A SPIRITUALISTIC EXPOSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7383, 18 July 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

A SPIRITUALISTIC EXPOSE.

-A CHAT WITH MR. MASKELYNE. THE MEDIUM HOLMKS. "On One occasion I was invited to attend the dark seance of a medium of groat reputo, a«med Hohnee, and there, by pure accident, I discovered the trick of how the medium frees his hands from those sitting beside him, fondly imagining that they have him securely, and with one or both of his hauds he performs the manifestations ascribed to the spirits. I sat at his right hand, whioh I held by the little finger. The man, of course, became the victim of the most distressing wriggliugs and contortions, in the course of one of which his hand was jerked away from mine. I recovered it at once, however, as I thought, and the phenomena shortly afterwards took place. •Spirit voices talked through a long papor tube which had been placed upon the table ia front of Holmes, and tho usual discordant series of manifestations went on with the aid of bells, tambourines, and musical-box complete. While this was happening I found that the right-hand little finger I was holding was a left-hand thumb! aud tho tvhrJe trick was thus appareat. His right hand was free ! You can see capital illustmted explanations of "how it's done" in Professor Hoffman's translation of Houdin's "Stage Conjuring." The phenomena were produced to the singing of hymns, whioh is always done for the purpose of preventing toll-tale sounds from being hoard ; I did not 30m in the glorifications, nor did I tell the other sitters what I had discovered. I waited for the visit of the Davenport Brothers to make my iirat public exposure, which, having possession of the whole secret, I could not resist the temptation of." TUE DAVENPORT BROTHERS. " When these shining lights appeared in the Cheltenham Town Hall I was chosen to act u.pon the committee. I tied them up and took, up my position on the stage where 1 cou Id see into their cabiaet when the middle do or was ajar. The windows of the hall were ttf.cked over with baize to exclude the light, and the showman announced that the super'Siatural powers would throw the tambourines and other musical (?) instruments out of the cabinet while the mediums were securely bound. At the very second that this was happening the baize fell from one of the windows, a ray of light shot into the cabinot and distinctly revealed to me one of the brothers flinging the instruments out of the cabinet, and then, with a tortuous, and to me 3 very significant, movemeut, re-secure his hands in his bonds behind his back. lat once announced to the audience what I had discovered, and a sceue of great confusion followed. I declared my ability to reproduce all the Davenport business ; the brothers challenged me to do so. I accepted, secured the co-operation of Mr. Cooke, and withiu six weeks we were doing all their tricks— not quite so rapidly at first, I must confess, hut equally so afterwards—all over the country ; and so successful were we, that I finally determined to throw up the horolof,ical in favour of the mystical business—a nrjch better paying concern, as you may ixnagine.

" While on the subject of cabinet pheno'niena, I may tell you that it is quite a mistake to suppose that sailors are better able to secure a performer than any other person. So far from that being so, we have sometimes had difficulty in keeping their ropes from falling otf us. So long as their knots are pulled tight they won't slip, but they are very easy to untie. We have never yet hsd any difficulty with a eailor, but a sailmaker —he is very different. One of these gentry once gave us more trouble than we have ever had before or since, and we were very nearly beaten, but not quite. Of course, as with all "rope-tying mediums,' , we helped each Other. As a matter of fact, it always requires two people to work together in this branch of the business ; one cannot, aad never did successfully. So, when William Davenport died Ira retired, and on a very comfortable little competence too. This docs not apply to slate-writing, trance, or painting mediums, and the like, who can work alone, ar.d who, as I said before, do not even requirethe use of their two hands ; one hand and the mouth are enongh for the usual run of their business. HOW MISS FAY HOAXED PROFESSOR CROOKE3. "Professor Crookea is always being held us as the apostle of spiritualism," I said, " and his n;ime universally quoted by the believers as the scientific authority on the subject, some even going so far as to say that his investigations have assisted him in same of his scientific discoveries. Do you know anything about the matter ?"

"A good deal," answered Mr. Maakelyne, with a. quiet smile, " but then my experience of Mr. Crookea is solely through Miss Fay and her seances. Perhaps I had better describe her method of working, so that you may judge for yourself. On the 12th of May, 1575, I received a letter from Miss (or Mrs., I uever could rind out which) Fay'a manager, and a moat illiterate thing it was, in which he offered to espose all the ' scientific testa' applied to her by Professor Crookes and others, if I would guarantee a sum of money. I declined to do so, as 1 considered that there was nothing requiring explanation more than I could do myself, but I valued the letter as proving my theory that the littlo woman had fooled the Professor,. Some time after that the manager informed me that certain eminent spiritualiat3 had paid Miss Fay a visit, and that she had left very hurriedly for America, leaving him behind. Of course, before the receipt of th'is letter I was perfectly well acquainted With the whole of Miss Fay's modus operandi, which has never yet been properly explained to the public, the description given by Irving Bishop and his pupil Smart Cumberland being ridiculously incorrect—as they well know. I will show you the exact method.

"It may be remembered that Miss Fay's performance was managed in this way. There was a three-sided screen erected upon a raised stand, with a curtain to draw down in the front. Her husband, after giving a. lecture (!), introduced a fascinating little blonde; some strips of calico about a yard in length were provided, and the committee appointed by the audience were requested to aseiafc Mr. Fay in tying the medium. The left wrist was taken, and the strip securely fastened round it, and the knots were sewn up with thread by the committee. The right wriat was then tied behind her back with the ends of the same strip, about sin. from the left, but in a manner well-known to conjurors, the elip-knot so thai the hand can easily be freed. Look here!" And Mr. Maskelyne whipped a piece of black tape from hie pocket, and within a minute had tied first my right and then my left wrist with doable knots, and, as I thought, in the ■ecureaf; manner. " Try and get out of that," lie said ; "there ie a slip-knot there." I tried without avail, and could not even find the ■lip, so cleverly was if; concealed. "Look," lie went on, " thia is all that's required,"and without using any of the force that I had, he drew back a seemingly firm and fair knot ■with his finger and thumb, and the bonds fell from my hand. " Round this strip," he proceeded, " a loop of the same material was passed and fixed to a staple behind the medium. No sooner had the curtain dropped than the manifestations began, and aa soon as they stopped the medium was found securely bound. Now, suppose the committee had insisted upon sewing up the right hand knots as well, as at rare intervals they did, the contretemps wan met thos :—The medium had a knife concealed in her dress, and with it she would cut off her bonds close up to the left wrist, re-attach a spare loop which, with foresight she al vraye carried in her pocket, do what ehe had to do, and get her hand back into her own slip-knot, so that when the committee came to examine the bonds thty could not discover the cheat, especially as Miss Fay would always twist her arms so as to preaent the left wrist for the brunt of the examination. The seance would conclude with a pair of scissors being placed in the cabinet, whem the spirits would be requested to cut the bonda. By this cunning artifice the calico was chopped up beyond recognition, and it became, of course, impossible to detect that a portion had been cut away and a piece substituted. Had the committee themselves released her from her bonds without permitting the friendly interference fof the spirits, they would have discovered the cheat. Irving Bishop explained Miss Fay's method of producing the manifestations by saying that she never qot her hand free at all, but that by dislocating her left ■boulder she was able to bring her hand round in front. Of course, that's sheer nonsense." There is a general rule which, if followed, will always stop the working of the spirits. If a spectator wishes to secure a performer, let him insist on using hia own material, not that provided by the medium or his friends. It may and should be of the same material aa that belonging to the medium, so that no objection can reasonably

be made to employing them, but it should be of an unusual colour and secretly marked. By using this precaution the bonds, if cut, cannot be substituted. "Mr. Crookes frequently mentions a ' test' by means of which Alias Fay satisfactorily proved to the professional mind that though a medium she was non-executant, and this was by clapping. Hβ thought that if the medium kept ou clapping her hands together while the manifestations went on it would be impossible for her to use them for other purposes. Observe his unsophisticatedness, I which is innocent even unto greenness ! It never occurred to him that as soon as the medium was concealed from view, instead of boating her hands together, she could slap one against her forehead (as I havo often done bofore now), her bare arms, or other exposed portions of the body, and that her other haud would be free ! This was actually found out to be the case, not only with Mies Fay, but later on with Miss Andcrsou, an imitator of hers, who, when giving a dark aeanco in the Isle of Wight, was discovered to be so occupied by a man turning a dark lantern on to her, to tho lady's extreme consternation. All the while she was clapping her hauds, Miss Fay would walk round the ring of tho faithful, who were sittiug in tho orthodox circle, chucking one under the chin, pulling tho hair of another, tappiug another on the knees, and so forth. Her husband usod to give her great help in the way of producing phenomena when instruments wero placod in the middle of the room ; such as ringing a boll with his mouth as a terrier would shake & rat, while his and his wife'e hands were bciug held ; and strumming on a guitar with his foot while Miss Fay would hold a fun in her mouth, and with it produce the mystic "spirit breezes," all of which Mr. Crookos called "marvellous." What can one think of his investigations after that? But here is another example to cap it. "His chief scientific test was by means of an electro-magnet. The two handles were placed to Miss Fay's hands, aud the other ends of the wires wore connected to a galvanometer, tho needle of which could be seen by him in tbe dim half-light, and whioh, if the medium wore to loosen her hold, would indicate the fact at ouco. Could auy man be so simple? Why, as soon as she wanted to have her hands free, all she would do would be to transfer one of the handles uuder her chin, or both as sho was sitting down, uudor tho knees ; or she would insert them in the neck of her dress, and all this without breaking contact. Tims tho much vaunted ' scientific test' was absolutely the easiest to circumvent. But it bothered the professor completely."