The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-03-08 00:00:00

TABLE-RAPPING AT THE CRYSTAL

PALACE.
:From the Daily New,

Most people will remember the sensation that was
caused in London some five years ago by the no-called
spiritualist manifestations of the Brothers Davenport.
heir " seances " were witnessed by the cleverest, best
edncated, and most sceptical men in-London, but the
cabinet trick and the mysterious untying of the rope
pnzzled everybody. It was at that time that Messrs.
Maakelyne and Cooke appeared at the Crystal
Palace, and in an entertainment, professedly based
on mechanical deception, performed tricks equally
inexplicable and mysterious, and exposed the
whole imposture of the Brothers. The game gentle.
men appeared on Monday once more in the same
popular place of entertainment, and astonished a nume-
rous audience. Before the rising of the curtaia Mr.
Maskelyne appeared on the stage, and informed the
audience that the performance which they were
about to witness was entirely based upon deception,
but deceptim of a kind not (may detected. It was
not his desire to say one word about the merits or de-
merils of spiritualism, but it would be shown that am
extraordinary and seemingly supernatural things might
be brought about by very common trickery. Ac-
cordingly we had Sir Hugh Credent (Mr. J. B.
=Bearde), a rich widower lamenting the death of
his wife to his friend Johnson (Mr. Maskelyne),
and describing the extraordinary things he saw at a
opititnal séance a few nights ago. Johnson who
knows a thing or two, proposes to show him
the same things at once, with the aid of his wife, who
is a medium; and Mrs. Johnson (Mrs. Mankelyne)
duly appears. The table raps, dances, floats, and
turns half a summersault. Sir !high's walking stick
bogine a lively dance all by itself, and digs him play-
fully in the ribs; Mrs. Johnson talks in the voice of
Lady Credent, and positively floats in the air. A
bouquet is handed down by some invisible hand, and
draws back from any but the hand that owns it, and
altogether poor Sir Hugh and the audience are fairly
astonished and at s loss to explain what they have
seen. The closing entertainment, entitled "Will, the
Witch, and the Watch," is of a still more eittraordi-
nary character. The scene reveals what we may
imagine to be a part of an Irish village, with a watch-
man's hut in the centre. This hut, about five feet
broad, equally deep, and six feet high, is raised on four
pedestals, so that the audience can look under it. We
were requested to examine it thronghly, and, having
measured it both inside and outside, could arrive at no
other conclusion than that it was what it looked—a
cabinet, where not even a cat could be hidden. We
were also allowed to minutely examine a stout box of
oak about the size of a portmanteau, the circular lid
of which was provided with sufficient air holes to
enable a person to live inside, and after having
carefully measured and sounded it, we considered it
impoasinle for any one to get out when once locked
In. There was an evi lent desire on Mr. Masks•
lyne'a part to avoid anything Like suspicion, for he in-
vited a strange gentleman from the audience to take a
seat on the stage during the entire performance, and
allowed him to satisfy himself periodically that no
such th ng as curtains, sliding panels, or trap doors
were being used. Without following the story, we
may say that the Watchman, Miles Mooney, (sir.
Hasarde), gets a Sailor (Mr. Cooke), put in the stock,
and locked up in his hut. When he opens,the door c
moment afterward" the Sailor is gone, but the stocks are
there still locked. The door is again shut, and on being
opened a second time Miles is horrified in finding th
hut occupied by a horrible black gorilla, who pursues
him. After two or three extraordinary disappearances
the Watchman is assisted by Joe Külbull, a butcher
(Mr. Maskelyne), who is quick enough to cut off part
of the monster's tail, but the gorilla seizes the unfor-
tunate butcher unawares, drags him into the hut, and
shuts the door. When Miles rushes forward to aid his
screaming comrade and throws the hut open he finds it
empty. Present:3s the gorilla again appears and is
seized. The oak box is produced and the animal
locked safely inside. The key in turned and en-
trusted to a bona' idle stranger, who is also allowed
to tie the box with a stout rope and seal the knot
with wax. The b is then trinrephantly put in
the hut, and the doors closed. But scarcely
has the jubilant watchman placed his back against
the door when two black hands appear through
the air-holes and lift his hat. After ems excellent
fun the box is carefully lifted out, untied, unlocked,
and found empty, while Joe, the butcher, appears
suddenly among the audience. Presently the witch
comes to the assistance of the lovelorn village maid
Dolly (Miss Ada Beaufort), the gorilla is hurried
off the stage, and the hut on being opened is found
to contain the veritable imilor who was originally
locked in. 'this, in Mief outline, is the perform-
ance which completely bewilders the spectators, in-
cluding those who witness it from a distance of a
few feet only. It is announced as a mechanical decep-
tion, but it is so thorough and complete a deception
• that we do not attempt to seek for an explanation.
t Mr. Maskelyne's Chinese Plate Dancing is also a very
unc =mon performance. It most have taken him
years to acquire no thorough a mastery over matter
ave that it will go through the moot rapid and graceful
the evolutions by the turn of a finger. It is announced
kers that the company has been engaged for three weeks,
Mon, and we doubt not that those who can possibly spare
sr'', in the time will go and be puzzled.
them- -

I tOC-1C

being

At the Hertford Assizes, Benjamin Porter, a man I
28 years of age, following the occupation of a gardener, was
convicted for the manalaushterof Joseph Dorefield, at King's
Langley, on the Bth November, and was ordered to be kept
in penal servitude for ten years. The prison. r war being re-
moved in custody from a public house, when the deceased en
deavoured to persuade him to go quietly to the station. His
advice was rejected, and he was Sicked so severely In the
stomach that he died soon afterwards. The jury found the
prisoner guilty of manslaughter, and he was sentenced to
ten years' penal servitude —Alice Salt, 42, was found play
of the manslauahter of bar male Illofflimsfo child, and was
also sentenced to No yos[le Mal lerfitUdc