The Express.
London, England, 1865-09-18 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS.
(211.01 L 01:111 Ow C011318r05033r.)

PARIS, SUNDAY VINING.
I am obliged again to say a word of the brothers
Davenport, because the French newspapers are
filled with their recriminations about the exposure
of their humbug. They write denying that any-
body has found out the way in which the results
they show to the publio are produced, and they
allege that no springs or slides are to be found in
the press wherein they do their hoouiepoons. The
gentleman who told the public: on September
12 that be had discovered their trick,
discovered, according to them, no spring, but simply
broke by brute force the bench or bar to which
they were tied. The Epoque, in noticing this letter,
says, very much to the purpose—" The Davenport
Brothers do not herein make any pretensions to the
supernatural ; they merely say that what they do
cannot be explained. Very good. Let them only
confess themselves conjurors, and we will admire
their talent, till then we shall continue to laugh in
their faces." The brothers say that the explane-
tions of their performances given in the newspapers
I have made them "laugh." Nothing more likely. They
who have made so much money by the credulity of
the public must laugh amazingly at the amount of
logic wasted upon them. "Let those laugh who
win" is a proverb applicable to them. There is
something to admire in their nerve and perse-
verance, and they are going on with their represen-
tations. M. Bernard Derosne, swell-known journal-
ist, writes that it was at his suggestion and not at
that of the commissary of police that the money was
returned to the public on the 12th. Although for a
reason to be presently stated, I think M. Bernard
Deroene an incompetent witness, I accept his
testimony in the above particular. It would have
been, in my judgment, a monstrous thing for the
police to have interfered on behalf of the simple-
tons or the curious who, with their eyes open, chose
to pay their money to see these mountebanks. The
interference meant, if anything, an expression of
opinion on the part of the authorities that the
public were entitled to expect a real perform-
ance by spirits. A much sounder view has
been taken at Buffalo (United States), the
native place, as I understand of the Davenports,
where it has been lately judicially ruled that a
person of their class, a well known medium, is
liable to pay for a conjuror's license. M. Bernard
Devosne makes it a complaint that the money
returned on the 12th amounted to 4,800 fr., while
only 3,7001 r. was taken at the doors, and he
alleges that the difference was made up by the
claims of people, including journalists, who bad
received free tickets. This charge may or may not
be true, but it is quite a collateral issue. What
is true is that M. B. Derosne's wife, an 'exam
named Madlle. Judith, has copyright interest
in the "Memoirs of the Brothers Davenport,"
which she has translated.
A report recently presented to the Academy of
Medicine states that since " spiritualiens" became
in vogue oases of insanity have augmented 25 per
cent.
The deaths from cholera at Marseilles on Friday,
the 15th, were 34, the same as the day before. The
municipal authorities have thought it necessary,
from a regard to the public health, to refuse per-
mission to prolong the fair of St. Lame, which is
generally granted as a matter of course. The Luz-
penal Medieal Society of Marseilles has expressed
an opinion that cholera is oontagketv, mod that it
was brought to Marseilles from Itetypii this year.
The report to this effect is understood is bassi been
adopted almost unanimously.
M. Belmontet, the poet laassatae 'bait just
finished an "heroic comedy" in five so* the hero