{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_44349/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_44349","id":"gutenberg_44349","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44349","summary":null,"tags":["Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna), 1831-1891","Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Psychiatry/Psychology","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Spiritualism","Theosophy"],"text":"HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS\n\n\n\n\nLEE'S LIBRARY OF OCCULT SCIENCE\n\n\nHOURS WITH THE GHOSTS; Or XIX Century Witchcraft\n\nBy Henry R. Evans.\n\n\nPRACTICAL PALMISTRY; Or Hand Reading Made Easy\n\nBy Comte C. de Saint-Germain.\n\n\nHERRMANN THE MAGICIAN; His Life; His Secrets\n\nBy H. J. Burlingame.\n\n\nAll profusely illustrated. Bound in Holliston cloth, burnished red top,\nuncut edges.\n\nEACH, $1.00\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.\n\n[Taken by the Author.]]\n\n\n\n\n Hours With the Ghosts\n\n OR NINETEENTH CENTURY WITCHCRAFT\n\n\n ILLUSTRATED INVESTIGATIONS\n INTO THE\n Phenomena of Spiritualism and Theosophy\n\n\n BY HENRY RIDGELY EVANS\n\n\n The first duty we owe to the world is Truth--all\n the Truth--nothing but the Truth.--\"_Ancient Wisdom._\"\n\n\n CHICAGO\n LAIRD & LEE, PUBLISHERS\n\n\n\n\nEntered according to act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and\nninety-seven. BY WILLIAM H. LEE, In the office of the Librarian of\nCongress, at Washington.\n\n\n\n\nTO MY WIFE\n\n\n\n\n\"It is no proof of wisdom to refuse to examine certain phenomena because\nwe think it certain that they are impossible, as if our knowledge of the\nuniverse were already completed.\"--_Prof. Lodge._\n\n\"The most ardent Spiritist should welcome a searching inquiry into the\npotential faculties of spirits still in the flesh. Until we know more of\n_these_, those other phenomena to which he appeals must remain\nunintelligible because isolated, and are likely to be obstinately\ndisbelieved because they are impossible to understand.\"--_F. W. H. Myers:\n\"Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,\" Part XVIII, April,\n1891._\n\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS.\n\n\n Author's Preface 11\n\n INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT 13\n\n PART FIRST: =Spiritualism= 18\n\n _I. Divisions of the Subject_ 18\n\n _II. Subjective Phenomena_ 23\n 1. Telepathy 23\n 2. Table Tilting. Muscle Reading 40\n\n _III. Physical Phenomena_ 46\n 1. Psychography or Slate-writing 46\n 2. The Master of the Mediums: D. D. Home 93\n 3. Rope Tying and Holding Mediums; Materializations 135\n The Davenport Brothers 135\n Annie Eva Fay 149\n Charles Slade 154\n Pierre L. O. A. Keeler 160\n Eusapia Paladino 175\n F. W. Tabor 182\n 4. Spirit Photography 188\n 5. Thought Photography 197\n 6. Apparitions of the Dead 201\n\n _IV. Conclusions_ 207\n\n\n PART SECOND: =Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists= 210\n\n _I. The Priestess_ 213\n\n _II. What is Theosophy?_ 237\n\n _III. Madame Blavatsky's Confession_ 250\n\n _IV. The Writings of Madame Blavatsky_ 265\n\n _V. The Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist_ 268\n\n _VI. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky_ 272\n\n _VII. The Theosophical Temple_ 287\n\n _VIII. Conclusion_ 290\n\n List of Authorities 298\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\n PAGE.\n\n Fig. 1. Spirit Photograph, by the author Frontispiece\n\n Fig. 2. Portrait of Dr. Henry Slade 47\n\n Fig. 3. The Holding of the Slate 51\n\n Fig. 4. Slate No. 1 65\n\n Fig. 5. Slate No. 2 71\n\n Fig. 6. Slate No. 3 77\n\n Fig. 7. Home at the Tuileries 97\n\n Fig. 8. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1 116\n\n Fig. 9. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1 119\n\n Fig. 10. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1 120\n\n Fig. 11. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1 121\n\n Fig. 12, 13, 14, 15. Crookes' Diagrams 124-125\n\n Fig. 16. Crookes' Apparatus No. 2 126\n\n Fig. 17. Crookes' Apparatus No. 2 127\n\n Fig. 18, 19, 20. Crookes' Diagrams 128-130\n\n Fig. 21. Hammond's Apparatus 133\n\n Fig. 22. The Davenport's in their Cabinet 139\n\n Fig. 23. Trick Tie and in Cabinet Work 143\n\n Fig. 24. Charles Slade's Poster 158-159\n\n Fig. 25. Pierre Keeler's Cabinet Seance 162\n\n Fig. 26. Pierre Keeler's Cabinet Curtain 163\n\n Fig. 27. Portrait of Eusapia Paladino 176\n\n Fig. 28. Eusapia before the Scientists 177\n\n Fig. 29. Spirit Photograph, by the author 191\n\n Fig. 30. Spirit Photograph, by pretended medium 195\n\n Fig. 31. Sigel's Original Picture of Fig. 30 199\n\n Fig. 32. Portrait of Madame Blavatsky 215\n\n Fig. 33. Mahatma Letter 221\n\n Fig. 34. Mahatma Envelope 225\n\n Fig. 35. Portrait of Col. H. S. Olcott 233\n\n Fig. 36. Oath of Secrecy of the Charter Members of the\n Theosophical Society 235\n\n Fig. 37. Portrait of W. Q. Judge 241\n\n Fig. 38. Portrait of Mrs. Annie Besant 273\n\n Fig. 39. Portrait of Mrs. Tingley 285\n\n Fig. 40. Autograph of Madame Blavatsky 293\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\n_There are two great schools of thought in the world--materialistic and\nspiritualistic. With one, MATTER is all in all, the ultimate substratum;\nmind is merely the result of organized matter; everything is translated\ninto terms of force, motion and the like. With the other, SPIRIT or mind\nis the ultimate substance--God; matter is the visible expression of this\ninvisible and eternal Consciousness._\n\n_Materialism is a barren, dreary, comfortless belief, and, in the opinion\nof the author, is without philosophical foundation. This is an age of\nscientific materialism, although of late years that materialism has been\nrather on the wane among thinking men. In an age of such ultra\nmaterialism, therefore, it is not strange that there should come a great\nreaction on the part of spiritually minded people. This reaction takes the\nform of an increased vitality of dogmatic religion, or else culminates in\nthe formation of Spiritualistic or Theosophic societies for the\nprosecution of occult phenomena. Spiritualists are now numbered by the\nmillion. Persons calling themselves mediums present certain phenomena,\nphysical and psychical, and call public attention to them, as an evidence\nof life beyond the grave, and the possibility of spiritual communication\nbetween this world and the next._\n\n_The author has had sittings with many famous mediums of this country and\nEurope, but has seen little to convince him of the fact of spirit\ncommunication. The slate tests and so-called materializations have\ninvariably been frauds. Some experiments along the line of automatic\nwriting and psychometry, however, have demonstrated to the writer the\ntruth of telepathy or thought-transference. The theory of telepathy\nexplains many of the marvels ascribed to spirit intervention in things\nmundane._\n\n_In this work the author has endeavored to give an accurate account of the\nlives and adventures of celebrated mediums and occultists, which will\nprove of interest to the reader. The rise and growth of the Theosophical\ncult in this country and Europe is of historical interest. Theosophy\npretends to a deeper metaphysics than Spiritualism, and numbers its\nadherents by the thousands; it is, therefore, intensely interesting to\nstudy it in its origin, its founder and its present leaders._\n\n_THE AUTHOR._\n\n\n\n\nHOURS WITH THE GHOSTS.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT.\n\n\n\"If a man die, shall he live again?\"--this is the question of the ages,\nthe Sphinx riddle that Humanity has been trying to solve since time began.\nThe great minds of antiquity, Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle\nwere firm in their belief in the immortality of the soul. The writings of\nPlato are luminous on the subject. The Mysteries of Isis and Osiris, as\npracticed in Egypt, and those of Eleusis, in Greece, taught the doctrine\nof the immortality of the individual being. The Divine Master of Arcane\nknowledge, Christ, proclaimed the same. In latter times, we have had such\nmetaphysical and scientific thinkers as Leibnitz, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel\nand Schleiermacher advocating individual existence beyond the grave.\n\nIt is a strange fact that the more materialistic the age, the deeper the\ninterest in spiritual questions. The vitality and persistence of the\nbelief in the reality of the spiritual world is evidence of that hunger\nfor the ideal, for God, of which the Psalmist speaks--\"As the heart\npanteth after water brooks so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!\" Through\nthe passing centuries, we have come into a larger, nobler conception of\nthe Universal Life, and our relations to that Life, in which we live,\nmove, and have our being. Granting the existence of an \"Eternal and\nInfinite Spirit, the Intellectual Organizer of the mathematical laws which\nthe physical forces obey,\" and conceiving ourselves as individualized\npoints of life in the Greater Life, we are constrained to believe that we\nbear within us the undying spark of divinity and immortality. Evolution\npoints to eternal life as the final goal of self-conscious spirit, else\nthis mighty earth-travail, the long ages of struggle to produce man are\nutterly without meaning. Speaking of a future life, John Fiske, a leading\nAmerican exponent of the doctrine of evolution, says (\"The Destiny of\nMan\"): \"The doctrine of evolution does not allow us to take the atheistic\nview of the position of man. It is true that modern astronomy shows us\ngiant balls of vapor condensing into fiery suns, cooling down into\nplanets fit for the support of life, and at last growing cold and rigid in\ndeath, like the moon. And there are indications of a time when systems of\ndead planets shall fall in upon their central ember that was once a sun,\nand the whole lifeless mass, thus regaining heat, shall expand into a\nnebulous cloud like that with which we started, that the work of\ncondensation and evolution may begin over again. These Titanic events must\ndoubtless seem to our limited vision like an endless and aimless series of\ncosmical changes. From the first dawning of life we see all things working\ntogether toward one mighty goal, the evolution of the most exalted\nspiritual qualities which characterize Humanity. The body is cast aside\nand returns to the dust of which it was made. The earth, so marvelously\nwrought to man's uses, will also be cast aside. So small is the value\nwhich Nature sets upon the perishable forms of matter! The question, then,\nis reduced to this: Are man's highest spiritual qualities, into the\nproduction of which all this creative energy has gone, to disappear with\nthe rest? Are we to regard the Creator's work as like that of a child, who\nbuilds houses out of blocks, just for the pleasure of knocking them down?\nFor aught that science can tell us, it may be so, but I can see no good\nreason for believing any such thing.\"\n\nA scientific demonstration of immortality is declared to be an\nimpossibility. But why go to science for such a demonstration? The\nquestion belongs to the domain of philosophy and religion. Science deals\nwith physical forces and their relations; collects and inventories facts.\nIts mission is not to establish a universal metaphysic of things; that is\nphilosophy's prerogative. All occult thinkers declare that life is from\nwithin, out. In other words life, or a spiritual principle, precedes\norganization. Science proceeds to investigate the phenomena of the\nuniverse in the opposite way from without, in; and pronounces life to be\n\"a fortuitous collocation of atoms.\" Still, science has been the\ntorch-bearer of the ages and has stripped the fungi of superstition from\nthe tree of life. It has revealed to us the great laws of nature, though\nit has not explained them. We know that light, heat, and electricity are\nmodes of motion; more than that we know not. Science is largely\nresponsible for the materialistic philosophy in vogue to-day--a philosophy\nthat sees no reason in the universe. A powerful wave of spiritual thought\nhas set in, as if to counteract the ultra rationalism of the age. In the\nvanguard of the new order of things are Spiritualism and Theosophy.\n\nSpiritualism enters the list, and declares that the immortality of the\nsoul is a demonstrable fact. It throws down the gauntlet of defiance to\nskepticism, saying: \"Come, I will show you that there is an existence\nbeyond the grave. Death is not a wall, but a door through which we pass\ninto eternal life.\" Theosophy, too, has its occult phenomena to prove the\nindestructibility of soul-force. Both Spiritualism and Theosophy contain\ngerms of truth, but both are tinctured with superstition. I purpose, if\npossible, to sift the wheat from the chaff. In investigating the phenomena\nof Spiritualism and Theosophy I will use the scientific as well as the\nphilosophic method. Each will act, I hope, as corrective of the other.\n\n\n\n\nPART FIRST.\n\nSPIRITUALISM.\n\n\n\n\nI. DIVISIONS OF THE SUBJECT.\n\n\nBelief in the evocation of the spirits of the dead is as old as Humanity.\nAt one period of the world's history it was called Thaumaturgy, at another\nNecromancy and Witchcraft, in these latter years, Spiritualism. It is new\nwine in old bottles. On March 31, 1847, at Hydeville, Wayne County, New\nYork, occurred the celebrated \"knockings,\" the beginning of modern\nSpiritualism. The mediums were two little girls, Kate and Margaretta Fox,\nwhose fame spread over three continents. It is claimed by impartial\ninvestigators that the rappings produced in the presence of the Fox\nsisters were occasioned by natural means. Voluntary disjointings of the\nmuscles of the knee, or to use a medical term \"the repeated displacement\nof the tendon of the _peroneus longus_ muscle in the sheath in which it\nslides behind the outer _malleolus_\" will produce certain extraordinary\nsounds, particularly when the knee is brought in contact with a table or\nchair. Snapping the toes in rapid succession will cause similar noises.\nThe above was the explanation given of the \"Hydeville and Rochester\nKnockings\", by Professors Flint, Lee and Coventry, of Buffalo, who\nsubjected the Fox sisters to numerous examinations, and this explanation\nwas confirmed many years after (in 1888) by the published confession of\nMrs. Kane, _nee_ Margaretta Fox. Spiritualism became the rage and\nprofessional mediums went about giving s\u00e9ances to large and interested\naudiences. This particular creed is still professed by a recognized\nsemi-religious body in America and in Europe. The American mediums reaped\na rich harvest in the Old World. The pioneer was Mrs. Hayden, a Boston\nmedium, who went to England in 1852, and the table-turning mania spread\nlike wild fire within a few months.\n\nBroadly speaking, the phenomena of modern Spiritualism may be divided into\ntwo classes: (1) Physical, (2) Subjective. Of the first, the\n\"Encyclopaedia Britannica\", in its brief but able review of the subject,\nsays: \"Those which, if correctly observed and due neither to conscious or\nunconscious trickery nor to hallucination on the part of the observers,\nexhibit a force hitherto unknown to science, acting in the physical world\notherwise than through the brain or muscles of the medium.\" The earliest\nof these phenomena were the mysterious rappings and movements of\nfurniture without apparent physical cause. Following these came the\nringing of bells, playing on musical instruments, strange lights seen\nhovering about the s\u00e9ance-room, materializations of hands, faces and\nforms, \"direct writing and drawing\" declared to be done without human\nintervention, spirit photography, levitation, unfastening of ropes and\nbandages, elongation of the medium's body, handling fire with impunity,\netc.\n\nOf the second class, or Subjective Phenomena, we have \"table-tilting and\nturning with contact; writing, drawing, etc., by means of the medium's\nhand; entrancement, trance-speaking, and impersonation by the medium of\ndeceased persons, seeing spirits and visions and hearing phantom voices.\"\n\nFrom a general scientific point of view there are three ways of accounting\nfor the physical phenomena of spiritualism: (1) Hallucination on the part\nof the observers; (2) Conjuring; (3) A force latent in the human\npersonality capable of moving heavy objects without muscular contact, and\nof causing \"Percussive Sounds\" on table-tops, and raps upon walls and\nfloors.\n\nHallucination has unquestionably played a part in the s\u00e9ance-room, but\nhere again the statement of the \"Encyclopaedia Britannica\" is worthy of\nconsideration: \"Sensory hallucination of several persons together who are\nnot in a hypnotic state is a rare phenomenon, and therefore not a probable\nexplanation.\" In my opinion, conjuring will account for seven-eighths of\nthe so-called phenomena of professional mediums. For the balance of\none-eighth, neither hallucination nor legerdemain are satisfactory\nexplanation. Hundreds of credible witnesses have borne testimony to the\nfact of table-turning and tilting and the movements of heavy objects\nwithout muscular contact. That such a force exists is now beyond cavil,\ncall it what you will, magnetic, nervous, or psychic. Count Agenor de\nGasparin, in 1854, conducted a series of elaborate experiments in\ntable-turning and tilting, in the presence of his family and a number of\nskeptical witnesses, and was highly successful. The experiments were made\nin the full light of day. The members of the circle joined hands and\nconcentrated their minds upon the object to be moved. The Count published\na work on the subject \"Des Tables Tournantes,\" in which he stated that the\nmovements of the table were due to a mental or nervous force emanating\nfrom the human personality. This psychic energy has been investigated by\nProfessor Crookes and Professor Lodge, of London, and by Doctor Elliott\nCoues, of Washington, D. C., who calls it \"Telekinesis.\" The existence of\nthis force sufficiently explains such phenomena of the s\u00e9ance-room as are\nnot attributable to hallucination and conjuring, thus removing the\nnecessity for the hypothesis of spirit intervention. In explanation of\ntable-turning by \"contact,\" I quote what J. N. Maskelyne says in \"The\nSupernatural\":\n\n\"Faraday proved to a demonstration that table-turning was simply the\nresult of an unconscious muscular action on the part of the sitters. He\nconstructed a little apparatus to be placed beneath the hands of those\npressing upon the table, which had a pointer to indicate any pressure to\none side or the other. After a time, of course, the arms of the sitters\nbecome tired and they unconsciously press more or less to the right or\nleft. In Faraday's experiments, it always proved that this pressure was\nexerted in the direction in which the table was expected to move, and the\ntell-tale pointer showed it at once. There, then, we have the explanation:\nexpectancy and unconscious muscular action.\"\n\n\n\n\nII. SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA.\n\n\n1. Telepathy.\n\nThe subjective phenomena of Spiritualism--trance speaking, automatic\nwriting, etc.,--have engaged the attention of some of the best scientific\nminds of Europe and America, as studies of abnormal or supernormal\npsychological conditions.\n\nIf there are any facts to sustain the spiritual hypothesis, these facts\nexist in subjective manifestations. The following statement will be\nconceded by any impartial investigator: A medium, or psychic, in a state\nof partial or complete hypnosis frequently gives information transcending\nhis conscious knowledge of a subject. There can be but two hypotheses for\nthe phenomena--(1) The intelligence exhibited by the medium is\n\"ultra-mundane,\" in other words, is the effect of spirit control, or, (2)\nit is the result of the conscious or unconscious exercise of psychic\npowers on the part of the medium.\n\nIt is well known that persons under hypnotic influence exhibit remarkable\nintelligence, notwithstanding the fact that the ordinary consciousness is\nheld in abeyance. The extraordinary results obtained by hypnotizers point\nto another phase of consciousness, which is none other than the subjective\nor \"subliminal\" self. Mediums sometimes induce hypnosis by\nself-suggestion, and while in that state, the subconscious mind is in a\nhighly receptive and exalted condition. Mental suggestions or concepts\npass from the mind of the sitter consciously or unconsciously to the mind\nof the medium, and are given back in the form of communications from the\ninvisible world, ostensibly through spirit control. It is not absolutely\nnecessary that the medium be in the hypnotic condition to obtain\ninformation, but the hypnotic state seems to be productive of the best\nresults. The medium is usually honest in his belief in the reality of such\nultra-mundane control, but he is ignorant of the true psychology of the\ncase--thought transference.\n\nThe English Society for Psychical Research and its American branch have of\nlate years popularized \"telepathy\", or thought transference. A series of\nelaborate investigations were made by Messrs. Edmund Gurney, F. W. H.\nMyers, and Frank Podmore, accounts of which are contained in the\nproceedings of the Society. Among the European investigators may be\nmentioned Messrs. Janet and Gibert, Richet, Gibotteau, and\nSchrenck-Notzing. Podmore has lately summarized the results of these\nstudies in an interesting volume, \"Apparitions and Thought-transference,\nan Examination of the Evidence for Telepathy.\" Thought Transference or\nTelepathy (from _tele_--at a distance, and _pathos_--feeling) he describes\nas \"a communication between mind and mind other than through the known\nchannels of the senses.\" A mass of evidence is adduced to prove the\npossibility of this communication. In summing up his book he says: \"The\nexperimental evidence has shown that a simple sensation or idea may be\ntransferred from one mind to another, and that this transference may take\nplace alike in the normal state and in the hypnotic trance.\n\n* * The personal influence of the operator in hypnotism may perhaps be\nregarded as a proof presumptive of telepathy.\" The experiments show that\nmental concepts or ideas may be transferred to a distance.\n\nPodmore advances the following theory in explanation of the phenomena of\ntelepathy:\n\n\"If we leave fluids and radiant nerve-energy on one side, we find\npractically only one mode suggested for the telepathic transference--viz.,\nthat the physical changes which are the accompaniments of thought or\nsensation in the agent are transmitted from the brain as undulations in\nthe intervening medium, and thus excite corresponding changes in some\nother brain, without any other portion of the organism being necessarily\nimplicated in the transmission. This hypothesis has found its most\nphilosophical champion in Dr. Ochorowicz, who has devoted several chapters\nof his book \"De la Suggestion mentale,\" to the discussion of the various\ntheories on the subject. He begins by recalling the reciprocal\nconvertibility of all physical forces with which we are acquainted, and\nespecially draws attention to what he calls the law of reversibility, a\nlaw which he illustrates by a description of the photophone. The\nphotophone is an instrument in which a mirror is made to vibrate to the\nhuman voice. The mirror reflects a ray of light, which, vibrating in its\nturn, falls upon a plate of selenium, modifying its electric conductivity.\nThe intermittent current so produced is transmitted through a telephone,\nand the original articulate sound is reproduced. Now in hypnotized\nsubjects--and M. Ochorowicz does not in this connection treat of\nthought-transference between persons in the normal state--the equilibrium\nof the nervous system, he sees reason to believe, is profoundly affected.\nThe nerve-energy liberated in this state, he points out, 'cannot pass\nbeyond' the subject's brain 'without being transformed. Nevertheless,\nlike any other force, it cannot remain isolated; like any other force it\nescapes, but in disguise. Orthodox science allows it only one way out, the\nmotor nerves. These are the holes in the dark lantern through which the\nrays of light escape. * * * Thought remains in the brain, just as the\nchemical energy of the galvanic battery remains in the cells, but each is\nrepresented outside by its correlative energy, which in the case of the\nbattery is called the electric current, but for which in the other we have\nas yet no name. In any case there is some correlative energy--for the\ncurrents of the motor nerves do not and cannot constitute the only dynamic\nequivalent of cerebral energy--to represent all the complex movements of\nthe cerebral mechanism.'\"\n\nThe above hypothesis may, or may not, afford a clue to the mysterious\nphenomena of telepathy, but it will doubtless satisfy to some extent those\nthinkers who demand physical explanations of the known and unknown laws of\nthe universe. The president of the Society for Psychical Research (1894,)\nA. J. Balfour, in an address on the relation of the work of the Society to\nthe general course of modern scientific investigation, is more cautious\nthan the writers already quoted. He says:\n\n\"Is this telepathic action an ordinary case of action from a center of\ndisturbance? Is it equally diffused in all directions? Is it like the\nlight of a candle or the light of the sun which radiates equally into\nspace in every direction at the same time? If it is, it must obey the\nlaw--at least, we should expect it to obey the law--of all other forces\nwhich so act through a non-absorbing medium, and its effects must diminish\ninversely as the square of the distance. It must, so to speak, get beaten\nout thinner and thinner the further it gets removed from its original\nsource. But is this so? Is it even credible that the mere thoughts, or, if\nyou please, the neural changes corresponding to these thoughts, of any\nindividual could have in them the energy to produce sensible effects\nequally in all directions, for distances which do not, as far as our\ninvestigations go, appear to have any necessary limit? It is, I think,\nincredible; and in any case there is no evidence whatever that this equal\ndiffusion actually takes place. The will power, whenever will is used, or\nthe thoughts, in cases where will is not used, have an effect, as a rule,\nonly upon one or two individuals at most. There is no appearance of\ngeneral diffusion. There is no indication of any disturbance equal at\nequal distances from its origin and radiating from it alike in every\ndirection.\n\n\"But if we are to reject this idea, which is the first which ordinary\nanalogies would suggest, what are we to put in its place? Are we to\nsuppose that there is some means by which telepathic energy can be\ndirected through space from the agent to the patient, from the man who\ninfluences to the man who is influenced? If we are to believe this, as\napparently we must, we are face to face not only with a fact extraordinary\nin itself, but with a kind of fact which does not fit in with anything we\nknow at present in the region either of physics or of physiology. It is\ntrue, no doubt, that we do know plenty of cases where energy is directed\nalong a given line, like water in a pipe, or like electrical energy along\nthe course of a wire. But then in such cases there is always some material\nguide existing between the two termini, between the place from which the\nenergy comes and the place to which the energy goes. Is there any such\nmaterial guide in the case of telepathy? It seems absolutely impossible.\nThere is no sign of it. We can not even form to ourselves any notion of\nits character, and yet, if we are to take what appears to be the obvious\nlesson of the observed facts, we are forced to the conclusion that in some\nshape or other it exists.\"\n\nTelepathy once conceded, we have a satisfactory explanation of that class\nof cases in modern Spiritualism on the subjective side of the question.\nThere is no need of the hypothesis of \"disembodied spirits\".\n\nSome years ago, I instituted a series of experiments with a number of\ncelebrated spirit mediums in the line of thought transference, and was\neminently successful in obtaining satisfactory results, especially with\nMiss Maggie Gaule, of Baltimore, one of the most famous of the latter day\npsychics.\n\nCase A.\n\nAbout three years prior to my sitting with Miss Gaule, a relative by\nmarriage died of cancer of the throat at the Garfield Hospital,\nWashington, D. C. He was a retired army officer, with the brevet of\nGeneral, and lived part of the time at Chambersburg, Penn., and the rest\nof the time at the National Capital. He led a very quiet and unassuming\nlife, and outside of army circles knew but few people. He was a\nmagnificent specimen of physical manhood, six feet tall, with splendid\nchest and arms. His hair and beard were of a reddish color. His usual\nstreet dress was a sort of compromise with an army undress uniform,\nmilitary cut frock-coat, frogged and braided top-coat, and a Sherman hat.\nWithout these accessories, anyone would have recognized the military man\nin his walk and bearing. He and his wife thought a great deal of my\nmother, and frequently stopped me on the street to inquire, \"How is Mary?\"\nI went to Miss Gaule's house with the thought of General M-- fixed in my\nmind and the circumstances surrounding his decease. The medium greeted me\nin a cordial manner. I sat at one end of the room in the shadow, and she\nnear the window in a large armchair. \"You wish for messages from the\ndead,\" she remarked abruptly. \"One moment, let me think.\" She sank back in\nthe chair, closed her eyes, and remained in deep thought for a minute or\nso, occasionally passing her hand across her forehead. \"I see,\" she said,\n\"standing behind you, a tall, large man with reddish hair and beard. He is\ngarbed in the uniform of an officer--I do not know whether of the army or\nnavy. He points to his throat. Says he died of a throat trouble. He looks\nat you and calls \"Mary,--how is Mary?\" \"What is his name?\" I inquired,\nfixing my mind on the words David M--. \"I will ask\", replied the medium.\nThere was a long pause. \"He speaks so faintly I can scarcely hear him. The\nfirst letter begins with D, and then comes a--I can't get it. I can't hear\nit.\" With that she opened her eyes.\n\nThe surprising feature about the above case was the alleged spirit\ncommunication, \"Mary--how is Mary?\" I did not have this in my mind at the\ntime; in fact I had completely forgotten this form of salutation on the\npart of Gen. M--, when we had met in the old days. It is just this sort of\nthing that makes spirit-converts.\n\nHowever, the cases of unconscious telepathy cited in the \"Reports of the\nSociety for Psychical Research,\" are sufficient, I think, to prove the\nexistence of this phase of the phenomena.\n\nT. J. Hudson, in his work entitled \"A scientific demonstration of the\nfuture life\", says: * * \"When a psychic transmits a message to his client\ncontaining information which is in his (the psychic's) possession, it can\nnot reasonably be attributed to the agency of disembodied spirits. * *\nWhen the message contains facts known to some one in his immediate\npresence and with whom he is _en rapport_, the agency of spirits of the\ndead cannot be presumed. Every investigator will doubtless admit that\nsub-conscious memory may enter as a factor in the case, and that the\nsub-conscious intelligence--or, to use the favorite terminology employed\nby Mr. Myers to designate the subjective mind, the 'sublimal\nconsciousness'--of the psychic or that of his client may retain and use\nfacts which the conscious, or objective mind may have entirely forgotten.\"\n\nBut suppose the medium relates facts that were never in the possession of\nthe sitter, what are we to say then? Considerable controversy has been\nwaged over this question, and the hypothesis of telepathy is scouted.\nMinot J. Savage has come to the conclusion that such cases stretch the\ntelepathic theory too far; there can be but one plausible explanation--a\ncommunication from a disembodied spirit, operating through the mind of the\nmedium. For the sake of lucidity, let us take an example: A has a relative\nB who dies in a foreign land under peculiar circumstances, _unknown to A_.\nA attends a s\u00e9ance of a psychic, C, and the latter relates the\ncircumstances of B's death. A afterwards investigates the statements of\nthe medium, and finds them correct. Can telepathy account for C's\nknowledge? I think it can. The telepathic communication was recorded in\nA's sub-conscious mind, he being _en rapport_ with B. A unconsciously\nyields the points recorded in his sub-conscious mind to the psychic, C,\nwho by reason of his peculiar powers raises them to the level of conscious\nthought, and gives them back in the form of a message from the dead.\n\nCase B.\n\nOn another occasion, I went with my friend Mr. S. C., of Virginia, to\nvisit Miss Gaule. Mr. S. C. had a young son who had recently passed the\nexamination for admission to the U. S. Naval Academy, and the boy had\naccompanied his father to Baltimore to interview the military tailors on\nthe subject of uniforms, etc. Miss Gaule in her semi-trance state made the\nfollowing statement: \"I see a young man busy with books and papers. He has\nsuccessfully passed an examination, and says something about a uniform.\nPerhaps he is going to a military college.\"\n\nHere again we have excellent evidence of the proof of telepathy.\n\nThe spelling of names is one of the surprising things in these\nexperiments. On one occasion my wife had a sitting with Miss Gaule, and\nthe psychic correctly spelled out the names of Mrs. Evans' brothers--John,\nRobert, and Dudley, the latter a family name and rather unusual, and\ndescribed the family as living in the West.\n\nThe following example of Telepathy occurred between the writer and a\nyounger brother.\n\nCase C.\n\nIn the fall of 1890, I was travelling from Washington to Baltimore, by the\nB. & P. R. R. As the train approached Jackson Grove, a campmeeting\nground, deserted at that time of the year, the engine whistle blew\nvigorously and the bell was rung continuously, which was something\nunusual, as the cars ordinarily did not stop at this isolated station, but\nwhirled past. Then the engine slowed down and the train came to a\nstandstill.\n\n\"What is the matter?\" exclaimed the passengers.\n\n\"My God, look there!\" shouted an excited passenger, leaning out of the\ncoach window, and pointing to the dilapidated platform of the station. I\nlooked out and beheld a decapitated human head, standing almost upright in\na pool of blood. With the other male passengers I rushed out of the car.\nThe head was that of an old man with very white hair and beard. We found\nthe body down an embankment at some little distance from the place of the\naccident. The deceased was recognized as the owner of the Grove, a farmer\nliving in the vicinity. According to the statement of the engineer, the\nold man was walking on the track; the warning signals were given, but\nproved of no avail. Being somewhat deaf, he did not realize his danger. He\nattempted to step off the track, but the brass railing that runs along the\nside of the locomotive decapitated him like the knife of a guillotine.\n\nWhen I reached Baltimore about 7 o'clock, P. M., I hurried down to the\noffice of the \"Baltimore News\" and wrote out an account of the tragic\naffair. My work at the office kept me until a late hour of the night, and\nI went home to bed at about 1 o'clock, A. M. My brother, who slept in an\nadjoining room, had retired to bed and the door between our apartments was\nclosed. The next morning, Sunday, I rose at 9 o'clock, and went down to\nbreakfast. The family had assembled, and I was just in time to hear my\nbrother relate the following: \"I had a most peculiar dream last night. I\nthought I was on my way to Mt. Washington (he was in the habit of making\nfrequent visits to this suburb of Baltimore on the Northern Central R. R.)\nWe ran down an old man and decapitated him. I was looking out of the\nwindow and saw the head standing in a pool of blood. The hair and beard\nwere snow white. We found the body not far off, and it proved to be a\nfarmer residing in the neighborhood of Mt. Washington.\"\n\n\"You will find the counterpart of that dream in the morning paper\", I\nremarked seriously. \"I reported the accident.\" My father called for the\npaper, and proceeded to hunt its columns for the item, saying, \"You\nundoubtedly transferred the impression to your brother.\"\n\nCase D.\n\nThis is another striking evidence of telepathic communication, in which I\nwas one of the agents. L-- was a reporter on a Baltimore paper, and his\napartments were the rendezvous of a coterie of Bohemian actors,\njournalists, and _litterati_, among whom was X--, a student at the\nJohns-Hopkins University, and a poet of rare excellence. Poets have a\nproverbial reputation for being eccentric in personal appearance; in X\nthis eccentricity took the form of an unclipped beard that stood out in\nall directions, giving him a savage, anarchistic look. He vowed never\nunder any circumstances to shave or cut this hirsute appendage.\n\nL-- came to me one day, and laughingly remarked: \"I am being tortured by a\nmental obsession. X's beard annoys me; haunts my waking and sleeping\nhours. I must do something about it. Listen! He is coming down to my\nrooms, Saturday evening, to do some literary work, and spend the night\nwith me. We shall have supper together, and I want you to be present. Now\nI propose that we drug his coffee with some harmless soporific, and when\nhe is sound asleep, tie him, and shave off his beard. Will you help me? I\ncan provide you with a lounge to sleep on, but you must promise not to go\nto sleep until after the tragedy.\"\n\nI agreed to assist him in his practical joke, and we parted, solemnly\nvowing that our project should be kept secret.\n\nThis was on Tuesday, and no communication was had with X, until Saturday\nmorning, when L-- and I met him on Charles street.\n\n\"Don't forget to-night,\" exclaimed L-- \"I have invited E to join us in our\nEpicurean feast.\"\n\n\"I will be there,\" said X. \"By the way, let me relate a curious dream I\nhad last night. I dreamt I came down to your rooms, and had supper. E--was\npresent. You fellows gave me something to drink which contained a drug,\nand I fell asleep on the bed. After that you tied my hands, and shaved off\nmy beard. When I awoke I was terribly mad. I burst the cords that fastened\nmy wrists together, and springing to my feet, cut L--severely with the\nrazor.\"\n\n\"That settles the matter\", said L--, \"his beard is safe from me\". When we\ntold X of our conspiracy to relieve him of his poetic hirsute appendage,\nhe evinced the greatest astonishment. As will be seen, every particular of\nthe practical joke had been transferred to his mind, the drugging of the\ncoffee, the tying, and the shaving.\n\nTelepathy is a logical explanation of many of the ghostly visitations of\nwhich the Society for Psychical Research has collected such a mass of\ndata. For example: A dies, let us say in India and B, a near relative or\nfriend, residing in England, sees a vision of A in a dream or in the\nwaking state. A clasps his hands, and seems to utter the words, \"I am\ndying\". When the news comes of A's death, the time of the occurrence\ncoincides with the seeing of the vision. The spiritualist's theory is that\nthe ghost of A was an actual entity. One of the difficulties in the way of\nsuch an hypothesis is the clothing of the deceased--_can that, too, be\ndisembodied?_ Thought transference (conscious or unconscious), I think, is\nthe only rational explanation of such phantasms. The vision seen by the\npercipient is not an objective but a subjective thing--a hallucination\nproduced by the unknown force called telepathy. The vision need not\ncoincide exactly with the date of the death of the transmitter but may\nmake its appearance years afterwards, remaining latent in the subjective\nmind of the percipient. It may, as is frequently the case, be revealed by\na medium in a s\u00e9ance. Many thoughtful writers combat the telepathic\nexplanation of phantasms of the dead, claiming that when such are seen\nlong after the death of persons, they afford indubitable evidence of the\nreality of spirit visitation. The reader is referred to the proceedings\nof the Society for Psychical Research for a detailed discussion of the\n_pros_ and _cons_ of this most interesting subject.\n\nMany of the so-called materializations of the s\u00e9ance-room may be accounted\nfor by hallucinations superinduced by telepathic suggestions from the mind\nof the medium or sitters. But, in my opinion, the greater number of these\nmanifestations of spirit power are the result of trickery pure and\nsimple--theatrical beards and wigs, muslin and gossamer robes, etc., being\nthe paraphernalia used to impersonate the shades of the departed, the\nimaginations of the sitters doing the rest.\n\n\n2. Table-Tilting--Muscle Reading.\n\nIn regard to Table-Tilting with contact, I have given Faraday's\nconclusions on the subject,--unconscious muscular action on the part of\nthe sitter or sitters. In the case of Automatic Writing (particularly with\nthe planchette), unconscious muscular action is the proper explanation for\nthe movements of the apparatus. \"Professor Augusto Tamburini, of Italy,\nauthor of 'Spiritismo e Telepatia', a cautious investigator of psychical\nproblems,\" says a reviewer in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical\nResearch (Volume IX, p. 226), \"accepts the verdict of all competent\nobservers that imposture is inadmissible as a general explanation, and\nendorses the view that the muscular action which causes the movements of\nthe table or the pencil is produced by the subliminal consciousness. He\nexplains the definite and varying characters of the supposed authors of\nthe messages as the result of self-suggestion. As by hypnotic or\npost-hypnotic suggestion a subject may be made to think he is Napoleon or\na chimney sweep, so, by self-suggestion, the subliminal consciousness may\nbe made to think that he is X and Y, and to tilt or wrap messages in the\ncharacter of X and Y.\"\n\nProfessor Tamburini's explanation fails to account for the innumerable\nwell authenticated cases where facts are obtained not within the conscious\nknowledge of the planchette writer or table-tilter. If telepathy does not\nenter into these cases, what does?\n\nThere are many exhibitions, of thought transference by public psychics,\nthat are thought transference in name only. One must be on one's guard\nagainst these pretenders to occult powers. I refer to men like our late\ncompatriot, Washington Irving Bishop--\"muscle-reader\" _par excellence_\nwhose fame extended throughout the civilized world.\n\nMuscle-Reading is performed in the following manner: Let us take, for\nexample, the reading of the figures on a bank-note. The subject gazes\nintently at the figures on a note, and fixes them in his mind. The\nmuscle-reader, blindfolded or not, takes a crayon in his right hand, and\nlightly clasps the hand or wrist of the subject with his left. He then\nwrites on a blackboard the correct figures on the note. This is one of the\nmost difficult feats in the repertoire of the muscle-reader, and was\nexcelled in by Bishop and Stuart Cumberland. Charles Gatchell, an\nauthority on the subject, says that the above named men were the only\nmuscle-readers who have ever accomplished the feat. Geometrical designs\ncan also be reproduced on a blackboard. The finding of objects hidden in\nan adjoining room, or upon the person of a spectator in a public hall, or\nat a distance, are also accomplished by skillful muscle readers, either by\nclasping the hand of the subject, or one end of a short wire held by him.\nSays Gatchell, in the \"_Forum_\" for April, 1891: \"Success in\nmuscle-reading depends upon the powers of the principal and upon the\nsusceptibility of the subject. The latter must be capable of mental\nconcentration; he must exert no muscular self-control; he must obey his\nevery impulse. Under these conditions, the phenomena are in accordance\nwith known laws of physiology. On the part of the principal,\nmuscle-reading consists of an acute perception of the slight action of\nanother's muscles. On the part of the subject, it involves a nervous\nimpulse, accompanied by muscular action. The mind of the subject is in a\nstate of tension or expectancy. A sudden release from this state excites,\nmomentarily, an increased activity in the cells of the cerebral cortex.\nSince the ideational centres, as is usually held, correspond to the motor\ncentres, the nervous action causes a motor impulse to be transmitted to\nthe muscles. * * In making his way to the location of a hidden object, the\nsubject usually does not lead the muscle-reader, but the muscle-reader\nleads the subject. That is to say, so long as the muscle-reader moves in\nthe right direction, the subject gives no indication, but passively moves\nwith him. The muscle-reader perceives nothing unusual. But, the subject's\nmind being intently fixed on a certain course, the instant that the\nmuscle-reader deviates from that course there is a slight, involuntary\ntremor, or muscular thrill, on the part of the subject, due to the sudden\ninterruption of his previous state of mental tension. The muscle-reader,\nalmost unconsciously, takes note of the delicate signal, and alters his\ncourse to the proper one, again leading his willing subject. In a word, he\nfollows the line of the least resistance. In other cases the conditions\nare reversed; the subject unwittingly leads the principal.\n\n\"The discovery of a bank-note number requires a slightly different\nexplanation. The conditions are these: The subject is intently thinking of\na certain figure. His mind is in a state of expectant attention. He is\nwaiting for but one thing in the world to happen--for another to give\naudible expression to the name of that which he has in mind. The instant\nthat the conditions are fulfilled, the mind of the subject is released\nfrom its state of tension, and the accompanying nervous action causes a\nslight muscular tremor, which is perceived by the acute senses of the\nmuscle-reader. This explanation applies, also, to the pointing out of one\npin among many, or of a letter or a figure on a chart. The conditions\ninvolved in the tracing of a figure on a blackboard or other surface are\nof a like order, although this is a severer test of a muscle-reader's\npowers. So long as the muscle-reader moves the crayon in the right\ndirection, he is permitted to do so; but when he deviates from the proper\ncourse, the subject, whose hand or wrist he clasps, involuntarily\nindicates the fact by the usual slight muscular tremor. This, of course,\nis done involuntarily; but if he is fulfilling the conditions demanded of\nall subjects, absolute concentration of attention and absence of muscular\ncontrol--he unconsciously obeys his impulse. A billiard player does the\nsame when he follows the driven ball with his cue, as if by sheer force of\nwill he could induce it to alter its course. The ivory is uninfluenced;\nthe human ball obeys.\"\n\n\n\n\nIII. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA.\n\n\n1. Psychography, or Slate-Writing.\n\nOne of the most interesting phases of modern mediumship, on the physical\nside, is psychography, or slate-writing. After an investigation extending\nover ten years, I am of the opinion that the majority of slate-writing\nfeats are the results of conjuring. The process generally used is the\nfollowing.\n\nThe medium takes two slates, binds them together, after first having\ndeposited a small bit of chalk or slate pencil between their surfaces, and\neither holds them in his hands, or lays them on the table. Soon the\nscratching of the pencil is heard, and when the cords are removed a spirit\nmessage is found upon the surface of one of the slates. I will endeavor to\nexplain the \"modus operandi\" of these startling experiments.\n\nSome years ago, the most famous of the slate-writing mediums was Dr. Henry\nSlade, of New York, with whom I had several sittings. I was unable to\npenetrate the mystery of his performance, until the summer of 1889, when\nlight was thrown upon the subject by the conjurer C-- whom I met in\nBaltimore.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 2. DR. HENRY SLADE.]\n\n\"Do you know the medium Slade?\" I asked him.\n\n\"Yes,\" said he, \"and he is a conjurer like myself. I've had sittings with\nhim. Come to my rooms to-night, and I will explain the secret workings of\nthe medium's slate-writing. But first I will treat you to a regular\ns\u00e9ance.\"\n\nOn my way to C's home I tried to put myself in the frame of mind of a\ngenuine seeker after transcendental knowledge. I recalled all the stories\nof mysterious rappings and ghostly visitations I had read or heard of. It\nwas just the night for such eerie musings. Black clouds were scurrying\nacross the face of the moon like so many mediaeval witches mounted on the\nproverbial broomsticks _en route_ for a mad sabbat in some lonely\nchurchyard. The prestidigitateur's _pension_ was a great, lumbering,\ngloomy old house, in an old quarter of Baltimore. The windows were tightly\nclosed and only the feeble glimmer of gaslight was emitted through the\ncracks of the shutters. I rang the bell and Mr. C's stage-assistant, a\npale-faced young man, came to the door, relieved me of my light overcoat\nand hat, and ushered me upstairs into the conjurer's sitting-room.\n\nA large, baize-covered table stood in the centre of the apartment, and a\ncabinet with a black curtain drawn across it occupied a position in a deep\nalcove. Suspended from the roof of the cabinet was a large guitar. I took\na chair and waited patiently for the appearance of the anti-Spiritualist,\nafter having first examined everything in the room--table, cabinet, and\nmusical instruments--but I discovered no evidence of trickery anywhere. I\nwaited and waited, but no C--. \"Can he have forgotten me?\" I said to\nmyself. Suddenly a loud rap resounded on the table top, followed by a\nsuccession of raps from the cabinet; and the guitar began to play. I was\nquite startled. When the music ceased the door opened, and C-- entered.\n\n\"The spirits are in force to-night,\" he remarked with a meaning smile, as\nhe slightly diminished the light in the apartment.\n\n\"Yes,\" I replied. \"How did you do it?\"\n\n\"All in good time, my dear ghost-seer,\" was the answer. \"Let us try first\na few of Dr. Slade's best slate tests.\"\n\nSo saying he handed me a slate and directed me to wash it carefully on\nboth sides with a damp cloth. I did so and passed it back to him.\nScattering some tiny fragments of pencil upon it, he held the slate\npressed against the under surface of the table leaf, the fingers of his\nright hand holding the slate, his thumb grasping the leaf. C-- then\nrequested me to hold the other end of the slate in a similar fashion, and\ntook my right hand in his left. Heavy raps were heard on the table-top,\nand I felt the fingers of a spirit hand plucking at my garments from\nbeneath the table. C--'s body seemed possessed with some strange\nconvulsion, his hands quivered, and his eyes had a glassy look. Listening\nattentively, I heard the sound of a pencil writing on the slate.\n\n\"Take care!\" gasped the conjurer, breathlessly.\n\nThe slate was jerked violently out of our hands by some powerful agency,\nbut the medium regained it, and again pressed it against the table as\nbefore. In a little while he brought the slate up and there upon its upper\nsurface was a spirit message, addressed to me--\"Are you convinced now?--D.\nD. Home.\"\n\nAt this juncture there came a knock at the door, and C--, with the slate\nin his hand, went to see who it was. It proved to be the pale-faced\nassistant. A few words in a low-tone of voice were exchanged between them,\nand the conjurer returned to the table, excusing the interruption by\nremarking, \"Some one to see me, that is all, but don't hurry, for I have\nanother test to show you.\" After thoroughly washing both sides of the\nslate he placed it, with a slate pencil, under a chafing-dish cover in the\ncenter of the table. We joined hands and awaited developments.\n\nBeing tolerably well acquainted with conjuring devices, I manifested but\nlittle surprise in the first test when the spirit message was written,\nbecause the magician _had his fingers on the slate_. But in this test the\nslate was not in his possession; how then could the writing be\naccomplished?\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 3. THE HOLDING OF THE SLATE.]\n\n\"Hush!\" said C--, \"is there a spirit present?\" A responsive rap resounded\non the table, and after a few minutes' silence, the mysterious scratching\nof the slate-pencil began. I was nonplussed.\n\n\"Turn over the slate,\" said the juggler.\n\nI complied with his request and found a long message to me, covering the\nentire side of the slate. It was signed \"Cagliostro.\"\n\n\"What do you think of Dr. Slade's slate tests?\" inquired C--.\n\n\"Splendid!\" I replied, \"but how are they done?\"\n\nHis explanations made the seeming marvel perfectly plain. While the slate\nis being examined in the first test, the medium slips on a thimble with a\npiece of slate pencil attached or else has a tiny bit of pencil under his\nfinger nail. In the act of holding the slate under the table, he writes\nthe short message backwards on its under side. It becomes necessary,\nhowever, to turn the slate over before exhibiting it to the sitter, so\nthat the writing may appear to have been written on its upper\nsurface--the side that has been pressed to the table. To accomplish this\nthe medium pretends to go into a sort of neurotic convulsion, during which\nstate the slate is jerked away from the sitter, presumably by spirit\npower, and is turned over in the required position. It is not immediately\nbrought up for examination but is held for a few seconds underneath the\ntable top, and then produced with a certain amount of deliberation.\n\nThe special difficulty of this trick consists in the medium's ability to\nwrite in reverse upon the under surface of the slate. If he wrote from\nleft to right, in the ordinary method, it would, of course, reverse the\nmessage when the slate is examined, and give a decided clue to the\nmystery. This inscribing in reverse, or mirror writing, as it is often\ncalled, is exceedingly difficult to do, but nothing is impossible to a\nSlade.\n\nBut how is the writing done on the slate in the second test? asks the\ncurious reader. Nothing easier! The servant who raps at the door brings\nwith him, concealed under his coat, a second slate, upon which the long\nmessage is written. Over the writing is a pad cut from a book-slate,\nexactly fitting the frame of the prepared slate. It is impossible to\ndetect the fraud when the light in the room is a trifle obscure. The\nmedium makes an exchange of slates, returns to the table, washes both\nsides of the trick slate, and carelessly exhibits it to the sitter, the\nwriting being protected of course by the pad. Before placing the slate\nunder the chafing-dish cover, he lets the pad drop into his lap. Now comes\na crucial point in the imposture: the writing heard beneath the slate,\nsupposed to be the work of a disembodied spirit. The medium under cover of\nhis handkerchief removes from his pocket an instrument known as a\n\"pencil-clamp.\" This clamp consists of a small block of wood with two\nsharp steel points protruding from the upper edge and a piece of slate\npencil fixed in the lower. The medium presses the steel points into the\nunder surface of the table with sufficient force to attach the block\nsecurely to the table, and then rubs a pencil, previously attached to his\nright knee by silk sutures, against the side of the pencil fastened to the\napparatus. The noise produced thereby exactly simulates that of writing\nupon a slate. In my case the illusion was perfect. During the examination\nof the message, the medium has ample opportunity to secrete the false pad\nand the clamp in his pocket. Instead of having a servant bring the slate\nto him and making the exchange described above, he may have the trick\nslate concealed about him before the s\u00e9ance begins, with the message\nwritten on it, and adroitly make the substitution while the sitter is\nengaged in lowering the light. Dr. Slade almost invariably adopted the\nfirst-mentioned exchange, because it enabled his confederate to write a\nlucid message to the sitter.\n\nAn examination of the sitter's overcoat in the hall frequently yielded\nvaluable information in the way of names and initials extracted from\nletters, sealed or unsealed. Sealed letters? Yes; it is an easy matter to\nsteam a gummed envelope, open it, and seal it again. Another method is to\nwet the sealed envelope with a sponge dipped in alcohol. The writing will\nshow up tolerably well if written upon a card. In a very short time the\nenvelope will dry and exhibit no evidence of having been tampered with.\n\nAnd now as to the rest of the phenomena witnessed that evening in C--'s\nroom. The raps on the table top were the result of an ingenious, hidden\nmechanism, worked by electricity; the mysterious hand that operated under\nthe table was the juggler's right foot. He wore slippers and had the toe\npart of one stocking cut away. By dropping the slipper from his foot he\nwas enabled to pull the edge of my coat, lift and shove a chair away, and\nperform sundry other ghostly evolutions, thanks to a well trained big\ntoe. Dr. Slade who was long and lithe of limb, worked this dodge to\nperfection, prior to the paralytic attack which partly disabled his lower\nlimbs.\n\nThe stringed instrument which played in the cabinet was arranged as\nfollows: Inside of the guitar was a small musical box, so arranged that\nthe steel vibrating tongues of the box came in contact with a small piece\nof writing paper. When the box was set to going by means of an electric\ncurrent, it closely imitated the twanging of a guitar, just as a sheet of\nmusic when laid on the strings of a piano simulates a banjo. This spirit\nguitar is a very useful instrument in the hands of a medium. It may be\nmade to play when it is attached to a telescopic rod, and waved in\nphosphorescent curves over the heads of a circle of believers in the dark\ns\u00e9ance.\n\nI shall now sum up the subject of Dr. Slade's spirit-slate writing, (Fig.\n3) and endeavor to show how grossly exaggerated the reports of the\nmedium's performances have been, and the reasons for such misstatements.\nNo one who is not a professional or amateur prestidigitateur can correctly\nreport what he sees at a spiritualistic s\u00e9ance.\n\nIt is not so much the swiftness of the hand that counts in conjuring but\nthe ability to force the attention of the spectators in different\ndirections away from the crucial point of the trick. The really important\npart of the test, then, is hidden from the audience, who imagine they have\nseen all when they have not. Says Dr. Max Dessoir: \"It must therefore be\nregarded as a piece of rare naivet\u00e9 if a reporter asserts that in the\ndescription of his subjective conclusions he is giving the exact objective\nprocesses.\"\n\nThis will be seen in Mr. Davey's experiments. Mr. Davey, a member of the\nLondon Society for Psychical Research, and an amateur magician who\npossessed great dexterity in the slate-writing business, gave a series of\nexhibitions before a number of persons, but did not inform them that the\nresults were due to prestidigitation. No entrance fee was charged for the\ns\u00e9ances, but the sitters, who were fully impressed with the genuineness of\nthe affair, were requested to submit written reports of what they had\nseen. These letters, published in vol. iv of the Proceedings of the\nSociety, are admirable examples of mal-observation, for no one detected\nMr. Davey exchanging slates and doing the writing.\n\n\"The sources of error,\" says Dr. Max Dessoir, in an article reproduced in\nthe \"Open Court,\" \"through which such strange reports arise, may be\narranged in four groups. First, the observer interpolates a fact which\ndid not happen, but which he is led to believe has happened; thus, he\nimagines he has examined the slate when as a fact he never has. Second, he\nconfuses two similar ideas; he thinks he has carefully examined the slate,\nwhen in reality he has only done so hastily, or in ignorance of the point\nat issue. Third, the witness changes the order of events a little in\nconsequence of a very natural deception of memory; he believes he tested\nthe slate later than he actually did. Fourth and last, he passes over\ncertain details which were purposely described to him as insignificant; he\ndoes not notice that the 'medium' asks him to close a window, and that the\ntrick is thus rendered possible.\"\n\nSimilar experiments in slate-writing were conducted by the Seybert\nCommission with Mr. Harry Kellar, the conjurer, after sittings were had\nwith Dr. Slade, and the magician outdid the medium. The Seybert Commission\nfound none of Slade's tests genuine, and officially denied \"the\nextraordinary stories of his performances with locked slates which\nconstitute a large part of his fame.\"\n\nDr. Slade began his Spiritualistic operations in London in the year 1876,\nand charged a fee of a guinea a head for s\u00e9ances lasting a few minutes.\nCrowds went to see him and he reaped a golden harvest from the credulous,\nuntil the grand fiasco came. Slade was caught in one of his juggling\ns\u00e9ances and exposed by Prof. Lancaster and Dr. Donkin. The result was a\ncriminal prosecution and a sensational trial lasting three days at the Bow\nStreet Police Court. Mr. Maskelyne, the conjurer, was summoned as an\nexpert witness and performed a number of the medium's tricks in the\nwitness box. The court sentenced Slade to three months' hard labor, but he\ntook an appeal from the magistrate's decision. The appeal was sustained on\nthe ground of a technical flaw in the indictment, and the medium fled to\nthe Continent before new summons could be served. He visited Paris,\nLeipsic, Berlin, St. Petersburg and other cities, giving s\u00e9ances before\nRoyalty and before distinguished members of scientific societies; and\nafterwards went to Australia. He made money fast and spent it fast, but it\ntook all of his ingenuity to elude the clutches of the police. In 1892, we\nfind him the inmate of a workhouse in one of our Western towns, penniless,\nfriendless and a lunatic.\n\nSlade's s\u00e9ances with Prof. Zoellner, of Berlin, in 1878, attracted wide\nattention, and did more to advertise his fame as a medium than anything\nelse in his career.\n\nZoellner's belief in the genuineness of Slade's mediumistic marvels led\nhim to write a curious work, entitled, \"Transcendental Physics,\" being an\ninquiry into the \"fourth dimension of space.\" Poor old Zoellner, he was\nhalf insane when these s\u00e9ances were held! We have the undisputed authority\nof the Seybert Commission for the correctness of this statement.\n\nIn Hamburg, Dr. Borchert wrote to Slade offering him one thousand marks if\nhe would produce writing between locked slates, similar to the writing\nalleged to have been executed at the Zoellner s\u00e9ances, but the medium took\nno notice of the professor's letter. The conjurer, Carl Wilmann, with two\nfriends, had a sitting with Slade, but without satisfactory results for\nthe medium. \"Slade,\" says Wilmann, \"was unable to distract my attention\nfrom the crucial point of the trick, and threw down the slates on the\ntable in disgust, remarking: 'I can not obtain any results to-day, the\npower that controls me is exhausted. Come tomorrow!'\" That tomorrow never\narrived for Wilmann and his friends; Slade did not keep his appointment,\nnor could Wilmann succeed in obtaining another sitting with him. The\nmedium had been warned by friends that Wilmann was an expert professor of\nlegerdemain.\n\nIt was in 1886 that Slade created such a furore in Hamburg in\nSpiritualistic circles. A talented conjurer of that city, named\nSchradieck, after a few weeks' practice succeeded in eclipsing Slade. He\nlearned to write in reverse on slates, and produced writing in various\ncolored chalks. Another one of his experiments was making the slate\ndisappear from one side of the table where it was held _a la_ Slade and\nappear at the opposite end of the table suddenly, as if held up to view by\na spirit hand. Wilmann describes the effect as startling in the extreme\nand says Schradieck produced it by means of his left foot. After Slade's\ndeparture from Hamburg, spirit mediums sprang up like toadstools in a\nsingle night. Wilmann in his crusade against these worthies had many\ninteresting experiences. He gives in his work \"Moderne Wunder\" several\nexposes of mediumistic tricks, two of which, in the sealed slate line, are\nvery ingenious. The medium takes a slate (one furnished by the sitter if\npreferred), wipes it on both sides with a wet sponge, and then wraps it up\ncarefully in a piece of ordinary white wrapping paper, allowing the\npackage to be sealed and corded _ad libitum_. Notwithstanding all the\nprecautions used, a message appears on the slate. It is accomplished in\nthis way. A message in reverse is written on the wrapping paper with a\ncamel's hair brush or pointed stick, dipped in some sticky substance, and\nfinely powdered slate pencil dust is scattered over the writing. At a\nlittle distance, especially in a dim light, it is impossible to discover\nthe writing as it blends very well with the white paper. In wrapping up\nthe slate the medium presses the writing on the paper against the surface\nof the slate and the chirography adheres thereto, very much as the greasy\ndrawing on a lithographer's stone prints on paper.\n\nIn the other experiment the medium uses a _papier mache_ slate, set in the\nusual wooden frame. A _papier mache_ pad is prepared with a spirit message\non one surface; on the other is pasted a piece of newspaper. This pad is\nlaid, written side down, on a sheet of newspaper. After the genuine slate\nhas been washed, the medium proceeds to wrap it up in the newspaper, and\npresses the trick pad, writing up, into the frame of the slate where it\nexactly fits into a groove prepared for the purpose.\n\nSince Dr. Slade's retirement from the mediumistic field, Pierre L. O. A.\nKeeler's fame as a slate-writing medium has been spread broadcast. He\noscillates between Boston, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore\nand Washington, and has a very large and fashionable _clientele_. He\ngives evening materializing s\u00e9ances of the cabinet type three times a week\nat his rooms. During the day he gives private slate tests which are very\npopular.\n\nI had a sitting with him on the afternoon of April 24th, 1895. In order to\ngain his confidence, I went as one witnessing a slate s\u00e9ance for the first\ntime, that is, I accepted _his_ slates, and had no prepared questions.\n\nI was ushered into a small, back parlor by the medium who closed the\nfolding doors. We were alone. I made a mental photograph of the\nsurroundings. There was no furniture except a table and two chairs placed\nnear the window. Over the table was a faded cloth, hanging some eight or\nten inches below the table. Upon it were several pads of paper and a\nheterogeneous assortment of lead pencils. Leaning against the mantelpiece,\nwithin a foot or so of the medium's chair, were some thirty or forty\nslates.\n\n\"Take a seat\", said Mr. Keeler pointing to a chair. I sat down, whereupon\nhe seated himself opposite me, remarking as he did so, \"Have you brought\nslates with you?\"\n\n\"I have not,\" was my reply.\n\n\"Then, if you have no objection,\" he said, \"we will use two of mine.\nPlease examine these two slates, wash them clean with this damp cloth, and\ndry them.\" With that he passed me two ordinary school-slates, which I\ninspected closely, and carefully cleaned.\n\n\"Be kind enough to place the slates to one side,\" said Keeler. I complied.\n\n\"Have you prepared any slips with the names of friends, relatives, or\nothers, who have passed into spirit life, with questions for them to\nanswer?\"\n\n\"I have not,\" I replied.\n\n\"Kindly do so then,\" he answered, \"and take your time about it. There is a\npad on the table. Please write but a single question on each slip. Then\nfold the slips and place them on the table.\" I did so.\n\n\"I will also make one,\" he continued, \"it is to my spirit control, George\nChristy.\" He wrote a name on a slip of paper, folded it, and tossed it\namong those I had prepared, passing his hand over them and fingering them,\nsaying, \"It is necessary to get a psychic impression from them.\" We sat in\nsilence several minutes.\n\nAfter a little while Mr. Keeler said: \"I do not know whether or not we\nshall get any responses this afternoon, but have patience.\" Again we\nwaited. \"Suppose you write a few more slips,\" he remarked, \"perhaps\nwe'll have better luck. Be sure and address them to people who were old\nenough to write before they passed into spirit life.\" This surprised me,\nbut I complied with his wishes. While writing I glanced furtively at him\nfrom time to time; his hands were in his lap, concealed by the table\ncloth. He looked at me occasionally, then at his lap, fixedly. _I am\nsatisfied that he opened some of my slips, having adroitly abstracted them\nfrom the table in the act of fingering them._\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 4--SLATE WRITING.]\n\nHe directed me to take my handkerchief and tie the two slates on the table\ntightly together, holding the slates in his hands as I did so. I laid the\nslates on the table before me, and we waited. \"I think we will succeed\nthis time in getting responses to some of the questions. Let us hold the\nslates.\" He grasped them with fingers and thumbs at one end, and I at the\nother in like manner, holding the slates about two inches above the table.\nWe listened attentively, and soon was heard the scratching noise of a\nslate pencil moving upon a slate. The sound seemed directly under the\nslate, and was sufficiently impressive to startle any person making a\nslate test for the first time, and unacquainted with the multifarious\ndevices of the sleight-of-hand artist.\n\n\"Hold the slates tightly, please!\" said Mr. Keeler, as a convulsive\ntremor shook his hands. I grasped firmly my end of the slates, and waited\nfurther developments. The faint tap of a slate pencil upon a slate was\nheard, and the medium announced that the communications were finished. I\nuntied the handkerchief, and turned up the inner surfaces of the slates.\nUpon one of them several messages were written, and signed. Other\ncommunications were received during the sitting. After the first messages\nwere received, and while I was engaged in reading them, Keeler quickly\npicked up a slate from the floor, clapped it upon the clean slate\nremaining on the table, and requested me to tie the two rapidly together\nwith my handkerchief before the influence was lost. At a signal from him I\nunfastened the slates and found another set of answers. The same\nproceeding was gone through for the third set. The imitation of a pencil\nwriting upon a slate was either made by the apparatus, described in the\ns\u00e9ance with C-- in the first part of this chapter, or by some other\ncontrivance; more than likely by simply scratching with his finger on the\nunder surface of the slate. While my attention was absorbed in the act of\nwriting my second set of questions, he prepared answers to two of my first\nset and substituted a prepared slate for the cleaned slate on the table.\n_I was sure he was writing under the table; I heard the faint rubbing of a\nsoft bit of pencil upon the surface of a slate. His hands were in his lap\nand his eyes were fixed downwards._ Several times I saw him put his\nfingers into his vest pockets, and he appeared to bring up small particles\nof something, which I believe were bits of the white and colored crayons\nused in writing the messages. His quiet audacity was surprising. I give\nbelow the questions and answers with my comments thereon:\n\nFirst Slate. Fig. 4.\n\nQUESTION.\n\nTo Mamie:--\n\nTell me the name of your dead brother?\n\n (Signed) Harry R. Evans.\n\nANSWER.\n\nYou must not think of me as one gone forever from you. You have made\nconditions by and through which I can return to you, and so long as I can\ndo this I can not feel unhappy. So dear one, rest in the assurance that\nyou are helping me, and that I am doing all I can to help you. Let us make\nthe best of it all and help each other as best we can, then all will be\nwell. My home in spirit life is beautiful and awaiting you. I will be the\nfirst to greet you. _I have no dead brother. All of us are living._ I am\nMamie --. (The medium here cleverly evades giving a name by an equivoque.)\n\nQUESTION.\n\nTo Len--\n\nTell me the cause of your death, and the circumstances surrounding it?\n\n (Signed) Harry R. Evans.\n\nANSWER.\n\nHarry! I am very glad to see you. I am happy. You must be reconciled, and\nnot mourn me as dead! I will try to come again soon, when I am stronger\nand tell of my decease.--Len. (He again evades an answer.)\n\nSecond Slate. Fig. 5.\n\nQUESTION.\n\nTo A. D. B.--\n\nWhen and where did you die?\n\n (Signed) Harry R. Evans.\n\nANSWER.\n\nThis all seems so strange coming back and writing just as one would if\nthey were in the earth life and communicating with a friend. What a\nblessed privilege it is. I am so happy. Oh, I would not come back. It is\nso restful here. No pain or sorrow. Dear, do not think I have forgotten\nyou, I constantly think of you and wish that you, too, might view these\nlovely scenes of glorious beauty. You must rest with the thought that when\nyour life is ended upon the earth, _I will be the first to meet you_. Now\nbe patient and hopeful until we meet where there is no more parting. I am\nsincerely, A. D. B. (No answer at all.) Observe error in first sentence:\n\"as _one_ would if _they_ were--.\" A. D. B. was an educated gentleman, and\nnot given to such ungrammatical expressions.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 5--SLATE WRITING.]\n\nThird Slate. Fig. 6.\n\nQUESTION.\n\nTo B. G.--\n\nCan you recall any of the conversations we had together on the B. and P.\nR. R. cars?\n\n (Signed) H. R. Evans.\n\nANSWER.\n\nO my dear one, I can only write a few lines that you may know that I see\nand hear you as you call upon me. I do not forget you. When I am stronger\nwill come again. I do not know what conversation you refer to in the cars.\n\n B. G.\n\n(Again evades answering. B. G. was very much interested in the drama, and\ntalked continuously about the stage.)\n\nQUESTION.\n\nTo C. J.--\n\nWhere did you die, and from what disease?\n\n (Signed) H. R. Evans.\n\nANSWER.\n\nI know the days and weeks seem long and lonely to you without me. I do not\nforget you; am doing the best I can to help you.\n\n C. J.--.\n\n(Still another evasion of a straightforward question. The lady in spirit\nlife to whom the question was addressed died of consumption in a Roman\nCatholic Convent. She was only a society acquaintance of the writer, and\nnot on such terms of intimacy as to warrant Mr. Keeler's reply.)\n\nIn one corner of Slate No. 2 was the following, written with a yellow\ncrayon: \"This is remarkable. How did you know we could come?--H. K.\nEvans.\" Scrawled across the face of Slate No. 3, in red pencil, was a\ncommunication from George Christy, Mr. Keeler's spirit control, reading as\nfollows: \"Many are here who----G. C. (George Christy)\" (The remainder is\nso badly written, as to be indecipherable.)\n\nOn carefully analyzing the various communications it will be observed that\nthe handwriting of the messages from Mamie--and B G.--are similar,\npossessing the same characteristics as regards letter formation, etc. It\ndoes not require a professional expert in chirography to detect this fact.\nOne and the same person wrote the messages purporting to come from Mamie\nR--, Len--, B. G.--, C. J.--, and A. D. B. _In fact, the writing on all\nthe slates is, in my opinion, the work of Mr. Pierre Keeler._\n\nThe longer communications were doubtless prepared beforehand, being\ngeneral in nature and conveying about the same information that any\ndeparted spirit might give to any inquiring mortal, but, as will be\nobserved, _giving no adequate answers to the queries_, with the exception\nof the last two sentences, _which were written by the medium, after he\nbecame acquainted with the tenor of the questions upon the folded slips_.\nThe very short communications are written in a careless hand, such as a\nman would dash off hastily. There is an attempt at disguise, but a clumsy\none, the letters still retaining the characteristics of the more\ndeliberate chirography of the long communications. A close inspection of\nthe slates reveals the exact similarity of the y's, u's, I's, g's, h's,\nm's and n's.\n\nThe handwriting of messages on slates should be, and is claimed to be,\nadequate evidence of the genuineness of the communication, for are we not\nsupposed to know the handwriting of our friends?\n\nPossibly Mr. Keeler would claim that the handwriting was the work of his\ncontrol \"Geo. Christy\", who acted as a sort of amanuensis for the spirits.\nIf this be so, why the attempts at _disguise_, and bungling attempts at\nthat?\n\nIn the s\u00e9ance with Mr. Keeler, I subjected him to no tests. He had\neverything his own way. _I should have brought my own marked slates with\nme and never let them out of my sight for an instant. I should have\nsubjected the table to a close examination, and requested the medium to\nmove or rather myself removed the collection of slates against the mantel,\nplaced so conveniently within his reach._ I did not do this, because of\nhis well known irascibility. He would probably have shown me the door and\nrefused a sitting on any terms, as he has done to many skeptics. I was\nanxious to meet Keeler, and preferred playing the novice rather than not\nget a slate test from one of the best-known and most famous of modern\nslate-writing mediums.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 6--SLATE WRITING.]\n\nAfter what has been stated, I think there can be no shadow of doubt that\nthe medium abstracted by sleight-of-hand some of the paper slips\ncontaining my written questions, read them under cover of the table, and\ndid the slate-writing himself. All of these slate-tests, where pellets or\nslips of paper are used, are performed in a similar manner, as will be\nseen from the expos\u00e9 published by the Society for Psychical Research. In\nvol. viii of the proceedings of that association will be found a number of\nrevelations, one of which throws considerable light on the Keeler tests.\nThe sitter was Dr. Richard Hodgson, and the medium was a Mrs. Gillett.\nSays Dr. Hodgson:\n\n\"Under pretence of 'magnetising' the pellets prepared by the sitter, or\nfolding them more tightly, she substitutes a pellet of her own for one of\nthe sitter's. Reading the sitter's pellet below the table, she writes the\nanswer on one of her own slates, a pile of which, out of the sitter's\nview, she keeps on a chair by her side. She then takes a second slate,\nplaces it on the table, and sponges and dries both sides, after which she\ntakes the first slate, and turning the side upon which she has written\ntowards herself, rubs it in several places with a dry cloth or the ends of\nher fingers as though cleaning it. She then places it, writing downward,\non the other slate on the table, and sponges and dries the upper surface\nof it. She then pretends to take one of the pellets on the table and put\nit between the two slates. What she does, however, is to bring the pellet\nup from below the table, take another of the sitter's pellets on the table\ninto her hand, and place the pellet which she has brought up from below\nthe table between the slates, keeping in her hand the pellet just taken\nfrom the top of the table. The final step is to place a rubber band round\nboth slates, in doing which she turns both slates over together. She\nprofesses to get the writing without the use of any chalk or pencil. Some\nof her slates are prepared beforehand with messages or drawings. More\ninteresting, perhaps, because of its boldness, is her method of producing\nwriting on the sitter's own slates. Under the pretence of 'magnetising'\nthese she cleans them several times, rubs them with her hands, stands them\nup on end together, and while they are in this position between herself\nand the sitter she writes with one hand on the slate-side nearest to\nherself, holding the slates erect with the other hand. Later on, she lays\nboth slates together flat on the table again, the writing being on the\nundermost surface. She then sponges the upper surface of the top slate,\nturns it over, and sponges its other surface. She next withdraws the\nbottom slate, places it on top and sponges its top surface, keeping its\nunder surface carefully concealed. The final step, the reversal, is made,\nas in the other case, with the help of the rubber band. Mrs. Gillett has\nprobably other methods, also. Those which I have described were all that I\nwitnessed at my single sitting with her.\"\n\nMy friend, Dr. L. M. Taylor, of Washington, D. C., an investigator of\nSpiritualistic phenomena, and skeptical like myself of the objective\nphases of the subject, has had many sittings with Keeler for independent\nslate-writing. One s\u00e9ance in particular he is fond of relating:\n\n\"On one occasion, after I had written my slips, folded them up, and tossed\nthem on the table, I said to Keeler who was obtaining his 'psychic'\nimpression of them, 'I wish, if possible, to have a spirit tell me the\nnumbers and the maker's name engraved in my watch. I have never taken the\ntrouble to look at the numbers, consequently I do not know them.' 'Your\nrequest is an unusual one,' replied the medium, 'but I will endeavor to\ngratify it.' We had some conversations on the subject that lasted several\nminutes. Suddenly he picked up a slate pencil, and scrawled the name, _J.\nS. Granger_ on the upper surface of one of my slates; the two slates had\nbeen previously tied together with my handkerchief and laid on the table\nin front of me. 'You recognize that name, do you not?' asked Keeler.\n'Yes,' I replied, 'that is one of the names I wrote on the slips. J. S.\nGranger was an old friend of mine who died some years ago. He was a\nbrother-in-law of Stephen A. Douglass.' 'If you wish to facilitate\nmatters,' said Keeler, 'place your watch on top of the slates, concealed\nbeneath the handkerchief, otherwise we may have to wait an hour or more\nwithout obtaining results, and there are a number of persons waiting for\nme in the ante-room. My time you see is limited.'\n\n\"I detached my watch from its chain, and placed it in the required\nposition. Keeler then took a piece of black cloth, used to clean slates,\nand laid it over my slates. Finally he requested me to take the covered\nslates and hold them in my lap. I took care to feel through the cloth that\nthe watch was still beneath the handkerchief. In a short time I was\ndirected to uncover the slates, and untie them, which I did. Upon the\ninner surface of one of the slates the following message was written:\n'Dear Friend, Stephen is with me. I have been through that beautiful watch\nof yours, and, if I see correctly, the number is 163131. On the inside I\nsee this--E. Howard & Co., Boston, 211327. And then your name as follows:\nDr. L. M. Taylor, 1221 Mass. Ave., N. W., Washington, D. C. Signed J. M.\nGranger.'\n\n\"I then compared the name and numbers in my watch with those on the slate,\nand found the latter correct, with the exception of one number. A relative\nof mine was present in the room during this s\u00e9ance, and I showed her the\ncommunication on the slate. Afterwards we passed the slate to Keeler who\nexamined it closely. When he handed it back to me, I was surprised to see\nthat the incorrect number was mysteriously changed to the proper one.\"\n\nThis is a very interesting test, indeed, because of its apparently\nimpromptu character. I have seen similar feats performed by professional\nconjurers as well as mediums. A dummy watch is substituted for the\nsitter's watch, and after the medium has ascertained the name and numbers\non the sitter's timepiece, he succeeds in adroitly exchanging it again for\nthe dummy, thanks to the black cloth. The writing on the slate in the\nabove s\u00e9ance was evidently produced in the same way as that described in\nmy sitting with Keeler, after he had ascertained the name on the slip. The\nname of Stephen, of course, was directly obtained from Dr. Taylor. Not\nhaving been an eye witness of Keeler's movements in the watch test, I am\nunable to say how closely Dr. Taylor's description coincides with the\nmedium's actual operations.\n\nIn May, 1897, Mr. Pierre Keeler was in Washington, D. C., as usual. My\nfriend, Dr. Taylor, who was desirous of putting the medium to another\ncrucial test, wrote down a list of names on a sheet of paper--cognomens of\nancient Egyptian, Chaldean, and Grecian priests and philosophers--folded\nthe paper, and carefully sealed it in an envelope. He took ten slates with\nhim, all of them marked with a private mark of his own. Mr. Keeler eyed\nthe envelope dubiously, but passed no criticisms on the doctor's\nprecautions to prevent trickery. The two men sat down at a table and\nwaited for the spirits to manifest. Dr. Taylor, on this occasion, was\nabsolutely certain that his slates had not been tampered with, and that\nthe medium had not succeeded in opening the envelope. In a little while\nthe comedy of the pencil-scratching between the tied slates began.\n\n\"Ah\", exclaimed the physician, \"a message at last!\" Then he thought to\nhimself, \"can the medium possibly have deluded my senses by some hypnotic\npower, and adroitly opened that envelope without my being aware of the\nfact? But no, that is impossible!\"\n\nMr. Keeler took the slates away from Dr. Taylor, and quickly opened them,\n_accidentally_ dropping one of them behind the table. In a second,\nhowever, he brought up the slate, and remarked: \"How awkward of me. I beg\nyour pardon,\" etc. On the surface of this slate was written the following\nsentence: \"See some other medium; d--n it!--George Christy.\" Dr. Taylor is\npositive, as he has repeatedly told me, that this message was not\ninscribed on his own marked slate, but was written by the medium on one of\nhis own. The exchange, of course, must have been effected in the pretended\naccidental dropping of the doctor's slate by the medium. This is a very\nold expedient among pretenders to spirit power. All conjurers are familiar\nwith the device. Imro Fox, the American magician, uses it constantly in\nhis entertainments, with capital effect.\n\nDr. Taylor, unfortunately, did not succeed in getting possession of the\nmedium's prepared slate. Another exchange was undoubtedly made by Mr.\nKeeler, and the physician had returned to him his own marked slate. When\nhe got home that afternoon, and had time to carefully scrutinize his\nslates, he found that they bore no evidence of having been written upon\nat all. Having also examined these slates, I am prepared to add my\ntestimony to that of Dr. Taylor.\n\nThe reader will see from the above-described s\u00e9ance that unless the medium\n(or a confederate) is enabled to read the names and questions, prepared by\nthe sitter, his hands are practically tied in all experiments in\npsychology.\n\nWhen investigators bring their own marked slates with them, screwed\ntightly together, and sealed, the medium has to adopt different tactics\nfrom those employed in the tests before mentioned. He has to call in the\naid of a confederate. The audacity of the sealed-slate test is without\nparallel in the annals of pretended mediumship. For an insight into the\nsecrets of this phase of psychography, the reading public is indebted to a\nmedium, the anonymous author of a remarkably interesting work,\n\"Revelations of a Spirit Medium.\" Many skeptical investigators have been\nconverted to Spiritualism by these tests. They invariably say to you when\napproached on the subject: \"I took my own marked slates, carefully screwed\ntogether, to the medium, and had lengthy messages written upon them by\nspirit power. _These slates never left my hands for a second._\" I will\nquote what the writer of \"Revelations of a Spirit Medium\" says on the\nsubject:\n\n\"No man ever received independent slate-writing between slates fastened\ntogether that he did not allow out of his hands a few seconds. Scores of\npersons will tell you that they _have_ received writing under those\nconditions through the mediumship of the writer; but the writer will tell\nyou how he fooled them and how you can do so if you see fit.\n\n\"In the first place you will rent a house with a cellar in connection. Cut\na trap-door one foot square through the floor between the sills on which\nthe floor is laid. Procure a fur floor mat with long hair. Cut a square\nout of the mat and tack it to the top of the trap door. Tack the mat fast\nto the floor, for some one may visit you who will want to raise it up.\n\n\"Explain the presence of the fur by saying it is an absorbent of magnetic\nforces, through which you produce the writing. Over the rug place a heavy\npine table about four feet square; and over the table a heavy cover that\nreaches the floor on all sides. Put your assistant in the cellar with a\ncoal-oil stove, a tea-kettle of hot water, different colored letter wax\nand lead pencils, a screw driver, a pair of nippers, a pair of pliers, a\npair of scissors and an assortment of wire brads. You are ready for\nbusiness.\n\n\"When your sitter comes in you will notice his slates, if he brings a\npair, and see if they are secured in any way that your man in the cellar\ncan not duplicate. If they are, you can touch his slates with your finger\nand say to him that you can not use his slates on account of the\n'magnetism' with which they are saturated. He will know nothing of\n'magnetic conditions' and will ask you what he is to do about it.\n\n\"You will furnish him a pair of new slates with water and cloths to clean\nthem. You also furnish him paper to write his questions on and the screws,\nwax, paper and mucilage to secure them with. He will write his questions\nand fasten the slates securely together.\n\n\"You now conduct him to your s\u00e9ance-room and invite inspection of your\ntable and surroundings. After the examination has been made you will seat\nthe sitter at one side of the table with his side and arm next it. If he\ndesires to keep hold of the slates a signal agreed upon between yourself\nand your assistant will cause the spirit in the cellar to open the trap\ndoor, which opens downwards, and to push through the floor and into\nposition where the sitter can grasp one end of it, a pair of dummy\nslates. This dummy your assistant will continue to hold until the sitter\nhas taken hold of it after the following performance:\n\n\"Your assistant lets you know everything is ready by touching your foot.\nYou now reach and take the sitter's slates and put them below the table,\nand under it, telling the sitter to put his hand under from his side and\nhold them with you. He puts his hand under and gets hold of the dummy\nslates held by your assistant.\n\n\"Your assistant holds on until you have stood the slates on end, leaning\nagainst the table leg, and have got hold of the dummy. He then takes the\nsitter's slates below and closes the trap. He proceeds to open them, read\nthe questions, answer them and refasten the slates.\n\n\"You will be entertaining your sitter by twitching and jerking and making\nclairvoyant and clairaudient guesses for him.\n\n\"When your assistant touches your foot you will know that he is ready to\nmake the exchange again, by which the sitter will get hold of the slates\nhe fastened. When you get the signal you give a snort and jump that jerks\nthe end of the slates from the sitter's hand. He is now given the end of\nthe slates held by your assistant, and you will allow the assistant to\ntake the dummy. After sitting a moment or two longer, you will tell the\nsitter to take out his slates and examine them if he chooses. Many times\nthey do not open the slates until they reach their homes.\n\n\"This, reader, is the man who will declare that he furnished the slates\nand did not allow them out of his hands a minute.\n\n\"The usual method of obtaining the writing is for the medium to hold the\nslates alone. When this is the case the medium passes the slates below,\nand receives in return a dummy which he is continually thumping on the\nunder side of the table for the purpose of showing the sitter that the\nslates are there all the time.\n\n\"It is not necessary that you should use a cellar to get this phase of\n'independent slate-writing.' You could place your table against a\npartition door and by fitting one of the small panels with hinges and\nbolts, would have a very convenient way of obtaining the assistance of the\nspirit in the next room. It is also possible to make a trap in a room that\nhas a wooden wainscoting.\"\n\nBefore closing this brief survey of slate-writing experiments, I must\ndescribe an exceedingly ingenious trick, indeed, bordering on the\nmarvelous. It is the recent invention of a Western conjurer, and solves\nthe problem of actually writing between locked slates by physical means.\nThe effect is as follows: You request the sitter to take two slates, wash\nthem carefully, and tie them together, after first having placed a bit of\nchalk between their surfaces. Hold them under the table for a minute, and\nthen hand them to the sitter for examination. A name, or a short sentence,\nin answer to some question, will be found scrawled across the upper\nsurface of the bottom slate. It is accomplished in this way. You take a\nsmall pellet of iron or steel, coat it with mucilage, and dip it into\nchalk or slate-pencil dust. This dust will adhere and harden into a\nconsistent mass, after a little while, completely concealing the metal,\nand causing the whole to resemble a bit of chalk. Take this supposed\npellet of chalk from your vest pocket and place it between the slates;\nhold the latter level beneath a table, and by moving the poles of a strong\nmagnet against the surface of the under slate, you can cause the iron or\nsteel to write a name or sentence, thanks to its coating of chalk dust. It\nis better to use slates with rather deep frames, in order that the chalked\nmetal may write with facility. It requires considerable practice to write\nwith ease in the manner described above. The first thing of course is to\nlocate the position of the chalk between the locked slates. To enable you\nto do this, place the supposed chalk in one corner of slate No. 1 before\ncovering with slate No. 2, or else exactly in the center of slate No. 2.\nIn this way you will have no difficulty in affecting the metal with the\nmagnet, when the slates are held under the table. There are various ways\nof holding the slates; one, is to ask the sitter to hold one end, while\nyou hold the other, five or six inches above the table. The light is put\nout, and you take the magnet from your pocket and execute the writing. The\nnoise of the magnet passing over the surface of the under slate serves to\nrepresent a disembodied spirit as doing the writing.\n\n\n2. The Master of the Mediums.\n\nOne of the most remarkable personalities serving as an exponent of\nSpiritualism was Daniel Dunglas Home, the Napoleon of necromancy, and the\nPast Grand Master of Mediums. His career reads like a romance. He lived in\na sort of twilight land, and hob-nobbed with kings, queens and other\npeople of noble blood.\n\n \"Something unsubstantial, ghostly,\n Seems this Theurgist,\n In deep meditation mostly\n Wrapped, as in a mist.\n Vague, phantasmal and unreal,\n To our thoughts he seems,\n Walking in a world ideal,\n In a land of dreams.\"\n\nHe wound his serpentine way into the best society of London, Paris,\nBerlin, Rome, and St. Petersburg--\"always despising filthy lucre,\" as\nMaskelyn remarks, \"but never refusing a diamond worth ten times the amount\nhe would have received in cash, or some present, which the host of the\nhouse at which he happened to be manifesting always felt constrained to\noffer.\"\n\nThis thaumaturgist of the Nineteenth Century was born near Edinburg,\nScotland, on March 20, 1833, and came of a family reported to be gifted\nwith \"second sight.\" His father, William Home, was a natural son of\nAlexander, tenth Earl of Home. Strange phenomena occurred during the\nmedium's childhood. At the age of nine he was adopted by his aunt, Mrs.\nMcNeill Cook, who brought him to America. He began giving s\u00e9ances about\nthe year 1852. Among the notable men who attended these early \"sittings\"\nwere William Cullen Bryant, Professors Wells and Hare, and Judge Edmonds.\n\nHome had a tall, slight figure, a fair and freckled face--before disease\nmade it the color of yellow wax--keen, slaty-blue eyes, thin bloodless\nlips, a rather snub nose, and curly auburn hair. His manners, though\nforward, were agreeable, and he recited such poetry as Poe's \"Raven\" and\n\"Ulalume\" with powerful effect. He was altogether a weird sort of\npersonage. His principal mediumistic manifestations were rappings,\ntable-tipping, ghostly materializations, playing on sealed musical\ninstruments, levitation, and handling fire with impunity.\n\nIn 1855 he launched his necromantic bark on European waters. No man since\nCagliostro ever created so profound a sensation in the Old World. He wrote\nhis reminiscences in two large volumes, but little credence can be given\nthem, as they are full of extravagant statements and wild fantasies.\n\nThe London _Punch_ (May 9th, 1868), printed the following effusion on the\nmedium, a sort of parody on \"Home, Sweet Home:\"\n\n Through realms Thaumaturgic the student may roam,\n And not light on a worker of wonders like _Home_.\n Cagliostro himself might descend from his chair,\n And set up our _Daniel_ as Grand-Cophta there--\n _Home, Home, Dan. Home_,\n No medium like _Home_.\n\n Spirit legs, spirit hands, he gives table and chair;\n Gravitation defying, he flies in the air;\n But the fact to which henceforth his fame should be pinned,\n Is his power to raise, not himself but the wind!--\n _Home, Home, Dan. Home_,\n No medium like _Home_.\n\nRobert Browning made him the subject of his celebrated satirical poem,\n\"Mr. Sludge, the Medium.\"\n\nSome of the most celebrated scientific and literary personages of England\nbecame interested in his mysterious abilities, and among his intimate\nfriends were the Earl of Dunraven, Mary Howitt, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Prof.\nWallace, and Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. There is good authority for\nbelieving that Home was the mysterious Margrave of Bulwer's weird novel,\n\"A Strange Story.\" Bulwer was an ardent believer in the supernatural and\nHome spent many days at Knebworth amid a select coterie of ghost-seers.\nThe famous novelist relates that as Home sat with him in the library of\nKnebworth, conversing upon politics, social matters, books or other chance\ntopics, the chairs rocked and the tables were suspended in mid-air.\n\nWhen the medium was requested to exert his power and found himself in\ncondition, it is alleged, he would rise and float about the room. This in\nSpiritualistic parlance is termed \"levitation\". At Knebworth and other\nplaces, some of the most prominent people of the day claim to have seen\nHome lift himself up and sail tranquilly out of a window, around the\nhouse, and come in by another window.\n\nThe Earl of Dunraven told many stories equally strange of performances\nthat were given in his presence. The Earl declared that he had many times\nseen Home elongate and shorten his body, and cause the closed piano to\nplay by putting his fingers on the lid.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 7--HOME AT THE TUILERIES.]\n\nIn the autumn of 1855 the famous medium went to Florence; there, also, the\nspirit manifestations secured him the _entree_ into the best society of\nthe old Italian city. In his memoirs he speaks of an incident occurring\nthrough his mediumship, at a s\u00e9ance given in Florence: \"Upon one occasion,\nwhile the Countess C-- was seated at one of Erard's grand-action pianos,\nit rose and balanced itself in the air, during the whole time she was\nplaying.\" An English lady, resident at Florence, in a supposed haunted\nhouse, procured the services of Home to exorcise the ghost. They sat at a\ntable in the sitting-room, and raps were heard proceeding from that piece\nof furniture, and rustling sounds in the room as of a person moving about\nin a heavy garment. The spirit being adjured in the name of the \"Holy\nTrinity\" to leave the premises, the demonstrations ceased.\n\nIn February, 1856, the medium joined the retinue of Count B--, a Polish\nnobleman, and went to Naples with his patron. From Naples to Rome was the\nnext step, and, in the Eternal City, the medium joined the Romish Church,\nand was adjured by the Pope to abandon spirit s\u00e9ances forever. In 1858 we\nfind Home in St. Petersburg, where he married the youngest daughter of\nGeneral Count de Kroll, of Russia, and a goddaughter of the Emperor\nNicholas, the marriage taking place on Sunday, August 1, 1858, in the\nprivate chapel attached to the house of the lady's brother-in-law, the\nCount Gregoire Koucheleff-Besborodko. It was a very notable affair, and\nAlexander Dumas came from Paris to attend the ceremony. Home's spirit\npower which had left him since his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith\nnow returned in full force, it is said, and he saw standing near him at\nthe wedding the spirit form of his mother. In 1862 his wife died at the\nChateau Laroche, near Perigneux, France, and the medium repaired to Rome\nfor the purpose of studying sculpture. The reports of the spirit phenomena\nconstantly attending Home's presence reached the ears of the Papal\nauthorities and he was compelled to leave the city, notwithstanding the\nfact that he gave positive assurance that he would give no s\u00e9ance. He was\nactually charged with being a sorcerer, like Cagliostro, an accusation\nthat reads very strange in the Nineteenth Century. This affair embittered\nHome against the Church, and he abandoned Roman Catholicism for the Greek\nChurch.\n\nAfter the Roman fiasco, the famous medium returned to England to give\nSpiritualistic lectures and s\u00e9ances. A writer in \"_All the Year Round_\",\ngives the following pen picture of the medium, as he appeared in 1866:\n\"He is a tall, thin man, with broad square shoulders, suggestive of a suit\nof clothes hung upon an iron cross. His hair is long and yellow; his teeth\nare large, glittering and sharp; his eyes are a pale grey, with a redness\nabout the eye-lids, which comes and goes in a ghastly manner, as he talks.\nWhen he shows his glittering sharp teeth, and that red line comes round\nhis slowly rolling eyes, he is not a pleasant sight to look upon. His\nhands are long, white and bony, and on taking them you discover that they\nare icy cold.\" A _suit of clothes hung upon an iron cross_ is a weird\ntouch in this pen picture.\n\nHome about this time intended going upon the stage, but abandoned the idea\nto become the secretary of the \"Spiritual Atheneum\", a society formed for\nthe investigation of psychic phenomena.\n\nOne of the most notable passages in the life of the great medium was the\nfamous law suit in which he was concerned in England. In 1866 he became\nacquainted with a wealthy lady, Mrs. Jane Lyons. In his role of medium she\nconsulted him constantly about the welfare of her husband in the spirit\nworld, and her business affairs. She gave him \u00a333,000 for his services.\nRelatives and friends of Mrs. Lyons, however, saw in Home a cunning\nadventurer who was preying upon a weak-minded woman. A suit was instituted\nagainst the medium to recover the money, and the case became a _cause\ncelebre_ in the annals of the English courts.\n\nIn the autumn of 1871, Home, who before that time, had been quite a \"lion\"\nat the court of Napoleon III and Eugene, followed the German army from\nSedan to Versailles, and was hand-in-glove with the King of Prussia. His\nsecond marriage took place in October, 1871, at Paris, and after a brief\nhoneymoon in England he visited St. Petersburg with his wife, who was a\nmember of the noble Russian family of Alsakoff.\n\nOn the 21st of June, 1886, the great American ghost-seer died of\nconsumption, at Auteuil, near Paris, France. For years he was out of\nhealth, and he ascribed his weakness to the expenditure of vital force in\nworking wonders during the earlier part of his career.\n\nHe was buried at St. Germain-en-Laye, with the rites of the Russian\nChurch. The funeral was a very simple one, not more than twenty persons\nbeing present, all of whom were in full evening dress. The idea was to\nemphasize the Spiritualists' belief that death is not a subject for\nmourning, but is liberation, an occasion for rejoicing.\n\nThe curious reader will find many accounts of Home's invulnerability to\nfire while in the trance state, notably those of Prof. Crookes, contained\nin the proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. In the March,\n1868, number of \"_Human Nature_,\" Mr. H. D. Jencken writes as follows\nconcerning a s\u00e9ance given by the medium:\n\n\"Mr. Home, (after various manifestations) said, 'we have gladly shown you\nour power over fluids, we will now show you our power over solids.' He\nthen knelt down before the hearth, and deliberately breaking up a glowing\npiece of coal in the fire place, took up a largish lump of incandescent\ncoal and placing the same in his left hand, proceeded to explain that\ncaloric had been extracted by a process known to them (the spirits), and\nthat the heat could in part be returned. This he proved by alternately\ncooling and heating the coal; and to convince us of the fact, allowed us\nto handle the coal which had become cool, then suddenly resumed its heat\nsufficient to burn one, as I again touched it. I examined Mr. Home's hand,\nand quite satisfied myself that no artificial means had been employed to\nprotect the skin, which did not even retain the smell of smoke. Mr. Home\nthen re-seated himself, and shortly awoke from his trance quite pale and\nexhausted.\"\n\nOther witnesses of the above experiment were Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare,\nMiss Douglas, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. W. H. Harrison and Prof. Wallace. Mr. H.\nNisbet, of Glasgow, relates (_Human Nature_, Feb. 1870) that in his own\nhome in January, 1870, Mr. Home took a red hot coal from the grate and put\nit in the hands of a lady and gentleman to whom it felt only warm.\nSubsequently he placed the same on a folded newspaper, the result being a\nhole burnt through eight layers of paper. Taking another blazing coal he\nlaid it on the same journal, and carried it around the apartment for\nupwards of three minutes, without scorching the paper.\n\nAmong the crowned heads and famous people before whom Mr. Home appeared\nwere Napoleon III and the Empress Eug\u00e9nie, Queen Victoria, King Louis I\nand King Maximilian of Bavaria, the Emperor of Russia, the King and Queen\nof Wurtemberg, the Duchess of Hamilton, the Crown Prince of Prussia and\nold Gen. Von Moltke. Alexander Dumas the elder, was a constant companion\nof the medium for a long time, and wrote columns about him.\n\nNapoleon III had two sittings with Home--and it is said Home materialized\nthe spirit of the first Napoleon, who appeared in his familiar cocked hat,\ngray overcoat and dark green uniform with white facings. \"My fate?\" asked\nLouis, trembling with awe. \"Like mine--discrowned, and death in exile,\"\nreplied the ghost; then it vanished. The Empress swooned and Napoleon III\nfell back in his chair as if about to faint. The medium in his first\ns\u00e9ance with the French Emperor succeeded only in materializing some\nflowers and a spirit hand, which the Emperor was permitted to grasp.\n\nCelia Logan, the journalist, in writing of one of Home's s\u00e9ances at a\nnobleman's house in London, says:\n\n\"On this occasion the medium announced that he would produce balls of fire\nand illuminated hands. Failing in the former, he declared that the spirits\nwere not strong enough for that to-night, and so he would have to confine\nhimself to showing the luminous hands.\n\n\"The house was darkened and Home groped his way alone to the head of the\nbroad staircase, where every few minutes a pair of luminous hands were\nthrown up. The audience was satisfied generally. One lady, however, was\nnot, and whispered to me--she was a half-hearted Spiritualist--that it\nlooked to her as if he had rubbed his own hands over with lucifer\nmatches.\n\n\"The host stood near the mantel piece and had seen Home abstractedly place\na small bottle upon it when he left the room for the staircase. That\nbottle the host quietly slipped into his pocket. Upon examination the next\nday it was found to contain phosphorated olive oil or some similar\npreparation.\n\n\"The host had declared himself to have seen Home float through the air\nfrom one side of the room to the other, lift a piano several feet in the\nair by simply placing a finger upon it, and had seen him materialize\ndisembodied spirits; but after the discovery of the phosphorus trick he\ndropped Home at once.\"\n\nIt is a significant fact that the medium while giving s\u00e9ances in Paris in\n1857 refused to meet Houdin, the renowned prestidigitateur.\n\nI shall now attempt an expos\u00e9 of Home's physical phenomena. Home's\nextraordinary feat of alternately cooling and heating a lump of coal taken\nfrom a blazing fire, as related by Mr. H. D. Jencken and others, is easily\nexplained. It is a juggling trick. The \"coal\" is a piece of spongy\nplatinum which bears a close resemblance to a lump of half burnt coal, and\nis palmed in the hand, as a prestidigitateur conceals a coin, a pack of\ncards, an egg, or a small lemon. The medium or magician advances to the\ngrate and pretends to take a genuine lump of coal from the fire but brings\nup instead, at the tips of his fingers, the piece of platinum. In a secret\nbreast pocket of his coat he has a small reservoir of hydrogen, with a\ntube coming down the sleeve and terminating an inch or so above the cuff.\nBy means of certain mechanical arrangements, to enable him to let on and\noff the gas at the proper moment, he is able to accomplish the trick; for\nwhen a current of hydrogen is allowed to impinge upon a piece of spongy\nplatinum, the metal becomes incandescent, and as soon as the current is\narrested the platinum is restored to its normal condition.\n\nThe hand may be protected from burning in various ways, one method being\nthe repeated application of sulphuric acid to the skin, whereby it is\nrendered impervious to the action of fire for a short period of time;\nanother, by wearing gloves of amianthus or asbestos cloth. With the\nlatter, worn in a badly lighted room, the medium, without much risk of\ndiscovery, can handle red hot coals or iron with impunity. The gloves may\nat the proper moment be slipped off and concealed about the person. A\nsmall slip of amianthus cloth placed on a newspaper would protect it from\na hot coal and the same means could be used when a coal is placed in\nanother's hand or upon his head.\n\nAs to the marvelous \"levitation\", either the witnesses of the alleged feat\nwere under some hypnotic spell, or else they allowed their imaginations to\nrun riot when describing the event. In the case of Lord Lindsay and Lord\nAdare, D. Carpenter in his valuable paper \"On Fallacies Respecting the\nSupernatural\" (_Contemporary Review_, Jan., 1876) says: \"A whole party of\nbelievers affirm that they saw Mr. Home float out of one window and in at\nanother, while a single honest skeptic declares that Mr. Home was sitting\nin his chair all the time.\" It seems that there were three gentlemen\npresent besides the medium when the alleged phenomenon took place, the two\nnoblemen and a \"cousin\". It is this unnamed hard-headed cousin to whom Dr.\nCarpenter refers as the \"honest skeptic.\"\n\nMany of Home's admirers have declared that he possessed the power of\nmesmerizing certain of his friends. These gentlemen were no doubt\nhypnotized and related honestly what they believed they had seen. Again,\nthe expectancy of attention and the nervous tension of the average sitter\nin spirit-circles tend to produce a morbidly impressible condition of\nmind. Many mediums since Home's day have performed the act of levitation,\nbut always in a dark room. Mr. Angelo Lewis, the writer on magic, reveals\nan ingenious method by which levitation is effected. When the lights are\nextinguished the medium--who, by the way, must be a clever\nventriloquist--removes his boots and places them on his hands.\n\n\"I am rising, I am rising, but pay no attention\", he remarks, as he goes\nabout the apartment, where the sitters are grouped in a circle about him,\nand he lightly touches the heads of various persons. A shadowy form is\ndimly seen and a smell of boot leather becomes apparent to the olfactory\nsenses of many present. People jump quickly to conclusions in such matters\nand argue that where the feet of the medium are, his body must surely\nbe--namely, floating in the air. The illusion is further enhanced by the\nperformer's ventriloquial powers. \"I am rising! I am touching the\nceiling!\" he exclaims, imitating the sound of a voice high up. When the\nlights are turned up, the medium is seen (this time with his boots on his\nfeet) standing on tip-toe, as if just descended from the ceiling.\n\nSometimes before performing the levitation act, he will say, \"In order to\nconvince any skeptic present, that I really float upwards, I will write\nthe initials of my name, or the name of some one present, on the\nceiling.\" When the lights are raised, the letters are seen written on the\nceiling in a bold scrawling hand. How is it done? The medium has concealed\nabout him a telescopic steel rod, something like those Chinese fishing\nrods at one time in vogue among modern disciples of Izaak Walton. This\nconvenient rod when not in use folds up in a very small compass, but when\nit is shoved out to its full length, some three or four feet, with a bit\nof black chalk attached, the writing on the ceiling is easily produced.\nThe magicians of ancient Egypt displayed their mystic rods as a part of\ntheir paraphernalia, while the modern magi bear theirs in secret. A\ntambourine, a guitar, a bell, or a spirit hand, rubbed with phosphorus,\nmay also be fixed to this ingenious appliance, and floated over the heads\nof the spectators, and even a horn may be blown, through the hollow rod.\n\nThe materialization of a spirit hand which crept from beneath a\ntable-cover, and showed itself to the \"believers,\" was one of the most\nstartling things in the repertoire of D. D. Home, as it was in that of Dr.\nMonck's, an English medium. An explanation of Monck's method of producing\nthe hand may, perhaps, throw some light on Home's \"materialization.\" A\nsmall dummy hand, artistically executed in wax, with the fingers slightly\nbent, is fastened to a broad elastic band about three feet in length. This\nband is attached to a belt about the performer's waist and passes down his\nleft trouser leg, allowing the hand to dangle within the trouser a few\ninches above the ankle. I must not forget to explain that to the wrist of\nthe hand is appended an elastic sleeve about five inches long. The medium\nand two sitters take their seats at a square table, with an over-hanging\ntable-cloth. No one is allowed to be seated at the same side of the table\nwith the medium. This is an imperative condition.\n\n\"Diminish the light, please,\" says the medium. Some one rises to lower the\ngas to the required dim religious light necessary to all spirit s\u00e9ances.\n\"A little lower, please! Lower, lower still!\" remarks the medium. Out the\nlight goes. \"Dear, me, but this is vexatious! Somebody light it again and\nbe more careful!\" he ejaculates. Under cover of the darkness the agile\noperator crosses his left foot over his right knee, pulls down the wax\nhand and fixes it to the toe of his boot by means of the elastic sleeve,\nthe apparatus being masked from the sitters by the table cloth until the\ntime comes for the spirit materialization. The three men place their\nhands on the table and wait patiently for developments. Presently a rap is\nheard under the table--disjointed knee of the medium,--and then _mirabile\ndictu!_ the table-cloth shakes and a delicate female hand emerges and\nshows itself above the edge of the table. A guitar being placed close to\nthe fingers, they soon strum the strings, or rather appear to do so, the\nmedium being the _deus ex machina_. The cleverest part of the whole\nperformance is the fact that the medium never takes his hands from the\ntable. He quietly puts his left foot down on the floor and places his\nright foot heavily on the false hand--off it comes from the left foot and\nshoots up the trouser leg like lightning. The sitters may look under the\ntable but they see nothing.\n\nAn ingenious improvement has been made to this hand-test by an American\nconjurer, one that enables the medium to produce the hand although his\nfeet are secured by the sitter. \"Be kind enough, sir,\" says the performer\nto the investigator, \"to place your feet on mine. If I should move my feet\never so little, you would know it, would you not?\" The sitter replies in\nthe affirmative. The medium, as soon as he feels the pressure of the\nsitter's feet, withdraws his right foot from a steel shape made in\nimitation of the toe of his boot, and operates the spirit hand at his\nleisure. After the sitting, he of course, inserts his right foot into the\nshape and carries it off with him.\n\nThe production of spirit music was one of Home's favorite experiments.\nThere are all sorts of ways of producing this music, the most ingenious of\nwhich I give:\n\nThe apparatus consists of a small circular musical box, wound up by clock\nwork, and made to play whenever pressure is put upon a stud projecting a\nquarter of an inch from its surface. This box is strapped around the right\nleg of the medium just above his knee, and hidden beneath the trouser leg.\nWhen not in use it is on the under side of the leg. On the table a musical\nbox is placed and covered with a soup tureen, or the top of a chafing\ndish. When the spectators are seated, the medium works the concealed\nmusical box around to the upper part of his leg near the knee cap, and by\npressing the stud against the under surface of the table, starts the music\nplaying. In this way the second musical box seems to play and the acoustic\neffect is perfect. Perhaps Home used a similar contrivance; Dr. Monck\ndid, and was caught in the act by the chief of the Detective Police.\n\nHome during his s\u00e9ances on the Continent of Europe was accused of all\nsorts of trickery. Some asserted that he had concealed about him a small\nbut powerful electric battery for producing certain illusions, mechanical\ncontrivances attached to his legs for making spirit raps, and last but not\nleast, as the medium states in his \"Memoirs:\" \"they even accused me of\ncarrying a small monkey about with me, concealed, trained to perform all\nsorts of ghostly tricks.\"\n\nPeople also accused him of obtaining a great deal of his information about\nthe spirits of the departed from tombstones like an Old Mortality, and\nbribing family servants. A more probable explanation may be found perhaps\nin telepathy.\n\nThere is one more phase of Home's mediumship, the moving of heavy pieces\nof furniture without physical contact, that must be spoken of. In\nmentioning it, Dr. Max Dessoir, author of the \"Psychology of\nConjuring,\"[1] says: \"We must admit that _a few_ feats, such as those of\nProf. Crookes with Home, concerning the possibility of setting inanimate\nobjects in motion without touching them, _appear_ to lie entirely outside\nthe sphere of jugglery.\" In the year 1871, Prof. William Crookes, (now Sir\nWilliam Crookes) Fellow of the Royal Society, a very eminent scientist,\nsubjected Home to some elaborate tests in order to prove or disprove by\nmeans of scientific apparatus the reality of phenomena connected with\nvariations in the weight of bodies, with or without contact. He declared\nthe tests to be entirely satisfactory, but ascribed the phenomena not to\nspiritual agency, but to a new force, \"in some unknown manner connected\nwith the human organization,\" which for convenience he called the \"Psychic\nForce.\" He said in his \"Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism:\" \"Of\nall the persons endowed with a powerful development of this Psychic Force,\nand who have been termed 'mediums' upon quite another theory of its\norigin, Mr. Daniel Dunglas Home is the most remarkable, and it is mainly\nowing to the many opportunities I have had of carrying on my\ninvestigations in his presence that I am enabled to affirm so conclusively\nthe existence of this force.\" Prof. Crookes' experiments were conducted,\nas he says, in the full light, and in the presence of witnesses, among\nthem being the famous English barrister, Sergeant Cox, and the\nastronomer, Dr. Huggins. Heavy articles became light and light articles\nheavy when the medium came near them. In some cases he lightly touched\nthem, in others refrained from contact.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 8. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]\n\nThe first piece of the apparatus constructed by Crookes to test this\npsychic force consisted of a mahogany board 36 inches long by 9-1/2 inches\nwide and 1 inch thick. A strip of mahogany was screwed on at one end, to\nform a foot, the length being equal to the width of the board. This end of\nthe board was placed on a table, while the other end was upheld by a\nspring balance, fastened to a strong tripod stand, as will be seen in\nFig. 8.\n\n\"Mr. Home,\" writes Prof. Crookes, \"placed the tips of his fingers lightly\non the extreme end of the mahogany board which was resting on the support,\nwhilst Dr. A. B. [Dr. Huggins] and myself sat, one on each side of it,\nwatching for any effect which might be produced. Almost immediately the\npointer of the balance was seen to descend. After a few seconds it rose\nagain. This movement was repeated several times, as if by successive waves\nof the psychic force. The end of the board was observed to oscillate\nslowly up and down during the experiment.\n\n\"Mr. Home now, of his own accord, took a small hand-bell and a little card\nmatch-box, which happened to be near, and placed one under each hand, to\nsatisfy us, as he said, that he was not producing the downward pressure.\nThe very slow oscillation of the spring balance became more marked, and\nDr. A. B., watching the index, said that he saw it descend to 6-1/2 lbs.\nThe normal weight of the board as so suspended being 3 lbs., the\nadditional downward pull was therefore 3-1/2 lbs. On looking immediately\nafterwards at the automatic register, we saw that the index had at one\ntime descended as low as 9 lbs., showing a maximum pull of 6 lbs. upon a\nboard whose normal weight was 3 lbs.\n\n\"In order to see whether it was possible to produce much effect on the\nspring balance by pressure at the place where Mr. Home's fingers had been,\nI stepped upon the table and stood on one foot at the end of the board.\nDr. A. B., who was observing the index of the balance, said that the whole\nweight of my body (140 lbs.) so applied only sunk the index 1-1/2 lbs., or\n2 lbs. when I jerked up and down. Mr. Home had been sitting in a low\neasy-chair, and could not, therefore, had he tried his utmost, have\nexerted any material influence on these results. I need scarcely add that\nhis feet as well as his hands were closely guarded by all in the room.\"\n\nThe next series of experiments is thus described:\n\n\"On trying these experiments for the first time, I thought that actual\ncontact between Mr. Home's hands and the suspended body whose weight was\nto be altered was essential to the exhibition of the force; but I found\nafterwards that this was not a necessary condition, and I therefore\narranged my apparatus in the following manner:--\n\n\"The accompanying cuts (Figs. 9, 10 and 11) explain the arrangement. Fig.\n9 is a general view, and Figs. 10 and 11 show the essential parts more in\ndetail. The reference letters are the same in each illustration. A B is a\nmahogany board, 36 inches long by 9-1/2 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. It\nis suspended at the end, B, by a spring balance, C, furnished with an\nautomatic register, D. The balance is suspended from a very firm tripod\nsupport, E.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 9. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 10. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]\n\n\"The following piece of apparatus is not shown in the figures. To the\nmoving index, O, of the spring balance, a fine steel point is soldered,\nprojecting horizontally outwards. In front of the balance, and firmly\nfastened to it, is a grooved frame, carrying a flat box similar to the\ndark box of a photographic camera. This box is made to travel by\nclock-work horizontally in front of the moving index, and it contains a\nsheet of plate-glass which has been smoked over a flame. The projecting\nsteel point impresses a mark on this smoked surface. If the balance is at\nrest, and the clock set going, the result is a perfectly straight\nhorizontal line. If the clock is stopped and weights are placed on the\nend, B, of the board, the result is a vertical line, whose length depends\non the weight applied. If, whilst the clock draws the plate along, the\nweight of the board (or the tension on the balance) varies, the result is\na curved line, from which the tension in grains at any moment during the\ncontinuance of the experiments can be calculated.\n\n\"The instrument was capable of registering a diminution of the force of\ngravitation as well as an increase; registrations of such a diminution\nwere frequently obtained. To avoid complication, however, I will here\nrefer only to results in which an increase of gravitation was experienced.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 11. CROOKES' APPARATUS.]\n\n\"The end, B, of the board being supported by the spring balance, the end,\nA, is supported on a wooden strip, F, screwed across its lower side and\ncut to a knife edge (see Fig. 11). This fulcrum rests on a firm and heavy\nwooden stand, G H. On the board, exactly over the fulcrum, is placed a\nlarge glass vessel filled with water. I L is a massive iron stand,\nfurnished with an arm and a ring, M N, in which rests a hemispherical\ncopper vessel perforated with several holes at the bottom.\n\n\"The iron stand is 2 inches from the board, A B, and the arm and copper\nvessel, M N, are so adjusted that the latter dips into the water 1-1/2\ninches, being 5-1/2 inches from the bottom of I, and 2 inches from its\ncircumference. Shaking or striking the arm, M, or the vessel, N, produces\nno appreciable mechanical effect on the board, A B, capable of affecting\nthe balance. Dipping the hand to the fullest extent into the water in N\ndoes not produce the least appreciable action on the balance.\n\n\"As the mechanical transmission of power is by this means entirely cut off\nbetween the copper vessel and the board, A B, the power of muscular\ncontrol is thereby completely eliminated.\n\n\"For convenience I will divide the experiments into groups, 1, 2, 3, etc.,\nand I have selected one special instance in each to describe in detail.\nNothing, however, is mentioned which has not been repeated more than once,\nand in some cases verified, in Mr. Home's absence, with another person,\npossessing similar powers.\n\n\"There was always ample light in the room where the experiments were\nconducted (my own dining-room) to see all that took place.\n\n\"_Experiment I._--The apparatus having been properly adjusted before Mr.\nHome entered the room, he was brought in, and asked to place his fingers\nin the water in the copper vessel, N. He stood up and dipped the tips of\nthe fingers of his right hand in the water, his other hand and his feet\nbeing held. When he said he felt a power, force, or influence, proceeding\nfrom his hand, I set the clock going, and almost immediately the end, B,\nof the board was seen to descend slowly and remain down for about 10\nseconds; it then descended a little further, and afterwards rose to its\nnormal height. It then descended again, rose suddenly, gradually sunk for\n17 seconds, and finally rose to its normal height, where it remained till\nthe experiment was concluded. The lowest point marked on the glass was\nequivalent to a direct pull of about 5,000 grains. The accompanying\nFigure 12 is a copy of the curve traced on the glass.\n\n[Illustration: SCALE OF SECONDS.\n\nFIG. 12. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE\nOF HOME.]\n\n\"_Experiment II._--Contact through water having proved to be as effectual\nas actual mechanical contact, I wished to see if the power or force could\naffect the weight, either through other portions of the apparatus or\nthrough the air. The glass vessel and iron stand, etc., were therefore\nremoved, as an unnecessary complication, and Mr. Home's hands were placed\non the stand of the apparatus at P (Fig. 9). A gentleman present put his\nhand on Mr. Home's hands, and his foot on both Mr. Home's feet, and I also\nwatched him closely all the time. At the proper moment the clock was again\nset going; the board descended and rose in an irregular manner, the result\nbeing a curved tracing on the glass, of which Fig. 13 is a copy.\n\n[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.\n\nFIG. 13. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE\nOF HOME.]\n\n\"_Experiment III._--Mr. Home was now placed one foot from the board, A B,\non one side of it. His hands and feet were firmly grasped by a by-stander,\nand another tracing, of which Fig. 14 is a copy, was taken on the moving\nglass plate.\n\n[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.\n\nFIG. 14. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER HOME'S\nINFLUENCE.]\n\n\"_Experiment IV._--(Tried on an occasion when the power was stronger than\non the previous occasions), Mr. Home was now placed 3 feet from the\napparatus, his hands and feet being tightly held. The clock was set going\nwhen he gave the word, and the end, B, of the board soon descended, and\nagain rose in an irregular manner, as shown in Fig. 15.\n\n[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.\n\nFIG. 15. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS UNDER HOME'S\nINFLUENCE.]\n\n\"The following series of experiments were tried with more delicate\napparatus, and with another person, a lady, Mr. Home being absent. As the\nlady is non-professional, I do not mention her name. She has, however,\nconsented to meet any scientific men whom I may introduce for purposes of\ninvestigation.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 16. SECOND CROOKES' APPARATUS.]\n\n\"A piece of thin parchment, A, (Figs. 16 and 17), is stretched tightly\nacross a circular hoop of wood. B C is a light lever turning on D. At the\nend B is a vertical needle point touching the membrane A, and at C is\nanother needle point, projecting horizontally and touching a smoked glass\nplate, E F. This glass plate is drawn along in the direction H G by\nclockwork, K. The end, B, of the lever is weighted so that it shall\nquickly follow the movements of the centre of the disc, A. These\nmovements are transmitted and recorded on the glass plate, E F, by means\nof the lever and needle point, C. Holes are cut in the side of the hoop to\nallow a free passage of air to the under side of the membrane. The\napparatus was well tested beforehand by myself and others, to see that no\nshaking or jar on the table or support would interfere with the results:\nthe line traced by the point, C, on the smoked glass was perfectly\nstraight in spite of all our attempts to influence the lever by shaking\nthe stand or stamping on the floor.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 17. SECTION OF APPARATUS IN FIG. 16.]\n\n\"_Experiment V._--Without having the object of the instrument explained to\nher, the lady was brought into the room and asked to place her fingers on\nthe wooden stand at the points, L M, Fig. 16. I then placed my hands over\nhers to enable me to detect any conscious or unconscious movement on her\npart. Presently percussive noises were heard on the parchment, resembling\nthe dropping of grains of sand on its surface. At each percussion a\nfragment of graphite which I had placed on the membrane was seen to be\nprojected upwards about 1-50th of an inch, and the end, C, of the lever\nmoved slightly up and down. Sometimes the sounds were as rapid as those\nfrom an induction-coil, whilst at others they were more than a second\napart. Five or six tracings were taken, and in all cases a movement of the\nend, C, of the lever was seen to have occurred with each vibration of the\nmembrane.\n\n\"In some cases the lady's hands were not so near the membrane as L M, but\nwere at N O, Fig 17.\n\n[Illustration: SCALE OF SECONDS.\n\nFIG. 18. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS (FIG. 15 AND 16)\nOUTSIDE HOME'S INFLUENCE.]\n\n\"The accompanying Fig. 18 gives tracings taken from the plates used on\nthese occasions.\n\n\"_Experiment VI._--Having met with these results in Mr. Home's absence, I\nwas anxious to see what action would be produced on the instrument in his\npresence.\n\n\"Accordingly I asked him to try, but without explaining the instrument to\nhim.\n\n\"I grasped Mr. Home's right arm above the wrist and held his hand over the\nmembrane, about 10 inches from its surface, in the position shown at P,\nFig. 17. His other hand was held by a friend. After remaining in this\nposition for about half a minute, Mr. Home said he felt some influence\npassing. I then set the clock going, and we all saw the index, C, moving\nup and down. The movements were much slower than in the former case, and\nwere almost entirely unaccompanied by the percussive vibrations then\nnoticed.\n\n\"Figs. 19 and 20 show the curves produced on the glass on two of these\noccasions.\n\n\"Figs. 18, 19 and 20 are magnified.\n\n\"These experiments _confirm beyond doubt_ the conclusions at which I\narrived in my former paper, namely, the existence of a force associated,\nin some manner not yet explained, with the human organization, by which\nforce increased weight is capable of being imparted to solid bodies\nwithout physical contact. In the case of Mr. Home, the development of this\nforce varies enormously, not only from week to week, but from hour to\nhour; on some occasions the force is inappreciable by my tests for an hour\nor more, and then suddenly reappears in great strength.\n\n[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 18.\n\nFIG. 19. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17)\nUNDER HOME'S INFLUENCE.]\n\n\"It is capable of acting at a distance from Mr. Home (not unfrequently as\nfar as two or three feet), but is always strongest close to him.\n\n[Illustration: SCALE THE SAME AS ON FIG. 18.\n\nFIG. 20. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES' APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17)\nUNDER HOME'S INFLUENCE.]\n\n\"Being firmly convinced that there could be no manifestation of one form\nof force without the corresponding expenditure of some other form of\nforce, I for a long time searched in vain for evidence of any force or\npower being used up in the production of these results.\n\n\"Now, however, having seen more of Mr. Home, I think I perceive what it is\nthat this psychic force uses up for its development. In employing the\nterms _vital force_ or _nervous energy_, I am aware that I am employing\nwords which convey very different significations to many investigators;\nbut after witnessing the painful state of nervous and bodily prostration\nin which some of these experiments have left Mr. Home--after seeing him\nlying in an almost fainting condition on the floor, pale and speechless--I\ncould scarcely doubt that the evolution of psychic force is accompanied by\na corresponding drain on vital force.\"\n\nSergeant Cox in speaking of the tests says, \"The results appear to me\nconclusively to establish the important fact, that there is a force\nproceeding from the nerve-system capable of imparting motion and weight to\nsolid bodies within the sphere of its influence.\"\n\nOne of the medium's defenders has written:\n\n\"Home's mysterious power, whatever it may have been, was very uncertain.\nSometimes he could exercise it, and at others not, and these fluctuations\nwere not seldom the source of embarrassment to him. He would often arrive\nat a place in obedience to an engagement, and, as he imagined, ready to\nperform, when he would discover himself absolutely helpless. After a\ns\u00e9ance his exhaustion appeared to be complete.\n\n\"There is no more striking proof of the fact that Home really possessed\noccult gifts of some sort--psychic force or whatever else the power may be\ntermed--than he gave such amazing exhibitions in the early part of his\nhistory and was able to do so little toward the end. If it had been\njuggling he would, like other conjurors, have improved on his tricks by\nexperience, or at all events, while his memory held out he would not have\ndeteriorated.\"\n\nDr. Hammond's Experiments.\n\nDr. William A. Hammond, the eminent neurologist, of Washington, D. C.,\ntook up the cudgels against Prof. Crookes' \"Psychic Force\" theory, and\nassigned the experiments to the domain of animal electricity. He wrote as\nfollows:[2] \"Place an egg in an egg-cup and balance a long lath upon the\negg. Though the lath be almost a plank it will obediently follow a rod of\nglass, gutta percha or sealing-wax, which has been previously well dried\nand rubbed, the former with a piece of silk, and the two latter with\nwoolen cloth. Now, in dry weather, many persons within my knowledge, have\nonly to walk with a shuffling gait over the carpet, and then approaching\nthe lath hold out the finger instead of the glass, sealing wax or gutta\npercha, and instantly the end of the lath at L rises to meet it, and the\nend at L is depressed. Applying these principles, I arranged an apparatus\nexactly like that of Prof. Crookes, except that the spring balance was\nsuch as is used for weighing letters and was therefore very delicate,\nindicating quarter ounces with exactness, and that the board was thin and\nnarrow.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 21. DR. HAMMOND'S APPARATUS.]\n\n\"Applying the glass rod or stick of sealing-wax to the end resting by its\nfoot on the table, the index of the balance at once descended, showing an\nincreased weight of a little over three quarters of an ounce, and this\nwithout the board being raised from the table.\n\n\"I then walked over a thick Turkey rug for a few moments, and holding my\nfinger under the board near the end attached to the balance, caused a fall\nof the index of almost half an ounce. I then rested my finger lightly on\nthe end of the board immediately over the foot, and again the index\ndescended and oscillated several times, just as in Mr. Home's experiments.\nThe lowest point reached was six and a quarter ounces, and as the board\nweighed, as attached to the balance, five ounces, there was an increased\nweight of one and a quarter ounces. At no time was the end of the board\nraised from the table.\n\n\"I then arranged the apparatus so as to place a thin glass tumbler nearly\nfull of water immediately over the fulcrum, as in Mr. Crookes' experiment,\nand again the index fell and oscillated on my fingers being put into the\nwater.\n\n\"Now if one person can thus, with a delicate apparatus like mine, cause\nthe index, through electricity, to descend and ascend, it is not\nimprobable that others, like Mr. Home, could show greater, or even\ndifferent electrical power, as in Prof. Crookes' experiments. It is well\nknown that all persons are not alike in their ability to be electrically\nexcited. Many persons, myself among them, can light the gas with the end\nof the finger. Others cannot do it with any amount of shuffling over the\ncarpet.\n\n\"At any rate is it not much more sensible to believe that Mr. Home's\nexperiments are to be thus explained than to attribute the results of his\nsemi-mysterious attempts to spiritualism or psychic force?\"\n\n\n3. Rope-Tying and Holding Mediums.\n\nTHE DAVENPORT BROTHERS.\n\nIra Erastus and William Henry Davenport were born at Buffalo, N. Y., the\nformer on Sept. 17, 1839, and the latter on February 1, 1841. Their\nfather, Ira Davenport, was in the police detective department, and, it is\nalleged, invented the celebrated rope-tying feats after having seen the\nIndian jugglers of the West perform similar illusions. The usual stories\nabout ghostly phenomena attending the childhood of mediums were told about\nthe Davenport Brothers, but it was not until 1855 that they started on\ntheir tour of the United States, with their father as showman or\nspiritual lecturer. When the Civil War broke out, the Brothers,\naccompanied by Dr. J. B. Ferguson, formerly an Independent minister of\nNashville, Tenn., in the capacity of lecturer, and a Mr. Palmer as general\nagent and manager, went to England to exhibit their mediumistic powers,\nfollowing the example of D. D. Home. With the company also was a Buffalo\nboy named Fay, of German-American parentage, who had formerly acted as\nticket-taker for the mediums. He discovered the secret of the rope-tying\nfeat, and was an adept at the coat feat, so he was employed as an\n\"under-study\" in case of the illness of William Davenport, who was in\nrather delicate health. The Brothers Davenport at this period, aged\nrespectively 25 and 23 years, had \"long black curly hair, broad but not\nhigh foreheads, dark eyes, heavy eye-brows and moustaches, firm set lips,\nand a bright, keen look.\" Their first performance in England was given at\nthe Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London, and created intense excitement.\n\n_Punch_ called the _furore_ over the spirit rope-tyers the \"tie-fuss\nfever,\" and said the mediums were \"Ministers of the Interior, with a seat\nin the Cabinet.\" J. N. Maskelyne, the London conjurer of Egyptian Hall,\nwrote of them: \"About the Davenport Brothers' performances, I have to say\nthat they were and still remain the most inexplicable ever presented to\nthe public as of spiritual origin; and had they been put forth as feats of\njugglery would have awakened a considerable amount of curiosity though\ncertainly not to the extent they did.\"\n\nIn September, 1865, the Brothers arrived in Paris, and placarded the city\nwith enormous posters announcing that the Brothers Davenport,\nspirit-mediums, would give a series of public s\u00e9ances at the _Salle Herz_.\nTheir reputation had preceded them to France and the _boulevardiers_\ntalked of nothing but the wonderful American mediums and their mysterious\ncabinet. Before exhibiting in Paris the Davenports visited the _Chateau de\nGennevilliers_, whose owner was an enthusiastic believer in Spiritism, and\ngave a s\u00e9ance before a select party of journalists and scientific men. The\nexhibition was pronounced marvellous in the extreme and perfectly\ninexplicable.\n\nThe Parisian press was divided on the subject of the Davenports and their\nadvertised s\u00e9ances. Some of the papers protested against such performances\non the ground that they were dangerous to the mental health of the\npublic, and, one writer said, \"Particularly to those weaker intellects\nwhich are always ready enough to accept as gospel the tricks and artifices\nof the adepts of sham witchcraft.\" M. Edmond About, the famous journalist\nand novelist, in the _Opinion Nationale_, wrote a scathing denunciation of\nSpiritism, but all to no purpose, except to inflame public curiosity.\n\nThe performances of the Davenports were divided into two parts: (1) The\nlight s\u00e9ance, (2) the dark s\u00e9ance. In the light s\u00e9ance a cabinet, elevated\nfrom the stage by three trestles, was used. It was a simple wooden\nstructure with three doors. In the centre door was a lozenge-shaped window\ncovered with a curtain. Upon the sides of the cabinet hung various musical\ninstruments, a guitar, a violin, horns, tambourines, and a big dinner\nbell.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 22. THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS IN THEIR CABINET.]\n\nA committee chosen by the audience tied the mediums' hands securely behind\ntheir backs, fastened their legs together, and pinioned them to their\nseats in the cabinet, and to the cross rails with strong ropes. The side\ndoors were closed first, then the center door, but no sooner was the last\nfastened, than the hands of one of the mediums were thrust through the\nwindow in the centre door. In a very short time, at a signal from the\nmediums, the doors were opened, and the Davenports stepped forth, with the\nropes in their hands, every knot untied, confessedly by spirit power. The\nastonishment of the spectators amounted to awe. On an average it took ten\nminutes to pinion the Brothers; but a single minute was required for their\nrelease. Once more the mediums went into the cabinet, this time with the\nropes lying in a coil at their feet. Two minutes elapsed. Hey, presto! the\ndoors were opened, and the Davenports were pronounced by the committee to\nbe securely lashed to their seats. Seals were affixed to the knots in the\nropes, and the doors closed as before. Pandemonium reigned. Bells were\nrung, horns blown, tambourines thumped, violins played, and guitars\nvigorously twanged. Heavy rappings also were heard on the ceiling, sides\nand floor of the cabinet, then after a brief but absolute silence, a bare\nhand and arm emerged from the lozenge window, and rung the big dinner\nbell. On opening the doors the Brothers were found securely tied as\nbefore, and seals intact. An amusing feature of the exhibition occurred\nwhen a venturesome spectator volunteered to sit inside of the cabinet\nbetween the two mediums. He came out with his coat turned inside out and\nhis hat jammed over his eyes. In the dark s\u00e9ance the cabinet was dispensed\nwith and the spectators, holding hands, formed a ring around the mediums.\nThe lights were put out and similar phenomena took place, with the\naddition of luminous hands, and musical instruments floating in the air.\n\nRobert-Houdin wrote an interesting brochure on the Davenports, (\"Secrets\nof Stage Conjuring,\" translated by Prof. Hoffmann) from which I take the\nfollowing: \"The ropes used by the Davenport Brothers are of a cotton\nfibre; and they present therefore smooth surfaces, adapted to slip easily\none upon another. Gentlemen are summoned from the audience to tie the\nmediums. Now, tell me, is it an easy task for an amateur to tie a man up\noff-hand with a rope three yards long, in a very secure way? The amateur\nis flurried, self-conscious, anxious to acquit himself well of the\nbusiness, but he is a gentleman, not a brute, and if one of the Brothers\nsees the ropes getting into a dangerous tangle, he gives a slight groan,\nas if he were being injured, and the instantaneous impulse of the other\nman is to loosen the cord a trifle. A fraction of an inch is an invaluable\ngain in the after-business of loosening the ropes. Sometimes the\nstiffening of a muscle, the raising of a shoulder, the crooking of a knee,\ngives all the play required by the Brothers in ridding themselves of their\nbonds. Their muscles and joints are wonderfully supple, too; the thumbs\ncan be laid flat in the palm of the hand, the hand itself rounded until it\nis no broader than the wrist, and then it is easy to pull through. Violent\nwrenches send the ropes up toward the shoulder, vigorous shakings get the\nlegs free; the first hand untied is thrust through the hole in the door of\nthe cabinet, and then returns to give aid to more serious knots on his own\nor his brother's person. In tying themselves up the Davenports used the\nslip-knot, a sort of bow, the ends of which have only to be pulled to be\ntightened or loosened.\"\n\nThis slip-knot is a very ingenious affair. (See Fig. 23.) In performing\nthe spirit-tying, the mediums went into the cabinet with the ropes\nexamined by the audience lying coiled at their feet. The doors were\nclosed. They had concealed about their persons ropes in which these trick\nknots were already adjusted, and with which they very speedily secured\nthemselves, having first secreted the genuine ropes. Then the doors were\nopened. Seals were affixed to the knots, but this sealing, owing to the\nposition of the hands, and the careful exposition of the knots did not\naffect the slipping of the ropes sufficiently to prevent the mediums from\nremoving and replacing their hands.\n\n[Illustration: NO. 23. TRICK-TIE IN CABINET WORK.]\n\nIn the dark s\u00e9ance, flour was sometimes placed in the pinioned hands of\nthe Davenports. On being released from their bonds, the flour was found\nundisturbed.\n\nThis was considered a convincing test; for how could the Brothers possibly\nmanipulate the musical instruments with their hands full of flour. One day\na wag substituted a handful of snuff for flour, and when the mediums were\nexamined, the snuff had disappeared and flour taken its place. As will be\nunderstood, in the above test the Davenports emptied the flour from their\nhands into secret pockets and at the proper moment took out cornucopias of\nflour and filled their hands again before securing themselves in the\nfamous slip-knots.\n\nAmong the expos\u00e9s of the Brothers Davenport, Herrmann, the conjurer, gives\nthe following in the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_: \"The Davenports, for\nthirteen years, in Europe and America, augmented the faith in\nSpiritualism. Unfortunately for the Davenports they appeared at Ithaca,\nNew York, where is situated Cornell University. The students having a\nscientific trend of mind, provided themselves before attending the\nperformance with pyrotechnic balls containing phosphorus, so made as to\nignite suddenly with a bright light. During the dark s\u00e9ance when the\nDavenports were supposed to be bound hand and foot within the closet and\nwhen the guitars were apparently floating in the air, the students struck\ntheir lights, whereupon the spirits were found to be no other than the\nDavenports themselves, dodging about the stage brandishing guitars and\nplaying tunes and waving at the same time tall poles surmounted by\nphosphorescent spook pictures.\"\n\nThe Davenports had some stormy experiences in Paris, but managed to come\nthrough all successfully, with plenty of French gold in their pockets.\nWilliam died in October, 1877, at the Oxford Hotel, Sydney, Australia,\nhaving publicly denounced Spiritualism. Mr. Fay took to raising sheep in\nAustralia, while Ira Davenport drifted back to his old home in Buffalo,\nNew York.\n\nMany mediums, taking the cue from the Davenports, have performed the\ncabinet act with its accompanying rope-tying, but the conjurers\n(anti-spiritists) have, with the aid of mechanism, brought the business to\na high degree of perfection, notably Mr. J. Nevil Maskelyne, of Egyptian\nHall, London, and Mr. Harry Kellar, of the United States. Writing of the\nDavenport Brothers, Maskelyne says:\n\n\"The instantaneous tying and untying was simply marvellous, and it utterly\nbaffled everyone to discover, until, on one occasion, the accidental\nfalling of a piece of drapery from a window (the lozenge-shaped aperture\nin the door of the cabinet), at a critical moment let me into the secret.\nI was able in a few months to reproduce every item of the Davenports'\ncabinet and dark s\u00e9ance. So close was the resemblance to the original,\nthat _the Spiritualist had no alternative but to claim us_ (Maskelyne and\nCooke) _as most powerful spirit mediums who found it more profitable to\ndeny the assistance of spirits_.\"\n\nRobert-Houdin's explanation of the slip-knot, used by the Davenports in\ntheir dark s\u00e9ance, is the correct one, but he failed to fathom the mystery\nof the mode of release of the Brothers after they were tied in the cabinet\nby a committee selected from the audience. Anyone trying to extricate\nhimself from bondage _a la_ Houdin, no matter how slippery and serpentine\nhe be, would find it exceedingly difficult. It seems almost incredible,\nbut trickery was used in the light s\u00e9ance, as well as the dark. Maskelyne,\nas quoted above, claimed to have penetrated the mystery, but he kept it a\nprofound secret--though he declared that his cabinet work was trickery.\nThe writer is indebted for an initiation into the mysteries of the\nDavenport Brothers' rope-tying to Mr. H. Morgan Robinson (Professor\nHelmann), of Washington, D. C., a very clever prestidigitateur.\n\nIn the year 1895, after an unbroken silence of nineteen years, Fay,\nex-assistant of the Davenports, determined to resume the profession of\npublic medium. He abandoned his sheep ranch and hunted up Ira Davenport.\nThey gave several performances in Northern towns, and finally landed at\nthe Capital of the Nation, in the spring of 1895, and advertised several\ns\u00e9ances at Willard's Hall. A very small audience greeted them on their\nfirst appearance. Among the committee volunteering to go on the stage and\ntie the mediums were the writer and Mr. Robinson. After the s\u00e9ance the\nprestidigitateur fully explained the _modus operandi_ of the mystic tie,\nwhich is herein for the first time correctly given to the public.\n\nThe medium holds out his left wrist first and has it tied securely, about\nthe middle of the rope. Two members of the committee are directed to pull\nthe ends of the cord vigorously. \"Are you confident that the knots are\nsecurely tied?\" he asks; when the committee respond \"yes,\" he puts his\nhand quickly behind him, and places against the wrist, the wrist of his\nright hand, in order that they may be pinioned together. During this rapid\nmovement he twists the rope about the knot on his left wrist, thereby\nallowing enough slack cord to disengage his right hand when necessary. To\nslip the right hand back into place is an easy matter. After both hands\nare presumably tied, the medium steps into the cabinet; the ends of the\nrope are pushed through two holes in the chair or wooden seat, by the\ncommittee and made fast to the medium's legs. Bells ring, horns blow, and\nthe performer's hand is thrust through the window of the cabinet. Finally\na gentleman is requested to enter the cabinet with the medium. The doors\nare locked and a perfect pandemonium begins; when they are opened the\nvolunteer assistant tumbles out in great trepidation. His hat is smashed\nover his eyes, his cravat is tied around his leg, and he is found to have\non the medium's coat, while the medium wears the gentleman's coat turned\ninside out. It all appears very remarkable, but the mystery is cleared up\nwhen I state that the innocent looking gentleman is invariably a\nconfederate, what conjurers call a _plant_, because he is planted in the\naudience to volunteer for the special act.\n\nIra and William Davenport were tied in the manner above described. Often\none of the Brothers allowed himself to be genuinely pinioned, after having\nreceived a preconcerted signal from his partner that all was right, _i.\ne._, the partner had been fastened by the trick tie, calling attention to\nthe knots in the cord, etc. The trick tie, however, is so delusive, that\nit is impossible to penetrate the secret in the short time allowed the\ncommittee for investigation, and there is no special reason for permitting\na genuine tie-up. Once in a great while, the Davenports were over-reached\nby clever committee-men and tied up so tightly that there was no getting\nloose. Where one brother failed to execute the trick and was genuinely\nfastened, the other medium performed the spirit evolutions, and cut his\n\"confrere\" loose before they came out of the cabinet.\n\nThe Fay-Davenport revival proved a failure, and the mediums dissolved\npartnership in Washington. Kellar, the magician and former assistant of\nthe original Davenport combination, by a curious coincidence was giving\nhis fine conjuring exhibition in the city at the same time. His tricks far\neclipsed the feeble revival of the rope-tying phenomena. The fickle public\ncrowded to see the magician and neglected the mediums.\n\nANNIE EVA FAY.\n\nOne of the most famous of the materializing mediums now exhibiting in the\nUnited States is Annie Eva Fay. She is quite an adept at the spirit-tying\nbusiness, and like the Davenports, uses a cabinet on the stage, but her\nmethod of tying, though clever, is inferior to that used by the Brothers\nin their balmy days. In the center of the Fay cabinet (a plain, curtained\naffair) is a post firmly screwed to the stage. The medium permits a\ncommittee of two from the audience to tie her to this post, and seal the\nbandages about her wrists with court plaster. She then takes her seat upon\na small stool in front of the stanchion; the musical instruments are\nplaced on her lap, and the curtains of the cabinet closed. Immediately the\nevidences of _spirit power_ begin: the bell is jingled, the tambourine\nthumped, and the sound of a horn heard, simultaneously.\n\nThe Fay method of tying is designed especially to facilitate the medium's\nactions. Cotton bandages are used, and the committee are invited to sew\nthe knots through and through. Each wrist is tied with a bandage, about an\ninch and a half wide by a half yard in length; and the medium then clasps\nher hands behind her, so that her wrists are about six inches apart. The\ncommittee now proceed to tie the ends of the bandages firmly together,\nand, after this is accomplished, the dangling pieces of the bandages are\nclipped off. It is true, the medium is firmly bound by this process, and\nit would be physically impossible for her to release herself, without\ndisturbing the sewing and the seals, but it is not intended for her to\nrelease herself at all; the method pursued being altogether different from\nthe old species of rope-tying. All being secure, the committee are\nrequested to pass another bandage about the short ligature between the\nlady's wrists, and tie it in double square knots, and firmly secure this\nto a ring in the post of the cabinet, the medium being seated on a stool\nin front of the stanchion, facing the audience. Her neck is likewise\nsecured to the post by cotton bandages and her feet fastened together with\na cord, the end of which passes out of the cabinet and is held by one of\nthe committee.\n\nThe peculiar manner of holding the hands, described above, enables the\nmedium to secure for her use, a ligature of knotted cloth between her\nhands, some six inches long; and the central bandage, usually tied in four\nor five double knots, gives her about two inches play between the middle\nof the cotton handcuffs and the ring in the post, to which it is secured.\nThe ring is two and a half inches in diameter, and the staple which holds\nit to the stanchion is a half inch. The left hand of the medium gives six\nadditional inches, and the bandage on her wrist slips readily along her\nslender arm nearly half way to the elbow--\"all of which,\" says John W.\nTruesdell,[3] who was the first to expose Miss Fay's spirit pretensions,\n\"gives the spirits a clear leeway of not less than 20 inches from the\nstanchion. The moment the curtain is closed, the medium, under spirit\ninfluence spreads her hands as far apart as possible, an act which\nstretches the knotted ligature so that the bandage about it will easily\nslip from the centre to either wrist; then, throwing her lithe form by a\nquick movement, to the left, so that her hips will pass the stanchion\nwithout moving her feet from the floor, the spirits are able, through the\nmedium, to reach whatever may have been placed upon her lap.\"\n\nOne of Annie Eva's most convincing tests is the accordion which plays,\nafter it has been bound fast with tapes and the tapes carefully sealed at\nevery note, so as to prevent its being performed on in the regular manner.\nHer method of operating, though simple, is decidedly ingenious. She\nplaces a small tube in the valve-hole of the instrument, breathes and\nblows alternately into it, and then by fingering the keys, executes an air\nwith excellent effect.\n\nSometimes she places a musical box on an oblong plate of glass suspended\nfrom the ceiling by four cords. The box plays and stops at word of\ncommand, much to the astonishment of listeners. \"Electricity,\" exclaims\nthe reader! Hardly so, for the box is completely insulated on the sheet of\nglass. Then how is it done? Mr. Asprey Vere, an investigator of spirit\nphenomena, tells the secret in the following words: (\"Modern Magic\"). \"In\nthe box there is placed a balance lever which when the glass is in the\nslightest degree tilted, arrests the fly-fan, and thus prevents the\nmachinery from moving. At the word of command the glass is made level, and\nthe fly-fan being released, the machinery moves, and a tune is played.\nWhen commanded to stop, either side of the cord is pulled by a confederate\nbehind the scenes, the balance lever drops, the fly-fan is arrested, and\nthe music stops.\"\n\nOne of the tests presented to the American public by this medium is the\n\"spirit-hand,\" constructed of painted wood or _papier mache_, which raps\nout answers to questions, after it has been isolated from all contact by\nbeing placed on a sheet of glass supported on the backs of two chairs.\n\nIt is a trick performed by every conjurer, and the secret is a piece of\nblack silk thread, worked by confederates stationed in the wings of the\ntheatre, one at the right, the other at the left. The thread lies along\nthe stage when not in use, but at the proper cue from the medium, it is\nlifted up and brought in contact with the wooden hand. The hand is so\nconstructed that the palm lies on the glass sheet and the wrist, with a\nfancy lace cuff about it, is elevated an inch above the glass, the whole\napparatus being so pivoted that a pressure of the thread from above will\ndepress the wrist and elevate the palm. When the thread is relaxed the\nhand comes down on the glass with a thump and makes the spirit rap which\nis so effective. A rapping skull made on similar principles is also in\nvogue among mediums.\n\nCHARLES SLADE.\n\nAnnie Eva Fay has a rival in Charles Slade, who is a clever performer and\na most convincing talker. His cabinet test is the same as Miss Fay's, but\nhe has other specialties that are worth explaining--one is the\n\"table-raising,\" and another is the \"spirit neck-tie.\" The effect of the\nfirst experiment is as follows: Slade, with his arms bared and coat\nremoved, requests several gentlemen to sit around a long table, reserving\nthe head for himself. Hands are placed on the table, and developments\nawaited. \"Do you feel the table raising?\" asks the medium, after a short\npause. \"We do!\" comes the response of the sitters. Slade then rises; all\nstand up, and the table is seen suspended in the air, about a foot from\nthe floor of the stage. In a little while an uncontrollable desire seems\nto take possession of the table to rush about the stage. Frequently the\nmedium requests several persons to get on the table, but that has no\neffect whatever. The same levitation takes place. The secret of this\nsurprising mediumistic test is very simple. In the first place, the man\nwho sits at the foot of the table is a confederate. Both medium and\nconfederate wear about their waists wide leather belts, ribbed and\nstrengthened with steel bands, and supported from the shoulders by bands\nof leather and steel. In the front of each belt is a steel hinge concealed\nby the vest of the wearer. In the act of sitting down at the table the\nmedium and his confederate quickly pull the hinges which catch under the\ntop of the table when the sitters rise. The rest of the trick is easily\ncomprehended. When the levitation act is finished the hinges are folded up\nand hidden under the vests of the performers.\n\nThe \"spirit neck-tie\" is one of the best things in the whole range of\nmediumistic marvels, and has never to my knowledge been exposed. A rope is\ntied about the medium's neck with the knots at the back and the ends are\nthrust through two holes in one side of the cabinet, and tied in a bow\nknot on the outside. The holes in the cabinet must be on a level with the\nmedium's neck, after he is seated. The curtains of the cabinet are then\nclosed, and the committee requested to keep close watch on the bow-knot on\nthe outside of the cabinet. The assistant in a short time pulls back the\ncurtain from the cabinet on the side farthest from the medium, and reveals\na sheeted figure which writes messages and speaks to the spectators. Other\nmaterializations take place. The curtain is drawn. At this juncture the\nmedium is heard calling: \"Quick, quick, release me!\" The assistant\nunfastens the bow-knot, the ends of the rope are quickly drawn into the\ncabinet, and the medium comes forward, looking somewhat exhausted, with\nthe rope still tied about his neck. The question resolves itself into two\nfactors--either the medium gets loose the neck-tie and impersonates the\nspirits or the materializations are genuine. \"Gets loose! But that is\nimpossible,\" exclaim the committee, \"we watched the cord in the closest\nway.\" The secret of this surprising feat lies in a clever substitution.\nThe tie is genuine, but the medium, after the curtains of the cabinet are\nclosed, cuts the cord with a sharp knife, just about the region of the\nthroat, and impersonates the ghosts, with the aid of various wigs and\ndisguises concealed about him. Then he takes a second cord from his\npocket, ties it about his neck with the same number of knots as are in the\noriginal rope and twists the neck-tie around so that these knots will\nappear at the back of his neck. Now, he exclaims, \"Quick, quick, unfasten\nthe cord.\" As soon as his assistant has untied the simple bow knot on the\noutside of the cabinet, the medium quickly pulls the genuine rope into the\ncabinet and conceals it in his pocket.\n\nWhen he presents himself to the spectators the rope about his neck\n(presumed to be the original) is found to be correctly tied and untampered\nwith. Much of the effect depends on the rapidity with which the medium\nconceals the original cord and comes out of the cabinet. The author has\nseen this trick performed in parlors, the holes being bored in a door.\n\nCharles Slade makes a great parade in his advertisements about exposing\nthe vulgar tricks of bogus mediums, but he says nothing about the secrets\nof his own pet illusions. His expos\u00e9s are made for the purpose of\nenhancing his own mediumistic marvels.\n\nI insert a verbatim copy of the handbills with which he deluges the\nhighways and byways of American cities and towns.\n\n SLADE\n\n Will fully demonstrate the various methods employed by such renowned\n spiritualistic mediums as Alex. Hume, Mrs. Hoffmann, Prof. Taylor,\n Chas. Cooke, Richard Bishop, Dr. Arnold, and various others,\n\n IN PLAIN, OPEN LIGHT.\n\n Every possible means will be used to enlighten the auditor as to\n whether these so-called wonders are enacted through the aid of spirits\n or are the result of natural agencies.\n\n _SUCH PHENOMENA AS_\n\n Spirit Materializations,\n Marvelous Superhuman Visions,\n Spiritualistic Rappings,\n Slate Writing,\n Spirit Pictures,\n Floating Tables and Chairs,\n Remarkable Test of the Human Mind,\n Second Sight Mysteries,\n A Human Being Isolated from Surrounding Objects\n Floating in Mid-Air.\n\n Committees will be selected by the audience to assist SLADE, and to\n report their views as to the why and wherefore of the many strange\n things that will be shown during the evening. This is done so that\n every person attending may learn the truth regarding the tests,\n whether they are genuine, or caused by expert trickery.\n\n Do not class or confound SLADE with the numerous so-called spirit\n mediums and spiritual exposers that travel through the country, like a\n set of roaming vampires, seeking whom they may devour. It is SLADE'S\n object in coming to your city to enlighten the people one way or the\n other as to the real\n\n TRUTH CONCERNING THESE MYSTERIES.\n\n Scientific men, and many great men, have believed there was a grain of\n essential truth in the claims of Spiritualism. It was believed more on\n the account of the want of power to deny it than anything else. The\n idea that under some strained and indefinable possibilities the spirit\n of the mortal man may communicate with the spirit of the departed man\n is something that the great heart of humanity is prone to believe, as\n it has faith in future existence. No skeptic will deny any man's right\n to such a belief, but this little grain of hope has been the\n foundation for such extensive and heartless mediumistic frauds that it\n is constantly losing ground.\n\n A NIGHT OF\n Wonderful Manifestations\n THE VEIL DRAWN\n So that all may have an insight into the\n _SPIRIT WORLD_\n And behold many things that are\n Strange and Startling.\n\n The Clergy, the Press, Learned Synods and Councils, Sage Philosophers\n and Scientists, in fact, the whole world have proclaimed these\n Philosophical Idealisms to be an astounding\n\n FACT.\n\n YOU ARE BROUGHT\n Face to Face with the Spirits.\n\n _A SMALL ADMISSION WILL BE CHARGED TO DEFRAY EXPENSES._\n\nPIERRE L. O. A. KEELER.\n\nPierre Keeler's fame as a producer of spirit phenomena rests largely upon\nhis materializing s\u00e9ances. It was his materializations that received the\nparticular attention of the Seybert Commission. The late Mr. Henry\nSeybert, who was an ardent believer in modern Spiritualism, presented to\nthe University of Pennsylvania a sum of money to found a chair of\nphilosophy, with the proviso that the University should appoint a\ncommission to investigate \"all systems of morals, religion or philosophy\nwhich assume to represent the truth, and particularly of modern\nSpiritualism.\" The following gentlemen were accordingly appointed, and\nbegan their investigations: Dr. William Pepper, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Dr.\nGeorge A. Koenig, Prof. R. E. Thompson, Prof. George S. Fullerton, and Dr.\nHorace H. Furness. Subsequently others were added to the commission--Dr.\nColeman Sellers, Dr. James W. White, Dr. Calvin B. Kneer, and Dr. S. Weir\nMitchell. Dr. Pepper, Provost of the University, was _ex-officio_\nchairman; Dr. Furness, acting chairman, and Prof. Fullerton, secretary.\n\nKeeler's materializations are thus described in the report of the\ncommission:\n\n\"On May 27 the Seybert commission held a meeting at the house of Mr.\nFurness at 8 p. m., to examine the phenomena occurring in the presence of\nMr. Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a professional medium.\n\n\"The medium, Mr. Keeler, is a young man, with well cut features, curly\nbrown hair, a small sandy mustache, and rather worn and anxious\nexpression; he is strongly built, about 5 feet 8 inches high, and with\nrather short, quite broad, and very muscular hands and strong wrists. The\nhands were examined by Dr. Pepper and Mr. Fullerton after the s\u00e9ance.\n\n\"The s\u00e9ance was held in Mr. Furness' drawing-room, and a space was\ncurtained off by the medium in the northeast corner, thus, (Fig. 25):\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 25. PIERRE KEELER'S CABINET SEANCE.]\n\n\"The curtain is represented by A, B; C, D and E are three chairs, placed\nin front of the curtain by the medium, in one of which (E) he afterwards\nsat; G denotes the position of Mrs. Keeler; F is a small table, placed\nwithin the curtain, and upon which was a tambourine, a guitar, two bells,\na hammer, a metallic ring; the stars show the positions of the spectators,\nwho sat in a double row--the two stars at the top facing the letter A\nindicate the positions taken by Mrs. Kase and Col. Kase, friends of Mr.\nKeeler, according to the directions of the medium.\n\n\"The curtain, or rather curtains, were of black muslin, and arranged as\nfollows: There was a plain black curtain, which was stretched across the\ncorner, falling to the floor. Its height, when in position, was 53 inches;\nit was made thus:\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 26. PIERRE KEELER'S CABINET CURTAIN.]\n\n\"The cord which held the curtain was 1, 2, and the flaps which are\nrepresented as standing above it (A, B, C, etc.), fell down over A1, B1,\nC1, etc., and could be made to cover the shoulders of one sitting with his\nback against the curtain. A black curtain was also pinned against the\nwall, in the space curtained off, partly covering it. Another curtain was\nadded to the one pictured, as will be described presently.\n\n\"The medium asked Col. Kase to say a few words as to the necessity of\nobserving the conditions, need of harmony, etc. And then the medium\nhimself spoke a few words of similar import. He then drew the curtain\nalong the cord (1, 2,) and fastened it; placed three wooden chairs in\nfront of the curtain, as indicated in the diagram, and, saying he needed\nto form a battery, asked Miss Agnes Irwin to sit in chair D, and Mr. Yost\nin chair C, the medium himself sitting in chair E. A black curtain was\nthen fastened by Mrs. Keeler over Mr. Keeler, Miss Irwin and Mr. Yost,\nbeing fastened at G, between E and D, between D and C, and beyond A; thus\nentirely covering the three sitting in front of the stretched curtain up\nto their necks; and when the flaps before mentioned were pulled down over\ntheir shoulders, nothing could be seen but the head of each.\n\n\"Before the last curtain was fastened over them, the medium placed both\nhis hands upon the forearm and wrist of Miss Irwin, the sleeve being\npulled up for the purpose, and Miss Irwin grasped with her right hand the\nleft wrist of Mr. Yost, his right hand being in sight to the right of the\ncurtain.\n\n\"After some piano music the medium said he felt no power from this\n'battery,' and asked Mrs. E. D. Gillespie to take Miss Irwin's place.\nHands and curtains were arranged as before. The lights were turned down\nuntil the room was quite dim. During the singing the medium turned to\nspeak to Mr. Yost, and his body, which had before faced rather away from\nthe two other persons of the 'battery' (which position would have brought\nhis right arm out in front of the stretched curtain), was now turned the\nother way, so that had he released his grasp upon Mrs. Gillespie's arm,\nhis own right arm could have had free play in the curtained space behind\nhim. His left knee also no longer stood out under the curtain in front,\nbut showed a change of position.\n\n\"At this time Mrs. Gillespie declared she felt a touch, and soon after so\ndid Mr. Yost. The medium's body was distinctly inclined toward Mr. Yost at\nthis time. Mrs. Gillespie said she felt taps, but declared that, to the\nbest of her knowledge, she still felt the medium's two hands upon her arm.\n\n\"Raps indicated that the spirit, George Christy, was present. As one of\nthose present played on the piano, the tambourine was played in the\ncurtained space and thrown over the curtain; bells were rung; the guitar\nwas thrummed a little. At this time the medium's face was toward Mrs.\nGillespie, and his right side toward the curtain. His body was further in\nagainst the curtain than either of the others. Upon being asked, Mrs.\nGillespie then said she thought she still felt two hands upon her arm.\n\n\"The guitar was then thrust out, at least the end of it was, at the bottom\nof the curtain, between Mrs. Gillespie and the medium. Mrs. Keeler drawing\nthe curtain from over the toes of the medium's boots, to show where his\nfeet were; the guitar was thrummed a little. Had the medium's right arm\nbeen free the thrumming could have been done quite easily with one hand.\nAfterward the guitar was elevated above the curtain; the tambourine, which\nwas by Mrs. Keeler placed upon a stick held up within the inclosure, was\nmade to whirl by the motion of the stick. The phenomena occurred\nsuccessively, not simultaneously.\n\n\"When the guitar was held up, and when the tambourine was made to whirl,\nboth of these were to the right of the medium, chiefly behind Mrs.\nGillespie; they were just where they might have been produced by the right\narm of the medium, had it been free. Two clothes-pins were then passed\nover the curtain, and they were used in drumming to piano music. They\ncould easily be used in drumming by one hand alone, the fingers being\nthrust into them. The pins were afterward thrown out over the curtain. Mr.\nSellers picked one up as soon as it fell, and found it warm in the split,\nas though it had been worn. The drumming was probably upon the tambourine.\n\n\"A hand was seen moving rapidly with a trembling motion--which prevented\nit from being clearly observed--above the back curtain, between Mr. Yost\nand Mrs. Gillespie. Paper was passed over the curtain into the cabinet and\nnotes were soon thrown out. The notes could have been written upon the\nsmall table within the enclosure by the right hand of the medium, had it\nbeen free. Mrs. Keeler then passed a coat over the curtain, and an arm\nwas passed through the sleeve, the fingers, with the cuff around them\nbeing shown over the curtain. They were kept moving, and a close scrutiny\nwas not possible.\n\n\"Mr. Furness was then invited to hold a writing tablet in front of the\ncurtain, when the hand, almost concealed by the coat-sleeve and the flaps\nmentioned as attached to the curtain, wrote with a pencil on the tablet.\nThe writing was rapid, and the hand, when not writing, was kept in\nconstant, tremulous motion. The hand was put forth, in this case not over\nthe top curtain, but came from under the flap, and could easily have been\nthe medium's right hand were it disengaged, for it was about on a level\nwith his shoulder and to his right, between him and Mrs. Gillespie. Mr.\nFurness was allowed to pass his hand close to the curtain and grasp the\nhand for a moment. It was a right hand.\n\n\"Soon after the medium complained of fatigue, and the sitting was\ndiscontinued. It was declared by the Spiritualists present to be a fairly\nsuccessful s\u00e9ance. When the curtains were removed the small table in the\nenclosure was found to be overturned, and the bells, hammer, etc., on the\nfloor.\n\n\"It is interesting to note the space within which all the manifestations\noccurred. They were, without exception, where they would have been had\nthey been produced by the medium's right arm. Nothing happened to the left\nof the medium, nor very far over to the right. The sphere of activity was\nbetween the medium and Mr. Yost, and most of the phenomena occurred, as,\nfor example, the whirling of the tambourine, behind Mrs. Gillespie.\n\n\"The front curtain--that is, the main curtain which hung across the\ncorner--was 85 inches in length, and the cord which supported it 53 inches\nfrom the floor. The three chairs which were placed in front of it were\nside by side, and it would not have been difficult for the medium to reach\nacross and touch Mr. Yost. When Mrs. Keeler passed objects over the\ncurtain, she invariably passed them to the right of the medium, although\nher position was on his left; and the clothes-pins, paper, pencil, etc.,\nwere all passed over at a point where the medium's right hand could easily\nhave reached them.\n\n\"To have produced the phenomena by using his right hand the medium would\nhave had to pass it under the curtain at his back. This curtain was not\nquite hidden by the front one at the end, near the medium, and this end\nboth Mr. Sellers and Dr. Pepper saw rise at the beginning of the s\u00e9ance.\nThe only thing worthy of consideration, as opposed to a natural\nexplanation of the phenomena, was the grasp of the medium's hand on Mrs.\nGillespie's arm.\n\n\"The grasp was evidently a tight one above the wrist, for the arm was\nbruised for about four inches. There was no evidence of a similar pressure\nabove that, as the marks on the arm extended in all about five or six\ninches only. The pressure was sufficient to destroy the sensibility of the\nforearm, and it is doubtful whether Mrs. Gillespie, with her arm in such a\ncondition could distinguish between the grasp of one hand, with a divided\npressure (applied by the two last fingers and the thumb and index) and a\ndouble grip by two hands. Three of our number, Mr. Sellers, Mr. Furness,\nand Dr. White, can, with one hand, perfectly simulate the double grip.\n\n\"It is specially worthy of note that Mrs. Gillespie declared that, when\nthe medium first laid hold of her arms with his right hand before the\ncurtain was put over them, it was with an undergrip, and she felt his\nright arm under her left. But when the medium asked her if she felt both\nhis hands upon her arm, and she said, yes, she could feel the grasp, but\nno arm under hers, though she moved her elbow around to find it--she felt\na hand, but not an arm, and at no time during the s\u00e9ance did she find that\narm.\n\n\"It should be noted that both the medium and Mr. Yost took off their coats\nbefore being covered with the curtain. It was suggested by Dr. Pepper that\nthis might have been required by the medium as a precaution against\nmovements on the part of Mr. Yost. The white shirt-sleeves would have\nshown against the black background.\"\n\nI attended a number of Keeler's materializing exhibitions in Washington,\nD. C., in the spring of 1895, and it is my opinion that the writing of his\nso-called spirit messages is a simple affair, the very long and elaborate\nones being written before the s\u00e9ance begins and the short ones by the\nmedium during the sitting. The latter are done in a scrawling, uncertain\nhand, just such penmanship one would execute when blindfolded.\n\nThe evidence of Dr. G. H. La Fetra, of Washington, D. C., is sufficiently\nconvincing on this point. Said Dr. La Fetra to me: \"Some years ago I went\nwith a friend, Col. Edward Hayes, to one of Mr. Keeler's light s\u00e9ances.\nIt was rather early in the evening, and but few persons had assembled.\nUpon the mantel piece of the s\u00e9ance-room were several tablets of paper.\nUnobserved, I took up these tablets, one at a time, and drew the blade of\nmy pen-knife across one end of each of them, so that I might identify the\nslips of paper torn therefrom by the nicks in them. In a little while, the\nroom was filled with people, and the s\u00e9ance began; the gas being lowered\nto a dim religious light. When the time came for the writing, Mr. Keeler\nrequested that some of the tablets of paper on the mantel be passed into\nthe cabinet. This was done. Various persons present received 'spirit'\ncommunications, the slips of paper being thrown over the curtain of the\ncabinet by a 'materialized' hand. Some gentleman picked up the papers and\nread them, for the benefit of the spectators; afterwards he laid aside\nthose not claimed by anybody. Some of these 'spirit' communications\ncovered almost an entire slip. These were carefully written, some of them\nin a fine hand. The short messages were roughly scrawled. After the\ns\u00e9ance, Col. Hayes and myself quietly pocketed a dozen or more of the\nslips. The next morning at my office we carefully examined them. In every\ninstance, we found that the well-written, lengthy messages were inscribed\non _unnicked_ slips, the short ones being written on _nicked_ slips.\"\n\nTo me, this evidence of Dr. La Fetra seems most conclusive, proving beyond\nthe shadow of a doubt that Keeler prepared his long communications before\nthe s\u00e9ance and had them concealed upon his person, throwing them out of\nthe cabinet at the proper moment. He used the _nicked_ tablets for his\nshort messages, written on the spot, thereby completely revealing his\nmethod of operating to the ingenious investigator.\n\nThe late Dr. Leonard Caughey, of Baltimore, Maryland, an intimate friend\nof the writer, made a specialty of anti-Spiritualistic tricks, and among\nothers performed this cabinet test of Keeler's. He bought the secret from\na broken-down medium for a few dollars, and added to it certain effects of\nhis own, that far surpassed any of Keeler's. The writer has seen Dr.\nCaughey give the tests, and create the utmost astonishment. His\nimprovement on the trick consisted in the use of a spring clasp like those\nused by gentlemen bicycle riders to keep their trousers in at the ankles.\nOne end terminated in a soft rubber or chamois skin tip, shaped like a\nthumb, the other end had four representations of fingers. Two wire rings\nwere soldered on the back of the clasp. This apparatus he had concealed\nunder his vest. Before the curtain of the cabinet was drawn, Dr. Caughey\ngrasped the arm of the lady on his right in the following manner: The\nthumb of his left hand under her wrist, the fingers extended above it; the\nthumb of his right hand resting on the thumb of the left, the fingers\nlightly resting on the fingers of the left hand. As soon as the curtain\nwas fastened he extended the fourth and index fingers of the left hand to\nthe fullest extent and pressed hard upon the lady's arm, relaxing at the\nsame time the pressure of his second and third fingers. This movement\nexactly simulates the grasp of two hands, and enables the medium to take\naway his right hand altogether. Dr. Caughey then took his spring clasp,\nopened it by inserting his thumb and first finger in the soldered rings\nabove mentioned, and lightly fastened it on the lady's arm near the wrist,\nrelaxing the pressure of the first and fourth fingers of the left hand at\nthe same moment. \"I will slide my right hand along your arm, and grasp you\nnear the elbow. It will relieve the pressure about your wrist; besides be\nmore convincing to you that there is no trickery.\" So saying, he quickly\nslid the apparatus along her arm, and left it in the position spoken of.\nThis produces a perfect illusion, the clasp with its trick thumb and\nfingers working to perfection.\n\nThis apparatus may also be used in the following manner: Roll up your\nsleeves and exhibit your hands to the sitter. Tell him you are going to\nstand behind him and grasp his arms firmly near the shoulders. Take your\nposition immediately under the gas jet. Ask him to please lower the light.\nProduce the trick clasps, distend them by means of your thumbs and\nfingers, and after the gas is lowered, grasp the sitter in the manner\ndescribed. Remove your fingers and thumbs lightly from the clasps and\nperform various mediumistic evolutions, such as writing a message on a pad\nor slate placed on the sitter's head; strike him gently on his cheek with\na damp glove, etc. When the s\u00e9ance is over, insert your fingers and thumbs\nin the soldered rings, remove the clasps and conceal them quickly.\n\nEUSAPIA PALADINO.\n\nThe materializing medium who has caused the greatest sensation since\nHome's death is Eusapia Paladino, an Italian peasant woman. Signor\nDamiani, of Florence, Italy, discovered her alleged psychical powers in\n1875, and brought her into notice. An Italian Count was so impressed with\nthe manifestations witnessed in the presence of the illiterate peasant\nwoman, that he insisted upon \"a commission of scientific men being called\nto investigate them.\" In the year 1884, this commission held s\u00e9ances with\nEusapia, and afterwards declared that the phenomena witnessed were\ninexplicable, and unquestionably the result of forces transcending\nordinary experience. In the year 1892 another commission was formed in\nMilan to test Eusapia's powers as a medium, and from this period her fame\ndates, as the most remarkable psychic of modern times. The report drawn up\nby this commission was signed by Giovanni Schiaparelli, director of the\nAstronomical Observatory, Milan; Carl du Prel, doctor of philosophy,\nMunich; Angelo Brofferio, professor of physics in the Royal School of\nAgriculture, Portici; G. B. Ermacora, doctor of physics; Giorgio Finzi,\ndoctor of physics. At some of the sittings were present Charles Richet and\nthe famous Cesare Lombroso. The conclusion arrived at by these gentlemen\nwas that Eusapia's mediumistic phenomena were most worthy of scientific\nattention, and were unfathomable. The medium reaped the benefit of this\nnotoriety, and gave sittings to hundreds of investigators among the\nItalian nobility, charging as high as $500 for a single s\u00e9ance. At last\nshe was exposed by a clever American, Dr. Richard Hodgson, of Boston,\nsecretary of the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research.\nHis account of the affair, communicated to the _New York Herald_, Jan.\n10, 1897, is very interesting. Speaking of the report of the Milan\ncommission, he says:\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 27. EUSAPIA PALADINO.]\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 28. EUSAPIA BEFORE THE SCIENTISTS.]\n\n\"Their report confessed to seeing and hearing many strange things,\nalthough they believed they had the hands and feet of the psychic so\nclosely held that she could have had nothing to do with the\nmanifestations.\n\n\"Chairs were moved, bells were rung, imprints of fingers were made on\nsmoked paper and soft clay, apparitions of hands appeared on slightly\nluminous backgrounds, the chair of the medium and the medium herself were\nlifted to the table, the sound of trumpets, the contact of a seemingly\nhuman face, the touch of human hands, warm and moist, all were felt.\n\n\"Most of these phenomena were repeated, and the members of the commission\nwere, with two exceptions, satisfied that no known power could have\nproduced them. Professor Richet did not sign the report, but induced\nSignora Eusapia to go to an island he owned in the Mediterranean, where\nother exacting tests were made under other scientific eyes. The\ninvestigators all agreed that the demonstrations could not be accounted\nfor by ordinary forces.\n\n\"I have found in my experience that learned scientific men are the most\neasily duped of any in the world. Instead of having a cold, inert piece of\nmatter to investigate by exact processes and microscopic inspections, they\nhad a clever, bright woman doing her best to mystify them. They could not\ncope with her.\n\n\"Professor Richet replied to an article I wrote, upholding his position,\nand brought Signora Eusapia Paladino to Cambridge, England, where I joined\nthe investigating committee. In the party were Professor Lodge, of\nLiverpool; Professor F. M. C. Meyer, secretary of the British Society for\nPsychical Research; Professor Richet and Mr. Henry Sedgwick, president of\nthe society.\n\n\"I found that the psychic, though giving a great variety of events,\nconfined them to a very limited scope. She was seated during the tests at\nthe end of a rectangular table and when the table was lifted it rose up\ndirectly at the other end. It was always so arranged that she was in the\ndark, even if the rest of the table was in the light; in the so-called\nlight s\u00e9ances it was not light, the lamp being placed in an adjoining\nroom. There were touches, punches and blows given, minor objects moved,\nsome near and some further away; the outline of faces and hands appeared,\netc.\n\n\"When I came to hold her hands I found a key to the mystery.\n\n\"It was chiefly that she made one hand and one foot do the work of both,\nby adroit substitution. Given a free hand and a free foot, and nearly all\nthe phenomena can be explained. She has very strong, supple hands, with\ndeft fingers and great coolness and intelligence.\n\n\"This is the way she substituted one hand for both. She placed one of her\nhands over A's hand and the other under B's hand. Then, in the movements\nof the arms during the manifestation, she worked her hands toward each\nother until they rested one upon the other, with A's hand at the bottom of\nthe pile, B's at the top and both her own, one upon the other, between. To\ndraw out one hand and leave one and yet have the investigators feel that\nthey still had a hand was easy.\n\n\"With this hand free and in darkness there were great possibilities. There\nwere strings, also, as I believe, which were attached to different objects\nand moved them. The dim outlines of faces and hands seen were clever\nrepresentations of the medium's own free hand in various shapes.\n\n\"It is thought that if a medium was kept clapping her hands she could do\nnothing with them, but one of the investigators found the Signora slapping\nher face with one hand, producing just the same sound as if her hands met,\nwhile the other hand was free to produce mysterious phenomena.\n\n\"I have tried the experiment of shifting hands when those who held them\nknew they were going to be tricked, and yet they did not discover when I\nmade the exchange. I am thoroughly satisfied that Signora Eusapia Paladino\nis a clever trickster.\"\n\nEusapia Paladino was by no means disconcerted by Dr. Hodgson's expos\u00e9, but\ncontinued giving her s\u00e9ances. At the present writing she is continuing\nthem in France with a number of new illusions. Many who have had sittings\nwith her declare that she is able to move heavy objects without contact.\nPossibly this is due to jugglery, or it may be due to some psychic force\nas yet not understood.\n\nF. W. TABOR.\n\nMr. F. W. Tabor is a materializing medium whose specialty is the trumpet\ntest for the production of spirit voices. I had a sitting with him at the\nhouse of Mr. X, of Washington, D. C., on the night of Jan. 10, 1897. Seven\npersons, including the medium, sat around an ordinary-sized table in Mr.\nX--'s drawing room, and formed a chain of hands, in the following manner:\nEach person placed his or her hands on the table with the thumbs crossed,\nand the little fingers of each hand touching the little fingers of the\nsitters on the right and left. A musical box was set going and the light\nwas turned out by Mr. X--, who broke the circle for that purpose, but\nimmediately resumed his old position at the table. A large speaking\ntrumpet of tin about three feet long had been placed upright in the center\nof the table, and near it was a pad of paper, and pencils. We waited\npatiently for some little time, the monotony being relieved by operatic\nairs from the music box, and the singing of hymns by the sitters. There\nwere convulsive twitchings of the hands and feet of the medium, who\ncomplained of tingling sensations in those members. The first \"phenomena\"\nproduced were balls of light dancing like will-o'-the-wisps over the\ntable, and the materialization of a luminous spirit hand. Taps upon the\ntable signalled the arrival of Mr. Tabor's spirit control, \"Jim,\" a little\nnewsboy, of San Francisco, who was run over some years ago by a street\ncar. The medium was the first person who picked up the wounded waif and\nendeavored to administer to him, but without avail. \"Jim\" died soon after,\nand his disembodied spirit became the medium's control. Soon the trumpet\narose from the table and floated over the heads of the sitters, and the\nvoice of \"Jim\" was heard, sepulchral and awe-inspiring, through the\ninstrument. Subsequently, messages of an impersonal character were\ncommunicated to Mr. X-- and his wife. At one time the trumpet was heard\nknocking against the chandelier. During the s\u00e9ance several of the ladies\nexperienced the clasp of a ghostly hand about their wrists, and\nconsiderable excitement was occasioned thereby.\n\nIt is not a difficult matter to explain this trumpet test. It hinges on\none fact, _freedom of the medium's right hand_! In all of these holding\ntests, the medium employs a subterfuge to release his hands without the\nknowledge of the sitter on his right. During his convulsive twitchings, he\nquickly jerks his right hand away, but immediately extends the fingers of\nhis left hand, and connects the index fingers with the little finger of\nthe sitter's left hand, thereby completing the chain, or \"battery,\" as it\nis technically called. Were the medium to use his thumb in making the\nconnection the secret would be revealed, but the index finger of his left\nhand sufficiently simulates a little finger, and in the darkness the\nsitter is deceived. The right hand once released, the medium manipulates\nthe trumpet and the phosphorescent spirit hands to his heart's content.\nSometimes he utilizes the telescopic rod, or a pair of steel \"crazy\ntongs,\" to elevate the trumpet to the ceiling. This holding test is\nabsurdly simple and perhaps for that reason is so convincing.\n\nMr. Tabor has another method of holding which is far more deceptive than\nthe above. I am indebted to the \"Revelations of a Spirit Medium\" for an\nexplanation of this test. \"The investigators are seated in a circle around\nthe table, male and female alternating. The person sitting on the medium's\nright--for he sits in the circle--grasps the medium's right wrist in his\nleft hand, while his own right wrist is held by the sitter on his right\nand this is repeated clear around the circle. This makes each sitter hold\nthe right wrist of his left hand neighbor in his left hand, while his own\nright hand wrist is held in the left hand of his neighbor on the left.\nEach one's hands are thus secured and engaged, including the medium's. It\nwill be seen that no one of the sitters can have the use of his or her\nhands without one or the other of their neighbors knowing it. As each hand\nwas held by a separate person, you cannot understand how he [the medium]\ncould get the use of either of them except the one on his right was a\nconfederate. Such was not the case, and still he _did_ have the use of one\nhand, the right one. But how? He took his place before the light was\nturned down, and those holding him say he did not let go for an instant\nduring the s\u00e9ance. He did though, after the light was turned out for the\npurpose of getting his handkerchief to blow his nose. After blowing his\nnose he requested the sitter to again take his wrist, which is done, but\nthis time it is the wrist of the left hand instead of the right. He has\ncrossed his legs and there is but one knee to be felt, hence the sitter on\nthe right does not feel that she is reaching across the right knee and\nthinks it is the left knee which she does feel to be the right. He has let\nhis hand slip down until instead of holding the sitter on his left by the\nwrist he has him by the fingers, thus allowing him a little more\ndistance, and preventing the left hand sitter using the hand to feel about\nand discover the right hand sitter's hand on the wrist of the hand holding\nhis. You will see, now, that although both sitters are holding the same\nhand each one thinks he is holding the one on his or her side of the\nmedium. The balance of the s\u00e9ance is easy.\"\n\nAn amusing incident happened during my sitting with Mr. Tabor. Growing\nsomewhat weary waiting for him to \"manifest,\" I determined to undertake\nsome materializations on my own account. I adopted the subterfuge of\ngetting my right hand loose from the lady on my right, and produced the\nspirit hand that clasped the wrist of several of the sitters in the\ncircle. Mr. X-- asked \"Jim\" if everything was all right in the circle,\nevery hand promptly joined, and the magnetic conditions perfect. \"Jim\"\nresponded with three affirmative taps on the table top. I congratulate\nmyself on having deceived \"Jim,\" a spirit operating in the fourth\ndimension of space, and supposedly cognizant of all that was transpiring\nat the s\u00e9ance. Once, when the medium was floating the trumpet over my\nhead, I grasped the instrument and dashed it on the table. He made no\nfurther attempt to manipulate the trumpet in my direction, and very\nshortly brought the s\u00e9ance to a close. No written communications were\nreceived during the evening.\n\n\n4. Spirit Photography.\n\nYou may deceive the human eye, say the advocates of spirit\nmaterializations, but you cannot deceive the eye of science, the\n_photographic camera_. Then they triumphantly produce the spirit\nphotograph as indubitable evidence of the reality of ghostly\nmaterializations. \"Spirit photography,\" says the late Alexandre Herrmann,\nin an article on magic, published in the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, \"was the\ninvention of a man in London, and for ten years Spiritualists accepted the\npictures as genuine representations of originals in the spirit land. The\nsnap kodak has superseded the necessity of the explanation of spirit\nphotography.\"\n\nTo be more explicit, there are two ways of producing spirit photographs,\nby _double printing_ and by _double exposure_. In the first, the scene is\nprinted from one negative, and the spirit printed in from another. In the\nsecond method, the group with the friendly spook in proper position is\narranged, and the lens of the camera uncovered, half of the required\nexposure being given; then the lens is capped, and the person doing duty\nas the sheeted ghost gets out of sight, and the exposure is completed. The\nresult is very effective when the picture is printed, the real persons\nbeing represented sharp and well defined, while the ghost is but a hazy\noutline, transparent, through which the background shows.\n\nEvery one interested in psychic phenomena who makes a pilgrimage to the\nCapital of the Nation visits the house of Dr. Theodore Hansmann. For ten\nyears Dr. Hansmann has been an ardent student of Spiritualism, and has had\nsittings with many celebrated mediums. The walls of his office are\nliterally covered with spirit pictures of famous people of history,\nexecuted by spirits under supposed test conditions. There are drawings in\ncolor by Raphael, Michel Angelo, and others. In one corner of the room is\na book-case filled with slates, upon the surfaces of which are messages\nfrom the famous dead, attested by their signatures.\n\nIn the fall of 1895, a correspondent of the _New York Herald_ interviewed\nDoctor Hansmann on the subject of spirit photographs, and subsequently\nvisited the United States Bureau of Ethnology, where an interview was had\nwith Mr. Dinwiddie, an expert photographer. Here is the substance of this\nsecond interview, published in the _Herald_, Nov. 9, 1895.\n\n\"Dr. Hansmann's collection of 'spirit' photographs is most interesting.\nThere is one with the face of the Empress Josephine, and on the same plate\nis the head of Professor Darius Lyman, for a long time Chief of the Bureau\nof Navigation. The head of the Empress Josephine has a diadem around it,\nand the lights and shadows remind one of the well known portrait of her.\nOn another plate are Grant and Lincoln, Among his other photographs Dr.\nHansmann brought out one of a man who was described to me as an Indian\nagent. Around his head were eleven smaller 'spirit' heads of Indians. In\nlooking at the blue print closely it seemed to me as if I had seen those\nidentical heads--the same as to light, shade and posing--somewhere before.\n\n\"I was aided at the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution by\nMr. F. Webb Hodge, the acting director, who on looking at the blue print\nnamed the Indians directly; several of the pictures were of Indians still\nalive. This, of course, immediately disposed of the idea of the blue\nprint Indians being spirits.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 29--SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.\n\n[Taken by the Author.]]\n\n\"Moreover, Mr. Dinwiddie produced the negatives containing the identical\nportraits of these Indians and made me several proofs, which on a\ncomparison, feature by feature, light for light, and shade for shade, show\nunquestionably that the faces on the blue print are copies of the\nportraits made by the photographer of the Bureau of Ethnology.\n\n\"Mr. Dinwiddie asked me to sit down for awhile, and offered to make me\nsome spirit photographs. This he did, and the results obtained may be\nconsidered as far better examples of the art of 'spirit' photography than\nthose of the medium, Keeler.\n\n\"The matter was very simply done. Mr. Dinwiddie asked one of the ladies\nfrom the office to come in, and, she consented to pose as a spirit. She\nwas placed before the camera at a distance of about six feet, a red\nbackground was given her, so that it might photograph dark, and she was\nasked to put on a saintly expression. This she did, and Mr. Dinwiddie gave\nthe plate a half-second exposure. Another head was taken on the other side\nof the plate in much the same manner. After this was done the other or\ncentral photograph was taken with an exposure of four seconds, the plate\nbeing rather sensitive.\n\n\"The plate was then taken to the dark room and developed. The negative\ncame out very well at first, and the halo was put on afterward, when the\nplate had been dried. The halo was made by rubbing vignetting paste on the\nback, thus shutting out the light and leaving the paper its original hue.\nThe white shadowy heads which are frequently shown in black coats, and\nwhich the mediums claim cannot be explained, are also done in this manner\nwith vignetting paste, the picture being afterward centred over these\nplaces, which will be white, the final result showing soft and indefinite,\nand giving the required spiritual look.\n\n\"Mr. Dinwiddie did not attempt to produce the hazy effect, but this is\nvery easily accomplished in the photograph by taking the spirit heads a\ntrifle out of focus. He claims that all of these apparent spiritual\nmanifestations are but tricks of photography, and ones which might be\naccomplished by the veriest tyro, if he were to study the matter, and give\nhis time to the experiment. It is only a wonder that the mediums do not do\nmore of it.\n\n\"The photograph mediums have always claimed that they were set upon by\nphotographers for business reasons, but Mr. Dinwiddie is employed by the\ngovernment and has no interests whatever in such a dispute.\"\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 30--SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH BY PRETENDED MEDIUM.]\n\nThe eminent authority on photography, Mr. Walter E. Woodbury, gives many\ninteresting exposes of mediumistic photographs in his work, \"Photographic\nAmusements,\" which the student of the subject would do well to consult.\nFig. 30, taken from \"Photographic Amusements\" is a reproduction of a\n\"spirit\" photograph made by a photographer claiming to be a medium. Says\nMr. Woodbury: \"Fortunately, however, we were in this case able to expose\nthe fraud. Mr. W. M. Murray, a prominent member of the Society of Amateur\nPhotographers of New York, called our attention to the similarity between\none of the 'spirit' images and a portrait painting by Sichel, the artist.\nA reproduction of the picture (Fig 31) is given herewith, and it will be\nseen at once that the 'spirit' image is copied from it.\"\n\n\n5. Thought Photography.\n\nDuring the year 1896 considerable stir was created by the investigation of\nDr. Hippolyte Baraduc, of Paris, in the line of \"Thought Photography,\"\nwhich is of interest to psychic investigators generally. Dr. Baraduc\nclaimed to have gotten photographic impressions of his thoughts, \"made\nwithout sunlight or electricity or contact of any material kind.\" These\nimpressions he declared to be subjective, being his own personal\nvibrations, the result of a force emanating from the human personality,\nsupra-mechanical, or spiritual. The experiments were carried on in a dark\nroom, and according to his statement were highly successful. In a\ncommunication to an American correspondent, printed in the _New York\nHerald_, January 3, 1897, he writes: \"I have discovered a human, invisible\nlight, differing altogether from the cathode rays discovered by Prof.\nRoentgen.\" Dr. Baraduc advanced the theory that our souls must be\nconsidered as centers of luminous forces, owing their existence partly to\nthe attraction and partly to the repulsion of special and potent forces\nbred of the invisible cosmos.\n\nA number of French scientific journals took up the matter, and discussed\n\"Thought Photography\" at length, publishing numerous reproductions of the\nphysician's photographs; but the more conservative journals of England,\nGermany and America remained silent on the subject, as it seemed to be on\nthe borderland between science and charlatanry. On January 11, 1897,\nthe American newspapers contained an item to the effect that Drs. S.\nMillington Miller and Carleton Simon, of New York City, the former a\nspecialist in brain physiology, and the latter an expert hypnotist, had\nsucceeded in obtaining successful thought photographs on dry plates from\ntwo hypnotized subjects. When the subjects were not hypnotized, the\nphysicians reported no results.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 31--SIGEL'S ORIGINAL PICTURE OF FIG 30.]\n\nAs \"Thought Photography\" is without the pale of known physical laws,\nstronger evidence is needed to support the claims made for it than that\nwhich has been adduced by the French and American investigators. \"Thought\nPhotography\" once established as a scientific fact, we shall have,\nperhaps, an explanation of genuine spirit photographs, if such there be.\n\n\n6. Apparitions of the Dead.\n\nIn my chapter on subjective phenomena, I have not recorded any cases of\nphantasms of the dead, though several interesting examples of such have\ncome under my notice. I have thought it better to refer the reader to the\nvoluminous reports of the Society for Psychical Research (England). In\nregard to these cases, the Society has reached the following conclusion:\n_Between deaths and apparitions of dying persons a connection exists which\nis not due to chance alone. This we hold as a proved fact._\n\nThe \"_Literary Digest_,\" January 12, 1895, in reviewing this report, says:\n\"Inquiries were instituted in 17,000 cases of alleged apparitions. These\ninquiries elicited 1,249 replies from persons [in England and Wales] who\naffirmed that they themselves had seen the apparitions. Then the Society\nby further inquiries and cross-examinations sifted out all but eighty of\nthese as discredited in some way, by error of memory or illusions of\nidentity, or for some other reason, or which could be accounted for by\ncommon psychical laws. Of these eighty, fifty more were thrown out, to be\non the safe side, and the remaining thirty are used as a basis for\nscientific consideration. All these consisted of apparitions of dead\npersons appearing to others within twelve hours after death, and many of\nthem appearing at the very hour and even the very minute of death. The\nfull account of the investigation is published in the tenth volume of the\nSociety's Reports, under the title, 'A Census of Hallucinations,' and\nProf. J. H. Hyslop, of Columbia College, wrote an article giving the gist\nof the report and his comments in the '_Independent_,' (December 27,\n1895), from which I cull these few notable paragraphs:\n\n\"'The committee which conducted the research reasons as follows: Since the\ndeath rate of England is 19.15 out of every thousand, the chances of any\nperson's dying on any particular day are one in 19,000 (the ratio of 19.15\nto 365 times 1,000). Out of 19,000 death apparitions, therefore, one can\nbe explained as a simple coincidence. But thirty apparitions out of 1,300\ncases is in the proportion of 440 out of 19,000, so that to refer these\nthirty well-authenticated apparitions to coincidence is deemed\nimpossible.'\n\n\"And further on:\n\n\"'This is remarkable language for the signatures of Prof. and Mrs.\nSidgwick, than whom few harder-headed skeptics could be found. It is more\nthan borne out, however, by a consideration which the committee does not\nmention, but which the facts entirely justify, and it is that since many\nof the apparitions occurred not merely on the day, but at the very hour or\nminute of death, the improbability of their explanation by chance is\nreally much greater than the figures here given. That the apparition\nshould occur within the hour of death the chance should be 1 to 356,000,\nor at the minute of death 1 to 21,360,000. To get 30 cases, therefore,\nbrought down to these limits we should have to collect thirty times these\nnumbers of apparitions. Either these statistics are of no value in a study\nof this kind, or the Society's claim is made out that there is either a\ntelepathic communication between the dying and those who see their\napparitions, or some causal connection not yet defined or determined by\nscience. That this connection may be due to favorable conditions in the\nsubject of the hallucination is admitted by the committee, if the person\nhaving the apparition is suffering from grief or anxiety about the person\nconcerned. But it has two replies to such a criticism. The first is the\nquery how and why under the circumstances does this effect coincide\ngenerally with the death of the person concerned, when anxiety is extended\nover a considerable period. The second is a still more triumphant reply,\nand it is that a large number of the cases show that the subject of the\napparition has no knowledge of the dying person's sickness, place, or\ncondition. In that case there is no alternative to searching elsewhere for\nthe cause. If telepathy or thought transference will not explain the\nconnection, resort must be had to some most extraordinary hypothesis. Most\npersons will probably accept telepathy as the easiest way out of the\ndifficulty, though I am not sure that we are limited to this, the easiest\nexplanation.'\n\n\"Professor Hyslop then proceeds to consider the effect of the committee's\nconclusion upon existing theories and speculations regarding the relations\nbetween mind and matter, and foresees with gratification as well as\napprehension the revolt likely to be initiated against materialism and\nwhich may go so far as to discredit science and carry us far back to the\ncredulous conditions of the Middle Ages. He says:\n\n\"'The point which the investigations of the Society for Psychical Research\nhave already reached creates a question of transcendent interest, no\nmatter what the solution of it may be, and will stimulate in the near\nfuture an amount of psychological and theological speculation of the most\nhasty and crude sort, which it will require the profoundest knowledge of\nmental phenomena, normal and abnormal, and the best methods of science to\ncounteract, and to keep within the limits of sober reason. The hardly won\nconquests of intellectual freedom and self-control can easily be\noverthrown by a reaction that will know no bounds and which it will be\nimpossible to regulate. Though there may be some moral gain from the\nchange of beliefs, as will no doubt be the case in the long run, we have\ntoo recently escaped the intellectual, religious, and political tyranny of\nthe Middle Ages to contemplate the immediate consequences of the reaction\nwith any complacency. But no one can calculate the enormous effect upon\nintellectual, social, and political conditions which would ensure upon the\nreconciliation of science and religion by the proof of immortality.\"\n\n\n\n\nIV. CONCLUSIONS.\n\n\nIn my investigations of the physical phenomena of modern spiritualism, I\nhave come to the following conclusion: While the majority of mediumistic\nmanifestations are due to conjuring, there is a class of cases not\nascribable to trickery, namely, those coming within the domain of psychic\nforce--as exemplified by the experiments of Gasparin, Crookes, Lodge,\nAsakoff and Coues. In regard to the subjective phenomena, I am convinced\nthat the recently annunciated law of telepathy will account for them. _I\ndiscredit the theory of spirit intervention._ If this be a correct\nconclusion, is there anything in mediumistic phenomena that will\ncontribute to the solution of the problem of the immortality of the soul?\nI think there is. The existence of a subjective or subliminal\nconsciousness in man, as illustrated in the phenomena mentioned, seems to\nindicate that the human personality is really a spiritual entity,\npossessed of unknown resources, and capable of preserving its identity\ndespite the shock of time and the grave. Hudson says: \"It is clear that\nthe power of telepathy has nothing in common with objective methods of\ncommunications between mind and mind; and that it is not the product of\nmuscle or nerve or any physiological combination whatever, but rather sets\nthese at naught, with their implications of space and time.... When\ndisease seizes the physical frame and the body grows feeble, the objective\nmind invariably grows correspondingly weak.... In the meantime, as the\nobjective mind ceases to perform its functions, the subjective mind is\nmost active and powerful. The individual may never before have exhibited\nany psychic power, and may never have consciously produced any psychic\nphenomena; yet at the supreme moment his soul is in active communication\nwith loved ones at a distance, and the death message is often, when\npsychic conditions are favorable, consciously received. The records of\ntelepathy demonstrate this proposition. Nay, more; they may be cited to\nshow that in the hour of death the soul is capable of projecting a\nphantasm of such strength and objectivity that it may be an object of\npersonal experience to those for whom it is intended. Moreover, it has\nhappened that telepathic messages have been sent by the dying, at the\nmoment of dissolution, giving all the particulars of the tragedy, when\nthe death was caused by an unexpected blow which crushed the skull of the\nvictim. It is obvious that in such cases it is impossible that the\nobjective mind could have participated in the transaction. The evidence is\nindeed overwhelming, that, no matter what form death may assume, whether\ncaused by lingering disease, old age, or violence, the subjective mind is\nnever weakened by its approach or its presence. On the other hand, that\nthe objective mind weakens with the body and perishes with the brain, is a\nfact confirmed by every-day observation and universal experience.\"\n\nThis hypothesis of the objective and subjective minds has been criticised\nby many psychologists on the ground of its extreme dualism. No such\ndualism exists, they contend. However, Hudson's theory is only a working\nhypothesis at best, to explain certain extraordinary facts in human\nexperience. Future investigators may be able to throw more light on the\nsubject. But this one thing may be enunciated: _Telepathy is an\nincontrovertible fact_, account for it as you may, a physical force or a\nspiritual energy. If physical, then it does not follow any of the known\noperations of physical laws as established by modern science, especially\nin the case of transmission of thought at a distance.\n\nIt is true, that all evidence in support of telepathic communications is\nmore or less _ex parte_ in character, and does not possess that validity\nwhich orthodox science requires of investigators. Any student of the\nphysical laws of matter can make investigations for himself, and at any\ntime, provided he has the proper apparatus. Explain to a person that water\nis composed of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, and he can easily verify\nthe fact for himself by combining the gases, in the combination of H2O,\nand afterwards liberate them by a current of electricity. But experiments\nin telepathy and clairvoyance cannot be made at will; they are isolated in\ncharacter, and consequently are regarded with suspicion by orthodox\nscience. Besides this, they transcend the materialistic theories of\nscience as regards the universe, and one is almost compelled to use the\nold metaphysical terms of mind and matter, body and soul, in describing\nthe phenomena.\n\nIt is an undoubted fact that science has broken away from the old theory\nregarding the distinction between mind and matter. Says Prof. Wm. Romaine\nNewbold, \"In the scientific world it has fallen into such disfavor that\nin many circles it is almost as disgraceful to avow belief in it as in\nwitchcraft or ghosts.\" We have to-day a school of\n\"physiological-psychology,\" calling itself \"psychology without a soul.\"\nThis school is devoted to the laboratory method of studying mind. \"The\nlaboratory method,\" says Roark, in his \"Psychology in Education,\" \"is\nconcerned mostly with _physiological_ psychology, which is, after all,\nonly _physiology_, even though it be the physiology of the nervous system\nand the special organs of sense--the material tools of the mind. And after\nphysiological psychology has had its rather prolix say, causal connection\nof the physical organs with psychic action is as obscure and impossible of\nexplanation as ever. But the laboratory method can be of excellent service\nin determining the material conditions of mental action, in detecting\nspecial deficiencies and weaknesses, and in accumulating valuable\nstatistics along these lines.\n\n\"It has been asserted that no science can claim to be exact until it can\nbe reduced to formulas of weights and measures. The assertion begs the\nquestion for the materialists. We shall probably never be able to weigh an\nidea or measure the cubic contents of the memory; but the rapidity with\nwhich ideas are formed or reproduced by memory has been measured in many\nparticular instances, and the circumstances that retard or accelerate\ntheir formation or reproduction have been positively ascertained and\nclassified.\"\n\nThat it is possible to explain all mental phenomena in terms of physics is\nby no means the unanimous verdict of scientific men. A small group of\nstudents of late years have detached themselves from the purely\nmaterialistic school and broken ground in the region of the supernormal.\nSays Professor Newbold (_Popular Science Monthly_, January, 1897): \"In the\nsupernormal field, the facts already reported, should they be\nsubstantiated by further inquiry, would go far towards showing that\nconsciousness is an entity governed by laws and possessed of powers\nincapable of expression in material conceptions.\n\n\"I do not myself regard the theory of independence [of mind and body] as\nproved, but I think we have enough evidence for it to destroy in any\ncandid mind that considers it that absolute credulity as to its\npossibility which at present characterizes the average man of science.\"\n\n\n\n\nPART SECOND.\n\n\n\n\nMADAME BLAVATSKY AND THE THEOSOPHISTS.\n\n\n1. The Priestess.\n\nThe greatest \"fantaisiste\" of modern times was Madame Blavatsky, spirit\nmedium, Priestess of Isis, and founder of the Theosophical Society. Her\nlife is one long catalogue of wonders. In appearance she was enormously\nfat, had a harsh, disagreeable voice, and a violent temper, dressed in a\nslovenly manner, usually in loose wrappers, smoked cigarettes incessantly,\nand cared little or nothing for the conventionalities of life. But in\nspite of all--unprepossessing appearance and gross habits--she exercised a\npowerful personal magnetism over those who came in contact with her. She\nwas the Sphinx of the second half of this Century; a Pythoness in tinsel\nrobes who strutted across the world's stage \"full of sound and fury,\" and\ndisappeared from view behind the dark veil of Isis, which she, the\nfin-de-siecle prophetess, tried to draw aside during her earthly career.\n\nIn searching for facts concerning the life of this really remarkable\nwoman--remarkable for the influence she has exerted upon the thought of\nthis latter end of the nineteenth century--I have read all that has been\nwritten about her by prominent Theosophists, have talked with many who\nknew her intimately, and now endeavor to present the truth concerning her\nand her career. The leading work on the subject is \"Incidents in the Life\nof Madame Blavatsky,\" compiled from information supplied by her relatives\nand friends, and edited by A. P. Sinnett, author of \"The Occult World.\"\nThe frontispiece to the book is a reproduction of a portrait of Madame\nBlavatsky, painted by H. Schmiechen, and represents the lady seated on the\nsteps of an ancient ruin, holding a parchment in her hand. She is garbed\nsomewhat after the fashion of a Cumaean Sibyl and gazes straight before\nher with the deep unfathomable eyes of a mystic, as if she were reading\nthe profound riddles of the ages, and beholding the sands of Time falling\nhot and swift into the glass of eternity--\n\n\"And all things creeping to a day of doom.\"\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 32--MADAME BLAVATSKY.]\n\nSinnett's life of the High Priestess is a strange concoction of monstrous\nabsurdities; it is full of the weirdest happenings that were ever\nvouchsafed to mortal. We cannot put much faith in this biography, and must\ndelve in other mines for information; but some of the remarkable passages\nof the book are worth perusing, particularly if the reader be prone to\nmidnight musings of a ghostly character.\n\nHelena Petrovna Blavatsky, the daughter of Col. Peter Hahn of the Russian\nArmy, and granddaughter of General Alexis Hahn von Rottenstern Hahn (a\nnoble family of Mecklenburg, Germany, settled in Russia), was born in\nEskaterinoslaw, in the south of Russia, in 1831. \"She had,\" says Sinnett,\n\"a strange childhood, replete with abnormal occurrences. The year of her\nbirth was fatal for Russia, as for all Europe, owing to the first visit of\nthe cholera, that terrible plague that decimated from 1830 to 1832 in turn\nnearly every town of the Continent.... Her birth was quickened by several\ndeaths in the house, and she was ushered into the world amid coffins and\ndesolation, on the night between July 30th and 31st, weak and apparently\nno denizen of this world.\" A hurried baptism was given lest the child die\nin original sin, and the ceremony was that of the Greek Church. During the\northodox baptismal rite no person is allowed to sit, but a child aunt of\nthe baby, tired of standing for nearly an hour, settled down upon the\nfloor, just behind the officiating priest. No one perceived her, as she\nsat nodding drowsily. The ceremony was nearing its close. The sponsors\nwere just in the act of renouncing the Evil One and his deeds, a\nrenunciation emphasized in the Greek Church by thrice spitting upon the\ninvisible enemy, when the little lady, toying with her lighted taper at\nthe feet of the crowd, inadvertantly set fire to the long flowing robes of\nthe priest, no one remarking the accident till it was too late. The result\nwas an immediate conflagration, during which several persons--chiefly the\nold priest--were severely burnt. That was another bad omen, according to\nthe superstitious beliefs of orthodox Russia; and the innocent cause of\nit, the future Madame Blavatsky, was doomed from that day, in the eyes of\nall the town, to an eventful, troubled life.\n\n\"Mlle. Hahn was born, of course, with all the characteristics of what is\nknown in Spiritualism as mediumship in the most extraordinary degree, also\nwith gifts as a clairvoyant of an almost equally unexampled order. On\nvarious occasions while apparently in an ordinary sleep, she would answer\nquestions, put by persons who took hold of her hand, about lost property,\netc., as though she were a sibyl entranced. For years she would, in\nchildish impulse, shock strangers with whom she came in contact, and\nvisitors to the house, by looking them intently in the face and telling\nthem they would die at such and such a time, or she would prophesy to them\nsome accident or misfortune that would befall them. And since her\nprognostications usually came true, she was the terror, in this respect,\nof the domestic circle.\"\n\nMadame V. P. Jelihowsy, a sister of the seeress, has furnished to the\nworld many extraordinary stories of Mme. Blavatsky's childhood, published\nin various Russian periodicals. At the age of eleven the Sibyl lost her\nmother, and went to live with her grandparents at Saratow, her grandfather\nbeing civil governor of the place. The family mansion was a lumbering old\ncountry place \"full of subterraneous galleries, long abandoned passages,\nturrets, and most weird nooks and corners. It looked more like a mediaeval\nruined castle than a building of the last century.\" The ghosts of\nmartyred serfs were supposed to haunt the uncanny building, and strange\nlegends were told by the old family servants of weir-wolves and goblins\nthat prowled about the dark forests of the estate. Here, in this House of\nUsher, the Sibyl lived and dreamed, and at this period exhibited many\nabnormal psychic peculiarities, ascribed by her orthodox governess and\nnurses of the Greek Church to possession by the devil. She had at times\nungovernable fits of temper; she would ride any Cossack horse on the place\nastride a man's saddle; go into trances and scare everyone from the master\nof the mansion down to the humblest vodka drinker on the estate.\n\nIn 1848, at the age of 17, she married General Count Blavatsky, a gouty\nold Russian of 70, whom she called \"the plumed raven,\" but left him after\na brief period of marital infelicity. From this time dates her career as a\nthaumaturgist. She travelled through India and made an honest attempt to\npenetrate into the mysterious confines of Thibet, but succeeded in getting\nonly a few miles from the frontier, owing to the fanaticism of the\nnatives.\n\nIn India, as elsewhere, she was accused of being a Russian spy and was\ngenerally regarded with suspicion by the police authorities. After some\nmonths of erratic wanderings she reappeared in Russia, this time in\nTiflis, at the residence of a relative, Prince ----. It was a gloomy,\ngrewsome chateau, well suited for Spiritualistic s\u00e9ances, and Madame\nBlavatsky, it is claimed, frightened the guests during the long winter\nevenings with table-tippings, spirit rappings, etc. It was then the tall\ncandles in the drawing-room burnt low, the gobelin tapestry rustled, sighs\nwere heard, strange music \"resounded in the air,\" and luminous forms were\nseen trailing their ghostly garments across the \"tufted floor.\"\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 33--MAHATMA LETTER.]\n\nThe gossipy Madame de Jelihowsy, in her reminiscences, classifies the\nphenomena, witnessed in the presence of her Sibylline sister, as follows:\n\n1. Direct and perfectly clearly written and verbal answers to mental\nquestions--or \"thought reading.\"\n\n2. Private secrets, unknown to all but the interested party, divulged,\n[especially in the case of those persons who mentioned insulting doubts].\n\n3. Change of weight in furniture and persons at will.\n\n4. Letters from unknown correspondents, and immediate answers written to\nqueries made, and found in the most out-of-the-way mysterious places.\n\n5. Appearance of objects unclaimed by anyone present.\n\n6. Sounds of musical notes in the air wherever Madame Blavatsky desired\nthey should resound.\n\nIn the year 1858, the High Priestess was at the house of General Yakontoff\nat Pskoff, Russia. One night when the drawing-room was full of visitors,\nshe began to describe the mediumistic feat of making light objects heavy\nand heavy objects light.\n\n\"Can you perform such a miracle?\" ironically asked her brother, Leonide de\nHahn, who always doubted his sister's occult powers.\n\n\"I can,\" was the firm reply.\n\nDe Hahn went to a small chess table, lifted it as though it were a\nfeather, and said: \"Suppose you try your powers on this.\"\n\n\"With pleasure!\" replied Mme. Blavatsky. \"Place the table on the floor,\nand step aside for a minute.\" He complied with her request.\n\nShe fixed her large blue eyes intently upon the chess table and said\nwithout removing her gaze, \"Lift it now.\"\n\nThe young man exerted all his strength, but the table would not budge\nan inch. Another guest tried with the same result, but the wood only\ncracked, yielding to no effort.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 34--MAHATMA LETTER ENVELOPE.]\n\n\"Now, lift it,\" said Madame Blavatsky calmly, whereupon De Hahn picked it\nup with the greatest ease. Loud applause greeted this extraordinary feat,\nand the skeptical brother, so say the occultists, was utterly nonplussed.\n\nMadame Blavatsky, as recorded by Sinnett, stated afterwards that the above\nphenomenon could be produced in two different ways: \"First, through the\nexercise of her own will directing the magnetic currents so that the\npressure on the table became such that no physical force could move it;\nsecond, through the action of those beings with whom she was in constant\ncommunication, and who, although unseen, were able to hold the table\nagainst all opposition.\"\n\nThe writer has seen similar feats performed by hypnotizers with good\nsubjects without the intervention of any ghostly intelligences.\n\nIn 1870 the Priestess of Isis journeyed through Egypt in company with a\ncertain Countess K--, and endeavored to form a Spiritualistic society at\nCairo, for the investigation of psychic phenomena, but things growing\nunpleasant for her she left the land of pyramids and papyri in hot haste.\nIt is related of her that during this Egyptian sojourn she spent one night\nin the King's sepulchre in the bowels of the Great Pyramid of Cheops,\nsleeping in the very sarcophagus where once reposed the mummy of a\nPharoah. Weird sights were seen by the entranced occultist and strange\nsounds were heard on that eventful occasion within the shadowy mortuary\nchamber of the pyramid. At times she would let fall mysterious hints of\nwhat she saw that night, but they were as incomprehensible as the riddles\nof the fabled Sphinx.\n\nCountess Paschkoff chronicles a curious story about the Priestess of Isis,\nwhich reminds one somewhat of the last chapter in Bulwer's occult novel,\n\"A Strange Story.\" The Countess relates that she was once travelling\nbetween Baalbec and the river Orontes, and in the desert came across the\ncaravan belonging to Madame Blavatsky. They joined company and towards\nnightfall pitched camp near the village of El Marsum amid some ancient\nruins. Among the relics of a Pagan civilization stood a great monument\ncovered with outlandish hieroglyphics. The Countess was curious to\ndecipher the inscriptions, and begged Madame Blavatsky to unravel their\nmeaning, but the Priestess of Isis, notwithstanding her great\narchaeological knowledge, was unable to do so. However, she said: \"Wait\nuntil night, and we shall see!\" When the ruins were wrapped in sombre\nshadow, Mme. Blavatsky drew a great circle upon the ground about the\nmonument, and invited the Countess to stand within the mystic confines. A\nfire was built and upon it were thrown various aromatic herbs and incense.\nCabalistic spells were recited by the sorceress, as the smoke from the\nincense ascended, and then she thrice commanded the spirit to whom the\nmonument was erected to appear. Soon the cloud of smoke from the burning\nincense assumed the shape of an old man with a long white beard. A voice\nfrom a distance pierced the misty image, and spoke: \"I am Hiero, one of\nthe priests of a great temple erected to the gods, that stood upon this\nspot. This monument was the altar. Behold!\" No sooner were the words\npronounced than a phantasmagoric vision of a gigantic temple appeared,\nsupported by ponderous columns, and a great city was seen covering the\ndistant plain, but all soon faded into thin air.\n\nThis story was related to a select coterie of occultists assembled in\nsocial conclave at the headquarters in New York. The question is, had the\ncharming Russian Countess dreamed this, or was she trying to exploit\nherself as a traveler who had come \"out of the mysterious East\" and had\nseen strange things?\n\nWe next hear of the famous occultist in the United States, where she\nassociated chiefly with spirit-mediums, enchanters, professional\nclairvoyants, and the like.\n\n\"At this period of her career she had not,\"[4] says Dr. Eliott Coues, a\nlearned investigator of psychic phenomena, \"been metamorphosed into a\nTheosophist. She was simply exploiting as a Spiritualistic medium. Her\nmost familiar spook was a ghostly fiction named 'John King.' This fellow\nis supposed to have been a pirate, condemned for his atrocities to serve\nearth-bound for a term of years, and to present himself at materializing\ns\u00e9ances on call. Any medium who personates this ghost puts on a heavy\nblack horse-hair beard and a white bed sheet and talks in sepulchral chest\ntones. John is as standard and sure-enough a ghost as ever appeared before\nthe public. Most of the leading mediums, both in Europe and America, keep\nhim in stock. I have often seen the old fellow in New York, Philadelphia,\nand Washington through more mediums that I can remember the names of. Our\nlate Minister to Portugul, Mr. J. O'Sullivan, has a photograph of him at\nfull length, floating in space, holding up a peculiar globe of light\nshaped like a glass decanter. This trustworthy likeness was taken in\nEurope, and I think in Russia, but am not sure on that point. I once had\nthe pleasure of introducing the pirate king to my friend Prof. Alfred\nRussel Wallace, in the person of Pierre L. O. A. Keeler, a noted medium of\nWashington.\n\n\"But the connection between the pirate and my story is this: Madame\nBlavatsky was exploiting King at the time of which I speak, and several of\nher letters to friends, which I have read, are curiously scribbled in red\nand blue pencil with sentences and signatures of 'John King,' just as,\nlater on, 'Koot Hoomi' used to miraculously precipitate himself upon her\nstationery in all sorts of colored crayons. And, by the way, I may call\nthe reader's attention to the fact that while the ingenious creature was\noperating in Cairo, her Mahatmas were of the Egyptian order of\narchitecture, and located in the ruins of Thebes or Karnak. They were not\nput in turbans and shifted to Thibet till late in 1879.\"\n\nIn 1875, while residing in New York, Madame Blavatsky conceived the idea\nof establishing a Theosophical Society. Stupendous thought! Cagliostro in\nthe eighteenth century founded his Egyptian Free-Masonry for the\nre-generation of mankind, and Blavatsky in the nineteenth century laid the\ncorner stone of modern Theosophy for a similar purpose. Cagliostro had his\nHigh Priestess in the person of a beautiful wife, Lorenza Feliciani, and\nBlavatsky her Hierophant in the somewhat prosaic guise of a New York\nreporter, Col. Olcott, since then a famous personage in occult circles.\n\nDuring the Civil War, Olcott served in the Quartermaster's Department of\nthe Army and afterwards held a position in the Internal Revenue Service of\nthe United States. In 18-- he was a newspaper man in New York, and was\nsent by the _Graphic_ to investigate the alleged Spiritualistic phenomena\ntranspiring in the Eddy family in Chittenden, Vermont. There he met Madame\nBlavatsky. It was his fate.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 35. COL. H. S. OLCOTT.]\n\nCol. Olcott's description of his first sight of Mme. Blavatsky is\ninteresting:\n\n\"The dinner at Eddy's was at noon, and it was from the entrance door of\nthe bare and comfortless dining-room that Kappes and I first saw H. P. B.\nShe had arrived shortly before noon with a French Canadian lady, and they\nwere at table as we entered. My eye was first attracted by a scarlet\nGaribaldian shirt the former wore, as being in vivid contrast with the\ndull colors around. Her hair was then a thick blonde mop, worn shorter\nthan the shoulders, and it stood out from her head, silken, soft, and\ncrinkled to the roots, like the fleece of a Cotswold ewe. This and the\nred shirt were what struck my attention before I took in the picture of\nher features. It was a massive Kalmuck face, contrasting in its suggestion\nof power, culture, and imperiousness, as strangely with the commonplace\nvisages about the room, as her red garment did with the gray and white\ntones of the wall and woodwork, and the dull costumes of the rest of the\nguests. All sorts of cranky people were continually coming and going at\nEddy's, to see the mediumistic phenomena, and it only struck me on seeing\nthis eccentric lady that this was but one more of the sort. Pausing on the\ndoor-sill, I whispered to Kappes, 'Good gracious! look at _that_ specimen,\nwill you!' I went straight across and took a seat opposite her to indulge\nmy favorite habit of character-study.\"\n\nCommenting on this meeting, J. Ransom Bridges, in the _Arena_, for April,\n1895, remarks: \"After dinner Colonel Olcott scraped an acquaintance by\nopportunely offering her a light for a cigarette which she proceeded to\nroll for herself. This 'light' must have been charged with Theosophical\n_karma_, for the burning match or end of a lighted cigar--the Colonel does\nnot specify--lit a train of causes and their effects which now are making\nhistory and are world-wide in their importance. So confirmed a pessimist\non Theosophical questions as Henry Sidgwick of the London Society for\nPsychical Research, says, 'Even if it [the Theosophical Society] were to\nexpire next year, its twenty years' existence would be a phenomenon of\nsome interest for a historian of European society in the nineteenth\ncentury.'\"\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 36. OATH OF SECRECY TAKEN BY CHARTER MEMBERS OF THE\nTHEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.\n\n[Kindness of the _New York Herald_.]]\n\nThe s\u00e9ances at the Eddy house must have been character studies indeed. The\nplace where the ghosts were materialized was a large apartment over the\ndining room of the ancient homestead. A dark closet, at one end of the\nroom, with a rough blanket stretched across it, served as a cabinet. Red\nIndians and pirates were the favorite materializations, but when Madame\nBlavatsky appeared on the scene, ghosts of Turks, Kurdish cavaliers, and\nKalmucks visited this earthly scene, much to the surprise of every one.\nOlcott cites this fact as evidence of the genuineness of the\nmaterializations, remarking, \"how could the ignorant Eddy boys, rough,\nrude, uncultured farmers, get the costumes and accessories for characters\nof this kind in a remote Vermont village.\"\n\n\n2. What is Theosophy.\n\nLet us turn aside at this juncture to ask, \"What is Theosophy.\" The word\nTheosophy (Theosophia--divine knowledge) appears to have been used about\nthe Third century, A. D., by the Neo-Platonists, or Gnostics of\nAlexandria, but the great principles of the doctrine, however, were taught\nhundreds of years prior to the mystical school established at Alexandria.\n\"It is not,\" says an interesting writer on the subject, \"an outgrowth of\nBuddhism although many Buddhists see in its doctrines the reflection of\nBuddha. It proposes to give its followers the esoteric, or inner-spiritual\nmeaning of the great religious teachers of the world. It asserts repeated\nre-incarnations, or rebirths of the soul on earth, until it is fully\npurged of evil, and becomes fit to be absorbed into the Deity whence it\ncame, gaining thereby Nirvana, or unconsciousness.\" Some Theosophists\nclaim that Nirvana is not a state of unconsciousness, but just the\nconverse, a state of the most intensified consciousness, during which the\nsoul remembers all of its previous incarnations.\n\nMadame Blavatsky claimed that \"there exists in Thibet a brotherhood whose\nmembers have acquired a power over Nature which enables them to perform\nwonders beyond the reach of ordinary men. She declared herself to be a\n_chela_, or disciple of these brothers (spoken of also as 'Adepts' and as\n'Mahatmas'), and asserted that they took a special interest in the\nTheosophical Society and all initiates in occult lore, being able to cause\napparitions of themselves in places where their bodies were not; and that\nthey not only appeared but communicated intelligently with those whom they\nthus visited and themselves perceived what was going on where their\nphantoms appeared.\" This phantasmal appearance she called the projection\nof the _astral_ form. Many of the phenomena witnessed in the presence of\nthe Sibyl were supposed to be the work of the mystic brotherhood who took\nso peculiar an interest in the Theosophical Society and its members. The\nMadame did not claim to be the founder of a new religious faith, but\nsimply the reviver of a creed that has slumbered in the Orient for\ncenturies, and declared herself to be the Messenger of these Mahatmas to\nthe scoffing Western world.\n\nSpeaking of the Mahatmas, she says in \"Isis Unveiled\": * * * \"Travelers\nhave met these adepts on the shores of the sacred Ganges, brushed against\nthem on the silent ruins of Thebes, and in the mysterious deserted\nchambers of Luxor. Within the halls upon whose blue and golden vaults the\nweird signs attract attention, but whose secret meaning is never\npenetrated by the idle gazers, they have been seen, but seldom recognized.\nHistorical memoirs have recorded their presence in the brilliantly\nilluminated salons of European aristocracy. They have been encountered\nagain on the arid and desolate plains of the Great Sahara, or in the caves\nof Elephanta. They may be found everywhere, but make themselves known only\nto those who have devoted their lives to unselfish study, and are not\nlikely to turn back.\"\n\nThe Theosophical Society was organized in New York, Nov. 17, 1875.\n\nMr. Arthur Lillie, in his interesting work, \"Madame Blavatsky and Her\nTheosophy,\" speaking about the founding of the Society, says:\n\n\"Its moving spirit was a Mr. Felt, who had visited Egypt and studied its\nantiquities. He was a student also of the Kabbala; and he had a somewhat\neccentric theory that the dog-headed and hawk-headed figures painted on\nthe Egyptian monuments were not mere symbols, but accurate portraits of\nthe 'Elementals.' He professed to be able to evoke and control them. He\nannounced that he had discovered the secret 'formularies' of the old\nEgyptian magicians. Plainly, the Theosophical Society at starting was an\nEgyptian school of occultism. Indeed Colonel Olcott, who furnishes these\ndetails ('Diary Leaves' in the _Theosophist_, November to December, 1892),\nlets out that the first title suggested was the 'Egyptological Society.'\"\n\nThere were strange reports set afloat at the time of the organization of\nthe Society of the mysterious appearance of a Hindoo adept in his astral\nbody at the \"lamasery\" on Forty-seventh street. It was said to be that of\na certain Mahatma Koot Hoomi. Olcott declared that the adept left behind\nhim as a souvenir of his presence, a turban, which was exhibited on all\noccasions by the enterprising Hierophant. William Q. Judge, a noted writer\non Spiritualism, who had met the Madame at Irving Place in the winter of\n1874, joined the Society about this time, and became an earnest advocate\nof the secret doctrine. One wintry evening in March, 1889, Mr. Judge\nattended a meeting of the New York Anthropological Society, and told the\naudience all about the spectral gentleman, Koot Hoomi. He said:\n\n\"The parent society (Theosophical) was founded in America by Madame\nBlavatsky, who gathered about her a few interested people and began the\ngreat work. They held a meeting to frame a constitution (1875), etc., but\nbefore anything had been accomplished a strangely foreign Hindoo, dressed\nin the peculiar garb of his country, came before them, and, leaving a\npackage, vanished, and no one knew whither he came or went. On opening the\npackage they found the necessary forms of organization, rules, etc., which\nwere adopted. The inference to be drawn was, that the strange visitor was\na Mahatma, interested in the foundation of the Society.\"\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 37. WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.\n\n[Reproduced by courtesy of the _New York Herald_.]]\n\nAnd so Blavatskyism flourished, and the Society gathered in disciples from\nall quarters. Men without definite creeds are ever willing to embrace\nanything that savors of the mysterious, however absurd the tenets of the\nnew doctrine may be. The objects of the Theosophical Society, as set forth\nin a number of _Lucifer_, the organ of the cult, published in July, 1890,\nare stated to be:\n\n\"1. To form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without\ndistinction of race, creed, sex, or color.\n\n\"2. To promote the study of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions\nand sciences.\n\n\"3. To investigate laws of Nature and the psychical powers of man.\"\n\nThere is nothing of cant or humbug about the above articles. A society\nfounded for the prosecution of such researches seems laudable enough.\nOriental scholars and scientists have been working in this field for many\nyears. But the investigations, as conducted under the Blavatsky r\u00e9gime,\nhave savored so of charlatanism that many earnest, truth-seeking\nTheosophists have withdrawn from the Society.\n\nAfter seeing the Society well established, Madame Blavatsky went to India.\nHer career in that country was a checkered one. From this period dates the\nexpos\u00e9 of the Mahatma miracles. The story reads like a romance by Marie\nCorelli. Let us begin at the beginning. The headquarters of the Society\nwas first established at Bombay, thence removed to Madras and afterwards\nto Adyar. A certain M. and Mme. Coulomb, trusted friends of Madame\nBlavatsky, were made librarian and assistant corresponding secretary\nrespectively of the Society, and took up their residence in the building\nknown as the headquarters--a rambling East Indian bungalow, such as figure\nin Rudyard Kipling's stories of Oriental life. Marvellous phenomena, of an\noccult nature, alleged to have taken place there, were attested by many\nTheosophists. Mysterious, ghostly appearances of Mahatmas were seen, and\nmessages were constantly received by supernatural means. One of the\napartments of the bungalow was denominated the Occult Room, and in this\nroom was a sort of cupboard against the wall, known as the _Shrine_. In\nthis shrine the ghostly missives were received and from it were sent.\nSkeptics were convinced, and occult lodges spread rapidly over India among\nthe dreamy, marvel-loving natives. But affairs were not destined to sail\nsmoothly. There came a rift within the lute--Madame Blavatsky quarreled\nwith her trusted lieutenants, the Coulombs! In May, 1884, M. and Mme.\nCoulomb were expelled from the Society by the General Council, during the\nabsence of the High Priestess and Col. Olcott in Europe. The Coulombs, who\nhad grown weary of a life of imposture, or were actuated by the more\nignoble motive of revenge, made a complete expos\u00e9 of the secret working of\nthe Inner Brotherhood. They published portions of Madame Blavatsky's\ncorrespondence in the _Madras Christian College Magazine_, for September\nand October, 1884; letters written to the Coulombs, directing them to\nprepare certain impostures and letters written by the High Priestess,\nunder the signature of Koot Hoomi, the mythical adept.[5] This\ncorrespondence unquestionably implicated the Sibyl in a conspiracy to\nfraudulently produce occult phenomena. She declared them to be, in whole,\nor in part, forgeries. At this juncture the London Society for Psychical\nResearch sent Mr. Richard Hodgson, B. A., scholar of St. John's College,\nCambridge, England, to India to investigate the entire matter in the\ninterest of science.\n\nHe left England November, 1884, and remained in the East till April, 1885.\nDuring this period Blavatskyism was sifted to the bottom. Mr. Hodgson's\nreport covers several hundred pages, and proves conclusively that the\noccult phenomena of Madame Blavatsky and her co-adjutors are unworthy of\ncredence. In his volume he gives diagrams of the trap-doors and machinery\nof the shrine and the occult room, and facsimiles of Madame Blavatsky's\nhandwriting, which proved to be identical with that of Koot Hoomi, or\n_Cute_ Hoomi, as the critics dubbed him. He shows that the Coulombs had\ntold the plain unvarnished truth so far as their disclosures went; and he\nstigmatizes the Priestess of Isis in the following language:\n\n\"1. She has been engaged in a long continued combination with other\npersons to produce by ordinary means a series of apparent marvels for the\nsupport of the Theosophic movement.\n\n\"2. That in particular the shrine at Adyar through which letters\npurporting to come from Mahatmas were received, was elaborately arranged\nwith a view to the secret insertion of letters and other objects through a\nsliding panel at the back, and regularly used for the purpose by Madame\nBlavatsky or her agents.\n\n\"3. That there is consequently a very strong general presumption that all\nthe marvellous narratives put forward in evidence of the existence of\nMahatmas are to be explained as due either (_a_) to deliberate deception\ncarried out by or at the instigation of Madame Blavatsky, or (_b_) to\nspontaneous illusion or hallucination or unconscious misrepresentation or\ninvention on the part of the witnesses.\"\n\nThe mysterious appearances of the ghostly Mahatmas at the headquarters was\nshown, by Mr. Hodgson, to be the work of confederates, the cleverest among\nthem being Madame Coulomb. Sliding panels, secret doors, and many\ndisguises were the _modus operandi_ of the occult phenomena. In regard to\nthe letters and alleged precipitated writing, Mr. Hodgson says:\n\n\"It has been alleged, indeed, that when Madame Blavatsky was at Madras,\ninstantaneous replies to mental queries had been found in the shrine (at\nAdyar), that envelopes containing questions were returned absolutely\nintact to the senders, and that when they were opened replies were found\nwithin in the handwriting of a Mahatma. After numerous inquiries, I found\nthat in all cases I could hear of, the mental query was such as might\neasily have been anticipated by Madame Blavatsky; indeed, the query was\nwhether the questioner would meet with success in his endeavor to become a\npupil of the Mahatma, and the answer was frequently of the indefinite and\noracular sort. In some cases the envelope inserted in the Shrine was one\nwhich had been previously sent to headquarters for that purpose, so that\nthe envelope might have been opened and the answer written therein before\nit was placed in the Shrine at all. Where sufficient care was taken in the\npreparation of the inquiry, either no specific answer was given or the\nanswer was delayed.\"\n\nA certain phenomenon, frequently mentioned by Theosophists as having\noccurred in Madame Blavatsky's sitting-room, was the dropping of a letter\nfrom the ceiling, supposed to be a communication from some Mahatma. In all\nsuch cases conjuring was proved to have been used--the _deus ex machina_\nbeing either a silk thread or else a cunningly secreted trap door hidden\nbetween the wooden beams of the bungalow ceiling, operated of course by a\nconcealed confederate.\n\nMadame Blavatsky's favorite method of impressing people with her occult\npowers was the almost immediate reception of letters from distant\ncountries, in response to questions asked. These feats were the result of\ncarefully contrived plans, preconcerted weeks in advance. She would\ntelegraph in cipher to one of her numerous correspondents, East Indian,\nfor example, to write a letter in reply to a certain query, and post it at\na particular date. Then she would calculate the arrival of the letter,\noften to a nicety. Her ability as a conversationalist enabled her to\nadroitly lead people into asking questions that would tally with the\nMahatma messages. But sometimes she failed, and a ludicrous fiasco was the\nresult. Mr. Hodgson's report contains accounts of many such mystic letters\nthat would arrive by post from India in the nick of time, or too late for\nuse.\n\nAmong other remarkable things reported of the Madame was her power of\nproducing photographs of people far away by a sort of spiritual\nphotography, involving no other mechanical process than the slipping of a\nsheet of paper between the leaves of her blotting pad.\n\nWhen stories of this spirit-photography were rife in London, a scientist\npublished the following explanation of a method of making such Mahatma\nportraits:\n\n\"Has the English public never heard of 'Magic photography?' Just a few\nyears ago small sheets of white paper were offered for sale which on being\ncovered with damp blotting paper developed an image as if by magic. The\nwhite sheets of paper seemed blanks. Really, however, they were\nphotographs, not containing gold, which had been bleached by immersing\nthem in a solution of mercuric chloride. The latter gives up part of its\nchlorine, and this chlorine bleaches the brown silver particles of which\nthe photograph consists, by changing them to chloride of silver. The\nmercuric chloride becomes mercurous chloride. This body is white, and\ntherefore invisible on white paper. Now, several substances will color\nthis white mercurous chloride black. Ammonia and hypo-sulphite of soda\nwill do this. In the magic photographs before mentioned the blotting paper\ncontained hypo-sulphite of soda. Consequently when the alleged blank\nsheets of white note paper were placed between the sheets of blotting\npaper and slightly moistened, the hypo-sulphite of soda in the blotting\npaper acted chemically on the mercurous chloride in the white note paper,\nand the picture appeared. As this was known in 1840 to Herschel,\nBlavatsky's miracle is nothing but a commonplace conjuring experiment.\"\n\n\n3. Madame Blavatsky's Confession.\n\nThe individual to whom the world is most indebted for a critical analysis\nof Madame Blavatsky's character and her claims as a producer of occult\nphenomena is Vsevolod S. Solovyoff, a Russian journalist and _litterateur_\nof considerable note. He has ruthlessly torn the veil from the Priestess\nof Isis in a remarkable book of revelations, entitled, \"A Modern Priestess\nof Isis.\" In May, 1884, he was in Paris, engaged in studying occult\nliterature, and was preparing to write a treatise on \"the rare, but in my\nopinion, real manifestations of the imperfectly investigated spiritual\npowers of man.\" One day he read in the _Matin_ that Madame Blavatsky had\narrived in Paris, and he determined to meet her. Thanks to a friend in St.\nPetersburg, he obtained a letter of introduction to the famous\nTheosophist, and called on her a few days later, at her residence in the\nRue Notre Dame des Champs. His pen picture of the interview is graphic:\n\n\"I found myself in a long, mean street on the left bank of the Seine, _de\nl'autre cote de l'eau_, as the Parisians say. The coachman stopped at the\nnumber I had told him. The house was unsightly enough to look at, and at\nthe door there was not a single carriage.\n\n\"'My dear sir, you have let her slip; she has left Paris,' I said to\nmyself with vexation.\n\n\"In answer to my inquiry the concierge showed me the way. I climbed a\nvery, very dark staircase, rang, and a slovenly figure in an Oriental\nturban admitted me into a tiny dark lobby.\n\n\"To my question, whether Madame Blavatsky would receive me, the slovenly\nfigure replied with an '_Entrez, monsieur_,' and vanished with my card,\nwhile I was left to wait in a small low room, poorly and insufficiently\nfurnished.\n\n\"I had not long to wait. The door opened, and she was before me; a rather\ntall woman, though she produced the impression of being short, on account\nof her unusual stoutness. Her great head seemed all the greater from her\nthick and very bright hair, touched with a scarcely perceptible gray, and\nvery slightly frizzed, by nature and not by art, as I subsequently\nconvinced myself.\n\n\"At the first moment her plain, old earthy-colored face struck me as\nrepulsive; but she fixed on me the gaze of her great, rolling, pale blue\neyes, and in these wonderful eyes, with their hidden power, all the rest\nwas forgotten.\n\n\"I remarked, however, that she was very strangely dressed, in a sort of\nblack sacque, and that all the fingers of her small, soft, and as it were\nboneless hands, with their slender points and long nails, were covered\nwith great jewelled rings.\"\n\nMadame Blavatsky received Solovyoff kindly, and they became excellent\nfriends. She urged him to join the Theosophical Society, and he expressed\nhimself as favorably impressed with the purposes of the organization.\nDuring the interview she produced her astral bell \"phenomenon.\" She\nexcused herself to attend to some domestic duty, and on her return to the\nsitting-room, the phenomenon took place. Says Solovyoff: \"She made a sort\nof flourish with her hand, raised it upwards and suddenly, I heard\ndistinctly, quite distinctly, somewhere above our heads, near the\nceiling, a very melodious sound like a little silver bell or an Aeolian\nharp.\n\n\"'What is the meaning of this?' I asked.\n\n\"'This means only that my master is here, although you and I cannot see\nhim. He tells me that I may trust you, and am to do for you whatever I\ncan. _Vous etes sous sa protection_, henceforth and forever.'\n\n\"She looked me straight in the eyes, and caressed me with her glance and\nher kindly smile.\"\n\nThis Mahatmic phenomenon ought to have absolutely convinced Solovyoff, but\nit did not. He asked himself the question:\n\n\"'Why was the sound of the silver bell not heard at once, but only after\nshe had left the room and come back again?'\"\n\nA few days after this event, the Russian journalist was regularly enrolled\nas a member of the Theosophical Society, and began to study Madame\nBlavatsky instead of Oriental literature and occultism. He was introduced\nto Colonel Olcott, who showed him the turban that had been left at the New\nYork headquarters by the astral Koot Hoomi. Solovyoff witnessed other\n\"phenomena\" in the presence of Madame Blavatsky, which did not impress him\nvery favorably. Finally, the High Priestess produced her _chef d'\noeuvre_, the psychometric reading of a letter. Solovyoff was rather\nimpressed with this feat and sent an account of it to the _Rebus_, but\nsubsequently came to the conclusion that trickery had entered into it.\nWhen the Coulomb exposures came, he did not see much of Madame Blavatsky.\nShe was overwhelmed with letters and spent a considerable time anxiously\ntravelling to and fro on Theosophical affairs. In August, 1885, she was at\nWurzburg sick at heart and in body, attended by a diminutive Hindoo\nservant, Bavaji by name. She begged Solovyoff to visit her, promising to\ngive him lessons in occultism. With a determination to investigate the\n\"phenomena,\" he went to the Bavarian watering place, and one morning\ncalled on Madame Blavatsky. He found her seated in a great arm chair:\n\n\"At the opposite end of the table stood the dwarfish Bavaji, with a\nconfused look in his dulled eyes. He was evidently incapable of meeting my\ngaze, and the fact certainly did not escape me. In front of Bavaji on the\ntable were scattered several sheets of clean paper. Nothing of the sort\nhad occurred before, so my attention was the more aroused. In his hand\nwas a great thick pencil. I began to have ideas.\n\n\"'Just look at the unfortunate man,' said Helena Petrovna suddenly,\nturning to me. 'He does not look himself at all; he drives me to\ndistraction'.... Then she passed from Bavaji to the London Society for\nPsychical Research, and again tried to persuade me about the 'master.'\nBavaji stood like a statue; he could take no part in our conversation, as\nhe did not know a word of Russian.\n\n\"'But such incredulity as to the evidence of your own eyes, such obstinate\ninfidelity as yours, is simply unpardonable. In fact, it is wicked!'\nexclaimed Helena Petrovna.\n\n\"I was walking about the room at the time, and did not take my eyes off\nBavaji. I saw that he was keeping his eyes wide open, with a sort of\ncontortion of his whole body, while his hand, armed with a great pencil,\nwas carefully tracing some letters on a sheet of paper.\n\n\"'Look; what is the matter with him?' exclaimed Madame Blavatsky.\n\n\"'Nothing particular,' I answered; 'he is writing in Russian.'\n\n\"I saw her whole face grow purple. She began to stir in her chair, with an\nobvious desire to get up and take the paper from him. But with her swollen\nand almost inflexible limbs, she could not do so with any speed. I made\nhaste to seize the paper and saw on it a beautifully _drawn_ Russian\nphrase.\n\n\"Bavaji was to have written, in the Russian language with which he was not\nacquainted: 'Blessed are they that believe, as said the Great Adept.' He\nhad learned his task well, and remembered correctly the form of all the\nletters, but he had omitted two in the word 'believe,' [The effect was\nprecisely the same as if in English he had omitted the first two and last\ntwo letters of the word.]\n\n\"'Blessed are they that _lie_,' I read aloud, unable to control the\nlaughter which shook me. 'That is the best thing I ever saw. Oh, Bavaji!\nyou should have got your lesson up better for examination!'\n\n\"The tiny Hindoo hid his face in his hands and rushed out of the room; I\nheard his hysterical sobs in the distance. Madame Blavatsky sat with\ndistorted features.\"\n\nAs will be seen from the above, the Hindoo servant was one of the Madame's\nMahatmas, and was caught in the act of preparing a communication from a\nsage in the Himalayas, to Solovyoff.\n\n\"After this abortive phenomena,\" remarks the Russian journalist, \"things\nmarched faster, and I saw that I should soon be in a position to send very\ninteresting additions to the report of the Psychical Society.\"... \"Every\nday when I came to see the Madame she used to try to do me a favor in the\nshape of some trifling 'phenomenon,' but she never succeeded. Thus one day\nher famous 'silver bell' was heard, when suddenly something fell beside\nher on the ground. I hurried to pick it up--and found in my hands a pretty\nlittle piece of silver, delicately worked and strangely shaped. Helena\nPetrovna changed countenance, and snatched the object from me. I coughed\nsignificantly, smiled and turned the conversation to indifferent matters.\"\n\nOn another occasion he was conversing with her about the \"Theosophist,\"\nand \"she mentioned the name of Subba Rao, a Hindoo, who had attained the\nhighest degree of knowledge.\" She directed Mr. Solovyoff to open a drawer\nin her writing desk, and take from it a photograph of the adept.\n\n\"I opened the drawer,\" says Solovyoff, \"found the photograph and handed it\nto her--together with a packet of Chinese envelopes (See Fig. 34), such\nas I well knew; they were the same in which the 'elect' used to receive\nthe letters of the Mahatmas Morya and Koot Hoomi by 'astral post.'\n\n\"'Look at that, Helena Petrovna! I should advise you to hide this packet\nof the master's envelopes farther off. You are so terribly absent-minded\nand careless.'\n\n\"It was easy to imagine what this was to her. I looked at her and was\npositively frightened; her face grew perfectly black. She tried in vain to\nspeak; she could only writhe helplessly in her great arm-chair.\"\n\nSolovyoff with great adroitness gradually drew from her a confession.\n\"What is one to do,\" said Madame Blavatsky, plaintively, \"when in order to\nrule men it is necessary to deceive them; almost invariably the more\nsimple, the more silly, and the more gross the phenomenon, the more likely\nit is to succeed.\" The Priestess of Isis broke down completely and\nacknowledged that her phenomena were not genuine; the Koot Hoomi letters\nwere written by herself and others in collusion with her; finally she\nexhibited to the journalist the apparatus for producing the \"astral bell,\"\nand begged him to go into a co-partnership with her to astonish the\nworld. He refused! The next day she declared that a black magician had\nspoken through her mouth, and not herself; she was not responsible for\nwhat she had said. After this he had other interviews with her; threats\nand promises; and lastly a most extraordinary letter, which was headed,\n\"My Confession,\" and reads, in part, as follows:\n\n\"Believe me, _I have fallen because I have made up my mind to fall_, or\nelse to bring about a reaction by telling all God's truth about myself,\n_but without mercy on my enemies_. On this I am firmly resolved, and from\nthis day I shall begin to prepare myself in order to be ready. I will fly\nno more. Together with this letter, or a few hours later, I shall myself\nbe in Paris, and then on to London. A Frenchman is ready, and a well-known\njournalist too, delighted to set about the work and to write at my\ndictation something short, but strong, and what is most important--a true\nhistory of my life. _I shall not even attempt to defend_, to justify\nmyself. In this book I shall simply say: \"In 1848, I, hating my husband,\nN. V. Blavatsky (it may have been wrong, but still such was the nature\n_God_ gave me), left him, abandoned him--_a virgin_. (I shall produce\ndocuments and letters proving this, although he himself is not such a\nswine as to deny it.) I loved one man deeply, but still more I loved\noccult science, believing in magic, wizards, etc. I wandered with him here\nand there, in Asia, in America, and in Europe. I met with So-and-so. (You\nmay call him a _wizard_, what does it matter to him?) In 1858 I was in\nLondon; there came out some story about a child, not mine (there will\nfollow medical evidence, from the faculty of Paris, and it is for this\nthat I am going to Paris). One thing and another was said of me; that I\nwas depraved, possessed with a devil, etc.\n\n\"I shall tell everything as I think fit, everything I did, for the twenty\nyears and more, that I laughed at the _qu'en dira-t-on_, and covered up\nall traces of what I was _really_ occupied in, i. e., the _sciences\noccultes_, for the sake of my family and relations who would at that time\nhave cursed me. I will tell how from my eighteenth year I tried to get\npeople to talk about me, and say about me that this man and that was my\nlover, and _hundreds_ of them. I will tell, too, a great deal of which no\none ever dreamed, and _I will prove it_. Then I will inform the world how\nsuddenly my eyes were opened to all the horror of my _moral suicide_; how\nI was sent to America to try my psychological capabilities; how I\ncollected a society there, and began to expiate my faults, and attempted\nto make men better and to sacrifice myself for their regeneration. _I will\nname all_ the Theosophists who were brought into the right way, drunkards\nand rakes, who became almost saints, especially in India, and those who\nenlisted as Theosophists, and continued their former life, as though they\nwere doing the work (and there are many of them) and _yet were the first_\nto join the pack of hounds that were hunting me down, and to bite me....\n\n\"No! The devils will save me in this last great hour. You did not\ncalculate on the cool determination of _despair_, which _was_ and has\n_passed over_.... And to this I have been brought by you. You have been\nthe last straw which has broken the camel's back under its intolerably\nheavy burden. Now you are at liberty to conceal nothing. Repeat to all\nParis what you have ever heard or know about me. I have already written a\nletter to Sinnett _forbidding him_ to publish my _memoirs_ at his own\ndiscretion. I myself will publish them with all the truth.... It will be a\nSaturnalia of the moral depravity of mankind, this _confession_ of mine, a\nworthy epilogue of my stormy life.... Let the psychist gentlemen, and\nwhosoever will, set on foot a new inquiry. Mohini and all the rest, even\n_India_, are dead for me. I thirst for one thing only, that the world may\nknow all the reality, all the _truth_, and learn the lesson. And then\n_death_, kindest of all.\n\n H. BLAVATSKY.\n\n\"You may print this letter if you will, even in Russia. It is all the same\nnow.\"\n\nThis remarkable effusion may be the result of a fever-disordered brain, it\nmay be, as she says, the \"God's truth;\" at any rate it bears the ear-marks\nof the Blavatsky style about it. The disciples of the High Priestess of\nIsis have bitterly denounced Solovyoff and the revelations contained in\nhis book. They brand him as a coward for not having published his diatribe\nduring the lifetime of the Madame, when she was able to defend herself.\nHowever that may be, Solovyoff's exposures tally very well with the mass\nof corroborative evidence adduced by Hodgson, Coues, Coleman, and a host\nof writers, who began their attacks during the earthly pilgrimage of the\ngreat Sibyl.\n\nOn receipt of this letter, Feb 16, 1886, Solovyoff resigned from the\nTheosophical Society. He denounced the High Priestess to the Paris\nTheosophists, and the Blavatsky lodges in that city were disrupted in\nconsequence of the exposures. This seems to be a convincing proof of the\ngenuineness of his revelations. After the Solovyoff incident, Madame\nBlavatsky went into retirement for a while. Eventually she appeared in\nLondon as full of enthusiasm as ever and added to her list of converts the\nCountess of Caithness and Mrs. Annie Besant, the famous socialist and\nauthoress.\n\nFinally came the last act of this strange life-drama. That messenger of\ndeath, whom the mystical Persian singer, Omar Khayyam, calls \"The Angel of\nthe Darker Drink,\" held to her lips the inevitable chalice of Mortality;\nthen the \"golden cord was loosened and the silver bowl was broken,\" and\nshe passed into the land of shadows. It was in London, May 8, 1891, that\nHelena Petrovna Blavatsky ended one of the strangest careers on record.\nShe died calmly and peacefully in her bed, surrounded by her friends, and\nafter her demise her body was cremated by her disciples, with occult rites\nand ceremonies. All that remained of her--a few handfuls of powdery white\nashes--was gathered together, and divided into three equal parts. One\nportion was buried in London, one sent to New York City, and the third to\nAdyar, near Madras, India. The New World, the Old World, and the still\nOlder World of the East were honored with the ashes of H. P. B. Three\ncivilizations, three heaps of ashes, three initials--mystic number from\ntime immemorial, celebrated symbol of Divinity known to, and revered by,\nCabalists, Gnostics, Rosicrucians, and Theosophists.\n\nMr. J. Ransom Bridges, who had considerable correspondence with the High\nPriestess from 1888 until her death, says (_Arena_, April, 1895):\n\"Whatever may be the ultimate verdict upon the life and work of this\nwoman, her place in history will be unique. There was a Titanic display of\nstrength in everything she did. The storms that raged in her were\ncyclones. Those exposed to them often felt with Solovyoff that if there\nwere holy and sage _Mahatmas_, they could not remain holy and sage, and\nhave anything to do with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. The 'confession' she\nwrote rings with the mingled curses and mad laughter of a crazy mariner\nscuttling his own ship. Yet she could be as tender and sympathetic as any\nmother. Her mastery of some natures seemed complete; and these people she\nworked like galley-slaves in the Theosophical tread mill of her propaganda\nmovement.\n\n\"To these disciples she was the greatest thaumaturgist known to the world\nsince the days of the Christ. The attacks upon her, the Coulomb and\nSolovyoff exposures, the continual newspaper calumnies they look upon as a\ngigantic conspiracy brewed by all the rules of the black art to\ncounteract, and, if possible, to destroy the effect of her work and\nmission.\"\n\n\"Requiescat in Pace,\" O Priestess of Isis, until your next incarnation on\nEarth! The twentieth century will doubtless have need of your services!\nFor the delectation of the curious let me add: the English resting place\nof Madame Blavatsky is designed after the model of an Oriental \"dagoba,\"\nor tomb; the American shrine is a marble niche in the wall of the\nTheosophical headquarters, No. 144 Madison avenue, the ashes reposing in a\nvase standing in the niche behind a hermetically-sealed glass window. The\nOriental shrine in Adyar is a tomb modelled after the world-famous Taj\nMahal, and is built of pink sandstone, surmounted by a small Benares\ncopper spire.\n\n\n4. The Writings of Madame Blavatsky.\n\nMadame Blavatsky is known to the reading world as the writer of two\nvoluminous works of a philosophical or mystical character, explanatory of\nthe Esoteric Doctrine, viz., \"Isis Unveiled,\" published in 1877, and the\n\"Secret Doctrine,\" published in 1888. In the composition of these works\nshe claimed that she was assisted by the Mahatmas who visited her\napartments when she was asleep, and wrote portions of the manuscripts with\ntheir astral hands while their natural bodies reposed entranced in\nThibetan Lamaseries. These fictions were fostered by prominent members of\nthe Theosophical Society, and believed by many credulous persons. \"Isis\nUnveiled\" is a hodge-podge of absurdities, pseudo-science, mythology and\nfolklore, arranged in helter-skelter fashion, with an utter disregard of\nlogical sequence. The fact was that Madame Blavatsky had a very imperfect\nknowledge of English, and this may account for the strange mistakes in\nwhich the volume abounds, despite the aid of the ghostly Mahatmas. William\nEmmette Coleman, of San Francisco, has made an exhaustive analysis of the\nMadame's writings, and declares that \"Isis,\" and the \"Secret Doctrine\" are\nfull of plagiarisms. In \"Isis\" he discovered \"some 2,000 passages copied\nfrom other books without proper credit.\" Speaking of the \"Secret\nDoctrine,\" the master key to the wisdom of the ages, he says: \"The\n'Secret Doctrine' is ostensibly based upon certain stanzas, claimed to\nhave been translated by Madame Blavatsky from the 'Book of Dzyan'--the\noldest book in the world, written in a language unknown to philology. The\n'Book of Dzyan' was the work of Madame Blavatsky--a compilation, in her\nown language, from a variety of sources, embracing the general principles\nof the doctrines and dogmas taught in the 'Secret Doctrine.' I find in\nthis 'oldest book in the world' statements copied from nineteenth century\nbooks, and in the usual blundering manner of Madame Blavatsky. Letters and\nother writings of the adepts are found in the 'Secret Doctrine.' In these\nMahatmic productions I have traced various plagiarized passages from\nWilson's 'Vishnu Purana,' and Winchell's 'World Life'--of like character\nto those in Madame Blavatsky's acknowledged writings. * * * A specimen of\nthe wholesale plagiarisms in this book appears in vol. II., pp. 599-603.\nNearly the whole of four pages was copied from Oliver's 'Pythagorean\nTriangle,' while only a few lines were credited to that work.\"\n\nThose who are interested in Coleman's expos\u00e9 are referred to Appendix C,\nof Solovyoff's book, \"A Modern Priestess of Isis.\" The title of this\nappendix is \"The Sources of Madame Blavatsky's Writings.\" Mr. Coleman is\nat present engaged in the preparation of an elaborate work on the subject,\nwhich will in addition contain an \"expos\u00e9 of Theosophy as a whole.\" It\nwill no doubt prove of interest to students of occultism.\n\n\n5. Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist.\n\nThe funeral of Baron de Palm, conducted according to Theosophical rites,\nis an interesting chapter in the history of the Society, and worth\nrelating.\n\nJoseph Henry Louis Charles, Baron de Palm, Grand Cross Commander of the\nSovereign Order of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and knight of various\norders, was born at Augsburg, May 10, 1809. He came to the United States\nrather late in life, drifted West without any settled occupation, and\nlived from hand to mouth in various Western cities. Finally he located in\nNew York City, broken in health and spirit. He was a man of considerable\nculture and interested to a greater or less extent in the phenomena of\nmodern Spiritualism. A letter of introduction from the editor of the\n_Religio-Philosophical Journal_, of Chicago, made him acquainted with\nCol. Olcott, who introduced him to prominent members of the Theosophical\nSociety. He was elected a member of the Society, eventually becoming a\nmember of the Council. In the year 1875 he died, leaving behind an earnest\nrequest that Col. Olcott \"should perform the last offices in a fashion\nthat would illustrate the Eastern notions of death and immortality.\"[6] He\nalso left directions that his body should be cremated. A great deal of\nexcitement was caused over this affair in orthodox religious circles, and\npublic curiosity was aroused to the highest pitch. The funeral service\nwas, as Madame Blavatsky described it in a letter to a European\ncorrespondent, \"pagan, almost antique pagan.\" The ceremony was held in the\ngreat hall of the Masonic Temple, corner of Twenty-third and Sixth avenue.\nTickets of admission were issued of decidedly occult shape--_triangular_;\nsome black, printed in silver; others drab, printed in black. A crowd of\n2,000 people assembled to witness the obsequies. On the stage was a\n_triangular_ altar, with a symbolical fire burning upon it. The coffin\nstood near by, covered with the orders of knighthood of the deceased. A\nsplendid choir rendered several Orphic hymns composed for the occasion,\nwith organ accompaniment, and Col. Olcott, as Hierophant, made an\ninvocation or _mantram_ \"to the Soul of the World whose breath gives and\nwithdraws the form of everything.\" Death is always solemn, and no subject\nfor levity, yet I must not leave out of this chronicle the unique\nburlesque programme of Baron de Palm's funeral, published by the _New York\nWorld_, the day before the event. Says the _World_:\n\n\"The procession will move in the following order:\n\n\"Col. Olcott as high priest, wearing a leopard skin and carrying a roll of\npapyrus (brown card board).\n\n\"Mr. Cobb, as sacred scribe, with style and tablet.\n\n\"Egyptian mummy-case, borne upon a sledge drawn by four oxen. (Also a\nslave bearing a pot of lubricating oil.)\n\n\"Madame Blavatsky as chief mourner and also bearer of the sistrum. (She\nwill wear a long linen garment extending to the feet, and a girdle about\nthe waist.)\n\n\"Colored boy carrying three Abyssinian geese (Philadelphia chickens) to\nplace upon the bier.\n\n\"Vice-President Felt, with the eye of Osiris painted on his left breast,\nand carrying an asp (bought at a toy store on Eighth avenue.)\n\n\"Dr. Pancoast, singing an ancient Theban dirge:\n\n \"'Isis and Nepthys, beginning and end:\n One more victim to Amenti we send.\n Pay we the fare, and let us not tarry.\n Cross the Styx by the Roosevelt street ferry.'\"\n\n\"Slaves in mourning gowns, carrying the offerings and libations, to\nconsist of early potatoes, asparagus, roast beef, French pan-cakes,\nbock-beer, and New Jersey cider.\n\n\"Treasurer Newton, as chief of the musicians, playing the double pipe.\n\n\"Other musicians performing on eight-stringed harps, tom-toms, etc.\n\n\"Boys carrying a large lotus (sunflower).\n\n\"Librarian Fassit, who will alternate with music by repeating the lines\nbeginning:\n\n \"'Here Horus comes, I see the boat.\n Friends, stay your flowing tears;\n The soul of man goes through a goat\n In just 3,000 years.'\n\n\"At the temple the ceremony will be short and simple. The oxen will be\nleft standing on the sidewalk, with a boy near by to prevent them goring\nthe passers-by. Besides the Theurgic hymn, printed above in full, the\nCoptic National anthem will be sung, translated and adapted to the\noccasion as follows:\n\n \"Sitting Cynocephalus up in a tree,\n I see you, and you see me.\n River full of crocodile, see his long snout!\n Hoist up the shadoof and pull him right out.\"\n\n\n6. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky.\n\nAfter Madame Blavatsky's death, Mrs. Annie Besant assumed the leadership\nof the Theosophical Society, and wore upon her finger a ring that belonged\nto the High Priestess: a ring with a green stone flecked with veins of\nblood red, upon the surface of which was engraved the interlaced triangles\nwithin a circle, with the Indian motto, _Sat_ (Life), the symbol of\nTheosophy. It was given to Madame Blavatsky by her Indian teacher, says\nMrs. Besant, and is very magnetic. The High Priestess on her deathbed\npresented the mystic signet to her successor, and left her in addition\nmany valuable books and manuscripts. The Theosophical Society now numbers\nits adherents by the thousands and has its lodges scattered over the\nUnited States, France, England and India. At the World's Columbian\nExposition it was well represented in the Great Parliament of Religions,\nby Annie Besant, William Q. Judge, of the American branch, and Prof.\nChakravatir, a High Caste Brahmin of India.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 38. PORTRAIT OF MRS. ANNIE BESANT.]\n\nMrs. Besant, in an interview published in the _New York World_, Dec. 11,\n1892, made the following statement concerning Madame Blavatsky's peculiar\npowers:\n\n\"One time she was trying to explain to me the control of the mind over\ncertain currents in the ether about us, and to illustrate she made some\nlittle taps come on my own head. They were accompanied by the sensation\none experiences on touching an electric battery. I have frequently seen\nher draw things to her simply by her will, without touching them. Indeed,\nshe would often check herself when strangers were about. It was natural\nfor her, when she wanted a book that was on the table, to simply draw it\nto her by her power of mind, as it would be for you to reach out your hand\nto pick it up. And so, as I say, she often had to check herself, for she\nwas decidedly adverse to making a show of her power. In fact, that is\ncontrary to the law of the brotherhood to which she belonged. This law\nforbids them to make use of their power except as an instruction to their\npupils or as an aid to the spreading of the truth. An adept may never use\nhis knowledge for his personal advantage. He may be starving, and despite\nhis ability to materialize banquets he may not supply himself with a crust\nof bread. This is what is meant in the Gospel when it says: 'He saved\nothers, Himself He cannot save.'\n\n\"One time she had written an article and as usual she gave me her\nmanuscript to look over.\n\n\"Sometimes she wrote very good grammatic English and again she wrote very\nslovenly English. So she always had me go over her manuscript. In reading\nthis particular one I found a long quotation of some twenty or thirty\nlines. When I finished it I went to her and said: 'Where in the world did\nyou get that quotation?'\n\n\"'I got it from an Indian newspaper of --,' naming the date.\n\n\"'But,' I said, 'that paper cannot be in this country yet! How did you get\nhold of it?'\n\n\"'Oh, I got it, dear,' she said, with a little laugh; 'that's enough.'\n\n\"Of course I understood then. When the time came for the paper to arrive,\nI thought I would verify her quotation, so I asked her for the name, the\ndate of the issue and the page on which the quotation would be found. She\ntold me, giving me, we will say, 45 as the number of the page. I went to\nthe agent, looked up the paper and there was no such quotation on page 45.\nThen I remembered that things seen in the astral light are reversed, so I\nturned the number around, looked on page 54 and there was the quotation.\nWhen I went home I told her that it was all right, but that she had given\nme the wrong page.\n\n\"'Very likely,' she said. 'Someone came in just as I was finishing it, and\nI may have forgotten to reverse the number.'\n\n\"You see, anything seen in the astral light is reversed, as if you saw it\nin a mirror, while anything seen clairvoyantly is straight.\"\n\nThe elevation of Mrs. Besant to the High Priestess-ship of the\nTheosophical Society was in accord with the spirit of the age--an\nacknowledgment of the Eternal Feminine; but it did not bring repose to the\norganization. William Q. Judge, of the American branch, began dabbling, it\nis claimed, in Mahatma messages on his own account, and charges were made\nagainst him by Mrs. Besant. A bitter warfare was waged in Theosophical\njournals, and finally the American branch of the general society seceded,\nand organized itself into the American Theosophical Society. Judge was\nmade life-president and held the post until his death, in New York City,\nMarch 21st, 1896. His body was cremated and the ashes sealed in an urn,\nwhich was deposited in the Society's rooms, No. 144 Madison avenue.\n\nFive weeks after the death of Judge, the Theosophical Society held its\nannual conclave in New York City, and elected E. T. Hargrove as the\npresiding genius of esoteric wisdom in the United States. It was\noriginally intended to hold this convention in Chicago, but the change was\nmade for a peculiar reason. As the press reported the circumstance, \"it\nwas the result of a request by a mysterious adept whose existence had been\nunsuspected, and who made known his wish in a communication to the\nexecutive committee.\" It seems that the Theosophical Society is composed\nof two bodies, the exoteric and the esoteric. The first holds open\nmeetings for the discussion of ethical and Theosophical subjects, and the\nsecond meets privately, being composed of a secret body of adepts, learned\nin occultism and possessing remarkable spiritual powers. The chief of the\nsecret order is appointed by the Mahatmas, on account, it is claimed, of\nhis or her occult development. Madame Blavatsky was the High Priestess in\nthis inner temple during her lifetime, and was succeeded by Hierophant W.\nQ. Judge. When Judge died, it seems there was no one thoroughly qualified\nto take his place as the head of the esoteric branch, until an examination\nwas made of his papers. Then came a surprise. Judge had named as his\nsuccessor a certain obscure individual whom he claimed to be a great\nadept, requesting that the name be kept a profound secret for a specified\ntime. In obedience to this injunction, the Great Unknown was elected as\nchief of the Inner Brother-and-Sisterhood. All of this made interesting\ncopy for the New York journalists, and columns were printed about the\naffair. Another surprise came when the convention of exoterics\n(\"hysterics,\" as some of the papers called them) subscribed $25,000 for\nthe founding of an occult temple in this country. But the greatest\nsurprise of all was a Theosophical wedding. The De Palm funeral fades away\ninto utter insignificance beside this mystic marriage. The contracting\nparties were Claude Falls Wright, formerly secretary to Madame Blavatsky,\nand Mary C. L. Leonard, daughter of Anna Byford Leonard, one of the best\nknown Theosophists in the West. The ceremony was performed at Aryan Hall,\nNo. 144 Madison avenue, N. Y., in the presence of the occult body.\nOutsiders were not admitted. However, public curiosity was partly\ngratified by sundry crumbs of information thrown out by the Theosophical\npress bureau.\n\nThe young couple stood beneath a seven-pointed star, made of electric\nlight globes, and plighted their troth amid clouds of odoriferous incense.\nThen followed weird chantings and music by an occult orchestra composed of\nviolins and violoncellos. The unknown adept presided over the affair, as\nspecial envoy of the Mahatmas. He was enveloped from head to foot in a\nthick white veil, said the papers.\n\nMr. Wright and his bride-elect declared solemnly that they remembered many\nof their former incarnations; their marriage had really taken place in\nEgypt, 5,000 years ago in one of the mysterious temples of that strange\ncountry, and the ceremony had been performed by the priests of Isis. Yes,\nthey remembered it all! It seemed but as yesterday! They recalled with\nvividness the scene: their march up the avenue of monoliths; the lotus\nflowers strewn in their path by rosy children; the intoxicating perfume\nof the incense, burned in bronze braziers by shaven-headed priests; the\nhieroglyphics, emblematical of life, death and resurrection, painted upon\nthe temple walls; the Hierophant in his gorgeous vestments. Oh, what a\ndream of Old World splendor and beauty!\n\nBefore many months had passed, the awful secret of the Veiled Adept's\nidentity was revealed. The Great Unknown turned out to be a _she_ instead\nof a _he_ adept--a certain Mrs. Katherine Alice Tingley, of New York City.\nThe reporters began ringing the front door bell of the adept's house in\nthe vain hope of obtaining an interview, but the newly-hatched Sphinx\nturned a deaf ear to their entreaties. The time was not yet ripe for\nrevelations. Her friends, however, rushed into print, and told the most\nmarvellous stories of her mediumship.\n\nW. T. Stead, the English journalist and student of psychical research,\nreviewing the Theosophical convention and its outcome, says (_Borderland_,\nJuly, 1896, p. 306): \"The Judgeite seceders from the Theosophical Society\nheld their annual convention in New York, April 26th to 27th. They have\nelected a young man, Mr. Ernest T. Hargrove, as their president. A former\nspiritual medium and clairvoyant, by name Katherine Alice Tingley, who\nclaims to have been bosom friends with H. P. B. 1200 years B. C., when\nboth were incarnated in Egypt, is, however, the grand Panjandrum of the\ncause. Her first husband was a detective, her second is a clerk in the\nWhite Lead Company's office in Brooklyn.\n\n\"According to Mr. Hargrove she is--'The new adept; she was appointed by\nMr. Judge, and we are going to sustain her, as we sustained him, for we\nknow her important connection in Egypt, Mexico and Europe.'\"\n\nIn the spring of 1896, Mrs. Tingley, accompanied by a number of prominent\noccultists, started on a crusade through the world to bring the truths of\nTheosophy to the toiling millions. The crusaders before their departure\nwere presented with a purple silk banner, bearing the legend: \"Truth,\nLight, Liberation for Discouraged Humanity.\" The _New York Herald_ (Aug.\n16, 1896) says of this crusade:\n\n\"When Mrs. Tingley and the other crusaders left this country nothing had\nbeen heard of the claim of the reincarnated Blavatsky. Now, however, this\nidea is boldly advanced in England by the American branch of the society\nthere, and in America by Burcham Harding, the acting head of the society\nin this country. When Mr. Harding was seen at the Theosophical\nheadquarters, he said:\n\n\"'Yes, Mme. Blavatsky is reincarnated in Mrs. Tingley. She has not only\nbeen recognized by myself and other members of the American branch of the\nTheosophical Society, who knew H. P. B. in her former life, but the\nstriking physical and facial resemblance has also been noted by members of\nthe English branch.'\n\n\"But this recognition by the English members of the society does not seem\nto be as strong as Mr. Harding would seem to have it understood. In fact,\nthere are a number of members of that branch who boldly declare that Mrs.\nTingley is an impostor. One of them, within the last week, addressing the\nEnglish members on the subject, claimed that Mme. Blavatsky had foreseen\nthat such an impostor would arise. He said:\n\n\"'When Mme. Blavatsky lived in her body among us, she declared to all her\ndisciples that, in her next reincarnation, she would inhabit the body of\nan Eastern man, and she warned them to be on their guard against any\nassertion made by mediums or others that they were controlled by her.\nWhatever H. P. B. lacked, she never wanted emphasis, and no one who knew\nanything of the founder of the Theosophical Society was left in any doubt\nas to her views upon this question. She declared that if any persons,\nafter her death, should claim that she was speaking through them, her\nfriends might be quite sure that it was a lie. Imagine, then, the feelings\nof H. P. B.'s disciples on being presented with an American clairvoyant\nmedium, in the shape of Mrs. Tingley, who is reported to claim that H. P.\nB. is reincarnated in her.'\n\n\"The American branch of the society is not at all disturbed by this charge\nof fraud by the English branch. In connection with it Mr. Harding says:\n\n\"'It is true that the American branch of the Theosophical Society has\nseceded from the English branch, but as Mme. Blavatsky, the founder, was\nin reality an American, it can be understood why we consider ourselves the\nparent society.'\n\n\"Of the one letter which Mrs. Tingley has sent to America since the\narrival of the crusaders, the English Theosophists are a unit in the\nexpression of opinion that it illustrated, as did her speech in Queen's\nHall, merely 'unmeaning platitudes and prophecies.' But the American\nmembers are quite as loud in their expressions that the English members\nare trying to win the sympathies of the public, and that the words are\nreally understood by the initiate.\n\n\"The letter reads: 'In thanking you for the many kind letters addressed to\nme as Katherine Tingley, as well as by other names that would not be\nunderstood by the general public, I should like to say a few words as to\nthe future and its possibilities. Many of you are destined to take an\nactive part in the work that the future will make manifest, and it is well\nto press onward with a clear knowledge of the path to be trodden and with\na clear vision of the goal to be reached.\n\n\"'The path to be trodden is both exterior and interior, and in order to\nreach the goal it is necessary to tread these paths with strength,\ncourage, faith and the essence of them all, which is wisdom.\n\n\"'For these two paths, which fundamentally are one, like every duality in\nnature, are winding paths, and now lead through sunlight, then through\ndeepest shade. During the last few years the large majority of students\nhave been rounding a curve in the paths of both inner and outer work, and\nthis wearied many. But those who persevered and faltered not will soon\nreap their reward.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 39. PORTRAIT OF MRS. TINGLEY.\n\n[Reproduced by courtesy of the _New York Herald_.]]\n\n\"'The present is pregnant with the promise of the near future, and that\nfuture is brighter than could be believed by those who have so recently\nbeen immersed in the shadows that are inevitable in cyclic progress. Can\nwords describe it? I think not. But if you will think of the past twenty\nyears of ploughing and sowing and will keep in your mind the tremendous\nforce that has been scattered broadcast throughout the world, you must\nsurely see that the hour for reaping is near at hand, if it has not\nalready come.\"\n\nThe invasion of English territory by the American crusaders was resented\nby the British Theosophists. The advocates of universal brotherhood waged\nbitter warfare against each other in the newspapers and periodicals. It\ngradually resolved itself into a struggle for supremacy between the two\nrival claimants for the mantle of Madame Blavatsky, Mrs. Annie Besant and\nMrs. Tingley. Each Pythoness ascended her sacred tripod and hysterically\ndenounced the other as an usurper, and false prophetess. Annie Besant\nsought to disprove the idea of Madame Blavatsky having re-incarnated\nherself in the body of Mrs. Tingley. She claimed that the late High\nPriestess had taken up her earthly pilgrimage again in the person of a\nlittle Hindoo boy, who lived somewhere on the banks of the Ganges. The\npuzzling problem was this: If Mrs. Tingley was Mme. Blavatsky, where was\nMrs. Tingley? Oedipus would have gone mad trying to solve this Sphinx\nriddle.\n\nThe crusade finished, Mrs. Tingley, with her purple banner returned to New\nYork, where she was royally welcomed by her followers. In the wake of the\nAmerican adept came the irrepressible Annie Besant, accompanied by a\nsister Theosophist, the Countess Constance Wachmeister. Mrs. Besant,\ngarbed in a white linen robe of Hindoo pattern, lectured on occult\nsubjects to crowded houses in the principal cities of the East and West.\nIn the numerous interviews accorded her by the press, she ridiculed the\nBlavatsky-Tingley re-incarnation theory. By kind permission of the _New\nYork Herald_, I reproduce a portrait of Mrs. Tingley. The reader will find\nit interesting to compare this sketch with the photograph of Madame\nBlavatsky given in this book. He will notice at once how much the two\noccultists do resemble each other; both are grossly fat, puffy of face,\nwith heavy-lidded eyes and rather thick lips.\n\n\n7. The Theosophical Temple.\n\nIf all the dreams of the Theosophical Society are fulfilled we shall see,\nat no distant date, in the state of California, a sombre and mysterious\nbuilding, fashioned after an Egyptian temple, its pillars covered with\nhieroglyphic symbols, and its ponderous pylons flanking the gloomy\nentrance. Twin obelisks will stand guard at the gateway and huge bronze\nsphinxes stare the tourist out of countenance. The Theosophical temple\nwill be constructed \"upon certain mysterious principles, and the numbers 7\nand 13 will play a prominent part in connection with the dimensions of the\nrooms and the steps of the stairways.\" The Hierophants of occultism will\nassemble here, weird initiations like those described in Moore's\n\"Epicurean\" will take place, and the doctrines of Hindoo pantheism will be\nexpounded to the Faithful. The revival of the Egyptian mysteries seems to\nbe one of the objects aimed at in the establishment of this mystical\ncollege. Just what the Egyptian Mysteries were is a mooted question among\nEgyptologists. But this does not bother the modern adept.\n\nMr. Bucham Harding, the leading exponent of Theosophy mentioned above,\nsays that within the temple the neophyte will be brought face to face with\nhis own soul. \"By what means cannot be revealed; but I may say that the\nobject of initiation will be to raise the consciousness of the pupil to a\nplane where he will see and know his own divine soul and consciously\ncommunicate with it. Once gained, this power is never lost. From this it\ncan be seen that occultism is not so unreal as many think, and that the\nexistence of soul is susceptible of actual demonstration. No one will be\nreceived into the mysteries until, by means of a long and severe\nprobation, he has proved nobility of character. Only persons having\nTheosophical training will be eligible, but as any believer in brotherhood\nmay become a Theosophist, all earnest truthseekers will have an\nopportunity of admission.\n\n\"The probation will be sufficiently severe to deter persons seeking to\ngratify curiosity from trying to enter. No trifler could stand the test.\nThere will be a number of degrees. Extremely few will be able to enter the\nhighest, as eligibility to it requires eradication of every human fault\nand weakness. Those strong enough to pass through this become adepts.\"\n\nThe Masonic Fraternity, with its 33d degree and its elaborate initiations,\nwill have to look to its laurels, as soon as the Theosophical College of\nMystery is in good running order. Everyone loves mysteries, especially\nwhen they are of the Egyptian kind. Cagliostro, the High Priest of Humbug,\nknew this when he evolved the Egyptian Rite of Masonry, in the eighteenth\ncentury. Speaking of Freemasonry, it is interesting to note the fact, as\nstated by Colonel Olcott in \"Old Diary Leaves,\" that Madame Blavatsky and\nher coadjutors once seriously debated the question as to the advisability\nof engrafting the Theosophical Society on the Masonic fraternity, as a\nsort of higher degree,--Masonry representing the lesser mysteries, modern\nTheosophy the greater mysteries. But little encouragement was given to the\nPriestess of Isis by eminent Freemasons, for Masonry has always been the\nadvocate of theistic doctrines, and opposed to the pantheistic cult. At\nanother time, the leaders of Theosophy talked of imitating Masonry by\nhaving degrees, an elaborate ritual, etc.; also pass words, signs and\ngrips, in order that \"one _occult_ brother might know another in the\ndarkness as well as in the _astral_ light.\" This, however, was abandoned.\nThe founding of the Temple of Magic and Mystery in this country, with\nceremonies of initiation, etc., seems to me to be a palingenesis of Mme.\nBlavatsky's ideas on the subject of occult Masonry.\n\n\n8. Conclusions.\n\nThe temple of modern Theosophy, the foundation of which was laid by Madame\nBlavatsky, rests upon the truth of the Mahatma stories. Disbelieve these,\nand the entire structure falls to the ground like a house of cards. After\nthe numerous exposures, recorded in the preceding chapters, it is\ndifficult to place any reliance in the accounts of Mahatmic miracles.\nThere may, or may not, be sages in the East, acquainted with spiritual\nlaws of being, but that these masters, or adepts, used Madame Blavatsky as\na medium to announce certain esoteric doctrines to the Western world, is\nexceedingly dubious.\n\nThe first work of any literary pretensions to call attention to Theosophy\nwas Sinnett's \"Esoteric Buddhism.\" Of that production, William Emmette\nColeman says:\n\n\"'Esoteric Buddhism,' by A. P. Sinnett, was based upon statements\ncontained in letters received by Mr. Sinnett and Mr. A. O. Hume, through\nMadame Blavatsky, purporting to be written by the Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and\nMorya--principally the former. Mr. Richard Hodgson has kindly lent me a\nconsiderable number of the original letters of the Mahatmas that leading\nto the production of 'Esoteric Buddhism.' I find in them overwhelming\nevidence that all of them were written by Madame Blavatsky. In these\nletters are a number of extracts from Buddhist Books, alleged to be\ntranslations from the originals by the Mahatmic writers themselves. These\nletters claim for the adepts a knowledge of Sanskrit, Thibetan, Pali and\nChinese. I have traced to its source each quotation from the Buddhist\nScriptures in the letters, and they were all copied from current English\ntranslations, including even the notes and explanations of the English\ntranslators. They were principally copied from Beal's 'Catena of Buddhist\nScriptures from the Chinese.' In other places where the 'adept' is using\nhis own language in explanation of Buddhistic terms and ideas, I find that\nhis presumed original language was copied nearly word for word from Rhys\nDavids' 'Buddhism,' and other books. I have traced every Buddhistic idea\nin these letters and in 'Esoteric Buddhism,' and every Buddhistic term,\nsuch as Devachan, Avitchi, etc., to the books whence Helena Petrovna\nBlavatsky derived them. Although said to be proficient in the knowledge of\nThibetan and Sanskrit the words and terms in these languages in the\nletters of the adepts were nearly all used in a ludicrously erroneous and\nabsurd manner. The writer of those letters was an ignoramus in Sanskrit\nand Thibetan; and the mistakes and blunders in them, in these languages,\nare in exact accordance with the known ignorance of Madame Blavatsky\nconcerning these languages. 'Esoteric Buddhism,' like all of Madame\nBlavatsky's works, was based upon wholesale plagiarism and ignorance.\"\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 40. MADAME BLAVATSKY'S AUTOGRAPH.]\n\nMadame Blavatsky never succeeded in penetrating into Thibet, in whose\nsacred \"lamaseries\" and temples dwell the wonderful Mahatmas of modern\nTheosophy, but William Woodville Rockhill, the American traveller and\nOriental scholar, did, and we have a record of his adventures in \"The Land\nof the Laas,\" published in 1891. While at Serkok, he visited a famous\nmonastery inhabited by 700 lamas. He says (page 102): \"They asked endless\nquestions concerning the state of Buddhism in foreign lands. They were\nastonished that it no longer existed in India, and that the church of\nCeylon was so like the ancient Buddhist one. When told of our esoteric\nBuddhists, the Mahatmas, and of the wonderful doctrines they claimed to\nhave obtained from Thibet, they were immensely amused. They declared that\nthough in ancient times there were, doubtless, saints and sages who could\nperform some of the miracles now claimed by the Esoterists, none were\nliving at the present day; and they looked upon this new school as rankly\nheretical, and as something approaching an imposition on our credulity.\"\n\n\"Isis Unveiled,\" and the \"Secret Doctrine,\" by Madame Blavatsky, are\nsupposed to contain the completest exposition of Theosophy, or the inner\nspiritual meaning of the great religious cults of the world, but, as we\nhave seen, they are full of plagiarisms and garbled statements, to say\nnothing of \"spurious quotations from Buddhist sacred books, manufactured\nby the writer to embody her own peculiar views, under the fictitious guise\nof genuine Buddhism.\" This last quotation from Coleman strikes the keynote\nof the whole subject. Esoteric Buddhism is a product of Occidental\nmanufacture, a figment of Madame Blavatsky's romantic imagination, and by\nno means represents the truth of Oriental philosophy.\n\nAs Max Mueller, one of the greatest living Oriental scholars, has\nrepeatedly stated, any attempt to read into Oriental thought our Western\nscience and philosophy or to reconcile them, is futile to a degree; the\ntwo schools are as opposite to each other, as the negative and positive\npoles of a magnet, Orientalism representing the former, Occidentalism, the\nlatter. Oriental philosophy with its Indeterminate Being (or pure nothing\nas the Absolute) ends in the utter negation of everything and affords no\nclue to the secret of the Universe. If to believe that all is _maya_,\n(illusion), and that to be one with Brahma (absorbed like the rain drop in\nthe ocean) constitutes the _summum bonum_ of thinking, then there is no\nexplanation of, or use for, evolution or progress of any kind. The effect\nof Hindoo philosophy has been stagnation, indifferentism, and, as a\nresult, the Hindoo has no recorded history, no science, no art worthy the\nname. Compared to it see what Greek philosophy has done: it has\ntransformed the Western world: Starting with Self-Determined Being,\nreason, self-activity, at the heart of the Universe, and the creation of\nindividual souls by a process of evolution in time and space, and the\nunfolding of a splendid civilization are logical consequences. In the\nEast, it is the destruction of self-hood; in the West the destruction of\nselfishness, and the preservation of self-hood.\n\nMany noted Theosophists claim that modern Theosophy is not a religious\ncult, but simply an exposition of the esoteric, or inner spiritual meaning\nof the great religious teachers of the world. Let me quote what Solovyoff\nsays on this point:\n\n\"The Theosophical Society shockingly deceived those who joined it as\nmembers, in reliance on the regulations. It gradually grew evident that it\nwas no universal scientific brotherhood, to which the followers of all\nreligions might with a clear conscience belong, but a group of persons who\nhad begun to preach in their organ, _The Theosophist_, and in their other\npublications, a mixed religious doctrine. Finally, in the last years of\nMadame Blavatsky's life, even this doctrine gave place to a direct and\nopen propaganda of the most orthodox exoteric Buddhism, under the motto of\n'Our Lord Buddha,' combined with incessant attacks on Christianity. * * *\nNow, in 1893, as the direct effect of this cause, we see an entire\nreligious movement, we see a prosperous and growing plantation of Buddhism\nin Western Europe.\"\n\nAs a last word let me add that if, in my opinion, modern Theosophy has no\nright to the high place it claims in the world of thought, it has\nperformed its share in the noble fight against the crass materialism of\nour day, and, freed from the frauds that have too long darkened its\npoetical aspects, it may yet help to diffuse through the world the pure\nlight of brotherly love and spiritual development.\n\n\n\n\nList of Works Consulted in the Preparation of this Volume\n\n\nAKSAKOFF, ALEXANDER N. =Animism and Spiritism=: an attempt at a critical\ninvestigation of mediumistic phenomena, with special reference to the\nhypotheses of hallucination and of the unconscious; an answer to Dr. E.\nvon Hartmann's work, \"Der Spiritismus.\" 2 vols. Leipsic, 1890. 8vo. (A\nprofoundly interesting work by an impartial Russian savant. Judicial,\ncritical and scientific.)\n\nAZAM, DR. =Hypnotisme et Alt\u00e9rations de la Personnalit\u00e9.= Paris, 1887.\n8vo.\n\nBERNHEIM, HIPPOLYTE. =Suggestive Therapeutics=: A study of the nature and\nuse of hypnotism. Translated from the French. New York, 1889. 4to.\n\nBINET, A. AND F\u00c9R\u00c9, C. =Animal Magnetism.= Translated from the French. New\nYork, 1888.\n\nBLAVATSKY, MADAME H\u00c9L\u00c8NE PETROVNA HAHN-HAHN. =Isis Unveiled=: A Master-key\nto the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology. 6th ed. New\nYork, 1891. 2 vols. 8vo. (A heterogeneous mass of poorly digested\nquotations from writers living and dead, with running remarks by Mme.\nBlavatsky. A hodge-podge of magic, masonry, and Oriental witchcraft.\nPseudo-scientific.)\n\n------ =The Secret Doctrine=: The Synthesis of science, religion, and\nphilosophy. 2 vols. New York, 1888. 8vo. (Philosophical in character. A\nreading of Western thought into Oriental religions and symbolisms.\nSo-called quotations from the \"Book of Dzyan,\" manufactured by the\ningenious mind of the authoress.)\n\nCROCQ FILS, DR. =L'hypnotisme.= Paris, 1896. 4to. (An exhaustive work on\nhypnotism in all its phases.)\n\nCROOKES, WILLIAM. =Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism.= London,\n1876. 8vo, (pamphlet).\n\n------ =Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism.= London, 1875. 8vo,\n(pamphlet). (Very interesting exposition of experiments made with D. D.\nHome, the spirit medium.)\n\nDAVENPORT, R. B. =Death Blow to Spiritualism=: True story of the Fox\nsisters. New York, 1888. 8vo.\n\nDESSOIR, MAX. =The Psychology of Legerdemain.= _Open Court_, vol. vii.\n\nGARRETT, EDMUND. =Isis Very Much Unveiled=: Being the story of the great\nMahatma hoax. London, 1895. 8vo.\n\nGASPARIN, COMTE AG\u00c9NOR DE. =Des Tables Tournantes, du Surnaturel et des\nEsprits.= Paris, 1854. 8vo.\n\nGATCHELL, CHARLES. The methods of mind-readers. _Forum_, vol. xi, pp.\n192-204.\n\nGIBIER, DR. PAUL. =Le Spiritisme= (fakirisme occidental). \u00c9tude\nhistorique, critique et exp\u00e9rimentale. Paris, 1889. 8vo.\n\nGURNEY, E., MYERS, F. W., AND PODMORE, F. =Phantasms of the Living.= 2\nvols. London, 1887. (Embodies the investigations of the Society for\nPsychical Research into Spiritualism, Telepathy, Thought-transference,\netc.)\n\nHAMMOND, DR. W. H. =Spiritualism and Nervous Derangement.= New York, 1876.\n8vo.\n\nHARDINGE-BRITTAN, EMMA. =History of Spiritualism.= New York. 4to.\n\nHART, ERNEST. =Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New Witchcraft.= London, 1893.\n8vo. (Scientific and critical. Anti-spiritualistic in character.)\n\nHOME, D. D. =Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism.= New York, 1878. 8vo.\n\nHUDSON, THOMAS JAY. =The Law of Psychic Phenomena.= New York, 1894. 8vo.\n\n------ =A Scientific Demonstration of the Future Life.= Chicago, 1895.\n8vo.\n\nJAMES, WILLIAM. =Psychology.= New York, 1892. 8vo, 2 vols.\n\nJASTROW, JOSEPH. =Involuntary Movements.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol.\nxl, pp. 743-750. (Interesting account of experiments made in a\nPsychological Laboratory to demonstrate \"the readiness with which normal\nindividuals may be made to yield evidence of unconscious and involuntary\nprocesses.\" Throws considerable light on muscle-reading,\nplanchette-writing, etc.)\n\n------ =The Psychology of Deception.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol.\nxxxiv, pp. 145-157.\n\n------ =The Psychology of Spiritualism.= _Popular Science Monthly_, vol.\nxxxiv, pp. 721-732.\n\n (A series of articles of great value to students of psychical\n research.)\n\nKRAFFT-EBING, R. =Experimental Study in the Domain of Hypnotism.= New\nYork, 1889.\n\nLEAF, WALTER. =A Modern Priestess of Isis=; abridged and translated on\nbehalf of the Society for Psychical Research, from the Russian of Vsevolod\nS. Solovyoff. London, 1895. 8vo.\n\nLILLIE, ARTHUR. =Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophy.= London, 1896. 8vo.\n\nLIPPITT, F. J. =Physical Proofs of Another Life=: Letters to the Seybert\ncommission. Washington, D. C., 1888. 8vo.\n\nMACAIRE, SID. =Mind-Reading, or Muscle-Reading?= London, 1889.\n\nMOLL, ALBERT. =Hypnotism.= New York, 1892. 8vo.\n\nMATTISON, REV. H. =Spirit-rapping Unveiled.= An Expos\u00e9 of the origin,\nhistory theology and philosophy of certain alleged communications from the\nspiritual world by means of \"spirit-rapping,\" \"medium writing,\" \"physical\ndemonstrations,\" etc. New York, 1855. 8vo.\n\nMYERS, F. W. H. =Science and a Future Life=, and other essays. London,\n1891. 8vo.\n\nOCHOROWICZ, DR. J. =Mental Suggestion= (with a preface by Prof. Charles\nRichet). From the French by J. Fitz-Gerald. New York, 1891. 8vo.\n\nOLCOTT, HENRY S. =Old Diary Leaves.= New York, 1895. 8vo. (Full of wildly\nimprobable incidents in the career of Madame Blavatsky. Valuable on\naccount of its numerous quotations from American journals concerning the\nearly history of the theosophical movement in the United States.)\n\nPODMORE, FRANK S. =Apparitions and Thought-Transference=: Examination of\nthe evidence of telepathy. New York, 1894. 8vo. (A thoughtful scientific\nwork on a profoundly interesting subject.)\n\nREVELATIONS OF A SPIRIT MEDIUM; or, =Spiritualistic Mysteries Exposed=.\nSt. Paul, Minn., 1891. 8vo. (One of the best expos\u00e9s of physical phenomena\npublished.)\n\nROBERT-HOUDIN, J. E. =The Secrets of Stage Conjuring.= From the French, by\nProf. Hoffmann. New York, 1881. 8vo. (A full account of the performances\nof the Davenport Bros. in Paris, by the most famous of contemporary\nconjurers.)\n\nROARK, RURICK N. =Psychology in Education.= New York, 1895. 8vo.\n\nROCKHILL, WM. W. =The Land of the Lamas.= New York, 1891. 8vo.\n\nSEYBERT COMMISSION ON SPIRITUALISM. =Preliminary Report.= New York, 1888.\n8vo. (Absolutely anti-spiritualistic. The psychical phases of the subject\nnot considered.)\n\nSIDGWICK, MRS. H. =Article \"Spiritualism\" in \"Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica,\"=\nvol. 22. (An excellent resum\u00e9 of spiritualism, its history and phenomena.)\n\nSINNETT, A. P. (_Ed._) =Incidents in the life of Mme. Blavatsky.= London,\n1886. 8vo. (Interesting, but replete with wildly improbable incidents,\netc. Of little value as a life of the famous occultist.)\n\n------ =The Occult World.= London, 1885. 8vo.\n\n------ =Esoteric Buddhism.= London, 1888. 8vo.\n\nSOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH: =Proceedings.= Vols. 1-11. [1882-95.]\nLondon, 1882-95. 8vo. (The most exhaustive researches yet set on foot by\nimpartial investigators. Scientific in character, and invaluable to the\nstudent. Psychical phases of spiritualism mostly dealt with.)\n\nTRUESDELL, JOHN W. =The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of\nSpiritualism=: Derived from careful investigations covering a period of\ntwenty-five years. New York, 1883. 8vo. (Anti-spiritualistic. Expos\u00e9s of\nphysical phenomena: psychography, rope-tests, etc. Of its kind, a valuable\ncontribution to the literature of the subject.)\n\nWEATHERLY, DR. L. A., AND MASKELYNE, J. N. =The Supernatural.= Bristol,\nEng., 1891. 8vo.\n\nWILLMANN, CARL. =Moderne Wunder.= Leipsic, 1892. 8vo. (Contains\ninteresting accounts of Dr. Slade's Berlin and Leipsic experiences. It is\nwritten by a professional conjurer. Anti-spiritualistic.)\n\nWOODBURY, WALTER E. =Photographic Amusements.= New York, 1896. 8vo.\n(Contains some interesting accounts of so-called spirit photography.)\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Introduction to Herrmann the Magician, his Life, his Secrets, (Laird &\nLee, Publishers.)\n\n[2] Spiritualism and nervous derangement, New York, 1876. p. 115.\n\n[3] The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of Spiritualism, etc., New\nYork, 1883.\n\n[4] Communication to _New York Sun_, 1892.\n\n[5] NOTE--These letters were purchased from the _Christian College\nMagazine_ by Dr. Elliot Coues, of Washington, D. C.\n\n[6] \"Old Diary Leaves\"--_Olcott_.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nPassages in italics are indicated by _italics_.\n\nPassages in bold are indicated by =bold=.","title":"Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth Century Witchcraft: Illustrated Investigations into the Phenomena of Spiritualism and Theosophy","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":53404}