THOUGHT READING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 53, 2 March 1907, Page 13

THOUGHT READING.

HOW "WONDERFUL" FEATS ABE PERFORMED. "I see it is claimed," writes a correspondent of the "Daily Cliroiilcle," "that at the Alhambra. on a recent night the Zancigs carried out a silent test m order, apparently, to silence their critics. We are told, in fact, that the feat took the audience 'by storm,' and that the genuineness of it was 'conceded even by the most obstinate believer in the code theory.' " '•Well, I was present at the performance,' and would like to say at once that if the test was put forward seriously in proof of the possession of some mystic qualities on the part of Mr and Mrs Zancig, it was to mc, at any rate, totally unconvincing. And I donbt very much whether it was satisfactory to even a small number of the audience. They rewarded it, at least, with very faint applanse. What happened was this. Mr Zancig had announced from the platform that he was anxious to carry out a test without speaking. So when he had experimented in the usual way with the articles submitted by the audience, he entered upon the "silent test." He announced that he would get members of the audience to write down rows of figures on a slip of paper and that Mrs icaneig, from behind this screen—would chaiK the total on the blackboard at her side. Apparently Mr Zaneig Trent to five people in the stalls, asking each to put down a row of figures. (I pass over the point that even in this preliminary work he did not preserve silence. Then he got a sixth spectator to add up the figures. This done, Mr Zancig cried;—" Ready"—and"—and it was a silent test —and a moment or two afterwards the screen was thrown aside, and madame pointed triumphantly to the figures she had written on the board. A test of this sort will satisfy nobody unless independent spectators are allowed to compare all the figures written down by the selected members of the audience with the total given by the medium. This opportunity was not afforded on the selected night." HOW THE TRICK MAT BE DONE. "Could we do an arithmetic 'thoughtreading' feat in silence, with my wife hidden behind a screen? Nothing more easy." Mr Fant Abbott, a well-known "wizard," smiled at the notion when I caller on him one night and suggested the idea (writes a "Daily Chronicle" representative). Mr Fant Abbott and nls wife have for many years past been giving exhibitions of "thought-transference." He lays claim to no supernatural attributes, however, and says frankly that the whole thing is trickery. "The feats we perform are carried out entirely by natural means, which we leave to the imagination of the audience. Bluntly speaking, we are humbugs —clever humbugs, if you like. ,. And so, obligingly, Mr Abbott gave away one of his tricks, just to let the public see how oasily they can be gulled. "When a want to create a sensation I announce from the stage, "My medium will signal to mc the total of a sum which will be written down by three members of the audience. And she will do this before they have even thought of the figures they are going to write.' "That is 'transmission of thougit* with a vengeance. The audience is dumbfounded. It's trickery all the same. "And this is how it's done. Before going on the stage I say to my wife:— 'The answer to-night is to be—ifyou like — 1131.' I write the number on the sleeve of my cuff. And when I have made. my announcement madame writes it on the back of the board. "I then go to three members of the audience, and they each write down three figures. I then go to a fourth, substituting a slip of my own bearing the figures which total 1131, and tell him to add it up. And he adds up my slip, mind you " Mr Abbott laughed heartily in full enjoyment of the joke. "The board is turned round, and there are revealed the figures 1131. I then go to the three selected members of the audience and show them their own original slip. Of course, they recognise their figures—but I take good care that they don't reckon them up. And It brings the house down."