The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-15 00:00:00

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(From the An to-An • ,r, - - --
During the week preceding tbsitep re 51 the
mail a curious trial was progressing in New York.
William H. Mumler has been tried on a charge of
swindling, and New York has had another sensa-
tional episode in Court. Mumler is a spirit-photo-
grapher, who profesttes to take likenesses of those
who have departed this life, and drove so lucrative
a trade thereby, that the police deemed it necessary
to arrest him and charge him with obtaining money
under false pretences. He professed to take the
photographs of the living, while the shadowy
ghost of the departed could be traced on the picture.
Specimens were handed into court, which gave
widows a. ith their husbands' apparitions behind
them ; mothers with their children on their knees ;
and Mr. Mumler boldly asserted, and then brought
witnesses to swear, that the impressions were
from genuine spirits. Much evidence was taken to
prove tha,`, in the features could be traced the linea-
mentsof the spirits they professed to represent. There
was no mistake as regarded the spectres, for they ap-
pearel on the photograph ; the mystery was, how ?
On the 26th April the defence obtained leave to
re-open their case in order to examine another
witness, when the prosecution submitted testimony,
which proved that the spirit photographs could be
taken by .neans of a double negative. Of the num-
ber handed into Court in testimony a witness se-
lected ten as thus taken ; but the others he attri-
buted to a different process, though all could
be produced by mechanical means. Desirous of ex-
posing the trick be offered Mnnaler $5OO to inspect his
process, but no opportunity was afforded him.
Mr. O. G. Mason, Secretary of the Photographic
branch of the American Institute, had examined
these photographs, and was certain they were the
result of scientific processes. He described how it
was done, and said he could take them as well SS
Mumler. He also specified some half dozen dif-
ferent ways of procuring the pictures. There are
three means by whiala tke. ghosts can be worked—
, by a lestaintaatinoaluto the camera ;_ by_ the im-
position of a positive 'piste upon the negative"; and
the transmission of light through it in the-bath. On
the 28th another crowd assembled, when the fourth
day's proceedings commenced. Abraham Bogardus,
a photographer for nearly 23 years, was connected
with an association for putting down humbugs of
the trade, of which Mumler was not a member. He
counted the processes by which spirit photographs
could be taken by scores ; he could take a man with
an angel over his head, or with a pair of horns on
his head. just as he wished. The witness went on
to describe some of these processes. " They are made
by taking a plate and coating it in the usual way,
having an impression taken by any camera out of
reach or sight of the sitter, and then putting the
plate back into the coating bath, it might be left
there as long as you like, and when a sitter comes it
can be used, and the first impression will appear
with the figure of the sitter; this is easily done ; in
referring to exhibition No. 20, for the People, in
which a hand of the shadowy figure is represented
as placed in the hair of the sitter, the witness said
that effect was easily produced, and by a little
manceuvering the arm might be made to encircle
the waist ; numbers 21 and 22 are made from sit-
ters ; the first is taken from a copy ; in taking these
pictures, we first take a dim impression from
sitters prepared for that purpose, sometimes from a
lady dressed in white and veiled over, and this im-
pression might be preserved for almost any length
of time ; I could take them less distinct ; that can
be done by not having a proper focus ; the more
the figure is out of the focus, the more indistinct
the picture ; when the focus is perfect the minia-
ture is perfect, such as the eyebrows, &c. ; the re-
cognition of the spirit likenesses depends upon the
imagination of the person sitting. I have known
persons to come into my gallery and require a por-
trait of Henry Clay as General Jackson ; I have
seen a perfect picture taken, and heard four or five
relatives standing by say there was no likeness what-
I have also known persons to come in and
want to purchase a portrait of a child, believing it
to be that of one of their children, when I have
known it Ins been taken from some one else. No.
24 (produced) was taken yesterday from P. T.
Barnum, Esq. ; in NO3. 21 and 13 for the defence,
the so-called spirits could not have been in front of
the camera. No. 13 is evidently a copy from an
oil picture, and, I believe, was made by the proc •ss
I have described. If the camera was good for any-
thing, the focus would have reached the picture
had it been in front. No. 21, for the- defence (the
Livermore picture), is, to speak, emphatically, a
transparent lie on its face, the shadow on the sitter
being on one side, the shadow of the spirit on the

ever.

SPIRIT-PHO

other ; it shows that the two pictures must have
been taken at different times. No. 22, for The
People, is taken by the process I have described."
Having assented, in reply to a question, that he was
a believer in the Bible, the counsel, Mr. Townsend,
read from the 21 to the last verse of the 29th chap-
ter of Ist Samuel, asking the witness at the con-
clusion if he believed the spirit alluded to therein
had language and appearance.. But such questions
not being permitted, he offered, as showing spirit
appearances, the 10th chap. Genesis, 6th t) 9th
verse; 19th chap. Genesis, from Ist to 27th verse,
17th chap. and 19th verse ; 22d chap. 10th to 19th
ver-ae; Numbers, 22d chap. and 35th-:verse sfh
Joshua,- 13th to 15th seise ;
,6th chap. Judges, 11
to 23 ; 13th chap. Judges, 2 ,to 22 ; 28th chap. Ist
Samuel, 31 to 17th versed 19th ch tp. Ist, from sth
to Bth verse ; Ist chap. Ezra ; 27th chap. Matthew,
52d to 51th verse ; 28th Matthew, Ist to Bth verse ;
the 12th chap. Acts of the Apostles, 9 to 11 ; 10th
chap. Acts of the Apostles, Ist to sth ; 15th chap.
Corinthian, 44th verse. The photographer, how-
ever, obstinately adhered to his statement that no
likeness could be taken of a person after death with-
out a copy. Mr. Barnum, of all men, was then
examined, touching a certain correspondence some
thet
hhinsmdeabuirges bhaodoktolrdep:iers.emntuitmttoofputrht,ethwasoerld,he
years ago when Mr. Barnum was about to write a
representing
speci-
mens of his spirit-photographs for the museum, the
humbug of which he was
going to expose. For
several years the photographs, for which he then
gave too dollars a-piece, were on the walls of
the museum ; the spirits of Napoleon I. and
Henry Clay being among them, exact like-
nesses of the well-known engravings. The chapter
in his book, " Humbugs of the World" on Spirit-
photographs, referred to Mumler. He went on
the previous day to Mr. Bogardus' Gallery, and was
taken with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. Cross-
examination elicited the following replies :—" I
have never been in any humbug business, where I
did not give value for the money ; these spitit-
photographs were labelled humbug' on the walls
of my Museum; the woolly horse Ins a remarkable
reality and curiosity ; it was exactly what I repre-
sented it to be, having a peculiar form and curled
hair; it was exactly a woolly horse ; it was not a
horse wooled over ;' the horse was • born' exactly
as he was when exhibited in my hlusem, and
there was nothing artificial about him. The
mermaid, at the time I exhibited it, was re-
presented to the public to be precisely as it
was represented to me. I never had reason to
doubt that it was what I represented it to be.
Have you never presented to the public, matters you
knew to be untrue, and taken money for the exhi-
bition of spurious curiosities ?—A. : I think I may
have given a little drapery with it sometimes.
(Laughter.) Q.: How about the nurse of George
Washington. Did you believe she was the person
you represent her to be ?---A.: I have no belief
about it. I bought her as such, and the bill of sale
has never been disproved. I bought her _and
pa
$l,OOO for her, but before she got through
sub.ect:
might
have had same little doubt uponl
etrh
esuo-gij.sted
(Laughter.) Q.: Was this doubt ever eself out of the
to the public ? —A. : I never
llr3Barnuin's evi-
dence about, it. (Laughter.)"
t it iven in
produced much mer.ritnen ,
"n 1 re aired sotre
a humorous !tanner, and it eer.ai
Yagainst "
cheek" for him to give teitibnaonyir
rlearY
hum-
bugs. An effort was road.) y
in a physician
, the
el for the prosecution, to bringp
cceoluelbsrateil for insane eases, to show hew frequently
these delusions ended in disordered imagination and
incurable insanity. Mr. Townsend while examin-
ing the witnesses for the prosecution frequently
read chapters of the Bible.

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