ARREST OF A "GHOST."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14235, 4 December 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

ARREST OF A "GHOST."

DETECTIVES SEIZE "MEDIUM ATA'. SPIRITUALIST SEANCE. Frau Abend and her husband, two well* tnown spiritualists whose operations during the past ten years have made thenwealthy at the "expense of credulous Berlin society, were arrested in the midst of a i:eance,' and held on charges of swino* ling. i : • _ Unknown to the spiritualist.", five' deleo lives secured admission to the seance, The room was darkened'and weird pray- - ers recited, preparatory to the summoning of the spirits. As the first [filmy " ghost" appeared the police commissary, rose from a back seat, seized the appall", tidn, • and shouted: "Stop! The police' are here. Turn on the lights." ~, In spite of the angry protests of «« other sitters, the lights were turned . on. and Frau Abend was revealed' i; pinioned■, by the detectives. Crying pitifully, ' If" me go! 1 have done no wrong, *•» medium proceeded to tear off her dollies... to show, that she had no ghostly gar"' but was detected while endeavouring,w pass a bundle of white veils to a apposed friend ; who was really a woman -'<-' tective. , . . The " Good Frau Abend," as her admirers called her, 3 held seances; at her humble apartments in a poor part oi «>» city, but she : had also a lucrative salon practice in the fashionable west* end.- WJA* present describes a sitting in 4 «*'«£»] of an officer of high 'rank, wherei«PJ of dead relatives were summoned. i»noi having reported themselves by 1«» |•' * lomar'y series of knocks, appeared E!- ,J lounly" behind a gauze screen.. In' Frau Abend's - own/, fPF spirits similarly appeared, but ( on!}' "• head' was visible, and that behind <* ™»; The place-was visited daily by all cm ditions of people, motors rolling "P* the door every few .minutes, in addiliw to humbler folk on foot. * , ~*l&i a >-■ A domiciliary tiail by the f*" brought- to t light ;,> some :.wjfMS3S»*S channel:: devices for the production «* • spirit phenomena*, /jj i * ■■."*■ i * , ! 1 iliwHl