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A MAGICIAN
AMONG THE SPIRITS

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AND HOUDINI PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE AUTO CLUB, LONDON, ENGLAND

A MAGICIAN
AMONG THE SPIRITS

BY
HOUDINI

Illustrated

Publishers
HARPER & BROTHERS
New York and London
MCMXXIV

A MAGICIAN AMONG THE SPIRITS
Copyright, 1924, by Harry Houdini
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition
O-Y

IN WORSHIPFUL HOMAGE
I
DEDICATE THIS BOOK
TO THE MEMORY OF MY SAINTED MOTHER
IF GOD
IN HIS INFINITE WISDOM
EVER SENT AN ANGEL UPON EARTH IN HUMAN FORM
IT WAS MY
MOTHER

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

INTRODUCTION

From my early career as a mystical entertainer I have been interested in Spiritualism as belonging to the category of mysticism, and as a side line to my own phase of mystery shows I have associated myself with mediums, joining the rank and file and held seances as an independent medium to fathom the truth of it all. At the time I appreciated the fact that I surprised my clients, but while aware of the fact that I was deceiving them I did not see or understand the seriousness of trifling with such sacred sentimentality and the baneful result which inevitably followed. To me it was a lark. I was a mystifier and as such my ambition was being gratified and my love for a mild sensation satisfied. After delving deep I realized the seriousness of it all. As I advanced to riper years of experience I was brought to a realization of the seriousness of trifling with the hallowed reverence which the average human being bestows on the departed, and when I personally became afflicted with similar grief I was chagrined that I should ever have been guilty of such frivolity and for the first time realized that it bordered on crime.

As a consequence my own mental attitude became considerably more plastic. I too would have parted gladly with a large share of my earthly possessions for the solace of one word from my loved departed—just one word that I was sure had been genuinely bestowed by them—and so I was brought to a full consciousness of the sacredness of the thought, and became deeply interested to discover if there was a possible reality to the return, by Spirit, of one who had passed over the border and ever since have devoted to this effort my heart and soul and what brain power I possess. In this frame of mind I began a new line of psychical research in all seriousness and from that time to the present I have never entered a seance room except with an open mind devoutly anxious to learn if intercommunication is within the range of possibilities and with a willingness to accept any demonstration which proves a revelation of truth.

It is this question as to the truth or falsity of intercommunication between the dead and the living, more than anything else, that has claimed my attention and to which I have devoted years of research and conscientious study. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle says in one of his lectures:

“When one has a knock at the door, one does not pause, but goes further to see what causes it and investigates, and sooner or later one discovers that a message is being delivered,...”

So I have gone to investigate the knocks, but as a result of my efforts I must confess that I am farther than ever from belief in the genuineness of Spirit manifestations and after twenty-five years of ardent research and endeavor I declare that nothing has been revealed to convince me that intercommunication has been established between the Spirits of the departed and those still in the flesh.

I have made compacts with fourteen different persons that whichever of us died first would communicate with the other if it were possible, but I have never received a word. The first of these compacts was made more than twenty-five years ago and I am certain that if any one of the persons could have reached me he would have done so. One compact was made with my private secretary, the late John W. Sargent, a man of mature years. We were very much attached to each other. The day before he underwent an operation he said to me:

“Houdini, this may be the end. If it is, I am coming back to you no matter what happens on the other side provided there is any way I can reach you. And if I can come, you will know it is I because I am going to will it so strong that you cannot be mistaken.”

He died the next day. That was more than three years ago and there has been no sign. I have waited and watched believing that if any man ever could have sent back word he would have been the man. And I know that our minds were so close to each other that I would have received the signal that my friend wanted to call me. No one could accuse me of being unwilling to receive such a sign because it would have been the greatest enlightenment I could possibly have had in this world.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a sincere and confirmed believer in Spirit phenomena whose acquaintance I esteem, advises me that I do not secure convincing results because I am a skeptic and I therefore want to make it clear that I am not a scoffer. I firmly believe in a Supreme Being and that there is a Hereafter. Therefore since their departure from this earth it has been my practice, as a final duty, to visit the sacred resting places of my dearly beloved parents, and ask their protection and silent blessings through the Omnipotent Almighty. The very first place I visit when I return from a trip is this same hallowed spot. Both promised me faithfully innumerable times in this life that if they could aid and protect me from their graves or from the Great Beyond, they would do so. My mind has always been open and receptive and ready to believe. In attending seances I have always made a pledge of honor with myself to banish all profane thoughts from my mind to the utmost of my ability. I further pledge myself to concentrate. I have persuaded my whole soul, brain and thought to a point where the medium has my attention to such an extent that at the finish I feel as much exhausted as the medium who shows to those present the effects of great strain irrespective of its cause. Thus it must be seen that I am not a skeptic. However, it has been my life work to invent and publicly present problems, the secrets of which not even the members of the magical profession have been able to discover, and the effects of which have proved as inexplicable to the scientists as any marvel of the mediums, and I claim that in so far as the revelation of trickery is concerned my years of investigation have been more productive than the same period of similar work by any scientist; that my record as a “mystifier of mystifiers” qualifies me to look below the surface of any mystery problem presented to me and that with my eyes trained by thirty years’ experience in the realms of mystery and occultism it is not strange that I view these so-called phenomena from a different angle than the ordinary layman or even the expert investigator.

A memorable incident in my life and one that shows how little the world at large understands the methods by which my mysteries are produced and also shows how easy it is for even a great intellect, faced with a mystery it cannot fathom, to conclude that there is something supernatural involved, has to do with Madame Sarah Bernhardt.

During one of my various engagements in Paris she had witnessed my performances and was anxious to see one of my outdoor exploits, so, when we were both playing at the same time in Boston, out of good camaraderie I gave a special performance at my hotel adding a few extra experiments for her benefit. As we were seated in the motor car on the way to my demonstration she placed her arm gently around my shoulder, and in that wonderful speaking voice with which she was gifted and which has thrilled thousands of auditors, but now stilled forever, she said to me:

“Houdini, you do such marvellous things. Couldn’t you—could you bring back my leg for me?”

I looked at her, startled, and failing to see any mischievous sparkle in her eye replied:

“Good heavens, Madame, certainly not; you cannot be serious. You know my powers are limited and you are actually asking me to do the impossible.”

“Yes,” she said as she leaned closer to me, “but you do the impossible.”

We looked at each other; she, the travel-worn, experienced woman of the world; I, the humble mystifier, nonplussed and thunderstruck at the extraordinary, unintentional compliment she was paying me. Then I asked:

“Are you jesting?”

“Mais non, Houdini, j’ai jamais été plus sèrieux dans ma vie,”[1] she answered as she slowly shook her head.

“Madame, you exaggerate my ability,” I told her.

Each of the marvels of modern scientific achievement such as the telephone, radio, flying machine, radium, etc., were at one time classed as impossible and would have been looked upon as supernatural, if not Spiritual manifestations. Similar mysteries, but more frail in principle and constructive detail, were the instruments used by the priestcraft of ancient religious cults for the purpose of holding the mass of unintelligent beings in servitude.

It is not unusual for the eye or ear to play tricks with one but when such illusions and delusions are taken for the Spirit forms of the departed and voices of the dead instead of being recognized as some subjective phenomena brought about by a physical cause the situation takes on a grave aspect. It is this transfer of an inner reaction to an external object which constitutes practically all that is necessary to be placed in the category of “psychics,” who represent the priests and ministers of Spiritualism.

Distressed relatives catch at the least word which may remotely indicate that the Spirit which they seek is in communication with them. One little sign even, which appeals to their waiting imagination, shatters all ordinary caution and they are converted. Then they begin to accept all kinds of natural events as results of Spirit intervention. This state of mind is productive of many misfortunes, including suicides by those who think they are going to happiness with loved ones beyond the pale. When in Europe in 1919 finishing an engagement interrupted by the World War I was impressed by the eagerness of grief-stricken parents for the solace of a word from the boy who had passed on and my desire for the truth was renewed with fresh vigor. I am informed that so great has the “medium” craze become in Berlin that the grief-stricken residents have spent great sums of money in the hope of discovering mediums who will “guarantee them a glimpse behind the veil.” It is with the deepest interest and concern that I have watched this great wave of Spiritualism sweep the world in recent months and realized that it has taken such a hold on persons of a neurotic temperament, especially those suffering from bereavement, that it has become a menace to health and sanity.

Professor George M. Robertson, eminent psychopathologist, and Physician-Superintendent of the Royal Edinburgh Mental Hospital, made the danger of insanity resulting from strong belief in Spiritualism by neurotics the subject of a part of his annual report in 1920. He says:

“Those who had sustained bereavements during the war and bore them with equanimity in the days of crowded incidents and amidst the pressure of war activities, such as Red Cross and other work, find it much harder to bear up now, although time has elapsed. Some have broken down since the war came to an end. Many, as a solace to their feelings, have taken an interest in Spiritualism. Since Dr. Charles Mercier quoted in the preface of his book ‘Spiritualism and Sir Oliver Lodge’ my warning on the danger of neurotic persons engaging in practical inquiries of a Spiritualistic nature, I have received many requests to say more on the subject. I have little to add save to reaffirm the statement then made.

“I do not consider either Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Sir Oliver Lodge to be safe judges, whose opinion should be accepted on this difficult and important subject, in view of their bereavement and unconscious desires. If the wish be father to the thought, it is mother to the hallucination of the senses.

“The tricks the brain can play without calling in Spiritualistic aids are simply astounding, and only those who have made a study of morbid as well as normal psychology, realize the full truth of this.”

I have read with keen curiosity the articles by leading scientists on the subject of psychic phenomena, particularly those by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sir Oliver Lodge, in which they have discussed their respective conversions to a belief in communication with the dead. There is no doubt in my mind that some of these scientists are sincere in their belief but unfortunately it is through this very sincerity that thousands become converts. The fact that they are scientists does not endow them with an especial gift for detecting the particular sort of fraud used by mediums, nor does it bar them from being deceived, especially when they are fortified in their belief by grief, for the various books and records of the subject are replete with deceptions practised on noted scientists who have essayed to investigate prominent mediums. It is perfectly rational to suppose that I may be deceived once or twice by a new illusion, but if my mind, which has been so keenly trained for years to invent mysterious effects, can be deceived, how much more susceptible must the ordinary observer be.

During my last trip abroad, in 1919, I attended over one hundred seances with the sole purpose of honest investigation; these seances were presided over by well-known mediums in France and England. In addition to attending these seances I spent a great deal of time conferring with persons prominently identified with Spiritualism. In the course of my intense investigations I have met most of the famous mediums of our time. I have submitted to conditions imposed by them and religiously awaited results, but I still question any so-called proof of the existence of Spirits who are interested in any way, physically or mentally, in the welfare of mortal men. It is not within the province of this book, which is the result of my years of investigation, to give all the historical detail concerning every medium mentioned, though enough are furnished in each instance to establish my claims, each of which is based on a thorough study of the records as are also my statements many of which are supported by documentary evidence in my possession.

I have spent a goodly part of my life in study and research. During the last thirty years I have read every single piece of literature on the subject of Spiritualism that I could. I have accumulated one of the largest libraries in the world on psychic phenomena, Spiritualism, magic, witchcraft, demonology, evil spirits, etc., some of the material going back as far as 1489, and I doubt if any one in the world has so complete a library on modern Spiritualism, but nothing I ever read concerning the so-called Spiritualistic phenomena has impressed me as being genuine. It is true that some of the things I read seemed mystifying but I question if they would be were they to be reproduced under different circumstances, under test conditions, and before expert mystifiers and open minded committees. Mine has not been an investigation of a few days or weeks or months but one that has extended over thirty years and in that thirty years I have not found one incident that savoured of the genuine. If there had been any real unalloyed demonstration to work on, one that did not reek of fraud, one that could not be reproduced by earthly powers, then there would be something for a foundation, but up to the present time everything that I have investigated has been the result of deluded brains or those which were too actively and intensely willing to believe.

Houdini.

PREFACE

Gladly would I embrace Spiritualism if it could prove its claims, but I am not willing to be deluded by the fraudulent impositions of so-called psychics, or accept as sacred reality any of the evidence that has been placed before me thus far.

The ancients’ childish belief in demonology and witchcraft; the superstitions of the civilized and uncivilized, and those marvellous mysteries of past ages are all laughed at by the full grown sense of the present generation; yet we are asked, in all seriousness, by a few scientists and scholars, to accept as absolute truth such testimony as is built up by their pet mediums, which, so far, has been proven to be nothing beyond a more or less elaborate construction of fiction resting on the slenderest of foundations, or rather, absolutely no foundation.

Not only educated men and women with emotional longings for some assurance of the continued existence of departed loved ones, but people of all phases and conditions of life, have completely surrendered themselves to belief in the most monstrous fiction, vouched for by only a single witness of the so-called phenomenon, and that too when the medium, through whom the phenomenon was supposed to have presented itself, had been caught cheating time and again.

I believe in a Hereafter and no greater blessing could be bestowed upon me than the opportunity, once again, to speak to my sainted Mother who awaits me with open arms to press me to her heart in welcome, just as she did when I entered this mundane sphere.

H.

Spring, 1924.

A MAGICIAN
AMONG THE SPIRITS

CHAPTER I
THE FOUNDERS OF MODERN SPIRITUALISM

The story of modern spirit manifestations, so called, dates from 1848 and the “solitary farmhouse” of John D. Fox and his wife in the village of Hydesville, in New York State, and centres around their two little girls, Margaret, eight, and Kate, younger by a year and a half. Successfully exploited while still children; credited with occult power; becoming world-famous as “The Fox Sisters,”—their record is, without exception, one of the most interesting in the history of spiritualism.

John Fox and his wife appear to have been of the “good, honest,” but not mentally keen type of farmer folk. Of the two, the wife was the more “simple minded,” and when the “nervous, superstitious woman” began to hear unusual noises which she could not account for, and which seemed in some peculiar manner connected with her children, she concluded at once that the sounds were “unnatural” and began to brood over the matter. Her fears increased with the persistent recurrence of the mysterious sounds, and before long she took some of the neighbors into her confidence. They were as puzzled as the mother, the Fox home became an object of suspicion and the neighborhood set itself the task of solving the mystery.

With the increase of interest came a proportionate increase in the noises, which commenced to be known as “rappings,” and which, in spite of the positive denials by the children of any knowledge of how they were produced, regularly answered by an uncanny code questions asked the two girls. The possibility of duplicity in such children never occurred to any one in Hydesville, with the result that the timid hint of a “disembodied spirit” soon became a theory. Some one asked the girls if a murder had ever been committed in the house. The ominous sounds of the code answered in the affirmative and at once to the eager investigators, the theory became a proven fact and there flashed up in their minds the vision of a personality in the Spirit World endeavoring by crude means, which somewhat resembled telegraphy, to give to human beings the benefit of its vaster knowledge, the whole affair in some obscure manner being connected with two little girls.

At this critical moment a married daughter of John D. Fox and his wife came home to Hydesville for a visit. Twenty-three years older than little Margaret, of a very different type than either father or mother, she seems to have grasped instantly the possibilities in the “occult” powers of her little sisters and to have taken complete command of the Fox family’s affairs at once. Her first move was to organize a “Society of Spiritualists” and encourage crowds to come to the house to see the children. Hydesville became famous almost overnight. News of the peculiar “rappings” spread with lightning-like rapidity and soon became an absorbing topic of conversation, not only in the United States, but in England, France, Italy, and Germany as well. Women like Harriet Martineau and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were said to have given their whole thought to it, and men of the strongest intellect and will to be “caught in the meshes it had woven in contemporaneous thought.”

Hydesville became too small a field for the operations of Mrs. Fish, the older sister, very quickly, and soon she appears in Rochester with the girls, publicly exhibiting their feats to great crowds for money, realizing from one hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars a night in profits, which she pocketed. From Rochester she took them to New York City, and later the girls made a tour of the cities of the United States, attracting the “most prominent theologians, physicians, and professional men of all kinds, as well as great crowds everywhere.” There is no record that the girls were ever under the management of Mrs. Fish after they left New York City although she menaced them continually and Margaret feared her as long as she lived.

The grand tour over, Kate, sponsored by Horace Greeley, went to school and Margaret, just developing into an attractive young woman, and destined to become the more famous of the two mediums, began a series of seances in rooms occupied by herself and mother at the Union Hotel in Philadelphia. There romance entered her life on a day in 1853 in the person of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the noted Arctic explorer.

His had been a remarkable career. Belonging to one of the most aristocratic families in Philadelphia; the son of a judge; handsome; still under thirty-four; graduated more than ten years previously from the University of Pennsylvania, he had gone out to China with Commodore Parker as “surgeon of the embassy,” later obtained a leave of absence and travelled through Greece on foot, went up the Nile, toured India, Ceylon, and the South Sea Islands, and even “dared the Himalayas.” The Mexican War had furnished him an opportunity to “win spurs for gallantry.” and, this over, he had joined a relief expedition which went in search of Sir John Franklin in 1850.[2]

This much travelled, much experienced man of the world was instantly and irresistibly attracted to the young medium. An acquaintance was formed and it was not long before Doctor Kane determined that, regardless of all obstacles, she should be his wife. In spite of the efforts of his family, he soon made arrangements to educate Margaret, and she was placed with a tutor in a quiet suburb of Philadelphia, where an aunt of the doctor’s could have an oversight of her and where in addition to her other studies she was to be made proficient in French, German, and Italian, as well as vocal and instrumental music. Her vacations were spent with a sister of Senator Cockrell. For some three or four years she was thus sheltered from the world, while the doctor did all in his power to eradicate from her mind everything connected with spiritualism and “rappings.” Then came the turn of the tide.

The doctor became broken in health as a result of exposure in the Arctic and decided to go abroad. There had been neither civil or religious ceremony to mark his marriage to Margaret, but just before he sailed, in the presence of her mother and other witnesses, he declared that they were husband and wife. His health grew worse in London and he left there for the West Indies, where Margaret and her mother were to join him, but their preparations for the journey were cut short by the announcement in the papers of his death in Havana on the 16th of February, 1857. Margaret was prostrated by the blow. A long sickness followed and when she finally recovered it was to face the world, not only friendless and alone, but penniless as well, for, owing to a compromise, she did not share in the doctor’s estate. Disappointed, disheartened, and bitter she went back to her Spiritualism and “rappings.” For thirty years she wandered from place to place holding seances. For thirty years she suffered the tortures of remorse and ill health. She believed she was being driven “into hell.” She loathed the thing she was, and tried at times to drown her troubles in wine. For thirty years she lived in constant fear of her older sister. Then Margaret Kane found a temporary solace in the Catholic Church. But there were still more months of struggle before she finally found courage to tell the story of the world-famous “rappings” in a signed confession given to the press in October, 1888.[3]

“I do this,” she said, “because I consider it my duty, a sacred thing, a holy mission, to expose it (Spiritualism). I want to see the day when it is entirely done away with. After I expose it I hope Spiritualism will be given a death blow. I was the first in the field and I have a right to expose it.[4]

“My sister Katie and I were very young children when this horrible deception began. I was only eight, just a year and a half older than she. We were very mischievous children and sought merely to terrify our dear mother, who was a very good woman and very easily frightened.

“When we went to bed at night we used to tie an apple to a string and move the string up and down, causing the apple to bump on the floor, or we would drop the apple on the floor, making a strange noise every time it would rebound. Mother listened to this for a time. She would not understand it and did not suspect us as being capable of a trick because we were so young.

“At last she could stand it no longer and she called the neighbors in and told them about it. It was this that set us to discover a means of making the raps more effectually. I think, when I reflect about it, that it was a most wonderful discovery, a very wonderful thing that children should make such a discovery, and all through a desire to do mischief only.[5]

“Our oldest sister was twenty-three years of age when I was born. She was in Rochester when these tricks first began but came to Hydesville, the little village in central New York where we were born and lived.

“All the neighbors around, as I have said, were called in to witness these manifestations. There were so many people coming to the house that we were not able to make use of the apple trick except when we were in bed and the room was dark. Even then we could hardly do it, so the only way was to rap on the bedstead.

“And that is the way we began. First, as a mere trick to frighten mother, and then, when so many people came to see us children, we were ourselves frightened, and for self-preservation forced to keep it up. No one suspected us of any trick because we were such young children. We were led on by my sister purposely and by mother unintentionally. We often heard her say:

“‘Is this a disembodied spirit that has taken possession of my dear children?’

“That encouraged our fun and we went on. All the neighbors thought there was something and they wanted to find out what it was. They were convinced that some one had been murdered in the house. They asked the spirits through us about it and we would rap one for the spirit answer ‘yes,’ not three as we did afterwards. The murder they concluded must have been committed in the house. They went over the whole surrounding country trying to get the names of people who had formerly lived in the house. Finally they found a man by the name of Bell, and they said that this poor innocent man had committed a murder in the house and that the noises came from the spirit of the murdered person. Poor Bell was shunned and looked upon by the whole community as a murderer.[6]

“Mrs. Underhill, my eldest sister, took Katie and me to Rochester. There it was that we discovered a new way to make the raps. My sister Katie was the first to observe that by swishing her fingers she could produce certain noises with her knuckles and joints, and that the same effect could be made with the toes. Finding that we could make raps with our feet—first with one foot and then with both—we practiced until we could do this easily when the room was dark.

“Like most perplexing things when made clear, it is astonishing how easily it is done. The rappings are simply the result of a perfect control of the muscles of the leg below the knee, which govern the tendons of the foot and allow action of the toe and ankle bones that is not commonly known. Such perfect control is only possible when a child is taken at an early age and carefully and continually taught to practice the muscles, which grow stiff in later years. A child at twelve is almost too old. With control of the muscles of the foot, the toes may be brought down to the floor without any movement that is perceptible to the eye. The whole foot, in fact, can be made to give rappings by the use only of the muscles below the knee. This, then, is the simple explanation of the whole method of the knocks and raps.

“In Rochester Mrs. Underhill gave exhibitions. We had crowds coming to see us and she made as much as a hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars a night. She pocketed this. Parties came in from all parts to see us. Many as soon as they heard a little rap were convinced. To all questions we answered by raps. We knew when to rap ‘yes’ or ‘no’ according to certain signs which Mrs. Underhill gave us during the seance.

“A great many people when they hear the rapping imagine at once that the spirits are touching them. It is a very common delusion. Some very wealthy people came to see me some years ago when I lived in Forty-second Street and I did some rappings for them. I made the spirit rap on the chair and one of the ladies cried out:

“‘I feel the spirit tapping me on the shoulder.’

“Of course that was pure imagination.

“Katie and I were led around like lambs. We went to New York from Rochester and then all over the United States. We drew immense crowds. I remember particularly Cincinnati. We stopped at the Burnett House. The rooms were jammed from morning till night and we were called upon by those old wretches to show our rappings when we should have been out at play in the fresh air.

“Nobody has ever suspected anything from the start in 1848 until the present day as to any trickery in our methods. There has never been a detection.[7] But as the world grew wise and science began to investigate we began to adapt our experiments to our audiences. Our seances were held in a room. There was a centre-table in the middle and we all stood around it.

“As far as Spirits were concerned neither my sister nor I thought about it. I know that there is no such thing as the departed returning to this life. Many people have said to me that such a thing was possible and seemed to believe so firmly in it that I tried to see, and I have tried in every form and know that it cannot be done.

“After I married, Dr. Kane would not let me refer to my old life—he wanted me to forget it. But when I was poor, after his death, I was driven to it again, and I wish to say clearly that I owe all my misfortune to that woman, my sister. I have asked her time and again:

“‘Now that you are rich why don’t you save your soul?’

“But at my words she would fly into a passion. She wanted to establish a new religion and she told me that she received messages from spirits. She knew that we were tricking people but she tried to make us believe spirits existed. She told us that before we were born spirits came into her room and told her that we were destined for great things.

“Yes, I am going to expose Spiritualism from its very foundation. I have had the idea in my head for many a year but I have never come to a determination before. I have thought of it day and night. I loathe the thing I have been. I used to say to those who wanted me to give a seance:

“‘You are driving me into Hell.’

“Then the next day I would drown my remorse in wine. I was too honest to remain a ‘medium.’ That’s why I gave up my exhibitions. I have seen so much miserable deception! Every morning of my life I have it before me. When I wake up I brood over it. That is why I am willing to state that Spiritualism is a fraud of the worst description. I have had a life of sorrow, I have been poor and ill, but I consider it my duty, a sacred thing, a holy mission to expose it. I want to see the day when it is entirely done away with. After my sister Katie and I expose it I hope Spiritualism will be given a death blow.

“I do not want it understood that the Catholic Church has advised me to make these public exposures and confession. It is my own idea. My own mission. I would have done it long ago if I could have had the necessary money and courage to do it. I could not find anyone to help me—I was too timid to ask.

“I am now very poor. I intend, however, to expose Spiritualism because I think it is my sacred duty. If I cannot do it who can? I who have been the beginning of it? At least I hope to reduce the ranks of the eight million Spiritualists in the country. I go into it as into a holy war. I am waiting anxiously and fearlessly for the moment when I can show the world, by personal demonstration, that all Spiritualism is a fraud and a deception. It is a branch of legerdemain, but it has to be closely studied to gain perfection. None but a child at an early age, would have ever attained the proficiency and wrought such widespread evil as I have.

JOHN D. FOX AND HIS WIFE

THE FOX HOME AT HYDESVILLE

“I trust that this statement, coming solemnly from me, the first and the most successful in this deception, will break the rapid growth of Spiritualism and prove that it is all a fraud, hypocrisy and delusion.

(Signed) “Margaret Fox Kane.”[8]

Mrs. Kane’s “confession” was published in the Sunday edition of the New York World on October 21, 1888. Arrangements had been made for her to give a public demonstration and exposition of the so-called “marvellous” Spiritualistic “phenomena” that same evening at the Academy of Music in New York. Meanwhile, in order to foil the “attempts” of certain mediums to “kidnap her” she was being closely guarded at her hotel where during the day she was interviewed by newspaper men. Expecting when she left her room to answer questions only she nevertheless readily consented to give some evidence of “how the trick was done” in order to do all in her power to “complete the exposure and demonstrate the utter absurdity of the claim made by mediums that she was possessed of spiritual power in spite of her denials.” The World reporter told of this private demonstration as follows:

“‘Now,’ said Mrs. Kane, ‘I will stand up before these folding-doors and you may stand as near as you please and I will call up any “spirit” that you wish and answer any questions. One rap means “no” and three raps mean “yes.” Are you ready?’

“‘Is Napoleon Bonaparte present?’ the reporter asked, watching Mrs. Kane closely. Three raps (yes).

“‘Does he know me? I mean did he ever meet and converse with me?’ Three raps.

“‘That is strange, isn’t it,’ remarked Mrs. Kane, smiling, ‘in view of the fact that he must have died before you were born? Try again.’

“‘Is Abraham Lincoln present?’ Three raps.

“‘Well you see the “spirits” are very obliging.’

“‘Will Harrison be elected?’ One loud rap (no).

“‘Will President Cleveland get another term?’ Three raps.”

That night some two thousand or more persons crowded the Academy of Music to witness the sensational exposé. Most of them were sober, sensible people who “hailed with delight” the announcement that one of the famous Fox Sisters was to make a “clean breast of her share in Spiritualistic humbuggery.” But certain portions of the house were packed with pronounced Spiritualists, men and women who regarded all efforts to disillusion the public as so many personal insults, and when, previous to Mrs. Kane’s appearance, Dr. C. M. Richmond, a prominent New York dentist who had spent twenty years and thousands of dollars investigating mediumistic tricks and wiles explained and demonstrated in full light the full methods of producing them, this Spiritualistic contingent became decidedly hostile and when Mrs. Kane finally stepped before the big audience to “confess orally what she had already confessed in print” she was laboring under too great a nervous strain to make any “intelligent utterance.” Those in charge of the affair realizing that an address was out of the question at once suggested that she immediately give a demonstration of the “rappings.” One of the New York papers the next morning published the following description of what happened.[9]

“But if her tongue had lost its power her preternatural toe joint had not. A plain wooden stool, or table, resting upon four short legs and having the properties of a sounding board was placed in front of her. Removing her shoe, she placed her right foot upon this little table.

“The entire house became breathlessly still and was rewarded by a number of little short, sharp raps—those mysterious sounds which have for forty years frightened and bewildered hundreds of thousands of people in this country and in Europe.

“A committee consisting of three physicians taken from the audience then ascended the stage, and having made an examination of her foot during the progress of the rappings, unhesitatingly agreed that the sounds were made by the action of the first joint of her large toe.

“The demonstration was perfect and complete and only the most hopelessly prejudiced and bigoted fanatics of Spiritualism could withstand the irresistible force of this commonplace explanation and exhibition of how spirit rappings are produced.”

The exposure attracted widespread attention. Letters poured in from far and wide begging for confirmation, explanation or denial. The rest of the tribe of mediums naively hinted that if there had been fraud it was well to have it exposed but of course they were genuine. Many who had believed in Spiritualism wrote most pathetically. One of these writing from San Francisco says:

“I have been a believer in the phenomena from its first inception through you and your sister, believing it to be true since that time.

“I am now eighty-one years old and have but a short time of course, to remain in this world, and I feel a great anxiety to know through you if I have been deceived all this time in a matter of vital interest to us all.”[10]

But perhaps of them all none better expresses what a blow the exposure was to thousands who had accepted as genuine the messages of the mysterious raps or describes more vividly the effect of Spiritualism on many who are attracted to it than the following from a woman in Boston.[11]

“Hundreds of thousands have believed through you and you alone. Hundreds of thousands eagerly ask you whether all the glorious light that they fancied you had given them, was but the false flicker of a common dip-candle of fraud.

“If, as you say, you were forced to pursue this imposture from childhood, I can forgive you, and I am sure God will; for he turns not back the truly repentant. I will not upbraid you. I am sure you have suffered as much as any penalty, human or divine, could cause you to suffer. The disclosures that you make take from me all that I have cherished most. There is nothing left for me now but to hope for the reality of that repose which death promises us.

“It is perhaps better that the delusion should be at last swept away by one single word, and that word ‘fraud.’

LEAH FOX FISH

KATIE FOX JENCKEN

MARGARET FOX KANE

ELISHA KENT KANE, M.D.

“I know that the pursuit of this shadowy belief has wrought upon my brain and that I am no longer my old self. Money I have spent in thousands and thousands of dollars within a few short years to propitiate the ‘mediumistic’ intelligence. It is true that never once have I received a message or the token of a word that did not leave a still unsatisfied longing in my heart, a feeling that it was not really my loved one after all who was speaking to me, or if it was my loved one that he was changed, that I hardly knew him and he hardly knew me. But that must have been the true intuition. It is better that the delusion is past, after all, for had I kept on in that way, I am sure I should have gone mad. The constant seeking, the frequent pretended response, its unsatisfying meaning, the sense of distance and change between me and my loved one—oh! it has been horrible, horrible!

“He who is dying of thirst and has the sweet cup ever snatched from his lips, just as the first drop touches them—he alone can know what in actual things is the similitude of this Spiritualistic torture.

“God bless you, for I think that you now speak the truth. You have my forgiveness at least, and I believe that thousands of others will forgive you, for the atonement made in season wipes out much of the stain of the early sin.”

Margaret Kane’s “confession” did not bring her the relief or friends she had hoped for, nor did it end her connection with Spiritualism for, glad as she would have been to give it up for good, her theatrical exposure was a financial failure and before long she was down and out again and once more she resorted to Spiritualism as a means of livelihood, giving seances and mediumistic meetings in a number of cities throughout the United States; but her power of fooling the public was gone. Having confessed to deceit once, no amount of persuasion on her part could convince the public that she was genuine, and in place of the thousands who had flocked to her in her younger days she never had more than a handful at her meetings. Her only friends were Spiritualists for strangely enough some of them still had faith in her, even when she was exposing Spiritualism, believing that she had fallen into the hands of evil spirits when she confessed that she was a fraud.

Some time after the confession a “recantation” was circulated as coming from Mrs. Kane. I was never able to find any proof of its authenticity but my friend, Mr. W. S. Davis, who knew her well, informed me that she did make it—that she had to, or starve. It was not wholly voluntary though as Mr. Newton (then President of the First Society of Spiritualists) convinced her that it would be for her interest, and the interest of Spiritualism as well to do it. It made little difference, however, for the career of the unfortunate woman was nearly over. Frequently overcome by drink, forced on by privation and misery, death came to her, on March 8, 1895, less than seven years after she had stood in a crowded theatre and deliberately shown the method of making the raps which had brought her fame for four decades.

The Fox Sisters used Spiritualism only as a means to “get while the getting was good.” Fortunately for the general public Spiritualism received a severe jolt in the confession of Margaret Fox Kane; there was an end to the Fox “swindle” and an untold amount of blood-money and grief saved to poor misguided souls so easily fooled by a simple physical trick.

CHAPTER II
THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS

Such evidence of spirits as the simple “rappings” of the Fox Sisters soon gave place to more elaborate “manifestations” and with the appearance of Ira Erastus Davenport and his brother William Henry Harrison Davenport, working together, and known as the “Davenport Brothers,” these manifestations became complicated exhibitions involving the use of a cabinet, rope tricks, bells, and various horns and musical instruments. These brothers have always been, and are still, pointed to as being indisputable proof of the reality and genuineness of mediumistic phenomena and public interest in Spiritualism was greatly stimulated by the tremendous sensation and discussion caused by their demonstrations, yet an interesting train of circumstances put me in possession of facts more than sufficient to disprove their having, or even claiming, spiritualistic power.

During many of the years in which I have been making a study of Spiritualism I supposed both of the Davenports dead and when my friend, Harry Kellar, in recounting some of his early experiences and hardships told me that he had been associated with them at one time and that Ira Davenport was still living I was surprised indeed. I at once communicated with him and there followed a pleasant acquaintance which lasted until his death and furnished me with much of historic value concerning the brothers which has never appeared in print.

Heretofore all published accounts of the Davenport Brothers’ doings have been vague, speculative, lacking in actual knowledge, and misleading because the authors have been victims of delusion, but the information here given is based on a long correspondence with Ira Davenport as well as an open hearted confession which he made to me shortly before his death, answering all my questions unreservedly and offering to assist me in every way he could as he wanted my statements[12] to be accurate in the book on Spiritualism which he knew I was writing.

The Davenport Brothers were devotedly attached to each other and when in 1877 William died while they were in Australia, Ira the surviving brother was completely upset. He made one feeble attempt to reinstate himself, but the “Spirit” was lacking and he returned, a discouraged man, to spend the remainder of his days in peace and quiet at home. While playing Australia early in 1910 for Harry Rickards I hunted up the grave of William Davenport and finding it sadly neglected I had it put in order, fresh flowers planted on it and the stone work repaired.[13] It was also on this trip that I met William M. Fay of “Davenport Brothers and Fay,” who told me many interesting things about the brothers and on my return to America one of the first things which I did was to go to Maysville, Chautauqua County, New York, to make Ira Davenport a visit. He met me at the station and took me to his home, an exceptionally happy and restful one presided over by the second Mrs. Davenport, the first having died in childbirth.

This second marriage was most romantic. During a seance which the Brothers were giving in Paris[14] Ira noticed a strikingly beautiful Belgian girl intently watching him. After the performance he managed to meet her only to find that she could not speak a word of English. His French being limited to the usual two or three word table d’hôte vocabulary of the average American tourist he called his interpreter and through him asked the girl to become his wife. Bewildered by such an audacious proposal she blushed deeply, and cast down her eyes, then slowly raising them looked straight into Ira’s. There was a quick exchange of admiration and her woman’s intuition must have read deeply and correctly for she then and there consented to wed this American who had so unconventionally asked her to be his wife, a decision which she never had occasion to regret for they were a remarkably happy couple.[15]

In the tranquil atmosphere of his porch we turned back the pages of time, Mr. Davenport re-living in retrospect the trials, battles, praise and applause of long ago. Among other things we talked over the magical mystery performers of other days which led him to say very generously:

“Houdini, you know more about the old timers and my arguments, than I who lived through those troublesome times.”

He said that he recognized in me a past master of the craft and therefore spoke openly and did not hesitate to tell me the secrets of his feats. We discussed and analyzed the statements made in his letters to me and he frankly admitted that the work of the Davenport Brothers was accomplished by perfectly natural means and belonged to that class of feats commonly credited to “physical dexterity.” Not once was there even a hint that Spiritualism was of any concern to him, instead, discussing his work as straightforward showmanship.

For me it was a memorable day and did not end with the setting of the sun, for we talked far into the night,[16] I with notebook in hand, he with a long piece of rope initiating me into the mysteries of the real “Davenport tie,” which converted thousands to a belief in Spiritualism and was the genesis[17] of the rope-tying stunts which gave such a stimulus to Spiritualistic discussion in connection with the brothers. Though many attempts were made to imitate it, to the best of my knowledge and belief, no one, not even the magical fraternity, was ever able to detect the method used in these famous rope tricks, the secret being guarded so carefully that Ira Davenport’s children did not know it. I have tested it and for uses such as they made of it I consider it one of the best rope ties in existence to-day, and it is only because I want it on record when I eventually pass to the Beyond that I am explaining to the public the modus operandi which was as follows.

Built into either side of the cabinet used by the Davenports[18] was a bench through which two holes had been bored a little distance apart. The Brothers seated themselves on these benches, and opposite one another, with their feet squarely on the floor in front of them. The end of a rope was passed around the legs of one of the brothers, close up by the knees, and tied. The rope was then wound around the legs several times, fastened at the ankles, the remaining portion carried straight across the cabinet to the other brother’s ankles, fastened, wound about his legs and tied at the knees. A shorter piece of rope was then tied to each of their wrists with the knots lying next to the pulse. These ropes were threaded through the holes and the wrists drawn down to the benches, and the ends of the ropes fastened to the ankles.

Their method of releasing themselves was comparatively simple. While one extended his feet the other drew his in thus securing slack enough in the wrist ropes to permit working their hands out of the loops.[19] The second brother was released by reversing the action.

After the demonstrations were completed the brothers slipped their hands back into the loops from which they had drawn them, placed their feet in the original positions and were ready to be examined. When the cabinet was opened the ropes appeared as taut as when put on by the committee.

In order to disprove the frequently made claim that the Davenports left their benches to produce certain manifestations they asked investigating committees to place sheets of paper under their feet and mark around them with pencil or crayon thus making it seemingly impossible to move a foot without detection. But this in no way interfered or hindered in their performance for Ira told me they used to slide their feet, paper and all, and still keep the feet inside the marks, a method I can vouch for as being practical for I have tried it successfully.[20]

With the advantage of working together it was simply impossible to secure both of the brothers in such a manner as to prevent their producing the expected results. If one was in trouble the other was always ready to come to the rescue for no matter how securely the committee tied them one was sure to be more loosely tied than the other and could get a hand free to reach over and help.

“There was one chance in twenty million to hold us both at the same time,” Ira told me.[21]

The Davenports’ strictest test was known as “The Tie Around the Neck.” This was also explained to me by Ira. A committee of three was called upon one of whom was a woman and for that reason the least suspected although in reality a confederate.[22] She and the Davenports were each in turn tied around the neck. The woman released herself by cutting the rope.[23] Hiding the pieces in her bloomers she performed her share of the manifestations and retied herself with a duplicate piece of rope. No one was the wiser for so curiously allied are our five senses that the committee, bereft of its sight while such dark deeds were being done, seemed to have lost the use of its reasoning power as well.

The first of the Davenports’ public performances were given in a large hall with rows of seats for the audience and a small raised platform which served as a stage. Someone, thinking to prevent the possibility of assistance by visitors, or confederates in the audience, asked if it were possible to have the manifestations occur in a closet. Receiving an affirmative answer one was built with openings large enough to “insert the spirit hands.” This closet was a decided advantage to the Brothers as it gave them an opportunity to work in total darkness which was an essential element of their performance. The closet was improved upon by placing a big box in the center of the stage and there gradually developed the cabinet[24] as we know it to-day.

During that eventful visit Ira emphatically denied many of the absurd tales and popular beliefs concerning the Brothers, among them being the “flour test,” the “snuff test”[25] and such stories as the claim that when a boy at home he gave a seance for his parents and during levitation[26] was raised up until his head touched the ceiling breaking both lath and plaster; that he was once levitated across the Niagara River, a distance of three thousand yards, and the one telling of his having effected an escape by Spiritual means from a prison in Oswego, N. Y., in 1859.

The Davenports were constantly on their guard against surprise and exposure and Ira explained to me that when they were suspicious of a committeeman who wanted to go into the cabinet with them they would insist that he be tied too in order to prevent the audience from thinking he was a confederate. Fastened to a bench as well as to each of the Davenports he was absolutely helpless for while one was getting loose the other would strain the ropes on the committeeman’s feet holding him tight.

He also told me that they were in the habit of reserving seats in the front row for their friends as a protection against anyone breaking through. At private circles they ran a cord through button holes on all present, ostensibly to “prevent collusion with the medium,” but in reality as a protection against a surprise seizure. They once heard that the Pinkerton Detective agency had been hired to catch them and in order to effectually forestall any meddler, they had a confederate smuggle in a bear-trap and after the seance room was darkened set the trap in the aisle.

I called Ira’s attention to a clipping concerning the “Dark Seances” from the London Post, a conservative paper, which read:

“The musical instruments, bells, etc., were placed on the table; the Brothers Davenport were then manacled, hands and feet, and securely bound to the chairs by ropes. A chain of communication (though not a circular one) was formed, and the instant the lights were extinguished the musical instruments appeared to be carried all about the room. The current of air, which they occasioned in their rapid transit was felt upon the faces of all present.

“The bells were loudly rung; the trumpets made knocks upon the floor, and the tambourine appeared running around the room, jingling with all its might. At the same time sparks were observed as if passing from South to West. Several persons exclaimed that they were touched by the instruments, which on one occasion became so demonstrative that one gentleman received a knock on the nasal organ which broke the skin and caused a few drops of blood to flow.”

After I finished reading it Ira exclaimed:

“Strange how people imagine things in the dark! Why, the musical instruments never left our hands yet many spectators would have taken an oath that they heard them flying over their heads.”[27]

Ira Davenport positively disclaimed Spiritualistic power in his talk with me, saying repeatedly that he and his brother never claimed to be mediums or pretended their work to be Spiritualistic. He admitted, however, that his parents died believing that the boys had super-human power. In this connection he told me of a family by the name of Kidder in which the boys faked Spiritualistic mediumship. The mother, a simple woman easily misled, became a confirmed believer. After a time the boys got tired of the game they were playing and confessed to her that it was all a fake. The shock of the disillusion almost drove her insane and Ira said it was the fear of a similar result which kept him from confessing to his father the true nature of their work. So when the father asked the boys to do tests for him they declared that the spirits said “no” and explained that they could only do what the spirits asked.

But if the Davenport Brothers did not claim spiritual powers themselves they nevertheless allowed others to claim them in their behalf. One of the first to do this was J. B. Ferguson, variously known as “Mr.,” “Rev.,” and “Dr.,” but I have no way of knowing how his titles came to him or just what they represented. If I am not mistaken he had been a minister in the Unitarian Church. He travelled with the Davenports as their lecturer, a position filled later by Thomas L. Nichols. Ferguson positively believed that everything accomplished by the Davenports was done with the aid of spirits. That both Ferguson and Nichols believed in Spiritualism is shown by their writings. Neither of them were disillusioned regarding the spiritual powers of the Brothers, the secret of the manifestations being religiously kept from them. Their remarks were left to their own discretion, the Davenports thinking it better showmanship to leave the whole matter for the audience to draw its own conclusion after seeing the exhibition. Then too with a minister as a lecturer who sincerely believed the phenomena many were led to believe, which helped to fill the coffers, meet the expenses, and increase the publicity which was a necessary part of the game.

IRA ERASTUS DAVENPORT AND HOUDINI, TAKEN ON JULY 5, 1911. THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH OF THE OLD SHOWMAN

In one of the letters which Ira wrote me he says:

“We never in public affirmed our belief in Spiritualism, that we regarded as no business of the public; nor did we offer our entertainment as the result of sleight-of-hand, or on the other hand as Spiritualism. We let our friends and foes settle that as best they could between themselves, but unfortunately, we were often the victims of their disagreements.”

In a letter which Ira wrote from Maysville, dated January 19, 1909, which I received while in Europe, he says:

“You must not fail to do me the honor of a visit when you return to America, although two years is quite a long time, and in the mean time, please let me hear from you whenever the ‘Spirit’ moves.

“Regarding the future, I think the possibilities within your grasp are almost boundless, splendid new territory, all South of Central America, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, India, Spain, Portugal and Africa.”[28]

“My old-time travelling companion, William M. Fay, told me four years ago while on a visit here from Australia, that he and Harry Kellar cleared over $40,000 in about eight months in South America, and Mexico, and that was thirty-four years ago, and that the opportunities are now vastly improved, such as railroads, instead of mules, increase of population, advance in civilization in those backward countries. He says it would be a pleasure trip now to what it was when he and Kellar had to travel on muleback. He was very enthusiastic on the subject of making another tour and we would have done so but for the fact that his physicians strongly advised against it on account of poor health and weakened physical condition. He is living at present in Melbourne, Australia, having settled there with his family in 1877, shortly after the death of my brother, which occurred July 1, 1877. He is not at all contented, notwithstanding his pleasant surroundings and ample fortune; after a man has become a regular ‘Globe Trotter,’ I don’t think it possible for him to settle down and lead a quiet monotonous life.... I wish here to say that our first tour through Europe consumed four years, leaving this country, August 26, 1864, returning September 29, 1868. Our second trip took us over three years, leaving here March 22, 1874, and returning October 20, 1877, four months after the death of my brother.”

When exhibiting in Liverpool the Davenports were the cause of quite a riot[29] which not only militated against them but stirred up some political strife as well. I will quote Ira’s account of it from a letter to me dated January 19, 1909.

FACSIMILE OF PORTIONS OF A LETTER WRITTEN TO HOUDINI BY IRA E. DAVENPORT

“Well, yes, regarding Liverpool, I have very vivid recollections, and after forty-four years they are far from being ‘scenes of mystified events,’ they were results of peculiar combinations, of unfortunate circumstances, professional jealousy, religious prejudice, anti-American feeling, with a few other disturbing elements thrown in, including ‘fenianism,’[30] which was engaging the public attention at that time, all worked up to a white heat culminating in one of the most spectacular displays of ‘English Fair Play’ that was ever presented to an appreciative English public.... While in Liverpool and some other towns in England, we could not appear in the streets without being greeted by threatening crowds, with such exclamations as ‘Yankee Doodle,’ ‘John Brown’s Body,’ ‘Barnum’s Humbug,’ ‘Yankee Swindle,’ ‘Fegi Mermaid,’ and many other nice things too numerous to mention....

“I think my experience in Liverpool stands out as the most prominent example of ‘Fair Play’ ever dealt out to any American citizens and a nauseating example to all foreigners of ‘’ow’ the average Englishman does things at ‘’ome.’... It was well known that we were Northern men, and the world knows how the English sympathized with the slave holders’ rebellion, and they did not miss any opportunity of showing how they felt at the time on the subject. While pretending that their brutal displays of hostility were caused by our refusal to be tied by a particular kind of knot, in fact our only offence was, objecting to be tortured at the risk of being permanently maimed or crippled for life.... Our appeal to the British public at the time is a plain truthful statement of the facts, regarding the riots in Liverpool, Huddersfield, and Leeds which several of the English papers had the fairness to publish. All England seemed to have gone mad on the subject of cabinet smashing and speculative sharpers reaped a rich harvest selling bogus pieces of smashed Davenport cabinet. Wood enough was sold in small pieces to make ten times as many cabinets as the Davenport Brothers ever used during their public career.... Although I am now in my 70th year, I would not for one moment hesitate to face the public of Liverpool, Huddersfield, and Leeds, and try conclusions with them again, drawing no line or limitations except those of torturing or maiming one for life.... I shall always feel a great deal of pleasure in your success, especially in meeting and overcoming anything in the nature of hostility and opposition. I remember seeing a notice of the death of Dr. Slade quite a while ago. I became acquainted with him in 1860. He then resided in the State of Michigan.”

The above excerpt shows the pluck and courage of a genuine showman at the age of seventy, still ready for a tussle with an entertainment based on natural laws.

The Davenport Brothers while exhibiting in Manchester, England, had the distinction of being publicly imitated and ridiculed by two celebrated actors, Sir Henry Irving and Edward A. Sothern, who were appearing at the Theatre Royal. With some friends they had witnessed a performance by the Davenport Brothers and determined to expose what Irving termed a “shameful imposture.” With the assistance of these men he gave a private performance in imitation of the Davenport seance at a popular club and was so successful that he was requested to repeat it in a large hall. So on Saturday, February 25, 1865, the Library Hall of the Manchester Athenæum was filled with an audience invited to witness “a display of ‘preternatural philosophy’ in a private seance à la Davenport provided by some well-known members of the theatrical profession playing in the city.

A wig, a beard, a neckerchief, a tightly buttoned frock coat, and artistic makeup so completely transformed Irving that he looked the exact double of Dr. Ferguson. With his inimitable charm of manner Irving assumed the dignified air and characteristic gestures of the doctor and impersonating his reverend tones he gave an interesting and semi-jocose address with just enough seriousness to keenly satirize the old doctor and at its close received thunderous applause from the delighted audience.[31]

Irving and his friends then proceeded to imitate the manifestations with a remarkable degree of accuracy. “The ‘brothers’ were tied hand and foot, placed in a cabinet, and immediately began their manifestations. Weird noises were heard, hands became visible through the opening in the cabinet, musical instruments were seen floating in the air, and the trumpet was several times thrown out. When the doors were opened, the brothers were shown to be securely tied. They reproduced every effect of the performances accompanied by appropriate remarks and delightful witticisms from Irving.”

At the close of the seance, the performers received a vote of thanks, the audience cheering Irving repeatedly. The Manchester papers were filled for several days with accounts and letters concerning the Irving seance, and in response to many urgent requests it was repeated a week later in the Free Trade Hall, but the net result of the exposure to Irving was the loss of his engagement at the Theatre Royal as he refused to capitalize its success by giving nightly performances at the theatre.

The extent to which people allowed themselves to be deluded by the Davenport exhibitions is evident from the following passage taken from D. C. Donovan’s “Evidences of Spiritualism.” As a voluntary investigation committee of one he had been allowed to sit in the cabinet with the Brothers while the manifestations were in progress. In his account of his experiences he says:

“Whilst I was inside, several arms were thrust out at the openings and distinctly seen by persons outside. Now it is certain that these were not the arms of the Brothers, because they could not have reached the openings without rising from their seats, and had they done this, I should have detected it in an instant; moreover, if their hands had been free, they could not have played six instruments at once and still have hands left with which to touch my face and hands and pull my hair. Some of my friends endeavor to persuade me that the Davenports did move, but that being in the dark I did not notice it. Darkness, however, although highly unfavorable to seeing, is not at all so to feeling, and I had my hands on their shoulders, where the slightest muscular moving would have been detected.”

In view of what Ira Davenport told me about their manipulations I cannot read the above account without feeling sorry for Mr. Donovan, who, if his belief was genuine, had reached the highest point of delusion.

Because of the particular qualifications and aptitude of magicians to detect fraud it is not surprising that Spiritualistic publications seize eagerly any word coming from them favorable to the cause of Spiritualism. With the comment, “it is well worth preserving and placing beside that of Belachini, the German conjuror, as an answer to those of our opponents, who, ignorant of legerdemain, declare our phenomena to be of that character,” “The Spiritualist” of September 9, 1881, quoted from the Paris “Revue Spirits” the following statement of E. Jacobs, a French prestidigitator:

“Relating to phenomena which occurred in Paris in 1865, through the Brothers Davenport, spite of the assertions, more or less trustworthy, of the French and English journalists, and spite of the foolish jealousies of ignorant conjurors, I feel it my duty to show up the bad faith of one party, and chicanery of the other.... All that has been said or done adverse to these American mediums is absolutely untrustworthy. If we should judge rightly of a thing we must understand it, and neither the journalists nor the conjurors possess the most elementary knowledge of the science that governs these phenomena. As a Prestidigitator of repute and a sincere Spiritualist, I affirm that the mediumistic facts demonstrated by the two Brothers were absolutely true, and belong to the Spiritualistic order of things in every respect.... Messrs. Henri Robin and Robert Houdin, when attempting to imitate these said feats, never presented to the public anything beyond an infantine and almost grotesque parody of the said phenomena, and it would be an ignorant and obstinate person who could regard the question seriously as set forth by these gentlemen. If, as I have reason to hope, the psychical studies to which I am applying myself at this time, succeed, I shall be able to establish clearly (and that by public demonstration) the immense line of demarcation which separates mediumistic phenomena from conjuring proper, and then equivocation will be no longer possible, and persons will yield to evidence, or deny through predetermination.

(Signed) “E. Jacobs.[32]

“Experimenter and President of Conference to the Psychological Studies at Paris.”

Dion Boucicault, an Irish Dramatist and actor of prominence in America and equally so in Europe, entertained the Davenports at his home in London (1865) where he felt assured that the room could not contribute to fraudulent results. Twenty-three friends, men of rank and some prominence, among them clergymen and medical doctors, were in attendance. He did not report if any were believers, but it is inferred from his writing that none were. As in other cases, the utmost precaution was taken to render conditions most acceptable to the investigators, nevertheless, the usual manifestations took place and Mr. Boucicault wrote lengthy reports as to details, and as a conclusion to his report he wrote:

“At the termination of the seance a general conversation took place on the subject of what we had heard and witnessed. Lord Bury suggested that the general opinion seemed to be that we should assure the Brothers Davenport and Mr. W. Fay, that after a very stringent trial and strict scrutiny of their proceedings, the gentlemen present could arrive at no other conclusion than that there was no trace of trickery in any form, and certainly there were neither confederates nor machinery and that all those who had witnessed the results would freely state in society in which they moved, that, so far as their investigations enabled them to form an opinion, the phenomena which had taken place in their presence were not the product of legerdemain. This suggestion was promptly acceded to by all present.

“Some persons think that the requirement of darkness seems to infer trickery. Is not a dark chamber essential in the process of photography? And what would we reply to him who would say, ‘I believe photography to be a humbug—do it all in the light, and we will believe otherwise’? It is true that we know why darkness is necessary to the production of the sun-pictures; and if scientific men will subject these phenomena to analysis, we shall find out why darkness is essential to such manifestations. It is a subject which scientific men are not justified in treating with the neglect of contempt.—I am, etc.,

“Dion Boucicault.”

Richard Francis Burton, eminent English traveller, writer, and translator of The Arabian Nights, wrote to Dr. Ferguson, Davenport Brothers’ lecturer and manager:

“I have spent a great part of my life in oriental lands, and have seen there many magicians.... I have read and listened to every explanation of the Davenport ‘tricks’ hitherto placed before the English public, and, believe me, if anything would make me take that tremendous jump ‘from matter to spirit,’ it is the utter and complete unreason of the reasons by which the ‘manifestations’ are explained.”

Nor was it in England alone that able men were completely fooled by the Davenports’ performance. Frenchmen as well, after seeing the exhibition, hastened to put their favorable opinions in writing. Hamilton, a well-known expert in the art of legerdemain, and son-in-law of Robert Houdin, the famous conjuror, wrote:

“Messrs. Davenport,—Yesterday I had the pleasure of being present at the seance you gave, and I came away from it convinced that jealousy alone was the cause of the outcry against you. The phenomena produced surpassed my expectations, and your experiments were full of interest for me. I consider it my duty to add that those phenomena are inexplicable, and the more so by such persons as have thought themselves able to guess your supposed secret, and who are, in fact, far indeed from discovering the truth.

“Hamilton.”

M. Rhys, a manufacturer of conjuring implements and himself an inventor of tricks, wrote the Davenports:

“... I have returned from one of your seances quite astonished. As a person who has devoted many years to the manufacture of instruments for legerdemain performances, my statement made with due regard to fidelity, and guided by the knowledge long experience has given me, will, I trust, be of some value to you.... I was admitted to examine your cabinet and instruments ... with the greatest care but failed to find anything that could justify legitimate suspicions. From that moment I felt that the insinuations cast about you were false and malevolent.”

These are but a few of innumerable instances where men of culture, knowledge and experience, were deluded by the performance of the Davenport Brothers, just as men are to-day with my presentations, and when the reader takes into consideration the confession of Ira Erastus Davenport[33] to me in 1909, and the fact that he taught me his full method of manipulating seances, he can then form some conception of the extent to which the most intelligent minds can be led astray by what seem to them phenomena, but to me, mere problems susceptible of lucid explanation.

CHAPTER III
DANIEL DUNGLAS HOME

Following the first seances of the “Fox Sisters,” in 1848, mediums sprang up all over the country like mushrooms but of this multitude there have not been more than a dozen whose work, in spite of repeated exposure, is still pointed to as proof of Spiritualism, and whose names have found a permanent place in connection with its development and history. Of these, one of the most conspicuous and lauded of his type and generation was Daniel Dunglas Home. He was the forerunner of the mediums whose forte is fleecing by presuming upon the credulity of the subject. A new and fertile field was opened and from that time to the present day there have been numerous cases of mediums falling into the clutches of the law as a direct result of using his methods, but Home had characteristics which went far in many cases to keep him out of trouble. Outwardly a lovable character with a magnetic personality and a great fondness for children; suave, captivating to the last degree, a good dresser fond of displaying jewelry; an appearance of ill-health which aroused sympathy and with an assumption of piety and devotion to established forms of religious worship, he made his way easily and found favor with many who would have spurned him under other conditions and this too, strange as it may seem, in spite of persistent rumors of immorality in his private life.

Home helped to build up his reputation by not charging for his mediumistic services. The claim that he did not accept fees for his sittings may, or may not, be quite true, but the fact remains that the spirits were good to him and provided for his temporal needs abundantly and sumptuously, and he subsisted on the bounty of his Spiritualistic friends who seemed to rival one another in entertaining him in their homes for long periods and showering him with gifts, a practice which began in America and was continued in England and on the Continent to an extent which made a life of positive luxury possible.

It is strongly intimated that the gifts which Home received were in many cases suggested by the Spirits he invoked and his spirit guide seems to have always kept a sharp eye on his need for earthly sustenance even to the point of satisfactorily bedecking his person with jewelry. This was always materialized for him when required, and since he, personally, could not be held responsible for what wicked spirits might do, and as they used good judgment in picking victims, nothing was said about it and he escaped the prison fate of Ann O’Delia Diss Debar.

His early life was spent in Connecticut but whether at the home of his aunt in Waterford or with his mother in Norwich, twelve miles away, is a question, but certain it is that at the death of his mother he went to the aunt’s. This was when he was seventeen, two years after the “Fox Sisters” had begun their career in New York State. How much he had heard of them is uncertain, something no doubt, and it is not strange that a youth of his characteristics might want to emulate them. Then too his mother had the reputation of being possessed of so-called “second-sight” and he may have inherited traits which helped to make the life of a medium look attractive to him. At any rate, claiming the assistance of his mother’s spirit, he tried out his mediumistic powers at the homes of the neighbors with such success that before long he announced to his aunt that he was going to set up as a professional Spiritualist. The lady, a devout Trinitarian, was so shocked and disturbed, he tells us, that “in her uncontrollable anger she seized a chair and threw it at me.” But much as she disliked the idea of the young man becoming a medium his performances soon attracted so much attention that she was reconciled to his leaving her home in Norwich to go to Willimantic, Connecticut, where he began his life-long custom of living on the bounty of friends and dupes. His first feats were of the simplest kind such as are in the repertoire of every itinerant sideshow proprietor, but his success seems to have been instantaneous. One reason for this was that while mediums as a class were a lazy lot Home was an untiring worker as well as an unflinching egotist and his personal qualities went far to disarm suspicion and inspire confidence in the minds of his dupes.

Where he obtained his early education does not appear but the records are full of indications of considerable intellectuality. He claimed to have studied medicine and obtained a degree in New York but he never practiced. In his later years he set up a studio in Italy[34] and gave his attention to sculpture between seances and “sold busts at prices quite out of proportion to their artistic merits.” He studied elocution too and is said to have given many successful readings.[35] He also had the credit of being quite a musician and playing several instruments, which partially explains his accordion trick. With it all he was considerable of a linguist, toward the last being able to speak most of the modern tongues. He was the author of two pretentious books[36] whose chief purpose seems to have been to establish the impression that while all other mediums cheated at times Home was strictly honest on all occasions, and in proof it was said that he was never exposed and never received a fee for his sittings. Nevertheless one charge of fraud was proven against him in court.[37] It may or may not be true that he was never completely exposed but many of his manifestations were discovered to be fraudulent and every one of them can be duplicated by modern conjurors under the same conditions. The principal reason why he was never completely exposed was that he gave no public sittings, always appearing as the guest of the family where he was living and as one writer expressed it, “one would no more think of criticising his host’s guest than he would his host’s wine.”

On one occasion Robert Browning, the poet, attended one of Home’s seances. He had become somewhat alarmed by his wife’s interest in Spiritualism, and when a face was materialized and said to be that of a son who had died in infancy, Browning seized the supposed materialized head and discovered it to be the bare foot of Mr. Home. Incidentally, Browning had never lost an infant son. The living son, R. Barrett Browning, in a letter to the London Times, December 5, 1902, referring to this occurrence said, “Home was detected in a vulgar fraud.” In the same letter he tells of the modification of his mother’s belief after having been deceived by a “trusted friend” and his closing words were: “The pain of the disillusion was great, but her eyes were opened and she saw clearly.”

What might be called Home’s American apprenticeship began in 1850 and in spite of his youth and inexperience he succeeded in convincing many prominent persons of the genuineness of his phenomena, among them being such men as Judge Edmonds,[38] William Cullen Bryant, and Bishop Clarke of Rhode Island. In the spring of 1855 a committee of admirers collected a sum of money sufficient to send him to England and establish himself comfortably. He carried with him a letter of introduction to a man of scientific tastes by the name of Cox who was proprietor of Cox’s Hotel, in Jermyn Street, and through whose influence he was able to arrange sittings with Lord Brougham, Sir David Brewster, Robert Owen, T. A. Trollope, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, and others equally prominent.

After only a few months’ stay in England Home went to Italy, ostensibly for his health, and for the next four years he lived on the Continent, travelling from place to place, living in luxury, being almost continually entertained in the homes of “friends,” which in almost every case were people of rank and wealth. He seems to have had little difficulty in meeting royalty and nobility on terms of intimacy even numbering among his patrons the Emperor and Empress of France as well as the Czar of Russia. From this clientele he received many and valuable gifts. At the Russian Court, with its leaning toward the occult, he was especially welcomed and lived for weeks at a time in the palace of the Czar, like the similar careers of Washington Irving Bishop, Mons. Phillipi, and Rasputin. During his stay in Russia he met a beautiful young lady of rank and with the approval of the Czar married her.[39]

Home at this time had already begun to show that fondness for precious stones which finally became so pronounced that a few years later an English writer in describing him said:

“But the salient feature of the man after all was his jewels. On the third finger of the left hand he wore an immense solitaire, which flashed imperial splendors with every movement; above that a sapphire of enormous size; on the other hand was a large yellow diamond and a superb ruby set in brilliants.”

But these were not all for the writer adds a list of others in Home’s possession which would easily arouse the envy of any multi-millionaire’s wife. In view of this fondness for jewels an incident which occurred just prior to Home’s leaving the Russian Court is interesting. The story was told me by Stuart Cumberland. I have heard him repeat it to others and he also tells it in his book, “That Other World,” from which I quote.

“Whilst in Petrograd—so at least, a famous diplomat assured me when I was there—Home did a feat of dematerialization before the Court which, had it not been for the favor in which he was held in high places, might have curtailed his liberty for a period.

“He had dematerialized a splendid row of emeralds lent the “dear spirits” for the purpose of the test; but up to the time of his departure from the seance, the emeralds, for some occult reason, had declined to materialize and be given back to the confiding owner. They were, of course, in the spirit land engaging the attention of the spooks, who seemed to have a pretty taste for valuable jewels. But the chief of police had not that faith in spiritual probity generally accepted at the Court, and before leaving the palace, Home was searched, and—so the story came to me—the dematerialized emeralds were found materializing in his coat-tail pocket. They had been placed there by an evil spirit, of course, but the chief of police impressed upon the medium that the climate of the Russian Capital might not be good for his health—that an early departure would probably benefit it. Home took the hint and his early departure. To his dying day, I think he regretted the interference of the evil spirit (or the police). It would have been so much more satisfactory for the jewels to have remained dematerialized in the spirit land, to be materialized at will with no interfering police around, for they, the jewels, were of great earthly value.”

DANIEL DUNGLAS HOME

The year 1859 found Home back in England and marked the commencement of what proved to be the period of his greatest success. It was but a few years later that he attempted his most noted financial venture. He had become established in Sloane Street, London, as Secretary of what was called “The Spiritual Athenæum.” One day, late in 1866, there came to him a widow by the name of Jane Lyon who was anxious to join his society. She was seventy-five years old and besides being wealthy in her own right had been left ample means by her husband. Previous to calling on Home she had read his book, believed it, and in addition been having a series of unusual dreams. The medium had little difficulty in finding a way to make it possible for her to join the Athenæum, and she told how later at this first meeting her husband’s spirit “had communicated with her through Home, and knotted her handkerchief.” Just all that the spirit of her husband said to her at this interview does not appear but it was enough to persuade her to give him twenty-four thousand pounds. The spirits became very much interested in Mrs. Lyon’s affairs and in November, at their direction, Home burned her will and before long she gave him another six thousand pounds.

The attachment between the widow of seventy-five and the medium of thirty-three grew apace and soon the spirit of her husband suggested that she adopt Home as her son “for he would be such a comfort to her.” The suggestion was immediately acted upon and the medium began to call himself Daniel Home Lyon. Nor was the spirit forgetful of the needs of a son, suggesting that an allowance of seven hundred pounds a year would be about right. In January (1867) Mrs. Lyon assigned a mortgage of thirty thousand pounds to Home, only reserving the interest as an annuity for herself. Not until a month later did she become worried and consult a lawyer, who assured her that she had been imposed upon, but she was not convinced until she had questioned the spirits through a girl of twelve, the daughter of a flower medium by the name of Murray. As reported by this girl even the spirits seemed to think that Mrs. Lyon had been fleeced out of sixty thousand pounds and she accordingly demanded its return by Home. He ignored the demand but offered to return the mortgage if she would give him undisputed possession of the first thirty thousand pounds and allow him to drop the name of Lyon. She would not agree to this. Home was arrested and a suit for recovery begun. The litigation was long, the case finally ending in May, 1868, with a judgment in favor of Mrs. Lyon; the Court holding that as the transfer of money and deed had been accomplished by fraud it was therefore void. In his closing remarks the Vice Chancellor referred to Mrs. Lyon as an old lady with a mind “saturated with delusion” and characterized Spiritualism as being, according to the evidence, a “system of mischievous nonsense well calculated to delude the vain, the weak, the foolish, and the superstitious.”[40]

Home continued his mediumship, notwithstanding, and between 1870 and 1872 he held several seances with Sir William Crookes,[41] who was so impressed that he credited him with being “one of the most lovable of men—whose perfect genuineness was above suspicion,” an opinion strikingly in contrast with the verdict in the case of Mrs. Lyon, but which shows how thoroughly and easily the followers of Spiritualism are beguiled and misled. No medium is ever open to suspicion by the faithful and Sir William Crookes’ statement encourages the belief that even scientists are not always immune from the influence of personal magnetism. He is also quoted as saying:

“As to the theory of fraud, it is obvious that this theory can account for a very small portion of the facts observed. I am willing to admit that some so-called mediums of whom the public have heard much, are arrant impostors, who have taken advantage of the public demand for Spiritualistic excitement, to fill their purses with easily earned guineas; while others who have no pecuniary motive for imposture are tempted to cheat, it would seem, solely by a desire for notoriety.”

So it will be seen that even Professor Crookes, while defending the so-called genuine medium, in the same breath admits that there are fraudulent practitioners.

DIAGRAM SHOWING ARRANGE­MENT OF ROOMS, WINDOWS, ETC., WHERE HOME’S REPUTED FEAT OF FLOATING TOOK PLACE.

Home gained wide notoriety for unusual phenomena by his reputed levitation acts, wherein he would slide from the chair on which he was sitting to a horizontal position, then ask to have the chair removed as it was not supporting him, and would “float” under a table and back, but his masterpiece, the incident oftenest referred to, was sailing out of a window feet first, and sailing into another, seven feet and four inches distant, landing feet first in an adjacent room, where he “sat down.” Lord Adare, an observer, expressed surprise that he could have been carried through an aperture so narrow as eighteen inches whereupon “Home, still entranced said, ‘I will show you,’ and then with his back to the window he leaned over and was shot out of the aperture head first, with the body rigid, and then returned quite quietly.”[42, ] [43]

This is the way the story has been recounted again and again by Spiritualist writers and speakers and to this day is told by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with as much seriousness as if he had been an eyewitness of the occurrence in the full glare of a noon-day sun.

“When D.D. made that ‘home-run’” around the outside of his house he seems to have been seeking an altitude rather than a speed record, as the three reliable (?) witnesses agree that the windows through which he floated were in the third story and either sixty or eighty feet from the ground. This would make the height of each story from twenty to twenty-seven feet, but tall stories appear to have been a specialty with these remarkably observant gentlemen.

In 1920 I made plans for reproducing this window feat under the same conditions as Home and the late Stuart Cumberland openly challenged Spiritualists that I was ready to submit to such a test but no response was received before I left Europe. Consequently I desire to go on record as being able to perform the same phenomena (?) provided I am given the same conditions and scope which Home was. I believe that those who witnessed the feat were sincere in giving credence to it but that it was an illusion and they were deceived by Home, for the mind of the average person accepts what it sees and is not willing to apply the laws of physics, no matter how much or how glaringly the act defies the fundamental principles upon which our very existence depends.

The years between 1859 and 1872 were those of Home’s greatest success. Toward the end of this period, however, his popularity waned and having for a second time married a lady belonging to the Russian nobility, he gave up the practice of his profession, broke with nearly all his former friends and returned to the Continent where he devoted much of his time to writing. He died in 1886 and is buried at St. Germain-en-Laye.

His active career, his various escapades, and the direct cause of his death[44] all indicate that he lived the life of a hypocrite of the deepest dye. How strange that these inspired agents of “Summerland,” these human deliverers of messages, these stepping stones to the Beyond, are, for the greater part, moral perverts whose favorite defence is the claim that they are forced to do such deeds by the evil spirits which take possession of them.

CHAPTER IV
PALLADINO

Eusapia Palladino, an Italian, has to her credit the successful deception of more philosophic and scientific men than any other known medium, being regarded by some as the most famous of them all, notwithstanding the fact that she seems to have made no pretence of producing the class of miracles claimed by D. D. Home and many others. Materialization was rarely resorted to by her and there is very little variety in her program from 1892 up to the time of her death in 1918, evidently being content to astonish investigating scientists with the levitation and gyrating of inanimate things.[45]

Palladino was born in the Neapolitan district of poor peasants who died when she was a mere child. Naturally bright, even shrewd, her perceptive instinct seems to have developed early in life and continued throughout her career though she had no education and to the end was scarcely able to read or write.

Her first contact with the mysterious arts appears to have been when she was a mere child of thirteen (1867) in the service of an acrobat or conjuror[46] from whom she must have acquired some degree of skill and knowledge of the uncanny which she may have coupled up with the marvellous success achieved by Home, and her quick wit may have opened visions of a change from poverty to that affluence which she saw was the reward of the professional phenomena producer, for she began her Spiritualistic work just following his successful operations in Italy which served to spread Spiritualism in spite of Papal opposition. Her part must have been learned well and her plans carefully laid before she made her debut as a full fledged medium because she succeeded from the start in baffling brainy men of science, and while as the wife of a small shop-keeper she was very poor, she became wealthy within twenty years after taking up mediumistic work.

She did not attract the attention of the public until about 1880 when Professor Chiaia, who had been giving her a lot of attention without detecting her methods, challenged Professor Lombroso, at that time the most distinguished scientific man in Italy, to investigate her. Professor Lombroso did, but failed to detect any fraudulent work though his decision was delayed for so long a time that when it was finally given it was claimed that his mentality had weakened considerably.[47]

In 1892 Palladino had begun to attract the attention of scientific men in different Italian cities and had also been brought to the notice of some of the English Spiritualists but it was not until 1894 that she went to France. This trip was brought about through the influence of Professor Richet, and Sir Oliver Lodge, Professor Sidgwick, and Mr. Myers took part in the proceedings. On the return of Lodge and Myers to England they aroused interest in Palladino by reporting her phenomena to be genuine.

The first exposure of Palladino was made by Dr. Richard Hodgson in 1895. A committee from the English Society for Psychical Research, consisting of Hereward Carrington, Hon. Everard Feilding, and Wortly W. Baggally, which had held a series of test seances with Palladino in Italy, brought her to England for a fresh try-out and another series of sittings was held. Very early in the series suspicious movements on the part of the medium were observed. Later Dr. Hodgson joined the circle and was able to show conclusively that by clever manipulation—sheer trickery—she was getting one hand free and with it making the movements observed.

Her method[48] was to begin by allowing one hand to be firmly held by the sitter at her side (say on the left) and let the fingers of her other hand (right) rest on that of the sitter on her right. In the course of some rapid spasmodic movements she would bring the sitters’ hands so close together that one of her own could do duty for two, being held by one sitter while its fingers rested on the hand of the other sitter,[49] leaving her (Palladino’s) right hand free to produce the desired “phenomena” after which it was restored to its original position. Other devices equally dishonest were observed or inferred.

All of these men were experienced seance observers[50] but the report of their conclusions shows how easily such experts were deceived by the very tricks which were later proved fraudulent by the New York branch of The Society for Psychical Research. Mr. Feilding’s reports were the least positive of the three and show that when the best phenomena were observed the control was not complete and that the stenographic notes were deficient, and when read over the day following the sitting they seemed weak in comparison with a recollection of the manifestations. That the final reports were based largely on these recollections is indicated by Mr. Feilding’s statement that:

“We were forced from our proposed colorless attitude to one of almost proselyting affirmation.”

When Palladino came to America in 1908 she was beginning to be world famous and her reputation was established; she was a shrewd woman with a large experience in the art of misdirection, and with a convenient subterfuge of unaccommodating Spirit guides whenever her own resources were exhausted because of some over-zealous observer. For twenty years or more she had avoided detection because she had fixed the conditions under which tests were made and consequently as scientific investigations they were simply farces. But in New York conditions were introduced which she did not approve for the simple reason that she did not know that they existed. Another difference was that in New York a number of rehearsals were held and each investigator was assigned to a special part of the work, thus guarding against the old trick of drawing the attention away from the place where a manifestation suddenly developed. The result was Palladino’s downfall.

On her arrival in New York a group of Columbia professors became interested in Palladino and arranged for a series of ten test seances at one hundred and twenty-five dollars a sitting. Eight of the ten seances had been held and though a majority of the professors were satisfied that she was cheating they were unable to prove it. Although the seances were being conducted secretly by the scientists one of them, Professor Dickinson S. Miller, discussed Palladino’s best trick, table levitation, with a friend of mine, Mr. W. S. Davis, himself an ex-medium whose seances were always given under test conditions. Davis not only explained to the Professor the probable method used by Palladino but demonstrated it as well with the result that the Professor declared that a full exposure of Palladino should be made even if it cost ten thousand dollars and invited Davis to aid at the next seance candidly admitting that he and his associates were incapable of proper investigation.

Davis replied that scientists were not the kind of men he could work with but if he would let him bring along a couple of “Flim-flam” men he would help. Professor Miller consented to this arrangement provided the men were palmed off as college professors as otherwise they would not be admitted. Davis then sent for John W. Sargent, a past-president of the Society of American Magicians, and for years my private secretary. He also sent for another magician, James L. Kellogg. Both agreed with Davis that his theory of Palladino’s method was correct. Professor Miller then suggested, that in order to make the discovery complete and to corroborate any and all observations, two other persons should be selected to watch the feet of the medium. Davis accordingly selected Joseph F. Rinn, another member of the magicians society, who had assisted in various exposures of pseudo-mediums and Professor Miller named Warner C. Pyne, a student at Columbia. It was agreed that these two should be clad in black even to a head covering and smuggled into the room under cover of darkness after the seance had convened and were to sprawl under the chairs and table in order that their heads might be near enough Palladino’s feet to detect any movement. I am indebted to my friend Davis for the following inside story of the sitting just as he gave it to me.

“After the arrival of Eusapia and Mr. Livingston and when both had entered the seance room, Rinn and Pyne came downstairs and hid in the hall where they waited for their signal. When we were introduced and after the usual conversation, Eusapia said that she would begin. Before she had time to pick her controllers, Professor Miller ushered Kellogg and myself into the positions next to her. She took a seat at the narrow end of the table and with her back close to the cabinet curtains. (The cabinet was formed by placing curtains from the ceiling to the floor, extending out from one corner of the room). Kellogg sat at her right and I sat at her left. Eusapia sat close to the table and her black dress touched the table legs. She placed her right foot on the instep of Kellogg’s left foot and her left foot on my right foot, which was her guarantee that her feet should play no part in the production of the phenomena. We did not reduce the light at the beginning of the seance.

“The rest of the party sitting around the table then placed their hands on its upper surface and formed the well known chain. Eusapia stamped Kellogg’s foot and mine and asked us if the control was satisfactory which of course it was. Eusapia then drew her own hands away from ours and soon light raps were heard. They were such as are easily and imperceptibly produced by sliding the finger tips upon the table top.

“We were next favored with responsive raps,—doubling up her hands she beat the air with her fists in a jerky, spasmodic way when we heard the light noises on the wood. The exhibition above board did not occupy our entire attention. Every one in the party was interested in the theory of using a foot as a lever to raise the table. As she beat the air with her clenched fist, she correspondingly slid her feet away until we felt the pressure on the toe end of our feet only, whereas there had previously been pressure on the insteps. Kellogg and I both suspected that she had succeeded in removing one foot and was making the other do duty for two. From then on we commenced to get heavier raps, as though she struck the table leg with her foot.

“In striking the table leg with the side of her shoe, thus producing raps, Eusapia also got the exact position in which her foot should be placed for levitation. When she rocked the table from side to side it was only necessary to switch her toe an inch when the left leg of the table would come down on it, then all she had to do was to elevate her toe while the heel remained on the floor and either partial or complete levitation followed.

“We looked pleased and Eusapia began to feel at home. With a little rest, the rocking was resumed and she considered it safe to risk the entire levitation. Holding Kellogg’s left hand up in the air with her right she put my right hand, palm down, on the top of the table, directly over the left table leg; then put her left hand over mine, the tips of the fingers extending rather over my hand and touching the table. No other hands were upon it. Then, after a few partial levitations, the table went up into the air with every leg off the floor. It was our first complete levitation. As beautiful as any on record and given under bright lights.”

I asked Davis how he knew the levitation was fraudulent and he answered:

“(1) During the partial levitations I casually lifted my left foot, passed it over the right foot in the direction of Eusapia and was unable to touch her left leg in the place where it should have been. (2) Her black dress touched the table leg and as she took her toe suddenly out from under it, her dress moved accordingly. (3) By the thud which the table made when it was deprived of its very material perch. (4) By the fact that any juggler can perform the feat when the ‘modus operandi’ is fully understood, though perhaps not with the same skill. (5) Every one present knew that the table was steadied at the top by Eusapia’s hand, which rested upon mine, in turn bore down over the table leg, held up presumably by Eusapia’s toe which formed a perfect human clamp.[51](6) What Rinn and Pyne told us after the seance. They said that from their position under the chairs they saw Eusapia place her right foot upon Kellogg’s left and her left foot upon my right, later they saw her tapping upon our feet with hers while she made some changes in the position of her feet. They also saw her slide her left foot away by a few hitches as her right was twisted around to cover my right foot which had previously been under her left foot. They distinctly saw Eusapia strike the table leg with the side of her foot to produce the raps and they also saw her slide her toe under the table leg and force the table up by toe leverage.”[52]

During his narration I asked Davis to tell me if this astute Italian who had fooled the scientists of the world was not suspicious or did not sense that she was being checked up in her movements.

“No,” he replied dryly, “once during the seance she asked every one to stand up. Two of the ladies in their inexperience proceeded to obey the command. We had two spies under our chairs and as we did not want her to see them something had to be done immediately, so I pretended to have severe cramps in my legs and while the interpreter told Eusapia of it Sargent and Kellogg nudged the ladies to sit down and the medium then resumed her seat.”

I will not bore the reader with a detailed account of the cabinet phenomena at this seance under a subdued light but suffice to say that Davis and Kellogg tricked her as before and were able to explain every manifestation. The whole Miller seance was carried out as planned so carefully that Palladino on the way to her hotel afterwards told the Columbia student who had acted as interpreter[53] for her that she was well pleased with the evening and that the seance had been one of the most successful of the series.[54]

I quote by permission from a letter written me by Mr. Davis under date of June 22, 1923:

“Rupert Hughes, in an attack upon Spiritism some time ago, said that favorable reports on Palladino constituted a vast literature, and he was right. The public libraries both in this country and Europe contain many books in which it is claimed that it has been ‘scientifically demonstrated’ that Eusapia possesses some occult power.

“Generations for centuries will probably be influenced by these books. They are only calculated to create superstition and ignorance and it is a shame that they are permitted to circulate. Eusapia was one of the world’s greatest mountebanks. Her dupes were our foremost men of learning—they were not of the rabble. She was the greatest mountebank produced by modern Spiritism, and she duped more scientists than any other medium. In that respect D. D. Home does not compare with her. The important lesson in the case is that so-called ‘scientific’ testimony is just about worthless. That is an important educational fact and a valuable lesson to the general public.”

Mr. Davis is quite right in his view of the seriousness of the possible danger and damage to the reading public from the effects of the grossly misapplied energy of the prominent scientists who have so unqualifiedly endorsed Eusapia Palladino as a genuine miracle worker, and the hosts of Spiritualistic enthusiasts who have repeated their published statements. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle unqualifiedly lauds Home and Palladino as patron saints of his psychic religion (?). He accepts as proof the fact that these learned scientists met their Waterloo in an attempt to fathom the simple tricks of impostors, and like all other Spiritualists refuses to accept the positive proof of the deception secured by men schooled in the science of magic which at times is as seemingly unexplainable as the more profound subjects of natural science.

The reader should bear in mind that Mr. Davis’ sincerity is just as great as is Sir Arthur’s. Sincerity is Sir Arthur’s strong magnet and the reader should attach as much importance to sincerity on the part of an opponent. We must also take into consideration the fact that Mr. Davis was at one time a medium himself and he has had much opportunity for observing the qualifications of scientists as occult investigators. We must notice too the methods of conducting the seances in which such diverse results were obtained. Those held with only scientists as observers were under the full control of the medium and all her conditions were conformed to, but in New York it was practically a case of fighting fire with fire. It is proverbial that “it takes a rogue to catch a rogue”—just so a trickster is more capable of setting traps to detect trickery than the grave scientist in his endeavor to solve the problem by mathematics or logic. In the successful instance the plan of operation had been carefully worked out in every detail, each participant was assigned a specific work to do and did it. A number of rehearsals were held so that each person was familiar with their part. All the conditions so strenuously adhered to in previous seances, were safeguarded and the result was a successful exposure.

EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND HER SEANCE TABLE

When Carrington brought Palladino to this country he announced that he did so in the interest of “science.” Publicity was not to be ignored though and consequently the first seance was given before newspaper men. William A. Brady (the theatrical man) occupied the seat of honor which made it look as though Carrington hoped for some theatrical business as a side issue to the seances with scientists at a hundred and twenty-five dollars a sitting. It is also known that Carrington made a contract with a popular magazine which gave it an exclusive right to publish reports of the seances and naturally Carrington was to have received a liberal fee. But Mr. Davis in 1909 furnished the New York Times with two articles making a sensational attack on Palladino whereupon the magazine people cancelled their contract with Carrington on the ground that Davis had put a “frost” on their plans. As a result Carrington threatened the Times with a suit for a hundred thousand dollars damage. The threat was dropped after Palladino’s complete exposure and her refusal to go to the Times Building and win the two thousand dollar prize offered by Rinn. In all the seances conducted by Carrington the program was the same and the phenomena of precisely the same character as in the one which resulted in Palladino’s complete exposure. The value of Mr. Carrington’s opinion as evidence may be judged from excerpts from an article in McClure’s Magazine for October, 1909. In this article he answers his own question “Does Eusapia Deceive Her Investigators?” by saying:

“Well do I know the condition of mind induced by one or two seances with Eusapia. All one’s previous experience is refuted, and the mind fails to grasp the facts or to accept them as real. It is incapable of absorbing them. It requires several seances before one is convinced of the reality of the phenomena, and of the fact that one’s observation is not mistaken. Personally, I had to witness six seances before I was irrevocably and finally convinced of the reality of the fact. Before that, although I was quite unable to explain what I saw by any theory of fraud or trickery, and although I was quite certain the facts were not due to hallucination, still I could not believe them. I felt that there must be a loophole somewhere; and I know that my colleagues felt exactly as I did. But at the sixth seance when I was controlling the medium myself, in such a manner that I was quite sure as to the whereabouts of her whole body, and when it was, moreover, light enough to see the whole outline of her body clearly,—when, in spite of this, phenomena continued to take place all around us in the most bewildering manner and under the most perfect test conditions, I felt that there was no more to be said; certainty had been achieved; and from the sixth seance onward, and forever after, I shall remain as certain that these phenomena are facts, and form a part—however sporadic—of nature, as I am that I write this article.”

The foregoing shows how vacillating the mind of Mr. Carrington was at the time he was conducting the Palladino seances, and when after a personal contest with the medium he stated his conviction he should have known he was talking the impossible; that no one man could control Palladino beyond the possibility of fraud and at the same time detect her false moves. In the same article he writes:

“I may remark just here that this medium has been caught in trickery from time to time, and will almost invariably resort to it unless she is prevented from doing so by the rigidity of the control (that is, the degree of certainty obtained in holding her hands and feet). The reason for this is that Eusapia, knowing that the production of genuine phenomena will exhaust her nervous forces, resorts to this simpler method, if her sitters are sufficiently credulous to allow it, in order to save herself from the painful after effects of a genuine seance. Nearly every investigator has at one time or another discovered this fraud, which is petty, and more or less obvious to any careful investigator, and consists in the substitution of one hand for two, and in the production of phenomena with the remaining free hand. If, however, sufficient precautions are taken, it is a comparatively easy matter to frustrate her attempts at fraud; and when this is done so-called genuine phenomena are produced. Many of the phenomena are so incredible that by far the simplest explanation is that fraud has been operative in their production; but I can say positively (and I believe the records will show this) that fraud was quite impossible throughout our seances, not only because of the nature of our control of the medium, which was rigidly exacting, but because of the abundance of light. Any theory based upon the supposition that confederates were employed is absolutely discounted: first, because the seances were held in our own locked rooms in the hotel; and secondly, because throughout the seances it was light enough for us to see the whole room and its occupants. It is hardly necessary to add that we examined the cabinet, the table, instruments, and all articles of furniture, both before and after each seance.”

This last seems just as a manager might be expected to talk of the merit of his own show. A salesman should not decry his wares.

There is no question but what Palladino was given to fraud.[55] In personal conversations with Hon. Everard Feilding, W. W. Baggally, E. J. Dingwall and Hereward Carrington, each stated positively that they had caught her cheating and that they knew her to be a fraud. They claimed that toward the end of her career she lost her occult power and at such times as the Spirits failed her she would resort to trickery rather than confess failure. They believed her a genuine medium because of the things which she did under test conditions which they could not explain, their knowledge of fraud being overpowered, apparently, by a willingness to believe in the impossible simply because they were not able to solve the problem.

If you go to a department store and ask for a well advertised bit of merchandise and when you get home you find the clerk has substituted “something just as good” you either report the clerk to the management or else you do not patronize the store again; if you go to a tailor and he sells you an “all-wool” suit and you find that most of the “wool” grew on cotton plants you pass that store by when you are ready to buy another suit; if you catch your best friend cheating at cards you refuse to play with him again ever and a life-time friendship is broken up. But Palladino cheated at Cambridge, she cheated in l’Aguélas, and she cheated in New York and yet each time that she was caught cheating the Spiritualists upheld her, excused her, and forgave her. Truly their logic sometimes borders on the humorous.

F. W. H. Myers wrote in “Borderland” in 1896:

“These frauds were practiced in and out of the real, or alleged, trance and were so skillfully executed that the poor woman must have practiced them long and carefully.”

Palladino is summed up in these few lines.

My opinion is that Palladino in her crafty prime may have possessed the agility and abundant skill in misdirection together with sufficient energy and nerve to bamboozle[56] her scientific and otherwise astute committeemen, but as time demanded its toll she probably lost her vim and nerve and became unable to present her “performances” with the success that attended her earlier demonstrations.

My old friend, John William Sargent, who died on September 24, 1920, was one of the committee which finally dethroned Palladino, and I believe it no more than just that the last word of this chapter should be said by him.

“Eusapia Palladino is dead and I have little doubt that she departed hence without forgiving me for the part I took in spoiling her business in America by assisting in the exposure of her little bag of tricks. It is an open question, however, whether the exposure of her trickery, or in fact of any of the class of sensation mongers to which she belonged, ever turned a soul from belief in Spiritism; some of the leading newspapers, in commenting on her death, show that in spite of the complete exposure of her methods, there still remains in the minds of many intelligent people the conviction that she was far from an impostor. I cannot understand how any reasonable person could see in this woman anything more than a fairly clever charlatan, whose success was due more to the credulity of her audiences than the skill of her performances. What did all her exposures amount to? Those who believed have continued to believe, and in spite of the old saw, ‘Truth is mighty and must prevail,’ the name of Eusapia Palladino will be on the lips of men long, long after her exposers are forgotten dust.”

CHAPTER V
ANN O’DELIA DISS DEBAR

The coming and going of Ann O’Delia Diss Debar are mysteries for there is no record of her birth and no trace of her death, but the “in between time” furnished material enough for an entire book rather than a single chapter, and gave her sufficient opportunity to have it said of her that she was “one of the most extraordinary fake mediums and mystery swindlers the world has ever known.” Some even have classed her among the ten most prominent and dangerous female criminals of the world, and her repertoire is claimed to have run the full gamut from petty confidence games to elaborately contrived schemes aimed at the magnates of Wall Street. According to report she did not hesitate to victimize the innocent and the mentally unsound and left behind her a trail of sorrow, depleted pocket-books, and impaired morals that has seldom been equaled. Like many master criminals she escaped punishment for a time but in the end fell into the toils of the law and served time both here and in England. The marvellous tact with which she devoted her great powers to the purposes of self aggrandizement and profit is without parallel, and for cunning knavery, Cagliostro, by comparison, seems to have been an amateur. It is alleged that her crimes ranged from the smallest to the largest with morals as low as one can imagine in a human being while, worst of all, she flaunted this viciousness openly, making no effort whatever to cloak her degeneracy.

Nevertheless her name stands among the half score or more in the front ranks of the history of Spiritualism and with Daniel Dunglas Home shares the palm for the successful manipulation of big schemes. It was not unusual for her to make deals that ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and though the two were early in the mediumistic field, I believe that to this day they have had no peer in this respect. Possibly all other mediums combined could not have aggregated the amount of money obtained by these two.

Whether Home outbids Diss Debar for preëminence as to gain it is hard to say but it is certain that he “could not hold a candle” to her versatility. Both appear to have had the advantage of being scholastic, and well versed in historic lore and the classics, which gave them great prestige with cultured people, opening the doors to the social life of the “upper-ten,” and bringing within their reach people of wealth as well as scholars and scientists, all of whom were apparently perfectly willing to be deceived, and to unwittingly aid in making the careers of these two adventurers “howling successes” up to the time of their undoing in the courts.

Unlike Home, who never in all the vicissitudes of his career denied his personality, Diss Debar as frequently as she changed her base of operations seems to have changed her name and her ancestry. Once in the heyday of her career she gave a series of interviews claiming to be the daughter of King Louis I of Bavaria and Lola Montez, a Spanish-Irish dancer who had a spectacular and adventurous career which covered Europe in its course, reached to the Russian Court and later America. It is supposed that Diss Debar was the daughter of a political refugee by the name of Salomen who settled in Kentucky and that she was born in 1849 although there is no documentary proof of it. According to the story she was named Editha and as she grew up became known as a wayward child bent on doing what she should not and perfectly callous to all restraining influence of parental affection. “At times her waywardness took such extraordinary turns that her parents thought she was not entirely sane and sought the advice of a doctor, who said she was really a sort of victim to an unholy passion, but that she would grow out of her failing as she grew older,” a prophecy which never came true.

When Editha Salomen became of age she left home and for several years her father lost all track of her. Later, to his great astonishment, he discovered her settled in Baltimore, moving among the best of society, and posing as a member of European aristocracy. As the “Countess Landsfeldt and Baroness Rosenthal” of the peerage of Bavaria she availed herself of all the privileges which members of nobility enjoyed in the Republic, was courted by American youth and found American women “only too delighted to be led by a Countess.”

Where the Kentucky girl with her peculiar temperament and characteristics could possibly have secured the education and knowledge which she displayed through all her exploits I am at a loss to understand. She must have inherited a liberal share of shrewdness, together with a fancy for reading ancient history, and at an early age realized that although not handsome she possessed some charm of personality which attracted attention and which enabled her to pose successfully as a member of the nobility.

It is said that in this rôle Editha had no difficulty in raising funds. It was easy to encourage a prosperous young man into a love trap and make him believe she would soon marry him. “Then one day she would find that she had to pay a large sum of money to meet a necessary obligation, that her careless bankers in Bavaria had failed to remit a few hundred thousand dollars, on account of which she most reluctantly accepted temporary relief from the rich suitor. She took as much as she dared and thereafter cut him.” In this way she managed to cheat the youth of Baltimore out of about a quarter of a million dollars. She gave herself up to luxury and extravagance; took freely to smoking cigarettes impregnated with opium and was soon landed in Bellevue Hospital suffering from “acute nervous exhaustion.”

One day, just as she was nearly cured, she sprang out of bed, stabbed an attendant and attempted to kill her doctor, and several persons were seriously wounded before she was secured. As a result she was sent to the asylum for the insane on Ward’s Island, where she was detained for a year, during which time she showed no traces of insanity and it was concluded that her attempt at murder was premeditated; but as she had been committed as insane with no evidence to controvert it the law was powerless and she was released.

Her next venture was in the field of hypnotism, where she was an adept, but now known as Mrs. Messant and a widow, for though a young doctor, either through fear or fondness, had married her soon after her discharge from Ward’s Island, he had survived the marriage less than a year. As “one can always find fools if one really looks for them” she had no difficulty in surrounding herself with dupes but as the widow of an obscure doctor was not persona grata in the circles of high society where the highest paying fools are to be found she set to work to find an entrée. Her search was not for long. Soon she discovered a certain General Diss Debar; a man without money or “mind of his own” but he filled her need, easily yielded to her cajoleries and presently Editha Salomen, Countess Landsfeldt, Baroness Rosenthal, Messant became Ann O’Delia Diss Debar. As the wife of a general, society smiled on her again and she lived in comfort. The rich courted “hypnotism and general humbug and the wily woman was equal to the requirement.” As time went on, however, she began to squander the money that flowed into her coffers. A couple of children were born to her. People began to tire of hypnotism, her income waned, and it became necessary for her to set her wits to work and cast her net for a fresh victim.

This proved to be Luther R. Marsh, a brilliant and wealthy lawyer of New York City. Mr. Marsh was an ideal subject for the hypnotizer’s attention. Though a learned lawyer he was not free from superstition and his wife had died but a short time before he was discovered by Diss Debar. At an early opportunity she “received” messages from his spirit wife which the distinguished member of the bar accepted as genuine so gratefully and without question that the woman saw at once that she had opened up a new field with more and greater possibilities than she had ever worked before; she realized that she had gifts which fitted her to be a first class Spiritualistic medium. Nor was her judgment in error. The credulous lawyer proved an exceedingly easy mark. Very quickly she won his full confidence and it was not long before he invited her to share his hospitality at 166 Madison Avenue. There was no delay in her acceptance. With the owners’ full consent the home was transformed into a Spiritualistic Temple in which Ann O’Delia Diss Debar was the high priestess. Soon it was evident that there were spirits in profusion and the new medium was able to produce any type of phenomena desired, even to spirit painting. The venture was a profound success and a flourishing business was developed with an upper-ten clientele in which Mr. Marsh became the chief and real victim.

Not only was Mr. Marsh mourning his wife but he had also lost a little daughter but a short time before and so when “Eva’s” supposed spirit suggested to him that he make over his property at 166 Madison Avenue to Diss Debar the father was ready for the sacrifice.[57] The deeds were drawn and the transfer made but the medium was prevented from enjoying her booty by legal proceedings which vigilant relatives of Marsh instituted based on his mental condition.

Both Ann O’Delia Diss Debar and her husband, General Diss Debar, were arrested and held on bail for trial.[58] As not infrequently happens in such cases the litigation was long drawn out and much astonishing evidence produced.[59] When placed on the witness stand her first testimony demonstrated her character. A man by the name of Salomen had testified that he was her brother. She denied that he was and declared that he was a vile wretch who had come to her to borrow money. She admitted to an inspector afterwards that the man was her brother but that he would not dare go on the stand against her for she knew something about him that would blast him forever and would not hesitate for a second to tell it if she needed to.

Another indication of her character is furnished by the story that in choosing between two lawyers to represent her in court she not only inquired into their legal ability, but desired to know about their age and looks as well, finally deciding upon the younger and better looking.

She testified that all the trouble had been caused by Mr. Marsh giving her his house and in answer to a question as to why she did not get money from him instead of real estate she replied that she had tried to but that he was very mean with his cash. The last time she had gone to him for money he had refused it, offering her instead a deed of his property in Newport. This she had refused fearing it would get her into more trouble.

During the early part of the trial Diss Debar conceived the idea of consulting the spirit world in regard to her own course of action and soon after, on “the advice of Cicero and his colleagues in council of ten” she returned the deeds of the Madison Avenue property to Mr. Marsh.

One of the surprises of the trial was the calling by the prosecuting attorney of a professional illusionist, mesmerist, and conjuror, Carl Hertz, as a witness to prove by duplication that the tricks practiced on the unsuspecting Marsh by Diss Debar were simply applications of the ordinary laws of physics. This he succeeded in doing to the satisfaction of the court.

While Hertz was exhibiting “spirit message” reading on the stand Diss Debar did everything in her power to embarrass him but without success as he met every condition she suggested including some under which Diss Debar herself would have failed to “manifest.” Mrs. Hertz had been her husband’s assistant in reading the billets. Diss Debar proposed through her lawyer that she be allowed to take her place. Hertz readily consented. The Judge examined a fresh piece of paper and Hertz passed it to Diss Debar who deliberately tore it in two pieces and handing one of them back said to Hertz: