Robert Browning made him the subject of his celebrated satirical poem, “Mr. Sludge, the Medium.”

Some of the most celebrated scientific and literary personages of England became interested in his mysterious abilities, and among his intimate friends were the Earl of Dunraven, Mary Howitt, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Prof. Wallace, and Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. There is good authority for believing that Home was the mysterious Margrave of Bulwer’s weird novel, “A Strange Story.” Bulwer was an ardent believer in the supernatural and Home spent many days at Knebworth amid a select coterie of ghost-seers. The famous novelist relates that as Home sat with him in the library of Knebworth, conversing upon politics, social matters, books or other chance topics, the chairs rocked and the tables were suspended in mid-air.

When the medium was requested to exert his power and found himself in condition, it is alleged, he would rise and float about the room. This in Spiritualistic parlance is termed “levitation”. At Knebworth and other places, some of the most prominent people of the day claim to have seen Home lift himself up and sail tranquilly out of a window, around the house, and come in by another window.

The Earl of Dunraven told many stories equally strange of performances that were given in his presence. The Earl declared that he had many times seen Home elongate and shorten his body, and cause the closed piano to play by putting his fingers on the lid.

FIG. 7—HOME AT THE TUILERIES.

In the autumn of 1855 the famous medium went to Florence; there, also, the spirit manifestations secured him the entree into the best society of the old Italian city. In his memoirs he speaks of an incident occurring through his mediumship, at a séance given in Florence: “Upon one occasion, while the Countess C— was seated at one of Erard’s grand-action pianos, it rose and balanced itself in the air, during the whole time she was playing.” An English lady, resident at Florence, in a supposed haunted house, procured the services of Home to exorcise the ghost. They sat at a table in the sitting-room, and raps were heard proceeding from that piece of furniture, and rustling sounds in the room as of a person moving about in a heavy garment. The spirit being adjured in the name of the “Holy Trinity” to leave the premises, the demonstrations ceased.

In February, 1856, the medium joined the retinue of Count B—, a Polish nobleman, and went to Naples with his patron. From Naples to Rome was the next step, and, in the Eternal City, the medium joined the Romish Church, and was adjured by the Pope to abandon spirit séances forever. In 1858 we find Home in St. Petersburg, where he married the youngest daughter of General Count de Kroll, of Russia, and a goddaughter of the Emperor Nicholas, the marriage taking place on Sunday, August 1, 1858, in the private chapel attached to the house of the lady’s brother-in-law, the Count Gregoire Koucheleff-Besborodko. It was a very notable affair, and Alexander Dumas came from Paris to attend the ceremony. Home’s spirit power which had left him since his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith now returned in full force, it is said, and he saw standing near him at the wedding the spirit form of his mother. In 1862 his wife died at the Chateau Laroche, near Perigneux, France, and the medium repaired to Rome for the purpose of studying sculpture. The reports of the spirit phenomena constantly attending Home’s presence reached the ears of the Papal authorities and he was compelled to leave the city, notwithstanding the fact that he gave positive assurance that he would give no séance. He was actually charged with being a sorcerer, like Cagliostro, an accusation that reads very strange in the Nineteenth Century. This affair embittered Home against the Church, and he abandoned Roman Catholicism for the Greek Church.

After the Roman fiasco, the famous medium returned to England to give Spiritualistic lectures and séances. A writer in “All the Year Round”, gives the following pen picture of the medium, as he appeared in 1866: “He is a tall, thin man, with broad square shoulders, suggestive of a suit of clothes hung upon an iron cross. His hair is long and yellow; his teeth are large, glittering and sharp; his eyes are a pale grey, with a redness about the eye-lids, which comes and goes in a ghastly manner, as he talks. When he shows his glittering sharp teeth, and that red line comes round his slowly rolling eyes, he is not a pleasant sight to look upon. His hands are long, white and bony, and on taking them you discover that they are icy cold.” A suit of clothes hung upon an iron cross is a weird touch in this pen picture.

Home about this time intended going upon the stage, but abandoned the idea to become the secretary of the “Spiritual Atheneum”, a society formed for the investigation of psychic phenomena.

One of the most notable passages in the life of the great medium was the famous law suit in which he was concerned in England. In 1866 he became acquainted with a wealthy lady, Mrs. Jane Lyons. In his role of medium she consulted him constantly about the welfare of her husband in the spirit world, and her business affairs. She gave him £33,000 for his services. Relatives and friends of Mrs. Lyons, however, saw in Home a cunning adventurer who was preying upon a weak-minded woman. A suit was instituted against the medium to recover the money, and the case became a cause celebre in the annals of the English courts.

In the autumn of 1871, Home, who before that time, had been quite a “lion” at the court of Napoleon III and Eugene, followed the German army from Sedan to Versailles, and was hand-in-glove with the King of Prussia. His second marriage took place in October, 1871, at Paris, and after a brief honeymoon in England he visited St. Petersburg with his wife, who was a member of the noble Russian family of Alsakoff.

On the 21st of June, 1886, the great American ghost-seer died of consumption, at Auteuil, near Paris, France. For years he was out of health, and he ascribed his weakness to the expenditure of vital force in working wonders during the earlier part of his career.

He was buried at St. Germain-en-Laye, with the rites of the Russian Church. The funeral was a very simple one, not more than twenty persons being present, all of whom were in full evening dress. The idea was to emphasize the Spiritualists’ belief that death is not a subject for mourning, but is liberation, an occasion for rejoicing.

The curious reader will find many accounts of Home’s invulnerability to fire while in the trance state, notably those of Prof. Crookes, contained in the proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. In the March, 1868, number of “Human Nature,” Mr. H. D. Jencken writes as follows concerning a séance given by the medium:

“Mr. Home, (after various manifestations) said, ‘we have gladly shown you our power over fluids, we will now show you our power over solids.’ He then knelt down before the hearth, and deliberately breaking up a glowing piece of coal in the fire place, took up a largish lump of incandescent coal and placing the same in his left hand, proceeded to explain that caloric had been extracted by a process known to them (the spirits), and that the heat could in part be returned. This he proved by alternately cooling and heating the coal; and to convince us of the fact, allowed us to handle the coal which had become cool, then suddenly resumed its heat sufficient to burn one, as I again touched it. I examined Mr. Home’s hand, and quite satisfied myself that no artificial means had been employed to protect the skin, which did not even retain the smell of smoke. Mr. Home then re-seated himself, and shortly awoke from his trance quite pale and exhausted.”

Other witnesses of the above experiment were Lord Lindsay, Lord Adare, Miss Douglas, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. W. H. Harrison and Prof. Wallace. Mr. H. Nisbet, of Glasgow, relates (Human Nature, Feb. 1870) that in his own home in January, 1870, Mr. Home took a red hot coal from the grate and put it in the hands of a lady and gentleman to whom it felt only warm. Subsequently he placed the same on a folded newspaper, the result being a hole burnt through eight layers of paper. Taking another blazing coal he laid it on the same journal, and carried it around the apartment for upwards of three minutes, without scorching the paper.

Among the crowned heads and famous people before whom Mr. Home appeared were Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie, Queen Victoria, King Louis I and King Maximilian of Bavaria, the Emperor of Russia, the King and Queen of Wurtemberg, the Duchess of Hamilton, the Crown Prince of Prussia and old Gen. Von Moltke. Alexander Dumas the elder, was a constant companion of the medium for a long time, and wrote columns about him.

Napoleon III had two sittings with Home—and it is said Home materialized the spirit of the first Napoleon, who appeared in his familiar cocked hat, gray overcoat and dark green uniform with white facings. “My fate?” asked Louis, trembling with awe. “Like mine—discrowned, and death in exile,” replied the ghost; then it vanished. The Empress swooned and Napoleon III fell back in his chair as if about to faint. The medium in his first séance with the French Emperor succeeded only in materializing some flowers and a spirit hand, which the Emperor was permitted to grasp.

Celia Logan, the journalist, in writing of one of Home’s séances at a nobleman’s house in London, says:

“On this occasion the medium announced that he would produce balls of fire and illuminated hands. Failing in the former, he declared that the spirits were not strong enough for that to-night, and so he would have to confine himself to showing the luminous hands.

“The house was darkened and Home groped his way alone to the head of the broad staircase, where every few minutes a pair of luminous hands were thrown up. The audience was satisfied generally. One lady, however, was not, and whispered to me—she was a half-hearted Spiritualist—that it looked to her as if he had rubbed his own hands over with lucifer matches.

“The host stood near the mantel piece and had seen Home abstractedly place a small bottle upon it when he left the room for the staircase. That bottle the host quietly slipped into his pocket. Upon examination the next day it was found to contain phosphorated olive oil or some similar preparation.

“The host had declared himself to have seen Home float through the air from one side of the room to the other, lift a piano several feet in the air by simply placing a finger upon it, and had seen him materialize disembodied spirits; but after the discovery of the phosphorus trick he dropped Home at once.”

It is a significant fact that the medium while giving séances in Paris in 1857 refused to meet Houdin, the renowned prestidigitateur.

I shall now attempt an exposé of Home’s physical phenomena. Home’s extraordinary feat of alternately cooling and heating a lump of coal taken from a blazing fire, as related by Mr. H. D. Jencken and others, is easily explained. It is a juggling trick. The “coal” is a piece of spongy platinum which bears a close resemblance to a lump of half burnt coal, and is palmed in the hand, as a prestidigitateur conceals a coin, a pack of cards, an egg, or a small lemon. The medium or magician advances to the grate and pretends to take a genuine lump of coal from the fire but brings up instead, at the tips of his fingers, the piece of platinum. In a secret breast pocket of his coat he has a small reservoir of hydrogen, with a tube coming down the sleeve and terminating an inch or so above the cuff. By means of certain mechanical arrangements, to enable him to let on and off the gas at the proper moment, he is able to accomplish the trick; for when a current of hydrogen is allowed to impinge upon a piece of spongy platinum, the metal becomes incandescent, and as soon as the current is arrested the platinum is restored to its normal condition.

The hand may be protected from burning in various ways, one method being the repeated application of sulphuric acid to the skin, whereby it is rendered impervious to the action of fire for a short period of time; another, by wearing gloves of amianthus or asbestos cloth. With the latter, worn in a badly lighted room, the medium, without much risk of discovery, can handle red hot coals or iron with impunity. The gloves may at the proper moment be slipped off and concealed about the person. A small slip of amianthus cloth placed on a newspaper would protect it from a hot coal and the same means could be used when a coal is placed in another’s hand or upon his head.

As to the marvelous “levitation”, either the witnesses of the alleged feat were under some hypnotic spell, or else they allowed their imaginations to run riot when describing the event. In the case of Lord Lindsay and Lord Adare, D. Carpenter in his valuable paper “On Fallacies Respecting the Supernatural” (Contemporary Review, Jan., 1876) says: “A whole party of believers affirm that they saw Mr. Home float out of one window and in at another, while a single honest skeptic declares that Mr. Home was sitting in his chair all the time.” It seems that there were three gentlemen present besides the medium when the alleged phenomenon took place, the two noblemen and a “cousin”. It is this unnamed hard-headed cousin to whom Dr. Carpenter refers as the “honest skeptic.”

Many of Home’s admirers have declared that he possessed the power of mesmerizing certain of his friends. These gentlemen were no doubt hypnotized and related honestly what they believed they had seen. Again, the expectancy of attention and the nervous tension of the average sitter in spirit-circles tend to produce a morbidly impressible condition of mind. Many mediums since Home’s day have performed the act of levitation, but always in a dark room. Mr. Angelo Lewis, the writer on magic, reveals an ingenious method by which levitation is effected. When the lights are extinguished the medium—who, by the way, must be a clever ventriloquist—removes his boots and places them on his hands.

“I am rising, I am rising, but pay no attention”, he remarks, as he goes about the apartment, where the sitters are grouped in a circle about him, and he lightly touches the heads of various persons. A shadowy form is dimly seen and a smell of boot leather becomes apparent to the olfactory senses of many present. People jump quickly to conclusions in such matters and argue that where the feet of the medium are, his body must surely be—namely, floating in the air. The illusion is further enhanced by the performer’s ventriloquial powers. “I am rising! I am touching the ceiling!” he exclaims, imitating the sound of a voice high up. When the lights are turned up, the medium is seen (this time with his boots on his feet) standing on tip-toe, as if just descended from the ceiling.

Sometimes before performing the levitation act, he will say, “In order to convince any skeptic present, that I really float upwards, I will write the initials of my name, or the name of some one present, on the ceiling.” When the lights are raised, the letters are seen written on the ceiling in a bold scrawling hand. How is it done? The medium has concealed about him a telescopic steel rod, something like those Chinese fishing rods at one time in vogue among modern disciples of Izaak Walton. This convenient rod when not in use folds up in a very small compass, but when it is shoved out to its full length, some three or four feet, with a bit of black chalk attached, the writing on the ceiling is easily produced. The magicians of ancient Egypt displayed their mystic rods as a part of their paraphernalia, while the modern magi bear theirs in secret. A tambourine, a guitar, a bell, or a spirit hand, rubbed with phosphorus, may also be fixed to this ingenious appliance, and floated over the heads of the spectators, and even a horn may be blown, through the hollow rod.

The materialization of a spirit hand which crept from beneath a table-cover, and showed itself to the “believers,” was one of the most startling things in the repertoire of D. D. Home, as it was in that of Dr. Monck’s, an English medium. An explanation of Monck’s method of producing the hand may, perhaps, throw some light on Home’s “materialization.” A small dummy hand, artistically executed in wax, with the fingers slightly bent, is fastened to a broad elastic band about three feet in length. This band is attached to a belt about the performer’s waist and passes down his left trouser leg, allowing the hand to dangle within the trouser a few inches above the ankle. I must not forget to explain that to the wrist of the hand is appended an elastic sleeve about five inches long. The medium and two sitters take their seats at a square table, with an over-hanging table-cloth. No one is allowed to be seated at the same side of the table with the medium. This is an imperative condition.

“Diminish the light, please,” says the medium. Some one rises to lower the gas to the required dim religious light necessary to all spirit séances. “A little lower, please! Lower, lower still!” remarks the medium. Out the light goes. “Dear, me, but this is vexatious! Somebody light it again and be more careful!” he ejaculates. Under cover of the darkness the agile operator crosses his left foot over his right knee, pulls down the wax hand and fixes it to the toe of his boot by means of the elastic sleeve, the apparatus being masked from the sitters by the table cloth until the time comes for the spirit materialization. The three men place their hands on the table and wait patiently for developments. Presently a rap is heard under the table—disjointed knee of the medium,—and then mirabile dictu! the table-cloth shakes and a delicate female hand emerges and shows itself above the edge of the table. A guitar being placed close to the fingers, they soon strum the strings, or rather appear to do so, the medium being the deus ex machina. The cleverest part of the whole performance is the fact that the medium never takes his hands from the table. He quietly puts his left foot down on the floor and places his right foot heavily on the false hand—off it comes from the left foot and shoots up the trouser leg like lightning. The sitters may look under the table but they see nothing.

An ingenious improvement has been made to this hand-test by an American conjurer, one that enables the medium to produce the hand although his feet are secured by the sitter. “Be kind enough, sir,” says the performer to the investigator, “to place your feet on mine. If I should move my feet ever so little, you would know it, would you not?” The sitter replies in the affirmative. The medium, as soon as he feels the pressure of the sitter’s feet, withdraws his right foot from a steel shape made in imitation of the toe of his boot, and operates the spirit hand at his leisure. After the sitting, he of course, inserts his right foot into the shape and carries it off with him.

The production of spirit music was one of Home’s favorite experiments. There are all sorts of ways of producing this music, the most ingenious of which I give:

The apparatus consists of a small circular musical box, wound up by clock work, and made to play whenever pressure is put upon a stud projecting a quarter of an inch from its surface. This box is strapped around the right leg of the medium just above his knee, and hidden beneath the trouser leg. When not in use it is on the under side of the leg. On the table a musical box is placed and covered with a soup tureen, or the top of a chafing dish. When the spectators are seated, the medium works the concealed musical box around to the upper part of his leg near the knee cap, and by pressing the stud against the under surface of the table, starts the music playing. In this way the second musical box seems to play and the acoustic effect is perfect. Perhaps Home used a similar contrivance; Dr. Monck did, and was caught in the act by the chief of the Detective Police.

Home during his séances on the Continent of Europe was accused of all sorts of trickery. Some asserted that he had concealed about him a small but powerful electric battery for producing certain illusions, mechanical contrivances attached to his legs for making spirit raps, and last but not least, as the medium states in his “Memoirs:” “they even accused me of carrying a small monkey about with me, concealed, trained to perform all sorts of ghostly tricks.”

People also accused him of obtaining a great deal of his information about the spirits of the departed from tombstones like an Old Mortality, and bribing family servants. A more probable explanation may be found perhaps in telepathy.

There is one more phase of Home’s mediumship, the moving of heavy pieces of furniture without physical contact, that must be spoken of. In mentioning it, Dr. Max Dessoir, author of the “Psychology of Conjuring,”[1] says: “We must admit that a few feats, such as those of Prof. Crookes with Home, concerning the possibility of setting inanimate objects in motion without touching them, appear to lie entirely outside the sphere of jugglery.” In the year 1871, Prof. William Crookes, (now Sir William Crookes) Fellow of the Royal Society, a very eminent scientist, subjected Home to some elaborate tests in order to prove or disprove by means of scientific apparatus the reality of phenomena connected with variations in the weight of bodies, with or without contact. He declared the tests to be entirely satisfactory, but ascribed the phenomena not to spiritual agency, but to a new force, “in some unknown manner connected with the human organization,” which for convenience he called the “Psychic Force.” He said in his “Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism:” “Of all the persons endowed with a powerful development of this Psychic Force, and who have been termed ‘mediums’ upon quite another theory of its origin, Mr. Daniel Dunglas Home is the most remarkable, and it is mainly owing to the many opportunities I have had of carrying on my investigations in his presence that I am enabled to affirm so conclusively the existence of this force.” Prof. Crookes’ experiments were conducted, as he says, in the full light, and in the presence of witnesses, among them being the famous English barrister, Sergeant Cox, and the astronomer, Dr. Huggins. Heavy articles became light and light articles heavy when the medium came near them. In some cases he lightly touched them, in others refrained from contact.

FIG. 8. CROOKES’ APPARATUS.

The first piece of the apparatus constructed by Crookes to test this psychic force consisted of a mahogany board 36 inches long by 9½ inches wide and 1 inch thick. A strip of mahogany was screwed on at one end, to form a foot, the length being equal to the width of the board. This end of the board was placed on a table, while the other end was upheld by a spring balance, fastened to a strong tripod stand, as will be seen in Fig. 8.

“Mr. Home,” writes Prof. Crookes, “placed the tips of his fingers lightly on the extreme end of the mahogany board which was resting on the support, whilst Dr. A. B. [Dr. Huggins] and myself sat, one on each side of it, watching for any effect which might be produced. Almost immediately the pointer of the balance was seen to descend. After a few seconds it rose again. This movement was repeated several times, as if by successive waves of the psychic force. The end of the board was observed to oscillate slowly up and down during the experiment.

“Mr. Home now, of his own accord, took a small hand-bell and a little card match-box, which happened to be near, and placed one under each hand, to satisfy us, as he said, that he was not producing the downward pressure. The very slow oscillation of the spring balance became more marked, and Dr. A. B., watching the index, said that he saw it descend to 6½ lbs. The normal weight of the board as so suspended being 3 lbs., the additional downward pull was therefore 3½ lbs. On looking immediately afterwards at the automatic register, we saw that the index had at one time descended as low as 9 lbs., showing a maximum pull of 6 lbs. upon a board whose normal weight was 3 lbs.

“In order to see whether it was possible to produce much effect on the spring balance by pressure at the place where Mr. Home’s fingers had been, I stepped upon the table and stood on one foot at the end of the board. Dr. A. B., who was observing the index of the balance, said that the whole weight of my body (140 lbs.) so applied only sunk the index 1½ lbs., or 2 lbs. when I jerked up and down. Mr. Home had been sitting in a low easy-chair, and could not, therefore, had he tried his utmost, have exerted any material influence on these results. I need scarcely add that his feet as well as his hands were closely guarded by all in the room.”

The next series of experiments is thus described:

“On trying these experiments for the first time, I thought that actual contact between Mr. Home’s hands and the suspended body whose weight was to be altered was essential to the exhibition of the force; but I found afterwards that this was not a necessary condition, and I therefore arranged my apparatus in the following manner:—

“The accompanying cuts (Figs. 9, 10 and 11) explain the arrangement. Fig. 9 is a general view, and Figs. 10 and 11 show the essential parts more in detail. The reference letters are the same in each illustration. A B is a mahogany board, 36 inches long by 9½ inches wide, and 1 inch thick. It is suspended at the end, B, by a spring balance, C, furnished with an automatic register, D. The balance is suspended from a very firm tripod support, E.

FIG. 9. CROOKES’ APPARATUS.

FIG. 10. CROOKES’ APPARATUS.

“The following piece of apparatus is not shown in the figures. To the moving index, O, of the spring balance, a fine steel point is soldered, projecting horizontally outwards. In front of the balance, and firmly fastened to it, is a grooved frame, carrying a flat box similar to the dark box of a photographic camera. This box is made to travel by clock-work horizontally in front of the moving index, and it contains a sheet of plate-glass which has been smoked over a flame. The projecting steel point impresses a mark on this smoked surface. If the balance is at rest, and the clock set going, the result is a perfectly straight horizontal line. If the clock is stopped and weights are placed on the end, B, of the board, the result is a vertical line, whose length depends on the weight applied. If, whilst the clock draws the plate along, the weight of the board (or the tension on the balance) varies, the result is a curved line, from which the tension in grains at any moment during the continuance of the experiments can be calculated.

“The instrument was capable of registering a diminution of the force of gravitation as well as an increase; registrations of such a diminution were frequently obtained. To avoid complication, however, I will here refer only to results in which an increase of gravitation was experienced.

FIG. 11. CROOKES’ APPARATUS.

“The end, B, of the board being supported by the spring balance, the end, A, is supported on a wooden strip, F, screwed across its lower side and cut to a knife edge (see Fig. 11). This fulcrum rests on a firm and heavy wooden stand, G H. On the board, exactly over the fulcrum, is placed a large glass vessel filled with water. I L is a massive iron stand, furnished with an arm and a ring, M N, in which rests a hemispherical copper vessel perforated with several holes at the bottom.

“The iron stand is 2 inches from the board, A B, and the arm and copper vessel, M N, are so adjusted that the latter dips into the water 1½ inches, being 5½ inches from the bottom of I, and 2 inches from its circumference. Shaking or striking the arm, M, or the vessel, N, produces no appreciable mechanical effect on the board, A B, capable of affecting the balance. Dipping the hand to the fullest extent into the water in N does not produce the least appreciable action on the balance.

“As the mechanical transmission of power is by this means entirely cut off between the copper vessel and the board, A B, the power of muscular control is thereby completely eliminated.

“For convenience I will divide the experiments into groups, 1, 2, 3, etc., and I have selected one special instance in each to describe in detail. Nothing, however, is mentioned which has not been repeated more than once, and in some cases verified, in Mr. Home’s absence, with another person, possessing similar powers.

“There was always ample light in the room where the experiments were conducted (my own dining-room) to see all that took place.

“Experiment I.—The apparatus having been properly adjusted before Mr. Home entered the room, he was brought in, and asked to place his fingers in the water in the copper vessel, N. He stood up and dipped the tips of the fingers of his right hand in the water, his other hand and his feet being held. When he said he felt a power, force, or influence, proceeding from his hand, I set the clock going, and almost immediately the end, B, of the board was seen to descend slowly and remain down for about 10 seconds; it then descended a little further, and afterwards rose to its normal height. It then descended again, rose suddenly, gradually sunk for 17 seconds, and finally rose to its normal height, where it remained till the experiment was concluded. The lowest point marked on the glass was equivalent to a direct pull of about 5,000 grains. The accompanying Figure 12 is a copy of the curve traced on the glass.

SCALE OF SECONDS.

FIG. 12. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF HOME.

“Experiment II.—Contact through water having proved to be as effectual as actual mechanical contact, I wished to see if the power or force could affect the weight, either through other portions of the apparatus or through the air. The glass vessel and iron stand, etc., were therefore removed, as an unnecessary complication, and Mr. Home’s hands were placed on the stand of the apparatus at P (Fig. 9). A gentleman present put his hand on Mr. Home’s hands, and his foot on both Mr. Home’s feet, and I also watched him closely all the time. At the proper moment the clock was again set going; the board descended and rose in an irregular manner, the result being a curved tracing on the glass, of which Fig. 13 is a copy.

SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.

FIG. 13. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF HOME.

“Experiment III.—Mr. Home was now placed one foot from the board, A B, on one side of it. His hands and feet were firmly grasped by a by-stander, and another tracing, of which Fig. 14 is a copy, was taken on the moving glass plate.

SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.

FIG. 14. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS UNDER HOME’S INFLUENCE.

“Experiment IV.—(Tried on an occasion when the power was stronger than on the previous occasions), Mr. Home was now placed 3 feet from the apparatus, his hands and feet being tightly held. The clock was set going when he gave the word, and the end, B, of the board soon descended, and again rose in an irregular manner, as shown in Fig. 15.

SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 12.

FIG. 15. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS UNDER HOME’S INFLUENCE.

“The following series of experiments were tried with more delicate apparatus, and with another person, a lady, Mr. Home being absent. As the lady is non-professional, I do not mention her name. She has, however, consented to meet any scientific men whom I may introduce for purposes of investigation.

FIG. 16. SECOND CROOKES’ APPARATUS.

“A piece of thin parchment, A, (Figs. 16 and 17), is stretched tightly across a circular hoop of wood. B C is a light lever turning on D. At the end B is a vertical needle point touching the membrane A, and at C is another needle point, projecting horizontally and touching a smoked glass plate, E F. This glass plate is drawn along in the direction H G by clockwork, K. The end, B, of the lever is weighted so that it shall quickly follow the movements of the centre of the disc, A. These movements are transmitted and recorded on the glass plate, E F, by means of the lever and needle point, C. Holes are cut in the side of the hoop to allow a free passage of air to the under side of the membrane. The apparatus was well tested beforehand by myself and others, to see that no shaking or jar on the table or support would interfere with the results: the line traced by the point, C, on the smoked glass was perfectly straight in spite of all our attempts to influence the lever by shaking the stand or stamping on the floor.

FIG. 17. SECTION OF APPARATUS IN FIG. 16.

“Experiment V.—Without having the object of the instrument explained to her, the lady was brought into the room and asked to place her fingers on the wooden stand at the points, L M, Fig. 16. I then placed my hands over hers to enable me to detect any conscious or unconscious movement on her part. Presently percussive noises were heard on the parchment, resembling the dropping of grains of sand on its surface. At each percussion a fragment of graphite which I had placed on the membrane was seen to be projected upwards about 1-50th of an inch, and the end, C, of the lever moved slightly up and down. Sometimes the sounds were as rapid as those from an induction-coil, whilst at others they were more than a second apart. Five or six tracings were taken, and in all cases a movement of the end, C, of the lever was seen to have occurred with each vibration of the membrane.

“In some cases the lady’s hands were not so near the membrane as L M, but were at N O, Fig 17.

SCALE OF SECONDS.

FIG. 18. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS (FIG. 15 AND 16) OUTSIDE HOME’S INFLUENCE.

“The accompanying Fig. 18 gives tracings taken from the plates used on these occasions.

“Experiment VI.—Having met with these results in Mr. Home’s absence, I was anxious to see what action would be produced on the instrument in his presence.

“Accordingly I asked him to try, but without explaining the instrument to him.

“I grasped Mr. Home’s right arm above the wrist and held his hand over the membrane, about 10 inches from its surface, in the position shown at P, Fig. 17. His other hand was held by a friend. After remaining in this position for about half a minute, Mr. Home said he felt some influence passing. I then set the clock going, and we all saw the index, C, moving up and down. The movements were much slower than in the former case, and were almost entirely unaccompanied by the percussive vibrations then noticed.

“Figs. 19 and 20 show the curves produced on the glass on two of these occasions.

“Figs. 18, 19 and 20 are magnified.

“These experiments confirm beyond doubt the conclusions at which I arrived in my former paper, namely, the existence of a force associated, in some manner not yet explained, with the human organization, by which force increased weight is capable of being imparted to solid bodies without physical contact. In the case of Mr. Home, the development of this force varies enormously, not only from week to week, but from hour to hour; on some occasions the force is inappreciable by my tests for an hour or more, and then suddenly reappears in great strength.

SCALE THE SAME AS IN FIG. 18.

FIG. 19. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17) UNDER HOME’S INFLUENCE.

“It is capable of acting at a distance from Mr. Home (not unfrequently as far as two or three feet), but is always strongest close to him.

SCALE THE SAME AS ON FIG. 18.

FIG. 20. DIAGRAM SHOWING TENSION IN CROOKES’ APPARATUS (FIG. 16 AND 17) UNDER HOME’S INFLUENCE.

“Being firmly convinced that there could be no manifestation of one form of force without the corresponding expenditure of some other form of force, I for a long time searched in vain for evidence of any force or power being used up in the production of these results.

“Now, however, having seen more of Mr. Home, I think I perceive what it is that this psychic force uses up for its development. In employing the terms vital force or nervous energy, I am aware that I am employing words which convey very different significations to many investigators; but after witnessing the painful state of nervous and bodily prostration in which some of these experiments have left Mr. Home—after seeing him lying in an almost fainting condition on the floor, pale and speechless—I could scarcely doubt that the evolution of psychic force is accompanied by a corresponding drain on vital force.”

Sergeant Cox in speaking of the tests says, “The results appear to me conclusively to establish the important fact, that there is a force proceeding from the nerve-system capable of imparting motion and weight to solid bodies within the sphere of its influence.”

One of the medium’s defenders has written:

“Home’s mysterious power, whatever it may have been, was very uncertain. Sometimes he could exercise it, and at others not, and these fluctuations were not seldom the source of embarrassment to him. He would often arrive at a place in obedience to an engagement, and, as he imagined, ready to perform, when he would discover himself absolutely helpless. After a séance his exhaustion appeared to be complete.

“There is no more striking proof of the fact that Home really possessed occult gifts of some sort—psychic force or whatever else the power may be termed—than he gave such amazing exhibitions in the early part of his history and was able to do so little toward the end. If it had been juggling he would, like other conjurors, have improved on his tricks by experience, or at all events, while his memory held out he would not have deteriorated.”

Dr. Hammond’s Experiments.

Dr. William A. Hammond, the eminent neurologist, of Washington, D. C., took up the cudgels against Prof. Crookes’ “Psychic Force” theory, and assigned the experiments to the domain of animal electricity. He wrote as follows:[2] “Place an egg in an egg-cup and balance a long lath upon the egg. Though the lath be almost a plank it will obediently follow a rod of glass, gutta percha or sealing-wax, which has been previously well dried and rubbed, the former with a piece of silk, and the two latter with woolen cloth. Now, in dry weather, many persons within my knowledge, have only to walk with a shuffling gait over the carpet, and then approaching the lath hold out the finger instead of the glass, sealing wax or gutta percha, and instantly the end of the lath at L rises to meet it, and the end at L is depressed. Applying these principles, I arranged an apparatus exactly like that of Prof. Crookes, except that the spring balance was such as is used for weighing letters and was therefore very delicate, indicating quarter ounces with exactness, and that the board was thin and narrow.

FIG. 21. DR. HAMMOND’S APPARATUS.

“Applying the glass rod or stick of sealing-wax to the end resting by its foot on the table, the index of the balance at once descended, showing an increased weight of a little over three quarters of an ounce, and this without the board being raised from the table.

“I then walked over a thick Turkey rug for a few moments, and holding my finger under the board near the end attached to the balance, caused a fall of the index of almost half an ounce. I then rested my finger lightly on the end of the board immediately over the foot, and again the index descended and oscillated several times, just as in Mr. Home’s experiments. The lowest point reached was six and a quarter ounces, and as the board weighed, as attached to the balance, five ounces, there was an increased weight of one and a quarter ounces. At no time was the end of the board raised from the table.

“I then arranged the apparatus so as to place a thin glass tumbler nearly full of water immediately over the fulcrum, as in Mr. Crookes’ experiment, and again the index fell and oscillated on my fingers being put into the water.

“Now if one person can thus, with a delicate apparatus like mine, cause the index, through electricity, to descend and ascend, it is not improbable that others, like Mr. Home, could show greater, or even different electrical power, as in Prof. Crookes’ experiments. It is well known that all persons are not alike in their ability to be electrically excited. Many persons, myself among them, can light the gas with the end of the finger. Others cannot do it with any amount of shuffling over the carpet.

“At any rate is it not much more sensible to believe that Mr. Home’s experiments are to be thus explained than to attribute the results of his semi-mysterious attempts to spiritualism or psychic force?”

3. Rope-Tying and Holding Mediums.

THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS.

Ira Erastus and William Henry Davenport were born at Buffalo, N. Y., the former on Sept. 17, 1839, and the latter on February 1, 1841. Their father, Ira Davenport, was in the police detective department, and, it is alleged, invented the celebrated rope-tying feats after having seen the Indian jugglers of the West perform similar illusions. The usual stories about ghostly phenomena attending the childhood of mediums were told about the Davenport Brothers, but it was not until 1855 that they started on their tour of the United States, with their father as showman or spiritual lecturer. When the Civil War broke out, the Brothers, accompanied by Dr. J. B. Ferguson, formerly an Independent minister of Nashville, Tenn., in the capacity of lecturer, and a Mr. Palmer as general agent and manager, went to England to exhibit their mediumistic powers, following the example of D. D. Home. With the company also was a Buffalo boy named Fay, of German-American parentage, who had formerly acted as ticket-taker for the mediums. He discovered the secret of the rope-tying feat, and was an adept at the coat feat, so he was employed as an “under-study” in case of the illness of William Davenport, who was in rather delicate health. The Brothers Davenport at this period, aged respectively 25 and 23 years, had “long black curly hair, broad but not high foreheads, dark eyes, heavy eye-brows and moustaches, firm set lips, and a bright, keen look.” Their first performance in England was given at the Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London, and created intense excitement.

Punch called the furore over the spirit rope-tyers the “tie-fuss fever,” and said the mediums were “Ministers of the Interior, with a seat in the Cabinet.” J. N. Maskelyne, the London conjurer of Egyptian Hall, wrote of them: “About the Davenport Brothers’ performances, I have to say that they were and still remain the most inexplicable ever presented to the public as of spiritual origin; and had they been put forth as feats of jugglery would have awakened a considerable amount of curiosity though certainly not to the extent they did.”

In September, 1865, the Brothers arrived in Paris, and placarded the city with enormous posters announcing that the Brothers Davenport, spirit-mediums, would give a series of public séances at the Salle Herz. Their reputation had preceded them to France and the boulevardiers talked of nothing but the wonderful American mediums and their mysterious cabinet. Before exhibiting in Paris the Davenports visited the Chateau de Gennevilliers, whose owner was an enthusiastic believer in Spiritism, and gave a séance before a select party of journalists and scientific men. The exhibition was pronounced marvellous in the extreme and perfectly inexplicable.

The Parisian press was divided on the subject of the Davenports and their advertised séances. Some of the papers protested against such performances on the ground that they were dangerous to the mental health of the public, and, one writer said, “Particularly to those weaker intellects which are always ready enough to accept as gospel the tricks and artifices of the adepts of sham witchcraft.” M. Edmond About, the famous journalist and novelist, in the Opinion Nationale, wrote a scathing denunciation of Spiritism, but all to no purpose, except to inflame public curiosity.

The performances of the Davenports were divided into two parts: (1) The light séance, (2) the dark séance. In the light séance a cabinet, elevated from the stage by three trestles, was used. It was a simple wooden structure with three doors. In the centre door was a lozenge-shaped window covered with a curtain. Upon the sides of the cabinet hung various musical instruments, a guitar, a violin, horns, tambourines, and a big dinner bell.

FIG. 22. THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS IN THEIR CABINET.

A committee chosen by the audience tied the mediums’ hands securely behind their backs, fastened their legs together, and pinioned them to their seats in the cabinet, and to the cross rails with strong ropes. The side doors were closed first, then the center door, but no sooner was the last fastened, than the hands of one of the mediums were thrust through the window in the centre door. In a very short time, at a signal from the mediums, the doors were opened, and the Davenports stepped forth, with the ropes in their hands, every knot untied, confessedly by spirit power. The astonishment of the spectators amounted to awe. On an average it took ten minutes to pinion the Brothers; but a single minute was required for their release. Once more the mediums went into the cabinet, this time with the ropes lying in a coil at their feet. Two minutes elapsed. Hey, presto! the doors were opened, and the Davenports were pronounced by the committee to be securely lashed to their seats. Seals were affixed to the knots in the ropes, and the doors closed as before. Pandemonium reigned. Bells were rung, horns blown, tambourines thumped, violins played, and guitars vigorously twanged. Heavy rappings also were heard on the ceiling, sides and floor of the cabinet, then after a brief but absolute silence, a bare hand and arm emerged from the lozenge window, and rung the big dinner bell. On opening the doors the Brothers were found securely tied as before, and seals intact. An amusing feature of the exhibition occurred when a venturesome spectator volunteered to sit inside of the cabinet between the two mediums. He came out with his coat turned inside out and his hat jammed over his eyes. In the dark séance the cabinet was dispensed with and the spectators, holding hands, formed a ring around the mediums. The lights were put out and similar phenomena took place, with the addition of luminous hands, and musical instruments floating in the air.

Robert-Houdin wrote an interesting brochure on the Davenports, (“Secrets of Stage Conjuring,” translated by Prof. Hoffmann) from which I take the following: “The ropes used by the Davenport Brothers are of a cotton fibre; and they present therefore smooth surfaces, adapted to slip easily one upon another. Gentlemen are summoned from the audience to tie the mediums. Now, tell me, is it an easy task for an amateur to tie a man up off-hand with a rope three yards long, in a very secure way? The amateur is flurried, self-conscious, anxious to acquit himself well of the business, but he is a gentleman, not a brute, and if one of the Brothers sees the ropes getting into a dangerous tangle, he gives a slight groan, as if he were being injured, and the instantaneous impulse of the other man is to loosen the cord a trifle. A fraction of an inch is an invaluable gain in the after-business of loosening the ropes. Sometimes the stiffening of a muscle, the raising of a shoulder, the crooking of a knee, gives all the play required by the Brothers in ridding themselves of their bonds. Their muscles and joints are wonderfully supple, too; the thumbs can be laid flat in the palm of the hand, the hand itself rounded until it is no broader than the wrist, and then it is easy to pull through. Violent wrenches send the ropes up toward the shoulder, vigorous shakings get the legs free; the first hand untied is thrust through the hole in the door of the cabinet, and then returns to give aid to more serious knots on his own or his brother’s person. In tying themselves up the Davenports used the slip-knot, a sort of bow, the ends of which have only to be pulled to be tightened or loosened.”

This slip-knot is a very ingenious affair. (See Fig. 23.) In performing the spirit-tying, the mediums went into the cabinet with the ropes examined by the audience lying coiled at their feet. The doors were closed. They had concealed about their persons ropes in which these trick knots were already adjusted, and with which they very speedily secured themselves, having first secreted the genuine ropes. Then the doors were opened. Seals were affixed to the knots, but this sealing, owing to the position of the hands, and the careful exposition of the knots did not affect the slipping of the ropes sufficiently to prevent the mediums from removing and replacing their hands.

NO. 23. TRICK-TIE IN CABINET WORK.

In the dark séance, flour was sometimes placed in the pinioned hands of the Davenports. On being released from their bonds, the flour was found undisturbed.

This was considered a convincing test; for how could the Brothers possibly manipulate the musical instruments with their hands full of flour. One day a wag substituted a handful of snuff for flour, and when the mediums were examined, the snuff had disappeared and flour taken its place. As will be understood, in the above test the Davenports emptied the flour from their hands into secret pockets and at the proper moment took out cornucopias of flour and filled their hands again before securing themselves in the famous slip-knots.

Among the exposés of the Brothers Davenport, Herrmann, the conjurer, gives the following in the Cosmopolitan Magazine: “The Davenports, for thirteen years, in Europe and America, augmented the faith in Spiritualism. Unfortunately for the Davenports they appeared at Ithaca, New York, where is situated Cornell University. The students having a scientific trend of mind, provided themselves before attending the performance with pyrotechnic balls containing phosphorus, so made as to ignite suddenly with a bright light. During the dark séance when the Davenports were supposed to be bound hand and foot within the closet and when the guitars were apparently floating in the air, the students struck their lights, whereupon the spirits were found to be no other than the Davenports themselves, dodging about the stage brandishing guitars and playing tunes and waving at the same time tall poles surmounted by phosphorescent spook pictures.”

The Davenports had some stormy experiences in Paris, but managed to come through all successfully, with plenty of French gold in their pockets. William died in October, 1877, at the Oxford Hotel, Sydney, Australia, having publicly denounced Spiritualism. Mr. Fay took to raising sheep in Australia, while Ira Davenport drifted back to his old home in Buffalo, New York.

Many mediums, taking the cue from the Davenports, have performed the cabinet act with its accompanying rope-tying, but the conjurers (anti-spiritists) have, with the aid of mechanism, brought the business to a high degree of perfection, notably Mr. J. Nevil Maskelyne, of Egyptian Hall, London, and Mr. Harry Kellar, of the United States. Writing of the Davenport Brothers, Maskelyne says:

“The instantaneous tying and untying was simply marvellous, and it utterly baffled everyone to discover, until, on one occasion, the accidental falling of a piece of drapery from a window (the lozenge-shaped aperture in the door of the cabinet), at a critical moment let me into the secret. I was able in a few months to reproduce every item of the Davenports’ cabinet and dark séance. So close was the resemblance to the original, that the Spiritualist had no alternative but to claim us (Maskelyne and Cooke) as most powerful spirit mediums who found it more profitable to deny the assistance of spirits.”

Robert-Houdin’s explanation of the slip-knot, used by the Davenports in their dark séance, is the correct one, but he failed to fathom the mystery of the mode of release of the Brothers after they were tied in the cabinet by a committee selected from the audience. Anyone trying to extricate himself from bondage a la Houdin, no matter how slippery and serpentine he be, would find it exceedingly difficult. It seems almost incredible, but trickery was used in the light séance, as well as the dark. Maskelyne, as quoted above, claimed to have penetrated the mystery, but he kept it a profound secret—though he declared that his cabinet work was trickery. The writer is indebted for an initiation into the mysteries of the Davenport Brothers’ rope-tying to Mr. H. Morgan Robinson (Professor Helmann), of Washington, D. C., a very clever prestidigitateur.

In the year 1895, after an unbroken silence of nineteen years, Fay, ex-assistant of the Davenports, determined to resume the profession of public medium. He abandoned his sheep ranch and hunted up Ira Davenport. They gave several performances in Northern towns, and finally landed at the Capital of the Nation, in the spring of 1895, and advertised several séances at Willard’s Hall. A very small audience greeted them on their first appearance. Among the committee volunteering to go on the stage and tie the mediums were the writer and Mr. Robinson. After the séance the prestidigitateur fully explained the modus operandi of the mystic tie, which is herein for the first time correctly given to the public.

The medium holds out his left wrist first and has it tied securely, about the middle of the rope. Two members of the committee are directed to pull the ends of the cord vigorously. “Are you confident that the knots are securely tied?” he asks; when the committee respond “yes,” he puts his hand quickly behind him, and places against the wrist, the wrist of his right hand, in order that they may be pinioned together. During this rapid movement he twists the rope about the knot on his left wrist, thereby allowing enough slack cord to disengage his right hand when necessary. To slip the right hand back into place is an easy matter. After both hands are presumably tied, the medium steps into the cabinet; the ends of the rope are pushed through two holes in the chair or wooden seat, by the committee and made fast to the medium’s legs. Bells ring, horns blow, and the performer’s hand is thrust through the window of the cabinet. Finally a gentleman is requested to enter the cabinet with the medium. The doors are locked and a perfect pandemonium begins; when they are opened the volunteer assistant tumbles out in great trepidation. His hat is smashed over his eyes, his cravat is tied around his leg, and he is found to have on the medium’s coat, while the medium wears the gentleman’s coat turned inside out. It all appears very remarkable, but the mystery is cleared up when I state that the innocent looking gentleman is invariably a confederate, what conjurers call a plant, because he is planted in the audience to volunteer for the special act.

Ira and William Davenport were tied in the manner above described. Often one of the Brothers allowed himself to be genuinely pinioned, after having received a preconcerted signal from his partner that all was right, i. e., the partner had been fastened by the trick tie, calling attention to the knots in the cord, etc. The trick tie, however, is so delusive, that it is impossible to penetrate the secret in the short time allowed the committee for investigation, and there is no special reason for permitting a genuine tie-up. Once in a great while, the Davenports were over-reached by clever committee-men and tied up so tightly that there was no getting loose. Where one brother failed to execute the trick and was genuinely fastened, the other medium performed the spirit evolutions, and cut his “confrere” loose before they came out of the cabinet.

The Fay-Davenport revival proved a failure, and the mediums dissolved partnership in Washington. Kellar, the magician and former assistant of the original Davenport combination, by a curious coincidence was giving his fine conjuring exhibition in the city at the same time. His tricks far eclipsed the feeble revival of the rope-tying phenomena. The fickle public crowded to see the magician and neglected the mediums.

ANNIE EVA FAY.

One of the most famous of the materializing mediums now exhibiting in the United States is Annie Eva Fay. She is quite an adept at the spirit-tying business, and like the Davenports, uses a cabinet on the stage, but her method of tying, though clever, is inferior to that used by the Brothers in their balmy days. In the center of the Fay cabinet (a plain, curtained affair) is a post firmly screwed to the stage. The medium permits a committee of two from the audience to tie her to this post, and seal the bandages about her wrists with court plaster. She then takes her seat upon a small stool in front of the stanchion; the musical instruments are placed on her lap, and the curtains of the cabinet closed. Immediately the evidences of spirit power begin: the bell is jingled, the tambourine thumped, and the sound of a horn heard, simultaneously.

The Fay method of tying is designed especially to facilitate the medium’s actions. Cotton bandages are used, and the committee are invited to sew the knots through and through. Each wrist is tied with a bandage, about an inch and a half wide by a half yard in length; and the medium then clasps her hands behind her, so that her wrists are about six inches apart. The committee now proceed to tie the ends of the bandages firmly together, and, after this is accomplished, the dangling pieces of the bandages are clipped off. It is true, the medium is firmly bound by this process, and it would be physically impossible for her to release herself, without disturbing the sewing and the seals, but it is not intended for her to release herself at all; the method pursued being altogether different from the old species of rope-tying. All being secure, the committee are requested to pass another bandage about the short ligature between the lady’s wrists, and tie it in double square knots, and firmly secure this to a ring in the post of the cabinet, the medium being seated on a stool in front of the stanchion, facing the audience. Her neck is likewise secured to the post by cotton bandages and her feet fastened together with a cord, the end of which passes out of the cabinet and is held by one of the committee.

The peculiar manner of holding the hands, described above, enables the medium to secure for her use, a ligature of knotted cloth between her hands, some six inches long; and the central bandage, usually tied in four or five double knots, gives her about two inches play between the middle of the cotton handcuffs and the ring in the post, to which it is secured. The ring is two and a half inches in diameter, and the staple which holds it to the stanchion is a half inch. The left hand of the medium gives six additional inches, and the bandage on her wrist slips readily along her slender arm nearly half way to the elbow—“all of which,” says John W. Truesdell,[3] who was the first to expose Miss Fay’s spirit pretensions, “gives the spirits a clear leeway of not less than 20 inches from the stanchion. The moment the curtain is closed, the medium, under spirit influence spreads her hands as far apart as possible, an act which stretches the knotted ligature so that the bandage about it will easily slip from the centre to either wrist; then, throwing her lithe form by a quick movement, to the left, so that her hips will pass the stanchion without moving her feet from the floor, the spirits are able, through the medium, to reach whatever may have been placed upon her lap.”

One of Annie Eva’s most convincing tests is the accordion which plays, after it has been bound fast with tapes and the tapes carefully sealed at every note, so as to prevent its being performed on in the regular manner. Her method of operating, though simple, is decidedly ingenious. She places a small tube in the valve-hole of the instrument, breathes and blows alternately into it, and then by fingering the keys, executes an air with excellent effect.

Sometimes she places a musical box on an oblong plate of glass suspended from the ceiling by four cords. The box plays and stops at word of command, much to the astonishment of listeners. “Electricity,” exclaims the reader! Hardly so, for the box is completely insulated on the sheet of glass. Then how is it done? Mr. Asprey Vere, an investigator of spirit phenomena, tells the secret in the following words: (“Modern Magic”). “In the box there is placed a balance lever which when the glass is in the slightest degree tilted, arrests the fly-fan, and thus prevents the machinery from moving. At the word of command the glass is made level, and the fly-fan being released, the machinery moves, and a tune is played. When commanded to stop, either side of the cord is pulled by a confederate behind the scenes, the balance lever drops, the fly-fan is arrested, and the music stops.”

One of the tests presented to the American public by this medium is the “spirit-hand,” constructed of painted wood or papier mache, which raps out answers to questions, after it has been isolated from all contact by being placed on a sheet of glass supported on the backs of two chairs.

It is a trick performed by every conjurer, and the secret is a piece of black silk thread, worked by confederates stationed in the wings of the theatre, one at the right, the other at the left. The thread lies along the stage when not in use, but at the proper cue from the medium, it is lifted up and brought in contact with the wooden hand. The hand is so constructed that the palm lies on the glass sheet and the wrist, with a fancy lace cuff about it, is elevated an inch above the glass, the whole apparatus being so pivoted that a pressure of the thread from above will depress the wrist and elevate the palm. When the thread is relaxed the hand comes down on the glass with a thump and makes the spirit rap which is so effective. A rapping skull made on similar principles is also in vogue among mediums.

CHARLES SLADE.

Annie Eva Fay has a rival in Charles Slade, who is a clever performer and a most convincing talker. His cabinet test is the same as Miss Fay’s, but he has other specialties that are worth explaining—one is the “table-raising,” and another is the “spirit neck-tie.” The effect of the first experiment is as follows: Slade, with his arms bared and coat removed, requests several gentlemen to sit around a long table, reserving the head for himself. Hands are placed on the table, and developments awaited. “Do you feel the table raising?” asks the medium, after a short pause. “We do!” comes the response of the sitters. Slade then rises; all stand up, and the table is seen suspended in the air, about a foot from the floor of the stage. In a little while an uncontrollable desire seems to take possession of the table to rush about the stage. Frequently the medium requests several persons to get on the table, but that has no effect whatever. The same levitation takes place. The secret of this surprising mediumistic test is very simple. In the first place, the man who sits at the foot of the table is a confederate. Both medium and confederate wear about their waists wide leather belts, ribbed and strengthened with steel bands, and supported from the shoulders by bands of leather and steel. In the front of each belt is a steel hinge concealed by the vest of the wearer. In the act of sitting down at the table the medium and his confederate quickly pull the hinges which catch under the top of the table when the sitters rise. The rest of the trick is easily comprehended. When the levitation act is finished the hinges are folded up and hidden under the vests of the performers.