The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-07-25 00:00:00

CLAIRVOYANCE IN AMERICA.

The New York Times says :—"Mr. John R. Brown,
of Council Bluffs, lowa, arrived in this city a few days
ago and is now stopping at the Sturtevant House.
He is a young man—twenty-two years of age—and
was born in St. Louis, Mo. Mr. Brown is possessed
of powers which would have made Anthony Mesmer
delight to make his acquaintance. He can, certain
conditions complied with, read your thoughts, how-
ever much you may endeavour to conceal them Dr.
Cocker, of the Michigan University, where the young
man allowed himself to be submitted to a number of
tests, says of him--' If an individual will intensely
fix his attention upon a concrete object, localised in a
particular place, and not abstract his attention. Mr.
Brown, while blindfolded, will lead him to the object.'
After stating that the young man was of good cha-
racter, and well known to many in the university
before the general public knew aught of his peculiar
power, Dr. Cocker says: All the cases he gives are
instances of imageal representations of concrete objects
in space.'
"Yesterday Mr. Brown gave a private exhibition
to a select company, including several representatives
of the press. The place chosen for the experiments
was a large parlour and bedroom in the Sturtevant
House. He explained beforehand that he was obliged
to tiiie a certain amount of machinery. This latter
consisted of the letters of the alphabet printed on a
piece of pasteboard, and a long piece of brass wire.
He did not use the wire, the utility of which will be
explained hereafter, but he exhibited the printed
letters. The latter were strung around the walls of
the parlour, and Mr. Brown commenced his interesting
exhibition. He stated, in the first place, that any in-
dividual in the room might hide an article any.
where in the house, and that, if certain conditions
were complied with, he would surely point out where
it was hidden by reading his thoughts. A gentleman
in the company left the room, and returned in
a few minutes. Mr. Brown then blindfolded him-
self with a linen handkerchief, took bold of the
gentleman's left hand with his own right hand,
an after a few eccentric movements, namely,
passing his hand several times over the gentle-
man's arm and across his forehead, the two left
the parlour, followed by the company, and proceeded
to search for the hidden article. The gentleman sub-
mitting to the experiment was led, or rather pulled,
by Mr. Brown through the corridors of the hotel and
into a half dozen chambers until one was reached
where Brown stopped before a bureau with about a
dozen drawers, and, pointing to one particular drawer,
said : Yon will find it there.' The hidden article, a
pocketknife—was found in the drawer. The gentleman
said that he hail followed the course which Brown had
taken before he had hid the knife, and expressed him-
self as much astonished. The next tent was made by
a gentleman who went into an adjoining apartment,
and selected a rosette in one of three damask curtains,
as an object upon which to concentrate his thoughts.
Mr. Brown, preparing himself as before, led the gen-
tleman to the window-curtain, and after a minute's
hesitation over a tassel, placed his hand upon the
rosette. The gentleman stated that he had at first
thought of the tassel, but had finally concluded to
choose the rosette. Mr. Lewis Leland, of the hotel,
asked Mr. Brown to tell him the name of his birth-
place. The latter, blindfolding himself and taking
the hand of Mr. Leland in a manner before de-
scribed, led him around the room, and pointing to the
printed letters of the alphabet suspended on the walls,
spelled out the name Langrove.' This is a small town
in Nermont, and the birthplace of Mr. Leland. In the
same manner Mr. Brown picked out the letters of the
alphabet spelling George,' the christian name of
George F. Rowe, a reporter of The Times, drowned
wane time ago, on the request of his bristlier, who W ati
present, and also the name of a town in Turkey, de-
nominated Abeih,' where one of that company wa
born. In the latter test Mr. Brown inbaed the letter
e.' which the gentleman making the test stated was
probably owing to thy fact that he had himself hesitated
over it while mentally spelling the word. Another
tot to which I. Brown woo enbiect4cl wat modo bl?