EXPOSURES IN AMERICA. TRAPPED MEDIUMS. Spiritualism.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 131, 5 December 1885, Page 6

EXPOSURES IN AMERICA. TRAPPED MEDIUMS. Spiritualism.

After the repeated attempts to expose the devices of spiritualist mediums in this country the question may be asked : " Is the game worth the candle ? Has it done anyI thing to dampen the faith of the large number of believers in spiritualism, and ! has it hurt materially the business of the professional mediums who coin money out ot the credulity of their dupes ?" These queries are prompted by the recent attempt of some investigators in San Jose which turned out disastrously. The medium was not caught, and as the seance was hold in a private house, he had brought suit against the persons who broke up his communion with the alleged spirits. The outcome of the suit will be watched with interest, as it will bring out a nice distinction between seances in public places and in private rooms. The business of exposing the professional spiritualist medium has been lively at rimes in this city, and the exposures have frequently been thorough and conclusive, but they seemed to have no effect whatever on tho J rue believers. These people refused fco credit the evidences of their senses, and, as in many trials of leaders of religious doctrines, the efforts to convict merely served to muke more stalwart the faith and loyalty of the disciples. Perhaps the most notorious ca«e in this country in recent years was tho Katie King exposure in Philadelphia. This differed in no essential trom many similar cases in other cities, navo that the chief dupe was Robert Dale Owen, a man eminent as a thinker and writer, one of the purest nnnded and most unselfish of philanthropists. When it was clearly demonstrated to him that the spirit about whose neck he had hung a gold chain, and to whoso words he had ascribed more than mortal truth and affection, was merely an ordinary young woman, the old man fell into a state of extreme melancholy, which ended soon after in his death. Recently in Kansas City a trial was conducted which throws much light on the dilliculty of proving fraud, even in the devices of tho professional spiritualist, and which also shows how large a body ot believers may be raised by a single medium provided he be a man of ability. The Kansas City spiritualist who was on trial was named Mott. He carried on the business of teceivmg communications from the spirit land, and ho charged §1.50 a head for the privilege of attending his seances. He drove a thriving trade, and his meetings were made particularly interesting by a certain General Bledsoe, the ghost of a Confederate Brigadier, whose duty it waa to bring up tho sprits and introduce them to the audionce. One Kansas City sceptic thought he saw the features of Mott, the medium, in the countenance of the General, and he devised a scheme to make suspicion certainty. He provided himself with a cyiinge filled with red aniline dye iv solution of alcohol, so that it would stick to any objoct. Then he got out a warrant for Mott's arrest, and had policomen in waiting ready to rush iv at a given signal. The oventful night arrived ; Mott entered the cabinet ; the festive B igadior Bledsoe appeared ; Mr Lawrence was called to the window to talk with the spirit of a departed fiiend. While ho was aoout time feet away fiom the General ho pulled his syringe md lot fly at tie spiritual master of ceremonies. Air L'nvrence in his testimony in court s .id ; '• i heard (ho aniline swash in ma lace.' 1 The door of the cabinet was held, the police called in, and the medium was iounrt 1) ing on a sofa in an apparent stupor rtith onu nde of his faco covered with the reid dyo. Tho polico and others who found tho medium in the cabinet testified that he was badly k{ broken up,"' and one oflicial nai\cl> declared that he "called for whisky jusi like a littlo child " — a statement which throw s new light on the tastes of the juvenile Missomian. The prosecution strengthened its case by tho testimony of sceptics who had failed to get any satisfactory if'impsih of dead relatives, or who had seen tho alleged spirits of more sisters, cousins, .md aunts than they ever possessed in the flesh v\ hat made the case most extraordinary, however, was tho course taken by the defenco. They explained the colouring of the medium^ face- by tho hypothesis that General Bledsoe de-materialised when he saw the syringe pulled, and that the contents, intended for him, struck tho rear of the cabinet, were deflected,and thus hit the medium This was ingenious, but it violated all known physical laws as badly as does spiritualism itself. Then they produced more than a score of witnesses who gave the strongest testimony in support of the medium's wonderful powers, declaring that they had communications from many dead friends ; that these spirits related incidents which could never have come to the knowledge of the medium, and that they were thoroughly convinced of j his honesty as well as of the genuine value of spiritualism. Some of the witnesses were illiterate, but the majority were very in telligent people, and one was a judge in good standing, who gave many facts of his own experience to show that his belief was not founded on mere illusion. When the evidence was all in, the Judge dismissed the charge, frankly admitting | that he was unable to reconcile the testimony, and did not feel like taking the responsibility of convicting under such circumstances. So the case ended, as most of these inquiries have ended, with no substantial gain cv either tide, and no advance made in the direction of clearing up one of the greatest mysteries which puzzles the human mind. Recently a case of alleged spiritual manifestations, which called for systematic investigation, has come to light near the town of Millville,in Shasta County. A farmhouse there has been tho scene of remarkably phenomena Stones have been thrown into the rooms, furniture moved, the hats of visitors twitched off their heads and cast out-doors ; in a word, all the old stock tricks have been used to mystify the neighbours and prove that some unseen influence is at work. No investigation worthy of the name was made for some time, or the author of these tricks would have been discovered. Tho fact that one of the small girls of the family has been selected as the special subject of tho manifestations led the sceptic to tho conclusion that she had been well trained for the work. As it was, the "ghost" or " spook" created a great sensation among the country-folk, and the stories of tho strange happenings were exaggerated by every narrator. Finally the little girl was detected throwing stones and sticks and performing other tricks which had amazed the visitors to the house. So ends the latest spiritualist sensation, which promised to add another chapter to the many well-authenticated cases of haunted houses, with phenomena which have puzzled experts in the occult sciences. — "S. F. Chronicle," August 27.

Burton, while travelling on a steamboat, seated himself at the table, and called for a beefsteak. The waiter furnished him with a small strip of that article. Taking it upon his fork, and turning it over and examining it with one of his peculiar looks, he coolly remarked, "Yes, that's it. Bring me some."