ENGLAND’S STRANGEST LIBRARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 4038, 4 August 1931, Page 64

ENGLAND’S STRANGEST LIBRARY.

s>y Harry Price, Director of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research. England’s strangest library is housed In a Kensington by-way. It runs into thousands of books, pamphlets, and rare manuscripts all concerned with one subject—the supernatural or its imitations. The oldest book in the library of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research dates from the middle of the fifteenth century, and the newest is still damp from the press. Between them lie the most complete collection of magical works ever made. The catalogue is full of such entries as: evil eye, sleight-of-hand, witchcraft, vampirism, human ostriches, sword swallowing, haunting, the devil. There is a book on witches by James I, one of the most scholarly kings of England, in which he solemnly sets down

the correct methods for their detection and punishment, and a logical treatise on demons by Jean Bodin, who in his saner moments was an economist and political philosopher of note. The first book on the survival of the dead ever published in England is another treasure of the library. It is a treatise “Of Ghostes and' Spirites Walkying by Nyght,” written by Lewis Lavater, of London, in 1572. Books relating to psychic and other impostors naturally abound in the library of a society that seeks to get at the truth by exposing fraud. Here one may read of the amazing case of Mary Tof, the “ Guildford rabbit breeder,” or “ Princess Caraboo,” the country serving-wench who fooled half England, or the Yatton demoniacs, the famous fasting women, and the pseudo-fakirs who stick themselves full of pins. There are chronicles of magnetic ladies, whose strength-resisting feats appear marvellous until one knows how the tricks are done; and water spouters who could produce whole fountains from their internal economy.

Thought-reading tricks have puzzled the wise through the ages, but in this library one may see more than 200 codes thought transference. Amongst them is the famous code used by the Zancigs, whose music-hall thought-reading act deceived all London. This code was so perfect that it enabled Zancig to describe almost any article handed to him by a member of the audience, so that his wife, who sat blindfold on the stage, could name it. Occasionally he was handed objects which could not be conveyed by the code, but he was a sufficiently good showman to extricate himself from these difficulties without shaking the faith of the audience in his pseudo-psychic powers. Scrap books are amongst the most interesting volumes in this library. One contains 1500 old play. bills, letters, trade cards, and almanacks once belonging to old-time astrologers and other quacks. Even some letters from victims of these charlatans are preserved. One trusting epistle runs:—■ “ most respected sir, I received youer ansur and hop you give me correct instruction to invoke the Angel Tarchael. The rite ingredients for Fumigatian an perticaler garments required. The demention of circle of Defence for safety and place where to invoke this spirit, sir, I hop you will inform mee so far as it lays in youer power. Youer most Humble and obedient Servant, Thos. Thomas.” We can only hope that Thomas’s psychic powers were stronger than his spelling. Show bills issued by the Davenport vzlioss soB.u n cs deocivcxl tlie public for many years, can be seen in this library. One depicts the two brothers bound to their chairs, while

“ spirit ” hands snatch off their coats, play a musical instrument, and hammer nails into a board. The Davenports always performed in the dark. They would be roped in their chairs with their hands filled with flour and a wooden block on which was a hammer, nails, and a glass of water and a violin placed between them. Then the stage was plunged in darkness or the doors of a cabinet closed, and the audience thrilled to hear .weird hammerings and scrapings. When the lights went up the brothers were discovered with the hands still full of flour, but their coats inside out, the glass of water empty, and every nail hammered home. Of course, the so-called seance was only a matter of skilful escaping from knots and ties. As soon as the lights went out, the brothers put the flour in their coat pockets, hammered the nails, drank the water, played the violin, recovered the flour, and slipped back into their ropes before giving the signal for the lights to go up.

Many people who regard magic as a wornout superstition of the past forget that all modern science owes its existence to the old magician, who believed firmly that man had the power to influence the course of nature, and move mountains not by faith, but by will. Even to-day magic has continued side by side with science. Faith healing, is only sympathetic magic. Even the more sinister black magic has its devotees, and there is still an Alchemists’ Society in London. The library contains a treatise on the making of Magic Fire written as late as 1901, and books on witchcraft ranging from modern times to Reginald Scot’s famous “ Discoverie of Witchcraft,” written in 1584, “ Wherein the lewde dealing bf witches and witchmongers is notablie detected, and the knaverie of conjurors and all the conueiances of Legerdemaine and juggling are deciphered.” It is, perhaps, as well that the use of the library is permitted only to members, for some of the books might be dangerous in the wrong hands. There is, for instance, a nineteenth century treatise on the “ Art of Thieving,” and

another on “ How to pose as a strong man,” and the rather unedifying confessions of a turf crook. Card sharping in all its branches is also dealt with, and the library contains many cleverlymarked packs. An interesting exhibit in this class is a rare coloured cartoon of the Tranby Croft baccarat scandal of 1891, in which King Edward was involved. . Even the confidence trick is represented, and there is an elevating volume on “ The Rich Uncle from Fiji and Some of His Relatives.”

Almanacks and prophecies naturally have a place in a library of magic. One of the most interesting is “A Nunness Prophesie, of the fall of Friers. Contayning the Downfall of the Pope by the Unicorne of the West. Prophesied 300 years agone and fulfilled in this present age, 1G15.” Dean Swift was not the man to resist a fling at the Old. Moores of his day, and one of the chief treasures of the library is his “ Predictions for the year 1708,” written under the pseudonym of Isaac Bickerstaff, “to prevent the People of England being further imposed upon by Vulgar Almanack-Makers.” This was a hit at a quack named John Partridge, who brought out an annual almanack.

Amongst Swift’s predictions it was solemnly stated that on March 29, at 11 o’clock, “Partridge, the almanack maker, should infallibly die of a raging fever.” Op March 30 Swift issued a letter to the press saying the Partridge had died according to the prediction. The press entered into the joke and published accounts of the astrologer’s sad end. Penny elegies were soon on sale in the streets, and Partridge’s name was struck off the rolls at Stationers’ Hall.

Partridge was furious and had to issue a special almanack for the same year to prove his continued existence. He was foolish enough to add that he had “Also been alive on the day when the knave Bickerstaff asserted he had died of fever.” This moved Swift to reply in “ Bickerstaff’s Almanack, or a Vindication of the Stars,” 1709, proving that Partridge was really dead. The bitter joke set all London laughing, and killed the almanack trade for many a day. , ¥ ¥ Y-

Few people are aware that Defoe was an excellent hand at a ghost story, and the library of the National Laboratory has several examples of his skill, including the circumstantial story of the apparition of Mrs Veal. This Defoe set down with all the detail of a first-rate reporter, and it is so convincing that if we did not know it for pure fiction, we should not venture to disbelieve it. Incidentally, Defoe wrote this ghost story as a puff for Drelincourt’s “ Christian’s Consolations Against the Fears of Death,” which was selling badly. The famous Abrams rays, which the inventor claimed as a cure for all diseases, is one amongst the many box mysteries dealt with in the library, and, of course, Joanna Southcott’s amazing legacy is not forgotten. There is a collection of original letters from the Archbishops and Bishops of Great Britain, giving their views on its opening; and having read them, one may see the Box itself, which I X-rayed before opening it ceremoniously at the Church House, Westminister, on June 11, 1927.