The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-25 00:00:00

The 937 letters on the subject of spirit-rapping, which Pro-
fessor Anderson has received, from the time of opening the
theatre up to the present date, bear witness to the great in-
terest taken on the subject of this singular delusion ; whilst
many of them bear melancholy evidence to the dangers which
attend a belief in the superstitious nonsense of the " Spiri-
tualists." Judging simply by the correspondence which has
resulted, Professor Anderson's exposé of spirit-rapping and
bis illustration of the so-called table phenomena, have pro-
duced a sensatdon unequalled by any previous attempt to ex-
pose a mis'.:hievons and impudent juggle. It is impossible
for Profesfrar Anderson to reply at length to a tithe of the
communir.utions which reach him on the subject. He regrets
. that manly of these should come from ladies and gentlemen
who, from their position in society and their well-known in-
tellectral attainments, he would least have expected to have
been ,:o averts to a belief so preposterous in itself, and so
easily •suseeptibleof being controverted and disproved. Every
evening, from the Lyceum stage, Mr. Anderson's opinions on
.601:it-rapping are expressed, and every evening, within the
Lyceum, how tables can be made to rap is exhibited
a'aet elucidated. It is respectfully requested that this
pablic exposition will be accepted generally as Professor
• Anderson's only mode of replying at full length to his
multitudinous correspondents. He regrets that the
'names of the great and learned of the land should
have been made to figure in the documents emanating
from the spirit-rappers, as for instance the following, ex-
tracted from the Morning Advertiser of Thursday, Septem-
ber 20, and taken by that journal from the Yew York Spiri-
tual Telegraph. It purports to emanate from an American
• spirit-rapper, Mr. D. D. Hume :—" Sir David Brewster
frankly confesses that he is sorely puzzled' at what he has
witnessed, and Lord Brougham acknowledges himself to be
thoroughly nonplussed. Both of these noted men brought
the whole force of their keen discernment to bear upon the
solution of the phenomena; but the presence of substantial,
actual hands, and the demonstrative strength of the spirits
who thus clothed themselves for the time, and moved mate-
rial objects about the room, proved to be too much of a ques-
tion for them to master." Mr. D. D. Hume, the author of the
above, has recently left England, and the following account of
who, and what he is, occurs in the Family Herald, No. 645:
This young man, who is a Scotchman by birth, and new
in Italy, is a remarkable medium for all the manifestations
• without aplraratus. Barnum, who is well-known throughout
the Anglo-S axon world as a splendid humbug, offered him 2.000
dollars per annum if he would perform at his museum in New
York, Piarnum then took it for granted that mediums could
be bouriht. He was somewhat astonished when his offer was
refuseoi. Hnme, on telling the fact in London lately, simply
and h mostly remarked, that the money would have been very
accer,table to him, for he was poor, young (under 20), an or-
' pha-a, and in very bad health : but he would have been afraid
of I osiug his power as a medium, and he would sooner lose
hirt life. The refusal, however, made Barnum thoughtful.
PLO inquired into the subject; and now Barnum, one of the
igreatest humbugs in the world, and withal a conjuror, is
cue of the firmest believers in spiritualism." It is cer-
tainly surprising to find such a paragraph as this in the
..editorial article of an established journal, the editor of whom
might be sup)osed to be sane. Even if Barnum does believe
in spirit-rapping—does spirit-rapping gain or lose by
this accession to its adherents ? and, with Barnum's endorse-
ment to it, is this bill, drawn on public credulity, more likely
to be, negotiated? Professor Anderson would believe not :
but, when he finds that educated clergymen of the Church of
. England have the temerity to subscribe their names to so gross
a swindle, when he finds that the incumbent of Wortley (the
Rev. N. J. Godfrey) positively asserts his belief in it, and
writes a book on the subject, ho considers it t , be time for
him to state that which he knows of the mechanism by which
,it is effected, and the mischief to which it tends. In the
.3forning Advertiser of October 3 appears a letter from Sir
David Brewster, relative to that which he saw at Cox's Hotel,
in com'Jany with Lord Brougham, He distinctly states that
which the Wizard of the North proclaims every night—that
spirit-rapping is nothing more than conjuring applied to bad
purposes, In the Morning Advertiser of the following day,
however, there is an answer to Sir David's letter from one
who was present when he and Lord Brougham had their
s6auce with the spirits, in which the writer says, that " the
table (a large dinner-table, I believe) moved about in the most
extraordina.ry manner, and, among other things, a large ac-
cordion w conveyed by an invisible agency to my hand and
then to Lord Brougham's, in which, held by his lordship's
right ha nd, apart from any person, it played an air through-
` out." With such a statement, printed for the edification of
the people of the 19th century, with the facts before us that
the m.ost talented men of the day are permitting themselves
to be deluded by these juggling spirit-mongers—that the
grea'cest novelist of the age is now engaged in making it the
subject of a new work, and that a " spiritual convention"
• has actually been advertised to be held iu St. Martin's-hall,
Professor Anderson trusts that his exposures of the spiritual-
ista•of America as given by him nightly at the Lyceum, will
be received by the people of England as genuine honest at-
. tempts to provide an antidote for the bane of the spiritual
jv igglers.
In the course of the last five weeks 100,017 persons have
-visited the Lyceum Theatre,—a larger number, it is believed,
than has ever before been assembled within its walls in so
short a period. Magic and Mystery is repeated every even-
ing, the programme being continually changed. Grand
f ashionable Day Performance, or Saturday, October 27, at 2
o'clock ; the programme being thus arranged ;
Part I.—Act 1. The Mesmeric Couch : or, the Clinical
Capabilities of the Atmosphere : in which tho Wizard will do
by magic that which some suppose to be effected by mesmer-
ism, and illustrate the possibility of sleeping unsupported in
. the air.

Act 2. The Aqua-Avial Paradox ; exemplifying the power
of producing animated nature from fire and water only, and
the possibility of eliciting from the simplest elements the most
complex forms of ornithological existence.
Act 3. Le Livre des Reeueils Choisies : or, Puck's Own

Pocket Book, with Puck himself within it. Typifying the
evening's entertainment in the production of the very vein-
, urinous from a small volume, in the extraction of magnitude
• out of minuteness, in developing bulk where no space appears
for its existence, in discovering odd things in odd places, and
in bringing forth unexpected wonders from the most unlikely
place for to be found.
Act 4. Magical Locomotion ; or, Transition without Trou
' ble. In which will be comprised—the Adventures of a Wed-
ding Ring, the Peregrinations of a Bank Note, the Transfor-
mation—black into white, and the Discovery of every Article
in the position which would seem the most inappropriate.
• Act 5. L'Ecrin de Verre; or, the Casket•of Crcesus. Into
which, though made entirely of glass perfectly transparent,
and suspended so as to be visible to the eyes of all present,
the Wizard will cause the money of his .visitors to transport
itself, and rain into the casket, though its lid be closed,
locked, and the key in the possession of the audience.
Act 6. Clairvoyance Extraordinary ; or, the Transparency
of Opacity.
Act. 7. A New Bottle of Bacchus ; or, the Novel Wine
• and'Spirit Store. An improvement upon the " inexhaustible
' bottle," inasmuch as the Wizard's bottle will not only be in.
• exhaustible, but will change its contents, adeirn,finbituutmte,ra.mt
itikhe
• word of command, producing soda-wan
rum whisky,
• Epsom salts, Port, Sherry, brandy, gi
noytau, or any other wine or spirit required
d
proving to be filled with pocket handkerchiefs perfectly dry,
;an'finally
and occupying the whole space when tightly packed.
Act 8. Half an Hour with the Spirits ; or, an
Spirit-rapping. Introducing tho spirit-rapping
tocsin of the invisibles. table Expose
a and
Act. 9. Grand Mystic Amalgam, in which the property of
the Wizard's patrons will undergo some strange metamor-
phoses, and, amongst others, their handkerchiefs become
transformed into the flags of victory—the banners of Eng-
land, France, Turkey, and Sardinia.
Act. 10. The Enchanted Chair of Comus, in which he who
seats himself will be under the magic spell, and appear to
the audience, under circumstances least expected, in a posi-
tion as peculiar as perplexing.
Act. 11. The Mystery of the Charmed Chest ; or, the
Nucleus of the Night's Wonders. To comprehend which the
audience will have the goodness to observe, in an earlier part
• of the evening, the chest suspended (like Mahommed's coffin)
in mid-air, into which all things will travel, and out of which
all will produced.
Act. 12. The Homological Evaporation ; or, the Shortest
Route to the Antipodes. Illustrating the easiest mode of
ridding ourselves of a troublesome friend, and the advantages
of the newly-discovered dia-terrestrial passage from the west-
ern to the eastern hemisphere.
Doors open each evening at half-past 7 ; commence at 8.
• Private boxes, 1/. lls. 6d. and 1/. ls., to be obtained at the
- Box-office, or at the principal libraries ; stalls, 4s. ' • dress
circle; 3s. ; upper boxes, 2s. ; pit, ls. ; gallery, 6d. The
Box-office is open daily, from 11 till 5, under the direction
of Mr. Chattorton, jun. Grand fashionable Morning Per-
formalist on Saturday. October 27, at 2 o clock. Doore open
iht bag-pad 1.