+<p>The curious reader will find many accounts of Home’s invulnerability to
+fire while in the trance state, notably those of Prof. Crookes, contained
+in the proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. In the March,
+1868, number of “<i>Human Nature</i>,” Mr. H. D. Jencken writes as follows
+concerning a séance given by the medium:</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Home, (after various manifestations) said, ‘we have gladly shown you
+our power over fluids, we will now show you our power over solids.’ He
+then knelt down before the hearth, and deliberately breaking up a glowing
+piece of coal in the fire place, took up a largish lump of incandescent
+coal and placing the same in his left hand, proceeded to explain that
+caloric had been extracted by a process known to them (the spirits), and
+that the heat could in part be returned. This he proved by alternately
+cooling and heating the coal; and to convince us of the fact, allowed us
+to handle the coal which had become cool, then suddenly resumed its heat
+sufficient to burn one, as I again touched it. I examined Mr. Home’s hand,
+and quite satisfied myself that no artificial means had been employed to
+protect the skin, which did not even retain the smell of smoke. Mr. Home
+then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> re-seated himself, and shortly awoke from his trance quite pale and
+exhausted.”</p>
+
+<p>Other witnesses of the above experiment were Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare,
+Miss Douglas, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. W. H. Harrison and Prof. Wallace. Mr. H.
+Nisbet, of Glasgow, relates (<i>Human Nature</i>, Feb. 1870) that in his own
+home in January, 1870, Mr. Home took a red hot coal from the grate and put
+it in the hands of a lady and gentleman to whom it felt only warm.
+Subsequently he placed the same on a folded newspaper, the result being a
+hole burnt through eight layers of paper. Taking another blazing coal he
+laid it on the same journal, and carried it around the apartment for
+upwards of three minutes, without scorching the paper.</p>
+
+<p>Among the crowned heads and famous people before whom Mr. Home appeared
+were Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie, Queen Victoria, King Louis I
+and King Maximilian of Bavaria, the Emperor of Russia, the King and Queen
+of Wurtemberg, the Duchess of Hamilton, the Crown Prince of Prussia and
+old Gen. Von Moltke. Alexander Dumas the elder, was a constant companion
+of the medium for a long time, and wrote columns about him.</p>
+
+<p>Napoleon III had two sittings with Home&mdash;and it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> said Home materialized
+the spirit of the first Napoleon, who appeared in his familiar cocked hat,
+gray overcoat and dark green uniform with white facings. “My fate?” asked
+Louis, trembling with awe. “Like mine&mdash;discrowned, and death in exile,”
+replied the ghost; then it vanished. The Empress swooned and Napoleon III
+fell back in his chair as if about to faint. The medium in his first
+séance with the French Emperor succeeded only in materializing some
+flowers and a spirit hand, which the Emperor was permitted to grasp.</p>
+
+<p>Celia Logan, the journalist, in writing of one of Home’s séances at a
+nobleman’s house in London, says:</p>
+
+<p>“On this occasion the medium announced that he would produce balls of fire
+and illuminated hands. Failing in the former, he declared that the spirits
+were not strong enough for that to-night, and so he would have to confine
+himself to showing the luminous hands.</p>
+
+<p>“The house was darkened and Home groped his way alone to the head of the
+broad staircase, where every few minutes a pair of luminous hands were
+thrown up. The audience was satisfied generally. One lady, however, was
+not, and whispered to me&mdash;she was a half-hearted Spiritualist&mdash;that it
+looked to her as if he had rubbed his own hands over with lucifer
+matches.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>“The host stood near the mantel piece and had seen Home abstractedly place
+a small bottle upon it when he left the room for the staircase. That
+bottle the host quietly slipped into his pocket. Upon examination the next
+day it was found to contain phosphorated olive oil or some similar
+preparation.</p>
+
+<p>“The host had declared himself to have seen Home float through the air
+from one side of the room to the other, lift a piano several feet in the
+air by simply placing a finger upon it, and had seen him materialize
+disembodied spirits; but after the discovery of the phosphorus trick he
+dropped Home at once.”</p>
+
+<p>It is a significant fact that the medium while giving séances in Paris in
+1857 refused to meet Houdin, the renowned prestidigitateur.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now attempt an exposé of Home’s physical phenomena. Home’s
+extraordinary feat of alternately cooling and heating a lump of coal taken
+from a blazing fire, as related by Mr. H. D. Jencken and others, is easily
+explained. It is a juggling trick. The “coal” is a piece of spongy
+platinum which bears a close resemblance to a lump of half burnt coal, and
+is palmed in the hand, as a prestidigitateur conceals a coin, a pack of
+cards, an egg, or a small lemon. The medium or magician<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> advances to the
+grate and pretends to take a genuine lump of coal from the fire but brings
+up instead, at the tips of his fingers, the piece of platinum. In a secret
+breast pocket of his coat he has a small reservoir of hydrogen, with a
+tube coming down the sleeve and terminating an inch or so above the cuff.
+By means of certain mechanical arrangements, to enable him to let on and
+off the gas at the proper moment, he is able to accomplish the trick; for
+when a current of hydrogen is allowed to impinge upon a piece of spongy
+platinum, the metal becomes incandescent, and as soon as the current is
+arrested the platinum is restored to its normal condition.</p>
+
+<p>The hand may be protected from burning in various ways, one method being
+the repeated application of sulphuric acid to the skin, whereby it is
+rendered impervious to the action of fire for a short period of time;
+another, by wearing gloves of amianthus or asbestos cloth. With the
+latter, worn in a badly lighted room, the medium, without much risk of
+discovery, can handle red hot coals or iron with impunity. The gloves may
+at the proper moment be slipped off and concealed about the person. A
+small slip of amianthus cloth placed on a newspaper would protect it from
+a hot coal and the same means<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> could be used when a coal is placed in
+another’s hand or upon his head.</p>
+
+<p>As to the marvelous “levitation”, either the witnesses of the alleged feat
+were under some hypnotic spell, or else they allowed their imaginations to
+run riot when describing the event. In the case of Lord Lindsay and Lord
+Adare, D. Carpenter in his valuable paper “On Fallacies Respecting the
+Supernatural” (<i>Contemporary Review</i>, Jan., 1876) says: “A whole party of
+believers affirm that they saw Mr. Home float out of one window and in at
+another, while a single honest skeptic declares that Mr. Home was sitting
+in his chair all the time.” It seems that there were three gentlemen
+present besides the medium when the alleged phenomenon took place, the two
+noblemen and a “cousin”. It is this unnamed hard-headed cousin to whom Dr.
+Carpenter refers as the “honest skeptic.”</p>
+
+<p>Many of Home’s admirers have declared that he possessed the power of
+mesmerizing certain of his friends. These gentlemen were no doubt
+hypnotized and related honestly what they believed they had seen. Again,
+the expectancy of attention and the nervous tension of the average sitter
+in spirit-circles tend to produce a morbidly impressible condition of
+mind. Many mediums since<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> Home’s day have performed the act of levitation,
+but always in a dark room. Mr. Angelo Lewis, the writer on magic, reveals
+an ingenious method by which levitation is effected. When the lights are
+extinguished the medium&mdash;who, by the way, must be a clever
+ventriloquist&mdash;removes his boots and places them on his hands.</p>
+
+<p>“I am rising, I am rising, but pay no attention”, he remarks, as he goes
+about the apartment, where the sitters are grouped in a circle about him,
+and he lightly touches the heads of various persons. A shadowy form is
+dimly seen and a smell of boot leather becomes apparent to the olfactory
+senses of many present. People jump quickly to conclusions in such matters
+and argue that where the feet of the medium are, his body must surely
+be&mdash;namely, floating in the air. The illusion is further enhanced by the
+performer’s ventriloquial powers. “I am rising! I am touching the
+ceiling!” he exclaims, imitating the sound of a voice high up. When the
+lights are turned up, the medium is seen (this time with his boots on his
+feet) standing on tip-toe, as if just descended from the ceiling.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes before performing the levitation act, he will say, “In order to
+convince any skeptic present, that I really float upwards, I will write
+the initials of my name,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> or the name of some one present, on the
+ceiling.” When the lights are raised, the letters are seen written on the
+ceiling in a bold scrawling hand. How is it done? The medium has concealed
+about him a telescopic steel rod, something like those Chinese fishing
+rods at one time in vogue among modern disciples of Izaak Walton. This
+convenient rod when not in use folds up in a very small compass, but when
+it is shoved out to its full length, some three or four feet, with a bit
+of black chalk attached, the writing on the ceiling is easily produced.
+The magicians of ancient Egypt displayed their mystic rods as a part of
+their paraphernalia, while the modern magi bear theirs in secret. A
+tambourine, a guitar, a bell, or a spirit hand, rubbed with phosphorus,
+may also be fixed to this ingenious appliance, and floated over the heads
+of the spectators, and even a horn may be blown, through the hollow rod.</p>
+
+<p>The materialization of a spirit hand which crept from beneath a
+table-cover, and showed itself to the “believers,” was one of the most
+startling things in the repertoire of D. D. Home, as it was in that of Dr.
+Monck’s, an English medium. An explanation of Monck’s method of producing
+the hand may, perhaps, throw some light on Home’s “materialization.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> A
+small dummy hand, artistically executed in wax, with the fingers slightly
+bent, is fastened to a broad elastic band about three feet in length. This
+band is attached to a belt about the performer’s waist and passes down his
+left trouser leg, allowing the hand to dangle within the trouser a few
+inches above the ankle. I must not forget to explain that to the wrist of
+the hand is appended an elastic sleeve about five inches long. The medium
+and two sitters take their seats at a square table, with an over-hanging
+table-cloth. No one is allowed to be seated at the same side of the table
+with the medium. This is an imperative condition.</p>
+
+<p>“Diminish the light, please,” says the medium. Some one rises to lower the
+gas to the required dim religious light necessary to all spirit séances.
+“A little lower, please! Lower, lower still!” remarks the medium. Out the
+light goes. “Dear, me, but this is vexatious! Somebody light it again and
+be more careful!” he ejaculates. Under cover of the darkness the agile
+operator crosses his left foot over his right knee, pulls down the wax
+hand and fixes it to the toe of his boot by means of the elastic sleeve,
+the apparatus being masked from the sitters by the table cloth until the
+time comes for the spirit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> materialization. The three men place their
+hands on the table and wait patiently for developments. Presently a rap is
+heard under the table&mdash;disjointed knee of the medium,&mdash;and then <i>mirabile
+dictu!</i> the table-cloth shakes and a delicate female hand emerges and
+shows itself above the edge of the table. A guitar being placed close to
+the fingers, they soon strum the strings, or rather appear to do so, the
+medium being the <i>deus ex machina</i>. The cleverest part of the whole
+performance is the fact that the medium never takes his hands from the
+table. He quietly puts his left foot down on the floor and places his
+right foot heavily on the false hand&mdash;off it comes from the left foot and
+shoots up the trouser leg like lightning. The sitters may look under the
+table but they see nothing.</p>
+
+<p>An ingenious improvement has been made to this hand-test by an American
+conjurer, one that enables the medium to produce the hand although his
+feet are secured by the sitter. “Be kind enough, sir,” says the performer
+to the investigator, “to place your feet on mine. If I should move my feet
+ever so little, you would know it, would you not?” The sitter replies in
+the affirmative. The medium, as soon as he feels the pressure of the
+sitter’s feet, withdraws his right foot from a steel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> shape made in
+imitation of the toe of his boot, and operates the spirit hand at his
+leisure. After the sitting, he of course, inserts his right foot into the
+shape and carries it off with him.</p>
+
+<p>The production of spirit music was one of Home’s favorite experiments.
+There are all sorts of ways of producing this music, the most ingenious of
+which I give:</p>
+
+<p>The apparatus consists of a small circular musical box, wound up by clock
+work, and made to play whenever pressure is put upon a stud projecting a
+quarter of an inch from its surface. This box is strapped around the right
+leg of the medium just above his knee, and hidden beneath the trouser leg.
+When not in use it is on the under side of the leg. On the table a musical
+box is placed and covered with a soup tureen, or the top of a chafing
+dish. When the spectators are seated, the medium works the concealed
+musical box around to the upper part of his leg near the knee cap, and by
+pressing the stud against the under surface of the table, starts the music
+playing. In this way the second musical box seems to play and the acoustic
+effect is perfect. Perhaps Home used a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> similar contrivance; Dr. Monck
+did, and was caught in the act by the chief of the Detective Police.</p>
+
+<p>Home during his séances on the Continent of Europe was accused of all
+sorts of trickery. Some asserted that he had concealed about him a small
+but powerful electric battery for producing certain illusions, mechanical
+contrivances attached to his legs for making spirit raps, and last but not
+least, as the medium states in his “Memoirs:” “they even accused me of
+carrying a small monkey about with me, concealed, trained to perform all
+sorts of ghostly tricks.”</p>
+
+<p>People also accused him of obtaining a great deal of his information about
+the spirits of the departed from tombstones like an Old Mortality, and
+bribing family servants. A more probable explanation may be found perhaps
+in telepathy.</p>
+
+<p>There is one more phase of Home’s mediumship, the moving of heavy pieces
+of furniture without physical contact, that must be spoken of. In
+mentioning it, Dr. Max Dessoir, author of the “Psychology of
+Conjuring,”<a name='fna_1' id='fna_1' href='#f_1'><small>[1]</small></a> says: “We must admit that <i>a few</i> feats, such as those of
+Prof. Crookes with Home, concerning the possibility of setting inanimate
+objects in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> motion without touching them, <i>appear</i> to lie entirely outside
+the sphere of jugglery.” In the year 1871, Prof. William Crookes, (now Sir
+William Crookes) Fellow of the Royal Society, a very eminent scientist,
+subjected Home to some elaborate tests in order to prove or disprove by
+means of scientific apparatus the reality of phenomena connected with
+variations in the weight of bodies, with or without contact. He declared
+the tests to be entirely satisfactory, but ascribed the phenomena not to
+spiritual agency, but to a new force, “in some unknown manner connected
+with the human organization,” which for convenience he called the “Psychic
+Force.” He said in his “Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism:” “Of
+all the persons endowed with a powerful development of this Psychic Force,
+and who have been termed ‘mediums’ upon quite another theory of its
+origin, Mr. Daniel Dunglas Home is the most remarkable, and it is mainly
+owing to the many opportunities I have had of carrying on my
+investigations in his presence that I am enabled to affirm so conclusively
+the existence of this force.” Prof. Crookes’ experiments were conducted,
+as he says, in the full light, and in the presence of witnesses, among
+them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> being the famous English barrister, Sergeant Cox, and the
+astronomer, Dr. Huggins. Heavy articles became light and light articles
+heavy when the medium came near them. In some cases he lightly touched
+them, in others refrained from contact.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img07.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 8. CROOKES’ APPARATUS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The first piece of the apparatus constructed by Crookes to test this
+psychic force consisted of a mahogany board 36 inches long by 9½ inches
+wide and 1 inch thick. A strip of mahogany was screwed on at one end, to
+form a foot, the length being equal to the width of the board. This end of
+the board was placed on a table, while the other end was upheld by a
+spring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> balance, fastened to a strong tripod stand, as will be seen in
+Fig. 8.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Home,” writes Prof. Crookes, “placed the tips of his fingers lightly
+on the extreme end of the mahogany board which was resting on the support,
+whilst Dr. A. B. [Dr. Huggins] and myself sat, one on each side of it,
+watching for any effect which might be produced. Almost immediately the
+pointer of the balance was seen to descend. After a few seconds it rose
+again. This movement was repeated several times, as if by successive waves
+of the psychic force. The end of the board was observed to oscillate
+slowly up and down during the experiment.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Home now, of his own accord, took a small hand-bell and a little card
+match-box, which happened to be near, and placed one under each hand, to
+satisfy us, as he said, that he was not producing the downward pressure.
+The very slow oscillation of the spring balance became more marked, and
+Dr. A. B., watching the index, said that he saw it descend to 6½ lbs.
+The normal weight of the board as so suspended being 3 lbs., the
+additional downward pull was therefore 3½ lbs. On looking immediately
+afterwards at the automatic register, we saw that the index<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> had at one
+time descended as low as 9 lbs., showing a maximum pull of 6 lbs. upon a
+board whose normal weight was 3 lbs.</p>
+
+<p>“In order to see whether it was possible to produce much effect on the
+spring balance by pressure at the place where Mr. Home’s fingers had been,
+I stepped upon the table and stood on one foot at the end of the board.
+Dr. A. B., who was observing the index of the balance, said that the whole
+weight of my body (140 lbs.) so applied only sunk the index 1½ lbs., or
+2 lbs. when I jerked up and down. Mr. Home had been sitting in a low
+easy-chair, and could not, therefore, had he tried his utmost, have
+exerted any material influence on these results. I need scarcely add that
+his feet as well as his hands were closely guarded by all in the room.”</p>
+
+<p>The next series of experiments is thus described:</p>
+
+<p>“On trying these experiments for the first time, I thought that actual
+contact between Mr. Home’s hands and the suspended body whose weight was
+to be altered was essential to the exhibition of the force; but I found
+afterwards that this was not a necessary condition, and I therefore
+arranged my apparatus in the following manner:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>“The accompanying cuts (Figs. 9, 10 and 11) explain the arrangement. Fig.
+9 is a general view, and Figs. 10 and 11 show the essential parts more in
+detail. The reference letters are the same in each illustration. A B is a
+mahogany board, 36 inches long by 9½ inches wide, and 1 inch thick. It
+is suspended at the end, B, by a spring balance, C, furnished with an
+automatic register, D. The balance is suspended from a very firm tripod
+support, E.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img08.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 9. CROOKES’ APPARATUS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img09.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 10. CROOKES’ APPARATUS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“The following piece of apparatus is not shown in the figures. To the
+moving index, O, of the spring balance, a fine steel point is soldered,
+projecting horizontally outwards. In front of the balance, and firmly
+fastened to it, is a grooved frame, carrying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> a flat box similar to the
+dark box of a photographic camera. This box is made to travel by
+clock-work horizontally in front of the moving index, and it contains a
+sheet of plate-glass which has been smoked over a flame. The projecting
+steel point impresses a mark on this smoked surface. If the balance is at
+rest, and the clock set going, the result is a perfectly straight
+horizontal line. If the clock is stopped and weights are placed on the
+end, B, of the board, the result is a vertical line, whose length depends
+on the weight applied. If, whilst the clock draws the plate along, the
+weight of the board (or the tension on the balance) varies, the result is
+a curved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> line, from which the tension in grains at any moment during the
+continuance of the experiments can be calculated.</p>
+
+<p>“The instrument was capable of registering a diminution of the force of
+gravitation as well as an increase; registrations of such a diminution
+were frequently obtained. To avoid complication, however, I will here
+refer only to results in which an increase of gravitation was experienced.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img10.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 11. CROOKES’ APPARATUS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“The end, B, of the board being supported by the spring balance, the end,
+A, is supported on a wooden<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> strip, F, screwed across its lower side and
+cut to a knife edge (see Fig. 11). This fulcrum rests on a firm and heavy
+wooden stand, G H. On the board, exactly over the fulcrum, is placed a
+large glass vessel filled with water. I L is a massive iron stand,
+furnished with an arm and a ring, M N, in which rests a hemispherical
+copper vessel perforated with several holes at the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>“The iron stand is 2 inches from the board, A B, and the arm and copper
+vessel, M N, are so adjusted that the latter dips into the water 1½
+inches, being 5½ inches from the bottom of I, and 2 inches from its
+circumference. Shaking or striking the arm, M, or the vessel, N, produces
+no appreciable mechanical effect on the board, A B, capable of affecting
+the balance. Dipping the hand to the fullest extent into the water in N
+does not produce the least appreciable action on the balance.</p>
+
+<p>“As the mechanical transmission of power is by this means entirely cut off
+between the copper vessel and the board, A B, the power of muscular
+control is thereby completely eliminated.</p>
+
+<p>“For convenience I will divide the experiments into groups, 1, 2, 3, etc.,
+and I have selected one special<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> instance in each to describe in detail.
+Nothing, however, is mentioned which has not been repeated more than once,
+and in some cases verified, in Mr. Home’s absence, with another person,
+possessing similar powers.</p>
+
+<p>“There was always ample light in the room where the experiments were
+conducted (my own dining-room) to see all that took place.</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Experiment I.</i>&mdash;The apparatus having been properly adjusted before Mr.
+Home entered the room, he was brought in, and asked to place his fingers
+in the water in the copper vessel, N. He stood up and dipped the tips of
+the fingers of his right hand in the water, his other hand and his feet
+being held. When he said he felt a power, force, or influence, proceeding
+from his hand, I set the clock going, and almost immediately the end, B,
+of the board was seen to descend slowly and remain down for about 10
+seconds; it then descended a little further, and afterwards rose to its
+normal height. It then descended again, rose suddenly, gradually sunk for
+17 seconds, and finally rose to its normal height, where it remained till
+the experiment was concluded. The lowest point marked on the glass was
+equivalent to a direct pull of about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> 5,000 grains. The accompanying
+Figure 12 is a copy of the curve traced on the glass.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCALE OF SECONDS.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img11.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 12. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF HOME.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Experiment II.</i>&mdash;Contact through water having proved to be as effectual
+as actual mechanical contact, I wished to see if the power or force could
+affect the weight, either through other portions of the apparatus or
+through the air. The glass vessel and iron stand, etc., were therefore
+removed, as an unnecessary complication, and Mr. Home’s hands were placed
+on the stand of the apparatus at P (Fig. 9). A gentleman present put his
+hand on Mr. Home’s hands, and his foot on both Mr. Home’s feet, and I also
+watched him closely all the time. At the proper moment the clock was again
+set going; the board descended and rose in an irregular manner, the result
+being a curved tracing on the glass, of which Fig. 13 is a copy.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img12.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 13. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF HOME.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Experiment III.</i>&mdash;Mr. Home was now placed one foot from the board, A B,
+on one side of it. His hands and feet were firmly grasped by a by-stander,
+and another tracing, of which Fig. 14 is a copy, was taken on the moving
+glass plate.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img13.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 14. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS UNDER HOME’S INFLUENCE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Experiment IV.</i>&mdash;(Tried on an occasion when the power was stronger than
+on the previous occasions), Mr. Home was now placed 3 feet from the
+apparatus, his hands and feet being tightly held. The clock was set going
+when he gave the word, and the end, B,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> of the board soon descended, and
+again rose in an irregular manner, as shown in Fig. 15.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img14.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 15. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS UNDER HOME’S INFLUENCE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“The following series of experiments were tried with more delicate
+apparatus, and with another person, a lady, Mr. Home being absent. As the
+lady is non-professional, I do not mention her name. She has, however,
+consented to meet any scientific men whom I may introduce for purposes of
+investigation.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img15.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 16. SECOND CROOKES’ APPARATUS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“A piece of thin parchment, A, (Figs. 16 and 17), is stretched tightly
+across a circular hoop of wood. B C is a light lever turning on D. At the
+end B is a vertical needle point touching the membrane A, and at C is
+another needle point, projecting horizontally and touching a smoked glass
+plate, E F. This glass plate is drawn along in the direction H G by
+clockwork, K. The end, B, of the lever is weighted so that it shall
+quickly follow the movements of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> centre of the disc, A. These
+movements are transmitted and recorded on the glass plate, E F, by means
+of the lever and needle point, C. Holes are cut in the side of the hoop to
+allow a free passage of air to the under side of the membrane. The
+apparatus was well tested beforehand by myself and others, to see that no
+shaking or jar on the table or support would interfere with the results:
+the line traced by the point, C, on the smoked glass was perfectly
+straight in spite of all our attempts to influence the lever by shaking
+the stand or stamping on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img16.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 17. SECTION OF APPARATUS IN FIG. 16.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Experiment V.</i>&mdash;Without having the object of the instrument explained to
+her, the lady was brought into the room and asked to place her fingers on
+the wooden stand at the points, L M, Fig. 16. I then placed my hands over
+hers to enable me to detect any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> conscious or unconscious movement on her
+part. Presently percussive noises were heard on the parchment, resembling
+the dropping of grains of sand on its surface. At each percussion a
+fragment of graphite which I had placed on the membrane was seen to be
+projected upwards about 1-50th of an inch, and the end, C, of the lever
+moved slightly up and down. Sometimes the sounds were as rapid as those
+from an induction-coil, whilst at others they were more than a second
+apart. Five or six tracings were taken, and in all cases a movement of the
+end, C, of the lever was seen to have occurred with each vibration of the
+membrane.</p>
+
+<p>“In some cases the lady’s hands were not so near the membrane as L M, but
+were at N O, Fig 17.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCALE OF SECONDS.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img17.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 18. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS (FIG. 15 AND 16) OUTSIDE HOME’S INFLUENCE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“The accompanying Fig. 18 gives tracings taken from the plates used on
+these occasions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>“<i>Experiment VI.</i>&mdash;Having met with these results in Mr. Home’s absence, I
+was anxious to see what action would be produced on the instrument in his
+presence.</p>
+
+<p>“Accordingly I asked him to try, but without explaining the instrument to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>“I grasped Mr. Home’s right arm above the wrist and held his hand over the
+membrane, about 10 inches from its surface, in the position shown at P,
+Fig. 17. His other hand was held by a friend. After remaining in this
+position for about half a minute, Mr. Home said he felt some influence
+passing. I then set the clock going, and we all saw the index, C, moving
+up and down. The movements were much slower than in the former case, and
+were almost entirely unaccompanied by the percussive vibrations then
+noticed.</p>
+
+<p>“Figs. 19 and 20 show the curves produced on the glass on two of these
+occasions.</p>
+
+<p>“Figs. 18, 19 and 20 are magnified.</p>
+
+<p>“These experiments <i>confirm beyond doubt</i> the conclusions at which I
+arrived in my former paper, namely, the existence of a force associated,
+in some manner not yet explained, with the human organization, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> which
+force increased weight is capable of being imparted to solid bodies
+without physical contact. In the case of Mr. Home, the development of this
+force varies enormously, not only from week to week, but from hour to
+hour; on some occasions the force is inappreciable by my tests for an hour
+or more, and then suddenly reappears in great strength.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 18.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img18.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 19. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17) UNDER HOME’S INFLUENCE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“It is capable of acting at a distance from Mr. Home (not unfrequently as
+far as two or three feet), but is always strongest close to him.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCALE THE SAME AS ON FIG. 18.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img19.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 20. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17) UNDER HOME’S INFLUENCE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“Being firmly convinced that there could be no manifestation of one form
+of force without the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> corresponding expenditure of some other form of
+force, I for a long time searched in vain for evidence of any force or
+power being used up in the production of these results.</p>
+
+<p>“Now, however, having seen more of Mr. Home, I think I perceive what it is
+that this psychic force uses up for its development. In employing the
+terms <i>vital force</i> or <i>nervous energy</i>, I am aware that I am employing
+words which convey very different significations to many investigators;
+but after witnessing the painful state of nervous and bodily prostration
+in which some of these experiments have left Mr. Home&mdash;after seeing him
+lying in an almost fainting condition on the floor, pale and speechless&mdash;I
+could scarcely doubt that the evolution of psychic force is accompanied by
+a corresponding drain on vital force.”</p>
+
+<p>Sergeant Cox in speaking of the tests says, “The results appear to me
+conclusively to establish the important fact, that there is a force
+proceeding from the nerve-system capable of imparting motion and weight to
+solid bodies within the sphere of its influence.”</p>
+
+<p>One of the medium’s defenders has written:</p>
+
+<p>“Home’s mysterious power, whatever it may have been, was very uncertain.
+Sometimes he could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> exercise it, and at others not, and these fluctuations
+were not seldom the source of embarrassment to him. He would often arrive
+at a place in obedience to an engagement, and, as he imagined, ready to
+perform, when he would discover himself absolutely helpless. After a
+séance his exhaustion appeared to be complete.</p>
+
+<p>“There is no more striking proof of the fact that Home really possessed
+occult gifts of some sort&mdash;psychic force or whatever else the power may be
+termed&mdash;than he gave such amazing exhibitions in the early part of his
+history and was able to do so little toward the end. If it had been
+juggling he would, like other conjurors, have improved on his tricks by
+experience, or at all events, while his memory held out he would not have
+deteriorated.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Dr. Hammond’s Experiments.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. William A. Hammond, the eminent neurologist, of Washington, D. C.,
+took up the cudgels against Prof. Crookes’ “Psychic Force” theory, and
+assigned the experiments to the domain of animal electricity. He wrote as
+follows:<a name='fna_2' id='fna_2' href='#f_2'><small>[2]</small></a> “Place an egg in an egg-cup and balance a long lath upon the
+egg.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> Though the lath be almost a plank it will obediently follow a rod of
+glass, gutta percha or sealing-wax, which has been previously well dried
+and rubbed, the former with a piece of silk, and the two latter with
+woolen cloth. Now, in dry weather, many persons within my knowledge, have
+only to walk with a shuffling gait over the carpet, and then approaching
+the lath hold out the finger instead of the glass, sealing wax or gutta
+percha, and instantly the end of the lath at L rises to meet it, and the
+end at L is depressed. Applying these principles, I arranged an apparatus
+exactly like that of Prof. Crookes, except that the spring balance was
+such as is used for weighing letters and was therefore very delicate,
+indicating quarter ounces with exactness, and that the board was thin and
+narrow.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img20.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 21. DR. HAMMOND’S APPARATUS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>“Applying the glass rod or stick of sealing-wax to the end resting by its
+foot on the table, the index of the balance at once descended, showing an
+increased weight of a little over three quarters of an ounce, and this
+without the board being raised from the table.</p>
+
+<p>“I then walked over a thick Turkey rug for a few moments, and holding my
+finger under the board near the end attached to the balance, caused a fall
+of the index of almost half an ounce. I then rested my finger lightly on
+the end of the board immediately over the foot, and again the index
+descended and oscillated several times, just as in Mr. Home’s experiments.
+The lowest point reached was six and a quarter ounces, and as the board
+weighed, as attached to the balance, five ounces, there was an increased
+weight of one and a quarter ounces. At no time was the end of the board
+raised from the table.</p>
+
+<p>“I then arranged the apparatus so as to place a thin glass tumbler nearly
+full of water immediately over the fulcrum, as in Mr. Crookes’ experiment,
+and again the index fell and oscillated on my fingers being put into the
+water.</p>
+
+<p>“Now if one person can thus, with a delicate apparatus like mine, cause
+the index, through electricity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> to descend and ascend, it is not
+improbable that others, like Mr. Home, could show greater, or even
+different electrical power, as in Prof. Crookes’ experiments. It is well
+known that all persons are not alike in their ability to be electrically
+excited. Many persons, myself among them, can light the gas with the end
+of the finger. Others cannot do it with any amount of shuffling over the
+carpet.</p>
+
+<p>“At any rate is it not much more sensible to believe that Mr. Home’s
+experiments are to be thus explained than to attribute the results of his
+semi-mysterious attempts to spiritualism or psychic force?”</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">3. Rope-Tying and Holding Mediums.</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS.</p>
+
+<p>Ira Erastus and William Henry Davenport were born at Buffalo, N. Y., the
+former on Sept. 17, 1839, and the latter on February 1, 1841. Their
+father, Ira Davenport, was in the police detective department, and, it is
+alleged, invented the celebrated rope-tying feats after having seen the
+Indian jugglers of the West perform similar illusions. The usual stories
+about ghostly phenomena attending the childhood of mediums were told about
+the Davenport Brothers, but it was not until 1855 that they started on
+their tour<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> of the United States, with their father as showman or
+spiritual lecturer. When the Civil War broke out, the Brothers,
+accompanied by Dr. J. B. Ferguson, formerly an Independent minister of
+Nashville, Tenn., in the capacity of lecturer, and a Mr. Palmer as general
+agent and manager, went to England to exhibit their mediumistic powers,
+following the example of D. D. Home. With the company also was a Buffalo
+boy named Fay, of German-American parentage, who had formerly acted as
+ticket-taker for the mediums. He discovered the secret of the rope-tying
+feat, and was an adept at the coat feat, so he was employed as an
+“under-study” in case of the illness of William Davenport, who was in
+rather delicate health. The Brothers Davenport at this period, aged
+respectively 25 and 23 years, had “long black curly hair, broad but not
+high foreheads, dark eyes, heavy eye-brows and moustaches, firm set lips,
+and a bright, keen look.” Their first performance in England was given at
+the Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London, and created intense excitement.</p>
+
+<p><i>Punch</i> called the <i>furore</i> over the spirit rope-tyers the “tie-fuss
+fever,” and said the mediums were “Ministers of the Interior, with a seat
+in the Cabinet.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> J. N. Maskelyne, the London conjurer of Egyptian Hall,
+wrote of them: “About the Davenport Brothers’ performances, I have to say
+that they were and still remain the most inexplicable ever presented to
+the public as of spiritual origin; and had they been put forth as feats of
+jugglery would have awakened a considerable amount of curiosity though
+certainly not to the extent they did.”</p>
+
+<p>In September, 1865, the Brothers arrived in Paris, and placarded the city
+with enormous posters announcing that the Brothers Davenport,
+spirit-mediums, would give a series of public séances at the <i>Salle Herz</i>.
+Their reputation had preceded them to France and the <i>boulevardiers</i>
+talked of nothing but the wonderful American mediums and their mysterious
+cabinet. Before exhibiting in Paris the Davenports visited the <i>Chateau de
+Gennevilliers</i>, whose owner was an enthusiastic believer in Spiritism, and
+gave a séance before a select party of journalists and scientific men. The
+exhibition was pronounced marvellous in the extreme and perfectly
+inexplicable.</p>
+
+<p>The Parisian press was divided on the subject of the Davenports and their
+advertised séances. Some of the papers protested against such performances
+on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> the ground that they were dangerous to the mental health of the
+public, and, one writer said, “Particularly to those weaker intellects
+which are always ready enough to accept as gospel the tricks and artifices
+of the adepts of sham witchcraft.” M. Edmond About, the famous journalist
+and novelist, in the <i>Opinion Nationale</i>, wrote a scathing denunciation of
+Spiritism, but all to no purpose, except to inflame public curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>The performances of the Davenports were divided into two parts: (1) The
+light séance, (2) the dark séance. In the light séance a cabinet, elevated
+from the stage by three trestles, was used. It was a simple wooden
+structure with three doors. In the centre door was a lozenge-shaped window
+covered with a curtain. Upon the sides of the cabinet hung various musical
+instruments, a guitar, a violin, horns, tambourines, and a big dinner
+bell.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img21.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 22. THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS IN THEIR CABINET.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>A committee chosen by the audience tied the mediums’ hands securely behind
+their backs, fastened their legs together, and pinioned them to their
+seats in the cabinet, and to the cross rails with strong ropes. The side
+doors were closed first, then the center door, but no sooner was the last
+fastened, than the hands of one of the mediums were thrust through <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>the
+window in the centre door. In a very short time, at a signal from the
+mediums, the doors were opened, and the Davenports stepped forth, with the
+ropes in their hands, every knot untied, confessedly by spirit power. The
+astonishment of the spectators amounted to awe. On an average it took ten
+minutes to pinion the Brothers; but a single minute was required for their
+release. Once more the mediums went into the cabinet, this time with the
+ropes lying in a coil at their feet. Two minutes elapsed. Hey, presto! the
+doors were opened, and the Davenports were pronounced by the committee to
+be securely lashed to their seats. Seals were affixed to the knots in the
+ropes, and the doors closed as before. Pandemonium reigned. Bells were
+rung, horns blown, tambourines thumped, violins played, and guitars
+vigorously twanged. Heavy rappings also were heard on the ceiling, sides
+and floor of the cabinet, then after a brief but absolute silence, a bare
+hand and arm emerged from the lozenge window, and rung the big dinner
+bell. On opening the doors the Brothers were found securely tied as
+before, and seals intact. An amusing feature of the exhibition occurred
+when a venturesome spectator volunteered to sit inside of the cabinet
+between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> the two mediums. He came out with his coat turned inside out and
+his hat jammed over his eyes. In the dark séance the cabinet was dispensed
+with and the spectators, holding hands, formed a ring around the mediums.
+The lights were put out and similar phenomena took place, with the
+addition of luminous hands, and musical instruments floating in the air.</p>
+
+<p>Robert-Houdin wrote an interesting brochure on the Davenports, (“Secrets
+of Stage Conjuring,” translated by Prof. Hoffmann) from which I take the
+following: “The ropes used by the Davenport Brothers are of a cotton
+fibre; and they present therefore smooth surfaces, adapted to slip easily
+one upon another. Gentlemen are summoned from the audience to tie the
+mediums. Now, tell me, is it an easy task for an amateur to tie a man up
+off-hand with a rope three yards long, in a very secure way? The amateur
+is flurried, self-conscious, anxious to acquit himself well of the
+business, but he is a gentleman, not a brute, and if one of the Brothers
+sees the ropes getting into a dangerous tangle, he gives a slight groan,
+as if he were being injured, and the instantaneous impulse of the other
+man is to loosen the cord a trifle. A fraction of an inch is an invaluable
+gain in the after-business of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> loosening the ropes. Sometimes the
+stiffening of a muscle, the raising of a shoulder, the crooking of a knee,
+gives all the play required by the Brothers in ridding themselves of their
+bonds. Their muscles and joints are wonderfully supple, too; the thumbs
+can be laid flat in the palm of the hand, the hand itself rounded until it
+is no broader than the wrist, and then it is easy to pull through. Violent
+wrenches send the ropes up toward the shoulder, vigorous shakings get the
+legs free; the first hand untied is thrust through the hole in the door of
+the cabinet, and then returns to give aid to more serious knots on his own
+or his brother’s person. In tying themselves up the Davenports used the
+slip-knot, a sort of bow, the ends of which have only to be pulled to be
+tightened or loosened.”</p>
+
+<p>This slip-knot is a very ingenious affair. (See Fig. 23.) In performing
+the spirit-tying, the mediums went into the cabinet with the ropes
+examined by the audience lying coiled at their feet. The doors were
+closed. They had concealed about their persons ropes in which these trick
+knots were already adjusted, and with which they very speedily secured
+themselves, having first secreted the genuine ropes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> Then the doors were
+opened. Seals were affixed to the knots, but this sealing, owing to the
+position of the hands, and the careful exposition of the knots did not
+affect the slipping of the ropes sufficiently to prevent the mediums from
+removing and replacing their hands.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img22.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">NO. 23. TRICK-TIE IN CABINET WORK.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>In the dark séance, flour was sometimes placed in the pinioned hands of
+the Davenports. On being released from their bonds, the flour was found
+undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>This was considered a convincing test; for how could the Brothers possibly
+manipulate the musical instruments with their hands full of flour. One day
+a wag substituted a handful of snuff for flour, and when the mediums were
+examined, the snuff had disappeared and flour taken its place. As will be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+understood, in the above test the Davenports emptied the flour from their
+hands into secret pockets and at the proper moment took out cornucopias of
+flour and filled their hands again before securing themselves in the
+famous slip-knots.</p>
+
+<p>Among the exposés of the Brothers Davenport, Herrmann, the conjurer, gives
+the following in the <i>Cosmopolitan Magazine</i>: “The Davenports, for
+thirteen years, in Europe and America, augmented the faith in
+Spiritualism. Unfortunately for the Davenports they appeared at Ithaca,
+New York, where is situated Cornell University. The students having a
+scientific trend of mind, provided themselves before attending the
+performance with pyrotechnic balls containing phosphorus, so made as to
+ignite suddenly with a bright light. During the dark séance when the
+Davenports were supposed to be bound hand and foot within the closet and
+when the guitars were apparently floating in the air, the students struck
+their lights, whereupon the spirits were found to be no other than the
+Davenports themselves, dodging about the stage brandishing guitars and
+playing tunes and waving at the same time tall poles surmounted by
+phosphorescent spook pictures.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>The Davenports had some stormy experiences in Paris, but managed to come
+through all successfully, with plenty of French gold in their pockets.
+William died in October, 1877, at the Oxford Hotel, Sydney, Australia,
+having publicly denounced Spiritualism. Mr. Fay took to raising sheep in
+Australia, while Ira Davenport drifted back to his old home in Buffalo,
+New York.</p>
+
+<p>Many mediums, taking the cue from the Davenports, have performed the
+cabinet act with its accompanying rope-tying, but the conjurers
+(anti-spiritists) have, with the aid of mechanism, brought the business to
+a high degree of perfection, notably Mr. J. Nevil Maskelyne, of Egyptian
+Hall, London, and Mr. Harry Kellar, of the United States. Writing of the
+Davenport Brothers, Maskelyne says:</p>
+
+<p>“The instantaneous tying and untying was simply marvellous, and it utterly
+baffled everyone to discover, until, on one occasion, the accidental
+falling of a piece of drapery from a window (the lozenge-shaped aperture
+in the door of the cabinet), at a critical moment let me into the secret.
+I was able in a few months to reproduce every item of the Davenports’
+cabinet and dark séance. So close was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> resemblance to the original,
+that <i>the Spiritualist had no alternative but to claim us</i> (Maskelyne and
+Cooke) <i>as most powerful spirit mediums who found it more profitable to
+deny the assistance of spirits</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>Robert-Houdin’s explanation of the slip-knot, used by the Davenports in
+their dark séance, is the correct one, but he failed to fathom the mystery
+of the mode of release of the Brothers after they were tied in the cabinet
+by a committee selected from the audience. Anyone trying to extricate
+himself from bondage <i>a la</i> Houdin, no matter how slippery and serpentine
+he be, would find it exceedingly difficult. It seems almost incredible,
+but trickery was used in the light séance, as well as the dark. Maskelyne,
+as quoted above, claimed to have penetrated the mystery, but he kept it a
+profound secret&mdash;though he declared that his cabinet work was trickery.
+The writer is indebted for an initiation into the mysteries of the
+Davenport Brothers’ rope-tying to Mr. H. Morgan Robinson (Professor
+Helmann), of Washington, D. C., a very clever prestidigitateur.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1895, after an unbroken silence of nineteen years, Fay,
+ex-assistant of the Davenports, determined to resume the profession of
+public medium.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> He abandoned his sheep ranch and hunted up Ira Davenport.
+They gave several performances in Northern towns, and finally landed at
+the Capital of the Nation, in the spring of 1895, and advertised several
+séances at Willard’s Hall. A very small audience greeted them on their
+first appearance. Among the committee volunteering to go on the stage and
+tie the mediums were the writer and Mr. Robinson. After the séance the
+prestidigitateur fully explained the <i>modus operandi</i> of the mystic tie,
+which is herein for the first time correctly given to the public.</p>
+
+<p>The medium holds out his left wrist first and has it tied securely, about
+the middle of the rope. Two members of the committee are directed to pull
+the ends of the cord vigorously. “Are you confident that the knots are
+securely tied?” he asks; when the committee respond “yes,” he puts his
+hand quickly behind him, and places against the wrist, the wrist of his
+right hand, in order that they may be pinioned together. During this rapid
+movement he twists the rope about the knot on his left wrist, thereby
+allowing enough slack cord to disengage his right hand when necessary. To
+slip the right hand back into place is an easy matter. After both hands
+are presumably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> tied, the medium steps into the cabinet; the ends of the
+rope are pushed through two holes in the chair or wooden seat, by the
+committee and made fast to the medium’s legs. Bells ring, horns blow, and
+the performer’s hand is thrust through the window of the cabinet. Finally
+a gentleman is requested to enter the cabinet with the medium. The doors
+are locked and a perfect pandemonium begins; when they are opened the
+volunteer assistant tumbles out in great trepidation. His hat is smashed
+over his eyes, his cravat is tied around his leg, and he is found to have
+on the medium’s coat, while the medium wears the gentleman’s coat turned
+inside out. It all appears very remarkable, but the mystery is cleared up
+when I state that the innocent looking gentleman is invariably a
+confederate, what conjurers call a <i>plant</i>, because he is planted in the
+audience to volunteer for the special act.</p>
+
+<p>Ira and William Davenport were tied in the manner above described. Often
+one of the Brothers allowed himself to be genuinely pinioned, after having
+received a preconcerted signal from his partner that all was right, <i>i.
+e.</i>, the partner had been fastened by the trick tie, calling attention to
+the knots in the cord,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> etc. The trick tie, however, is so delusive, that
+it is impossible to penetrate the secret in the short time allowed the
+committee for investigation, and there is no special reason for permitting
+a genuine tie-up. Once in a great while, the Davenports were over-reached
+by clever committee-men and tied up so tightly that there was no getting
+loose. Where one brother failed to execute the trick and was genuinely
+fastened, the other medium performed the spirit evolutions, and cut his
+“confrere” loose before they came out of the cabinet.</p>
+
+<p>The Fay-Davenport revival proved a failure, and the mediums dissolved
+partnership in Washington. Kellar, the magician and former assistant of
+the original Davenport combination, by a curious coincidence was giving
+his fine conjuring exhibition in the city at the same time. His tricks far
+eclipsed the feeble revival of the rope-tying phenomena. The fickle public
+crowded to see the magician and neglected the mediums.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ANNIE EVA FAY.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most famous of the materializing mediums now exhibiting in the
+United States is Annie<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> Eva Fay. She is quite an adept at the spirit-tying
+business, and like the Davenports, uses a cabinet on the stage, but her
+method of tying, though clever, is inferior to that used by the Brothers
+in their balmy days. In the center of the Fay cabinet (a plain, curtained
+affair) is a post firmly screwed to the stage. The medium permits a
+committee of two from the audience to tie her to this post, and seal the
+bandages about her wrists with court plaster. She then takes her seat upon
+a small stool in front of the stanchion; the musical instruments are
+placed on her lap, and the curtains of the cabinet closed. Immediately the
+evidences of <i>spirit power</i> begin: the bell is jingled, the tambourine
+thumped, and the sound of a horn heard, simultaneously.</p>
+
+<p>The Fay method of tying is designed especially to facilitate the medium’s
+actions. Cotton bandages are used, and the committee are invited to sew
+the knots through and through. Each wrist is tied with a bandage, about an
+inch and a half wide by a half yard in length; and the medium then clasps
+her hands behind her, so that her wrists are about six inches apart. The
+committee now proceed to tie the ends of the bandages firmly together,
+and, after this is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> accomplished, the dangling pieces of the bandages are
+clipped off. It is true, the medium is firmly bound by this process, and
+it would be physically impossible for her to release herself, without
+disturbing the sewing and the seals, but it is not intended for her to
+release herself at all; the method pursued being altogether different from
+the old species of rope-tying. All being secure, the committee are
+requested to pass another bandage about the short ligature between the
+lady’s wrists, and tie it in double square knots, and firmly secure this
+to a ring in the post of the cabinet, the medium being seated on a stool
+in front of the stanchion, facing the audience. Her neck is likewise
+secured to the post by cotton bandages and her feet fastened together with
+a cord, the end of which passes out of the cabinet and is held by one of
+the committee.</p>
+
+<p>The peculiar manner of holding the hands, described above, enables the
+medium to secure for her use, a ligature of knotted cloth between her
+hands, some six inches long; and the central bandage, usually tied in four
+or five double knots, gives her about two inches play between the middle
+of the cotton handcuffs and the ring in the post, to which it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> secured.
+The ring is two and a half inches in diameter, and the staple which holds
+it to the stanchion is a half inch. The left hand of the medium gives six
+additional inches, and the bandage on her wrist slips readily along her
+slender arm nearly half way to the elbow&mdash;“all of which,” says John W.
+Truesdell,<a name='fna_3' id='fna_3' href='#f_3'><small>[3]</small></a> who was the first to expose Miss Fay’s spirit pretensions,
+“gives the spirits a clear leeway of not less than 20 inches from the
+stanchion. The moment the curtain is closed, the medium, under spirit
+influence spreads her hands as far apart as possible, an act which
+stretches the knotted ligature so that the bandage about it will easily
+slip from the centre to either wrist; then, throwing her lithe form by a
+quick movement, to the left, so that her hips will pass the stanchion
+without moving her feet from the floor, the spirits are able, through the
+medium, to reach whatever may have been placed upon her lap.”</p>
+
+<p>One of Annie Eva’s most convincing tests is the accordion which plays,
+after it has been bound fast with tapes and the tapes carefully sealed at
+every note, so as to prevent its being performed on in the regular manner.
+Her method of operating, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> simple, is decidedly ingenious. She
+places a small tube in the valve-hole of the instrument, breathes and
+blows alternately into it, and then by fingering the keys, executes an air
+with excellent effect.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes she places a musical box on an oblong plate of glass suspended
+from the ceiling by four cords. The box plays and stops at word of
+command, much to the astonishment of listeners. “Electricity,” exclaims
+the reader! Hardly so, for the box is completely insulated on the sheet of
+glass. Then how is it done? Mr. Asprey Vere, an investigator of spirit
+phenomena, tells the secret in the following words: (“Modern Magic”). “In
+the box there is placed a balance lever which when the glass is in the
+slightest degree tilted, arrests the fly-fan, and thus prevents the
+machinery from moving. At the word of command the glass is made level, and
+the fly-fan being released, the machinery moves, and a tune is played.
+When commanded to stop, either side of the cord is pulled by a confederate
+behind the scenes, the balance lever drops, the fly-fan is arrested, and
+the music stops.”</p>
+
+<p>One of the tests presented to the American public by this medium is the
+“spirit-hand,” constructed of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> painted wood or <i>papier mache</i>, which raps
+out answers to questions, after it has been isolated from all contact by
+being placed on a sheet of glass supported on the backs of two chairs.</p>
+
+<p>It is a trick performed by every conjurer, and the secret is a piece of
+black silk thread, worked by confederates stationed in the wings of the
+theatre, one at the right, the other at the left. The thread lies along
+the stage when not in use, but at the proper cue from the medium, it is
+lifted up and brought in contact with the wooden hand. The hand is so
+constructed that the palm lies on the glass sheet and the wrist, with a
+fancy lace cuff about it, is elevated an inch above the glass, the whole
+apparatus being so pivoted that a pressure of the thread from above will
+depress the wrist and elevate the palm. When the thread is relaxed the
+hand comes down on the glass with a thump and makes the spirit rap which
+is so effective. A rapping skull made on similar principles is also in
+vogue among mediums.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CHARLES SLADE.</p>
+
+<p>Annie Eva Fay has a rival in Charles Slade, who is a clever performer and
+a most convincing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> talker. His cabinet test is the same as Miss Fay’s, but
+he has other specialties that are worth explaining&mdash;one is the
+“table-raising,” and another is the “spirit neck-tie.” The effect of the
+first experiment is as follows: Slade, with his arms bared and coat
+removed, requests several gentlemen to sit around a long table, reserving
+the head for himself. Hands are placed on the table, and developments
+awaited. “Do you feel the table raising?” asks the medium, after a short
+pause. “We do!” comes the response of the sitters. Slade then rises; all
+stand up, and the table is seen suspended in the air, about a foot from
+the floor of the stage. In a little while an uncontrollable desire seems
+to take possession of the table to rush about the stage. Frequently the
+medium requests several persons to get on the table, but that has no
+effect whatever. The same levitation takes place. The secret of this
+surprising mediumistic test is very simple. In the first place, the man
+who sits at the foot of the table is a confederate. Both medium and
+confederate wear about their waists wide leather belts, ribbed and
+strengthened with steel bands, and supported from the shoulders by bands
+of leather and steel. In the front of each belt is a steel hinge concealed
+by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> vest of the wearer. In the act of sitting down at the table the
+medium and his confederate quickly pull the hinges which catch under the
+top of the table when the sitters rise. The rest of the trick is easily
+comprehended. When the levitation act is finished the hinges are folded up
+and hidden under the vests of the performers.</p>
+
+<p>The “spirit neck-tie” is one of the best things in the whole range of
+mediumistic marvels, and has never to my knowledge been exposed. A rope is
+tied about the medium’s neck with the knots at the back and the ends are
+thrust through two holes in one side of the cabinet, and tied in a bow
+knot on the outside. The holes in the cabinet must be on a level with the
+medium’s neck, after he is seated. The curtains of the cabinet are then
+closed, and the committee requested to keep close watch on the bow-knot on
+the outside of the cabinet. The assistant in a short time pulls back the
+curtain from the cabinet on the side farthest from the medium, and reveals
+a sheeted figure which writes messages and speaks to the spectators. Other
+materializations take place. The curtain is drawn. At this juncture the
+medium is heard calling: “Quick, quick, release me!” The assistant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
+unfastens the bow-knot, the ends of the rope are quickly drawn into the
+cabinet, and the medium comes forward, looking somewhat exhausted, with
+the rope still tied about his neck. The question resolves itself into two
+factors&mdash;either the medium gets loose the neck-tie and impersonates the
+spirits or the materializations are genuine. “Gets loose! But that is
+impossible,” exclaim the committee, “we watched the cord in the closest
+way.” The secret of this surprising feat lies in a clever substitution.
+The tie is genuine, but the medium, after the curtains of the cabinet are
+closed, cuts the cord with a sharp knife, just about the region of the
+throat, and impersonates the ghosts, with the aid of various wigs and
+disguises concealed about him. Then he takes a second cord from his
+pocket, ties it about his neck with the same number of knots as are in the
+original rope and twists the neck-tie around so that these knots will
+appear at the back of his neck. Now, he exclaims, “Quick, quick, unfasten
+the cord.” As soon as his assistant has untied the simple bow knot on the
+outside of the cabinet, the medium quickly pulls the genuine rope into the
+cabinet and conceals it in his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>When he presents himself to the spectators the rope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> about his neck
+(presumed to be the original) is found to be correctly tied and untampered
+with. Much of the effect depends on the rapidity with which the medium
+conceals the original cord and comes out of the cabinet. The author has
+seen this trick performed in parlors, the holes being bored in a door.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Slade makes a great parade in his advertisements about exposing
+the vulgar tricks of bogus mediums, but he says nothing about the secrets
+of his own pet illusions. His exposés are made for the purpose of
+enhancing his own mediumistic marvels.</p>
+
+<p>I insert a verbatim copy of the handbills with which he deluges the
+highways and byways of American cities and towns.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p>
+<div class="note">
+<p class="center"><b><span class="giant">SLADE</span></b></p>
+
+<p class="note">Will fully demonstrate the various methods employed by such renowned
+spiritualistic mediums as Alex. Hume, Mrs. Hoffmann, Prof. Taylor,
+Chas. Cooke, Richard Bishop, Dr. Arnold, and various others,</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><span class="huge">IN PLAIN, OPEN LIGHT.</span></b></p>
+
+<p>Every possible means will be used to enlighten the auditor as to
+whether these so-called wonders are enacted through the aid of spirits
+or are the result of natural agencies.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><i>SUCH PHENOMENA AS</i></b></p>
+
+<div class="container">
+<p class="poetry"><b>Spirit Materializations,</b><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><b>Marvelous Superhuman Visions,</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Spiritualistic Rappings,</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><b>Slate Writing,</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><b>Spirit Pictures,</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;"><b>Floating Tables and Chairs,</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;"><b>Remarkable Test of the Human Mind,</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;"><b>Second Sight Mysteries,</b></span><br />
+<b>A Human Being Isolated from Surrounding Objects</b><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><b>Floating in Mid-Air.</b></span></p></div>
+
+<p>Committees will be selected by the audience to assist SLADE, and to
+report their views as to the why and wherefore of the many strange
+things that will be shown during the evening. This is done so that
+every person attending may learn the truth regarding the tests,
+whether they are genuine, or caused by expert trickery.</p>
+
+<p>Do not class or confound SLADE with the numerous so-called spirit
+mediums and spiritual exposers that travel through the country, like a
+set of roaming vampires, seeking whom they may devour. It is SLADE’S
+object in coming to your city to enlighten the people one way or the
+other as to the real</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><span class="large">TRUTH CONCERNING THESE MYSTERIES.</span></b></p>
+
+<p>Scientific men, and many great men, have believed there was a grain of
+essential truth in the claims of Spiritualism. It was believed more on
+the account of the want of power to deny it than anything else. The
+idea that under some strained and indefinable possibilities the spirit
+of the mortal man may communicate with the spirit of the departed man
+is something that the great heart of humanity is prone to believe, as
+it has faith in future existence. No skeptic will deny any man’s right
+to such a belief, but this little grain of hope has been the
+foundation for such extensive and heartless mediumistic frauds that it
+is constantly losing ground.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><span class="large">A NIGHT OF</span></b><br />
+<b><span class="giant">Wonderful Manifestations</span></b><br />
+<b><span class="huge"><span class="smcap">The Veil Drawn</span></span></b><br />
+So that all may have an insight into the<br />
+<b><span class="giant"><span class="smcap"><i>Spirit World</i></span></span></b><br />
+And behold many things that are<br />
+<b><span class="huge">Strange and Startling.</span></b></p>
+
+<p>The Clergy, the Press, Learned Synods and Councils, Sage Philosophers
+and Scientists, in fact, the whole world have proclaimed these
+Philosophical Idealisms to be an astounding</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><span class="giant">FACT.</span></b></p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><span class="large">YOU ARE BROUGHT</span></b><br />
+<b><span class="huge">Face to Face with the Spirits.</span></b></p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>A SMALL ADMISSION WILL BE CHARGED TO DEFRAY EXPENSES.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">PIERRE L. O. A. KEELER.</p>
+
+<p>Pierre Keeler’s fame as a producer of spirit phenomena rests largely upon
+his materializing séances. It was his materializations that received the
+particular attention of the Seybert Commission. The late Mr. Henry
+Seybert, who was an ardent believer in modern Spiritualism, presented to
+the University of Pennsylvania a sum of money to found a chair of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+philosophy, with the proviso that the University should appoint a
+commission to investigate “all systems of morals, religion or philosophy
+which assume to represent the truth, and particularly of modern
+Spiritualism.” The following gentlemen were accordingly appointed, and
+began their investigations: Dr. William Pepper, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Dr.
+George A. Koenig, Prof. R. E. Thompson, Prof. George S. Fullerton, and Dr.
+Horace H. Furness. Subsequently others were added to the commission&mdash;Dr.
+Coleman Sellers, Dr. James W. White, Dr. Calvin B. Kneer, and Dr. S. Weir
+Mitchell. Dr. Pepper, Provost of the University, was <i>ex-officio</i>
+chairman; Dr. Furness, acting chairman, and Prof. Fullerton, secretary.</p>
+
+<p>Keeler’s materializations are thus described in the report of the
+commission:</p>
+
+<p>“On May 27 the Seybert commission held a meeting at the house of Mr.
+Furness at 8 p. m., to examine the phenomena occurring in the presence of
+Mr. Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a professional medium.</p>
+
+<p>“The medium, Mr. Keeler, is a young man, with well cut features, curly
+brown hair, a small sandy mustache, and rather worn and anxious
+expression;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> he is strongly built, about 5 feet 8 inches high, and with
+rather short, quite broad, and very muscular hands and strong wrists. The
+hands were examined by Dr. Pepper and Mr. Fullerton after the séance.</p>
+
+<p>“The séance was held in Mr. Furness’ drawing-room, and a space was
+curtained off by the medium in the northeast corner, thus, (Fig. 25):</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img23.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 25. PIERRE KEELER’S CABINET SEANCE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“The curtain is represented by A, B; C, D and E are three chairs, placed
+in front of the curtain by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> medium, in one of which (E) he afterwards
+sat; G denotes the position of Mrs. Keeler; F is a small table, placed
+within the curtain, and upon which was a tambourine, a guitar, two bells,
+a hammer, a metallic ring; the stars show the positions of the spectators,
+who sat in a double row&mdash;the two stars at the top facing the letter A
+indicate the positions taken by Mrs. Kase and Col. Kase, friends of Mr.
+Keeler, according to the directions of the medium.</p>
+
+<p>“The curtain, or rather curtains, were of black muslin, and arranged as
+follows: There was a plain black curtain, which was stretched across the
+corner, falling to the floor. Its height, when in position, was 53 inches;
+it was made thus:</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img24.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 26. PIERRE KEELER’S CABINET CURTAIN.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“The cord which held the curtain was 1, 2, and the flaps which are
+represented as standing above it (A,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> B, C, etc.), fell down over A1, B1,
+C1, etc., and could be made to cover the shoulders of one sitting with his
+back against the curtain. A black curtain was also pinned against the
+wall, in the space curtained off, partly covering it. Another curtain was
+added to the one pictured, as will be described presently.</p>
+
+<p>“The medium asked Col. Kase to say a few words as to the necessity of
+observing the conditions, need of harmony, etc. And then the medium
+himself spoke a few words of similar import. He then drew the curtain
+along the cord (1, 2,) and fastened it; placed three wooden chairs in
+front of the curtain, as indicated in the diagram, and, saying he needed
+to form a battery, asked Miss Agnes Irwin to sit in chair D, and Mr. Yost
+in chair C, the medium himself sitting in chair E. A black curtain was
+then fastened by Mrs. Keeler over Mr. Keeler, Miss Irwin and Mr. Yost,
+being fastened at G, between E and D, between D and C, and beyond A; thus
+entirely covering the three sitting in front of the stretched curtain up
+to their necks; and when the flaps before mentioned were pulled down over
+their shoulders, nothing could be seen but the head of each.</p>
+
+<p>“Before the last curtain was fastened over them,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> the medium placed both
+his hands upon the forearm and wrist of Miss Irwin, the sleeve being
+pulled up for the purpose, and Miss Irwin grasped with her right hand the
+left wrist of Mr. Yost, his right hand being in sight to the right of the
+curtain.</p>
+
+<p>“After some piano music the medium said he felt no power from this
+‘battery,’ and asked Mrs. E. D. Gillespie to take Miss Irwin’s place.
+Hands and curtains were arranged as before. The lights were turned down
+until the room was quite dim. During the singing the medium turned to
+speak to Mr. Yost, and his body, which had before faced rather away from
+the two other persons of the ‘battery’ (which position would have brought
+his right arm out in front of the stretched curtain), was now turned the
+other way, so that had he released his grasp upon Mrs. Gillespie’s arm,
+his own right arm could have had free play in the curtained space behind
+him. His left knee also no longer stood out under the curtain in front,
+but showed a change of position.</p>
+
+<p>“At this time Mrs. Gillespie declared she felt a touch, and soon after so
+did Mr. Yost. The medium’s body was distinctly inclined toward Mr. Yost at
+this time. Mrs. Gillespie said she felt taps, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> declared that, to the
+best of her knowledge, she still felt the medium’s two hands upon her arm.</p>
+
+<p>“Raps indicated that the spirit, George Christy, was present. As one of
+those present played on the piano, the tambourine was played in the
+curtained space and thrown over the curtain; bells were rung; the guitar
+was thrummed a little. At this time the medium’s face was toward Mrs.
+Gillespie, and his right side toward the curtain. His body was further in
+against the curtain than either of the others. Upon being asked, Mrs.
+Gillespie then said she thought she still felt two hands upon her arm.</p>
+
+<p>“The guitar was then thrust out, at least the end of it was, at the bottom
+of the curtain, between Mrs. Gillespie and the medium. Mrs. Keeler drawing
+the curtain from over the toes of the medium’s boots, to show where his
+feet were; the guitar was thrummed a little. Had the medium’s right arm
+been free the thrumming could have been done quite easily with one hand.
+Afterward the guitar was elevated above the curtain; the tambourine, which
+was by Mrs. Keeler placed upon a stick held up within the inclosure, was
+made to whirl by the motion of the stick.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> The phenomena occurred
+successively, not simultaneously.</p>
+
+<p>“When the guitar was held up, and when the tambourine was made to whirl,
+both of these were to the right of the medium, chiefly behind Mrs.
+Gillespie; they were just where they might have been produced by the right
+arm of the medium, had it been free. Two clothes-pins were then passed
+over the curtain, and they were used in drumming to piano music. They
+could easily be used in drumming by one hand alone, the fingers being
+thrust into them. The pins were afterward thrown out over the curtain. Mr.
+Sellers picked one up as soon as it fell, and found it warm in the split,
+as though it had been worn. The drumming was probably upon the tambourine.</p>
+
+<p>“A hand was seen moving rapidly with a trembling motion&mdash;which prevented
+it from being clearly observed&mdash;above the back curtain, between Mr. Yost
+and Mrs. Gillespie. Paper was passed over the curtain into the cabinet and
+notes were soon thrown out. The notes could have been written upon the
+small table within the enclosure by the right hand of the medium, had it
+been free. Mrs. Keeler then passed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> a coat over the curtain, and an arm
+was passed through the sleeve, the fingers, with the cuff around them
+being shown over the curtain. They were kept moving, and a close scrutiny
+was not possible.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Furness was then invited to hold a writing tablet in front of the
+curtain, when the hand, almost concealed by the coat-sleeve and the flaps
+mentioned as attached to the curtain, wrote with a pencil on the tablet.
+The writing was rapid, and the hand, when not writing, was kept in
+constant, tremulous motion. The hand was put forth, in this case not over
+the top curtain, but came from under the flap, and could easily have been
+the medium’s right hand were it disengaged, for it was about on a level
+with his shoulder and to his right, between him and Mrs. Gillespie. Mr.
+Furness was allowed to pass his hand close to the curtain and grasp the
+hand for a moment. It was a right hand.</p>
+
+<p>“Soon after the medium complained of fatigue, and the sitting was
+discontinued. It was declared by the Spiritualists present to be a fairly
+successful séance. When the curtains were removed the small table in the
+enclosure was found to be overturned, and the bells, hammer, etc., on the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>“It is interesting to note the space within which all the manifestations
+occurred. They were, without exception, where they would have been had
+they been produced by the medium’s right arm. Nothing happened to the left
+of the medium, nor very far over to the right. The sphere of activity was
+between the medium and Mr. Yost, and most of the phenomena occurred, as,
+for example, the whirling of the tambourine, behind Mrs. Gillespie.</p>
+
+<p>“The front curtain&mdash;that is, the main curtain which hung across the
+corner&mdash;was 85 inches in length, and the cord which supported it 53 inches
+from the floor. The three chairs which were placed in front of it were
+side by side, and it would not have been difficult for the medium to reach
+across and touch Mr. Yost. When Mrs. Keeler passed objects over the
+curtain, she invariably passed them to the right of the medium, although
+her position was on his left; and the clothes-pins, paper, pencil, etc.,
+were all passed over at a point where the medium’s right hand could easily
+have reached them.</p>
+
+<p>“To have produced the phenomena by using his right hand the medium would
+have had to pass it under the curtain at his back. This curtain was not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+quite hidden by the front one at the end, near the medium, and this end
+both Mr. Sellers and Dr. Pepper saw rise at the beginning of the séance.
+The only thing worthy of consideration, as opposed to a natural
+explanation of the phenomena, was the grasp of the medium’s hand on Mrs.
+Gillespie’s arm.</p>
+
+<p>“The grasp was evidently a tight one above the wrist, for the arm was
+bruised for about four inches. There was no evidence of a similar pressure
+above that, as the marks on the arm extended in all about five or six
+inches only. The pressure was sufficient to destroy the sensibility of the
+forearm, and it is doubtful whether Mrs. Gillespie, with her arm in such a
+condition could distinguish between the grasp of one hand, with a divided
+pressure (applied by the two last fingers and the thumb and index) and a
+double grip by two hands. Three of our number, Mr. Sellers, Mr. Furness,
+and Dr. White, can, with one hand, perfectly simulate the double grip.</p>
+
+<p>“It is specially worthy of note that Mrs. Gillespie declared that, when
+the medium first laid hold of her arms with his right hand before the
+curtain was put over them, it was with an undergrip, and she felt his
+right arm under her left. But when the medium<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> asked her if she felt both
+his hands upon her arm, and she said, yes, she could feel the grasp, but
+no arm under hers, though she moved her elbow around to find it&mdash;she felt
+a hand, but not an arm, and at no time during the séance did she find that
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>“It should be noted that both the medium and Mr. Yost took off their coats
+before being covered with the curtain. It was suggested by Dr. Pepper that
+this might have been required by the medium as a precaution against
+movements on the part of Mr. Yost. The white shirt-sleeves would have
+shown against the black background.”</p>
+
+<p>I attended a number of Keeler’s materializing exhibitions in Washington,
+D. C., in the spring of 1895, and it is my opinion that the writing of his
+so-called spirit messages is a simple affair, the very long and elaborate
+ones being written before the séance begins and the short ones by the
+medium during the sitting. The latter are done in a scrawling, uncertain
+hand, just such penmanship one would execute when blindfolded.</p>
+
+<p>The evidence of Dr. G. H. La Fetra, of Washington, D. C., is sufficiently
+convincing on this point. Said Dr. La Fetra to me: “Some years ago I went
+with a friend,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> Col. Edward Hayes, to one of Mr. Keeler’s light séances.
+It was rather early in the evening, and but few persons had assembled.
+Upon the mantel piece of the séance-room were several tablets of paper.
+Unobserved, I took up these tablets, one at a time, and drew the blade of
+my pen-knife across one end of each of them, so that I might identify the
+slips of paper torn therefrom by the nicks in them. In a little while, the
+room was filled with people, and the séance began; the gas being lowered
+to a dim religious light. When the time came for the writing, Mr. Keeler
+requested that some of the tablets of paper on the mantel be passed into
+the cabinet. This was done. Various persons present received ‘spirit’
+communications, the slips of paper being thrown over the curtain of the
+cabinet by a ‘materialized’ hand. Some gentleman picked up the papers and
+read them, for the benefit of the spectators; afterwards he laid aside
+those not claimed by anybody. Some of these ‘spirit’ communications
+covered almost an entire slip. These were carefully written, some of them
+in a fine hand. The short messages were roughly scrawled. After the
+séance, Col. Hayes and myself quietly pocketed a dozen or more of the
+slips. The next morning at my office we carefully examined them. In every
+instance, we found<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> that the well-written, lengthy messages were inscribed
+on <i>unnicked</i> slips, the short ones being written on <i>nicked</i> slips.”</p>
+
+<p>To me, this evidence of Dr. La Fetra seems most conclusive, proving beyond
+the shadow of a doubt that Keeler prepared his long communications before
+the séance and had them concealed upon his person, throwing them out of
+the cabinet at the proper moment. He used the <i>nicked</i> tablets for his
+short messages, written on the spot, thereby completely revealing his
+method of operating to the ingenious investigator.</p>
+
+<p>The late Dr. Leonard Caughey, of Baltimore, Maryland, an intimate friend
+of the writer, made a specialty of anti-Spiritualistic tricks, and among
+others performed this cabinet test of Keeler’s. He bought the secret from
+a broken-down medium for a few dollars, and added to it certain effects of
+his own, that far surpassed any of Keeler’s. The writer has seen Dr.
+Caughey give the tests, and create the utmost astonishment. His
+improvement on the trick consisted in the use of a spring clasp like those
+used by gentlemen bicycle riders to keep their trousers in at the ankles.
+One end terminated in a soft rubber or chamois skin tip, shaped like a
+thumb, the other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> end had four representations of fingers. Two wire rings
+were soldered on the back of the clasp. This apparatus he had concealed
+under his vest. Before the curtain of the cabinet was drawn, Dr. Caughey
+grasped the arm of the lady on his right in the following manner: The
+thumb of his left hand under her wrist, the fingers extended above it; the
+thumb of his right hand resting on the thumb of the left, the fingers
+lightly resting on the fingers of the left hand. As soon as the curtain
+was fastened he extended the fourth and index fingers of the left hand to
+the fullest extent and pressed hard upon the lady’s arm, relaxing at the
+same time the pressure of his second and third fingers. This movement
+exactly simulates the grasp of two hands, and enables the medium to take
+away his right hand altogether. Dr. Caughey then took his spring clasp,
+opened it by inserting his thumb and first finger in the soldered rings
+above mentioned, and lightly fastened it on the lady’s arm near the wrist,
+relaxing the pressure of the first and fourth fingers of the left hand at
+the same moment. “I will slide my right hand along your arm, and grasp you
+near the elbow. It will relieve the pressure about your wrist; besides be
+more convincing to you that there is no trickery.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> So saying, he quickly
+slid the apparatus along her arm, and left it in the position spoken of.
+This produces a perfect illusion, the clasp with its trick thumb and
+fingers working to perfection.</p>
+
+<p>This apparatus may also be used in the following manner: Roll up your
+sleeves and exhibit your hands to the sitter. Tell him you are going to
+stand behind him and grasp his arms firmly near the shoulders. Take your
+position immediately under the gas jet. Ask him to please lower the light.
+Produce the trick clasps, distend them by means of your thumbs and
+fingers, and after the gas is lowered, grasp the sitter in the manner
+described. Remove your fingers and thumbs lightly from the clasps and
+perform various mediumistic evolutions, such as writing a message on a pad
+or slate placed on the sitter’s head; strike him gently on his cheek with
+a damp glove, etc. When the séance is over, insert your fingers and thumbs
+in the soldered rings, remove the clasps and conceal them quickly.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">EUSAPIA PALADINO.</p>
+
+<p>The materializing medium who has caused the greatest sensation since
+Home’s death is Eusapia<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> Paladino, an Italian peasant woman. Signor
+Damiani, of Florence, Italy, discovered her alleged psychical powers in
+1875, and brought her into notice. An Italian Count was so impressed with
+the manifestations witnessed in the presence of the illiterate peasant
+woman, that he insisted upon “a commission of scientific men being called
+to investigate them.” In the year 1884, this commission held séances with
+Eusapia, and afterwards declared that the phenomena <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>witnessed were
+inexplicable, and unquestionably the result of forces transcending
+ordinary experience. In the year 1892 another commission was formed in
+Milan to test Eusapia’s powers as a medium, and from this period her fame
+dates, as the most remarkable psychic of modern times. The report drawn up
+by this commission was signed by Giovanni Schiaparelli, director of the
+Astronomical Observatory, Milan; Carl du Prel, doctor of philosophy,
+Munich; Angelo Brofferio, professor of physics in the Royal School of
+Agriculture, Portici; G. B. Ermacora, doctor of physics; Giorgio Finzi,
+doctor of physics. At some of the sittings were present Charles Richet and
+the famous Cesare Lombroso. The conclusion arrived at by these gentlemen
+was that Eusapia’s mediumistic phenomena were most worthy of scientific
+attention, and were unfathomable. The medium reaped the benefit of this
+notoriety, and gave sittings to hundreds of investigators among the
+Italian nobility, charging as high as $500 for a single séance. At last
+she was exposed by a clever American, Dr. Richard Hodgson, of Boston,
+secretary of the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research.
+His account of the affair, communicated to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> the <i>New York Herald</i>, Jan.
+10, 1897, is very interesting. Speaking of the report of the Milan
+commission, he says:</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img25.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 27. EUSAPIA PALADINO.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img26.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 28. EUSAPIA BEFORE THE SCIENTISTS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>“Their report confessed to seeing and hearing many strange things,
+although they believed they had the hands and feet of the psychic so
+closely held that she could have had nothing to do with the
+manifestations.</p>
+
+<p>“Chairs were moved, bells were rung, imprints of fingers were made on
+smoked paper and soft clay, apparitions of hands appeared on slightly
+luminous backgrounds, the chair of the medium and the medium herself were
+lifted to the table, the sound of trumpets, the contact of a seemingly
+human face, the touch of human hands, warm and moist, all were felt.</p>
+
+<p>“Most of these phenomena were repeated, and the members of the commission
+were, with two exceptions, satisfied that no known power could have
+produced them. Professor Richet did not sign the report, but induced
+Signora Eusapia to go to an island he owned in the Mediterranean, where
+other exacting tests were made under other scientific eyes. The
+investigators all agreed that the demonstrations could not be accounted
+for by ordinary forces.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>“I have found in my experience that learned scientific men are the most
+easily duped of any in the world. Instead of having a cold, inert piece of
+matter to investigate by exact processes and microscopic inspections, they
+had a clever, bright woman doing her best to mystify them. They could not
+cope with her.</p>
+
+<p>“Professor Richet replied to an article I wrote, upholding his position,
+and brought Signora Eusapia Paladino to Cambridge, England, where I joined
+the investigating committee. In the party were Professor Lodge, of
+Liverpool; Professor F. M. C. Meyer, secretary of the British Society for
+Psychical Research; Professor Richet and Mr. Henry Sedgwick, president of
+the society.</p>
+
+<p>“I found that the psychic, though giving a great variety of events,
+confined them to a very limited scope. She was seated during the tests at
+the end of a rectangular table and when the table was lifted it rose up
+directly at the other end. It was always so arranged that she was in the
+dark, even if the rest of the table was in the light; in the so-called
+light séances it was not light, the lamp being placed in an adjoining
+room. There were touches, punches and blows given, minor objects moved,
+some near and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> some further away; the outline of faces and hands appeared,
+etc.</p>
+
+<p>“When I came to hold her hands I found a key to the mystery.</p>
+
+<p>“It was chiefly that she made one hand and one foot do the work of both,
+by adroit substitution. Given a free hand and a free foot, and nearly all
+the phenomena can be explained. She has very strong, supple hands, with
+deft fingers and great coolness and intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>“This is the way she substituted one hand for both. She placed one of her
+hands over A’s hand and the other under B’s hand. Then, in the movements
+of the arms during the manifestation, she worked her hands toward each
+other until they rested one upon the other, with A’s hand at the bottom of
+the pile, B’s at the top and both her own, one upon the other, between. To
+draw out one hand and leave one and yet have the investigators feel that
+they still had a hand was easy.</p>
+
+<p>“With this hand free and in darkness there were great possibilities. There
+were strings, also, as I believe, which were attached to different objects
+and moved them. The dim outlines of faces and hands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> seen were clever
+representations of the medium’s own free hand in various shapes.</p>
+
+<p>“It is thought that if a medium was kept clapping her hands she could do
+nothing with them, but one of the investigators found the Signora slapping
+her face with one hand, producing just the same sound as if her hands met,
+while the other hand was free to produce mysterious phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>“I have tried the experiment of shifting hands when those who held them
+knew they were going to be tricked, and yet they did not discover when I
+made the exchange. I am thoroughly satisfied that Signora Eusapia Paladino
+is a clever trickster.”</p>
+
+<p>Eusapia Paladino was by no means disconcerted by Dr. Hodgson’s exposé, but
+continued giving her séances. At the present writing she is continuing
+them in France with a number of new illusions. Many who have had sittings
+with her declare that she is able to move heavy objects without contact.
+Possibly this is due to jugglery, or it may be due to some psychic force
+as yet not understood.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">F. W. TABOR.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. F. W. Tabor is a materializing medium whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> specialty is the trumpet
+test for the production of spirit voices. I had a sitting with him at the
+house of Mr. X, of Washington, D. C., on the night of Jan. 10, 1897. Seven
+persons, including the medium, sat around an ordinary-sized table in Mr.
+X&mdash;’s drawing room, and formed a chain of hands, in the following manner:
+Each person placed his or her hands on the table with the thumbs crossed,
+and the little fingers of each hand touching the little fingers of the
+sitters on the right and left. A musical box was set going and the light
+was turned out by Mr. X&mdash;, who broke the circle for that purpose, but
+immediately resumed his old position at the table. A large speaking
+trumpet of tin about three feet long had been placed upright in the center
+of the table, and near it was a pad of paper, and pencils. We waited
+patiently for some little time, the monotony being relieved by operatic
+airs from the music box, and the singing of hymns by the sitters. There
+were convulsive twitchings of the hands and feet of the medium, who
+complained of tingling sensations in those members. The first “phenomena”
+produced were balls of light dancing like will-o’-the-wisps over the
+table, and the materialization of a luminous spirit hand. Taps upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>
+table signalled the arrival of Mr. Tabor’s spirit control, “Jim,” a little
+newsboy, of San Francisco, who was run over some years ago by a street
+car. The medium was the first person who picked up the wounded waif and
+endeavored to administer to him, but without avail. “Jim” died soon after,
+and his disembodied spirit became the medium’s control. Soon the trumpet
+arose from the table and floated over the heads of the sitters, and the
+voice of “Jim” was heard, sepulchral and awe-inspiring, through the
+instrument. Subsequently, messages of an impersonal character were
+communicated to Mr. X&mdash; and his wife. At one time the trumpet was heard
+knocking against the chandelier. During the séance several of the ladies
+experienced the clasp of a ghostly hand about their wrists, and
+considerable excitement was occasioned thereby.</p>
+
+<p>It is not a difficult matter to explain this trumpet test. It hinges on
+one fact, <i>freedom of the medium’s right hand</i>! In all of these holding
+tests, the medium employs a subterfuge to release his hands without the
+knowledge of the sitter on his right. During his convulsive twitchings, he
+quickly jerks his right hand away, but immediately extends the fingers of
+his left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> hand, and connects the index fingers with the little finger of
+the sitter’s left hand, thereby completing the chain, or “battery,” as it
+is technically called. Were the medium to use his thumb in making the
+connection the secret would be revealed, but the index finger of his left
+hand sufficiently simulates a little finger, and in the darkness the
+sitter is deceived. The right hand once released, the medium manipulates
+the trumpet and the phosphorescent spirit hands to his heart’s content.
+Sometimes he utilizes the telescopic rod, or a pair of steel “crazy
+tongs,” to elevate the trumpet to the ceiling. This holding test is
+absurdly simple and perhaps for that reason is so convincing.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tabor has another method of holding which is far more deceptive than
+the above. I am indebted to the “Revelations of a Spirit Medium” for an
+explanation of this test. “The investigators are seated in a circle around
+the table, male and female alternating. The person sitting on the medium’s
+right&mdash;for he sits in the circle&mdash;grasps the medium’s right wrist in his
+left hand, while his own right wrist is held by the sitter on his right
+and this is repeated clear around the circle. This makes each sitter hold
+the right wrist of his left hand neighbor in his left hand, while his own
+right<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> hand wrist is held in the left hand of his neighbor on the left.
+Each one’s hands are thus secured and engaged, including the medium’s. It
+will be seen that no one of the sitters can have the use of his or her
+hands without one or the other of their neighbors knowing it. As each hand
+was held by a separate person, you cannot understand how he [the medium]
+could get the use of either of them except the one on his right was a
+confederate. Such was not the case, and still he <i>did</i> have the use of one
+hand, the right one. But how? He took his place before the light was
+turned down, and those holding him say he did not let go for an instant
+during the séance. He did though, after the light was turned out for the
+purpose of getting his handkerchief to blow his nose. After blowing his
+nose he requested the sitter to again take his wrist, which is done, but
+this time it is the wrist of the left hand instead of the right. He has
+crossed his legs and there is but one knee to be felt, hence the sitter on
+the right does not feel that she is reaching across the right knee and
+thinks it is the left knee which she does feel to be the right. He has let
+his hand slip down until instead of holding the sitter on his left by the
+wrist he has him by the fingers, thus allowing him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> a little more
+distance, and preventing the left hand sitter using the hand to feel about
+and discover the right hand sitter’s hand on the wrist of the hand holding
+his. You will see, now, that although both sitters are holding the same
+hand each one thinks he is holding the one on his or her side of the
+medium. The balance of the séance is easy.”</p>
+
+<p>An amusing incident happened during my sitting with Mr. Tabor. Growing
+somewhat weary waiting for him to “manifest,” I determined to undertake
+some materializations on my own account. I adopted the subterfuge of
+getting my right hand loose from the lady on my right, and produced the
+spirit hand that clasped the wrist of several of the sitters in the
+circle. Mr. X&mdash; asked “Jim” if everything was all right in the circle,
+every hand promptly joined, and the magnetic conditions perfect. “Jim”
+responded with three affirmative taps on the table top. I congratulate
+myself on having deceived “Jim,” a spirit operating in the fourth
+dimension of space, and supposedly cognizant of all that was transpiring
+at the séance. Once, when the medium was floating the trumpet over my
+head, I grasped the instrument and dashed it on the table. He made no
+further attempt to manipulate the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> trumpet in my direction, and very
+shortly brought the séance to a close. No written communications were
+received during the evening.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">4. Spirit Photography.</p>
+
+<p>You may deceive the human eye, say the advocates of spirit
+materializations, but you cannot deceive the eye of science, the
+<i>photographic camera</i>. Then they triumphantly produce the spirit
+photograph as indubitable evidence of the reality of ghostly
+materializations. “Spirit photography,” says the late Alexandre Herrmann,
+in an article on magic, published in the <i>Cosmopolitan Magazine</i>, “was the
+invention of a man in London, and for ten years Spiritualists accepted the
+pictures as genuine representations of originals in the spirit land. The
+snap kodak has superseded the necessity of the explanation of spirit
+photography.”</p>
+
+<p>To be more explicit, there are two ways of producing spirit photographs,
+by <i>double printing</i> and by <i>double exposure</i>. In the first, the scene is
+printed from one negative, and the spirit printed in from another. In the
+second method, the group with the friendly spook in proper position is
+arranged, and the lens of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> the camera uncovered, half of the required
+exposure being given; then the lens is capped, and the person doing duty
+as the sheeted ghost gets out of sight, and the exposure is completed. The
+result is very effective when the picture is printed, the real persons
+being represented sharp and well defined, while the ghost is but a hazy
+outline, transparent, through which the background shows.</p>
+
+<p>Every one interested in psychic phenomena who makes a pilgrimage to the
+Capital of the Nation visits the house of Dr. Theodore Hansmann. For ten
+years Dr. Hansmann has been an ardent student of Spiritualism, and has had
+sittings with many celebrated mediums. The walls of his office are
+literally covered with spirit pictures of famous people of history,
+executed by spirits under supposed test conditions. There are drawings in
+color by Raphael, Michel Angelo, and others. In one corner of the room is
+a book-case filled with slates, upon the surfaces of which are messages
+from the famous dead, attested by their signatures.</p>
+
+<p>In the fall of 1895, a correspondent of the <i>New York Herald</i> interviewed
+Doctor Hansmann on the subject of spirit photographs, and subsequently
+visited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> the United States Bureau of Ethnology, where an interview was had
+with Mr. Dinwiddie, an expert photographer. Here is the substance of this
+second interview, published in the <i>Herald</i>, Nov. 9, 1895.</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Hansmann’s collection of ‘spirit’ photographs is most interesting.
+There is one with the face of the Empress Josephine, and on the same plate
+is the head of Professor Darius Lyman, for a long time Chief of the Bureau
+of Navigation. The head of the Empress Josephine has a diadem around it,
+and the lights and shadows remind one of the well known portrait of her.
+On another plate are Grant and Lincoln, Among his other photographs Dr.
+Hansmann brought out one of a man who was described to me as an Indian
+agent. Around his head were eleven smaller ‘spirit’ heads of Indians. In
+looking at the blue print closely it seemed to me as if I had seen those
+identical heads&mdash;the same as to light, shade and posing&mdash;somewhere before.</p>
+
+<p>“I was aided at the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution by
+Mr. F. Webb Hodge, the acting director, who on looking at the blue print
+named the Indians directly; several of the pictures were of Indians still
+alive. This, of course, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>immediately disposed of the idea of the blue
+print Indians being spirits.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img27.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 29&mdash;SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.<br />[Taken by the Author.]</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>“Moreover, Mr. Dinwiddie produced the negatives containing the identical
+portraits of these Indians and made me several proofs, which on a
+comparison, feature by feature, light for light, and shade for shade, show
+unquestionably that the faces on the blue print are copies of the
+portraits made by the photographer of the Bureau of Ethnology.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Dinwiddie asked me to sit down for awhile, and offered to make me
+some spirit photographs. This he did, and the results obtained may be
+considered as far better examples of the art of ‘spirit’ photography than
+those of the medium, Keeler.</p>
+
+<p>“The matter was very simply done. Mr. Dinwiddie asked one of the ladies
+from the office to come in, and, she consented to pose as a spirit. She
+was placed before the camera at a distance of about six feet, a red
+background was given her, so that it might photograph dark, and she was
+asked to put on a saintly expression. This she did, and Mr. Dinwiddie gave
+the plate a half-second exposure. Another head was taken on the other side
+of the plate in much the same manner. After this was done the other or
+central<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> photograph was taken with an exposure of four seconds, the plate
+being rather sensitive.</p>
+
+<p>“The plate was then taken to the dark room and developed. The negative
+came out very well at first, and the halo was put on afterward, when the
+plate had been dried. The halo was made by rubbing vignetting paste on the
+back, thus shutting out the light and leaving the paper its original hue.
+The white shadowy heads which are frequently shown in black coats, and
+which the mediums claim cannot be explained, are also done in this manner
+with vignetting paste, the picture being afterward centred over these
+places, which will be white, the final result showing soft and indefinite,
+and giving the required spiritual look.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Dinwiddie did not attempt to produce the hazy effect, but this is
+very easily accomplished in the photograph by taking the spirit heads a
+trifle out of focus. He claims that all of these apparent spiritual
+manifestations are but tricks of photography, and ones which might be
+accomplished by the veriest tyro, if he were to study the matter, and give
+his time to the experiment. It is only a wonder that the mediums do not do
+more of it.</p>
+
+<p>“The photograph mediums have always claimed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>that they were set upon by
+photographers for business reasons, but Mr. Dinwiddie is employed by the
+government and has no interests whatever in such a dispute.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img28.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 30&mdash;SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH BY PRETENDED MEDIUM.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>The eminent authority on photography, Mr. Walter E. Woodbury, gives many
+interesting exposes of mediumistic photographs in his work, “Photographic
+Amusements,” which the student of the subject would do well to consult.
+Fig. 30, taken from “Photographic Amusements” is a reproduction of a
+“spirit” photograph made by a photographer claiming to be a medium. Says
+Mr. Woodbury: “Fortunately, however, we were in this case able to expose
+the fraud. Mr. W. M. Murray, a prominent member of the Society of Amateur
+Photographers of New York, called our attention to the similarity between
+one of the ‘spirit’ images and a portrait painting by Sichel, the artist.
+A reproduction of the picture (Fig 31) is given herewith, and it will be
+seen at once that the ‘spirit’ image is copied from it.”</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">5. Thought Photography.</p>
+
+<p>During the year 1896 considerable stir was created by the investigation of
+Dr. Hippolyte Baraduc, of Paris, in the line of “Thought Photography,”
+which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> is of interest to psychic investigators generally. Dr. Baraduc
+claimed to have gotten photographic impressions of his thoughts, “made
+without sunlight or electricity or contact of any material kind.” These
+impressions he declared to be subjective, being his own personal
+vibrations, the result of a force emanating from the human personality,
+supra-mechanical, or spiritual. The experiments were carried on in a dark
+room, and according to his statement were highly successful. In a
+communication to an American correspondent, printed in the <i>New York
+Herald</i>, January 3, 1897, he writes: “I have discovered a human, invisible
+light, differing altogether from the cathode rays discovered by Prof.
+Roentgen.” Dr. Baraduc advanced the theory that our souls must be
+considered as centers of luminous forces, owing their existence partly to
+the attraction and partly to the repulsion of special and potent forces
+bred of the invisible cosmos.</p>
+
+<p>A number of French scientific journals took up the matter, and discussed
+“Thought Photography” at length, publishing numerous reproductions of the
+physician’s photographs; but the more conservative journals of England,
+Germany and America remained silent on the subject, as it seemed to be on
+the borderland <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>between science and charlatanry. On January 11, 1897,
+the American newspapers contained an item to the effect that Drs. S.
+Millington Miller and Carleton Simon, of New York City, the former a
+specialist in brain physiology, and the latter an expert hypnotist, had
+succeeded in obtaining successful thought photographs on dry plates from
+two hypnotized subjects. When the subjects were not hypnotized, the
+physicians reported no results.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img29.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 31&mdash;SIGEL’S ORIGINAL PICTURE OF FIG 30.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>As “Thought Photography” is without the pale of known physical laws,
+stronger evidence is needed to support the claims made for it than that
+which has been adduced by the French and American investigators. “Thought
+Photography” once established as a scientific fact, we shall have,
+perhaps, an explanation of genuine spirit photographs, if such there be.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">6. Apparitions of the Dead.</p>
+
+<p>In my chapter on subjective phenomena, I have not recorded any cases of
+phantasms of the dead, though several interesting examples of such have
+come under my notice. I have thought it better to refer the reader to the
+voluminous reports of the Society for Psychical Research (England). In
+regard to these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> cases, the Society has reached the following conclusion:
+<i>Between deaths and apparitions of dying persons a connection exists which
+is not due to chance alone. This we hold as a proved fact.</i></p>
+
+<p>The “<i>Literary Digest</i>,” January 12, 1895, in reviewing this report, says:
+“Inquiries were instituted in 17,000 cases of alleged apparitions. These
+inquiries elicited 1,249 replies from persons [in England and Wales] who
+affirmed that they themselves had seen the apparitions. Then the Society
+by further inquiries and cross-examinations sifted out all but eighty of
+these as discredited in some way, by error of memory or illusions of
+identity, or for some other reason, or which could be accounted for by
+common psychical laws. Of these eighty, fifty more were thrown out, to be
+on the safe side, and the remaining thirty are used as a basis for
+scientific consideration. All these consisted of apparitions of dead
+persons appearing to others within twelve hours after death, and many of
+them appearing at the very hour and even the very minute of death. The
+full account of the investigation is published in the tenth volume of the
+Society’s Reports, under the title, ‘A Census of Hallucinations,’ and
+Prof. J. H. Hyslop, of Columbia College, wrote an article<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> giving the gist
+of the report and his comments in the ‘<i>Independent</i>,’ (December 27,
+1895), from which I cull these few notable paragraphs:</p>
+
+<p>“‘The committee which conducted the research reasons as follows: Since the
+death rate of England is 19.15 out of every thousand, the chances of any
+person’s dying on any particular day are one in 19,000 (the ratio of 19.15
+to 365 times 1,000). Out of 19,000 death apparitions, therefore, one can
+be explained as a simple coincidence. But thirty apparitions out of 1,300
+cases is in the proportion of 440 out of 19,000, so that to refer these
+thirty well-authenticated apparitions to coincidence is deemed
+impossible.’</p>
+
+<p>“And further on:</p>
+
+<p>“‘This is remarkable language for the signatures of Prof. and Mrs.
+Sidgwick, than whom few harder-headed skeptics could be found. It is more
+than borne out, however, by a consideration which the committee does not
+mention, but which the facts entirely justify, and it is that since many
+of the apparitions occurred not merely on the day, but at the very hour or
+minute of death, the improbability of their explanation by chance is
+really much greater than the figures here given. That the apparition
+should occur within<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> the hour of death the chance should be 1 to 356,000,
+or at the minute of death 1 to 21,360,000. To get 30 cases, therefore,
+brought down to these limits we should have to collect thirty times these
+numbers of apparitions. Either these statistics are of no value in a study
+of this kind, or the Society’s claim is made out that there is either a
+telepathic communication between the dying and those who see their
+apparitions, or some causal connection not yet defined or determined by
+science. That this connection may be due to favorable conditions in the
+subject of the hallucination is admitted by the committee, if the person
+having the apparition is suffering from grief or anxiety about the person
+concerned. But it has two replies to such a criticism. The first is the
+query how and why under the circumstances does this effect coincide
+generally with the death of the person concerned, when anxiety is extended
+over a considerable period. The second is a still more triumphant reply,
+and it is that a large number of the cases show that the subject of the
+apparition has no knowledge of the dying person’s sickness, place, or
+condition. In that case there is no alternative to searching elsewhere for
+the cause. If telepathy or thought transference will not explain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> the
+connection, resort must be had to some most extraordinary hypothesis. Most
+persons will probably accept telepathy as the easiest way out of the
+difficulty, though I am not sure that we are limited to this, the easiest
+explanation.’</p>
+
+<p>“Professor Hyslop then proceeds to consider the effect of the committee’s
+conclusion upon existing theories and speculations regarding the relations
+between mind and matter, and foresees with gratification as well as
+apprehension the revolt likely to be initiated against materialism and
+which may go so far as to discredit science and carry us far back to the
+credulous conditions of the Middle Ages. He says:</p>
+
+<p>“‘The point which the investigations of the Society for Psychical Research
+have already reached creates a question of transcendent interest, no
+matter what the solution of it may be, and will stimulate in the near
+future an amount of psychological and theological speculation of the most
+hasty and crude sort, which it will require the profoundest knowledge of
+mental phenomena, normal and abnormal, and the best methods of science to
+counteract, and to keep within the limits of sober reason. The hardly won
+conquests of intellectual freedom and self-control can easily be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
+overthrown by a reaction that will know no bounds and which it will be
+impossible to regulate. Though there may be some moral gain from the
+change of beliefs, as will no doubt be the case in the long run, we have
+too recently escaped the intellectual, religious, and political tyranny of
+the Middle Ages to contemplate the immediate consequences of the reaction
+with any complacency. But no one can calculate the enormous effect upon
+intellectual, social, and political conditions which would ensure upon the
+reconciliation of science and religion by the proof of immortality.”</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>
+<h3>IV. CONCLUSIONS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In my investigations of the physical phenomena of modern spiritualism, I
+have come to the following conclusion: While the majority of mediumistic
+manifestations are due to conjuring, there is a class of cases not
+ascribable to trickery, namely, those coming within the domain of psychic
+force&mdash;as exemplified by the experiments of Gasparin, Crookes, Lodge,
+Asakoff and Coues. In regard to the subjective phenomena, I am convinced
+that the recently annunciated law of telepathy will account for them. <i>I
+discredit the theory of spirit intervention.</i> If this be a correct
+conclusion, is there anything in mediumistic phenomena that will
+contribute to the solution of the problem of the immortality of the soul?
+I think there is. The existence of a subjective or subliminal
+consciousness in man, as illustrated in the phenomena mentioned, seems to
+indicate that the human personality is really a spiritual entity,
+possessed of unknown resources, and capable of preserving its identity
+despite the shock of time and the grave. Hudson says: “It is clear that
+the power<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> of telepathy has nothing in common with objective methods of
+communications between mind and mind; and that it is not the product of
+muscle or nerve or any physiological combination whatever, but rather sets
+these at naught, with their implications of space and time.... When
+disease seizes the physical frame and the body grows feeble, the objective
+mind invariably grows correspondingly weak.... In the meantime, as the
+objective mind ceases to perform its functions, the subjective mind is
+most active and powerful. The individual may never before have exhibited
+any psychic power, and may never have consciously produced any psychic
+phenomena; yet at the supreme moment his soul is in active communication
+with loved ones at a distance, and the death message is often, when
+psychic conditions are favorable, consciously received. The records of
+telepathy demonstrate this proposition. Nay, more; they may be cited to
+show that in the hour of death the soul is capable of projecting a
+phantasm of such strength and objectivity that it may be an object of
+personal experience to those for whom it is intended. Moreover, it has
+happened that telepathic messages have been sent by the dying, at the
+moment of dissolution, giving all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> particulars of the tragedy, when
+the death was caused by an unexpected blow which crushed the skull of the
+victim. It is obvious that in such cases it is impossible that the
+objective mind could have participated in the transaction. The evidence is
+indeed overwhelming, that, no matter what form death may assume, whether
+caused by lingering disease, old age, or violence, the subjective mind is
+never weakened by its approach or its presence. On the other hand, that
+the objective mind weakens with the body and perishes with the brain, is a
+fact confirmed by every-day observation and universal experience.”</p>
+
+<p>This hypothesis of the objective and subjective minds has been criticised
+by many psychologists on the ground of its extreme dualism. No such
+dualism exists, they contend. However, Hudson’s theory is only a working
+hypothesis at best, to explain certain extraordinary facts in human
+experience. Future investigators may be able to throw more light on the
+subject. But this one thing may be enunciated: <i>Telepathy is an
+incontrovertible fact</i>, account for it as you may, a physical force or a
+spiritual energy. If physical, then it does not follow any of the known
+operations of physical laws as established by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> modern science, especially
+in the case of transmission of thought at a distance.</p>
+
+<p>It is true, that all evidence in support of telepathic communications is
+more or less <i>ex parte</i> in character, and does not possess that validity
+which orthodox science requires of investigators. Any student of the
+physical laws of matter can make investigations for himself, and at any
+time, provided he has the proper apparatus. Explain to a person that water
+is composed of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, and he can easily verify
+the fact for himself by combining the gases, in the combination of H<sub>2</sub>O,
+and afterwards liberate them by a current of electricity. But experiments
+in telepathy and clairvoyance cannot be made at will; they are isolated in
+character, and consequently are regarded with suspicion by orthodox
+science. Besides this, they transcend the materialistic theories of
+science as regards the universe, and one is almost compelled to use the
+old metaphysical terms of mind and matter, body and soul, in describing
+the phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>It is an undoubted fact that science has broken away from the old theory
+regarding the distinction between mind and matter. Says Prof. Wm. Romaine
+Newbold,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> “In the scientific world it has fallen into such disfavor that
+in many circles it is almost as disgraceful to avow belief in it as in
+witchcraft or ghosts.” We have to-day a school of
+“physiological-psychology,” calling itself “psychology without a soul.”
+This school is devoted to the laboratory method of studying mind. “The
+laboratory method,” says Roark, in his “Psychology in Education,” “is
+concerned mostly with <i>physiological</i> psychology, which is, after all,
+only <i>physiology</i>, even though it be the physiology of the nervous system
+and the special organs of sense&mdash;the material tools of the mind. And after
+physiological psychology has had its rather prolix say, causal connection
+of the physical organs with psychic action is as obscure and impossible of
+explanation as ever. But the laboratory method can be of excellent service
+in determining the material conditions of mental action, in detecting
+special deficiencies and weaknesses, and in accumulating valuable
+statistics along these lines.</p>
+
+<p>“It has been asserted that no science can claim to be exact until it can
+be reduced to formulas of weights and measures. The assertion begs the
+question for the materialists. We shall probably never be able to weigh an
+idea or measure the cubic contents of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> memory; but the rapidity with
+which ideas are formed or reproduced by memory has been measured in many
+particular instances, and the circumstances that retard or accelerate
+their formation or reproduction have been positively ascertained and
+classified.”</p>
+
+<p>That it is possible to explain all mental phenomena in terms of physics is
+by no means the unanimous verdict of scientific men. A small group of
+students of late years have detached themselves from the purely
+materialistic school and broken ground in the region of the supernormal.
+Says Professor Newbold (<i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, January, 1897): “In the
+supernormal field, the facts already reported, should they be
+substantiated by further inquiry, would go far towards showing that
+consciousness is an entity governed by laws and possessed of powers
+incapable of expression in material conceptions.</p>
+
+<p>“I do not myself regard the theory of independence [of mind and body] as
+proved, but I think we have enough evidence for it to destroy in any
+candid mind that considers it that absolute credulity as to its
+possibility which at present characterizes the average man of science.”</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PART_SECOND" id="PART_SECOND"></a>PART SECOND.<br />MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THE THEOSOPHISTS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>1. The Priestess.</h3>
+
+<p>The greatest “fantaisiste” of modern times was Madame Blavatsky, spirit
+medium, Priestess of Isis, and founder of the Theosophical Society. Her
+life is one long catalogue of wonders. In appearance she was enormously
+fat, had a harsh, disagreeable voice, and a violent temper, dressed in a
+slovenly manner, usually in loose wrappers, smoked cigarettes incessantly,
+and cared little or nothing for the conventionalities of life. But in
+spite of all&mdash;unprepossessing appearance and gross habits&mdash;she exercised a
+powerful personal magnetism over those who came in contact with her. She
+was the Sphinx of the second half of this Century; a Pythoness in tinsel
+robes who strutted across the world’s stage “full of sound and fury,” and
+disappeared from view behind the dark veil of Isis, which she,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> the
+fin-de-siecle prophetess, tried to draw aside during her earthly career.</p>
+
+<p>In searching for facts concerning the life of this really remarkable
+woman&mdash;remarkable for the influence she has exerted upon the thought of
+this latter end of the nineteenth century&mdash;I have read all that has been
+written about her by prominent Theosophists, have talked with many who
+knew her intimately, and now endeavor to present the truth concerning her
+and her career. The leading work on the subject is “Incidents in the Life
+of Madame Blavatsky,” compiled from information supplied by her relatives
+and friends, and edited by A. P. Sinnett, author of “The Occult World.”
+The frontispiece to the book is a reproduction of a portrait of Madame
+Blavatsky, painted by H. Schmiechen, and represents the lady seated on the
+steps of an ancient ruin, holding a parchment in her hand. She is garbed
+somewhat after the fashion of a Cumaean Sibyl and gazes straight before
+her with the deep unfathomable eyes of a mystic, as if she were reading
+the profound riddles of the ages, and beholding the sands of Time falling
+hot and swift into the glass of eternity&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>“And all things creeping to a day of doom.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img30.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 32&mdash;MADAME BLAVATSKY.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>Sinnett’s life of the High Priestess is a strange concoction of monstrous
+absurdities; it is full of the weirdest happenings that were ever
+vouchsafed to mortal. We cannot put much faith in this biography, and must
+delve in other mines for information; but some of the remarkable passages
+of the book are worth perusing, particularly if the reader be prone to
+midnight musings of a ghostly character.</p>
+
+<p>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the daughter of Col. Peter Hahn of the Russian
+Army, and granddaughter of General Alexis Hahn von Rottenstern Hahn (a
+noble family of Mecklenburg, Germany, settled in Russia), was born in
+Eskaterinoslaw, in the south of Russia, in 1831. “She had,” says Sinnett,
+“a strange childhood, replete with abnormal occurrences. The year of her
+birth was fatal for Russia, as for all Europe, owing to the first visit of
+the cholera, that terrible plague that decimated from 1830 to 1832 in turn
+nearly every town of the Continent.... Her birth was quickened by several
+deaths in the house, and she was ushered into the world amid coffins and
+desolation, on the night between July 30th and 31st, weak and apparently
+no denizen of this world.” A hurried baptism was given lest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> the child die
+in original sin, and the ceremony was that of the Greek Church. During the
+orthodox baptismal rite no person is allowed to sit, but a child aunt of
+the baby, tired of standing for nearly an hour, settled down upon the
+floor, just behind the officiating priest. No one perceived her, as she
+sat nodding drowsily. The ceremony was nearing its close. The sponsors
+were just in the act of renouncing the Evil One and his deeds, a
+renunciation emphasized in the Greek Church by thrice spitting upon the
+invisible enemy, when the little lady, toying with her lighted taper at
+the feet of the crowd, inadvertantly set fire to the long flowing robes of
+the priest, no one remarking the accident till it was too late. The result
+was an immediate conflagration, during which several persons&mdash;chiefly the
+old priest&mdash;were severely burnt. That was another bad omen, according to
+the superstitious beliefs of orthodox Russia; and the innocent cause of
+it, the future Madame Blavatsky, was doomed from that day, in the eyes of
+all the town, to an eventful, troubled life.</p>
+
+<p>“Mlle. Hahn was born, of course, with all the characteristics of what is
+known in Spiritualism as mediumship in the most extraordinary degree, also
+with gifts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> as a clairvoyant of an almost equally unexampled order. On
+various occasions while apparently in an ordinary sleep, she would answer
+questions, put by persons who took hold of her hand, about lost property,
+etc., as though she were a sibyl entranced. For years she would, in
+childish impulse, shock strangers with whom she came in contact, and
+visitors to the house, by looking them intently in the face and telling
+them they would die at such and such a time, or she would prophesy to them
+some accident or misfortune that would befall them. And since her
+prognostications usually came true, she was the terror, in this respect,
+of the domestic circle.”</p>
+
+<p>Madame V. P. Jelihowsy, a sister of the seeress, has furnished to the
+world many extraordinary stories of Mme. Blavatsky’s childhood, published
+in various Russian periodicals. At the age of eleven the Sibyl lost her
+mother, and went to live with her grandparents at Saratow, her grandfather
+being civil governor of the place. The family mansion was a lumbering old
+country place “full of subterraneous galleries, long abandoned passages,
+turrets, and most weird nooks and corners. It looked more like a mediaeval
+ruined castle than a building of the last century.” The ghosts of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>
+martyred serfs were supposed to haunt the uncanny building, and strange
+legends were told by the old family servants of weir-wolves and goblins
+that prowled about the dark forests of the estate. Here, in this House of
+Usher, the Sibyl lived and dreamed, and at this period exhibited many
+abnormal psychic peculiarities, ascribed by her orthodox governess and
+nurses of the Greek Church to possession by the devil. She had at times
+ungovernable fits of temper; she would ride any Cossack horse on the place
+astride a man’s saddle; go into trances and scare everyone from the master
+of the mansion down to the humblest vodka drinker on the estate.</p>
+
+<p>In 1848, at the age of 17, she married General Count Blavatsky, a gouty
+old Russian of 70, whom she called “the plumed raven,” but left him after
+a brief period of marital infelicity. From this time dates her career as a
+thaumaturgist. She travelled through India and made an honest attempt to
+penetrate into the mysterious confines of Thibet, but succeeded in getting
+only a few miles from the frontier, owing to the fanaticism of the
+natives.</p>
+
+<p>In India, as elsewhere, she was accused of being a Russian spy and was
+generally regarded with <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>suspicion by the police authorities. After some
+months of erratic wanderings she reappeared in Russia, this time in
+Tiflis, at the residence of a relative, Prince &mdash;&mdash;. It was a gloomy,
+grewsome chateau, well suited for Spiritualistic séances, and Madame
+Blavatsky, it is claimed, frightened the guests during the long winter
+evenings with table-tippings, spirit rappings, etc. It was then the tall
+candles in the drawing-room burnt low, the gobelin tapestry rustled, sighs
+were heard, strange music “resounded in the air,” and luminous forms were
+seen trailing their ghostly garments across the “tufted floor.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img31.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 33&mdash;MAHATMA LETTER.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>The gossipy Madame de Jelihowsy, in her reminiscences, classifies the
+phenomena, witnessed in the presence of her Sibylline sister, as follows:</p>
+
+<p>1. Direct and perfectly clearly written and verbal answers to mental
+questions&mdash;or “thought reading.”</p>
+
+<p>2. Private secrets, unknown to all but the interested party, divulged,
+[especially in the case of those persons who mentioned insulting doubts].</p>
+
+<p>3. Change of weight in furniture and persons at will.</p>
+
+<p>4. Letters from unknown correspondents, and immediate answers written to
+queries made, and found in the most out-of-the-way mysterious places.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>5. Appearance of objects unclaimed by anyone present.</p>
+
+<p>6. Sounds of musical notes in the air wherever Madame Blavatsky desired
+they should resound.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1858, the High Priestess was at the house of General Yakontoff
+at Pskoff, Russia. One night when the drawing-room was full of visitors,
+she began to describe the mediumistic feat of making light objects heavy
+and heavy objects light.</p>
+
+<p>“Can you perform such a miracle?” ironically asked her brother, Leonide de
+Hahn, who always doubted his sister’s occult powers.</p>
+
+<p>“I can,” was the firm reply.</p>
+
+<p>De Hahn went to a small chess table, lifted it as though it were a
+feather, and said: “Suppose you try your powers on this.”</p>
+
+<p>“With pleasure!” replied Mme. Blavatsky. “Place the table on the floor,
+and step aside for a minute.” He complied with her request.</p>
+
+<p>She fixed her large blue eyes intently upon the chess table and said
+without removing her gaze, “Lift it now.”</p>
+
+<p>The young man exerted all his strength, but the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>table would not budge
+an inch. Another guest tried with the same result, but the wood only
+cracked, yielding to no effort.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img32.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 34&mdash;MAHATMA LETTER ENVELOPE.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>“Now, lift it,” said Madame Blavatsky calmly, whereupon De Hahn picked it
+up with the greatest ease. Loud applause greeted this extraordinary feat,
+and the skeptical brother, so say the occultists, was utterly nonplussed.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Blavatsky, as recorded by Sinnett, stated afterwards that the above
+phenomenon could be produced in two different ways: “First, through the
+exercise of her own will directing the magnetic currents so that the
+pressure on the table became such that no physical force could move it;
+second, through the action of those beings with whom she was in constant
+communication, and who, although unseen, were able to hold the table
+against all opposition.”</p>
+
+<p>The writer has seen similar feats performed by hypnotizers with good
+subjects without the intervention of any ghostly intelligences.</p>
+
+<p>In 1870 the Priestess of Isis journeyed through Egypt in company with a
+certain Countess K&mdash;, and endeavored to form a Spiritualistic society at
+Cairo, for the investigation of psychic phenomena, but things<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> growing
+unpleasant for her she left the land of pyramids and papyri in hot haste.
+It is related of her that during this Egyptian sojourn she spent one night
+in the King’s sepulchre in the bowels of the Great Pyramid of Cheops,
+sleeping in the very sarcophagus where once reposed the mummy of a
+Pharoah. Weird sights were seen by the entranced occultist and strange
+sounds were heard on that eventful occasion within the shadowy mortuary
+chamber of the pyramid. At times she would let fall mysterious hints of
+what she saw that night, but they were as incomprehensible as the riddles
+of the fabled Sphinx.</p>
+
+<p>Countess Paschkoff chronicles a curious story about the Priestess of Isis,
+which reminds one somewhat of the last chapter in Bulwer’s occult novel,
+“A Strange Story.” The Countess relates that she was once travelling
+between Baalbec and the river Orontes, and in the desert came across the
+caravan belonging to Madame Blavatsky. They joined company and towards
+nightfall pitched camp near the village of El Marsum amid some ancient
+ruins. Among the relics of a Pagan civilization stood a great monument
+covered with outlandish hieroglyphics. The Countess was curious to
+decipher the inscriptions, and begged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> Madame Blavatsky to unravel their
+meaning, but the Priestess of Isis, notwithstanding her great
+archaeological knowledge, was unable to do so. However, she said: “Wait
+until night, and we shall see!” When the ruins were wrapped in sombre
+shadow, Mme. Blavatsky drew a great circle upon the ground about the
+monument, and invited the Countess to stand within the mystic confines. A
+fire was built and upon it were thrown various aromatic herbs and incense.
+Cabalistic spells were recited by the sorceress, as the smoke from the
+incense ascended, and then she thrice commanded the spirit to whom the
+monument was erected to appear. Soon the cloud of smoke from the burning
+incense assumed the shape of an old man with a long white beard. A voice
+from a distance pierced the misty image, and spoke: “I am Hiero, one of
+the priests of a great temple erected to the gods, that stood upon this
+spot. This monument was the altar. Behold!” No sooner were the words
+pronounced than a phantasmagoric vision of a gigantic temple appeared,
+supported by ponderous columns, and a great city was seen covering the
+distant plain, but all soon faded into thin air.</p>
+
+<p>This story was related to a select coterie of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> occultists assembled in
+social conclave at the headquarters in New York. The question is, had the
+charming Russian Countess dreamed this, or was she trying to exploit
+herself as a traveler who had come “out of the mysterious East” and had
+seen strange things?</p>
+
+<p>We next hear of the famous occultist in the United States, where she
+associated chiefly with spirit-mediums, enchanters, professional
+clairvoyants, and the like.</p>
+
+<p>“At this period of her career she had not,”<a name='fna_4' id='fna_4' href='#f_4'><small>[4]</small></a> says Dr. Eliott Coues, a
+learned investigator of psychic phenomena, “been metamorphosed into a
+Theosophist. She was simply exploiting as a Spiritualistic medium. Her
+most familiar spook was a ghostly fiction named ‘John King.’ This fellow
+is supposed to have been a pirate, condemned for his atrocities to serve
+earth-bound for a term of years, and to present himself at materializing
+séances on call. Any medium who personates this ghost puts on a heavy
+black horse-hair beard and a white bed sheet and talks in sepulchral chest
+tones. John is as standard and sure-enough a ghost as ever appeared before
+the public. Most of the leading mediums, both in Europe and America,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> keep
+him in stock. I have often seen the old fellow in New York, Philadelphia,
+and Washington through more mediums that I can remember the names of. Our
+late Minister to Portugul, Mr. J. O’Sullivan, has a photograph of him at
+full length, floating in space, holding up a peculiar globe of light
+shaped like a glass decanter. This trustworthy likeness was taken in
+Europe, and I think in Russia, but am not sure on that point. I once had
+the pleasure of introducing the pirate king to my friend Prof. Alfred
+Russel Wallace, in the person of Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a noted medium of
+Washington.</p>
+
+<p>“But the connection between the pirate and my story is this: Madame
+Blavatsky was exploiting King at the time of which I speak, and several of
+her letters to friends, which I have read, are curiously scribbled in red
+and blue pencil with sentences and signatures of ‘John King,’ just as,
+later on, ‘Koot Hoomi’ used to miraculously precipitate himself upon her
+stationery in all sorts of colored crayons. And, by the way, I may call
+the reader’s attention to the fact that while the ingenious creature was
+operating in Cairo, her Mahatmas were of the Egyptian order of
+architecture, and located in the ruins of Thebes or Karnak. They were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> not
+put in turbans and shifted to Thibet till late in 1879.”</p>
+
+<p>In 1875, while residing in New York, Madame Blavatsky conceived the idea
+of establishing a Theosophical Society. Stupendous thought! Cagliostro in
+the eighteenth century founded his Egyptian Free-Masonry for the
+re-generation of mankind, and Blavatsky in the nineteenth century laid the
+corner stone of modern Theosophy for a similar purpose. Cagliostro had his
+High Priestess in the person of a beautiful wife, Lorenza Feliciani, and
+Blavatsky her Hierophant in the somewhat prosaic guise of a New York
+reporter, Col. Olcott, since then a famous personage in occult circles.</p>
+
+<p>During the Civil War, Olcott served in the Quartermaster’s Department of
+the Army and afterwards held a position in the Internal Revenue Service of
+the United States. In 18&mdash; he was a newspaper man in New York, and was
+sent by the <i>Graphic</i> to investigate the alleged Spiritualistic phenomena
+transpiring in the Eddy family in Chittenden, Vermont. There he met Madame
+Blavatsky. It was his fate.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img33.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 35. COL. H. S. OLCOTT.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Col. Olcott’s description of his first sight of Mme. Blavatsky is
+interesting:</p>
+
+<p>“The dinner at Eddy’s was at noon, and it was from the entrance door of
+the bare and comfortless dining-room that Kappes and I first saw H. P. B.
+She had arrived shortly before noon with a French Canadian lady, and they
+were at table as we entered. My eye was first attracted by a scarlet
+Garibaldian shirt the former wore, as being in vivid contrast with the
+dull colors around. Her hair was then a thick blonde mop, worn shorter
+than the shoulders, and it stood out from her head, silken, soft, and
+crinkled to the roots, like the fleece of a Cotswold ewe. This and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>
+red shirt were what struck my attention before I took in the picture of
+her features. It was a massive Kalmuck face, contrasting in its suggestion
+of power, culture, and imperiousness, as strangely with the commonplace
+visages about the room, as her red garment did with the gray and white
+tones of the wall and woodwork, and the dull costumes of the rest of the
+guests. All sorts of cranky people were continually coming and going at
+Eddy’s, to see the mediumistic phenomena, and it only struck me on seeing
+this eccentric lady that this was but one more of the sort. Pausing on the
+door-sill, I whispered to Kappes, ‘Good gracious! look at <i>that</i> specimen,
+will you!’ I went straight across and took a seat opposite her to indulge
+my favorite habit of character-study.”</p>
+
+<p>Commenting on this meeting, J. Ransom Bridges, in the <i>Arena</i>, for April,
+1895, remarks: “After dinner Colonel Olcott scraped an acquaintance by
+opportunely offering her a light for a cigarette which she proceeded to
+roll for herself. This ‘light’ must have been charged with Theosophical
+<i>karma</i>, for the burning match or end of a lighted cigar&mdash;the Colonel does
+not specify&mdash;lit a train of causes and their effects which now are making
+history and are world-wide in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> their importance. So confirmed a pessimist
+on Theosophical questions as Henry Sidgwick of the London Society for
+Psychical Research, says, ‘Even if it [the Theosophical Society] were to
+expire next year, its twenty years’ existence would be a phenomenon of
+some interest for a historian of European society in the nineteenth
+century.’”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img34tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+<a href="images/img34.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div>
+<p class="center">FIG. 36. OATH OF SECRECY TAKEN BY CHARTER MEMBERS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.<br />
+[Kindness of the <i>New York Herald</i>.]</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The séances at the Eddy house must have been character studies indeed. The
+place where the ghosts were materialized was a large apartment over the
+dining room of the ancient homestead. A dark closet, at one end of the
+room, with a rough blanket stretched across it, served as a cabinet. Red
+Indians and pirates were the favorite materializations, but when Madame
+Blavatsky appeared on the scene, ghosts of Turks, Kurdish cavaliers, and
+Kalmucks visited this earthly scene, much to the surprise of every one.
+Olcott cites this fact as evidence of the genuineness of the
+materializations, remarking, “how could the ignorant Eddy boys, rough,
+rude, uncultured farmers, get the costumes and accessories for characters
+of this kind in a remote Vermont village.”</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p>
+<h3>2. What is Theosophy.</h3>
+
+<p>Let us turn aside at this juncture to ask, “What is Theosophy.” The word
+Theosophy (Theosophia&mdash;divine knowledge) appears to have been used about
+the Third century, A. D., by the Neo-Platonists, or Gnostics of
+Alexandria, but the great principles of the doctrine, however, were taught
+hundreds of years prior to the mystical school established at Alexandria.
+“It is not,” says an interesting writer on the subject, “an outgrowth of
+Buddhism although many Buddhists see in its doctrines the reflection of
+Buddha. It proposes to give its followers the esoteric, or inner-spiritual
+meaning of the great religious teachers of the world. It asserts repeated
+re-incarnations, or rebirths of the soul on earth, until it is fully
+purged of evil, and becomes fit to be absorbed into the Deity whence it
+came, gaining thereby Nirvana, or unconsciousness.” Some Theosophists
+claim that Nirvana is not a state of unconsciousness, but just the
+converse, a state of the most intensified consciousness, during which the
+soul remembers all of its previous incarnations.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Blavatsky claimed that “there exists in Thibet a brotherhood whose
+members have acquired a power over Nature which enables them to perform<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>
+wonders beyond the reach of ordinary men. She declared herself to be a
+<i>chela</i>, or disciple of these brothers (spoken of also as ‘Adepts’ and as
+‘Mahatmas’), and asserted that they took a special interest in the
+Theosophical Society and all initiates in occult lore, being able to cause
+apparitions of themselves in places where their bodies were not; and that
+they not only appeared but communicated intelligently with those whom they
+thus visited and themselves perceived what was going on where their
+phantoms appeared.” This phantasmal appearance she called the projection
+of the <i>astral</i> form. Many of the phenomena witnessed in the presence of
+the Sibyl were supposed to be the work of the mystic brotherhood who took
+so peculiar an interest in the Theosophical Society and its members. The
+Madame did not claim to be the founder of a new religious faith, but
+simply the reviver of a creed that has slumbered in the Orient for
+centuries, and declared herself to be the Messenger of these Mahatmas to
+the scoffing Western world.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of the Mahatmas, she says in “Isis Unveiled”: * * * “Travelers
+have met these adepts on the shores of the sacred Ganges, brushed against
+them on the silent ruins of Thebes, and in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> mysterious deserted
+chambers of Luxor. Within the halls upon whose blue and golden vaults the
+weird signs attract attention, but whose secret meaning is never
+penetrated by the idle gazers, they have been seen, but seldom recognized.
+Historical memoirs have recorded their presence in the brilliantly
+illuminated salons of European aristocracy. They have been encountered
+again on the arid and desolate plains of the Great Sahara, or in the caves
+of Elephanta. They may be found everywhere, but make themselves known only
+to those who have devoted their lives to unselfish study, and are not
+likely to turn back.”</p>
+
+<p>The Theosophical Society was organized in New York, Nov. 17, 1875.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Arthur Lillie, in his interesting work, “Madame Blavatsky and Her
+Theosophy,” speaking about the founding of the Society, says:</p>
+
+<p>“Its moving spirit was a Mr. Felt, who had visited Egypt and studied its
+antiquities. He was a student also of the Kabbala; and he had a somewhat
+eccentric theory that the dog-headed and hawk-headed figures painted on
+the Egyptian monuments were not mere symbols, but accurate portraits of
+the ‘Elementals.’ He professed to be able to evoke and control them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> He
+announced that he had discovered the secret ‘formularies’ of the old
+Egyptian magicians. Plainly, the Theosophical Society at starting was an
+Egyptian school of occultism. Indeed Colonel Olcott, who furnishes these
+details (‘Diary Leaves’ in the <i>Theosophist</i>, November to December, 1892),
+lets out that the first title suggested was the ‘Egyptological Society.’”</p>
+
+<p>There were strange reports set afloat at the time of the organization of
+the Society of the mysterious appearance of a Hindoo adept in his astral
+body at the “lamasery” on Forty-seventh street. It was said to be that of
+a certain Mahatma Koot Hoomi. Olcott declared that the adept left behind
+him as a souvenir of his presence, a turban, which was exhibited on all
+occasions by the enterprising Hierophant. William Q. Judge, a noted writer
+on Spiritualism, who had met the Madame at Irving Place in the winter of
+1874, joined the Society about this time, and became an earnest advocate
+of the secret doctrine. One wintry evening in March, 1889, Mr. Judge
+attended a meeting of the New York Anthropological Society, and told the
+audience all about the spectral gentleman, Koot Hoomi. He said:</p>
+
+<p>“The parent society (Theosophical) was founded in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> America by Madame
+Blavatsky, who gathered about her a few interested people and began the
+great work. They held a meeting to frame a constitution (1875), etc., but
+before anything had been accomplished a strangely foreign Hindoo, dressed
+in the peculiar garb of his country, came before them, and, leaving a
+package, vanished, and no one knew whither he came or went. On opening the
+package they found the necessary forms of organization, rules, etc., which
+were adopted. The inference to be drawn was, that the strange visitor was
+a Mahatma, interested in the foundation of the Society.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img35.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 37. WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.<br />
+[Reproduced by courtesy of the <i>New York Herald</i>.]</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>And so Blavatskyism flourished, and the Society gathered in disciples from
+all quarters. Men without definite creeds are ever willing to embrace
+anything that savors of the mysterious, however absurd the tenets of the
+new doctrine may be. The objects of the Theosophical Society, as set forth
+in a number of <i>Lucifer</i>, the organ of the cult, published in July, 1890,
+are stated to be:</p>
+
+<p>“1. To form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without
+distinction of race, creed, sex, or color.</p>
+
+<p>“2. To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions
+and sciences.</p>
+
+<p>“3. To investigate laws of Nature and the psychical powers of man.”</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing of cant or humbug about the above articles. A society
+founded for the prosecution of such researches seems laudable enough.
+Oriental scholars and scientists have been working in this field for many
+years. But the investigations, as conducted under the Blavatsky régime,
+have savored so of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> charlatanism that many earnest, truth-seeking
+Theosophists have withdrawn from the Society.</p>
+
+<p>After seeing the Society well established, Madame Blavatsky went to India.
+Her career in that country was a checkered one. From this period dates the
+exposé of the Mahatma miracles. The story reads like a romance by Marie
+Corelli. Let us begin at the beginning. The headquarters of the Society
+was first established at Bombay, thence removed to Madras and afterwards
+to Adyar. A certain M. and Mme. Coulomb, trusted friends of Madame
+Blavatsky, were made librarian and assistant corresponding secretary
+respectively of the Society, and took up their residence in the building
+known as the headquarters&mdash;a rambling East Indian bungalow, such as figure
+in Rudyard Kipling’s stories of Oriental life. Marvellous phenomena, of an
+occult nature, alleged to have taken place there, were attested by many
+Theosophists. Mysterious, ghostly appearances of Mahatmas were seen, and
+messages were constantly received by supernatural means. One of the
+apartments of the bungalow was denominated the Occult Room, and in this
+room was a sort of cupboard against the wall, known as the <i>Shrine</i>. In
+this shrine the ghostly missives were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> received and from it were sent.
+Skeptics were convinced, and occult lodges spread rapidly over India among
+the dreamy, marvel-loving natives. But affairs were not destined to sail
+smoothly. There came a rift within the lute&mdash;Madame Blavatsky quarreled
+with her trusted lieutenants, the Coulombs! In May, 1884, M. and Mme.
+Coulomb were expelled from the Society by the General Council, during the
+absence of the High Priestess and Col. Olcott in Europe. The Coulombs, who
+had grown weary of a life of imposture, or were actuated by the more
+ignoble motive of revenge, made a complete exposé of the secret working of
+the Inner Brotherhood. They published portions of Madame Blavatsky’s
+correspondence in the <i>Madras Christian College Magazine</i>, for September
+and October, 1884; letters written to the Coulombs, directing them to
+prepare certain impostures and letters written by the High Priestess,
+under the signature of Koot Hoomi, the mythical adept.<a name='fna_5' id='fna_5' href='#f_5'><small>[5]</small></a> This
+correspondence unquestionably implicated the Sibyl in a conspiracy to
+fraudulently produce occult phenomena. She declared them to be, in whole,
+or in part, forgeries. At this juncture<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> the London Society for Psychical
+Research sent Mr. Richard Hodgson, B. A., scholar of St. John’s College,
+Cambridge, England, to India to investigate the entire matter in the
+interest of science.</p>
+
+<p>He left England November, 1884, and remained in the East till April, 1885.
+During this period Blavatskyism was sifted to the bottom. Mr. Hodgson’s
+report covers several hundred pages, and proves conclusively that the
+occult phenomena of Madame Blavatsky and her co-adjutors are unworthy of
+credence. In his volume he gives diagrams of the trap-doors and machinery
+of the shrine and the occult room, and facsimiles of Madame Blavatsky’s
+handwriting, which proved to be identical with that of Koot Hoomi, or
+<i>Cute</i> Hoomi, as the critics dubbed him. He shows that the Coulombs had
+told the plain unvarnished truth so far as their disclosures went; and he
+stigmatizes the Priestess of Isis in the following language:</p>
+
+<p>“1. She has been engaged in a long continued combination with other
+persons to produce by ordinary means a series of apparent marvels for the
+support of the Theosophic movement.</p>
+
+<p>“2. That in particular the shrine at Adyar through which letters
+purporting to come from Mahatmas were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> received, was elaborately arranged
+with a view to the secret insertion of letters and other objects through a
+sliding panel at the back, and regularly used for the purpose by Madame
+Blavatsky or her agents.</p>
+
+<p>“3. That there is consequently a very strong general presumption that all
+the marvellous narratives put forward in evidence of the existence of
+Mahatmas are to be explained as due either (<i>a</i>) to deliberate deception
+carried out by or at the instigation of Madame Blavatsky, or (<i>b</i>) to
+spontaneous illusion or hallucination or unconscious misrepresentation or
+invention on the part of the witnesses.”</p>
+
+<p>The mysterious appearances of the ghostly Mahatmas at the headquarters was
+shown, by Mr. Hodgson, to be the work of confederates, the cleverest among
+them being Madame Coulomb. Sliding panels, secret doors, and many
+disguises were the <i>modus operandi</i> of the occult phenomena. In regard to
+the letters and alleged precipitated writing, Mr. Hodgson says:</p>
+
+<p>“It has been alleged, indeed, that when Madame Blavatsky was at Madras,
+instantaneous replies to mental queries had been found in the shrine (at
+Adyar), that envelopes containing questions were returned absolutely
+intact to the senders, and that when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> they were opened replies were found
+within in the handwriting of a Mahatma. After numerous inquiries, I found
+that in all cases I could hear of, the mental query was such as might
+easily have been anticipated by Madame Blavatsky; indeed, the query was
+whether the questioner would meet with success in his endeavor to become a
+pupil of the Mahatma, and the answer was frequently of the indefinite and
+oracular sort. In some cases the envelope inserted in the Shrine was one
+which had been previously sent to headquarters for that purpose, so that
+the envelope might have been opened and the answer written therein before
+it was placed in the Shrine at all. Where sufficient care was taken in the
+preparation of the inquiry, either no specific answer was given or the
+answer was delayed.”</p>
+
+<p>A certain phenomenon, frequently mentioned by Theosophists as having
+occurred in Madame Blavatsky’s sitting-room, was the dropping of a letter
+from the ceiling, supposed to be a communication from some Mahatma. In all
+such cases conjuring was proved to have been used&mdash;the <i>deus ex machina</i>
+being either a silk thread or else a cunningly secreted trap door hidden
+between the wooden beams of the bungalow ceiling, operated of course by a
+concealed confederate.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>Madame Blavatsky’s favorite method of impressing people with her occult
+powers was the almost immediate reception of letters from distant
+countries, in response to questions asked. These feats were the result of
+carefully contrived plans, preconcerted weeks in advance. She would
+telegraph in cipher to one of her numerous correspondents, East Indian,
+for example, to write a letter in reply to a certain query, and post it at
+a particular date. Then she would calculate the arrival of the letter,
+often to a nicety. Her ability as a conversationalist enabled her to
+adroitly lead people into asking questions that would tally with the
+Mahatma messages. But sometimes she failed, and a ludicrous fiasco was the
+result. Mr. Hodgson’s report contains accounts of many such mystic letters
+that would arrive by post from India in the nick of time, or too late for
+use.</p>
+
+<p>Among other remarkable things reported of the Madame was her power of
+producing photographs of people far away by a sort of spiritual
+photography, involving no other mechanical process than the slipping of a
+sheet of paper between the leaves of her blotting pad.</p>
+
+<p>When stories of this spirit-photography were rife<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> in London, a scientist
+published the following explanation of a method of making such Mahatma
+portraits:</p>
+
+<p>“Has the English public never heard of ‘Magic photography?’ Just a few
+years ago small sheets of white paper were offered for sale which on being
+covered with damp blotting paper developed an image as if by magic. The
+white sheets of paper seemed blanks. Really, however, they were
+photographs, not containing gold, which had been bleached by immersing
+them in a solution of mercuric chloride. The latter gives up part of its
+chlorine, and this chlorine bleaches the brown silver particles of which
+the photograph consists, by changing them to chloride of silver. The
+mercuric chloride becomes mercurous chloride. This body is white, and
+therefore invisible on white paper. Now, several substances will color
+this white mercurous chloride black. Ammonia and hypo-sulphite of soda
+will do this. In the magic photographs before mentioned the blotting paper
+contained hypo-sulphite of soda. Consequently when the alleged blank
+sheets of white note paper were placed between the sheets of blotting
+paper and slightly moistened, the hypo-sulphite of soda in the blotting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>
+paper acted chemically on the mercurous chloride in the white note paper,
+and the picture appeared. As this was known in 1840 to Herschel,
+Blavatsky’s miracle is nothing but a commonplace conjuring experiment.”</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>3. Madame Blavatsky’s Confession.</h3>
+
+<p>The individual to whom the world is most indebted for a critical analysis
+of Madame Blavatsky’s character and her claims as a producer of occult
+phenomena is Vsevolod S. Solovyoff, a Russian journalist and <i>litterateur</i>
+of considerable note. He has ruthlessly torn the veil from the Priestess
+of Isis in a remarkable book of revelations, entitled, “A Modern Priestess
+of Isis.” In May, 1884, he was in Paris, engaged in studying occult
+literature, and was preparing to write a treatise on “the rare, but in my
+opinion, real manifestations of the imperfectly investigated spiritual
+powers of man.” One day he read in the <i>Matin</i> that Madame Blavatsky had
+arrived in Paris, and he determined to meet her. Thanks to a friend in St.
+Petersburg, he obtained a letter of introduction to the famous
+Theosophist, and called on her a few days later, at her residence in the
+Rue Notre Dame des<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> Champs. His pen picture of the interview is graphic:</p>
+
+<p>“I found myself in a long, mean street on the left bank of the Seine, <i>de
+l’autre cote de l’eau</i>, as the Parisians say. The coachman stopped at the
+number I had told him. The house was unsightly enough to look at, and at
+the door there was not a single carriage.</p>
+
+<p>“‘My dear sir, you have let her slip; she has left Paris,’ I said to
+myself with vexation.</p>
+
+<p>“In answer to my inquiry the concierge showed me the way. I climbed a
+very, very dark staircase, rang, and a slovenly figure in an Oriental
+turban admitted me into a tiny dark lobby.</p>
+
+<p>“To my question, whether Madame Blavatsky would receive me, the slovenly
+figure replied with an ‘<i>Entrez, monsieur</i>,’ and vanished with my card,
+while I was left to wait in a small low room, poorly and insufficiently
+furnished.</p>
+
+<p>“I had not long to wait. The door opened, and she was before me; a rather
+tall woman, though she produced the impression of being short, on account
+of her unusual stoutness. Her great head seemed all the greater from her
+thick and very bright hair, touched with a scarcely perceptible gray, and
+very slightly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> frizzed, by nature and not by art, as I subsequently
+convinced myself.</p>
+
+<p>“At the first moment her plain, old earthy-colored face struck me as
+repulsive; but she fixed on me the gaze of her great, rolling, pale blue
+eyes, and in these wonderful eyes, with their hidden power, all the rest
+was forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>“I remarked, however, that she was very strangely dressed, in a sort of
+black sacque, and that all the fingers of her small, soft, and as it were
+boneless hands, with their slender points and long nails, were covered
+with great jewelled rings.”</p>
+
+<p>Madame Blavatsky received Solovyoff kindly, and they became excellent
+friends. She urged him to join the Theosophical Society, and he expressed
+himself as favorably impressed with the purposes of the organization.
+During the interview she produced her astral bell “phenomenon.” She
+excused herself to attend to some domestic duty, and on her return to the
+sitting-room, the phenomenon took place. Says Solovyoff: “She made a sort
+of flourish with her hand, raised it upwards and suddenly, I heard
+distinctly, quite distinctly, somewhere above our heads, near the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>
+ceiling, a very melodious sound like a little silver bell or an Aeolian
+harp.</p>
+
+<p>“‘What is the meaning of this?’ I asked.</p>
+
+<p>“‘This means only that my master is here, although you and I cannot see
+him. He tells me that I may trust you, and am to do for you whatever I
+can. <i>Vous etes sous sa protection</i>, henceforth and forever.’</p>
+
+<p>“She looked me straight in the eyes, and caressed me with her glance and
+her kindly smile.”</p>
+
+<p>This Mahatmic phenomenon ought to have absolutely convinced Solovyoff, but
+it did not. He asked himself the question:</p>
+
+<p>“‘Why was the sound of the silver bell not heard at once, but only after
+she had left the room and come back again?’”</p>
+
+<p>A few days after this event, the Russian journalist was regularly enrolled
+as a member of the Theosophical Society, and began to study Madame
+Blavatsky instead of Oriental literature and occultism. He was introduced
+to Colonel Olcott, who showed him the turban that had been left at the New
+York headquarters by the astral Koot Hoomi. Solovyoff witnessed other
+“phenomena” in the presence of Madame Blavatsky, which did not impress him
+very favorably.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> Finally, the High Priestess produced her <i>chef d’
+oeuvre</i>, the psychometric reading of a letter. Solovyoff was rather
+impressed with this feat and sent an account of it to the <i>Rebus</i>, but
+subsequently came to the conclusion that trickery had entered into it.
+When the Coulomb exposures came, he did not see much of Madame Blavatsky.
+She was overwhelmed with letters and spent a considerable time anxiously
+travelling to and fro on Theosophical affairs. In August, 1885, she was at
+Wurzburg sick at heart and in body, attended by a diminutive Hindoo
+servant, Bavaji by name. She begged Solovyoff to visit her, promising to
+give him lessons in occultism. With a determination to investigate the
+“phenomena,” he went to the Bavarian watering place, and one morning
+called on Madame Blavatsky. He found her seated in a great arm chair:</p>
+
+<p>“At the opposite end of the table stood the dwarfish Bavaji, with a
+confused look in his dulled eyes. He was evidently incapable of meeting my
+gaze, and the fact certainly did not escape me. In front of Bavaji on the
+table were scattered several sheets of clean paper. Nothing of the sort
+had occurred before, so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> my attention was the more aroused. In his hand
+was a great thick pencil. I began to have ideas.</p>
+
+<p>“‘Just look at the unfortunate man,’ said Helena Petrovna suddenly,
+turning to me. ‘He does not look himself at all; he drives me to
+distraction’.... Then she passed from Bavaji to the London Society for
+Psychical Research, and again tried to persuade me about the ‘master.’
+Bavaji stood like a statue; he could take no part in our conversation, as
+he did not know a word of Russian.</p>
+
+<p>“‘But such incredulity as to the evidence of your own eyes, such obstinate
+infidelity as yours, is simply unpardonable. In fact, it is wicked!’
+exclaimed Helena Petrovna.</p>
+
+<p>“I was walking about the room at the time, and did not take my eyes off
+Bavaji. I saw that he was keeping his eyes wide open, with a sort of
+contortion of his whole body, while his hand, armed with a great pencil,
+was carefully tracing some letters on a sheet of paper.</p>
+
+<p>“‘Look; what is the matter with him?’ exclaimed Madame Blavatsky.</p>
+
+<p>“‘Nothing particular,’ I answered; ‘he is writing in Russian.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>“I saw her whole face grow purple. She began to stir in her chair, with an
+obvious desire to get up and take the paper from him. But with her swollen
+and almost inflexible limbs, she could not do so with any speed. I made
+haste to seize the paper and saw on it a beautifully <i>drawn</i> Russian
+phrase.</p>
+
+<p>“Bavaji was to have written, in the Russian language with which he was not
+acquainted: ‘Blessed are they that believe, as said the Great Adept.’ He
+had learned his task well, and remembered correctly the form of all the
+letters, but he had omitted two in the word ‘believe,’ [The effect was
+precisely the same as if in English he had omitted the first two and last
+two letters of the word.]</p>
+
+<p>“‘Blessed are they that <i>lie</i>,’ I read aloud, unable to control the
+laughter which shook me. ‘That is the best thing I ever saw. Oh, Bavaji!
+you should have got your lesson up better for examination!’</p>
+
+<p>“The tiny Hindoo hid his face in his hands and rushed out of the room; I
+heard his hysterical sobs in the distance. Madame Blavatsky sat with
+distorted features.”</p>
+
+<p>As will be seen from the above, the Hindoo servant was one of the Madame’s
+Mahatmas, and was caught<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> in the act of preparing a communication from a
+sage in the Himalayas, to Solovyoff.</p>
+
+<p>“After this abortive phenomena,” remarks the Russian journalist, “things
+marched faster, and I saw that I should soon be in a position to send very
+interesting additions to the report of the Psychical Society.”... “Every
+day when I came to see the Madame she used to try to do me a favor in the
+shape of some trifling ‘phenomenon,’ but she never succeeded. Thus one day
+her famous ‘silver bell’ was heard, when suddenly something fell beside
+her on the ground. I hurried to pick it up&mdash;and found in my hands a pretty
+little piece of silver, delicately worked and strangely shaped. Helena
+Petrovna changed countenance, and snatched the object from me. I coughed
+significantly, smiled and turned the conversation to indifferent matters.”</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion he was conversing with her about the “Theosophist,”
+and “she mentioned the name of Subba Rao, a Hindoo, who had attained the
+highest degree of knowledge.” She directed Mr. Solovyoff to open a drawer
+in her writing desk, and take from it a photograph of the adept.</p>
+
+<p>“I opened the drawer,” says Solovyoff, “found the photograph and handed it
+to her&mdash;together with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> packet of Chinese envelopes (See Fig. 34), such
+as I well knew; they were the same in which the ‘elect’ used to receive
+the letters of the Mahatmas Morya and Koot Hoomi by ‘astral post.’</p>
+
+<p>“‘Look at that, Helena Petrovna! I should advise you to hide this packet
+of the master’s envelopes farther off. You are so terribly absent-minded
+and careless.’</p>
+
+<p>“It was easy to imagine what this was to her. I looked at her and was
+positively frightened; her face grew perfectly black. She tried in vain to
+speak; she could only writhe helplessly in her great arm-chair.”</p>
+
+<p>Solovyoff with great adroitness gradually drew from her a confession.
+“What is one to do,” said Madame Blavatsky, plaintively, “when in order to
+rule men it is necessary to deceive them; almost invariably the more
+simple, the more silly, and the more gross the phenomenon, the more likely
+it is to succeed.” The Priestess of Isis broke down completely and
+acknowledged that her phenomena were not genuine; the Koot Hoomi letters
+were written by herself and others in collusion with her; finally she
+exhibited to the journalist the apparatus for producing the “astral bell,”
+and begged him to go into a co-partnership with her to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> astonish the
+world. He refused! The next day she declared that a black magician had
+spoken through her mouth, and not herself; she was not responsible for
+what she had said. After this he had other interviews with her; threats
+and promises; and lastly a most extraordinary letter, which was headed,
+“My Confession,” and reads, in part, as follows:</p>
+
+<p>“Believe me, <i>I have fallen because I have made up my mind to fall</i>, or
+else to bring about a reaction by telling all God’s truth about myself,
+<i>but without mercy on my enemies</i>. On this I am firmly resolved, and from
+this day I shall begin to prepare myself in order to be ready. I will fly
+no more. Together with this letter, or a few hours later, I shall myself
+be in Paris, and then on to London. A Frenchman is ready, and a well-known
+journalist too, delighted to set about the work and to write at my
+dictation something short, but strong, and what is most important&mdash;a true
+history of my life. <i>I shall not even attempt to defend</i>, to justify
+myself. In this book I shall simply say: “In 1848, I, hating my husband,
+N. V. Blavatsky (it may have been wrong, but still such was the nature
+<i>God</i> gave me), left him, abandoned him&mdash;<i>a virgin</i>. (I shall produce
+documents and letters proving this, although he himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> is not such a
+swine as to deny it.) I loved one man deeply, but still more I loved
+occult science, believing in magic, wizards, etc. I wandered with him here
+and there, in Asia, in America, and in Europe. I met with So-and-so. (You
+may call him a <i>wizard</i>, what does it matter to him?) In 1858 I was in
+London; there came out some story about a child, not mine (there will
+follow medical evidence, from the faculty of Paris, and it is for this
+that I am going to Paris). One thing and another was said of me; that I
+was depraved, possessed with a devil, etc.</p>
+
+<p>“I shall tell everything as I think fit, everything I did, for the twenty
+years and more, that I laughed at the <i>qu’en dira-t-on</i>, and covered up
+all traces of what I was <i>really</i> occupied in, i. e., the <i>sciences
+occultes</i>, for the sake of my family and relations who would at that time
+have cursed me. I will tell how from my eighteenth year I tried to get
+people to talk about me, and say about me that this man and that was my
+lover, and <i>hundreds</i> of them. I will tell, too, a great deal of which no
+one ever dreamed, and <i>I will prove it</i>. Then I will inform the world how
+suddenly my eyes were opened to all the horror of my <i>moral suicide</i>; how
+I was sent to America to try my psychological<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> capabilities; how I
+collected a society there, and began to expiate my faults, and attempted
+to make men better and to sacrifice myself for their regeneration. <i>I will
+name all</i> the Theosophists who were brought into the right way, drunkards
+and rakes, who became almost saints, especially in India, and those who
+enlisted as Theosophists, and continued their former life, as though they
+were doing the work (and there are many of them) and <i>yet were the first</i>
+to join the pack of hounds that were hunting me down, and to bite me....</p>
+
+<p>“No! The devils will save me in this last great hour. You did not
+calculate on the cool determination of <i>despair</i>, which <i>was</i> and has
+<i>passed over</i>.... And to this I have been brought by you. You have been
+the last straw which has broken the camel’s back under its intolerably
+heavy burden. Now you are at liberty to conceal nothing. Repeat to all
+Paris what you have ever heard or know about me. I have already written a
+letter to Sinnett <i>forbidding him</i> to publish my <i>memoirs</i> at his own
+discretion. I myself will publish them with all the truth.... It will be a
+Saturnalia of the moral depravity of mankind, this <i>confession</i> of mine, a
+worthy epilogue of my stormy life.... Let the psychist gentlemen, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>
+whosoever will, set on foot a new inquiry. Mohini and all the rest, even
+<i>India</i>, are dead for me. I thirst for one thing only, that the world may
+know all the reality, all the <i>truth</i>, and learn the lesson. And then
+<i>death</i>, kindest of all.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">H. Blavatsky.</span></span></p>
+
+<p>“You may print this letter if you will, even in Russia. It is all the same
+now.”</p>
+
+<p>This remarkable effusion may be the result of a fever-disordered brain, it
+may be, as she says, the “God’s truth;” at any rate it bears the ear-marks
+of the Blavatsky style about it. The disciples of the High Priestess of
+Isis have bitterly denounced Solovyoff and the revelations contained in
+his book. They brand him as a coward for not having published his diatribe
+during the lifetime of the Madame, when she was able to defend herself.
+However that may be, Solovyoff’s exposures tally very well with the mass
+of corroborative evidence adduced by Hodgson, Coues, Coleman, and a host
+of writers, who began their attacks during the earthly pilgrimage of the
+great Sibyl.</p>
+
+<p>On receipt of this letter, Feb 16, 1886, Solovyoff resigned from the
+Theosophical Society. He denounced the High Priestess to the Paris
+Theosophists,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> and the Blavatsky lodges in that city were disrupted in
+consequence of the exposures. This seems to be a convincing proof of the
+genuineness of his revelations. After the Solovyoff incident, Madame
+Blavatsky went into retirement for a while. Eventually she appeared in
+London as full of enthusiasm as ever and added to her list of converts the
+Countess of Caithness and Mrs. Annie Besant, the famous socialist and
+authoress.</p>
+
+<p>Finally came the last act of this strange life-drama. That messenger of
+death, whom the mystical Persian singer, Omar Khayyam, calls “The Angel of
+the Darker Drink,” held to her lips the inevitable chalice of Mortality;
+then the “golden cord was loosened and the silver bowl was broken,” and
+she passed into the land of shadows. It was in London, May 8, 1891, that
+Helena Petrovna Blavatsky ended one of the strangest careers on record.
+She died calmly and peacefully in her bed, surrounded by her friends, and
+after her demise her body was cremated by her disciples, with occult rites
+and ceremonies. All that remained of her&mdash;a few handfuls of powdery white
+ashes&mdash;was gathered together, and divided into three equal parts. One
+portion was buried in London, one sent to New York<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> City, and the third to
+Adyar, near Madras, India. The New World, the Old World, and the still
+Older World of the East were honored with the ashes of H. P. B. Three
+civilizations, three heaps of ashes, three initials&mdash;mystic number from
+time immemorial, celebrated symbol of Divinity known to, and revered by,
+Cabalists, Gnostics, Rosicrucians, and Theosophists.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. J. Ransom Bridges, who had considerable correspondence with the High
+Priestess from 1888 until her death, says (<i>Arena</i>, April, 1895):
+“Whatever may be the ultimate verdict upon the life and work of this
+woman, her place in history will be unique. There was a Titanic display of
+strength in everything she did. The storms that raged in her were
+cyclones. Those exposed to them often felt with Solovyoff that if there
+were holy and sage <i>Mahatmas</i>, they could not remain holy and sage, and
+have anything to do with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. The ‘confession’ she
+wrote rings with the mingled curses and mad laughter of a crazy mariner
+scuttling his own ship. Yet she could be as tender and sympathetic as any
+mother. Her mastery of some natures seemed complete; and these people she
+worked like galley-slaves in the Theosophical tread mill of her propaganda
+movement.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>“To these disciples she was the greatest thaumaturgist known to the world
+since the days of the Christ. The attacks upon her, the Coulomb and
+Solovyoff exposures, the continual newspaper calumnies they look upon as a
+gigantic conspiracy brewed by all the rules of the black art to
+counteract, and, if possible, to destroy the effect of her work and
+mission.”</p>
+
+<p>“Requiescat in Pace,” O Priestess of Isis, until your next incarnation on
+Earth! The twentieth century will doubtless have need of your services!
+For the delectation of the curious let me add: the English resting place
+of Madame Blavatsky is designed after the model of an Oriental “dagoba,”
+or tomb; the American shrine is a marble niche in the wall of the
+Theosophical headquarters, No. 144 Madison avenue, the ashes reposing in a
+vase standing in the niche behind a hermetically-sealed glass window. The
+Oriental shrine in Adyar is a tomb modelled after the world-famous Taj
+Mahal, and is built of pink sandstone, surmounted by a small Benares
+copper spire.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>4. The Writings of Madame Blavatsky.</h3>
+
+<p>Madame Blavatsky is known to the reading world as the writer of two
+voluminous works of a philosophical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> or mystical character, explanatory of
+the Esoteric Doctrine, viz., “Isis Unveiled,” published in 1877, and the
+“Secret Doctrine,” published in 1888. In the composition of these works
+she claimed that she was assisted by the Mahatmas who visited her
+apartments when she was asleep, and wrote portions of the manuscripts with
+their astral hands while their natural bodies reposed entranced in
+Thibetan Lamaseries. These fictions were fostered by prominent members of
+the Theosophical Society, and believed by many credulous persons. “Isis
+Unveiled” is a hodge-podge of absurdities, pseudo-science, mythology and
+folklore, arranged in helter-skelter fashion, with an utter disregard of
+logical sequence. The fact was that Madame Blavatsky had a very imperfect
+knowledge of English, and this may account for the strange mistakes in
+which the volume abounds, despite the aid of the ghostly Mahatmas. William
+Emmette Coleman, of San Francisco, has made an exhaustive analysis of the
+Madame’s writings, and declares that “Isis,” and the “Secret Doctrine” are
+full of plagiarisms. In “Isis” he discovered “some 2,000 passages copied
+from other books without proper credit.” Speaking of the “Secret
+Doctrine,” the master key to the wisdom of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> the ages, he says: “The
+‘Secret Doctrine’ is ostensibly based upon certain stanzas, claimed to
+have been translated by Madame Blavatsky from the ‘Book of Dzyan’&mdash;the
+oldest book in the world, written in a language unknown to philology. The
+‘Book of Dzyan’ was the work of Madame Blavatsky&mdash;a compilation, in her
+own language, from a variety of sources, embracing the general principles
+of the doctrines and dogmas taught in the ‘Secret Doctrine.’ I find in
+this ‘oldest book in the world’ statements copied from nineteenth century
+books, and in the usual blundering manner of Madame Blavatsky. Letters and
+other writings of the adepts are found in the ‘Secret Doctrine.’ In these
+Mahatmic productions I have traced various plagiarized passages from
+Wilson’s ‘Vishnu Purana,’ and Winchell’s ‘World Life’&mdash;of like character
+to those in Madame Blavatsky’s acknowledged writings. * * * A specimen of
+the wholesale plagiarisms in this book appears in vol. II., pp. 599-603.
+Nearly the whole of four pages was copied from Oliver’s ‘Pythagorean
+Triangle,’ while only a few lines were credited to that work.”</p>
+
+<p>Those who are interested in Coleman’s exposé are referred to Appendix C,
+of Solovyoff’s book, “A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> Modern Priestess of Isis.” The title of this
+appendix is “The Sources of Madame Blavatsky’s Writings.” Mr. Coleman is
+at present engaged in the preparation of an elaborate work on the subject,
+which will in addition contain an “exposé of Theosophy as a whole.” It
+will no doubt prove of interest to students of occultism.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>5. Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist.</h3>
+
+<p>The funeral of Baron de Palm, conducted according to Theosophical rites,
+is an interesting chapter in the history of the Society, and worth
+relating.</p>
+
+<p>Joseph Henry Louis Charles, Baron de Palm, Grand Cross Commander of the
+Sovereign Order of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and knight of various
+orders, was born at Augsburg, May 10, 1809. He came to the United States
+rather late in life, drifted West without any settled occupation, and
+lived from hand to mouth in various Western cities. Finally he located in
+New York City, broken in health and spirit. He was a man of considerable
+culture and interested to a greater or less extent in the phenomena of
+modern Spiritualism. A letter of introduction from the editor of the
+<i>Religio-Philosophical Journal</i>, of Chicago,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> made him acquainted with
+Col. Olcott, who introduced him to prominent members of the Theosophical
+Society. He was elected a member of the Society, eventually becoming a
+member of the Council. In the year 1875 he died, leaving behind an earnest
+request that Col. Olcott “should perform the last offices in a fashion
+that would illustrate the Eastern notions of death and immortality.”<a name='fna_6' id='fna_6' href='#f_6'><small>[6]</small></a> He
+also left directions that his body should be cremated. A great deal of
+excitement was caused over this affair in orthodox religious circles, and
+public curiosity was aroused to the highest pitch. The funeral service
+was, as Madame Blavatsky described it in a letter to a European
+correspondent, “pagan, almost antique pagan.” The ceremony was held in the
+great hall of the Masonic Temple, corner of Twenty-third and Sixth avenue.
+Tickets of admission were issued of decidedly occult shape&mdash;<i>triangular</i>;
+some black, printed in silver; others drab, printed in black. A crowd of
+2,000 people assembled to witness the obsequies. On the stage was a
+<i>triangular</i> altar, with a symbolical fire burning upon it. The coffin
+stood near by, covered with the orders of knighthood of the deceased. A
+splendid choir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> rendered several Orphic hymns composed for the occasion,
+with organ accompaniment, and Col. Olcott, as Hierophant, made an
+invocation or <i>mantram</i> “to the Soul of the World whose breath gives and
+withdraws the form of everything.” Death is always solemn, and no subject
+for levity, yet I must not leave out of this chronicle the unique
+burlesque programme of Baron de Palm’s funeral, published by the <i>New York
+World</i>, the day before the event. Says the <i>World</i>:</p>
+
+<p>“The procession will move in the following order:</p>
+
+<p>“Col. Olcott as high priest, wearing a leopard skin and carrying a roll of
+papyrus (brown card board).</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Cobb, as sacred scribe, with style and tablet.</p>
+
+<p>“Egyptian mummy-case, borne upon a sledge drawn by four oxen. (Also a
+slave bearing a pot of lubricating oil.)</p>
+
+<p>“Madame Blavatsky as chief mourner and also bearer of the sistrum. (She
+will wear a long linen garment extending to the feet, and a girdle about
+the waist.)</p>
+
+<p>“Colored boy carrying three Abyssinian geese (Philadelphia chickens) to
+place upon the bier.</p>
+
+<p>“Vice-President Felt, with the eye of Osiris painted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> on his left breast,
+and carrying an asp (bought at a toy store on Eighth avenue.)</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Pancoast, singing an ancient Theban dirge:</p>
+
+<div class="container">
+<p class="poetry">“‘Isis and Nepthys, beginning and end:<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">One more victim to Amenti we send.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pay we the fare, and let us not tarry.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cross the Styx by the Roosevelt street ferry.’”</span></p></div>
+
+<p>“Slaves in mourning gowns, carrying the offerings and libations, to
+consist of early potatoes, asparagus, roast beef, French pan-cakes,
+bock-beer, and New Jersey cider.</p>
+
+<p>“Treasurer Newton, as chief of the musicians, playing the double pipe.</p>
+
+<p>“Other musicians performing on eight-stringed harps, tom-toms, etc.</p>
+
+<p>“Boys carrying a large lotus (sunflower).</p>
+
+<p>“Librarian Fassit, who will alternate with music by repeating the lines
+beginning:</p>
+
+<div class="container">
+<p class="poetry">“‘Here Horus comes, I see the boat.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Friends, stay your flowing tears;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The soul of man goes through a goat</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">In just 3,000 years.’</span></p></div>
+
+<p>“At the temple the ceremony will be short and simple. The oxen will be
+left standing on the sidewalk, with a boy near by to prevent them goring
+the passers-by. Besides the Theurgic hymn, printed above in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> full, the
+Coptic National anthem will be sung, translated and adapted to the
+occasion as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="container">
+<p class="poetry">“Sitting Cynocephalus up in a tree,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I see you, and you see me.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">River full of crocodile, see his long snout!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hoist up the shadoof and pull him right out.”</span></p></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>6. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky.</h3>
+
+<p>After Madame Blavatsky’s death, Mrs. Annie Besant assumed the leadership
+of the Theosophical Society, and wore upon her finger a ring that belonged
+to the High Priestess: a ring with a green stone flecked with veins of
+blood red, upon the surface of which was engraved the interlaced triangles
+within a circle, with the Indian motto, <i>Sat</i> (Life), the symbol of
+Theosophy. It was given to Madame Blavatsky by her Indian teacher, says
+Mrs. Besant, and is very magnetic. The High Priestess on her deathbed
+presented the mystic signet to her successor, and left her in addition
+many valuable books and manuscripts. The Theosophical Society now numbers
+its adherents by the thousands and has its lodges scattered over the
+United States, France, England and India. At the World’s Columbian
+Exposition it was well represented in the Great Parliament of Religions,
+by Annie Besant, William Q. Judge, of the American branch,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> and Prof.
+Chakravatir, a High Caste Brahmin of India.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img36.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 38. PORTRAIT OF MRS. ANNIE BESANT.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>Mrs. Besant, in an interview published in the <i>New York World</i>, Dec. 11,
+1892, made the following statement concerning Madame Blavatsky’s peculiar
+powers:</p>
+
+<p>“One time she was trying to explain to me the control of the mind over
+certain currents in the ether about us, and to illustrate she made some
+little taps come on my own head. They were accompanied by the sensation
+one experiences on touching an electric battery. I have frequently seen
+her draw things to her simply by her will, without touching them. Indeed,
+she would often check herself when strangers were about. It was natural
+for her, when she wanted a book that was on the table, to simply draw it
+to her by her power of mind, as it would be for you to reach out your hand
+to pick it up. And so, as I say, she often had to check herself, for she
+was decidedly adverse to making a show of her power. In fact, that is
+contrary to the law of the brotherhood to which she belonged. This law
+forbids them to make use of their power except as an instruction to their
+pupils or as an aid to the spreading of the truth. An adept may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> never use
+his knowledge for his personal advantage. He may be starving, and despite
+his ability to materialize banquets he may not supply himself with a crust
+of bread. This is what is meant in the Gospel when it says: ‘He saved
+others, Himself He cannot save.’</p>
+
+<p>“One time she had written an article and as usual she gave me her
+manuscript to look over.</p>
+
+<p>“Sometimes she wrote very good grammatic English and again she wrote very
+slovenly English. So she always had me go over her manuscript. In reading
+this particular one I found a long quotation of some twenty or thirty
+lines. When I finished it I went to her and said: ‘Where in the world did
+you get that quotation?’</p>
+
+<p>“‘I got it from an Indian newspaper of &mdash;,’ naming the date.</p>
+
+<p>“‘But,’ I said, ‘that paper cannot be in this country yet! How did you get
+hold of it?’</p>
+
+<p>“‘Oh, I got it, dear,’ she said, with a little laugh; ‘that’s enough.’</p>
+
+<p>“Of course I understood then. When the time came for the paper to arrive,
+I thought I would verify her quotation, so I asked her for the name, the
+date<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> of the issue and the page on which the quotation would be found. She
+told me, giving me, we will say, 45 as the number of the page. I went to
+the agent, looked up the paper and there was no such quotation on page 45.
+Then I remembered that things seen in the astral light are reversed, so I
+turned the number around, looked on page 54 and there was the quotation.
+When I went home I told her that it was all right, but that she had given
+me the wrong page.</p>
+
+<p>“‘Very likely,’ she said. ‘Someone came in just as I was finishing it, and
+I may have forgotten to reverse the number.’</p>
+
+<p>“You see, anything seen in the astral light is reversed, as if you saw it
+in a mirror, while anything seen clairvoyantly is straight.”</p>
+
+<p>The elevation of Mrs. Besant to the High Priestess-ship of the
+Theosophical Society was in accord with the spirit of the age&mdash;an
+acknowledgment of the Eternal Feminine; but it did not bring repose to the
+organization. William Q. Judge, of the American branch, began dabbling, it
+is claimed, in Mahatma messages on his own account, and charges were made
+against him by Mrs. Besant. A bitter warfare was waged in Theosophical
+journals, and finally the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> American branch of the general society seceded,
+and organized itself into the American Theosophical Society. Judge was
+made life-president and held the post until his death, in New York City,
+March 21st, 1896. His body was cremated and the ashes sealed in an urn,
+which was deposited in the Society’s rooms, No. 144 Madison avenue.</p>
+
+<p>Five weeks after the death of Judge, the Theosophical Society held its
+annual conclave in New York City, and elected E. T. Hargrove as the
+presiding genius of esoteric wisdom in the United States. It was
+originally intended to hold this convention in Chicago, but the change was
+made for a peculiar reason. As the press reported the circumstance, “it
+was the result of a request by a mysterious adept whose existence had been
+unsuspected, and who made known his wish in a communication to the
+executive committee.” It seems that the Theosophical Society is composed
+of two bodies, the exoteric and the esoteric. The first holds open
+meetings for the discussion of ethical and Theosophical subjects, and the
+second meets privately, being composed of a secret body of adepts, learned
+in occultism and possessing remarkable spiritual powers. The chief of the
+secret order is appointed by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> Mahatmas, on account, it is claimed, of
+his or her occult development. Madame Blavatsky was the High Priestess in
+this inner temple during her lifetime, and was succeeded by Hierophant W.
+Q. Judge. When Judge died, it seems there was no one thoroughly qualified
+to take his place as the head of the esoteric branch, until an examination
+was made of his papers. Then came a surprise. Judge had named as his
+successor a certain obscure individual whom he claimed to be a great
+adept, requesting that the name be kept a profound secret for a specified
+time. In obedience to this injunction, the Great Unknown was elected as
+chief of the Inner Brother-and-Sisterhood. All of this made interesting
+copy for the New York journalists, and columns were printed about the
+affair. Another surprise came when the convention of exoterics
+(“hysterics,” as some of the papers called them) subscribed $25,000 for
+the founding of an occult temple in this country. But the greatest
+surprise of all was a Theosophical wedding. The De Palm funeral fades away
+into utter insignificance beside this mystic marriage. The contracting
+parties were Claude Falls Wright, formerly secretary to Madame Blavatsky,
+and Mary C. L. Leonard, daughter of Anna Byford Leonard,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> one of the best
+known Theosophists in the West. The ceremony was performed at Aryan Hall,
+No. 144 Madison avenue, N. Y., in the presence of the occult body.
+Outsiders were not admitted. However, public curiosity was partly
+gratified by sundry crumbs of information thrown out by the Theosophical
+press bureau.</p>
+
+<p>The young couple stood beneath a seven-pointed star, made of electric
+light globes, and plighted their troth amid clouds of odoriferous incense.
+Then followed weird chantings and music by an occult orchestra composed of
+violins and violoncellos. The unknown adept presided over the affair, as
+special envoy of the Mahatmas. He was enveloped from head to foot in a
+thick white veil, said the papers.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright and his bride-elect declared solemnly that they remembered many
+of their former incarnations; their marriage had really taken place in
+Egypt, 5,000 years ago in one of the mysterious temples of that strange
+country, and the ceremony had been performed by the priests of Isis. Yes,
+they remembered it all! It seemed but as yesterday! They recalled with
+vividness the scene: their march up the avenue of monoliths; the lotus
+flowers strewn in their path by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> rosy children; the intoxicating perfume
+of the incense, burned in bronze braziers by shaven-headed priests; the
+hieroglyphics, emblematical of life, death and resurrection, painted upon
+the temple walls; the Hierophant in his gorgeous vestments. Oh, what a
+dream of Old World splendor and beauty!</p>
+
+<p>Before many months had passed, the awful secret of the Veiled Adept’s
+identity was revealed. The Great Unknown turned out to be a <i>she</i> instead
+of a <i>he</i> adept&mdash;a certain Mrs. Katherine Alice Tingley, of New York City.
+The reporters began ringing the front door bell of the adept’s house in
+the vain hope of obtaining an interview, but the newly-hatched Sphinx
+turned a deaf ear to their entreaties. The time was not yet ripe for
+revelations. Her friends, however, rushed into print, and told the most
+marvellous stories of her mediumship.</p>
+
+<p>W. T. Stead, the English journalist and student of psychical research,
+reviewing the Theosophical convention and its outcome, says (<i>Borderland</i>,
+July, 1896, p. 306): “The Judgeite seceders from the Theosophical Society
+held their annual convention in New York, April 26th to 27th. They have
+elected a young man, Mr. Ernest T. Hargrove, as their president. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> former
+spiritual medium and clairvoyant, by name Katherine Alice Tingley, who
+claims to have been bosom friends with H. P. B. 1200 years B. C., when
+both were incarnated in Egypt, is, however, the grand Panjandrum of the
+cause. Her first husband was a detective, her second is a clerk in the
+White Lead Company’s office in Brooklyn.</p>
+
+<p>“According to Mr. Hargrove she is&mdash;‘The new adept; she was appointed by
+Mr. Judge, and we are going to sustain her, as we sustained him, for we
+know her important connection in Egypt, Mexico and Europe.’”</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1896, Mrs. Tingley, accompanied by a number of prominent
+occultists, started on a crusade through the world to bring the truths of
+Theosophy to the toiling millions. The crusaders before their departure
+were presented with a purple silk banner, bearing the legend: “Truth,
+Light, Liberation for Discouraged Humanity.” The <i>New York Herald</i> (Aug.
+16, 1896) says of this crusade:</p>
+
+<p>“When Mrs. Tingley and the other crusaders left this country nothing had
+been heard of the claim of the reincarnated Blavatsky. Now, however, this
+idea is boldly advanced in England by the American<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> branch of the society
+there, and in America by Burcham Harding, the acting head of the society
+in this country. When Mr. Harding was seen at the Theosophical
+headquarters, he said:</p>
+
+<p>“‘Yes, Mme. Blavatsky is reincarnated in Mrs. Tingley. She has not only
+been recognized by myself and other members of the American branch of the
+Theosophical Society, who knew H. P. B. in her former life, but the
+striking physical and facial resemblance has also been noted by members of
+the English branch.’</p>
+
+<p>“But this recognition by the English members of the society does not seem
+to be as strong as Mr. Harding would seem to have it understood. In fact,
+there are a number of members of that branch who boldly declare that Mrs.
+Tingley is an impostor. One of them, within the last week, addressing the
+English members on the subject, claimed that Mme. Blavatsky had foreseen
+that such an impostor would arise. He said:</p>
+
+<p>“‘When Mme. Blavatsky lived in her body among us, she declared to all her
+disciples that, in her next reincarnation, she would inhabit the body of
+an Eastern man, and she warned them to be on their guard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> against any
+assertion made by mediums or others that they were controlled by her.
+Whatever H. P. B. lacked, she never wanted emphasis, and no one who knew
+anything of the founder of the Theosophical Society was left in any doubt
+as to her views upon this question. She declared that if any persons,
+after her death, should claim that she was speaking through them, her
+friends might be quite sure that it was a lie. Imagine, then, the feelings
+of H. P. B.’s disciples on being presented with an American clairvoyant
+medium, in the shape of Mrs. Tingley, who is reported to claim that H. P.
+B. is reincarnated in her.’</p>
+
+<p>“The American branch of the society is not at all disturbed by this charge
+of fraud by the English branch. In connection with it Mr. Harding says:</p>
+
+<p>“‘It is true that the American branch of the Theosophical Society has
+seceded from the English branch, but as Mme. Blavatsky, the founder, was
+in reality an American, it can be understood why we consider ourselves the
+parent society.’</p>
+
+<p>“Of the one letter which Mrs. Tingley has sent to America since the
+arrival of the crusaders, the English Theosophists are a unit in the
+expression of opinion that it illustrated, as did her speech in Queen’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>
+Hall, merely ‘unmeaning platitudes and prophecies.’ But the American
+members are quite as loud in their expressions that the English members
+are trying to win the sympathies of the public, and that the words are
+really understood by the initiate.</p>
+
+<p>“The letter reads: ‘In thanking you for the many kind letters addressed to
+me as Katherine Tingley, as well as by other names that would not be
+understood by the general public, I should like to say a few words as to
+the future and its possibilities. Many of you are destined to take an
+active part in the work that the future will make manifest, and it is well
+to press onward with a clear knowledge of the path to be trodden and with
+a clear vision of the goal to be reached.</p>
+
+<p>“‘The path to be trodden is both exterior and interior, and in order to
+reach the goal it is necessary to tread these paths with strength,
+courage, faith and the essence of them all, which is wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>“‘For these two paths, which fundamentally are one, like every duality in
+nature, are winding paths, and now lead through sunlight, then through
+deepest shade. During the last few years the large majority of students
+have been rounding a curve in the paths of both inner and outer work, and
+this wearied many.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> But those who persevered and faltered not will soon
+reap their reward.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img37.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 39. PORTRAIT OF MRS. TINGLEY.<br />
+[Reproduced by courtesy of the <i>New York Herald</i>.]</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“‘The present is pregnant with the promise of the near future, and that
+future is brighter than could be believed by those who have so recently
+been immersed in the shadows that are inevitable in cyclic progress. Can
+words describe it? I think not. But if you will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> think of the past twenty
+years of ploughing and sowing and will keep in your mind the tremendous
+force that has been scattered broadcast throughout the world, you must
+surely see that the hour for reaping is near at hand, if it has not
+already come.”</p>
+
+<p>The invasion of English territory by the American crusaders was resented
+by the British Theosophists. The advocates of universal brotherhood waged
+bitter warfare against each other in the newspapers and periodicals. It
+gradually resolved itself into a struggle for supremacy between the two
+rival claimants for the mantle of Madame Blavatsky, Mrs. Annie Besant and
+Mrs. Tingley. Each Pythoness ascended her sacred tripod and hysterically
+denounced the other as an usurper, and false prophetess. Annie Besant
+sought to disprove the idea of Madame Blavatsky having re-incarnated
+herself in the body of Mrs. Tingley. She claimed that the late High
+Priestess had taken up her earthly pilgrimage again in the person of a
+little Hindoo boy, who lived somewhere on the banks of the Ganges. The
+puzzling problem was this: If Mrs. Tingley was Mme. Blavatsky, where was
+Mrs. Tingley? Oedipus would have gone mad trying to solve this Sphinx
+riddle.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>The crusade finished, Mrs. Tingley, with her purple banner returned to New
+York, where she was royally welcomed by her followers. In the wake of the
+American adept came the irrepressible Annie Besant, accompanied by a
+sister Theosophist, the Countess Constance Wachmeister. Mrs. Besant,
+garbed in a white linen robe of Hindoo pattern, lectured on occult
+subjects to crowded houses in the principal cities of the East and West.
+In the numerous interviews accorded her by the press, she ridiculed the
+Blavatsky-Tingley re-incarnation theory. By kind permission of the <i>New
+York Herald</i>, I reproduce a portrait of Mrs. Tingley. The reader will find
+it interesting to compare this sketch with the photograph of Madame
+Blavatsky given in this book. He will notice at once how much the two
+occultists do resemble each other; both are grossly fat, puffy of face,
+with heavy-lidded eyes and rather thick lips.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>7. The Theosophical Temple.</h3>
+
+<p>If all the dreams of the Theosophical Society are fulfilled we shall see,
+at no distant date, in the state of California, a sombre and mysterious
+building, fashioned after an Egyptian temple, its pillars covered with
+hieroglyphic symbols, and its ponderous pylons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> flanking the gloomy
+entrance. Twin obelisks will stand guard at the gateway and huge bronze
+sphinxes stare the tourist out of countenance. The Theosophical temple
+will be constructed “upon certain mysterious principles, and the numbers 7
+and 13 will play a prominent part in connection with the dimensions of the
+rooms and the steps of the stairways.” The Hierophants of occultism will
+assemble here, weird initiations like those described in Moore’s
+“Epicurean” will take place, and the doctrines of Hindoo pantheism will be
+expounded to the Faithful. The revival of the Egyptian mysteries seems to
+be one of the objects aimed at in the establishment of this mystical
+college. Just what the Egyptian Mysteries were is a mooted question among
+Egyptologists. But this does not bother the modern adept.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bucham Harding, the leading exponent of Theosophy mentioned above,
+says that within the temple the neophyte will be brought face to face with
+his own soul. “By what means cannot be revealed; but I may say that the
+object of initiation will be to raise the consciousness of the pupil to a
+plane where he will see and know his own divine soul and consciously
+communicate with it. Once gained, this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> power is never lost. From this it
+can be seen that occultism is not so unreal as many think, and that the
+existence of soul is susceptible of actual demonstration. No one will be
+received into the mysteries until, by means of a long and severe
+probation, he has proved nobility of character. Only persons having
+Theosophical training will be eligible, but as any believer in brotherhood
+may become a Theosophist, all earnest truthseekers will have an
+opportunity of admission.</p>
+
+<p>“The probation will be sufficiently severe to deter persons seeking to
+gratify curiosity from trying to enter. No trifler could stand the test.
+There will be a number of degrees. Extremely few will be able to enter the
+highest, as eligibility to it requires eradication of every human fault
+and weakness. Those strong enough to pass through this become adepts.”</p>
+
+<p>The Masonic Fraternity, with its 33d degree and its elaborate initiations,
+will have to look to its laurels, as soon as the Theosophical College of
+Mystery is in good running order. Everyone loves mysteries, especially
+when they are of the Egyptian kind. Cagliostro, the High Priest of Humbug,
+knew this when he evolved the Egyptian Rite of Masonry, in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> eighteenth
+century. Speaking of Freemasonry, it is interesting to note the fact, as
+stated by Colonel Olcott in “Old Diary Leaves,” that Madame Blavatsky and
+her coadjutors once seriously debated the question as to the advisability
+of engrafting the Theosophical Society on the Masonic fraternity, as a
+sort of higher degree,&mdash;Masonry representing the lesser mysteries, modern
+Theosophy the greater mysteries. But little encouragement was given to the
+Priestess of Isis by eminent Freemasons, for Masonry has always been the
+advocate of theistic doctrines, and opposed to the pantheistic cult. At
+another time, the leaders of Theosophy talked of imitating Masonry by
+having degrees, an elaborate ritual, etc.; also pass words, signs and
+grips, in order that “one <i>occult</i> brother might know another in the
+darkness as well as in the <i>astral</i> light.” This, however, was abandoned.
+The founding of the Temple of Magic and Mystery in this country, with
+ceremonies of initiation, etc., seems to me to be a palingenesis of Mme.
+Blavatsky’s ideas on the subject of occult Masonry.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>8. Conclusions.</h3>
+
+<p>The temple of modern Theosophy, the foundation of which was laid by Madame
+Blavatsky, rests upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> truth of the Mahatma stories. Disbelieve these,
+and the entire structure falls to the ground like a house of cards. After
+the numerous exposures, recorded in the preceding chapters, it is
+difficult to place any reliance in the accounts of Mahatmic miracles.
+There may, or may not, be sages in the East, acquainted with spiritual
+laws of being, but that these masters, or adepts, used Madame Blavatsky as
+a medium to announce certain esoteric doctrines to the Western world, is
+exceedingly dubious.</p>
+
+<p>The first work of any literary pretensions to call attention to Theosophy
+was Sinnett’s “Esoteric Buddhism.” Of that production, William Emmette
+Coleman says:</p>
+
+<p>“‘Esoteric Buddhism,’ by A. P. Sinnett, was based upon statements
+contained in letters received by Mr. Sinnett and Mr. A. O. Hume, through
+Madame Blavatsky, purporting to be written by the Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and
+Morya&mdash;principally the former. Mr. Richard Hodgson has kindly lent me a
+considerable number of the original letters of the Mahatmas that leading
+to the production of ‘Esoteric Buddhism.’ I find in them overwhelming
+evidence that all of them were written by Madame Blavatsky. In these
+letters are a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> number of extracts from Buddhist Books, alleged to be
+translations from the originals by the Mahatmic writers themselves. These
+letters claim for the adepts a knowledge of Sanskrit, Thibetan, Pali and
+Chinese. I have traced to its source each quotation from the Buddhist
+Scriptures in the letters, and they were all copied from current English
+translations, including even the notes and explanations of the English
+translators. They were principally copied from Beal’s ‘Catena of Buddhist
+Scriptures from the Chinese.’ In other places where the ‘adept’ is using
+his own language in explanation of Buddhistic terms and ideas, I find that
+his presumed original language was copied nearly word for word from Rhys
+Davids’ ‘Buddhism,’ and other books. I have traced every Buddhistic idea
+in these letters and in ‘Esoteric Buddhism,’ and every Buddhistic term,
+such as Devachan, Avitchi, etc., to the books whence Helena Petrovna
+Blavatsky derived them. Although said to be proficient in the knowledge of
+Thibetan and Sanskrit the words and terms in these languages in the
+letters of the adepts were nearly all used in a ludicrously erroneous and
+absurd manner. The writer of those letters was an ignoramus in Sanskrit
+and Thibetan; and the mistakes and blunders in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> them, in these languages,
+are in exact accordance with the known ignorance of Madame Blavatsky
+concerning these languages. ‘Esoteric Buddhism,’ like all of Madame
+Blavatsky’s works, was based upon wholesale plagiarism and ignorance.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img38.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 40. MADAME BLAVATSKY’S AUTOGRAPH.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Madame Blavatsky never succeeded in penetrating into Thibet, in whose
+sacred “lamaseries” and temples dwell the wonderful Mahatmas of modern
+Theosophy, but William Woodville Rockhill, the American traveller and
+Oriental scholar, did, and we have a record of his adventures in “The Land
+of the Laas,” published in 1891. While at Serkok, he visited a famous
+monastery inhabited by 700 lamas. He says (page 102):<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> “They asked endless
+questions concerning the state of Buddhism in foreign lands. They were
+astonished that it no longer existed in India, and that the church of
+Ceylon was so like the ancient Buddhist one. When told of our esoteric
+Buddhists, the Mahatmas, and of the wonderful doctrines they claimed to
+have obtained from Thibet, they were immensely amused. They declared that
+though in ancient times there were, doubtless, saints and sages who could
+perform some of the miracles now claimed by the Esoterists, none were
+living at the present day; and they looked upon this new school as rankly
+heretical, and as something approaching an imposition on our credulity.”</p>
+
+<p>“Isis Unveiled,” and the “Secret Doctrine,” by Madame Blavatsky, are
+supposed to contain the completest exposition of Theosophy, or the inner
+spiritual meaning of the great religious cults of the world, but, as we
+have seen, they are full of plagiarisms and garbled statements, to say
+nothing of “spurious quotations from Buddhist sacred books, manufactured
+by the writer to embody her own peculiar views, under the fictitious guise
+of genuine Buddhism.” This last quotation from Coleman strikes the keynote
+of the whole subject. Esoteric Buddhism is a product of Occidental<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>
+manufacture, a figment of Madame Blavatsky’s romantic imagination, and by
+no means represents the truth of Oriental philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>As Max Mueller, one of the greatest living Oriental scholars, has
+repeatedly stated, any attempt to read into Oriental thought our Western
+science and philosophy or to reconcile them, is futile to a degree; the
+two schools are as opposite to each other, as the negative and positive
+poles of a magnet, Orientalism representing the former, Occidentalism, the
+latter. Oriental philosophy with its Indeterminate Being (or pure nothing
+as the Absolute) ends in the utter negation of everything and affords no
+clue to the secret of the Universe. If to believe that all is <i>maya</i>,
+(illusion), and that to be one with Brahma (absorbed like the rain drop in
+the ocean) constitutes the <i>summum bonum</i> of thinking, then there is no
+explanation of, or use for, evolution or progress of any kind. The effect
+of Hindoo philosophy has been stagnation, indifferentism, and, as a
+result, the Hindoo has no recorded history, no science, no art worthy the
+name. Compared to it see what Greek philosophy has done: it has
+transformed the Western world: Starting with Self-Determined Being,
+reason, self-activity, at the heart of the Universe, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> the creation of
+individual souls by a process of evolution in time and space, and the
+unfolding of a splendid civilization are logical consequences. In the
+East, it is the destruction of self-hood; in the West the destruction of
+selfishness, and the preservation of self-hood.</p>
+
+<p>Many noted Theosophists claim that modern Theosophy is not a religious
+cult, but simply an exposition of the esoteric, or inner spiritual meaning
+of the great religious teachers of the world. Let me quote what Solovyoff
+says on this point:</p>
+
+<p>“The Theosophical Society shockingly deceived those who joined it as
+members, in reliance on the regulations. It gradually grew evident that it
+was no universal scientific brotherhood, to which the followers of all
+religions might with a clear conscience belong, but a group of persons who
+had begun to preach in their organ, <i>The Theosophist</i>, and in their other
+publications, a mixed religious doctrine. Finally, in the last years of
+Madame Blavatsky’s life, even this doctrine gave place to a direct and
+open propaganda of the most orthodox exoteric Buddhism, under the motto of
+‘Our Lord Buddha,’ combined with incessant attacks on Christianity. * * *
+Now, in 1893, as the direct effect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> of this cause, we see an entire
+religious movement, we see a prosperous and growing plantation of Buddhism
+in Western Europe.”</p>
+
+<p>As a last word let me add that if, in my opinion, modern Theosophy has no
+right to the high place it claims in the world of thought, it has
+performed its share in the noble fight against the crass materialism of
+our day, and, freed from the frauds that have too long darkened its
+poetical aspects, it may yet help to diffuse through the world the pure
+light of brotherly love and spiritual development.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p>
+<h2>List of Works Consulted in the Preparation of this Volume</h2>
+
+
+<p class="hang">AKSAKOFF, ALEXANDER N. <b>Animism and Spiritism</b>: an attempt at a critical
+investigation of mediumistic phenomena, with special reference to the
+hypotheses of hallucination and of the unconscious; an answer to Dr. E.
+von Hartmann’s work, “Der Spiritismus.” 2 vols. Leipsic, 1890. 8vo. (A
+profoundly interesting work by an impartial Russian savant. Judicial,
+critical and scientific.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">AZAM, DR. <b>Hypnotisme et Altérations de la Personnalité.</b> Paris, 1887. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BERNHEIM, HIPPOLYTE. <b>Suggestive Therapeutics</b>: A study of the nature and
+use of hypnotism. Translated from the French. New York, 1889. 4to.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BINET, A. AND FÉRÉ, C. <b>Animal Magnetism.</b> Translated from the French. New
+York, 1888.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BLAVATSKY, MADAME HÉLÈNE PETROVNA HAHN-HAHN. <b>Isis Unveiled</b>: A Master-key
+to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology. 6th ed. New
+York, 1891. 2 vols. 8vo. (A heterogeneous mass of poorly digested
+quotations from writers living and dead, with running remarks by Mme.
+Blavatsky. A hodge-podge of magic, masonry, and Oriental witchcraft.
+Pseudo-scientific.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>The Secret Doctrine</b>: The Synthesis of science, religion, and
+philosophy. 2 vols. New York, 1888. 8vo. (Philosophical in character. A
+reading of Western thought into Oriental religions and symbolisms.
+So-called quotations from the “Book of Dzyan,” manufactured by the
+ingenious mind of the authoress.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CROCQ FILS, DR. <b>L’hypnotisme.</b> Paris, 1896. 4to. (An exhaustive work on
+hypnotism in all its phases.)</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">CROOKES, WILLIAM. <b>Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism.</b> London,
+1876. 8vo, (pamphlet).</p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism.</b> London, 1875. 8vo,
+(pamphlet). (Very interesting exposition of experiments made with D. D.
+Home, the spirit medium.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DAVENPORT, R. B. <b>Death Blow to Spiritualism</b>: True story of the Fox
+sisters. New York, 1888. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DESSOIR, MAX. <b>The Psychology of Legerdemain.</b> <i>Open Court</i>, vol. vii.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GARRETT, EDMUND. <b>Isis Very Much Unveiled</b>: Being the story of the great
+Mahatma hoax. London, 1895. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GASPARIN, COMTE AGÉNOR DE. <b>Des Tables Tournantes, du Surnaturel et des
+Esprits.</b> Paris, 1854. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GATCHELL, CHARLES. The methods of mind-readers. <i>Forum</i>, vol. xi, pp.
+192-204.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GIBIER, <span class="smcap">Dr.</span> PAUL. <b>Le Spiritisme</b> (fakirisme occidental). Étude historique,
+critique et expérimentale. Paris, 1889. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GURNEY, E., MYERS, F. W., <span class="smcaplc">AND</span> PODMORE, F. <b>Phantasms of the Living.</b> 2 vols.
+London, 1887. (Embodies the investigations of the Society for Psychical
+Research into Spiritualism, Telepathy, Thought-transference, etc.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HAMMOND, <span class="smcap">Dr.</span> W. H. <b>Spiritualism and Nervous Derangement.</b> New York, 1876.
+8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HARDINGE-BRITTAN, EMMA. <b>History of Spiritualism.</b> New York. 4to.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HART, ERNEST. <b>Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New Witchcraft.</b> London, 1893.
+8vo. (Scientific and critical. Anti-spiritualistic in character.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOME, D. D. <b>Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism.</b> New York, 1878. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HUDSON, THOMAS JAY. <b>The Law of Psychic Phenomena.</b> New York, 1894. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>A Scientific Demonstration of the Future Life.</b> Chicago, 1895. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">JAMES, WILLIAM. <b>Psychology.</b> New York, 1892. 8vo, 2 vols.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">JASTROW, JOSEPH. <b>Involuntary Movements.</b> <i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, vol.
+xl, pp. 743-750. (Interesting account of experiments made in a
+Psychological Laboratory to demonstrate “the readiness with which normal
+individuals may be made to yield evidence of unconscious and involuntary
+processes.” Throws considerable light on muscle-reading,
+planchette-writing, etc.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>The Psychology of Deception.</b> <i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, vol. xxxiv,
+pp. 145-157.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>The Psychology of Spiritualism.</b> <i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, vol.
+xxxiv, pp. 721-732.</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">(A series of articles of great value to students of psychical research.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KRAFFT-EBING, R. <b>Experimental Study in the Domain of Hypnotism.</b> New York,
+1889.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LEAF, WALTER. <b>A Modern Priestess of Isis</b>; abridged and translated on
+behalf of the Society for Psychical Research, from the Russian of Vsevolod
+S. Solovyoff. London, 1895. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LILLIE, ARTHUR. <b>Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophy.</b> London, 1896. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LIPPITT, F. J. <b>Physical Proofs of Another Life</b>: Letters to the Seybert
+commission. Washington, D. C., 1888. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MACAIRE, SID. <b>Mind-Reading, or Muscle-Reading?</b> London, 1889.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MOLL, ALBERT. <b>Hypnotism.</b> New York, 1892. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MATTISON, REV. H. <b>Spirit-rapping Unveiled.</b> An Exposé of the origin,
+history theology and philosophy of certain alleged communications from the
+spiritual world by means of “spirit-rapping,” “medium writing,” “physical
+demonstrations,” etc. New York, 1855. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MYERS, F. W. H. <b>Science and a Future Life</b>, and other essays. London, 1891.
+8vo.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">OCHOROWICZ, <span class="smcap">Dr.</span> J. <b>Mental Suggestion</b> (with a preface by Prof. Charles
+Richet). From the French by J. Fitz-Gerald. New York, 1891. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OLCOTT, HENRY S. <b>Old Diary Leaves.</b> New York, 1895. 8vo. (Full of wildly
+improbable incidents in the career of Madame Blavatsky. Valuable on
+account of its numerous quotations from American journals concerning the
+early history of the theosophical movement in the United States.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PODMORE, FRANK S. <b>Apparitions and Thought-Transference</b>: Examination of the
+evidence of telepathy. New York, 1894. 8vo. (A thoughtful scientific work
+on a profoundly interesting subject.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REVELATIONS OF A SPIRIT MEDIUM; or, <b>Spiritualistic Mysteries Exposed</b>. St.
+Paul, Minn., 1891. 8vo. (One of the best exposés of physical phenomena
+published.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ROBERT-HOUDIN, J. E. <b>The Secrets of Stage Conjuring.</b> From the French, by
+Prof. Hoffmann. New York, 1881. 8vo. (A full account of the performances
+of the Davenport Bros. in Paris, by the most famous of contemporary
+conjurers.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ROARK, RURICK N. <b>Psychology in Education.</b> New York, 1895. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ROCKHILL, WM. W. <b>The Land of the Lamas.</b> New York, 1891. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SEYBERT COMMISSION ON SPIRITUALISM. <b>Preliminary Report.</b> New York, 1888.
+8vo. (Absolutely anti-spiritualistic. The psychical phases of the subject
+not considered.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SIDGWICK, MRS. H. <b>Article “Spiritualism” in “Encyclopædia Britannica,”</b>
+vol. 22. (An excellent resumé of spiritualism, its history and phenomena.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SINNETT, A. P. (<i>Ed.</i>) <b>Incidents in the life of Mme. Blavatsky.</b> London,
+1886. 8vo. (Interesting, but replete with wildly improbable incidents,
+etc. Of little value as a life of the famous occultist.)</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>The Occult World.</b> London, 1885. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>Esoteric Buddhism.</b> London, 1888. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH: <b>Proceedings.</b> Vols. 1-11. [1882-95.]
+London, 1882-95. 8vo. (The most exhaustive researches yet set on foot by
+impartial investigators. Scientific in character, and invaluable to the
+student. Psychical phases of spiritualism mostly dealt with.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TRUESDELL, JOHN W. <b>The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of
+Spiritualism</b>: Derived from careful investigations covering a period of
+twenty-five years. New York, 1883. 8vo. (Anti-spiritualistic. Exposés of
+physical phenomena: psychography, rope-tests, etc. Of its kind, a valuable
+contribution to the literature of the subject.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WEATHERLY, <span class="smcap">Dr.</span> L. A., <span class="smcaplc">AND</span> MASKELYNE, J. N. <b>The Supernatural.</b> Bristol,
+Eng., 1891. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WILLMANN, CARL. <b>Moderne Wunder.</b> Leipsic, 1892. 8vo. (Contains interesting
+accounts of Dr. Slade’s Berlin and Leipsic experiences. It is written by a
+professional conjurer. Anti-spiritualistic.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WOODBURY, WALTER E. <b>Photographic Amusements.</b> New York, 1896. 8vo.
+(Contains some interesting accounts of so-called spirit photography.)</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p><a name='f_1' id='f_1' href='#fna_1'>[1]</a> Introduction to Herrmann the Magician, his Life, his Secrets, (Laird &amp;
+Lee, Publishers.)</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_2' id='f_2' href='#fna_2'>[2]</a> Spiritualism and nervous derangement, New York, 1876. p. 115.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_3' id='f_3' href='#fna_3'>[3]</a> The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of Spiritualism, etc., New
+York, 1883.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_4' id='f_4' href='#fna_4'>[4]</a> Communication to <i>New York Sun</i>, 1892.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_5' id='f_5' href='#fna_5'>[5]</a> <span class="smcap">Note</span>&mdash;These letters were purchased from the <i>Christian College
+Magazine</i> by Dr. Elliot Coues, of Washington, D. C.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_6' id='f_6' href='#fna_6'>[6]</a> “Old Diary Leaves”&mdash;<i>Olcott</i>.</p>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44349 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #44349 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44349)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth
+Century Witchcraft, by Henry Ridgely Evans
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth Century Witchcraft
+       Illustrated Investigations into the Phenomena of
+       Spiritualism and Theosophy
+
+Author: Henry Ridgely Evans
+
+Release Date: December 5, 2013 [EBook #44349]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS
+
+
+
+
+LEE'S LIBRARY OF OCCULT SCIENCE
+
+
+HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS; Or XIX Century Witchcraft
+
+By Henry R. Evans.
+
+
+PRACTICAL PALMISTRY; Or Hand Reading Made Easy
+
+By Comte C. de Saint-Germain.
+
+
+HERRMANN THE MAGICIAN; His Life; His Secrets
+
+By H. J. Burlingame.
+
+
+All profusely illustrated. Bound in Holliston cloth, burnished red top,
+uncut edges.
+
+EACH, $1.00
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.
+
+[Taken by the Author.]]
+
+
+
+
+  Hours With the Ghosts
+
+  OR NINETEENTH CENTURY WITCHCRAFT
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATED INVESTIGATIONS
+  INTO THE
+  Phenomena of Spiritualism and Theosophy
+
+
+  BY HENRY RIDGELY EVANS
+
+
+  The first duty we owe to the world is Truth--all
+  the Truth--nothing but the Truth.--"_Ancient Wisdom._"
+
+
+  CHICAGO
+  LAIRD & LEE, PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+Entered according to act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and
+ninety-seven. BY WILLIAM H. LEE, In the office of the Librarian of
+Congress, at Washington.
+
+
+
+
+TO MY WIFE
+
+
+
+
+"It is no proof of wisdom to refuse to examine certain phenomena because
+we think it certain that they are impossible, as if our knowledge of the
+universe were already completed."--_Prof. Lodge._
+
+"The most ardent Spiritist should welcome a searching inquiry into the
+potential faculties of spirits still in the flesh. Until we know more of
+_these_, those other phenomena to which he appeals must remain
+unintelligible because isolated, and are likely to be obstinately
+disbelieved because they are impossible to understand."--_F. W. H. Myers:
+"Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," Part XVIII, April,
+1891._
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+  Author's Preface                                                  11
+
+  INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT                                             13
+
+  PART FIRST: =Spiritualism=                                        18
+
+     _I. Divisions of the Subject_                                  18
+
+    _II. Subjective Phenomena_                                      23
+         1. Telepathy                                               23
+         2. Table Tilting. Muscle Reading                           40
+
+   _III. Physical Phenomena_                                        46
+         1. Psychography or Slate-writing                           46
+         2. The Master of the Mediums: D. D. Home                   93
+         3. Rope Tying and Holding Mediums; Materializations       135
+            The Davenport Brothers                                 135
+            Annie Eva Fay                                          149
+            Charles Slade                                          154
+            Pierre L. O. A. Keeler                                 160
+            Eusapia Paladino                                       175
+            F. W. Tabor                                            182
+         4. Spirit Photography                                     188
+         5. Thought Photography                                    197
+         6. Apparitions of the Dead                                201
+
+    _IV. Conclusions_                                              207
+
+
+  PART SECOND: =Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists=             210
+
+     _I. The Priestess_                                            213
+
+    _II. What is Theosophy?_                                       237
+
+   _III. Madame Blavatsky's Confession_                            250
+
+    _IV. The Writings of Madame Blavatsky_                         265
+
+     _V. The Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist_               268
+
+    _VI. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky_                           272
+
+   _VII. The Theosophical Temple_                                  287
+
+  _VIII. Conclusion_                                               290
+
+  List of Authorities                                              298
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                                 PAGE.
+
+  Fig. 1. Spirit Photograph, by the author                Frontispiece
+
+  Fig. 2. Portrait of Dr. Henry Slade                               47
+
+  Fig. 3. The Holding of the Slate                                  51
+
+  Fig. 4. Slate No. 1                                               65
+
+  Fig. 5. Slate No. 2                                               71
+
+  Fig. 6. Slate No. 3                                               77
+
+  Fig. 7. Home at the Tuileries                                     97
+
+  Fig. 8. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1                                 116
+
+  Fig. 9. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1                                 119
+
+  Fig. 10. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1                                120
+
+  Fig. 11. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1                                121
+
+  Fig. 12, 13, 14, 15. Crookes' Diagrams                       124-125
+
+  Fig. 16. Crookes' Apparatus No. 2                                126
+
+  Fig. 17. Crookes' Apparatus No. 2                                127
+
+  Fig. 18, 19, 20. Crookes' Diagrams                           128-130
+
+  Fig. 21. Hammond's Apparatus                                     133
+
+  Fig. 22. The Davenport's in their Cabinet                        139
+
+  Fig. 23. Trick Tie and in Cabinet Work                           143
+
+  Fig. 24. Charles Slade's Poster                              158-159
+
+  Fig. 25. Pierre Keeler's Cabinet Seance                          162
+
+  Fig. 26. Pierre Keeler's Cabinet Curtain                         163
+
+  Fig. 27. Portrait of Eusapia Paladino                            176
+
+  Fig. 28. Eusapia before the Scientists                           177
+
+  Fig. 29. Spirit Photograph, by the author                        191
+
+  Fig. 30. Spirit Photograph, by pretended medium                  195
+
+  Fig. 31. Sigel's Original Picture of Fig. 30                     199
+
+  Fig. 32. Portrait of Madame Blavatsky                            215
+
+  Fig. 33. Mahatma Letter                                          221
+
+  Fig. 34. Mahatma Envelope                                        225
+
+  Fig. 35. Portrait of Col. H. S. Olcott                           233
+
+  Fig. 36. Oath of Secrecy of the Charter Members of the
+  Theosophical Society                                             235
+
+  Fig. 37. Portrait of W. Q. Judge                                 241
+
+  Fig. 38. Portrait of Mrs. Annie Besant                           273
+
+  Fig. 39. Portrait of Mrs. Tingley                                285
+
+  Fig. 40. Autograph of Madame Blavatsky                           293
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+_There are two great schools of thought in the world--materialistic and
+spiritualistic. With one, MATTER is all in all, the ultimate substratum;
+mind is merely the result of organized matter; everything is translated
+into terms of force, motion and the like. With the other, SPIRIT or mind
+is the ultimate substance--God; matter is the visible expression of this
+invisible and eternal Consciousness._
+
+_Materialism is a barren, dreary, comfortless belief, and, in the opinion
+of the author, is without philosophical foundation. This is an age of
+scientific materialism, although of late years that materialism has been
+rather on the wane among thinking men. In an age of such ultra
+materialism, therefore, it is not strange that there should come a great
+reaction on the part of spiritually minded people. This reaction takes the
+form of an increased vitality of dogmatic religion, or else culminates in
+the formation of Spiritualistic or Theosophic societies for the
+prosecution of occult phenomena. Spiritualists are now numbered by the
+million. Persons calling themselves mediums present certain phenomena,
+physical and psychical, and call public attention to them, as an evidence
+of life beyond the grave, and the possibility of spiritual communication
+between this world and the next._
+
+_The author has had sittings with many famous mediums of this country and
+Europe, but has seen little to convince him of the fact of spirit
+communication. The slate tests and so-called materializations have
+invariably been frauds. Some experiments along the line of automatic
+writing and psychometry, however, have demonstrated to the writer the
+truth of telepathy or thought-transference. The theory of telepathy
+explains many of the marvels ascribed to spirit intervention in things
+mundane._
+
+_In this work the author has endeavored to give an accurate account of the
+lives and adventures of celebrated mediums and occultists, which will
+prove of interest to the reader. The rise and growth of the Theosophical
+cult in this country and Europe is of historical interest. Theosophy
+pretends to a deeper metaphysics than Spiritualism, and numbers its
+adherents by the thousands; it is, therefore, intensely interesting to
+study it in its origin, its founder and its present leaders._
+
+_THE AUTHOR._
+
+
+
+
+HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT.
+
+
+"If a man die, shall he live again?"--this is the question of the ages,
+the Sphinx riddle that Humanity has been trying to solve since time began.
+The great minds of antiquity, Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle
+were firm in their belief in the immortality of the soul. The writings of
+Plato are luminous on the subject. The Mysteries of Isis and Osiris, as
+practiced in Egypt, and those of Eleusis, in Greece, taught the doctrine
+of the immortality of the individual being. The Divine Master of Arcane
+knowledge, Christ, proclaimed the same. In latter times, we have had such
+metaphysical and scientific thinkers as Leibnitz, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel
+and Schleiermacher advocating individual existence beyond the grave.
+
+It is a strange fact that the more materialistic the age, the deeper the
+interest in spiritual questions. The vitality and persistence of the
+belief in the reality of the spiritual world is evidence of that hunger
+for the ideal, for God, of which the Psalmist speaks--"As the heart
+panteth after water brooks so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!" Through
+the passing centuries, we have come into a larger, nobler conception of
+the Universal Life, and our relations to that Life, in which we live,
+move, and have our being. Granting the existence of an "Eternal and
+Infinite Spirit, the Intellectual Organizer of the mathematical laws which
+the physical forces obey," and conceiving ourselves as individualized
+points of life in the Greater Life, we are constrained to believe that we
+bear within us the undying spark of divinity and immortality. Evolution
+points to eternal life as the final goal of self-conscious spirit, else
+this mighty earth-travail, the long ages of struggle to produce man are
+utterly without meaning. Speaking of a future life, John Fiske, a leading
+American exponent of the doctrine of evolution, says ("The Destiny of
+Man"): "The doctrine of evolution does not allow us to take the atheistic
+view of the position of man. It is true that modern astronomy shows us
+giant balls of vapor condensing into fiery suns, cooling down into
+planets fit for the support of life, and at last growing cold and rigid in
+death, like the moon. And there are indications of a time when systems of
+dead planets shall fall in upon their central ember that was once a sun,
+and the whole lifeless mass, thus regaining heat, shall expand into a
+nebulous cloud like that with which we started, that the work of
+condensation and evolution may begin over again. These Titanic events must
+doubtless seem to our limited vision like an endless and aimless series of
+cosmical changes. From the first dawning of life we see all things working
+together toward one mighty goal, the evolution of the most exalted
+spiritual qualities which characterize Humanity. The body is cast aside
+and returns to the dust of which it was made. The earth, so marvelously
+wrought to man's uses, will also be cast aside. So small is the value
+which Nature sets upon the perishable forms of matter! The question, then,
+is reduced to this: Are man's highest spiritual qualities, into the
+production of which all this creative energy has gone, to disappear with
+the rest? Are we to regard the Creator's work as like that of a child, who
+builds houses out of blocks, just for the pleasure of knocking them down?
+For aught that science can tell us, it may be so, but I can see no good
+reason for believing any such thing."
+
+A scientific demonstration of immortality is declared to be an
+impossibility. But why go to science for such a demonstration? The
+question belongs to the domain of philosophy and religion. Science deals
+with physical forces and their relations; collects and inventories facts.
+Its mission is not to establish a universal metaphysic of things; that is
+philosophy's prerogative. All occult thinkers declare that life is from
+within, out. In other words life, or a spiritual principle, precedes
+organization. Science proceeds to investigate the phenomena of the
+universe in the opposite way from without, in; and pronounces life to be
+"a fortuitous collocation of atoms." Still, science has been the
+torch-bearer of the ages and has stripped the fungi of superstition from
+the tree of life. It has revealed to us the great laws of nature, though
+it has not explained them. We know that light, heat, and electricity are
+modes of motion; more than that we know not. Science is largely
+responsible for the materialistic philosophy in vogue to-day--a philosophy
+that sees no reason in the universe. A powerful wave of spiritual thought
+has set in, as if to counteract the ultra rationalism of the age. In the
+vanguard of the new order of things are Spiritualism and Theosophy.
+
+Spiritualism enters the list, and declares that the immortality of the
+soul is a demonstrable fact. It throws down the gauntlet of defiance to
+skepticism, saying: "Come, I will show you that there is an existence
+beyond the grave. Death is not a wall, but a door through which we pass
+into eternal life." Theosophy, too, has its occult phenomena to prove the
+indestructibility of soul-force. Both Spiritualism and Theosophy contain
+germs of truth, but both are tinctured with superstition. I purpose, if
+possible, to sift the wheat from the chaff. In investigating the phenomena
+of Spiritualism and Theosophy I will use the scientific as well as the
+philosophic method. Each will act, I hope, as corrective of the other.
+
+
+
+
+PART FIRST.
+
+SPIRITUALISM.
+
+
+
+
+I. DIVISIONS OF THE SUBJECT.
+
+
+Belief in the evocation of the spirits of the dead is as old as Humanity.
+At one period of the world's history it was called Thaumaturgy, at another
+Necromancy and Witchcraft, in these latter years, Spiritualism. It is new
+wine in old bottles. On March 31, 1847, at Hydeville, Wayne County, New
+York, occurred the celebrated "knockings," the beginning of modern
+Spiritualism. The mediums were two little girls, Kate and Margaretta Fox,
+whose fame spread over three continents. It is claimed by impartial
+investigators that the rappings produced in the presence of the Fox
+sisters were occasioned by natural means. Voluntary disjointings of the
+muscles of the knee, or to use a medical term "the repeated displacement
+of the tendon of the _peroneus longus_ muscle in the sheath in which it
+slides behind the outer _malleolus_" will produce certain extraordinary
+sounds, particularly when the knee is brought in contact with a table or
+chair. Snapping the toes in rapid succession will cause similar noises.
+The above was the explanation given of the "Hydeville and Rochester
+Knockings", by Professors Flint, Lee and Coventry, of Buffalo, who
+subjected the Fox sisters to numerous examinations, and this explanation
+was confirmed many years after (in 1888) by the published confession of
+Mrs. Kane, _nee_ Margaretta Fox. Spiritualism became the rage and
+professional mediums went about giving s�ances to large and interested
+audiences. This particular creed is still professed by a recognized
+semi-religious body in America and in Europe. The American mediums reaped
+a rich harvest in the Old World. The pioneer was Mrs. Hayden, a Boston
+medium, who went to England in 1852, and the table-turning mania spread
+like wild fire within a few months.
+
+Broadly speaking, the phenomena of modern Spiritualism may be divided into
+two classes: (1) Physical, (2) Subjective. Of the first, the
+"Encyclopaedia Britannica", in its brief but able review of the subject,
+says: "Those which, if correctly observed and due neither to conscious or
+unconscious trickery nor to hallucination on the part of the observers,
+exhibit a force hitherto unknown to science, acting in the physical world
+otherwise than through the brain or muscles of the medium." The earliest
+of these phenomena were the mysterious rappings and movements of
+furniture without apparent physical cause. Following these came the
+ringing of bells, playing on musical instruments, strange lights seen
+hovering about the s�ance-room, materializations of hands, faces and
+forms, "direct writing and drawing" declared to be done without human
+intervention, spirit photography, levitation, unfastening of ropes and
+bandages, elongation of the medium's body, handling fire with impunity,
+etc.
+
+Of the second class, or Subjective Phenomena, we have "table-tilting and
+turning with contact; writing, drawing, etc., by means of the medium's
+hand; entrancement, trance-speaking, and impersonation by the medium of
+deceased persons, seeing spirits and visions and hearing phantom voices."
+
+From a general scientific point of view there are three ways of accounting
+for the physical phenomena of spiritualism: (1) Hallucination on the part
+of the observers; (2) Conjuring; (3) A force latent in the human
+personality capable of moving heavy objects without muscular contact, and
+of causing "Percussive Sounds" on table-tops, and raps upon walls and
+floors.
+
+Hallucination has unquestionably played a part in the s�ance-room, but
+here again the statement of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" is worthy of
+consideration: "Sensory hallucination of several persons together who are
+not in a hypnotic state is a rare phenomenon, and therefore not a probable
+explanation." In my opinion, conjuring will account for seven-eighths of
+the so-called phenomena of professional mediums. For the balance of
+one-eighth, neither hallucination nor legerdemain are satisfactory
+explanation. Hundreds of credible witnesses have borne testimony to the
+fact of table-turning and tilting and the movements of heavy objects
+without muscular contact. That such a force exists is now beyond cavil,
+call it what you will, magnetic, nervous, or psychic. Count Agenor de
+Gasparin, in 1854, conducted a series of elaborate experiments in
+table-turning and tilting, in the presence of his family and a number of
+skeptical witnesses, and was highly successful. The experiments were made
+in the full light of day. The members of the circle joined hands and
+concentrated their minds upon the object to be moved. The Count published
+a work on the subject "Des Tables Tournantes," in which he stated that the
+movements of the table were due to a mental or nervous force emanating
+from the human personality. This psychic energy has been investigated by
+Professor Crookes and Professor Lodge, of London, and by Doctor Elliott
+Coues, of Washington, D. C., who calls it "Telekinesis." The existence of
+this force sufficiently explains such phenomena of the s�ance-room as are
+not attributable to hallucination and conjuring, thus removing the
+necessity for the hypothesis of spirit intervention. In explanation of
+table-turning by "contact," I quote what J. N. Maskelyne says in "The
+Supernatural":
+
+"Faraday proved to a demonstration that table-turning was simply the
+result of an unconscious muscular action on the part of the sitters. He
+constructed a little apparatus to be placed beneath the hands of those
+pressing upon the table, which had a pointer to indicate any pressure to
+one side or the other. After a time, of course, the arms of the sitters
+become tired and they unconsciously press more or less to the right or
+left. In Faraday's experiments, it always proved that this pressure was
+exerted in the direction in which the table was expected to move, and the
+tell-tale pointer showed it at once. There, then, we have the explanation:
+expectancy and unconscious muscular action."
+
+
+
+
+II. SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA.
+
+
+1. Telepathy.
+
+The subjective phenomena of Spiritualism--trance speaking, automatic
+writing, etc.,--have engaged the attention of some of the best scientific
+minds of Europe and America, as studies of abnormal or supernormal
+psychological conditions.
+
+If there are any facts to sustain the spiritual hypothesis, these facts
+exist in subjective manifestations. The following statement will be
+conceded by any impartial investigator: A medium, or psychic, in a state
+of partial or complete hypnosis frequently gives information transcending
+his conscious knowledge of a subject. There can be but two hypotheses for
+the phenomena--(1) The intelligence exhibited by the medium is
+"ultra-mundane," in other words, is the effect of spirit control, or, (2)
+it is the result of the conscious or unconscious exercise of psychic
+powers on the part of the medium.
+
+It is well known that persons under hypnotic influence exhibit remarkable
+intelligence, notwithstanding the fact that the ordinary consciousness is
+held in abeyance. The extraordinary results obtained by hypnotizers point
+to another phase of consciousness, which is none other than the subjective
+or "subliminal" self. Mediums sometimes induce hypnosis by
+self-suggestion, and while in that state, the subconscious mind is in a
+highly receptive and exalted condition. Mental suggestions or concepts
+pass from the mind of the sitter consciously or unconsciously to the mind
+of the medium, and are given back in the form of communications from the
+invisible world, ostensibly through spirit control. It is not absolutely
+necessary that the medium be in the hypnotic condition to obtain
+information, but the hypnotic state seems to be productive of the best
+results. The medium is usually honest in his belief in the reality of such
+ultra-mundane control, but he is ignorant of the true psychology of the
+case--thought transference.
+
+The English Society for Psychical Research and its American branch have of
+late years popularized "telepathy", or thought transference. A series of
+elaborate investigations were made by Messrs. Edmund Gurney, F. W. H.
+Myers, and Frank Podmore, accounts of which are contained in the
+proceedings of the Society. Among the European investigators may be
+mentioned Messrs. Janet and Gibert, Richet, Gibotteau, and
+Schrenck-Notzing. Podmore has lately summarized the results of these
+studies in an interesting volume, "Apparitions and Thought-transference,
+an Examination of the Evidence for Telepathy." Thought Transference or
+Telepathy (from _tele_--at a distance, and _pathos_--feeling) he describes
+as "a communication between mind and mind other than through the known
+channels of the senses." A mass of evidence is adduced to prove the
+possibility of this communication. In summing up his book he says: "The
+experimental evidence has shown that a simple sensation or idea may be
+transferred from one mind to another, and that this transference may take
+place alike in the normal state and in the hypnotic trance.
+
+* * The personal influence of the operator in hypnotism may perhaps be
+regarded as a proof presumptive of telepathy." The experiments show that
+mental concepts or ideas may be transferred to a distance.
+
+Podmore advances the following theory in explanation of the phenomena of
+telepathy:
+
+"If we leave fluids and radiant nerve-energy on one side, we find
+practically only one mode suggested for the telepathic transference--viz.,
+that the physical changes which are the accompaniments of thought or
+sensation in the agent are transmitted from the brain as undulations in
+the intervening medium, and thus excite corresponding changes in some
+other brain, without any other portion of the organism being necessarily
+implicated in the transmission. This hypothesis has found its most
+philosophical champion in Dr. Ochorowicz, who has devoted several chapters
+of his book "De la Suggestion mentale," to the discussion of the various
+theories on the subject. He begins by recalling the reciprocal
+convertibility of all physical forces with which we are acquainted, and
+especially draws attention to what he calls the law of reversibility, a
+law which he illustrates by a description of the photophone. The
+photophone is an instrument in which a mirror is made to vibrate to the
+human voice. The mirror reflects a ray of light, which, vibrating in its
+turn, falls upon a plate of selenium, modifying its electric conductivity.
+The intermittent current so produced is transmitted through a telephone,
+and the original articulate sound is reproduced. Now in hypnotized
+subjects--and M. Ochorowicz does not in this connection treat of
+thought-transference between persons in the normal state--the equilibrium
+of the nervous system, he sees reason to believe, is profoundly affected.
+The nerve-energy liberated in this state, he points out, 'cannot pass
+beyond' the subject's brain 'without being transformed. Nevertheless,
+like any other force, it cannot remain isolated; like any other force it
+escapes, but in disguise. Orthodox science allows it only one way out, the
+motor nerves. These are the holes in the dark lantern through which the
+rays of light escape. * * * Thought remains in the brain, just as the
+chemical energy of the galvanic battery remains in the cells, but each is
+represented outside by its correlative energy, which in the case of the
+battery is called the electric current, but for which in the other we have
+as yet no name. In any case there is some correlative energy--for the
+currents of the motor nerves do not and cannot constitute the only dynamic
+equivalent of cerebral energy--to represent all the complex movements of
+the cerebral mechanism.'"
+
+The above hypothesis may, or may not, afford a clue to the mysterious
+phenomena of telepathy, but it will doubtless satisfy to some extent those
+thinkers who demand physical explanations of the known and unknown laws of
+the universe. The president of the Society for Psychical Research (1894,)
+A. J. Balfour, in an address on the relation of the work of the Society to
+the general course of modern scientific investigation, is more cautious
+than the writers already quoted. He says:
+
+"Is this telepathic action an ordinary case of action from a center of
+disturbance? Is it equally diffused in all directions? Is it like the
+light of a candle or the light of the sun which radiates equally into
+space in every direction at the same time? If it is, it must obey the
+law--at least, we should expect it to obey the law--of all other forces
+which so act through a non-absorbing medium, and its effects must diminish
+inversely as the square of the distance. It must, so to speak, get beaten
+out thinner and thinner the further it gets removed from its original
+source. But is this so? Is it even credible that the mere thoughts, or, if
+you please, the neural changes corresponding to these thoughts, of any
+individual could have in them the energy to produce sensible effects
+equally in all directions, for distances which do not, as far as our
+investigations go, appear to have any necessary limit? It is, I think,
+incredible; and in any case there is no evidence whatever that this equal
+diffusion actually takes place. The will power, whenever will is used, or
+the thoughts, in cases where will is not used, have an effect, as a rule,
+only upon one or two individuals at most. There is no appearance of
+general diffusion. There is no indication of any disturbance equal at
+equal distances from its origin and radiating from it alike in every
+direction.
+
+"But if we are to reject this idea, which is the first which ordinary
+analogies would suggest, what are we to put in its place? Are we to
+suppose that there is some means by which telepathic energy can be
+directed through space from the agent to the patient, from the man who
+influences to the man who is influenced? If we are to believe this, as
+apparently we must, we are face to face not only with a fact extraordinary
+in itself, but with a kind of fact which does not fit in with anything we
+know at present in the region either of physics or of physiology. It is
+true, no doubt, that we do know plenty of cases where energy is directed
+along a given line, like water in a pipe, or like electrical energy along
+the course of a wire. But then in such cases there is always some material
+guide existing between the two termini, between the place from which the
+energy comes and the place to which the energy goes. Is there any such
+material guide in the case of telepathy? It seems absolutely impossible.
+There is no sign of it. We can not even form to ourselves any notion of
+its character, and yet, if we are to take what appears to be the obvious
+lesson of the observed facts, we are forced to the conclusion that in some
+shape or other it exists."
+
+Telepathy once conceded, we have a satisfactory explanation of that class
+of cases in modern Spiritualism on the subjective side of the question.
+There is no need of the hypothesis of "disembodied spirits".
+
+Some years ago, I instituted a series of experiments with a number of
+celebrated spirit mediums in the line of thought transference, and was
+eminently successful in obtaining satisfactory results, especially with
+Miss Maggie Gaule, of Baltimore, one of the most famous of the latter day
+psychics.
+
+Case A.
+
+About three years prior to my sitting with Miss Gaule, a relative by
+marriage died of cancer of the throat at the Garfield Hospital,
+Washington, D. C. He was a retired army officer, with the brevet of
+General, and lived part of the time at Chambersburg, Penn., and the rest
+of the time at the National Capital. He led a very quiet and unassuming
+life, and outside of army circles knew but few people. He was a
+magnificent specimen of physical manhood, six feet tall, with splendid
+chest and arms. His hair and beard were of a reddish color. His usual
+street dress was a sort of compromise with an army undress uniform,
+military cut frock-coat, frogged and braided top-coat, and a Sherman hat.
+Without these accessories, anyone would have recognized the military man
+in his walk and bearing. He and his wife thought a great deal of my
+mother, and frequently stopped me on the street to inquire, "How is Mary?"
+I went to Miss Gaule's house with the thought of General M-- fixed in my
+mind and the circumstances surrounding his decease. The medium greeted me
+in a cordial manner. I sat at one end of the room in the shadow, and she
+near the window in a large armchair. "You wish for messages from the
+dead," she remarked abruptly. "One moment, let me think." She sank back in
+the chair, closed her eyes, and remained in deep thought for a minute or
+so, occasionally passing her hand across her forehead. "I see," she said,
+"standing behind you, a tall, large man with reddish hair and beard. He is
+garbed in the uniform of an officer--I do not know whether of the army or
+navy. He points to his throat. Says he died of a throat trouble. He looks
+at you and calls "Mary,--how is Mary?" "What is his name?" I inquired,
+fixing my mind on the words David M--. "I will ask", replied the medium.
+There was a long pause. "He speaks so faintly I can scarcely hear him. The
+first letter begins with D, and then comes a--I can't get it. I can't hear
+it." With that she opened her eyes.
+
+The surprising feature about the above case was the alleged spirit
+communication, "Mary--how is Mary?" I did not have this in my mind at the
+time; in fact I had completely forgotten this form of salutation on the
+part of Gen. M--, when we had met in the old days. It is just this sort of
+thing that makes spirit-converts.
+
+However, the cases of unconscious telepathy cited in the "Reports of the
+Society for Psychical Research," are sufficient, I think, to prove the
+existence of this phase of the phenomena.
+
+T. J. Hudson, in his work entitled "A scientific demonstration of the
+future life", says: * * "When a psychic transmits a message to his client
+containing information which is in his (the psychic's) possession, it can
+not reasonably be attributed to the agency of disembodied spirits. * *
+When the message contains facts known to some one in his immediate
+presence and with whom he is _en rapport_, the agency of spirits of the
+dead cannot be presumed. Every investigator will doubtless admit that
+sub-conscious memory may enter as a factor in the case, and that the
+sub-conscious intelligence--or, to use the favorite terminology employed
+by Mr. Myers to designate the subjective mind, the 'sublimal
+consciousness'--of the psychic or that of his client may retain and use
+facts which the conscious, or objective mind may have entirely forgotten."
+
+But suppose the medium relates facts that were never in the possession of
+the sitter, what are we to say then? Considerable controversy has been
+waged over this question, and the hypothesis of telepathy is scouted.
+Minot J. Savage has come to the conclusion that such cases stretch the
+telepathic theory too far; there can be but one plausible explanation--a
+communication from a disembodied spirit, operating through the mind of the
+medium. For the sake of lucidity, let us take an example: A has a relative
+B who dies in a foreign land under peculiar circumstances, _unknown to A_.
+A attends a s�ance of a psychic, C, and the latter relates the
+circumstances of B's death. A afterwards investigates the statements of
+the medium, and finds them correct. Can telepathy account for C's
+knowledge? I think it can. The telepathic communication was recorded in
+A's sub-conscious mind, he being _en rapport_ with B. A unconsciously
+yields the points recorded in his sub-conscious mind to the psychic, C,
+who by reason of his peculiar powers raises them to the level of conscious
+thought, and gives them back in the form of a message from the dead.
+
+Case B.
+
+On another occasion, I went with my friend Mr. S. C., of Virginia, to
+visit Miss Gaule. Mr. S. C. had a young son who had recently passed the
+examination for admission to the U. S. Naval Academy, and the boy had
+accompanied his father to Baltimore to interview the military tailors on
+the subject of uniforms, etc. Miss Gaule in her semi-trance state made the
+following statement: "I see a young man busy with books and papers. He has
+successfully passed an examination, and says something about a uniform.
+Perhaps he is going to a military college."
+
+Here again we have excellent evidence of the proof of telepathy.
+
+The spelling of names is one of the surprising things in these
+experiments. On one occasion my wife had a sitting with Miss Gaule, and
+the psychic correctly spelled out the names of Mrs. Evans' brothers--John,
+Robert, and Dudley, the latter a family name and rather unusual, and
+described the family as living in the West.
+
+The following example of Telepathy occurred between the writer and a
+younger brother.
+
+Case C.
+
+In the fall of 1890, I was travelling from Washington to Baltimore, by the
+B. & P. R. R. As the train approached Jackson Grove, a campmeeting
+ground, deserted at that time of the year, the engine whistle blew
+vigorously and the bell was rung continuously, which was something
+unusual, as the cars ordinarily did not stop at this isolated station, but
+whirled past. Then the engine slowed down and the train came to a
+standstill.
+
+"What is the matter?" exclaimed the passengers.
+
+"My God, look there!" shouted an excited passenger, leaning out of the
+coach window, and pointing to the dilapidated platform of the station. I
+looked out and beheld a decapitated human head, standing almost upright in
+a pool of blood. With the other male passengers I rushed out of the car.
+The head was that of an old man with very white hair and beard. We found
+the body down an embankment at some little distance from the place of the
+accident. The deceased was recognized as the owner of the Grove, a farmer
+living in the vicinity. According to the statement of the engineer, the
+old man was walking on the track; the warning signals were given, but
+proved of no avail. Being somewhat deaf, he did not realize his danger. He
+attempted to step off the track, but the brass railing that runs along the
+side of the locomotive decapitated him like the knife of a guillotine.
+
+When I reached Baltimore about 7 o'clock, P. M., I hurried down to the
+office of the "Baltimore News" and wrote out an account of the tragic
+affair. My work at the office kept me until a late hour of the night, and
+I went home to bed at about 1 o'clock, A. M. My brother, who slept in an
+adjoining room, had retired to bed and the door between our apartments was
+closed. The next morning, Sunday, I rose at 9 o'clock, and went down to
+breakfast. The family had assembled, and I was just in time to hear my
+brother relate the following: "I had a most peculiar dream last night. I
+thought I was on my way to Mt. Washington (he was in the habit of making
+frequent visits to this suburb of Baltimore on the Northern Central R. R.)
+We ran down an old man and decapitated him. I was looking out of the
+window and saw the head standing in a pool of blood. The hair and beard
+were snow white. We found the body not far off, and it proved to be a
+farmer residing in the neighborhood of Mt. Washington."
+
+"You will find the counterpart of that dream in the morning paper", I
+remarked seriously. "I reported the accident." My father called for the
+paper, and proceeded to hunt its columns for the item, saying, "You
+undoubtedly transferred the impression to your brother."
+
+Case D.
+
+This is another striking evidence of telepathic communication, in which I
+was one of the agents. L-- was a reporter on a Baltimore paper, and his
+apartments were the rendezvous of a coterie of Bohemian actors,
+journalists, and _litterati_, among whom was X--, a student at the
+Johns-Hopkins University, and a poet of rare excellence. Poets have a
+proverbial reputation for being eccentric in personal appearance; in X
+this eccentricity took the form of an unclipped beard that stood out in
+all directions, giving him a savage, anarchistic look. He vowed never
+under any circumstances to shave or cut this hirsute appendage.
+
+L-- came to me one day, and laughingly remarked: "I am being tortured by a
+mental obsession. X's beard annoys me; haunts my waking and sleeping
+hours. I must do something about it. Listen! He is coming down to my
+rooms, Saturday evening, to do some literary work, and spend the night
+with me. We shall have supper together, and I want you to be present. Now
+I propose that we drug his coffee with some harmless soporific, and when
+he is sound asleep, tie him, and shave off his beard. Will you help me? I
+can provide you with a lounge to sleep on, but you must promise not to go
+to sleep until after the tragedy."
+
+I agreed to assist him in his practical joke, and we parted, solemnly
+vowing that our project should be kept secret.
+
+This was on Tuesday, and no communication was had with X, until Saturday
+morning, when L-- and I met him on Charles street.
+
+"Don't forget to-night," exclaimed L-- "I have invited E to join us in our
+Epicurean feast."
+
+"I will be there," said X. "By the way, let me relate a curious dream I
+had last night. I dreamt I came down to your rooms, and had supper. E--was
+present. You fellows gave me something to drink which contained a drug,
+and I fell asleep on the bed. After that you tied my hands, and shaved off
+my beard. When I awoke I was terribly mad. I burst the cords that fastened
+my wrists together, and springing to my feet, cut L--severely with the
+razor."
+
+"That settles the matter", said L--, "his beard is safe from me". When we
+told X of our conspiracy to relieve him of his poetic hirsute appendage,
+he evinced the greatest astonishment. As will be seen, every particular of
+the practical joke had been transferred to his mind, the drugging of the
+coffee, the tying, and the shaving.
+
+Telepathy is a logical explanation of many of the ghostly visitations of
+which the Society for Psychical Research has collected such a mass of
+data. For example: A dies, let us say in India and B, a near relative or
+friend, residing in England, sees a vision of A in a dream or in the
+waking state. A clasps his hands, and seems to utter the words, "I am
+dying". When the news comes of A's death, the time of the occurrence
+coincides with the seeing of the vision. The spiritualist's theory is that
+the ghost of A was an actual entity. One of the difficulties in the way of
+such an hypothesis is the clothing of the deceased--_can that, too, be
+disembodied?_ Thought transference (conscious or unconscious), I think, is
+the only rational explanation of such phantasms. The vision seen by the
+percipient is not an objective but a subjective thing--a hallucination
+produced by the unknown force called telepathy. The vision need not
+coincide exactly with the date of the death of the transmitter but may
+make its appearance years afterwards, remaining latent in the subjective
+mind of the percipient. It may, as is frequently the case, be revealed by
+a medium in a s�ance. Many thoughtful writers combat the telepathic
+explanation of phantasms of the dead, claiming that when such are seen
+long after the death of persons, they afford indubitable evidence of the
+reality of spirit visitation. The reader is referred to the proceedings
+of the Society for Psychical Research for a detailed discussion of the
+_pros_ and _cons_ of this most interesting subject.
+
+Many of the so-called materializations of the s�ance-room may be accounted
+for by hallucinations superinduced by telepathic suggestions from the mind
+of the medium or sitters. But, in my opinion, the greater number of these
+manifestations of spirit power are the result of trickery pure and
+simple--theatrical beards and wigs, muslin and gossamer robes, etc., being
+the paraphernalia used to impersonate the shades of the departed, the
+imaginations of the sitters doing the rest.
+
+
+2. Table-Tilting--Muscle Reading.
+
+In regard to Table-Tilting with contact, I have given Faraday's
+conclusions on the subject,--unconscious muscular action on the part of
+the sitter or sitters. In the case of Automatic Writing (particularly with
+the planchette), unconscious muscular action is the proper explanation for
+the movements of the apparatus. "Professor Augusto Tamburini, of Italy,
+author of 'Spiritismo e Telepatia', a cautious investigator of psychical
+problems," says a reviewer in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
+Research (Volume IX, p. 226), "accepts the verdict of all competent
+observers that imposture is inadmissible as a general explanation, and
+endorses the view that the muscular action which causes the movements of
+the table or the pencil is produced by the subliminal consciousness. He
+explains the definite and varying characters of the supposed authors of
+the messages as the result of self-suggestion. As by hypnotic or
+post-hypnotic suggestion a subject may be made to think he is Napoleon or
+a chimney sweep, so, by self-suggestion, the subliminal consciousness may
+be made to think that he is X and Y, and to tilt or wrap messages in the
+character of X and Y."
+
+Professor Tamburini's explanation fails to account for the innumerable
+well authenticated cases where facts are obtained not within the conscious
+knowledge of the planchette writer or table-tilter. If telepathy does not
+enter into these cases, what does?
+
+There are many exhibitions, of thought transference by public psychics,
+that are thought transference in name only. One must be on one's guard
+against these pretenders to occult powers. I refer to men like our late
+compatriot, Washington Irving Bishop--"muscle-reader" _par excellence_
+whose fame extended throughout the civilized world.
+
+Muscle-Reading is performed in the following manner: Let us take, for
+example, the reading of the figures on a bank-note. The subject gazes
+intently at the figures on a note, and fixes them in his mind. The
+muscle-reader, blindfolded or not, takes a crayon in his right hand, and
+lightly clasps the hand or wrist of the subject with his left. He then
+writes on a blackboard the correct figures on the note. This is one of the
+most difficult feats in the repertoire of the muscle-reader, and was
+excelled in by Bishop and Stuart Cumberland. Charles Gatchell, an
+authority on the subject, says that the above named men were the only
+muscle-readers who have ever accomplished the feat. Geometrical designs
+can also be reproduced on a blackboard. The finding of objects hidden in
+an adjoining room, or upon the person of a spectator in a public hall, or
+at a distance, are also accomplished by skillful muscle readers, either by
+clasping the hand of the subject, or one end of a short wire held by him.
+Says Gatchell, in the "_Forum_" for April, 1891: "Success in
+muscle-reading depends upon the powers of the principal and upon the
+susceptibility of the subject. The latter must be capable of mental
+concentration; he must exert no muscular self-control; he must obey his
+every impulse. Under these conditions, the phenomena are in accordance
+with known laws of physiology. On the part of the principal,
+muscle-reading consists of an acute perception of the slight action of
+another's muscles. On the part of the subject, it involves a nervous
+impulse, accompanied by muscular action. The mind of the subject is in a
+state of tension or expectancy. A sudden release from this state excites,
+momentarily, an increased activity in the cells of the cerebral cortex.
+Since the ideational centres, as is usually held, correspond to the motor
+centres, the nervous action causes a motor impulse to be transmitted to
+the muscles. * * In making his way to the location of a hidden object, the
+subject usually does not lead the muscle-reader, but the muscle-reader
+leads the subject. That is to say, so long as the muscle-reader moves in
+the right direction, the subject gives no indication, but passively moves
+with him. The muscle-reader perceives nothing unusual. But, the subject's
+mind being intently fixed on a certain course, the instant that the
+muscle-reader deviates from that course there is a slight, involuntary
+tremor, or muscular thrill, on the part of the subject, due to the sudden
+interruption of his previous state of mental tension. The muscle-reader,
+almost unconsciously, takes note of the delicate signal, and alters his
+course to the proper one, again leading his willing subject. In a word, he
+follows the line of the least resistance. In other cases the conditions
+are reversed; the subject unwittingly leads the principal.
+
+"The discovery of a bank-note number requires a slightly different
+explanation. The conditions are these: The subject is intently thinking of
+a certain figure. His mind is in a state of expectant attention. He is
+waiting for but one thing in the world to happen--for another to give
+audible expression to the name of that which he has in mind. The instant
+that the conditions are fulfilled, the mind of the subject is released
+from its state of tension, and the accompanying nervous action causes a
+slight muscular tremor, which is perceived by the acute senses of the
+muscle-reader. This explanation applies, also, to the pointing out of one
+pin among many, or of a letter or a figure on a chart. The conditions
+involved in the tracing of a figure on a blackboard or other surface are
+of a like order, although this is a severer test of a muscle-reader's
+powers. So long as the muscle-reader moves the crayon in the right
+direction, he is permitted to do so; but when he deviates from the proper
+course, the subject, whose hand or wrist he clasps, involuntarily
+indicates the fact by the usual slight muscular tremor. This, of course,
+is done involuntarily; but if he is fulfilling the conditions demanded of
+all subjects, absolute concentration of attention and absence of muscular
+control--he unconsciously obeys his impulse. A billiard player does the
+same when he follows the driven ball with his cue, as if by sheer force of
+will he could induce it to alter its course. The ivory is uninfluenced;
+the human ball obeys."
+
+
+
+
+III. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA.
+
+
+1. Psychography, or Slate-Writing.
+
+One of the most interesting phases of modern mediumship, on the physical
+side, is psychography, or slate-writing. After an investigation extending
+over ten years, I am of the opinion that the majority of slate-writing
+feats are the results of conjuring. The process generally used is the
+following.
+
+The medium takes two slates, binds them together, after first having
+deposited a small bit of chalk or slate pencil between their surfaces, and
+either holds them in his hands, or lays them on the table. Soon the
+scratching of the pencil is heard, and when the cords are removed a spirit
+message is found upon the surface of one of the slates. I will endeavor to
+explain the "modus operandi" of these startling experiments.
+
+Some years ago, the most famous of the slate-writing mediums was Dr. Henry
+Slade, of New York, with whom I had several sittings. I was unable to
+penetrate the mystery of his performance, until the summer of 1889, when
+light was thrown upon the subject by the conjurer C-- whom I met in
+Baltimore.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2. DR. HENRY SLADE.]
+
+"Do you know the medium Slade?" I asked him.
+
+"Yes," said he, "and he is a conjurer like myself. I've had sittings with
+him. Come to my rooms to-night, and I will explain the secret workings of
+the medium's slate-writing. But first I will treat you to a regular
+s�ance."
+
+On my way to C's home I tried to put myself in the frame of mind of a
+genuine seeker after transcendental knowledge. I recalled all the stories
+of mysterious rappings and ghostly visitations I had read or heard of. It
+was just the night for such eerie musings. Black clouds were scurrying
+across the face of the moon like so many mediaeval witches mounted on the
+proverbial broomsticks _en route_ for a mad sabbat in some lonely
+churchyard. The prestidigitateur's _pension_ was a great, lumbering,
+gloomy old house, in an old quarter of Baltimore. The windows were tightly
+closed and only the feeble glimmer of gaslight was emitted through the
+cracks of the shutters. I rang the bell and Mr. C's stage-assistant, a
+pale-faced young man, came to the door, relieved me of my light overcoat
+and hat, and ushered me upstairs into the conjurer's sitting-room.
+
+A large, baize-covered table stood in the centre of the apartment, and a
+cabinet with a black curtain drawn across it occupied a position in a deep
+alcove. Suspended from the roof of the cabinet was a large guitar. I took
+a chair and waited patiently for the appearance of the anti-Spiritualist,
+after having first examined everything in the room--table, cabinet, and
+musical instruments--but I discovered no evidence of trickery anywhere. I
+waited and waited, but no C--. "Can he have forgotten me?" I said to
+myself. Suddenly a loud rap resounded on the table top, followed by a
+succession of raps from the cabinet; and the guitar began to play. I was
+quite startled. When the music ceased the door opened, and C-- entered.
+
+"The spirits are in force to-night," he remarked with a meaning smile, as
+he slightly diminished the light in the apartment.
+
+"Yes," I replied. "How did you do it?"
+
+"All in good time, my dear ghost-seer," was the answer. "Let us try first
+a few of Dr. Slade's best slate tests."
+
+So saying he handed me a slate and directed me to wash it carefully on
+both sides with a damp cloth. I did so and passed it back to him.
+Scattering some tiny fragments of pencil upon it, he held the slate
+pressed against the under surface of the table leaf, the fingers of his
+right hand holding the slate, his thumb grasping the leaf. C-- then
+requested me to hold the other end of the slate in a similar fashion, and
+took my right hand in his left. Heavy raps were heard on the table-top,
+and I felt the fingers of a spirit hand plucking at my garments from
+beneath the table. C--'s body seemed possessed with some strange
+convulsion, his hands quivered, and his eyes had a glassy look. Listening
+attentively, I heard the sound of a pencil writing on the slate.
+
+"Take care!" gasped the conjurer, breathlessly.
+
+The slate was jerked violently out of our hands by some powerful agency,
+but the medium regained it, and again pressed it against the table as
+before. In a little while he brought the slate up and there upon its upper
+surface was a spirit message, addressed to me--"Are you convinced now?--D.
+D. Home."
+
+At this juncture there came a knock at the door, and C--, with the slate
+in his hand, went to see who it was. It proved to be the pale-faced
+assistant. A few words in a low-tone of voice were exchanged between them,
+and the conjurer returned to the table, excusing the interruption by
+remarking, "Some one to see me, that is all, but don't hurry, for I have
+another test to show you." After thoroughly washing both sides of the
+slate he placed it, with a slate pencil, under a chafing-dish cover in the
+center of the table. We joined hands and awaited developments.
+
+Being tolerably well acquainted with conjuring devices, I manifested but
+little surprise in the first test when the spirit message was written,
+because the magician _had his fingers on the slate_. But in this test the
+slate was not in his possession; how then could the writing be
+accomplished?
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3. THE HOLDING OF THE SLATE.]
+
+"Hush!" said C--, "is there a spirit present?" A responsive rap resounded
+on the table, and after a few minutes' silence, the mysterious scratching
+of the slate-pencil began. I was nonplussed.
+
+"Turn over the slate," said the juggler.
+
+I complied with his request and found a long message to me, covering the
+entire side of the slate. It was signed "Cagliostro."
+
+"What do you think of Dr. Slade's slate tests?" inquired C--.
+
+"Splendid!" I replied, "but how are they done?"
+
+His explanations made the seeming marvel perfectly plain. While the slate
+is being examined in the first test, the medium slips on a thimble with a
+piece of slate pencil attached or else has a tiny bit of pencil under his
+finger nail. In the act of holding the slate under the table, he writes
+the short message backwards on its under side. It becomes necessary,
+however, to turn the slate over before exhibiting it to the sitter, so
+that the writing may appear to have been written on its upper
+surface--the side that has been pressed to the table. To accomplish this
+the medium pretends to go into a sort of neurotic convulsion, during which
+state the slate is jerked away from the sitter, presumably by spirit
+power, and is turned over in the required position. It is not immediately
+brought up for examination but is held for a few seconds underneath the
+table top, and then produced with a certain amount of deliberation.
+
+The special difficulty of this trick consists in the medium's ability to
+write in reverse upon the under surface of the slate. If he wrote from
+left to right, in the ordinary method, it would, of course, reverse the
+message when the slate is examined, and give a decided clue to the
+mystery. This inscribing in reverse, or mirror writing, as it is often
+called, is exceedingly difficult to do, but nothing is impossible to a
+Slade.
+
+But how is the writing done on the slate in the second test? asks the
+curious reader. Nothing easier! The servant who raps at the door brings
+with him, concealed under his coat, a second slate, upon which the long
+message is written. Over the writing is a pad cut from a book-slate,
+exactly fitting the frame of the prepared slate. It is impossible to
+detect the fraud when the light in the room is a trifle obscure. The
+medium makes an exchange of slates, returns to the table, washes both
+sides of the trick slate, and carelessly exhibits it to the sitter, the
+writing being protected of course by the pad. Before placing the slate
+under the chafing-dish cover, he lets the pad drop into his lap. Now comes
+a crucial point in the imposture: the writing heard beneath the slate,
+supposed to be the work of a disembodied spirit. The medium under cover of
+his handkerchief removes from his pocket an instrument known as a
+"pencil-clamp." This clamp consists of a small block of wood with two
+sharp steel points protruding from the upper edge and a piece of slate
+pencil fixed in the lower. The medium presses the steel points into the
+under surface of the table with sufficient force to attach the block
+securely to the table, and then rubs a pencil, previously attached to his
+right knee by silk sutures, against the side of the pencil fastened to the
+apparatus. The noise produced thereby exactly simulates that of writing
+upon a slate. In my case the illusion was perfect. During the examination
+of the message, the medium has ample opportunity to secrete the false pad
+and the clamp in his pocket. Instead of having a servant bring the slate
+to him and making the exchange described above, he may have the trick
+slate concealed about him before the s�ance begins, with the message
+written on it, and adroitly make the substitution while the sitter is
+engaged in lowering the light. Dr. Slade almost invariably adopted the
+first-mentioned exchange, because it enabled his confederate to write a
+lucid message to the sitter.
+
+An examination of the sitter's overcoat in the hall frequently yielded
+valuable information in the way of names and initials extracted from
+letters, sealed or unsealed. Sealed letters? Yes; it is an easy matter to
+steam a gummed envelope, open it, and seal it again. Another method is to
+wet the sealed envelope with a sponge dipped in alcohol. The writing will
+show up tolerably well if written upon a card. In a very short time the
+envelope will dry and exhibit no evidence of having been tampered with.
+
+And now as to the rest of the phenomena witnessed that evening in C--'s
+room. The raps on the table top were the result of an ingenious, hidden
+mechanism, worked by electricity; the mysterious hand that operated under
+the table was the juggler's right foot. He wore slippers and had the toe
+part of one stocking cut away. By dropping the slipper from his foot he
+was enabled to pull the edge of my coat, lift and shove a chair away, and
+perform sundry other ghostly evolutions, thanks to a well trained big
+toe. Dr. Slade who was long and lithe of limb, worked this dodge to
+perfection, prior to the paralytic attack which partly disabled his lower
+limbs.
+
+The stringed instrument which played in the cabinet was arranged as
+follows: Inside of the guitar was a small musical box, so arranged that
+the steel vibrating tongues of the box came in contact with a small piece
+of writing paper. When the box was set to going by means of an electric
+current, it closely imitated the twanging of a guitar, just as a sheet of
+music when laid on the strings of a piano simulates a banjo. This spirit
+guitar is a very useful instrument in the hands of a medium. It may be
+made to play when it is attached to a telescopic rod, and waved in
+phosphorescent curves over the heads of a circle of believers in the dark
+s�ance.
+
+I shall now sum up the subject of Dr. Slade's spirit-slate writing, (Fig.
+3) and endeavor to show how grossly exaggerated the reports of the
+medium's performances have been, and the reasons for such misstatements.
+No one who is not a professional or amateur prestidigitateur can correctly
+report what he sees at a spiritualistic s�ance.
+
+It is not so much the swiftness of the hand that counts in conjuring but
+the ability to force the attention of the spectators in different
+directions away from the crucial point of the trick. The really important
+part of the test, then, is hidden from the audience, who imagine they have
+seen all when they have not. Says Dr. Max Dessoir: "It must therefore be
+regarded as a piece of rare naivet� if a reporter asserts that in the
+description of his subjective conclusions he is giving the exact objective
+processes."
+
+This will be seen in Mr. Davey's experiments. Mr. Davey, a member of the
+London Society for Psychical Research, and an amateur magician who
+possessed great dexterity in the slate-writing business, gave a series of
+exhibitions before a number of persons, but did not inform them that the
+results were due to prestidigitation. No entrance fee was charged for the
+s�ances, but the sitters, who were fully impressed with the genuineness of
+the affair, were requested to submit written reports of what they had
+seen. These letters, published in vol. iv of the Proceedings of the
+Society, are admirable examples of mal-observation, for no one detected
+Mr. Davey exchanging slates and doing the writing.
+
+"The sources of error," says Dr. Max Dessoir, in an article reproduced in
+the "Open Court," "through which such strange reports arise, may be
+arranged in four groups. First, the observer interpolates a fact which
+did not happen, but which he is led to believe has happened; thus, he
+imagines he has examined the slate when as a fact he never has. Second, he
+confuses two similar ideas; he thinks he has carefully examined the slate,
+when in reality he has only done so hastily, or in ignorance of the point
+at issue. Third, the witness changes the order of events a little in
+consequence of a very natural deception of memory; he believes he tested
+the slate later than he actually did. Fourth and last, he passes over
+certain details which were purposely described to him as insignificant; he
+does not notice that the 'medium' asks him to close a window, and that the
+trick is thus rendered possible."
+
+Similar experiments in slate-writing were conducted by the Seybert
+Commission with Mr. Harry Kellar, the conjurer, after sittings were had
+with Dr. Slade, and the magician outdid the medium. The Seybert Commission
+found none of Slade's tests genuine, and officially denied "the
+extraordinary stories of his performances with locked slates which
+constitute a large part of his fame."
+
+Dr. Slade began his Spiritualistic operations in London in the year 1876,
+and charged a fee of a guinea a head for s�ances lasting a few minutes.
+Crowds went to see him and he reaped a golden harvest from the credulous,
+until the grand fiasco came. Slade was caught in one of his juggling
+s�ances and exposed by Prof. Lancaster and Dr. Donkin. The result was a
+criminal prosecution and a sensational trial lasting three days at the Bow
+Street Police Court. Mr. Maskelyne, the conjurer, was summoned as an
+expert witness and performed a number of the medium's tricks in the
+witness box. The court sentenced Slade to three months' hard labor, but he
+took an appeal from the magistrate's decision. The appeal was sustained on
+the ground of a technical flaw in the indictment, and the medium fled to
+the Continent before new summons could be served. He visited Paris,
+Leipsic, Berlin, St. Petersburg and other cities, giving s�ances before
+Royalty and before distinguished members of scientific societies; and
+afterwards went to Australia. He made money fast and spent it fast, but it
+took all of his ingenuity to elude the clutches of the police. In 1892, we
+find him the inmate of a workhouse in one of our Western towns, penniless,
+friendless and a lunatic.
+
+Slade's s�ances with Prof. Zoellner, of Berlin, in 1878, attracted wide
+attention, and did more to advertise his fame as a medium than anything
+else in his career.
+
+Zoellner's belief in the genuineness of Slade's mediumistic marvels led
+him to write a curious work, entitled, "Transcendental Physics," being an
+inquiry into the "fourth dimension of space." Poor old Zoellner, he was
+half insane when these s�ances were held! We have the undisputed authority
+of the Seybert Commission for the correctness of this statement.
+
+In Hamburg, Dr. Borchert wrote to Slade offering him one thousand marks if
+he would produce writing between locked slates, similar to the writing
+alleged to have been executed at the Zoellner s�ances, but the medium took
+no notice of the professor's letter. The conjurer, Carl Wilmann, with two
+friends, had a sitting with Slade, but without satisfactory results for
+the medium. "Slade," says Wilmann, "was unable to distract my attention
+from the crucial point of the trick, and threw down the slates on the
+table in disgust, remarking: 'I can not obtain any results to-day, the
+power that controls me is exhausted. Come tomorrow!'" That tomorrow never
+arrived for Wilmann and his friends; Slade did not keep his appointment,
+nor could Wilmann succeed in obtaining another sitting with him. The
+medium had been warned by friends that Wilmann was an expert professor of
+legerdemain.
+
+It was in 1886 that Slade created such a furore in Hamburg in
+Spiritualistic circles. A talented conjurer of that city, named
+Schradieck, after a few weeks' practice succeeded in eclipsing Slade. He
+learned to write in reverse on slates, and produced writing in various
+colored chalks. Another one of his experiments was making the slate
+disappear from one side of the table where it was held _a la_ Slade and
+appear at the opposite end of the table suddenly, as if held up to view by
+a spirit hand. Wilmann describes the effect as startling in the extreme
+and says Schradieck produced it by means of his left foot. After Slade's
+departure from Hamburg, spirit mediums sprang up like toadstools in a
+single night. Wilmann in his crusade against these worthies had many
+interesting experiences. He gives in his work "Moderne Wunder" several
+exposes of mediumistic tricks, two of which, in the sealed slate line, are
+very ingenious. The medium takes a slate (one furnished by the sitter if
+preferred), wipes it on both sides with a wet sponge, and then wraps it up
+carefully in a piece of ordinary white wrapping paper, allowing the
+package to be sealed and corded _ad libitum_. Notwithstanding all the
+precautions used, a message appears on the slate. It is accomplished in
+this way. A message in reverse is written on the wrapping paper with a
+camel's hair brush or pointed stick, dipped in some sticky substance, and
+finely powdered slate pencil dust is scattered over the writing. At a
+little distance, especially in a dim light, it is impossible to discover
+the writing as it blends very well with the white paper. In wrapping up
+the slate the medium presses the writing on the paper against the surface
+of the slate and the chirography adheres thereto, very much as the greasy
+drawing on a lithographer's stone prints on paper.
+
+In the other experiment the medium uses a _papier mache_ slate, set in the
+usual wooden frame. A _papier mache_ pad is prepared with a spirit message
+on one surface; on the other is pasted a piece of newspaper. This pad is
+laid, written side down, on a sheet of newspaper. After the genuine slate
+has been washed, the medium proceeds to wrap it up in the newspaper, and
+presses the trick pad, writing up, into the frame of the slate where it
+exactly fits into a groove prepared for the purpose.
+
+Since Dr. Slade's retirement from the mediumistic field, Pierre L. O. A.
+Keeler's fame as a slate-writing medium has been spread broadcast. He
+oscillates between Boston, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore
+and Washington, and has a very large and fashionable _clientele_. He
+gives evening materializing s�ances of the cabinet type three times a week
+at his rooms. During the day he gives private slate tests which are very
+popular.
+
+I had a sitting with him on the afternoon of April 24th, 1895. In order to
+gain his confidence, I went as one witnessing a slate s�ance for the first
+time, that is, I accepted _his_ slates, and had no prepared questions.
+
+I was ushered into a small, back parlor by the medium who closed the
+folding doors. We were alone. I made a mental photograph of the
+surroundings. There was no furniture except a table and two chairs placed
+near the window. Over the table was a faded cloth, hanging some eight or
+ten inches below the table. Upon it were several pads of paper and a
+heterogeneous assortment of lead pencils. Leaning against the mantelpiece,
+within a foot or so of the medium's chair, were some thirty or forty
+slates.
+
+"Take a seat", said Mr. Keeler pointing to a chair. I sat down, whereupon
+he seated himself opposite me, remarking as he did so, "Have you brought
+slates with you?"
+
+"I have not," was my reply.
+
+"Then, if you have no objection," he said, "we will use two of mine.
+Please examine these two slates, wash them clean with this damp cloth, and
+dry them." With that he passed me two ordinary school-slates, which I
+inspected closely, and carefully cleaned.
+
+"Be kind enough to place the slates to one side," said Keeler. I complied.
+
+"Have you prepared any slips with the names of friends, relatives, or
+others, who have passed into spirit life, with questions for them to
+answer?"
+
+"I have not," I replied.
+
+"Kindly do so then," he answered, "and take your time about it. There is a
+pad on the table. Please write but a single question on each slip. Then
+fold the slips and place them on the table." I did so.
+
+"I will also make one," he continued, "it is to my spirit control, George
+Christy." He wrote a name on a slip of paper, folded it, and tossed it
+among those I had prepared, passing his hand over them and fingering them,
+saying, "It is necessary to get a psychic impression from them." We sat in
+silence several minutes.
+
+After a little while Mr. Keeler said: "I do not know whether or not we
+shall get any responses this afternoon, but have patience." Again we
+waited. "Suppose you write a few more slips," he remarked, "perhaps
+we'll have better luck. Be sure and address them to people who were old
+enough to write before they passed into spirit life." This surprised me,
+but I complied with his wishes. While writing I glanced furtively at him
+from time to time; his hands were in his lap, concealed by the table
+cloth. He looked at me occasionally, then at his lap, fixedly. _I am
+satisfied that he opened some of my slips, having adroitly abstracted them
+from the table in the act of fingering them._
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4--SLATE WRITING.]
+
+He directed me to take my handkerchief and tie the two slates on the table
+tightly together, holding the slates in his hands as I did so. I laid the
+slates on the table before me, and we waited. "I think we will succeed
+this time in getting responses to some of the questions. Let us hold the
+slates." He grasped them with fingers and thumbs at one end, and I at the
+other in like manner, holding the slates about two inches above the table.
+We listened attentively, and soon was heard the scratching noise of a
+slate pencil moving upon a slate. The sound seemed directly under the
+slate, and was sufficiently impressive to startle any person making a
+slate test for the first time, and unacquainted with the multifarious
+devices of the sleight-of-hand artist.
+
+"Hold the slates tightly, please!" said Mr. Keeler, as a convulsive
+tremor shook his hands. I grasped firmly my end of the slates, and waited
+further developments. The faint tap of a slate pencil upon a slate was
+heard, and the medium announced that the communications were finished. I
+untied the handkerchief, and turned up the inner surfaces of the slates.
+Upon one of them several messages were written, and signed. Other
+communications were received during the sitting. After the first messages
+were received, and while I was engaged in reading them, Keeler quickly
+picked up a slate from the floor, clapped it upon the clean slate
+remaining on the table, and requested me to tie the two rapidly together
+with my handkerchief before the influence was lost. At a signal from him I
+unfastened the slates and found another set of answers. The same
+proceeding was gone through for the third set. The imitation of a pencil
+writing upon a slate was either made by the apparatus, described in the
+s�ance with C-- in the first part of this chapter, or by some other
+contrivance; more than likely by simply scratching with his finger on the
+under surface of the slate. While my attention was absorbed in the act of
+writing my second set of questions, he prepared answers to two of my first
+set and substituted a prepared slate for the cleaned slate on the table.
+_I was sure he was writing under the table; I heard the faint rubbing of a
+soft bit of pencil upon the surface of a slate. His hands were in his lap
+and his eyes were fixed downwards._ Several times I saw him put his
+fingers into his vest pockets, and he appeared to bring up small particles
+of something, which I believe were bits of the white and colored crayons
+used in writing the messages. His quiet audacity was surprising. I give
+below the questions and answers with my comments thereon:
+
+First Slate. Fig. 4.
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To Mamie:--
+
+Tell me the name of your dead brother?
+
+  (Signed) Harry R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+You must not think of me as one gone forever from you. You have made
+conditions by and through which I can return to you, and so long as I can
+do this I can not feel unhappy. So dear one, rest in the assurance that
+you are helping me, and that I am doing all I can to help you. Let us make
+the best of it all and help each other as best we can, then all will be
+well. My home in spirit life is beautiful and awaiting you. I will be the
+first to greet you. _I have no dead brother. All of us are living._ I am
+Mamie --. (The medium here cleverly evades giving a name by an equivoque.)
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To Len--
+
+Tell me the cause of your death, and the circumstances surrounding it?
+
+  (Signed) Harry R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+Harry! I am very glad to see you. I am happy. You must be reconciled, and
+not mourn me as dead! I will try to come again soon, when I am stronger
+and tell of my decease.--Len. (He again evades an answer.)
+
+Second Slate. Fig. 5.
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To A. D. B.--
+
+When and where did you die?
+
+  (Signed) Harry R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+This all seems so strange coming back and writing just as one would if
+they were in the earth life and communicating with a friend. What a
+blessed privilege it is. I am so happy. Oh, I would not come back. It is
+so restful here. No pain or sorrow. Dear, do not think I have forgotten
+you, I constantly think of you and wish that you, too, might view these
+lovely scenes of glorious beauty. You must rest with the thought that when
+your life is ended upon the earth, _I will be the first to meet you_. Now
+be patient and hopeful until we meet where there is no more parting. I am
+sincerely, A. D. B. (No answer at all.) Observe error in first sentence:
+"as _one_ would if _they_ were--." A. D. B. was an educated gentleman, and
+not given to such ungrammatical expressions.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 5--SLATE WRITING.]
+
+Third Slate. Fig. 6.
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To B. G.--
+
+Can you recall any of the conversations we had together on the B. and P.
+R. R. cars?
+
+  (Signed) H. R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+O my dear one, I can only write a few lines that you may know that I see
+and hear you as you call upon me. I do not forget you. When I am stronger
+will come again. I do not know what conversation you refer to in the cars.
+
+  B. G.
+
+(Again evades answering. B. G. was very much interested in the drama, and
+talked continuously about the stage.)
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To C. J.--
+
+Where did you die, and from what disease?
+
+  (Signed) H. R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+I know the days and weeks seem long and lonely to you without me. I do not
+forget you; am doing the best I can to help you.
+
+  C. J.--.
+
+(Still another evasion of a straightforward question. The lady in spirit
+life to whom the question was addressed died of consumption in a Roman
+Catholic Convent. She was only a society acquaintance of the writer, and
+not on such terms of intimacy as to warrant Mr. Keeler's reply.)
+
+In one corner of Slate No. 2 was the following, written with a yellow
+crayon: "This is remarkable. How did you know we could come?--H. K.
+Evans." Scrawled across the face of Slate No. 3, in red pencil, was a
+communication from George Christy, Mr. Keeler's spirit control, reading as
+follows: "Many are here who----G. C. (George Christy)" (The remainder is
+so badly written, as to be indecipherable.)
+
+On carefully analyzing the various communications it will be observed that
+the handwriting of the messages from Mamie--and B G.--are similar,
+possessing the same characteristics as regards letter formation, etc. It
+does not require a professional expert in chirography to detect this fact.
+One and the same person wrote the messages purporting to come from Mamie
+R--, Len--, B. G.--, C. J.--, and A. D. B. _In fact, the writing on all
+the slates is, in my opinion, the work of Mr. Pierre Keeler._
+
+The longer communications were doubtless prepared beforehand, being
+general in nature and conveying about the same information that any
+departed spirit might give to any inquiring mortal, but, as will be
+observed, _giving no adequate answers to the queries_, with the exception
+of the last two sentences, _which were written by the medium, after he
+became acquainted with the tenor of the questions upon the folded slips_.
+The very short communications are written in a careless hand, such as a
+man would dash off hastily. There is an attempt at disguise, but a clumsy
+one, the letters still retaining the characteristics of the more
+deliberate chirography of the long communications. A close inspection of
+the slates reveals the exact similarity of the y's, u's, I's, g's, h's,
+m's and n's.
+
+The handwriting of messages on slates should be, and is claimed to be,
+adequate evidence of the genuineness of the communication, for are we not
+supposed to know the handwriting of our friends?
+
+Possibly Mr. Keeler would claim that the handwriting was the work of his
+control "Geo. Christy", who acted as a sort of amanuensis for the spirits.
+If this be so, why the attempts at _disguise_, and bungling attempts at
+that?
+
+In the s�ance with Mr. Keeler, I subjected him to no tests. He had
+everything his own way. _I should have brought my own marked slates with
+me and never let them out of my sight for an instant. I should have
+subjected the table to a close examination, and requested the medium to
+move or rather myself removed the collection of slates against the mantel,
+placed so conveniently within his reach._ I did not do this, because of
+his well known irascibility. He would probably have shown me the door and
+refused a sitting on any terms, as he has done to many skeptics. I was
+anxious to meet Keeler, and preferred playing the novice rather than not
+get a slate test from one of the best-known and most famous of modern
+slate-writing mediums.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 6--SLATE WRITING.]
+
+After what has been stated, I think there can be no shadow of doubt that
+the medium abstracted by sleight-of-hand some of the paper slips
+containing my written questions, read them under cover of the table, and
+did the slate-writing himself. All of these slate-tests, where pellets or
+slips of paper are used, are performed in a similar manner, as will be
+seen from the expos� published by the Society for Psychical Research. In
+vol. viii of the proceedings of that association will be found a number of
+revelations, one of which throws considerable light on the Keeler tests.
+The sitter was Dr. Richard Hodgson, and the medium was a Mrs. Gillett.
+Says Dr. Hodgson:
+
+"Under pretence of 'magnetising' the pellets prepared by the sitter, or
+folding them more tightly, she substitutes a pellet of her own for one of
+the sitter's. Reading the sitter's pellet below the table, she writes the
+answer on one of her own slates, a pile of which, out of the sitter's
+view, she keeps on a chair by her side. She then takes a second slate,
+places it on the table, and sponges and dries both sides, after which she
+takes the first slate, and turning the side upon which she has written
+towards herself, rubs it in several places with a dry cloth or the ends of
+her fingers as though cleaning it. She then places it, writing downward,
+on the other slate on the table, and sponges and dries the upper surface
+of it. She then pretends to take one of the pellets on the table and put
+it between the two slates. What she does, however, is to bring the pellet
+up from below the table, take another of the sitter's pellets on the table
+into her hand, and place the pellet which she has brought up from below
+the table between the slates, keeping in her hand the pellet just taken
+from the top of the table. The final step is to place a rubber band round
+both slates, in doing which she turns both slates over together. She
+professes to get the writing without the use of any chalk or pencil. Some
+of her slates are prepared beforehand with messages or drawings. More
+interesting, perhaps, because of its boldness, is her method of producing
+writing on the sitter's own slates. Under the pretence of 'magnetising'
+these she cleans them several times, rubs them with her hands, stands them
+up on end together, and while they are in this position between herself
+and the sitter she writes with one hand on the slate-side nearest to
+herself, holding the slates erect with the other hand. Later on, she lays
+both slates together flat on the table again, the writing being on the
+undermost surface. She then sponges the upper surface of the top slate,
+turns it over, and sponges its other surface. She next withdraws the
+bottom slate, places it on top and sponges its top surface, keeping its
+under surface carefully concealed. The final step, the reversal, is made,
+as in the other case, with the help of the rubber band. Mrs. Gillett has
+probably other methods, also. Those which I have described were all that I
+witnessed at my single sitting with her."
+
+My friend, Dr. L. M. Taylor, of Washington, D. C., an investigator of
+Spiritualistic phenomena, and skeptical like myself of the objective
+phases of the subject, has had many sittings with Keeler for independent
+slate-writing. One s�ance in particular he is fond of relating:
+
+"On one occasion, after I had written my slips, folded them up, and tossed
+them on the table, I said to Keeler who was obtaining his 'psychic'
+impression of them, 'I wish, if possible, to have a spirit tell me the
+numbers and the maker's name engraved in my watch. I have never taken the
+trouble to look at the numbers, consequently I do not know them.' 'Your
+request is an unusual one,' replied the medium, 'but I will endeavor to
+gratify it.' We had some conversations on the subject that lasted several
+minutes. Suddenly he picked up a slate pencil, and scrawled the name, _J.
+S. Granger_ on the upper surface of one of my slates; the two slates had
+been previously tied together with my handkerchief and laid on the table
+in front of me. 'You recognize that name, do you not?' asked Keeler.
+'Yes,' I replied, 'that is one of the names I wrote on the slips. J. S.
+Granger was an old friend of mine who died some years ago. He was a
+brother-in-law of Stephen A. Douglass.' 'If you wish to facilitate
+matters,' said Keeler, 'place your watch on top of the slates, concealed
+beneath the handkerchief, otherwise we may have to wait an hour or more
+without obtaining results, and there are a number of persons waiting for
+me in the ante-room. My time you see is limited.'
+
+"I detached my watch from its chain, and placed it in the required
+position. Keeler then took a piece of black cloth, used to clean slates,
+and laid it over my slates. Finally he requested me to take the covered
+slates and hold them in my lap. I took care to feel through the cloth that
+the watch was still beneath the handkerchief. In a short time I was
+directed to uncover the slates, and untie them, which I did. Upon the
+inner surface of one of the slates the following message was written:
+'Dear Friend, Stephen is with me. I have been through that beautiful watch
+of yours, and, if I see correctly, the number is 163131. On the inside I
+see this--E. Howard & Co., Boston, 211327. And then your name as follows:
+Dr. L. M. Taylor, 1221 Mass. Ave., N. W., Washington, D. C. Signed J. M.
+Granger.'
+
+"I then compared the name and numbers in my watch with those on the slate,
+and found the latter correct, with the exception of one number. A relative
+of mine was present in the room during this s�ance, and I showed her the
+communication on the slate. Afterwards we passed the slate to Keeler who
+examined it closely. When he handed it back to me, I was surprised to see
+that the incorrect number was mysteriously changed to the proper one."
+
+This is a very interesting test, indeed, because of its apparently
+impromptu character. I have seen similar feats performed by professional
+conjurers as well as mediums. A dummy watch is substituted for the
+sitter's watch, and after the medium has ascertained the name and numbers
+on the sitter's timepiece, he succeeds in adroitly exchanging it again for
+the dummy, thanks to the black cloth. The writing on the slate in the
+above s�ance was evidently produced in the same way as that described in
+my sitting with Keeler, after he had ascertained the name on the slip. The
+name of Stephen, of course, was directly obtained from Dr. Taylor. Not
+having been an eye witness of Keeler's movements in the watch test, I am
+unable to say how closely Dr. Taylor's description coincides with the
+medium's actual operations.
+
+In May, 1897, Mr. Pierre Keeler was in Washington, D. C., as usual. My
+friend, Dr. Taylor, who was desirous of putting the medium to another
+crucial test, wrote down a list of names on a sheet of paper--cognomens of
+ancient Egyptian, Chaldean, and Grecian priests and philosophers--folded
+the paper, and carefully sealed it in an envelope. He took ten slates with
+him, all of them marked with a private mark of his own. Mr. Keeler eyed
+the envelope dubiously, but passed no criticisms on the doctor's
+precautions to prevent trickery. The two men sat down at a table and
+waited for the spirits to manifest. Dr. Taylor, on this occasion, was
+absolutely certain that his slates had not been tampered with, and that
+the medium had not succeeded in opening the envelope. In a little while
+the comedy of the pencil-scratching between the tied slates began.
+
+"Ah", exclaimed the physician, "a message at last!" Then he thought to
+himself, "can the medium possibly have deluded my senses by some hypnotic
+power, and adroitly opened that envelope without my being aware of the
+fact? But no, that is impossible!"
+
+Mr. Keeler took the slates away from Dr. Taylor, and quickly opened them,
+_accidentally_ dropping one of them behind the table. In a second,
+however, he brought up the slate, and remarked: "How awkward of me. I beg
+your pardon," etc. On the surface of this slate was written the following
+sentence: "See some other medium; d--n it!--George Christy." Dr. Taylor is
+positive, as he has repeatedly told me, that this message was not
+inscribed on his own marked slate, but was written by the medium on one of
+his own. The exchange, of course, must have been effected in the pretended
+accidental dropping of the doctor's slate by the medium. This is a very
+old expedient among pretenders to spirit power. All conjurers are familiar
+with the device. Imro Fox, the American magician, uses it constantly in
+his entertainments, with capital effect.
+
+Dr. Taylor, unfortunately, did not succeed in getting possession of the
+medium's prepared slate. Another exchange was undoubtedly made by Mr.
+Keeler, and the physician had returned to him his own marked slate. When
+he got home that afternoon, and had time to carefully scrutinize his
+slates, he found that they bore no evidence of having been written upon
+at all. Having also examined these slates, I am prepared to add my
+testimony to that of Dr. Taylor.
+
+The reader will see from the above-described s�ance that unless the medium
+(or a confederate) is enabled to read the names and questions, prepared by
+the sitter, his hands are practically tied in all experiments in
+psychology.
+
+When investigators bring their own marked slates with them, screwed
+tightly together, and sealed, the medium has to adopt different tactics
+from those employed in the tests before mentioned. He has to call in the
+aid of a confederate. The audacity of the sealed-slate test is without
+parallel in the annals of pretended mediumship. For an insight into the
+secrets of this phase of psychography, the reading public is indebted to a
+medium, the anonymous author of a remarkably interesting work,
+"Revelations of a Spirit Medium." Many skeptical investigators have been
+converted to Spiritualism by these tests. They invariably say to you when
+approached on the subject: "I took my own marked slates, carefully screwed
+together, to the medium, and had lengthy messages written upon them by
+spirit power. _These slates never left my hands for a second._" I will
+quote what the writer of "Revelations of a Spirit Medium" says on the
+subject:
+
+"No man ever received independent slate-writing between slates fastened
+together that he did not allow out of his hands a few seconds. Scores of
+persons will tell you that they _have_ received writing under those
+conditions through the mediumship of the writer; but the writer will tell
+you how he fooled them and how you can do so if you see fit.
+
+"In the first place you will rent a house with a cellar in connection. Cut
+a trap-door one foot square through the floor between the sills on which
+the floor is laid. Procure a fur floor mat with long hair. Cut a square
+out of the mat and tack it to the top of the trap door. Tack the mat fast
+to the floor, for some one may visit you who will want to raise it up.
+
+"Explain the presence of the fur by saying it is an absorbent of magnetic
+forces, through which you produce the writing. Over the rug place a heavy
+pine table about four feet square; and over the table a heavy cover that
+reaches the floor on all sides. Put your assistant in the cellar with a
+coal-oil stove, a tea-kettle of hot water, different colored letter wax
+and lead pencils, a screw driver, a pair of nippers, a pair of pliers, a
+pair of scissors and an assortment of wire brads. You are ready for
+business.
+
+"When your sitter comes in you will notice his slates, if he brings a
+pair, and see if they are secured in any way that your man in the cellar
+can not duplicate. If they are, you can touch his slates with your finger
+and say to him that you can not use his slates on account of the
+'magnetism' with which they are saturated. He will know nothing of
+'magnetic conditions' and will ask you what he is to do about it.
+
+"You will furnish him a pair of new slates with water and cloths to clean
+them. You also furnish him paper to write his questions on and the screws,
+wax, paper and mucilage to secure them with. He will write his questions
+and fasten the slates securely together.
+
+"You now conduct him to your s�ance-room and invite inspection of your
+table and surroundings. After the examination has been made you will seat
+the sitter at one side of the table with his side and arm next it. If he
+desires to keep hold of the slates a signal agreed upon between yourself
+and your assistant will cause the spirit in the cellar to open the trap
+door, which opens downwards, and to push through the floor and into
+position where the sitter can grasp one end of it, a pair of dummy
+slates. This dummy your assistant will continue to hold until the sitter
+has taken hold of it after the following performance:
+
+"Your assistant lets you know everything is ready by touching your foot.
+You now reach and take the sitter's slates and put them below the table,
+and under it, telling the sitter to put his hand under from his side and
+hold them with you. He puts his hand under and gets hold of the dummy
+slates held by your assistant.
+
+"Your assistant holds on until you have stood the slates on end, leaning
+against the table leg, and have got hold of the dummy. He then takes the
+sitter's slates below and closes the trap. He proceeds to open them, read
+the questions, answer them and refasten the slates.
+
+"You will be entertaining your sitter by twitching and jerking and making
+clairvoyant and clairaudient guesses for him.
+
+"When your assistant touches your foot you will know that he is ready to
+make the exchange again, by which the sitter will get hold of the slates
+he fastened. When you get the signal you give a snort and jump that jerks
+the end of the slates from the sitter's hand. He is now given the end of
+the slates held by your assistant, and you will allow the assistant to
+take the dummy. After sitting a moment or two longer, you will tell the
+sitter to take out his slates and examine them if he chooses. Many times
+they do not open the slates until they reach their homes.
+
+"This, reader, is the man who will declare that he furnished the slates
+and did not allow them out of his hands a minute.
+
+"The usual method of obtaining the writing is for the medium to hold the
+slates alone. When this is the case the medium passes the slates below,
+and receives in return a dummy which he is continually thumping on the
+under side of the table for the purpose of showing the sitter that the
+slates are there all the time.
+
+"It is not necessary that you should use a cellar to get this phase of
+'independent slate-writing.' You could place your table against a
+partition door and by fitting one of the small panels with hinges and
+bolts, would have a very convenient way of obtaining the assistance of the
+spirit in the next room. It is also possible to make a trap in a room that
+has a wooden wainscoting."
+
+Before closing this brief survey of slate-writing experiments, I must
+describe an exceedingly ingenious trick, indeed, bordering on the
+marvelous. It is the recent invention of a Western conjurer, and solves
+the problem of actually writing between locked slates by physical means.
+The effect is as follows: You request the sitter to take two slates, wash
+them carefully, and tie them together, after first having placed a bit of
+chalk between their surfaces. Hold them under the table for a minute, and
+then hand them to the sitter for examination. A name, or a short sentence,
+in answer to some question, will be found scrawled across the upper
+surface of the bottom slate. It is accomplished in this way. You take a
+small pellet of iron or steel, coat it with mucilage, and dip it into
+chalk or slate-pencil dust. This dust will adhere and harden into a
+consistent mass, after a little while, completely concealing the metal,
+and causing the whole to resemble a bit of chalk. Take this supposed
+pellet of chalk from your vest pocket and place it between the slates;
+hold the latter level beneath a table, and by moving the poles of a strong
+magnet against the surface of the under slate, you can cause the iron or
+steel to write a name or sentence, thanks to its coating of chalk dust. It
+is better to use slates with rather deep frames, in order that the chalked
+metal may write with facility. It requires considerable practice to write
+with ease in the manner described above. The first thing of course is to
+locate the position of the chalk between the locked slates. To enable you
+to do this, place the supposed chalk in one corner of slate No. 1 before
+covering with slate No. 2, or else exactly in the center of slate No. 2.
+In this way you will have no difficulty in affecting the metal with the
+magnet, when the slates are held under the table. There are various ways
+of holding the slates; one, is to ask the sitter to hold one end, while
+you hold the other, five or six inches above the table. The light is put
+out, and you take the magnet from your pocket and execute the writing. The
+noise of the magnet passing over the surface of the under slate serves to
+represent a disembodied spirit as doing the writing.
+
+
+2. The Master of the Mediums.
+
+One of the most remarkable personalities serving as an exponent of
+Spiritualism was Daniel Dunglas Home, the Napoleon of necromancy, and the
+Past Grand Master of Mediums. His career reads like a romance. He lived in
+a sort of twilight land, and hob-nobbed with kings, queens and other
+people of noble blood.
+
+  "Something unsubstantial, ghostly,
+   Seems this Theurgist,
+   In deep meditation mostly
+   Wrapped, as in a mist.
+   Vague, phantasmal and unreal,
+   To our thoughts he seems,
+   Walking in a world ideal,
+   In a land of dreams."
+
+He wound his serpentine way into the best society of London, Paris,
+Berlin, Rome, and St. Petersburg--"always despising filthy lucre," as
+Maskelyn remarks, "but never refusing a diamond worth ten times the amount
+he would have received in cash, or some present, which the host of the
+house at which he happened to be manifesting always felt constrained to
+offer."
+
+This thaumaturgist of the Nineteenth Century was born near Edinburg,
+Scotland, on March 20, 1833, and came of a family reported to be gifted
+with "second sight." His father, William Home, was a natural son of
+Alexander, tenth Earl of Home. Strange phenomena occurred during the
+medium's childhood. At the age of nine he was adopted by his aunt, Mrs.
+McNeill Cook, who brought him to America. He began giving s�ances about
+the year 1852. Among the notable men who attended these early "sittings"
+were William Cullen Bryant, Professors Wells and Hare, and Judge Edmonds.
+
+Home had a tall, slight figure, a fair and freckled face--before disease
+made it the color of yellow wax--keen, slaty-blue eyes, thin bloodless
+lips, a rather snub nose, and curly auburn hair. His manners, though
+forward, were agreeable, and he recited such poetry as Poe's "Raven" and
+"Ulalume" with powerful effect. He was altogether a weird sort of
+personage. His principal mediumistic manifestations were rappings,
+table-tipping, ghostly materializations, playing on sealed musical
+instruments, levitation, and handling fire with impunity.
+
+In 1855 he launched his necromantic bark on European waters. No man since
+Cagliostro ever created so profound a sensation in the Old World. He wrote
+his reminiscences in two large volumes, but little credence can be given
+them, as they are full of extravagant statements and wild fantasies.
+
+The London _Punch_ (May 9th, 1868), printed the following effusion on the
+medium, a sort of parody on "Home, Sweet Home:"
+
+  Through realms Thaumaturgic the student may roam,
+  And not light on a worker of wonders like _Home_.
+  Cagliostro himself might descend from his chair,
+  And set up our _Daniel_ as Grand-Cophta there--
+    _Home, Home, Dan. Home_,
+    No medium like _Home_.
+
+  Spirit legs, spirit hands, he gives table and chair;
+  Gravitation defying, he flies in the air;
+  But the fact to which henceforth his fame should be pinned,
+  Is his power to raise, not himself but the wind!--
+    _Home, Home, Dan. Home_,
+    No medium like _Home_.
+
+Robert Browning made him the subject of his celebrated satirical poem,
+"Mr. Sludge, the Medium."
+
+Some of the most celebrated scientific and literary personages of England
+became interested in his mysterious abilities, and among his intimate
+friends were the Earl of Dunraven, Mary Howitt, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Prof.
+Wallace, and Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. There is good authority for
+believing that Home was the mysterious Margrave of Bulwer's weird novel,
+"A Strange Story." Bulwer was an ardent believer in the supernatural and
+Home spent many days at Knebworth amid a select coterie of ghost-seers.
+The famous novelist relates that as Home sat with him in the library of
+Knebworth, conversing upon politics, social matters, books or other chance
+topics, the chairs rocked and the tables were suspended in mid-air.
+
+When the medium was requested to exert his power and found himself in
+condition, it is alleged, he would rise and float about the room. This in
+Spiritualistic parlance is termed "levitation". At Knebworth and other
+places, some of the most prominent people of the day claim to have seen
+Home lift himself up and sail tranquilly out of a window, around the
+house, and come in by another window.
+
+The Earl of Dunraven told many stories equally strange of performances
+that were given in his presence. The Earl declared that he had many times
+seen Home elongate and shorten his body, and cause the closed piano to
+play by putting his fingers on the lid.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 7--HOME AT THE TUILERIES.]
+
+In the autumn of 1855 the famous medium went to Florence; there, also, the
+spirit manifestations secured him the _entree_ into the best society of
+the old Italian city. In his memoirs he speaks of an incident occurring
+through his mediumship, at a s�ance given in Florence: "Upon one occasion,
+while the Countess C-- was seated at one of Erard's grand-action pianos,
+it rose and balanced itself in the air, during the whole time she was
+playing." An English lady, resident at Florence, in a supposed haunted
+house, procured the services of Home to exorcise the ghost. They sat at a
+table in the sitting-room, and raps were heard proceeding from that piece
+of furniture, and rustling sounds in the room as of a person moving about
+in a heavy garment. The spirit being adjured in the name of the "Holy
+Trinity" to leave the premises, the demonstrations ceased.
+
+In February, 1856, the medium joined the retinue of Count B--, a Polish
+nobleman, and went to Naples with his patron. From Naples to Rome was the
+next step, and, in the Eternal City, the medium joined the Romish Church,
+and was adjured by the Pope to abandon spirit s�ances forever. In 1858 we
+find Home in St. Petersburg, where he married the youngest daughter of
+General Count de Kroll, of Russia, and a goddaughter of the Emperor
+Nicholas, the marriage taking place on Sunday, August 1, 1858, in the
+private chapel attached to the house of the lady's brother-in-law, the
+Count Gregoire Koucheleff-Besborodko. It was a very notable affair, and
+Alexander Dumas came from Paris to attend the ceremony. Home's spirit
+power which had left him since his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith
+now returned in full force, it is said, and he saw standing near him at
+the wedding the spirit form of his mother. In 1862 his wife died at the
+Chateau Laroche, near Perigneux, France, and the medium repaired to Rome
+for the purpose of studying sculpture. The reports of the spirit phenomena
+constantly attending Home's presence reached the ears of the Papal
+authorities and he was compelled to leave the city, notwithstanding the
+fact that he gave positive assurance that he would give no s�ance. He was
+actually charged with being a sorcerer, like Cagliostro, an accusation
+that reads very strange in the Nineteenth Century. This affair embittered
+Home against the Church, and he abandoned Roman Catholicism for the Greek
+Church.
+
+After the Roman fiasco, the famous medium returned to England to give
+Spiritualistic lectures and s�ances. A writer in "_All the Year Round_",
+gives the following pen picture of the medium, as he appeared in 1866:
+"He is a tall, thin man, with broad square shoulders, suggestive of a suit
+of clothes hung upon an iron cross. His hair is long and yellow; his teeth
+are large, glittering and sharp; his eyes are a pale grey, with a redness
+about the eye-lids, which comes and goes in a ghastly manner, as he talks.
+When he shows his glittering sharp teeth, and that red line comes round
+his slowly rolling eyes, he is not a pleasant sight to look upon. His
+hands are long, white and bony, and on taking them you discover that they
+are icy cold." A _suit of clothes hung upon an iron cross_ is a weird
+touch in this pen picture.
+
+Home about this time intended going upon the stage, but abandoned the idea
+to become the secretary of the "Spiritual Atheneum", a society formed for
+the investigation of psychic phenomena.
+
+One of the most notable passages in the life of the great medium was the
+famous law suit in which he was concerned in England. In 1866 he became
+acquainted with a wealthy lady, Mrs. Jane Lyons. In his role of medium she
+consulted him constantly about the welfare of her husband in the spirit
+world, and her business affairs. She gave him �33,000 for his services.
+Relatives and friends of Mrs. Lyons, however, saw in Home a cunning
+adventurer who was preying upon a weak-minded woman. A suit was instituted
+against the medium to recover the money, and the case became a _cause
+celebre_ in the annals of the English courts.
+
+In the autumn of 1871, Home, who before that time, had been quite a "lion"
+at the court of Napoleon III and Eugene, followed the German army from
+Sedan to Versailles, and was hand-in-glove with the King of Prussia. His
+second marriage took place in October, 1871, at Paris, and after a brief
+honeymoon in England he visited St. Petersburg with his wife, who was a
+member of the noble Russian family of Alsakoff.
+
+On the 21st of June, 1886, the great American ghost-seer died of
+consumption, at Auteuil, near Paris, France. For years he was out of
+health, and he ascribed his weakness to the expenditure of vital force in
+working wonders during the earlier part of his career.
+
+He was buried at St. Germain-en-Laye, with the rites of the Russian
+Church. The funeral was a very simple one, not more than twenty persons
+being present, all of whom were in full evening dress. The idea was to
+emphasize the Spiritualists' belief that death is not a subject for
+mourning, but is liberation, an occasion for rejoicing.
+
+The curious reader will find many accounts of Home's invulnerability to
+fire while in the trance state, notably those of Prof. Crookes, contained
+in the proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. In the March,
+1868, number of "_Human Nature_," Mr. H. D. Jencken writes as follows
+concerning a s�ance given by the medium:
+
+"Mr. Home, (after various manifestations) said, 'we have gladly shown you
+our power over fluids, we will now show you our power over solids.' He
+then knelt down before the hearth, and deliberately breaking up a glowing
+piece of coal in the fire place, took up a largish lump of incandescent
+coal and placing the same in his left hand, proceeded to explain that
+caloric had been extracted by a process known to them (the spirits), and
+that the heat could in part be returned. This he proved by alternately
+cooling and heating the coal; and to convince us of the fact, allowed us
+to handle the coal which had become cool, then suddenly resumed its heat
+sufficient to burn one, as I again touched it. I examined Mr. Home's hand,
+and quite satisfied myself that no artificial means had been employed to
+protect the skin, which did not even retain the smell of smoke. Mr. Home
+then re-seated himself, and shortly awoke from his trance quite pale and
+exhausted."
+
+Other witnesses of the above experiment were Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare,
+Miss Douglas, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. W. H. Harrison and Prof. Wallace. Mr. H.
+Nisbet, of Glasgow, relates (_Human Nature_, Feb. 1870) that in his own
+home in January, 1870, Mr. Home took a red hot coal from the grate and put
+it in the hands of a lady and gentleman to whom it felt only warm.
+Subsequently he placed the same on a folded newspaper, the result being a
+hole burnt through eight layers of paper. Taking another blazing coal he
+laid it on the same journal, and carried it around the apartment for
+upwards of three minutes, without scorching the paper.
+
+Among the crowned heads and famous people before whom Mr. Home appeared
+were Napoleon III and the Empress Eug�nie, Queen Victoria, King Louis I
+and King Maximilian of Bavaria, the Emperor of Russia, the King and Queen
+of Wurtemberg, the Duchess of Hamilton, the Crown Prince of Prussia and
+old Gen. Von Moltke. Alexander Dumas the elder, was a constant companion
+of the medium for a long time, and wrote columns about him.
+
+Napoleon III had two sittings with Home--and it is said Home materialized
+the spirit of the first Napoleon, who appeared in his familiar cocked hat,
+gray overcoat and dark green uniform with white facings. "My fate?" asked
+Louis, trembling with awe. "Like mine--discrowned, and death in exile,"
+replied the ghost; then it vanished. The Empress swooned and Napoleon III
+fell back in his chair as if about to faint. The medium in his first
+s�ance with the French Emperor succeeded only in materializing some
+flowers and a spirit hand, which the Emperor was permitted to grasp.
+
+Celia Logan, the journalist, in writing of one of Home's s�ances at a
+nobleman's house in London, says:
+
+"On this occasion the medium announced that he would produce balls of fire
+and illuminated hands. Failing in the former, he declared that the spirits
+were not strong enough for that to-night, and so he would have to confine
+himself to showing the luminous hands.
+
+"The house was darkened and Home groped his way alone to the head of the
+broad staircase, where every few minutes a pair of luminous hands were
+thrown up. The audience was satisfied generally. One lady, however, was
+not, and whispered to me--she was a half-hearted Spiritualist--that it
+looked to her as if he had rubbed his own hands over with lucifer
+matches.
+
+"The host stood near the mantel piece and had seen Home abstractedly place
+a small bottle upon it when he left the room for the staircase. That
+bottle the host quietly slipped into his pocket. Upon examination the next
+day it was found to contain phosphorated olive oil or some similar
+preparation.
+
+"The host had declared himself to have seen Home float through the air
+from one side of the room to the other, lift a piano several feet in the
+air by simply placing a finger upon it, and had seen him materialize
+disembodied spirits; but after the discovery of the phosphorus trick he
+dropped Home at once."
+
+It is a significant fact that the medium while giving s�ances in Paris in
+1857 refused to meet Houdin, the renowned prestidigitateur.
+
+I shall now attempt an expos� of Home's physical phenomena. Home's
+extraordinary feat of alternately cooling and heating a lump of coal taken
+from a blazing fire, as related by Mr. H. D. Jencken and others, is easily
+explained. It is a juggling trick. The "coal" is a piece of spongy
+platinum which bears a close resemblance to a lump of half burnt coal, and
+is palmed in the hand, as a prestidigitateur conceals a coin, a pack of
+cards, an egg, or a small lemon. The medium or magician advances to the
+grate and pretends to take a genuine lump of coal from the fire but brings
+up instead, at the tips of his fingers, the piece of platinum. In a secret
+breast pocket of his coat he has a small reservoir of hydrogen, with a
+tube coming down the sleeve and terminating an inch or so above the cuff.
+By means of certain mechanical arrangements, to enable him to let on and
+off the gas at the proper moment, he is able to accomplish the trick; for
+when a current of hydrogen is allowed to impinge upon a piece of spongy
+platinum, the metal becomes incandescent, and as soon as the current is
+arrested the platinum is restored to its normal condition.
+
+The hand may be protected from burning in various ways, one method being
+the repeated application of sulphuric acid to the skin, whereby it is
+rendered impervious to the action of fire for a short period of time;
+another, by wearing gloves of amianthus or asbestos cloth. With the
+latter, worn in a badly lighted room, the medium, without much risk of
+discovery, can handle red hot coals or iron with impunity. The gloves may
+at the proper moment be slipped off and concealed about the person. A
+small slip of amianthus cloth placed on a newspaper would protect it from
+a hot coal and the same means could be used when a coal is placed in
+another's hand or upon his head.
+
+As to the marvelous "levitation", either the witnesses of the alleged feat
+were under some hypnotic spell, or else they allowed their imaginations to
+run riot when describing the event. In the case of Lord Lindsay and Lord
+Adare, D. Carpenter in his valuable paper "On Fallacies Respecting the
+Supernatural" (_Contemporary Review_, Jan., 1876) says: "A whole party of
+believers affirm that they saw Mr. Home float out of one window and in at
+another, while a single honest skeptic declares that Mr. Home was sitting
+in his chair all the time." It seems that there were three gentlemen
+present besides the medium when the alleged phenomenon took place, the two
+noblemen and a "cousin". It is this unnamed hard-headed cousin to whom Dr.
+Carpenter refers as the "honest skeptic."
+
+Many of Home's admirers have declared that he possessed the power of
+mesmerizing certain of his friends. These gentlemen were no doubt
+hypnotized and related honestly what they believed they had seen. Again,
+the expectancy of attention and the nervous tension of the average sitter
+in spirit-circles tend to produce a morbidly impressible condition of
+mind. Many mediums since Home's day have performed the act of levitation,
+but always in a dark room. Mr. Angelo Lewis, the writer on magic, reveals
+an ingenious method by which levitation is effected. When the lights are
+extinguished the medium--who, by the way, must be a clever
+ventriloquist--removes his boots and places them on his hands.
+
+"I am rising, I am rising, but pay no attention", he remarks, as he goes
+about the apartment, where the sitters are grouped in a circle about him,
+and he lightly touches the heads of various persons. A shadowy form is
+dimly seen and a smell of boot leather becomes apparent to the olfactory
+senses of many present. People jump quickly to conclusions in such matters
+and argue that where the feet of the medium are, his body must surely
+be--namely, floating in the air. The illusion is further enhanced by the
+performer's ventriloquial powers. "I am rising! I am touching the
+ceiling!" he exclaims, imitating the sound of a voice high up. When the
+lights are turned up, the medium is seen (this time with his boots on his
+feet) standing on tip-toe, as if just descended from the ceiling.
+
+Sometimes before performing the levitation act, he will say, "In order to
+convince any skeptic present, that I really float upwards, I will write
+the initials of my name, or the name of some one present, on the
+ceiling." When the lights are raised, the letters are seen written on the
+ceiling in a bold scrawling hand. How is it done? The medium has concealed
+about him a telescopic steel rod, something like those Chinese fishing
+rods at one time in vogue among modern disciples of Izaak Walton. This
+convenient rod when not in use folds up in a very small compass, but when
+it is shoved out to its full length, some three or four feet, with a bit
+of black chalk attached, the writing on the ceiling is easily produced.
+The magicians of ancient Egypt displayed their mystic rods as a part of
+their paraphernalia, while the modern magi bear theirs in secret. A
+tambourine, a guitar, a bell, or a spirit hand, rubbed with phosphorus,
+may also be fixed to this ingenious appliance, and floated over the heads
+of the spectators, and even a horn may be blown, through the hollow rod.
+
+The materialization of a spirit hand which crept from beneath a
+table-cover, and showed itself to the "believers," was one of the most
+startling things in the repertoire of D. D. Home, as it was in that of Dr.
+Monck's, an English medium. An explanation of Monck's method of producing
+the hand may, perhaps, throw some light on Home's "materialization." A
+small dummy hand, artistically executed in wax, with the fingers slightly
+bent, is fastened to a broad elastic band about three feet in length. This
+band is attached to a belt about the performer's waist and passes down his
+left trouser leg, allowing the hand to dangle within the trouser a few
+inches above the ankle. I must not forget to explain that to the wrist of
+the hand is appended an elastic sleeve about five inches long. The medium
+and two sitters take their seats at a square table, with an over-hanging
+table-cloth. No one is allowed to be seated at the same side of the table
+with the medium. This is an imperative condition.
+
+"Diminish the light, please," says the medium. Some one rises to lower the
+gas to the required dim religious light necessary to all spirit s�ances.
+"A little lower, please! Lower, lower still!" remarks the medium. Out the
+light goes. "Dear, me, but this is vexatious! Somebody light it again and
+be more careful!" he ejaculates. Under cover of the darkness the agile
+operator crosses his left foot over his right knee, pulls down the wax
+hand and fixes it to the toe of his boot by means of the elastic sleeve,
+the apparatus being masked from the sitters by the table cloth until the
+time comes for the spirit materialization. The three men place their
+hands on the table and wait patiently for developments. Presently a rap is
+heard under the table--disjointed knee of the medium,--and then _mirabile
+dictu!_ the table-cloth shakes and a delicate female hand emerges and
+shows itself above the edge of the table. A guitar being placed close to
+the fingers, they soon strum the strings, or rather appear to do so, the
+medium being the _deus ex machina_. The cleverest part of the whole
+performance is the fact that the medium never takes his hands from the
+table. He quietly puts his left foot down on the floor and places his
+right foot heavily on the false hand--off it comes from the left foot and
+shoots up the trouser leg like lightning. The sitters may look under the
+table but they see nothing.
+
+An ingenious improvement has been made to this hand-test by an American
+conjurer, one that enables the medium to produce the hand although his
+feet are secured by the sitter. "Be kind enough, sir," says the performer
+to the investigator, "to place your feet on mine. If I should move my feet
+ever so little, you would know it, would you not?" The sitter replies in
+the affirmative. The medium, as soon as he feels the pressure of the
+sitter's feet, withdraws his right foot from a steel shape made in
+imitation of the toe of his boot, and operates the spirit hand at his
+leisure. After the sitting, he of course, inserts his right foot into the
+shape and carries it off with him.
+
+The production of spirit music was one of Home's favorite experiments.
+There are all sorts of ways of producing this music, the most ingenious of
+which I give:
+
+The apparatus consists of a small circular musical box, wound up by clock
+work, and made to play whenever pressure is put upon a stud projecting a
+quarter of an inch from its surface. This box is strapped around the right
+leg of the medium just above his knee, and hidden beneath the trouser leg.
+When not in use it is on the under side of the leg. On the table a musical
+box is placed and covered with a soup tureen, or the top of a chafing
+dish. When the spectators are seated, the medium works the concealed
+musical box around to the upper part of his leg near the knee cap, and by
+pressing the stud against the under surface of the table, starts the music
+playing. In this way the second musical box seems to play and the acoustic
+effect is perfect. Perhaps Home used a similar contrivance; Dr. Monck
+did, and was caught in the act by the chief of the Detective Police.
+
+Home during his s�ances on the Continent of Europe was accused of all
+sorts of trickery. Some asserted that he had concealed about him a small
+but powerful electric battery for producing certain illusions, mechanical
+contrivances attached to his legs for making spirit raps, and last but not
+least, as the medium states in his "Memoirs:" "they even accused me of
+carrying a small monkey about with me, concealed, trained to perform all
+sorts of ghostly tricks."
+
+People also accused him of obtaining a great deal of his information about
+the spirits of the departed from tombstones like an Old Mortality, and
+bribing family servants. A more probable explanation may be found perhaps
+in telepathy.
+
+There is one more phase of Home's mediumship, the moving of heavy pieces
+of furniture without physical contact, that must be spoken of. In
+mentioning it, Dr. Max Dessoir, author of the "Psychology of
+Conjuring,"[1] says: "We must admit that _a few_ feats, such as those of
+Prof. Crookes with Home, concerning the possibility of setting inanimate
+objects in motion without touching them, _appear_ to lie entirely outside
+the sphere of jugglery." In the year 1871, Prof. William Crookes, (now Sir
+William Crookes) Fellow of the Royal Society, a very eminent scientist,
+subjected Home to some elaborate tests in order to prove or disprove by
+means of scientific apparatus the reality of phenomena connected with
+variations in the weight of bodies, with or without contact. He declared
+the tests to be entirely satisfactory, but ascribed the phenomena not to
+spiritual agency, but to a new force, "in some unknown manner connected
+with the human organization," which for convenience he called the "Psychic
+Force." He said in his "Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism:" "Of
+all the persons endowed with a powerful development of this Psychic Force,
+and who have been termed 'mediums' upon quite another theory of its
+origin, Mr. Daniel Dunglas Home is the most remarkable, and it is mainly
+owing to the many opportunities I have had of carrying on my
+investigations in his presence that I am enabled to affirm so conclusively
+the existence of this force." Prof. Crookes' experiments were conducted,
+as he says, in the full light, and in the presence of witnesses, among
+them being the famous English barrister, Sergeant Cox, and the
+astronomer, Dr. Huggins. Heavy articles became light and light articles
+heavy when the medium came near them. In some cases he lightly touched
+them, in others refrained from contact.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 8. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+The first piece of the apparatus constructed by Crookes to test this
+psychic force consisted of a mahogany board 36 inches long by 9-1/2 inches
+wide and 1 inch thick. A strip of mahogany was screwed on at one end, to
+form a foot, the length being equal to the width of the board. This end of
+the board was placed on a table, while the other end was upheld by a
+spring balance, fastened to a strong tripod stand, as will be seen in
+Fig. 8.
+
+"Mr. Home," writes Prof. Crookes, "placed the tips of his fingers lightly
+on the extreme end of the mahogany board which was resting on the support,
+whilst Dr. A. B. [Dr. Huggins] and myself sat, one on each side of it,
+watching for any effect which might be produced. Almost immediately the
+pointer of the balance was seen to descend. After a few seconds it rose
+again. This movement was repeated several times, as if by successive waves
+of the psychic force. The end of the board was observed to oscillate
+slowly up and down during the experiment.
+
+"Mr. Home now, of his own accord, took a small hand-bell and a little card
+match-box, which happened to be near, and placed one under each hand, to
+satisfy us, as he said, that he was not producing the downward pressure.
+The very slow oscillation of the spring balance became more marked, and
+Dr. A. B., watching the index, said that he saw it descend to 6-1/2 lbs.
+The normal weight of the board as so suspended being 3 lbs., the
+additional downward pull was therefore 3-1/2 lbs. On looking immediately
+afterwards at the automatic register, we saw that the index had at one
+time descended as low as 9 lbs., showing a maximum pull of 6 lbs. upon a
+board whose normal weight was 3 lbs.
+
+"In order to see whether it was possible to produce much effect on the
+spring balance by pressure at the place where Mr. Home's fingers had been,
+I stepped upon the table and stood on one foot at the end of the board.
+Dr. A. B., who was observing the index of the balance, said that the whole
+weight of my body (140 lbs.) so applied only sunk the index 1-1/2 lbs., or
+2 lbs. when I jerked up and down. Mr. Home had been sitting in a low
+easy-chair, and could not, therefore, had he tried his utmost, have
+exerted any material influence on these results. I need scarcely add that
+his feet as well as his hands were closely guarded by all in the room."
+
+The next series of experiments is thus described:
+
+"On trying these experiments for the first time, I thought that actual
+contact between Mr. Home's hands and the suspended body whose weight was
+to be altered was essential to the exhibition of the force; but I found
+afterwards that this was not a necessary condition, and I therefore
+arranged my apparatus in the following manner:--
+
+"The accompanying cuts (Figs. 9, 10 and 11) explain the arrangement. Fig.
+9 is a general view, and Figs. 10 and 11 show the essential parts more in
+detail. The reference letters are the same in each illustration. A B is a
+mahogany board, 36 inches long by 9-1/2 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. It
+is suspended at the end, B, by a spring balance, C, furnished with an
+automatic register, D. The balance is suspended from a very firm tripod
+support, E.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 9. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 10. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+"The following piece of apparatus is not shown in the figures. To the
+moving index, O, of the spring balance, a fine steel point is soldered,
+projecting horizontally outwards. In front of the balance, and firmly
+fastened to it, is a grooved frame, carrying a flat box similar to the
+dark box of a photographic camera. This box is made to travel by
+clock-work horizontally in front of the moving index, and it contains a
+sheet of plate-glass which has been smoked over a flame. The projecting
+steel point impresses a mark on this smoked surface. If the balance is at
+rest, and the clock set going, the result is a perfectly straight
+horizontal line. If the clock is stopped and weights are placed on the
+end, B, of the board, the result is a vertical line, whose length depends
+on the weight applied. If, whilst the clock draws the plate along, the
+weight of the board (or the tension on the balance) varies, the result is
+a curved line, from which the tension in grains at any moment during the
+continuance of the experiments can be calculated.
+
+"The instrument was capable of registering a diminution of the force of
+gravitation as well as an increase; registrations of such a diminution
+were frequently obtained. To avoid complication, however, I will here
+refer only to results in which an increase of gravitation was experienced.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 11. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+"The end, B, of the board being supported by the spring balance, the end,
+A, is supported on a wooden strip, F, screwed across its lower side and
+cut to a knife edge (see Fig. 11). This fulcrum rests on a firm and heavy
+wooden stand, G H. On the board, exactly over the fulcrum, is placed a
+large glass vessel filled with water. I L is a massive iron stand,
+furnished with an arm and a ring, M N, in which rests a hemispherical
+copper vessel perforated with several holes at the bottom.
+
+"The iron stand is 2 inches from the board, A B, and the arm and copper
+vessel, M N, are so adjusted that the latter dips into the water 1-1/2
+inches, being 5-1/2 inches from the bottom of I, and 2 inches from its
+circumference. Shaking or striking the arm, M, or the vessel, N, produces
+no appreciable mechanical effect on the board, A B, capable of affecting
+the balance. Dipping the hand to the fullest extent into the water in N
+does not produce the least appreciable action on the balance.
+
+"As the mechanical transmission of power is by this means entirely cut off
+between the copper vessel and the board, A B, the power of muscular
+control is thereby completely eliminated.
+
+"For convenience I will divide the experiments into groups, 1, 2, 3, etc.,
+and I have selected one special instance in each to describe in detail.
+Nothing, however, is mentioned which has not been repeated more than once,
+and in some cases verified, in Mr. Home's absence, with another person,
+possessing similar powers.
+
+"There was always ample light in the room where the experiments were
+conducted (my own dining-room) to see all that took place.
+
+"_Experiment I._--The apparatus having been properly adjusted before Mr.
+Home entered the room, he was brought in, and asked to place his fingers
+in the water in the copper vessel, N. He stood up and dipped the tips of
+the fingers of his right hand in the water, his other hand and his feet
+being held. When he said he felt a power, force, or influence, proceeding
+from his hand, I set the clock going, and almost immediately the end, B,
+of the board was seen to descend slowly and remain down for about 10
+seconds; it then descended a little further, and afterwards rose to its
+normal height. It then descended again, rose suddenly, gradually sunk for
+17 seconds, and finally rose to its normal height, where it remained till
+the experiment was concluded. The lowest point marked on the glass was
+equivalent to a direct pull of about 5,000 grains. The accompanying
+Figure 12 is a copy of the curve traced on the glass.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE OF SECONDS.
+
+FIG. 12. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE
+OF HOME.]
+
+"_Experiment II._--Contact through water having proved to be as effectual
+as actual mechanical contact, I wished to see if the power or force could
+affect the weight, either through other portions of the apparatus or
+through the air. The glass vessel and iron stand, etc., were therefore
+removed, as an unnecessary complication, and Mr. Home's hands were placed
+on the stand of the apparatus at P (Fig. 9). A gentleman present put his
+hand on Mr. Home's hands, and his foot on both Mr. Home's feet, and I also
+watched him closely all the time. At the proper moment the clock was again
+set going; the board descended and rose in an irregular manner, the result
+being a curved tracing on the glass, of which Fig. 13 is a copy.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.
+
+FIG. 13. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE
+OF HOME.]
+
+"_Experiment III._--Mr. Home was now placed one foot from the board, A B,
+on one side of it. His hands and feet were firmly grasped by a by-stander,
+and another tracing, of which Fig. 14 is a copy, was taken on the moving
+glass plate.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.
+
+FIG. 14. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER HOME'S
+INFLUENCE.]
+
+"_Experiment IV._--(Tried on an occasion when the power was stronger than
+on the previous occasions), Mr. Home was now placed 3 feet from the
+apparatus, his hands and feet being tightly held. The clock was set going
+when he gave the word, and the end, B, of the board soon descended, and
+again rose in an irregular manner, as shown in Fig. 15.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.
+
+FIG. 15. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER HOME'S
+INFLUENCE.]
+
+"The following series of experiments were tried with more delicate
+apparatus, and with another person, a lady, Mr. Home being absent. As the
+lady is non-professional, I do not mention her name. She has, however,
+consented to meet any scientific men whom I may introduce for purposes of
+investigation.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 16. SECOND CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+"A piece of thin parchment, A, (Figs. 16 and 17), is stretched tightly
+across a circular hoop of wood. B C is a light lever turning on D. At the
+end B is a vertical needle point touching the membrane A, and at C is
+another needle point, projecting horizontally and touching a smoked glass
+plate, E F. This glass plate is drawn along in the direction H G by
+clockwork, K. The end, B, of the lever is weighted so that it shall
+quickly follow the movements of the centre of the disc, A. These
+movements are transmitted and recorded on the glass plate, E F, by means
+of the lever and needle point, C. Holes are cut in the side of the hoop to
+allow a free passage of air to the under side of the membrane. The
+apparatus was well tested beforehand by myself and others, to see that no
+shaking or jar on the table or support would interfere with the results:
+the line traced by the point, C, on the smoked glass was perfectly
+straight in spite of all our attempts to influence the lever by shaking
+the stand or stamping on the floor.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 17. SECTION OF APPARATUS IN FIG. 16.]
+
+"_Experiment V._--Without having the object of the instrument explained to
+her, the lady was brought into the room and asked to place her fingers on
+the wooden stand at the points, L M, Fig. 16. I then placed my hands over
+hers to enable me to detect any conscious or unconscious movement on her
+part. Presently percussive noises were heard on the parchment, resembling
+the dropping of grains of sand on its surface. At each percussion a
+fragment of graphite which I had placed on the membrane was seen to be
+projected upwards about 1-50th of an inch, and the end, C, of the lever
+moved slightly up and down. Sometimes the sounds were as rapid as those
+from an induction-coil, whilst at others they were more than a second
+apart. Five or six tracings were taken, and in all cases a movement of the
+end, C, of the lever was seen to have occurred with each vibration of the
+membrane.
+
+"In some cases the lady's hands were not so near the membrane as L M, but
+were at N O, Fig 17.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE OF SECONDS.
+
+FIG. 18. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS (FIG. 15 AND 16)
+OUTSIDE HOME'S INFLUENCE.]
+
+"The accompanying Fig. 18 gives tracings taken from the plates used on
+these occasions.
+
+"_Experiment VI._--Having met with these results in Mr. Home's absence, I
+was anxious to see what action would be produced on the instrument in his
+presence.
+
+"Accordingly I asked him to try, but without explaining the instrument to
+him.
+
+"I grasped Mr. Home's right arm above the wrist and held his hand over the
+membrane, about 10 inches from its surface, in the position shown at P,
+Fig. 17. His other hand was held by a friend. After remaining in this
+position for about half a minute, Mr. Home said he felt some influence
+passing. I then set the clock going, and we all saw the index, C, moving
+up and down. The movements were much slower than in the former case, and
+were almost entirely unaccompanied by the percussive vibrations then
+noticed.
+
+"Figs. 19 and 20 show the curves produced on the glass on two of these
+occasions.
+
+"Figs. 18, 19 and 20 are magnified.
+
+"These experiments _confirm beyond doubt_ the conclusions at which I
+arrived in my former paper, namely, the existence of a force associated,
+in some manner not yet explained, with the human organization, by which
+force increased weight is capable of being imparted to solid bodies
+without physical contact. In the case of Mr. Home, the development of this
+force varies enormously, not only from week to week, but from hour to
+hour; on some occasions the force is inappreciable by my tests for an hour
+or more, and then suddenly reappears in great strength.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 18.
+
+FIG. 19. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17)
+UNDER HOME'S INFLUENCE.]
+
+"It is capable of acting at a distance from Mr. Home (not unfrequently as
+far as two or three feet), but is always strongest close to him.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS ON FIG. 18.
+
+FIG. 20. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17)
+UNDER HOME'S INFLUENCE.]
+
+"Being firmly convinced that there could be no manifestation of one form
+of force without the corresponding expenditure of some other form of
+force, I for a long time searched in vain for evidence of any force or
+power being used up in the production of these results.
+
+"Now, however, having seen more of Mr. Home, I think I perceive what it is
+that this psychic force uses up for its development. In employing the
+terms _vital force_ or _nervous energy_, I am aware that I am employing
+words which convey very different significations to many investigators;
+but after witnessing the painful state of nervous and bodily prostration
+in which some of these experiments have left Mr. Home--after seeing him
+lying in an almost fainting condition on the floor, pale and speechless--I
+could scarcely doubt that the evolution of psychic force is accompanied by
+a corresponding drain on vital force."
+
+Sergeant Cox in speaking of the tests says, "The results appear to me
+conclusively to establish the important fact, that there is a force
+proceeding from the nerve-system capable of imparting motion and weight to
+solid bodies within the sphere of its influence."
+
+One of the medium's defenders has written:
+
+"Home's mysterious power, whatever it may have been, was very uncertain.
+Sometimes he could exercise it, and at others not, and these fluctuations
+were not seldom the source of embarrassment to him. He would often arrive
+at a place in obedience to an engagement, and, as he imagined, ready to
+perform, when he would discover himself absolutely helpless. After a
+s�ance his exhaustion appeared to be complete.
+
+"There is no more striking proof of the fact that Home really possessed
+occult gifts of some sort--psychic force or whatever else the power may be
+termed--than he gave such amazing exhibitions in the early part of his
+history and was able to do so little toward the end. If it had been
+juggling he would, like other conjurors, have improved on his tricks by
+experience, or at all events, while his memory held out he would not have
+deteriorated."
+
+Dr. Hammond's Experiments.
+
+Dr. William A. Hammond, the eminent neurologist, of Washington, D. C.,
+took up the cudgels against Prof. Crookes' "Psychic Force" theory, and
+assigned the experiments to the domain of animal electricity. He wrote as
+follows:[2] "Place an egg in an egg-cup and balance a long lath upon the
+egg. Though the lath be almost a plank it will obediently follow a rod of
+glass, gutta percha or sealing-wax, which has been previously well dried
+and rubbed, the former with a piece of silk, and the two latter with
+woolen cloth. Now, in dry weather, many persons within my knowledge, have
+only to walk with a shuffling gait over the carpet, and then approaching
+the lath hold out the finger instead of the glass, sealing wax or gutta
+percha, and instantly the end of the lath at L rises to meet it, and the
+end at L is depressed. Applying these principles, I arranged an apparatus
+exactly like that of Prof. Crookes, except that the spring balance was
+such as is used for weighing letters and was therefore very delicate,
+indicating quarter ounces with exactness, and that the board was thin and
+narrow.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 21. DR. HAMMOND'S APPARATUS.]
+
+"Applying the glass rod or stick of sealing-wax to the end resting by its
+foot on the table, the index of the balance at once descended, showing an
+increased weight of a little over three quarters of an ounce, and this
+without the board being raised from the table.
+
+"I then walked over a thick Turkey rug for a few moments, and holding my
+finger under the board near the end attached to the balance, caused a fall
+of the index of almost half an ounce. I then rested my finger lightly on
+the end of the board immediately over the foot, and again the index
+descended and oscillated several times, just as in Mr. Home's experiments.
+The lowest point reached was six and a quarter ounces, and as the board
+weighed, as attached to the balance, five ounces, there was an increased
+weight of one and a quarter ounces. At no time was the end of the board
+raised from the table.
+
+"I then arranged the apparatus so as to place a thin glass tumbler nearly
+full of water immediately over the fulcrum, as in Mr. Crookes' experiment,
+and again the index fell and oscillated on my fingers being put into the
+water.
+
+"Now if one person can thus, with a delicate apparatus like mine, cause
+the index, through electricity, to descend and ascend, it is not
+improbable that others, like Mr. Home, could show greater, or even
+different electrical power, as in Prof. Crookes' experiments. It is well
+known that all persons are not alike in their ability to be electrically
+excited. Many persons, myself among them, can light the gas with the end
+of the finger. Others cannot do it with any amount of shuffling over the
+carpet.
+
+"At any rate is it not much more sensible to believe that Mr. Home's
+experiments are to be thus explained than to attribute the results of his
+semi-mysterious attempts to spiritualism or psychic force?"
+
+
+3. Rope-Tying and Holding Mediums.
+
+THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS.
+
+Ira Erastus and William Henry Davenport were born at Buffalo, N. Y., the
+former on Sept. 17, 1839, and the latter on February 1, 1841. Their
+father, Ira Davenport, was in the police detective department, and, it is
+alleged, invented the celebrated rope-tying feats after having seen the
+Indian jugglers of the West perform similar illusions. The usual stories
+about ghostly phenomena attending the childhood of mediums were told about
+the Davenport Brothers, but it was not until 1855 that they started on
+their tour of the United States, with their father as showman or
+spiritual lecturer. When the Civil War broke out, the Brothers,
+accompanied by Dr. J. B. Ferguson, formerly an Independent minister of
+Nashville, Tenn., in the capacity of lecturer, and a Mr. Palmer as general
+agent and manager, went to England to exhibit their mediumistic powers,
+following the example of D. D. Home. With the company also was a Buffalo
+boy named Fay, of German-American parentage, who had formerly acted as
+ticket-taker for the mediums. He discovered the secret of the rope-tying
+feat, and was an adept at the coat feat, so he was employed as an
+"under-study" in case of the illness of William Davenport, who was in
+rather delicate health. The Brothers Davenport at this period, aged
+respectively 25 and 23 years, had "long black curly hair, broad but not
+high foreheads, dark eyes, heavy eye-brows and moustaches, firm set lips,
+and a bright, keen look." Their first performance in England was given at
+the Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London, and created intense excitement.
+
+_Punch_ called the _furore_ over the spirit rope-tyers the "tie-fuss
+fever," and said the mediums were "Ministers of the Interior, with a seat
+in the Cabinet." J. N. Maskelyne, the London conjurer of Egyptian Hall,
+wrote of them: "About the Davenport Brothers' performances, I have to say
+that they were and still remain the most inexplicable ever presented to
+the public as of spiritual origin; and had they been put forth as feats of
+jugglery would have awakened a considerable amount of curiosity though
+certainly not to the extent they did."
+
+In September, 1865, the Brothers arrived in Paris, and placarded the city
+with enormous posters announcing that the Brothers Davenport,
+spirit-mediums, would give a series of public s�ances at the _Salle Herz_.
+Their reputation had preceded them to France and the _boulevardiers_
+talked of nothing but the wonderful American mediums and their mysterious
+cabinet. Before exhibiting in Paris the Davenports visited the _Chateau de
+Gennevilliers_, whose owner was an enthusiastic believer in Spiritism, and
+gave a s�ance before a select party of journalists and scientific men. The
+exhibition was pronounced marvellous in the extreme and perfectly
+inexplicable.
+
+The Parisian press was divided on the subject of the Davenports and their
+advertised s�ances. Some of the papers protested against such performances
+on the ground that they were dangerous to the mental health of the
+public, and, one writer said, "Particularly to those weaker intellects
+which are always ready enough to accept as gospel the tricks and artifices
+of the adepts of sham witchcraft." M. Edmond About, the famous journalist
+and novelist, in the _Opinion Nationale_, wrote a scathing denunciation of
+Spiritism, but all to no purpose, except to inflame public curiosity.
+
+The performances of the Davenports were divided into two parts: (1) The
+light s�ance, (2) the dark s�ance. In the light s�ance a cabinet, elevated
+from the stage by three trestles, was used. It was a simple wooden
+structure with three doors. In the centre door was a lozenge-shaped window
+covered with a curtain. Upon the sides of the cabinet hung various musical
+instruments, a guitar, a violin, horns, tambourines, and a big dinner
+bell.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 22. THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS IN THEIR CABINET.]
+
+A committee chosen by the audience tied the mediums' hands securely behind
+their backs, fastened their legs together, and pinioned them to their
+seats in the cabinet, and to the cross rails with strong ropes. The side
+doors were closed first, then the center door, but no sooner was the last
+fastened, than the hands of one of the mediums were thrust through the
+window in the centre door. In a very short time, at a signal from the
+mediums, the doors were opened, and the Davenports stepped forth, with the
+ropes in their hands, every knot untied, confessedly by spirit power. The
+astonishment of the spectators amounted to awe. On an average it took ten
+minutes to pinion the Brothers; but a single minute was required for their
+release. Once more the mediums went into the cabinet, this time with the
+ropes lying in a coil at their feet. Two minutes elapsed. Hey, presto! the
+doors were opened, and the Davenports were pronounced by the committee to
+be securely lashed to their seats. Seals were affixed to the knots in the
+ropes, and the doors closed as before. Pandemonium reigned. Bells were
+rung, horns blown, tambourines thumped, violins played, and guitars
+vigorously twanged. Heavy rappings also were heard on the ceiling, sides
+and floor of the cabinet, then after a brief but absolute silence, a bare
+hand and arm emerged from the lozenge window, and rung the big dinner
+bell. On opening the doors the Brothers were found securely tied as
+before, and seals intact. An amusing feature of the exhibition occurred
+when a venturesome spectator volunteered to sit inside of the cabinet
+between the two mediums. He came out with his coat turned inside out and
+his hat jammed over his eyes. In the dark s�ance the cabinet was dispensed
+with and the spectators, holding hands, formed a ring around the mediums.
+The lights were put out and similar phenomena took place, with the
+addition of luminous hands, and musical instruments floating in the air.
+
+Robert-Houdin wrote an interesting brochure on the Davenports, ("Secrets
+of Stage Conjuring," translated by Prof. Hoffmann) from which I take the
+following: "The ropes used by the Davenport Brothers are of a cotton
+fibre; and they present therefore smooth surfaces, adapted to slip easily
+one upon another. Gentlemen are summoned from the audience to tie the
+mediums. Now, tell me, is it an easy task for an amateur to tie a man up
+off-hand with a rope three yards long, in a very secure way? The amateur
+is flurried, self-conscious, anxious to acquit himself well of the
+business, but he is a gentleman, not a brute, and if one of the Brothers
+sees the ropes getting into a dangerous tangle, he gives a slight groan,
+as if he were being injured, and the instantaneous impulse of the other
+man is to loosen the cord a trifle. A fraction of an inch is an invaluable
+gain in the after-business of loosening the ropes. Sometimes the
+stiffening of a muscle, the raising of a shoulder, the crooking of a knee,
+gives all the play required by the Brothers in ridding themselves of their
+bonds. Their muscles and joints are wonderfully supple, too; the thumbs
+can be laid flat in the palm of the hand, the hand itself rounded until it
+is no broader than the wrist, and then it is easy to pull through. Violent
+wrenches send the ropes up toward the shoulder, vigorous shakings get the
+legs free; the first hand untied is thrust through the hole in the door of
+the cabinet, and then returns to give aid to more serious knots on his own
+or his brother's person. In tying themselves up the Davenports used the
+slip-knot, a sort of bow, the ends of which have only to be pulled to be
+tightened or loosened."
+
+This slip-knot is a very ingenious affair. (See Fig. 23.) In performing
+the spirit-tying, the mediums went into the cabinet with the ropes
+examined by the audience lying coiled at their feet. The doors were
+closed. They had concealed about their persons ropes in which these trick
+knots were already adjusted, and with which they very speedily secured
+themselves, having first secreted the genuine ropes. Then the doors were
+opened. Seals were affixed to the knots, but this sealing, owing to the
+position of the hands, and the careful exposition of the knots did not
+affect the slipping of the ropes sufficiently to prevent the mediums from
+removing and replacing their hands.
+
+[Illustration: NO. 23. TRICK-TIE IN CABINET WORK.]
+
+In the dark s�ance, flour was sometimes placed in the pinioned hands of
+the Davenports. On being released from their bonds, the flour was found
+undisturbed.
+
+This was considered a convincing test; for how could the Brothers possibly
+manipulate the musical instruments with their hands full of flour. One day
+a wag substituted a handful of snuff for flour, and when the mediums were
+examined, the snuff had disappeared and flour taken its place. As will be
+understood, in the above test the Davenports emptied the flour from their
+hands into secret pockets and at the proper moment took out cornucopias of
+flour and filled their hands again before securing themselves in the
+famous slip-knots.
+
+Among the expos�s of the Brothers Davenport, Herrmann, the conjurer, gives
+the following in the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_: "The Davenports, for
+thirteen years, in Europe and America, augmented the faith in
+Spiritualism. Unfortunately for the Davenports they appeared at Ithaca,
+New York, where is situated Cornell University. The students having a
+scientific trend of mind, provided themselves before attending the
+performance with pyrotechnic balls containing phosphorus, so made as to
+ignite suddenly with a bright light. During the dark s�ance when the
+Davenports were supposed to be bound hand and foot within the closet and
+when the guitars were apparently floating in the air, the students struck
+their lights, whereupon the spirits were found to be no other than the
+Davenports themselves, dodging about the stage brandishing guitars and
+playing tunes and waving at the same time tall poles surmounted by
+phosphorescent spook pictures."
+
+The Davenports had some stormy experiences in Paris, but managed to come
+through all successfully, with plenty of French gold in their pockets.
+William died in October, 1877, at the Oxford Hotel, Sydney, Australia,
+having publicly denounced Spiritualism. Mr. Fay took to raising sheep in
+Australia, while Ira Davenport drifted back to his old home in Buffalo,
+New York.
+
+Many mediums, taking the cue from the Davenports, have performed the
+cabinet act with its accompanying rope-tying, but the conjurers
+(anti-spiritists) have, with the aid of mechanism, brought the business to
+a high degree of perfection, notably Mr. J. Nevil Maskelyne, of Egyptian
+Hall, London, and Mr. Harry Kellar, of the United States. Writing of the
+Davenport Brothers, Maskelyne says:
+
+"The instantaneous tying and untying was simply marvellous, and it utterly
+baffled everyone to discover, until, on one occasion, the accidental
+falling of a piece of drapery from a window (the lozenge-shaped aperture
+in the door of the cabinet), at a critical moment let me into the secret.
+I was able in a few months to reproduce every item of the Davenports'
+cabinet and dark s�ance. So close was the resemblance to the original,
+that _the Spiritualist had no alternative but to claim us_ (Maskelyne and
+Cooke) _as most powerful spirit mediums who found it more profitable to
+deny the assistance of spirits_."
+
+Robert-Houdin's explanation of the slip-knot, used by the Davenports in
+their dark s�ance, is the correct one, but he failed to fathom the mystery
+of the mode of release of the Brothers after they were tied in the cabinet
+by a committee selected from the audience. Anyone trying to extricate
+himself from bondage _a la_ Houdin, no matter how slippery and serpentine
+he be, would find it exceedingly difficult. It seems almost incredible,
+but trickery was used in the light s�ance, as well as the dark. Maskelyne,
+as quoted above, claimed to have penetrated the mystery, but he kept it a
+profound secret--though he declared that his cabinet work was trickery.
+The writer is indebted for an initiation into the mysteries of the
+Davenport Brothers' rope-tying to Mr. H. Morgan Robinson (Professor
+Helmann), of Washington, D. C., a very clever prestidigitateur.
+
+In the year 1895, after an unbroken silence of nineteen years, Fay,
+ex-assistant of the Davenports, determined to resume the profession of
+public medium. He abandoned his sheep ranch and hunted up Ira Davenport.
+They gave several performances in Northern towns, and finally landed at
+the Capital of the Nation, in the spring of 1895, and advertised several
+s�ances at Willard's Hall. A very small audience greeted them on their
+first appearance. Among the committee volunteering to go on the stage and
+tie the mediums were the writer and Mr. Robinson. After the s�ance the
+prestidigitateur fully explained the _modus operandi_ of the mystic tie,
+which is herein for the first time correctly given to the public.
+
+The medium holds out his left wrist first and has it tied securely, about
+the middle of the rope. Two members of the committee are directed to pull
+the ends of the cord vigorously. "Are you confident that the knots are
+securely tied?" he asks; when the committee respond "yes," he puts his
+hand quickly behind him, and places against the wrist, the wrist of his
+right hand, in order that they may be pinioned together. During this rapid
+movement he twists the rope about the knot on his left wrist, thereby
+allowing enough slack cord to disengage his right hand when necessary. To
+slip the right hand back into place is an easy matter. After both hands
+are presumably tied, the medium steps into the cabinet; the ends of the
+rope are pushed through two holes in the chair or wooden seat, by the
+committee and made fast to the medium's legs. Bells ring, horns blow, and
+the performer's hand is thrust through the window of the cabinet. Finally
+a gentleman is requested to enter the cabinet with the medium. The doors
+are locked and a perfect pandemonium begins; when they are opened the
+volunteer assistant tumbles out in great trepidation. His hat is smashed
+over his eyes, his cravat is tied around his leg, and he is found to have
+on the medium's coat, while the medium wears the gentleman's coat turned
+inside out. It all appears very remarkable, but the mystery is cleared up
+when I state that the innocent looking gentleman is invariably a
+confederate, what conjurers call a _plant_, because he is planted in the
+audience to volunteer for the special act.
+
+Ira and William Davenport were tied in the manner above described. Often
+one of the Brothers allowed himself to be genuinely pinioned, after having
+received a preconcerted signal from his partner that all was right, _i.
+e._, the partner had been fastened by the trick tie, calling attention to
+the knots in the cord, etc. The trick tie, however, is so delusive, that
+it is impossible to penetrate the secret in the short time allowed the
+committee for investigation, and there is no special reason for permitting
+a genuine tie-up. Once in a great while, the Davenports were over-reached
+by clever committee-men and tied up so tightly that there was no getting
+loose. Where one brother failed to execute the trick and was genuinely
+fastened, the other medium performed the spirit evolutions, and cut his
+"confrere" loose before they came out of the cabinet.
+
+The Fay-Davenport revival proved a failure, and the mediums dissolved
+partnership in Washington. Kellar, the magician and former assistant of
+the original Davenport combination, by a curious coincidence was giving
+his fine conjuring exhibition in the city at the same time. His tricks far
+eclipsed the feeble revival of the rope-tying phenomena. The fickle public
+crowded to see the magician and neglected the mediums.
+
+ANNIE EVA FAY.
+
+One of the most famous of the materializing mediums now exhibiting in the
+United States is Annie Eva Fay. She is quite an adept at the spirit-tying
+business, and like the Davenports, uses a cabinet on the stage, but her
+method of tying, though clever, is inferior to that used by the Brothers
+in their balmy days. In the center of the Fay cabinet (a plain, curtained
+affair) is a post firmly screwed to the stage. The medium permits a
+committee of two from the audience to tie her to this post, and seal the
+bandages about her wrists with court plaster. She then takes her seat upon
+a small stool in front of the stanchion; the musical instruments are
+placed on her lap, and the curtains of the cabinet closed. Immediately the
+evidences of _spirit power_ begin: the bell is jingled, the tambourine
+thumped, and the sound of a horn heard, simultaneously.
+
+The Fay method of tying is designed especially to facilitate the medium's
+actions. Cotton bandages are used, and the committee are invited to sew
+the knots through and through. Each wrist is tied with a bandage, about an
+inch and a half wide by a half yard in length; and the medium then clasps
+her hands behind her, so that her wrists are about six inches apart. The
+committee now proceed to tie the ends of the bandages firmly together,
+and, after this is accomplished, the dangling pieces of the bandages are
+clipped off. It is true, the medium is firmly bound by this process, and
+it would be physically impossible for her to release herself, without
+disturbing the sewing and the seals, but it is not intended for her to
+release herself at all; the method pursued being altogether different from
+the old species of rope-tying. All being secure, the committee are
+requested to pass another bandage about the short ligature between the
+lady's wrists, and tie it in double square knots, and firmly secure this
+to a ring in the post of the cabinet, the medium being seated on a stool
+in front of the stanchion, facing the audience. Her neck is likewise
+secured to the post by cotton bandages and her feet fastened together with
+a cord, the end of which passes out of the cabinet and is held by one of
+the committee.
+
+The peculiar manner of holding the hands, described above, enables the
+medium to secure for her use, a ligature of knotted cloth between her
+hands, some six inches long; and the central bandage, usually tied in four
+or five double knots, gives her about two inches play between the middle
+of the cotton handcuffs and the ring in the post, to which it is secured.
+The ring is two and a half inches in diameter, and the staple which holds
+it to the stanchion is a half inch. The left hand of the medium gives six
+additional inches, and the bandage on her wrist slips readily along her
+slender arm nearly half way to the elbow--"all of which," says John W.
+Truesdell,[3] who was the first to expose Miss Fay's spirit pretensions,
+"gives the spirits a clear leeway of not less than 20 inches from the
+stanchion. The moment the curtain is closed, the medium, under spirit
+influence spreads her hands as far apart as possible, an act which
+stretches the knotted ligature so that the bandage about it will easily
+slip from the centre to either wrist; then, throwing her lithe form by a
+quick movement, to the left, so that her hips will pass the stanchion
+without moving her feet from the floor, the spirits are able, through the
+medium, to reach whatever may have been placed upon her lap."
+
+One of Annie Eva's most convincing tests is the accordion which plays,
+after it has been bound fast with tapes and the tapes carefully sealed at
+every note, so as to prevent its being performed on in the regular manner.
+Her method of operating, though simple, is decidedly ingenious. She
+places a small tube in the valve-hole of the instrument, breathes and
+blows alternately into it, and then by fingering the keys, executes an air
+with excellent effect.
+
+Sometimes she places a musical box on an oblong plate of glass suspended
+from the ceiling by four cords. The box plays and stops at word of
+command, much to the astonishment of listeners. "Electricity," exclaims
+the reader! Hardly so, for the box is completely insulated on the sheet of
+glass. Then how is it done? Mr. Asprey Vere, an investigator of spirit
+phenomena, tells the secret in the following words: ("Modern Magic"). "In
+the box there is placed a balance lever which when the glass is in the
+slightest degree tilted, arrests the fly-fan, and thus prevents the
+machinery from moving. At the word of command the glass is made level, and
+the fly-fan being released, the machinery moves, and a tune is played.
+When commanded to stop, either side of the cord is pulled by a confederate
+behind the scenes, the balance lever drops, the fly-fan is arrested, and
+the music stops."
+
+One of the tests presented to the American public by this medium is the
+"spirit-hand," constructed of painted wood or _papier mache_, which raps
+out answers to questions, after it has been isolated from all contact by
+being placed on a sheet of glass supported on the backs of two chairs.
+
+It is a trick performed by every conjurer, and the secret is a piece of
+black silk thread, worked by confederates stationed in the wings of the
+theatre, one at the right, the other at the left. The thread lies along
+the stage when not in use, but at the proper cue from the medium, it is
+lifted up and brought in contact with the wooden hand. The hand is so
+constructed that the palm lies on the glass sheet and the wrist, with a
+fancy lace cuff about it, is elevated an inch above the glass, the whole
+apparatus being so pivoted that a pressure of the thread from above will
+depress the wrist and elevate the palm. When the thread is relaxed the
+hand comes down on the glass with a thump and makes the spirit rap which
+is so effective. A rapping skull made on similar principles is also in
+vogue among mediums.
+
+CHARLES SLADE.
+
+Annie Eva Fay has a rival in Charles Slade, who is a clever performer and
+a most convincing talker. His cabinet test is the same as Miss Fay's, but
+he has other specialties that are worth explaining--one is the
+"table-raising," and another is the "spirit neck-tie." The effect of the
+first experiment is as follows: Slade, with his arms bared and coat
+removed, requests several gentlemen to sit around a long table, reserving
+the head for himself. Hands are placed on the table, and developments
+awaited. "Do you feel the table raising?" asks the medium, after a short
+pause. "We do!" comes the response of the sitters. Slade then rises; all
+stand up, and the table is seen suspended in the air, about a foot from
+the floor of the stage. In a little while an uncontrollable desire seems
+to take possession of the table to rush about the stage. Frequently the
+medium requests several persons to get on the table, but that has no
+effect whatever. The same levitation takes place. The secret of this
+surprising mediumistic test is very simple. In the first place, the man
+who sits at the foot of the table is a confederate. Both medium and
+confederate wear about their waists wide leather belts, ribbed and
+strengthened with steel bands, and supported from the shoulders by bands
+of leather and steel. In the front of each belt is a steel hinge concealed
+by the vest of the wearer. In the act of sitting down at the table the
+medium and his confederate quickly pull the hinges which catch under the
+top of the table when the sitters rise. The rest of the trick is easily
+comprehended. When the levitation act is finished the hinges are folded up
+and hidden under the vests of the performers.
+
+The "spirit neck-tie" is one of the best things in the whole range of
+mediumistic marvels, and has never to my knowledge been exposed. A rope is
+tied about the medium's neck with the knots at the back and the ends are
+thrust through two holes in one side of the cabinet, and tied in a bow
+knot on the outside. The holes in the cabinet must be on a level with the
+medium's neck, after he is seated. The curtains of the cabinet are then
+closed, and the committee requested to keep close watch on the bow-knot on
+the outside of the cabinet. The assistant in a short time pulls back the
+curtain from the cabinet on the side farthest from the medium, and reveals
+a sheeted figure which writes messages and speaks to the spectators. Other
+materializations take place. The curtain is drawn. At this juncture the
+medium is heard calling: "Quick, quick, release me!" The assistant
+unfastens the bow-knot, the ends of the rope are quickly drawn into the
+cabinet, and the medium comes forward, looking somewhat exhausted, with
+the rope still tied about his neck. The question resolves itself into two
+factors--either the medium gets loose the neck-tie and impersonates the
+spirits or the materializations are genuine. "Gets loose! But that is
+impossible," exclaim the committee, "we watched the cord in the closest
+way." The secret of this surprising feat lies in a clever substitution.
+The tie is genuine, but the medium, after the curtains of the cabinet are
+closed, cuts the cord with a sharp knife, just about the region of the
+throat, and impersonates the ghosts, with the aid of various wigs and
+disguises concealed about him. Then he takes a second cord from his
+pocket, ties it about his neck with the same number of knots as are in the
+original rope and twists the neck-tie around so that these knots will
+appear at the back of his neck. Now, he exclaims, "Quick, quick, unfasten
+the cord." As soon as his assistant has untied the simple bow knot on the
+outside of the cabinet, the medium quickly pulls the genuine rope into the
+cabinet and conceals it in his pocket.
+
+When he presents himself to the spectators the rope about his neck
+(presumed to be the original) is found to be correctly tied and untampered
+with. Much of the effect depends on the rapidity with which the medium
+conceals the original cord and comes out of the cabinet. The author has
+seen this trick performed in parlors, the holes being bored in a door.
+
+Charles Slade makes a great parade in his advertisements about exposing
+the vulgar tricks of bogus mediums, but he says nothing about the secrets
+of his own pet illusions. His expos�s are made for the purpose of
+enhancing his own mediumistic marvels.
+
+I insert a verbatim copy of the handbills with which he deluges the
+highways and byways of American cities and towns.
+
+    SLADE
+
+    Will fully demonstrate the various methods employed by such renowned
+    spiritualistic mediums as Alex. Hume, Mrs. Hoffmann, Prof. Taylor,
+    Chas. Cooke, Richard Bishop, Dr. Arnold, and various others,
+
+    IN PLAIN, OPEN LIGHT.
+
+    Every possible means will be used to enlighten the auditor as to
+    whether these so-called wonders are enacted through the aid of spirits
+    or are the result of natural agencies.
+
+    _SUCH PHENOMENA AS_
+
+        Spirit Materializations,
+          Marvelous Superhuman Visions,
+            Spiritualistic Rappings,
+              Slate Writing,
+                Spirit Pictures,
+                  Floating Tables and Chairs,
+                    Remarkable Test of the Human Mind,
+                      Second Sight Mysteries,
+        A Human Being Isolated from Surrounding Objects
+                    Floating in Mid-Air.
+
+    Committees will be selected by the audience to assist SLADE, and to
+    report their views as to the why and wherefore of the many strange
+    things that will be shown during the evening. This is done so that
+    every person attending may learn the truth regarding the tests,
+    whether they are genuine, or caused by expert trickery.
+
+    Do not class or confound SLADE with the numerous so-called spirit
+    mediums and spiritual exposers that travel through the country, like a
+    set of roaming vampires, seeking whom they may devour. It is SLADE'S
+    object in coming to your city to enlighten the people one way or the
+    other as to the real
+
+    TRUTH CONCERNING THESE MYSTERIES.
+
+    Scientific men, and many great men, have believed there was a grain of
+    essential truth in the claims of Spiritualism. It was believed more on
+    the account of the want of power to deny it than anything else. The
+    idea that under some strained and indefinable possibilities the spirit
+    of the mortal man may communicate with the spirit of the departed man
+    is something that the great heart of humanity is prone to believe, as
+    it has faith in future existence. No skeptic will deny any man's right
+    to such a belief, but this little grain of hope has been the
+    foundation for such extensive and heartless mediumistic frauds that it
+    is constantly losing ground.
+
+                   A NIGHT OF
+            Wonderful Manifestations
+                 THE VEIL DRAWN
+        So that all may have an insight into the
+                 _SPIRIT WORLD_
+           And behold many things that are
+               Strange and Startling.
+
+    The Clergy, the Press, Learned Synods and Councils, Sage Philosophers
+    and Scientists, in fact, the whole world have proclaimed these
+    Philosophical Idealisms to be an astounding
+
+    FACT.
+
+               YOU ARE BROUGHT
+        Face to Face with the Spirits.
+
+    _A SMALL ADMISSION WILL BE CHARGED TO DEFRAY EXPENSES._
+
+PIERRE L. O. A. KEELER.
+
+Pierre Keeler's fame as a producer of spirit phenomena rests largely upon
+his materializing s�ances. It was his materializations that received the
+particular attention of the Seybert Commission. The late Mr. Henry
+Seybert, who was an ardent believer in modern Spiritualism, presented to
+the University of Pennsylvania a sum of money to found a chair of
+philosophy, with the proviso that the University should appoint a
+commission to investigate "all systems of morals, religion or philosophy
+which assume to represent the truth, and particularly of modern
+Spiritualism." The following gentlemen were accordingly appointed, and
+began their investigations: Dr. William Pepper, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Dr.
+George A. Koenig, Prof. R. E. Thompson, Prof. George S. Fullerton, and Dr.
+Horace H. Furness. Subsequently others were added to the commission--Dr.
+Coleman Sellers, Dr. James W. White, Dr. Calvin B. Kneer, and Dr. S. Weir
+Mitchell. Dr. Pepper, Provost of the University, was _ex-officio_
+chairman; Dr. Furness, acting chairman, and Prof. Fullerton, secretary.
+
+Keeler's materializations are thus described in the report of the
+commission:
+
+"On May 27 the Seybert commission held a meeting at the house of Mr.
+Furness at 8 p. m., to examine the phenomena occurring in the presence of
+Mr. Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a professional medium.
+
+"The medium, Mr. Keeler, is a young man, with well cut features, curly
+brown hair, a small sandy mustache, and rather worn and anxious
+expression; he is strongly built, about 5 feet 8 inches high, and with
+rather short, quite broad, and very muscular hands and strong wrists. The
+hands were examined by Dr. Pepper and Mr. Fullerton after the s�ance.
+
+"The s�ance was held in Mr. Furness' drawing-room, and a space was
+curtained off by the medium in the northeast corner, thus, (Fig. 25):
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 25. PIERRE KEELER'S CABINET SEANCE.]
+
+"The curtain is represented by A, B; C, D and E are three chairs, placed
+in front of the curtain by the medium, in one of which (E) he afterwards
+sat; G denotes the position of Mrs. Keeler; F is a small table, placed
+within the curtain, and upon which was a tambourine, a guitar, two bells,
+a hammer, a metallic ring; the stars show the positions of the spectators,
+who sat in a double row--the two stars at the top facing the letter A
+indicate the positions taken by Mrs. Kase and Col. Kase, friends of Mr.
+Keeler, according to the directions of the medium.
+
+"The curtain, or rather curtains, were of black muslin, and arranged as
+follows: There was a plain black curtain, which was stretched across the
+corner, falling to the floor. Its height, when in position, was 53 inches;
+it was made thus:
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 26. PIERRE KEELER'S CABINET CURTAIN.]
+
+"The cord which held the curtain was 1, 2, and the flaps which are
+represented as standing above it (A, B, C, etc.), fell down over A1, B1,
+C1, etc., and could be made to cover the shoulders of one sitting with his
+back against the curtain. A black curtain was also pinned against the
+wall, in the space curtained off, partly covering it. Another curtain was
+added to the one pictured, as will be described presently.
+
+"The medium asked Col. Kase to say a few words as to the necessity of
+observing the conditions, need of harmony, etc. And then the medium
+himself spoke a few words of similar import. He then drew the curtain
+along the cord (1, 2,) and fastened it; placed three wooden chairs in
+front of the curtain, as indicated in the diagram, and, saying he needed
+to form a battery, asked Miss Agnes Irwin to sit in chair D, and Mr. Yost
+in chair C, the medium himself sitting in chair E. A black curtain was
+then fastened by Mrs. Keeler over Mr. Keeler, Miss Irwin and Mr. Yost,
+being fastened at G, between E and D, between D and C, and beyond A; thus
+entirely covering the three sitting in front of the stretched curtain up
+to their necks; and when the flaps before mentioned were pulled down over
+their shoulders, nothing could be seen but the head of each.
+
+"Before the last curtain was fastened over them, the medium placed both
+his hands upon the forearm and wrist of Miss Irwin, the sleeve being
+pulled up for the purpose, and Miss Irwin grasped with her right hand the
+left wrist of Mr. Yost, his right hand being in sight to the right of the
+curtain.
+
+"After some piano music the medium said he felt no power from this
+'battery,' and asked Mrs. E. D. Gillespie to take Miss Irwin's place.
+Hands and curtains were arranged as before. The lights were turned down
+until the room was quite dim. During the singing the medium turned to
+speak to Mr. Yost, and his body, which had before faced rather away from
+the two other persons of the 'battery' (which position would have brought
+his right arm out in front of the stretched curtain), was now turned the
+other way, so that had he released his grasp upon Mrs. Gillespie's arm,
+his own right arm could have had free play in the curtained space behind
+him. His left knee also no longer stood out under the curtain in front,
+but showed a change of position.
+
+"At this time Mrs. Gillespie declared she felt a touch, and soon after so
+did Mr. Yost. The medium's body was distinctly inclined toward Mr. Yost at
+this time. Mrs. Gillespie said she felt taps, but declared that, to the
+best of her knowledge, she still felt the medium's two hands upon her arm.
+
+"Raps indicated that the spirit, George Christy, was present. As one of
+those present played on the piano, the tambourine was played in the
+curtained space and thrown over the curtain; bells were rung; the guitar
+was thrummed a little. At this time the medium's face was toward Mrs.
+Gillespie, and his right side toward the curtain. His body was further in
+against the curtain than either of the others. Upon being asked, Mrs.
+Gillespie then said she thought she still felt two hands upon her arm.
+
+"The guitar was then thrust out, at least the end of it was, at the bottom
+of the curtain, between Mrs. Gillespie and the medium. Mrs. Keeler drawing
+the curtain from over the toes of the medium's boots, to show where his
+feet were; the guitar was thrummed a little. Had the medium's right arm
+been free the thrumming could have been done quite easily with one hand.
+Afterward the guitar was elevated above the curtain; the tambourine, which
+was by Mrs. Keeler placed upon a stick held up within the inclosure, was
+made to whirl by the motion of the stick. The phenomena occurred
+successively, not simultaneously.
+
+"When the guitar was held up, and when the tambourine was made to whirl,
+both of these were to the right of the medium, chiefly behind Mrs.
+Gillespie; they were just where they might have been produced by the right
+arm of the medium, had it been free. Two clothes-pins were then passed
+over the curtain, and they were used in drumming to piano music. They
+could easily be used in drumming by one hand alone, the fingers being
+thrust into them. The pins were afterward thrown out over the curtain. Mr.
+Sellers picked one up as soon as it fell, and found it warm in the split,
+as though it had been worn. The drumming was probably upon the tambourine.
+
+"A hand was seen moving rapidly with a trembling motion--which prevented
+it from being clearly observed--above the back curtain, between Mr. Yost
+and Mrs. Gillespie. Paper was passed over the curtain into the cabinet and
+notes were soon thrown out. The notes could have been written upon the
+small table within the enclosure by the right hand of the medium, had it
+been free. Mrs. Keeler then passed a coat over the curtain, and an arm
+was passed through the sleeve, the fingers, with the cuff around them
+being shown over the curtain. They were kept moving, and a close scrutiny
+was not possible.
+
+"Mr. Furness was then invited to hold a writing tablet in front of the
+curtain, when the hand, almost concealed by the coat-sleeve and the flaps
+mentioned as attached to the curtain, wrote with a pencil on the tablet.
+The writing was rapid, and the hand, when not writing, was kept in
+constant, tremulous motion. The hand was put forth, in this case not over
+the top curtain, but came from under the flap, and could easily have been
+the medium's right hand were it disengaged, for it was about on a level
+with his shoulder and to his right, between him and Mrs. Gillespie. Mr.
+Furness was allowed to pass his hand close to the curtain and grasp the
+hand for a moment. It was a right hand.
+
+"Soon after the medium complained of fatigue, and the sitting was
+discontinued. It was declared by the Spiritualists present to be a fairly
+successful s�ance. When the curtains were removed the small table in the
+enclosure was found to be overturned, and the bells, hammer, etc., on the
+floor.
+
+"It is interesting to note the space within which all the manifestations
+occurred. They were, without exception, where they would have been had
+they been produced by the medium's right arm. Nothing happened to the left
+of the medium, nor very far over to the right. The sphere of activity was
+between the medium and Mr. Yost, and most of the phenomena occurred, as,
+for example, the whirling of the tambourine, behind Mrs. Gillespie.
+
+"The front curtain--that is, the main curtain which hung across the
+corner--was 85 inches in length, and the cord which supported it 53 inches
+from the floor. The three chairs which were placed in front of it were
+side by side, and it would not have been difficult for the medium to reach
+across and touch Mr. Yost. When Mrs. Keeler passed objects over the
+curtain, she invariably passed them to the right of the medium, although
+her position was on his left; and the clothes-pins, paper, pencil, etc.,
+were all passed over at a point where the medium's right hand could easily
+have reached them.
+
+"To have produced the phenomena by using his right hand the medium would
+have had to pass it under the curtain at his back. This curtain was not
+quite hidden by the front one at the end, near the medium, and this end
+both Mr. Sellers and Dr. Pepper saw rise at the beginning of the s�ance.
+The only thing worthy of consideration, as opposed to a natural
+explanation of the phenomena, was the grasp of the medium's hand on Mrs.
+Gillespie's arm.
+
+"The grasp was evidently a tight one above the wrist, for the arm was
+bruised for about four inches. There was no evidence of a similar pressure
+above that, as the marks on the arm extended in all about five or six
+inches only. The pressure was sufficient to destroy the sensibility of the
+forearm, and it is doubtful whether Mrs. Gillespie, with her arm in such a
+condition could distinguish between the grasp of one hand, with a divided
+pressure (applied by the two last fingers and the thumb and index) and a
+double grip by two hands. Three of our number, Mr. Sellers, Mr. Furness,
+and Dr. White, can, with one hand, perfectly simulate the double grip.
+
+"It is specially worthy of note that Mrs. Gillespie declared that, when
+the medium first laid hold of her arms with his right hand before the
+curtain was put over them, it was with an undergrip, and she felt his
+right arm under her left. But when the medium asked her if she felt both
+his hands upon her arm, and she said, yes, she could feel the grasp, but
+no arm under hers, though she moved her elbow around to find it--she felt
+a hand, but not an arm, and at no time during the s�ance did she find that
+arm.
+
+"It should be noted that both the medium and Mr. Yost took off their coats
+before being covered with the curtain. It was suggested by Dr. Pepper that
+this might have been required by the medium as a precaution against
+movements on the part of Mr. Yost. The white shirt-sleeves would have
+shown against the black background."
+
+I attended a number of Keeler's materializing exhibitions in Washington,
+D. C., in the spring of 1895, and it is my opinion that the writing of his
+so-called spirit messages is a simple affair, the very long and elaborate
+ones being written before the s�ance begins and the short ones by the
+medium during the sitting. The latter are done in a scrawling, uncertain
+hand, just such penmanship one would execute when blindfolded.
+
+The evidence of Dr. G. H. La Fetra, of Washington, D. C., is sufficiently
+convincing on this point. Said Dr. La Fetra to me: "Some years ago I went
+with a friend, Col. Edward Hayes, to one of Mr. Keeler's light s�ances.
+It was rather early in the evening, and but few persons had assembled.
+Upon the mantel piece of the s�ance-room were several tablets of paper.
+Unobserved, I took up these tablets, one at a time, and drew the blade of
+my pen-knife across one end of each of them, so that I might identify the
+slips of paper torn therefrom by the nicks in them. In a little while, the
+room was filled with people, and the s�ance began; the gas being lowered
+to a dim religious light. When the time came for the writing, Mr. Keeler
+requested that some of the tablets of paper on the mantel be passed into
+the cabinet. This was done. Various persons present received 'spirit'
+communications, the slips of paper being thrown over the curtain of the
+cabinet by a 'materialized' hand. Some gentleman picked up the papers and
+read them, for the benefit of the spectators; afterwards he laid aside
+those not claimed by anybody. Some of these 'spirit' communications
+covered almost an entire slip. These were carefully written, some of them
+in a fine hand. The short messages were roughly scrawled. After the
+s�ance, Col. Hayes and myself quietly pocketed a dozen or more of the
+slips. The next morning at my office we carefully examined them. In every
+instance, we found that the well-written, lengthy messages were inscribed
+on _unnicked_ slips, the short ones being written on _nicked_ slips."
+
+To me, this evidence of Dr. La Fetra seems most conclusive, proving beyond
+the shadow of a doubt that Keeler prepared his long communications before
+the s�ance and had them concealed upon his person, throwing them out of
+the cabinet at the proper moment. He used the _nicked_ tablets for his
+short messages, written on the spot, thereby completely revealing his
+method of operating to the ingenious investigator.
+
+The late Dr. Leonard Caughey, of Baltimore, Maryland, an intimate friend
+of the writer, made a specialty of anti-Spiritualistic tricks, and among
+others performed this cabinet test of Keeler's. He bought the secret from
+a broken-down medium for a few dollars, and added to it certain effects of
+his own, that far surpassed any of Keeler's. The writer has seen Dr.
+Caughey give the tests, and create the utmost astonishment. His
+improvement on the trick consisted in the use of a spring clasp like those
+used by gentlemen bicycle riders to keep their trousers in at the ankles.
+One end terminated in a soft rubber or chamois skin tip, shaped like a
+thumb, the other end had four representations of fingers. Two wire rings
+were soldered on the back of the clasp. This apparatus he had concealed
+under his vest. Before the curtain of the cabinet was drawn, Dr. Caughey
+grasped the arm of the lady on his right in the following manner: The
+thumb of his left hand under her wrist, the fingers extended above it; the
+thumb of his right hand resting on the thumb of the left, the fingers
+lightly resting on the fingers of the left hand. As soon as the curtain
+was fastened he extended the fourth and index fingers of the left hand to
+the fullest extent and pressed hard upon the lady's arm, relaxing at the
+same time the pressure of his second and third fingers. This movement
+exactly simulates the grasp of two hands, and enables the medium to take
+away his right hand altogether. Dr. Caughey then took his spring clasp,
+opened it by inserting his thumb and first finger in the soldered rings
+above mentioned, and lightly fastened it on the lady's arm near the wrist,
+relaxing the pressure of the first and fourth fingers of the left hand at
+the same moment. "I will slide my right hand along your arm, and grasp you
+near the elbow. It will relieve the pressure about your wrist; besides be
+more convincing to you that there is no trickery." So saying, he quickly
+slid the apparatus along her arm, and left it in the position spoken of.
+This produces a perfect illusion, the clasp with its trick thumb and
+fingers working to perfection.
+
+This apparatus may also be used in the following manner: Roll up your
+sleeves and exhibit your hands to the sitter. Tell him you are going to
+stand behind him and grasp his arms firmly near the shoulders. Take your
+position immediately under the gas jet. Ask him to please lower the light.
+Produce the trick clasps, distend them by means of your thumbs and
+fingers, and after the gas is lowered, grasp the sitter in the manner
+described. Remove your fingers and thumbs lightly from the clasps and
+perform various mediumistic evolutions, such as writing a message on a pad
+or slate placed on the sitter's head; strike him gently on his cheek with
+a damp glove, etc. When the s�ance is over, insert your fingers and thumbs
+in the soldered rings, remove the clasps and conceal them quickly.
+
+EUSAPIA PALADINO.
+
+The materializing medium who has caused the greatest sensation since
+Home's death is Eusapia Paladino, an Italian peasant woman. Signor
+Damiani, of Florence, Italy, discovered her alleged psychical powers in
+1875, and brought her into notice. An Italian Count was so impressed with
+the manifestations witnessed in the presence of the illiterate peasant
+woman, that he insisted upon "a commission of scientific men being called
+to investigate them." In the year 1884, this commission held s�ances with
+Eusapia, and afterwards declared that the phenomena witnessed were
+inexplicable, and unquestionably the result of forces transcending
+ordinary experience. In the year 1892 another commission was formed in
+Milan to test Eusapia's powers as a medium, and from this period her fame
+dates, as the most remarkable psychic of modern times. The report drawn up
+by this commission was signed by Giovanni Schiaparelli, director of the
+Astronomical Observatory, Milan; Carl du Prel, doctor of philosophy,
+Munich; Angelo Brofferio, professor of physics in the Royal School of
+Agriculture, Portici; G. B. Ermacora, doctor of physics; Giorgio Finzi,
+doctor of physics. At some of the sittings were present Charles Richet and
+the famous Cesare Lombroso. The conclusion arrived at by these gentlemen
+was that Eusapia's mediumistic phenomena were most worthy of scientific
+attention, and were unfathomable. The medium reaped the benefit of this
+notoriety, and gave sittings to hundreds of investigators among the
+Italian nobility, charging as high as $500 for a single s�ance. At last
+she was exposed by a clever American, Dr. Richard Hodgson, of Boston,
+secretary of the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research.
+His account of the affair, communicated to the _New York Herald_, Jan.
+10, 1897, is very interesting. Speaking of the report of the Milan
+commission, he says:
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 27. EUSAPIA PALADINO.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 28. EUSAPIA BEFORE THE SCIENTISTS.]
+
+"Their report confessed to seeing and hearing many strange things,
+although they believed they had the hands and feet of the psychic so
+closely held that she could have had nothing to do with the
+manifestations.
+
+"Chairs were moved, bells were rung, imprints of fingers were made on
+smoked paper and soft clay, apparitions of hands appeared on slightly
+luminous backgrounds, the chair of the medium and the medium herself were
+lifted to the table, the sound of trumpets, the contact of a seemingly
+human face, the touch of human hands, warm and moist, all were felt.
+
+"Most of these phenomena were repeated, and the members of the commission
+were, with two exceptions, satisfied that no known power could have
+produced them. Professor Richet did not sign the report, but induced
+Signora Eusapia to go to an island he owned in the Mediterranean, where
+other exacting tests were made under other scientific eyes. The
+investigators all agreed that the demonstrations could not be accounted
+for by ordinary forces.
+
+"I have found in my experience that learned scientific men are the most
+easily duped of any in the world. Instead of having a cold, inert piece of
+matter to investigate by exact processes and microscopic inspections, they
+had a clever, bright woman doing her best to mystify them. They could not
+cope with her.
+
+"Professor Richet replied to an article I wrote, upholding his position,
+and brought Signora Eusapia Paladino to Cambridge, England, where I joined
+the investigating committee. In the party were Professor Lodge, of
+Liverpool; Professor F. M. C. Meyer, secretary of the British Society for
+Psychical Research; Professor Richet and Mr. Henry Sedgwick, president of
+the society.
+
+"I found that the psychic, though giving a great variety of events,
+confined them to a very limited scope. She was seated during the tests at
+the end of a rectangular table and when the table was lifted it rose up
+directly at the other end. It was always so arranged that she was in the
+dark, even if the rest of the table was in the light; in the so-called
+light s�ances it was not light, the lamp being placed in an adjoining
+room. There were touches, punches and blows given, minor objects moved,
+some near and some further away; the outline of faces and hands appeared,
+etc.
+
+"When I came to hold her hands I found a key to the mystery.
+
+"It was chiefly that she made one hand and one foot do the work of both,
+by adroit substitution. Given a free hand and a free foot, and nearly all
+the phenomena can be explained. She has very strong, supple hands, with
+deft fingers and great coolness and intelligence.
+
+"This is the way she substituted one hand for both. She placed one of her
+hands over A's hand and the other under B's hand. Then, in the movements
+of the arms during the manifestation, she worked her hands toward each
+other until they rested one upon the other, with A's hand at the bottom of
+the pile, B's at the top and both her own, one upon the other, between. To
+draw out one hand and leave one and yet have the investigators feel that
+they still had a hand was easy.
+
+"With this hand free and in darkness there were great possibilities. There
+were strings, also, as I believe, which were attached to different objects
+and moved them. The dim outlines of faces and hands seen were clever
+representations of the medium's own free hand in various shapes.
+
+"It is thought that if a medium was kept clapping her hands she could do
+nothing with them, but one of the investigators found the Signora slapping
+her face with one hand, producing just the same sound as if her hands met,
+while the other hand was free to produce mysterious phenomena.
+
+"I have tried the experiment of shifting hands when those who held them
+knew they were going to be tricked, and yet they did not discover when I
+made the exchange. I am thoroughly satisfied that Signora Eusapia Paladino
+is a clever trickster."
+
+Eusapia Paladino was by no means disconcerted by Dr. Hodgson's expos�, but
+continued giving her s�ances. At the present writing she is continuing
+them in France with a number of new illusions. Many who have had sittings
+with her declare that she is able to move heavy objects without contact.
+Possibly this is due to jugglery, or it may be due to some psychic force
+as yet not understood.
+
+F. W. TABOR.
+
+Mr. F. W. Tabor is a materializing medium whose specialty is the trumpet
+test for the production of spirit voices. I had a sitting with him at the
+house of Mr. X, of Washington, D. C., on the night of Jan. 10, 1897. Seven
+persons, including the medium, sat around an ordinary-sized table in Mr.
+X--'s drawing room, and formed a chain of hands, in the following manner:
+Each person placed his or her hands on the table with the thumbs crossed,
+and the little fingers of each hand touching the little fingers of the
+sitters on the right and left. A musical box was set going and the light
+was turned out by Mr. X--, who broke the circle for that purpose, but
+immediately resumed his old position at the table. A large speaking
+trumpet of tin about three feet long had been placed upright in the center
+of the table, and near it was a pad of paper, and pencils. We waited
+patiently for some little time, the monotony being relieved by operatic
+airs from the music box, and the singing of hymns by the sitters. There
+were convulsive twitchings of the hands and feet of the medium, who
+complained of tingling sensations in those members. The first "phenomena"
+produced were balls of light dancing like will-o'-the-wisps over the
+table, and the materialization of a luminous spirit hand. Taps upon the
+table signalled the arrival of Mr. Tabor's spirit control, "Jim," a little
+newsboy, of San Francisco, who was run over some years ago by a street
+car. The medium was the first person who picked up the wounded waif and
+endeavored to administer to him, but without avail. "Jim" died soon after,
+and his disembodied spirit became the medium's control. Soon the trumpet
+arose from the table and floated over the heads of the sitters, and the
+voice of "Jim" was heard, sepulchral and awe-inspiring, through the
+instrument. Subsequently, messages of an impersonal character were
+communicated to Mr. X-- and his wife. At one time the trumpet was heard
+knocking against the chandelier. During the s�ance several of the ladies
+experienced the clasp of a ghostly hand about their wrists, and
+considerable excitement was occasioned thereby.
+
+It is not a difficult matter to explain this trumpet test. It hinges on
+one fact, _freedom of the medium's right hand_! In all of these holding
+tests, the medium employs a subterfuge to release his hands without the
+knowledge of the sitter on his right. During his convulsive twitchings, he
+quickly jerks his right hand away, but immediately extends the fingers of
+his left hand, and connects the index fingers with the little finger of
+the sitter's left hand, thereby completing the chain, or "battery," as it
+is technically called. Were the medium to use his thumb in making the
+connection the secret would be revealed, but the index finger of his left
+hand sufficiently simulates a little finger, and in the darkness the
+sitter is deceived. The right hand once released, the medium manipulates
+the trumpet and the phosphorescent spirit hands to his heart's content.
+Sometimes he utilizes the telescopic rod, or a pair of steel "crazy
+tongs," to elevate the trumpet to the ceiling. This holding test is
+absurdly simple and perhaps for that reason is so convincing.
+
+Mr. Tabor has another method of holding which is far more deceptive than
+the above. I am indebted to the "Revelations of a Spirit Medium" for an
+explanation of this test. "The investigators are seated in a circle around
+the table, male and female alternating. The person sitting on the medium's
+right--for he sits in the circle--grasps the medium's right wrist in his
+left hand, while his own right wrist is held by the sitter on his right
+and this is repeated clear around the circle. This makes each sitter hold
+the right wrist of his left hand neighbor in his left hand, while his own
+right hand wrist is held in the left hand of his neighbor on the left.
+Each one's hands are thus secured and engaged, including the medium's. It
+will be seen that no one of the sitters can have the use of his or her
+hands without one or the other of their neighbors knowing it. As each hand
+was held by a separate person, you cannot understand how he [the medium]
+could get the use of either of them except the one on his right was a
+confederate. Such was not the case, and still he _did_ have the use of one
+hand, the right one. But how? He took his place before the light was
+turned down, and those holding him say he did not let go for an instant
+during the s�ance. He did though, after the light was turned out for the
+purpose of getting his handkerchief to blow his nose. After blowing his
+nose he requested the sitter to again take his wrist, which is done, but
+this time it is the wrist of the left hand instead of the right. He has
+crossed his legs and there is but one knee to be felt, hence the sitter on
+the right does not feel that she is reaching across the right knee and
+thinks it is the left knee which she does feel to be the right. He has let
+his hand slip down until instead of holding the sitter on his left by the
+wrist he has him by the fingers, thus allowing him a little more
+distance, and preventing the left hand sitter using the hand to feel about
+and discover the right hand sitter's hand on the wrist of the hand holding
+his. You will see, now, that although both sitters are holding the same
+hand each one thinks he is holding the one on his or her side of the
+medium. The balance of the s�ance is easy."
+
+An amusing incident happened during my sitting with Mr. Tabor. Growing
+somewhat weary waiting for him to "manifest," I determined to undertake
+some materializations on my own account. I adopted the subterfuge of
+getting my right hand loose from the lady on my right, and produced the
+spirit hand that clasped the wrist of several of the sitters in the
+circle. Mr. X-- asked "Jim" if everything was all right in the circle,
+every hand promptly joined, and the magnetic conditions perfect. "Jim"
+responded with three affirmative taps on the table top. I congratulate
+myself on having deceived "Jim," a spirit operating in the fourth
+dimension of space, and supposedly cognizant of all that was transpiring
+at the s�ance. Once, when the medium was floating the trumpet over my
+head, I grasped the instrument and dashed it on the table. He made no
+further attempt to manipulate the trumpet in my direction, and very
+shortly brought the s�ance to a close. No written communications were
+received during the evening.
+
+
+4. Spirit Photography.
+
+You may deceive the human eye, say the advocates of spirit
+materializations, but you cannot deceive the eye of science, the
+_photographic camera_. Then they triumphantly produce the spirit
+photograph as indubitable evidence of the reality of ghostly
+materializations. "Spirit photography," says the late Alexandre Herrmann,
+in an article on magic, published in the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, "was the
+invention of a man in London, and for ten years Spiritualists accepted the
+pictures as genuine representations of originals in the spirit land. The
+snap kodak has superseded the necessity of the explanation of spirit
+photography."
+
+To be more explicit, there are two ways of producing spirit photographs,
+by _double printing_ and by _double exposure_. In the first, the scene is
+printed from one negative, and the spirit printed in from another. In the
+second method, the group with the friendly spook in proper position is
+arranged, and the lens of the camera uncovered, half of the required
+exposure being given; then the lens is capped, and the person doing duty
+as the sheeted ghost gets out of sight, and the exposure is completed. The
+result is very effective when the picture is printed, the real persons
+being represented sharp and well defined, while the ghost is but a hazy
+outline, transparent, through which the background shows.
+
+Every one interested in psychic phenomena who makes a pilgrimage to the
+Capital of the Nation visits the house of Dr. Theodore Hansmann. For ten
+years Dr. Hansmann has been an ardent student of Spiritualism, and has had
+sittings with many celebrated mediums. The walls of his office are
+literally covered with spirit pictures of famous people of history,
+executed by spirits under supposed test conditions. There are drawings in
+color by Raphael, Michel Angelo, and others. In one corner of the room is
+a book-case filled with slates, upon the surfaces of which are messages
+from the famous dead, attested by their signatures.
+
+In the fall of 1895, a correspondent of the _New York Herald_ interviewed
+Doctor Hansmann on the subject of spirit photographs, and subsequently
+visited the United States Bureau of Ethnology, where an interview was had
+with Mr. Dinwiddie, an expert photographer. Here is the substance of this
+second interview, published in the _Herald_, Nov. 9, 1895.
+
+"Dr. Hansmann's collection of 'spirit' photographs is most interesting.
+There is one with the face of the Empress Josephine, and on the same plate
+is the head of Professor Darius Lyman, for a long time Chief of the Bureau
+of Navigation. The head of the Empress Josephine has a diadem around it,
+and the lights and shadows remind one of the well known portrait of her.
+On another plate are Grant and Lincoln, Among his other photographs Dr.
+Hansmann brought out one of a man who was described to me as an Indian
+agent. Around his head were eleven smaller 'spirit' heads of Indians. In
+looking at the blue print closely it seemed to me as if I had seen those
+identical heads--the same as to light, shade and posing--somewhere before.
+
+"I was aided at the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution by
+Mr. F. Webb Hodge, the acting director, who on looking at the blue print
+named the Indians directly; several of the pictures were of Indians still
+alive. This, of course, immediately disposed of the idea of the blue
+print Indians being spirits.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 29--SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.
+
+[Taken by the Author.]]
+
+"Moreover, Mr. Dinwiddie produced the negatives containing the identical
+portraits of these Indians and made me several proofs, which on a
+comparison, feature by feature, light for light, and shade for shade, show
+unquestionably that the faces on the blue print are copies of the
+portraits made by the photographer of the Bureau of Ethnology.
+
+"Mr. Dinwiddie asked me to sit down for awhile, and offered to make me
+some spirit photographs. This he did, and the results obtained may be
+considered as far better examples of the art of 'spirit' photography than
+those of the medium, Keeler.
+
+"The matter was very simply done. Mr. Dinwiddie asked one of the ladies
+from the office to come in, and, she consented to pose as a spirit. She
+was placed before the camera at a distance of about six feet, a red
+background was given her, so that it might photograph dark, and she was
+asked to put on a saintly expression. This she did, and Mr. Dinwiddie gave
+the plate a half-second exposure. Another head was taken on the other side
+of the plate in much the same manner. After this was done the other or
+central photograph was taken with an exposure of four seconds, the plate
+being rather sensitive.
+
+"The plate was then taken to the dark room and developed. The negative
+came out very well at first, and the halo was put on afterward, when the
+plate had been dried. The halo was made by rubbing vignetting paste on the
+back, thus shutting out the light and leaving the paper its original hue.
+The white shadowy heads which are frequently shown in black coats, and
+which the mediums claim cannot be explained, are also done in this manner
+with vignetting paste, the picture being afterward centred over these
+places, which will be white, the final result showing soft and indefinite,
+and giving the required spiritual look.
+
+"Mr. Dinwiddie did not attempt to produce the hazy effect, but this is
+very easily accomplished in the photograph by taking the spirit heads a
+trifle out of focus. He claims that all of these apparent spiritual
+manifestations are but tricks of photography, and ones which might be
+accomplished by the veriest tyro, if he were to study the matter, and give
+his time to the experiment. It is only a wonder that the mediums do not do
+more of it.
+
+"The photograph mediums have always claimed that they were set upon by
+photographers for business reasons, but Mr. Dinwiddie is employed by the
+government and has no interests whatever in such a dispute."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 30--SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH BY PRETENDED MEDIUM.]
+
+The eminent authority on photography, Mr. Walter E. Woodbury, gives many
+interesting exposes of mediumistic photographs in his work, "Photographic
+Amusements," which the student of the subject would do well to consult.
+Fig. 30, taken from "Photographic Amusements" is a reproduction of a
+"spirit" photograph made by a photographer claiming to be a medium. Says
+Mr. Woodbury: "Fortunately, however, we were in this case able to expose
+the fraud. Mr. W. M. Murray, a prominent member of the Society of Amateur
+Photographers of New York, called our attention to the similarity between
+one of the 'spirit' images and a portrait painting by Sichel, the artist.
+A reproduction of the picture (Fig 31) is given herewith, and it will be
+seen at once that the 'spirit' image is copied from it."
+
+
+5. Thought Photography.
+
+During the year 1896 considerable stir was created by the investigation of
+Dr. Hippolyte Baraduc, of Paris, in the line of "Thought Photography,"
+which is of interest to psychic investigators generally. Dr. Baraduc
+claimed to have gotten photographic impressions of his thoughts, "made
+without sunlight or electricity or contact of any material kind." These
+impressions he declared to be subjective, being his own personal
+vibrations, the result of a force emanating from the human personality,
+supra-mechanical, or spiritual. The experiments were carried on in a dark
+room, and according to his statement were highly successful. In a
+communication to an American correspondent, printed in the _New York
+Herald_, January 3, 1897, he writes: "I have discovered a human, invisible
+light, differing altogether from the cathode rays discovered by Prof.
+Roentgen." Dr. Baraduc advanced the theory that our souls must be
+considered as centers of luminous forces, owing their existence partly to
+the attraction and partly to the repulsion of special and potent forces
+bred of the invisible cosmos.
+
+A number of French scientific journals took up the matter, and discussed
+"Thought Photography" at length, publishing numerous reproductions of the
+physician's photographs; but the more conservative journals of England,
+Germany and America remained silent on the subject, as it seemed to be on
+the borderland between science and charlatanry. On January 11, 1897,
+the American newspapers contained an item to the effect that Drs. S.
+Millington Miller and Carleton Simon, of New York City, the former a
+specialist in brain physiology, and the latter an expert hypnotist, had
+succeeded in obtaining successful thought photographs on dry plates from
+two hypnotized subjects. When the subjects were not hypnotized, the
+physicians reported no results.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 31--SIGEL'S ORIGINAL PICTURE OF FIG 30.]
+
+As "Thought Photography" is without the pale of known physical laws,
+stronger evidence is needed to support the claims made for it than that
+which has been adduced by the French and American investigators. "Thought
+Photography" once established as a scientific fact, we shall have,
+perhaps, an explanation of genuine spirit photographs, if such there be.
+
+
+6. Apparitions of the Dead.
+
+In my chapter on subjective phenomena, I have not recorded any cases of
+phantasms of the dead, though several interesting examples of such have
+come under my notice. I have thought it better to refer the reader to the
+voluminous reports of the Society for Psychical Research (England). In
+regard to these cases, the Society has reached the following conclusion:
+_Between deaths and apparitions of dying persons a connection exists which
+is not due to chance alone. This we hold as a proved fact._
+
+The "_Literary Digest_," January 12, 1895, in reviewing this report, says:
+"Inquiries were instituted in 17,000 cases of alleged apparitions. These
+inquiries elicited 1,249 replies from persons [in England and Wales] who
+affirmed that they themselves had seen the apparitions. Then the Society
+by further inquiries and cross-examinations sifted out all but eighty of
+these as discredited in some way, by error of memory or illusions of
+identity, or for some other reason, or which could be accounted for by
+common psychical laws. Of these eighty, fifty more were thrown out, to be
+on the safe side, and the remaining thirty are used as a basis for
+scientific consideration. All these consisted of apparitions of dead
+persons appearing to others within twelve hours after death, and many of
+them appearing at the very hour and even the very minute of death. The
+full account of the investigation is published in the tenth volume of the
+Society's Reports, under the title, 'A Census of Hallucinations,' and
+Prof. J. H. Hyslop, of Columbia College, wrote an article giving the gist
+of the report and his comments in the '_Independent_,' (December 27,
+1895), from which I cull these few notable paragraphs:
+
+"'The committee which conducted the research reasons as follows: Since the
+death rate of England is 19.15 out of every thousand, the chances of any
+person's dying on any particular day are one in 19,000 (the ratio of 19.15
+to 365 times 1,000). Out of 19,000 death apparitions, therefore, one can
+be explained as a simple coincidence. But thirty apparitions out of 1,300
+cases is in the proportion of 440 out of 19,000, so that to refer these
+thirty well-authenticated apparitions to coincidence is deemed
+impossible.'
+
+"And further on:
+
+"'This is remarkable language for the signatures of Prof. and Mrs.
+Sidgwick, than whom few harder-headed skeptics could be found. It is more
+than borne out, however, by a consideration which the committee does not
+mention, but which the facts entirely justify, and it is that since many
+of the apparitions occurred not merely on the day, but at the very hour or
+minute of death, the improbability of their explanation by chance is
+really much greater than the figures here given. That the apparition
+should occur within the hour of death the chance should be 1 to 356,000,
+or at the minute of death 1 to 21,360,000. To get 30 cases, therefore,
+brought down to these limits we should have to collect thirty times these
+numbers of apparitions. Either these statistics are of no value in a study
+of this kind, or the Society's claim is made out that there is either a
+telepathic communication between the dying and those who see their
+apparitions, or some causal connection not yet defined or determined by
+science. That this connection may be due to favorable conditions in the
+subject of the hallucination is admitted by the committee, if the person
+having the apparition is suffering from grief or anxiety about the person
+concerned. But it has two replies to such a criticism. The first is the
+query how and why under the circumstances does this effect coincide
+generally with the death of the person concerned, when anxiety is extended
+over a considerable period. The second is a still more triumphant reply,
+and it is that a large number of the cases show that the subject of the
+apparition has no knowledge of the dying person's sickness, place, or
+condition. In that case there is no alternative to searching elsewhere for
+the cause. If telepathy or thought transference will not explain the
+connection, resort must be had to some most extraordinary hypothesis. Most
+persons will probably accept telepathy as the easiest way out of the
+difficulty, though I am not sure that we are limited to this, the easiest
+explanation.'
+
+"Professor Hyslop then proceeds to consider the effect of the committee's
+conclusion upon existing theories and speculations regarding the relations
+between mind and matter, and foresees with gratification as well as
+apprehension the revolt likely to be initiated against materialism and
+which may go so far as to discredit science and carry us far back to the
+credulous conditions of the Middle Ages. He says:
+
+"'The point which the investigations of the Society for Psychical Research
+have already reached creates a question of transcendent interest, no
+matter what the solution of it may be, and will stimulate in the near
+future an amount of psychological and theological speculation of the most
+hasty and crude sort, which it will require the profoundest knowledge of
+mental phenomena, normal and abnormal, and the best methods of science to
+counteract, and to keep within the limits of sober reason. The hardly won
+conquests of intellectual freedom and self-control can easily be
+overthrown by a reaction that will know no bounds and which it will be
+impossible to regulate. Though there may be some moral gain from the
+change of beliefs, as will no doubt be the case in the long run, we have
+too recently escaped the intellectual, religious, and political tyranny of
+the Middle Ages to contemplate the immediate consequences of the reaction
+with any complacency. But no one can calculate the enormous effect upon
+intellectual, social, and political conditions which would ensure upon the
+reconciliation of science and religion by the proof of immortality."
+
+
+
+
+IV. CONCLUSIONS.
+
+
+In my investigations of the physical phenomena of modern spiritualism, I
+have come to the following conclusion: While the majority of mediumistic
+manifestations are due to conjuring, there is a class of cases not
+ascribable to trickery, namely, those coming within the domain of psychic
+force--as exemplified by the experiments of Gasparin, Crookes, Lodge,
+Asakoff and Coues. In regard to the subjective phenomena, I am convinced
+that the recently annunciated law of telepathy will account for them. _I
+discredit the theory of spirit intervention._ If this be a correct
+conclusion, is there anything in mediumistic phenomena that will
+contribute to the solution of the problem of the immortality of the soul?
+I think there is. The existence of a subjective or subliminal
+consciousness in man, as illustrated in the phenomena mentioned, seems to
+indicate that the human personality is really a spiritual entity,
+possessed of unknown resources, and capable of preserving its identity
+despite the shock of time and the grave. Hudson says: "It is clear that
+the power of telepathy has nothing in common with objective methods of
+communications between mind and mind; and that it is not the product of
+muscle or nerve or any physiological combination whatever, but rather sets
+these at naught, with their implications of space and time.... When
+disease seizes the physical frame and the body grows feeble, the objective
+mind invariably grows correspondingly weak.... In the meantime, as the
+objective mind ceases to perform its functions, the subjective mind is
+most active and powerful. The individual may never before have exhibited
+any psychic power, and may never have consciously produced any psychic
+phenomena; yet at the supreme moment his soul is in active communication
+with loved ones at a distance, and the death message is often, when
+psychic conditions are favorable, consciously received. The records of
+telepathy demonstrate this proposition. Nay, more; they may be cited to
+show that in the hour of death the soul is capable of projecting a
+phantasm of such strength and objectivity that it may be an object of
+personal experience to those for whom it is intended. Moreover, it has
+happened that telepathic messages have been sent by the dying, at the
+moment of dissolution, giving all the particulars of the tragedy, when
+the death was caused by an unexpected blow which crushed the skull of the
+victim. It is obvious that in such cases it is impossible that the
+objective mind could have participated in the transaction. The evidence is
+indeed overwhelming, that, no matter what form death may assume, whether
+caused by lingering disease, old age, or violence, the subjective mind is
+never weakened by its approach or its presence. On the other hand, that
+the objective mind weakens with the body and perishes with the brain, is a
+fact confirmed by every-day observation and universal experience."
+
+This hypothesis of the objective and subjective minds has been criticised
+by many psychologists on the ground of its extreme dualism. No such
+dualism exists, they contend. However, Hudson's theory is only a working
+hypothesis at best, to explain certain extraordinary facts in human
+experience. Future investigators may be able to throw more light on the
+subject. But this one thing may be enunciated: _Telepathy is an
+incontrovertible fact_, account for it as you may, a physical force or a
+spiritual energy. If physical, then it does not follow any of the known
+operations of physical laws as established by modern science, especially
+in the case of transmission of thought at a distance.
+
+It is true, that all evidence in support of telepathic communications is
+more or less _ex parte_ in character, and does not possess that validity
+which orthodox science requires of investigators. Any student of the
+physical laws of matter can make investigations for himself, and at any
+time, provided he has the proper apparatus. Explain to a person that water
+is composed of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, and he can easily verify
+the fact for himself by combining the gases, in the combination of H2O,
+and afterwards liberate them by a current of electricity. But experiments
+in telepathy and clairvoyance cannot be made at will; they are isolated in
+character, and consequently are regarded with suspicion by orthodox
+science. Besides this, they transcend the materialistic theories of
+science as regards the universe, and one is almost compelled to use the
+old metaphysical terms of mind and matter, body and soul, in describing
+the phenomena.
+
+It is an undoubted fact that science has broken away from the old theory
+regarding the distinction between mind and matter. Says Prof. Wm. Romaine
+Newbold, "In the scientific world it has fallen into such disfavor that
+in many circles it is almost as disgraceful to avow belief in it as in
+witchcraft or ghosts." We have to-day a school of
+"physiological-psychology," calling itself "psychology without a soul."
+This school is devoted to the laboratory method of studying mind. "The
+laboratory method," says Roark, in his "Psychology in Education," "is
+concerned mostly with _physiological_ psychology, which is, after all,
+only _physiology_, even though it be the physiology of the nervous system
+and the special organs of sense--the material tools of the mind. And after
+physiological psychology has had its rather prolix say, causal connection
+of the physical organs with psychic action is as obscure and impossible of
+explanation as ever. But the laboratory method can be of excellent service
+in determining the material conditions of mental action, in detecting
+special deficiencies and weaknesses, and in accumulating valuable
+statistics along these lines.
+
+"It has been asserted that no science can claim to be exact until it can
+be reduced to formulas of weights and measures. The assertion begs the
+question for the materialists. We shall probably never be able to weigh an
+idea or measure the cubic contents of the memory; but the rapidity with
+which ideas are formed or reproduced by memory has been measured in many
+particular instances, and the circumstances that retard or accelerate
+their formation or reproduction have been positively ascertained and
+classified."
+
+That it is possible to explain all mental phenomena in terms of physics is
+by no means the unanimous verdict of scientific men. A small group of
+students of late years have detached themselves from the purely
+materialistic school and broken ground in the region of the supernormal.
+Says Professor Newbold (_Popular Science Monthly_, January, 1897): "In the
+supernormal field, the facts already reported, should they be
+substantiated by further inquiry, would go far towards showing that
+consciousness is an entity governed by laws and possessed of powers
+incapable of expression in material conceptions.
+
+"I do not myself regard the theory of independence [of mind and body] as
+proved, but I think we have enough evidence for it to destroy in any
+candid mind that considers it that absolute credulity as to its
+possibility which at present characterizes the average man of science."
+
+
+
+
+PART SECOND.
+
+
+
+
+MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THE THEOSOPHISTS.
+
+
+1. The Priestess.
+
+The greatest "fantaisiste" of modern times was Madame Blavatsky, spirit
+medium, Priestess of Isis, and founder of the Theosophical Society. Her
+life is one long catalogue of wonders. In appearance she was enormously
+fat, had a harsh, disagreeable voice, and a violent temper, dressed in a
+slovenly manner, usually in loose wrappers, smoked cigarettes incessantly,
+and cared little or nothing for the conventionalities of life. But in
+spite of all--unprepossessing appearance and gross habits--she exercised a
+powerful personal magnetism over those who came in contact with her. She
+was the Sphinx of the second half of this Century; a Pythoness in tinsel
+robes who strutted across the world's stage "full of sound and fury," and
+disappeared from view behind the dark veil of Isis, which she, the
+fin-de-siecle prophetess, tried to draw aside during her earthly career.
+
+In searching for facts concerning the life of this really remarkable
+woman--remarkable for the influence she has exerted upon the thought of
+this latter end of the nineteenth century--I have read all that has been
+written about her by prominent Theosophists, have talked with many who
+knew her intimately, and now endeavor to present the truth concerning her
+and her career. The leading work on the subject is "Incidents in the Life
+of Madame Blavatsky," compiled from information supplied by her relatives
+and friends, and edited by A. P. Sinnett, author of "The Occult World."
+The frontispiece to the book is a reproduction of a portrait of Madame
+Blavatsky, painted by H. Schmiechen, and represents the lady seated on the
+steps of an ancient ruin, holding a parchment in her hand. She is garbed
+somewhat after the fashion of a Cumaean Sibyl and gazes straight before
+her with the deep unfathomable eyes of a mystic, as if she were reading
+the profound riddles of the ages, and beholding the sands of Time falling
+hot and swift into the glass of eternity--
+
+"And all things creeping to a day of doom."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 32--MADAME BLAVATSKY.]
+
+Sinnett's life of the High Priestess is a strange concoction of monstrous
+absurdities; it is full of the weirdest happenings that were ever
+vouchsafed to mortal. We cannot put much faith in this biography, and must
+delve in other mines for information; but some of the remarkable passages
+of the book are worth perusing, particularly if the reader be prone to
+midnight musings of a ghostly character.
+
+Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the daughter of Col. Peter Hahn of the Russian
+Army, and granddaughter of General Alexis Hahn von Rottenstern Hahn (a
+noble family of Mecklenburg, Germany, settled in Russia), was born in
+Eskaterinoslaw, in the south of Russia, in 1831. "She had," says Sinnett,
+"a strange childhood, replete with abnormal occurrences. The year of her
+birth was fatal for Russia, as for all Europe, owing to the first visit of
+the cholera, that terrible plague that decimated from 1830 to 1832 in turn
+nearly every town of the Continent.... Her birth was quickened by several
+deaths in the house, and she was ushered into the world amid coffins and
+desolation, on the night between July 30th and 31st, weak and apparently
+no denizen of this world." A hurried baptism was given lest the child die
+in original sin, and the ceremony was that of the Greek Church. During the
+orthodox baptismal rite no person is allowed to sit, but a child aunt of
+the baby, tired of standing for nearly an hour, settled down upon the
+floor, just behind the officiating priest. No one perceived her, as she
+sat nodding drowsily. The ceremony was nearing its close. The sponsors
+were just in the act of renouncing the Evil One and his deeds, a
+renunciation emphasized in the Greek Church by thrice spitting upon the
+invisible enemy, when the little lady, toying with her lighted taper at
+the feet of the crowd, inadvertantly set fire to the long flowing robes of
+the priest, no one remarking the accident till it was too late. The result
+was an immediate conflagration, during which several persons--chiefly the
+old priest--were severely burnt. That was another bad omen, according to
+the superstitious beliefs of orthodox Russia; and the innocent cause of
+it, the future Madame Blavatsky, was doomed from that day, in the eyes of
+all the town, to an eventful, troubled life.
+
+"Mlle. Hahn was born, of course, with all the characteristics of what is
+known in Spiritualism as mediumship in the most extraordinary degree, also
+with gifts as a clairvoyant of an almost equally unexampled order. On
+various occasions while apparently in an ordinary sleep, she would answer
+questions, put by persons who took hold of her hand, about lost property,
+etc., as though she were a sibyl entranced. For years she would, in
+childish impulse, shock strangers with whom she came in contact, and
+visitors to the house, by looking them intently in the face and telling
+them they would die at such and such a time, or she would prophesy to them
+some accident or misfortune that would befall them. And since her
+prognostications usually came true, she was the terror, in this respect,
+of the domestic circle."
+
+Madame V. P. Jelihowsy, a sister of the seeress, has furnished to the
+world many extraordinary stories of Mme. Blavatsky's childhood, published
+in various Russian periodicals. At the age of eleven the Sibyl lost her
+mother, and went to live with her grandparents at Saratow, her grandfather
+being civil governor of the place. The family mansion was a lumbering old
+country place "full of subterraneous galleries, long abandoned passages,
+turrets, and most weird nooks and corners. It looked more like a mediaeval
+ruined castle than a building of the last century." The ghosts of
+martyred serfs were supposed to haunt the uncanny building, and strange
+legends were told by the old family servants of weir-wolves and goblins
+that prowled about the dark forests of the estate. Here, in this House of
+Usher, the Sibyl lived and dreamed, and at this period exhibited many
+abnormal psychic peculiarities, ascribed by her orthodox governess and
+nurses of the Greek Church to possession by the devil. She had at times
+ungovernable fits of temper; she would ride any Cossack horse on the place
+astride a man's saddle; go into trances and scare everyone from the master
+of the mansion down to the humblest vodka drinker on the estate.
+
+In 1848, at the age of 17, she married General Count Blavatsky, a gouty
+old Russian of 70, whom she called "the plumed raven," but left him after
+a brief period of marital infelicity. From this time dates her career as a
+thaumaturgist. She travelled through India and made an honest attempt to
+penetrate into the mysterious confines of Thibet, but succeeded in getting
+only a few miles from the frontier, owing to the fanaticism of the
+natives.
+
+In India, as elsewhere, she was accused of being a Russian spy and was
+generally regarded with suspicion by the police authorities. After some
+months of erratic wanderings she reappeared in Russia, this time in
+Tiflis, at the residence of a relative, Prince ----. It was a gloomy,
+grewsome chateau, well suited for Spiritualistic s�ances, and Madame
+Blavatsky, it is claimed, frightened the guests during the long winter
+evenings with table-tippings, spirit rappings, etc. It was then the tall
+candles in the drawing-room burnt low, the gobelin tapestry rustled, sighs
+were heard, strange music "resounded in the air," and luminous forms were
+seen trailing their ghostly garments across the "tufted floor."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 33--MAHATMA LETTER.]
+
+The gossipy Madame de Jelihowsy, in her reminiscences, classifies the
+phenomena, witnessed in the presence of her Sibylline sister, as follows:
+
+1. Direct and perfectly clearly written and verbal answers to mental
+questions--or "thought reading."
+
+2. Private secrets, unknown to all but the interested party, divulged,
+[especially in the case of those persons who mentioned insulting doubts].
+
+3. Change of weight in furniture and persons at will.
+
+4. Letters from unknown correspondents, and immediate answers written to
+queries made, and found in the most out-of-the-way mysterious places.
+
+5. Appearance of objects unclaimed by anyone present.
+
+6. Sounds of musical notes in the air wherever Madame Blavatsky desired
+they should resound.
+
+In the year 1858, the High Priestess was at the house of General Yakontoff
+at Pskoff, Russia. One night when the drawing-room was full of visitors,
+she began to describe the mediumistic feat of making light objects heavy
+and heavy objects light.
+
+"Can you perform such a miracle?" ironically asked her brother, Leonide de
+Hahn, who always doubted his sister's occult powers.
+
+"I can," was the firm reply.
+
+De Hahn went to a small chess table, lifted it as though it were a
+feather, and said: "Suppose you try your powers on this."
+
+"With pleasure!" replied Mme. Blavatsky. "Place the table on the floor,
+and step aside for a minute." He complied with her request.
+
+She fixed her large blue eyes intently upon the chess table and said
+without removing her gaze, "Lift it now."
+
+The young man exerted all his strength, but the table would not budge
+an inch. Another guest tried with the same result, but the wood only
+cracked, yielding to no effort.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 34--MAHATMA LETTER ENVELOPE.]
+
+"Now, lift it," said Madame Blavatsky calmly, whereupon De Hahn picked it
+up with the greatest ease. Loud applause greeted this extraordinary feat,
+and the skeptical brother, so say the occultists, was utterly nonplussed.
+
+Madame Blavatsky, as recorded by Sinnett, stated afterwards that the above
+phenomenon could be produced in two different ways: "First, through the
+exercise of her own will directing the magnetic currents so that the
+pressure on the table became such that no physical force could move it;
+second, through the action of those beings with whom she was in constant
+communication, and who, although unseen, were able to hold the table
+against all opposition."
+
+The writer has seen similar feats performed by hypnotizers with good
+subjects without the intervention of any ghostly intelligences.
+
+In 1870 the Priestess of Isis journeyed through Egypt in company with a
+certain Countess K--, and endeavored to form a Spiritualistic society at
+Cairo, for the investigation of psychic phenomena, but things growing
+unpleasant for her she left the land of pyramids and papyri in hot haste.
+It is related of her that during this Egyptian sojourn she spent one night
+in the King's sepulchre in the bowels of the Great Pyramid of Cheops,
+sleeping in the very sarcophagus where once reposed the mummy of a
+Pharoah. Weird sights were seen by the entranced occultist and strange
+sounds were heard on that eventful occasion within the shadowy mortuary
+chamber of the pyramid. At times she would let fall mysterious hints of
+what she saw that night, but they were as incomprehensible as the riddles
+of the fabled Sphinx.
+
+Countess Paschkoff chronicles a curious story about the Priestess of Isis,
+which reminds one somewhat of the last chapter in Bulwer's occult novel,
+"A Strange Story." The Countess relates that she was once travelling
+between Baalbec and the river Orontes, and in the desert came across the
+caravan belonging to Madame Blavatsky. They joined company and towards
+nightfall pitched camp near the village of El Marsum amid some ancient
+ruins. Among the relics of a Pagan civilization stood a great monument
+covered with outlandish hieroglyphics. The Countess was curious to
+decipher the inscriptions, and begged Madame Blavatsky to unravel their
+meaning, but the Priestess of Isis, notwithstanding her great
+archaeological knowledge, was unable to do so. However, she said: "Wait
+until night, and we shall see!" When the ruins were wrapped in sombre
+shadow, Mme. Blavatsky drew a great circle upon the ground about the
+monument, and invited the Countess to stand within the mystic confines. A
+fire was built and upon it were thrown various aromatic herbs and incense.
+Cabalistic spells were recited by the sorceress, as the smoke from the
+incense ascended, and then she thrice commanded the spirit to whom the
+monument was erected to appear. Soon the cloud of smoke from the burning
+incense assumed the shape of an old man with a long white beard. A voice
+from a distance pierced the misty image, and spoke: "I am Hiero, one of
+the priests of a great temple erected to the gods, that stood upon this
+spot. This monument was the altar. Behold!" No sooner were the words
+pronounced than a phantasmagoric vision of a gigantic temple appeared,
+supported by ponderous columns, and a great city was seen covering the
+distant plain, but all soon faded into thin air.
+
+This story was related to a select coterie of occultists assembled in
+social conclave at the headquarters in New York. The question is, had the
+charming Russian Countess dreamed this, or was she trying to exploit
+herself as a traveler who had come "out of the mysterious East" and had
+seen strange things?
+
+We next hear of the famous occultist in the United States, where she
+associated chiefly with spirit-mediums, enchanters, professional
+clairvoyants, and the like.
+
+"At this period of her career she had not,"[4] says Dr. Eliott Coues, a
+learned investigator of psychic phenomena, "been metamorphosed into a
+Theosophist. She was simply exploiting as a Spiritualistic medium. Her
+most familiar spook was a ghostly fiction named 'John King.' This fellow
+is supposed to have been a pirate, condemned for his atrocities to serve
+earth-bound for a term of years, and to present himself at materializing
+s�ances on call. Any medium who personates this ghost puts on a heavy
+black horse-hair beard and a white bed sheet and talks in sepulchral chest
+tones. John is as standard and sure-enough a ghost as ever appeared before
+the public. Most of the leading mediums, both in Europe and America, keep
+him in stock. I have often seen the old fellow in New York, Philadelphia,
+and Washington through more mediums that I can remember the names of. Our
+late Minister to Portugul, Mr. J. O'Sullivan, has a photograph of him at
+full length, floating in space, holding up a peculiar globe of light
+shaped like a glass decanter. This trustworthy likeness was taken in
+Europe, and I think in Russia, but am not sure on that point. I once had
+the pleasure of introducing the pirate king to my friend Prof. Alfred
+Russel Wallace, in the person of Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a noted medium of
+Washington.
+
+"But the connection between the pirate and my story is this: Madame
+Blavatsky was exploiting King at the time of which I speak, and several of
+her letters to friends, which I have read, are curiously scribbled in red
+and blue pencil with sentences and signatures of 'John King,' just as,
+later on, 'Koot Hoomi' used to miraculously precipitate himself upon her
+stationery in all sorts of colored crayons. And, by the way, I may call
+the reader's attention to the fact that while the ingenious creature was
+operating in Cairo, her Mahatmas were of the Egyptian order of
+architecture, and located in the ruins of Thebes or Karnak. They were not
+put in turbans and shifted to Thibet till late in 1879."
+
+In 1875, while residing in New York, Madame Blavatsky conceived the idea
+of establishing a Theosophical Society. Stupendous thought! Cagliostro in
+the eighteenth century founded his Egyptian Free-Masonry for the
+re-generation of mankind, and Blavatsky in the nineteenth century laid the
+corner stone of modern Theosophy for a similar purpose. Cagliostro had his
+High Priestess in the person of a beautiful wife, Lorenza Feliciani, and
+Blavatsky her Hierophant in the somewhat prosaic guise of a New York
+reporter, Col. Olcott, since then a famous personage in occult circles.
+
+During the Civil War, Olcott served in the Quartermaster's Department of
+the Army and afterwards held a position in the Internal Revenue Service of
+the United States. In 18-- he was a newspaper man in New York, and was
+sent by the _Graphic_ to investigate the alleged Spiritualistic phenomena
+transpiring in the Eddy family in Chittenden, Vermont. There he met Madame
+Blavatsky. It was his fate.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 35. COL. H. S. OLCOTT.]
+
+Col. Olcott's description of his first sight of Mme. Blavatsky is
+interesting:
+
+"The dinner at Eddy's was at noon, and it was from the entrance door of
+the bare and comfortless dining-room that Kappes and I first saw H. P. B.
+She had arrived shortly before noon with a French Canadian lady, and they
+were at table as we entered. My eye was first attracted by a scarlet
+Garibaldian shirt the former wore, as being in vivid contrast with the
+dull colors around. Her hair was then a thick blonde mop, worn shorter
+than the shoulders, and it stood out from her head, silken, soft, and
+crinkled to the roots, like the fleece of a Cotswold ewe. This and the
+red shirt were what struck my attention before I took in the picture of
+her features. It was a massive Kalmuck face, contrasting in its suggestion
+of power, culture, and imperiousness, as strangely with the commonplace
+visages about the room, as her red garment did with the gray and white
+tones of the wall and woodwork, and the dull costumes of the rest of the
+guests. All sorts of cranky people were continually coming and going at
+Eddy's, to see the mediumistic phenomena, and it only struck me on seeing
+this eccentric lady that this was but one more of the sort. Pausing on the
+door-sill, I whispered to Kappes, 'Good gracious! look at _that_ specimen,
+will you!' I went straight across and took a seat opposite her to indulge
+my favorite habit of character-study."
+
+Commenting on this meeting, J. Ransom Bridges, in the _Arena_, for April,
+1895, remarks: "After dinner Colonel Olcott scraped an acquaintance by
+opportunely offering her a light for a cigarette which she proceeded to
+roll for herself. This 'light' must have been charged with Theosophical
+_karma_, for the burning match or end of a lighted cigar--the Colonel does
+not specify--lit a train of causes and their effects which now are making
+history and are world-wide in their importance. So confirmed a pessimist
+on Theosophical questions as Henry Sidgwick of the London Society for
+Psychical Research, says, 'Even if it [the Theosophical Society] were to
+expire next year, its twenty years' existence would be a phenomenon of
+some interest for a historian of European society in the nineteenth
+century.'"
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 36. OATH OF SECRECY TAKEN BY CHARTER MEMBERS OF THE
+THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
+
+[Kindness of the _New York Herald_.]]
+
+The s�ances at the Eddy house must have been character studies indeed. The
+place where the ghosts were materialized was a large apartment over the
+dining room of the ancient homestead. A dark closet, at one end of the
+room, with a rough blanket stretched across it, served as a cabinet. Red
+Indians and pirates were the favorite materializations, but when Madame
+Blavatsky appeared on the scene, ghosts of Turks, Kurdish cavaliers, and
+Kalmucks visited this earthly scene, much to the surprise of every one.
+Olcott cites this fact as evidence of the genuineness of the
+materializations, remarking, "how could the ignorant Eddy boys, rough,
+rude, uncultured farmers, get the costumes and accessories for characters
+of this kind in a remote Vermont village."
+
+
+2. What is Theosophy.
+
+Let us turn aside at this juncture to ask, "What is Theosophy." The word
+Theosophy (Theosophia--divine knowledge) appears to have been used about
+the Third century, A. D., by the Neo-Platonists, or Gnostics of
+Alexandria, but the great principles of the doctrine, however, were taught
+hundreds of years prior to the mystical school established at Alexandria.
+"It is not," says an interesting writer on the subject, "an outgrowth of
+Buddhism although many Buddhists see in its doctrines the reflection of
+Buddha. It proposes to give its followers the esoteric, or inner-spiritual
+meaning of the great religious teachers of the world. It asserts repeated
+re-incarnations, or rebirths of the soul on earth, until it is fully
+purged of evil, and becomes fit to be absorbed into the Deity whence it
+came, gaining thereby Nirvana, or unconsciousness." Some Theosophists
+claim that Nirvana is not a state of unconsciousness, but just the
+converse, a state of the most intensified consciousness, during which the
+soul remembers all of its previous incarnations.
+
+Madame Blavatsky claimed that "there exists in Thibet a brotherhood whose
+members have acquired a power over Nature which enables them to perform
+wonders beyond the reach of ordinary men. She declared herself to be a
+_chela_, or disciple of these brothers (spoken of also as 'Adepts' and as
+'Mahatmas'), and asserted that they took a special interest in the
+Theosophical Society and all initiates in occult lore, being able to cause
+apparitions of themselves in places where their bodies were not; and that
+they not only appeared but communicated intelligently with those whom they
+thus visited and themselves perceived what was going on where their
+phantoms appeared." This phantasmal appearance she called the projection
+of the _astral_ form. Many of the phenomena witnessed in the presence of
+the Sibyl were supposed to be the work of the mystic brotherhood who took
+so peculiar an interest in the Theosophical Society and its members. The
+Madame did not claim to be the founder of a new religious faith, but
+simply the reviver of a creed that has slumbered in the Orient for
+centuries, and declared herself to be the Messenger of these Mahatmas to
+the scoffing Western world.
+
+Speaking of the Mahatmas, she says in "Isis Unveiled": * * * "Travelers
+have met these adepts on the shores of the sacred Ganges, brushed against
+them on the silent ruins of Thebes, and in the mysterious deserted
+chambers of Luxor. Within the halls upon whose blue and golden vaults the
+weird signs attract attention, but whose secret meaning is never
+penetrated by the idle gazers, they have been seen, but seldom recognized.
+Historical memoirs have recorded their presence in the brilliantly
+illuminated salons of European aristocracy. They have been encountered
+again on the arid and desolate plains of the Great Sahara, or in the caves
+of Elephanta. They may be found everywhere, but make themselves known only
+to those who have devoted their lives to unselfish study, and are not
+likely to turn back."
+
+The Theosophical Society was organized in New York, Nov. 17, 1875.
+
+Mr. Arthur Lillie, in his interesting work, "Madame Blavatsky and Her
+Theosophy," speaking about the founding of the Society, says:
+
+"Its moving spirit was a Mr. Felt, who had visited Egypt and studied its
+antiquities. He was a student also of the Kabbala; and he had a somewhat
+eccentric theory that the dog-headed and hawk-headed figures painted on
+the Egyptian monuments were not mere symbols, but accurate portraits of
+the 'Elementals.' He professed to be able to evoke and control them. He
+announced that he had discovered the secret 'formularies' of the old
+Egyptian magicians. Plainly, the Theosophical Society at starting was an
+Egyptian school of occultism. Indeed Colonel Olcott, who furnishes these
+details ('Diary Leaves' in the _Theosophist_, November to December, 1892),
+lets out that the first title suggested was the 'Egyptological Society.'"
+
+There were strange reports set afloat at the time of the organization of
+the Society of the mysterious appearance of a Hindoo adept in his astral
+body at the "lamasery" on Forty-seventh street. It was said to be that of
+a certain Mahatma Koot Hoomi. Olcott declared that the adept left behind
+him as a souvenir of his presence, a turban, which was exhibited on all
+occasions by the enterprising Hierophant. William Q. Judge, a noted writer
+on Spiritualism, who had met the Madame at Irving Place in the winter of
+1874, joined the Society about this time, and became an earnest advocate
+of the secret doctrine. One wintry evening in March, 1889, Mr. Judge
+attended a meeting of the New York Anthropological Society, and told the
+audience all about the spectral gentleman, Koot Hoomi. He said:
+
+"The parent society (Theosophical) was founded in America by Madame
+Blavatsky, who gathered about her a few interested people and began the
+great work. They held a meeting to frame a constitution (1875), etc., but
+before anything had been accomplished a strangely foreign Hindoo, dressed
+in the peculiar garb of his country, came before them, and, leaving a
+package, vanished, and no one knew whither he came or went. On opening the
+package they found the necessary forms of organization, rules, etc., which
+were adopted. The inference to be drawn was, that the strange visitor was
+a Mahatma, interested in the foundation of the Society."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 37. WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.
+
+[Reproduced by courtesy of the _New York Herald_.]]
+
+And so Blavatskyism flourished, and the Society gathered in disciples from
+all quarters. Men without definite creeds are ever willing to embrace
+anything that savors of the mysterious, however absurd the tenets of the
+new doctrine may be. The objects of the Theosophical Society, as set forth
+in a number of _Lucifer_, the organ of the cult, published in July, 1890,
+are stated to be:
+
+"1. To form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without
+distinction of race, creed, sex, or color.
+
+"2. To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions
+and sciences.
+
+"3. To investigate laws of Nature and the psychical powers of man."
+
+There is nothing of cant or humbug about the above articles. A society
+founded for the prosecution of such researches seems laudable enough.
+Oriental scholars and scientists have been working in this field for many
+years. But the investigations, as conducted under the Blavatsky r�gime,
+have savored so of charlatanism that many earnest, truth-seeking
+Theosophists have withdrawn from the Society.
+
+After seeing the Society well established, Madame Blavatsky went to India.
+Her career in that country was a checkered one. From this period dates the
+expos� of the Mahatma miracles. The story reads like a romance by Marie
+Corelli. Let us begin at the beginning. The headquarters of the Society
+was first established at Bombay, thence removed to Madras and afterwards
+to Adyar. A certain M. and Mme. Coulomb, trusted friends of Madame
+Blavatsky, were made librarian and assistant corresponding secretary
+respectively of the Society, and took up their residence in the building
+known as the headquarters--a rambling East Indian bungalow, such as figure
+in Rudyard Kipling's stories of Oriental life. Marvellous phenomena, of an
+occult nature, alleged to have taken place there, were attested by many
+Theosophists. Mysterious, ghostly appearances of Mahatmas were seen, and
+messages were constantly received by supernatural means. One of the
+apartments of the bungalow was denominated the Occult Room, and in this
+room was a sort of cupboard against the wall, known as the _Shrine_. In
+this shrine the ghostly missives were received and from it were sent.
+Skeptics were convinced, and occult lodges spread rapidly over India among
+the dreamy, marvel-loving natives. But affairs were not destined to sail
+smoothly. There came a rift within the lute--Madame Blavatsky quarreled
+with her trusted lieutenants, the Coulombs! In May, 1884, M. and Mme.
+Coulomb were expelled from the Society by the General Council, during the
+absence of the High Priestess and Col. Olcott in Europe. The Coulombs, who
+had grown weary of a life of imposture, or were actuated by the more
+ignoble motive of revenge, made a complete expos� of the secret working of
+the Inner Brotherhood. They published portions of Madame Blavatsky's
+correspondence in the _Madras Christian College Magazine_, for September
+and October, 1884; letters written to the Coulombs, directing them to
+prepare certain impostures and letters written by the High Priestess,
+under the signature of Koot Hoomi, the mythical adept.[5] This
+correspondence unquestionably implicated the Sibyl in a conspiracy to
+fraudulently produce occult phenomena. She declared them to be, in whole,
+or in part, forgeries. At this juncture the London Society for Psychical
+Research sent Mr. Richard Hodgson, B. A., scholar of St. John's College,
+Cambridge, England, to India to investigate the entire matter in the
+interest of science.
+
+He left England November, 1884, and remained in the East till April, 1885.
+During this period Blavatskyism was sifted to the bottom. Mr. Hodgson's
+report covers several hundred pages, and proves conclusively that the
+occult phenomena of Madame Blavatsky and her co-adjutors are unworthy of
+credence. In his volume he gives diagrams of the trap-doors and machinery
+of the shrine and the occult room, and facsimiles of Madame Blavatsky's
+handwriting, which proved to be identical with that of Koot Hoomi, or
+_Cute_ Hoomi, as the critics dubbed him. He shows that the Coulombs had
+told the plain unvarnished truth so far as their disclosures went; and he
+stigmatizes the Priestess of Isis in the following language:
+
+"1. She has been engaged in a long continued combination with other
+persons to produce by ordinary means a series of apparent marvels for the
+support of the Theosophic movement.
+
+"2. That in particular the shrine at Adyar through which letters
+purporting to come from Mahatmas were received, was elaborately arranged
+with a view to the secret insertion of letters and other objects through a
+sliding panel at the back, and regularly used for the purpose by Madame
+Blavatsky or her agents.
+
+"3. That there is consequently a very strong general presumption that all
+the marvellous narratives put forward in evidence of the existence of
+Mahatmas are to be explained as due either (_a_) to deliberate deception
+carried out by or at the instigation of Madame Blavatsky, or (_b_) to
+spontaneous illusion or hallucination or unconscious misrepresentation or
+invention on the part of the witnesses."
+
+The mysterious appearances of the ghostly Mahatmas at the headquarters was
+shown, by Mr. Hodgson, to be the work of confederates, the cleverest among
+them being Madame Coulomb. Sliding panels, secret doors, and many
+disguises were the _modus operandi_ of the occult phenomena. In regard to
+the letters and alleged precipitated writing, Mr. Hodgson says:
+
+"It has been alleged, indeed, that when Madame Blavatsky was at Madras,
+instantaneous replies to mental queries had been found in the shrine (at
+Adyar), that envelopes containing questions were returned absolutely
+intact to the senders, and that when they were opened replies were found
+within in the handwriting of a Mahatma. After numerous inquiries, I found
+that in all cases I could hear of, the mental query was such as might
+easily have been anticipated by Madame Blavatsky; indeed, the query was
+whether the questioner would meet with success in his endeavor to become a
+pupil of the Mahatma, and the answer was frequently of the indefinite and
+oracular sort. In some cases the envelope inserted in the Shrine was one
+which had been previously sent to headquarters for that purpose, so that
+the envelope might have been opened and the answer written therein before
+it was placed in the Shrine at all. Where sufficient care was taken in the
+preparation of the inquiry, either no specific answer was given or the
+answer was delayed."
+
+A certain phenomenon, frequently mentioned by Theosophists as having
+occurred in Madame Blavatsky's sitting-room, was the dropping of a letter
+from the ceiling, supposed to be a communication from some Mahatma. In all
+such cases conjuring was proved to have been used--the _deus ex machina_
+being either a silk thread or else a cunningly secreted trap door hidden
+between the wooden beams of the bungalow ceiling, operated of course by a
+concealed confederate.
+
+Madame Blavatsky's favorite method of impressing people with her occult
+powers was the almost immediate reception of letters from distant
+countries, in response to questions asked. These feats were the result of
+carefully contrived plans, preconcerted weeks in advance. She would
+telegraph in cipher to one of her numerous correspondents, East Indian,
+for example, to write a letter in reply to a certain query, and post it at
+a particular date. Then she would calculate the arrival of the letter,
+often to a nicety. Her ability as a conversationalist enabled her to
+adroitly lead people into asking questions that would tally with the
+Mahatma messages. But sometimes she failed, and a ludicrous fiasco was the
+result. Mr. Hodgson's report contains accounts of many such mystic letters
+that would arrive by post from India in the nick of time, or too late for
+use.
+
+Among other remarkable things reported of the Madame was her power of
+producing photographs of people far away by a sort of spiritual
+photography, involving no other mechanical process than the slipping of a
+sheet of paper between the leaves of her blotting pad.
+
+When stories of this spirit-photography were rife in London, a scientist
+published the following explanation of a method of making such Mahatma
+portraits:
+
+"Has the English public never heard of 'Magic photography?' Just a few
+years ago small sheets of white paper were offered for sale which on being
+covered with damp blotting paper developed an image as if by magic. The
+white sheets of paper seemed blanks. Really, however, they were
+photographs, not containing gold, which had been bleached by immersing
+them in a solution of mercuric chloride. The latter gives up part of its
+chlorine, and this chlorine bleaches the brown silver particles of which
+the photograph consists, by changing them to chloride of silver. The
+mercuric chloride becomes mercurous chloride. This body is white, and
+therefore invisible on white paper. Now, several substances will color
+this white mercurous chloride black. Ammonia and hypo-sulphite of soda
+will do this. In the magic photographs before mentioned the blotting paper
+contained hypo-sulphite of soda. Consequently when the alleged blank
+sheets of white note paper were placed between the sheets of blotting
+paper and slightly moistened, the hypo-sulphite of soda in the blotting
+paper acted chemically on the mercurous chloride in the white note paper,
+and the picture appeared. As this was known in 1840 to Herschel,
+Blavatsky's miracle is nothing but a commonplace conjuring experiment."
+
+
+3. Madame Blavatsky's Confession.
+
+The individual to whom the world is most indebted for a critical analysis
+of Madame Blavatsky's character and her claims as a producer of occult
+phenomena is Vsevolod S. Solovyoff, a Russian journalist and _litterateur_
+of considerable note. He has ruthlessly torn the veil from the Priestess
+of Isis in a remarkable book of revelations, entitled, "A Modern Priestess
+of Isis." In May, 1884, he was in Paris, engaged in studying occult
+literature, and was preparing to write a treatise on "the rare, but in my
+opinion, real manifestations of the imperfectly investigated spiritual
+powers of man." One day he read in the _Matin_ that Madame Blavatsky had
+arrived in Paris, and he determined to meet her. Thanks to a friend in St.
+Petersburg, he obtained a letter of introduction to the famous
+Theosophist, and called on her a few days later, at her residence in the
+Rue Notre Dame des Champs. His pen picture of the interview is graphic:
+
+"I found myself in a long, mean street on the left bank of the Seine, _de
+l'autre cote de l'eau_, as the Parisians say. The coachman stopped at the
+number I had told him. The house was unsightly enough to look at, and at
+the door there was not a single carriage.
+
+"'My dear sir, you have let her slip; she has left Paris,' I said to
+myself with vexation.
+
+"In answer to my inquiry the concierge showed me the way. I climbed a
+very, very dark staircase, rang, and a slovenly figure in an Oriental
+turban admitted me into a tiny dark lobby.
+
+"To my question, whether Madame Blavatsky would receive me, the slovenly
+figure replied with an '_Entrez, monsieur_,' and vanished with my card,
+while I was left to wait in a small low room, poorly and insufficiently
+furnished.
+
+"I had not long to wait. The door opened, and she was before me; a rather
+tall woman, though she produced the impression of being short, on account
+of her unusual stoutness. Her great head seemed all the greater from her
+thick and very bright hair, touched with a scarcely perceptible gray, and
+very slightly frizzed, by nature and not by art, as I subsequently
+convinced myself.
+
+"At the first moment her plain, old earthy-colored face struck me as
+repulsive; but she fixed on me the gaze of her great, rolling, pale blue
+eyes, and in these wonderful eyes, with their hidden power, all the rest
+was forgotten.
+
+"I remarked, however, that she was very strangely dressed, in a sort of
+black sacque, and that all the fingers of her small, soft, and as it were
+boneless hands, with their slender points and long nails, were covered
+with great jewelled rings."
+
+Madame Blavatsky received Solovyoff kindly, and they became excellent
+friends. She urged him to join the Theosophical Society, and he expressed
+himself as favorably impressed with the purposes of the organization.
+During the interview she produced her astral bell "phenomenon." She
+excused herself to attend to some domestic duty, and on her return to the
+sitting-room, the phenomenon took place. Says Solovyoff: "She made a sort
+of flourish with her hand, raised it upwards and suddenly, I heard
+distinctly, quite distinctly, somewhere above our heads, near the
+ceiling, a very melodious sound like a little silver bell or an Aeolian
+harp.
+
+"'What is the meaning of this?' I asked.
+
+"'This means only that my master is here, although you and I cannot see
+him. He tells me that I may trust you, and am to do for you whatever I
+can. _Vous etes sous sa protection_, henceforth and forever.'
+
+"She looked me straight in the eyes, and caressed me with her glance and
+her kindly smile."
+
+This Mahatmic phenomenon ought to have absolutely convinced Solovyoff, but
+it did not. He asked himself the question:
+
+"'Why was the sound of the silver bell not heard at once, but only after
+she had left the room and come back again?'"
+
+A few days after this event, the Russian journalist was regularly enrolled
+as a member of the Theosophical Society, and began to study Madame
+Blavatsky instead of Oriental literature and occultism. He was introduced
+to Colonel Olcott, who showed him the turban that had been left at the New
+York headquarters by the astral Koot Hoomi. Solovyoff witnessed other
+"phenomena" in the presence of Madame Blavatsky, which did not impress him
+very favorably. Finally, the High Priestess produced her _chef d'
+oeuvre_, the psychometric reading of a letter. Solovyoff was rather
+impressed with this feat and sent an account of it to the _Rebus_, but
+subsequently came to the conclusion that trickery had entered into it.
+When the Coulomb exposures came, he did not see much of Madame Blavatsky.
+She was overwhelmed with letters and spent a considerable time anxiously
+travelling to and fro on Theosophical affairs. In August, 1885, she was at
+Wurzburg sick at heart and in body, attended by a diminutive Hindoo
+servant, Bavaji by name. She begged Solovyoff to visit her, promising to
+give him lessons in occultism. With a determination to investigate the
+"phenomena," he went to the Bavarian watering place, and one morning
+called on Madame Blavatsky. He found her seated in a great arm chair:
+
+"At the opposite end of the table stood the dwarfish Bavaji, with a
+confused look in his dulled eyes. He was evidently incapable of meeting my
+gaze, and the fact certainly did not escape me. In front of Bavaji on the
+table were scattered several sheets of clean paper. Nothing of the sort
+had occurred before, so my attention was the more aroused. In his hand
+was a great thick pencil. I began to have ideas.
+
+"'Just look at the unfortunate man,' said Helena Petrovna suddenly,
+turning to me. 'He does not look himself at all; he drives me to
+distraction'.... Then she passed from Bavaji to the London Society for
+Psychical Research, and again tried to persuade me about the 'master.'
+Bavaji stood like a statue; he could take no part in our conversation, as
+he did not know a word of Russian.
+
+"'But such incredulity as to the evidence of your own eyes, such obstinate
+infidelity as yours, is simply unpardonable. In fact, it is wicked!'
+exclaimed Helena Petrovna.
+
+"I was walking about the room at the time, and did not take my eyes off
+Bavaji. I saw that he was keeping his eyes wide open, with a sort of
+contortion of his whole body, while his hand, armed with a great pencil,
+was carefully tracing some letters on a sheet of paper.
+
+"'Look; what is the matter with him?' exclaimed Madame Blavatsky.
+
+"'Nothing particular,' I answered; 'he is writing in Russian.'
+
+"I saw her whole face grow purple. She began to stir in her chair, with an
+obvious desire to get up and take the paper from him. But with her swollen
+and almost inflexible limbs, she could not do so with any speed. I made
+haste to seize the paper and saw on it a beautifully _drawn_ Russian
+phrase.
+
+"Bavaji was to have written, in the Russian language with which he was not
+acquainted: 'Blessed are they that believe, as said the Great Adept.' He
+had learned his task well, and remembered correctly the form of all the
+letters, but he had omitted two in the word 'believe,' [The effect was
+precisely the same as if in English he had omitted the first two and last
+two letters of the word.]
+
+"'Blessed are they that _lie_,' I read aloud, unable to control the
+laughter which shook me. 'That is the best thing I ever saw. Oh, Bavaji!
+you should have got your lesson up better for examination!'
+
+"The tiny Hindoo hid his face in his hands and rushed out of the room; I
+heard his hysterical sobs in the distance. Madame Blavatsky sat with
+distorted features."
+
+As will be seen from the above, the Hindoo servant was one of the Madame's
+Mahatmas, and was caught in the act of preparing a communication from a
+sage in the Himalayas, to Solovyoff.
+
+"After this abortive phenomena," remarks the Russian journalist, "things
+marched faster, and I saw that I should soon be in a position to send very
+interesting additions to the report of the Psychical Society."... "Every
+day when I came to see the Madame she used to try to do me a favor in the
+shape of some trifling 'phenomenon,' but she never succeeded. Thus one day
+her famous 'silver bell' was heard, when suddenly something fell beside
+her on the ground. I hurried to pick it up--and found in my hands a pretty
+little piece of silver, delicately worked and strangely shaped. Helena
+Petrovna changed countenance, and snatched the object from me. I coughed
+significantly, smiled and turned the conversation to indifferent matters."
+
+On another occasion he was conversing with her about the "Theosophist,"
+and "she mentioned the name of Subba Rao, a Hindoo, who had attained the
+highest degree of knowledge." She directed Mr. Solovyoff to open a drawer
+in her writing desk, and take from it a photograph of the adept.
+
+"I opened the drawer," says Solovyoff, "found the photograph and handed it
+to her--together with a packet of Chinese envelopes (See Fig. 34), such
+as I well knew; they were the same in which the 'elect' used to receive
+the letters of the Mahatmas Morya and Koot Hoomi by 'astral post.'
+
+"'Look at that, Helena Petrovna! I should advise you to hide this packet
+of the master's envelopes farther off. You are so terribly absent-minded
+and careless.'
+
+"It was easy to imagine what this was to her. I looked at her and was
+positively frightened; her face grew perfectly black. She tried in vain to
+speak; she could only writhe helplessly in her great arm-chair."
+
+Solovyoff with great adroitness gradually drew from her a confession.
+"What is one to do," said Madame Blavatsky, plaintively, "when in order to
+rule men it is necessary to deceive them; almost invariably the more
+simple, the more silly, and the more gross the phenomenon, the more likely
+it is to succeed." The Priestess of Isis broke down completely and
+acknowledged that her phenomena were not genuine; the Koot Hoomi letters
+were written by herself and others in collusion with her; finally she
+exhibited to the journalist the apparatus for producing the "astral bell,"
+and begged him to go into a co-partnership with her to astonish the
+world. He refused! The next day she declared that a black magician had
+spoken through her mouth, and not herself; she was not responsible for
+what she had said. After this he had other interviews with her; threats
+and promises; and lastly a most extraordinary letter, which was headed,
+"My Confession," and reads, in part, as follows:
+
+"Believe me, _I have fallen because I have made up my mind to fall_, or
+else to bring about a reaction by telling all God's truth about myself,
+_but without mercy on my enemies_. On this I am firmly resolved, and from
+this day I shall begin to prepare myself in order to be ready. I will fly
+no more. Together with this letter, or a few hours later, I shall myself
+be in Paris, and then on to London. A Frenchman is ready, and a well-known
+journalist too, delighted to set about the work and to write at my
+dictation something short, but strong, and what is most important--a true
+history of my life. _I shall not even attempt to defend_, to justify
+myself. In this book I shall simply say: "In 1848, I, hating my husband,
+N. V. Blavatsky (it may have been wrong, but still such was the nature
+_God_ gave me), left him, abandoned him--_a virgin_. (I shall produce
+documents and letters proving this, although he himself is not such a
+swine as to deny it.) I loved one man deeply, but still more I loved
+occult science, believing in magic, wizards, etc. I wandered with him here
+and there, in Asia, in America, and in Europe. I met with So-and-so. (You
+may call him a _wizard_, what does it matter to him?) In 1858 I was in
+London; there came out some story about a child, not mine (there will
+follow medical evidence, from the faculty of Paris, and it is for this
+that I am going to Paris). One thing and another was said of me; that I
+was depraved, possessed with a devil, etc.
+
+"I shall tell everything as I think fit, everything I did, for the twenty
+years and more, that I laughed at the _qu'en dira-t-on_, and covered up
+all traces of what I was _really_ occupied in, i. e., the _sciences
+occultes_, for the sake of my family and relations who would at that time
+have cursed me. I will tell how from my eighteenth year I tried to get
+people to talk about me, and say about me that this man and that was my
+lover, and _hundreds_ of them. I will tell, too, a great deal of which no
+one ever dreamed, and _I will prove it_. Then I will inform the world how
+suddenly my eyes were opened to all the horror of my _moral suicide_; how
+I was sent to America to try my psychological capabilities; how I
+collected a society there, and began to expiate my faults, and attempted
+to make men better and to sacrifice myself for their regeneration. _I will
+name all_ the Theosophists who were brought into the right way, drunkards
+and rakes, who became almost saints, especially in India, and those who
+enlisted as Theosophists, and continued their former life, as though they
+were doing the work (and there are many of them) and _yet were the first_
+to join the pack of hounds that were hunting me down, and to bite me....
+
+"No! The devils will save me in this last great hour. You did not
+calculate on the cool determination of _despair_, which _was_ and has
+_passed over_.... And to this I have been brought by you. You have been
+the last straw which has broken the camel's back under its intolerably
+heavy burden. Now you are at liberty to conceal nothing. Repeat to all
+Paris what you have ever heard or know about me. I have already written a
+letter to Sinnett _forbidding him_ to publish my _memoirs_ at his own
+discretion. I myself will publish them with all the truth.... It will be a
+Saturnalia of the moral depravity of mankind, this _confession_ of mine, a
+worthy epilogue of my stormy life.... Let the psychist gentlemen, and
+whosoever will, set on foot a new inquiry. Mohini and all the rest, even
+_India_, are dead for me. I thirst for one thing only, that the world may
+know all the reality, all the _truth_, and learn the lesson. And then
+_death_, kindest of all.
+
+  H. BLAVATSKY.
+
+"You may print this letter if you will, even in Russia. It is all the same
+now."
+
+This remarkable effusion may be the result of a fever-disordered brain, it
+may be, as she says, the "God's truth;" at any rate it bears the ear-marks
+of the Blavatsky style about it. The disciples of the High Priestess of
+Isis have bitterly denounced Solovyoff and the revelations contained in
+his book. They brand him as a coward for not having published his diatribe
+during the lifetime of the Madame, when she was able to defend herself.
+However that may be, Solovyoff's exposures tally very well with the mass
+of corroborative evidence adduced by Hodgson, Coues, Coleman, and a host
+of writers, who began their attacks during the earthly pilgrimage of the
+great Sibyl.
+
+On receipt of this letter, Feb 16, 1886, Solovyoff resigned from the
+Theosophical Society. He denounced the High Priestess to the Paris
+Theosophists, and the Blavatsky lodges in that city were disrupted in
+consequence of the exposures. This seems to be a convincing proof of the
+genuineness of his revelations. After the Solovyoff incident, Madame
+Blavatsky went into retirement for a while. Eventually she appeared in
+London as full of enthusiasm as ever and added to her list of converts the
+Countess of Caithness and Mrs. Annie Besant, the famous socialist and
+authoress.
+
+Finally came the last act of this strange life-drama. That messenger of
+death, whom the mystical Persian singer, Omar Khayyam, calls "The Angel of
+the Darker Drink," held to her lips the inevitable chalice of Mortality;
+then the "golden cord was loosened and the silver bowl was broken," and
+she passed into the land of shadows. It was in London, May 8, 1891, that
+Helena Petrovna Blavatsky ended one of the strangest careers on record.
+She died calmly and peacefully in her bed, surrounded by her friends, and
+after her demise her body was cremated by her disciples, with occult rites
+and ceremonies. All that remained of her--a few handfuls of powdery white
+ashes--was gathered together, and divided into three equal parts. One
+portion was buried in London, one sent to New York City, and the third to
+Adyar, near Madras, India. The New World, the Old World, and the still
+Older World of the East were honored with the ashes of H. P. B. Three
+civilizations, three heaps of ashes, three initials--mystic number from
+time immemorial, celebrated symbol of Divinity known to, and revered by,
+Cabalists, Gnostics, Rosicrucians, and Theosophists.
+
+Mr. J. Ransom Bridges, who had considerable correspondence with the High
+Priestess from 1888 until her death, says (_Arena_, April, 1895):
+"Whatever may be the ultimate verdict upon the life and work of this
+woman, her place in history will be unique. There was a Titanic display of
+strength in everything she did. The storms that raged in her were
+cyclones. Those exposed to them often felt with Solovyoff that if there
+were holy and sage _Mahatmas_, they could not remain holy and sage, and
+have anything to do with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. The 'confession' she
+wrote rings with the mingled curses and mad laughter of a crazy mariner
+scuttling his own ship. Yet she could be as tender and sympathetic as any
+mother. Her mastery of some natures seemed complete; and these people she
+worked like galley-slaves in the Theosophical tread mill of her propaganda
+movement.
+
+"To these disciples she was the greatest thaumaturgist known to the world
+since the days of the Christ. The attacks upon her, the Coulomb and
+Solovyoff exposures, the continual newspaper calumnies they look upon as a
+gigantic conspiracy brewed by all the rules of the black art to
+counteract, and, if possible, to destroy the effect of her work and
+mission."
+
+"Requiescat in Pace," O Priestess of Isis, until your next incarnation on
+Earth! The twentieth century will doubtless have need of your services!
+For the delectation of the curious let me add: the English resting place
+of Madame Blavatsky is designed after the model of an Oriental "dagoba,"
+or tomb; the American shrine is a marble niche in the wall of the
+Theosophical headquarters, No. 144 Madison avenue, the ashes reposing in a
+vase standing in the niche behind a hermetically-sealed glass window. The
+Oriental shrine in Adyar is a tomb modelled after the world-famous Taj
+Mahal, and is built of pink sandstone, surmounted by a small Benares
+copper spire.
+
+
+4. The Writings of Madame Blavatsky.
+
+Madame Blavatsky is known to the reading world as the writer of two
+voluminous works of a philosophical or mystical character, explanatory of
+the Esoteric Doctrine, viz., "Isis Unveiled," published in 1877, and the
+"Secret Doctrine," published in 1888. In the composition of these works
+she claimed that she was assisted by the Mahatmas who visited her
+apartments when she was asleep, and wrote portions of the manuscripts with
+their astral hands while their natural bodies reposed entranced in
+Thibetan Lamaseries. These fictions were fostered by prominent members of
+the Theosophical Society, and believed by many credulous persons. "Isis
+Unveiled" is a hodge-podge of absurdities, pseudo-science, mythology and
+folklore, arranged in helter-skelter fashion, with an utter disregard of
+logical sequence. The fact was that Madame Blavatsky had a very imperfect
+knowledge of English, and this may account for the strange mistakes in
+which the volume abounds, despite the aid of the ghostly Mahatmas. William
+Emmette Coleman, of San Francisco, has made an exhaustive analysis of the
+Madame's writings, and declares that "Isis," and the "Secret Doctrine" are
+full of plagiarisms. In "Isis" he discovered "some 2,000 passages copied
+from other books without proper credit." Speaking of the "Secret
+Doctrine," the master key to the wisdom of the ages, he says: "The
+'Secret Doctrine' is ostensibly based upon certain stanzas, claimed to
+have been translated by Madame Blavatsky from the 'Book of Dzyan'--the
+oldest book in the world, written in a language unknown to philology. The
+'Book of Dzyan' was the work of Madame Blavatsky--a compilation, in her
+own language, from a variety of sources, embracing the general principles
+of the doctrines and dogmas taught in the 'Secret Doctrine.' I find in
+this 'oldest book in the world' statements copied from nineteenth century
+books, and in the usual blundering manner of Madame Blavatsky. Letters and
+other writings of the adepts are found in the 'Secret Doctrine.' In these
+Mahatmic productions I have traced various plagiarized passages from
+Wilson's 'Vishnu Purana,' and Winchell's 'World Life'--of like character
+to those in Madame Blavatsky's acknowledged writings. * * * A specimen of
+the wholesale plagiarisms in this book appears in vol. II., pp. 599-603.
+Nearly the whole of four pages was copied from Oliver's 'Pythagorean
+Triangle,' while only a few lines were credited to that work."
+
+Those who are interested in Coleman's expos� are referred to Appendix C,
+of Solovyoff's book, "A Modern Priestess of Isis." The title of this
+appendix is "The Sources of Madame Blavatsky's Writings." Mr. Coleman is
+at present engaged in the preparation of an elaborate work on the subject,
+which will in addition contain an "expos� of Theosophy as a whole." It
+will no doubt prove of interest to students of occultism.
+
+
+5. Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist.
+
+The funeral of Baron de Palm, conducted according to Theosophical rites,
+is an interesting chapter in the history of the Society, and worth
+relating.
+
+Joseph Henry Louis Charles, Baron de Palm, Grand Cross Commander of the
+Sovereign Order of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and knight of various
+orders, was born at Augsburg, May 10, 1809. He came to the United States
+rather late in life, drifted West without any settled occupation, and
+lived from hand to mouth in various Western cities. Finally he located in
+New York City, broken in health and spirit. He was a man of considerable
+culture and interested to a greater or less extent in the phenomena of
+modern Spiritualism. A letter of introduction from the editor of the
+_Religio-Philosophical Journal_, of Chicago, made him acquainted with
+Col. Olcott, who introduced him to prominent members of the Theosophical
+Society. He was elected a member of the Society, eventually becoming a
+member of the Council. In the year 1875 he died, leaving behind an earnest
+request that Col. Olcott "should perform the last offices in a fashion
+that would illustrate the Eastern notions of death and immortality."[6] He
+also left directions that his body should be cremated. A great deal of
+excitement was caused over this affair in orthodox religious circles, and
+public curiosity was aroused to the highest pitch. The funeral service
+was, as Madame Blavatsky described it in a letter to a European
+correspondent, "pagan, almost antique pagan." The ceremony was held in the
+great hall of the Masonic Temple, corner of Twenty-third and Sixth avenue.
+Tickets of admission were issued of decidedly occult shape--_triangular_;
+some black, printed in silver; others drab, printed in black. A crowd of
+2,000 people assembled to witness the obsequies. On the stage was a
+_triangular_ altar, with a symbolical fire burning upon it. The coffin
+stood near by, covered with the orders of knighthood of the deceased. A
+splendid choir rendered several Orphic hymns composed for the occasion,
+with organ accompaniment, and Col. Olcott, as Hierophant, made an
+invocation or _mantram_ "to the Soul of the World whose breath gives and
+withdraws the form of everything." Death is always solemn, and no subject
+for levity, yet I must not leave out of this chronicle the unique
+burlesque programme of Baron de Palm's funeral, published by the _New York
+World_, the day before the event. Says the _World_:
+
+"The procession will move in the following order:
+
+"Col. Olcott as high priest, wearing a leopard skin and carrying a roll of
+papyrus (brown card board).
+
+"Mr. Cobb, as sacred scribe, with style and tablet.
+
+"Egyptian mummy-case, borne upon a sledge drawn by four oxen. (Also a
+slave bearing a pot of lubricating oil.)
+
+"Madame Blavatsky as chief mourner and also bearer of the sistrum. (She
+will wear a long linen garment extending to the feet, and a girdle about
+the waist.)
+
+"Colored boy carrying three Abyssinian geese (Philadelphia chickens) to
+place upon the bier.
+
+"Vice-President Felt, with the eye of Osiris painted on his left breast,
+and carrying an asp (bought at a toy store on Eighth avenue.)
+
+"Dr. Pancoast, singing an ancient Theban dirge:
+
+  "'Isis and Nepthys, beginning and end:
+   One more victim to Amenti we send.
+   Pay we the fare, and let us not tarry.
+   Cross the Styx by the Roosevelt street ferry.'"
+
+"Slaves in mourning gowns, carrying the offerings and libations, to
+consist of early potatoes, asparagus, roast beef, French pan-cakes,
+bock-beer, and New Jersey cider.
+
+"Treasurer Newton, as chief of the musicians, playing the double pipe.
+
+"Other musicians performing on eight-stringed harps, tom-toms, etc.
+
+"Boys carrying a large lotus (sunflower).
+
+"Librarian Fassit, who will alternate with music by repeating the lines
+beginning:
+
+  "'Here Horus comes, I see the boat.
+     Friends, stay your flowing tears;
+   The soul of man goes through a goat
+     In just 3,000 years.'
+
+"At the temple the ceremony will be short and simple. The oxen will be
+left standing on the sidewalk, with a boy near by to prevent them goring
+the passers-by. Besides the Theurgic hymn, printed above in full, the
+Coptic National anthem will be sung, translated and adapted to the
+occasion as follows:
+
+  "Sitting Cynocephalus up in a tree,
+   I see you, and you see me.
+   River full of crocodile, see his long snout!
+   Hoist up the shadoof and pull him right out."
+
+
+6. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky.
+
+After Madame Blavatsky's death, Mrs. Annie Besant assumed the leadership
+of the Theosophical Society, and wore upon her finger a ring that belonged
+to the High Priestess: a ring with a green stone flecked with veins of
+blood red, upon the surface of which was engraved the interlaced triangles
+within a circle, with the Indian motto, _Sat_ (Life), the symbol of
+Theosophy. It was given to Madame Blavatsky by her Indian teacher, says
+Mrs. Besant, and is very magnetic. The High Priestess on her deathbed
+presented the mystic signet to her successor, and left her in addition
+many valuable books and manuscripts. The Theosophical Society now numbers
+its adherents by the thousands and has its lodges scattered over the
+United States, France, England and India. At the World's Columbian
+Exposition it was well represented in the Great Parliament of Religions,
+by Annie Besant, William Q. Judge, of the American branch, and Prof.
+Chakravatir, a High Caste Brahmin of India.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 38. PORTRAIT OF MRS. ANNIE BESANT.]
+
+Mrs. Besant, in an interview published in the _New York World_, Dec. 11,
+1892, made the following statement concerning Madame Blavatsky's peculiar
+powers:
+
+"One time she was trying to explain to me the control of the mind over
+certain currents in the ether about us, and to illustrate she made some
+little taps come on my own head. They were accompanied by the sensation
+one experiences on touching an electric battery. I have frequently seen
+her draw things to her simply by her will, without touching them. Indeed,
+she would often check herself when strangers were about. It was natural
+for her, when she wanted a book that was on the table, to simply draw it
+to her by her power of mind, as it would be for you to reach out your hand
+to pick it up. And so, as I say, she often had to check herself, for she
+was decidedly adverse to making a show of her power. In fact, that is
+contrary to the law of the brotherhood to which she belonged. This law
+forbids them to make use of their power except as an instruction to their
+pupils or as an aid to the spreading of the truth. An adept may never use
+his knowledge for his personal advantage. He may be starving, and despite
+his ability to materialize banquets he may not supply himself with a crust
+of bread. This is what is meant in the Gospel when it says: 'He saved
+others, Himself He cannot save.'
+
+"One time she had written an article and as usual she gave me her
+manuscript to look over.
+
+"Sometimes she wrote very good grammatic English and again she wrote very
+slovenly English. So she always had me go over her manuscript. In reading
+this particular one I found a long quotation of some twenty or thirty
+lines. When I finished it I went to her and said: 'Where in the world did
+you get that quotation?'
+
+"'I got it from an Indian newspaper of --,' naming the date.
+
+"'But,' I said, 'that paper cannot be in this country yet! How did you get
+hold of it?'
+
+"'Oh, I got it, dear,' she said, with a little laugh; 'that's enough.'
+
+"Of course I understood then. When the time came for the paper to arrive,
+I thought I would verify her quotation, so I asked her for the name, the
+date of the issue and the page on which the quotation would be found. She
+told me, giving me, we will say, 45 as the number of the page. I went to
+the agent, looked up the paper and there was no such quotation on page 45.
+Then I remembered that things seen in the astral light are reversed, so I
+turned the number around, looked on page 54 and there was the quotation.
+When I went home I told her that it was all right, but that she had given
+me the wrong page.
+
+"'Very likely,' she said. 'Someone came in just as I was finishing it, and
+I may have forgotten to reverse the number.'
+
+"You see, anything seen in the astral light is reversed, as if you saw it
+in a mirror, while anything seen clairvoyantly is straight."
+
+The elevation of Mrs. Besant to the High Priestess-ship of the
+Theosophical Society was in accord with the spirit of the age--an
+acknowledgment of the Eternal Feminine; but it did not bring repose to the
+organization. William Q. Judge, of the American branch, began dabbling, it
+is claimed, in Mahatma messages on his own account, and charges were made
+against him by Mrs. Besant. A bitter warfare was waged in Theosophical
+journals, and finally the American branch of the general society seceded,
+and organized itself into the American Theosophical Society. Judge was
+made life-president and held the post until his death, in New York City,
+March 21st, 1896. His body was cremated and the ashes sealed in an urn,
+which was deposited in the Society's rooms, No. 144 Madison avenue.
+
+Five weeks after the death of Judge, the Theosophical Society held its
+annual conclave in New York City, and elected E. T. Hargrove as the
+presiding genius of esoteric wisdom in the United States. It was
+originally intended to hold this convention in Chicago, but the change was
+made for a peculiar reason. As the press reported the circumstance, "it
+was the result of a request by a mysterious adept whose existence had been
+unsuspected, and who made known his wish in a communication to the
+executive committee." It seems that the Theosophical Society is composed
+of two bodies, the exoteric and the esoteric. The first holds open
+meetings for the discussion of ethical and Theosophical subjects, and the
+second meets privately, being composed of a secret body of adepts, learned
+in occultism and possessing remarkable spiritual powers. The chief of the
+secret order is appointed by the Mahatmas, on account, it is claimed, of
+his or her occult development. Madame Blavatsky was the High Priestess in
+this inner temple during her lifetime, and was succeeded by Hierophant W.
+Q. Judge. When Judge died, it seems there was no one thoroughly qualified
+to take his place as the head of the esoteric branch, until an examination
+was made of his papers. Then came a surprise. Judge had named as his
+successor a certain obscure individual whom he claimed to be a great
+adept, requesting that the name be kept a profound secret for a specified
+time. In obedience to this injunction, the Great Unknown was elected as
+chief of the Inner Brother-and-Sisterhood. All of this made interesting
+copy for the New York journalists, and columns were printed about the
+affair. Another surprise came when the convention of exoterics
+("hysterics," as some of the papers called them) subscribed $25,000 for
+the founding of an occult temple in this country. But the greatest
+surprise of all was a Theosophical wedding. The De Palm funeral fades away
+into utter insignificance beside this mystic marriage. The contracting
+parties were Claude Falls Wright, formerly secretary to Madame Blavatsky,
+and Mary C. L. Leonard, daughter of Anna Byford Leonard, one of the best
+known Theosophists in the West. The ceremony was performed at Aryan Hall,
+No. 144 Madison avenue, N. Y., in the presence of the occult body.
+Outsiders were not admitted. However, public curiosity was partly
+gratified by sundry crumbs of information thrown out by the Theosophical
+press bureau.
+
+The young couple stood beneath a seven-pointed star, made of electric
+light globes, and plighted their troth amid clouds of odoriferous incense.
+Then followed weird chantings and music by an occult orchestra composed of
+violins and violoncellos. The unknown adept presided over the affair, as
+special envoy of the Mahatmas. He was enveloped from head to foot in a
+thick white veil, said the papers.
+
+Mr. Wright and his bride-elect declared solemnly that they remembered many
+of their former incarnations; their marriage had really taken place in
+Egypt, 5,000 years ago in one of the mysterious temples of that strange
+country, and the ceremony had been performed by the priests of Isis. Yes,
+they remembered it all! It seemed but as yesterday! They recalled with
+vividness the scene: their march up the avenue of monoliths; the lotus
+flowers strewn in their path by rosy children; the intoxicating perfume
+of the incense, burned in bronze braziers by shaven-headed priests; the
+hieroglyphics, emblematical of life, death and resurrection, painted upon
+the temple walls; the Hierophant in his gorgeous vestments. Oh, what a
+dream of Old World splendor and beauty!
+
+Before many months had passed, the awful secret of the Veiled Adept's
+identity was revealed. The Great Unknown turned out to be a _she_ instead
+of a _he_ adept--a certain Mrs. Katherine Alice Tingley, of New York City.
+The reporters began ringing the front door bell of the adept's house in
+the vain hope of obtaining an interview, but the newly-hatched Sphinx
+turned a deaf ear to their entreaties. The time was not yet ripe for
+revelations. Her friends, however, rushed into print, and told the most
+marvellous stories of her mediumship.
+
+W. T. Stead, the English journalist and student of psychical research,
+reviewing the Theosophical convention and its outcome, says (_Borderland_,
+July, 1896, p. 306): "The Judgeite seceders from the Theosophical Society
+held their annual convention in New York, April 26th to 27th. They have
+elected a young man, Mr. Ernest T. Hargrove, as their president. A former
+spiritual medium and clairvoyant, by name Katherine Alice Tingley, who
+claims to have been bosom friends with H. P. B. 1200 years B. C., when
+both were incarnated in Egypt, is, however, the grand Panjandrum of the
+cause. Her first husband was a detective, her second is a clerk in the
+White Lead Company's office in Brooklyn.
+
+"According to Mr. Hargrove she is--'The new adept; she was appointed by
+Mr. Judge, and we are going to sustain her, as we sustained him, for we
+know her important connection in Egypt, Mexico and Europe.'"
+
+In the spring of 1896, Mrs. Tingley, accompanied by a number of prominent
+occultists, started on a crusade through the world to bring the truths of
+Theosophy to the toiling millions. The crusaders before their departure
+were presented with a purple silk banner, bearing the legend: "Truth,
+Light, Liberation for Discouraged Humanity." The _New York Herald_ (Aug.
+16, 1896) says of this crusade:
+
+"When Mrs. Tingley and the other crusaders left this country nothing had
+been heard of the claim of the reincarnated Blavatsky. Now, however, this
+idea is boldly advanced in England by the American branch of the society
+there, and in America by Burcham Harding, the acting head of the society
+in this country. When Mr. Harding was seen at the Theosophical
+headquarters, he said:
+
+"'Yes, Mme. Blavatsky is reincarnated in Mrs. Tingley. She has not only
+been recognized by myself and other members of the American branch of the
+Theosophical Society, who knew H. P. B. in her former life, but the
+striking physical and facial resemblance has also been noted by members of
+the English branch.'
+
+"But this recognition by the English members of the society does not seem
+to be as strong as Mr. Harding would seem to have it understood. In fact,
+there are a number of members of that branch who boldly declare that Mrs.
+Tingley is an impostor. One of them, within the last week, addressing the
+English members on the subject, claimed that Mme. Blavatsky had foreseen
+that such an impostor would arise. He said:
+
+"'When Mme. Blavatsky lived in her body among us, she declared to all her
+disciples that, in her next reincarnation, she would inhabit the body of
+an Eastern man, and she warned them to be on their guard against any
+assertion made by mediums or others that they were controlled by her.
+Whatever H. P. B. lacked, she never wanted emphasis, and no one who knew
+anything of the founder of the Theosophical Society was left in any doubt
+as to her views upon this question. She declared that if any persons,
+after her death, should claim that she was speaking through them, her
+friends might be quite sure that it was a lie. Imagine, then, the feelings
+of H. P. B.'s disciples on being presented with an American clairvoyant
+medium, in the shape of Mrs. Tingley, who is reported to claim that H. P.
+B. is reincarnated in her.'
+
+"The American branch of the society is not at all disturbed by this charge
+of fraud by the English branch. In connection with it Mr. Harding says:
+
+"'It is true that the American branch of the Theosophical Society has
+seceded from the English branch, but as Mme. Blavatsky, the founder, was
+in reality an American, it can be understood why we consider ourselves the
+parent society.'
+
+"Of the one letter which Mrs. Tingley has sent to America since the
+arrival of the crusaders, the English Theosophists are a unit in the
+expression of opinion that it illustrated, as did her speech in Queen's
+Hall, merely 'unmeaning platitudes and prophecies.' But the American
+members are quite as loud in their expressions that the English members
+are trying to win the sympathies of the public, and that the words are
+really understood by the initiate.
+
+"The letter reads: 'In thanking you for the many kind letters addressed to
+me as Katherine Tingley, as well as by other names that would not be
+understood by the general public, I should like to say a few words as to
+the future and its possibilities. Many of you are destined to take an
+active part in the work that the future will make manifest, and it is well
+to press onward with a clear knowledge of the path to be trodden and with
+a clear vision of the goal to be reached.
+
+"'The path to be trodden is both exterior and interior, and in order to
+reach the goal it is necessary to tread these paths with strength,
+courage, faith and the essence of them all, which is wisdom.
+
+"'For these two paths, which fundamentally are one, like every duality in
+nature, are winding paths, and now lead through sunlight, then through
+deepest shade. During the last few years the large majority of students
+have been rounding a curve in the paths of both inner and outer work, and
+this wearied many. But those who persevered and faltered not will soon
+reap their reward.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 39. PORTRAIT OF MRS. TINGLEY.
+
+[Reproduced by courtesy of the _New York Herald_.]]
+
+"'The present is pregnant with the promise of the near future, and that
+future is brighter than could be believed by those who have so recently
+been immersed in the shadows that are inevitable in cyclic progress. Can
+words describe it? I think not. But if you will think of the past twenty
+years of ploughing and sowing and will keep in your mind the tremendous
+force that has been scattered broadcast throughout the world, you must
+surely see that the hour for reaping is near at hand, if it has not
+already come."
+
+The invasion of English territory by the American crusaders was resented
+by the British Theosophists. The advocates of universal brotherhood waged
+bitter warfare against each other in the newspapers and periodicals. It
+gradually resolved itself into a struggle for supremacy between the two
+rival claimants for the mantle of Madame Blavatsky, Mrs. Annie Besant and
+Mrs. Tingley. Each Pythoness ascended her sacred tripod and hysterically
+denounced the other as an usurper, and false prophetess. Annie Besant
+sought to disprove the idea of Madame Blavatsky having re-incarnated
+herself in the body of Mrs. Tingley. She claimed that the late High
+Priestess had taken up her earthly pilgrimage again in the person of a
+little Hindoo boy, who lived somewhere on the banks of the Ganges. The
+puzzling problem was this: If Mrs. Tingley was Mme. Blavatsky, where was
+Mrs. Tingley? Oedipus would have gone mad trying to solve this Sphinx
+riddle.
+
+The crusade finished, Mrs. Tingley, with her purple banner returned to New
+York, where she was royally welcomed by her followers. In the wake of the
+American adept came the irrepressible Annie Besant, accompanied by a
+sister Theosophist, the Countess Constance Wachmeister. Mrs. Besant,
+garbed in a white linen robe of Hindoo pattern, lectured on occult
+subjects to crowded houses in the principal cities of the East and West.
+In the numerous interviews accorded her by the press, she ridiculed the
+Blavatsky-Tingley re-incarnation theory. By kind permission of the _New
+York Herald_, I reproduce a portrait of Mrs. Tingley. The reader will find
+it interesting to compare this sketch with the photograph of Madame
+Blavatsky given in this book. He will notice at once how much the two
+occultists do resemble each other; both are grossly fat, puffy of face,
+with heavy-lidded eyes and rather thick lips.
+
+
+7. The Theosophical Temple.
+
+If all the dreams of the Theosophical Society are fulfilled we shall see,
+at no distant date, in the state of California, a sombre and mysterious
+building, fashioned after an Egyptian temple, its pillars covered with
+hieroglyphic symbols, and its ponderous pylons flanking the gloomy
+entrance. Twin obelisks will stand guard at the gateway and huge bronze
+sphinxes stare the tourist out of countenance. The Theosophical temple
+will be constructed "upon certain mysterious principles, and the numbers 7
+and 13 will play a prominent part in connection with the dimensions of the
+rooms and the steps of the stairways." The Hierophants of occultism will
+assemble here, weird initiations like those described in Moore's
+"Epicurean" will take place, and the doctrines of Hindoo pantheism will be
+expounded to the Faithful. The revival of the Egyptian mysteries seems to
+be one of the objects aimed at in the establishment of this mystical
+college. Just what the Egyptian Mysteries were is a mooted question among
+Egyptologists. But this does not bother the modern adept.
+
+Mr. Bucham Harding, the leading exponent of Theosophy mentioned above,
+says that within the temple the neophyte will be brought face to face with
+his own soul. "By what means cannot be revealed; but I may say that the
+object of initiation will be to raise the consciousness of the pupil to a
+plane where he will see and know his own divine soul and consciously
+communicate with it. Once gained, this power is never lost. From this it
+can be seen that occultism is not so unreal as many think, and that the
+existence of soul is susceptible of actual demonstration. No one will be
+received into the mysteries until, by means of a long and severe
+probation, he has proved nobility of character. Only persons having
+Theosophical training will be eligible, but as any believer in brotherhood
+may become a Theosophist, all earnest truthseekers will have an
+opportunity of admission.
+
+"The probation will be sufficiently severe to deter persons seeking to
+gratify curiosity from trying to enter. No trifler could stand the test.
+There will be a number of degrees. Extremely few will be able to enter the
+highest, as eligibility to it requires eradication of every human fault
+and weakness. Those strong enough to pass through this become adepts."
+
+The Masonic Fraternity, with its 33d degree and its elaborate initiations,
+will have to look to its laurels, as soon as the Theosophical College of
+Mystery is in good running order. Everyone loves mysteries, especially
+when they are of the Egyptian kind. Cagliostro, the High Priest of Humbug,
+knew this when he evolved the Egyptian Rite of Masonry, in the eighteenth
+century. Speaking of Freemasonry, it is interesting to note the fact, as
+stated by Colonel Olcott in "Old Diary Leaves," that Madame Blavatsky and
+her coadjutors once seriously debated the question as to the advisability
+of engrafting the Theosophical Society on the Masonic fraternity, as a
+sort of higher degree,--Masonry representing the lesser mysteries, modern
+Theosophy the greater mysteries. But little encouragement was given to the
+Priestess of Isis by eminent Freemasons, for Masonry has always been the
+advocate of theistic doctrines, and opposed to the pantheistic cult. At
+another time, the leaders of Theosophy talked of imitating Masonry by
+having degrees, an elaborate ritual, etc.; also pass words, signs and
+grips, in order that "one _occult_ brother might know another in the
+darkness as well as in the _astral_ light." This, however, was abandoned.
+The founding of the Temple of Magic and Mystery in this country, with
+ceremonies of initiation, etc., seems to me to be a palingenesis of Mme.
+Blavatsky's ideas on the subject of occult Masonry.
+
+
+8. Conclusions.
+
+The temple of modern Theosophy, the foundation of which was laid by Madame
+Blavatsky, rests upon the truth of the Mahatma stories. Disbelieve these,
+and the entire structure falls to the ground like a house of cards. After
+the numerous exposures, recorded in the preceding chapters, it is
+difficult to place any reliance in the accounts of Mahatmic miracles.
+There may, or may not, be sages in the East, acquainted with spiritual
+laws of being, but that these masters, or adepts, used Madame Blavatsky as
+a medium to announce certain esoteric doctrines to the Western world, is
+exceedingly dubious.
+
+The first work of any literary pretensions to call attention to Theosophy
+was Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism." Of that production, William Emmette
+Coleman says:
+
+"'Esoteric Buddhism,' by A. P. Sinnett, was based upon statements
+contained in letters received by Mr. Sinnett and Mr. A. O. Hume, through
+Madame Blavatsky, purporting to be written by the Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and
+Morya--principally the former. Mr. Richard Hodgson has kindly lent me a
+considerable number of the original letters of the Mahatmas that leading
+to the production of 'Esoteric Buddhism.' I find in them overwhelming
+evidence that all of them were written by Madame Blavatsky. In these
+letters are a number of extracts from Buddhist Books, alleged to be
+translations from the originals by the Mahatmic writers themselves. These
+letters claim for the adepts a knowledge of Sanskrit, Thibetan, Pali and
+Chinese. I have traced to its source each quotation from the Buddhist
+Scriptures in the letters, and they were all copied from current English
+translations, including even the notes and explanations of the English
+translators. They were principally copied from Beal's 'Catena of Buddhist
+Scriptures from the Chinese.' In other places where the 'adept' is using
+his own language in explanation of Buddhistic terms and ideas, I find that
+his presumed original language was copied nearly word for word from Rhys
+Davids' 'Buddhism,' and other books. I have traced every Buddhistic idea
+in these letters and in 'Esoteric Buddhism,' and every Buddhistic term,
+such as Devachan, Avitchi, etc., to the books whence Helena Petrovna
+Blavatsky derived them. Although said to be proficient in the knowledge of
+Thibetan and Sanskrit the words and terms in these languages in the
+letters of the adepts were nearly all used in a ludicrously erroneous and
+absurd manner. The writer of those letters was an ignoramus in Sanskrit
+and Thibetan; and the mistakes and blunders in them, in these languages,
+are in exact accordance with the known ignorance of Madame Blavatsky
+concerning these languages. 'Esoteric Buddhism,' like all of Madame
+Blavatsky's works, was based upon wholesale plagiarism and ignorance."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 40. MADAME BLAVATSKY'S AUTOGRAPH.]
+
+Madame Blavatsky never succeeded in penetrating into Thibet, in whose
+sacred "lamaseries" and temples dwell the wonderful Mahatmas of modern
+Theosophy, but William Woodville Rockhill, the American traveller and
+Oriental scholar, did, and we have a record of his adventures in "The Land
+of the Laas," published in 1891. While at Serkok, he visited a famous
+monastery inhabited by 700 lamas. He says (page 102): "They asked endless
+questions concerning the state of Buddhism in foreign lands. They were
+astonished that it no longer existed in India, and that the church of
+Ceylon was so like the ancient Buddhist one. When told of our esoteric
+Buddhists, the Mahatmas, and of the wonderful doctrines they claimed to
+have obtained from Thibet, they were immensely amused. They declared that
+though in ancient times there were, doubtless, saints and sages who could
+perform some of the miracles now claimed by the Esoterists, none were
+living at the present day; and they looked upon this new school as rankly
+heretical, and as something approaching an imposition on our credulity."
+
+"Isis Unveiled," and the "Secret Doctrine," by Madame Blavatsky, are
+supposed to contain the completest exposition of Theosophy, or the inner
+spiritual meaning of the great religious cults of the world, but, as we
+have seen, they are full of plagiarisms and garbled statements, to say
+nothing of "spurious quotations from Buddhist sacred books, manufactured
+by the writer to embody her own peculiar views, under the fictitious guise
+of genuine Buddhism." This last quotation from Coleman strikes the keynote
+of the whole subject. Esoteric Buddhism is a product of Occidental
+manufacture, a figment of Madame Blavatsky's romantic imagination, and by
+no means represents the truth of Oriental philosophy.
+
+As Max Mueller, one of the greatest living Oriental scholars, has
+repeatedly stated, any attempt to read into Oriental thought our Western
+science and philosophy or to reconcile them, is futile to a degree; the
+two schools are as opposite to each other, as the negative and positive
+poles of a magnet, Orientalism representing the former, Occidentalism, the
+latter. Oriental philosophy with its Indeterminate Being (or pure nothing
+as the Absolute) ends in the utter negation of everything and affords no
+clue to the secret of the Universe. If to believe that all is _maya_,
+(illusion), and that to be one with Brahma (absorbed like the rain drop in
+the ocean) constitutes the _summum bonum_ of thinking, then there is no
+explanation of, or use for, evolution or progress of any kind. The effect
+of Hindoo philosophy has been stagnation, indifferentism, and, as a
+result, the Hindoo has no recorded history, no science, no art worthy the
+name. Compared to it see what Greek philosophy has done: it has
+transformed the Western world: Starting with Self-Determined Being,
+reason, self-activity, at the heart of the Universe, and the creation of
+individual souls by a process of evolution in time and space, and the
+unfolding of a splendid civilization are logical consequences. In the
+East, it is the destruction of self-hood; in the West the destruction of
+selfishness, and the preservation of self-hood.
+
+Many noted Theosophists claim that modern Theosophy is not a religious
+cult, but simply an exposition of the esoteric, or inner spiritual meaning
+of the great religious teachers of the world. Let me quote what Solovyoff
+says on this point:
+
+"The Theosophical Society shockingly deceived those who joined it as
+members, in reliance on the regulations. It gradually grew evident that it
+was no universal scientific brotherhood, to which the followers of all
+religions might with a clear conscience belong, but a group of persons who
+had begun to preach in their organ, _The Theosophist_, and in their other
+publications, a mixed religious doctrine. Finally, in the last years of
+Madame Blavatsky's life, even this doctrine gave place to a direct and
+open propaganda of the most orthodox exoteric Buddhism, under the motto of
+'Our Lord Buddha,' combined with incessant attacks on Christianity. * * *
+Now, in 1893, as the direct effect of this cause, we see an entire
+religious movement, we see a prosperous and growing plantation of Buddhism
+in Western Europe."
+
+As a last word let me add that if, in my opinion, modern Theosophy has no
+right to the high place it claims in the world of thought, it has
+performed its share in the noble fight against the crass materialism of
+our day, and, freed from the frauds that have too long darkened its
+poetical aspects, it may yet help to diffuse through the world the pure
+light of brotherly love and spiritual development.
+
+
+
+
+List of Works Consulted in the Preparation of this Volume
+
+
+AKSAKOFF, ALEXANDER N. =Animism and Spiritism=: an attempt at a critical
+investigation of mediumistic phenomena, with special reference to the
+hypotheses of hallucination and of the unconscious; an answer to Dr. E.
+von Hartmann's work, "Der Spiritismus." 2 vols. Leipsic, 1890. 8vo. (A
+profoundly interesting work by an impartial Russian savant. Judicial,
+critical and scientific.)
+
+AZAM, DR. =Hypnotisme et Alt�rations de la Personnalit�.= Paris, 1887.
+8vo.
+
+BERNHEIM, HIPPOLYTE. =Suggestive Therapeutics=: A study of the nature and
+use of hypnotism. Translated from the French. New York, 1889. 4to.
+
+BINET, A. AND F�R�, C. =Animal Magnetism.= Translated from the French. New
+York, 1888.
+
+BLAVATSKY, MADAME H�L�NE PETROVNA HAHN-HAHN. =Isis Unveiled=: A Master-key
+to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology. 6th ed. New
+York, 1891. 2 vols. 8vo. (A heterogeneous mass of poorly digested
+quotations from writers living and dead, with running remarks by Mme.
+Blavatsky. A hodge-podge of magic, masonry, and Oriental witchcraft.
+Pseudo-scientific.)
+
+------ =The Secret Doctrine=: The Synthesis of science, religion, and
+philosophy. 2 vols. New York, 1888. 8vo. (Philosophical in character. A
+reading of Western thought into Oriental religions and symbolisms.
+So-called quotations from the "Book of Dzyan," manufactured by the
+ingenious mind of the authoress.)
+
+CROCQ FILS, DR. =L'hypnotisme.= Paris, 1896. 4to. (An exhaustive work on
+hypnotism in all its phases.)
+
+CROOKES, WILLIAM. =Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism.= London,
+1876. 8vo, (pamphlet).
+
+------ =Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism.= London, 1875. 8vo,
+(pamphlet). (Very interesting exposition of experiments made with D. D.
+Home, the spirit medium.)
+
+DAVENPORT, R. B. =Death Blow to Spiritualism=: True story of the Fox
+sisters. New York, 1888. 8vo.
+
+DESSOIR, MAX. =The Psychology of Legerdemain.= _Open Court_, vol. vii.
+
+GARRETT, EDMUND. =Isis Very Much Unveiled=: Being the story of the great
+Mahatma hoax. London, 1895. 8vo.
+
+GASPARIN, COMTE AG�NOR DE. =Des Tables Tournantes, du Surnaturel et des
+Esprits.= Paris, 1854. 8vo.
+
+GATCHELL, CHARLES. The methods of mind-readers. _Forum_, vol. xi, pp.
+192-204.
+
+GIBIER, DR. PAUL. =Le Spiritisme= (fakirisme occidental). �tude
+historique, critique et exp�rimentale. Paris, 1889. 8vo.
+
+GURNEY, E., MYERS, F. W., AND PODMORE, F. =Phantasms of the Living.= 2
+vols. London, 1887. (Embodies the investigations of the Society for
+Psychical Research into Spiritualism, Telepathy, Thought-transference,
+etc.)
+
+HAMMOND, DR. W. H. =Spiritualism and Nervous Derangement.= New York, 1876.
+8vo.
+
+HARDINGE-BRITTAN, EMMA. =History of Spiritualism.= New York. 4to.
+
+HART, ERNEST. =Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New Witchcraft.= London, 1893.
+8vo. (Scientific and critical. Anti-spiritualistic in character.)
+
+HOME, D. D. =Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism.= New York, 1878. 8vo.
+
+HUDSON, THOMAS JAY. =The Law of Psychic Phenomena.= New York, 1894. 8vo.
+
+------ =A Scientific Demonstration of the Future Life.= Chicago, 1895.
+8vo.
+
+JAMES, WILLIAM. =Psychology.= New York, 1892. 8vo, 2 vols.
+
+JASTROW, JOSEPH. =Involuntary Movements.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol.
+xl, pp. 743-750. (Interesting account of experiments made in a
+Psychological Laboratory to demonstrate "the readiness with which normal
+individuals may be made to yield evidence of unconscious and involuntary
+processes." Throws considerable light on muscle-reading,
+planchette-writing, etc.)
+
+------ =The Psychology of Deception.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol.
+xxxiv, pp. 145-157.
+
+------ =The Psychology of Spiritualism.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol.
+xxxiv, pp. 721-732.
+
+    (A series of articles of great value to students of psychical
+    research.)
+
+KRAFFT-EBING, R. =Experimental Study in the Domain of Hypnotism.= New
+York, 1889.
+
+LEAF, WALTER. =A Modern Priestess of Isis=; abridged and translated on
+behalf of the Society for Psychical Research, from the Russian of Vsevolod
+S. Solovyoff. London, 1895. 8vo.
+
+LILLIE, ARTHUR. =Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophy.= London, 1896. 8vo.
+
+LIPPITT, F. J. =Physical Proofs of Another Life=: Letters to the Seybert
+commission. Washington, D. C., 1888. 8vo.
+
+MACAIRE, SID. =Mind-Reading, or Muscle-Reading?= London, 1889.
+
+MOLL, ALBERT. =Hypnotism.= New York, 1892. 8vo.
+
+MATTISON, REV. H. =Spirit-rapping Unveiled.= An Expos� of the origin,
+history theology and philosophy of certain alleged communications from the
+spiritual world by means of "spirit-rapping," "medium writing," "physical
+demonstrations," etc. New York, 1855. 8vo.
+
+MYERS, F. W. H. =Science and a Future Life=, and other essays. London,
+1891. 8vo.
+
+OCHOROWICZ, DR. J. =Mental Suggestion= (with a preface by Prof. Charles
+Richet). From the French by J. Fitz-Gerald. New York, 1891. 8vo.
+
+OLCOTT, HENRY S. =Old Diary Leaves.= New York, 1895. 8vo. (Full of wildly
+improbable incidents in the career of Madame Blavatsky. Valuable on
+account of its numerous quotations from American journals concerning the
+early history of the theosophical movement in the United States.)
+
+PODMORE, FRANK S. =Apparitions and Thought-Transference=: Examination of
+the evidence of telepathy. New York, 1894. 8vo. (A thoughtful scientific
+work on a profoundly interesting subject.)
+
+REVELATIONS OF A SPIRIT MEDIUM; or, =Spiritualistic Mysteries Exposed=.
+St. Paul, Minn., 1891. 8vo. (One of the best expos�s of physical phenomena
+published.)
+
+ROBERT-HOUDIN, J. E. =The Secrets of Stage Conjuring.= From the French, by
+Prof. Hoffmann. New York, 1881. 8vo. (A full account of the performances
+of the Davenport Bros. in Paris, by the most famous of contemporary
+conjurers.)
+
+ROARK, RURICK N. =Psychology in Education.= New York, 1895. 8vo.
+
+ROCKHILL, WM. W. =The Land of the Lamas.= New York, 1891. 8vo.
+
+SEYBERT COMMISSION ON SPIRITUALISM. =Preliminary Report.= New York, 1888.
+8vo. (Absolutely anti-spiritualistic. The psychical phases of the subject
+not considered.)
+
+SIDGWICK, MRS. H. =Article "Spiritualism" in "Encyclop�dia Britannica,"=
+vol. 22. (An excellent resum� of spiritualism, its history and phenomena.)
+
+SINNETT, A. P. (_Ed._) =Incidents in the life of Mme. Blavatsky.= London,
+1886. 8vo. (Interesting, but replete with wildly improbable incidents,
+etc. Of little value as a life of the famous occultist.)
+
+------ =The Occult World.= London, 1885. 8vo.
+
+------ =Esoteric Buddhism.= London, 1888. 8vo.
+
+SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH: =Proceedings.= Vols. 1-11. [1882-95.]
+London, 1882-95. 8vo. (The most exhaustive researches yet set on foot by
+impartial investigators. Scientific in character, and invaluable to the
+student. Psychical phases of spiritualism mostly dealt with.)
+
+TRUESDELL, JOHN W. =The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of
+Spiritualism=: Derived from careful investigations covering a period of
+twenty-five years. New York, 1883. 8vo. (Anti-spiritualistic. Expos�s of
+physical phenomena: psychography, rope-tests, etc. Of its kind, a valuable
+contribution to the literature of the subject.)
+
+WEATHERLY, DR. L. A., AND MASKELYNE, J. N. =The Supernatural.= Bristol,
+Eng., 1891. 8vo.
+
+WILLMANN, CARL. =Moderne Wunder.= Leipsic, 1892. 8vo. (Contains
+interesting accounts of Dr. Slade's Berlin and Leipsic experiences. It is
+written by a professional conjurer. Anti-spiritualistic.)
+
+WOODBURY, WALTER E. =Photographic Amusements.= New York, 1896. 8vo.
+(Contains some interesting accounts of so-called spirit photography.)
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Introduction to Herrmann the Magician, his Life, his Secrets, (Laird &
+Lee, Publishers.)
+
+[2] Spiritualism and nervous derangement, New York, 1876. p. 115.
+
+[3] The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of Spiritualism, etc., New
+York, 1883.
+
+[4] Communication to _New York Sun_, 1892.
+
+[5] NOTE--These letters were purchased from the _Christian College
+Magazine_ by Dr. Elliot Coues, of Washington, D. C.
+
+[6] "Old Diary Leaves"--_Olcott_.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+Century Witchcraft, by Henry Ridgely Evans
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth
+Century Witchcraft, by Henry Ridgely Evans
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth Century Witchcraft
+       Illustrated Investigations into the Phenomena of
+              Spiritualism and Theosophy
+
+Author: Henry Ridgely Evans
+
+Release Date: December 5, 2013 [EBook #44349]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1><small>HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS</small></h1>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="vertsbox">
+<p class="center"><span class="huge">LEE’S LIBRARY OF<br />OCCULT SCIENCE</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS; Or XIX Century Witchcraft</b></p>
+<p class="center">By Henry R. Evans.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><b>PRACTICAL PALMISTRY; Or Hand Reading Made Easy</b></p>
+<p class="center">By Comte C. de Saint-Germain.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><b>HERRMANN THE MAGICIAN; His Life; His Secrets</b></p>
+<p class="center">By H. J. Burlingame.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">All profusely illustrated. Bound in Holliston<br />cloth, burnished red top, uncut edges.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>EACH, $1.00</b></p></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.<br />[Taken by the Author.]</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="giant">Hours With the Ghosts</span></p>
+<p class="center"><small>OR</small><br />
+<span class="large">NINETEENTH CENTURY WITCHCRAFT</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Illustrated Investigations</span><br />
+<small>INTO THE</small><br />
+<span class="huge">Phenomena of Spiritualism and Theosophy</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><small>BY</small><br />
+<span class="large"><span class="smcap">Henry Ridgely Evans</span></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">The first duty we owe to the world is Truth&mdash;all the<br />Truth&mdash;nothing but the Truth.&mdash;“<i>Ancient Wisdom.</i>”</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CHICAGO<br />
+LAIRD &amp; LEE, PUBLISHERS</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Entered according to act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven.<br />
+<span class="smcap">By</span> WILLIAM H. LEE,<br />
+In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">TO MY WIFE</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="note">
+<p>“It is no proof of wisdom to refuse to examine certain phenomena because
+we think it certain that they are impossible, as if our knowledge of the
+universe were already completed.”&mdash;<i>Prof. Lodge.</i></p>
+
+<p>“The most ardent Spiritist should welcome a searching inquiry into the
+potential faculties of spirits still in the flesh. Until we know more of
+<i>these</i>, those other phenomena to which he appeals must remain
+unintelligible because isolated, and are likely to be obstinately
+disbelieved because they are impossible to understand.”&mdash;<i>F. W. H. Myers:
+“Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,” Part XVIII, April, 1891.</i></p></div>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td colspan="3">Author’s Preface</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">PART FIRST: <b>Spiritualism</b></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>I.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>Divisions of the Subject</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>II.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>Subjective Phenomena</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>1.</td>
+    <td>Telepathy</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>2.</td>
+    <td>Table Tilting. Muscle Reading</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>III.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>Physical Phenomena</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>1.</td>
+    <td>Psychography or Slate-writing</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>2.</td>
+    <td>The Master of the Mediums: D. D. Home</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>3.</td>
+    <td>Rope Tying and Holding Mediums; Materializations</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>The Davenport Brothers</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Annie Eva Fay</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Charles Slade</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Pierre L. O. A. Keeler</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>Eusapia Paladino</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>F. W. Tabor</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>4.</td>
+    <td>Spirit Photography</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>5.</td>
+    <td>Thought Photography</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td>6.</td>
+    <td>Apparitions of the Dead</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>IV.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>Conclusions</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">PART SECOND: <b>Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists</b> &nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>I.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>The Priestess</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>II.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>What is Theosophy?</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>III.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>Madame Blavatsky’s Confession</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>IV.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>The Writings of Madame Blavatsky</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_265">265</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>V.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>The Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_268">268</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>VI.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>VII.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>The Theosophical Temple</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_287">287</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>VIII.</i></td>
+    <td colspan="2"><i>Conclusion</i></td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">List of Authorities</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_298">298</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right"><small>PAGE.</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 1. Spirit Photograph, by the author</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#frontis">Frontispiece</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 2. Portrait of Dr. Henry Slade</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 3. The Holding of the Slate</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 4. Slate No. 1</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 5. Slate No. 2</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 6. Slate No. 3</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 7. Home at the Tuileries</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 8. Crookes’ Apparatus No. 1</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 9. Crookes’ Apparatus No. 1</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 10. Crookes’ Apparatus No. 1</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_119">120</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 11. Crookes’ Apparatus No. 1</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 12, 13, 14, 15. Crookes’ Diagrams</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_124">124-125</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 16. Crookes’ Apparatus No. 2</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 17. Crookes’ Apparatus No. 2</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 18, 19, 20. Crookes’ Diagrams</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_128">128-130</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 21. Hammond’s Apparatus</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 22. The Davenport’s in their Cabinet</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 23. Trick Tie and in Cabinet Work</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 24. Charles Slade’s Poster</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_159">158-159</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 25. Pierre Keeler’s Cabinet Seance</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 26. Pierre Keeler’s Cabinet Curtain</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 27. Portrait of Eusapia Paladino</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_178">176</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 28. Eusapia before the Scientists</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_178">177</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 29. Spirit Photograph, by the author</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_191">191</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 30. Spirit Photograph, by pretended medium</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 31. Sigel’s Original Picture of Fig. 30</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 32. Portrait of Madame Blavatsky</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 33. Mahatma Letter</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 34. Mahatma Envelope</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 35. Portrait of Col. H. S. Olcott</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 36. Oath of Secrecy of the Charter Members of the Theosophical Society</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 37. Portrait of W. Q. Judge</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 38. Portrait of Mrs. Annie Besant</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_273">273</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 39. Portrait of Mrs. Tingley</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fig. 40. Autograph of Madame Blavatsky</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_293">293</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p><i>There are two great schools of thought in the world&mdash;materialistic and
+spiritualistic. With one,</i> <span class="smcaplc">MATTER</span> <i>is all in all, the ultimate substratum;
+mind is merely the result of organized matter; everything is translated
+into terms of force, motion and the like. With the other,</i> <span class="smcaplc">SPIRIT</span> <i>or mind
+is the ultimate substance&mdash;God; matter is the visible expression of this
+invisible and eternal Consciousness.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Materialism is a barren, dreary, comfortless belief, and, in the opinion
+of the author, is without philosophical foundation. This is an age of
+scientific materialism, although of late years that materialism has been
+rather on the wane among thinking men. In an age of such ultra
+materialism, therefore, it is not strange that there should come a great
+reaction on the part of spiritually minded people. This reaction takes the
+form of an increased vitality of dogmatic religion, or else culminates in
+the formation of Spiritualistic or Theosophic societies for the
+prosecution of occult phenomena. Spiritualists are now numbered by the
+million. Persons calling themselves mediums present certain phenomena,
+physical and psychical, and call public attention to them, as an evidence
+of life beyond the grave, and the possibility of spiritual communication
+between this world and the next.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span><i>The author has had sittings with many famous mediums of this country and
+Europe, but has seen little to convince him of the fact of spirit
+communication. The slate tests and so-called materializations have
+invariably been frauds. Some experiments along the line of automatic
+writing and psychometry, however, have demonstrated to the writer the
+truth of telepathy or thought-transference. The theory of telepathy
+explains many of the marvels ascribed to spirit intervention in things
+mundane.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>In this work the author has endeavored to give an accurate account of the
+lives and adventures of celebrated mediums and occultists, which will
+prove of interest to the reader. The rise and growth of the Theosophical
+cult in this country and Europe is of historical interest. Theosophy
+pretends to a deeper metaphysics than Spiritualism, and numbers its
+adherents by the thousands; it is, therefore, intensely interesting to
+study it in its origin, its founder and its present leaders.</i></p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>THE AUTHOR.</i></span></p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center"><span class="huge">HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS.</span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTORY_ARGUMENT" id="INTRODUCTORY_ARGUMENT"></a>INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT.</h2>
+
+
+<p>“If a man die, shall he live again?”&mdash;this is the question of the ages,
+the Sphinx riddle that Humanity has been trying to solve since time began.
+The great minds of antiquity, Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle
+were firm in their belief in the immortality of the soul. The writings of
+Plato are luminous on the subject. The Mysteries of Isis and Osiris, as
+practiced in Egypt, and those of Eleusis, in Greece, taught the doctrine
+of the immortality of the individual being. The Divine Master of Arcane
+knowledge, Christ, proclaimed the same. In latter times, we have had such
+metaphysical and scientific thinkers as Leibnitz, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel
+and Schleiermacher advocating individual existence beyond the grave.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>It is a strange fact that the more materialistic the age, the deeper the
+interest in spiritual questions. The vitality and persistence of the
+belief in the reality of the spiritual world is evidence of that hunger
+for the ideal, for God, of which the Psalmist speaks&mdash;“As the heart
+panteth after water brooks so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!” Through
+the passing centuries, we have come into a larger, nobler conception of
+the Universal Life, and our relations to that Life, in which we live,
+move, and have our being. Granting the existence of an “Eternal and
+Infinite Spirit, the Intellectual Organizer of the mathematical laws which
+the physical forces obey,” and conceiving ourselves as individualized
+points of life in the Greater Life, we are constrained to believe that we
+bear within us the undying spark of divinity and immortality. Evolution
+points to eternal life as the final goal of self-conscious spirit, else
+this mighty earth-travail, the long ages of struggle to produce man are
+utterly without meaning. Speaking of a future life, John Fiske, a leading
+American exponent of the doctrine of evolution, says (“The Destiny of
+Man”): “The doctrine of evolution does not allow us to take the atheistic
+view of the position of man. It is true that modern astronomy shows us
+giant balls of vapor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> condensing into fiery suns, cooling down into
+planets fit for the support of life, and at last growing cold and rigid in
+death, like the moon. And there are indications of a time when systems of
+dead planets shall fall in upon their central ember that was once a sun,
+and the whole lifeless mass, thus regaining heat, shall expand into a
+nebulous cloud like that with which we started, that the work of
+condensation and evolution may begin over again. These Titanic events must
+doubtless seem to our limited vision like an endless and aimless series of
+cosmical changes. From the first dawning of life we see all things working
+together toward one mighty goal, the evolution of the most exalted
+spiritual qualities which characterize Humanity. The body is cast aside
+and returns to the dust of which it was made. The earth, so marvelously
+wrought to man’s uses, will also be cast aside. So small is the value
+which Nature sets upon the perishable forms of matter! The question, then,
+is reduced to this: Are man’s highest spiritual qualities, into the
+production of which all this creative energy has gone, to disappear with
+the rest? Are we to regard the Creator’s work as like that of a child, who
+builds houses out of blocks, just for the pleasure of knocking them down?
+For aught that science can tell us, it may be so,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> but I can see no good
+reason for believing any such thing.”</p>
+
+<p>A scientific demonstration of immortality is declared to be an
+impossibility. But why go to science for such a demonstration? The
+question belongs to the domain of philosophy and religion. Science deals
+with physical forces and their relations; collects and inventories facts.
+Its mission is not to establish a universal metaphysic of things; that is
+philosophy’s prerogative. All occult thinkers declare that life is from
+within, out. In other words life, or a spiritual principle, precedes
+organization. Science proceeds to investigate the phenomena of the
+universe in the opposite way from without, in; and pronounces life to be
+“a fortuitous collocation of atoms.” Still, science has been the
+torch-bearer of the ages and has stripped the fungi of superstition from
+the tree of life. It has revealed to us the great laws of nature, though
+it has not explained them. We know that light, heat, and electricity are
+modes of motion; more than that we know not. Science is largely
+responsible for the materialistic philosophy in vogue to-day&mdash;a philosophy
+that sees no reason in the universe. A powerful wave of spiritual thought
+has set in, as if to counteract the ultra<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> rationalism of the age. In the
+vanguard of the new order of things are Spiritualism and Theosophy.</p>
+
+<p>Spiritualism enters the list, and declares that the immortality of the
+soul is a demonstrable fact. It throws down the gauntlet of defiance to
+skepticism, saying: “Come, I will show you that there is an existence
+beyond the grave. Death is not a wall, but a door through which we pass
+into eternal life.” Theosophy, too, has its occult phenomena to prove the
+indestructibility of soul-force. Both Spiritualism and Theosophy contain
+germs of truth, but both are tinctured with superstition. I purpose, if
+possible, to sift the wheat from the chaff. In investigating the phenomena
+of Spiritualism and Theosophy I will use the scientific as well as the
+philosophic method. Each will act, I hope, as corrective of the other.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PART_FIRST" id="PART_FIRST"></a>PART FIRST.<br />SPIRITUALISM.</h2>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>I. DIVISIONS OF THE SUBJECT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Belief in the evocation of the spirits of the dead is as old as Humanity.
+At one period of the world’s history it was called Thaumaturgy, at another
+Necromancy and Witchcraft, in these latter years, Spiritualism. It is new
+wine in old bottles. On March 31, 1847, at Hydeville, Wayne County, New
+York, occurred the celebrated “knockings,” the beginning of modern
+Spiritualism. The mediums were two little girls, Kate and Margaretta Fox,
+whose fame spread over three continents. It is claimed by impartial
+investigators that the rappings produced in the presence of the Fox
+sisters were occasioned by natural means. Voluntary disjointings of the
+muscles of the knee, or to use a medical term “the repeated displacement
+of the tendon of the <i>peroneus longus</i> muscle in the sheath in which it
+slides behind the outer <i>malleolus</i>” will produce certain extraordinary
+sounds, particularly when the knee is brought in contact with a table or
+chair. Snapping the toes in rapid succession will cause similar noises.
+The above was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> explanation given of the “Hydeville and Rochester
+Knockings”, by Professors Flint, Lee and Coventry, of Buffalo, who
+subjected the Fox sisters to numerous examinations, and this explanation
+was confirmed many years after (in 1888) by the published confession of
+Mrs. Kane, <i>nee</i> Margaretta Fox. Spiritualism became the rage and
+professional mediums went about giving séances to large and interested
+audiences. This particular creed is still professed by a recognized
+semi-religious body in America and in Europe. The American mediums reaped
+a rich harvest in the Old World. The pioneer was Mrs. Hayden, a Boston
+medium, who went to England in 1852, and the table-turning mania spread
+like wild fire within a few months.</p>
+
+<p>Broadly speaking, the phenomena of modern Spiritualism may be divided into
+two classes: (1) Physical, (2) Subjective. Of the first, the
+“Encyclopaedia Britannica”, in its brief but able review of the subject,
+says: “Those which, if correctly observed and due neither to conscious or
+unconscious trickery nor to hallucination on the part of the observers,
+exhibit a force hitherto unknown to science, acting in the physical world
+otherwise than through the brain or muscles of the medium.” The earliest
+of these phenomena were the mysterious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> rappings and movements of
+furniture without apparent physical cause. Following these came the
+ringing of bells, playing on musical instruments, strange lights seen
+hovering about the séance-room, materializations of hands, faces and
+forms, “direct writing and drawing” declared to be done without human
+intervention, spirit photography, levitation, unfastening of ropes and
+bandages, elongation of the medium’s body, handling fire with impunity,
+etc.</p>
+
+<p>Of the second class, or Subjective Phenomena, we have “table-tilting and
+turning with contact; writing, drawing, etc., by means of the medium’s
+hand; entrancement, trance-speaking, and impersonation by the medium of
+deceased persons, seeing spirits and visions and hearing phantom voices.”</p>
+
+<p>From a general scientific point of view there are three ways of accounting
+for the physical phenomena of spiritualism: (1) Hallucination on the part
+of the observers; (2) Conjuring; (3) A force latent in the human
+personality capable of moving heavy objects without muscular contact, and
+of causing “Percussive Sounds” on table-tops, and raps upon walls and
+floors.</p>
+
+<p>Hallucination has unquestionably played a part in the séance-room, but
+here again the statement of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> “Encyclopaedia Britannica” is worthy of
+consideration: “Sensory hallucination of several persons together who are
+not in a hypnotic state is a rare phenomenon, and therefore not a probable
+explanation.” In my opinion, conjuring will account for seven-eighths of
+the so-called phenomena of professional mediums. For the balance of
+one-eighth, neither hallucination nor legerdemain are satisfactory
+explanation. Hundreds of credible witnesses have borne testimony to the
+fact of table-turning and tilting and the movements of heavy objects
+without muscular contact. That such a force exists is now beyond cavil,
+call it what you will, magnetic, nervous, or psychic. Count Agenor de
+Gasparin, in 1854, conducted a series of elaborate experiments in
+table-turning and tilting, in the presence of his family and a number of
+skeptical witnesses, and was highly successful. The experiments were made
+in the full light of day. The members of the circle joined hands and
+concentrated their minds upon the object to be moved. The Count published
+a work on the subject “Des Tables Tournantes,” in which he stated that the
+movements of the table were due to a mental or nervous force emanating
+from the human personality. This psychic energy has been investigated by
+Professor Crookes and Professor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> Lodge, of London, and by Doctor Elliott
+Coues, of Washington, D. C., who calls it “Telekinesis.” The existence of
+this force sufficiently explains such phenomena of the séance-room as are
+not attributable to hallucination and conjuring, thus removing the
+necessity for the hypothesis of spirit intervention. In explanation of
+table-turning by “contact,” I quote what J. N. Maskelyne says in “The
+Supernatural”:</p>
+
+<p>“Faraday proved to a demonstration that table-turning was simply the
+result of an unconscious muscular action on the part of the sitters. He
+constructed a little apparatus to be placed beneath the hands of those
+pressing upon the table, which had a pointer to indicate any pressure to
+one side or the other. After a time, of course, the arms of the sitters
+become tired and they unconsciously press more or less to the right or
+left. In Faraday’s experiments, it always proved that this pressure was
+exerted in the direction in which the table was expected to move, and the
+tell-tale pointer showed it at once. There, then, we have the explanation:
+expectancy and unconscious muscular action.”</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+<h3>II. SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA.</h3>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">1. Telepathy.</p>
+
+<p>The subjective phenomena of Spiritualism&mdash;trance speaking, automatic
+writing, etc.,&mdash;have engaged the attention of some of the best scientific
+minds of Europe and America, as studies of abnormal or supernormal
+psychological conditions.</p>
+
+<p>If there are any facts to sustain the spiritual hypothesis, these facts
+exist in subjective manifestations. The following statement will be
+conceded by any impartial investigator: A medium, or psychic, in a state
+of partial or complete hypnosis frequently gives information transcending
+his conscious knowledge of a subject. There can be but two hypotheses for
+the phenomena&mdash;(1) The intelligence exhibited by the medium is
+“ultra-mundane,” in other words, is the effect of spirit control, or, (2)
+it is the result of the conscious or unconscious exercise of psychic
+powers on the part of the medium.</p>
+
+<p>It is well known that persons under hypnotic influence exhibit remarkable
+intelligence, notwithstanding the fact that the ordinary consciousness is
+held in abeyance. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> extraordinary results obtained by hypnotizers point
+to another phase of consciousness, which is none other than the subjective
+or “subliminal” self. Mediums sometimes induce hypnosis by
+self-suggestion, and while in that state, the subconscious mind is in a
+highly receptive and exalted condition. Mental suggestions or concepts
+pass from the mind of the sitter consciously or unconsciously to the mind
+of the medium, and are given back in the form of communications from the
+invisible world, ostensibly through spirit control. It is not absolutely
+necessary that the medium be in the hypnotic condition to obtain
+information, but the hypnotic state seems to be productive of the best
+results. The medium is usually honest in his belief in the reality of such
+ultra-mundane control, but he is ignorant of the true psychology of the
+case&mdash;thought transference.</p>
+
+<p>The English Society for Psychical Research and its American branch have of
+late years popularized “telepathy”, or thought transference. A series of
+elaborate investigations were made by Messrs. Edmund Gurney, F. W. H.
+Myers, and Frank Podmore, accounts of which are contained in the
+proceedings of the Society. Among the European investigators may be
+mentioned Messrs. Janet and Gibert, Richet, Gibotteau, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+Schrenck-Notzing. Podmore has lately summarized the results of these
+studies in an interesting volume, “Apparitions and Thought-transference,
+an Examination of the Evidence for Telepathy.” Thought Transference or
+Telepathy (from <i>tele</i>&mdash;at a distance, and <i>pathos</i>&mdash;feeling) he describes
+as “a communication between mind and mind other than through the known
+channels of the senses.” A mass of evidence is adduced to prove the
+possibility of this communication. In summing up his book he says: “The
+experimental evidence has shown that a simple sensation or idea may be
+transferred from one mind to another, and that this transference may take
+place alike in the normal state and in the hypnotic trance.</p>
+
+<p>* * The personal influence of the operator in hypnotism may perhaps be
+regarded as a proof presumptive of telepathy.” The experiments show that
+mental concepts or ideas may be transferred to a distance.</p>
+
+<p>Podmore advances the following theory in explanation of the phenomena of
+telepathy:</p>
+
+<p>“If we leave fluids and radiant nerve-energy on one side, we find
+practically only one mode suggested for the telepathic transference&mdash;viz.,
+that the physical changes which are the accompaniments of thought or
+sensation in the agent are transmitted from the brain as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> undulations in
+the intervening medium, and thus excite corresponding changes in some
+other brain, without any other portion of the organism being necessarily
+implicated in the transmission. This hypothesis has found its most
+philosophical champion in Dr. Ochorowicz, who has devoted several chapters
+of his book “De la Suggestion mentale,” to the discussion of the various
+theories on the subject. He begins by recalling the reciprocal
+convertibility of all physical forces with which we are acquainted, and
+especially draws attention to what he calls the law of reversibility, a
+law which he illustrates by a description of the photophone. The
+photophone is an instrument in which a mirror is made to vibrate to the
+human voice. The mirror reflects a ray of light, which, vibrating in its
+turn, falls upon a plate of selenium, modifying its electric conductivity.
+The intermittent current so produced is transmitted through a telephone,
+and the original articulate sound is reproduced. Now in hypnotized
+subjects&mdash;and M. Ochorowicz does not in this connection treat of
+thought-transference between persons in the normal state&mdash;the equilibrium
+of the nervous system, he sees reason to believe, is profoundly affected.
+The nerve-energy liberated in this state, he points out, ‘cannot pass
+beyond’ the subject’s brain ‘without being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> transformed. Nevertheless,
+like any other force, it cannot remain isolated; like any other force it
+escapes, but in disguise. Orthodox science allows it only one way out, the
+motor nerves. These are the holes in the dark lantern through which the
+rays of light escape. * * * Thought remains in the brain, just as the
+chemical energy of the galvanic battery remains in the cells, but each is
+represented outside by its correlative energy, which in the case of the
+battery is called the electric current, but for which in the other we have
+as yet no name. In any case there is some correlative energy&mdash;for the
+currents of the motor nerves do not and cannot constitute the only dynamic
+equivalent of cerebral energy&mdash;to represent all the complex movements of
+the cerebral mechanism.’”</p>
+
+<p>The above hypothesis may, or may not, afford a clue to the mysterious
+phenomena of telepathy, but it will doubtless satisfy to some extent those
+thinkers who demand physical explanations of the known and unknown laws of
+the universe. The president of the Society for Psychical Research (1894,)
+A. J. Balfour, in an address on the relation of the work of the Society to
+the general course of modern scientific investigation, is more cautious
+than the writers already quoted. He says:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>“Is this telepathic action an ordinary case of action from a center of
+disturbance? Is it equally diffused in all directions? Is it like the
+light of a candle or the light of the sun which radiates equally into
+space in every direction at the same time? If it is, it must obey the
+law&mdash;at least, we should expect it to obey the law&mdash;of all other forces
+which so act through a non-absorbing medium, and its effects must diminish
+inversely as the square of the distance. It must, so to speak, get beaten
+out thinner and thinner the further it gets removed from its original
+source. But is this so? Is it even credible that the mere thoughts, or, if
+you please, the neural changes corresponding to these thoughts, of any
+individual could have in them the energy to produce sensible effects
+equally in all directions, for distances which do not, as far as our
+investigations go, appear to have any necessary limit? It is, I think,
+incredible; and in any case there is no evidence whatever that this equal
+diffusion actually takes place. The will power, whenever will is used, or
+the thoughts, in cases where will is not used, have an effect, as a rule,
+only upon one or two individuals at most. There is no appearance of
+general diffusion. There is no indication of any disturbance equal at
+equal distances from its origin and radiating from it alike in every
+direction.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>“But if we are to reject this idea, which is the first which ordinary
+analogies would suggest, what are we to put in its place? Are we to
+suppose that there is some means by which telepathic energy can be
+directed through space from the agent to the patient, from the man who
+influences to the man who is influenced? If we are to believe this, as
+apparently we must, we are face to face not only with a fact extraordinary
+in itself, but with a kind of fact which does not fit in with anything we
+know at present in the region either of physics or of physiology. It is
+true, no doubt, that we do know plenty of cases where energy is directed
+along a given line, like water in a pipe, or like electrical energy along
+the course of a wire. But then in such cases there is always some material
+guide existing between the two termini, between the place from which the
+energy comes and the place to which the energy goes. Is there any such
+material guide in the case of telepathy? It seems absolutely impossible.
+There is no sign of it. We can not even form to ourselves any notion of
+its character, and yet, if we are to take what appears to be the obvious
+lesson of the observed facts, we are forced to the conclusion that in some
+shape or other it exists.”</p>
+
+<p>Telepathy once conceded, we have a satisfactory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> explanation of that class
+of cases in modern Spiritualism on the subjective side of the question.
+There is no need of the hypothesis of “disembodied spirits”.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago, I instituted a series of experiments with a number of
+celebrated spirit mediums in the line of thought transference, and was
+eminently successful in obtaining satisfactory results, especially with
+Miss Maggie Gaule, of Baltimore, one of the most famous of the latter day
+psychics.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Case A.</p>
+
+<p>About three years prior to my sitting with Miss Gaule, a relative by
+marriage died of cancer of the throat at the Garfield Hospital,
+Washington, D. C. He was a retired army officer, with the brevet of
+General, and lived part of the time at Chambersburg, Penn., and the rest
+of the time at the National Capital. He led a very quiet and unassuming
+life, and outside of army circles knew but few people. He was a
+magnificent specimen of physical manhood, six feet tall, with splendid
+chest and arms. His hair and beard were of a reddish color. His usual
+street dress was a sort of compromise with an army undress uniform,
+military cut frock-coat, frogged and braided top-coat, and a Sherman hat.
+Without these accessories, anyone would have recognized the military<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> man
+in his walk and bearing. He and his wife thought a great deal of my
+mother, and frequently stopped me on the street to inquire, “How is Mary?”
+I went to Miss Gaule’s house with the thought of General M&mdash; fixed in my
+mind and the circumstances surrounding his decease. The medium greeted me
+in a cordial manner. I sat at one end of the room in the shadow, and she
+near the window in a large armchair. “You wish for messages from the
+dead,” she remarked abruptly. “One moment, let me think.” She sank back in
+the chair, closed her eyes, and remained in deep thought for a minute or
+so, occasionally passing her hand across her forehead. “I see,” she said,
+“standing behind you, a tall, large man with reddish hair and beard. He is
+garbed in the uniform of an officer&mdash;I do not know whether of the army or
+navy. He points to his throat. Says he died of a throat trouble. He looks
+at you and calls “Mary,&mdash;how is Mary?” “What is his name?” I inquired,
+fixing my mind on the words David M&mdash;. “I will ask”, replied the medium.
+There was a long pause. “He speaks so faintly I can scarcely hear him. The
+first letter begins with D, and then comes a&mdash;I can’t get it. I can’t hear
+it.” With that she opened her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The surprising feature about the above case was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> alleged spirit
+communication, “Mary&mdash;how is Mary?” I did not have this in my mind at the
+time; in fact I had completely forgotten this form of salutation on the
+part of Gen. M&mdash;, when we had met in the old days. It is just this sort of
+thing that makes spirit-converts.</p>
+
+<p>However, the cases of unconscious telepathy cited in the “Reports of the
+Society for Psychical Research,” are sufficient, I think, to prove the
+existence of this phase of the phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>T. J. Hudson, in his work entitled “A scientific demonstration of the
+future life”, says: * * “When a psychic transmits a message to his client
+containing information which is in his (the psychic’s) possession, it can
+not reasonably be attributed to the agency of disembodied spirits. * *
+When the message contains facts known to some one in his immediate
+presence and with whom he is <i>en rapport</i>, the agency of spirits of the
+dead cannot be presumed. Every investigator will doubtless admit that
+sub-conscious memory may enter as a factor in the case, and that the
+sub-conscious intelligence&mdash;or, to use the favorite terminology employed
+by Mr. Myers to designate the subjective mind, the ‘sublimal
+consciousness’&mdash;of the psychic or that of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> client may retain and use
+facts which the conscious, or objective mind may have entirely forgotten.”</p>
+
+<p>But suppose the medium relates facts that were never in the possession of
+the sitter, what are we to say then? Considerable controversy has been
+waged over this question, and the hypothesis of telepathy is scouted.
+Minot J. Savage has come to the conclusion that such cases stretch the
+telepathic theory too far; there can be but one plausible explanation&mdash;a
+communication from a disembodied spirit, operating through the mind of the
+medium. For the sake of lucidity, let us take an example: A has a relative
+B who dies in a foreign land under peculiar circumstances, <i>unknown to A</i>.
+A attends a séance of a psychic, C, and the latter relates the
+circumstances of B’s death. A afterwards investigates the statements of
+the medium, and finds them correct. Can telepathy account for C’s
+knowledge? I think it can. The telepathic communication was recorded in
+A’s sub-conscious mind, he being <i>en rapport</i> with B. A unconsciously
+yields the points recorded in his sub-conscious mind to the psychic, C,
+who by reason of his peculiar powers raises them to the level of conscious
+thought, and gives them back in the form of a message from the dead.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">Case B.</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion, I went with my friend Mr. S. C., of Virginia, to
+visit Miss Gaule. Mr. S. C. had a young son who had recently passed the
+examination for admission to the U. S. Naval Academy, and the boy had
+accompanied his father to Baltimore to interview the military tailors on
+the subject of uniforms, etc. Miss Gaule in her semi-trance state made the
+following statement: “I see a young man busy with books and papers. He has
+successfully passed an examination, and says something about a uniform.
+Perhaps he is going to a military college.”</p>
+
+<p>Here again we have excellent evidence of the proof of telepathy.</p>
+
+<p>The spelling of names is one of the surprising things in these
+experiments. On one occasion my wife had a sitting with Miss Gaule, and
+the psychic correctly spelled out the names of Mrs. Evans’ brothers&mdash;John,
+Robert, and Dudley, the latter a family name and rather unusual, and
+described the family as living in the West.</p>
+
+<p>The following example of Telepathy occurred between the writer and a
+younger brother.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Case C.</p>
+
+<p>In the fall of 1890, I was travelling from Washington to Baltimore, by the
+B. &amp; P. R. R. As the train<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> approached Jackson Grove, a campmeeting
+ground, deserted at that time of the year, the engine whistle blew
+vigorously and the bell was rung continuously, which was something
+unusual, as the cars ordinarily did not stop at this isolated station, but
+whirled past. Then the engine slowed down and the train came to a
+standstill.</p>
+
+<p>“What is the matter?” exclaimed the passengers.</p>
+
+<p>“My God, look there!” shouted an excited passenger, leaning out of the
+coach window, and pointing to the dilapidated platform of the station. I
+looked out and beheld a decapitated human head, standing almost upright in
+a pool of blood. With the other male passengers I rushed out of the car.
+The head was that of an old man with very white hair and beard. We found
+the body down an embankment at some little distance from the place of the
+accident. The deceased was recognized as the owner of the Grove, a farmer
+living in the vicinity. According to the statement of the engineer, the
+old man was walking on the track; the warning signals were given, but
+proved of no avail. Being somewhat deaf, he did not realize his danger. He
+attempted to step off the track, but the brass railing that runs along the
+side of the locomotive decapitated him like the knife of a guillotine.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>When I reached Baltimore about 7 o’clock, P. M., I hurried down to the
+office of the “Baltimore News” and wrote out an account of the tragic
+affair. My work at the office kept me until a late hour of the night, and
+I went home to bed at about 1 o’clock, A. M. My brother, who slept in an
+adjoining room, had retired to bed and the door between our apartments was
+closed. The next morning, Sunday, I rose at 9 o’clock, and went down to
+breakfast. The family had assembled, and I was just in time to hear my
+brother relate the following: “I had a most peculiar dream last night. I
+thought I was on my way to Mt. Washington (he was in the habit of making
+frequent visits to this suburb of Baltimore on the Northern Central R. R.)
+We ran down an old man and decapitated him. I was looking out of the
+window and saw the head standing in a pool of blood. The hair and beard
+were snow white. We found the body not far off, and it proved to be a
+farmer residing in the neighborhood of Mt. Washington.”</p>
+
+<p>“You will find the counterpart of that dream in the morning paper”, I
+remarked seriously. “I reported the accident.” My father called for the
+paper, and proceeded to hunt its columns for the item, saying, “You
+undoubtedly transferred the impression to your brother.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">Case D.</p>
+
+<p>This is another striking evidence of telepathic communication, in which I
+was one of the agents. L&mdash; was a reporter on a Baltimore paper, and his
+apartments were the rendezvous of a coterie of Bohemian actors,
+journalists, and <i>litterati</i>, among whom was X&mdash;, a student at the
+Johns-Hopkins University, and a poet of rare excellence. Poets have a
+proverbial reputation for being eccentric in personal appearance; in X
+this eccentricity took the form of an unclipped beard that stood out in
+all directions, giving him a savage, anarchistic look. He vowed never
+under any circumstances to shave or cut this hirsute appendage.</p>
+
+<p>L&mdash; came to me one day, and laughingly remarked: “I am being tortured by a
+mental obsession. X’s beard annoys me; haunts my waking and sleeping
+hours. I must do something about it. Listen! He is coming down to my
+rooms, Saturday evening, to do some literary work, and spend the night
+with me. We shall have supper together, and I want you to be present. Now
+I propose that we drug his coffee with some harmless soporific, and when
+he is sound asleep, tie him, and shave off his beard. Will you help me? I
+can provide you with a lounge to sleep on, but you must promise not to go
+to sleep until after the tragedy.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>I agreed to assist him in his practical joke, and we parted, solemnly
+vowing that our project should be kept secret.</p>
+
+<p>This was on Tuesday, and no communication was had with X, until Saturday
+morning, when L&mdash; and I met him on Charles street.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t forget to-night,” exclaimed L&mdash; “I have invited E to join us in our
+Epicurean feast.”</p>
+
+<p>“I will be there,” said X. “By the way, let me relate a curious dream I
+had last night. I dreamt I came down to your rooms, and had supper. E&mdash;
+was present. You fellows gave me something to drink which contained a
+drug, and I fell asleep on the bed. After that you tied my hands, and
+shaved off my beard. When I awoke I was terribly mad. I burst the cords
+that fastened my wrists together, and springing to my feet, cut L&mdash;
+severely with the razor.”</p>
+
+<p>“That settles the matter”, said L&mdash;, “his beard is safe from me”. When we
+told X of our conspiracy to relieve him of his poetic hirsute appendage,
+he evinced the greatest astonishment. As will be seen, every particular of
+the practical joke had been transferred to his mind, the drugging of the
+coffee, the tying, and the shaving.</p>
+
+<p>Telepathy is a logical explanation of many of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> ghostly visitations of
+which the Society for Psychical Research has collected such a mass of
+data. For example: A dies, let us say in India and B, a near relative or
+friend, residing in England, sees a vision of A in a dream or in the
+waking state. A clasps his hands, and seems to utter the words, “I am
+dying”. When the news comes of A’s death, the time of the occurrence
+coincides with the seeing of the vision. The spiritualist’s theory is that
+the ghost of A was an actual entity. One of the difficulties in the way of
+such an hypothesis is the clothing of the deceased&mdash;<i>can that, too, be
+disembodied?</i> Thought transference (conscious or unconscious), I think, is
+the only rational explanation of such phantasms. The vision seen by the
+percipient is not an objective but a subjective thing&mdash;a hallucination
+produced by the unknown force called telepathy. The vision need not
+coincide exactly with the date of the death of the transmitter but may
+make its appearance years afterwards, remaining latent in the subjective
+mind of the percipient. It may, as is frequently the case, be revealed by
+a medium in a séance. Many thoughtful writers combat the telepathic
+explanation of phantasms of the dead, claiming that when such are seen
+long after the death of persons, they afford indubitable evidence of the
+reality of spirit visitation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> The reader is referred to the proceedings
+of the Society for Psychical Research for a detailed discussion of the
+<i>pros</i> and <i>cons</i> of this most interesting subject.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the so-called materializations of the séance-room may be accounted
+for by hallucinations superinduced by telepathic suggestions from the mind
+of the medium or sitters. But, in my opinion, the greater number of these
+manifestations of spirit power are the result of trickery pure and
+simple&mdash;theatrical beards and wigs, muslin and gossamer robes, etc., being
+the paraphernalia used to impersonate the shades of the departed, the
+imaginations of the sitters doing the rest.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">2. Table-Tilting&mdash;Muscle Reading.</p>
+
+<p>In regard to Table-Tilting with contact, I have given Faraday’s
+conclusions on the subject,&mdash;unconscious muscular action on the part of
+the sitter or sitters. In the case of Automatic Writing (particularly with
+the planchette), unconscious muscular action is the proper explanation for
+the movements of the apparatus. “Professor Augusto Tamburini, of Italy,
+author of ‘Spiritismo e Telepatia’, a cautious investigator of psychical
+problems,” says a reviewer in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
+Research (Volume IX, p. 226), “accepts the verdict of all competent
+observers that imposture is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> inadmissible as a general explanation, and
+endorses the view that the muscular action which causes the movements of
+the table or the pencil is produced by the subliminal consciousness. He
+explains the definite and varying characters of the supposed authors of
+the messages as the result of self-suggestion. As by hypnotic or
+post-hypnotic suggestion a subject may be made to think he is Napoleon or
+a chimney sweep, so, by self-suggestion, the subliminal consciousness may
+be made to think that he is X and Y, and to tilt or wrap messages in the
+character of X and Y.”</p>
+
+<p>Professor Tamburini’s explanation fails to account for the innumerable
+well authenticated cases where facts are obtained not within the conscious
+knowledge of the planchette writer or table-tilter. If telepathy does not
+enter into these cases, what does?</p>
+
+<p>There are many exhibitions, of thought transference by public psychics,
+that are thought transference in name only. One must be on one’s guard
+against these pretenders to occult powers. I refer to men like our late
+compatriot, Washington Irving Bishop&mdash;“muscle-reader” <i>par excellence</i>
+whose fame extended throughout the civilized world.</p>
+
+<p>Muscle-Reading is performed in the following<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> manner: Let us take, for
+example, the reading of the figures on a bank-note. The subject gazes
+intently at the figures on a note, and fixes them in his mind. The
+muscle-reader, blindfolded or not, takes a crayon in his right hand, and
+lightly clasps the hand or wrist of the subject with his left. He then
+writes on a blackboard the correct figures on the note. This is one of the
+most difficult feats in the repertoire of the muscle-reader, and was
+excelled in by Bishop and Stuart Cumberland. Charles Gatchell, an
+authority on the subject, says that the above named men were the only
+muscle-readers who have ever accomplished the feat. Geometrical designs
+can also be reproduced on a blackboard. The finding of objects hidden in
+an adjoining room, or upon the person of a spectator in a public hall, or
+at a distance, are also accomplished by skillful muscle readers, either by
+clasping the hand of the subject, or one end of a short wire held by him.
+Says Gatchell, in the “<i>Forum</i>” for April, 1891: “Success in
+muscle-reading depends upon the powers of the principal and upon the
+susceptibility of the subject. The latter must be capable of mental
+concentration; he must exert no muscular self-control; he must obey his
+every impulse. Under these conditions, the phenomena are in accordance
+with known laws of physiology. On<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> the part of the principal,
+muscle-reading consists of an acute perception of the slight action of
+another’s muscles. On the part of the subject, it involves a nervous
+impulse, accompanied by muscular action. The mind of the subject is in a
+state of tension or expectancy. A sudden release from this state excites,
+momentarily, an increased activity in the cells of the cerebral cortex.
+Since the ideational centres, as is usually held, correspond to the motor
+centres, the nervous action causes a motor impulse to be transmitted to
+the muscles. * * In making his way to the location of a hidden object, the
+subject usually does not lead the muscle-reader, but the muscle-reader
+leads the subject. That is to say, so long as the muscle-reader moves in
+the right direction, the subject gives no indication, but passively moves
+with him. The muscle-reader perceives nothing unusual. But, the subject’s
+mind being intently fixed on a certain course, the instant that the
+muscle-reader deviates from that course there is a slight, involuntary
+tremor, or muscular thrill, on the part of the subject, due to the sudden
+interruption of his previous state of mental tension. The muscle-reader,
+almost unconsciously, takes note of the delicate signal, and alters his
+course to the proper one, again leading his willing subject. In a word, he
+follows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> the line of the least resistance. In other cases the conditions
+are reversed; the subject unwittingly leads the principal.</p>
+
+<p>“The discovery of a bank-note number requires a slightly different
+explanation. The conditions are these: The subject is intently thinking of
+a certain figure. His mind is in a state of expectant attention. He is
+waiting for but one thing in the world to happen&mdash;for another to give
+audible expression to the name of that which he has in mind. The instant
+that the conditions are fulfilled, the mind of the subject is released
+from its state of tension, and the accompanying nervous action causes a
+slight muscular tremor, which is perceived by the acute senses of the
+muscle-reader. This explanation applies, also, to the pointing out of one
+pin among many, or of a letter or a figure on a chart. The conditions
+involved in the tracing of a figure on a blackboard or other surface are
+of a like order, although this is a severer test of a muscle-reader’s
+powers. So long as the muscle-reader moves the crayon in the right
+direction, he is permitted to do so; but when he deviates from the proper
+course, the subject, whose hand or wrist he clasps, involuntarily
+indicates the fact by the usual slight muscular tremor. This, of course,
+is done involuntarily; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> if he is fulfilling the conditions demanded of
+all subjects, absolute concentration of attention and absence of muscular
+control&mdash;he unconsciously obeys his impulse. A billiard player does the
+same when he follows the driven ball with his cue, as if by sheer force of
+will he could induce it to alter its course. The ivory is uninfluenced;
+the human ball obeys.”</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+<h3>III. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA.</h3>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">1. Psychography, or Slate-Writing.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most interesting phases of modern mediumship, on the physical
+side, is psychography, or slate-writing. After an investigation extending
+over ten years, I am of the opinion that the majority of slate-writing
+feats are the results of conjuring. The process generally used is the
+following.</p>
+
+<p>The medium takes two slates, binds them together, after first having
+deposited a small bit of chalk or slate pencil between their surfaces, and
+either holds them in his hands, or lays them on the table. Soon the
+scratching of the pencil is heard, and when the cords are removed a spirit
+message is found upon the surface of one of the slates. I will endeavor to
+explain the “modus operandi” of these startling experiments.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago, the most famous of the slate-writing mediums was Dr. Henry
+Slade, of New York, with whom I had several sittings. I was unable to
+penetrate the mystery of his performance, until the summer of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> 1889, when
+light was thrown upon the subject by the conjurer C&mdash; whom I met in
+Baltimore.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img01.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 2. DR. HENRY SLADE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“Do you know the medium Slade?” I asked him.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” said he, “and he is a conjurer like myself. I’ve had sittings with
+him. Come to my rooms to-night, and I will explain the secret workings of
+the medium’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> slate-writing. But first I will treat you to a regular
+séance.”</p>
+
+<p>On my way to C’s home I tried to put myself in the frame of mind of a
+genuine seeker after transcendental knowledge. I recalled all the stories
+of mysterious rappings and ghostly visitations I had read or heard of. It
+was just the night for such eerie musings. Black clouds were scurrying
+across the face of the moon like so many mediaeval witches mounted on the
+proverbial broomsticks <i>en route</i> for a mad sabbat in some lonely
+churchyard. The prestidigitateur’s <i>pension</i> was a great, lumbering,
+gloomy old house, in an old quarter of Baltimore. The windows were tightly
+closed and only the feeble glimmer of gaslight was emitted through the
+cracks of the shutters. I rang the bell and Mr. C’s stage-assistant, a
+pale-faced young man, came to the door, relieved me of my light overcoat
+and hat, and ushered me upstairs into the conjurer’s sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>A large, baize-covered table stood in the centre of the apartment, and a
+cabinet with a black curtain drawn across it occupied a position in a deep
+alcove. Suspended from the roof of the cabinet was a large guitar. I took
+a chair and waited patiently for the appearance of the anti-Spiritualist,
+after having first examined everything in the room&mdash;table, cabinet, and
+musical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> instruments&mdash;but I discovered no evidence of trickery anywhere. I
+waited and waited, but no C&mdash;. “Can he have forgotten me?” I said to
+myself. Suddenly a loud rap resounded on the table top, followed by a
+succession of raps from the cabinet; and the guitar began to play. I was
+quite startled. When the music ceased the door opened, and C&mdash; entered.</p>
+
+<p>“The spirits are in force to-night,” he remarked with a meaning smile, as
+he slightly diminished the light in the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I replied. “How did you do it?”</p>
+
+<p>“All in good time, my dear ghost-seer,” was the answer. “Let us try first
+a few of Dr. Slade’s best slate tests.”</p>
+
+<p>So saying he handed me a slate and directed me to wash it carefully on
+both sides with a damp cloth. I did so and passed it back to him.
+Scattering some tiny fragments of pencil upon it, he held the slate
+pressed against the under surface of the table leaf, the fingers of his
+right hand holding the slate, his thumb grasping the leaf. C&mdash; then
+requested me to hold the other end of the slate in a similar fashion, and
+took my right hand in his left. Heavy raps were heard on the table-top,
+and I felt the fingers of a spirit hand plucking at my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> garments from
+beneath the table. C&mdash;’s body seemed possessed with some strange
+convulsion, his hands quivered, and his eyes had a glassy look. Listening
+attentively, I heard the sound of a pencil writing on the slate.</p>
+
+<p>“Take care!” gasped the conjurer, breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>The slate was jerked violently out of our hands by some powerful agency,
+but the medium regained it, and again pressed it against the table as
+before. In a little while he brought the slate up and there upon its upper
+surface was a spirit message, addressed to me&mdash;“Are you convinced now?&mdash;D.
+D. Home.”</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture there came a knock at the door, and C&mdash;, with the slate
+in his hand, went to see who it was. It proved to be the pale-faced
+assistant. A few words in a low-tone of voice were exchanged between them,
+and the conjurer returned to the table, excusing the interruption by
+remarking, “Some one to see me, that is all, but don’t hurry, for I have
+another test to show you.” After thoroughly washing both sides of the
+slate he placed it, with a slate pencil, under a chafing-dish cover in the
+center of the table. We joined hands and awaited developments.</p>
+
+<p>Being tolerably well acquainted with conjuring devices, I manifested but
+little surprise in the first test<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> when the spirit message was written,
+because the magician <i>had his fingers on the slate</i>. But in this test the
+slate was not in his possession; how then could the writing be
+accomplished?</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img02.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 3. THE HOLDING OF THE SLATE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>“Hush!” said C&mdash;, “is there a spirit present?” A responsive rap resounded
+on the table, and after a few minutes’ silence, the mysterious scratching
+of the slate-pencil began. I was nonplussed.</p>
+
+<p>“Turn over the slate,” said the juggler.</p>
+
+<p>I complied with his request and found a long message to me, covering the
+entire side of the slate. It was signed “Cagliostro.”</p>
+
+<p>“What do you think of Dr. Slade’s slate tests?” inquired C&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p>“Splendid!” I replied, “but how are they done?”</p>
+
+<p>His explanations made the seeming marvel perfectly plain. While the slate
+is being examined in the first test, the medium slips on a thimble with a
+piece of slate pencil attached or else has a tiny bit of pencil under his
+finger nail. In the act of holding the slate under the table, he writes
+the short message backwards on its under side. It becomes necessary,
+however, to turn the slate over before exhibiting it to the sitter, so
+that the writing may appear to have been written on its upper
+surface&mdash;the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> side that has been pressed to the table. To accomplish this
+the medium pretends to go into a sort of neurotic convulsion, during which
+state the slate is jerked away from the sitter, presumably by spirit
+power, and is turned over in the required position. It is not immediately
+brought up for examination but is held for a few seconds underneath the
+table top, and then produced with a certain amount of deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>The special difficulty of this trick consists in the medium’s ability to
+write in reverse upon the under surface of the slate. If he wrote from
+left to right, in the ordinary method, it would, of course, reverse the
+message when the slate is examined, and give a decided clue to the
+mystery. This inscribing in reverse, or mirror writing, as it is often
+called, is exceedingly difficult to do, but nothing is impossible to a
+Slade.</p>
+
+<p>But how is the writing done on the slate in the second test? asks the
+curious reader. Nothing easier! The servant who raps at the door brings
+with him, concealed under his coat, a second slate, upon which the long
+message is written. Over the writing is a pad cut from a book-slate,
+exactly fitting the frame of the prepared slate. It is impossible to
+detect the fraud when the light in the room is a trifle obscure. The
+medium makes an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> exchange of slates, returns to the table, washes both
+sides of the trick slate, and carelessly exhibits it to the sitter, the
+writing being protected of course by the pad. Before placing the slate
+under the chafing-dish cover, he lets the pad drop into his lap. Now comes
+a crucial point in the imposture: the writing heard beneath the slate,
+supposed to be the work of a disembodied spirit. The medium under cover of
+his handkerchief removes from his pocket an instrument known as a
+“pencil-clamp.” This clamp consists of a small block of wood with two
+sharp steel points protruding from the upper edge and a piece of slate
+pencil fixed in the lower. The medium presses the steel points into the
+under surface of the table with sufficient force to attach the block
+securely to the table, and then rubs a pencil, previously attached to his
+right knee by silk sutures, against the side of the pencil fastened to the
+apparatus. The noise produced thereby exactly simulates that of writing
+upon a slate. In my case the illusion was perfect. During the examination
+of the message, the medium has ample opportunity to secrete the false pad
+and the clamp in his pocket. Instead of having a servant bring the slate
+to him and making the exchange described above, he may have the trick
+slate concealed about him before the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> séance begins, with the message
+written on it, and adroitly make the substitution while the sitter is
+engaged in lowering the light. Dr. Slade almost invariably adopted the
+first-mentioned exchange, because it enabled his confederate to write a
+lucid message to the sitter.</p>
+
+<p>An examination of the sitter’s overcoat in the hall frequently yielded
+valuable information in the way of names and initials extracted from
+letters, sealed or unsealed. Sealed letters? Yes; it is an easy matter to
+steam a gummed envelope, open it, and seal it again. Another method is to
+wet the sealed envelope with a sponge dipped in alcohol. The writing will
+show up tolerably well if written upon a card. In a very short time the
+envelope will dry and exhibit no evidence of having been tampered with.</p>
+
+<p>And now as to the rest of the phenomena witnessed that evening in C&mdash;’s
+room. The raps on the table top were the result of an ingenious, hidden
+mechanism, worked by electricity; the mysterious hand that operated under
+the table was the juggler’s right foot. He wore slippers and had the toe
+part of one stocking cut away. By dropping the slipper from his foot he
+was enabled to pull the edge of my coat, lift and shove a chair away, and
+perform sundry other ghostly evolutions, thanks to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> a well trained big
+toe. Dr. Slade who was long and lithe of limb, worked this dodge to
+perfection, prior to the paralytic attack which partly disabled his lower
+limbs.</p>
+
+<p>The stringed instrument which played in the cabinet was arranged as
+follows: Inside of the guitar was a small musical box, so arranged that
+the steel vibrating tongues of the box came in contact with a small piece
+of writing paper. When the box was set to going by means of an electric
+current, it closely imitated the twanging of a guitar, just as a sheet of
+music when laid on the strings of a piano simulates a banjo. This spirit
+guitar is a very useful instrument in the hands of a medium. It may be
+made to play when it is attached to a telescopic rod, and waved in
+phosphorescent curves over the heads of a circle of believers in the dark
+séance.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now sum up the subject of Dr. Slade’s spirit-slate writing, (Fig.
+3) and endeavor to show how grossly exaggerated the reports of the
+medium’s performances have been, and the reasons for such misstatements.
+No one who is not a professional or amateur prestidigitateur can correctly
+report what he sees at a spiritualistic séance.</p>
+
+<p>It is not so much the swiftness of the hand that counts in conjuring but
+the ability to force the attention of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> spectators in different
+directions away from the crucial point of the trick. The really important
+part of the test, then, is hidden from the audience, who imagine they have
+seen all when they have not. Says Dr. Max Dessoir: “It must therefore be
+regarded as a piece of rare naiveté if a reporter asserts that in the
+description of his subjective conclusions he is giving the exact objective
+processes.”</p>
+
+<p>This will be seen in Mr. Davey’s experiments. Mr. Davey, a member of the
+London Society for Psychical Research, and an amateur magician who
+possessed great dexterity in the slate-writing business, gave a series of
+exhibitions before a number of persons, but did not inform them that the
+results were due to prestidigitation. No entrance fee was charged for the
+séances, but the sitters, who were fully impressed with the genuineness of
+the affair, were requested to submit written reports of what they had
+seen. These letters, published in vol. iv of the Proceedings of the
+Society, are admirable examples of mal-observation, for no one detected
+Mr. Davey exchanging slates and doing the writing.</p>
+
+<p>“The sources of error,” says Dr. Max Dessoir, in an article reproduced in
+the “Open Court,” “through which such strange reports arise, may be
+arranged in four<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> groups. First, the observer interpolates a fact which
+did not happen, but which he is led to believe has happened; thus, he
+imagines he has examined the slate when as a fact he never has. Second, he
+confuses two similar ideas; he thinks he has carefully examined the slate,
+when in reality he has only done so hastily, or in ignorance of the point
+at issue. Third, the witness changes the order of events a little in
+consequence of a very natural deception of memory; he believes he tested
+the slate later than he actually did. Fourth and last, he passes over
+certain details which were purposely described to him as insignificant; he
+does not notice that the ‘medium’ asks him to close a window, and that the
+trick is thus rendered possible.”</p>
+
+<p>Similar experiments in slate-writing were conducted by the Seybert
+Commission with Mr. Harry Kellar, the conjurer, after sittings were had
+with Dr. Slade, and the magician outdid the medium. The Seybert Commission
+found none of Slade’s tests genuine, and officially denied “the
+extraordinary stories of his performances with locked slates which
+constitute a large part of his fame.”</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Slade began his Spiritualistic operations in London in the year 1876,
+and charged a fee of a guinea a head for séances lasting a few minutes.
+Crowds went to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> see him and he reaped a golden harvest from the credulous,
+until the grand fiasco came. Slade was caught in one of his juggling
+séances and exposed by Prof. Lancaster and Dr. Donkin. The result was a
+criminal prosecution and a sensational trial lasting three days at the Bow
+Street Police Court. Mr. Maskelyne, the conjurer, was summoned as an
+expert witness and performed a number of the medium’s tricks in the
+witness box. The court sentenced Slade to three months’ hard labor, but he
+took an appeal from the magistrate’s decision. The appeal was sustained on
+the ground of a technical flaw in the indictment, and the medium fled to
+the Continent before new summons could be served. He visited Paris,
+Leipsic, Berlin, St. Petersburg and other cities, giving séances before
+Royalty and before distinguished members of scientific societies; and
+afterwards went to Australia. He made money fast and spent it fast, but it
+took all of his ingenuity to elude the clutches of the police. In 1892, we
+find him the inmate of a workhouse in one of our Western towns, penniless,
+friendless and a lunatic.</p>
+
+<p>Slade’s séances with Prof. Zoellner, of Berlin, in 1878, attracted wide
+attention, and did more to advertise his fame as a medium than anything
+else in his career.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>Zoellner’s belief in the genuineness of Slade’s mediumistic marvels led
+him to write a curious work, entitled, “Transcendental Physics,” being an
+inquiry into the “fourth dimension of space.” Poor old Zoellner, he was
+half insane when these séances were held! We have the undisputed authority
+of the Seybert Commission for the correctness of this statement.</p>
+
+<p>In Hamburg, Dr. Borchert wrote to Slade offering him one thousand marks if
+he would produce writing between locked slates, similar to the writing
+alleged to have been executed at the Zoellner séances, but the medium took
+no notice of the professor’s letter. The conjurer, Carl Wilmann, with two
+friends, had a sitting with Slade, but without satisfactory results for
+the medium. “Slade,” says Wilmann, “was unable to distract my attention
+from the crucial point of the trick, and threw down the slates on the
+table in disgust, remarking: ‘I can not obtain any results to-day, the
+power that controls me is exhausted. Come tomorrow!’” That tomorrow never
+arrived for Wilmann and his friends; Slade did not keep his appointment,
+nor could Wilmann succeed in obtaining another sitting with him. The
+medium had been warned by friends that Wilmann was an expert professor of
+legerdemain.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>It was in 1886 that Slade created such a furore in Hamburg in
+Spiritualistic circles. A talented conjurer of that city, named
+Schradieck, after a few weeks’ practice succeeded in eclipsing Slade. He
+learned to write in reverse on slates, and produced writing in various
+colored chalks. Another one of his experiments was making the slate
+disappear from one side of the table where it was held <i>a la</i> Slade and
+appear at the opposite end of the table suddenly, as if held up to view by
+a spirit hand. Wilmann describes the effect as startling in the extreme
+and says Schradieck produced it by means of his left foot. After Slade’s
+departure from Hamburg, spirit mediums sprang up like toadstools in a
+single night. Wilmann in his crusade against these worthies had many
+interesting experiences. He gives in his work “Moderne Wunder” several
+exposes of mediumistic tricks, two of which, in the sealed slate line, are
+very ingenious. The medium takes a slate (one furnished by the sitter if
+preferred), wipes it on both sides with a wet sponge, and then wraps it up
+carefully in a piece of ordinary white wrapping paper, allowing the
+package to be sealed and corded <i>ad libitum</i>. Notwithstanding all the
+precautions used, a message appears on the slate. It is accomplished in
+this way. A message in reverse is written<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> on the wrapping paper with a
+camel’s hair brush or pointed stick, dipped in some sticky substance, and
+finely powdered slate pencil dust is scattered over the writing. At a
+little distance, especially in a dim light, it is impossible to discover
+the writing as it blends very well with the white paper. In wrapping up
+the slate the medium presses the writing on the paper against the surface
+of the slate and the chirography adheres thereto, very much as the greasy
+drawing on a lithographer’s stone prints on paper.</p>
+
+<p>In the other experiment the medium uses a <i>papier mache</i> slate, set in the
+usual wooden frame. A <i>papier mache</i> pad is prepared with a spirit message
+on one surface; on the other is pasted a piece of newspaper. This pad is
+laid, written side down, on a sheet of newspaper. After the genuine slate
+has been washed, the medium proceeds to wrap it up in the newspaper, and
+presses the trick pad, writing up, into the frame of the slate where it
+exactly fits into a groove prepared for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Since Dr. Slade’s retirement from the mediumistic field, Pierre L. O. A.
+Keeler’s fame as a slate-writing medium has been spread broadcast. He
+oscillates between Boston, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore
+and Washington, and has a very large and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> fashionable <i>clientele</i>. He
+gives evening materializing séances of the cabinet type three times a week
+at his rooms. During the day he gives private slate tests which are very
+popular.</p>
+
+<p>I had a sitting with him on the afternoon of April 24th, 1895. In order to
+gain his confidence, I went as one witnessing a slate séance for the first
+time, that is, I accepted <i>his</i> slates, and had no prepared questions.</p>
+
+<p>I was ushered into a small, back parlor by the medium who closed the
+folding doors. We were alone. I made a mental photograph of the
+surroundings. There was no furniture except a table and two chairs placed
+near the window. Over the table was a faded cloth, hanging some eight or
+ten inches below the table. Upon it were several pads of paper and a
+heterogeneous assortment of lead pencils. Leaning against the mantelpiece,
+within a foot or so of the medium’s chair, were some thirty or forty
+slates.</p>
+
+<p>“Take a seat”, said Mr. Keeler pointing to a chair. I sat down, whereupon
+he seated himself opposite me, remarking as he did so, “Have you brought
+slates with you?”</p>
+
+<p>“I have not,” was my reply.</p>
+
+<p>“Then, if you have no objection,” he said, “we will use<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> two of mine.
+Please examine these two slates, wash them clean with this damp cloth, and
+dry them.” With that he passed me two ordinary school-slates, which I
+inspected closely, and carefully cleaned.</p>
+
+<p>“Be kind enough to place the slates to one side,” said Keeler. I complied.</p>
+
+<p>“Have you prepared any slips with the names of friends, relatives, or
+others, who have passed into spirit life, with questions for them to
+answer?”</p>
+
+<p>“I have not,” I replied.</p>
+
+<p>“Kindly do so then,” he answered, “and take your time about it. There is a
+pad on the table. Please write but a single question on each slip. Then
+fold the slips and place them on the table.” I did so.</p>
+
+<p>“I will also make one,” he continued, “it is to my spirit control, George
+Christy.” He wrote a name on a slip of paper, folded it, and tossed it
+among those I had prepared, passing his hand over them and fingering them,
+saying, “It is necessary to get a psychic impression from them.” We sat in
+silence several minutes.</p>
+
+<p>After a little while Mr. Keeler said: “I do not know whether or not we
+shall get any responses this afternoon, but have patience.” Again we
+waited. “Suppose you write a few more slips,” he remarked, “perhaps
+we’ll<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> have better luck. Be sure and address them to people who were old
+enough to write before they passed into spirit life.” This surprised me,
+but I complied with his wishes. While writing I glanced furtively at him
+from time to time; his hands were in his lap, concealed by the table
+cloth. He looked at me occasionally, then at his lap, fixedly. <i>I am
+satisfied that he opened some of my slips, having adroitly abstracted them
+from the table in the act of fingering them.</i></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img03.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 4&mdash;SLATE WRITING.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>He directed me to take my handkerchief and tie the two slates on the table
+tightly together, holding the slates in his hands as I did so. I laid the
+slates on the table before me, and we waited. “I think we will succeed
+this time in getting responses to some of the questions. Let us hold the
+slates.” He grasped them with fingers and thumbs at one end, and I at the
+other in like manner, holding the slates about two inches above the table.
+We listened attentively, and soon was heard the scratching noise of a
+slate pencil moving upon a slate. The sound seemed directly under the
+slate, and was sufficiently impressive to startle any person making a
+slate test for the first time, and unacquainted with the multifarious
+devices of the sleight-of-hand artist.</p>
+
+<p>“Hold the slates tightly, please!” said Mr. Keeler, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> a convulsive
+tremor shook his hands. I grasped firmly my end of the slates, and waited
+further developments. The faint tap of a slate pencil upon a slate was
+heard, and the medium announced that the communications were finished. I
+untied the handkerchief, and turned up the inner surfaces of the slates.
+Upon one of them several messages were written, and signed. Other
+communications were received during the sitting. After the first messages
+were received, and while I was engaged in reading them, Keeler quickly
+picked up a slate from the floor, clapped it upon the clean slate
+remaining on the table, and requested me to tie the two rapidly together
+with my handkerchief before the influence was lost. At a signal from him I
+unfastened the slates and found another set of answers. The same
+proceeding was gone through for the third set. The imitation of a pencil
+writing upon a slate was either made by the apparatus, described in the
+séance with C&mdash; in the first part of this chapter, or by some other
+contrivance; more than likely by simply scratching with his finger on the
+under surface of the slate. While my attention was absorbed in the act of
+writing my second set of questions, he prepared answers to two of my first
+set and substituted a prepared slate for the cleaned slate on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> the table.
+<i>I was sure he was writing under the table; I heard the faint rubbing of a
+soft bit of pencil upon the surface of a slate. His hands were in his lap
+and his eyes were fixed downwards.</i> Several times I saw him put his
+fingers into his vest pockets, and he appeared to bring up small particles
+of something, which I believe were bits of the white and colored crayons
+used in writing the messages. His quiet audacity was surprising. I give
+below the questions and answers with my comments thereon:</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">First Slate. Fig. 4.</p>
+
+<p class="center">QUESTION.</p>
+
+<p>To Mamie:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Tell me the name of your dead brother?</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Signed) Harry R. Evans.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">ANSWER.</p>
+
+<p>You must not think of me as one gone forever from you. You have made
+conditions by and through which I can return to you, and so long as I can
+do this I can not feel unhappy. So dear one, rest in the assurance that
+you are helping me, and that I am doing all I can to help you. Let us make
+the best of it all and help each other as best we can, then all will be
+well. My home in spirit life is beautiful and awaiting you. I will be the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+first to greet you. <i>I have no dead brother. All of us are living.</i> I am
+Mamie &mdash;. (The medium here cleverly evades giving a name by an equivoque.)</p>
+
+<p class="center">QUESTION.</p>
+
+<p>To Len&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Tell me the cause of your death, and the circumstances surrounding it?</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Signed) Harry R. Evans.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">ANSWER.</p>
+
+<p>Harry! I am very glad to see you. I am happy. You must be reconciled, and
+not mourn me as dead! I will try to come again soon, when I am stronger
+and tell of my decease.&mdash;Len. (He again evades an answer.)</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Second Slate. Fig. 5.</p>
+
+<p class="center">QUESTION.</p>
+
+<p>To A. D. B.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>When and where did you die?</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Signed) Harry R. Evans.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">ANSWER.</p>
+
+<p>This all seems so strange coming back and writing just as one would if
+they were in the earth life and communicating with a friend. What a
+blessed privilege it is. I am so happy. Oh, I would not come back. It is
+so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> restful here. No pain or sorrow. Dear, do not think I have forgotten
+you, I constantly think of you and wish that you, too, might view these
+lovely scenes of glorious beauty. You must rest with the thought that when
+your life is ended upon the earth, <i>I will be the first to meet you</i>. Now
+be patient and hopeful until we meet where there is no more parting. I am
+sincerely, A. D. B. (No answer at all.) Observe error in first sentence:
+“as <i>one</i> would if <i>they</i> were&mdash;.” A. D. B. was an educated gentleman, and
+not given to such ungrammatical expressions.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img04.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 5&mdash;SLATE WRITING.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>Third Slate. Fig. 6.</p>
+
+<p class="center">QUESTION.</p>
+
+<p>To B. G.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Can you recall any of the conversations we had together on the B. and P.
+R. R. cars?</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Signed) H. R. Evans.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">ANSWER.</p>
+
+<p>O my dear one, I can only write a few lines that you may know that I see
+and hear you as you call upon me. I do not forget you. When I am stronger
+will come again. I do not know what conversation you refer to in the cars.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">B. G.</span></p>
+
+<p>(Again evades answering. B. G. was very much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> interested in the drama, and
+talked continuously about the stage.)</p>
+
+<p class="center">QUESTION.</p>
+
+<p>To C. J.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Where did you die, and from what disease?</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Signed) H. R. Evans.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">ANSWER.</p>
+
+<p>I know the days and weeks seem long and lonely to you without me. I do not
+forget you; am doing the best I can to help you.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">C. J.&mdash;.</span></p>
+
+<p>(Still another evasion of a straightforward question. The lady in spirit
+life to whom the question was addressed died of consumption in a Roman
+Catholic Convent. She was only a society acquaintance of the writer, and
+not on such terms of intimacy as to warrant Mr. Keeler’s reply.)</p>
+
+<p>In one corner of Slate No. 2 was the following, written with a yellow
+crayon: “This is remarkable. How did you know we could come?&mdash;H. K.
+Evans.” Scrawled across the face of Slate No. 3, in red pencil, was a
+communication from George Christy, Mr. Keeler’s spirit control, reading as
+follows: “Many are here who&mdash;&mdash;G. C. (George Christy)” (The remainder is
+so badly written, as to be indecipherable.)</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>On carefully analyzing the various communications it will be observed that
+the handwriting of the messages from Mamie&mdash;and B G.&mdash;are similar,
+possessing the same characteristics as regards letter formation, etc. It
+does not require a professional expert in chirography to detect this fact.
+One and the same person wrote the messages purporting to come from Mamie
+R&mdash;, Len&mdash;, B. G.&mdash;, C. J.&mdash;, and A. D. B. <i>In fact, the writing on all
+the slates is, in my opinion, the work of Mr. Pierre Keeler.</i></p>
+
+<p>The longer communications were doubtless prepared beforehand, being
+general in nature and conveying about the same information that any
+departed spirit might give to any inquiring mortal, but, as will be
+observed, <i>giving no adequate answers to the queries</i>, with the exception
+of the last two sentences, <i>which were written by the medium, after he
+became acquainted with the tenor of the questions upon the folded slips</i>.
+The very short communications are written in a careless hand, such as a
+man would dash off hastily. There is an attempt at disguise, but a clumsy
+one, the letters still retaining the characteristics of the more
+deliberate chirography of the long communications. A close inspection<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> of
+the slates reveals the exact similarity of the y’s, u’s, I’s, g’s, h’s,
+m’s and n’s.</p>
+
+<p>The handwriting of messages on slates should be, and is claimed to be,
+adequate evidence of the genuineness of the communication, for are we not
+supposed to know the handwriting of our friends?</p>
+
+<p>Possibly Mr. Keeler would claim that the handwriting was the work of his
+control “Geo. Christy”, who acted as a sort of amanuensis for the spirits.
+If this be so, why the attempts at <i>disguise</i>, and bungling attempts at
+that?</p>
+
+<p>In the séance with Mr. Keeler, I subjected him to no tests. He had
+everything his own way. <i>I should have brought my own marked slates with
+me and never let them out of my sight for an instant. I should have
+subjected the table to a close examination, and requested the medium to
+move or rather myself removed the collection of slates against the mantel,
+placed so conveniently within his reach.</i> I did not do this, because of
+his well known irascibility. He would probably have shown me the door and
+refused a sitting on any terms, as he has done to many skeptics. I was
+anxious to meet Keeler, and preferred playing the novice rather than not
+get a slate test from one of the best-known and most famous of modern
+slate-writing mediums.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img05.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 6&mdash;SLATE WRITING.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>After what has been stated, I think there can be no shadow of doubt that
+the medium abstracted by sleight-of-hand some of the paper slips
+containing my written questions, read them under cover of the table, and
+did the slate-writing himself. All of these slate-tests, where pellets or
+slips of paper are used, are performed in a similar manner, as will be
+seen from the exposé published by the Society for Psychical Research. In
+vol. viii of the proceedings of that association will be found a number of
+revelations, one of which throws considerable light on the Keeler tests.
+The sitter was Dr. Richard Hodgson, and the medium was a Mrs. Gillett.
+Says Dr. Hodgson:</p>
+
+<p>“Under pretence of ‘magnetising’ the pellets prepared by the sitter, or
+folding them more tightly, she substitutes a pellet of her own for one of
+the sitter’s. Reading the sitter’s pellet below the table, she writes the
+answer on one of her own slates, a pile of which, out of the sitter’s
+view, she keeps on a chair by her side. She then takes a second slate,
+places it on the table, and sponges and dries both sides, after which she
+takes the first slate, and turning the side upon which she has written
+towards herself, rubs it in several places with a dry cloth or the ends of
+her fingers as though cleaning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> it. She then places it, writing downward,
+on the other slate on the table, and sponges and dries the upper surface
+of it. She then pretends to take one of the pellets on the table and put
+it between the two slates. What she does, however, is to bring the pellet
+up from below the table, take another of the sitter’s pellets on the table
+into her hand, and place the pellet which she has brought up from below
+the table between the slates, keeping in her hand the pellet just taken
+from the top of the table. The final step is to place a rubber band round
+both slates, in doing which she turns both slates over together. She
+professes to get the writing without the use of any chalk or pencil. Some
+of her slates are prepared beforehand with messages or drawings. More
+interesting, perhaps, because of its boldness, is her method of producing
+writing on the sitter’s own slates. Under the pretence of ‘magnetising’
+these she cleans them several times, rubs them with her hands, stands them
+up on end together, and while they are in this position between herself
+and the sitter she writes with one hand on the slate-side nearest to
+herself, holding the slates erect with the other hand. Later on, she lays
+both slates together flat on the table again, the writing being on the
+undermost surface. She then sponges the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> upper surface of the top slate,
+turns it over, and sponges its other surface. She next withdraws the
+bottom slate, places it on top and sponges its top surface, keeping its
+under surface carefully concealed. The final step, the reversal, is made,
+as in the other case, with the help of the rubber band. Mrs. Gillett has
+probably other methods, also. Those which I have described were all that I
+witnessed at my single sitting with her.”</p>
+
+<p>My friend, Dr. L. M. Taylor, of Washington, D. C., an investigator of
+Spiritualistic phenomena, and skeptical like myself of the objective
+phases of the subject, has had many sittings with Keeler for independent
+slate-writing. One séance in particular he is fond of relating:</p>
+
+<p>“On one occasion, after I had written my slips, folded them up, and tossed
+them on the table, I said to Keeler who was obtaining his ‘psychic’
+impression of them, ‘I wish, if possible, to have a spirit tell me the
+numbers and the maker’s name engraved in my watch. I have never taken the
+trouble to look at the numbers, consequently I do not know them.’ ‘Your
+request is an unusual one,’ replied the medium, ‘but I will endeavor to
+gratify it.’ We had some conversations on the subject that lasted several
+minutes. Suddenly he picked up a slate pencil, and scrawled the name, <i>J.
+S. Granger</i> on the upper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> surface of one of my slates; the two slates had
+been previously tied together with my handkerchief and laid on the table
+in front of me. ‘You recognize that name, do you not?’ asked Keeler.
+‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘that is one of the names I wrote on the slips. J. S.
+Granger was an old friend of mine who died some years ago. He was a
+brother-in-law of Stephen A. Douglass.’ ‘If you wish to facilitate
+matters,’ said Keeler, ‘place your watch on top of the slates, concealed
+beneath the handkerchief, otherwise we may have to wait an hour or more
+without obtaining results, and there are a number of persons waiting for
+me in the ante-room. My time you see is limited.’</p>
+
+<p>“I detached my watch from its chain, and placed it in the required
+position. Keeler then took a piece of black cloth, used to clean slates,
+and laid it over my slates. Finally he requested me to take the covered
+slates and hold them in my lap. I took care to feel through the cloth that
+the watch was still beneath the handkerchief. In a short time I was
+directed to uncover the slates, and untie them, which I did. Upon the
+inner surface of one of the slates the following message was written:
+‘Dear Friend, Stephen is with me. I have been through that beautiful watch
+of yours, and, if I see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> correctly, the number is 163131. On the inside I
+see this&mdash;E. Howard &amp; Co., Boston, 211327. And then your name as follows:
+Dr. L. M. Taylor, 1221 Mass. Ave., N. W., Washington, D. C. Signed J. M.
+Granger.’</p>
+
+<p>“I then compared the name and numbers in my watch with those on the slate,
+and found the latter correct, with the exception of one number. A relative
+of mine was present in the room during this séance, and I showed her the
+communication on the slate. Afterwards we passed the slate to Keeler who
+examined it closely. When he handed it back to me, I was surprised to see
+that the incorrect number was mysteriously changed to the proper one.”</p>
+
+<p>This is a very interesting test, indeed, because of its apparently
+impromptu character. I have seen similar feats performed by professional
+conjurers as well as mediums. A dummy watch is substituted for the
+sitter’s watch, and after the medium has ascertained the name and numbers
+on the sitter’s timepiece, he succeeds in adroitly exchanging it again for
+the dummy, thanks to the black cloth. The writing on the slate in the
+above séance was evidently produced in the same way as that described in
+my sitting with Keeler, after he had ascertained the name on the slip. The
+name of Stephen, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> course, was directly obtained from Dr. Taylor. Not
+having been an eye witness of Keeler’s movements in the watch test, I am
+unable to say how closely Dr. Taylor’s description coincides with the
+medium’s actual operations.</p>
+
+<p>In May, 1897, Mr. Pierre Keeler was in Washington, D. C., as usual. My
+friend, Dr. Taylor, who was desirous of putting the medium to another
+crucial test, wrote down a list of names on a sheet of paper&mdash;cognomens of
+ancient Egyptian, Chaldean, and Grecian priests and philosophers&mdash;folded
+the paper, and carefully sealed it in an envelope. He took ten slates with
+him, all of them marked with a private mark of his own. Mr. Keeler eyed
+the envelope dubiously, but passed no criticisms on the doctor’s
+precautions to prevent trickery. The two men sat down at a table and
+waited for the spirits to manifest. Dr. Taylor, on this occasion, was
+absolutely certain that his slates had not been tampered with, and that
+the medium had not succeeded in opening the envelope. In a little while
+the comedy of the pencil-scratching between the tied slates began.</p>
+
+<p>“Ah”, exclaimed the physician, “a message at last!” Then he thought to
+himself, “can the medium possibly have deluded my senses by some hypnotic
+power, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> adroitly opened that envelope without my being aware of the
+fact? But no, that is impossible!”</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Keeler took the slates away from Dr. Taylor, and quickly opened them,
+<i>accidentally</i> dropping one of them behind the table. In a second,
+however, he brought up the slate, and remarked: “How awkward of me. I beg
+your pardon,” etc. On the surface of this slate was written the following
+sentence: “See some other medium; d&mdash;n it!&mdash;George Christy.” Dr. Taylor is
+positive, as he has repeatedly told me, that this message was not
+inscribed on his own marked slate, but was written by the medium on one of
+his own. The exchange, of course, must have been effected in the pretended
+accidental dropping of the doctor’s slate by the medium. This is a very
+old expedient among pretenders to spirit power. All conjurers are familiar
+with the device. Imro Fox, the American magician, uses it constantly in
+his entertainments, with capital effect.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Taylor, unfortunately, did not succeed in getting possession of the
+medium’s prepared slate. Another exchange was undoubtedly made by Mr.
+Keeler, and the physician had returned to him his own marked slate. When
+he got home that afternoon, and had time to carefully scrutinize his
+slates, he found that they bore no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> evidence of having been written upon
+at all. Having also examined these slates, I am prepared to add my
+testimony to that of Dr. Taylor.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will see from the above-described séance that unless the medium
+(or a confederate) is enabled to read the names and questions, prepared by
+the sitter, his hands are practically tied in all experiments in
+psychology.</p>
+
+<p>When investigators bring their own marked slates with them, screwed
+tightly together, and sealed, the medium has to adopt different tactics
+from those employed in the tests before mentioned. He has to call in the
+aid of a confederate. The audacity of the sealed-slate test is without
+parallel in the annals of pretended mediumship. For an insight into the
+secrets of this phase of psychography, the reading public is indebted to a
+medium, the anonymous author of a remarkably interesting work,
+“Revelations of a Spirit Medium.” Many skeptical investigators have been
+converted to Spiritualism by these tests. They invariably say to you when
+approached on the subject: “I took my own marked slates, carefully screwed
+together, to the medium, and had lengthy messages written upon them by
+spirit power. <i>These slates never left my hands for a second.</i>” I will
+quote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> what the writer of “Revelations of a Spirit Medium” says on the
+subject:</p>
+
+<p>“No man ever received independent slate-writing between slates fastened
+together that he did not allow out of his hands a few seconds. Scores of
+persons will tell you that they <i>have</i> received writing under those
+conditions through the mediumship of the writer; but the writer will tell
+you how he fooled them and how you can do so if you see fit.</p>
+
+<p>“In the first place you will rent a house with a cellar in connection. Cut
+a trap-door one foot square through the floor between the sills on which
+the floor is laid. Procure a fur floor mat with long hair. Cut a square
+out of the mat and tack it to the top of the trap door. Tack the mat fast
+to the floor, for some one may visit you who will want to raise it up.</p>
+
+<p>“Explain the presence of the fur by saying it is an absorbent of magnetic
+forces, through which you produce the writing. Over the rug place a heavy
+pine table about four feet square; and over the table a heavy cover that
+
+reaches the floor on all sides. Put your assistant in the cellar with a
+coal-oil stove, a tea-kettle of hot water, different colored letter wax
+and lead pencils, a screw driver, a pair of nippers, a pair of pliers, a
+pair of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> scissors and an assortment of wire brads. You are ready for
+business.</p>
+
+<p>“When your sitter comes in you will notice his slates, if he brings a
+pair, and see if they are secured in any way that your man in the cellar
+can not duplicate. If they are, you can touch his slates with your finger
+and say to him that you can not use his slates on account of the
+‘magnetism’ with which they are saturated. He will know nothing of
+‘magnetic conditions’ and will ask you what he is to do about it.</p>
+
+<p>“You will furnish him a pair of new slates with water and cloths to clean
+them. You also furnish him paper to write his questions on and the screws,
+wax, paper and mucilage to secure them with. He will write his questions
+and fasten the slates securely together.</p>
+
+<p>“You now conduct him to your séance-room and invite inspection of your
+table and surroundings. After the examination has been made you will seat
+the sitter at one side of the table with his side and arm next it. If he
+desires to keep hold of the slates a signal agreed upon between yourself
+and your assistant will cause the spirit in the cellar to open the trap
+door, which opens downwards, and to push through the floor and into
+position where the sitter can grasp one end of it, a pair of dummy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+slates. This dummy your assistant will continue to hold until the sitter
+has taken hold of it after the following performance:</p>
+
+<p>“Your assistant lets you know everything is ready by touching your foot.
+You now reach and take the sitter’s slates and put them below the table,
+and under it, telling the sitter to put his hand under from his side and
+hold them with you. He puts his hand under and gets hold of the dummy
+slates held by your assistant.</p>
+
+<p>“Your assistant holds on until you have stood the slates on end, leaning
+against the table leg, and have got hold of the dummy. He then takes the
+sitter’s slates below and closes the trap. He proceeds to open them, read
+the questions, answer them and refasten the slates.</p>
+
+<p>“You will be entertaining your sitter by twitching and jerking and making
+clairvoyant and clairaudient guesses for him.</p>
+
+<p>“When your assistant touches your foot you will know that he is ready to
+make the exchange again, by which the sitter will get hold of the slates
+he fastened. When you get the signal you give a snort and jump that jerks
+the end of the slates from the sitter’s hand. He is now given the end of
+the slates held by your assistant, and you will allow the assistant to
+take the dummy. After<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> sitting a moment or two longer, you will tell the
+sitter to take out his slates and examine them if he chooses. Many times
+they do not open the slates until they reach their homes.</p>
+
+<p>“This, reader, is the man who will declare that he furnished the slates
+and did not allow them out of his hands a minute.</p>
+
+<p>“The usual method of obtaining the writing is for the medium to hold the
+slates alone. When this is the case the medium passes the slates below,
+and receives in return a dummy which he is continually thumping on the
+under side of the table for the purpose of showing the sitter that the
+slates are there all the time.</p>
+
+<p>“It is not necessary that you should use a cellar to get this phase of
+‘independent slate-writing.’ You could place your table against a
+partition door and by fitting one of the small panels with hinges and
+bolts, would have a very convenient way of obtaining the assistance of the
+spirit in the next room. It is also possible to make a trap in a room that
+has a wooden wainscoting.”</p>
+
+<p>Before closing this brief survey of slate-writing experiments, I must
+describe an exceedingly ingenious trick, indeed, bordering on the
+marvelous. It is the recent invention of a Western conjurer, and solves
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> problem of actually writing between locked slates by physical means.
+The effect is as follows: You request the sitter to take two slates, wash
+them carefully, and tie them together, after first having placed a bit of
+chalk between their surfaces. Hold them under the table for a minute, and
+then hand them to the sitter for examination. A name, or a short sentence,
+in answer to some question, will be found scrawled across the upper
+surface of the bottom slate. It is accomplished in this way. You take a
+small pellet of iron or steel, coat it with mucilage, and dip it into
+chalk or slate-pencil dust. This dust will adhere and harden into a
+consistent mass, after a little while, completely concealing the metal,
+and causing the whole to resemble a bit of chalk. Take this supposed
+pellet of chalk from your vest pocket and place it between the slates;
+hold the latter level beneath a table, and by moving the poles of a strong
+magnet against the surface of the under slate, you can cause the iron or
+steel to write a name or sentence, thanks to its coating of chalk dust. It
+is better to use slates with rather deep frames, in order that the chalked
+metal may write with facility. It requires considerable practice to write
+with ease in the manner described above. The first thing of course is to
+locate the position of the chalk between the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> locked slates. To enable you
+to do this, place the supposed chalk in one corner of slate No. 1 before
+covering with slate No. 2, or else exactly in the center of slate No. 2.
+In this way you will have no difficulty in affecting the metal with the
+magnet, when the slates are held under the table. There are various ways
+of holding the slates; one, is to ask the sitter to hold one end, while
+you hold the other, five or six inches above the table. The light is put
+out, and you take the magnet from your pocket and execute the writing. The
+noise of the magnet passing over the surface of the under slate serves to
+represent a disembodied spirit as doing the writing.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">2. The Master of the Mediums.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most remarkable personalities serving as an exponent of
+Spiritualism was Daniel Dunglas Home, the Napoleon of necromancy, and the
+Past Grand Master of Mediums. His career reads like a romance. He lived in
+a sort of twilight land, and hob-nobbed with kings, queens and other
+people of noble blood.</p>
+
+<div class="container">
+<p class="poetry">“Something unsubstantial, ghostly,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Seems this Theurgist,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">In deep meditation mostly</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Wrapped, as in a mist.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Vague, phantasmal and unreal,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">To our thoughts he seems,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Walking in a world ideal,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">In a land of dreams.”</span></p></div>
+
+<p>He wound his serpentine way into the best society of London, Paris,
+Berlin, Rome, and St. Petersburg&mdash;“always despising filthy lucre,” as
+Maskelyn remarks, “but never refusing a diamond worth ten times the amount
+he would have received in cash, or some present, which the host of the
+house at which he happened to be manifesting always felt constrained to
+offer.”</p>
+
+<p>This thaumaturgist of the Nineteenth Century was born near Edinburg,
+Scotland, on March 20, 1833, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> came of a family reported to be gifted
+with “second sight.” His father, William Home, was a natural son of
+Alexander, tenth Earl of Home. Strange phenomena occurred during the
+medium’s childhood. At the age of nine he was adopted by his aunt, Mrs.
+McNeill Cook, who brought him to America. He began giving séances about
+the year 1852. Among the notable men who attended these early “sittings”
+were William Cullen Bryant, Professors Wells and Hare, and Judge Edmonds.</p>
+
+<p>Home had a tall, slight figure, a fair and freckled face&mdash;before disease
+made it the color of yellow wax&mdash;keen, slaty-blue eyes, thin bloodless
+lips, a rather snub nose, and curly auburn hair. His manners, though
+forward, were agreeable, and he recited such poetry as Poe’s “Raven” and
+“Ulalume” with powerful effect. He was altogether a weird sort of
+personage. His principal mediumistic manifestations were rappings,
+table-tipping, ghostly materializations, playing on sealed musical
+instruments, levitation, and handling fire with impunity.</p>
+
+<p>In 1855 he launched his necromantic bark on European waters. No man since
+Cagliostro ever created so profound a sensation in the Old World. He wrote
+his reminiscences in two large volumes, but little credence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> can be given
+them, as they are full of extravagant statements and wild fantasies.</p>
+
+<p>The London <i>Punch</i> (May 9th, 1868), printed the following effusion on the
+medium, a sort of parody on “Home, Sweet Home:”</p>
+
+<div class="container">
+<p class="poetry">Through realms Thaumaturgic the student may roam,<br />
+And not light on a worker of wonders like <i>Home</i>.<br />
+Cagliostro himself might descend from his chair,<br />
+And set up our <i>Daniel</i> as Grand-Cophta there&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Home, Home, Dan. Home</i>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No medium like <i>Home</i>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Spirit legs, spirit hands, he gives table and chair;<br />
+Gravitation defying, he flies in the air;<br />
+But the fact to which henceforth his fame should be pinned,<br />
+Is his power to raise, not himself but the wind!&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Home, Home, Dan. Home</i>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No medium like <i>Home</i>.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>Robert Browning made him the subject of his celebrated satirical poem,
+“Mr. Sludge, the Medium.”</p>
+
+<p>Some of the most celebrated scientific and literary personages of England
+became interested in his mysterious abilities, and among his intimate
+friends were the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> Earl of Dunraven, Mary Howitt, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Prof.
+Wallace, and Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. There is good authority for
+believing that Home was the mysterious Margrave of Bulwer’s weird novel,
+“A Strange Story.” Bulwer was an ardent believer in the supernatural and
+Home spent many days at Knebworth amid a select coterie of ghost-seers.
+The famous novelist relates that as Home sat with him in the library of
+Knebworth, conversing upon politics, social matters, books or other chance
+topics, the chairs rocked and the tables were suspended in mid-air.</p>
+
+<p>When the medium was requested to exert his power and found himself in
+condition, it is alleged, he would rise and float about the room. This in
+Spiritualistic parlance is termed “levitation”. At Knebworth and other
+places, some of the most prominent people of the day claim to have seen
+Home lift himself up and sail tranquilly out of a window, around the
+house, and come in by another window.</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Dunraven told many stories equally strange of performances
+that were given in his presence. The Earl declared that he had many times
+seen Home elongate and shorten his body, and cause the closed piano to
+play by putting his fingers on the lid.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img06.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 7&mdash;HOME AT THE TUILERIES.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>In the autumn of 1855 the famous medium went to Florence; there, also, the
+spirit manifestations secured him the <i>entree</i> into the best society of
+the old Italian city. In his memoirs he speaks of an incident occurring
+through his mediumship, at a séance given in Florence: “Upon one occasion,
+while the Countess C&mdash; was seated at one of Erard’s grand-action pianos,
+it rose and balanced itself in the air, during the whole time she was
+playing.” An English lady, resident at Florence, in a supposed haunted
+house, procured the services of Home to exorcise the ghost. They sat at a
+table in the sitting-room, and raps were heard proceeding from that piece
+of furniture, and rustling sounds in the room as of a person moving about
+in a heavy garment. The spirit being adjured in the name of the “Holy
+Trinity” to leave the premises, the demonstrations ceased.</p>
+
+<p>In February, 1856, the medium joined the retinue of Count B&mdash;, a Polish
+nobleman, and went to Naples with his patron. From Naples to Rome was the
+next step, and, in the Eternal City, the medium joined the Romish Church,
+and was adjured by the Pope to abandon spirit séances forever. In 1858 we
+find Home in St. Petersburg, where he married the youngest daughter of
+General Count de Kroll, of Russia, and a goddaughter of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Emperor
+Nicholas, the marriage taking place on Sunday, August 1, 1858, in the
+private chapel attached to the house of the lady’s brother-in-law, the
+Count Gregoire Koucheleff-Besborodko. It was a very notable affair, and
+Alexander Dumas came from Paris to attend the ceremony. Home’s spirit
+power which had left him since his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith
+now returned in full force, it is said, and he saw standing near him at
+the wedding the spirit form of his mother. In 1862 his wife died at the
+Chateau Laroche, near Perigneux, France, and the medium repaired to Rome
+for the purpose of studying sculpture. The reports of the spirit phenomena
+constantly attending Home’s presence reached the ears of the Papal
+authorities and he was compelled to leave the city, notwithstanding the
+fact that he gave positive assurance that he would give no séance. He was
+actually charged with being a sorcerer, like Cagliostro, an accusation
+that reads very strange in the Nineteenth Century. This affair embittered
+Home against the Church, and he abandoned Roman Catholicism for the Greek
+Church.</p>
+
+<p>After the Roman fiasco, the famous medium returned to England to give
+Spiritualistic lectures and séances. A writer in “<i>All the Year Round</i>”,
+gives the following pen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> picture of the medium, as he appeared in 1866:
+“He is a tall, thin man, with broad square shoulders, suggestive of a suit
+of clothes hung upon an iron cross. His hair is long and yellow; his teeth
+are large, glittering and sharp; his eyes are a pale grey, with a redness
+about the eye-lids, which comes and goes in a ghastly manner, as he talks.
+When he shows his glittering sharp teeth, and that red line comes round
+his slowly rolling eyes, he is not a pleasant sight to look upon. His
+hands are long, white and bony, and on taking them you discover that they
+are icy cold.” A <i>suit of clothes hung upon an iron cross</i> is a weird
+touch in this pen picture.</p>
+
+<p>Home about this time intended going upon the stage, but abandoned the idea
+to become the secretary of the “Spiritual Atheneum”, a society formed for
+the investigation of psychic phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most notable passages in the life of the great medium was the
+famous law suit in which he was concerned in England. In 1866 he became
+acquainted with a wealthy lady, Mrs. Jane Lyons. In his role of medium she
+consulted him constantly about the welfare of her husband in the spirit
+world, and her business affairs. She gave him £33,000 for his services.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+Relatives and friends of Mrs. Lyons, however, saw in Home a cunning
+adventurer who was preying upon a weak-minded woman. A suit was instituted
+against the medium to recover the money, and the case became a <i>cause
+celebre</i> in the annals of the English courts.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1871, Home, who before that time, had been quite a “lion”
+at the court of Napoleon III and Eugene, followed the German army from
+Sedan to Versailles, and was hand-in-glove with the King of Prussia. His
+second marriage took place in October, 1871, at Paris, and after a brief
+honeymoon in England he visited St. Petersburg with his wife, who was a
+member of the noble Russian family of Alsakoff.</p>
+
+<p>On the 21st of June, 1886, the great American ghost-seer died of
+consumption, at Auteuil, near Paris, France. For years he was out of
+health, and he ascribed his weakness to the expenditure of vital force in
+working wonders during the earlier part of his career.</p>
+
+<p>He was buried at St. Germain-en-Laye, with the rites of the Russian
+Church. The funeral was a very simple one, not more than twenty persons
+being present, all of whom were in full evening dress. The idea was to
+emphasize the Spiritualists’ belief that death is not a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> subject for
+mourning, but is liberation, an occasion for rejoicing.</p>
+
+<p>The curious reader will find many accounts of Home’s invulnerability to
+fire while in the trance state, notably those of Prof. Crookes, contained
+in the proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. In the March,
+1868, number of “<i>Human Nature</i>,” Mr. H. D. Jencken writes as follows
+concerning a séance given by the medium:</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Home, (after various manifestations) said, ‘we have gladly shown you
+our power over fluids, we will now show you our power over solids.’ He
+then knelt down before the hearth, and deliberately breaking up a glowing
+piece of coal in the fire place, took up a largish lump of incandescent
+coal and placing the same in his left hand, proceeded to explain that
+caloric had been extracted by a process known to them (the spirits), and
+that the heat could in part be returned. This he proved by alternately
+cooling and heating the coal; and to convince us of the fact, allowed us
+to handle the coal which had become cool, then suddenly resumed its heat
+sufficient to burn one, as I again touched it. I examined Mr. Home’s hand,
+and quite satisfied myself that no artificial means had been employed to
+protect the skin, which did not even retain the smell of smoke. Mr. Home
+then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> re-seated himself, and shortly awoke from his trance quite pale and
+exhausted.”</p>
+
+<p>Other witnesses of the above experiment were Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare,
+Miss Douglas, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. W. H. Harrison and Prof. Wallace. Mr. H.
+Nisbet, of Glasgow, relates (<i>Human Nature</i>, Feb. 1870) that in his own
+home in January, 1870, Mr. Home took a red hot coal from the grate and put
+it in the hands of a lady and gentleman to whom it felt only warm.
+Subsequently he placed the same on a folded newspaper, the result being a
+hole burnt through eight layers of paper. Taking another blazing coal he
+laid it on the same journal, and carried it around the apartment for
+upwards of three minutes, without scorching the paper.</p>
+
+<p>Among the crowned heads and famous people before whom Mr. Home appeared
+were Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie, Queen Victoria, King Louis I
+and King Maximilian of Bavaria, the Emperor of Russia, the King and Queen
+of Wurtemberg, the Duchess of Hamilton, the Crown Prince of Prussia and
+old Gen. Von Moltke. Alexander Dumas the elder, was a constant companion
+of the medium for a long time, and wrote columns about him.</p>
+
+<p>Napoleon III had two sittings with Home&mdash;and it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> said Home materialized
+the spirit of the first Napoleon, who appeared in his familiar cocked hat,
+gray overcoat and dark green uniform with white facings. “My fate?” asked
+Louis, trembling with awe. “Like mine&mdash;discrowned, and death in exile,”
+replied the ghost; then it vanished. The Empress swooned and Napoleon III
+fell back in his chair as if about to faint. The medium in his first
+séance with the French Emperor succeeded only in materializing some
+flowers and a spirit hand, which the Emperor was permitted to grasp.</p>
+
+<p>Celia Logan, the journalist, in writing of one of Home’s séances at a
+nobleman’s house in London, says:</p>
+
+<p>“On this occasion the medium announced that he would produce balls of fire
+and illuminated hands. Failing in the former, he declared that the spirits
+were not strong enough for that to-night, and so he would have to confine
+himself to showing the luminous hands.</p>
+
+<p>“The house was darkened and Home groped his way alone to the head of the
+broad staircase, where every few minutes a pair of luminous hands were
+thrown up. The audience was satisfied generally. One lady, however, was
+not, and whispered to me&mdash;she was a half-hearted Spiritualist&mdash;that it
+looked to her as if he had rubbed his own hands over with lucifer
+matches.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>“The host stood near the mantel piece and had seen Home abstractedly place
+a small bottle upon it when he left the room for the staircase. That
+bottle the host quietly slipped into his pocket. Upon examination the next
+day it was found to contain phosphorated olive oil or some similar
+preparation.</p>
+
+<p>“The host had declared himself to have seen Home float through the air
+from one side of the room to the other, lift a piano several feet in the
+air by simply placing a finger upon it, and had seen him materialize
+disembodied spirits; but after the discovery of the phosphorus trick he
+dropped Home at once.”</p>
+
+<p>It is a significant fact that the medium while giving séances in Paris in
+1857 refused to meet Houdin, the renowned prestidigitateur.</p>
+
+<p>I shall now attempt an exposé of Home’s physical phenomena. Home’s
+extraordinary feat of alternately cooling and heating a lump of coal taken
+from a blazing fire, as related by Mr. H. D. Jencken and others, is easily
+explained. It is a juggling trick. The “coal” is a piece of spongy
+platinum which bears a close resemblance to a lump of half burnt coal, and
+is palmed in the hand, as a prestidigitateur conceals a coin, a pack of
+cards, an egg, or a small lemon. The medium or magician<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> advances to the
+grate and pretends to take a genuine lump of coal from the fire but brings
+up instead, at the tips of his fingers, the piece of platinum. In a secret
+breast pocket of his coat he has a small reservoir of hydrogen, with a
+tube coming down the sleeve and terminating an inch or so above the cuff.
+By means of certain mechanical arrangements, to enable him to let on and
+off the gas at the proper moment, he is able to accomplish the trick; for
+when a current of hydrogen is allowed to impinge upon a piece of spongy
+platinum, the metal becomes incandescent, and as soon as the current is
+arrested the platinum is restored to its normal condition.</p>
+
+<p>The hand may be protected from burning in various ways, one method being
+the repeated application of sulphuric acid to the skin, whereby it is
+rendered impervious to the action of fire for a short period of time;
+another, by wearing gloves of amianthus or asbestos cloth. With the
+latter, worn in a badly lighted room, the medium, without much risk of
+discovery, can handle red hot coals or iron with impunity. The gloves may
+at the proper moment be slipped off and concealed about the person. A
+small slip of amianthus cloth placed on a newspaper would protect it from
+a hot coal and the same means<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> could be used when a coal is placed in
+another’s hand or upon his head.</p>
+
+<p>As to the marvelous “levitation”, either the witnesses of the alleged feat
+were under some hypnotic spell, or else they allowed their imaginations to
+run riot when describing the event. In the case of Lord Lindsay and Lord
+Adare, D. Carpenter in his valuable paper “On Fallacies Respecting the
+Supernatural” (<i>Contemporary Review</i>, Jan., 1876) says: “A whole party of
+believers affirm that they saw Mr. Home float out of one window and in at
+another, while a single honest skeptic declares that Mr. Home was sitting
+in his chair all the time.” It seems that there were three gentlemen
+present besides the medium when the alleged phenomenon took place, the two
+noblemen and a “cousin”. It is this unnamed hard-headed cousin to whom Dr.
+Carpenter refers as the “honest skeptic.”</p>
+
+<p>Many of Home’s admirers have declared that he possessed the power of
+mesmerizing certain of his friends. These gentlemen were no doubt
+hypnotized and related honestly what they believed they had seen. Again,
+the expectancy of attention and the nervous tension of the average sitter
+in spirit-circles tend to produce a morbidly impressible condition of
+mind. Many mediums since<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> Home’s day have performed the act of levitation,
+but always in a dark room. Mr. Angelo Lewis, the writer on magic, reveals
+an ingenious method by which levitation is effected. When the lights are
+extinguished the medium&mdash;who, by the way, must be a clever
+ventriloquist&mdash;removes his boots and places them on his hands.</p>
+
+<p>“I am rising, I am rising, but pay no attention”, he remarks, as he goes
+about the apartment, where the sitters are grouped in a circle about him,
+and he lightly touches the heads of various persons. A shadowy form is
+dimly seen and a smell of boot leather becomes apparent to the olfactory
+senses of many present. People jump quickly to conclusions in such matters
+and argue that where the feet of the medium are, his body must surely
+be&mdash;namely, floating in the air. The illusion is further enhanced by the
+performer’s ventriloquial powers. “I am rising! I am touching the
+ceiling!” he exclaims, imitating the sound of a voice high up. When the
+lights are turned up, the medium is seen (this time with his boots on his
+feet) standing on tip-toe, as if just descended from the ceiling.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes before performing the levitation act, he will say, “In order to
+convince any skeptic present, that I really float upwards, I will write
+the initials of my name,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> or the name of some one present, on the
+ceiling.” When the lights are raised, the letters are seen written on the
+ceiling in a bold scrawling hand. How is it done? The medium has concealed
+about him a telescopic steel rod, something like those Chinese fishing
+rods at one time in vogue among modern disciples of Izaak Walton. This
+convenient rod when not in use folds up in a very small compass, but when
+it is shoved out to its full length, some three or four feet, with a bit
+of black chalk attached, the writing on the ceiling is easily produced.
+The magicians of ancient Egypt displayed their mystic rods as a part of
+their paraphernalia, while the modern magi bear theirs in secret. A
+tambourine, a guitar, a bell, or a spirit hand, rubbed with phosphorus,
+may also be fixed to this ingenious appliance, and floated over the heads
+of the spectators, and even a horn may be blown, through the hollow rod.</p>
+
+<p>The materialization of a spirit hand which crept from beneath a
+table-cover, and showed itself to the “believers,” was one of the most
+startling things in the repertoire of D. D. Home, as it was in that of Dr.
+Monck’s, an English medium. An explanation of Monck’s method of producing
+the hand may, perhaps, throw some light on Home’s “materialization.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> A
+small dummy hand, artistically executed in wax, with the fingers slightly
+bent, is fastened to a broad elastic band about three feet in length. This
+band is attached to a belt about the performer’s waist and passes down his
+left trouser leg, allowing the hand to dangle within the trouser a few
+inches above the ankle. I must not forget to explain that to the wrist of
+the hand is appended an elastic sleeve about five inches long. The medium
+and two sitters take their seats at a square table, with an over-hanging
+table-cloth. No one is allowed to be seated at the same side of the table
+with the medium. This is an imperative condition.</p>
+
+<p>“Diminish the light, please,” says the medium. Some one rises to lower the
+gas to the required dim religious light necessary to all spirit séances.
+“A little lower, please! Lower, lower still!” remarks the medium. Out the
+light goes. “Dear, me, but this is vexatious! Somebody light it again and
+be more careful!” he ejaculates. Under cover of the darkness the agile
+operator crosses his left foot over his right knee, pulls down the wax
+hand and fixes it to the toe of his boot by means of the elastic sleeve,
+the apparatus being masked from the sitters by the table cloth until the
+time comes for the spirit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> materialization. The three men place their
+hands on the table and wait patiently for developments. Presently a rap is
+heard under the table&mdash;disjointed knee of the medium,&mdash;and then <i>mirabile
+dictu!</i> the table-cloth shakes and a delicate female hand emerges and
+shows itself above the edge of the table. A guitar being placed close to
+the fingers, they soon strum the strings, or rather appear to do so, the
+medium being the <i>deus ex machina</i>. The cleverest part of the whole
+performance is the fact that the medium never takes his hands from the
+table. He quietly puts his left foot down on the floor and places his
+right foot heavily on the false hand&mdash;off it comes from the left foot and
+shoots up the trouser leg like lightning. The sitters may look under the
+table but they see nothing.</p>
+
+<p>An ingenious improvement has been made to this hand-test by an American
+conjurer, one that enables the medium to produce the hand although his
+feet are secured by the sitter. “Be kind enough, sir,” says the performer
+to the investigator, “to place your feet on mine. If I should move my feet
+ever so little, you would know it, would you not?” The sitter replies in
+the affirmative. The medium, as soon as he feels the pressure of the
+sitter’s feet, withdraws his right foot from a steel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> shape made in
+imitation of the toe of his boot, and operates the spirit hand at his
+leisure. After the sitting, he of course, inserts his right foot into the
+shape and carries it off with him.</p>
+
+<p>The production of spirit music was one of Home’s favorite experiments.
+There are all sorts of ways of producing this music, the most ingenious of
+which I give:</p>
+
+<p>The apparatus consists of a small circular musical box, wound up by clock
+work, and made to play whenever pressure is put upon a stud projecting a
+quarter of an inch from its surface. This box is strapped around the right
+leg of the medium just above his knee, and hidden beneath the trouser leg.
+When not in use it is on the under side of the leg. On the table a musical
+box is placed and covered with a soup tureen, or the top of a chafing
+dish. When the spectators are seated, the medium works the concealed
+musical box around to the upper part of his leg near the knee cap, and by
+pressing the stud against the under surface of the table, starts the music
+playing. In this way the second musical box seems to play and the acoustic
+effect is perfect. Perhaps Home used a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> similar contrivance; Dr. Monck
+did, and was caught in the act by the chief of the Detective Police.</p>
+
+<p>Home during his séances on the Continent of Europe was accused of all
+sorts of trickery. Some asserted that he had concealed about him a small
+but powerful electric battery for producing certain illusions, mechanical
+contrivances attached to his legs for making spirit raps, and last but not
+least, as the medium states in his “Memoirs:” “they even accused me of
+carrying a small monkey about with me, concealed, trained to perform all
+sorts of ghostly tricks.”</p>
+
+<p>People also accused him of obtaining a great deal of his information about
+the spirits of the departed from tombstones like an Old Mortality, and
+bribing family servants. A more probable explanation may be found perhaps
+in telepathy.</p>
+
+<p>There is one more phase of Home’s mediumship, the moving of heavy pieces
+of furniture without physical contact, that must be spoken of. In
+mentioning it, Dr. Max Dessoir, author of the “Psychology of
+Conjuring,”<a name='fna_1' id='fna_1' href='#f_1'><small>[1]</small></a> says: “We must admit that <i>a few</i> feats, such as those of
+Prof. Crookes with Home, concerning the possibility of setting inanimate
+objects in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> motion without touching them, <i>appear</i> to lie entirely outside
+the sphere of jugglery.” In the year 1871, Prof. William Crookes, (now Sir
+William Crookes) Fellow of the Royal Society, a very eminent scientist,
+subjected Home to some elaborate tests in order to prove or disprove by
+means of scientific apparatus the reality of phenomena connected with
+variations in the weight of bodies, with or without contact. He declared
+the tests to be entirely satisfactory, but ascribed the phenomena not to
+spiritual agency, but to a new force, “in some unknown manner connected
+with the human organization,” which for convenience he called the “Psychic
+Force.” He said in his “Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism:” “Of
+all the persons endowed with a powerful development of this Psychic Force,
+and who have been termed ‘mediums’ upon quite another theory of its
+origin, Mr. Daniel Dunglas Home is the most remarkable, and it is mainly
+owing to the many opportunities I have had of carrying on my
+investigations in his presence that I am enabled to affirm so conclusively
+the existence of this force.” Prof. Crookes’ experiments were conducted,
+as he says, in the full light, and in the presence of witnesses, among
+them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> being the famous English barrister, Sergeant Cox, and the
+astronomer, Dr. Huggins. Heavy articles became light and light articles
+heavy when the medium came near them. In some cases he lightly touched
+them, in others refrained from contact.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img07.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 8. CROOKES’ APPARATUS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The first piece of the apparatus constructed by Crookes to test this
+psychic force consisted of a mahogany board 36 inches long by 9½ inches
+wide and 1 inch thick. A strip of mahogany was screwed on at one end, to
+form a foot, the length being equal to the width of the board. This end of
+the board was placed on a table, while the other end was upheld by a
+spring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> balance, fastened to a strong tripod stand, as will be seen in
+Fig. 8.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Home,” writes Prof. Crookes, “placed the tips of his fingers lightly
+on the extreme end of the mahogany board which was resting on the support,
+whilst Dr. A. B. [Dr. Huggins] and myself sat, one on each side of it,
+watching for any effect which might be produced. Almost immediately the
+pointer of the balance was seen to descend. After a few seconds it rose
+again. This movement was repeated several times, as if by successive waves
+of the psychic force. The end of the board was observed to oscillate
+slowly up and down during the experiment.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Home now, of his own accord, took a small hand-bell and a little card
+match-box, which happened to be near, and placed one under each hand, to
+satisfy us, as he said, that he was not producing the downward pressure.
+The very slow oscillation of the spring balance became more marked, and
+Dr. A. B., watching the index, said that he saw it descend to 6½ lbs.
+The normal weight of the board as so suspended being 3 lbs., the
+additional downward pull was therefore 3½ lbs. On looking immediately
+afterwards at the automatic register, we saw that the index<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> had at one
+time descended as low as 9 lbs., showing a maximum pull of 6 lbs. upon a
+board whose normal weight was 3 lbs.</p>
+
+<p>“In order to see whether it was possible to produce much effect on the
+spring balance by pressure at the place where Mr. Home’s fingers had been,
+I stepped upon the table and stood on one foot at the end of the board.
+Dr. A. B., who was observing the index of the balance, said that the whole
+weight of my body (140 lbs.) so applied only sunk the index 1½ lbs., or
+2 lbs. when I jerked up and down. Mr. Home had been sitting in a low
+easy-chair, and could not, therefore, had he tried his utmost, have
+exerted any material influence on these results. I need scarcely add that
+his feet as well as his hands were closely guarded by all in the room.”</p>
+
+<p>The next series of experiments is thus described:</p>
+
+<p>“On trying these experiments for the first time, I thought that actual
+contact between Mr. Home’s hands and the suspended body whose weight was
+to be altered was essential to the exhibition of the force; but I found
+afterwards that this was not a necessary condition, and I therefore
+arranged my apparatus in the following manner:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>“The accompanying cuts (Figs. 9, 10 and 11) explain the arrangement. Fig.
+9 is a general view, and Figs. 10 and 11 show the essential parts more in
+detail. The reference letters are the same in each illustration. A B is a
+mahogany board, 36 inches long by 9½ inches wide, and 1 inch thick. It
+is suspended at the end, B, by a spring balance, C, furnished with an
+automatic register, D. The balance is suspended from a very firm tripod
+support, E.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img08.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 9. CROOKES’ APPARATUS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img09.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 10. CROOKES’ APPARATUS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“The following piece of apparatus is not shown in the figures. To the
+moving index, O, of the spring balance, a fine steel point is soldered,
+projecting horizontally outwards. In front of the balance, and firmly
+fastened to it, is a grooved frame, carrying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> a flat box similar to the
+dark box of a photographic camera. This box is made to travel by
+clock-work horizontally in front of the moving index, and it contains a
+sheet of plate-glass which has been smoked over a flame. The projecting
+steel point impresses a mark on this smoked surface. If the balance is at
+rest, and the clock set going, the result is a perfectly straight
+horizontal line. If the clock is stopped and weights are placed on the
+end, B, of the board, the result is a vertical line, whose length depends
+on the weight applied. If, whilst the clock draws the plate along, the
+weight of the board (or the tension on the balance) varies, the result is
+a curved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> line, from which the tension in grains at any moment during the
+continuance of the experiments can be calculated.</p>
+
+<p>“The instrument was capable of registering a diminution of the force of
+gravitation as well as an increase; registrations of such a diminution
+were frequently obtained. To avoid complication, however, I will here
+refer only to results in which an increase of gravitation was experienced.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img10.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 11. CROOKES’ APPARATUS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“The end, B, of the board being supported by the spring balance, the end,
+A, is supported on a wooden<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> strip, F, screwed across its lower side and
+cut to a knife edge (see Fig. 11). This fulcrum rests on a firm and heavy
+wooden stand, G H. On the board, exactly over the fulcrum, is placed a
+large glass vessel filled with water. I L is a massive iron stand,
+furnished with an arm and a ring, M N, in which rests a hemispherical
+copper vessel perforated with several holes at the bottom.</p>
+
+<p>“The iron stand is 2 inches from the board, A B, and the arm and copper
+vessel, M N, are so adjusted that the latter dips into the water 1½
+inches, being 5½ inches from the bottom of I, and 2 inches from its
+circumference. Shaking or striking the arm, M, or the vessel, N, produces
+no appreciable mechanical effect on the board, A B, capable of affecting
+the balance. Dipping the hand to the fullest extent into the water in N
+does not produce the least appreciable action on the balance.</p>
+
+<p>“As the mechanical transmission of power is by this means entirely cut off
+between the copper vessel and the board, A B, the power of muscular
+control is thereby completely eliminated.</p>
+
+<p>“For convenience I will divide the experiments into groups, 1, 2, 3, etc.,
+and I have selected one special<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> instance in each to describe in detail.
+Nothing, however, is mentioned which has not been repeated more than once,
+and in some cases verified, in Mr. Home’s absence, with another person,
+possessing similar powers.</p>
+
+<p>“There was always ample light in the room where the experiments were
+conducted (my own dining-room) to see all that took place.</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Experiment I.</i>&mdash;The apparatus having been properly adjusted before Mr.
+Home entered the room, he was brought in, and asked to place his fingers
+in the water in the copper vessel, N. He stood up and dipped the tips of
+the fingers of his right hand in the water, his other hand and his feet
+being held. When he said he felt a power, force, or influence, proceeding
+from his hand, I set the clock going, and almost immediately the end, B,
+of the board was seen to descend slowly and remain down for about 10
+seconds; it then descended a little further, and afterwards rose to its
+normal height. It then descended again, rose suddenly, gradually sunk for
+17 seconds, and finally rose to its normal height, where it remained till
+the experiment was concluded. The lowest point marked on the glass was
+equivalent to a direct pull of about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> 5,000 grains. The accompanying
+Figure 12 is a copy of the curve traced on the glass.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCALE OF SECONDS.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img11.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 12. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF HOME.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Experiment II.</i>&mdash;Contact through water having proved to be as effectual
+as actual mechanical contact, I wished to see if the power or force could
+affect the weight, either through other portions of the apparatus or
+through the air. The glass vessel and iron stand, etc., were therefore
+removed, as an unnecessary complication, and Mr. Home’s hands were placed
+on the stand of the apparatus at P (Fig. 9). A gentleman present put his
+hand on Mr. Home’s hands, and his foot on both Mr. Home’s feet, and I also
+watched him closely all the time. At the proper moment the clock was again
+set going; the board descended and rose in an irregular manner, the result
+being a curved tracing on the glass, of which Fig. 13 is a copy.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img12.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 13. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF HOME.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Experiment III.</i>&mdash;Mr. Home was now placed one foot from the board, A B,
+on one side of it. His hands and feet were firmly grasped by a by-stander,
+and another tracing, of which Fig. 14 is a copy, was taken on the moving
+glass plate.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img13.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 14. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS UNDER HOME’S INFLUENCE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Experiment IV.</i>&mdash;(Tried on an occasion when the power was stronger than
+on the previous occasions), Mr. Home was now placed 3 feet from the
+apparatus, his hands and feet being tightly held. The clock was set going
+when he gave the word, and the end, B,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> of the board soon descended, and
+again rose in an irregular manner, as shown in Fig. 15.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img14.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 15. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS UNDER HOME’S INFLUENCE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“The following series of experiments were tried with more delicate
+apparatus, and with another person, a lady, Mr. Home being absent. As the
+lady is non-professional, I do not mention her name. She has, however,
+consented to meet any scientific men whom I may introduce for purposes of
+investigation.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img15.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 16. SECOND CROOKES’ APPARATUS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“A piece of thin parchment, A, (Figs. 16 and 17), is stretched tightly
+across a circular hoop of wood. B C is a light lever turning on D. At the
+end B is a vertical needle point touching the membrane A, and at C is
+another needle point, projecting horizontally and touching a smoked glass
+plate, E F. This glass plate is drawn along in the direction H G by
+clockwork, K. The end, B, of the lever is weighted so that it shall
+quickly follow the movements of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> centre of the disc, A. These
+movements are transmitted and recorded on the glass plate, E F, by means
+of the lever and needle point, C. Holes are cut in the side of the hoop to
+allow a free passage of air to the under side of the membrane. The
+apparatus was well tested beforehand by myself and others, to see that no
+shaking or jar on the table or support would interfere with the results:
+the line traced by the point, C, on the smoked glass was perfectly
+straight in spite of all our attempts to influence the lever by shaking
+the stand or stamping on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img16.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 17. SECTION OF APPARATUS IN FIG. 16.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Experiment V.</i>&mdash;Without having the object of the instrument explained to
+her, the lady was brought into the room and asked to place her fingers on
+the wooden stand at the points, L M, Fig. 16. I then placed my hands over
+hers to enable me to detect any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> conscious or unconscious movement on her
+part. Presently percussive noises were heard on the parchment, resembling
+the dropping of grains of sand on its surface. At each percussion a
+fragment of graphite which I had placed on the membrane was seen to be
+projected upwards about 1-50th of an inch, and the end, C, of the lever
+moved slightly up and down. Sometimes the sounds were as rapid as those
+from an induction-coil, whilst at others they were more than a second
+apart. Five or six tracings were taken, and in all cases a movement of the
+end, C, of the lever was seen to have occurred with each vibration of the
+membrane.</p>
+
+<p>“In some cases the lady’s hands were not so near the membrane as L M, but
+were at N O, Fig 17.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCALE OF SECONDS.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img17.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 18. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS (FIG. 15 AND 16) OUTSIDE HOME’S INFLUENCE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“The accompanying Fig. 18 gives tracings taken from the plates used on
+these occasions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>“<i>Experiment VI.</i>&mdash;Having met with these results in Mr. Home’s absence, I
+was anxious to see what action would be produced on the instrument in his
+presence.</p>
+
+<p>“Accordingly I asked him to try, but without explaining the instrument to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>“I grasped Mr. Home’s right arm above the wrist and held his hand over the
+membrane, about 10 inches from its surface, in the position shown at P,
+Fig. 17. His other hand was held by a friend. After remaining in this
+position for about half a minute, Mr. Home said he felt some influence
+passing. I then set the clock going, and we all saw the index, C, moving
+up and down. The movements were much slower than in the former case, and
+were almost entirely unaccompanied by the percussive vibrations then
+noticed.</p>
+
+<p>“Figs. 19 and 20 show the curves produced on the glass on two of these
+occasions.</p>
+
+<p>“Figs. 18, 19 and 20 are magnified.</p>
+
+<p>“These experiments <i>confirm beyond doubt</i> the conclusions at which I
+arrived in my former paper, namely, the existence of a force associated,
+in some manner not yet explained, with the human organization, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> which
+force increased weight is capable of being imparted to solid bodies
+without physical contact. In the case of Mr. Home, the development of this
+force varies enormously, not only from week to week, but from hour to
+hour; on some occasions the force is inappreciable by my tests for an hour
+or more, and then suddenly reappears in great strength.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 18.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img18.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 19. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17) UNDER HOME’S INFLUENCE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“It is capable of acting at a distance from Mr. Home (not unfrequently as
+far as two or three feet), but is always strongest close to him.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCALE THE SAME AS ON FIG. 18.</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img19.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 20. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17) UNDER HOME’S INFLUENCE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“Being firmly convinced that there could be no manifestation of one form
+of force without the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> corresponding expenditure of some other form of
+force, I for a long time searched in vain for evidence of any force or
+power being used up in the production of these results.</p>
+
+<p>“Now, however, having seen more of Mr. Home, I think I perceive what it is
+that this psychic force uses up for its development. In employing the
+terms <i>vital force</i> or <i>nervous energy</i>, I am aware that I am employing
+words which convey very different significations to many investigators;
+but after witnessing the painful state of nervous and bodily prostration
+in which some of these experiments have left Mr. Home&mdash;after seeing him
+lying in an almost fainting condition on the floor, pale and speechless&mdash;I
+could scarcely doubt that the evolution of psychic force is accompanied by
+a corresponding drain on vital force.”</p>
+
+<p>Sergeant Cox in speaking of the tests says, “The results appear to me
+conclusively to establish the important fact, that there is a force
+proceeding from the nerve-system capable of imparting motion and weight to
+solid bodies within the sphere of its influence.”</p>
+
+<p>One of the medium’s defenders has written:</p>
+
+<p>“Home’s mysterious power, whatever it may have been, was very uncertain.
+Sometimes he could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> exercise it, and at others not, and these fluctuations
+were not seldom the source of embarrassment to him. He would often arrive
+at a place in obedience to an engagement, and, as he imagined, ready to
+perform, when he would discover himself absolutely helpless. After a
+séance his exhaustion appeared to be complete.</p>
+
+<p>“There is no more striking proof of the fact that Home really possessed
+occult gifts of some sort&mdash;psychic force or whatever else the power may be
+termed&mdash;than he gave such amazing exhibitions in the early part of his
+history and was able to do so little toward the end. If it had been
+juggling he would, like other conjurors, have improved on his tricks by
+experience, or at all events, while his memory held out he would not have
+deteriorated.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Dr. Hammond’s Experiments.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. William A. Hammond, the eminent neurologist, of Washington, D. C.,
+took up the cudgels against Prof. Crookes’ “Psychic Force” theory, and
+assigned the experiments to the domain of animal electricity. He wrote as
+follows:<a name='fna_2' id='fna_2' href='#f_2'><small>[2]</small></a> “Place an egg in an egg-cup and balance a long lath upon the
+egg.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> Though the lath be almost a plank it will obediently follow a rod of
+glass, gutta percha or sealing-wax, which has been previously well dried
+and rubbed, the former with a piece of silk, and the two latter with
+woolen cloth. Now, in dry weather, many persons within my knowledge, have
+only to walk with a shuffling gait over the carpet, and then approaching
+the lath hold out the finger instead of the glass, sealing wax or gutta
+percha, and instantly the end of the lath at L rises to meet it, and the
+end at L is depressed. Applying these principles, I arranged an apparatus
+exactly like that of Prof. Crookes, except that the spring balance was
+such as is used for weighing letters and was therefore very delicate,
+indicating quarter ounces with exactness, and that the board was thin and
+narrow.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img20.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 21. DR. HAMMOND’S APPARATUS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>“Applying the glass rod or stick of sealing-wax to the end resting by its
+foot on the table, the index of the balance at once descended, showing an
+increased weight of a little over three quarters of an ounce, and this
+without the board being raised from the table.</p>
+
+<p>“I then walked over a thick Turkey rug for a few moments, and holding my
+finger under the board near the end attached to the balance, caused a fall
+of the index of almost half an ounce. I then rested my finger lightly on
+the end of the board immediately over the foot, and again the index
+descended and oscillated several times, just as in Mr. Home’s experiments.
+The lowest point reached was six and a quarter ounces, and as the board
+weighed, as attached to the balance, five ounces, there was an increased
+weight of one and a quarter ounces. At no time was the end of the board
+raised from the table.</p>
+
+<p>“I then arranged the apparatus so as to place a thin glass tumbler nearly
+full of water immediately over the fulcrum, as in Mr. Crookes’ experiment,
+and again the index fell and oscillated on my fingers being put into the
+water.</p>
+
+<p>“Now if one person can thus, with a delicate apparatus like mine, cause
+the index, through electricity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> to descend and ascend, it is not
+improbable that others, like Mr. Home, could show greater, or even
+different electrical power, as in Prof. Crookes’ experiments. It is well
+known that all persons are not alike in their ability to be electrically
+excited. Many persons, myself among them, can light the gas with the end
+of the finger. Others cannot do it with any amount of shuffling over the
+carpet.</p>
+
+<p>“At any rate is it not much more sensible to believe that Mr. Home’s
+experiments are to be thus explained than to attribute the results of his
+semi-mysterious attempts to spiritualism or psychic force?”</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">3. Rope-Tying and Holding Mediums.</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS.</p>
+
+<p>Ira Erastus and William Henry Davenport were born at Buffalo, N. Y., the
+former on Sept. 17, 1839, and the latter on February 1, 1841. Their
+father, Ira Davenport, was in the police detective department, and, it is
+alleged, invented the celebrated rope-tying feats after having seen the
+Indian jugglers of the West perform similar illusions. The usual stories
+about ghostly phenomena attending the childhood of mediums were told about
+the Davenport Brothers, but it was not until 1855 that they started on
+their tour<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> of the United States, with their father as showman or
+spiritual lecturer. When the Civil War broke out, the Brothers,
+accompanied by Dr. J. B. Ferguson, formerly an Independent minister of
+Nashville, Tenn., in the capacity of lecturer, and a Mr. Palmer as general
+agent and manager, went to England to exhibit their mediumistic powers,
+following the example of D. D. Home. With the company also was a Buffalo
+boy named Fay, of German-American parentage, who had formerly acted as
+ticket-taker for the mediums. He discovered the secret of the rope-tying
+feat, and was an adept at the coat feat, so he was employed as an
+“under-study” in case of the illness of William Davenport, who was in
+rather delicate health. The Brothers Davenport at this period, aged
+respectively 25 and 23 years, had “long black curly hair, broad but not
+high foreheads, dark eyes, heavy eye-brows and moustaches, firm set lips,
+and a bright, keen look.” Their first performance in England was given at
+the Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London, and created intense excitement.</p>
+
+<p><i>Punch</i> called the <i>furore</i> over the spirit rope-tyers the “tie-fuss
+fever,” and said the mediums were “Ministers of the Interior, with a seat
+in the Cabinet.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> J. N. Maskelyne, the London conjurer of Egyptian Hall,
+wrote of them: “About the Davenport Brothers’ performances, I have to say
+that they were and still remain the most inexplicable ever presented to
+the public as of spiritual origin; and had they been put forth as feats of
+jugglery would have awakened a considerable amount of curiosity though
+certainly not to the extent they did.”</p>
+
+<p>In September, 1865, the Brothers arrived in Paris, and placarded the city
+with enormous posters announcing that the Brothers Davenport,
+spirit-mediums, would give a series of public séances at the <i>Salle Herz</i>.
+Their reputation had preceded them to France and the <i>boulevardiers</i>
+talked of nothing but the wonderful American mediums and their mysterious
+cabinet. Before exhibiting in Paris the Davenports visited the <i>Chateau de
+Gennevilliers</i>, whose owner was an enthusiastic believer in Spiritism, and
+gave a séance before a select party of journalists and scientific men. The
+exhibition was pronounced marvellous in the extreme and perfectly
+inexplicable.</p>
+
+<p>The Parisian press was divided on the subject of the Davenports and their
+advertised séances. Some of the papers protested against such performances
+on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> the ground that they were dangerous to the mental health of the
+public, and, one writer said, “Particularly to those weaker intellects
+which are always ready enough to accept as gospel the tricks and artifices
+of the adepts of sham witchcraft.” M. Edmond About, the famous journalist
+and novelist, in the <i>Opinion Nationale</i>, wrote a scathing denunciation of
+Spiritism, but all to no purpose, except to inflame public curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>The performances of the Davenports were divided into two parts: (1) The
+light séance, (2) the dark séance. In the light séance a cabinet, elevated
+from the stage by three trestles, was used. It was a simple wooden
+structure with three doors. In the centre door was a lozenge-shaped window
+covered with a curtain. Upon the sides of the cabinet hung various musical
+instruments, a guitar, a violin, horns, tambourines, and a big dinner
+bell.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img21.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 22. THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS IN THEIR CABINET.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>A committee chosen by the audience tied the mediums’ hands securely behind
+their backs, fastened their legs together, and pinioned them to their
+seats in the cabinet, and to the cross rails with strong ropes. The side
+doors were closed first, then the center door, but no sooner was the last
+fastened, than the hands of one of the mediums were thrust through <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>the
+window in the centre door. In a very short time, at a signal from the
+mediums, the doors were opened, and the Davenports stepped forth, with the
+ropes in their hands, every knot untied, confessedly by spirit power. The
+astonishment of the spectators amounted to awe. On an average it took ten
+minutes to pinion the Brothers; but a single minute was required for their
+release. Once more the mediums went into the cabinet, this time with the
+ropes lying in a coil at their feet. Two minutes elapsed. Hey, presto! the
+doors were opened, and the Davenports were pronounced by the committee to
+be securely lashed to their seats. Seals were affixed to the knots in the
+ropes, and the doors closed as before. Pandemonium reigned. Bells were
+rung, horns blown, tambourines thumped, violins played, and guitars
+vigorously twanged. Heavy rappings also were heard on the ceiling, sides
+and floor of the cabinet, then after a brief but absolute silence, a bare
+hand and arm emerged from the lozenge window, and rung the big dinner
+bell. On opening the doors the Brothers were found securely tied as
+before, and seals intact. An amusing feature of the exhibition occurred
+when a venturesome spectator volunteered to sit inside of the cabinet
+between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> the two mediums. He came out with his coat turned inside out and
+his hat jammed over his eyes. In the dark séance the cabinet was dispensed
+with and the spectators, holding hands, formed a ring around the mediums.
+The lights were put out and similar phenomena took place, with the
+addition of luminous hands, and musical instruments floating in the air.</p>
+
+<p>Robert-Houdin wrote an interesting brochure on the Davenports, (“Secrets
+of Stage Conjuring,” translated by Prof. Hoffmann) from which I take the
+following: “The ropes used by the Davenport Brothers are of a cotton
+fibre; and they present therefore smooth surfaces, adapted to slip easily
+one upon another. Gentlemen are summoned from the audience to tie the
+mediums. Now, tell me, is it an easy task for an amateur to tie a man up
+off-hand with a rope three yards long, in a very secure way? The amateur
+is flurried, self-conscious, anxious to acquit himself well of the
+business, but he is a gentleman, not a brute, and if one of the Brothers
+sees the ropes getting into a dangerous tangle, he gives a slight groan,
+as if he were being injured, and the instantaneous impulse of the other
+man is to loosen the cord a trifle. A fraction of an inch is an invaluable
+gain in the after-business of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> loosening the ropes. Sometimes the
+stiffening of a muscle, the raising of a shoulder, the crooking of a knee,
+gives all the play required by the Brothers in ridding themselves of their
+bonds. Their muscles and joints are wonderfully supple, too; the thumbs
+can be laid flat in the palm of the hand, the hand itself rounded until it
+is no broader than the wrist, and then it is easy to pull through. Violent
+wrenches send the ropes up toward the shoulder, vigorous shakings get the
+legs free; the first hand untied is thrust through the hole in the door of
+the cabinet, and then returns to give aid to more serious knots on his own
+or his brother’s person. In tying themselves up the Davenports used the
+slip-knot, a sort of bow, the ends of which have only to be pulled to be
+tightened or loosened.”</p>
+
+<p>This slip-knot is a very ingenious affair. (See Fig. 23.) In performing
+the spirit-tying, the mediums went into the cabinet with the ropes
+examined by the audience lying coiled at their feet. The doors were
+closed. They had concealed about their persons ropes in which these trick
+knots were already adjusted, and with which they very speedily secured
+themselves, having first secreted the genuine ropes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> Then the doors were
+opened. Seals were affixed to the knots, but this sealing, owing to the
+position of the hands, and the careful exposition of the knots did not
+affect the slipping of the ropes sufficiently to prevent the mediums from
+removing and replacing their hands.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img22.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">NO. 23. TRICK-TIE IN CABINET WORK.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>In the dark séance, flour was sometimes placed in the pinioned hands of
+the Davenports. On being released from their bonds, the flour was found
+undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>This was considered a convincing test; for how could the Brothers possibly
+manipulate the musical instruments with their hands full of flour. One day
+a wag substituted a handful of snuff for flour, and when the mediums were
+examined, the snuff had disappeared and flour taken its place. As will be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+understood, in the above test the Davenports emptied the flour from their
+hands into secret pockets and at the proper moment took out cornucopias of
+flour and filled their hands again before securing themselves in the
+famous slip-knots.</p>
+
+<p>Among the exposés of the Brothers Davenport, Herrmann, the conjurer, gives
+the following in the <i>Cosmopolitan Magazine</i>: “The Davenports, for
+thirteen years, in Europe and America, augmented the faith in
+Spiritualism. Unfortunately for the Davenports they appeared at Ithaca,
+New York, where is situated Cornell University. The students having a
+scientific trend of mind, provided themselves before attending the
+performance with pyrotechnic balls containing phosphorus, so made as to
+ignite suddenly with a bright light. During the dark séance when the
+Davenports were supposed to be bound hand and foot within the closet and
+when the guitars were apparently floating in the air, the students struck
+their lights, whereupon the spirits were found to be no other than the
+Davenports themselves, dodging about the stage brandishing guitars and
+playing tunes and waving at the same time tall poles surmounted by
+phosphorescent spook pictures.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>The Davenports had some stormy experiences in Paris, but managed to come
+through all successfully, with plenty of French gold in their pockets.
+William died in October, 1877, at the Oxford Hotel, Sydney, Australia,
+having publicly denounced Spiritualism. Mr. Fay took to raising sheep in
+Australia, while Ira Davenport drifted back to his old home in Buffalo,
+New York.</p>
+
+<p>Many mediums, taking the cue from the Davenports, have performed the
+cabinet act with its accompanying rope-tying, but the conjurers
+(anti-spiritists) have, with the aid of mechanism, brought the business to
+a high degree of perfection, notably Mr. J. Nevil Maskelyne, of Egyptian
+Hall, London, and Mr. Harry Kellar, of the United States. Writing of the
+Davenport Brothers, Maskelyne says:</p>
+
+<p>“The instantaneous tying and untying was simply marvellous, and it utterly
+baffled everyone to discover, until, on one occasion, the accidental
+falling of a piece of drapery from a window (the lozenge-shaped aperture
+in the door of the cabinet), at a critical moment let me into the secret.
+I was able in a few months to reproduce every item of the Davenports’
+cabinet and dark séance. So close was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> resemblance to the original,
+that <i>the Spiritualist had no alternative but to claim us</i> (Maskelyne and
+Cooke) <i>as most powerful spirit mediums who found it more profitable to
+deny the assistance of spirits</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>Robert-Houdin’s explanation of the slip-knot, used by the Davenports in
+their dark séance, is the correct one, but he failed to fathom the mystery
+of the mode of release of the Brothers after they were tied in the cabinet
+by a committee selected from the audience. Anyone trying to extricate
+himself from bondage <i>a la</i> Houdin, no matter how slippery and serpentine
+he be, would find it exceedingly difficult. It seems almost incredible,
+but trickery was used in the light séance, as well as the dark. Maskelyne,
+as quoted above, claimed to have penetrated the mystery, but he kept it a
+profound secret&mdash;though he declared that his cabinet work was trickery.
+The writer is indebted for an initiation into the mysteries of the
+Davenport Brothers’ rope-tying to Mr. H. Morgan Robinson (Professor
+Helmann), of Washington, D. C., a very clever prestidigitateur.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1895, after an unbroken silence of nineteen years, Fay,
+ex-assistant of the Davenports, determined to resume the profession of
+public medium.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> He abandoned his sheep ranch and hunted up Ira Davenport.
+They gave several performances in Northern towns, and finally landed at
+the Capital of the Nation, in the spring of 1895, and advertised several
+séances at Willard’s Hall. A very small audience greeted them on their
+first appearance. Among the committee volunteering to go on the stage and
+tie the mediums were the writer and Mr. Robinson. After the séance the
+prestidigitateur fully explained the <i>modus operandi</i> of the mystic tie,
+which is herein for the first time correctly given to the public.</p>
+
+<p>The medium holds out his left wrist first and has it tied securely, about
+the middle of the rope. Two members of the committee are directed to pull
+the ends of the cord vigorously. “Are you confident that the knots are
+securely tied?” he asks; when the committee respond “yes,” he puts his
+hand quickly behind him, and places against the wrist, the wrist of his
+right hand, in order that they may be pinioned together. During this rapid
+movement he twists the rope about the knot on his left wrist, thereby
+allowing enough slack cord to disengage his right hand when necessary. To
+slip the right hand back into place is an easy matter. After both hands
+are presumably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> tied, the medium steps into the cabinet; the ends of the
+rope are pushed through two holes in the chair or wooden seat, by the
+committee and made fast to the medium’s legs. Bells ring, horns blow, and
+the performer’s hand is thrust through the window of the cabinet. Finally
+a gentleman is requested to enter the cabinet with the medium. The doors
+are locked and a perfect pandemonium begins; when they are opened the
+volunteer assistant tumbles out in great trepidation. His hat is smashed
+over his eyes, his cravat is tied around his leg, and he is found to have
+on the medium’s coat, while the medium wears the gentleman’s coat turned
+inside out. It all appears very remarkable, but the mystery is cleared up
+when I state that the innocent looking gentleman is invariably a
+confederate, what conjurers call a <i>plant</i>, because he is planted in the
+audience to volunteer for the special act.</p>
+
+<p>Ira and William Davenport were tied in the manner above described. Often
+one of the Brothers allowed himself to be genuinely pinioned, after having
+received a preconcerted signal from his partner that all was right, <i>i.
+e.</i>, the partner had been fastened by the trick tie, calling attention to
+the knots in the cord,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> etc. The trick tie, however, is so delusive, that
+it is impossible to penetrate the secret in the short time allowed the
+committee for investigation, and there is no special reason for permitting
+a genuine tie-up. Once in a great while, the Davenports were over-reached
+by clever committee-men and tied up so tightly that there was no getting
+loose. Where one brother failed to execute the trick and was genuinely
+fastened, the other medium performed the spirit evolutions, and cut his
+“confrere” loose before they came out of the cabinet.</p>
+
+<p>The Fay-Davenport revival proved a failure, and the mediums dissolved
+partnership in Washington. Kellar, the magician and former assistant of
+the original Davenport combination, by a curious coincidence was giving
+his fine conjuring exhibition in the city at the same time. His tricks far
+eclipsed the feeble revival of the rope-tying phenomena. The fickle public
+crowded to see the magician and neglected the mediums.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ANNIE EVA FAY.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most famous of the materializing mediums now exhibiting in the
+United States is Annie<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> Eva Fay. She is quite an adept at the spirit-tying
+business, and like the Davenports, uses a cabinet on the stage, but her
+method of tying, though clever, is inferior to that used by the Brothers
+in their balmy days. In the center of the Fay cabinet (a plain, curtained
+affair) is a post firmly screwed to the stage. The medium permits a
+committee of two from the audience to tie her to this post, and seal the
+bandages about her wrists with court plaster. She then takes her seat upon
+a small stool in front of the stanchion; the musical instruments are
+placed on her lap, and the curtains of the cabinet closed. Immediately the
+evidences of <i>spirit power</i> begin: the bell is jingled, the tambourine
+thumped, and the sound of a horn heard, simultaneously.</p>
+
+<p>The Fay method of tying is designed especially to facilitate the medium’s
+actions. Cotton bandages are used, and the committee are invited to sew
+the knots through and through. Each wrist is tied with a bandage, about an
+inch and a half wide by a half yard in length; and the medium then clasps
+her hands behind her, so that her wrists are about six inches apart. The
+committee now proceed to tie the ends of the bandages firmly together,
+and, after this is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> accomplished, the dangling pieces of the bandages are
+clipped off. It is true, the medium is firmly bound by this process, and
+it would be physically impossible for her to release herself, without
+disturbing the sewing and the seals, but it is not intended for her to
+release herself at all; the method pursued being altogether different from
+the old species of rope-tying. All being secure, the committee are
+requested to pass another bandage about the short ligature between the
+lady’s wrists, and tie it in double square knots, and firmly secure this
+to a ring in the post of the cabinet, the medium being seated on a stool
+in front of the stanchion, facing the audience. Her neck is likewise
+secured to the post by cotton bandages and her feet fastened together with
+a cord, the end of which passes out of the cabinet and is held by one of
+the committee.</p>
+
+<p>The peculiar manner of holding the hands, described above, enables the
+medium to secure for her use, a ligature of knotted cloth between her
+hands, some six inches long; and the central bandage, usually tied in four
+or five double knots, gives her about two inches play between the middle
+of the cotton handcuffs and the ring in the post, to which it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> secured.
+The ring is two and a half inches in diameter, and the staple which holds
+it to the stanchion is a half inch. The left hand of the medium gives six
+additional inches, and the bandage on her wrist slips readily along her
+slender arm nearly half way to the elbow&mdash;“all of which,” says John W.
+Truesdell,<a name='fna_3' id='fna_3' href='#f_3'><small>[3]</small></a> who was the first to expose Miss Fay’s spirit pretensions,
+“gives the spirits a clear leeway of not less than 20 inches from the
+stanchion. The moment the curtain is closed, the medium, under spirit
+influence spreads her hands as far apart as possible, an act which
+stretches the knotted ligature so that the bandage about it will easily
+slip from the centre to either wrist; then, throwing her lithe form by a
+quick movement, to the left, so that her hips will pass the stanchion
+without moving her feet from the floor, the spirits are able, through the
+medium, to reach whatever may have been placed upon her lap.”</p>
+
+<p>One of Annie Eva’s most convincing tests is the accordion which plays,
+after it has been bound fast with tapes and the tapes carefully sealed at
+every note, so as to prevent its being performed on in the regular manner.
+Her method of operating, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> simple, is decidedly ingenious. She
+places a small tube in the valve-hole of the instrument, breathes and
+blows alternately into it, and then by fingering the keys, executes an air
+with excellent effect.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes she places a musical box on an oblong plate of glass suspended
+from the ceiling by four cords. The box plays and stops at word of
+command, much to the astonishment of listeners. “Electricity,” exclaims
+the reader! Hardly so, for the box is completely insulated on the sheet of
+glass. Then how is it done? Mr. Asprey Vere, an investigator of spirit
+phenomena, tells the secret in the following words: (“Modern Magic”). “In
+the box there is placed a balance lever which when the glass is in the
+slightest degree tilted, arrests the fly-fan, and thus prevents the
+machinery from moving. At the word of command the glass is made level, and
+the fly-fan being released, the machinery moves, and a tune is played.
+When commanded to stop, either side of the cord is pulled by a confederate
+behind the scenes, the balance lever drops, the fly-fan is arrested, and
+the music stops.”</p>
+
+<p>One of the tests presented to the American public by this medium is the
+“spirit-hand,” constructed of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> painted wood or <i>papier mache</i>, which raps
+out answers to questions, after it has been isolated from all contact by
+being placed on a sheet of glass supported on the backs of two chairs.</p>
+
+<p>It is a trick performed by every conjurer, and the secret is a piece of
+black silk thread, worked by confederates stationed in the wings of the
+theatre, one at the right, the other at the left. The thread lies along
+the stage when not in use, but at the proper cue from the medium, it is
+lifted up and brought in contact with the wooden hand. The hand is so
+constructed that the palm lies on the glass sheet and the wrist, with a
+fancy lace cuff about it, is elevated an inch above the glass, the whole
+apparatus being so pivoted that a pressure of the thread from above will
+depress the wrist and elevate the palm. When the thread is relaxed the
+hand comes down on the glass with a thump and makes the spirit rap which
+is so effective. A rapping skull made on similar principles is also in
+vogue among mediums.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CHARLES SLADE.</p>
+
+<p>Annie Eva Fay has a rival in Charles Slade, who is a clever performer and
+a most convincing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> talker. His cabinet test is the same as Miss Fay’s, but
+he has other specialties that are worth explaining&mdash;one is the
+“table-raising,” and another is the “spirit neck-tie.” The effect of the
+first experiment is as follows: Slade, with his arms bared and coat
+removed, requests several gentlemen to sit around a long table, reserving
+the head for himself. Hands are placed on the table, and developments
+awaited. “Do you feel the table raising?” asks the medium, after a short
+pause. “We do!” comes the response of the sitters. Slade then rises; all
+stand up, and the table is seen suspended in the air, about a foot from
+the floor of the stage. In a little while an uncontrollable desire seems
+to take possession of the table to rush about the stage. Frequently the
+medium requests several persons to get on the table, but that has no
+effect whatever. The same levitation takes place. The secret of this
+surprising mediumistic test is very simple. In the first place, the man
+who sits at the foot of the table is a confederate. Both medium and
+confederate wear about their waists wide leather belts, ribbed and
+strengthened with steel bands, and supported from the shoulders by bands
+of leather and steel. In the front of each belt is a steel hinge concealed
+by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> vest of the wearer. In the act of sitting down at the table the
+medium and his confederate quickly pull the hinges which catch under the
+top of the table when the sitters rise. The rest of the trick is easily
+comprehended. When the levitation act is finished the hinges are folded up
+and hidden under the vests of the performers.</p>
+
+<p>The “spirit neck-tie” is one of the best things in the whole range of
+mediumistic marvels, and has never to my knowledge been exposed. A rope is
+tied about the medium’s neck with the knots at the back and the ends are
+thrust through two holes in one side of the cabinet, and tied in a bow
+knot on the outside. The holes in the cabinet must be on a level with the
+medium’s neck, after he is seated. The curtains of the cabinet are then
+closed, and the committee requested to keep close watch on the bow-knot on
+the outside of the cabinet. The assistant in a short time pulls back the
+curtain from the cabinet on the side farthest from the medium, and reveals
+a sheeted figure which writes messages and speaks to the spectators. Other
+materializations take place. The curtain is drawn. At this juncture the
+medium is heard calling: “Quick, quick, release me!” The assistant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
+unfastens the bow-knot, the ends of the rope are quickly drawn into the
+cabinet, and the medium comes forward, looking somewhat exhausted, with
+the rope still tied about his neck. The question resolves itself into two
+factors&mdash;either the medium gets loose the neck-tie and impersonates the
+spirits or the materializations are genuine. “Gets loose! But that is
+impossible,” exclaim the committee, “we watched the cord in the closest
+way.” The secret of this surprising feat lies in a clever substitution.
+The tie is genuine, but the medium, after the curtains of the cabinet are
+closed, cuts the cord with a sharp knife, just about the region of the
+throat, and impersonates the ghosts, with the aid of various wigs and
+disguises concealed about him. Then he takes a second cord from his
+pocket, ties it about his neck with the same number of knots as are in the
+original rope and twists the neck-tie around so that these knots will
+appear at the back of his neck. Now, he exclaims, “Quick, quick, unfasten
+the cord.” As soon as his assistant has untied the simple bow knot on the
+outside of the cabinet, the medium quickly pulls the genuine rope into the
+cabinet and conceals it in his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>When he presents himself to the spectators the rope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> about his neck
+(presumed to be the original) is found to be correctly tied and untampered
+with. Much of the effect depends on the rapidity with which the medium
+conceals the original cord and comes out of the cabinet. The author has
+seen this trick performed in parlors, the holes being bored in a door.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Slade makes a great parade in his advertisements about exposing
+the vulgar tricks of bogus mediums, but he says nothing about the secrets
+of his own pet illusions. His exposés are made for the purpose of
+enhancing his own mediumistic marvels.</p>
+
+<p>I insert a verbatim copy of the handbills with which he deluges the
+highways and byways of American cities and towns.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p>
+<div class="note">
+<p class="center"><b><span class="giant">SLADE</span></b></p>
+
+<p class="note">Will fully demonstrate the various methods employed by such renowned
+spiritualistic mediums as Alex. Hume, Mrs. Hoffmann, Prof. Taylor,
+Chas. Cooke, Richard Bishop, Dr. Arnold, and various others,</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><span class="huge">IN PLAIN, OPEN LIGHT.</span></b></p>
+
+<p>Every possible means will be used to enlighten the auditor as to
+whether these so-called wonders are enacted through the aid of spirits
+or are the result of natural agencies.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><i>SUCH PHENOMENA AS</i></b></p>
+
+<div class="container">
+<p class="poetry"><b>Spirit Materializations,</b><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><b>Marvelous Superhuman Visions,</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>Spiritualistic Rappings,</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><b>Slate Writing,</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><b>Spirit Pictures,</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;"><b>Floating Tables and Chairs,</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;"><b>Remarkable Test of the Human Mind,</b></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;"><b>Second Sight Mysteries,</b></span><br />
+<b>A Human Being Isolated from Surrounding Objects</b><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><b>Floating in Mid-Air.</b></span></p></div>
+
+<p>Committees will be selected by the audience to assist SLADE, and to
+report their views as to the why and wherefore of the many strange
+things that will be shown during the evening. This is done so that
+every person attending may learn the truth regarding the tests,
+whether they are genuine, or caused by expert trickery.</p>
+
+<p>Do not class or confound SLADE with the numerous so-called spirit
+mediums and spiritual exposers that travel through the country, like a
+set of roaming vampires, seeking whom they may devour. It is SLADE’S
+object in coming to your city to enlighten the people one way or the
+other as to the real</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><span class="large">TRUTH CONCERNING THESE MYSTERIES.</span></b></p>
+
+<p>Scientific men, and many great men, have believed there was a grain of
+essential truth in the claims of Spiritualism. It was believed more on
+the account of the want of power to deny it than anything else. The
+idea that under some strained and indefinable possibilities the spirit
+of the mortal man may communicate with the spirit of the departed man
+is something that the great heart of humanity is prone to believe, as
+it has faith in future existence. No skeptic will deny any man’s right
+to such a belief, but this little grain of hope has been the
+foundation for such extensive and heartless mediumistic frauds that it
+is constantly losing ground.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><span class="large">A NIGHT OF</span></b><br />
+<b><span class="giant">Wonderful Manifestations</span></b><br />
+<b><span class="huge"><span class="smcap">The Veil Drawn</span></span></b><br />
+So that all may have an insight into the<br />
+<b><span class="giant"><span class="smcap"><i>Spirit World</i></span></span></b><br />
+And behold many things that are<br />
+<b><span class="huge">Strange and Startling.</span></b></p>
+
+<p>The Clergy, the Press, Learned Synods and Councils, Sage Philosophers
+and Scientists, in fact, the whole world have proclaimed these
+Philosophical Idealisms to be an astounding</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><span class="giant">FACT.</span></b></p>
+
+<p class="center"><b><span class="large">YOU ARE BROUGHT</span></b><br />
+<b><span class="huge">Face to Face with the Spirits.</span></b></p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>A SMALL ADMISSION WILL BE CHARGED TO DEFRAY EXPENSES.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">PIERRE L. O. A. KEELER.</p>
+
+<p>Pierre Keeler’s fame as a producer of spirit phenomena rests largely upon
+his materializing séances. It was his materializations that received the
+particular attention of the Seybert Commission. The late Mr. Henry
+Seybert, who was an ardent believer in modern Spiritualism, presented to
+the University of Pennsylvania a sum of money to found a chair of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+philosophy, with the proviso that the University should appoint a
+commission to investigate “all systems of morals, religion or philosophy
+which assume to represent the truth, and particularly of modern
+Spiritualism.” The following gentlemen were accordingly appointed, and
+began their investigations: Dr. William Pepper, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Dr.
+George A. Koenig, Prof. R. E. Thompson, Prof. George S. Fullerton, and Dr.
+Horace H. Furness. Subsequently others were added to the commission&mdash;Dr.
+Coleman Sellers, Dr. James W. White, Dr. Calvin B. Kneer, and Dr. S. Weir
+Mitchell. Dr. Pepper, Provost of the University, was <i>ex-officio</i>
+chairman; Dr. Furness, acting chairman, and Prof. Fullerton, secretary.</p>
+
+<p>Keeler’s materializations are thus described in the report of the
+commission:</p>
+
+<p>“On May 27 the Seybert commission held a meeting at the house of Mr.
+Furness at 8 p. m., to examine the phenomena occurring in the presence of
+Mr. Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a professional medium.</p>
+
+<p>“The medium, Mr. Keeler, is a young man, with well cut features, curly
+brown hair, a small sandy mustache, and rather worn and anxious
+expression;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> he is strongly built, about 5 feet 8 inches high, and with
+rather short, quite broad, and very muscular hands and strong wrists. The
+hands were examined by Dr. Pepper and Mr. Fullerton after the séance.</p>
+
+<p>“The séance was held in Mr. Furness’ drawing-room, and a space was
+curtained off by the medium in the northeast corner, thus, (Fig. 25):</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img23.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 25. PIERRE KEELER’S CABINET SEANCE.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“The curtain is represented by A, B; C, D and E are three chairs, placed
+in front of the curtain by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> medium, in one of which (E) he afterwards
+sat; G denotes the position of Mrs. Keeler; F is a small table, placed
+within the curtain, and upon which was a tambourine, a guitar, two bells,
+a hammer, a metallic ring; the stars show the positions of the spectators,
+who sat in a double row&mdash;the two stars at the top facing the letter A
+indicate the positions taken by Mrs. Kase and Col. Kase, friends of Mr.
+Keeler, according to the directions of the medium.</p>
+
+<p>“The curtain, or rather curtains, were of black muslin, and arranged as
+follows: There was a plain black curtain, which was stretched across the
+corner, falling to the floor. Its height, when in position, was 53 inches;
+it was made thus:</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img24.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 26. PIERRE KEELER’S CABINET CURTAIN.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“The cord which held the curtain was 1, 2, and the flaps which are
+represented as standing above it (A,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> B, C, etc.), fell down over A1, B1,
+C1, etc., and could be made to cover the shoulders of one sitting with his
+back against the curtain. A black curtain was also pinned against the
+wall, in the space curtained off, partly covering it. Another curtain was
+added to the one pictured, as will be described presently.</p>
+
+<p>“The medium asked Col. Kase to say a few words as to the necessity of
+observing the conditions, need of harmony, etc. And then the medium
+himself spoke a few words of similar import. He then drew the curtain
+along the cord (1, 2,) and fastened it; placed three wooden chairs in
+front of the curtain, as indicated in the diagram, and, saying he needed
+to form a battery, asked Miss Agnes Irwin to sit in chair D, and Mr. Yost
+in chair C, the medium himself sitting in chair E. A black curtain was
+then fastened by Mrs. Keeler over Mr. Keeler, Miss Irwin and Mr. Yost,
+being fastened at G, between E and D, between D and C, and beyond A; thus
+entirely covering the three sitting in front of the stretched curtain up
+to their necks; and when the flaps before mentioned were pulled down over
+their shoulders, nothing could be seen but the head of each.</p>
+
+<p>“Before the last curtain was fastened over them,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> the medium placed both
+his hands upon the forearm and wrist of Miss Irwin, the sleeve being
+pulled up for the purpose, and Miss Irwin grasped with her right hand the
+left wrist of Mr. Yost, his right hand being in sight to the right of the
+curtain.</p>
+
+<p>“After some piano music the medium said he felt no power from this
+‘battery,’ and asked Mrs. E. D. Gillespie to take Miss Irwin’s place.
+Hands and curtains were arranged as before. The lights were turned down
+until the room was quite dim. During the singing the medium turned to
+speak to Mr. Yost, and his body, which had before faced rather away from
+the two other persons of the ‘battery’ (which position would have brought
+his right arm out in front of the stretched curtain), was now turned the
+other way, so that had he released his grasp upon Mrs. Gillespie’s arm,
+his own right arm could have had free play in the curtained space behind
+him. His left knee also no longer stood out under the curtain in front,
+but showed a change of position.</p>
+
+<p>“At this time Mrs. Gillespie declared she felt a touch, and soon after so
+did Mr. Yost. The medium’s body was distinctly inclined toward Mr. Yost at
+this time. Mrs. Gillespie said she felt taps, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> declared that, to the
+best of her knowledge, she still felt the medium’s two hands upon her arm.</p>
+
+<p>“Raps indicated that the spirit, George Christy, was present. As one of
+those present played on the piano, the tambourine was played in the
+curtained space and thrown over the curtain; bells were rung; the guitar
+was thrummed a little. At this time the medium’s face was toward Mrs.
+Gillespie, and his right side toward the curtain. His body was further in
+against the curtain than either of the others. Upon being asked, Mrs.
+Gillespie then said she thought she still felt two hands upon her arm.</p>
+
+<p>“The guitar was then thrust out, at least the end of it was, at the bottom
+of the curtain, between Mrs. Gillespie and the medium. Mrs. Keeler drawing
+the curtain from over the toes of the medium’s boots, to show where his
+feet were; the guitar was thrummed a little. Had the medium’s right arm
+been free the thrumming could have been done quite easily with one hand.
+Afterward the guitar was elevated above the curtain; the tambourine, which
+was by Mrs. Keeler placed upon a stick held up within the inclosure, was
+made to whirl by the motion of the stick.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> The phenomena occurred
+successively, not simultaneously.</p>
+
+<p>“When the guitar was held up, and when the tambourine was made to whirl,
+both of these were to the right of the medium, chiefly behind Mrs.
+Gillespie; they were just where they might have been produced by the right
+arm of the medium, had it been free. Two clothes-pins were then passed
+over the curtain, and they were used in drumming to piano music. They
+could easily be used in drumming by one hand alone, the fingers being
+thrust into them. The pins were afterward thrown out over the curtain. Mr.
+Sellers picked one up as soon as it fell, and found it warm in the split,
+as though it had been worn. The drumming was probably upon the tambourine.</p>
+
+<p>“A hand was seen moving rapidly with a trembling motion&mdash;which prevented
+it from being clearly observed&mdash;above the back curtain, between Mr. Yost
+and Mrs. Gillespie. Paper was passed over the curtain into the cabinet and
+notes were soon thrown out. The notes could have been written upon the
+small table within the enclosure by the right hand of the medium, had it
+been free. Mrs. Keeler then passed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> a coat over the curtain, and an arm
+was passed through the sleeve, the fingers, with the cuff around them
+being shown over the curtain. They were kept moving, and a close scrutiny
+was not possible.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Furness was then invited to hold a writing tablet in front of the
+curtain, when the hand, almost concealed by the coat-sleeve and the flaps
+mentioned as attached to the curtain, wrote with a pencil on the tablet.
+The writing was rapid, and the hand, when not writing, was kept in
+constant, tremulous motion. The hand was put forth, in this case not over
+the top curtain, but came from under the flap, and could easily have been
+the medium’s right hand were it disengaged, for it was about on a level
+with his shoulder and to his right, between him and Mrs. Gillespie. Mr.
+Furness was allowed to pass his hand close to the curtain and grasp the
+hand for a moment. It was a right hand.</p>
+
+<p>“Soon after the medium complained of fatigue, and the sitting was
+discontinued. It was declared by the Spiritualists present to be a fairly
+successful séance. When the curtains were removed the small table in the
+enclosure was found to be overturned, and the bells, hammer, etc., on the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>“It is interesting to note the space within which all the manifestations
+occurred. They were, without exception, where they would have been had
+they been produced by the medium’s right arm. Nothing happened to the left
+of the medium, nor very far over to the right. The sphere of activity was
+between the medium and Mr. Yost, and most of the phenomena occurred, as,
+for example, the whirling of the tambourine, behind Mrs. Gillespie.</p>
+
+<p>“The front curtain&mdash;that is, the main curtain which hung across the
+corner&mdash;was 85 inches in length, and the cord which supported it 53 inches
+from the floor. The three chairs which were placed in front of it were
+side by side, and it would not have been difficult for the medium to reach
+across and touch Mr. Yost. When Mrs. Keeler passed objects over the
+curtain, she invariably passed them to the right of the medium, although
+her position was on his left; and the clothes-pins, paper, pencil, etc.,
+were all passed over at a point where the medium’s right hand could easily
+have reached them.</p>
+
+<p>“To have produced the phenomena by using his right hand the medium would
+have had to pass it under the curtain at his back. This curtain was not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+quite hidden by the front one at the end, near the medium, and this end
+both Mr. Sellers and Dr. Pepper saw rise at the beginning of the séance.
+The only thing worthy of consideration, as opposed to a natural
+explanation of the phenomena, was the grasp of the medium’s hand on Mrs.
+Gillespie’s arm.</p>
+
+<p>“The grasp was evidently a tight one above the wrist, for the arm was
+bruised for about four inches. There was no evidence of a similar pressure
+above that, as the marks on the arm extended in all about five or six
+inches only. The pressure was sufficient to destroy the sensibility of the
+forearm, and it is doubtful whether Mrs. Gillespie, with her arm in such a
+condition could distinguish between the grasp of one hand, with a divided
+pressure (applied by the two last fingers and the thumb and index) and a
+double grip by two hands. Three of our number, Mr. Sellers, Mr. Furness,
+and Dr. White, can, with one hand, perfectly simulate the double grip.</p>
+
+<p>“It is specially worthy of note that Mrs. Gillespie declared that, when
+the medium first laid hold of her arms with his right hand before the
+curtain was put over them, it was with an undergrip, and she felt his
+right arm under her left. But when the medium<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> asked her if she felt both
+his hands upon her arm, and she said, yes, she could feel the grasp, but
+no arm under hers, though she moved her elbow around to find it&mdash;she felt
+a hand, but not an arm, and at no time during the séance did she find that
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>“It should be noted that both the medium and Mr. Yost took off their coats
+before being covered with the curtain. It was suggested by Dr. Pepper that
+this might have been required by the medium as a precaution against
+movements on the part of Mr. Yost. The white shirt-sleeves would have
+shown against the black background.”</p>
+
+<p>I attended a number of Keeler’s materializing exhibitions in Washington,
+D. C., in the spring of 1895, and it is my opinion that the writing of his
+so-called spirit messages is a simple affair, the very long and elaborate
+ones being written before the séance begins and the short ones by the
+medium during the sitting. The latter are done in a scrawling, uncertain
+hand, just such penmanship one would execute when blindfolded.</p>
+
+<p>The evidence of Dr. G. H. La Fetra, of Washington, D. C., is sufficiently
+convincing on this point. Said Dr. La Fetra to me: “Some years ago I went
+with a friend,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> Col. Edward Hayes, to one of Mr. Keeler’s light séances.
+It was rather early in the evening, and but few persons had assembled.
+Upon the mantel piece of the séance-room were several tablets of paper.
+Unobserved, I took up these tablets, one at a time, and drew the blade of
+my pen-knife across one end of each of them, so that I might identify the
+slips of paper torn therefrom by the nicks in them. In a little while, the
+room was filled with people, and the séance began; the gas being lowered
+to a dim religious light. When the time came for the writing, Mr. Keeler
+requested that some of the tablets of paper on the mantel be passed into
+the cabinet. This was done. Various persons present received ‘spirit’
+communications, the slips of paper being thrown over the curtain of the
+cabinet by a ‘materialized’ hand. Some gentleman picked up the papers and
+read them, for the benefit of the spectators; afterwards he laid aside
+those not claimed by anybody. Some of these ‘spirit’ communications
+covered almost an entire slip. These were carefully written, some of them
+in a fine hand. The short messages were roughly scrawled. After the
+séance, Col. Hayes and myself quietly pocketed a dozen or more of the
+slips. The next morning at my office we carefully examined them. In every
+instance, we found<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> that the well-written, lengthy messages were inscribed
+on <i>unnicked</i> slips, the short ones being written on <i>nicked</i> slips.”</p>
+
+<p>To me, this evidence of Dr. La Fetra seems most conclusive, proving beyond
+the shadow of a doubt that Keeler prepared his long communications before
+the séance and had them concealed upon his person, throwing them out of
+the cabinet at the proper moment. He used the <i>nicked</i> tablets for his
+short messages, written on the spot, thereby completely revealing his
+method of operating to the ingenious investigator.</p>
+
+<p>The late Dr. Leonard Caughey, of Baltimore, Maryland, an intimate friend
+of the writer, made a specialty of anti-Spiritualistic tricks, and among
+others performed this cabinet test of Keeler’s. He bought the secret from
+a broken-down medium for a few dollars, and added to it certain effects of
+his own, that far surpassed any of Keeler’s. The writer has seen Dr.
+Caughey give the tests, and create the utmost astonishment. His
+improvement on the trick consisted in the use of a spring clasp like those
+used by gentlemen bicycle riders to keep their trousers in at the ankles.
+One end terminated in a soft rubber or chamois skin tip, shaped like a
+thumb, the other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> end had four representations of fingers. Two wire rings
+were soldered on the back of the clasp. This apparatus he had concealed
+under his vest. Before the curtain of the cabinet was drawn, Dr. Caughey
+grasped the arm of the lady on his right in the following manner: The
+thumb of his left hand under her wrist, the fingers extended above it; the
+thumb of his right hand resting on the thumb of the left, the fingers
+lightly resting on the fingers of the left hand. As soon as the curtain
+was fastened he extended the fourth and index fingers of the left hand to
+the fullest extent and pressed hard upon the lady’s arm, relaxing at the
+same time the pressure of his second and third fingers. This movement
+exactly simulates the grasp of two hands, and enables the medium to take
+away his right hand altogether. Dr. Caughey then took his spring clasp,
+opened it by inserting his thumb and first finger in the soldered rings
+above mentioned, and lightly fastened it on the lady’s arm near the wrist,
+relaxing the pressure of the first and fourth fingers of the left hand at
+the same moment. “I will slide my right hand along your arm, and grasp you
+near the elbow. It will relieve the pressure about your wrist; besides be
+more convincing to you that there is no trickery.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> So saying, he quickly
+slid the apparatus along her arm, and left it in the position spoken of.
+This produces a perfect illusion, the clasp with its trick thumb and
+fingers working to perfection.</p>
+
+<p>This apparatus may also be used in the following manner: Roll up your
+sleeves and exhibit your hands to the sitter. Tell him you are going to
+stand behind him and grasp his arms firmly near the shoulders. Take your
+position immediately under the gas jet. Ask him to please lower the light.
+Produce the trick clasps, distend them by means of your thumbs and
+fingers, and after the gas is lowered, grasp the sitter in the manner
+described. Remove your fingers and thumbs lightly from the clasps and
+perform various mediumistic evolutions, such as writing a message on a pad
+or slate placed on the sitter’s head; strike him gently on his cheek with
+a damp glove, etc. When the séance is over, insert your fingers and thumbs
+in the soldered rings, remove the clasps and conceal them quickly.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">EUSAPIA PALADINO.</p>
+
+<p>The materializing medium who has caused the greatest sensation since
+Home’s death is Eusapia<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> Paladino, an Italian peasant woman. Signor
+Damiani, of Florence, Italy, discovered her alleged psychical powers in
+1875, and brought her into notice. An Italian Count was so impressed with
+the manifestations witnessed in the presence of the illiterate peasant
+woman, that he insisted upon “a commission of scientific men being called
+to investigate them.” In the year 1884, this commission held séances with
+Eusapia, and afterwards declared that the phenomena <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>witnessed were
+inexplicable, and unquestionably the result of forces transcending
+ordinary experience. In the year 1892 another commission was formed in
+Milan to test Eusapia’s powers as a medium, and from this period her fame
+dates, as the most remarkable psychic of modern times. The report drawn up
+by this commission was signed by Giovanni Schiaparelli, director of the
+Astronomical Observatory, Milan; Carl du Prel, doctor of philosophy,
+Munich; Angelo Brofferio, professor of physics in the Royal School of
+Agriculture, Portici; G. B. Ermacora, doctor of physics; Giorgio Finzi,
+doctor of physics. At some of the sittings were present Charles Richet and
+the famous Cesare Lombroso. The conclusion arrived at by these gentlemen
+was that Eusapia’s mediumistic phenomena were most worthy of scientific
+attention, and were unfathomable. The medium reaped the benefit of this
+notoriety, and gave sittings to hundreds of investigators among the
+Italian nobility, charging as high as $500 for a single séance. At last
+she was exposed by a clever American, Dr. Richard Hodgson, of Boston,
+secretary of the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research.
+His account of the affair, communicated to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> the <i>New York Herald</i>, Jan.
+10, 1897, is very interesting. Speaking of the report of the Milan
+commission, he says:</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img25.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 27. EUSAPIA PALADINO.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img26.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 28. EUSAPIA BEFORE THE SCIENTISTS.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>“Their report confessed to seeing and hearing many strange things,
+although they believed they had the hands and feet of the psychic so
+closely held that she could have had nothing to do with the
+manifestations.</p>
+
+<p>“Chairs were moved, bells were rung, imprints of fingers were made on
+smoked paper and soft clay, apparitions of hands appeared on slightly
+luminous backgrounds, the chair of the medium and the medium herself were
+lifted to the table, the sound of trumpets, the contact of a seemingly
+human face, the touch of human hands, warm and moist, all were felt.</p>
+
+<p>“Most of these phenomena were repeated, and the members of the commission
+were, with two exceptions, satisfied that no known power could have
+produced them. Professor Richet did not sign the report, but induced
+Signora Eusapia to go to an island he owned in the Mediterranean, where
+other exacting tests were made under other scientific eyes. The
+investigators all agreed that the demonstrations could not be accounted
+for by ordinary forces.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>“I have found in my experience that learned scientific men are the most
+easily duped of any in the world. Instead of having a cold, inert piece of
+matter to investigate by exact processes and microscopic inspections, they
+had a clever, bright woman doing her best to mystify them. They could not
+cope with her.</p>
+
+<p>“Professor Richet replied to an article I wrote, upholding his position,
+and brought Signora Eusapia Paladino to Cambridge, England, where I joined
+the investigating committee. In the party were Professor Lodge, of
+Liverpool; Professor F. M. C. Meyer, secretary of the British Society for
+Psychical Research; Professor Richet and Mr. Henry Sedgwick, president of
+the society.</p>
+
+<p>“I found that the psychic, though giving a great variety of events,
+confined them to a very limited scope. She was seated during the tests at
+the end of a rectangular table and when the table was lifted it rose up
+directly at the other end. It was always so arranged that she was in the
+dark, even if the rest of the table was in the light; in the so-called
+light séances it was not light, the lamp being placed in an adjoining
+room. There were touches, punches and blows given, minor objects moved,
+some near and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> some further away; the outline of faces and hands appeared,
+etc.</p>
+
+<p>“When I came to hold her hands I found a key to the mystery.</p>
+
+<p>“It was chiefly that she made one hand and one foot do the work of both,
+by adroit substitution. Given a free hand and a free foot, and nearly all
+the phenomena can be explained. She has very strong, supple hands, with
+deft fingers and great coolness and intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>“This is the way she substituted one hand for both. She placed one of her
+hands over A’s hand and the other under B’s hand. Then, in the movements
+of the arms during the manifestation, she worked her hands toward each
+other until they rested one upon the other, with A’s hand at the bottom of
+the pile, B’s at the top and both her own, one upon the other, between. To
+draw out one hand and leave one and yet have the investigators feel that
+they still had a hand was easy.</p>
+
+<p>“With this hand free and in darkness there were great possibilities. There
+were strings, also, as I believe, which were attached to different objects
+and moved them. The dim outlines of faces and hands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> seen were clever
+representations of the medium’s own free hand in various shapes.</p>
+
+<p>“It is thought that if a medium was kept clapping her hands she could do
+nothing with them, but one of the investigators found the Signora slapping
+her face with one hand, producing just the same sound as if her hands met,
+while the other hand was free to produce mysterious phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>“I have tried the experiment of shifting hands when those who held them
+knew they were going to be tricked, and yet they did not discover when I
+made the exchange. I am thoroughly satisfied that Signora Eusapia Paladino
+is a clever trickster.”</p>
+
+<p>Eusapia Paladino was by no means disconcerted by Dr. Hodgson’s exposé, but
+continued giving her séances. At the present writing she is continuing
+them in France with a number of new illusions. Many who have had sittings
+with her declare that she is able to move heavy objects without contact.
+Possibly this is due to jugglery, or it may be due to some psychic force
+as yet not understood.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">F. W. TABOR.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. F. W. Tabor is a materializing medium whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> specialty is the trumpet
+test for the production of spirit voices. I had a sitting with him at the
+house of Mr. X, of Washington, D. C., on the night of Jan. 10, 1897. Seven
+persons, including the medium, sat around an ordinary-sized table in Mr.
+X&mdash;’s drawing room, and formed a chain of hands, in the following manner:
+Each person placed his or her hands on the table with the thumbs crossed,
+and the little fingers of each hand touching the little fingers of the
+sitters on the right and left. A musical box was set going and the light
+was turned out by Mr. X&mdash;, who broke the circle for that purpose, but
+immediately resumed his old position at the table. A large speaking
+trumpet of tin about three feet long had been placed upright in the center
+of the table, and near it was a pad of paper, and pencils. We waited
+patiently for some little time, the monotony being relieved by operatic
+airs from the music box, and the singing of hymns by the sitters. There
+were convulsive twitchings of the hands and feet of the medium, who
+complained of tingling sensations in those members. The first “phenomena”
+produced were balls of light dancing like will-o’-the-wisps over the
+table, and the materialization of a luminous spirit hand. Taps upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>
+table signalled the arrival of Mr. Tabor’s spirit control, “Jim,” a little
+newsboy, of San Francisco, who was run over some years ago by a street
+car. The medium was the first person who picked up the wounded waif and
+endeavored to administer to him, but without avail. “Jim” died soon after,
+and his disembodied spirit became the medium’s control. Soon the trumpet
+arose from the table and floated over the heads of the sitters, and the
+voice of “Jim” was heard, sepulchral and awe-inspiring, through the
+instrument. Subsequently, messages of an impersonal character were
+communicated to Mr. X&mdash; and his wife. At one time the trumpet was heard
+knocking against the chandelier. During the séance several of the ladies
+experienced the clasp of a ghostly hand about their wrists, and
+considerable excitement was occasioned thereby.</p>
+
+<p>It is not a difficult matter to explain this trumpet test. It hinges on
+one fact, <i>freedom of the medium’s right hand</i>! In all of these holding
+tests, the medium employs a subterfuge to release his hands without the
+knowledge of the sitter on his right. During his convulsive twitchings, he
+quickly jerks his right hand away, but immediately extends the fingers of
+his left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> hand, and connects the index fingers with the little finger of
+the sitter’s left hand, thereby completing the chain, or “battery,” as it
+is technically called. Were the medium to use his thumb in making the
+connection the secret would be revealed, but the index finger of his left
+hand sufficiently simulates a little finger, and in the darkness the
+sitter is deceived. The right hand once released, the medium manipulates
+the trumpet and the phosphorescent spirit hands to his heart’s content.
+Sometimes he utilizes the telescopic rod, or a pair of steel “crazy
+tongs,” to elevate the trumpet to the ceiling. This holding test is
+absurdly simple and perhaps for that reason is so convincing.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tabor has another method of holding which is far more deceptive than
+the above. I am indebted to the “Revelations of a Spirit Medium” for an
+explanation of this test. “The investigators are seated in a circle around
+the table, male and female alternating. The person sitting on the medium’s
+right&mdash;for he sits in the circle&mdash;grasps the medium’s right wrist in his
+left hand, while his own right wrist is held by the sitter on his right
+and this is repeated clear around the circle. This makes each sitter hold
+the right wrist of his left hand neighbor in his left hand, while his own
+right<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> hand wrist is held in the left hand of his neighbor on the left.
+Each one’s hands are thus secured and engaged, including the medium’s. It
+will be seen that no one of the sitters can have the use of his or her
+hands without one or the other of their neighbors knowing it. As each hand
+was held by a separate person, you cannot understand how he [the medium]
+could get the use of either of them except the one on his right was a
+confederate. Such was not the case, and still he <i>did</i> have the use of one
+hand, the right one. But how? He took his place before the light was
+turned down, and those holding him say he did not let go for an instant
+during the séance. He did though, after the light was turned out for the
+purpose of getting his handkerchief to blow his nose. After blowing his
+nose he requested the sitter to again take his wrist, which is done, but
+this time it is the wrist of the left hand instead of the right. He has
+crossed his legs and there is but one knee to be felt, hence the sitter on
+the right does not feel that she is reaching across the right knee and
+thinks it is the left knee which she does feel to be the right. He has let
+his hand slip down until instead of holding the sitter on his left by the
+wrist he has him by the fingers, thus allowing him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> a little more
+distance, and preventing the left hand sitter using the hand to feel about
+and discover the right hand sitter’s hand on the wrist of the hand holding
+his. You will see, now, that although both sitters are holding the same
+hand each one thinks he is holding the one on his or her side of the
+medium. The balance of the séance is easy.”</p>
+
+<p>An amusing incident happened during my sitting with Mr. Tabor. Growing
+somewhat weary waiting for him to “manifest,” I determined to undertake
+some materializations on my own account. I adopted the subterfuge of
+getting my right hand loose from the lady on my right, and produced the
+spirit hand that clasped the wrist of several of the sitters in the
+circle. Mr. X&mdash; asked “Jim” if everything was all right in the circle,
+every hand promptly joined, and the magnetic conditions perfect. “Jim”
+responded with three affirmative taps on the table top. I congratulate
+myself on having deceived “Jim,” a spirit operating in the fourth
+dimension of space, and supposedly cognizant of all that was transpiring
+at the séance. Once, when the medium was floating the trumpet over my
+head, I grasped the instrument and dashed it on the table. He made no
+further attempt to manipulate the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> trumpet in my direction, and very
+shortly brought the séance to a close. No written communications were
+received during the evening.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">4. Spirit Photography.</p>
+
+<p>You may deceive the human eye, say the advocates of spirit
+materializations, but you cannot deceive the eye of science, the
+<i>photographic camera</i>. Then they triumphantly produce the spirit
+photograph as indubitable evidence of the reality of ghostly
+materializations. “Spirit photography,” says the late Alexandre Herrmann,
+in an article on magic, published in the <i>Cosmopolitan Magazine</i>, “was the
+invention of a man in London, and for ten years Spiritualists accepted the
+pictures as genuine representations of originals in the spirit land. The
+snap kodak has superseded the necessity of the explanation of spirit
+photography.”</p>
+
+<p>To be more explicit, there are two ways of producing spirit photographs,
+by <i>double printing</i> and by <i>double exposure</i>. In the first, the scene is
+printed from one negative, and the spirit printed in from another. In the
+second method, the group with the friendly spook in proper position is
+arranged, and the lens of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> the camera uncovered, half of the required
+exposure being given; then the lens is capped, and the person doing duty
+as the sheeted ghost gets out of sight, and the exposure is completed. The
+result is very effective when the picture is printed, the real persons
+being represented sharp and well defined, while the ghost is but a hazy
+outline, transparent, through which the background shows.</p>
+
+<p>Every one interested in psychic phenomena who makes a pilgrimage to the
+Capital of the Nation visits the house of Dr. Theodore Hansmann. For ten
+years Dr. Hansmann has been an ardent student of Spiritualism, and has had
+sittings with many celebrated mediums. The walls of his office are
+literally covered with spirit pictures of famous people of history,
+executed by spirits under supposed test conditions. There are drawings in
+color by Raphael, Michel Angelo, and others. In one corner of the room is
+a book-case filled with slates, upon the surfaces of which are messages
+from the famous dead, attested by their signatures.</p>
+
+<p>In the fall of 1895, a correspondent of the <i>New York Herald</i> interviewed
+Doctor Hansmann on the subject of spirit photographs, and subsequently
+visited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> the United States Bureau of Ethnology, where an interview was had
+with Mr. Dinwiddie, an expert photographer. Here is the substance of this
+second interview, published in the <i>Herald</i>, Nov. 9, 1895.</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Hansmann’s collection of ‘spirit’ photographs is most interesting.
+There is one with the face of the Empress Josephine, and on the same plate
+is the head of Professor Darius Lyman, for a long time Chief of the Bureau
+of Navigation. The head of the Empress Josephine has a diadem around it,
+and the lights and shadows remind one of the well known portrait of her.
+On another plate are Grant and Lincoln, Among his other photographs Dr.
+Hansmann brought out one of a man who was described to me as an Indian
+agent. Around his head were eleven smaller ‘spirit’ heads of Indians. In
+looking at the blue print closely it seemed to me as if I had seen those
+identical heads&mdash;the same as to light, shade and posing&mdash;somewhere before.</p>
+
+<p>“I was aided at the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution by
+Mr. F. Webb Hodge, the acting director, who on looking at the blue print
+named the Indians directly; several of the pictures were of Indians still
+alive. This, of course, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>immediately disposed of the idea of the blue
+print Indians being spirits.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img27.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 29&mdash;SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.<br />[Taken by the Author.]</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>“Moreover, Mr. Dinwiddie produced the negatives containing the identical
+portraits of these Indians and made me several proofs, which on a
+comparison, feature by feature, light for light, and shade for shade, show
+unquestionably that the faces on the blue print are copies of the
+portraits made by the photographer of the Bureau of Ethnology.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Dinwiddie asked me to sit down for awhile, and offered to make me
+some spirit photographs. This he did, and the results obtained may be
+considered as far better examples of the art of ‘spirit’ photography than
+those of the medium, Keeler.</p>
+
+<p>“The matter was very simply done. Mr. Dinwiddie asked one of the ladies
+from the office to come in, and, she consented to pose as a spirit. She
+was placed before the camera at a distance of about six feet, a red
+background was given her, so that it might photograph dark, and she was
+asked to put on a saintly expression. This she did, and Mr. Dinwiddie gave
+the plate a half-second exposure. Another head was taken on the other side
+of the plate in much the same manner. After this was done the other or
+central<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> photograph was taken with an exposure of four seconds, the plate
+being rather sensitive.</p>
+
+<p>“The plate was then taken to the dark room and developed. The negative
+came out very well at first, and the halo was put on afterward, when the
+plate had been dried. The halo was made by rubbing vignetting paste on the
+back, thus shutting out the light and leaving the paper its original hue.
+The white shadowy heads which are frequently shown in black coats, and
+which the mediums claim cannot be explained, are also done in this manner
+with vignetting paste, the picture being afterward centred over these
+places, which will be white, the final result showing soft and indefinite,
+and giving the required spiritual look.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Dinwiddie did not attempt to produce the hazy effect, but this is
+very easily accomplished in the photograph by taking the spirit heads a
+trifle out of focus. He claims that all of these apparent spiritual
+manifestations are but tricks of photography, and ones which might be
+accomplished by the veriest tyro, if he were to study the matter, and give
+his time to the experiment. It is only a wonder that the mediums do not do
+more of it.</p>
+
+<p>“The photograph mediums have always claimed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>that they were set upon by
+photographers for business reasons, but Mr. Dinwiddie is employed by the
+government and has no interests whatever in such a dispute.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img28.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 30&mdash;SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH BY PRETENDED MEDIUM.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>The eminent authority on photography, Mr. Walter E. Woodbury, gives many
+interesting exposes of mediumistic photographs in his work, “Photographic
+Amusements,” which the student of the subject would do well to consult.
+Fig. 30, taken from “Photographic Amusements” is a reproduction of a
+“spirit” photograph made by a photographer claiming to be a medium. Says
+Mr. Woodbury: “Fortunately, however, we were in this case able to expose
+the fraud. Mr. W. M. Murray, a prominent member of the Society of Amateur
+Photographers of New York, called our attention to the similarity between
+one of the ‘spirit’ images and a portrait painting by Sichel, the artist.
+A reproduction of the picture (Fig 31) is given herewith, and it will be
+seen at once that the ‘spirit’ image is copied from it.”</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">5. Thought Photography.</p>
+
+<p>During the year 1896 considerable stir was created by the investigation of
+Dr. Hippolyte Baraduc, of Paris, in the line of “Thought Photography,”
+which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> is of interest to psychic investigators generally. Dr. Baraduc
+claimed to have gotten photographic impressions of his thoughts, “made
+without sunlight or electricity or contact of any material kind.” These
+impressions he declared to be subjective, being his own personal
+vibrations, the result of a force emanating from the human personality,
+supra-mechanical, or spiritual. The experiments were carried on in a dark
+room, and according to his statement were highly successful. In a
+communication to an American correspondent, printed in the <i>New York
+Herald</i>, January 3, 1897, he writes: “I have discovered a human, invisible
+light, differing altogether from the cathode rays discovered by Prof.
+Roentgen.” Dr. Baraduc advanced the theory that our souls must be
+considered as centers of luminous forces, owing their existence partly to
+the attraction and partly to the repulsion of special and potent forces
+bred of the invisible cosmos.</p>
+
+<p>A number of French scientific journals took up the matter, and discussed
+“Thought Photography” at length, publishing numerous reproductions of the
+physician’s photographs; but the more conservative journals of England,
+Germany and America remained silent on the subject, as it seemed to be on
+the borderland <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>between science and charlatanry. On January 11, 1897,
+the American newspapers contained an item to the effect that Drs. S.
+Millington Miller and Carleton Simon, of New York City, the former a
+specialist in brain physiology, and the latter an expert hypnotist, had
+succeeded in obtaining successful thought photographs on dry plates from
+two hypnotized subjects. When the subjects were not hypnotized, the
+physicians reported no results.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img29.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 31&mdash;SIGEL’S ORIGINAL PICTURE OF FIG 30.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>As “Thought Photography” is without the pale of known physical laws,
+stronger evidence is needed to support the claims made for it than that
+which has been adduced by the French and American investigators. “Thought
+Photography” once established as a scientific fact, we shall have,
+perhaps, an explanation of genuine spirit photographs, if such there be.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">6. Apparitions of the Dead.</p>
+
+<p>In my chapter on subjective phenomena, I have not recorded any cases of
+phantasms of the dead, though several interesting examples of such have
+come under my notice. I have thought it better to refer the reader to the
+voluminous reports of the Society for Psychical Research (England). In
+regard to these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> cases, the Society has reached the following conclusion:
+<i>Between deaths and apparitions of dying persons a connection exists which
+is not due to chance alone. This we hold as a proved fact.</i></p>
+
+<p>The “<i>Literary Digest</i>,” January 12, 1895, in reviewing this report, says:
+“Inquiries were instituted in 17,000 cases of alleged apparitions. These
+inquiries elicited 1,249 replies from persons [in England and Wales] who
+affirmed that they themselves had seen the apparitions. Then the Society
+by further inquiries and cross-examinations sifted out all but eighty of
+these as discredited in some way, by error of memory or illusions of
+identity, or for some other reason, or which could be accounted for by
+common psychical laws. Of these eighty, fifty more were thrown out, to be
+on the safe side, and the remaining thirty are used as a basis for
+scientific consideration. All these consisted of apparitions of dead
+persons appearing to others within twelve hours after death, and many of
+them appearing at the very hour and even the very minute of death. The
+full account of the investigation is published in the tenth volume of the
+Society’s Reports, under the title, ‘A Census of Hallucinations,’ and
+Prof. J. H. Hyslop, of Columbia College, wrote an article<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> giving the gist
+of the report and his comments in the ‘<i>Independent</i>,’ (December 27,
+1895), from which I cull these few notable paragraphs:</p>
+
+<p>“‘The committee which conducted the research reasons as follows: Since the
+death rate of England is 19.15 out of every thousand, the chances of any
+person’s dying on any particular day are one in 19,000 (the ratio of 19.15
+to 365 times 1,000). Out of 19,000 death apparitions, therefore, one can
+be explained as a simple coincidence. But thirty apparitions out of 1,300
+cases is in the proportion of 440 out of 19,000, so that to refer these
+thirty well-authenticated apparitions to coincidence is deemed
+impossible.’</p>
+
+<p>“And further on:</p>
+
+<p>“‘This is remarkable language for the signatures of Prof. and Mrs.
+Sidgwick, than whom few harder-headed skeptics could be found. It is more
+than borne out, however, by a consideration which the committee does not
+mention, but which the facts entirely justify, and it is that since many
+of the apparitions occurred not merely on the day, but at the very hour or
+minute of death, the improbability of their explanation by chance is
+really much greater than the figures here given. That the apparition
+should occur within<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> the hour of death the chance should be 1 to 356,000,
+or at the minute of death 1 to 21,360,000. To get 30 cases, therefore,
+brought down to these limits we should have to collect thirty times these
+numbers of apparitions. Either these statistics are of no value in a study
+of this kind, or the Society’s claim is made out that there is either a
+telepathic communication between the dying and those who see their
+apparitions, or some causal connection not yet defined or determined by
+science. That this connection may be due to favorable conditions in the
+subject of the hallucination is admitted by the committee, if the person
+having the apparition is suffering from grief or anxiety about the person
+concerned. But it has two replies to such a criticism. The first is the
+query how and why under the circumstances does this effect coincide
+generally with the death of the person concerned, when anxiety is extended
+over a considerable period. The second is a still more triumphant reply,
+and it is that a large number of the cases show that the subject of the
+apparition has no knowledge of the dying person’s sickness, place, or
+condition. In that case there is no alternative to searching elsewhere for
+the cause. If telepathy or thought transference will not explain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> the
+connection, resort must be had to some most extraordinary hypothesis. Most
+persons will probably accept telepathy as the easiest way out of the
+difficulty, though I am not sure that we are limited to this, the easiest
+explanation.’</p>
+
+<p>“Professor Hyslop then proceeds to consider the effect of the committee’s
+conclusion upon existing theories and speculations regarding the relations
+between mind and matter, and foresees with gratification as well as
+apprehension the revolt likely to be initiated against materialism and
+which may go so far as to discredit science and carry us far back to the
+credulous conditions of the Middle Ages. He says:</p>
+
+<p>“‘The point which the investigations of the Society for Psychical Research
+have already reached creates a question of transcendent interest, no
+matter what the solution of it may be, and will stimulate in the near
+future an amount of psychological and theological speculation of the most
+hasty and crude sort, which it will require the profoundest knowledge of
+mental phenomena, normal and abnormal, and the best methods of science to
+counteract, and to keep within the limits of sober reason. The hardly won
+conquests of intellectual freedom and self-control can easily be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
+overthrown by a reaction that will know no bounds and which it will be
+impossible to regulate. Though there may be some moral gain from the
+change of beliefs, as will no doubt be the case in the long run, we have
+too recently escaped the intellectual, religious, and political tyranny of
+the Middle Ages to contemplate the immediate consequences of the reaction
+with any complacency. But no one can calculate the enormous effect upon
+intellectual, social, and political conditions which would ensure upon the
+reconciliation of science and religion by the proof of immortality.”</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>
+<h3>IV. CONCLUSIONS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In my investigations of the physical phenomena of modern spiritualism, I
+have come to the following conclusion: While the majority of mediumistic
+manifestations are due to conjuring, there is a class of cases not
+ascribable to trickery, namely, those coming within the domain of psychic
+force&mdash;as exemplified by the experiments of Gasparin, Crookes, Lodge,
+Asakoff and Coues. In regard to the subjective phenomena, I am convinced
+that the recently annunciated law of telepathy will account for them. <i>I
+discredit the theory of spirit intervention.</i> If this be a correct
+conclusion, is there anything in mediumistic phenomena that will
+contribute to the solution of the problem of the immortality of the soul?
+I think there is. The existence of a subjective or subliminal
+consciousness in man, as illustrated in the phenomena mentioned, seems to
+indicate that the human personality is really a spiritual entity,
+possessed of unknown resources, and capable of preserving its identity
+despite the shock of time and the grave. Hudson says: “It is clear that
+the power<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> of telepathy has nothing in common with objective methods of
+communications between mind and mind; and that it is not the product of
+muscle or nerve or any physiological combination whatever, but rather sets
+these at naught, with their implications of space and time.... When
+disease seizes the physical frame and the body grows feeble, the objective
+mind invariably grows correspondingly weak.... In the meantime, as the
+objective mind ceases to perform its functions, the subjective mind is
+most active and powerful. The individual may never before have exhibited
+any psychic power, and may never have consciously produced any psychic
+phenomena; yet at the supreme moment his soul is in active communication
+with loved ones at a distance, and the death message is often, when
+psychic conditions are favorable, consciously received. The records of
+telepathy demonstrate this proposition. Nay, more; they may be cited to
+show that in the hour of death the soul is capable of projecting a
+phantasm of such strength and objectivity that it may be an object of
+personal experience to those for whom it is intended. Moreover, it has
+happened that telepathic messages have been sent by the dying, at the
+moment of dissolution, giving all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> particulars of the tragedy, when
+the death was caused by an unexpected blow which crushed the skull of the
+victim. It is obvious that in such cases it is impossible that the
+objective mind could have participated in the transaction. The evidence is
+indeed overwhelming, that, no matter what form death may assume, whether
+caused by lingering disease, old age, or violence, the subjective mind is
+never weakened by its approach or its presence. On the other hand, that
+the objective mind weakens with the body and perishes with the brain, is a
+fact confirmed by every-day observation and universal experience.”</p>
+
+<p>This hypothesis of the objective and subjective minds has been criticised
+by many psychologists on the ground of its extreme dualism. No such
+dualism exists, they contend. However, Hudson’s theory is only a working
+hypothesis at best, to explain certain extraordinary facts in human
+experience. Future investigators may be able to throw more light on the
+subject. But this one thing may be enunciated: <i>Telepathy is an
+incontrovertible fact</i>, account for it as you may, a physical force or a
+spiritual energy. If physical, then it does not follow any of the known
+operations of physical laws as established by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> modern science, especially
+in the case of transmission of thought at a distance.</p>
+
+<p>It is true, that all evidence in support of telepathic communications is
+more or less <i>ex parte</i> in character, and does not possess that validity
+which orthodox science requires of investigators. Any student of the
+physical laws of matter can make investigations for himself, and at any
+time, provided he has the proper apparatus. Explain to a person that water
+is composed of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, and he can easily verify
+the fact for himself by combining the gases, in the combination of H<sub>2</sub>O,
+and afterwards liberate them by a current of electricity. But experiments
+in telepathy and clairvoyance cannot be made at will; they are isolated in
+character, and consequently are regarded with suspicion by orthodox
+science. Besides this, they transcend the materialistic theories of
+science as regards the universe, and one is almost compelled to use the
+old metaphysical terms of mind and matter, body and soul, in describing
+the phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>It is an undoubted fact that science has broken away from the old theory
+regarding the distinction between mind and matter. Says Prof. Wm. Romaine
+Newbold,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> “In the scientific world it has fallen into such disfavor that
+in many circles it is almost as disgraceful to avow belief in it as in
+witchcraft or ghosts.” We have to-day a school of
+“physiological-psychology,” calling itself “psychology without a soul.”
+This school is devoted to the laboratory method of studying mind. “The
+laboratory method,” says Roark, in his “Psychology in Education,” “is
+concerned mostly with <i>physiological</i> psychology, which is, after all,
+only <i>physiology</i>, even though it be the physiology of the nervous system
+and the special organs of sense&mdash;the material tools of the mind. And after
+physiological psychology has had its rather prolix say, causal connection
+of the physical organs with psychic action is as obscure and impossible of
+explanation as ever. But the laboratory method can be of excellent service
+in determining the material conditions of mental action, in detecting
+special deficiencies and weaknesses, and in accumulating valuable
+statistics along these lines.</p>
+
+<p>“It has been asserted that no science can claim to be exact until it can
+be reduced to formulas of weights and measures. The assertion begs the
+question for the materialists. We shall probably never be able to weigh an
+idea or measure the cubic contents of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> memory; but the rapidity with
+which ideas are formed or reproduced by memory has been measured in many
+particular instances, and the circumstances that retard or accelerate
+their formation or reproduction have been positively ascertained and
+classified.”</p>
+
+<p>That it is possible to explain all mental phenomena in terms of physics is
+by no means the unanimous verdict of scientific men. A small group of
+students of late years have detached themselves from the purely
+materialistic school and broken ground in the region of the supernormal.
+Says Professor Newbold (<i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, January, 1897): “In the
+supernormal field, the facts already reported, should they be
+substantiated by further inquiry, would go far towards showing that
+consciousness is an entity governed by laws and possessed of powers
+incapable of expression in material conceptions.</p>
+
+<p>“I do not myself regard the theory of independence [of mind and body] as
+proved, but I think we have enough evidence for it to destroy in any
+candid mind that considers it that absolute credulity as to its
+possibility which at present characterizes the average man of science.”</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PART_SECOND" id="PART_SECOND"></a>PART SECOND.<br />MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THE THEOSOPHISTS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>1. The Priestess.</h3>
+
+<p>The greatest “fantaisiste” of modern times was Madame Blavatsky, spirit
+medium, Priestess of Isis, and founder of the Theosophical Society. Her
+life is one long catalogue of wonders. In appearance she was enormously
+fat, had a harsh, disagreeable voice, and a violent temper, dressed in a
+slovenly manner, usually in loose wrappers, smoked cigarettes incessantly,
+and cared little or nothing for the conventionalities of life. But in
+spite of all&mdash;unprepossessing appearance and gross habits&mdash;she exercised a
+powerful personal magnetism over those who came in contact with her. She
+was the Sphinx of the second half of this Century; a Pythoness in tinsel
+robes who strutted across the world’s stage “full of sound and fury,” and
+disappeared from view behind the dark veil of Isis, which she,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> the
+fin-de-siecle prophetess, tried to draw aside during her earthly career.</p>
+
+<p>In searching for facts concerning the life of this really remarkable
+woman&mdash;remarkable for the influence she has exerted upon the thought of
+this latter end of the nineteenth century&mdash;I have read all that has been
+written about her by prominent Theosophists, have talked with many who
+knew her intimately, and now endeavor to present the truth concerning her
+and her career. The leading work on the subject is “Incidents in the Life
+of Madame Blavatsky,” compiled from information supplied by her relatives
+and friends, and edited by A. P. Sinnett, author of “The Occult World.”
+The frontispiece to the book is a reproduction of a portrait of Madame
+Blavatsky, painted by H. Schmiechen, and represents the lady seated on the
+steps of an ancient ruin, holding a parchment in her hand. She is garbed
+somewhat after the fashion of a Cumaean Sibyl and gazes straight before
+her with the deep unfathomable eyes of a mystic, as if she were reading
+the profound riddles of the ages, and beholding the sands of Time falling
+hot and swift into the glass of eternity&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>“And all things creeping to a day of doom.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img30.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 32&mdash;MADAME BLAVATSKY.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>Sinnett’s life of the High Priestess is a strange concoction of monstrous
+absurdities; it is full of the weirdest happenings that were ever
+vouchsafed to mortal. We cannot put much faith in this biography, and must
+delve in other mines for information; but some of the remarkable passages
+of the book are worth perusing, particularly if the reader be prone to
+midnight musings of a ghostly character.</p>
+
+<p>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the daughter of Col. Peter Hahn of the Russian
+Army, and granddaughter of General Alexis Hahn von Rottenstern Hahn (a
+noble family of Mecklenburg, Germany, settled in Russia), was born in
+Eskaterinoslaw, in the south of Russia, in 1831. “She had,” says Sinnett,
+“a strange childhood, replete with abnormal occurrences. The year of her
+birth was fatal for Russia, as for all Europe, owing to the first visit of
+the cholera, that terrible plague that decimated from 1830 to 1832 in turn
+nearly every town of the Continent.... Her birth was quickened by several
+deaths in the house, and she was ushered into the world amid coffins and
+desolation, on the night between July 30th and 31st, weak and apparently
+no denizen of this world.” A hurried baptism was given lest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> the child die
+in original sin, and the ceremony was that of the Greek Church. During the
+orthodox baptismal rite no person is allowed to sit, but a child aunt of
+the baby, tired of standing for nearly an hour, settled down upon the
+floor, just behind the officiating priest. No one perceived her, as she
+sat nodding drowsily. The ceremony was nearing its close. The sponsors
+were just in the act of renouncing the Evil One and his deeds, a
+renunciation emphasized in the Greek Church by thrice spitting upon the
+invisible enemy, when the little lady, toying with her lighted taper at
+the feet of the crowd, inadvertantly set fire to the long flowing robes of
+the priest, no one remarking the accident till it was too late. The result
+was an immediate conflagration, during which several persons&mdash;chiefly the
+old priest&mdash;were severely burnt. That was another bad omen, according to
+the superstitious beliefs of orthodox Russia; and the innocent cause of
+it, the future Madame Blavatsky, was doomed from that day, in the eyes of
+all the town, to an eventful, troubled life.</p>
+
+<p>“Mlle. Hahn was born, of course, with all the characteristics of what is
+known in Spiritualism as mediumship in the most extraordinary degree, also
+with gifts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> as a clairvoyant of an almost equally unexampled order. On
+various occasions while apparently in an ordinary sleep, she would answer
+questions, put by persons who took hold of her hand, about lost property,
+etc., as though she were a sibyl entranced. For years she would, in
+childish impulse, shock strangers with whom she came in contact, and
+visitors to the house, by looking them intently in the face and telling
+them they would die at such and such a time, or she would prophesy to them
+some accident or misfortune that would befall them. And since her
+prognostications usually came true, she was the terror, in this respect,
+of the domestic circle.”</p>
+
+<p>Madame V. P. Jelihowsy, a sister of the seeress, has furnished to the
+world many extraordinary stories of Mme. Blavatsky’s childhood, published
+in various Russian periodicals. At the age of eleven the Sibyl lost her
+mother, and went to live with her grandparents at Saratow, her grandfather
+being civil governor of the place. The family mansion was a lumbering old
+country place “full of subterraneous galleries, long abandoned passages,
+turrets, and most weird nooks and corners. It looked more like a mediaeval
+ruined castle than a building of the last century.” The ghosts of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>
+martyred serfs were supposed to haunt the uncanny building, and strange
+legends were told by the old family servants of weir-wolves and goblins
+that prowled about the dark forests of the estate. Here, in this House of
+Usher, the Sibyl lived and dreamed, and at this period exhibited many
+abnormal psychic peculiarities, ascribed by her orthodox governess and
+nurses of the Greek Church to possession by the devil. She had at times
+ungovernable fits of temper; she would ride any Cossack horse on the place
+astride a man’s saddle; go into trances and scare everyone from the master
+of the mansion down to the humblest vodka drinker on the estate.</p>
+
+<p>In 1848, at the age of 17, she married General Count Blavatsky, a gouty
+old Russian of 70, whom she called “the plumed raven,” but left him after
+a brief period of marital infelicity. From this time dates her career as a
+thaumaturgist. She travelled through India and made an honest attempt to
+penetrate into the mysterious confines of Thibet, but succeeded in getting
+only a few miles from the frontier, owing to the fanaticism of the
+natives.</p>
+
+<p>In India, as elsewhere, she was accused of being a Russian spy and was
+generally regarded with <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>suspicion by the police authorities. After some
+months of erratic wanderings she reappeared in Russia, this time in
+Tiflis, at the residence of a relative, Prince &mdash;&mdash;. It was a gloomy,
+grewsome chateau, well suited for Spiritualistic séances, and Madame
+Blavatsky, it is claimed, frightened the guests during the long winter
+evenings with table-tippings, spirit rappings, etc. It was then the tall
+candles in the drawing-room burnt low, the gobelin tapestry rustled, sighs
+were heard, strange music “resounded in the air,” and luminous forms were
+seen trailing their ghostly garments across the “tufted floor.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img31.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 33&mdash;MAHATMA LETTER.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>The gossipy Madame de Jelihowsy, in her reminiscences, classifies the
+phenomena, witnessed in the presence of her Sibylline sister, as follows:</p>
+
+<p>1. Direct and perfectly clearly written and verbal answers to mental
+questions&mdash;or “thought reading.”</p>
+
+<p>2. Private secrets, unknown to all but the interested party, divulged,
+[especially in the case of those persons who mentioned insulting doubts].</p>
+
+<p>3. Change of weight in furniture and persons at will.</p>
+
+<p>4. Letters from unknown correspondents, and immediate answers written to
+queries made, and found in the most out-of-the-way mysterious places.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>5. Appearance of objects unclaimed by anyone present.</p>
+
+<p>6. Sounds of musical notes in the air wherever Madame Blavatsky desired
+they should resound.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1858, the High Priestess was at the house of General Yakontoff
+at Pskoff, Russia. One night when the drawing-room was full of visitors,
+she began to describe the mediumistic feat of making light objects heavy
+and heavy objects light.</p>
+
+<p>“Can you perform such a miracle?” ironically asked her brother, Leonide de
+Hahn, who always doubted his sister’s occult powers.</p>
+
+<p>“I can,” was the firm reply.</p>
+
+<p>De Hahn went to a small chess table, lifted it as though it were a
+feather, and said: “Suppose you try your powers on this.”</p>
+
+<p>“With pleasure!” replied Mme. Blavatsky. “Place the table on the floor,
+and step aside for a minute.” He complied with her request.</p>
+
+<p>She fixed her large blue eyes intently upon the chess table and said
+without removing her gaze, “Lift it now.”</p>
+
+<p>The young man exerted all his strength, but the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>table would not budge
+an inch. Another guest tried with the same result, but the wood only
+cracked, yielding to no effort.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img32.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 34&mdash;MAHATMA LETTER ENVELOPE.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>“Now, lift it,” said Madame Blavatsky calmly, whereupon De Hahn picked it
+up with the greatest ease. Loud applause greeted this extraordinary feat,
+and the skeptical brother, so say the occultists, was utterly nonplussed.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Blavatsky, as recorded by Sinnett, stated afterwards that the above
+phenomenon could be produced in two different ways: “First, through the
+exercise of her own will directing the magnetic currents so that the
+pressure on the table became such that no physical force could move it;
+second, through the action of those beings with whom she was in constant
+communication, and who, although unseen, were able to hold the table
+against all opposition.”</p>
+
+<p>The writer has seen similar feats performed by hypnotizers with good
+subjects without the intervention of any ghostly intelligences.</p>
+
+<p>In 1870 the Priestess of Isis journeyed through Egypt in company with a
+certain Countess K&mdash;, and endeavored to form a Spiritualistic society at
+Cairo, for the investigation of psychic phenomena, but things<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> growing
+unpleasant for her she left the land of pyramids and papyri in hot haste.
+It is related of her that during this Egyptian sojourn she spent one night
+in the King’s sepulchre in the bowels of the Great Pyramid of Cheops,
+sleeping in the very sarcophagus where once reposed the mummy of a
+Pharoah. Weird sights were seen by the entranced occultist and strange
+sounds were heard on that eventful occasion within the shadowy mortuary
+chamber of the pyramid. At times she would let fall mysterious hints of
+what she saw that night, but they were as incomprehensible as the riddles
+of the fabled Sphinx.</p>
+
+<p>Countess Paschkoff chronicles a curious story about the Priestess of Isis,
+which reminds one somewhat of the last chapter in Bulwer’s occult novel,
+“A Strange Story.” The Countess relates that she was once travelling
+between Baalbec and the river Orontes, and in the desert came across the
+caravan belonging to Madame Blavatsky. They joined company and towards
+nightfall pitched camp near the village of El Marsum amid some ancient
+ruins. Among the relics of a Pagan civilization stood a great monument
+covered with outlandish hieroglyphics. The Countess was curious to
+decipher the inscriptions, and begged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> Madame Blavatsky to unravel their
+meaning, but the Priestess of Isis, notwithstanding her great
+archaeological knowledge, was unable to do so. However, she said: “Wait
+until night, and we shall see!” When the ruins were wrapped in sombre
+shadow, Mme. Blavatsky drew a great circle upon the ground about the
+monument, and invited the Countess to stand within the mystic confines. A
+fire was built and upon it were thrown various aromatic herbs and incense.
+Cabalistic spells were recited by the sorceress, as the smoke from the
+incense ascended, and then she thrice commanded the spirit to whom the
+monument was erected to appear. Soon the cloud of smoke from the burning
+incense assumed the shape of an old man with a long white beard. A voice
+from a distance pierced the misty image, and spoke: “I am Hiero, one of
+the priests of a great temple erected to the gods, that stood upon this
+spot. This monument was the altar. Behold!” No sooner were the words
+pronounced than a phantasmagoric vision of a gigantic temple appeared,
+supported by ponderous columns, and a great city was seen covering the
+distant plain, but all soon faded into thin air.</p>
+
+<p>This story was related to a select coterie of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> occultists assembled in
+social conclave at the headquarters in New York. The question is, had the
+charming Russian Countess dreamed this, or was she trying to exploit
+herself as a traveler who had come “out of the mysterious East” and had
+seen strange things?</p>
+
+<p>We next hear of the famous occultist in the United States, where she
+associated chiefly with spirit-mediums, enchanters, professional
+clairvoyants, and the like.</p>
+
+<p>“At this period of her career she had not,”<a name='fna_4' id='fna_4' href='#f_4'><small>[4]</small></a> says Dr. Eliott Coues, a
+learned investigator of psychic phenomena, “been metamorphosed into a
+Theosophist. She was simply exploiting as a Spiritualistic medium. Her
+most familiar spook was a ghostly fiction named ‘John King.’ This fellow
+is supposed to have been a pirate, condemned for his atrocities to serve
+earth-bound for a term of years, and to present himself at materializing
+séances on call. Any medium who personates this ghost puts on a heavy
+black horse-hair beard and a white bed sheet and talks in sepulchral chest
+tones. John is as standard and sure-enough a ghost as ever appeared before
+the public. Most of the leading mediums, both in Europe and America,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> keep
+him in stock. I have often seen the old fellow in New York, Philadelphia,
+and Washington through more mediums that I can remember the names of. Our
+late Minister to Portugul, Mr. J. O’Sullivan, has a photograph of him at
+full length, floating in space, holding up a peculiar globe of light
+shaped like a glass decanter. This trustworthy likeness was taken in
+Europe, and I think in Russia, but am not sure on that point. I once had
+the pleasure of introducing the pirate king to my friend Prof. Alfred
+Russel Wallace, in the person of Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a noted medium of
+Washington.</p>
+
+<p>“But the connection between the pirate and my story is this: Madame
+Blavatsky was exploiting King at the time of which I speak, and several of
+her letters to friends, which I have read, are curiously scribbled in red
+and blue pencil with sentences and signatures of ‘John King,’ just as,
+later on, ‘Koot Hoomi’ used to miraculously precipitate himself upon her
+stationery in all sorts of colored crayons. And, by the way, I may call
+the reader’s attention to the fact that while the ingenious creature was
+operating in Cairo, her Mahatmas were of the Egyptian order of
+architecture, and located in the ruins of Thebes or Karnak. They were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> not
+put in turbans and shifted to Thibet till late in 1879.”</p>
+
+<p>In 1875, while residing in New York, Madame Blavatsky conceived the idea
+of establishing a Theosophical Society. Stupendous thought! Cagliostro in
+the eighteenth century founded his Egyptian Free-Masonry for the
+re-generation of mankind, and Blavatsky in the nineteenth century laid the
+corner stone of modern Theosophy for a similar purpose. Cagliostro had his
+High Priestess in the person of a beautiful wife, Lorenza Feliciani, and
+Blavatsky her Hierophant in the somewhat prosaic guise of a New York
+reporter, Col. Olcott, since then a famous personage in occult circles.</p>
+
+<p>During the Civil War, Olcott served in the Quartermaster’s Department of
+the Army and afterwards held a position in the Internal Revenue Service of
+the United States. In 18&mdash; he was a newspaper man in New York, and was
+sent by the <i>Graphic</i> to investigate the alleged Spiritualistic phenomena
+transpiring in the Eddy family in Chittenden, Vermont. There he met Madame
+Blavatsky. It was his fate.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img33.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 35. COL. H. S. OLCOTT.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Col. Olcott’s description of his first sight of Mme. Blavatsky is
+interesting:</p>
+
+<p>“The dinner at Eddy’s was at noon, and it was from the entrance door of
+the bare and comfortless dining-room that Kappes and I first saw H. P. B.
+She had arrived shortly before noon with a French Canadian lady, and they
+were at table as we entered. My eye was first attracted by a scarlet
+Garibaldian shirt the former wore, as being in vivid contrast with the
+dull colors around. Her hair was then a thick blonde mop, worn shorter
+than the shoulders, and it stood out from her head, silken, soft, and
+crinkled to the roots, like the fleece of a Cotswold ewe. This and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>
+red shirt were what struck my attention before I took in the picture of
+her features. It was a massive Kalmuck face, contrasting in its suggestion
+of power, culture, and imperiousness, as strangely with the commonplace
+visages about the room, as her red garment did with the gray and white
+tones of the wall and woodwork, and the dull costumes of the rest of the
+guests. All sorts of cranky people were continually coming and going at
+Eddy’s, to see the mediumistic phenomena, and it only struck me on seeing
+this eccentric lady that this was but one more of the sort. Pausing on the
+door-sill, I whispered to Kappes, ‘Good gracious! look at <i>that</i> specimen,
+will you!’ I went straight across and took a seat opposite her to indulge
+my favorite habit of character-study.”</p>
+
+<p>Commenting on this meeting, J. Ransom Bridges, in the <i>Arena</i>, for April,
+1895, remarks: “After dinner Colonel Olcott scraped an acquaintance by
+opportunely offering her a light for a cigarette which she proceeded to
+roll for herself. This ‘light’ must have been charged with Theosophical
+<i>karma</i>, for the burning match or end of a lighted cigar&mdash;the Colonel does
+not specify&mdash;lit a train of causes and their effects which now are making
+history and are world-wide in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> their importance. So confirmed a pessimist
+on Theosophical questions as Henry Sidgwick of the London Society for
+Psychical Research, says, ‘Even if it [the Theosophical Society] were to
+expire next year, its twenty years’ existence would be a phenomenon of
+some interest for a historian of European society in the nineteenth
+century.’”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img34tmb.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+<a href="images/img34.jpg"><small>Larger Image</small></a></div>
+<p class="center">FIG. 36. OATH OF SECRECY TAKEN BY CHARTER MEMBERS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.<br />
+[Kindness of the <i>New York Herald</i>.]</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The séances at the Eddy house must have been character studies indeed. The
+place where the ghosts were materialized was a large apartment over the
+dining room of the ancient homestead. A dark closet, at one end of the
+room, with a rough blanket stretched across it, served as a cabinet. Red
+Indians and pirates were the favorite materializations, but when Madame
+Blavatsky appeared on the scene, ghosts of Turks, Kurdish cavaliers, and
+Kalmucks visited this earthly scene, much to the surprise of every one.
+Olcott cites this fact as evidence of the genuineness of the
+materializations, remarking, “how could the ignorant Eddy boys, rough,
+rude, uncultured farmers, get the costumes and accessories for characters
+of this kind in a remote Vermont village.”</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p>
+<h3>2. What is Theosophy.</h3>
+
+<p>Let us turn aside at this juncture to ask, “What is Theosophy.” The word
+Theosophy (Theosophia&mdash;divine knowledge) appears to have been used about
+the Third century, A. D., by the Neo-Platonists, or Gnostics of
+Alexandria, but the great principles of the doctrine, however, were taught
+hundreds of years prior to the mystical school established at Alexandria.
+“It is not,” says an interesting writer on the subject, “an outgrowth of
+Buddhism although many Buddhists see in its doctrines the reflection of
+Buddha. It proposes to give its followers the esoteric, or inner-spiritual
+meaning of the great religious teachers of the world. It asserts repeated
+re-incarnations, or rebirths of the soul on earth, until it is fully
+purged of evil, and becomes fit to be absorbed into the Deity whence it
+came, gaining thereby Nirvana, or unconsciousness.” Some Theosophists
+claim that Nirvana is not a state of unconsciousness, but just the
+converse, a state of the most intensified consciousness, during which the
+soul remembers all of its previous incarnations.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Blavatsky claimed that “there exists in Thibet a brotherhood whose
+members have acquired a power over Nature which enables them to perform<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>
+wonders beyond the reach of ordinary men. She declared herself to be a
+<i>chela</i>, or disciple of these brothers (spoken of also as ‘Adepts’ and as
+‘Mahatmas’), and asserted that they took a special interest in the
+Theosophical Society and all initiates in occult lore, being able to cause
+apparitions of themselves in places where their bodies were not; and that
+they not only appeared but communicated intelligently with those whom they
+thus visited and themselves perceived what was going on where their
+phantoms appeared.” This phantasmal appearance she called the projection
+of the <i>astral</i> form. Many of the phenomena witnessed in the presence of
+the Sibyl were supposed to be the work of the mystic brotherhood who took
+so peculiar an interest in the Theosophical Society and its members. The
+Madame did not claim to be the founder of a new religious faith, but
+simply the reviver of a creed that has slumbered in the Orient for
+centuries, and declared herself to be the Messenger of these Mahatmas to
+the scoffing Western world.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of the Mahatmas, she says in “Isis Unveiled”: * * * “Travelers
+have met these adepts on the shores of the sacred Ganges, brushed against
+them on the silent ruins of Thebes, and in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> mysterious deserted
+chambers of Luxor. Within the halls upon whose blue and golden vaults the
+weird signs attract attention, but whose secret meaning is never
+penetrated by the idle gazers, they have been seen, but seldom recognized.
+Historical memoirs have recorded their presence in the brilliantly
+illuminated salons of European aristocracy. They have been encountered
+again on the arid and desolate plains of the Great Sahara, or in the caves
+of Elephanta. They may be found everywhere, but make themselves known only
+to those who have devoted their lives to unselfish study, and are not
+likely to turn back.”</p>
+
+<p>The Theosophical Society was organized in New York, Nov. 17, 1875.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Arthur Lillie, in his interesting work, “Madame Blavatsky and Her
+Theosophy,” speaking about the founding of the Society, says:</p>
+
+<p>“Its moving spirit was a Mr. Felt, who had visited Egypt and studied its
+antiquities. He was a student also of the Kabbala; and he had a somewhat
+eccentric theory that the dog-headed and hawk-headed figures painted on
+the Egyptian monuments were not mere symbols, but accurate portraits of
+the ‘Elementals.’ He professed to be able to evoke and control them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> He
+announced that he had discovered the secret ‘formularies’ of the old
+Egyptian magicians. Plainly, the Theosophical Society at starting was an
+Egyptian school of occultism. Indeed Colonel Olcott, who furnishes these
+details (‘Diary Leaves’ in the <i>Theosophist</i>, November to December, 1892),
+lets out that the first title suggested was the ‘Egyptological Society.’”</p>
+
+<p>There were strange reports set afloat at the time of the organization of
+the Society of the mysterious appearance of a Hindoo adept in his astral
+body at the “lamasery” on Forty-seventh street. It was said to be that of
+a certain Mahatma Koot Hoomi. Olcott declared that the adept left behind
+him as a souvenir of his presence, a turban, which was exhibited on all
+occasions by the enterprising Hierophant. William Q. Judge, a noted writer
+on Spiritualism, who had met the Madame at Irving Place in the winter of
+1874, joined the Society about this time, and became an earnest advocate
+of the secret doctrine. One wintry evening in March, 1889, Mr. Judge
+attended a meeting of the New York Anthropological Society, and told the
+audience all about the spectral gentleman, Koot Hoomi. He said:</p>
+
+<p>“The parent society (Theosophical) was founded in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> America by Madame
+Blavatsky, who gathered about her a few interested people and began the
+great work. They held a meeting to frame a constitution (1875), etc., but
+before anything had been accomplished a strangely foreign Hindoo, dressed
+in the peculiar garb of his country, came before them, and, leaving a
+package, vanished, and no one knew whither he came or went. On opening the
+package they found the necessary forms of organization, rules, etc., which
+were adopted. The inference to be drawn was, that the strange visitor was
+a Mahatma, interested in the foundation of the Society.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img35.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 37. WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.<br />
+[Reproduced by courtesy of the <i>New York Herald</i>.]</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>And so Blavatskyism flourished, and the Society gathered in disciples from
+all quarters. Men without definite creeds are ever willing to embrace
+anything that savors of the mysterious, however absurd the tenets of the
+new doctrine may be. The objects of the Theosophical Society, as set forth
+in a number of <i>Lucifer</i>, the organ of the cult, published in July, 1890,
+are stated to be:</p>
+
+<p>“1. To form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without
+distinction of race, creed, sex, or color.</p>
+
+<p>“2. To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions
+and sciences.</p>
+
+<p>“3. To investigate laws of Nature and the psychical powers of man.”</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing of cant or humbug about the above articles. A society
+founded for the prosecution of such researches seems laudable enough.
+Oriental scholars and scientists have been working in this field for many
+years. But the investigations, as conducted under the Blavatsky régime,
+have savored so of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> charlatanism that many earnest, truth-seeking
+Theosophists have withdrawn from the Society.</p>
+
+<p>After seeing the Society well established, Madame Blavatsky went to India.
+Her career in that country was a checkered one. From this period dates the
+exposé of the Mahatma miracles. The story reads like a romance by Marie
+Corelli. Let us begin at the beginning. The headquarters of the Society
+was first established at Bombay, thence removed to Madras and afterwards
+to Adyar. A certain M. and Mme. Coulomb, trusted friends of Madame
+Blavatsky, were made librarian and assistant corresponding secretary
+respectively of the Society, and took up their residence in the building
+known as the headquarters&mdash;a rambling East Indian bungalow, such as figure
+in Rudyard Kipling’s stories of Oriental life. Marvellous phenomena, of an
+occult nature, alleged to have taken place there, were attested by many
+Theosophists. Mysterious, ghostly appearances of Mahatmas were seen, and
+messages were constantly received by supernatural means. One of the
+apartments of the bungalow was denominated the Occult Room, and in this
+room was a sort of cupboard against the wall, known as the <i>Shrine</i>. In
+this shrine the ghostly missives were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> received and from it were sent.
+Skeptics were convinced, and occult lodges spread rapidly over India among
+the dreamy, marvel-loving natives. But affairs were not destined to sail
+smoothly. There came a rift within the lute&mdash;Madame Blavatsky quarreled
+with her trusted lieutenants, the Coulombs! In May, 1884, M. and Mme.
+Coulomb were expelled from the Society by the General Council, during the
+absence of the High Priestess and Col. Olcott in Europe. The Coulombs, who
+had grown weary of a life of imposture, or were actuated by the more
+ignoble motive of revenge, made a complete exposé of the secret working of
+the Inner Brotherhood. They published portions of Madame Blavatsky’s
+correspondence in the <i>Madras Christian College Magazine</i>, for September
+and October, 1884; letters written to the Coulombs, directing them to
+prepare certain impostures and letters written by the High Priestess,
+under the signature of Koot Hoomi, the mythical adept.<a name='fna_5' id='fna_5' href='#f_5'><small>[5]</small></a> This
+correspondence unquestionably implicated the Sibyl in a conspiracy to
+fraudulently produce occult phenomena. She declared them to be, in whole,
+or in part, forgeries. At this juncture<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> the London Society for Psychical
+Research sent Mr. Richard Hodgson, B. A., scholar of St. John’s College,
+Cambridge, England, to India to investigate the entire matter in the
+interest of science.</p>
+
+<p>He left England November, 1884, and remained in the East till April, 1885.
+During this period Blavatskyism was sifted to the bottom. Mr. Hodgson’s
+report covers several hundred pages, and proves conclusively that the
+occult phenomena of Madame Blavatsky and her co-adjutors are unworthy of
+credence. In his volume he gives diagrams of the trap-doors and machinery
+of the shrine and the occult room, and facsimiles of Madame Blavatsky’s
+handwriting, which proved to be identical with that of Koot Hoomi, or
+<i>Cute</i> Hoomi, as the critics dubbed him. He shows that the Coulombs had
+told the plain unvarnished truth so far as their disclosures went; and he
+stigmatizes the Priestess of Isis in the following language:</p>
+
+<p>“1. She has been engaged in a long continued combination with other
+persons to produce by ordinary means a series of apparent marvels for the
+support of the Theosophic movement.</p>
+
+<p>“2. That in particular the shrine at Adyar through which letters
+purporting to come from Mahatmas were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> received, was elaborately arranged
+with a view to the secret insertion of letters and other objects through a
+sliding panel at the back, and regularly used for the purpose by Madame
+Blavatsky or her agents.</p>
+
+<p>“3. That there is consequently a very strong general presumption that all
+the marvellous narratives put forward in evidence of the existence of
+Mahatmas are to be explained as due either (<i>a</i>) to deliberate deception
+carried out by or at the instigation of Madame Blavatsky, or (<i>b</i>) to
+spontaneous illusion or hallucination or unconscious misrepresentation or
+invention on the part of the witnesses.”</p>
+
+<p>The mysterious appearances of the ghostly Mahatmas at the headquarters was
+shown, by Mr. Hodgson, to be the work of confederates, the cleverest among
+them being Madame Coulomb. Sliding panels, secret doors, and many
+disguises were the <i>modus operandi</i> of the occult phenomena. In regard to
+the letters and alleged precipitated writing, Mr. Hodgson says:</p>
+
+<p>“It has been alleged, indeed, that when Madame Blavatsky was at Madras,
+instantaneous replies to mental queries had been found in the shrine (at
+Adyar), that envelopes containing questions were returned absolutely
+intact to the senders, and that when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> they were opened replies were found
+within in the handwriting of a Mahatma. After numerous inquiries, I found
+that in all cases I could hear of, the mental query was such as might
+easily have been anticipated by Madame Blavatsky; indeed, the query was
+whether the questioner would meet with success in his endeavor to become a
+pupil of the Mahatma, and the answer was frequently of the indefinite and
+oracular sort. In some cases the envelope inserted in the Shrine was one
+which had been previously sent to headquarters for that purpose, so that
+the envelope might have been opened and the answer written therein before
+it was placed in the Shrine at all. Where sufficient care was taken in the
+preparation of the inquiry, either no specific answer was given or the
+answer was delayed.”</p>
+
+<p>A certain phenomenon, frequently mentioned by Theosophists as having
+occurred in Madame Blavatsky’s sitting-room, was the dropping of a letter
+from the ceiling, supposed to be a communication from some Mahatma. In all
+such cases conjuring was proved to have been used&mdash;the <i>deus ex machina</i>
+being either a silk thread or else a cunningly secreted trap door hidden
+between the wooden beams of the bungalow ceiling, operated of course by a
+concealed confederate.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>Madame Blavatsky’s favorite method of impressing people with her occult
+powers was the almost immediate reception of letters from distant
+countries, in response to questions asked. These feats were the result of
+carefully contrived plans, preconcerted weeks in advance. She would
+telegraph in cipher to one of her numerous correspondents, East Indian,
+for example, to write a letter in reply to a certain query, and post it at
+a particular date. Then she would calculate the arrival of the letter,
+often to a nicety. Her ability as a conversationalist enabled her to
+adroitly lead people into asking questions that would tally with the
+Mahatma messages. But sometimes she failed, and a ludicrous fiasco was the
+result. Mr. Hodgson’s report contains accounts of many such mystic letters
+that would arrive by post from India in the nick of time, or too late for
+use.</p>
+
+<p>Among other remarkable things reported of the Madame was her power of
+producing photographs of people far away by a sort of spiritual
+photography, involving no other mechanical process than the slipping of a
+sheet of paper between the leaves of her blotting pad.</p>
+
+<p>When stories of this spirit-photography were rife<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> in London, a scientist
+published the following explanation of a method of making such Mahatma
+portraits:</p>
+
+<p>“Has the English public never heard of ‘Magic photography?’ Just a few
+years ago small sheets of white paper were offered for sale which on being
+covered with damp blotting paper developed an image as if by magic. The
+white sheets of paper seemed blanks. Really, however, they were
+photographs, not containing gold, which had been bleached by immersing
+them in a solution of mercuric chloride. The latter gives up part of its
+chlorine, and this chlorine bleaches the brown silver particles of which
+the photograph consists, by changing them to chloride of silver. The
+mercuric chloride becomes mercurous chloride. This body is white, and
+therefore invisible on white paper. Now, several substances will color
+this white mercurous chloride black. Ammonia and hypo-sulphite of soda
+will do this. In the magic photographs before mentioned the blotting paper
+contained hypo-sulphite of soda. Consequently when the alleged blank
+sheets of white note paper were placed between the sheets of blotting
+paper and slightly moistened, the hypo-sulphite of soda in the blotting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>
+paper acted chemically on the mercurous chloride in the white note paper,
+and the picture appeared. As this was known in 1840 to Herschel,
+Blavatsky’s miracle is nothing but a commonplace conjuring experiment.”</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>3. Madame Blavatsky’s Confession.</h3>
+
+<p>The individual to whom the world is most indebted for a critical analysis
+of Madame Blavatsky’s character and her claims as a producer of occult
+phenomena is Vsevolod S. Solovyoff, a Russian journalist and <i>litterateur</i>
+of considerable note. He has ruthlessly torn the veil from the Priestess
+of Isis in a remarkable book of revelations, entitled, “A Modern Priestess
+of Isis.” In May, 1884, he was in Paris, engaged in studying occult
+literature, and was preparing to write a treatise on “the rare, but in my
+opinion, real manifestations of the imperfectly investigated spiritual
+powers of man.” One day he read in the <i>Matin</i> that Madame Blavatsky had
+arrived in Paris, and he determined to meet her. Thanks to a friend in St.
+Petersburg, he obtained a letter of introduction to the famous
+Theosophist, and called on her a few days later, at her residence in the
+Rue Notre Dame des<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> Champs. His pen picture of the interview is graphic:</p>
+
+<p>“I found myself in a long, mean street on the left bank of the Seine, <i>de
+l’autre cote de l’eau</i>, as the Parisians say. The coachman stopped at the
+number I had told him. The house was unsightly enough to look at, and at
+the door there was not a single carriage.</p>
+
+<p>“‘My dear sir, you have let her slip; she has left Paris,’ I said to
+myself with vexation.</p>
+
+<p>“In answer to my inquiry the concierge showed me the way. I climbed a
+very, very dark staircase, rang, and a slovenly figure in an Oriental
+turban admitted me into a tiny dark lobby.</p>
+
+<p>“To my question, whether Madame Blavatsky would receive me, the slovenly
+figure replied with an ‘<i>Entrez, monsieur</i>,’ and vanished with my card,
+while I was left to wait in a small low room, poorly and insufficiently
+furnished.</p>
+
+<p>“I had not long to wait. The door opened, and she was before me; a rather
+tall woman, though she produced the impression of being short, on account
+of her unusual stoutness. Her great head seemed all the greater from her
+thick and very bright hair, touched with a scarcely perceptible gray, and
+very slightly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> frizzed, by nature and not by art, as I subsequently
+convinced myself.</p>
+
+<p>“At the first moment her plain, old earthy-colored face struck me as
+repulsive; but she fixed on me the gaze of her great, rolling, pale blue
+eyes, and in these wonderful eyes, with their hidden power, all the rest
+was forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>“I remarked, however, that she was very strangely dressed, in a sort of
+black sacque, and that all the fingers of her small, soft, and as it were
+boneless hands, with their slender points and long nails, were covered
+with great jewelled rings.”</p>
+
+<p>Madame Blavatsky received Solovyoff kindly, and they became excellent
+friends. She urged him to join the Theosophical Society, and he expressed
+himself as favorably impressed with the purposes of the organization.
+During the interview she produced her astral bell “phenomenon.” She
+excused herself to attend to some domestic duty, and on her return to the
+sitting-room, the phenomenon took place. Says Solovyoff: “She made a sort
+of flourish with her hand, raised it upwards and suddenly, I heard
+distinctly, quite distinctly, somewhere above our heads, near the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>
+ceiling, a very melodious sound like a little silver bell or an Aeolian
+harp.</p>
+
+<p>“‘What is the meaning of this?’ I asked.</p>
+
+<p>“‘This means only that my master is here, although you and I cannot see
+him. He tells me that I may trust you, and am to do for you whatever I
+can. <i>Vous etes sous sa protection</i>, henceforth and forever.’</p>
+
+<p>“She looked me straight in the eyes, and caressed me with her glance and
+her kindly smile.”</p>
+
+<p>This Mahatmic phenomenon ought to have absolutely convinced Solovyoff, but
+it did not. He asked himself the question:</p>
+
+<p>“‘Why was the sound of the silver bell not heard at once, but only after
+she had left the room and come back again?’”</p>
+
+<p>A few days after this event, the Russian journalist was regularly enrolled
+as a member of the Theosophical Society, and began to study Madame
+Blavatsky instead of Oriental literature and occultism. He was introduced
+to Colonel Olcott, who showed him the turban that had been left at the New
+York headquarters by the astral Koot Hoomi. Solovyoff witnessed other
+“phenomena” in the presence of Madame Blavatsky, which did not impress him
+very favorably.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> Finally, the High Priestess produced her <i>chef d’
+oeuvre</i>, the psychometric reading of a letter. Solovyoff was rather
+impressed with this feat and sent an account of it to the <i>Rebus</i>, but
+subsequently came to the conclusion that trickery had entered into it.
+When the Coulomb exposures came, he did not see much of Madame Blavatsky.
+She was overwhelmed with letters and spent a considerable time anxiously
+travelling to and fro on Theosophical affairs. In August, 1885, she was at
+Wurzburg sick at heart and in body, attended by a diminutive Hindoo
+servant, Bavaji by name. She begged Solovyoff to visit her, promising to
+give him lessons in occultism. With a determination to investigate the
+“phenomena,” he went to the Bavarian watering place, and one morning
+called on Madame Blavatsky. He found her seated in a great arm chair:</p>
+
+<p>“At the opposite end of the table stood the dwarfish Bavaji, with a
+confused look in his dulled eyes. He was evidently incapable of meeting my
+gaze, and the fact certainly did not escape me. In front of Bavaji on the
+table were scattered several sheets of clean paper. Nothing of the sort
+had occurred before, so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> my attention was the more aroused. In his hand
+was a great thick pencil. I began to have ideas.</p>
+
+<p>“‘Just look at the unfortunate man,’ said Helena Petrovna suddenly,
+turning to me. ‘He does not look himself at all; he drives me to
+distraction’.... Then she passed from Bavaji to the London Society for
+Psychical Research, and again tried to persuade me about the ‘master.’
+Bavaji stood like a statue; he could take no part in our conversation, as
+he did not know a word of Russian.</p>
+
+<p>“‘But such incredulity as to the evidence of your own eyes, such obstinate
+infidelity as yours, is simply unpardonable. In fact, it is wicked!’
+exclaimed Helena Petrovna.</p>
+
+<p>“I was walking about the room at the time, and did not take my eyes off
+Bavaji. I saw that he was keeping his eyes wide open, with a sort of
+contortion of his whole body, while his hand, armed with a great pencil,
+was carefully tracing some letters on a sheet of paper.</p>
+
+<p>“‘Look; what is the matter with him?’ exclaimed Madame Blavatsky.</p>
+
+<p>“‘Nothing particular,’ I answered; ‘he is writing in Russian.’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>“I saw her whole face grow purple. She began to stir in her chair, with an
+obvious desire to get up and take the paper from him. But with her swollen
+and almost inflexible limbs, she could not do so with any speed. I made
+haste to seize the paper and saw on it a beautifully <i>drawn</i> Russian
+phrase.</p>
+
+<p>“Bavaji was to have written, in the Russian language with which he was not
+acquainted: ‘Blessed are they that believe, as said the Great Adept.’ He
+had learned his task well, and remembered correctly the form of all the
+letters, but he had omitted two in the word ‘believe,’ [The effect was
+precisely the same as if in English he had omitted the first two and last
+two letters of the word.]</p>
+
+<p>“‘Blessed are they that <i>lie</i>,’ I read aloud, unable to control the
+laughter which shook me. ‘That is the best thing I ever saw. Oh, Bavaji!
+you should have got your lesson up better for examination!’</p>
+
+<p>“The tiny Hindoo hid his face in his hands and rushed out of the room; I
+heard his hysterical sobs in the distance. Madame Blavatsky sat with
+distorted features.”</p>
+
+<p>As will be seen from the above, the Hindoo servant was one of the Madame’s
+Mahatmas, and was caught<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> in the act of preparing a communication from a
+sage in the Himalayas, to Solovyoff.</p>
+
+<p>“After this abortive phenomena,” remarks the Russian journalist, “things
+marched faster, and I saw that I should soon be in a position to send very
+interesting additions to the report of the Psychical Society.”... “Every
+day when I came to see the Madame she used to try to do me a favor in the
+shape of some trifling ‘phenomenon,’ but she never succeeded. Thus one day
+her famous ‘silver bell’ was heard, when suddenly something fell beside
+her on the ground. I hurried to pick it up&mdash;and found in my hands a pretty
+little piece of silver, delicately worked and strangely shaped. Helena
+Petrovna changed countenance, and snatched the object from me. I coughed
+significantly, smiled and turned the conversation to indifferent matters.”</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion he was conversing with her about the “Theosophist,”
+and “she mentioned the name of Subba Rao, a Hindoo, who had attained the
+highest degree of knowledge.” She directed Mr. Solovyoff to open a drawer
+in her writing desk, and take from it a photograph of the adept.</p>
+
+<p>“I opened the drawer,” says Solovyoff, “found the photograph and handed it
+to her&mdash;together with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> packet of Chinese envelopes (See Fig. 34), such
+as I well knew; they were the same in which the ‘elect’ used to receive
+the letters of the Mahatmas Morya and Koot Hoomi by ‘astral post.’</p>
+
+<p>“‘Look at that, Helena Petrovna! I should advise you to hide this packet
+of the master’s envelopes farther off. You are so terribly absent-minded
+and careless.’</p>
+
+<p>“It was easy to imagine what this was to her. I looked at her and was
+positively frightened; her face grew perfectly black. She tried in vain to
+speak; she could only writhe helplessly in her great arm-chair.”</p>
+
+<p>Solovyoff with great adroitness gradually drew from her a confession.
+“What is one to do,” said Madame Blavatsky, plaintively, “when in order to
+rule men it is necessary to deceive them; almost invariably the more
+simple, the more silly, and the more gross the phenomenon, the more likely
+it is to succeed.” The Priestess of Isis broke down completely and
+acknowledged that her phenomena were not genuine; the Koot Hoomi letters
+were written by herself and others in collusion with her; finally she
+exhibited to the journalist the apparatus for producing the “astral bell,”
+and begged him to go into a co-partnership with her to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> astonish the
+world. He refused! The next day she declared that a black magician had
+spoken through her mouth, and not herself; she was not responsible for
+what she had said. After this he had other interviews with her; threats
+and promises; and lastly a most extraordinary letter, which was headed,
+“My Confession,” and reads, in part, as follows:</p>
+
+<p>“Believe me, <i>I have fallen because I have made up my mind to fall</i>, or
+else to bring about a reaction by telling all God’s truth about myself,
+<i>but without mercy on my enemies</i>. On this I am firmly resolved, and from
+this day I shall begin to prepare myself in order to be ready. I will fly
+no more. Together with this letter, or a few hours later, I shall myself
+be in Paris, and then on to London. A Frenchman is ready, and a well-known
+journalist too, delighted to set about the work and to write at my
+dictation something short, but strong, and what is most important&mdash;a true
+history of my life. <i>I shall not even attempt to defend</i>, to justify
+myself. In this book I shall simply say: “In 1848, I, hating my husband,
+N. V. Blavatsky (it may have been wrong, but still such was the nature
+<i>God</i> gave me), left him, abandoned him&mdash;<i>a virgin</i>. (I shall produce
+documents and letters proving this, although he himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> is not such a
+swine as to deny it.) I loved one man deeply, but still more I loved
+occult science, believing in magic, wizards, etc. I wandered with him here
+and there, in Asia, in America, and in Europe. I met with So-and-so. (You
+may call him a <i>wizard</i>, what does it matter to him?) In 1858 I was in
+London; there came out some story about a child, not mine (there will
+follow medical evidence, from the faculty of Paris, and it is for this
+that I am going to Paris). One thing and another was said of me; that I
+was depraved, possessed with a devil, etc.</p>
+
+<p>“I shall tell everything as I think fit, everything I did, for the twenty
+years and more, that I laughed at the <i>qu’en dira-t-on</i>, and covered up
+all traces of what I was <i>really</i> occupied in, i. e., the <i>sciences
+occultes</i>, for the sake of my family and relations who would at that time
+have cursed me. I will tell how from my eighteenth year I tried to get
+people to talk about me, and say about me that this man and that was my
+lover, and <i>hundreds</i> of them. I will tell, too, a great deal of which no
+one ever dreamed, and <i>I will prove it</i>. Then I will inform the world how
+suddenly my eyes were opened to all the horror of my <i>moral suicide</i>; how
+I was sent to America to try my psychological<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> capabilities; how I
+collected a society there, and began to expiate my faults, and attempted
+to make men better and to sacrifice myself for their regeneration. <i>I will
+name all</i> the Theosophists who were brought into the right way, drunkards
+and rakes, who became almost saints, especially in India, and those who
+enlisted as Theosophists, and continued their former life, as though they
+were doing the work (and there are many of them) and <i>yet were the first</i>
+to join the pack of hounds that were hunting me down, and to bite me....</p>
+
+<p>“No! The devils will save me in this last great hour. You did not
+calculate on the cool determination of <i>despair</i>, which <i>was</i> and has
+<i>passed over</i>.... And to this I have been brought by you. You have been
+the last straw which has broken the camel’s back under its intolerably
+heavy burden. Now you are at liberty to conceal nothing. Repeat to all
+Paris what you have ever heard or know about me. I have already written a
+letter to Sinnett <i>forbidding him</i> to publish my <i>memoirs</i> at his own
+discretion. I myself will publish them with all the truth.... It will be a
+Saturnalia of the moral depravity of mankind, this <i>confession</i> of mine, a
+worthy epilogue of my stormy life.... Let the psychist gentlemen, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>
+whosoever will, set on foot a new inquiry. Mohini and all the rest, even
+<i>India</i>, are dead for me. I thirst for one thing only, that the world may
+know all the reality, all the <i>truth</i>, and learn the lesson. And then
+<i>death</i>, kindest of all.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">H. Blavatsky.</span></span></p>
+
+<p>“You may print this letter if you will, even in Russia. It is all the same
+now.”</p>
+
+<p>This remarkable effusion may be the result of a fever-disordered brain, it
+may be, as she says, the “God’s truth;” at any rate it bears the ear-marks
+of the Blavatsky style about it. The disciples of the High Priestess of
+Isis have bitterly denounced Solovyoff and the revelations contained in
+his book. They brand him as a coward for not having published his diatribe
+during the lifetime of the Madame, when she was able to defend herself.
+However that may be, Solovyoff’s exposures tally very well with the mass
+of corroborative evidence adduced by Hodgson, Coues, Coleman, and a host
+of writers, who began their attacks during the earthly pilgrimage of the
+great Sibyl.</p>
+
+<p>On receipt of this letter, Feb 16, 1886, Solovyoff resigned from the
+Theosophical Society. He denounced the High Priestess to the Paris
+Theosophists,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> and the Blavatsky lodges in that city were disrupted in
+consequence of the exposures. This seems to be a convincing proof of the
+genuineness of his revelations. After the Solovyoff incident, Madame
+Blavatsky went into retirement for a while. Eventually she appeared in
+London as full of enthusiasm as ever and added to her list of converts the
+Countess of Caithness and Mrs. Annie Besant, the famous socialist and
+authoress.</p>
+
+<p>Finally came the last act of this strange life-drama. That messenger of
+death, whom the mystical Persian singer, Omar Khayyam, calls “The Angel of
+the Darker Drink,” held to her lips the inevitable chalice of Mortality;
+then the “golden cord was loosened and the silver bowl was broken,” and
+she passed into the land of shadows. It was in London, May 8, 1891, that
+Helena Petrovna Blavatsky ended one of the strangest careers on record.
+She died calmly and peacefully in her bed, surrounded by her friends, and
+after her demise her body was cremated by her disciples, with occult rites
+and ceremonies. All that remained of her&mdash;a few handfuls of powdery white
+ashes&mdash;was gathered together, and divided into three equal parts. One
+portion was buried in London, one sent to New York<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> City, and the third to
+Adyar, near Madras, India. The New World, the Old World, and the still
+Older World of the East were honored with the ashes of H. P. B. Three
+civilizations, three heaps of ashes, three initials&mdash;mystic number from
+time immemorial, celebrated symbol of Divinity known to, and revered by,
+Cabalists, Gnostics, Rosicrucians, and Theosophists.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. J. Ransom Bridges, who had considerable correspondence with the High
+Priestess from 1888 until her death, says (<i>Arena</i>, April, 1895):
+“Whatever may be the ultimate verdict upon the life and work of this
+woman, her place in history will be unique. There was a Titanic display of
+strength in everything she did. The storms that raged in her were
+cyclones. Those exposed to them often felt with Solovyoff that if there
+were holy and sage <i>Mahatmas</i>, they could not remain holy and sage, and
+have anything to do with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. The ‘confession’ she
+wrote rings with the mingled curses and mad laughter of a crazy mariner
+scuttling his own ship. Yet she could be as tender and sympathetic as any
+mother. Her mastery of some natures seemed complete; and these people she
+worked like galley-slaves in the Theosophical tread mill of her propaganda
+movement.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>“To these disciples she was the greatest thaumaturgist known to the world
+since the days of the Christ. The attacks upon her, the Coulomb and
+Solovyoff exposures, the continual newspaper calumnies they look upon as a
+gigantic conspiracy brewed by all the rules of the black art to
+counteract, and, if possible, to destroy the effect of her work and
+mission.”</p>
+
+<p>“Requiescat in Pace,” O Priestess of Isis, until your next incarnation on
+Earth! The twentieth century will doubtless have need of your services!
+For the delectation of the curious let me add: the English resting place
+of Madame Blavatsky is designed after the model of an Oriental “dagoba,”
+or tomb; the American shrine is a marble niche in the wall of the
+Theosophical headquarters, No. 144 Madison avenue, the ashes reposing in a
+vase standing in the niche behind a hermetically-sealed glass window. The
+Oriental shrine in Adyar is a tomb modelled after the world-famous Taj
+Mahal, and is built of pink sandstone, surmounted by a small Benares
+copper spire.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>4. The Writings of Madame Blavatsky.</h3>
+
+<p>Madame Blavatsky is known to the reading world as the writer of two
+voluminous works of a philosophical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> or mystical character, explanatory of
+the Esoteric Doctrine, viz., “Isis Unveiled,” published in 1877, and the
+“Secret Doctrine,” published in 1888. In the composition of these works
+she claimed that she was assisted by the Mahatmas who visited her
+apartments when she was asleep, and wrote portions of the manuscripts with
+their astral hands while their natural bodies reposed entranced in
+Thibetan Lamaseries. These fictions were fostered by prominent members of
+the Theosophical Society, and believed by many credulous persons. “Isis
+Unveiled” is a hodge-podge of absurdities, pseudo-science, mythology and
+folklore, arranged in helter-skelter fashion, with an utter disregard of
+logical sequence. The fact was that Madame Blavatsky had a very imperfect
+knowledge of English, and this may account for the strange mistakes in
+which the volume abounds, despite the aid of the ghostly Mahatmas. William
+Emmette Coleman, of San Francisco, has made an exhaustive analysis of the
+Madame’s writings, and declares that “Isis,” and the “Secret Doctrine” are
+full of plagiarisms. In “Isis” he discovered “some 2,000 passages copied
+from other books without proper credit.” Speaking of the “Secret
+Doctrine,” the master key to the wisdom of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> the ages, he says: “The
+‘Secret Doctrine’ is ostensibly based upon certain stanzas, claimed to
+have been translated by Madame Blavatsky from the ‘Book of Dzyan’&mdash;the
+oldest book in the world, written in a language unknown to philology. The
+‘Book of Dzyan’ was the work of Madame Blavatsky&mdash;a compilation, in her
+own language, from a variety of sources, embracing the general principles
+of the doctrines and dogmas taught in the ‘Secret Doctrine.’ I find in
+this ‘oldest book in the world’ statements copied from nineteenth century
+books, and in the usual blundering manner of Madame Blavatsky. Letters and
+other writings of the adepts are found in the ‘Secret Doctrine.’ In these
+Mahatmic productions I have traced various plagiarized passages from
+Wilson’s ‘Vishnu Purana,’ and Winchell’s ‘World Life’&mdash;of like character
+to those in Madame Blavatsky’s acknowledged writings. * * * A specimen of
+the wholesale plagiarisms in this book appears in vol. II., pp. 599-603.
+Nearly the whole of four pages was copied from Oliver’s ‘Pythagorean
+Triangle,’ while only a few lines were credited to that work.”</p>
+
+<p>Those who are interested in Coleman’s exposé are referred to Appendix C,
+of Solovyoff’s book, “A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> Modern Priestess of Isis.” The title of this
+appendix is “The Sources of Madame Blavatsky’s Writings.” Mr. Coleman is
+at present engaged in the preparation of an elaborate work on the subject,
+which will in addition contain an “exposé of Theosophy as a whole.” It
+will no doubt prove of interest to students of occultism.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>5. Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist.</h3>
+
+<p>The funeral of Baron de Palm, conducted according to Theosophical rites,
+is an interesting chapter in the history of the Society, and worth
+relating.</p>
+
+<p>Joseph Henry Louis Charles, Baron de Palm, Grand Cross Commander of the
+Sovereign Order of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and knight of various
+orders, was born at Augsburg, May 10, 1809. He came to the United States
+rather late in life, drifted West without any settled occupation, and
+lived from hand to mouth in various Western cities. Finally he located in
+New York City, broken in health and spirit. He was a man of considerable
+culture and interested to a greater or less extent in the phenomena of
+modern Spiritualism. A letter of introduction from the editor of the
+<i>Religio-Philosophical Journal</i>, of Chicago,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> made him acquainted with
+Col. Olcott, who introduced him to prominent members of the Theosophical
+Society. He was elected a member of the Society, eventually becoming a
+member of the Council. In the year 1875 he died, leaving behind an earnest
+request that Col. Olcott “should perform the last offices in a fashion
+that would illustrate the Eastern notions of death and immortality.”<a name='fna_6' id='fna_6' href='#f_6'><small>[6]</small></a> He
+also left directions that his body should be cremated. A great deal of
+excitement was caused over this affair in orthodox religious circles, and
+public curiosity was aroused to the highest pitch. The funeral service
+was, as Madame Blavatsky described it in a letter to a European
+correspondent, “pagan, almost antique pagan.” The ceremony was held in the
+great hall of the Masonic Temple, corner of Twenty-third and Sixth avenue.
+Tickets of admission were issued of decidedly occult shape&mdash;<i>triangular</i>;
+some black, printed in silver; others drab, printed in black. A crowd of
+2,000 people assembled to witness the obsequies. On the stage was a
+<i>triangular</i> altar, with a symbolical fire burning upon it. The coffin
+stood near by, covered with the orders of knighthood of the deceased. A
+splendid choir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> rendered several Orphic hymns composed for the occasion,
+with organ accompaniment, and Col. Olcott, as Hierophant, made an
+invocation or <i>mantram</i> “to the Soul of the World whose breath gives and
+withdraws the form of everything.” Death is always solemn, and no subject
+for levity, yet I must not leave out of this chronicle the unique
+burlesque programme of Baron de Palm’s funeral, published by the <i>New York
+World</i>, the day before the event. Says the <i>World</i>:</p>
+
+<p>“The procession will move in the following order:</p>
+
+<p>“Col. Olcott as high priest, wearing a leopard skin and carrying a roll of
+papyrus (brown card board).</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Cobb, as sacred scribe, with style and tablet.</p>
+
+<p>“Egyptian mummy-case, borne upon a sledge drawn by four oxen. (Also a
+slave bearing a pot of lubricating oil.)</p>
+
+<p>“Madame Blavatsky as chief mourner and also bearer of the sistrum. (She
+will wear a long linen garment extending to the feet, and a girdle about
+the waist.)</p>
+
+<p>“Colored boy carrying three Abyssinian geese (Philadelphia chickens) to
+place upon the bier.</p>
+
+<p>“Vice-President Felt, with the eye of Osiris painted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> on his left breast,
+and carrying an asp (bought at a toy store on Eighth avenue.)</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Pancoast, singing an ancient Theban dirge:</p>
+
+<div class="container">
+<p class="poetry">“‘Isis and Nepthys, beginning and end:<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">One more victim to Amenti we send.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pay we the fare, and let us not tarry.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cross the Styx by the Roosevelt street ferry.’”</span></p></div>
+
+<p>“Slaves in mourning gowns, carrying the offerings and libations, to
+consist of early potatoes, asparagus, roast beef, French pan-cakes,
+bock-beer, and New Jersey cider.</p>
+
+<p>“Treasurer Newton, as chief of the musicians, playing the double pipe.</p>
+
+<p>“Other musicians performing on eight-stringed harps, tom-toms, etc.</p>
+
+<p>“Boys carrying a large lotus (sunflower).</p>
+
+<p>“Librarian Fassit, who will alternate with music by repeating the lines
+beginning:</p>
+
+<div class="container">
+<p class="poetry">“‘Here Horus comes, I see the boat.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Friends, stay your flowing tears;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The soul of man goes through a goat</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">In just 3,000 years.’</span></p></div>
+
+<p>“At the temple the ceremony will be short and simple. The oxen will be
+left standing on the sidewalk, with a boy near by to prevent them goring
+the passers-by. Besides the Theurgic hymn, printed above in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> full, the
+Coptic National anthem will be sung, translated and adapted to the
+occasion as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="container">
+<p class="poetry">“Sitting Cynocephalus up in a tree,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I see you, and you see me.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">River full of crocodile, see his long snout!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hoist up the shadoof and pull him right out.”</span></p></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>6. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky.</h3>
+
+<p>After Madame Blavatsky’s death, Mrs. Annie Besant assumed the leadership
+of the Theosophical Society, and wore upon her finger a ring that belonged
+to the High Priestess: a ring with a green stone flecked with veins of
+blood red, upon the surface of which was engraved the interlaced triangles
+within a circle, with the Indian motto, <i>Sat</i> (Life), the symbol of
+Theosophy. It was given to Madame Blavatsky by her Indian teacher, says
+Mrs. Besant, and is very magnetic. The High Priestess on her deathbed
+presented the mystic signet to her successor, and left her in addition
+many valuable books and manuscripts. The Theosophical Society now numbers
+its adherents by the thousands and has its lodges scattered over the
+United States, France, England and India. At the World’s Columbian
+Exposition it was well represented in the Great Parliament of Religions,
+by Annie Besant, William Q. Judge, of the American branch,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> and Prof.
+Chakravatir, a High Caste Brahmin of India.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img36.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 38. PORTRAIT OF MRS. ANNIE BESANT.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>Mrs. Besant, in an interview published in the <i>New York World</i>, Dec. 11,
+1892, made the following statement concerning Madame Blavatsky’s peculiar
+powers:</p>
+
+<p>“One time she was trying to explain to me the control of the mind over
+certain currents in the ether about us, and to illustrate she made some
+little taps come on my own head. They were accompanied by the sensation
+one experiences on touching an electric battery. I have frequently seen
+her draw things to her simply by her will, without touching them. Indeed,
+she would often check herself when strangers were about. It was natural
+for her, when she wanted a book that was on the table, to simply draw it
+to her by her power of mind, as it would be for you to reach out your hand
+to pick it up. And so, as I say, she often had to check herself, for she
+was decidedly adverse to making a show of her power. In fact, that is
+contrary to the law of the brotherhood to which she belonged. This law
+forbids them to make use of their power except as an instruction to their
+pupils or as an aid to the spreading of the truth. An adept may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> never use
+his knowledge for his personal advantage. He may be starving, and despite
+his ability to materialize banquets he may not supply himself with a crust
+of bread. This is what is meant in the Gospel when it says: ‘He saved
+others, Himself He cannot save.’</p>
+
+<p>“One time she had written an article and as usual she gave me her
+manuscript to look over.</p>
+
+<p>“Sometimes she wrote very good grammatic English and again she wrote very
+slovenly English. So she always had me go over her manuscript. In reading
+this particular one I found a long quotation of some twenty or thirty
+lines. When I finished it I went to her and said: ‘Where in the world did
+you get that quotation?’</p>
+
+<p>“‘I got it from an Indian newspaper of &mdash;,’ naming the date.</p>
+
+<p>“‘But,’ I said, ‘that paper cannot be in this country yet! How did you get
+hold of it?’</p>
+
+<p>“‘Oh, I got it, dear,’ she said, with a little laugh; ‘that’s enough.’</p>
+
+<p>“Of course I understood then. When the time came for the paper to arrive,
+I thought I would verify her quotation, so I asked her for the name, the
+date<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> of the issue and the page on which the quotation would be found. She
+told me, giving me, we will say, 45 as the number of the page. I went to
+the agent, looked up the paper and there was no such quotation on page 45.
+Then I remembered that things seen in the astral light are reversed, so I
+turned the number around, looked on page 54 and there was the quotation.
+When I went home I told her that it was all right, but that she had given
+me the wrong page.</p>
+
+<p>“‘Very likely,’ she said. ‘Someone came in just as I was finishing it, and
+I may have forgotten to reverse the number.’</p>
+
+<p>“You see, anything seen in the astral light is reversed, as if you saw it
+in a mirror, while anything seen clairvoyantly is straight.”</p>
+
+<p>The elevation of Mrs. Besant to the High Priestess-ship of the
+Theosophical Society was in accord with the spirit of the age&mdash;an
+acknowledgment of the Eternal Feminine; but it did not bring repose to the
+organization. William Q. Judge, of the American branch, began dabbling, it
+is claimed, in Mahatma messages on his own account, and charges were made
+against him by Mrs. Besant. A bitter warfare was waged in Theosophical
+journals, and finally the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> American branch of the general society seceded,
+and organized itself into the American Theosophical Society. Judge was
+made life-president and held the post until his death, in New York City,
+March 21st, 1896. His body was cremated and the ashes sealed in an urn,
+which was deposited in the Society’s rooms, No. 144 Madison avenue.</p>
+
+<p>Five weeks after the death of Judge, the Theosophical Society held its
+annual conclave in New York City, and elected E. T. Hargrove as the
+presiding genius of esoteric wisdom in the United States. It was
+originally intended to hold this convention in Chicago, but the change was
+made for a peculiar reason. As the press reported the circumstance, “it
+was the result of a request by a mysterious adept whose existence had been
+unsuspected, and who made known his wish in a communication to the
+executive committee.” It seems that the Theosophical Society is composed
+of two bodies, the exoteric and the esoteric. The first holds open
+meetings for the discussion of ethical and Theosophical subjects, and the
+second meets privately, being composed of a secret body of adepts, learned
+in occultism and possessing remarkable spiritual powers. The chief of the
+secret order is appointed by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> Mahatmas, on account, it is claimed, of
+his or her occult development. Madame Blavatsky was the High Priestess in
+this inner temple during her lifetime, and was succeeded by Hierophant W.
+Q. Judge. When Judge died, it seems there was no one thoroughly qualified
+to take his place as the head of the esoteric branch, until an examination
+was made of his papers. Then came a surprise. Judge had named as his
+successor a certain obscure individual whom he claimed to be a great
+adept, requesting that the name be kept a profound secret for a specified
+time. In obedience to this injunction, the Great Unknown was elected as
+chief of the Inner Brother-and-Sisterhood. All of this made interesting
+copy for the New York journalists, and columns were printed about the
+affair. Another surprise came when the convention of exoterics
+(“hysterics,” as some of the papers called them) subscribed $25,000 for
+the founding of an occult temple in this country. But the greatest
+surprise of all was a Theosophical wedding. The De Palm funeral fades away
+into utter insignificance beside this mystic marriage. The contracting
+parties were Claude Falls Wright, formerly secretary to Madame Blavatsky,
+and Mary C. L. Leonard, daughter of Anna Byford Leonard,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> one of the best
+known Theosophists in the West. The ceremony was performed at Aryan Hall,
+No. 144 Madison avenue, N. Y., in the presence of the occult body.
+Outsiders were not admitted. However, public curiosity was partly
+gratified by sundry crumbs of information thrown out by the Theosophical
+press bureau.</p>
+
+<p>The young couple stood beneath a seven-pointed star, made of electric
+light globes, and plighted their troth amid clouds of odoriferous incense.
+Then followed weird chantings and music by an occult orchestra composed of
+violins and violoncellos. The unknown adept presided over the affair, as
+special envoy of the Mahatmas. He was enveloped from head to foot in a
+thick white veil, said the papers.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wright and his bride-elect declared solemnly that they remembered many
+of their former incarnations; their marriage had really taken place in
+Egypt, 5,000 years ago in one of the mysterious temples of that strange
+country, and the ceremony had been performed by the priests of Isis. Yes,
+they remembered it all! It seemed but as yesterday! They recalled with
+vividness the scene: their march up the avenue of monoliths; the lotus
+flowers strewn in their path by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> rosy children; the intoxicating perfume
+of the incense, burned in bronze braziers by shaven-headed priests; the
+hieroglyphics, emblematical of life, death and resurrection, painted upon
+the temple walls; the Hierophant in his gorgeous vestments. Oh, what a
+dream of Old World splendor and beauty!</p>
+
+<p>Before many months had passed, the awful secret of the Veiled Adept’s
+identity was revealed. The Great Unknown turned out to be a <i>she</i> instead
+of a <i>he</i> adept&mdash;a certain Mrs. Katherine Alice Tingley, of New York City.
+The reporters began ringing the front door bell of the adept’s house in
+the vain hope of obtaining an interview, but the newly-hatched Sphinx
+turned a deaf ear to their entreaties. The time was not yet ripe for
+revelations. Her friends, however, rushed into print, and told the most
+marvellous stories of her mediumship.</p>
+
+<p>W. T. Stead, the English journalist and student of psychical research,
+reviewing the Theosophical convention and its outcome, says (<i>Borderland</i>,
+July, 1896, p. 306): “The Judgeite seceders from the Theosophical Society
+held their annual convention in New York, April 26th to 27th. They have
+elected a young man, Mr. Ernest T. Hargrove, as their president. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> former
+spiritual medium and clairvoyant, by name Katherine Alice Tingley, who
+claims to have been bosom friends with H. P. B. 1200 years B. C., when
+both were incarnated in Egypt, is, however, the grand Panjandrum of the
+cause. Her first husband was a detective, her second is a clerk in the
+White Lead Company’s office in Brooklyn.</p>
+
+<p>“According to Mr. Hargrove she is&mdash;‘The new adept; she was appointed by
+Mr. Judge, and we are going to sustain her, as we sustained him, for we
+know her important connection in Egypt, Mexico and Europe.’”</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1896, Mrs. Tingley, accompanied by a number of prominent
+occultists, started on a crusade through the world to bring the truths of
+Theosophy to the toiling millions. The crusaders before their departure
+were presented with a purple silk banner, bearing the legend: “Truth,
+Light, Liberation for Discouraged Humanity.” The <i>New York Herald</i> (Aug.
+16, 1896) says of this crusade:</p>
+
+<p>“When Mrs. Tingley and the other crusaders left this country nothing had
+been heard of the claim of the reincarnated Blavatsky. Now, however, this
+idea is boldly advanced in England by the American<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> branch of the society
+there, and in America by Burcham Harding, the acting head of the society
+in this country. When Mr. Harding was seen at the Theosophical
+headquarters, he said:</p>
+
+<p>“‘Yes, Mme. Blavatsky is reincarnated in Mrs. Tingley. She has not only
+been recognized by myself and other members of the American branch of the
+Theosophical Society, who knew H. P. B. in her former life, but the
+striking physical and facial resemblance has also been noted by members of
+the English branch.’</p>
+
+<p>“But this recognition by the English members of the society does not seem
+to be as strong as Mr. Harding would seem to have it understood. In fact,
+there are a number of members of that branch who boldly declare that Mrs.
+Tingley is an impostor. One of them, within the last week, addressing the
+English members on the subject, claimed that Mme. Blavatsky had foreseen
+that such an impostor would arise. He said:</p>
+
+<p>“‘When Mme. Blavatsky lived in her body among us, she declared to all her
+disciples that, in her next reincarnation, she would inhabit the body of
+an Eastern man, and she warned them to be on their guard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> against any
+assertion made by mediums or others that they were controlled by her.
+Whatever H. P. B. lacked, she never wanted emphasis, and no one who knew
+anything of the founder of the Theosophical Society was left in any doubt
+as to her views upon this question. She declared that if any persons,
+after her death, should claim that she was speaking through them, her
+friends might be quite sure that it was a lie. Imagine, then, the feelings
+of H. P. B.’s disciples on being presented with an American clairvoyant
+medium, in the shape of Mrs. Tingley, who is reported to claim that H. P.
+B. is reincarnated in her.’</p>
+
+<p>“The American branch of the society is not at all disturbed by this charge
+of fraud by the English branch. In connection with it Mr. Harding says:</p>
+
+<p>“‘It is true that the American branch of the Theosophical Society has
+seceded from the English branch, but as Mme. Blavatsky, the founder, was
+in reality an American, it can be understood why we consider ourselves the
+parent society.’</p>
+
+<p>“Of the one letter which Mrs. Tingley has sent to America since the
+arrival of the crusaders, the English Theosophists are a unit in the
+expression of opinion that it illustrated, as did her speech in Queen’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>
+Hall, merely ‘unmeaning platitudes and prophecies.’ But the American
+members are quite as loud in their expressions that the English members
+are trying to win the sympathies of the public, and that the words are
+really understood by the initiate.</p>
+
+<p>“The letter reads: ‘In thanking you for the many kind letters addressed to
+me as Katherine Tingley, as well as by other names that would not be
+understood by the general public, I should like to say a few words as to
+the future and its possibilities. Many of you are destined to take an
+active part in the work that the future will make manifest, and it is well
+to press onward with a clear knowledge of the path to be trodden and with
+a clear vision of the goal to be reached.</p>
+
+<p>“‘The path to be trodden is both exterior and interior, and in order to
+reach the goal it is necessary to tread these paths with strength,
+courage, faith and the essence of them all, which is wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>“‘For these two paths, which fundamentally are one, like every duality in
+nature, are winding paths, and now lead through sunlight, then through
+deepest shade. During the last few years the large majority of students
+have been rounding a curve in the paths of both inner and outer work, and
+this wearied many.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> But those who persevered and faltered not will soon
+reap their reward.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img37.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 39. PORTRAIT OF MRS. TINGLEY.<br />
+[Reproduced by courtesy of the <i>New York Herald</i>.]</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>“‘The present is pregnant with the promise of the near future, and that
+future is brighter than could be believed by those who have so recently
+been immersed in the shadows that are inevitable in cyclic progress. Can
+words describe it? I think not. But if you will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> think of the past twenty
+years of ploughing and sowing and will keep in your mind the tremendous
+force that has been scattered broadcast throughout the world, you must
+surely see that the hour for reaping is near at hand, if it has not
+already come.”</p>
+
+<p>The invasion of English territory by the American crusaders was resented
+by the British Theosophists. The advocates of universal brotherhood waged
+bitter warfare against each other in the newspapers and periodicals. It
+gradually resolved itself into a struggle for supremacy between the two
+rival claimants for the mantle of Madame Blavatsky, Mrs. Annie Besant and
+Mrs. Tingley. Each Pythoness ascended her sacred tripod and hysterically
+denounced the other as an usurper, and false prophetess. Annie Besant
+sought to disprove the idea of Madame Blavatsky having re-incarnated
+herself in the body of Mrs. Tingley. She claimed that the late High
+Priestess had taken up her earthly pilgrimage again in the person of a
+little Hindoo boy, who lived somewhere on the banks of the Ganges. The
+puzzling problem was this: If Mrs. Tingley was Mme. Blavatsky, where was
+Mrs. Tingley? Oedipus would have gone mad trying to solve this Sphinx
+riddle.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>The crusade finished, Mrs. Tingley, with her purple banner returned to New
+York, where she was royally welcomed by her followers. In the wake of the
+American adept came the irrepressible Annie Besant, accompanied by a
+sister Theosophist, the Countess Constance Wachmeister. Mrs. Besant,
+garbed in a white linen robe of Hindoo pattern, lectured on occult
+subjects to crowded houses in the principal cities of the East and West.
+In the numerous interviews accorded her by the press, she ridiculed the
+Blavatsky-Tingley re-incarnation theory. By kind permission of the <i>New
+York Herald</i>, I reproduce a portrait of Mrs. Tingley. The reader will find
+it interesting to compare this sketch with the photograph of Madame
+Blavatsky given in this book. He will notice at once how much the two
+occultists do resemble each other; both are grossly fat, puffy of face,
+with heavy-lidded eyes and rather thick lips.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>7. The Theosophical Temple.</h3>
+
+<p>If all the dreams of the Theosophical Society are fulfilled we shall see,
+at no distant date, in the state of California, a sombre and mysterious
+building, fashioned after an Egyptian temple, its pillars covered with
+hieroglyphic symbols, and its ponderous pylons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> flanking the gloomy
+entrance. Twin obelisks will stand guard at the gateway and huge bronze
+sphinxes stare the tourist out of countenance. The Theosophical temple
+will be constructed “upon certain mysterious principles, and the numbers 7
+and 13 will play a prominent part in connection with the dimensions of the
+rooms and the steps of the stairways.” The Hierophants of occultism will
+assemble here, weird initiations like those described in Moore’s
+“Epicurean” will take place, and the doctrines of Hindoo pantheism will be
+expounded to the Faithful. The revival of the Egyptian mysteries seems to
+be one of the objects aimed at in the establishment of this mystical
+college. Just what the Egyptian Mysteries were is a mooted question among
+Egyptologists. But this does not bother the modern adept.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bucham Harding, the leading exponent of Theosophy mentioned above,
+says that within the temple the neophyte will be brought face to face with
+his own soul. “By what means cannot be revealed; but I may say that the
+object of initiation will be to raise the consciousness of the pupil to a
+plane where he will see and know his own divine soul and consciously
+communicate with it. Once gained, this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> power is never lost. From this it
+can be seen that occultism is not so unreal as many think, and that the
+existence of soul is susceptible of actual demonstration. No one will be
+received into the mysteries until, by means of a long and severe
+probation, he has proved nobility of character. Only persons having
+Theosophical training will be eligible, but as any believer in brotherhood
+may become a Theosophist, all earnest truthseekers will have an
+opportunity of admission.</p>
+
+<p>“The probation will be sufficiently severe to deter persons seeking to
+gratify curiosity from trying to enter. No trifler could stand the test.
+There will be a number of degrees. Extremely few will be able to enter the
+highest, as eligibility to it requires eradication of every human fault
+and weakness. Those strong enough to pass through this become adepts.”</p>
+
+<p>The Masonic Fraternity, with its 33d degree and its elaborate initiations,
+will have to look to its laurels, as soon as the Theosophical College of
+Mystery is in good running order. Everyone loves mysteries, especially
+when they are of the Egyptian kind. Cagliostro, the High Priest of Humbug,
+knew this when he evolved the Egyptian Rite of Masonry, in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> eighteenth
+century. Speaking of Freemasonry, it is interesting to note the fact, as
+stated by Colonel Olcott in “Old Diary Leaves,” that Madame Blavatsky and
+her coadjutors once seriously debated the question as to the advisability
+of engrafting the Theosophical Society on the Masonic fraternity, as a
+sort of higher degree,&mdash;Masonry representing the lesser mysteries, modern
+Theosophy the greater mysteries. But little encouragement was given to the
+Priestess of Isis by eminent Freemasons, for Masonry has always been the
+advocate of theistic doctrines, and opposed to the pantheistic cult. At
+another time, the leaders of Theosophy talked of imitating Masonry by
+having degrees, an elaborate ritual, etc.; also pass words, signs and
+grips, in order that “one <i>occult</i> brother might know another in the
+darkness as well as in the <i>astral</i> light.” This, however, was abandoned.
+The founding of the Temple of Magic and Mystery in this country, with
+ceremonies of initiation, etc., seems to me to be a palingenesis of Mme.
+Blavatsky’s ideas on the subject of occult Masonry.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>8. Conclusions.</h3>
+
+<p>The temple of modern Theosophy, the foundation of which was laid by Madame
+Blavatsky, rests upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> truth of the Mahatma stories. Disbelieve these,
+and the entire structure falls to the ground like a house of cards. After
+the numerous exposures, recorded in the preceding chapters, it is
+difficult to place any reliance in the accounts of Mahatmic miracles.
+There may, or may not, be sages in the East, acquainted with spiritual
+laws of being, but that these masters, or adepts, used Madame Blavatsky as
+a medium to announce certain esoteric doctrines to the Western world, is
+exceedingly dubious.</p>
+
+<p>The first work of any literary pretensions to call attention to Theosophy
+was Sinnett’s “Esoteric Buddhism.” Of that production, William Emmette
+Coleman says:</p>
+
+<p>“‘Esoteric Buddhism,’ by A. P. Sinnett, was based upon statements
+contained in letters received by Mr. Sinnett and Mr. A. O. Hume, through
+Madame Blavatsky, purporting to be written by the Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and
+Morya&mdash;principally the former. Mr. Richard Hodgson has kindly lent me a
+considerable number of the original letters of the Mahatmas that leading
+to the production of ‘Esoteric Buddhism.’ I find in them overwhelming
+evidence that all of them were written by Madame Blavatsky. In these
+letters are a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> number of extracts from Buddhist Books, alleged to be
+translations from the originals by the Mahatmic writers themselves. These
+letters claim for the adepts a knowledge of Sanskrit, Thibetan, Pali and
+Chinese. I have traced to its source each quotation from the Buddhist
+Scriptures in the letters, and they were all copied from current English
+translations, including even the notes and explanations of the English
+translators. They were principally copied from Beal’s ‘Catena of Buddhist
+Scriptures from the Chinese.’ In other places where the ‘adept’ is using
+his own language in explanation of Buddhistic terms and ideas, I find that
+his presumed original language was copied nearly word for word from Rhys
+Davids’ ‘Buddhism,’ and other books. I have traced every Buddhistic idea
+in these letters and in ‘Esoteric Buddhism,’ and every Buddhistic term,
+such as Devachan, Avitchi, etc., to the books whence Helena Petrovna
+Blavatsky derived them. Although said to be proficient in the knowledge of
+Thibetan and Sanskrit the words and terms in these languages in the
+letters of the adepts were nearly all used in a ludicrously erroneous and
+absurd manner. The writer of those letters was an ignoramus in Sanskrit
+and Thibetan; and the mistakes and blunders in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> them, in these languages,
+are in exact accordance with the known ignorance of Madame Blavatsky
+concerning these languages. ‘Esoteric Buddhism,’ like all of Madame
+Blavatsky’s works, was based upon wholesale plagiarism and ignorance.”</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="figcenter"><img src="images/img38.jpg" alt="" /></p>
+<p class="center">FIG. 40. MADAME BLAVATSKY’S AUTOGRAPH.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Madame Blavatsky never succeeded in penetrating into Thibet, in whose
+sacred “lamaseries” and temples dwell the wonderful Mahatmas of modern
+Theosophy, but William Woodville Rockhill, the American traveller and
+Oriental scholar, did, and we have a record of his adventures in “The Land
+of the Laas,” published in 1891. While at Serkok, he visited a famous
+monastery inhabited by 700 lamas. He says (page 102):<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> “They asked endless
+questions concerning the state of Buddhism in foreign lands. They were
+astonished that it no longer existed in India, and that the church of
+Ceylon was so like the ancient Buddhist one. When told of our esoteric
+Buddhists, the Mahatmas, and of the wonderful doctrines they claimed to
+have obtained from Thibet, they were immensely amused. They declared that
+though in ancient times there were, doubtless, saints and sages who could
+perform some of the miracles now claimed by the Esoterists, none were
+living at the present day; and they looked upon this new school as rankly
+heretical, and as something approaching an imposition on our credulity.”</p>
+
+<p>“Isis Unveiled,” and the “Secret Doctrine,” by Madame Blavatsky, are
+supposed to contain the completest exposition of Theosophy, or the inner
+spiritual meaning of the great religious cults of the world, but, as we
+have seen, they are full of plagiarisms and garbled statements, to say
+nothing of “spurious quotations from Buddhist sacred books, manufactured
+by the writer to embody her own peculiar views, under the fictitious guise
+of genuine Buddhism.” This last quotation from Coleman strikes the keynote
+of the whole subject. Esoteric Buddhism is a product of Occidental<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>
+manufacture, a figment of Madame Blavatsky’s romantic imagination, and by
+no means represents the truth of Oriental philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>As Max Mueller, one of the greatest living Oriental scholars, has
+repeatedly stated, any attempt to read into Oriental thought our Western
+science and philosophy or to reconcile them, is futile to a degree; the
+two schools are as opposite to each other, as the negative and positive
+poles of a magnet, Orientalism representing the former, Occidentalism, the
+latter. Oriental philosophy with its Indeterminate Being (or pure nothing
+as the Absolute) ends in the utter negation of everything and affords no
+clue to the secret of the Universe. If to believe that all is <i>maya</i>,
+(illusion), and that to be one with Brahma (absorbed like the rain drop in
+the ocean) constitutes the <i>summum bonum</i> of thinking, then there is no
+explanation of, or use for, evolution or progress of any kind. The effect
+of Hindoo philosophy has been stagnation, indifferentism, and, as a
+result, the Hindoo has no recorded history, no science, no art worthy the
+name. Compared to it see what Greek philosophy has done: it has
+transformed the Western world: Starting with Self-Determined Being,
+reason, self-activity, at the heart of the Universe, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> the creation of
+individual souls by a process of evolution in time and space, and the
+unfolding of a splendid civilization are logical consequences. In the
+East, it is the destruction of self-hood; in the West the destruction of
+selfishness, and the preservation of self-hood.</p>
+
+<p>Many noted Theosophists claim that modern Theosophy is not a religious
+cult, but simply an exposition of the esoteric, or inner spiritual meaning
+of the great religious teachers of the world. Let me quote what Solovyoff
+says on this point:</p>
+
+<p>“The Theosophical Society shockingly deceived those who joined it as
+members, in reliance on the regulations. It gradually grew evident that it
+was no universal scientific brotherhood, to which the followers of all
+religions might with a clear conscience belong, but a group of persons who
+had begun to preach in their organ, <i>The Theosophist</i>, and in their other
+publications, a mixed religious doctrine. Finally, in the last years of
+Madame Blavatsky’s life, even this doctrine gave place to a direct and
+open propaganda of the most orthodox exoteric Buddhism, under the motto of
+‘Our Lord Buddha,’ combined with incessant attacks on Christianity. * * *
+Now, in 1893, as the direct effect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> of this cause, we see an entire
+religious movement, we see a prosperous and growing plantation of Buddhism
+in Western Europe.”</p>
+
+<p>As a last word let me add that if, in my opinion, modern Theosophy has no
+right to the high place it claims in the world of thought, it has
+performed its share in the noble fight against the crass materialism of
+our day, and, freed from the frauds that have too long darkened its
+poetical aspects, it may yet help to diffuse through the world the pure
+light of brotherly love and spiritual development.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p>
+<h2>List of Works Consulted in the Preparation of this Volume</h2>
+
+
+<p class="hang">AKSAKOFF, ALEXANDER N. <b>Animism and Spiritism</b>: an attempt at a critical
+investigation of mediumistic phenomena, with special reference to the
+hypotheses of hallucination and of the unconscious; an answer to Dr. E.
+von Hartmann’s work, “Der Spiritismus.” 2 vols. Leipsic, 1890. 8vo. (A
+profoundly interesting work by an impartial Russian savant. Judicial,
+critical and scientific.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">AZAM, DR. <b>Hypnotisme et Altérations de la Personnalité.</b> Paris, 1887. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BERNHEIM, HIPPOLYTE. <b>Suggestive Therapeutics</b>: A study of the nature and
+use of hypnotism. Translated from the French. New York, 1889. 4to.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BINET, A. AND FÉRÉ, C. <b>Animal Magnetism.</b> Translated from the French. New
+York, 1888.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BLAVATSKY, MADAME HÉLÈNE PETROVNA HAHN-HAHN. <b>Isis Unveiled</b>: A Master-key
+to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology. 6th ed. New
+York, 1891. 2 vols. 8vo. (A heterogeneous mass of poorly digested
+quotations from writers living and dead, with running remarks by Mme.
+Blavatsky. A hodge-podge of magic, masonry, and Oriental witchcraft.
+Pseudo-scientific.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>The Secret Doctrine</b>: The Synthesis of science, religion, and
+philosophy. 2 vols. New York, 1888. 8vo. (Philosophical in character. A
+reading of Western thought into Oriental religions and symbolisms.
+So-called quotations from the “Book of Dzyan,” manufactured by the
+ingenious mind of the authoress.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CROCQ FILS, DR. <b>L’hypnotisme.</b> Paris, 1896. 4to. (An exhaustive work on
+hypnotism in all its phases.)</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">CROOKES, WILLIAM. <b>Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism.</b> London,
+1876. 8vo, (pamphlet).</p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism.</b> London, 1875. 8vo,
+(pamphlet). (Very interesting exposition of experiments made with D. D.
+Home, the spirit medium.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DAVENPORT, R. B. <b>Death Blow to Spiritualism</b>: True story of the Fox
+sisters. New York, 1888. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DESSOIR, MAX. <b>The Psychology of Legerdemain.</b> <i>Open Court</i>, vol. vii.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GARRETT, EDMUND. <b>Isis Very Much Unveiled</b>: Being the story of the great
+Mahatma hoax. London, 1895. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GASPARIN, COMTE AGÉNOR DE. <b>Des Tables Tournantes, du Surnaturel et des
+Esprits.</b> Paris, 1854. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GATCHELL, CHARLES. The methods of mind-readers. <i>Forum</i>, vol. xi, pp.
+192-204.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GIBIER, <span class="smcap">Dr.</span> PAUL. <b>Le Spiritisme</b> (fakirisme occidental). Étude historique,
+critique et expérimentale. Paris, 1889. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GURNEY, E., MYERS, F. W., <span class="smcaplc">AND</span> PODMORE, F. <b>Phantasms of the Living.</b> 2 vols.
+London, 1887. (Embodies the investigations of the Society for Psychical
+Research into Spiritualism, Telepathy, Thought-transference, etc.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HAMMOND, <span class="smcap">Dr.</span> W. H. <b>Spiritualism and Nervous Derangement.</b> New York, 1876.
+8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HARDINGE-BRITTAN, EMMA. <b>History of Spiritualism.</b> New York. 4to.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HART, ERNEST. <b>Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New Witchcraft.</b> London, 1893.
+8vo. (Scientific and critical. Anti-spiritualistic in character.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOME, D. D. <b>Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism.</b> New York, 1878. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HUDSON, THOMAS JAY. <b>The Law of Psychic Phenomena.</b> New York, 1894. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>A Scientific Demonstration of the Future Life.</b> Chicago, 1895. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">JAMES, WILLIAM. <b>Psychology.</b> New York, 1892. 8vo, 2 vols.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">JASTROW, JOSEPH. <b>Involuntary Movements.</b> <i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, vol.
+xl, pp. 743-750. (Interesting account of experiments made in a
+Psychological Laboratory to demonstrate “the readiness with which normal
+individuals may be made to yield evidence of unconscious and involuntary
+processes.” Throws considerable light on muscle-reading,
+planchette-writing, etc.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>The Psychology of Deception.</b> <i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, vol. xxxiv,
+pp. 145-157.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>The Psychology of Spiritualism.</b> <i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, vol.
+xxxiv, pp. 721-732.</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">(A series of articles of great value to students of psychical research.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KRAFFT-EBING, R. <b>Experimental Study in the Domain of Hypnotism.</b> New York,
+1889.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LEAF, WALTER. <b>A Modern Priestess of Isis</b>; abridged and translated on
+behalf of the Society for Psychical Research, from the Russian of Vsevolod
+S. Solovyoff. London, 1895. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LILLIE, ARTHUR. <b>Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophy.</b> London, 1896. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LIPPITT, F. J. <b>Physical Proofs of Another Life</b>: Letters to the Seybert
+commission. Washington, D. C., 1888. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MACAIRE, SID. <b>Mind-Reading, or Muscle-Reading?</b> London, 1889.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MOLL, ALBERT. <b>Hypnotism.</b> New York, 1892. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MATTISON, REV. H. <b>Spirit-rapping Unveiled.</b> An Exposé of the origin,
+history theology and philosophy of certain alleged communications from the
+spiritual world by means of “spirit-rapping,” “medium writing,” “physical
+demonstrations,” etc. New York, 1855. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MYERS, F. W. H. <b>Science and a Future Life</b>, and other essays. London, 1891.
+8vo.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">OCHOROWICZ, <span class="smcap">Dr.</span> J. <b>Mental Suggestion</b> (with a preface by Prof. Charles
+Richet). From the French by J. Fitz-Gerald. New York, 1891. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OLCOTT, HENRY S. <b>Old Diary Leaves.</b> New York, 1895. 8vo. (Full of wildly
+improbable incidents in the career of Madame Blavatsky. Valuable on
+account of its numerous quotations from American journals concerning the
+early history of the theosophical movement in the United States.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PODMORE, FRANK S. <b>Apparitions and Thought-Transference</b>: Examination of the
+evidence of telepathy. New York, 1894. 8vo. (A thoughtful scientific work
+on a profoundly interesting subject.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REVELATIONS OF A SPIRIT MEDIUM; or, <b>Spiritualistic Mysteries Exposed</b>. St.
+Paul, Minn., 1891. 8vo. (One of the best exposés of physical phenomena
+published.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ROBERT-HOUDIN, J. E. <b>The Secrets of Stage Conjuring.</b> From the French, by
+Prof. Hoffmann. New York, 1881. 8vo. (A full account of the performances
+of the Davenport Bros. in Paris, by the most famous of contemporary
+conjurers.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ROARK, RURICK N. <b>Psychology in Education.</b> New York, 1895. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ROCKHILL, WM. W. <b>The Land of the Lamas.</b> New York, 1891. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SEYBERT COMMISSION ON SPIRITUALISM. <b>Preliminary Report.</b> New York, 1888.
+8vo. (Absolutely anti-spiritualistic. The psychical phases of the subject
+not considered.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SIDGWICK, MRS. H. <b>Article “Spiritualism” in “Encyclopædia Britannica,”</b>
+vol. 22. (An excellent resumé of spiritualism, its history and phenomena.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SINNETT, A. P. (<i>Ed.</i>) <b>Incidents in the life of Mme. Blavatsky.</b> London,
+1886. 8vo. (Interesting, but replete with wildly improbable incidents,
+etc. Of little value as a life of the famous occultist.)</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>The Occult World.</b> London, 1885. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; <b>Esoteric Buddhism.</b> London, 1888. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH: <b>Proceedings.</b> Vols. 1-11. [1882-95.]
+London, 1882-95. 8vo. (The most exhaustive researches yet set on foot by
+impartial investigators. Scientific in character, and invaluable to the
+student. Psychical phases of spiritualism mostly dealt with.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TRUESDELL, JOHN W. <b>The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of
+Spiritualism</b>: Derived from careful investigations covering a period of
+twenty-five years. New York, 1883. 8vo. (Anti-spiritualistic. Exposés of
+physical phenomena: psychography, rope-tests, etc. Of its kind, a valuable
+contribution to the literature of the subject.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WEATHERLY, <span class="smcap">Dr.</span> L. A., <span class="smcaplc">AND</span> MASKELYNE, J. N. <b>The Supernatural.</b> Bristol,
+Eng., 1891. 8vo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WILLMANN, CARL. <b>Moderne Wunder.</b> Leipsic, 1892. 8vo. (Contains interesting
+accounts of Dr. Slade’s Berlin and Leipsic experiences. It is written by a
+professional conjurer. Anti-spiritualistic.)</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WOODBURY, WALTER E. <b>Photographic Amusements.</b> New York, 1896. 8vo.
+(Contains some interesting accounts of so-called spirit photography.)</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p><a name='f_1' id='f_1' href='#fna_1'>[1]</a> Introduction to Herrmann the Magician, his Life, his Secrets, (Laird &amp;
+Lee, Publishers.)</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_2' id='f_2' href='#fna_2'>[2]</a> Spiritualism and nervous derangement, New York, 1876. p. 115.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_3' id='f_3' href='#fna_3'>[3]</a> The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of Spiritualism, etc., New
+York, 1883.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_4' id='f_4' href='#fna_4'>[4]</a> Communication to <i>New York Sun</i>, 1892.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_5' id='f_5' href='#fna_5'>[5]</a> <span class="smcap">Note</span>&mdash;These letters were purchased from the <i>Christian College
+Magazine</i> by Dr. Elliot Coues, of Washington, D. C.</p>
+
+<p><a name='f_6' id='f_6' href='#fna_6'>[6]</a> “Old Diary Leaves”&mdash;<i>Olcott</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth
+Century Witchcraft, by Henry Ridgely Evans
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@@ -0,0 +1,6050 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth
+Century Witchcraft, by Henry Ridgely Evans
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth Century Witchcraft
+       Illustrated Investigations into the Phenomena of
+       Spiritualism and Theosophy
+
+Author: Henry Ridgely Evans
+
+Release Date: December 5, 2013 [EBook #44349]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS
+
+
+
+
+LEE'S LIBRARY OF OCCULT SCIENCE
+
+
+HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS; Or XIX Century Witchcraft
+
+By Henry R. Evans.
+
+
+PRACTICAL PALMISTRY; Or Hand Reading Made Easy
+
+By Comte C. de Saint-Germain.
+
+
+HERRMANN THE MAGICIAN; His Life; His Secrets
+
+By H. J. Burlingame.
+
+
+All profusely illustrated. Bound in Holliston cloth, burnished red top,
+uncut edges.
+
+EACH, $1.00
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.
+
+[Taken by the Author.]]
+
+
+
+
+  Hours With the Ghosts
+
+  OR NINETEENTH CENTURY WITCHCRAFT
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATED INVESTIGATIONS
+  INTO THE
+  Phenomena of Spiritualism and Theosophy
+
+
+  BY HENRY RIDGELY EVANS
+
+
+  The first duty we owe to the world is Truth--all
+  the Truth--nothing but the Truth.--"_Ancient Wisdom._"
+
+
+  CHICAGO
+  LAIRD & LEE, PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+Entered according to act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and
+ninety-seven. BY WILLIAM H. LEE, In the office of the Librarian of
+Congress, at Washington.
+
+
+
+
+TO MY WIFE
+
+
+
+
+"It is no proof of wisdom to refuse to examine certain phenomena because
+we think it certain that they are impossible, as if our knowledge of the
+universe were already completed."--_Prof. Lodge._
+
+"The most ardent Spiritist should welcome a searching inquiry into the
+potential faculties of spirits still in the flesh. Until we know more of
+_these_, those other phenomena to which he appeals must remain
+unintelligible because isolated, and are likely to be obstinately
+disbelieved because they are impossible to understand."--_F. W. H. Myers:
+"Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," Part XVIII, April,
+1891._
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+  Author's Preface                                                  11
+
+  INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT                                             13
+
+  PART FIRST: =Spiritualism=                                        18
+
+     _I. Divisions of the Subject_                                  18
+
+    _II. Subjective Phenomena_                                      23
+         1. Telepathy                                               23
+         2. Table Tilting. Muscle Reading                           40
+
+   _III. Physical Phenomena_                                        46
+         1. Psychography or Slate-writing                           46
+         2. The Master of the Mediums: D. D. Home                   93
+         3. Rope Tying and Holding Mediums; Materializations       135
+            The Davenport Brothers                                 135
+            Annie Eva Fay                                          149
+            Charles Slade                                          154
+            Pierre L. O. A. Keeler                                 160
+            Eusapia Paladino                                       175
+            F. W. Tabor                                            182
+         4. Spirit Photography                                     188
+         5. Thought Photography                                    197
+         6. Apparitions of the Dead                                201
+
+    _IV. Conclusions_                                              207
+
+
+  PART SECOND: =Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists=             210
+
+     _I. The Priestess_                                            213
+
+    _II. What is Theosophy?_                                       237
+
+   _III. Madame Blavatsky's Confession_                            250
+
+    _IV. The Writings of Madame Blavatsky_                         265
+
+     _V. The Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist_               268
+
+    _VI. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky_                           272
+
+   _VII. The Theosophical Temple_                                  287
+
+  _VIII. Conclusion_                                               290
+
+  List of Authorities                                              298
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                                 PAGE.
+
+  Fig. 1. Spirit Photograph, by the author                Frontispiece
+
+  Fig. 2. Portrait of Dr. Henry Slade                               47
+
+  Fig. 3. The Holding of the Slate                                  51
+
+  Fig. 4. Slate No. 1                                               65
+
+  Fig. 5. Slate No. 2                                               71
+
+  Fig. 6. Slate No. 3                                               77
+
+  Fig. 7. Home at the Tuileries                                     97
+
+  Fig. 8. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1                                 116
+
+  Fig. 9. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1                                 119
+
+  Fig. 10. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1                                120
+
+  Fig. 11. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1                                121
+
+  Fig. 12, 13, 14, 15. Crookes' Diagrams                       124-125
+
+  Fig. 16. Crookes' Apparatus No. 2                                126
+
+  Fig. 17. Crookes' Apparatus No. 2                                127
+
+  Fig. 18, 19, 20. Crookes' Diagrams                           128-130
+
+  Fig. 21. Hammond's Apparatus                                     133
+
+  Fig. 22. The Davenport's in their Cabinet                        139
+
+  Fig. 23. Trick Tie and in Cabinet Work                           143
+
+  Fig. 24. Charles Slade's Poster                              158-159
+
+  Fig. 25. Pierre Keeler's Cabinet Seance                          162
+
+  Fig. 26. Pierre Keeler's Cabinet Curtain                         163
+
+  Fig. 27. Portrait of Eusapia Paladino                            176
+
+  Fig. 28. Eusapia before the Scientists                           177
+
+  Fig. 29. Spirit Photograph, by the author                        191
+
+  Fig. 30. Spirit Photograph, by pretended medium                  195
+
+  Fig. 31. Sigel's Original Picture of Fig. 30                     199
+
+  Fig. 32. Portrait of Madame Blavatsky                            215
+
+  Fig. 33. Mahatma Letter                                          221
+
+  Fig. 34. Mahatma Envelope                                        225
+
+  Fig. 35. Portrait of Col. H. S. Olcott                           233
+
+  Fig. 36. Oath of Secrecy of the Charter Members of the
+  Theosophical Society                                             235
+
+  Fig. 37. Portrait of W. Q. Judge                                 241
+
+  Fig. 38. Portrait of Mrs. Annie Besant                           273
+
+  Fig. 39. Portrait of Mrs. Tingley                                285
+
+  Fig. 40. Autograph of Madame Blavatsky                           293
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+_There are two great schools of thought in the world--materialistic and
+spiritualistic. With one, MATTER is all in all, the ultimate substratum;
+mind is merely the result of organized matter; everything is translated
+into terms of force, motion and the like. With the other, SPIRIT or mind
+is the ultimate substance--God; matter is the visible expression of this
+invisible and eternal Consciousness._
+
+_Materialism is a barren, dreary, comfortless belief, and, in the opinion
+of the author, is without philosophical foundation. This is an age of
+scientific materialism, although of late years that materialism has been
+rather on the wane among thinking men. In an age of such ultra
+materialism, therefore, it is not strange that there should come a great
+reaction on the part of spiritually minded people. This reaction takes the
+form of an increased vitality of dogmatic religion, or else culminates in
+the formation of Spiritualistic or Theosophic societies for the
+prosecution of occult phenomena. Spiritualists are now numbered by the
+million. Persons calling themselves mediums present certain phenomena,
+physical and psychical, and call public attention to them, as an evidence
+of life beyond the grave, and the possibility of spiritual communication
+between this world and the next._
+
+_The author has had sittings with many famous mediums of this country and
+Europe, but has seen little to convince him of the fact of spirit
+communication. The slate tests and so-called materializations have
+invariably been frauds. Some experiments along the line of automatic
+writing and psychometry, however, have demonstrated to the writer the
+truth of telepathy or thought-transference. The theory of telepathy
+explains many of the marvels ascribed to spirit intervention in things
+mundane._
+
+_In this work the author has endeavored to give an accurate account of the
+lives and adventures of celebrated mediums and occultists, which will
+prove of interest to the reader. The rise and growth of the Theosophical
+cult in this country and Europe is of historical interest. Theosophy
+pretends to a deeper metaphysics than Spiritualism, and numbers its
+adherents by the thousands; it is, therefore, intensely interesting to
+study it in its origin, its founder and its present leaders._
+
+_THE AUTHOR._
+
+
+
+
+HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT.
+
+
+"If a man die, shall he live again?"--this is the question of the ages,
+the Sphinx riddle that Humanity has been trying to solve since time began.
+The great minds of antiquity, Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle
+were firm in their belief in the immortality of the soul. The writings of
+Plato are luminous on the subject. The Mysteries of Isis and Osiris, as
+practiced in Egypt, and those of Eleusis, in Greece, taught the doctrine
+of the immortality of the individual being. The Divine Master of Arcane
+knowledge, Christ, proclaimed the same. In latter times, we have had such
+metaphysical and scientific thinkers as Leibnitz, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel
+and Schleiermacher advocating individual existence beyond the grave.
+
+It is a strange fact that the more materialistic the age, the deeper the
+interest in spiritual questions. The vitality and persistence of the
+belief in the reality of the spiritual world is evidence of that hunger
+for the ideal, for God, of which the Psalmist speaks--"As the heart
+panteth after water brooks so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!" Through
+the passing centuries, we have come into a larger, nobler conception of
+the Universal Life, and our relations to that Life, in which we live,
+move, and have our being. Granting the existence of an "Eternal and
+Infinite Spirit, the Intellectual Organizer of the mathematical laws which
+the physical forces obey," and conceiving ourselves as individualized
+points of life in the Greater Life, we are constrained to believe that we
+bear within us the undying spark of divinity and immortality. Evolution
+points to eternal life as the final goal of self-conscious spirit, else
+this mighty earth-travail, the long ages of struggle to produce man are
+utterly without meaning. Speaking of a future life, John Fiske, a leading
+American exponent of the doctrine of evolution, says ("The Destiny of
+Man"): "The doctrine of evolution does not allow us to take the atheistic
+view of the position of man. It is true that modern astronomy shows us
+giant balls of vapor condensing into fiery suns, cooling down into
+planets fit for the support of life, and at last growing cold and rigid in
+death, like the moon. And there are indications of a time when systems of
+dead planets shall fall in upon their central ember that was once a sun,
+and the whole lifeless mass, thus regaining heat, shall expand into a
+nebulous cloud like that with which we started, that the work of
+condensation and evolution may begin over again. These Titanic events must
+doubtless seem to our limited vision like an endless and aimless series of
+cosmical changes. From the first dawning of life we see all things working
+together toward one mighty goal, the evolution of the most exalted
+spiritual qualities which characterize Humanity. The body is cast aside
+and returns to the dust of which it was made. The earth, so marvelously
+wrought to man's uses, will also be cast aside. So small is the value
+which Nature sets upon the perishable forms of matter! The question, then,
+is reduced to this: Are man's highest spiritual qualities, into the
+production of which all this creative energy has gone, to disappear with
+the rest? Are we to regard the Creator's work as like that of a child, who
+builds houses out of blocks, just for the pleasure of knocking them down?
+For aught that science can tell us, it may be so, but I can see no good
+reason for believing any such thing."
+
+A scientific demonstration of immortality is declared to be an
+impossibility. But why go to science for such a demonstration? The
+question belongs to the domain of philosophy and religion. Science deals
+with physical forces and their relations; collects and inventories facts.
+Its mission is not to establish a universal metaphysic of things; that is
+philosophy's prerogative. All occult thinkers declare that life is from
+within, out. In other words life, or a spiritual principle, precedes
+organization. Science proceeds to investigate the phenomena of the
+universe in the opposite way from without, in; and pronounces life to be
+"a fortuitous collocation of atoms." Still, science has been the
+torch-bearer of the ages and has stripped the fungi of superstition from
+the tree of life. It has revealed to us the great laws of nature, though
+it has not explained them. We know that light, heat, and electricity are
+modes of motion; more than that we know not. Science is largely
+responsible for the materialistic philosophy in vogue to-day--a philosophy
+that sees no reason in the universe. A powerful wave of spiritual thought
+has set in, as if to counteract the ultra rationalism of the age. In the
+vanguard of the new order of things are Spiritualism and Theosophy.
+
+Spiritualism enters the list, and declares that the immortality of the
+soul is a demonstrable fact. It throws down the gauntlet of defiance to
+skepticism, saying: "Come, I will show you that there is an existence
+beyond the grave. Death is not a wall, but a door through which we pass
+into eternal life." Theosophy, too, has its occult phenomena to prove the
+indestructibility of soul-force. Both Spiritualism and Theosophy contain
+germs of truth, but both are tinctured with superstition. I purpose, if
+possible, to sift the wheat from the chaff. In investigating the phenomena
+of Spiritualism and Theosophy I will use the scientific as well as the
+philosophic method. Each will act, I hope, as corrective of the other.
+
+
+
+
+PART FIRST.
+
+SPIRITUALISM.
+
+
+
+
+I. DIVISIONS OF THE SUBJECT.
+
+
+Belief in the evocation of the spirits of the dead is as old as Humanity.
+At one period of the world's history it was called Thaumaturgy, at another
+Necromancy and Witchcraft, in these latter years, Spiritualism. It is new
+wine in old bottles. On March 31, 1847, at Hydeville, Wayne County, New
+York, occurred the celebrated "knockings," the beginning of modern
+Spiritualism. The mediums were two little girls, Kate and Margaretta Fox,
+whose fame spread over three continents. It is claimed by impartial
+investigators that the rappings produced in the presence of the Fox
+sisters were occasioned by natural means. Voluntary disjointings of the
+muscles of the knee, or to use a medical term "the repeated displacement
+of the tendon of the _peroneus longus_ muscle in the sheath in which it
+slides behind the outer _malleolus_" will produce certain extraordinary
+sounds, particularly when the knee is brought in contact with a table or
+chair. Snapping the toes in rapid succession will cause similar noises.
+The above was the explanation given of the "Hydeville and Rochester
+Knockings", by Professors Flint, Lee and Coventry, of Buffalo, who
+subjected the Fox sisters to numerous examinations, and this explanation
+was confirmed many years after (in 1888) by the published confession of
+Mrs. Kane, _nee_ Margaretta Fox. Spiritualism became the rage and
+professional mediums went about giving seances to large and interested
+audiences. This particular creed is still professed by a recognized
+semi-religious body in America and in Europe. The American mediums reaped
+a rich harvest in the Old World. The pioneer was Mrs. Hayden, a Boston
+medium, who went to England in 1852, and the table-turning mania spread
+like wild fire within a few months.
+
+Broadly speaking, the phenomena of modern Spiritualism may be divided into
+two classes: (1) Physical, (2) Subjective. Of the first, the
+"Encyclopaedia Britannica", in its brief but able review of the subject,
+says: "Those which, if correctly observed and due neither to conscious or
+unconscious trickery nor to hallucination on the part of the observers,
+exhibit a force hitherto unknown to science, acting in the physical world
+otherwise than through the brain or muscles of the medium." The earliest
+of these phenomena were the mysterious rappings and movements of
+furniture without apparent physical cause. Following these came the
+ringing of bells, playing on musical instruments, strange lights seen
+hovering about the seance-room, materializations of hands, faces and
+forms, "direct writing and drawing" declared to be done without human
+intervention, spirit photography, levitation, unfastening of ropes and
+bandages, elongation of the medium's body, handling fire with impunity,
+etc.
+
+Of the second class, or Subjective Phenomena, we have "table-tilting and
+turning with contact; writing, drawing, etc., by means of the medium's
+hand; entrancement, trance-speaking, and impersonation by the medium of
+deceased persons, seeing spirits and visions and hearing phantom voices."
+
+From a general scientific point of view there are three ways of accounting
+for the physical phenomena of spiritualism: (1) Hallucination on the part
+of the observers; (2) Conjuring; (3) A force latent in the human
+personality capable of moving heavy objects without muscular contact, and
+of causing "Percussive Sounds" on table-tops, and raps upon walls and
+floors.
+
+Hallucination has unquestionably played a part in the seance-room, but
+here again the statement of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" is worthy of
+consideration: "Sensory hallucination of several persons together who are
+not in a hypnotic state is a rare phenomenon, and therefore not a probable
+explanation." In my opinion, conjuring will account for seven-eighths of
+the so-called phenomena of professional mediums. For the balance of
+one-eighth, neither hallucination nor legerdemain are satisfactory
+explanation. Hundreds of credible witnesses have borne testimony to the
+fact of table-turning and tilting and the movements of heavy objects
+without muscular contact. That such a force exists is now beyond cavil,
+call it what you will, magnetic, nervous, or psychic. Count Agenor de
+Gasparin, in 1854, conducted a series of elaborate experiments in
+table-turning and tilting, in the presence of his family and a number of
+skeptical witnesses, and was highly successful. The experiments were made
+in the full light of day. The members of the circle joined hands and
+concentrated their minds upon the object to be moved. The Count published
+a work on the subject "Des Tables Tournantes," in which he stated that the
+movements of the table were due to a mental or nervous force emanating
+from the human personality. This psychic energy has been investigated by
+Professor Crookes and Professor Lodge, of London, and by Doctor Elliott
+Coues, of Washington, D. C., who calls it "Telekinesis." The existence of
+this force sufficiently explains such phenomena of the seance-room as are
+not attributable to hallucination and conjuring, thus removing the
+necessity for the hypothesis of spirit intervention. In explanation of
+table-turning by "contact," I quote what J. N. Maskelyne says in "The
+Supernatural":
+
+"Faraday proved to a demonstration that table-turning was simply the
+result of an unconscious muscular action on the part of the sitters. He
+constructed a little apparatus to be placed beneath the hands of those
+pressing upon the table, which had a pointer to indicate any pressure to
+one side or the other. After a time, of course, the arms of the sitters
+become tired and they unconsciously press more or less to the right or
+left. In Faraday's experiments, it always proved that this pressure was
+exerted in the direction in which the table was expected to move, and the
+tell-tale pointer showed it at once. There, then, we have the explanation:
+expectancy and unconscious muscular action."
+
+
+
+
+II. SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA.
+
+
+1. Telepathy.
+
+The subjective phenomena of Spiritualism--trance speaking, automatic
+writing, etc.,--have engaged the attention of some of the best scientific
+minds of Europe and America, as studies of abnormal or supernormal
+psychological conditions.
+
+If there are any facts to sustain the spiritual hypothesis, these facts
+exist in subjective manifestations. The following statement will be
+conceded by any impartial investigator: A medium, or psychic, in a state
+of partial or complete hypnosis frequently gives information transcending
+his conscious knowledge of a subject. There can be but two hypotheses for
+the phenomena--(1) The intelligence exhibited by the medium is
+"ultra-mundane," in other words, is the effect of spirit control, or, (2)
+it is the result of the conscious or unconscious exercise of psychic
+powers on the part of the medium.
+
+It is well known that persons under hypnotic influence exhibit remarkable
+intelligence, notwithstanding the fact that the ordinary consciousness is
+held in abeyance. The extraordinary results obtained by hypnotizers point
+to another phase of consciousness, which is none other than the subjective
+or "subliminal" self. Mediums sometimes induce hypnosis by
+self-suggestion, and while in that state, the subconscious mind is in a
+highly receptive and exalted condition. Mental suggestions or concepts
+pass from the mind of the sitter consciously or unconsciously to the mind
+of the medium, and are given back in the form of communications from the
+invisible world, ostensibly through spirit control. It is not absolutely
+necessary that the medium be in the hypnotic condition to obtain
+information, but the hypnotic state seems to be productive of the best
+results. The medium is usually honest in his belief in the reality of such
+ultra-mundane control, but he is ignorant of the true psychology of the
+case--thought transference.
+
+The English Society for Psychical Research and its American branch have of
+late years popularized "telepathy", or thought transference. A series of
+elaborate investigations were made by Messrs. Edmund Gurney, F. W. H.
+Myers, and Frank Podmore, accounts of which are contained in the
+proceedings of the Society. Among the European investigators may be
+mentioned Messrs. Janet and Gibert, Richet, Gibotteau, and
+Schrenck-Notzing. Podmore has lately summarized the results of these
+studies in an interesting volume, "Apparitions and Thought-transference,
+an Examination of the Evidence for Telepathy." Thought Transference or
+Telepathy (from _tele_--at a distance, and _pathos_--feeling) he describes
+as "a communication between mind and mind other than through the known
+channels of the senses." A mass of evidence is adduced to prove the
+possibility of this communication. In summing up his book he says: "The
+experimental evidence has shown that a simple sensation or idea may be
+transferred from one mind to another, and that this transference may take
+place alike in the normal state and in the hypnotic trance.
+
+* * The personal influence of the operator in hypnotism may perhaps be
+regarded as a proof presumptive of telepathy." The experiments show that
+mental concepts or ideas may be transferred to a distance.
+
+Podmore advances the following theory in explanation of the phenomena of
+telepathy:
+
+"If we leave fluids and radiant nerve-energy on one side, we find
+practically only one mode suggested for the telepathic transference--viz.,
+that the physical changes which are the accompaniments of thought or
+sensation in the agent are transmitted from the brain as undulations in
+the intervening medium, and thus excite corresponding changes in some
+other brain, without any other portion of the organism being necessarily
+implicated in the transmission. This hypothesis has found its most
+philosophical champion in Dr. Ochorowicz, who has devoted several chapters
+of his book "De la Suggestion mentale," to the discussion of the various
+theories on the subject. He begins by recalling the reciprocal
+convertibility of all physical forces with which we are acquainted, and
+especially draws attention to what he calls the law of reversibility, a
+law which he illustrates by a description of the photophone. The
+photophone is an instrument in which a mirror is made to vibrate to the
+human voice. The mirror reflects a ray of light, which, vibrating in its
+turn, falls upon a plate of selenium, modifying its electric conductivity.
+The intermittent current so produced is transmitted through a telephone,
+and the original articulate sound is reproduced. Now in hypnotized
+subjects--and M. Ochorowicz does not in this connection treat of
+thought-transference between persons in the normal state--the equilibrium
+of the nervous system, he sees reason to believe, is profoundly affected.
+The nerve-energy liberated in this state, he points out, 'cannot pass
+beyond' the subject's brain 'without being transformed. Nevertheless,
+like any other force, it cannot remain isolated; like any other force it
+escapes, but in disguise. Orthodox science allows it only one way out, the
+motor nerves. These are the holes in the dark lantern through which the
+rays of light escape. * * * Thought remains in the brain, just as the
+chemical energy of the galvanic battery remains in the cells, but each is
+represented outside by its correlative energy, which in the case of the
+battery is called the electric current, but for which in the other we have
+as yet no name. In any case there is some correlative energy--for the
+currents of the motor nerves do not and cannot constitute the only dynamic
+equivalent of cerebral energy--to represent all the complex movements of
+the cerebral mechanism.'"
+
+The above hypothesis may, or may not, afford a clue to the mysterious
+phenomena of telepathy, but it will doubtless satisfy to some extent those
+thinkers who demand physical explanations of the known and unknown laws of
+the universe. The president of the Society for Psychical Research (1894,)
+A. J. Balfour, in an address on the relation of the work of the Society to
+the general course of modern scientific investigation, is more cautious
+than the writers already quoted. He says:
+
+"Is this telepathic action an ordinary case of action from a center of
+disturbance? Is it equally diffused in all directions? Is it like the
+light of a candle or the light of the sun which radiates equally into
+space in every direction at the same time? If it is, it must obey the
+law--at least, we should expect it to obey the law--of all other forces
+which so act through a non-absorbing medium, and its effects must diminish
+inversely as the square of the distance. It must, so to speak, get beaten
+out thinner and thinner the further it gets removed from its original
+source. But is this so? Is it even credible that the mere thoughts, or, if
+you please, the neural changes corresponding to these thoughts, of any
+individual could have in them the energy to produce sensible effects
+equally in all directions, for distances which do not, as far as our
+investigations go, appear to have any necessary limit? It is, I think,
+incredible; and in any case there is no evidence whatever that this equal
+diffusion actually takes place. The will power, whenever will is used, or
+the thoughts, in cases where will is not used, have an effect, as a rule,
+only upon one or two individuals at most. There is no appearance of
+general diffusion. There is no indication of any disturbance equal at
+equal distances from its origin and radiating from it alike in every
+direction.
+
+"But if we are to reject this idea, which is the first which ordinary
+analogies would suggest, what are we to put in its place? Are we to
+suppose that there is some means by which telepathic energy can be
+directed through space from the agent to the patient, from the man who
+influences to the man who is influenced? If we are to believe this, as
+apparently we must, we are face to face not only with a fact extraordinary
+in itself, but with a kind of fact which does not fit in with anything we
+know at present in the region either of physics or of physiology. It is
+true, no doubt, that we do know plenty of cases where energy is directed
+along a given line, like water in a pipe, or like electrical energy along
+the course of a wire. But then in such cases there is always some material
+guide existing between the two termini, between the place from which the
+energy comes and the place to which the energy goes. Is there any such
+material guide in the case of telepathy? It seems absolutely impossible.
+There is no sign of it. We can not even form to ourselves any notion of
+its character, and yet, if we are to take what appears to be the obvious
+lesson of the observed facts, we are forced to the conclusion that in some
+shape or other it exists."
+
+Telepathy once conceded, we have a satisfactory explanation of that class
+of cases in modern Spiritualism on the subjective side of the question.
+There is no need of the hypothesis of "disembodied spirits".
+
+Some years ago, I instituted a series of experiments with a number of
+celebrated spirit mediums in the line of thought transference, and was
+eminently successful in obtaining satisfactory results, especially with
+Miss Maggie Gaule, of Baltimore, one of the most famous of the latter day
+psychics.
+
+Case A.
+
+About three years prior to my sitting with Miss Gaule, a relative by
+marriage died of cancer of the throat at the Garfield Hospital,
+Washington, D. C. He was a retired army officer, with the brevet of
+General, and lived part of the time at Chambersburg, Penn., and the rest
+of the time at the National Capital. He led a very quiet and unassuming
+life, and outside of army circles knew but few people. He was a
+magnificent specimen of physical manhood, six feet tall, with splendid
+chest and arms. His hair and beard were of a reddish color. His usual
+street dress was a sort of compromise with an army undress uniform,
+military cut frock-coat, frogged and braided top-coat, and a Sherman hat.
+Without these accessories, anyone would have recognized the military man
+in his walk and bearing. He and his wife thought a great deal of my
+mother, and frequently stopped me on the street to inquire, "How is Mary?"
+I went to Miss Gaule's house with the thought of General M-- fixed in my
+mind and the circumstances surrounding his decease. The medium greeted me
+in a cordial manner. I sat at one end of the room in the shadow, and she
+near the window in a large armchair. "You wish for messages from the
+dead," she remarked abruptly. "One moment, let me think." She sank back in
+the chair, closed her eyes, and remained in deep thought for a minute or
+so, occasionally passing her hand across her forehead. "I see," she said,
+"standing behind you, a tall, large man with reddish hair and beard. He is
+garbed in the uniform of an officer--I do not know whether of the army or
+navy. He points to his throat. Says he died of a throat trouble. He looks
+at you and calls "Mary,--how is Mary?" "What is his name?" I inquired,
+fixing my mind on the words David M--. "I will ask", replied the medium.
+There was a long pause. "He speaks so faintly I can scarcely hear him. The
+first letter begins with D, and then comes a--I can't get it. I can't hear
+it." With that she opened her eyes.
+
+The surprising feature about the above case was the alleged spirit
+communication, "Mary--how is Mary?" I did not have this in my mind at the
+time; in fact I had completely forgotten this form of salutation on the
+part of Gen. M--, when we had met in the old days. It is just this sort of
+thing that makes spirit-converts.
+
+However, the cases of unconscious telepathy cited in the "Reports of the
+Society for Psychical Research," are sufficient, I think, to prove the
+existence of this phase of the phenomena.
+
+T. J. Hudson, in his work entitled "A scientific demonstration of the
+future life", says: * * "When a psychic transmits a message to his client
+containing information which is in his (the psychic's) possession, it can
+not reasonably be attributed to the agency of disembodied spirits. * *
+When the message contains facts known to some one in his immediate
+presence and with whom he is _en rapport_, the agency of spirits of the
+dead cannot be presumed. Every investigator will doubtless admit that
+sub-conscious memory may enter as a factor in the case, and that the
+sub-conscious intelligence--or, to use the favorite terminology employed
+by Mr. Myers to designate the subjective mind, the 'sublimal
+consciousness'--of the psychic or that of his client may retain and use
+facts which the conscious, or objective mind may have entirely forgotten."
+
+But suppose the medium relates facts that were never in the possession of
+the sitter, what are we to say then? Considerable controversy has been
+waged over this question, and the hypothesis of telepathy is scouted.
+Minot J. Savage has come to the conclusion that such cases stretch the
+telepathic theory too far; there can be but one plausible explanation--a
+communication from a disembodied spirit, operating through the mind of the
+medium. For the sake of lucidity, let us take an example: A has a relative
+B who dies in a foreign land under peculiar circumstances, _unknown to A_.
+A attends a seance of a psychic, C, and the latter relates the
+circumstances of B's death. A afterwards investigates the statements of
+the medium, and finds them correct. Can telepathy account for C's
+knowledge? I think it can. The telepathic communication was recorded in
+A's sub-conscious mind, he being _en rapport_ with B. A unconsciously
+yields the points recorded in his sub-conscious mind to the psychic, C,
+who by reason of his peculiar powers raises them to the level of conscious
+thought, and gives them back in the form of a message from the dead.
+
+Case B.
+
+On another occasion, I went with my friend Mr. S. C., of Virginia, to
+visit Miss Gaule. Mr. S. C. had a young son who had recently passed the
+examination for admission to the U. S. Naval Academy, and the boy had
+accompanied his father to Baltimore to interview the military tailors on
+the subject of uniforms, etc. Miss Gaule in her semi-trance state made the
+following statement: "I see a young man busy with books and papers. He has
+successfully passed an examination, and says something about a uniform.
+Perhaps he is going to a military college."
+
+Here again we have excellent evidence of the proof of telepathy.
+
+The spelling of names is one of the surprising things in these
+experiments. On one occasion my wife had a sitting with Miss Gaule, and
+the psychic correctly spelled out the names of Mrs. Evans' brothers--John,
+Robert, and Dudley, the latter a family name and rather unusual, and
+described the family as living in the West.
+
+The following example of Telepathy occurred between the writer and a
+younger brother.
+
+Case C.
+
+In the fall of 1890, I was travelling from Washington to Baltimore, by the
+B. & P. R. R. As the train approached Jackson Grove, a campmeeting
+ground, deserted at that time of the year, the engine whistle blew
+vigorously and the bell was rung continuously, which was something
+unusual, as the cars ordinarily did not stop at this isolated station, but
+whirled past. Then the engine slowed down and the train came to a
+standstill.
+
+"What is the matter?" exclaimed the passengers.
+
+"My God, look there!" shouted an excited passenger, leaning out of the
+coach window, and pointing to the dilapidated platform of the station. I
+looked out and beheld a decapitated human head, standing almost upright in
+a pool of blood. With the other male passengers I rushed out of the car.
+The head was that of an old man with very white hair and beard. We found
+the body down an embankment at some little distance from the place of the
+accident. The deceased was recognized as the owner of the Grove, a farmer
+living in the vicinity. According to the statement of the engineer, the
+old man was walking on the track; the warning signals were given, but
+proved of no avail. Being somewhat deaf, he did not realize his danger. He
+attempted to step off the track, but the brass railing that runs along the
+side of the locomotive decapitated him like the knife of a guillotine.
+
+When I reached Baltimore about 7 o'clock, P. M., I hurried down to the
+office of the "Baltimore News" and wrote out an account of the tragic
+affair. My work at the office kept me until a late hour of the night, and
+I went home to bed at about 1 o'clock, A. M. My brother, who slept in an
+adjoining room, had retired to bed and the door between our apartments was
+closed. The next morning, Sunday, I rose at 9 o'clock, and went down to
+breakfast. The family had assembled, and I was just in time to hear my
+brother relate the following: "I had a most peculiar dream last night. I
+thought I was on my way to Mt. Washington (he was in the habit of making
+frequent visits to this suburb of Baltimore on the Northern Central R. R.)
+We ran down an old man and decapitated him. I was looking out of the
+window and saw the head standing in a pool of blood. The hair and beard
+were snow white. We found the body not far off, and it proved to be a
+farmer residing in the neighborhood of Mt. Washington."
+
+"You will find the counterpart of that dream in the morning paper", I
+remarked seriously. "I reported the accident." My father called for the
+paper, and proceeded to hunt its columns for the item, saying, "You
+undoubtedly transferred the impression to your brother."
+
+Case D.
+
+This is another striking evidence of telepathic communication, in which I
+was one of the agents. L-- was a reporter on a Baltimore paper, and his
+apartments were the rendezvous of a coterie of Bohemian actors,
+journalists, and _litterati_, among whom was X--, a student at the
+Johns-Hopkins University, and a poet of rare excellence. Poets have a
+proverbial reputation for being eccentric in personal appearance; in X
+this eccentricity took the form of an unclipped beard that stood out in
+all directions, giving him a savage, anarchistic look. He vowed never
+under any circumstances to shave or cut this hirsute appendage.
+
+L-- came to me one day, and laughingly remarked: "I am being tortured by a
+mental obsession. X's beard annoys me; haunts my waking and sleeping
+hours. I must do something about it. Listen! He is coming down to my
+rooms, Saturday evening, to do some literary work, and spend the night
+with me. We shall have supper together, and I want you to be present. Now
+I propose that we drug his coffee with some harmless soporific, and when
+he is sound asleep, tie him, and shave off his beard. Will you help me? I
+can provide you with a lounge to sleep on, but you must promise not to go
+to sleep until after the tragedy."
+
+I agreed to assist him in his practical joke, and we parted, solemnly
+vowing that our project should be kept secret.
+
+This was on Tuesday, and no communication was had with X, until Saturday
+morning, when L-- and I met him on Charles street.
+
+"Don't forget to-night," exclaimed L-- "I have invited E to join us in our
+Epicurean feast."
+
+"I will be there," said X. "By the way, let me relate a curious dream I
+had last night. I dreamt I came down to your rooms, and had supper. E--was
+present. You fellows gave me something to drink which contained a drug,
+and I fell asleep on the bed. After that you tied my hands, and shaved off
+my beard. When I awoke I was terribly mad. I burst the cords that fastened
+my wrists together, and springing to my feet, cut L--severely with the
+razor."
+
+"That settles the matter", said L--, "his beard is safe from me". When we
+told X of our conspiracy to relieve him of his poetic hirsute appendage,
+he evinced the greatest astonishment. As will be seen, every particular of
+the practical joke had been transferred to his mind, the drugging of the
+coffee, the tying, and the shaving.
+
+Telepathy is a logical explanation of many of the ghostly visitations of
+which the Society for Psychical Research has collected such a mass of
+data. For example: A dies, let us say in India and B, a near relative or
+friend, residing in England, sees a vision of A in a dream or in the
+waking state. A clasps his hands, and seems to utter the words, "I am
+dying". When the news comes of A's death, the time of the occurrence
+coincides with the seeing of the vision. The spiritualist's theory is that
+the ghost of A was an actual entity. One of the difficulties in the way of
+such an hypothesis is the clothing of the deceased--_can that, too, be
+disembodied?_ Thought transference (conscious or unconscious), I think, is
+the only rational explanation of such phantasms. The vision seen by the
+percipient is not an objective but a subjective thing--a hallucination
+produced by the unknown force called telepathy. The vision need not
+coincide exactly with the date of the death of the transmitter but may
+make its appearance years afterwards, remaining latent in the subjective
+mind of the percipient. It may, as is frequently the case, be revealed by
+a medium in a seance. Many thoughtful writers combat the telepathic
+explanation of phantasms of the dead, claiming that when such are seen
+long after the death of persons, they afford indubitable evidence of the
+reality of spirit visitation. The reader is referred to the proceedings
+of the Society for Psychical Research for a detailed discussion of the
+_pros_ and _cons_ of this most interesting subject.
+
+Many of the so-called materializations of the seance-room may be accounted
+for by hallucinations superinduced by telepathic suggestions from the mind
+of the medium or sitters. But, in my opinion, the greater number of these
+manifestations of spirit power are the result of trickery pure and
+simple--theatrical beards and wigs, muslin and gossamer robes, etc., being
+the paraphernalia used to impersonate the shades of the departed, the
+imaginations of the sitters doing the rest.
+
+
+2. Table-Tilting--Muscle Reading.
+
+In regard to Table-Tilting with contact, I have given Faraday's
+conclusions on the subject,--unconscious muscular action on the part of
+the sitter or sitters. In the case of Automatic Writing (particularly with
+the planchette), unconscious muscular action is the proper explanation for
+the movements of the apparatus. "Professor Augusto Tamburini, of Italy,
+author of 'Spiritismo e Telepatia', a cautious investigator of psychical
+problems," says a reviewer in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
+Research (Volume IX, p. 226), "accepts the verdict of all competent
+observers that imposture is inadmissible as a general explanation, and
+endorses the view that the muscular action which causes the movements of
+the table or the pencil is produced by the subliminal consciousness. He
+explains the definite and varying characters of the supposed authors of
+the messages as the result of self-suggestion. As by hypnotic or
+post-hypnotic suggestion a subject may be made to think he is Napoleon or
+a chimney sweep, so, by self-suggestion, the subliminal consciousness may
+be made to think that he is X and Y, and to tilt or wrap messages in the
+character of X and Y."
+
+Professor Tamburini's explanation fails to account for the innumerable
+well authenticated cases where facts are obtained not within the conscious
+knowledge of the planchette writer or table-tilter. If telepathy does not
+enter into these cases, what does?
+
+There are many exhibitions, of thought transference by public psychics,
+that are thought transference in name only. One must be on one's guard
+against these pretenders to occult powers. I refer to men like our late
+compatriot, Washington Irving Bishop--"muscle-reader" _par excellence_
+whose fame extended throughout the civilized world.
+
+Muscle-Reading is performed in the following manner: Let us take, for
+example, the reading of the figures on a bank-note. The subject gazes
+intently at the figures on a note, and fixes them in his mind. The
+muscle-reader, blindfolded or not, takes a crayon in his right hand, and
+lightly clasps the hand or wrist of the subject with his left. He then
+writes on a blackboard the correct figures on the note. This is one of the
+most difficult feats in the repertoire of the muscle-reader, and was
+excelled in by Bishop and Stuart Cumberland. Charles Gatchell, an
+authority on the subject, says that the above named men were the only
+muscle-readers who have ever accomplished the feat. Geometrical designs
+can also be reproduced on a blackboard. The finding of objects hidden in
+an adjoining room, or upon the person of a spectator in a public hall, or
+at a distance, are also accomplished by skillful muscle readers, either by
+clasping the hand of the subject, or one end of a short wire held by him.
+Says Gatchell, in the "_Forum_" for April, 1891: "Success in
+muscle-reading depends upon the powers of the principal and upon the
+susceptibility of the subject. The latter must be capable of mental
+concentration; he must exert no muscular self-control; he must obey his
+every impulse. Under these conditions, the phenomena are in accordance
+with known laws of physiology. On the part of the principal,
+muscle-reading consists of an acute perception of the slight action of
+another's muscles. On the part of the subject, it involves a nervous
+impulse, accompanied by muscular action. The mind of the subject is in a
+state of tension or expectancy. A sudden release from this state excites,
+momentarily, an increased activity in the cells of the cerebral cortex.
+Since the ideational centres, as is usually held, correspond to the motor
+centres, the nervous action causes a motor impulse to be transmitted to
+the muscles. * * In making his way to the location of a hidden object, the
+subject usually does not lead the muscle-reader, but the muscle-reader
+leads the subject. That is to say, so long as the muscle-reader moves in
+the right direction, the subject gives no indication, but passively moves
+with him. The muscle-reader perceives nothing unusual. But, the subject's
+mind being intently fixed on a certain course, the instant that the
+muscle-reader deviates from that course there is a slight, involuntary
+tremor, or muscular thrill, on the part of the subject, due to the sudden
+interruption of his previous state of mental tension. The muscle-reader,
+almost unconsciously, takes note of the delicate signal, and alters his
+course to the proper one, again leading his willing subject. In a word, he
+follows the line of the least resistance. In other cases the conditions
+are reversed; the subject unwittingly leads the principal.
+
+"The discovery of a bank-note number requires a slightly different
+explanation. The conditions are these: The subject is intently thinking of
+a certain figure. His mind is in a state of expectant attention. He is
+waiting for but one thing in the world to happen--for another to give
+audible expression to the name of that which he has in mind. The instant
+that the conditions are fulfilled, the mind of the subject is released
+from its state of tension, and the accompanying nervous action causes a
+slight muscular tremor, which is perceived by the acute senses of the
+muscle-reader. This explanation applies, also, to the pointing out of one
+pin among many, or of a letter or a figure on a chart. The conditions
+involved in the tracing of a figure on a blackboard or other surface are
+of a like order, although this is a severer test of a muscle-reader's
+powers. So long as the muscle-reader moves the crayon in the right
+direction, he is permitted to do so; but when he deviates from the proper
+course, the subject, whose hand or wrist he clasps, involuntarily
+indicates the fact by the usual slight muscular tremor. This, of course,
+is done involuntarily; but if he is fulfilling the conditions demanded of
+all subjects, absolute concentration of attention and absence of muscular
+control--he unconsciously obeys his impulse. A billiard player does the
+same when he follows the driven ball with his cue, as if by sheer force of
+will he could induce it to alter its course. The ivory is uninfluenced;
+the human ball obeys."
+
+
+
+
+III. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA.
+
+
+1. Psychography, or Slate-Writing.
+
+One of the most interesting phases of modern mediumship, on the physical
+side, is psychography, or slate-writing. After an investigation extending
+over ten years, I am of the opinion that the majority of slate-writing
+feats are the results of conjuring. The process generally used is the
+following.
+
+The medium takes two slates, binds them together, after first having
+deposited a small bit of chalk or slate pencil between their surfaces, and
+either holds them in his hands, or lays them on the table. Soon the
+scratching of the pencil is heard, and when the cords are removed a spirit
+message is found upon the surface of one of the slates. I will endeavor to
+explain the "modus operandi" of these startling experiments.
+
+Some years ago, the most famous of the slate-writing mediums was Dr. Henry
+Slade, of New York, with whom I had several sittings. I was unable to
+penetrate the mystery of his performance, until the summer of 1889, when
+light was thrown upon the subject by the conjurer C-- whom I met in
+Baltimore.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2. DR. HENRY SLADE.]
+
+"Do you know the medium Slade?" I asked him.
+
+"Yes," said he, "and he is a conjurer like myself. I've had sittings with
+him. Come to my rooms to-night, and I will explain the secret workings of
+the medium's slate-writing. But first I will treat you to a regular
+seance."
+
+On my way to C's home I tried to put myself in the frame of mind of a
+genuine seeker after transcendental knowledge. I recalled all the stories
+of mysterious rappings and ghostly visitations I had read or heard of. It
+was just the night for such eerie musings. Black clouds were scurrying
+across the face of the moon like so many mediaeval witches mounted on the
+proverbial broomsticks _en route_ for a mad sabbat in some lonely
+churchyard. The prestidigitateur's _pension_ was a great, lumbering,
+gloomy old house, in an old quarter of Baltimore. The windows were tightly
+closed and only the feeble glimmer of gaslight was emitted through the
+cracks of the shutters. I rang the bell and Mr. C's stage-assistant, a
+pale-faced young man, came to the door, relieved me of my light overcoat
+and hat, and ushered me upstairs into the conjurer's sitting-room.
+
+A large, baize-covered table stood in the centre of the apartment, and a
+cabinet with a black curtain drawn across it occupied a position in a deep
+alcove. Suspended from the roof of the cabinet was a large guitar. I took
+a chair and waited patiently for the appearance of the anti-Spiritualist,
+after having first examined everything in the room--table, cabinet, and
+musical instruments--but I discovered no evidence of trickery anywhere. I
+waited and waited, but no C--. "Can he have forgotten me?" I said to
+myself. Suddenly a loud rap resounded on the table top, followed by a
+succession of raps from the cabinet; and the guitar began to play. I was
+quite startled. When the music ceased the door opened, and C-- entered.
+
+"The spirits are in force to-night," he remarked with a meaning smile, as
+he slightly diminished the light in the apartment.
+
+"Yes," I replied. "How did you do it?"
+
+"All in good time, my dear ghost-seer," was the answer. "Let us try first
+a few of Dr. Slade's best slate tests."
+
+So saying he handed me a slate and directed me to wash it carefully on
+both sides with a damp cloth. I did so and passed it back to him.
+Scattering some tiny fragments of pencil upon it, he held the slate
+pressed against the under surface of the table leaf, the fingers of his
+right hand holding the slate, his thumb grasping the leaf. C-- then
+requested me to hold the other end of the slate in a similar fashion, and
+took my right hand in his left. Heavy raps were heard on the table-top,
+and I felt the fingers of a spirit hand plucking at my garments from
+beneath the table. C--'s body seemed possessed with some strange
+convulsion, his hands quivered, and his eyes had a glassy look. Listening
+attentively, I heard the sound of a pencil writing on the slate.
+
+"Take care!" gasped the conjurer, breathlessly.
+
+The slate was jerked violently out of our hands by some powerful agency,
+but the medium regained it, and again pressed it against the table as
+before. In a little while he brought the slate up and there upon its upper
+surface was a spirit message, addressed to me--"Are you convinced now?--D.
+D. Home."
+
+At this juncture there came a knock at the door, and C--, with the slate
+in his hand, went to see who it was. It proved to be the pale-faced
+assistant. A few words in a low-tone of voice were exchanged between them,
+and the conjurer returned to the table, excusing the interruption by
+remarking, "Some one to see me, that is all, but don't hurry, for I have
+another test to show you." After thoroughly washing both sides of the
+slate he placed it, with a slate pencil, under a chafing-dish cover in the
+center of the table. We joined hands and awaited developments.
+
+Being tolerably well acquainted with conjuring devices, I manifested but
+little surprise in the first test when the spirit message was written,
+because the magician _had his fingers on the slate_. But in this test the
+slate was not in his possession; how then could the writing be
+accomplished?
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3. THE HOLDING OF THE SLATE.]
+
+"Hush!" said C--, "is there a spirit present?" A responsive rap resounded
+on the table, and after a few minutes' silence, the mysterious scratching
+of the slate-pencil began. I was nonplussed.
+
+"Turn over the slate," said the juggler.
+
+I complied with his request and found a long message to me, covering the
+entire side of the slate. It was signed "Cagliostro."
+
+"What do you think of Dr. Slade's slate tests?" inquired C--.
+
+"Splendid!" I replied, "but how are they done?"
+
+His explanations made the seeming marvel perfectly plain. While the slate
+is being examined in the first test, the medium slips on a thimble with a
+piece of slate pencil attached or else has a tiny bit of pencil under his
+finger nail. In the act of holding the slate under the table, he writes
+the short message backwards on its under side. It becomes necessary,
+however, to turn the slate over before exhibiting it to the sitter, so
+that the writing may appear to have been written on its upper
+surface--the side that has been pressed to the table. To accomplish this
+the medium pretends to go into a sort of neurotic convulsion, during which
+state the slate is jerked away from the sitter, presumably by spirit
+power, and is turned over in the required position. It is not immediately
+brought up for examination but is held for a few seconds underneath the
+table top, and then produced with a certain amount of deliberation.
+
+The special difficulty of this trick consists in the medium's ability to
+write in reverse upon the under surface of the slate. If he wrote from
+left to right, in the ordinary method, it would, of course, reverse the
+message when the slate is examined, and give a decided clue to the
+mystery. This inscribing in reverse, or mirror writing, as it is often
+called, is exceedingly difficult to do, but nothing is impossible to a
+Slade.
+
+But how is the writing done on the slate in the second test? asks the
+curious reader. Nothing easier! The servant who raps at the door brings
+with him, concealed under his coat, a second slate, upon which the long
+message is written. Over the writing is a pad cut from a book-slate,
+exactly fitting the frame of the prepared slate. It is impossible to
+detect the fraud when the light in the room is a trifle obscure. The
+medium makes an exchange of slates, returns to the table, washes both
+sides of the trick slate, and carelessly exhibits it to the sitter, the
+writing being protected of course by the pad. Before placing the slate
+under the chafing-dish cover, he lets the pad drop into his lap. Now comes
+a crucial point in the imposture: the writing heard beneath the slate,
+supposed to be the work of a disembodied spirit. The medium under cover of
+his handkerchief removes from his pocket an instrument known as a
+"pencil-clamp." This clamp consists of a small block of wood with two
+sharp steel points protruding from the upper edge and a piece of slate
+pencil fixed in the lower. The medium presses the steel points into the
+under surface of the table with sufficient force to attach the block
+securely to the table, and then rubs a pencil, previously attached to his
+right knee by silk sutures, against the side of the pencil fastened to the
+apparatus. The noise produced thereby exactly simulates that of writing
+upon a slate. In my case the illusion was perfect. During the examination
+of the message, the medium has ample opportunity to secrete the false pad
+and the clamp in his pocket. Instead of having a servant bring the slate
+to him and making the exchange described above, he may have the trick
+slate concealed about him before the seance begins, with the message
+written on it, and adroitly make the substitution while the sitter is
+engaged in lowering the light. Dr. Slade almost invariably adopted the
+first-mentioned exchange, because it enabled his confederate to write a
+lucid message to the sitter.
+
+An examination of the sitter's overcoat in the hall frequently yielded
+valuable information in the way of names and initials extracted from
+letters, sealed or unsealed. Sealed letters? Yes; it is an easy matter to
+steam a gummed envelope, open it, and seal it again. Another method is to
+wet the sealed envelope with a sponge dipped in alcohol. The writing will
+show up tolerably well if written upon a card. In a very short time the
+envelope will dry and exhibit no evidence of having been tampered with.
+
+And now as to the rest of the phenomena witnessed that evening in C--'s
+room. The raps on the table top were the result of an ingenious, hidden
+mechanism, worked by electricity; the mysterious hand that operated under
+the table was the juggler's right foot. He wore slippers and had the toe
+part of one stocking cut away. By dropping the slipper from his foot he
+was enabled to pull the edge of my coat, lift and shove a chair away, and
+perform sundry other ghostly evolutions, thanks to a well trained big
+toe. Dr. Slade who was long and lithe of limb, worked this dodge to
+perfection, prior to the paralytic attack which partly disabled his lower
+limbs.
+
+The stringed instrument which played in the cabinet was arranged as
+follows: Inside of the guitar was a small musical box, so arranged that
+the steel vibrating tongues of the box came in contact with a small piece
+of writing paper. When the box was set to going by means of an electric
+current, it closely imitated the twanging of a guitar, just as a sheet of
+music when laid on the strings of a piano simulates a banjo. This spirit
+guitar is a very useful instrument in the hands of a medium. It may be
+made to play when it is attached to a telescopic rod, and waved in
+phosphorescent curves over the heads of a circle of believers in the dark
+seance.
+
+I shall now sum up the subject of Dr. Slade's spirit-slate writing, (Fig.
+3) and endeavor to show how grossly exaggerated the reports of the
+medium's performances have been, and the reasons for such misstatements.
+No one who is not a professional or amateur prestidigitateur can correctly
+report what he sees at a spiritualistic seance.
+
+It is not so much the swiftness of the hand that counts in conjuring but
+the ability to force the attention of the spectators in different
+directions away from the crucial point of the trick. The really important
+part of the test, then, is hidden from the audience, who imagine they have
+seen all when they have not. Says Dr. Max Dessoir: "It must therefore be
+regarded as a piece of rare naivete if a reporter asserts that in the
+description of his subjective conclusions he is giving the exact objective
+processes."
+
+This will be seen in Mr. Davey's experiments. Mr. Davey, a member of the
+London Society for Psychical Research, and an amateur magician who
+possessed great dexterity in the slate-writing business, gave a series of
+exhibitions before a number of persons, but did not inform them that the
+results were due to prestidigitation. No entrance fee was charged for the
+seances, but the sitters, who were fully impressed with the genuineness of
+the affair, were requested to submit written reports of what they had
+seen. These letters, published in vol. iv of the Proceedings of the
+Society, are admirable examples of mal-observation, for no one detected
+Mr. Davey exchanging slates and doing the writing.
+
+"The sources of error," says Dr. Max Dessoir, in an article reproduced in
+the "Open Court," "through which such strange reports arise, may be
+arranged in four groups. First, the observer interpolates a fact which
+did not happen, but which he is led to believe has happened; thus, he
+imagines he has examined the slate when as a fact he never has. Second, he
+confuses two similar ideas; he thinks he has carefully examined the slate,
+when in reality he has only done so hastily, or in ignorance of the point
+at issue. Third, the witness changes the order of events a little in
+consequence of a very natural deception of memory; he believes he tested
+the slate later than he actually did. Fourth and last, he passes over
+certain details which were purposely described to him as insignificant; he
+does not notice that the 'medium' asks him to close a window, and that the
+trick is thus rendered possible."
+
+Similar experiments in slate-writing were conducted by the Seybert
+Commission with Mr. Harry Kellar, the conjurer, after sittings were had
+with Dr. Slade, and the magician outdid the medium. The Seybert Commission
+found none of Slade's tests genuine, and officially denied "the
+extraordinary stories of his performances with locked slates which
+constitute a large part of his fame."
+
+Dr. Slade began his Spiritualistic operations in London in the year 1876,
+and charged a fee of a guinea a head for seances lasting a few minutes.
+Crowds went to see him and he reaped a golden harvest from the credulous,
+until the grand fiasco came. Slade was caught in one of his juggling
+seances and exposed by Prof. Lancaster and Dr. Donkin. The result was a
+criminal prosecution and a sensational trial lasting three days at the Bow
+Street Police Court. Mr. Maskelyne, the conjurer, was summoned as an
+expert witness and performed a number of the medium's tricks in the
+witness box. The court sentenced Slade to three months' hard labor, but he
+took an appeal from the magistrate's decision. The appeal was sustained on
+the ground of a technical flaw in the indictment, and the medium fled to
+the Continent before new summons could be served. He visited Paris,
+Leipsic, Berlin, St. Petersburg and other cities, giving seances before
+Royalty and before distinguished members of scientific societies; and
+afterwards went to Australia. He made money fast and spent it fast, but it
+took all of his ingenuity to elude the clutches of the police. In 1892, we
+find him the inmate of a workhouse in one of our Western towns, penniless,
+friendless and a lunatic.
+
+Slade's seances with Prof. Zoellner, of Berlin, in 1878, attracted wide
+attention, and did more to advertise his fame as a medium than anything
+else in his career.
+
+Zoellner's belief in the genuineness of Slade's mediumistic marvels led
+him to write a curious work, entitled, "Transcendental Physics," being an
+inquiry into the "fourth dimension of space." Poor old Zoellner, he was
+half insane when these seances were held! We have the undisputed authority
+of the Seybert Commission for the correctness of this statement.
+
+In Hamburg, Dr. Borchert wrote to Slade offering him one thousand marks if
+he would produce writing between locked slates, similar to the writing
+alleged to have been executed at the Zoellner seances, but the medium took
+no notice of the professor's letter. The conjurer, Carl Wilmann, with two
+friends, had a sitting with Slade, but without satisfactory results for
+the medium. "Slade," says Wilmann, "was unable to distract my attention
+from the crucial point of the trick, and threw down the slates on the
+table in disgust, remarking: 'I can not obtain any results to-day, the
+power that controls me is exhausted. Come tomorrow!'" That tomorrow never
+arrived for Wilmann and his friends; Slade did not keep his appointment,
+nor could Wilmann succeed in obtaining another sitting with him. The
+medium had been warned by friends that Wilmann was an expert professor of
+legerdemain.
+
+It was in 1886 that Slade created such a furore in Hamburg in
+Spiritualistic circles. A talented conjurer of that city, named
+Schradieck, after a few weeks' practice succeeded in eclipsing Slade. He
+learned to write in reverse on slates, and produced writing in various
+colored chalks. Another one of his experiments was making the slate
+disappear from one side of the table where it was held _a la_ Slade and
+appear at the opposite end of the table suddenly, as if held up to view by
+a spirit hand. Wilmann describes the effect as startling in the extreme
+and says Schradieck produced it by means of his left foot. After Slade's
+departure from Hamburg, spirit mediums sprang up like toadstools in a
+single night. Wilmann in his crusade against these worthies had many
+interesting experiences. He gives in his work "Moderne Wunder" several
+exposes of mediumistic tricks, two of which, in the sealed slate line, are
+very ingenious. The medium takes a slate (one furnished by the sitter if
+preferred), wipes it on both sides with a wet sponge, and then wraps it up
+carefully in a piece of ordinary white wrapping paper, allowing the
+package to be sealed and corded _ad libitum_. Notwithstanding all the
+precautions used, a message appears on the slate. It is accomplished in
+this way. A message in reverse is written on the wrapping paper with a
+camel's hair brush or pointed stick, dipped in some sticky substance, and
+finely powdered slate pencil dust is scattered over the writing. At a
+little distance, especially in a dim light, it is impossible to discover
+the writing as it blends very well with the white paper. In wrapping up
+the slate the medium presses the writing on the paper against the surface
+of the slate and the chirography adheres thereto, very much as the greasy
+drawing on a lithographer's stone prints on paper.
+
+In the other experiment the medium uses a _papier mache_ slate, set in the
+usual wooden frame. A _papier mache_ pad is prepared with a spirit message
+on one surface; on the other is pasted a piece of newspaper. This pad is
+laid, written side down, on a sheet of newspaper. After the genuine slate
+has been washed, the medium proceeds to wrap it up in the newspaper, and
+presses the trick pad, writing up, into the frame of the slate where it
+exactly fits into a groove prepared for the purpose.
+
+Since Dr. Slade's retirement from the mediumistic field, Pierre L. O. A.
+Keeler's fame as a slate-writing medium has been spread broadcast. He
+oscillates between Boston, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore
+and Washington, and has a very large and fashionable _clientele_. He
+gives evening materializing seances of the cabinet type three times a week
+at his rooms. During the day he gives private slate tests which are very
+popular.
+
+I had a sitting with him on the afternoon of April 24th, 1895. In order to
+gain his confidence, I went as one witnessing a slate seance for the first
+time, that is, I accepted _his_ slates, and had no prepared questions.
+
+I was ushered into a small, back parlor by the medium who closed the
+folding doors. We were alone. I made a mental photograph of the
+surroundings. There was no furniture except a table and two chairs placed
+near the window. Over the table was a faded cloth, hanging some eight or
+ten inches below the table. Upon it were several pads of paper and a
+heterogeneous assortment of lead pencils. Leaning against the mantelpiece,
+within a foot or so of the medium's chair, were some thirty or forty
+slates.
+
+"Take a seat", said Mr. Keeler pointing to a chair. I sat down, whereupon
+he seated himself opposite me, remarking as he did so, "Have you brought
+slates with you?"
+
+"I have not," was my reply.
+
+"Then, if you have no objection," he said, "we will use two of mine.
+Please examine these two slates, wash them clean with this damp cloth, and
+dry them." With that he passed me two ordinary school-slates, which I
+inspected closely, and carefully cleaned.
+
+"Be kind enough to place the slates to one side," said Keeler. I complied.
+
+"Have you prepared any slips with the names of friends, relatives, or
+others, who have passed into spirit life, with questions for them to
+answer?"
+
+"I have not," I replied.
+
+"Kindly do so then," he answered, "and take your time about it. There is a
+pad on the table. Please write but a single question on each slip. Then
+fold the slips and place them on the table." I did so.
+
+"I will also make one," he continued, "it is to my spirit control, George
+Christy." He wrote a name on a slip of paper, folded it, and tossed it
+among those I had prepared, passing his hand over them and fingering them,
+saying, "It is necessary to get a psychic impression from them." We sat in
+silence several minutes.
+
+After a little while Mr. Keeler said: "I do not know whether or not we
+shall get any responses this afternoon, but have patience." Again we
+waited. "Suppose you write a few more slips," he remarked, "perhaps
+we'll have better luck. Be sure and address them to people who were old
+enough to write before they passed into spirit life." This surprised me,
+but I complied with his wishes. While writing I glanced furtively at him
+from time to time; his hands were in his lap, concealed by the table
+cloth. He looked at me occasionally, then at his lap, fixedly. _I am
+satisfied that he opened some of my slips, having adroitly abstracted them
+from the table in the act of fingering them._
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4--SLATE WRITING.]
+
+He directed me to take my handkerchief and tie the two slates on the table
+tightly together, holding the slates in his hands as I did so. I laid the
+slates on the table before me, and we waited. "I think we will succeed
+this time in getting responses to some of the questions. Let us hold the
+slates." He grasped them with fingers and thumbs at one end, and I at the
+other in like manner, holding the slates about two inches above the table.
+We listened attentively, and soon was heard the scratching noise of a
+slate pencil moving upon a slate. The sound seemed directly under the
+slate, and was sufficiently impressive to startle any person making a
+slate test for the first time, and unacquainted with the multifarious
+devices of the sleight-of-hand artist.
+
+"Hold the slates tightly, please!" said Mr. Keeler, as a convulsive
+tremor shook his hands. I grasped firmly my end of the slates, and waited
+further developments. The faint tap of a slate pencil upon a slate was
+heard, and the medium announced that the communications were finished. I
+untied the handkerchief, and turned up the inner surfaces of the slates.
+Upon one of them several messages were written, and signed. Other
+communications were received during the sitting. After the first messages
+were received, and while I was engaged in reading them, Keeler quickly
+picked up a slate from the floor, clapped it upon the clean slate
+remaining on the table, and requested me to tie the two rapidly together
+with my handkerchief before the influence was lost. At a signal from him I
+unfastened the slates and found another set of answers. The same
+proceeding was gone through for the third set. The imitation of a pencil
+writing upon a slate was either made by the apparatus, described in the
+seance with C-- in the first part of this chapter, or by some other
+contrivance; more than likely by simply scratching with his finger on the
+under surface of the slate. While my attention was absorbed in the act of
+writing my second set of questions, he prepared answers to two of my first
+set and substituted a prepared slate for the cleaned slate on the table.
+_I was sure he was writing under the table; I heard the faint rubbing of a
+soft bit of pencil upon the surface of a slate. His hands were in his lap
+and his eyes were fixed downwards._ Several times I saw him put his
+fingers into his vest pockets, and he appeared to bring up small particles
+of something, which I believe were bits of the white and colored crayons
+used in writing the messages. His quiet audacity was surprising. I give
+below the questions and answers with my comments thereon:
+
+First Slate. Fig. 4.
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To Mamie:--
+
+Tell me the name of your dead brother?
+
+  (Signed) Harry R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+You must not think of me as one gone forever from you. You have made
+conditions by and through which I can return to you, and so long as I can
+do this I can not feel unhappy. So dear one, rest in the assurance that
+you are helping me, and that I am doing all I can to help you. Let us make
+the best of it all and help each other as best we can, then all will be
+well. My home in spirit life is beautiful and awaiting you. I will be the
+first to greet you. _I have no dead brother. All of us are living._ I am
+Mamie --. (The medium here cleverly evades giving a name by an equivoque.)
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To Len--
+
+Tell me the cause of your death, and the circumstances surrounding it?
+
+  (Signed) Harry R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+Harry! I am very glad to see you. I am happy. You must be reconciled, and
+not mourn me as dead! I will try to come again soon, when I am stronger
+and tell of my decease.--Len. (He again evades an answer.)
+
+Second Slate. Fig. 5.
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To A. D. B.--
+
+When and where did you die?
+
+  (Signed) Harry R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+This all seems so strange coming back and writing just as one would if
+they were in the earth life and communicating with a friend. What a
+blessed privilege it is. I am so happy. Oh, I would not come back. It is
+so restful here. No pain or sorrow. Dear, do not think I have forgotten
+you, I constantly think of you and wish that you, too, might view these
+lovely scenes of glorious beauty. You must rest with the thought that when
+your life is ended upon the earth, _I will be the first to meet you_. Now
+be patient and hopeful until we meet where there is no more parting. I am
+sincerely, A. D. B. (No answer at all.) Observe error in first sentence:
+"as _one_ would if _they_ were--." A. D. B. was an educated gentleman, and
+not given to such ungrammatical expressions.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 5--SLATE WRITING.]
+
+Third Slate. Fig. 6.
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To B. G.--
+
+Can you recall any of the conversations we had together on the B. and P.
+R. R. cars?
+
+  (Signed) H. R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+O my dear one, I can only write a few lines that you may know that I see
+and hear you as you call upon me. I do not forget you. When I am stronger
+will come again. I do not know what conversation you refer to in the cars.
+
+  B. G.
+
+(Again evades answering. B. G. was very much interested in the drama, and
+talked continuously about the stage.)
+
+QUESTION.
+
+To C. J.--
+
+Where did you die, and from what disease?
+
+  (Signed) H. R. Evans.
+
+ANSWER.
+
+I know the days and weeks seem long and lonely to you without me. I do not
+forget you; am doing the best I can to help you.
+
+  C. J.--.
+
+(Still another evasion of a straightforward question. The lady in spirit
+life to whom the question was addressed died of consumption in a Roman
+Catholic Convent. She was only a society acquaintance of the writer, and
+not on such terms of intimacy as to warrant Mr. Keeler's reply.)
+
+In one corner of Slate No. 2 was the following, written with a yellow
+crayon: "This is remarkable. How did you know we could come?--H. K.
+Evans." Scrawled across the face of Slate No. 3, in red pencil, was a
+communication from George Christy, Mr. Keeler's spirit control, reading as
+follows: "Many are here who----G. C. (George Christy)" (The remainder is
+so badly written, as to be indecipherable.)
+
+On carefully analyzing the various communications it will be observed that
+the handwriting of the messages from Mamie--and B G.--are similar,
+possessing the same characteristics as regards letter formation, etc. It
+does not require a professional expert in chirography to detect this fact.
+One and the same person wrote the messages purporting to come from Mamie
+R--, Len--, B. G.--, C. J.--, and A. D. B. _In fact, the writing on all
+the slates is, in my opinion, the work of Mr. Pierre Keeler._
+
+The longer communications were doubtless prepared beforehand, being
+general in nature and conveying about the same information that any
+departed spirit might give to any inquiring mortal, but, as will be
+observed, _giving no adequate answers to the queries_, with the exception
+of the last two sentences, _which were written by the medium, after he
+became acquainted with the tenor of the questions upon the folded slips_.
+The very short communications are written in a careless hand, such as a
+man would dash off hastily. There is an attempt at disguise, but a clumsy
+one, the letters still retaining the characteristics of the more
+deliberate chirography of the long communications. A close inspection of
+the slates reveals the exact similarity of the y's, u's, I's, g's, h's,
+m's and n's.
+
+The handwriting of messages on slates should be, and is claimed to be,
+adequate evidence of the genuineness of the communication, for are we not
+supposed to know the handwriting of our friends?
+
+Possibly Mr. Keeler would claim that the handwriting was the work of his
+control "Geo. Christy", who acted as a sort of amanuensis for the spirits.
+If this be so, why the attempts at _disguise_, and bungling attempts at
+that?
+
+In the seance with Mr. Keeler, I subjected him to no tests. He had
+everything his own way. _I should have brought my own marked slates with
+me and never let them out of my sight for an instant. I should have
+subjected the table to a close examination, and requested the medium to
+move or rather myself removed the collection of slates against the mantel,
+placed so conveniently within his reach._ I did not do this, because of
+his well known irascibility. He would probably have shown me the door and
+refused a sitting on any terms, as he has done to many skeptics. I was
+anxious to meet Keeler, and preferred playing the novice rather than not
+get a slate test from one of the best-known and most famous of modern
+slate-writing mediums.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 6--SLATE WRITING.]
+
+After what has been stated, I think there can be no shadow of doubt that
+the medium abstracted by sleight-of-hand some of the paper slips
+containing my written questions, read them under cover of the table, and
+did the slate-writing himself. All of these slate-tests, where pellets or
+slips of paper are used, are performed in a similar manner, as will be
+seen from the expose published by the Society for Psychical Research. In
+vol. viii of the proceedings of that association will be found a number of
+revelations, one of which throws considerable light on the Keeler tests.
+The sitter was Dr. Richard Hodgson, and the medium was a Mrs. Gillett.
+Says Dr. Hodgson:
+
+"Under pretence of 'magnetising' the pellets prepared by the sitter, or
+folding them more tightly, she substitutes a pellet of her own for one of
+the sitter's. Reading the sitter's pellet below the table, she writes the
+answer on one of her own slates, a pile of which, out of the sitter's
+view, she keeps on a chair by her side. She then takes a second slate,
+places it on the table, and sponges and dries both sides, after which she
+takes the first slate, and turning the side upon which she has written
+towards herself, rubs it in several places with a dry cloth or the ends of
+her fingers as though cleaning it. She then places it, writing downward,
+on the other slate on the table, and sponges and dries the upper surface
+of it. She then pretends to take one of the pellets on the table and put
+it between the two slates. What she does, however, is to bring the pellet
+up from below the table, take another of the sitter's pellets on the table
+into her hand, and place the pellet which she has brought up from below
+the table between the slates, keeping in her hand the pellet just taken
+from the top of the table. The final step is to place a rubber band round
+both slates, in doing which she turns both slates over together. She
+professes to get the writing without the use of any chalk or pencil. Some
+of her slates are prepared beforehand with messages or drawings. More
+interesting, perhaps, because of its boldness, is her method of producing
+writing on the sitter's own slates. Under the pretence of 'magnetising'
+these she cleans them several times, rubs them with her hands, stands them
+up on end together, and while they are in this position between herself
+and the sitter she writes with one hand on the slate-side nearest to
+herself, holding the slates erect with the other hand. Later on, she lays
+both slates together flat on the table again, the writing being on the
+undermost surface. She then sponges the upper surface of the top slate,
+turns it over, and sponges its other surface. She next withdraws the
+bottom slate, places it on top and sponges its top surface, keeping its
+under surface carefully concealed. The final step, the reversal, is made,
+as in the other case, with the help of the rubber band. Mrs. Gillett has
+probably other methods, also. Those which I have described were all that I
+witnessed at my single sitting with her."
+
+My friend, Dr. L. M. Taylor, of Washington, D. C., an investigator of
+Spiritualistic phenomena, and skeptical like myself of the objective
+phases of the subject, has had many sittings with Keeler for independent
+slate-writing. One seance in particular he is fond of relating:
+
+"On one occasion, after I had written my slips, folded them up, and tossed
+them on the table, I said to Keeler who was obtaining his 'psychic'
+impression of them, 'I wish, if possible, to have a spirit tell me the
+numbers and the maker's name engraved in my watch. I have never taken the
+trouble to look at the numbers, consequently I do not know them.' 'Your
+request is an unusual one,' replied the medium, 'but I will endeavor to
+gratify it.' We had some conversations on the subject that lasted several
+minutes. Suddenly he picked up a slate pencil, and scrawled the name, _J.
+S. Granger_ on the upper surface of one of my slates; the two slates had
+been previously tied together with my handkerchief and laid on the table
+in front of me. 'You recognize that name, do you not?' asked Keeler.
+'Yes,' I replied, 'that is one of the names I wrote on the slips. J. S.
+Granger was an old friend of mine who died some years ago. He was a
+brother-in-law of Stephen A. Douglass.' 'If you wish to facilitate
+matters,' said Keeler, 'place your watch on top of the slates, concealed
+beneath the handkerchief, otherwise we may have to wait an hour or more
+without obtaining results, and there are a number of persons waiting for
+me in the ante-room. My time you see is limited.'
+
+"I detached my watch from its chain, and placed it in the required
+position. Keeler then took a piece of black cloth, used to clean slates,
+and laid it over my slates. Finally he requested me to take the covered
+slates and hold them in my lap. I took care to feel through the cloth that
+the watch was still beneath the handkerchief. In a short time I was
+directed to uncover the slates, and untie them, which I did. Upon the
+inner surface of one of the slates the following message was written:
+'Dear Friend, Stephen is with me. I have been through that beautiful watch
+of yours, and, if I see correctly, the number is 163131. On the inside I
+see this--E. Howard & Co., Boston, 211327. And then your name as follows:
+Dr. L. M. Taylor, 1221 Mass. Ave., N. W., Washington, D. C. Signed J. M.
+Granger.'
+
+"I then compared the name and numbers in my watch with those on the slate,
+and found the latter correct, with the exception of one number. A relative
+of mine was present in the room during this seance, and I showed her the
+communication on the slate. Afterwards we passed the slate to Keeler who
+examined it closely. When he handed it back to me, I was surprised to see
+that the incorrect number was mysteriously changed to the proper one."
+
+This is a very interesting test, indeed, because of its apparently
+impromptu character. I have seen similar feats performed by professional
+conjurers as well as mediums. A dummy watch is substituted for the
+sitter's watch, and after the medium has ascertained the name and numbers
+on the sitter's timepiece, he succeeds in adroitly exchanging it again for
+the dummy, thanks to the black cloth. The writing on the slate in the
+above seance was evidently produced in the same way as that described in
+my sitting with Keeler, after he had ascertained the name on the slip. The
+name of Stephen, of course, was directly obtained from Dr. Taylor. Not
+having been an eye witness of Keeler's movements in the watch test, I am
+unable to say how closely Dr. Taylor's description coincides with the
+medium's actual operations.
+
+In May, 1897, Mr. Pierre Keeler was in Washington, D. C., as usual. My
+friend, Dr. Taylor, who was desirous of putting the medium to another
+crucial test, wrote down a list of names on a sheet of paper--cognomens of
+ancient Egyptian, Chaldean, and Grecian priests and philosophers--folded
+the paper, and carefully sealed it in an envelope. He took ten slates with
+him, all of them marked with a private mark of his own. Mr. Keeler eyed
+the envelope dubiously, but passed no criticisms on the doctor's
+precautions to prevent trickery. The two men sat down at a table and
+waited for the spirits to manifest. Dr. Taylor, on this occasion, was
+absolutely certain that his slates had not been tampered with, and that
+the medium had not succeeded in opening the envelope. In a little while
+the comedy of the pencil-scratching between the tied slates began.
+
+"Ah", exclaimed the physician, "a message at last!" Then he thought to
+himself, "can the medium possibly have deluded my senses by some hypnotic
+power, and adroitly opened that envelope without my being aware of the
+fact? But no, that is impossible!"
+
+Mr. Keeler took the slates away from Dr. Taylor, and quickly opened them,
+_accidentally_ dropping one of them behind the table. In a second,
+however, he brought up the slate, and remarked: "How awkward of me. I beg
+your pardon," etc. On the surface of this slate was written the following
+sentence: "See some other medium; d--n it!--George Christy." Dr. Taylor is
+positive, as he has repeatedly told me, that this message was not
+inscribed on his own marked slate, but was written by the medium on one of
+his own. The exchange, of course, must have been effected in the pretended
+accidental dropping of the doctor's slate by the medium. This is a very
+old expedient among pretenders to spirit power. All conjurers are familiar
+with the device. Imro Fox, the American magician, uses it constantly in
+his entertainments, with capital effect.
+
+Dr. Taylor, unfortunately, did not succeed in getting possession of the
+medium's prepared slate. Another exchange was undoubtedly made by Mr.
+Keeler, and the physician had returned to him his own marked slate. When
+he got home that afternoon, and had time to carefully scrutinize his
+slates, he found that they bore no evidence of having been written upon
+at all. Having also examined these slates, I am prepared to add my
+testimony to that of Dr. Taylor.
+
+The reader will see from the above-described seance that unless the medium
+(or a confederate) is enabled to read the names and questions, prepared by
+the sitter, his hands are practically tied in all experiments in
+psychology.
+
+When investigators bring their own marked slates with them, screwed
+tightly together, and sealed, the medium has to adopt different tactics
+from those employed in the tests before mentioned. He has to call in the
+aid of a confederate. The audacity of the sealed-slate test is without
+parallel in the annals of pretended mediumship. For an insight into the
+secrets of this phase of psychography, the reading public is indebted to a
+medium, the anonymous author of a remarkably interesting work,
+"Revelations of a Spirit Medium." Many skeptical investigators have been
+converted to Spiritualism by these tests. They invariably say to you when
+approached on the subject: "I took my own marked slates, carefully screwed
+together, to the medium, and had lengthy messages written upon them by
+spirit power. _These slates never left my hands for a second._" I will
+quote what the writer of "Revelations of a Spirit Medium" says on the
+subject:
+
+"No man ever received independent slate-writing between slates fastened
+together that he did not allow out of his hands a few seconds. Scores of
+persons will tell you that they _have_ received writing under those
+conditions through the mediumship of the writer; but the writer will tell
+you how he fooled them and how you can do so if you see fit.
+
+"In the first place you will rent a house with a cellar in connection. Cut
+a trap-door one foot square through the floor between the sills on which
+the floor is laid. Procure a fur floor mat with long hair. Cut a square
+out of the mat and tack it to the top of the trap door. Tack the mat fast
+to the floor, for some one may visit you who will want to raise it up.
+
+"Explain the presence of the fur by saying it is an absorbent of magnetic
+forces, through which you produce the writing. Over the rug place a heavy
+pine table about four feet square; and over the table a heavy cover that
+reaches the floor on all sides. Put your assistant in the cellar with a
+coal-oil stove, a tea-kettle of hot water, different colored letter wax
+and lead pencils, a screw driver, a pair of nippers, a pair of pliers, a
+pair of scissors and an assortment of wire brads. You are ready for
+business.
+
+"When your sitter comes in you will notice his slates, if he brings a
+pair, and see if they are secured in any way that your man in the cellar
+can not duplicate. If they are, you can touch his slates with your finger
+and say to him that you can not use his slates on account of the
+'magnetism' with which they are saturated. He will know nothing of
+'magnetic conditions' and will ask you what he is to do about it.
+
+"You will furnish him a pair of new slates with water and cloths to clean
+them. You also furnish him paper to write his questions on and the screws,
+wax, paper and mucilage to secure them with. He will write his questions
+and fasten the slates securely together.
+
+"You now conduct him to your seance-room and invite inspection of your
+table and surroundings. After the examination has been made you will seat
+the sitter at one side of the table with his side and arm next it. If he
+desires to keep hold of the slates a signal agreed upon between yourself
+and your assistant will cause the spirit in the cellar to open the trap
+door, which opens downwards, and to push through the floor and into
+position where the sitter can grasp one end of it, a pair of dummy
+slates. This dummy your assistant will continue to hold until the sitter
+has taken hold of it after the following performance:
+
+"Your assistant lets you know everything is ready by touching your foot.
+You now reach and take the sitter's slates and put them below the table,
+and under it, telling the sitter to put his hand under from his side and
+hold them with you. He puts his hand under and gets hold of the dummy
+slates held by your assistant.
+
+"Your assistant holds on until you have stood the slates on end, leaning
+against the table leg, and have got hold of the dummy. He then takes the
+sitter's slates below and closes the trap. He proceeds to open them, read
+the questions, answer them and refasten the slates.
+
+"You will be entertaining your sitter by twitching and jerking and making
+clairvoyant and clairaudient guesses for him.
+
+"When your assistant touches your foot you will know that he is ready to
+make the exchange again, by which the sitter will get hold of the slates
+he fastened. When you get the signal you give a snort and jump that jerks
+the end of the slates from the sitter's hand. He is now given the end of
+the slates held by your assistant, and you will allow the assistant to
+take the dummy. After sitting a moment or two longer, you will tell the
+sitter to take out his slates and examine them if he chooses. Many times
+they do not open the slates until they reach their homes.
+
+"This, reader, is the man who will declare that he furnished the slates
+and did not allow them out of his hands a minute.
+
+"The usual method of obtaining the writing is for the medium to hold the
+slates alone. When this is the case the medium passes the slates below,
+and receives in return a dummy which he is continually thumping on the
+under side of the table for the purpose of showing the sitter that the
+slates are there all the time.
+
+"It is not necessary that you should use a cellar to get this phase of
+'independent slate-writing.' You could place your table against a
+partition door and by fitting one of the small panels with hinges and
+bolts, would have a very convenient way of obtaining the assistance of the
+spirit in the next room. It is also possible to make a trap in a room that
+has a wooden wainscoting."
+
+Before closing this brief survey of slate-writing experiments, I must
+describe an exceedingly ingenious trick, indeed, bordering on the
+marvelous. It is the recent invention of a Western conjurer, and solves
+the problem of actually writing between locked slates by physical means.
+The effect is as follows: You request the sitter to take two slates, wash
+them carefully, and tie them together, after first having placed a bit of
+chalk between their surfaces. Hold them under the table for a minute, and
+then hand them to the sitter for examination. A name, or a short sentence,
+in answer to some question, will be found scrawled across the upper
+surface of the bottom slate. It is accomplished in this way. You take a
+small pellet of iron or steel, coat it with mucilage, and dip it into
+chalk or slate-pencil dust. This dust will adhere and harden into a
+consistent mass, after a little while, completely concealing the metal,
+and causing the whole to resemble a bit of chalk. Take this supposed
+pellet of chalk from your vest pocket and place it between the slates;
+hold the latter level beneath a table, and by moving the poles of a strong
+magnet against the surface of the under slate, you can cause the iron or
+steel to write a name or sentence, thanks to its coating of chalk dust. It
+is better to use slates with rather deep frames, in order that the chalked
+metal may write with facility. It requires considerable practice to write
+with ease in the manner described above. The first thing of course is to
+locate the position of the chalk between the locked slates. To enable you
+to do this, place the supposed chalk in one corner of slate No. 1 before
+covering with slate No. 2, or else exactly in the center of slate No. 2.
+In this way you will have no difficulty in affecting the metal with the
+magnet, when the slates are held under the table. There are various ways
+of holding the slates; one, is to ask the sitter to hold one end, while
+you hold the other, five or six inches above the table. The light is put
+out, and you take the magnet from your pocket and execute the writing. The
+noise of the magnet passing over the surface of the under slate serves to
+represent a disembodied spirit as doing the writing.
+
+
+2. The Master of the Mediums.
+
+One of the most remarkable personalities serving as an exponent of
+Spiritualism was Daniel Dunglas Home, the Napoleon of necromancy, and the
+Past Grand Master of Mediums. His career reads like a romance. He lived in
+a sort of twilight land, and hob-nobbed with kings, queens and other
+people of noble blood.
+
+  "Something unsubstantial, ghostly,
+   Seems this Theurgist,
+   In deep meditation mostly
+   Wrapped, as in a mist.
+   Vague, phantasmal and unreal,
+   To our thoughts he seems,
+   Walking in a world ideal,
+   In a land of dreams."
+
+He wound his serpentine way into the best society of London, Paris,
+Berlin, Rome, and St. Petersburg--"always despising filthy lucre," as
+Maskelyn remarks, "but never refusing a diamond worth ten times the amount
+he would have received in cash, or some present, which the host of the
+house at which he happened to be manifesting always felt constrained to
+offer."
+
+This thaumaturgist of the Nineteenth Century was born near Edinburg,
+Scotland, on March 20, 1833, and came of a family reported to be gifted
+with "second sight." His father, William Home, was a natural son of
+Alexander, tenth Earl of Home. Strange phenomena occurred during the
+medium's childhood. At the age of nine he was adopted by his aunt, Mrs.
+McNeill Cook, who brought him to America. He began giving seances about
+the year 1852. Among the notable men who attended these early "sittings"
+were William Cullen Bryant, Professors Wells and Hare, and Judge Edmonds.
+
+Home had a tall, slight figure, a fair and freckled face--before disease
+made it the color of yellow wax--keen, slaty-blue eyes, thin bloodless
+lips, a rather snub nose, and curly auburn hair. His manners, though
+forward, were agreeable, and he recited such poetry as Poe's "Raven" and
+"Ulalume" with powerful effect. He was altogether a weird sort of
+personage. His principal mediumistic manifestations were rappings,
+table-tipping, ghostly materializations, playing on sealed musical
+instruments, levitation, and handling fire with impunity.
+
+In 1855 he launched his necromantic bark on European waters. No man since
+Cagliostro ever created so profound a sensation in the Old World. He wrote
+his reminiscences in two large volumes, but little credence can be given
+them, as they are full of extravagant statements and wild fantasies.
+
+The London _Punch_ (May 9th, 1868), printed the following effusion on the
+medium, a sort of parody on "Home, Sweet Home:"
+
+  Through realms Thaumaturgic the student may roam,
+  And not light on a worker of wonders like _Home_.
+  Cagliostro himself might descend from his chair,
+  And set up our _Daniel_ as Grand-Cophta there--
+    _Home, Home, Dan. Home_,
+    No medium like _Home_.
+
+  Spirit legs, spirit hands, he gives table and chair;
+  Gravitation defying, he flies in the air;
+  But the fact to which henceforth his fame should be pinned,
+  Is his power to raise, not himself but the wind!--
+    _Home, Home, Dan. Home_,
+    No medium like _Home_.
+
+Robert Browning made him the subject of his celebrated satirical poem,
+"Mr. Sludge, the Medium."
+
+Some of the most celebrated scientific and literary personages of England
+became interested in his mysterious abilities, and among his intimate
+friends were the Earl of Dunraven, Mary Howitt, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Prof.
+Wallace, and Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. There is good authority for
+believing that Home was the mysterious Margrave of Bulwer's weird novel,
+"A Strange Story." Bulwer was an ardent believer in the supernatural and
+Home spent many days at Knebworth amid a select coterie of ghost-seers.
+The famous novelist relates that as Home sat with him in the library of
+Knebworth, conversing upon politics, social matters, books or other chance
+topics, the chairs rocked and the tables were suspended in mid-air.
+
+When the medium was requested to exert his power and found himself in
+condition, it is alleged, he would rise and float about the room. This in
+Spiritualistic parlance is termed "levitation". At Knebworth and other
+places, some of the most prominent people of the day claim to have seen
+Home lift himself up and sail tranquilly out of a window, around the
+house, and come in by another window.
+
+The Earl of Dunraven told many stories equally strange of performances
+that were given in his presence. The Earl declared that he had many times
+seen Home elongate and shorten his body, and cause the closed piano to
+play by putting his fingers on the lid.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 7--HOME AT THE TUILERIES.]
+
+In the autumn of 1855 the famous medium went to Florence; there, also, the
+spirit manifestations secured him the _entree_ into the best society of
+the old Italian city. In his memoirs he speaks of an incident occurring
+through his mediumship, at a seance given in Florence: "Upon one occasion,
+while the Countess C-- was seated at one of Erard's grand-action pianos,
+it rose and balanced itself in the air, during the whole time she was
+playing." An English lady, resident at Florence, in a supposed haunted
+house, procured the services of Home to exorcise the ghost. They sat at a
+table in the sitting-room, and raps were heard proceeding from that piece
+of furniture, and rustling sounds in the room as of a person moving about
+in a heavy garment. The spirit being adjured in the name of the "Holy
+Trinity" to leave the premises, the demonstrations ceased.
+
+In February, 1856, the medium joined the retinue of Count B--, a Polish
+nobleman, and went to Naples with his patron. From Naples to Rome was the
+next step, and, in the Eternal City, the medium joined the Romish Church,
+and was adjured by the Pope to abandon spirit seances forever. In 1858 we
+find Home in St. Petersburg, where he married the youngest daughter of
+General Count de Kroll, of Russia, and a goddaughter of the Emperor
+Nicholas, the marriage taking place on Sunday, August 1, 1858, in the
+private chapel attached to the house of the lady's brother-in-law, the
+Count Gregoire Koucheleff-Besborodko. It was a very notable affair, and
+Alexander Dumas came from Paris to attend the ceremony. Home's spirit
+power which had left him since his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith
+now returned in full force, it is said, and he saw standing near him at
+the wedding the spirit form of his mother. In 1862 his wife died at the
+Chateau Laroche, near Perigneux, France, and the medium repaired to Rome
+for the purpose of studying sculpture. The reports of the spirit phenomena
+constantly attending Home's presence reached the ears of the Papal
+authorities and he was compelled to leave the city, notwithstanding the
+fact that he gave positive assurance that he would give no seance. He was
+actually charged with being a sorcerer, like Cagliostro, an accusation
+that reads very strange in the Nineteenth Century. This affair embittered
+Home against the Church, and he abandoned Roman Catholicism for the Greek
+Church.
+
+After the Roman fiasco, the famous medium returned to England to give
+Spiritualistic lectures and seances. A writer in "_All the Year Round_",
+gives the following pen picture of the medium, as he appeared in 1866:
+"He is a tall, thin man, with broad square shoulders, suggestive of a suit
+of clothes hung upon an iron cross. His hair is long and yellow; his teeth
+are large, glittering and sharp; his eyes are a pale grey, with a redness
+about the eye-lids, which comes and goes in a ghastly manner, as he talks.
+When he shows his glittering sharp teeth, and that red line comes round
+his slowly rolling eyes, he is not a pleasant sight to look upon. His
+hands are long, white and bony, and on taking them you discover that they
+are icy cold." A _suit of clothes hung upon an iron cross_ is a weird
+touch in this pen picture.
+
+Home about this time intended going upon the stage, but abandoned the idea
+to become the secretary of the "Spiritual Atheneum", a society formed for
+the investigation of psychic phenomena.
+
+One of the most notable passages in the life of the great medium was the
+famous law suit in which he was concerned in England. In 1866 he became
+acquainted with a wealthy lady, Mrs. Jane Lyons. In his role of medium she
+consulted him constantly about the welfare of her husband in the spirit
+world, and her business affairs. She gave him L33,000 for his services.
+Relatives and friends of Mrs. Lyons, however, saw in Home a cunning
+adventurer who was preying upon a weak-minded woman. A suit was instituted
+against the medium to recover the money, and the case became a _cause
+celebre_ in the annals of the English courts.
+
+In the autumn of 1871, Home, who before that time, had been quite a "lion"
+at the court of Napoleon III and Eugene, followed the German army from
+Sedan to Versailles, and was hand-in-glove with the King of Prussia. His
+second marriage took place in October, 1871, at Paris, and after a brief
+honeymoon in England he visited St. Petersburg with his wife, who was a
+member of the noble Russian family of Alsakoff.
+
+On the 21st of June, 1886, the great American ghost-seer died of
+consumption, at Auteuil, near Paris, France. For years he was out of
+health, and he ascribed his weakness to the expenditure of vital force in
+working wonders during the earlier part of his career.
+
+He was buried at St. Germain-en-Laye, with the rites of the Russian
+Church. The funeral was a very simple one, not more than twenty persons
+being present, all of whom were in full evening dress. The idea was to
+emphasize the Spiritualists' belief that death is not a subject for
+mourning, but is liberation, an occasion for rejoicing.
+
+The curious reader will find many accounts of Home's invulnerability to
+fire while in the trance state, notably those of Prof. Crookes, contained
+in the proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. In the March,
+1868, number of "_Human Nature_," Mr. H. D. Jencken writes as follows
+concerning a seance given by the medium:
+
+"Mr. Home, (after various manifestations) said, 'we have gladly shown you
+our power over fluids, we will now show you our power over solids.' He
+then knelt down before the hearth, and deliberately breaking up a glowing
+piece of coal in the fire place, took up a largish lump of incandescent
+coal and placing the same in his left hand, proceeded to explain that
+caloric had been extracted by a process known to them (the spirits), and
+that the heat could in part be returned. This he proved by alternately
+cooling and heating the coal; and to convince us of the fact, allowed us
+to handle the coal which had become cool, then suddenly resumed its heat
+sufficient to burn one, as I again touched it. I examined Mr. Home's hand,
+and quite satisfied myself that no artificial means had been employed to
+protect the skin, which did not even retain the smell of smoke. Mr. Home
+then re-seated himself, and shortly awoke from his trance quite pale and
+exhausted."
+
+Other witnesses of the above experiment were Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare,
+Miss Douglas, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. W. H. Harrison and Prof. Wallace. Mr. H.
+Nisbet, of Glasgow, relates (_Human Nature_, Feb. 1870) that in his own
+home in January, 1870, Mr. Home took a red hot coal from the grate and put
+it in the hands of a lady and gentleman to whom it felt only warm.
+Subsequently he placed the same on a folded newspaper, the result being a
+hole burnt through eight layers of paper. Taking another blazing coal he
+laid it on the same journal, and carried it around the apartment for
+upwards of three minutes, without scorching the paper.
+
+Among the crowned heads and famous people before whom Mr. Home appeared
+were Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie, Queen Victoria, King Louis I
+and King Maximilian of Bavaria, the Emperor of Russia, the King and Queen
+of Wurtemberg, the Duchess of Hamilton, the Crown Prince of Prussia and
+old Gen. Von Moltke. Alexander Dumas the elder, was a constant companion
+of the medium for a long time, and wrote columns about him.
+
+Napoleon III had two sittings with Home--and it is said Home materialized
+the spirit of the first Napoleon, who appeared in his familiar cocked hat,
+gray overcoat and dark green uniform with white facings. "My fate?" asked
+Louis, trembling with awe. "Like mine--discrowned, and death in exile,"
+replied the ghost; then it vanished. The Empress swooned and Napoleon III
+fell back in his chair as if about to faint. The medium in his first
+seance with the French Emperor succeeded only in materializing some
+flowers and a spirit hand, which the Emperor was permitted to grasp.
+
+Celia Logan, the journalist, in writing of one of Home's seances at a
+nobleman's house in London, says:
+
+"On this occasion the medium announced that he would produce balls of fire
+and illuminated hands. Failing in the former, he declared that the spirits
+were not strong enough for that to-night, and so he would have to confine
+himself to showing the luminous hands.
+
+"The house was darkened and Home groped his way alone to the head of the
+broad staircase, where every few minutes a pair of luminous hands were
+thrown up. The audience was satisfied generally. One lady, however, was
+not, and whispered to me--she was a half-hearted Spiritualist--that it
+looked to her as if he had rubbed his own hands over with lucifer
+matches.
+
+"The host stood near the mantel piece and had seen Home abstractedly place
+a small bottle upon it when he left the room for the staircase. That
+bottle the host quietly slipped into his pocket. Upon examination the next
+day it was found to contain phosphorated olive oil or some similar
+preparation.
+
+"The host had declared himself to have seen Home float through the air
+from one side of the room to the other, lift a piano several feet in the
+air by simply placing a finger upon it, and had seen him materialize
+disembodied spirits; but after the discovery of the phosphorus trick he
+dropped Home at once."
+
+It is a significant fact that the medium while giving seances in Paris in
+1857 refused to meet Houdin, the renowned prestidigitateur.
+
+I shall now attempt an expose of Home's physical phenomena. Home's
+extraordinary feat of alternately cooling and heating a lump of coal taken
+from a blazing fire, as related by Mr. H. D. Jencken and others, is easily
+explained. It is a juggling trick. The "coal" is a piece of spongy
+platinum which bears a close resemblance to a lump of half burnt coal, and
+is palmed in the hand, as a prestidigitateur conceals a coin, a pack of
+cards, an egg, or a small lemon. The medium or magician advances to the
+grate and pretends to take a genuine lump of coal from the fire but brings
+up instead, at the tips of his fingers, the piece of platinum. In a secret
+breast pocket of his coat he has a small reservoir of hydrogen, with a
+tube coming down the sleeve and terminating an inch or so above the cuff.
+By means of certain mechanical arrangements, to enable him to let on and
+off the gas at the proper moment, he is able to accomplish the trick; for
+when a current of hydrogen is allowed to impinge upon a piece of spongy
+platinum, the metal becomes incandescent, and as soon as the current is
+arrested the platinum is restored to its normal condition.
+
+The hand may be protected from burning in various ways, one method being
+the repeated application of sulphuric acid to the skin, whereby it is
+rendered impervious to the action of fire for a short period of time;
+another, by wearing gloves of amianthus or asbestos cloth. With the
+latter, worn in a badly lighted room, the medium, without much risk of
+discovery, can handle red hot coals or iron with impunity. The gloves may
+at the proper moment be slipped off and concealed about the person. A
+small slip of amianthus cloth placed on a newspaper would protect it from
+a hot coal and the same means could be used when a coal is placed in
+another's hand or upon his head.
+
+As to the marvelous "levitation", either the witnesses of the alleged feat
+were under some hypnotic spell, or else they allowed their imaginations to
+run riot when describing the event. In the case of Lord Lindsay and Lord
+Adare, D. Carpenter in his valuable paper "On Fallacies Respecting the
+Supernatural" (_Contemporary Review_, Jan., 1876) says: "A whole party of
+believers affirm that they saw Mr. Home float out of one window and in at
+another, while a single honest skeptic declares that Mr. Home was sitting
+in his chair all the time." It seems that there were three gentlemen
+present besides the medium when the alleged phenomenon took place, the two
+noblemen and a "cousin". It is this unnamed hard-headed cousin to whom Dr.
+Carpenter refers as the "honest skeptic."
+
+Many of Home's admirers have declared that he possessed the power of
+mesmerizing certain of his friends. These gentlemen were no doubt
+hypnotized and related honestly what they believed they had seen. Again,
+the expectancy of attention and the nervous tension of the average sitter
+in spirit-circles tend to produce a morbidly impressible condition of
+mind. Many mediums since Home's day have performed the act of levitation,
+but always in a dark room. Mr. Angelo Lewis, the writer on magic, reveals
+an ingenious method by which levitation is effected. When the lights are
+extinguished the medium--who, by the way, must be a clever
+ventriloquist--removes his boots and places them on his hands.
+
+"I am rising, I am rising, but pay no attention", he remarks, as he goes
+about the apartment, where the sitters are grouped in a circle about him,
+and he lightly touches the heads of various persons. A shadowy form is
+dimly seen and a smell of boot leather becomes apparent to the olfactory
+senses of many present. People jump quickly to conclusions in such matters
+and argue that where the feet of the medium are, his body must surely
+be--namely, floating in the air. The illusion is further enhanced by the
+performer's ventriloquial powers. "I am rising! I am touching the
+ceiling!" he exclaims, imitating the sound of a voice high up. When the
+lights are turned up, the medium is seen (this time with his boots on his
+feet) standing on tip-toe, as if just descended from the ceiling.
+
+Sometimes before performing the levitation act, he will say, "In order to
+convince any skeptic present, that I really float upwards, I will write
+the initials of my name, or the name of some one present, on the
+ceiling." When the lights are raised, the letters are seen written on the
+ceiling in a bold scrawling hand. How is it done? The medium has concealed
+about him a telescopic steel rod, something like those Chinese fishing
+rods at one time in vogue among modern disciples of Izaak Walton. This
+convenient rod when not in use folds up in a very small compass, but when
+it is shoved out to its full length, some three or four feet, with a bit
+of black chalk attached, the writing on the ceiling is easily produced.
+The magicians of ancient Egypt displayed their mystic rods as a part of
+their paraphernalia, while the modern magi bear theirs in secret. A
+tambourine, a guitar, a bell, or a spirit hand, rubbed with phosphorus,
+may also be fixed to this ingenious appliance, and floated over the heads
+of the spectators, and even a horn may be blown, through the hollow rod.
+
+The materialization of a spirit hand which crept from beneath a
+table-cover, and showed itself to the "believers," was one of the most
+startling things in the repertoire of D. D. Home, as it was in that of Dr.
+Monck's, an English medium. An explanation of Monck's method of producing
+the hand may, perhaps, throw some light on Home's "materialization." A
+small dummy hand, artistically executed in wax, with the fingers slightly
+bent, is fastened to a broad elastic band about three feet in length. This
+band is attached to a belt about the performer's waist and passes down his
+left trouser leg, allowing the hand to dangle within the trouser a few
+inches above the ankle. I must not forget to explain that to the wrist of
+the hand is appended an elastic sleeve about five inches long. The medium
+and two sitters take their seats at a square table, with an over-hanging
+table-cloth. No one is allowed to be seated at the same side of the table
+with the medium. This is an imperative condition.
+
+"Diminish the light, please," says the medium. Some one rises to lower the
+gas to the required dim religious light necessary to all spirit seances.
+"A little lower, please! Lower, lower still!" remarks the medium. Out the
+light goes. "Dear, me, but this is vexatious! Somebody light it again and
+be more careful!" he ejaculates. Under cover of the darkness the agile
+operator crosses his left foot over his right knee, pulls down the wax
+hand and fixes it to the toe of his boot by means of the elastic sleeve,
+the apparatus being masked from the sitters by the table cloth until the
+time comes for the spirit materialization. The three men place their
+hands on the table and wait patiently for developments. Presently a rap is
+heard under the table--disjointed knee of the medium,--and then _mirabile
+dictu!_ the table-cloth shakes and a delicate female hand emerges and
+shows itself above the edge of the table. A guitar being placed close to
+the fingers, they soon strum the strings, or rather appear to do so, the
+medium being the _deus ex machina_. The cleverest part of the whole
+performance is the fact that the medium never takes his hands from the
+table. He quietly puts his left foot down on the floor and places his
+right foot heavily on the false hand--off it comes from the left foot and
+shoots up the trouser leg like lightning. The sitters may look under the
+table but they see nothing.
+
+An ingenious improvement has been made to this hand-test by an American
+conjurer, one that enables the medium to produce the hand although his
+feet are secured by the sitter. "Be kind enough, sir," says the performer
+to the investigator, "to place your feet on mine. If I should move my feet
+ever so little, you would know it, would you not?" The sitter replies in
+the affirmative. The medium, as soon as he feels the pressure of the
+sitter's feet, withdraws his right foot from a steel shape made in
+imitation of the toe of his boot, and operates the spirit hand at his
+leisure. After the sitting, he of course, inserts his right foot into the
+shape and carries it off with him.
+
+The production of spirit music was one of Home's favorite experiments.
+There are all sorts of ways of producing this music, the most ingenious of
+which I give:
+
+The apparatus consists of a small circular musical box, wound up by clock
+work, and made to play whenever pressure is put upon a stud projecting a
+quarter of an inch from its surface. This box is strapped around the right
+leg of the medium just above his knee, and hidden beneath the trouser leg.
+When not in use it is on the under side of the leg. On the table a musical
+box is placed and covered with a soup tureen, or the top of a chafing
+dish. When the spectators are seated, the medium works the concealed
+musical box around to the upper part of his leg near the knee cap, and by
+pressing the stud against the under surface of the table, starts the music
+playing. In this way the second musical box seems to play and the acoustic
+effect is perfect. Perhaps Home used a similar contrivance; Dr. Monck
+did, and was caught in the act by the chief of the Detective Police.
+
+Home during his seances on the Continent of Europe was accused of all
+sorts of trickery. Some asserted that he had concealed about him a small
+but powerful electric battery for producing certain illusions, mechanical
+contrivances attached to his legs for making spirit raps, and last but not
+least, as the medium states in his "Memoirs:" "they even accused me of
+carrying a small monkey about with me, concealed, trained to perform all
+sorts of ghostly tricks."
+
+People also accused him of obtaining a great deal of his information about
+the spirits of the departed from tombstones like an Old Mortality, and
+bribing family servants. A more probable explanation may be found perhaps
+in telepathy.
+
+There is one more phase of Home's mediumship, the moving of heavy pieces
+of furniture without physical contact, that must be spoken of. In
+mentioning it, Dr. Max Dessoir, author of the "Psychology of
+Conjuring,"[1] says: "We must admit that _a few_ feats, such as those of
+Prof. Crookes with Home, concerning the possibility of setting inanimate
+objects in motion without touching them, _appear_ to lie entirely outside
+the sphere of jugglery." In the year 1871, Prof. William Crookes, (now Sir
+William Crookes) Fellow of the Royal Society, a very eminent scientist,
+subjected Home to some elaborate tests in order to prove or disprove by
+means of scientific apparatus the reality of phenomena connected with
+variations in the weight of bodies, with or without contact. He declared
+the tests to be entirely satisfactory, but ascribed the phenomena not to
+spiritual agency, but to a new force, "in some unknown manner connected
+with the human organization," which for convenience he called the "Psychic
+Force." He said in his "Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism:" "Of
+all the persons endowed with a powerful development of this Psychic Force,
+and who have been termed 'mediums' upon quite another theory of its
+origin, Mr. Daniel Dunglas Home is the most remarkable, and it is mainly
+owing to the many opportunities I have had of carrying on my
+investigations in his presence that I am enabled to affirm so conclusively
+the existence of this force." Prof. Crookes' experiments were conducted,
+as he says, in the full light, and in the presence of witnesses, among
+them being the famous English barrister, Sergeant Cox, and the
+astronomer, Dr. Huggins. Heavy articles became light and light articles
+heavy when the medium came near them. In some cases he lightly touched
+them, in others refrained from contact.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 8. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+The first piece of the apparatus constructed by Crookes to test this
+psychic force consisted of a mahogany board 36 inches long by 9-1/2 inches
+wide and 1 inch thick. A strip of mahogany was screwed on at one end, to
+form a foot, the length being equal to the width of the board. This end of
+the board was placed on a table, while the other end was upheld by a
+spring balance, fastened to a strong tripod stand, as will be seen in
+Fig. 8.
+
+"Mr. Home," writes Prof. Crookes, "placed the tips of his fingers lightly
+on the extreme end of the mahogany board which was resting on the support,
+whilst Dr. A. B. [Dr. Huggins] and myself sat, one on each side of it,
+watching for any effect which might be produced. Almost immediately the
+pointer of the balance was seen to descend. After a few seconds it rose
+again. This movement was repeated several times, as if by successive waves
+of the psychic force. The end of the board was observed to oscillate
+slowly up and down during the experiment.
+
+"Mr. Home now, of his own accord, took a small hand-bell and a little card
+match-box, which happened to be near, and placed one under each hand, to
+satisfy us, as he said, that he was not producing the downward pressure.
+The very slow oscillation of the spring balance became more marked, and
+Dr. A. B., watching the index, said that he saw it descend to 6-1/2 lbs.
+The normal weight of the board as so suspended being 3 lbs., the
+additional downward pull was therefore 3-1/2 lbs. On looking immediately
+afterwards at the automatic register, we saw that the index had at one
+time descended as low as 9 lbs., showing a maximum pull of 6 lbs. upon a
+board whose normal weight was 3 lbs.
+
+"In order to see whether it was possible to produce much effect on the
+spring balance by pressure at the place where Mr. Home's fingers had been,
+I stepped upon the table and stood on one foot at the end of the board.
+Dr. A. B., who was observing the index of the balance, said that the whole
+weight of my body (140 lbs.) so applied only sunk the index 1-1/2 lbs., or
+2 lbs. when I jerked up and down. Mr. Home had been sitting in a low
+easy-chair, and could not, therefore, had he tried his utmost, have
+exerted any material influence on these results. I need scarcely add that
+his feet as well as his hands were closely guarded by all in the room."
+
+The next series of experiments is thus described:
+
+"On trying these experiments for the first time, I thought that actual
+contact between Mr. Home's hands and the suspended body whose weight was
+to be altered was essential to the exhibition of the force; but I found
+afterwards that this was not a necessary condition, and I therefore
+arranged my apparatus in the following manner:--
+
+"The accompanying cuts (Figs. 9, 10 and 11) explain the arrangement. Fig.
+9 is a general view, and Figs. 10 and 11 show the essential parts more in
+detail. The reference letters are the same in each illustration. A B is a
+mahogany board, 36 inches long by 9-1/2 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. It
+is suspended at the end, B, by a spring balance, C, furnished with an
+automatic register, D. The balance is suspended from a very firm tripod
+support, E.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 9. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 10. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+"The following piece of apparatus is not shown in the figures. To the
+moving index, O, of the spring balance, a fine steel point is soldered,
+projecting horizontally outwards. In front of the balance, and firmly
+fastened to it, is a grooved frame, carrying a flat box similar to the
+dark box of a photographic camera. This box is made to travel by
+clock-work horizontally in front of the moving index, and it contains a
+sheet of plate-glass which has been smoked over a flame. The projecting
+steel point impresses a mark on this smoked surface. If the balance is at
+rest, and the clock set going, the result is a perfectly straight
+horizontal line. If the clock is stopped and weights are placed on the
+end, B, of the board, the result is a vertical line, whose length depends
+on the weight applied. If, whilst the clock draws the plate along, the
+weight of the board (or the tension on the balance) varies, the result is
+a curved line, from which the tension in grains at any moment during the
+continuance of the experiments can be calculated.
+
+"The instrument was capable of registering a diminution of the force of
+gravitation as well as an increase; registrations of such a diminution
+were frequently obtained. To avoid complication, however, I will here
+refer only to results in which an increase of gravitation was experienced.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 11. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+"The end, B, of the board being supported by the spring balance, the end,
+A, is supported on a wooden strip, F, screwed across its lower side and
+cut to a knife edge (see Fig. 11). This fulcrum rests on a firm and heavy
+wooden stand, G H. On the board, exactly over the fulcrum, is placed a
+large glass vessel filled with water. I L is a massive iron stand,
+furnished with an arm and a ring, M N, in which rests a hemispherical
+copper vessel perforated with several holes at the bottom.
+
+"The iron stand is 2 inches from the board, A B, and the arm and copper
+vessel, M N, are so adjusted that the latter dips into the water 1-1/2
+inches, being 5-1/2 inches from the bottom of I, and 2 inches from its
+circumference. Shaking or striking the arm, M, or the vessel, N, produces
+no appreciable mechanical effect on the board, A B, capable of affecting
+the balance. Dipping the hand to the fullest extent into the water in N
+does not produce the least appreciable action on the balance.
+
+"As the mechanical transmission of power is by this means entirely cut off
+between the copper vessel and the board, A B, the power of muscular
+control is thereby completely eliminated.
+
+"For convenience I will divide the experiments into groups, 1, 2, 3, etc.,
+and I have selected one special instance in each to describe in detail.
+Nothing, however, is mentioned which has not been repeated more than once,
+and in some cases verified, in Mr. Home's absence, with another person,
+possessing similar powers.
+
+"There was always ample light in the room where the experiments were
+conducted (my own dining-room) to see all that took place.
+
+"_Experiment I._--The apparatus having been properly adjusted before Mr.
+Home entered the room, he was brought in, and asked to place his fingers
+in the water in the copper vessel, N. He stood up and dipped the tips of
+the fingers of his right hand in the water, his other hand and his feet
+being held. When he said he felt a power, force, or influence, proceeding
+from his hand, I set the clock going, and almost immediately the end, B,
+of the board was seen to descend slowly and remain down for about 10
+seconds; it then descended a little further, and afterwards rose to its
+normal height. It then descended again, rose suddenly, gradually sunk for
+17 seconds, and finally rose to its normal height, where it remained till
+the experiment was concluded. The lowest point marked on the glass was
+equivalent to a direct pull of about 5,000 grains. The accompanying
+Figure 12 is a copy of the curve traced on the glass.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE OF SECONDS.
+
+FIG. 12. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE
+OF HOME.]
+
+"_Experiment II._--Contact through water having proved to be as effectual
+as actual mechanical contact, I wished to see if the power or force could
+affect the weight, either through other portions of the apparatus or
+through the air. The glass vessel and iron stand, etc., were therefore
+removed, as an unnecessary complication, and Mr. Home's hands were placed
+on the stand of the apparatus at P (Fig. 9). A gentleman present put his
+hand on Mr. Home's hands, and his foot on both Mr. Home's feet, and I also
+watched him closely all the time. At the proper moment the clock was again
+set going; the board descended and rose in an irregular manner, the result
+being a curved tracing on the glass, of which Fig. 13 is a copy.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.
+
+FIG. 13. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE
+OF HOME.]
+
+"_Experiment III._--Mr. Home was now placed one foot from the board, A B,
+on one side of it. His hands and feet were firmly grasped by a by-stander,
+and another tracing, of which Fig. 14 is a copy, was taken on the moving
+glass plate.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.
+
+FIG. 14. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER HOME'S
+INFLUENCE.]
+
+"_Experiment IV._--(Tried on an occasion when the power was stronger than
+on the previous occasions), Mr. Home was now placed 3 feet from the
+apparatus, his hands and feet being tightly held. The clock was set going
+when he gave the word, and the end, B, of the board soon descended, and
+again rose in an irregular manner, as shown in Fig. 15.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.
+
+FIG. 15. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER HOME'S
+INFLUENCE.]
+
+"The following series of experiments were tried with more delicate
+apparatus, and with another person, a lady, Mr. Home being absent. As the
+lady is non-professional, I do not mention her name. She has, however,
+consented to meet any scientific men whom I may introduce for purposes of
+investigation.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 16. SECOND CROOKES' APPARATUS.]
+
+"A piece of thin parchment, A, (Figs. 16 and 17), is stretched tightly
+across a circular hoop of wood. B C is a light lever turning on D. At the
+end B is a vertical needle point touching the membrane A, and at C is
+another needle point, projecting horizontally and touching a smoked glass
+plate, E F. This glass plate is drawn along in the direction H G by
+clockwork, K. The end, B, of the lever is weighted so that it shall
+quickly follow the movements of the centre of the disc, A. These
+movements are transmitted and recorded on the glass plate, E F, by means
+of the lever and needle point, C. Holes are cut in the side of the hoop to
+allow a free passage of air to the under side of the membrane. The
+apparatus was well tested beforehand by myself and others, to see that no
+shaking or jar on the table or support would interfere with the results:
+the line traced by the point, C, on the smoked glass was perfectly
+straight in spite of all our attempts to influence the lever by shaking
+the stand or stamping on the floor.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 17. SECTION OF APPARATUS IN FIG. 16.]
+
+"_Experiment V._--Without having the object of the instrument explained to
+her, the lady was brought into the room and asked to place her fingers on
+the wooden stand at the points, L M, Fig. 16. I then placed my hands over
+hers to enable me to detect any conscious or unconscious movement on her
+part. Presently percussive noises were heard on the parchment, resembling
+the dropping of grains of sand on its surface. At each percussion a
+fragment of graphite which I had placed on the membrane was seen to be
+projected upwards about 1-50th of an inch, and the end, C, of the lever
+moved slightly up and down. Sometimes the sounds were as rapid as those
+from an induction-coil, whilst at others they were more than a second
+apart. Five or six tracings were taken, and in all cases a movement of the
+end, C, of the lever was seen to have occurred with each vibration of the
+membrane.
+
+"In some cases the lady's hands were not so near the membrane as L M, but
+were at N O, Fig 17.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE OF SECONDS.
+
+FIG. 18. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS (FIG. 15 AND 16)
+OUTSIDE HOME'S INFLUENCE.]
+
+"The accompanying Fig. 18 gives tracings taken from the plates used on
+these occasions.
+
+"_Experiment VI._--Having met with these results in Mr. Home's absence, I
+was anxious to see what action would be produced on the instrument in his
+presence.
+
+"Accordingly I asked him to try, but without explaining the instrument to
+him.
+
+"I grasped Mr. Home's right arm above the wrist and held his hand over the
+membrane, about 10 inches from its surface, in the position shown at P,
+Fig. 17. His other hand was held by a friend. After remaining in this
+position for about half a minute, Mr. Home said he felt some influence
+passing. I then set the clock going, and we all saw the index, C, moving
+up and down. The movements were much slower than in the former case, and
+were almost entirely unaccompanied by the percussive vibrations then
+noticed.
+
+"Figs. 19 and 20 show the curves produced on the glass on two of these
+occasions.
+
+"Figs. 18, 19 and 20 are magnified.
+
+"These experiments _confirm beyond doubt_ the conclusions at which I
+arrived in my former paper, namely, the existence of a force associated,
+in some manner not yet explained, with the human organization, by which
+force increased weight is capable of being imparted to solid bodies
+without physical contact. In the case of Mr. Home, the development of this
+force varies enormously, not only from week to week, but from hour to
+hour; on some occasions the force is inappreciable by my tests for an hour
+or more, and then suddenly reappears in great strength.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 18.
+
+FIG. 19. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17)
+UNDER HOME'S INFLUENCE.]
+
+"It is capable of acting at a distance from Mr. Home (not unfrequently as
+far as two or three feet), but is always strongest close to him.
+
+[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS ON FIG. 18.
+
+FIG. 20. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17)
+UNDER HOME'S INFLUENCE.]
+
+"Being firmly convinced that there could be no manifestation of one form
+of force without the corresponding expenditure of some other form of
+force, I for a long time searched in vain for evidence of any force or
+power being used up in the production of these results.
+
+"Now, however, having seen more of Mr. Home, I think I perceive what it is
+that this psychic force uses up for its development. In employing the
+terms _vital force_ or _nervous energy_, I am aware that I am employing
+words which convey very different significations to many investigators;
+but after witnessing the painful state of nervous and bodily prostration
+in which some of these experiments have left Mr. Home--after seeing him
+lying in an almost fainting condition on the floor, pale and speechless--I
+could scarcely doubt that the evolution of psychic force is accompanied by
+a corresponding drain on vital force."
+
+Sergeant Cox in speaking of the tests says, "The results appear to me
+conclusively to establish the important fact, that there is a force
+proceeding from the nerve-system capable of imparting motion and weight to
+solid bodies within the sphere of its influence."
+
+One of the medium's defenders has written:
+
+"Home's mysterious power, whatever it may have been, was very uncertain.
+Sometimes he could exercise it, and at others not, and these fluctuations
+were not seldom the source of embarrassment to him. He would often arrive
+at a place in obedience to an engagement, and, as he imagined, ready to
+perform, when he would discover himself absolutely helpless. After a
+seance his exhaustion appeared to be complete.
+
+"There is no more striking proof of the fact that Home really possessed
+occult gifts of some sort--psychic force or whatever else the power may be
+termed--than he gave such amazing exhibitions in the early part of his
+history and was able to do so little toward the end. If it had been
+juggling he would, like other conjurors, have improved on his tricks by
+experience, or at all events, while his memory held out he would not have
+deteriorated."
+
+Dr. Hammond's Experiments.
+
+Dr. William A. Hammond, the eminent neurologist, of Washington, D. C.,
+took up the cudgels against Prof. Crookes' "Psychic Force" theory, and
+assigned the experiments to the domain of animal electricity. He wrote as
+follows:[2] "Place an egg in an egg-cup and balance a long lath upon the
+egg. Though the lath be almost a plank it will obediently follow a rod of
+glass, gutta percha or sealing-wax, which has been previously well dried
+and rubbed, the former with a piece of silk, and the two latter with
+woolen cloth. Now, in dry weather, many persons within my knowledge, have
+only to walk with a shuffling gait over the carpet, and then approaching
+the lath hold out the finger instead of the glass, sealing wax or gutta
+percha, and instantly the end of the lath at L rises to meet it, and the
+end at L is depressed. Applying these principles, I arranged an apparatus
+exactly like that of Prof. Crookes, except that the spring balance was
+such as is used for weighing letters and was therefore very delicate,
+indicating quarter ounces with exactness, and that the board was thin and
+narrow.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 21. DR. HAMMOND'S APPARATUS.]
+
+"Applying the glass rod or stick of sealing-wax to the end resting by its
+foot on the table, the index of the balance at once descended, showing an
+increased weight of a little over three quarters of an ounce, and this
+without the board being raised from the table.
+
+"I then walked over a thick Turkey rug for a few moments, and holding my
+finger under the board near the end attached to the balance, caused a fall
+of the index of almost half an ounce. I then rested my finger lightly on
+the end of the board immediately over the foot, and again the index
+descended and oscillated several times, just as in Mr. Home's experiments.
+The lowest point reached was six and a quarter ounces, and as the board
+weighed, as attached to the balance, five ounces, there was an increased
+weight of one and a quarter ounces. At no time was the end of the board
+raised from the table.
+
+"I then arranged the apparatus so as to place a thin glass tumbler nearly
+full of water immediately over the fulcrum, as in Mr. Crookes' experiment,
+and again the index fell and oscillated on my fingers being put into the
+water.
+
+"Now if one person can thus, with a delicate apparatus like mine, cause
+the index, through electricity, to descend and ascend, it is not
+improbable that others, like Mr. Home, could show greater, or even
+different electrical power, as in Prof. Crookes' experiments. It is well
+known that all persons are not alike in their ability to be electrically
+excited. Many persons, myself among them, can light the gas with the end
+of the finger. Others cannot do it with any amount of shuffling over the
+carpet.
+
+"At any rate is it not much more sensible to believe that Mr. Home's
+experiments are to be thus explained than to attribute the results of his
+semi-mysterious attempts to spiritualism or psychic force?"
+
+
+3. Rope-Tying and Holding Mediums.
+
+THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS.
+
+Ira Erastus and William Henry Davenport were born at Buffalo, N. Y., the
+former on Sept. 17, 1839, and the latter on February 1, 1841. Their
+father, Ira Davenport, was in the police detective department, and, it is
+alleged, invented the celebrated rope-tying feats after having seen the
+Indian jugglers of the West perform similar illusions. The usual stories
+about ghostly phenomena attending the childhood of mediums were told about
+the Davenport Brothers, but it was not until 1855 that they started on
+their tour of the United States, with their father as showman or
+spiritual lecturer. When the Civil War broke out, the Brothers,
+accompanied by Dr. J. B. Ferguson, formerly an Independent minister of
+Nashville, Tenn., in the capacity of lecturer, and a Mr. Palmer as general
+agent and manager, went to England to exhibit their mediumistic powers,
+following the example of D. D. Home. With the company also was a Buffalo
+boy named Fay, of German-American parentage, who had formerly acted as
+ticket-taker for the mediums. He discovered the secret of the rope-tying
+feat, and was an adept at the coat feat, so he was employed as an
+"under-study" in case of the illness of William Davenport, who was in
+rather delicate health. The Brothers Davenport at this period, aged
+respectively 25 and 23 years, had "long black curly hair, broad but not
+high foreheads, dark eyes, heavy eye-brows and moustaches, firm set lips,
+and a bright, keen look." Their first performance in England was given at
+the Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London, and created intense excitement.
+
+_Punch_ called the _furore_ over the spirit rope-tyers the "tie-fuss
+fever," and said the mediums were "Ministers of the Interior, with a seat
+in the Cabinet." J. N. Maskelyne, the London conjurer of Egyptian Hall,
+wrote of them: "About the Davenport Brothers' performances, I have to say
+that they were and still remain the most inexplicable ever presented to
+the public as of spiritual origin; and had they been put forth as feats of
+jugglery would have awakened a considerable amount of curiosity though
+certainly not to the extent they did."
+
+In September, 1865, the Brothers arrived in Paris, and placarded the city
+with enormous posters announcing that the Brothers Davenport,
+spirit-mediums, would give a series of public seances at the _Salle Herz_.
+Their reputation had preceded them to France and the _boulevardiers_
+talked of nothing but the wonderful American mediums and their mysterious
+cabinet. Before exhibiting in Paris the Davenports visited the _Chateau de
+Gennevilliers_, whose owner was an enthusiastic believer in Spiritism, and
+gave a seance before a select party of journalists and scientific men. The
+exhibition was pronounced marvellous in the extreme and perfectly
+inexplicable.
+
+The Parisian press was divided on the subject of the Davenports and their
+advertised seances. Some of the papers protested against such performances
+on the ground that they were dangerous to the mental health of the
+public, and, one writer said, "Particularly to those weaker intellects
+which are always ready enough to accept as gospel the tricks and artifices
+of the adepts of sham witchcraft." M. Edmond About, the famous journalist
+and novelist, in the _Opinion Nationale_, wrote a scathing denunciation of
+Spiritism, but all to no purpose, except to inflame public curiosity.
+
+The performances of the Davenports were divided into two parts: (1) The
+light seance, (2) the dark seance. In the light seance a cabinet, elevated
+from the stage by three trestles, was used. It was a simple wooden
+structure with three doors. In the centre door was a lozenge-shaped window
+covered with a curtain. Upon the sides of the cabinet hung various musical
+instruments, a guitar, a violin, horns, tambourines, and a big dinner
+bell.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 22. THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS IN THEIR CABINET.]
+
+A committee chosen by the audience tied the mediums' hands securely behind
+their backs, fastened their legs together, and pinioned them to their
+seats in the cabinet, and to the cross rails with strong ropes. The side
+doors were closed first, then the center door, but no sooner was the last
+fastened, than the hands of one of the mediums were thrust through the
+window in the centre door. In a very short time, at a signal from the
+mediums, the doors were opened, and the Davenports stepped forth, with the
+ropes in their hands, every knot untied, confessedly by spirit power. The
+astonishment of the spectators amounted to awe. On an average it took ten
+minutes to pinion the Brothers; but a single minute was required for their
+release. Once more the mediums went into the cabinet, this time with the
+ropes lying in a coil at their feet. Two minutes elapsed. Hey, presto! the
+doors were opened, and the Davenports were pronounced by the committee to
+be securely lashed to their seats. Seals were affixed to the knots in the
+ropes, and the doors closed as before. Pandemonium reigned. Bells were
+rung, horns blown, tambourines thumped, violins played, and guitars
+vigorously twanged. Heavy rappings also were heard on the ceiling, sides
+and floor of the cabinet, then after a brief but absolute silence, a bare
+hand and arm emerged from the lozenge window, and rung the big dinner
+bell. On opening the doors the Brothers were found securely tied as
+before, and seals intact. An amusing feature of the exhibition occurred
+when a venturesome spectator volunteered to sit inside of the cabinet
+between the two mediums. He came out with his coat turned inside out and
+his hat jammed over his eyes. In the dark seance the cabinet was dispensed
+with and the spectators, holding hands, formed a ring around the mediums.
+The lights were put out and similar phenomena took place, with the
+addition of luminous hands, and musical instruments floating in the air.
+
+Robert-Houdin wrote an interesting brochure on the Davenports, ("Secrets
+of Stage Conjuring," translated by Prof. Hoffmann) from which I take the
+following: "The ropes used by the Davenport Brothers are of a cotton
+fibre; and they present therefore smooth surfaces, adapted to slip easily
+one upon another. Gentlemen are summoned from the audience to tie the
+mediums. Now, tell me, is it an easy task for an amateur to tie a man up
+off-hand with a rope three yards long, in a very secure way? The amateur
+is flurried, self-conscious, anxious to acquit himself well of the
+business, but he is a gentleman, not a brute, and if one of the Brothers
+sees the ropes getting into a dangerous tangle, he gives a slight groan,
+as if he were being injured, and the instantaneous impulse of the other
+man is to loosen the cord a trifle. A fraction of an inch is an invaluable
+gain in the after-business of loosening the ropes. Sometimes the
+stiffening of a muscle, the raising of a shoulder, the crooking of a knee,
+gives all the play required by the Brothers in ridding themselves of their
+bonds. Their muscles and joints are wonderfully supple, too; the thumbs
+can be laid flat in the palm of the hand, the hand itself rounded until it
+is no broader than the wrist, and then it is easy to pull through. Violent
+wrenches send the ropes up toward the shoulder, vigorous shakings get the
+legs free; the first hand untied is thrust through the hole in the door of
+the cabinet, and then returns to give aid to more serious knots on his own
+or his brother's person. In tying themselves up the Davenports used the
+slip-knot, a sort of bow, the ends of which have only to be pulled to be
+tightened or loosened."
+
+This slip-knot is a very ingenious affair. (See Fig. 23.) In performing
+the spirit-tying, the mediums went into the cabinet with the ropes
+examined by the audience lying coiled at their feet. The doors were
+closed. They had concealed about their persons ropes in which these trick
+knots were already adjusted, and with which they very speedily secured
+themselves, having first secreted the genuine ropes. Then the doors were
+opened. Seals were affixed to the knots, but this sealing, owing to the
+position of the hands, and the careful exposition of the knots did not
+affect the slipping of the ropes sufficiently to prevent the mediums from
+removing and replacing their hands.
+
+[Illustration: NO. 23. TRICK-TIE IN CABINET WORK.]
+
+In the dark seance, flour was sometimes placed in the pinioned hands of
+the Davenports. On being released from their bonds, the flour was found
+undisturbed.
+
+This was considered a convincing test; for how could the Brothers possibly
+manipulate the musical instruments with their hands full of flour. One day
+a wag substituted a handful of snuff for flour, and when the mediums were
+examined, the snuff had disappeared and flour taken its place. As will be
+understood, in the above test the Davenports emptied the flour from their
+hands into secret pockets and at the proper moment took out cornucopias of
+flour and filled their hands again before securing themselves in the
+famous slip-knots.
+
+Among the exposes of the Brothers Davenport, Herrmann, the conjurer, gives
+the following in the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_: "The Davenports, for
+thirteen years, in Europe and America, augmented the faith in
+Spiritualism. Unfortunately for the Davenports they appeared at Ithaca,
+New York, where is situated Cornell University. The students having a
+scientific trend of mind, provided themselves before attending the
+performance with pyrotechnic balls containing phosphorus, so made as to
+ignite suddenly with a bright light. During the dark seance when the
+Davenports were supposed to be bound hand and foot within the closet and
+when the guitars were apparently floating in the air, the students struck
+their lights, whereupon the spirits were found to be no other than the
+Davenports themselves, dodging about the stage brandishing guitars and
+playing tunes and waving at the same time tall poles surmounted by
+phosphorescent spook pictures."
+
+The Davenports had some stormy experiences in Paris, but managed to come
+through all successfully, with plenty of French gold in their pockets.
+William died in October, 1877, at the Oxford Hotel, Sydney, Australia,
+having publicly denounced Spiritualism. Mr. Fay took to raising sheep in
+Australia, while Ira Davenport drifted back to his old home in Buffalo,
+New York.
+
+Many mediums, taking the cue from the Davenports, have performed the
+cabinet act with its accompanying rope-tying, but the conjurers
+(anti-spiritists) have, with the aid of mechanism, brought the business to
+a high degree of perfection, notably Mr. J. Nevil Maskelyne, of Egyptian
+Hall, London, and Mr. Harry Kellar, of the United States. Writing of the
+Davenport Brothers, Maskelyne says:
+
+"The instantaneous tying and untying was simply marvellous, and it utterly
+baffled everyone to discover, until, on one occasion, the accidental
+falling of a piece of drapery from a window (the lozenge-shaped aperture
+in the door of the cabinet), at a critical moment let me into the secret.
+I was able in a few months to reproduce every item of the Davenports'
+cabinet and dark seance. So close was the resemblance to the original,
+that _the Spiritualist had no alternative but to claim us_ (Maskelyne and
+Cooke) _as most powerful spirit mediums who found it more profitable to
+deny the assistance of spirits_."
+
+Robert-Houdin's explanation of the slip-knot, used by the Davenports in
+their dark seance, is the correct one, but he failed to fathom the mystery
+of the mode of release of the Brothers after they were tied in the cabinet
+by a committee selected from the audience. Anyone trying to extricate
+himself from bondage _a la_ Houdin, no matter how slippery and serpentine
+he be, would find it exceedingly difficult. It seems almost incredible,
+but trickery was used in the light seance, as well as the dark. Maskelyne,
+as quoted above, claimed to have penetrated the mystery, but he kept it a
+profound secret--though he declared that his cabinet work was trickery.
+The writer is indebted for an initiation into the mysteries of the
+Davenport Brothers' rope-tying to Mr. H. Morgan Robinson (Professor
+Helmann), of Washington, D. C., a very clever prestidigitateur.
+
+In the year 1895, after an unbroken silence of nineteen years, Fay,
+ex-assistant of the Davenports, determined to resume the profession of
+public medium. He abandoned his sheep ranch and hunted up Ira Davenport.
+They gave several performances in Northern towns, and finally landed at
+the Capital of the Nation, in the spring of 1895, and advertised several
+seances at Willard's Hall. A very small audience greeted them on their
+first appearance. Among the committee volunteering to go on the stage and
+tie the mediums were the writer and Mr. Robinson. After the seance the
+prestidigitateur fully explained the _modus operandi_ of the mystic tie,
+which is herein for the first time correctly given to the public.
+
+The medium holds out his left wrist first and has it tied securely, about
+the middle of the rope. Two members of the committee are directed to pull
+the ends of the cord vigorously. "Are you confident that the knots are
+securely tied?" he asks; when the committee respond "yes," he puts his
+hand quickly behind him, and places against the wrist, the wrist of his
+right hand, in order that they may be pinioned together. During this rapid
+movement he twists the rope about the knot on his left wrist, thereby
+allowing enough slack cord to disengage his right hand when necessary. To
+slip the right hand back into place is an easy matter. After both hands
+are presumably tied, the medium steps into the cabinet; the ends of the
+rope are pushed through two holes in the chair or wooden seat, by the
+committee and made fast to the medium's legs. Bells ring, horns blow, and
+the performer's hand is thrust through the window of the cabinet. Finally
+a gentleman is requested to enter the cabinet with the medium. The doors
+are locked and a perfect pandemonium begins; when they are opened the
+volunteer assistant tumbles out in great trepidation. His hat is smashed
+over his eyes, his cravat is tied around his leg, and he is found to have
+on the medium's coat, while the medium wears the gentleman's coat turned
+inside out. It all appears very remarkable, but the mystery is cleared up
+when I state that the innocent looking gentleman is invariably a
+confederate, what conjurers call a _plant_, because he is planted in the
+audience to volunteer for the special act.
+
+Ira and William Davenport were tied in the manner above described. Often
+one of the Brothers allowed himself to be genuinely pinioned, after having
+received a preconcerted signal from his partner that all was right, _i.
+e._, the partner had been fastened by the trick tie, calling attention to
+the knots in the cord, etc. The trick tie, however, is so delusive, that
+it is impossible to penetrate the secret in the short time allowed the
+committee for investigation, and there is no special reason for permitting
+a genuine tie-up. Once in a great while, the Davenports were over-reached
+by clever committee-men and tied up so tightly that there was no getting
+loose. Where one brother failed to execute the trick and was genuinely
+fastened, the other medium performed the spirit evolutions, and cut his
+"confrere" loose before they came out of the cabinet.
+
+The Fay-Davenport revival proved a failure, and the mediums dissolved
+partnership in Washington. Kellar, the magician and former assistant of
+the original Davenport combination, by a curious coincidence was giving
+his fine conjuring exhibition in the city at the same time. His tricks far
+eclipsed the feeble revival of the rope-tying phenomena. The fickle public
+crowded to see the magician and neglected the mediums.
+
+ANNIE EVA FAY.
+
+One of the most famous of the materializing mediums now exhibiting in the
+United States is Annie Eva Fay. She is quite an adept at the spirit-tying
+business, and like the Davenports, uses a cabinet on the stage, but her
+method of tying, though clever, is inferior to that used by the Brothers
+in their balmy days. In the center of the Fay cabinet (a plain, curtained
+affair) is a post firmly screwed to the stage. The medium permits a
+committee of two from the audience to tie her to this post, and seal the
+bandages about her wrists with court plaster. She then takes her seat upon
+a small stool in front of the stanchion; the musical instruments are
+placed on her lap, and the curtains of the cabinet closed. Immediately the
+evidences of _spirit power_ begin: the bell is jingled, the tambourine
+thumped, and the sound of a horn heard, simultaneously.
+
+The Fay method of tying is designed especially to facilitate the medium's
+actions. Cotton bandages are used, and the committee are invited to sew
+the knots through and through. Each wrist is tied with a bandage, about an
+inch and a half wide by a half yard in length; and the medium then clasps
+her hands behind her, so that her wrists are about six inches apart. The
+committee now proceed to tie the ends of the bandages firmly together,
+and, after this is accomplished, the dangling pieces of the bandages are
+clipped off. It is true, the medium is firmly bound by this process, and
+it would be physically impossible for her to release herself, without
+disturbing the sewing and the seals, but it is not intended for her to
+release herself at all; the method pursued being altogether different from
+the old species of rope-tying. All being secure, the committee are
+requested to pass another bandage about the short ligature between the
+lady's wrists, and tie it in double square knots, and firmly secure this
+to a ring in the post of the cabinet, the medium being seated on a stool
+in front of the stanchion, facing the audience. Her neck is likewise
+secured to the post by cotton bandages and her feet fastened together with
+a cord, the end of which passes out of the cabinet and is held by one of
+the committee.
+
+The peculiar manner of holding the hands, described above, enables the
+medium to secure for her use, a ligature of knotted cloth between her
+hands, some six inches long; and the central bandage, usually tied in four
+or five double knots, gives her about two inches play between the middle
+of the cotton handcuffs and the ring in the post, to which it is secured.
+The ring is two and a half inches in diameter, and the staple which holds
+it to the stanchion is a half inch. The left hand of the medium gives six
+additional inches, and the bandage on her wrist slips readily along her
+slender arm nearly half way to the elbow--"all of which," says John W.
+Truesdell,[3] who was the first to expose Miss Fay's spirit pretensions,
+"gives the spirits a clear leeway of not less than 20 inches from the
+stanchion. The moment the curtain is closed, the medium, under spirit
+influence spreads her hands as far apart as possible, an act which
+stretches the knotted ligature so that the bandage about it will easily
+slip from the centre to either wrist; then, throwing her lithe form by a
+quick movement, to the left, so that her hips will pass the stanchion
+without moving her feet from the floor, the spirits are able, through the
+medium, to reach whatever may have been placed upon her lap."
+
+One of Annie Eva's most convincing tests is the accordion which plays,
+after it has been bound fast with tapes and the tapes carefully sealed at
+every note, so as to prevent its being performed on in the regular manner.
+Her method of operating, though simple, is decidedly ingenious. She
+places a small tube in the valve-hole of the instrument, breathes and
+blows alternately into it, and then by fingering the keys, executes an air
+with excellent effect.
+
+Sometimes she places a musical box on an oblong plate of glass suspended
+from the ceiling by four cords. The box plays and stops at word of
+command, much to the astonishment of listeners. "Electricity," exclaims
+the reader! Hardly so, for the box is completely insulated on the sheet of
+glass. Then how is it done? Mr. Asprey Vere, an investigator of spirit
+phenomena, tells the secret in the following words: ("Modern Magic"). "In
+the box there is placed a balance lever which when the glass is in the
+slightest degree tilted, arrests the fly-fan, and thus prevents the
+machinery from moving. At the word of command the glass is made level, and
+the fly-fan being released, the machinery moves, and a tune is played.
+When commanded to stop, either side of the cord is pulled by a confederate
+behind the scenes, the balance lever drops, the fly-fan is arrested, and
+the music stops."
+
+One of the tests presented to the American public by this medium is the
+"spirit-hand," constructed of painted wood or _papier mache_, which raps
+out answers to questions, after it has been isolated from all contact by
+being placed on a sheet of glass supported on the backs of two chairs.
+
+It is a trick performed by every conjurer, and the secret is a piece of
+black silk thread, worked by confederates stationed in the wings of the
+theatre, one at the right, the other at the left. The thread lies along
+the stage when not in use, but at the proper cue from the medium, it is
+lifted up and brought in contact with the wooden hand. The hand is so
+constructed that the palm lies on the glass sheet and the wrist, with a
+fancy lace cuff about it, is elevated an inch above the glass, the whole
+apparatus being so pivoted that a pressure of the thread from above will
+depress the wrist and elevate the palm. When the thread is relaxed the
+hand comes down on the glass with a thump and makes the spirit rap which
+is so effective. A rapping skull made on similar principles is also in
+vogue among mediums.
+
+CHARLES SLADE.
+
+Annie Eva Fay has a rival in Charles Slade, who is a clever performer and
+a most convincing talker. His cabinet test is the same as Miss Fay's, but
+he has other specialties that are worth explaining--one is the
+"table-raising," and another is the "spirit neck-tie." The effect of the
+first experiment is as follows: Slade, with his arms bared and coat
+removed, requests several gentlemen to sit around a long table, reserving
+the head for himself. Hands are placed on the table, and developments
+awaited. "Do you feel the table raising?" asks the medium, after a short
+pause. "We do!" comes the response of the sitters. Slade then rises; all
+stand up, and the table is seen suspended in the air, about a foot from
+the floor of the stage. In a little while an uncontrollable desire seems
+to take possession of the table to rush about the stage. Frequently the
+medium requests several persons to get on the table, but that has no
+effect whatever. The same levitation takes place. The secret of this
+surprising mediumistic test is very simple. In the first place, the man
+who sits at the foot of the table is a confederate. Both medium and
+confederate wear about their waists wide leather belts, ribbed and
+strengthened with steel bands, and supported from the shoulders by bands
+of leather and steel. In the front of each belt is a steel hinge concealed
+by the vest of the wearer. In the act of sitting down at the table the
+medium and his confederate quickly pull the hinges which catch under the
+top of the table when the sitters rise. The rest of the trick is easily
+comprehended. When the levitation act is finished the hinges are folded up
+and hidden under the vests of the performers.
+
+The "spirit neck-tie" is one of the best things in the whole range of
+mediumistic marvels, and has never to my knowledge been exposed. A rope is
+tied about the medium's neck with the knots at the back and the ends are
+thrust through two holes in one side of the cabinet, and tied in a bow
+knot on the outside. The holes in the cabinet must be on a level with the
+medium's neck, after he is seated. The curtains of the cabinet are then
+closed, and the committee requested to keep close watch on the bow-knot on
+the outside of the cabinet. The assistant in a short time pulls back the
+curtain from the cabinet on the side farthest from the medium, and reveals
+a sheeted figure which writes messages and speaks to the spectators. Other
+materializations take place. The curtain is drawn. At this juncture the
+medium is heard calling: "Quick, quick, release me!" The assistant
+unfastens the bow-knot, the ends of the rope are quickly drawn into the
+cabinet, and the medium comes forward, looking somewhat exhausted, with
+the rope still tied about his neck. The question resolves itself into two
+factors--either the medium gets loose the neck-tie and impersonates the
+spirits or the materializations are genuine. "Gets loose! But that is
+impossible," exclaim the committee, "we watched the cord in the closest
+way." The secret of this surprising feat lies in a clever substitution.
+The tie is genuine, but the medium, after the curtains of the cabinet are
+closed, cuts the cord with a sharp knife, just about the region of the
+throat, and impersonates the ghosts, with the aid of various wigs and
+disguises concealed about him. Then he takes a second cord from his
+pocket, ties it about his neck with the same number of knots as are in the
+original rope and twists the neck-tie around so that these knots will
+appear at the back of his neck. Now, he exclaims, "Quick, quick, unfasten
+the cord." As soon as his assistant has untied the simple bow knot on the
+outside of the cabinet, the medium quickly pulls the genuine rope into the
+cabinet and conceals it in his pocket.
+
+When he presents himself to the spectators the rope about his neck
+(presumed to be the original) is found to be correctly tied and untampered
+with. Much of the effect depends on the rapidity with which the medium
+conceals the original cord and comes out of the cabinet. The author has
+seen this trick performed in parlors, the holes being bored in a door.
+
+Charles Slade makes a great parade in his advertisements about exposing
+the vulgar tricks of bogus mediums, but he says nothing about the secrets
+of his own pet illusions. His exposes are made for the purpose of
+enhancing his own mediumistic marvels.
+
+I insert a verbatim copy of the handbills with which he deluges the
+highways and byways of American cities and towns.
+
+    SLADE
+
+    Will fully demonstrate the various methods employed by such renowned
+    spiritualistic mediums as Alex. Hume, Mrs. Hoffmann, Prof. Taylor,
+    Chas. Cooke, Richard Bishop, Dr. Arnold, and various others,
+
+    IN PLAIN, OPEN LIGHT.
+
+    Every possible means will be used to enlighten the auditor as to
+    whether these so-called wonders are enacted through the aid of spirits
+    or are the result of natural agencies.
+
+    _SUCH PHENOMENA AS_
+
+        Spirit Materializations,
+          Marvelous Superhuman Visions,
+            Spiritualistic Rappings,
+              Slate Writing,
+                Spirit Pictures,
+                  Floating Tables and Chairs,
+                    Remarkable Test of the Human Mind,
+                      Second Sight Mysteries,
+        A Human Being Isolated from Surrounding Objects
+                    Floating in Mid-Air.
+
+    Committees will be selected by the audience to assist SLADE, and to
+    report their views as to the why and wherefore of the many strange
+    things that will be shown during the evening. This is done so that
+    every person attending may learn the truth regarding the tests,
+    whether they are genuine, or caused by expert trickery.
+
+    Do not class or confound SLADE with the numerous so-called spirit
+    mediums and spiritual exposers that travel through the country, like a
+    set of roaming vampires, seeking whom they may devour. It is SLADE'S
+    object in coming to your city to enlighten the people one way or the
+    other as to the real
+
+    TRUTH CONCERNING THESE MYSTERIES.
+
+    Scientific men, and many great men, have believed there was a grain of
+    essential truth in the claims of Spiritualism. It was believed more on
+    the account of the want of power to deny it than anything else. The
+    idea that under some strained and indefinable possibilities the spirit
+    of the mortal man may communicate with the spirit of the departed man
+    is something that the great heart of humanity is prone to believe, as
+    it has faith in future existence. No skeptic will deny any man's right
+    to such a belief, but this little grain of hope has been the
+    foundation for such extensive and heartless mediumistic frauds that it
+    is constantly losing ground.
+
+                   A NIGHT OF
+            Wonderful Manifestations
+                 THE VEIL DRAWN
+        So that all may have an insight into the
+                 _SPIRIT WORLD_
+           And behold many things that are
+               Strange and Startling.
+
+    The Clergy, the Press, Learned Synods and Councils, Sage Philosophers
+    and Scientists, in fact, the whole world have proclaimed these
+    Philosophical Idealisms to be an astounding
+
+    FACT.
+
+               YOU ARE BROUGHT
+        Face to Face with the Spirits.
+
+    _A SMALL ADMISSION WILL BE CHARGED TO DEFRAY EXPENSES._
+
+PIERRE L. O. A. KEELER.
+
+Pierre Keeler's fame as a producer of spirit phenomena rests largely upon
+his materializing seances. It was his materializations that received the
+particular attention of the Seybert Commission. The late Mr. Henry
+Seybert, who was an ardent believer in modern Spiritualism, presented to
+the University of Pennsylvania a sum of money to found a chair of
+philosophy, with the proviso that the University should appoint a
+commission to investigate "all systems of morals, religion or philosophy
+which assume to represent the truth, and particularly of modern
+Spiritualism." The following gentlemen were accordingly appointed, and
+began their investigations: Dr. William Pepper, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Dr.
+George A. Koenig, Prof. R. E. Thompson, Prof. George S. Fullerton, and Dr.
+Horace H. Furness. Subsequently others were added to the commission--Dr.
+Coleman Sellers, Dr. James W. White, Dr. Calvin B. Kneer, and Dr. S. Weir
+Mitchell. Dr. Pepper, Provost of the University, was _ex-officio_
+chairman; Dr. Furness, acting chairman, and Prof. Fullerton, secretary.
+
+Keeler's materializations are thus described in the report of the
+commission:
+
+"On May 27 the Seybert commission held a meeting at the house of Mr.
+Furness at 8 p. m., to examine the phenomena occurring in the presence of
+Mr. Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a professional medium.
+
+"The medium, Mr. Keeler, is a young man, with well cut features, curly
+brown hair, a small sandy mustache, and rather worn and anxious
+expression; he is strongly built, about 5 feet 8 inches high, and with
+rather short, quite broad, and very muscular hands and strong wrists. The
+hands were examined by Dr. Pepper and Mr. Fullerton after the seance.
+
+"The seance was held in Mr. Furness' drawing-room, and a space was
+curtained off by the medium in the northeast corner, thus, (Fig. 25):
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 25. PIERRE KEELER'S CABINET SEANCE.]
+
+"The curtain is represented by A, B; C, D and E are three chairs, placed
+in front of the curtain by the medium, in one of which (E) he afterwards
+sat; G denotes the position of Mrs. Keeler; F is a small table, placed
+within the curtain, and upon which was a tambourine, a guitar, two bells,
+a hammer, a metallic ring; the stars show the positions of the spectators,
+who sat in a double row--the two stars at the top facing the letter A
+indicate the positions taken by Mrs. Kase and Col. Kase, friends of Mr.
+Keeler, according to the directions of the medium.
+
+"The curtain, or rather curtains, were of black muslin, and arranged as
+follows: There was a plain black curtain, which was stretched across the
+corner, falling to the floor. Its height, when in position, was 53 inches;
+it was made thus:
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 26. PIERRE KEELER'S CABINET CURTAIN.]
+
+"The cord which held the curtain was 1, 2, and the flaps which are
+represented as standing above it (A, B, C, etc.), fell down over A1, B1,
+C1, etc., and could be made to cover the shoulders of one sitting with his
+back against the curtain. A black curtain was also pinned against the
+wall, in the space curtained off, partly covering it. Another curtain was
+added to the one pictured, as will be described presently.
+
+"The medium asked Col. Kase to say a few words as to the necessity of
+observing the conditions, need of harmony, etc. And then the medium
+himself spoke a few words of similar import. He then drew the curtain
+along the cord (1, 2,) and fastened it; placed three wooden chairs in
+front of the curtain, as indicated in the diagram, and, saying he needed
+to form a battery, asked Miss Agnes Irwin to sit in chair D, and Mr. Yost
+in chair C, the medium himself sitting in chair E. A black curtain was
+then fastened by Mrs. Keeler over Mr. Keeler, Miss Irwin and Mr. Yost,
+being fastened at G, between E and D, between D and C, and beyond A; thus
+entirely covering the three sitting in front of the stretched curtain up
+to their necks; and when the flaps before mentioned were pulled down over
+their shoulders, nothing could be seen but the head of each.
+
+"Before the last curtain was fastened over them, the medium placed both
+his hands upon the forearm and wrist of Miss Irwin, the sleeve being
+pulled up for the purpose, and Miss Irwin grasped with her right hand the
+left wrist of Mr. Yost, his right hand being in sight to the right of the
+curtain.
+
+"After some piano music the medium said he felt no power from this
+'battery,' and asked Mrs. E. D. Gillespie to take Miss Irwin's place.
+Hands and curtains were arranged as before. The lights were turned down
+until the room was quite dim. During the singing the medium turned to
+speak to Mr. Yost, and his body, which had before faced rather away from
+the two other persons of the 'battery' (which position would have brought
+his right arm out in front of the stretched curtain), was now turned the
+other way, so that had he released his grasp upon Mrs. Gillespie's arm,
+his own right arm could have had free play in the curtained space behind
+him. His left knee also no longer stood out under the curtain in front,
+but showed a change of position.
+
+"At this time Mrs. Gillespie declared she felt a touch, and soon after so
+did Mr. Yost. The medium's body was distinctly inclined toward Mr. Yost at
+this time. Mrs. Gillespie said she felt taps, but declared that, to the
+best of her knowledge, she still felt the medium's two hands upon her arm.
+
+"Raps indicated that the spirit, George Christy, was present. As one of
+those present played on the piano, the tambourine was played in the
+curtained space and thrown over the curtain; bells were rung; the guitar
+was thrummed a little. At this time the medium's face was toward Mrs.
+Gillespie, and his right side toward the curtain. His body was further in
+against the curtain than either of the others. Upon being asked, Mrs.
+Gillespie then said she thought she still felt two hands upon her arm.
+
+"The guitar was then thrust out, at least the end of it was, at the bottom
+of the curtain, between Mrs. Gillespie and the medium. Mrs. Keeler drawing
+the curtain from over the toes of the medium's boots, to show where his
+feet were; the guitar was thrummed a little. Had the medium's right arm
+been free the thrumming could have been done quite easily with one hand.
+Afterward the guitar was elevated above the curtain; the tambourine, which
+was by Mrs. Keeler placed upon a stick held up within the inclosure, was
+made to whirl by the motion of the stick. The phenomena occurred
+successively, not simultaneously.
+
+"When the guitar was held up, and when the tambourine was made to whirl,
+both of these were to the right of the medium, chiefly behind Mrs.
+Gillespie; they were just where they might have been produced by the right
+arm of the medium, had it been free. Two clothes-pins were then passed
+over the curtain, and they were used in drumming to piano music. They
+could easily be used in drumming by one hand alone, the fingers being
+thrust into them. The pins were afterward thrown out over the curtain. Mr.
+Sellers picked one up as soon as it fell, and found it warm in the split,
+as though it had been worn. The drumming was probably upon the tambourine.
+
+"A hand was seen moving rapidly with a trembling motion--which prevented
+it from being clearly observed--above the back curtain, between Mr. Yost
+and Mrs. Gillespie. Paper was passed over the curtain into the cabinet and
+notes were soon thrown out. The notes could have been written upon the
+small table within the enclosure by the right hand of the medium, had it
+been free. Mrs. Keeler then passed a coat over the curtain, and an arm
+was passed through the sleeve, the fingers, with the cuff around them
+being shown over the curtain. They were kept moving, and a close scrutiny
+was not possible.
+
+"Mr. Furness was then invited to hold a writing tablet in front of the
+curtain, when the hand, almost concealed by the coat-sleeve and the flaps
+mentioned as attached to the curtain, wrote with a pencil on the tablet.
+The writing was rapid, and the hand, when not writing, was kept in
+constant, tremulous motion. The hand was put forth, in this case not over
+the top curtain, but came from under the flap, and could easily have been
+the medium's right hand were it disengaged, for it was about on a level
+with his shoulder and to his right, between him and Mrs. Gillespie. Mr.
+Furness was allowed to pass his hand close to the curtain and grasp the
+hand for a moment. It was a right hand.
+
+"Soon after the medium complained of fatigue, and the sitting was
+discontinued. It was declared by the Spiritualists present to be a fairly
+successful seance. When the curtains were removed the small table in the
+enclosure was found to be overturned, and the bells, hammer, etc., on the
+floor.
+
+"It is interesting to note the space within which all the manifestations
+occurred. They were, without exception, where they would have been had
+they been produced by the medium's right arm. Nothing happened to the left
+of the medium, nor very far over to the right. The sphere of activity was
+between the medium and Mr. Yost, and most of the phenomena occurred, as,
+for example, the whirling of the tambourine, behind Mrs. Gillespie.
+
+"The front curtain--that is, the main curtain which hung across the
+corner--was 85 inches in length, and the cord which supported it 53 inches
+from the floor. The three chairs which were placed in front of it were
+side by side, and it would not have been difficult for the medium to reach
+across and touch Mr. Yost. When Mrs. Keeler passed objects over the
+curtain, she invariably passed them to the right of the medium, although
+her position was on his left; and the clothes-pins, paper, pencil, etc.,
+were all passed over at a point where the medium's right hand could easily
+have reached them.
+
+"To have produced the phenomena by using his right hand the medium would
+have had to pass it under the curtain at his back. This curtain was not
+quite hidden by the front one at the end, near the medium, and this end
+both Mr. Sellers and Dr. Pepper saw rise at the beginning of the seance.
+The only thing worthy of consideration, as opposed to a natural
+explanation of the phenomena, was the grasp of the medium's hand on Mrs.
+Gillespie's arm.
+
+"The grasp was evidently a tight one above the wrist, for the arm was
+bruised for about four inches. There was no evidence of a similar pressure
+above that, as the marks on the arm extended in all about five or six
+inches only. The pressure was sufficient to destroy the sensibility of the
+forearm, and it is doubtful whether Mrs. Gillespie, with her arm in such a
+condition could distinguish between the grasp of one hand, with a divided
+pressure (applied by the two last fingers and the thumb and index) and a
+double grip by two hands. Three of our number, Mr. Sellers, Mr. Furness,
+and Dr. White, can, with one hand, perfectly simulate the double grip.
+
+"It is specially worthy of note that Mrs. Gillespie declared that, when
+the medium first laid hold of her arms with his right hand before the
+curtain was put over them, it was with an undergrip, and she felt his
+right arm under her left. But when the medium asked her if she felt both
+his hands upon her arm, and she said, yes, she could feel the grasp, but
+no arm under hers, though she moved her elbow around to find it--she felt
+a hand, but not an arm, and at no time during the seance did she find that
+arm.
+
+"It should be noted that both the medium and Mr. Yost took off their coats
+before being covered with the curtain. It was suggested by Dr. Pepper that
+this might have been required by the medium as a precaution against
+movements on the part of Mr. Yost. The white shirt-sleeves would have
+shown against the black background."
+
+I attended a number of Keeler's materializing exhibitions in Washington,
+D. C., in the spring of 1895, and it is my opinion that the writing of his
+so-called spirit messages is a simple affair, the very long and elaborate
+ones being written before the seance begins and the short ones by the
+medium during the sitting. The latter are done in a scrawling, uncertain
+hand, just such penmanship one would execute when blindfolded.
+
+The evidence of Dr. G. H. La Fetra, of Washington, D. C., is sufficiently
+convincing on this point. Said Dr. La Fetra to me: "Some years ago I went
+with a friend, Col. Edward Hayes, to one of Mr. Keeler's light seances.
+It was rather early in the evening, and but few persons had assembled.
+Upon the mantel piece of the seance-room were several tablets of paper.
+Unobserved, I took up these tablets, one at a time, and drew the blade of
+my pen-knife across one end of each of them, so that I might identify the
+slips of paper torn therefrom by the nicks in them. In a little while, the
+room was filled with people, and the seance began; the gas being lowered
+to a dim religious light. When the time came for the writing, Mr. Keeler
+requested that some of the tablets of paper on the mantel be passed into
+the cabinet. This was done. Various persons present received 'spirit'
+communications, the slips of paper being thrown over the curtain of the
+cabinet by a 'materialized' hand. Some gentleman picked up the papers and
+read them, for the benefit of the spectators; afterwards he laid aside
+those not claimed by anybody. Some of these 'spirit' communications
+covered almost an entire slip. These were carefully written, some of them
+in a fine hand. The short messages were roughly scrawled. After the
+seance, Col. Hayes and myself quietly pocketed a dozen or more of the
+slips. The next morning at my office we carefully examined them. In every
+instance, we found that the well-written, lengthy messages were inscribed
+on _unnicked_ slips, the short ones being written on _nicked_ slips."
+
+To me, this evidence of Dr. La Fetra seems most conclusive, proving beyond
+the shadow of a doubt that Keeler prepared his long communications before
+the seance and had them concealed upon his person, throwing them out of
+the cabinet at the proper moment. He used the _nicked_ tablets for his
+short messages, written on the spot, thereby completely revealing his
+method of operating to the ingenious investigator.
+
+The late Dr. Leonard Caughey, of Baltimore, Maryland, an intimate friend
+of the writer, made a specialty of anti-Spiritualistic tricks, and among
+others performed this cabinet test of Keeler's. He bought the secret from
+a broken-down medium for a few dollars, and added to it certain effects of
+his own, that far surpassed any of Keeler's. The writer has seen Dr.
+Caughey give the tests, and create the utmost astonishment. His
+improvement on the trick consisted in the use of a spring clasp like those
+used by gentlemen bicycle riders to keep their trousers in at the ankles.
+One end terminated in a soft rubber or chamois skin tip, shaped like a
+thumb, the other end had four representations of fingers. Two wire rings
+were soldered on the back of the clasp. This apparatus he had concealed
+under his vest. Before the curtain of the cabinet was drawn, Dr. Caughey
+grasped the arm of the lady on his right in the following manner: The
+thumb of his left hand under her wrist, the fingers extended above it; the
+thumb of his right hand resting on the thumb of the left, the fingers
+lightly resting on the fingers of the left hand. As soon as the curtain
+was fastened he extended the fourth and index fingers of the left hand to
+the fullest extent and pressed hard upon the lady's arm, relaxing at the
+same time the pressure of his second and third fingers. This movement
+exactly simulates the grasp of two hands, and enables the medium to take
+away his right hand altogether. Dr. Caughey then took his spring clasp,
+opened it by inserting his thumb and first finger in the soldered rings
+above mentioned, and lightly fastened it on the lady's arm near the wrist,
+relaxing the pressure of the first and fourth fingers of the left hand at
+the same moment. "I will slide my right hand along your arm, and grasp you
+near the elbow. It will relieve the pressure about your wrist; besides be
+more convincing to you that there is no trickery." So saying, he quickly
+slid the apparatus along her arm, and left it in the position spoken of.
+This produces a perfect illusion, the clasp with its trick thumb and
+fingers working to perfection.
+
+This apparatus may also be used in the following manner: Roll up your
+sleeves and exhibit your hands to the sitter. Tell him you are going to
+stand behind him and grasp his arms firmly near the shoulders. Take your
+position immediately under the gas jet. Ask him to please lower the light.
+Produce the trick clasps, distend them by means of your thumbs and
+fingers, and after the gas is lowered, grasp the sitter in the manner
+described. Remove your fingers and thumbs lightly from the clasps and
+perform various mediumistic evolutions, such as writing a message on a pad
+or slate placed on the sitter's head; strike him gently on his cheek with
+a damp glove, etc. When the seance is over, insert your fingers and thumbs
+in the soldered rings, remove the clasps and conceal them quickly.
+
+EUSAPIA PALADINO.
+
+The materializing medium who has caused the greatest sensation since
+Home's death is Eusapia Paladino, an Italian peasant woman. Signor
+Damiani, of Florence, Italy, discovered her alleged psychical powers in
+1875, and brought her into notice. An Italian Count was so impressed with
+the manifestations witnessed in the presence of the illiterate peasant
+woman, that he insisted upon "a commission of scientific men being called
+to investigate them." In the year 1884, this commission held seances with
+Eusapia, and afterwards declared that the phenomena witnessed were
+inexplicable, and unquestionably the result of forces transcending
+ordinary experience. In the year 1892 another commission was formed in
+Milan to test Eusapia's powers as a medium, and from this period her fame
+dates, as the most remarkable psychic of modern times. The report drawn up
+by this commission was signed by Giovanni Schiaparelli, director of the
+Astronomical Observatory, Milan; Carl du Prel, doctor of philosophy,
+Munich; Angelo Brofferio, professor of physics in the Royal School of
+Agriculture, Portici; G. B. Ermacora, doctor of physics; Giorgio Finzi,
+doctor of physics. At some of the sittings were present Charles Richet and
+the famous Cesare Lombroso. The conclusion arrived at by these gentlemen
+was that Eusapia's mediumistic phenomena were most worthy of scientific
+attention, and were unfathomable. The medium reaped the benefit of this
+notoriety, and gave sittings to hundreds of investigators among the
+Italian nobility, charging as high as $500 for a single seance. At last
+she was exposed by a clever American, Dr. Richard Hodgson, of Boston,
+secretary of the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research.
+His account of the affair, communicated to the _New York Herald_, Jan.
+10, 1897, is very interesting. Speaking of the report of the Milan
+commission, he says:
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 27. EUSAPIA PALADINO.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 28. EUSAPIA BEFORE THE SCIENTISTS.]
+
+"Their report confessed to seeing and hearing many strange things,
+although they believed they had the hands and feet of the psychic so
+closely held that she could have had nothing to do with the
+manifestations.
+
+"Chairs were moved, bells were rung, imprints of fingers were made on
+smoked paper and soft clay, apparitions of hands appeared on slightly
+luminous backgrounds, the chair of the medium and the medium herself were
+lifted to the table, the sound of trumpets, the contact of a seemingly
+human face, the touch of human hands, warm and moist, all were felt.
+
+"Most of these phenomena were repeated, and the members of the commission
+were, with two exceptions, satisfied that no known power could have
+produced them. Professor Richet did not sign the report, but induced
+Signora Eusapia to go to an island he owned in the Mediterranean, where
+other exacting tests were made under other scientific eyes. The
+investigators all agreed that the demonstrations could not be accounted
+for by ordinary forces.
+
+"I have found in my experience that learned scientific men are the most
+easily duped of any in the world. Instead of having a cold, inert piece of
+matter to investigate by exact processes and microscopic inspections, they
+had a clever, bright woman doing her best to mystify them. They could not
+cope with her.
+
+"Professor Richet replied to an article I wrote, upholding his position,
+and brought Signora Eusapia Paladino to Cambridge, England, where I joined
+the investigating committee. In the party were Professor Lodge, of
+Liverpool; Professor F. M. C. Meyer, secretary of the British Society for
+Psychical Research; Professor Richet and Mr. Henry Sedgwick, president of
+the society.
+
+"I found that the psychic, though giving a great variety of events,
+confined them to a very limited scope. She was seated during the tests at
+the end of a rectangular table and when the table was lifted it rose up
+directly at the other end. It was always so arranged that she was in the
+dark, even if the rest of the table was in the light; in the so-called
+light seances it was not light, the lamp being placed in an adjoining
+room. There were touches, punches and blows given, minor objects moved,
+some near and some further away; the outline of faces and hands appeared,
+etc.
+
+"When I came to hold her hands I found a key to the mystery.
+
+"It was chiefly that she made one hand and one foot do the work of both,
+by adroit substitution. Given a free hand and a free foot, and nearly all
+the phenomena can be explained. She has very strong, supple hands, with
+deft fingers and great coolness and intelligence.
+
+"This is the way she substituted one hand for both. She placed one of her
+hands over A's hand and the other under B's hand. Then, in the movements
+of the arms during the manifestation, she worked her hands toward each
+other until they rested one upon the other, with A's hand at the bottom of
+the pile, B's at the top and both her own, one upon the other, between. To
+draw out one hand and leave one and yet have the investigators feel that
+they still had a hand was easy.
+
+"With this hand free and in darkness there were great possibilities. There
+were strings, also, as I believe, which were attached to different objects
+and moved them. The dim outlines of faces and hands seen were clever
+representations of the medium's own free hand in various shapes.
+
+"It is thought that if a medium was kept clapping her hands she could do
+nothing with them, but one of the investigators found the Signora slapping
+her face with one hand, producing just the same sound as if her hands met,
+while the other hand was free to produce mysterious phenomena.
+
+"I have tried the experiment of shifting hands when those who held them
+knew they were going to be tricked, and yet they did not discover when I
+made the exchange. I am thoroughly satisfied that Signora Eusapia Paladino
+is a clever trickster."
+
+Eusapia Paladino was by no means disconcerted by Dr. Hodgson's expose, but
+continued giving her seances. At the present writing she is continuing
+them in France with a number of new illusions. Many who have had sittings
+with her declare that she is able to move heavy objects without contact.
+Possibly this is due to jugglery, or it may be due to some psychic force
+as yet not understood.
+
+F. W. TABOR.
+
+Mr. F. W. Tabor is a materializing medium whose specialty is the trumpet
+test for the production of spirit voices. I had a sitting with him at the
+house of Mr. X, of Washington, D. C., on the night of Jan. 10, 1897. Seven
+persons, including the medium, sat around an ordinary-sized table in Mr.
+X--'s drawing room, and formed a chain of hands, in the following manner:
+Each person placed his or her hands on the table with the thumbs crossed,
+and the little fingers of each hand touching the little fingers of the
+sitters on the right and left. A musical box was set going and the light
+was turned out by Mr. X--, who broke the circle for that purpose, but
+immediately resumed his old position at the table. A large speaking
+trumpet of tin about three feet long had been placed upright in the center
+of the table, and near it was a pad of paper, and pencils. We waited
+patiently for some little time, the monotony being relieved by operatic
+airs from the music box, and the singing of hymns by the sitters. There
+were convulsive twitchings of the hands and feet of the medium, who
+complained of tingling sensations in those members. The first "phenomena"
+produced were balls of light dancing like will-o'-the-wisps over the
+table, and the materialization of a luminous spirit hand. Taps upon the
+table signalled the arrival of Mr. Tabor's spirit control, "Jim," a little
+newsboy, of San Francisco, who was run over some years ago by a street
+car. The medium was the first person who picked up the wounded waif and
+endeavored to administer to him, but without avail. "Jim" died soon after,
+and his disembodied spirit became the medium's control. Soon the trumpet
+arose from the table and floated over the heads of the sitters, and the
+voice of "Jim" was heard, sepulchral and awe-inspiring, through the
+instrument. Subsequently, messages of an impersonal character were
+communicated to Mr. X-- and his wife. At one time the trumpet was heard
+knocking against the chandelier. During the seance several of the ladies
+experienced the clasp of a ghostly hand about their wrists, and
+considerable excitement was occasioned thereby.
+
+It is not a difficult matter to explain this trumpet test. It hinges on
+one fact, _freedom of the medium's right hand_! In all of these holding
+tests, the medium employs a subterfuge to release his hands without the
+knowledge of the sitter on his right. During his convulsive twitchings, he
+quickly jerks his right hand away, but immediately extends the fingers of
+his left hand, and connects the index fingers with the little finger of
+the sitter's left hand, thereby completing the chain, or "battery," as it
+is technically called. Were the medium to use his thumb in making the
+connection the secret would be revealed, but the index finger of his left
+hand sufficiently simulates a little finger, and in the darkness the
+sitter is deceived. The right hand once released, the medium manipulates
+the trumpet and the phosphorescent spirit hands to his heart's content.
+Sometimes he utilizes the telescopic rod, or a pair of steel "crazy
+tongs," to elevate the trumpet to the ceiling. This holding test is
+absurdly simple and perhaps for that reason is so convincing.
+
+Mr. Tabor has another method of holding which is far more deceptive than
+the above. I am indebted to the "Revelations of a Spirit Medium" for an
+explanation of this test. "The investigators are seated in a circle around
+the table, male and female alternating. The person sitting on the medium's
+right--for he sits in the circle--grasps the medium's right wrist in his
+left hand, while his own right wrist is held by the sitter on his right
+and this is repeated clear around the circle. This makes each sitter hold
+the right wrist of his left hand neighbor in his left hand, while his own
+right hand wrist is held in the left hand of his neighbor on the left.
+Each one's hands are thus secured and engaged, including the medium's. It
+will be seen that no one of the sitters can have the use of his or her
+hands without one or the other of their neighbors knowing it. As each hand
+was held by a separate person, you cannot understand how he [the medium]
+could get the use of either of them except the one on his right was a
+confederate. Such was not the case, and still he _did_ have the use of one
+hand, the right one. But how? He took his place before the light was
+turned down, and those holding him say he did not let go for an instant
+during the seance. He did though, after the light was turned out for the
+purpose of getting his handkerchief to blow his nose. After blowing his
+nose he requested the sitter to again take his wrist, which is done, but
+this time it is the wrist of the left hand instead of the right. He has
+crossed his legs and there is but one knee to be felt, hence the sitter on
+the right does not feel that she is reaching across the right knee and
+thinks it is the left knee which she does feel to be the right. He has let
+his hand slip down until instead of holding the sitter on his left by the
+wrist he has him by the fingers, thus allowing him a little more
+distance, and preventing the left hand sitter using the hand to feel about
+and discover the right hand sitter's hand on the wrist of the hand holding
+his. You will see, now, that although both sitters are holding the same
+hand each one thinks he is holding the one on his or her side of the
+medium. The balance of the seance is easy."
+
+An amusing incident happened during my sitting with Mr. Tabor. Growing
+somewhat weary waiting for him to "manifest," I determined to undertake
+some materializations on my own account. I adopted the subterfuge of
+getting my right hand loose from the lady on my right, and produced the
+spirit hand that clasped the wrist of several of the sitters in the
+circle. Mr. X-- asked "Jim" if everything was all right in the circle,
+every hand promptly joined, and the magnetic conditions perfect. "Jim"
+responded with three affirmative taps on the table top. I congratulate
+myself on having deceived "Jim," a spirit operating in the fourth
+dimension of space, and supposedly cognizant of all that was transpiring
+at the seance. Once, when the medium was floating the trumpet over my
+head, I grasped the instrument and dashed it on the table. He made no
+further attempt to manipulate the trumpet in my direction, and very
+shortly brought the seance to a close. No written communications were
+received during the evening.
+
+
+4. Spirit Photography.
+
+You may deceive the human eye, say the advocates of spirit
+materializations, but you cannot deceive the eye of science, the
+_photographic camera_. Then they triumphantly produce the spirit
+photograph as indubitable evidence of the reality of ghostly
+materializations. "Spirit photography," says the late Alexandre Herrmann,
+in an article on magic, published in the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, "was the
+invention of a man in London, and for ten years Spiritualists accepted the
+pictures as genuine representations of originals in the spirit land. The
+snap kodak has superseded the necessity of the explanation of spirit
+photography."
+
+To be more explicit, there are two ways of producing spirit photographs,
+by _double printing_ and by _double exposure_. In the first, the scene is
+printed from one negative, and the spirit printed in from another. In the
+second method, the group with the friendly spook in proper position is
+arranged, and the lens of the camera uncovered, half of the required
+exposure being given; then the lens is capped, and the person doing duty
+as the sheeted ghost gets out of sight, and the exposure is completed. The
+result is very effective when the picture is printed, the real persons
+being represented sharp and well defined, while the ghost is but a hazy
+outline, transparent, through which the background shows.
+
+Every one interested in psychic phenomena who makes a pilgrimage to the
+Capital of the Nation visits the house of Dr. Theodore Hansmann. For ten
+years Dr. Hansmann has been an ardent student of Spiritualism, and has had
+sittings with many celebrated mediums. The walls of his office are
+literally covered with spirit pictures of famous people of history,
+executed by spirits under supposed test conditions. There are drawings in
+color by Raphael, Michel Angelo, and others. In one corner of the room is
+a book-case filled with slates, upon the surfaces of which are messages
+from the famous dead, attested by their signatures.
+
+In the fall of 1895, a correspondent of the _New York Herald_ interviewed
+Doctor Hansmann on the subject of spirit photographs, and subsequently
+visited the United States Bureau of Ethnology, where an interview was had
+with Mr. Dinwiddie, an expert photographer. Here is the substance of this
+second interview, published in the _Herald_, Nov. 9, 1895.
+
+"Dr. Hansmann's collection of 'spirit' photographs is most interesting.
+There is one with the face of the Empress Josephine, and on the same plate
+is the head of Professor Darius Lyman, for a long time Chief of the Bureau
+of Navigation. The head of the Empress Josephine has a diadem around it,
+and the lights and shadows remind one of the well known portrait of her.
+On another plate are Grant and Lincoln, Among his other photographs Dr.
+Hansmann brought out one of a man who was described to me as an Indian
+agent. Around his head were eleven smaller 'spirit' heads of Indians. In
+looking at the blue print closely it seemed to me as if I had seen those
+identical heads--the same as to light, shade and posing--somewhere before.
+
+"I was aided at the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution by
+Mr. F. Webb Hodge, the acting director, who on looking at the blue print
+named the Indians directly; several of the pictures were of Indians still
+alive. This, of course, immediately disposed of the idea of the blue
+print Indians being spirits.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 29--SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.
+
+[Taken by the Author.]]
+
+"Moreover, Mr. Dinwiddie produced the negatives containing the identical
+portraits of these Indians and made me several proofs, which on a
+comparison, feature by feature, light for light, and shade for shade, show
+unquestionably that the faces on the blue print are copies of the
+portraits made by the photographer of the Bureau of Ethnology.
+
+"Mr. Dinwiddie asked me to sit down for awhile, and offered to make me
+some spirit photographs. This he did, and the results obtained may be
+considered as far better examples of the art of 'spirit' photography than
+those of the medium, Keeler.
+
+"The matter was very simply done. Mr. Dinwiddie asked one of the ladies
+from the office to come in, and, she consented to pose as a spirit. She
+was placed before the camera at a distance of about six feet, a red
+background was given her, so that it might photograph dark, and she was
+asked to put on a saintly expression. This she did, and Mr. Dinwiddie gave
+the plate a half-second exposure. Another head was taken on the other side
+of the plate in much the same manner. After this was done the other or
+central photograph was taken with an exposure of four seconds, the plate
+being rather sensitive.
+
+"The plate was then taken to the dark room and developed. The negative
+came out very well at first, and the halo was put on afterward, when the
+plate had been dried. The halo was made by rubbing vignetting paste on the
+back, thus shutting out the light and leaving the paper its original hue.
+The white shadowy heads which are frequently shown in black coats, and
+which the mediums claim cannot be explained, are also done in this manner
+with vignetting paste, the picture being afterward centred over these
+places, which will be white, the final result showing soft and indefinite,
+and giving the required spiritual look.
+
+"Mr. Dinwiddie did not attempt to produce the hazy effect, but this is
+very easily accomplished in the photograph by taking the spirit heads a
+trifle out of focus. He claims that all of these apparent spiritual
+manifestations are but tricks of photography, and ones which might be
+accomplished by the veriest tyro, if he were to study the matter, and give
+his time to the experiment. It is only a wonder that the mediums do not do
+more of it.
+
+"The photograph mediums have always claimed that they were set upon by
+photographers for business reasons, but Mr. Dinwiddie is employed by the
+government and has no interests whatever in such a dispute."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 30--SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH BY PRETENDED MEDIUM.]
+
+The eminent authority on photography, Mr. Walter E. Woodbury, gives many
+interesting exposes of mediumistic photographs in his work, "Photographic
+Amusements," which the student of the subject would do well to consult.
+Fig. 30, taken from "Photographic Amusements" is a reproduction of a
+"spirit" photograph made by a photographer claiming to be a medium. Says
+Mr. Woodbury: "Fortunately, however, we were in this case able to expose
+the fraud. Mr. W. M. Murray, a prominent member of the Society of Amateur
+Photographers of New York, called our attention to the similarity between
+one of the 'spirit' images and a portrait painting by Sichel, the artist.
+A reproduction of the picture (Fig 31) is given herewith, and it will be
+seen at once that the 'spirit' image is copied from it."
+
+
+5. Thought Photography.
+
+During the year 1896 considerable stir was created by the investigation of
+Dr. Hippolyte Baraduc, of Paris, in the line of "Thought Photography,"
+which is of interest to psychic investigators generally. Dr. Baraduc
+claimed to have gotten photographic impressions of his thoughts, "made
+without sunlight or electricity or contact of any material kind." These
+impressions he declared to be subjective, being his own personal
+vibrations, the result of a force emanating from the human personality,
+supra-mechanical, or spiritual. The experiments were carried on in a dark
+room, and according to his statement were highly successful. In a
+communication to an American correspondent, printed in the _New York
+Herald_, January 3, 1897, he writes: "I have discovered a human, invisible
+light, differing altogether from the cathode rays discovered by Prof.
+Roentgen." Dr. Baraduc advanced the theory that our souls must be
+considered as centers of luminous forces, owing their existence partly to
+the attraction and partly to the repulsion of special and potent forces
+bred of the invisible cosmos.
+
+A number of French scientific journals took up the matter, and discussed
+"Thought Photography" at length, publishing numerous reproductions of the
+physician's photographs; but the more conservative journals of England,
+Germany and America remained silent on the subject, as it seemed to be on
+the borderland between science and charlatanry. On January 11, 1897,
+the American newspapers contained an item to the effect that Drs. S.
+Millington Miller and Carleton Simon, of New York City, the former a
+specialist in brain physiology, and the latter an expert hypnotist, had
+succeeded in obtaining successful thought photographs on dry plates from
+two hypnotized subjects. When the subjects were not hypnotized, the
+physicians reported no results.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 31--SIGEL'S ORIGINAL PICTURE OF FIG 30.]
+
+As "Thought Photography" is without the pale of known physical laws,
+stronger evidence is needed to support the claims made for it than that
+which has been adduced by the French and American investigators. "Thought
+Photography" once established as a scientific fact, we shall have,
+perhaps, an explanation of genuine spirit photographs, if such there be.
+
+
+6. Apparitions of the Dead.
+
+In my chapter on subjective phenomena, I have not recorded any cases of
+phantasms of the dead, though several interesting examples of such have
+come under my notice. I have thought it better to refer the reader to the
+voluminous reports of the Society for Psychical Research (England). In
+regard to these cases, the Society has reached the following conclusion:
+_Between deaths and apparitions of dying persons a connection exists which
+is not due to chance alone. This we hold as a proved fact._
+
+The "_Literary Digest_," January 12, 1895, in reviewing this report, says:
+"Inquiries were instituted in 17,000 cases of alleged apparitions. These
+inquiries elicited 1,249 replies from persons [in England and Wales] who
+affirmed that they themselves had seen the apparitions. Then the Society
+by further inquiries and cross-examinations sifted out all but eighty of
+these as discredited in some way, by error of memory or illusions of
+identity, or for some other reason, or which could be accounted for by
+common psychical laws. Of these eighty, fifty more were thrown out, to be
+on the safe side, and the remaining thirty are used as a basis for
+scientific consideration. All these consisted of apparitions of dead
+persons appearing to others within twelve hours after death, and many of
+them appearing at the very hour and even the very minute of death. The
+full account of the investigation is published in the tenth volume of the
+Society's Reports, under the title, 'A Census of Hallucinations,' and
+Prof. J. H. Hyslop, of Columbia College, wrote an article giving the gist
+of the report and his comments in the '_Independent_,' (December 27,
+1895), from which I cull these few notable paragraphs:
+
+"'The committee which conducted the research reasons as follows: Since the
+death rate of England is 19.15 out of every thousand, the chances of any
+person's dying on any particular day are one in 19,000 (the ratio of 19.15
+to 365 times 1,000). Out of 19,000 death apparitions, therefore, one can
+be explained as a simple coincidence. But thirty apparitions out of 1,300
+cases is in the proportion of 440 out of 19,000, so that to refer these
+thirty well-authenticated apparitions to coincidence is deemed
+impossible.'
+
+"And further on:
+
+"'This is remarkable language for the signatures of Prof. and Mrs.
+Sidgwick, than whom few harder-headed skeptics could be found. It is more
+than borne out, however, by a consideration which the committee does not
+mention, but which the facts entirely justify, and it is that since many
+of the apparitions occurred not merely on the day, but at the very hour or
+minute of death, the improbability of their explanation by chance is
+really much greater than the figures here given. That the apparition
+should occur within the hour of death the chance should be 1 to 356,000,
+or at the minute of death 1 to 21,360,000. To get 30 cases, therefore,
+brought down to these limits we should have to collect thirty times these
+numbers of apparitions. Either these statistics are of no value in a study
+of this kind, or the Society's claim is made out that there is either a
+telepathic communication between the dying and those who see their
+apparitions, or some causal connection not yet defined or determined by
+science. That this connection may be due to favorable conditions in the
+subject of the hallucination is admitted by the committee, if the person
+having the apparition is suffering from grief or anxiety about the person
+concerned. But it has two replies to such a criticism. The first is the
+query how and why under the circumstances does this effect coincide
+generally with the death of the person concerned, when anxiety is extended
+over a considerable period. The second is a still more triumphant reply,
+and it is that a large number of the cases show that the subject of the
+apparition has no knowledge of the dying person's sickness, place, or
+condition. In that case there is no alternative to searching elsewhere for
+the cause. If telepathy or thought transference will not explain the
+connection, resort must be had to some most extraordinary hypothesis. Most
+persons will probably accept telepathy as the easiest way out of the
+difficulty, though I am not sure that we are limited to this, the easiest
+explanation.'
+
+"Professor Hyslop then proceeds to consider the effect of the committee's
+conclusion upon existing theories and speculations regarding the relations
+between mind and matter, and foresees with gratification as well as
+apprehension the revolt likely to be initiated against materialism and
+which may go so far as to discredit science and carry us far back to the
+credulous conditions of the Middle Ages. He says:
+
+"'The point which the investigations of the Society for Psychical Research
+have already reached creates a question of transcendent interest, no
+matter what the solution of it may be, and will stimulate in the near
+future an amount of psychological and theological speculation of the most
+hasty and crude sort, which it will require the profoundest knowledge of
+mental phenomena, normal and abnormal, and the best methods of science to
+counteract, and to keep within the limits of sober reason. The hardly won
+conquests of intellectual freedom and self-control can easily be
+overthrown by a reaction that will know no bounds and which it will be
+impossible to regulate. Though there may be some moral gain from the
+change of beliefs, as will no doubt be the case in the long run, we have
+too recently escaped the intellectual, religious, and political tyranny of
+the Middle Ages to contemplate the immediate consequences of the reaction
+with any complacency. But no one can calculate the enormous effect upon
+intellectual, social, and political conditions which would ensure upon the
+reconciliation of science and religion by the proof of immortality."
+
+
+
+
+IV. CONCLUSIONS.
+
+
+In my investigations of the physical phenomena of modern spiritualism, I
+have come to the following conclusion: While the majority of mediumistic
+manifestations are due to conjuring, there is a class of cases not
+ascribable to trickery, namely, those coming within the domain of psychic
+force--as exemplified by the experiments of Gasparin, Crookes, Lodge,
+Asakoff and Coues. In regard to the subjective phenomena, I am convinced
+that the recently annunciated law of telepathy will account for them. _I
+discredit the theory of spirit intervention._ If this be a correct
+conclusion, is there anything in mediumistic phenomena that will
+contribute to the solution of the problem of the immortality of the soul?
+I think there is. The existence of a subjective or subliminal
+consciousness in man, as illustrated in the phenomena mentioned, seems to
+indicate that the human personality is really a spiritual entity,
+possessed of unknown resources, and capable of preserving its identity
+despite the shock of time and the grave. Hudson says: "It is clear that
+the power of telepathy has nothing in common with objective methods of
+communications between mind and mind; and that it is not the product of
+muscle or nerve or any physiological combination whatever, but rather sets
+these at naught, with their implications of space and time.... When
+disease seizes the physical frame and the body grows feeble, the objective
+mind invariably grows correspondingly weak.... In the meantime, as the
+objective mind ceases to perform its functions, the subjective mind is
+most active and powerful. The individual may never before have exhibited
+any psychic power, and may never have consciously produced any psychic
+phenomena; yet at the supreme moment his soul is in active communication
+with loved ones at a distance, and the death message is often, when
+psychic conditions are favorable, consciously received. The records of
+telepathy demonstrate this proposition. Nay, more; they may be cited to
+show that in the hour of death the soul is capable of projecting a
+phantasm of such strength and objectivity that it may be an object of
+personal experience to those for whom it is intended. Moreover, it has
+happened that telepathic messages have been sent by the dying, at the
+moment of dissolution, giving all the particulars of the tragedy, when
+the death was caused by an unexpected blow which crushed the skull of the
+victim. It is obvious that in such cases it is impossible that the
+objective mind could have participated in the transaction. The evidence is
+indeed overwhelming, that, no matter what form death may assume, whether
+caused by lingering disease, old age, or violence, the subjective mind is
+never weakened by its approach or its presence. On the other hand, that
+the objective mind weakens with the body and perishes with the brain, is a
+fact confirmed by every-day observation and universal experience."
+
+This hypothesis of the objective and subjective minds has been criticised
+by many psychologists on the ground of its extreme dualism. No such
+dualism exists, they contend. However, Hudson's theory is only a working
+hypothesis at best, to explain certain extraordinary facts in human
+experience. Future investigators may be able to throw more light on the
+subject. But this one thing may be enunciated: _Telepathy is an
+incontrovertible fact_, account for it as you may, a physical force or a
+spiritual energy. If physical, then it does not follow any of the known
+operations of physical laws as established by modern science, especially
+in the case of transmission of thought at a distance.
+
+It is true, that all evidence in support of telepathic communications is
+more or less _ex parte_ in character, and does not possess that validity
+which orthodox science requires of investigators. Any student of the
+physical laws of matter can make investigations for himself, and at any
+time, provided he has the proper apparatus. Explain to a person that water
+is composed of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, and he can easily verify
+the fact for himself by combining the gases, in the combination of H2O,
+and afterwards liberate them by a current of electricity. But experiments
+in telepathy and clairvoyance cannot be made at will; they are isolated in
+character, and consequently are regarded with suspicion by orthodox
+science. Besides this, they transcend the materialistic theories of
+science as regards the universe, and one is almost compelled to use the
+old metaphysical terms of mind and matter, body and soul, in describing
+the phenomena.
+
+It is an undoubted fact that science has broken away from the old theory
+regarding the distinction between mind and matter. Says Prof. Wm. Romaine
+Newbold, "In the scientific world it has fallen into such disfavor that
+in many circles it is almost as disgraceful to avow belief in it as in
+witchcraft or ghosts." We have to-day a school of
+"physiological-psychology," calling itself "psychology without a soul."
+This school is devoted to the laboratory method of studying mind. "The
+laboratory method," says Roark, in his "Psychology in Education," "is
+concerned mostly with _physiological_ psychology, which is, after all,
+only _physiology_, even though it be the physiology of the nervous system
+and the special organs of sense--the material tools of the mind. And after
+physiological psychology has had its rather prolix say, causal connection
+of the physical organs with psychic action is as obscure and impossible of
+explanation as ever. But the laboratory method can be of excellent service
+in determining the material conditions of mental action, in detecting
+special deficiencies and weaknesses, and in accumulating valuable
+statistics along these lines.
+
+"It has been asserted that no science can claim to be exact until it can
+be reduced to formulas of weights and measures. The assertion begs the
+question for the materialists. We shall probably never be able to weigh an
+idea or measure the cubic contents of the memory; but the rapidity with
+which ideas are formed or reproduced by memory has been measured in many
+particular instances, and the circumstances that retard or accelerate
+their formation or reproduction have been positively ascertained and
+classified."
+
+That it is possible to explain all mental phenomena in terms of physics is
+by no means the unanimous verdict of scientific men. A small group of
+students of late years have detached themselves from the purely
+materialistic school and broken ground in the region of the supernormal.
+Says Professor Newbold (_Popular Science Monthly_, January, 1897): "In the
+supernormal field, the facts already reported, should they be
+substantiated by further inquiry, would go far towards showing that
+consciousness is an entity governed by laws and possessed of powers
+incapable of expression in material conceptions.
+
+"I do not myself regard the theory of independence [of mind and body] as
+proved, but I think we have enough evidence for it to destroy in any
+candid mind that considers it that absolute credulity as to its
+possibility which at present characterizes the average man of science."
+
+
+
+
+PART SECOND.
+
+
+
+
+MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THE THEOSOPHISTS.
+
+
+1. The Priestess.
+
+The greatest "fantaisiste" of modern times was Madame Blavatsky, spirit
+medium, Priestess of Isis, and founder of the Theosophical Society. Her
+life is one long catalogue of wonders. In appearance she was enormously
+fat, had a harsh, disagreeable voice, and a violent temper, dressed in a
+slovenly manner, usually in loose wrappers, smoked cigarettes incessantly,
+and cared little or nothing for the conventionalities of life. But in
+spite of all--unprepossessing appearance and gross habits--she exercised a
+powerful personal magnetism over those who came in contact with her. She
+was the Sphinx of the second half of this Century; a Pythoness in tinsel
+robes who strutted across the world's stage "full of sound and fury," and
+disappeared from view behind the dark veil of Isis, which she, the
+fin-de-siecle prophetess, tried to draw aside during her earthly career.
+
+In searching for facts concerning the life of this really remarkable
+woman--remarkable for the influence she has exerted upon the thought of
+this latter end of the nineteenth century--I have read all that has been
+written about her by prominent Theosophists, have talked with many who
+knew her intimately, and now endeavor to present the truth concerning her
+and her career. The leading work on the subject is "Incidents in the Life
+of Madame Blavatsky," compiled from information supplied by her relatives
+and friends, and edited by A. P. Sinnett, author of "The Occult World."
+The frontispiece to the book is a reproduction of a portrait of Madame
+Blavatsky, painted by H. Schmiechen, and represents the lady seated on the
+steps of an ancient ruin, holding a parchment in her hand. She is garbed
+somewhat after the fashion of a Cumaean Sibyl and gazes straight before
+her with the deep unfathomable eyes of a mystic, as if she were reading
+the profound riddles of the ages, and beholding the sands of Time falling
+hot and swift into the glass of eternity--
+
+"And all things creeping to a day of doom."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 32--MADAME BLAVATSKY.]
+
+Sinnett's life of the High Priestess is a strange concoction of monstrous
+absurdities; it is full of the weirdest happenings that were ever
+vouchsafed to mortal. We cannot put much faith in this biography, and must
+delve in other mines for information; but some of the remarkable passages
+of the book are worth perusing, particularly if the reader be prone to
+midnight musings of a ghostly character.
+
+Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the daughter of Col. Peter Hahn of the Russian
+Army, and granddaughter of General Alexis Hahn von Rottenstern Hahn (a
+noble family of Mecklenburg, Germany, settled in Russia), was born in
+Eskaterinoslaw, in the south of Russia, in 1831. "She had," says Sinnett,
+"a strange childhood, replete with abnormal occurrences. The year of her
+birth was fatal for Russia, as for all Europe, owing to the first visit of
+the cholera, that terrible plague that decimated from 1830 to 1832 in turn
+nearly every town of the Continent.... Her birth was quickened by several
+deaths in the house, and she was ushered into the world amid coffins and
+desolation, on the night between July 30th and 31st, weak and apparently
+no denizen of this world." A hurried baptism was given lest the child die
+in original sin, and the ceremony was that of the Greek Church. During the
+orthodox baptismal rite no person is allowed to sit, but a child aunt of
+the baby, tired of standing for nearly an hour, settled down upon the
+floor, just behind the officiating priest. No one perceived her, as she
+sat nodding drowsily. The ceremony was nearing its close. The sponsors
+were just in the act of renouncing the Evil One and his deeds, a
+renunciation emphasized in the Greek Church by thrice spitting upon the
+invisible enemy, when the little lady, toying with her lighted taper at
+the feet of the crowd, inadvertantly set fire to the long flowing robes of
+the priest, no one remarking the accident till it was too late. The result
+was an immediate conflagration, during which several persons--chiefly the
+old priest--were severely burnt. That was another bad omen, according to
+the superstitious beliefs of orthodox Russia; and the innocent cause of
+it, the future Madame Blavatsky, was doomed from that day, in the eyes of
+all the town, to an eventful, troubled life.
+
+"Mlle. Hahn was born, of course, with all the characteristics of what is
+known in Spiritualism as mediumship in the most extraordinary degree, also
+with gifts as a clairvoyant of an almost equally unexampled order. On
+various occasions while apparently in an ordinary sleep, she would answer
+questions, put by persons who took hold of her hand, about lost property,
+etc., as though she were a sibyl entranced. For years she would, in
+childish impulse, shock strangers with whom she came in contact, and
+visitors to the house, by looking them intently in the face and telling
+them they would die at such and such a time, or she would prophesy to them
+some accident or misfortune that would befall them. And since her
+prognostications usually came true, she was the terror, in this respect,
+of the domestic circle."
+
+Madame V. P. Jelihowsy, a sister of the seeress, has furnished to the
+world many extraordinary stories of Mme. Blavatsky's childhood, published
+in various Russian periodicals. At the age of eleven the Sibyl lost her
+mother, and went to live with her grandparents at Saratow, her grandfather
+being civil governor of the place. The family mansion was a lumbering old
+country place "full of subterraneous galleries, long abandoned passages,
+turrets, and most weird nooks and corners. It looked more like a mediaeval
+ruined castle than a building of the last century." The ghosts of
+martyred serfs were supposed to haunt the uncanny building, and strange
+legends were told by the old family servants of weir-wolves and goblins
+that prowled about the dark forests of the estate. Here, in this House of
+Usher, the Sibyl lived and dreamed, and at this period exhibited many
+abnormal psychic peculiarities, ascribed by her orthodox governess and
+nurses of the Greek Church to possession by the devil. She had at times
+ungovernable fits of temper; she would ride any Cossack horse on the place
+astride a man's saddle; go into trances and scare everyone from the master
+of the mansion down to the humblest vodka drinker on the estate.
+
+In 1848, at the age of 17, she married General Count Blavatsky, a gouty
+old Russian of 70, whom she called "the plumed raven," but left him after
+a brief period of marital infelicity. From this time dates her career as a
+thaumaturgist. She travelled through India and made an honest attempt to
+penetrate into the mysterious confines of Thibet, but succeeded in getting
+only a few miles from the frontier, owing to the fanaticism of the
+natives.
+
+In India, as elsewhere, she was accused of being a Russian spy and was
+generally regarded with suspicion by the police authorities. After some
+months of erratic wanderings she reappeared in Russia, this time in
+Tiflis, at the residence of a relative, Prince ----. It was a gloomy,
+grewsome chateau, well suited for Spiritualistic seances, and Madame
+Blavatsky, it is claimed, frightened the guests during the long winter
+evenings with table-tippings, spirit rappings, etc. It was then the tall
+candles in the drawing-room burnt low, the gobelin tapestry rustled, sighs
+were heard, strange music "resounded in the air," and luminous forms were
+seen trailing their ghostly garments across the "tufted floor."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 33--MAHATMA LETTER.]
+
+The gossipy Madame de Jelihowsy, in her reminiscences, classifies the
+phenomena, witnessed in the presence of her Sibylline sister, as follows:
+
+1. Direct and perfectly clearly written and verbal answers to mental
+questions--or "thought reading."
+
+2. Private secrets, unknown to all but the interested party, divulged,
+[especially in the case of those persons who mentioned insulting doubts].
+
+3. Change of weight in furniture and persons at will.
+
+4. Letters from unknown correspondents, and immediate answers written to
+queries made, and found in the most out-of-the-way mysterious places.
+
+5. Appearance of objects unclaimed by anyone present.
+
+6. Sounds of musical notes in the air wherever Madame Blavatsky desired
+they should resound.
+
+In the year 1858, the High Priestess was at the house of General Yakontoff
+at Pskoff, Russia. One night when the drawing-room was full of visitors,
+she began to describe the mediumistic feat of making light objects heavy
+and heavy objects light.
+
+"Can you perform such a miracle?" ironically asked her brother, Leonide de
+Hahn, who always doubted his sister's occult powers.
+
+"I can," was the firm reply.
+
+De Hahn went to a small chess table, lifted it as though it were a
+feather, and said: "Suppose you try your powers on this."
+
+"With pleasure!" replied Mme. Blavatsky. "Place the table on the floor,
+and step aside for a minute." He complied with her request.
+
+She fixed her large blue eyes intently upon the chess table and said
+without removing her gaze, "Lift it now."
+
+The young man exerted all his strength, but the table would not budge
+an inch. Another guest tried with the same result, but the wood only
+cracked, yielding to no effort.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 34--MAHATMA LETTER ENVELOPE.]
+
+"Now, lift it," said Madame Blavatsky calmly, whereupon De Hahn picked it
+up with the greatest ease. Loud applause greeted this extraordinary feat,
+and the skeptical brother, so say the occultists, was utterly nonplussed.
+
+Madame Blavatsky, as recorded by Sinnett, stated afterwards that the above
+phenomenon could be produced in two different ways: "First, through the
+exercise of her own will directing the magnetic currents so that the
+pressure on the table became such that no physical force could move it;
+second, through the action of those beings with whom she was in constant
+communication, and who, although unseen, were able to hold the table
+against all opposition."
+
+The writer has seen similar feats performed by hypnotizers with good
+subjects without the intervention of any ghostly intelligences.
+
+In 1870 the Priestess of Isis journeyed through Egypt in company with a
+certain Countess K--, and endeavored to form a Spiritualistic society at
+Cairo, for the investigation of psychic phenomena, but things growing
+unpleasant for her she left the land of pyramids and papyri in hot haste.
+It is related of her that during this Egyptian sojourn she spent one night
+in the King's sepulchre in the bowels of the Great Pyramid of Cheops,
+sleeping in the very sarcophagus where once reposed the mummy of a
+Pharoah. Weird sights were seen by the entranced occultist and strange
+sounds were heard on that eventful occasion within the shadowy mortuary
+chamber of the pyramid. At times she would let fall mysterious hints of
+what she saw that night, but they were as incomprehensible as the riddles
+of the fabled Sphinx.
+
+Countess Paschkoff chronicles a curious story about the Priestess of Isis,
+which reminds one somewhat of the last chapter in Bulwer's occult novel,
+"A Strange Story." The Countess relates that she was once travelling
+between Baalbec and the river Orontes, and in the desert came across the
+caravan belonging to Madame Blavatsky. They joined company and towards
+nightfall pitched camp near the village of El Marsum amid some ancient
+ruins. Among the relics of a Pagan civilization stood a great monument
+covered with outlandish hieroglyphics. The Countess was curious to
+decipher the inscriptions, and begged Madame Blavatsky to unravel their
+meaning, but the Priestess of Isis, notwithstanding her great
+archaeological knowledge, was unable to do so. However, she said: "Wait
+until night, and we shall see!" When the ruins were wrapped in sombre
+shadow, Mme. Blavatsky drew a great circle upon the ground about the
+monument, and invited the Countess to stand within the mystic confines. A
+fire was built and upon it were thrown various aromatic herbs and incense.
+Cabalistic spells were recited by the sorceress, as the smoke from the
+incense ascended, and then she thrice commanded the spirit to whom the
+monument was erected to appear. Soon the cloud of smoke from the burning
+incense assumed the shape of an old man with a long white beard. A voice
+from a distance pierced the misty image, and spoke: "I am Hiero, one of
+the priests of a great temple erected to the gods, that stood upon this
+spot. This monument was the altar. Behold!" No sooner were the words
+pronounced than a phantasmagoric vision of a gigantic temple appeared,
+supported by ponderous columns, and a great city was seen covering the
+distant plain, but all soon faded into thin air.
+
+This story was related to a select coterie of occultists assembled in
+social conclave at the headquarters in New York. The question is, had the
+charming Russian Countess dreamed this, or was she trying to exploit
+herself as a traveler who had come "out of the mysterious East" and had
+seen strange things?
+
+We next hear of the famous occultist in the United States, where she
+associated chiefly with spirit-mediums, enchanters, professional
+clairvoyants, and the like.
+
+"At this period of her career she had not,"[4] says Dr. Eliott Coues, a
+learned investigator of psychic phenomena, "been metamorphosed into a
+Theosophist. She was simply exploiting as a Spiritualistic medium. Her
+most familiar spook was a ghostly fiction named 'John King.' This fellow
+is supposed to have been a pirate, condemned for his atrocities to serve
+earth-bound for a term of years, and to present himself at materializing
+seances on call. Any medium who personates this ghost puts on a heavy
+black horse-hair beard and a white bed sheet and talks in sepulchral chest
+tones. John is as standard and sure-enough a ghost as ever appeared before
+the public. Most of the leading mediums, both in Europe and America, keep
+him in stock. I have often seen the old fellow in New York, Philadelphia,
+and Washington through more mediums that I can remember the names of. Our
+late Minister to Portugul, Mr. J. O'Sullivan, has a photograph of him at
+full length, floating in space, holding up a peculiar globe of light
+shaped like a glass decanter. This trustworthy likeness was taken in
+Europe, and I think in Russia, but am not sure on that point. I once had
+the pleasure of introducing the pirate king to my friend Prof. Alfred
+Russel Wallace, in the person of Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a noted medium of
+Washington.
+
+"But the connection between the pirate and my story is this: Madame
+Blavatsky was exploiting King at the time of which I speak, and several of
+her letters to friends, which I have read, are curiously scribbled in red
+and blue pencil with sentences and signatures of 'John King,' just as,
+later on, 'Koot Hoomi' used to miraculously precipitate himself upon her
+stationery in all sorts of colored crayons. And, by the way, I may call
+the reader's attention to the fact that while the ingenious creature was
+operating in Cairo, her Mahatmas were of the Egyptian order of
+architecture, and located in the ruins of Thebes or Karnak. They were not
+put in turbans and shifted to Thibet till late in 1879."
+
+In 1875, while residing in New York, Madame Blavatsky conceived the idea
+of establishing a Theosophical Society. Stupendous thought! Cagliostro in
+the eighteenth century founded his Egyptian Free-Masonry for the
+re-generation of mankind, and Blavatsky in the nineteenth century laid the
+corner stone of modern Theosophy for a similar purpose. Cagliostro had his
+High Priestess in the person of a beautiful wife, Lorenza Feliciani, and
+Blavatsky her Hierophant in the somewhat prosaic guise of a New York
+reporter, Col. Olcott, since then a famous personage in occult circles.
+
+During the Civil War, Olcott served in the Quartermaster's Department of
+the Army and afterwards held a position in the Internal Revenue Service of
+the United States. In 18-- he was a newspaper man in New York, and was
+sent by the _Graphic_ to investigate the alleged Spiritualistic phenomena
+transpiring in the Eddy family in Chittenden, Vermont. There he met Madame
+Blavatsky. It was his fate.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 35. COL. H. S. OLCOTT.]
+
+Col. Olcott's description of his first sight of Mme. Blavatsky is
+interesting:
+
+"The dinner at Eddy's was at noon, and it was from the entrance door of
+the bare and comfortless dining-room that Kappes and I first saw H. P. B.
+She had arrived shortly before noon with a French Canadian lady, and they
+were at table as we entered. My eye was first attracted by a scarlet
+Garibaldian shirt the former wore, as being in vivid contrast with the
+dull colors around. Her hair was then a thick blonde mop, worn shorter
+than the shoulders, and it stood out from her head, silken, soft, and
+crinkled to the roots, like the fleece of a Cotswold ewe. This and the
+red shirt were what struck my attention before I took in the picture of
+her features. It was a massive Kalmuck face, contrasting in its suggestion
+of power, culture, and imperiousness, as strangely with the commonplace
+visages about the room, as her red garment did with the gray and white
+tones of the wall and woodwork, and the dull costumes of the rest of the
+guests. All sorts of cranky people were continually coming and going at
+Eddy's, to see the mediumistic phenomena, and it only struck me on seeing
+this eccentric lady that this was but one more of the sort. Pausing on the
+door-sill, I whispered to Kappes, 'Good gracious! look at _that_ specimen,
+will you!' I went straight across and took a seat opposite her to indulge
+my favorite habit of character-study."
+
+Commenting on this meeting, J. Ransom Bridges, in the _Arena_, for April,
+1895, remarks: "After dinner Colonel Olcott scraped an acquaintance by
+opportunely offering her a light for a cigarette which she proceeded to
+roll for herself. This 'light' must have been charged with Theosophical
+_karma_, for the burning match or end of a lighted cigar--the Colonel does
+not specify--lit a train of causes and their effects which now are making
+history and are world-wide in their importance. So confirmed a pessimist
+on Theosophical questions as Henry Sidgwick of the London Society for
+Psychical Research, says, 'Even if it [the Theosophical Society] were to
+expire next year, its twenty years' existence would be a phenomenon of
+some interest for a historian of European society in the nineteenth
+century.'"
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 36. OATH OF SECRECY TAKEN BY CHARTER MEMBERS OF THE
+THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
+
+[Kindness of the _New York Herald_.]]
+
+The seances at the Eddy house must have been character studies indeed. The
+place where the ghosts were materialized was a large apartment over the
+dining room of the ancient homestead. A dark closet, at one end of the
+room, with a rough blanket stretched across it, served as a cabinet. Red
+Indians and pirates were the favorite materializations, but when Madame
+Blavatsky appeared on the scene, ghosts of Turks, Kurdish cavaliers, and
+Kalmucks visited this earthly scene, much to the surprise of every one.
+Olcott cites this fact as evidence of the genuineness of the
+materializations, remarking, "how could the ignorant Eddy boys, rough,
+rude, uncultured farmers, get the costumes and accessories for characters
+of this kind in a remote Vermont village."
+
+
+2. What is Theosophy.
+
+Let us turn aside at this juncture to ask, "What is Theosophy." The word
+Theosophy (Theosophia--divine knowledge) appears to have been used about
+the Third century, A. D., by the Neo-Platonists, or Gnostics of
+Alexandria, but the great principles of the doctrine, however, were taught
+hundreds of years prior to the mystical school established at Alexandria.
+"It is not," says an interesting writer on the subject, "an outgrowth of
+Buddhism although many Buddhists see in its doctrines the reflection of
+Buddha. It proposes to give its followers the esoteric, or inner-spiritual
+meaning of the great religious teachers of the world. It asserts repeated
+re-incarnations, or rebirths of the soul on earth, until it is fully
+purged of evil, and becomes fit to be absorbed into the Deity whence it
+came, gaining thereby Nirvana, or unconsciousness." Some Theosophists
+claim that Nirvana is not a state of unconsciousness, but just the
+converse, a state of the most intensified consciousness, during which the
+soul remembers all of its previous incarnations.
+
+Madame Blavatsky claimed that "there exists in Thibet a brotherhood whose
+members have acquired a power over Nature which enables them to perform
+wonders beyond the reach of ordinary men. She declared herself to be a
+_chela_, or disciple of these brothers (spoken of also as 'Adepts' and as
+'Mahatmas'), and asserted that they took a special interest in the
+Theosophical Society and all initiates in occult lore, being able to cause
+apparitions of themselves in places where their bodies were not; and that
+they not only appeared but communicated intelligently with those whom they
+thus visited and themselves perceived what was going on where their
+phantoms appeared." This phantasmal appearance she called the projection
+of the _astral_ form. Many of the phenomena witnessed in the presence of
+the Sibyl were supposed to be the work of the mystic brotherhood who took
+so peculiar an interest in the Theosophical Society and its members. The
+Madame did not claim to be the founder of a new religious faith, but
+simply the reviver of a creed that has slumbered in the Orient for
+centuries, and declared herself to be the Messenger of these Mahatmas to
+the scoffing Western world.
+
+Speaking of the Mahatmas, she says in "Isis Unveiled": * * * "Travelers
+have met these adepts on the shores of the sacred Ganges, brushed against
+them on the silent ruins of Thebes, and in the mysterious deserted
+chambers of Luxor. Within the halls upon whose blue and golden vaults the
+weird signs attract attention, but whose secret meaning is never
+penetrated by the idle gazers, they have been seen, but seldom recognized.
+Historical memoirs have recorded their presence in the brilliantly
+illuminated salons of European aristocracy. They have been encountered
+again on the arid and desolate plains of the Great Sahara, or in the caves
+of Elephanta. They may be found everywhere, but make themselves known only
+to those who have devoted their lives to unselfish study, and are not
+likely to turn back."
+
+The Theosophical Society was organized in New York, Nov. 17, 1875.
+
+Mr. Arthur Lillie, in his interesting work, "Madame Blavatsky and Her
+Theosophy," speaking about the founding of the Society, says:
+
+"Its moving spirit was a Mr. Felt, who had visited Egypt and studied its
+antiquities. He was a student also of the Kabbala; and he had a somewhat
+eccentric theory that the dog-headed and hawk-headed figures painted on
+the Egyptian monuments were not mere symbols, but accurate portraits of
+the 'Elementals.' He professed to be able to evoke and control them. He
+announced that he had discovered the secret 'formularies' of the old
+Egyptian magicians. Plainly, the Theosophical Society at starting was an
+Egyptian school of occultism. Indeed Colonel Olcott, who furnishes these
+details ('Diary Leaves' in the _Theosophist_, November to December, 1892),
+lets out that the first title suggested was the 'Egyptological Society.'"
+
+There were strange reports set afloat at the time of the organization of
+the Society of the mysterious appearance of a Hindoo adept in his astral
+body at the "lamasery" on Forty-seventh street. It was said to be that of
+a certain Mahatma Koot Hoomi. Olcott declared that the adept left behind
+him as a souvenir of his presence, a turban, which was exhibited on all
+occasions by the enterprising Hierophant. William Q. Judge, a noted writer
+on Spiritualism, who had met the Madame at Irving Place in the winter of
+1874, joined the Society about this time, and became an earnest advocate
+of the secret doctrine. One wintry evening in March, 1889, Mr. Judge
+attended a meeting of the New York Anthropological Society, and told the
+audience all about the spectral gentleman, Koot Hoomi. He said:
+
+"The parent society (Theosophical) was founded in America by Madame
+Blavatsky, who gathered about her a few interested people and began the
+great work. They held a meeting to frame a constitution (1875), etc., but
+before anything had been accomplished a strangely foreign Hindoo, dressed
+in the peculiar garb of his country, came before them, and, leaving a
+package, vanished, and no one knew whither he came or went. On opening the
+package they found the necessary forms of organization, rules, etc., which
+were adopted. The inference to be drawn was, that the strange visitor was
+a Mahatma, interested in the foundation of the Society."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 37. WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.
+
+[Reproduced by courtesy of the _New York Herald_.]]
+
+And so Blavatskyism flourished, and the Society gathered in disciples from
+all quarters. Men without definite creeds are ever willing to embrace
+anything that savors of the mysterious, however absurd the tenets of the
+new doctrine may be. The objects of the Theosophical Society, as set forth
+in a number of _Lucifer_, the organ of the cult, published in July, 1890,
+are stated to be:
+
+"1. To form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without
+distinction of race, creed, sex, or color.
+
+"2. To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions
+and sciences.
+
+"3. To investigate laws of Nature and the psychical powers of man."
+
+There is nothing of cant or humbug about the above articles. A society
+founded for the prosecution of such researches seems laudable enough.
+Oriental scholars and scientists have been working in this field for many
+years. But the investigations, as conducted under the Blavatsky regime,
+have savored so of charlatanism that many earnest, truth-seeking
+Theosophists have withdrawn from the Society.
+
+After seeing the Society well established, Madame Blavatsky went to India.
+Her career in that country was a checkered one. From this period dates the
+expose of the Mahatma miracles. The story reads like a romance by Marie
+Corelli. Let us begin at the beginning. The headquarters of the Society
+was first established at Bombay, thence removed to Madras and afterwards
+to Adyar. A certain M. and Mme. Coulomb, trusted friends of Madame
+Blavatsky, were made librarian and assistant corresponding secretary
+respectively of the Society, and took up their residence in the building
+known as the headquarters--a rambling East Indian bungalow, such as figure
+in Rudyard Kipling's stories of Oriental life. Marvellous phenomena, of an
+occult nature, alleged to have taken place there, were attested by many
+Theosophists. Mysterious, ghostly appearances of Mahatmas were seen, and
+messages were constantly received by supernatural means. One of the
+apartments of the bungalow was denominated the Occult Room, and in this
+room was a sort of cupboard against the wall, known as the _Shrine_. In
+this shrine the ghostly missives were received and from it were sent.
+Skeptics were convinced, and occult lodges spread rapidly over India among
+the dreamy, marvel-loving natives. But affairs were not destined to sail
+smoothly. There came a rift within the lute--Madame Blavatsky quarreled
+with her trusted lieutenants, the Coulombs! In May, 1884, M. and Mme.
+Coulomb were expelled from the Society by the General Council, during the
+absence of the High Priestess and Col. Olcott in Europe. The Coulombs, who
+had grown weary of a life of imposture, or were actuated by the more
+ignoble motive of revenge, made a complete expose of the secret working of
+the Inner Brotherhood. They published portions of Madame Blavatsky's
+correspondence in the _Madras Christian College Magazine_, for September
+and October, 1884; letters written to the Coulombs, directing them to
+prepare certain impostures and letters written by the High Priestess,
+under the signature of Koot Hoomi, the mythical adept.[5] This
+correspondence unquestionably implicated the Sibyl in a conspiracy to
+fraudulently produce occult phenomena. She declared them to be, in whole,
+or in part, forgeries. At this juncture the London Society for Psychical
+Research sent Mr. Richard Hodgson, B. A., scholar of St. John's College,
+Cambridge, England, to India to investigate the entire matter in the
+interest of science.
+
+He left England November, 1884, and remained in the East till April, 1885.
+During this period Blavatskyism was sifted to the bottom. Mr. Hodgson's
+report covers several hundred pages, and proves conclusively that the
+occult phenomena of Madame Blavatsky and her co-adjutors are unworthy of
+credence. In his volume he gives diagrams of the trap-doors and machinery
+of the shrine and the occult room, and facsimiles of Madame Blavatsky's
+handwriting, which proved to be identical with that of Koot Hoomi, or
+_Cute_ Hoomi, as the critics dubbed him. He shows that the Coulombs had
+told the plain unvarnished truth so far as their disclosures went; and he
+stigmatizes the Priestess of Isis in the following language:
+
+"1. She has been engaged in a long continued combination with other
+persons to produce by ordinary means a series of apparent marvels for the
+support of the Theosophic movement.
+
+"2. That in particular the shrine at Adyar through which letters
+purporting to come from Mahatmas were received, was elaborately arranged
+with a view to the secret insertion of letters and other objects through a
+sliding panel at the back, and regularly used for the purpose by Madame
+Blavatsky or her agents.
+
+"3. That there is consequently a very strong general presumption that all
+the marvellous narratives put forward in evidence of the existence of
+Mahatmas are to be explained as due either (_a_) to deliberate deception
+carried out by or at the instigation of Madame Blavatsky, or (_b_) to
+spontaneous illusion or hallucination or unconscious misrepresentation or
+invention on the part of the witnesses."
+
+The mysterious appearances of the ghostly Mahatmas at the headquarters was
+shown, by Mr. Hodgson, to be the work of confederates, the cleverest among
+them being Madame Coulomb. Sliding panels, secret doors, and many
+disguises were the _modus operandi_ of the occult phenomena. In regard to
+the letters and alleged precipitated writing, Mr. Hodgson says:
+
+"It has been alleged, indeed, that when Madame Blavatsky was at Madras,
+instantaneous replies to mental queries had been found in the shrine (at
+Adyar), that envelopes containing questions were returned absolutely
+intact to the senders, and that when they were opened replies were found
+within in the handwriting of a Mahatma. After numerous inquiries, I found
+that in all cases I could hear of, the mental query was such as might
+easily have been anticipated by Madame Blavatsky; indeed, the query was
+whether the questioner would meet with success in his endeavor to become a
+pupil of the Mahatma, and the answer was frequently of the indefinite and
+oracular sort. In some cases the envelope inserted in the Shrine was one
+which had been previously sent to headquarters for that purpose, so that
+the envelope might have been opened and the answer written therein before
+it was placed in the Shrine at all. Where sufficient care was taken in the
+preparation of the inquiry, either no specific answer was given or the
+answer was delayed."
+
+A certain phenomenon, frequently mentioned by Theosophists as having
+occurred in Madame Blavatsky's sitting-room, was the dropping of a letter
+from the ceiling, supposed to be a communication from some Mahatma. In all
+such cases conjuring was proved to have been used--the _deus ex machina_
+being either a silk thread or else a cunningly secreted trap door hidden
+between the wooden beams of the bungalow ceiling, operated of course by a
+concealed confederate.
+
+Madame Blavatsky's favorite method of impressing people with her occult
+powers was the almost immediate reception of letters from distant
+countries, in response to questions asked. These feats were the result of
+carefully contrived plans, preconcerted weeks in advance. She would
+telegraph in cipher to one of her numerous correspondents, East Indian,
+for example, to write a letter in reply to a certain query, and post it at
+a particular date. Then she would calculate the arrival of the letter,
+often to a nicety. Her ability as a conversationalist enabled her to
+adroitly lead people into asking questions that would tally with the
+Mahatma messages. But sometimes she failed, and a ludicrous fiasco was the
+result. Mr. Hodgson's report contains accounts of many such mystic letters
+that would arrive by post from India in the nick of time, or too late for
+use.
+
+Among other remarkable things reported of the Madame was her power of
+producing photographs of people far away by a sort of spiritual
+photography, involving no other mechanical process than the slipping of a
+sheet of paper between the leaves of her blotting pad.
+
+When stories of this spirit-photography were rife in London, a scientist
+published the following explanation of a method of making such Mahatma
+portraits:
+
+"Has the English public never heard of 'Magic photography?' Just a few
+years ago small sheets of white paper were offered for sale which on being
+covered with damp blotting paper developed an image as if by magic. The
+white sheets of paper seemed blanks. Really, however, they were
+photographs, not containing gold, which had been bleached by immersing
+them in a solution of mercuric chloride. The latter gives up part of its
+chlorine, and this chlorine bleaches the brown silver particles of which
+the photograph consists, by changing them to chloride of silver. The
+mercuric chloride becomes mercurous chloride. This body is white, and
+therefore invisible on white paper. Now, several substances will color
+this white mercurous chloride black. Ammonia and hypo-sulphite of soda
+will do this. In the magic photographs before mentioned the blotting paper
+contained hypo-sulphite of soda. Consequently when the alleged blank
+sheets of white note paper were placed between the sheets of blotting
+paper and slightly moistened, the hypo-sulphite of soda in the blotting
+paper acted chemically on the mercurous chloride in the white note paper,
+and the picture appeared. As this was known in 1840 to Herschel,
+Blavatsky's miracle is nothing but a commonplace conjuring experiment."
+
+
+3. Madame Blavatsky's Confession.
+
+The individual to whom the world is most indebted for a critical analysis
+of Madame Blavatsky's character and her claims as a producer of occult
+phenomena is Vsevolod S. Solovyoff, a Russian journalist and _litterateur_
+of considerable note. He has ruthlessly torn the veil from the Priestess
+of Isis in a remarkable book of revelations, entitled, "A Modern Priestess
+of Isis." In May, 1884, he was in Paris, engaged in studying occult
+literature, and was preparing to write a treatise on "the rare, but in my
+opinion, real manifestations of the imperfectly investigated spiritual
+powers of man." One day he read in the _Matin_ that Madame Blavatsky had
+arrived in Paris, and he determined to meet her. Thanks to a friend in St.
+Petersburg, he obtained a letter of introduction to the famous
+Theosophist, and called on her a few days later, at her residence in the
+Rue Notre Dame des Champs. His pen picture of the interview is graphic:
+
+"I found myself in a long, mean street on the left bank of the Seine, _de
+l'autre cote de l'eau_, as the Parisians say. The coachman stopped at the
+number I had told him. The house was unsightly enough to look at, and at
+the door there was not a single carriage.
+
+"'My dear sir, you have let her slip; she has left Paris,' I said to
+myself with vexation.
+
+"In answer to my inquiry the concierge showed me the way. I climbed a
+very, very dark staircase, rang, and a slovenly figure in an Oriental
+turban admitted me into a tiny dark lobby.
+
+"To my question, whether Madame Blavatsky would receive me, the slovenly
+figure replied with an '_Entrez, monsieur_,' and vanished with my card,
+while I was left to wait in a small low room, poorly and insufficiently
+furnished.
+
+"I had not long to wait. The door opened, and she was before me; a rather
+tall woman, though she produced the impression of being short, on account
+of her unusual stoutness. Her great head seemed all the greater from her
+thick and very bright hair, touched with a scarcely perceptible gray, and
+very slightly frizzed, by nature and not by art, as I subsequently
+convinced myself.
+
+"At the first moment her plain, old earthy-colored face struck me as
+repulsive; but she fixed on me the gaze of her great, rolling, pale blue
+eyes, and in these wonderful eyes, with their hidden power, all the rest
+was forgotten.
+
+"I remarked, however, that she was very strangely dressed, in a sort of
+black sacque, and that all the fingers of her small, soft, and as it were
+boneless hands, with their slender points and long nails, were covered
+with great jewelled rings."
+
+Madame Blavatsky received Solovyoff kindly, and they became excellent
+friends. She urged him to join the Theosophical Society, and he expressed
+himself as favorably impressed with the purposes of the organization.
+During the interview she produced her astral bell "phenomenon." She
+excused herself to attend to some domestic duty, and on her return to the
+sitting-room, the phenomenon took place. Says Solovyoff: "She made a sort
+of flourish with her hand, raised it upwards and suddenly, I heard
+distinctly, quite distinctly, somewhere above our heads, near the
+ceiling, a very melodious sound like a little silver bell or an Aeolian
+harp.
+
+"'What is the meaning of this?' I asked.
+
+"'This means only that my master is here, although you and I cannot see
+him. He tells me that I may trust you, and am to do for you whatever I
+can. _Vous etes sous sa protection_, henceforth and forever.'
+
+"She looked me straight in the eyes, and caressed me with her glance and
+her kindly smile."
+
+This Mahatmic phenomenon ought to have absolutely convinced Solovyoff, but
+it did not. He asked himself the question:
+
+"'Why was the sound of the silver bell not heard at once, but only after
+she had left the room and come back again?'"
+
+A few days after this event, the Russian journalist was regularly enrolled
+as a member of the Theosophical Society, and began to study Madame
+Blavatsky instead of Oriental literature and occultism. He was introduced
+to Colonel Olcott, who showed him the turban that had been left at the New
+York headquarters by the astral Koot Hoomi. Solovyoff witnessed other
+"phenomena" in the presence of Madame Blavatsky, which did not impress him
+very favorably. Finally, the High Priestess produced her _chef d'
+oeuvre_, the psychometric reading of a letter. Solovyoff was rather
+impressed with this feat and sent an account of it to the _Rebus_, but
+subsequently came to the conclusion that trickery had entered into it.
+When the Coulomb exposures came, he did not see much of Madame Blavatsky.
+She was overwhelmed with letters and spent a considerable time anxiously
+travelling to and fro on Theosophical affairs. In August, 1885, she was at
+Wurzburg sick at heart and in body, attended by a diminutive Hindoo
+servant, Bavaji by name. She begged Solovyoff to visit her, promising to
+give him lessons in occultism. With a determination to investigate the
+"phenomena," he went to the Bavarian watering place, and one morning
+called on Madame Blavatsky. He found her seated in a great arm chair:
+
+"At the opposite end of the table stood the dwarfish Bavaji, with a
+confused look in his dulled eyes. He was evidently incapable of meeting my
+gaze, and the fact certainly did not escape me. In front of Bavaji on the
+table were scattered several sheets of clean paper. Nothing of the sort
+had occurred before, so my attention was the more aroused. In his hand
+was a great thick pencil. I began to have ideas.
+
+"'Just look at the unfortunate man,' said Helena Petrovna suddenly,
+turning to me. 'He does not look himself at all; he drives me to
+distraction'.... Then she passed from Bavaji to the London Society for
+Psychical Research, and again tried to persuade me about the 'master.'
+Bavaji stood like a statue; he could take no part in our conversation, as
+he did not know a word of Russian.
+
+"'But such incredulity as to the evidence of your own eyes, such obstinate
+infidelity as yours, is simply unpardonable. In fact, it is wicked!'
+exclaimed Helena Petrovna.
+
+"I was walking about the room at the time, and did not take my eyes off
+Bavaji. I saw that he was keeping his eyes wide open, with a sort of
+contortion of his whole body, while his hand, armed with a great pencil,
+was carefully tracing some letters on a sheet of paper.
+
+"'Look; what is the matter with him?' exclaimed Madame Blavatsky.
+
+"'Nothing particular,' I answered; 'he is writing in Russian.'
+
+"I saw her whole face grow purple. She began to stir in her chair, with an
+obvious desire to get up and take the paper from him. But with her swollen
+and almost inflexible limbs, she could not do so with any speed. I made
+haste to seize the paper and saw on it a beautifully _drawn_ Russian
+phrase.
+
+"Bavaji was to have written, in the Russian language with which he was not
+acquainted: 'Blessed are they that believe, as said the Great Adept.' He
+had learned his task well, and remembered correctly the form of all the
+letters, but he had omitted two in the word 'believe,' [The effect was
+precisely the same as if in English he had omitted the first two and last
+two letters of the word.]
+
+"'Blessed are they that _lie_,' I read aloud, unable to control the
+laughter which shook me. 'That is the best thing I ever saw. Oh, Bavaji!
+you should have got your lesson up better for examination!'
+
+"The tiny Hindoo hid his face in his hands and rushed out of the room; I
+heard his hysterical sobs in the distance. Madame Blavatsky sat with
+distorted features."
+
+As will be seen from the above, the Hindoo servant was one of the Madame's
+Mahatmas, and was caught in the act of preparing a communication from a
+sage in the Himalayas, to Solovyoff.
+
+"After this abortive phenomena," remarks the Russian journalist, "things
+marched faster, and I saw that I should soon be in a position to send very
+interesting additions to the report of the Psychical Society."... "Every
+day when I came to see the Madame she used to try to do me a favor in the
+shape of some trifling 'phenomenon,' but she never succeeded. Thus one day
+her famous 'silver bell' was heard, when suddenly something fell beside
+her on the ground. I hurried to pick it up--and found in my hands a pretty
+little piece of silver, delicately worked and strangely shaped. Helena
+Petrovna changed countenance, and snatched the object from me. I coughed
+significantly, smiled and turned the conversation to indifferent matters."
+
+On another occasion he was conversing with her about the "Theosophist,"
+and "she mentioned the name of Subba Rao, a Hindoo, who had attained the
+highest degree of knowledge." She directed Mr. Solovyoff to open a drawer
+in her writing desk, and take from it a photograph of the adept.
+
+"I opened the drawer," says Solovyoff, "found the photograph and handed it
+to her--together with a packet of Chinese envelopes (See Fig. 34), such
+as I well knew; they were the same in which the 'elect' used to receive
+the letters of the Mahatmas Morya and Koot Hoomi by 'astral post.'
+
+"'Look at that, Helena Petrovna! I should advise you to hide this packet
+of the master's envelopes farther off. You are so terribly absent-minded
+and careless.'
+
+"It was easy to imagine what this was to her. I looked at her and was
+positively frightened; her face grew perfectly black. She tried in vain to
+speak; she could only writhe helplessly in her great arm-chair."
+
+Solovyoff with great adroitness gradually drew from her a confession.
+"What is one to do," said Madame Blavatsky, plaintively, "when in order to
+rule men it is necessary to deceive them; almost invariably the more
+simple, the more silly, and the more gross the phenomenon, the more likely
+it is to succeed." The Priestess of Isis broke down completely and
+acknowledged that her phenomena were not genuine; the Koot Hoomi letters
+were written by herself and others in collusion with her; finally she
+exhibited to the journalist the apparatus for producing the "astral bell,"
+and begged him to go into a co-partnership with her to astonish the
+world. He refused! The next day she declared that a black magician had
+spoken through her mouth, and not herself; she was not responsible for
+what she had said. After this he had other interviews with her; threats
+and promises; and lastly a most extraordinary letter, which was headed,
+"My Confession," and reads, in part, as follows:
+
+"Believe me, _I have fallen because I have made up my mind to fall_, or
+else to bring about a reaction by telling all God's truth about myself,
+_but without mercy on my enemies_. On this I am firmly resolved, and from
+this day I shall begin to prepare myself in order to be ready. I will fly
+no more. Together with this letter, or a few hours later, I shall myself
+be in Paris, and then on to London. A Frenchman is ready, and a well-known
+journalist too, delighted to set about the work and to write at my
+dictation something short, but strong, and what is most important--a true
+history of my life. _I shall not even attempt to defend_, to justify
+myself. In this book I shall simply say: "In 1848, I, hating my husband,
+N. V. Blavatsky (it may have been wrong, but still such was the nature
+_God_ gave me), left him, abandoned him--_a virgin_. (I shall produce
+documents and letters proving this, although he himself is not such a
+swine as to deny it.) I loved one man deeply, but still more I loved
+occult science, believing in magic, wizards, etc. I wandered with him here
+and there, in Asia, in America, and in Europe. I met with So-and-so. (You
+may call him a _wizard_, what does it matter to him?) In 1858 I was in
+London; there came out some story about a child, not mine (there will
+follow medical evidence, from the faculty of Paris, and it is for this
+that I am going to Paris). One thing and another was said of me; that I
+was depraved, possessed with a devil, etc.
+
+"I shall tell everything as I think fit, everything I did, for the twenty
+years and more, that I laughed at the _qu'en dira-t-on_, and covered up
+all traces of what I was _really_ occupied in, i. e., the _sciences
+occultes_, for the sake of my family and relations who would at that time
+have cursed me. I will tell how from my eighteenth year I tried to get
+people to talk about me, and say about me that this man and that was my
+lover, and _hundreds_ of them. I will tell, too, a great deal of which no
+one ever dreamed, and _I will prove it_. Then I will inform the world how
+suddenly my eyes were opened to all the horror of my _moral suicide_; how
+I was sent to America to try my psychological capabilities; how I
+collected a society there, and began to expiate my faults, and attempted
+to make men better and to sacrifice myself for their regeneration. _I will
+name all_ the Theosophists who were brought into the right way, drunkards
+and rakes, who became almost saints, especially in India, and those who
+enlisted as Theosophists, and continued their former life, as though they
+were doing the work (and there are many of them) and _yet were the first_
+to join the pack of hounds that were hunting me down, and to bite me....
+
+"No! The devils will save me in this last great hour. You did not
+calculate on the cool determination of _despair_, which _was_ and has
+_passed over_.... And to this I have been brought by you. You have been
+the last straw which has broken the camel's back under its intolerably
+heavy burden. Now you are at liberty to conceal nothing. Repeat to all
+Paris what you have ever heard or know about me. I have already written a
+letter to Sinnett _forbidding him_ to publish my _memoirs_ at his own
+discretion. I myself will publish them with all the truth.... It will be a
+Saturnalia of the moral depravity of mankind, this _confession_ of mine, a
+worthy epilogue of my stormy life.... Let the psychist gentlemen, and
+whosoever will, set on foot a new inquiry. Mohini and all the rest, even
+_India_, are dead for me. I thirst for one thing only, that the world may
+know all the reality, all the _truth_, and learn the lesson. And then
+_death_, kindest of all.
+
+  H. BLAVATSKY.
+
+"You may print this letter if you will, even in Russia. It is all the same
+now."
+
+This remarkable effusion may be the result of a fever-disordered brain, it
+may be, as she says, the "God's truth;" at any rate it bears the ear-marks
+of the Blavatsky style about it. The disciples of the High Priestess of
+Isis have bitterly denounced Solovyoff and the revelations contained in
+his book. They brand him as a coward for not having published his diatribe
+during the lifetime of the Madame, when she was able to defend herself.
+However that may be, Solovyoff's exposures tally very well with the mass
+of corroborative evidence adduced by Hodgson, Coues, Coleman, and a host
+of writers, who began their attacks during the earthly pilgrimage of the
+great Sibyl.
+
+On receipt of this letter, Feb 16, 1886, Solovyoff resigned from the
+Theosophical Society. He denounced the High Priestess to the Paris
+Theosophists, and the Blavatsky lodges in that city were disrupted in
+consequence of the exposures. This seems to be a convincing proof of the
+genuineness of his revelations. After the Solovyoff incident, Madame
+Blavatsky went into retirement for a while. Eventually she appeared in
+London as full of enthusiasm as ever and added to her list of converts the
+Countess of Caithness and Mrs. Annie Besant, the famous socialist and
+authoress.
+
+Finally came the last act of this strange life-drama. That messenger of
+death, whom the mystical Persian singer, Omar Khayyam, calls "The Angel of
+the Darker Drink," held to her lips the inevitable chalice of Mortality;
+then the "golden cord was loosened and the silver bowl was broken," and
+she passed into the land of shadows. It was in London, May 8, 1891, that
+Helena Petrovna Blavatsky ended one of the strangest careers on record.
+She died calmly and peacefully in her bed, surrounded by her friends, and
+after her demise her body was cremated by her disciples, with occult rites
+and ceremonies. All that remained of her--a few handfuls of powdery white
+ashes--was gathered together, and divided into three equal parts. One
+portion was buried in London, one sent to New York City, and the third to
+Adyar, near Madras, India. The New World, the Old World, and the still
+Older World of the East were honored with the ashes of H. P. B. Three
+civilizations, three heaps of ashes, three initials--mystic number from
+time immemorial, celebrated symbol of Divinity known to, and revered by,
+Cabalists, Gnostics, Rosicrucians, and Theosophists.
+
+Mr. J. Ransom Bridges, who had considerable correspondence with the High
+Priestess from 1888 until her death, says (_Arena_, April, 1895):
+"Whatever may be the ultimate verdict upon the life and work of this
+woman, her place in history will be unique. There was a Titanic display of
+strength in everything she did. The storms that raged in her were
+cyclones. Those exposed to them often felt with Solovyoff that if there
+were holy and sage _Mahatmas_, they could not remain holy and sage, and
+have anything to do with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. The 'confession' she
+wrote rings with the mingled curses and mad laughter of a crazy mariner
+scuttling his own ship. Yet she could be as tender and sympathetic as any
+mother. Her mastery of some natures seemed complete; and these people she
+worked like galley-slaves in the Theosophical tread mill of her propaganda
+movement.
+
+"To these disciples she was the greatest thaumaturgist known to the world
+since the days of the Christ. The attacks upon her, the Coulomb and
+Solovyoff exposures, the continual newspaper calumnies they look upon as a
+gigantic conspiracy brewed by all the rules of the black art to
+counteract, and, if possible, to destroy the effect of her work and
+mission."
+
+"Requiescat in Pace," O Priestess of Isis, until your next incarnation on
+Earth! The twentieth century will doubtless have need of your services!
+For the delectation of the curious let me add: the English resting place
+of Madame Blavatsky is designed after the model of an Oriental "dagoba,"
+or tomb; the American shrine is a marble niche in the wall of the
+Theosophical headquarters, No. 144 Madison avenue, the ashes reposing in a
+vase standing in the niche behind a hermetically-sealed glass window. The
+Oriental shrine in Adyar is a tomb modelled after the world-famous Taj
+Mahal, and is built of pink sandstone, surmounted by a small Benares
+copper spire.
+
+
+4. The Writings of Madame Blavatsky.
+
+Madame Blavatsky is known to the reading world as the writer of two
+voluminous works of a philosophical or mystical character, explanatory of
+the Esoteric Doctrine, viz., "Isis Unveiled," published in 1877, and the
+"Secret Doctrine," published in 1888. In the composition of these works
+she claimed that she was assisted by the Mahatmas who visited her
+apartments when she was asleep, and wrote portions of the manuscripts with
+their astral hands while their natural bodies reposed entranced in
+Thibetan Lamaseries. These fictions were fostered by prominent members of
+the Theosophical Society, and believed by many credulous persons. "Isis
+Unveiled" is a hodge-podge of absurdities, pseudo-science, mythology and
+folklore, arranged in helter-skelter fashion, with an utter disregard of
+logical sequence. The fact was that Madame Blavatsky had a very imperfect
+knowledge of English, and this may account for the strange mistakes in
+which the volume abounds, despite the aid of the ghostly Mahatmas. William
+Emmette Coleman, of San Francisco, has made an exhaustive analysis of the
+Madame's writings, and declares that "Isis," and the "Secret Doctrine" are
+full of plagiarisms. In "Isis" he discovered "some 2,000 passages copied
+from other books without proper credit." Speaking of the "Secret
+Doctrine," the master key to the wisdom of the ages, he says: "The
+'Secret Doctrine' is ostensibly based upon certain stanzas, claimed to
+have been translated by Madame Blavatsky from the 'Book of Dzyan'--the
+oldest book in the world, written in a language unknown to philology. The
+'Book of Dzyan' was the work of Madame Blavatsky--a compilation, in her
+own language, from a variety of sources, embracing the general principles
+of the doctrines and dogmas taught in the 'Secret Doctrine.' I find in
+this 'oldest book in the world' statements copied from nineteenth century
+books, and in the usual blundering manner of Madame Blavatsky. Letters and
+other writings of the adepts are found in the 'Secret Doctrine.' In these
+Mahatmic productions I have traced various plagiarized passages from
+Wilson's 'Vishnu Purana,' and Winchell's 'World Life'--of like character
+to those in Madame Blavatsky's acknowledged writings. * * * A specimen of
+the wholesale plagiarisms in this book appears in vol. II., pp. 599-603.
+Nearly the whole of four pages was copied from Oliver's 'Pythagorean
+Triangle,' while only a few lines were credited to that work."
+
+Those who are interested in Coleman's expose are referred to Appendix C,
+of Solovyoff's book, "A Modern Priestess of Isis." The title of this
+appendix is "The Sources of Madame Blavatsky's Writings." Mr. Coleman is
+at present engaged in the preparation of an elaborate work on the subject,
+which will in addition contain an "expose of Theosophy as a whole." It
+will no doubt prove of interest to students of occultism.
+
+
+5. Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist.
+
+The funeral of Baron de Palm, conducted according to Theosophical rites,
+is an interesting chapter in the history of the Society, and worth
+relating.
+
+Joseph Henry Louis Charles, Baron de Palm, Grand Cross Commander of the
+Sovereign Order of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and knight of various
+orders, was born at Augsburg, May 10, 1809. He came to the United States
+rather late in life, drifted West without any settled occupation, and
+lived from hand to mouth in various Western cities. Finally he located in
+New York City, broken in health and spirit. He was a man of considerable
+culture and interested to a greater or less extent in the phenomena of
+modern Spiritualism. A letter of introduction from the editor of the
+_Religio-Philosophical Journal_, of Chicago, made him acquainted with
+Col. Olcott, who introduced him to prominent members of the Theosophical
+Society. He was elected a member of the Society, eventually becoming a
+member of the Council. In the year 1875 he died, leaving behind an earnest
+request that Col. Olcott "should perform the last offices in a fashion
+that would illustrate the Eastern notions of death and immortality."[6] He
+also left directions that his body should be cremated. A great deal of
+excitement was caused over this affair in orthodox religious circles, and
+public curiosity was aroused to the highest pitch. The funeral service
+was, as Madame Blavatsky described it in a letter to a European
+correspondent, "pagan, almost antique pagan." The ceremony was held in the
+great hall of the Masonic Temple, corner of Twenty-third and Sixth avenue.
+Tickets of admission were issued of decidedly occult shape--_triangular_;
+some black, printed in silver; others drab, printed in black. A crowd of
+2,000 people assembled to witness the obsequies. On the stage was a
+_triangular_ altar, with a symbolical fire burning upon it. The coffin
+stood near by, covered with the orders of knighthood of the deceased. A
+splendid choir rendered several Orphic hymns composed for the occasion,
+with organ accompaniment, and Col. Olcott, as Hierophant, made an
+invocation or _mantram_ "to the Soul of the World whose breath gives and
+withdraws the form of everything." Death is always solemn, and no subject
+for levity, yet I must not leave out of this chronicle the unique
+burlesque programme of Baron de Palm's funeral, published by the _New York
+World_, the day before the event. Says the _World_:
+
+"The procession will move in the following order:
+
+"Col. Olcott as high priest, wearing a leopard skin and carrying a roll of
+papyrus (brown card board).
+
+"Mr. Cobb, as sacred scribe, with style and tablet.
+
+"Egyptian mummy-case, borne upon a sledge drawn by four oxen. (Also a
+slave bearing a pot of lubricating oil.)
+
+"Madame Blavatsky as chief mourner and also bearer of the sistrum. (She
+will wear a long linen garment extending to the feet, and a girdle about
+the waist.)
+
+"Colored boy carrying three Abyssinian geese (Philadelphia chickens) to
+place upon the bier.
+
+"Vice-President Felt, with the eye of Osiris painted on his left breast,
+and carrying an asp (bought at a toy store on Eighth avenue.)
+
+"Dr. Pancoast, singing an ancient Theban dirge:
+
+  "'Isis and Nepthys, beginning and end:
+   One more victim to Amenti we send.
+   Pay we the fare, and let us not tarry.
+   Cross the Styx by the Roosevelt street ferry.'"
+
+"Slaves in mourning gowns, carrying the offerings and libations, to
+consist of early potatoes, asparagus, roast beef, French pan-cakes,
+bock-beer, and New Jersey cider.
+
+"Treasurer Newton, as chief of the musicians, playing the double pipe.
+
+"Other musicians performing on eight-stringed harps, tom-toms, etc.
+
+"Boys carrying a large lotus (sunflower).
+
+"Librarian Fassit, who will alternate with music by repeating the lines
+beginning:
+
+  "'Here Horus comes, I see the boat.
+     Friends, stay your flowing tears;
+   The soul of man goes through a goat
+     In just 3,000 years.'
+
+"At the temple the ceremony will be short and simple. The oxen will be
+left standing on the sidewalk, with a boy near by to prevent them goring
+the passers-by. Besides the Theurgic hymn, printed above in full, the
+Coptic National anthem will be sung, translated and adapted to the
+occasion as follows:
+
+  "Sitting Cynocephalus up in a tree,
+   I see you, and you see me.
+   River full of crocodile, see his long snout!
+   Hoist up the shadoof and pull him right out."
+
+
+6. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky.
+
+After Madame Blavatsky's death, Mrs. Annie Besant assumed the leadership
+of the Theosophical Society, and wore upon her finger a ring that belonged
+to the High Priestess: a ring with a green stone flecked with veins of
+blood red, upon the surface of which was engraved the interlaced triangles
+within a circle, with the Indian motto, _Sat_ (Life), the symbol of
+Theosophy. It was given to Madame Blavatsky by her Indian teacher, says
+Mrs. Besant, and is very magnetic. The High Priestess on her deathbed
+presented the mystic signet to her successor, and left her in addition
+many valuable books and manuscripts. The Theosophical Society now numbers
+its adherents by the thousands and has its lodges scattered over the
+United States, France, England and India. At the World's Columbian
+Exposition it was well represented in the Great Parliament of Religions,
+by Annie Besant, William Q. Judge, of the American branch, and Prof.
+Chakravatir, a High Caste Brahmin of India.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 38. PORTRAIT OF MRS. ANNIE BESANT.]
+
+Mrs. Besant, in an interview published in the _New York World_, Dec. 11,
+1892, made the following statement concerning Madame Blavatsky's peculiar
+powers:
+
+"One time she was trying to explain to me the control of the mind over
+certain currents in the ether about us, and to illustrate she made some
+little taps come on my own head. They were accompanied by the sensation
+one experiences on touching an electric battery. I have frequently seen
+her draw things to her simply by her will, without touching them. Indeed,
+she would often check herself when strangers were about. It was natural
+for her, when she wanted a book that was on the table, to simply draw it
+to her by her power of mind, as it would be for you to reach out your hand
+to pick it up. And so, as I say, she often had to check herself, for she
+was decidedly adverse to making a show of her power. In fact, that is
+contrary to the law of the brotherhood to which she belonged. This law
+forbids them to make use of their power except as an instruction to their
+pupils or as an aid to the spreading of the truth. An adept may never use
+his knowledge for his personal advantage. He may be starving, and despite
+his ability to materialize banquets he may not supply himself with a crust
+of bread. This is what is meant in the Gospel when it says: 'He saved
+others, Himself He cannot save.'
+
+"One time she had written an article and as usual she gave me her
+manuscript to look over.
+
+"Sometimes she wrote very good grammatic English and again she wrote very
+slovenly English. So she always had me go over her manuscript. In reading
+this particular one I found a long quotation of some twenty or thirty
+lines. When I finished it I went to her and said: 'Where in the world did
+you get that quotation?'
+
+"'I got it from an Indian newspaper of --,' naming the date.
+
+"'But,' I said, 'that paper cannot be in this country yet! How did you get
+hold of it?'
+
+"'Oh, I got it, dear,' she said, with a little laugh; 'that's enough.'
+
+"Of course I understood then. When the time came for the paper to arrive,
+I thought I would verify her quotation, so I asked her for the name, the
+date of the issue and the page on which the quotation would be found. She
+told me, giving me, we will say, 45 as the number of the page. I went to
+the agent, looked up the paper and there was no such quotation on page 45.
+Then I remembered that things seen in the astral light are reversed, so I
+turned the number around, looked on page 54 and there was the quotation.
+When I went home I told her that it was all right, but that she had given
+me the wrong page.
+
+"'Very likely,' she said. 'Someone came in just as I was finishing it, and
+I may have forgotten to reverse the number.'
+
+"You see, anything seen in the astral light is reversed, as if you saw it
+in a mirror, while anything seen clairvoyantly is straight."
+
+The elevation of Mrs. Besant to the High Priestess-ship of the
+Theosophical Society was in accord with the spirit of the age--an
+acknowledgment of the Eternal Feminine; but it did not bring repose to the
+organization. William Q. Judge, of the American branch, began dabbling, it
+is claimed, in Mahatma messages on his own account, and charges were made
+against him by Mrs. Besant. A bitter warfare was waged in Theosophical
+journals, and finally the American branch of the general society seceded,
+and organized itself into the American Theosophical Society. Judge was
+made life-president and held the post until his death, in New York City,
+March 21st, 1896. His body was cremated and the ashes sealed in an urn,
+which was deposited in the Society's rooms, No. 144 Madison avenue.
+
+Five weeks after the death of Judge, the Theosophical Society held its
+annual conclave in New York City, and elected E. T. Hargrove as the
+presiding genius of esoteric wisdom in the United States. It was
+originally intended to hold this convention in Chicago, but the change was
+made for a peculiar reason. As the press reported the circumstance, "it
+was the result of a request by a mysterious adept whose existence had been
+unsuspected, and who made known his wish in a communication to the
+executive committee." It seems that the Theosophical Society is composed
+of two bodies, the exoteric and the esoteric. The first holds open
+meetings for the discussion of ethical and Theosophical subjects, and the
+second meets privately, being composed of a secret body of adepts, learned
+in occultism and possessing remarkable spiritual powers. The chief of the
+secret order is appointed by the Mahatmas, on account, it is claimed, of
+his or her occult development. Madame Blavatsky was the High Priestess in
+this inner temple during her lifetime, and was succeeded by Hierophant W.
+Q. Judge. When Judge died, it seems there was no one thoroughly qualified
+to take his place as the head of the esoteric branch, until an examination
+was made of his papers. Then came a surprise. Judge had named as his
+successor a certain obscure individual whom he claimed to be a great
+adept, requesting that the name be kept a profound secret for a specified
+time. In obedience to this injunction, the Great Unknown was elected as
+chief of the Inner Brother-and-Sisterhood. All of this made interesting
+copy for the New York journalists, and columns were printed about the
+affair. Another surprise came when the convention of exoterics
+("hysterics," as some of the papers called them) subscribed $25,000 for
+the founding of an occult temple in this country. But the greatest
+surprise of all was a Theosophical wedding. The De Palm funeral fades away
+into utter insignificance beside this mystic marriage. The contracting
+parties were Claude Falls Wright, formerly secretary to Madame Blavatsky,
+and Mary C. L. Leonard, daughter of Anna Byford Leonard, one of the best
+known Theosophists in the West. The ceremony was performed at Aryan Hall,
+No. 144 Madison avenue, N. Y., in the presence of the occult body.
+Outsiders were not admitted. However, public curiosity was partly
+gratified by sundry crumbs of information thrown out by the Theosophical
+press bureau.
+
+The young couple stood beneath a seven-pointed star, made of electric
+light globes, and plighted their troth amid clouds of odoriferous incense.
+Then followed weird chantings and music by an occult orchestra composed of
+violins and violoncellos. The unknown adept presided over the affair, as
+special envoy of the Mahatmas. He was enveloped from head to foot in a
+thick white veil, said the papers.
+
+Mr. Wright and his bride-elect declared solemnly that they remembered many
+of their former incarnations; their marriage had really taken place in
+Egypt, 5,000 years ago in one of the mysterious temples of that strange
+country, and the ceremony had been performed by the priests of Isis. Yes,
+they remembered it all! It seemed but as yesterday! They recalled with
+vividness the scene: their march up the avenue of monoliths; the lotus
+flowers strewn in their path by rosy children; the intoxicating perfume
+of the incense, burned in bronze braziers by shaven-headed priests; the
+hieroglyphics, emblematical of life, death and resurrection, painted upon
+the temple walls; the Hierophant in his gorgeous vestments. Oh, what a
+dream of Old World splendor and beauty!
+
+Before many months had passed, the awful secret of the Veiled Adept's
+identity was revealed. The Great Unknown turned out to be a _she_ instead
+of a _he_ adept--a certain Mrs. Katherine Alice Tingley, of New York City.
+The reporters began ringing the front door bell of the adept's house in
+the vain hope of obtaining an interview, but the newly-hatched Sphinx
+turned a deaf ear to their entreaties. The time was not yet ripe for
+revelations. Her friends, however, rushed into print, and told the most
+marvellous stories of her mediumship.
+
+W. T. Stead, the English journalist and student of psychical research,
+reviewing the Theosophical convention and its outcome, says (_Borderland_,
+July, 1896, p. 306): "The Judgeite seceders from the Theosophical Society
+held their annual convention in New York, April 26th to 27th. They have
+elected a young man, Mr. Ernest T. Hargrove, as their president. A former
+spiritual medium and clairvoyant, by name Katherine Alice Tingley, who
+claims to have been bosom friends with H. P. B. 1200 years B. C., when
+both were incarnated in Egypt, is, however, the grand Panjandrum of the
+cause. Her first husband was a detective, her second is a clerk in the
+White Lead Company's office in Brooklyn.
+
+"According to Mr. Hargrove she is--'The new adept; she was appointed by
+Mr. Judge, and we are going to sustain her, as we sustained him, for we
+know her important connection in Egypt, Mexico and Europe.'"
+
+In the spring of 1896, Mrs. Tingley, accompanied by a number of prominent
+occultists, started on a crusade through the world to bring the truths of
+Theosophy to the toiling millions. The crusaders before their departure
+were presented with a purple silk banner, bearing the legend: "Truth,
+Light, Liberation for Discouraged Humanity." The _New York Herald_ (Aug.
+16, 1896) says of this crusade:
+
+"When Mrs. Tingley and the other crusaders left this country nothing had
+been heard of the claim of the reincarnated Blavatsky. Now, however, this
+idea is boldly advanced in England by the American branch of the society
+there, and in America by Burcham Harding, the acting head of the society
+in this country. When Mr. Harding was seen at the Theosophical
+headquarters, he said:
+
+"'Yes, Mme. Blavatsky is reincarnated in Mrs. Tingley. She has not only
+been recognized by myself and other members of the American branch of the
+Theosophical Society, who knew H. P. B. in her former life, but the
+striking physical and facial resemblance has also been noted by members of
+the English branch.'
+
+"But this recognition by the English members of the society does not seem
+to be as strong as Mr. Harding would seem to have it understood. In fact,
+there are a number of members of that branch who boldly declare that Mrs.
+Tingley is an impostor. One of them, within the last week, addressing the
+English members on the subject, claimed that Mme. Blavatsky had foreseen
+that such an impostor would arise. He said:
+
+"'When Mme. Blavatsky lived in her body among us, she declared to all her
+disciples that, in her next reincarnation, she would inhabit the body of
+an Eastern man, and she warned them to be on their guard against any
+assertion made by mediums or others that they were controlled by her.
+Whatever H. P. B. lacked, she never wanted emphasis, and no one who knew
+anything of the founder of the Theosophical Society was left in any doubt
+as to her views upon this question. She declared that if any persons,
+after her death, should claim that she was speaking through them, her
+friends might be quite sure that it was a lie. Imagine, then, the feelings
+of H. P. B.'s disciples on being presented with an American clairvoyant
+medium, in the shape of Mrs. Tingley, who is reported to claim that H. P.
+B. is reincarnated in her.'
+
+"The American branch of the society is not at all disturbed by this charge
+of fraud by the English branch. In connection with it Mr. Harding says:
+
+"'It is true that the American branch of the Theosophical Society has
+seceded from the English branch, but as Mme. Blavatsky, the founder, was
+in reality an American, it can be understood why we consider ourselves the
+parent society.'
+
+"Of the one letter which Mrs. Tingley has sent to America since the
+arrival of the crusaders, the English Theosophists are a unit in the
+expression of opinion that it illustrated, as did her speech in Queen's
+Hall, merely 'unmeaning platitudes and prophecies.' But the American
+members are quite as loud in their expressions that the English members
+are trying to win the sympathies of the public, and that the words are
+really understood by the initiate.
+
+"The letter reads: 'In thanking you for the many kind letters addressed to
+me as Katherine Tingley, as well as by other names that would not be
+understood by the general public, I should like to say a few words as to
+the future and its possibilities. Many of you are destined to take an
+active part in the work that the future will make manifest, and it is well
+to press onward with a clear knowledge of the path to be trodden and with
+a clear vision of the goal to be reached.
+
+"'The path to be trodden is both exterior and interior, and in order to
+reach the goal it is necessary to tread these paths with strength,
+courage, faith and the essence of them all, which is wisdom.
+
+"'For these two paths, which fundamentally are one, like every duality in
+nature, are winding paths, and now lead through sunlight, then through
+deepest shade. During the last few years the large majority of students
+have been rounding a curve in the paths of both inner and outer work, and
+this wearied many. But those who persevered and faltered not will soon
+reap their reward.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 39. PORTRAIT OF MRS. TINGLEY.
+
+[Reproduced by courtesy of the _New York Herald_.]]
+
+"'The present is pregnant with the promise of the near future, and that
+future is brighter than could be believed by those who have so recently
+been immersed in the shadows that are inevitable in cyclic progress. Can
+words describe it? I think not. But if you will think of the past twenty
+years of ploughing and sowing and will keep in your mind the tremendous
+force that has been scattered broadcast throughout the world, you must
+surely see that the hour for reaping is near at hand, if it has not
+already come."
+
+The invasion of English territory by the American crusaders was resented
+by the British Theosophists. The advocates of universal brotherhood waged
+bitter warfare against each other in the newspapers and periodicals. It
+gradually resolved itself into a struggle for supremacy between the two
+rival claimants for the mantle of Madame Blavatsky, Mrs. Annie Besant and
+Mrs. Tingley. Each Pythoness ascended her sacred tripod and hysterically
+denounced the other as an usurper, and false prophetess. Annie Besant
+sought to disprove the idea of Madame Blavatsky having re-incarnated
+herself in the body of Mrs. Tingley. She claimed that the late High
+Priestess had taken up her earthly pilgrimage again in the person of a
+little Hindoo boy, who lived somewhere on the banks of the Ganges. The
+puzzling problem was this: If Mrs. Tingley was Mme. Blavatsky, where was
+Mrs. Tingley? Oedipus would have gone mad trying to solve this Sphinx
+riddle.
+
+The crusade finished, Mrs. Tingley, with her purple banner returned to New
+York, where she was royally welcomed by her followers. In the wake of the
+American adept came the irrepressible Annie Besant, accompanied by a
+sister Theosophist, the Countess Constance Wachmeister. Mrs. Besant,
+garbed in a white linen robe of Hindoo pattern, lectured on occult
+subjects to crowded houses in the principal cities of the East and West.
+In the numerous interviews accorded her by the press, she ridiculed the
+Blavatsky-Tingley re-incarnation theory. By kind permission of the _New
+York Herald_, I reproduce a portrait of Mrs. Tingley. The reader will find
+it interesting to compare this sketch with the photograph of Madame
+Blavatsky given in this book. He will notice at once how much the two
+occultists do resemble each other; both are grossly fat, puffy of face,
+with heavy-lidded eyes and rather thick lips.
+
+
+7. The Theosophical Temple.
+
+If all the dreams of the Theosophical Society are fulfilled we shall see,
+at no distant date, in the state of California, a sombre and mysterious
+building, fashioned after an Egyptian temple, its pillars covered with
+hieroglyphic symbols, and its ponderous pylons flanking the gloomy
+entrance. Twin obelisks will stand guard at the gateway and huge bronze
+sphinxes stare the tourist out of countenance. The Theosophical temple
+will be constructed "upon certain mysterious principles, and the numbers 7
+and 13 will play a prominent part in connection with the dimensions of the
+rooms and the steps of the stairways." The Hierophants of occultism will
+assemble here, weird initiations like those described in Moore's
+"Epicurean" will take place, and the doctrines of Hindoo pantheism will be
+expounded to the Faithful. The revival of the Egyptian mysteries seems to
+be one of the objects aimed at in the establishment of this mystical
+college. Just what the Egyptian Mysteries were is a mooted question among
+Egyptologists. But this does not bother the modern adept.
+
+Mr. Bucham Harding, the leading exponent of Theosophy mentioned above,
+says that within the temple the neophyte will be brought face to face with
+his own soul. "By what means cannot be revealed; but I may say that the
+object of initiation will be to raise the consciousness of the pupil to a
+plane where he will see and know his own divine soul and consciously
+communicate with it. Once gained, this power is never lost. From this it
+can be seen that occultism is not so unreal as many think, and that the
+existence of soul is susceptible of actual demonstration. No one will be
+received into the mysteries until, by means of a long and severe
+probation, he has proved nobility of character. Only persons having
+Theosophical training will be eligible, but as any believer in brotherhood
+may become a Theosophist, all earnest truthseekers will have an
+opportunity of admission.
+
+"The probation will be sufficiently severe to deter persons seeking to
+gratify curiosity from trying to enter. No trifler could stand the test.
+There will be a number of degrees. Extremely few will be able to enter the
+highest, as eligibility to it requires eradication of every human fault
+and weakness. Those strong enough to pass through this become adepts."
+
+The Masonic Fraternity, with its 33d degree and its elaborate initiations,
+will have to look to its laurels, as soon as the Theosophical College of
+Mystery is in good running order. Everyone loves mysteries, especially
+when they are of the Egyptian kind. Cagliostro, the High Priest of Humbug,
+knew this when he evolved the Egyptian Rite of Masonry, in the eighteenth
+century. Speaking of Freemasonry, it is interesting to note the fact, as
+stated by Colonel Olcott in "Old Diary Leaves," that Madame Blavatsky and
+her coadjutors once seriously debated the question as to the advisability
+of engrafting the Theosophical Society on the Masonic fraternity, as a
+sort of higher degree,--Masonry representing the lesser mysteries, modern
+Theosophy the greater mysteries. But little encouragement was given to the
+Priestess of Isis by eminent Freemasons, for Masonry has always been the
+advocate of theistic doctrines, and opposed to the pantheistic cult. At
+another time, the leaders of Theosophy talked of imitating Masonry by
+having degrees, an elaborate ritual, etc.; also pass words, signs and
+grips, in order that "one _occult_ brother might know another in the
+darkness as well as in the _astral_ light." This, however, was abandoned.
+The founding of the Temple of Magic and Mystery in this country, with
+ceremonies of initiation, etc., seems to me to be a palingenesis of Mme.
+Blavatsky's ideas on the subject of occult Masonry.
+
+
+8. Conclusions.
+
+The temple of modern Theosophy, the foundation of which was laid by Madame
+Blavatsky, rests upon the truth of the Mahatma stories. Disbelieve these,
+and the entire structure falls to the ground like a house of cards. After
+the numerous exposures, recorded in the preceding chapters, it is
+difficult to place any reliance in the accounts of Mahatmic miracles.
+There may, or may not, be sages in the East, acquainted with spiritual
+laws of being, but that these masters, or adepts, used Madame Blavatsky as
+a medium to announce certain esoteric doctrines to the Western world, is
+exceedingly dubious.
+
+The first work of any literary pretensions to call attention to Theosophy
+was Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism." Of that production, William Emmette
+Coleman says:
+
+"'Esoteric Buddhism,' by A. P. Sinnett, was based upon statements
+contained in letters received by Mr. Sinnett and Mr. A. O. Hume, through
+Madame Blavatsky, purporting to be written by the Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and
+Morya--principally the former. Mr. Richard Hodgson has kindly lent me a
+considerable number of the original letters of the Mahatmas that leading
+to the production of 'Esoteric Buddhism.' I find in them overwhelming
+evidence that all of them were written by Madame Blavatsky. In these
+letters are a number of extracts from Buddhist Books, alleged to be
+translations from the originals by the Mahatmic writers themselves. These
+letters claim for the adepts a knowledge of Sanskrit, Thibetan, Pali and
+Chinese. I have traced to its source each quotation from the Buddhist
+Scriptures in the letters, and they were all copied from current English
+translations, including even the notes and explanations of the English
+translators. They were principally copied from Beal's 'Catena of Buddhist
+Scriptures from the Chinese.' In other places where the 'adept' is using
+his own language in explanation of Buddhistic terms and ideas, I find that
+his presumed original language was copied nearly word for word from Rhys
+Davids' 'Buddhism,' and other books. I have traced every Buddhistic idea
+in these letters and in 'Esoteric Buddhism,' and every Buddhistic term,
+such as Devachan, Avitchi, etc., to the books whence Helena Petrovna
+Blavatsky derived them. Although said to be proficient in the knowledge of
+Thibetan and Sanskrit the words and terms in these languages in the
+letters of the adepts were nearly all used in a ludicrously erroneous and
+absurd manner. The writer of those letters was an ignoramus in Sanskrit
+and Thibetan; and the mistakes and blunders in them, in these languages,
+are in exact accordance with the known ignorance of Madame Blavatsky
+concerning these languages. 'Esoteric Buddhism,' like all of Madame
+Blavatsky's works, was based upon wholesale plagiarism and ignorance."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 40. MADAME BLAVATSKY'S AUTOGRAPH.]
+
+Madame Blavatsky never succeeded in penetrating into Thibet, in whose
+sacred "lamaseries" and temples dwell the wonderful Mahatmas of modern
+Theosophy, but William Woodville Rockhill, the American traveller and
+Oriental scholar, did, and we have a record of his adventures in "The Land
+of the Laas," published in 1891. While at Serkok, he visited a famous
+monastery inhabited by 700 lamas. He says (page 102): "They asked endless
+questions concerning the state of Buddhism in foreign lands. They were
+astonished that it no longer existed in India, and that the church of
+Ceylon was so like the ancient Buddhist one. When told of our esoteric
+Buddhists, the Mahatmas, and of the wonderful doctrines they claimed to
+have obtained from Thibet, they were immensely amused. They declared that
+though in ancient times there were, doubtless, saints and sages who could
+perform some of the miracles now claimed by the Esoterists, none were
+living at the present day; and they looked upon this new school as rankly
+heretical, and as something approaching an imposition on our credulity."
+
+"Isis Unveiled," and the "Secret Doctrine," by Madame Blavatsky, are
+supposed to contain the completest exposition of Theosophy, or the inner
+spiritual meaning of the great religious cults of the world, but, as we
+have seen, they are full of plagiarisms and garbled statements, to say
+nothing of "spurious quotations from Buddhist sacred books, manufactured
+by the writer to embody her own peculiar views, under the fictitious guise
+of genuine Buddhism." This last quotation from Coleman strikes the keynote
+of the whole subject. Esoteric Buddhism is a product of Occidental
+manufacture, a figment of Madame Blavatsky's romantic imagination, and by
+no means represents the truth of Oriental philosophy.
+
+As Max Mueller, one of the greatest living Oriental scholars, has
+repeatedly stated, any attempt to read into Oriental thought our Western
+science and philosophy or to reconcile them, is futile to a degree; the
+two schools are as opposite to each other, as the negative and positive
+poles of a magnet, Orientalism representing the former, Occidentalism, the
+latter. Oriental philosophy with its Indeterminate Being (or pure nothing
+as the Absolute) ends in the utter negation of everything and affords no
+clue to the secret of the Universe. If to believe that all is _maya_,
+(illusion), and that to be one with Brahma (absorbed like the rain drop in
+the ocean) constitutes the _summum bonum_ of thinking, then there is no
+explanation of, or use for, evolution or progress of any kind. The effect
+of Hindoo philosophy has been stagnation, indifferentism, and, as a
+result, the Hindoo has no recorded history, no science, no art worthy the
+name. Compared to it see what Greek philosophy has done: it has
+transformed the Western world: Starting with Self-Determined Being,
+reason, self-activity, at the heart of the Universe, and the creation of
+individual souls by a process of evolution in time and space, and the
+unfolding of a splendid civilization are logical consequences. In the
+East, it is the destruction of self-hood; in the West the destruction of
+selfishness, and the preservation of self-hood.
+
+Many noted Theosophists claim that modern Theosophy is not a religious
+cult, but simply an exposition of the esoteric, or inner spiritual meaning
+of the great religious teachers of the world. Let me quote what Solovyoff
+says on this point:
+
+"The Theosophical Society shockingly deceived those who joined it as
+members, in reliance on the regulations. It gradually grew evident that it
+was no universal scientific brotherhood, to which the followers of all
+religions might with a clear conscience belong, but a group of persons who
+had begun to preach in their organ, _The Theosophist_, and in their other
+publications, a mixed religious doctrine. Finally, in the last years of
+Madame Blavatsky's life, even this doctrine gave place to a direct and
+open propaganda of the most orthodox exoteric Buddhism, under the motto of
+'Our Lord Buddha,' combined with incessant attacks on Christianity. * * *
+Now, in 1893, as the direct effect of this cause, we see an entire
+religious movement, we see a prosperous and growing plantation of Buddhism
+in Western Europe."
+
+As a last word let me add that if, in my opinion, modern Theosophy has no
+right to the high place it claims in the world of thought, it has
+performed its share in the noble fight against the crass materialism of
+our day, and, freed from the frauds that have too long darkened its
+poetical aspects, it may yet help to diffuse through the world the pure
+light of brotherly love and spiritual development.
+
+
+
+
+List of Works Consulted in the Preparation of this Volume
+
+
+AKSAKOFF, ALEXANDER N. =Animism and Spiritism=: an attempt at a critical
+investigation of mediumistic phenomena, with special reference to the
+hypotheses of hallucination and of the unconscious; an answer to Dr. E.
+von Hartmann's work, "Der Spiritismus." 2 vols. Leipsic, 1890. 8vo. (A
+profoundly interesting work by an impartial Russian savant. Judicial,
+critical and scientific.)
+
+AZAM, DR. =Hypnotisme et Alterations de la Personnalite.= Paris, 1887.
+8vo.
+
+BERNHEIM, HIPPOLYTE. =Suggestive Therapeutics=: A study of the nature and
+use of hypnotism. Translated from the French. New York, 1889. 4to.
+
+BINET, A. AND FERE, C. =Animal Magnetism.= Translated from the French. New
+York, 1888.
+
+BLAVATSKY, MADAME HELENE PETROVNA HAHN-HAHN. =Isis Unveiled=: A Master-key
+to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology. 6th ed. New
+York, 1891. 2 vols. 8vo. (A heterogeneous mass of poorly digested
+quotations from writers living and dead, with running remarks by Mme.
+Blavatsky. A hodge-podge of magic, masonry, and Oriental witchcraft.
+Pseudo-scientific.)
+
+------ =The Secret Doctrine=: The Synthesis of science, religion, and
+philosophy. 2 vols. New York, 1888. 8vo. (Philosophical in character. A
+reading of Western thought into Oriental religions and symbolisms.
+So-called quotations from the "Book of Dzyan," manufactured by the
+ingenious mind of the authoress.)
+
+CROCQ FILS, DR. =L'hypnotisme.= Paris, 1896. 4to. (An exhaustive work on
+hypnotism in all its phases.)
+
+CROOKES, WILLIAM. =Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism.= London,
+1876. 8vo, (pamphlet).
+
+------ =Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism.= London, 1875. 8vo,
+(pamphlet). (Very interesting exposition of experiments made with D. D.
+Home, the spirit medium.)
+
+DAVENPORT, R. B. =Death Blow to Spiritualism=: True story of the Fox
+sisters. New York, 1888. 8vo.
+
+DESSOIR, MAX. =The Psychology of Legerdemain.= _Open Court_, vol. vii.
+
+GARRETT, EDMUND. =Isis Very Much Unveiled=: Being the story of the great
+Mahatma hoax. London, 1895. 8vo.
+
+GASPARIN, COMTE AGENOR DE. =Des Tables Tournantes, du Surnaturel et des
+Esprits.= Paris, 1854. 8vo.
+
+GATCHELL, CHARLES. The methods of mind-readers. _Forum_, vol. xi, pp.
+192-204.
+
+GIBIER, DR. PAUL. =Le Spiritisme= (fakirisme occidental). Etude
+historique, critique et experimentale. Paris, 1889. 8vo.
+
+GURNEY, E., MYERS, F. W., AND PODMORE, F. =Phantasms of the Living.= 2
+vols. London, 1887. (Embodies the investigations of the Society for
+Psychical Research into Spiritualism, Telepathy, Thought-transference,
+etc.)
+
+HAMMOND, DR. W. H. =Spiritualism and Nervous Derangement.= New York, 1876.
+8vo.
+
+HARDINGE-BRITTAN, EMMA. =History of Spiritualism.= New York. 4to.
+
+HART, ERNEST. =Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New Witchcraft.= London, 1893.
+8vo. (Scientific and critical. Anti-spiritualistic in character.)
+
+HOME, D. D. =Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism.= New York, 1878. 8vo.
+
+HUDSON, THOMAS JAY. =The Law of Psychic Phenomena.= New York, 1894. 8vo.
+
+------ =A Scientific Demonstration of the Future Life.= Chicago, 1895.
+8vo.
+
+JAMES, WILLIAM. =Psychology.= New York, 1892. 8vo, 2 vols.
+
+JASTROW, JOSEPH. =Involuntary Movements.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol.
+xl, pp. 743-750. (Interesting account of experiments made in a
+Psychological Laboratory to demonstrate "the readiness with which normal
+individuals may be made to yield evidence of unconscious and involuntary
+processes." Throws considerable light on muscle-reading,
+planchette-writing, etc.)
+
+------ =The Psychology of Deception.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol.
+xxxiv, pp. 145-157.
+
+------ =The Psychology of Spiritualism.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol.
+xxxiv, pp. 721-732.
+
+    (A series of articles of great value to students of psychical
+    research.)
+
+KRAFFT-EBING, R. =Experimental Study in the Domain of Hypnotism.= New
+York, 1889.
+
+LEAF, WALTER. =A Modern Priestess of Isis=; abridged and translated on
+behalf of the Society for Psychical Research, from the Russian of Vsevolod
+S. Solovyoff. London, 1895. 8vo.
+
+LILLIE, ARTHUR. =Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophy.= London, 1896. 8vo.
+
+LIPPITT, F. J. =Physical Proofs of Another Life=: Letters to the Seybert
+commission. Washington, D. C., 1888. 8vo.
+
+MACAIRE, SID. =Mind-Reading, or Muscle-Reading?= London, 1889.
+
+MOLL, ALBERT. =Hypnotism.= New York, 1892. 8vo.
+
+MATTISON, REV. H. =Spirit-rapping Unveiled.= An Expose of the origin,
+history theology and philosophy of certain alleged communications from the
+spiritual world by means of "spirit-rapping," "medium writing," "physical
+demonstrations," etc. New York, 1855. 8vo.
+
+MYERS, F. W. H. =Science and a Future Life=, and other essays. London,
+1891. 8vo.
+
+OCHOROWICZ, DR. J. =Mental Suggestion= (with a preface by Prof. Charles
+Richet). From the French by J. Fitz-Gerald. New York, 1891. 8vo.
+
+OLCOTT, HENRY S. =Old Diary Leaves.= New York, 1895. 8vo. (Full of wildly
+improbable incidents in the career of Madame Blavatsky. Valuable on
+account of its numerous quotations from American journals concerning the
+early history of the theosophical movement in the United States.)
+
+PODMORE, FRANK S. =Apparitions and Thought-Transference=: Examination of
+the evidence of telepathy. New York, 1894. 8vo. (A thoughtful scientific
+work on a profoundly interesting subject.)
+
+REVELATIONS OF A SPIRIT MEDIUM; or, =Spiritualistic Mysteries Exposed=.
+St. Paul, Minn., 1891. 8vo. (One of the best exposes of physical phenomena
+published.)
+
+ROBERT-HOUDIN, J. E. =The Secrets of Stage Conjuring.= From the French, by
+Prof. Hoffmann. New York, 1881. 8vo. (A full account of the performances
+of the Davenport Bros. in Paris, by the most famous of contemporary
+conjurers.)
+
+ROARK, RURICK N. =Psychology in Education.= New York, 1895. 8vo.
+
+ROCKHILL, WM. W. =The Land of the Lamas.= New York, 1891. 8vo.
+
+SEYBERT COMMISSION ON SPIRITUALISM. =Preliminary Report.= New York, 1888.
+8vo. (Absolutely anti-spiritualistic. The psychical phases of the subject
+not considered.)
+
+SIDGWICK, MRS. H. =Article "Spiritualism" in "Encyclopaedia Britannica,"=
+vol. 22. (An excellent resume of spiritualism, its history and phenomena.)
+
+SINNETT, A. P. (_Ed._) =Incidents in the life of Mme. Blavatsky.= London,
+1886. 8vo. (Interesting, but replete with wildly improbable incidents,
+etc. Of little value as a life of the famous occultist.)
+
+------ =The Occult World.= London, 1885. 8vo.
+
+------ =Esoteric Buddhism.= London, 1888. 8vo.
+
+SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH: =Proceedings.= Vols. 1-11. [1882-95.]
+London, 1882-95. 8vo. (The most exhaustive researches yet set on foot by
+impartial investigators. Scientific in character, and invaluable to the
+student. Psychical phases of spiritualism mostly dealt with.)
+
+TRUESDELL, JOHN W. =The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of
+Spiritualism=: Derived from careful investigations covering a period of
+twenty-five years. New York, 1883. 8vo. (Anti-spiritualistic. Exposes of
+physical phenomena: psychography, rope-tests, etc. Of its kind, a valuable
+contribution to the literature of the subject.)
+
+WEATHERLY, DR. L. A., AND MASKELYNE, J. N. =The Supernatural.= Bristol,
+Eng., 1891. 8vo.
+
+WILLMANN, CARL. =Moderne Wunder.= Leipsic, 1892. 8vo. (Contains
+interesting accounts of Dr. Slade's Berlin and Leipsic experiences. It is
+written by a professional conjurer. Anti-spiritualistic.)
+
+WOODBURY, WALTER E. =Photographic Amusements.= New York, 1896. 8vo.
+(Contains some interesting accounts of so-called spirit photography.)
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Introduction to Herrmann the Magician, his Life, his Secrets, (Laird &
+Lee, Publishers.)
+
+[2] Spiritualism and nervous derangement, New York, 1876. p. 115.
+
+[3] The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of Spiritualism, etc., New
+York, 1883.
+
+[4] Communication to _New York Sun_, 1892.
+
+[5] NOTE--These letters were purchased from the _Christian College
+Magazine_ by Dr. Elliot Coues, of Washington, D. C.
+
+[6] "Old Diary Leaves"--_Olcott_.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth
+Century Witchcraft, by Henry Ridgely Evans
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