The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-06-07 00:00:00

THOUGHT-READING EXPERIMENTS.

With the avowed intention of demonstrating that
his investigations in " thought-reading" ara likely to
become of practical value to the community Mr. W.
Irving Bishop on Tuesday made, in the presence of
some seventy ladies and gentlemen, at the Westmin-
ster Palace Hotel, London, a series ef 'experiments
which were interesting and amusing. Having .pre--
faceff his performance by a disavowal of the employ-
ment of any but purely natural means, Mr. Bishop
suggested that from amongst the audience a chairman
should be elected and a committee appointed to super-
vise the experiments. Colonel De la Poor Trench
was chosen to preside, and the Rev. canon
Mr. Lewis Wingfield, Mr. W. Wilde, Mr. H. P.
Stephens, Mr. Frank Miles, and Mr. H.
M. Dunphy were nominated as a committee.
Mr. Bishop then retired from the room, and
in his absence the last-named member of the
committee secreted a pin in the folds of ala,dy's dress.
On Mr. Bishop being re-admitted with his eyes ban-
daged, he placed his right hand within a few inches
of the "subject's" left, and after a moment's thought
commenced with him a perambulation of the room.
Occasionally pausing, he would wave his hands wildly
as if making violent mesmeric passes, and then
resume his journey, eventually reaching by a circuitous
route the object of his quest, and picking up the pin
apparently without the slightest hesitation. A repe-
tition of the bank note experiment was next suggested,
but Mr. E. Robbins took exception to the conditions
under which it was to be tried, bluntly avowing
that he and others had no 'confidence in some
members of the committee. He was thereupon
invited to join that body, and having assented, he in-
sisted upon being the person to whom alone the
number of the note should be known. This also was
conceded, and a £5 note was enclosed by Mr. Robbins
in an envelope which he handed to the chairman.
Placing himself in front of a black board, with Mr.
Robbins's hand in close proximity to his own, Mr.
Bishop directed his subject va ,concentrate his atten-
tion upon the figures which made up the number of
the note, and then proceeded to .write five figures,
two only of which were declared .to be correct. A.
second note was borrowed, and once more Mr.
Robbins proved to be an unsympathetic subject, only
one figure out of the five which ithore being success-
fully reproduced.
By this time the hour fixed for the most sensational
of Mr. Bishop's feats had passed, and hundreds of
people who had been waiting 'outside the hotel had
gone away disappointed, though a large crowd yet
remained. Canon Harford was requested to write
down the description and place of some portable
object not more than a mile distant from the place of
meeting, and having done so he handed the paper to
' the chairman for safe custody. Mr. Bishop then
covered his head and face with a black silk bag, and
taking one end of a small copper wire, which was held
at the other end by the canon, he proceeded to the ves-
tibule of the hotel, whence, afterafew minutes' thought,
he rushed at a furious pace down thesteps into Victoria-
street, dragging the rev. gentleman in his wake, and
followed by Messrs. Wingfield and Robbins. The
unwonted spectacle of a portly 'dignitary of the
Abbey Church careering madly down Victoria-street
at the end of a wire pulled by a man whose head was
shrouded in a black bag, excited the wondering
curiosity of the mob, who gave chase. Entering the
passage of No. 5, Westminster-chambers, the " scent "
became faulty, and a halt took place. To the in-
quiries of Mr. Bishop, who was now trembling with
nervous excitement, Canon Harford replied that lie
clearly remembered tho way to the place he had
thought of, though he had never been in it. There-
upon Mr. Bishop rushed off again, and forcing his
way through the crowd, crossed the street, and headed
swiftly towards the Abbey. On poaching the Sanctuary
he turned to the right and ran up the steps of No. 4,
the house of the Society of Telegraph Engineers,
adjoining the entrance to Dean's-yard. A policeman
on duty in the neighbourhood quickly barred the
passage against intruders who waited without, while
the "thought reader" ascended to a room on the first
floor overlooking Dean's-yard, and touching a bust in
the southern window declared that to be the object
which Canon Harford had in his mind. On
emerging into the open air, after the lapse of
three or four minutes, he was loudly cheered by
the assembled crowd, and at once returned to the
Westminster Palace Hotel, where he recounted
what had occurred. The accuracy of his statement
was vouched for by Canon Harford, who stated that
he had constantly seen the bust for twenty years past
while going in or out of Dean's-yard, but that until
that hour he had not known whose it was. His
manuscript was produced by the chairman, and was
found to indicate "the bust of a person unknown,
standing in a room at the entrance to Dean's-yard."
When the applause which greeted this incident had
subsided Mr. Bishop resumed his endeavour to
discover the .number of the bank-note which still
remained in Mr. Robbins's custody, but failed
for the third time, the note being numbered 22,201,
whereas the number given by him was 93,832.
As a matter of justice to himself, he then claimed
the right to make the experiment upon another
subject, and Mr. 11. P. Stephens was selected, a note
being lent for the purpose by Mr. Gulland, a visitor
staying at the hotel, who disclaimed all previous
knowledge of either Mr. Bishop or Mr. Stephens. At
the first trial three .figures out of five were correctly
given, and a second essay resulted in the No. 09914,
which, when compared with the note, was found to be
correct. A vote of thanks was awarded to Mr. Bishop
for his experiments, an endeavour to obtain a more
pronounced opinion upon their success or otherwise
meeting with a strong show of opposition on the part
of a minority of those present.