Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-05-26
Wonderful Manifestations.
From a New York paper.


The performances of the Davenport Broth
ers at the Cooper Institute continue to attract
general attention and large audiences. Last
evening there was very full and fashionable
house, and the manifestations were unusuall !
satisfactory.
At the suggestion of Mr.. Lacy, who said
| that there had been some talk about wires
and electricity, glass turpblers were placed
under the tect of the stools upon which stands
the magic cabinet or closet The cabinet was
carefully examined inside and out, and was
found to contain nothing, and to have no vs-
lb!e connection with any apparatus. The
Davenport Brothers, two very Intelligent and
gentiemanlv persons-then came forward and
were warmly welcomed. These gentlemen
were securely tied hand and foot, by the com
mittee, and fastened to the seats in the closet.
The committee reported themselves perfectly
satisfied thus far, and certainly we have never
seen better tying than that accomplished by
the Fire Marshal. The lights were turned
! down. Halt a dozen musical Instrumental
guitar, banjo, tamborine. yiol n trumpet and
beli-wers placed il the closet by the COM
lnlttec. The two side doors Of the cabinet
were closed and lockcd-also bv the Messrs.
Baker. Then the centre door was pushed to-,
| and In less than second it was boltcd upon
| the inside and the trumpet was thrown vio-
| lentiy out of the hole in the door. The com
| mittee rushed to the closet, the lights were
turned up, and there sat the Da7enports,
bound as before.
The manifestations then followed in the
| regular order, the audience remaining very
quiet and watching everything critically and
lnteiliseltly. The committee seemed to be
extremely impartial and briefly reported the
| results of their examinations A full chorus
or instruments playing a JIG was heard inside
the closet. The doors were hastily opened,
and the Davcnports had not moved Spec
trai hands and arms appeared at the closet
window. The doors were opened and the
Davenports were still bound While the
doors were patty open the instruments were
flung out and a hand was seen to strike Fire
Marshal Baker. Still the Davenports were
led linen the doors beng closed for three
minutes, the brothers were discovered per
lectIy unbound. In four minutes more they
were bound again, better than the committee
could have bound them, as these gentlemen
| candidly acknowledge. Then Judge Baker
entered the closet and sat between The Dav-
enports. The doors were shut the manifes-
tatlons continued; and when the lights were
again up, the Judge was revealed with tam
BORNE on his head and reported that the
Davenports had nos moved muscle. The
Fire Marshal then tried he same experiment
and made the same report. All of the mani
fcstations were repeated several times, to sat
isfy the mos distrusful 1t was especially
noted that il every case the inside bolt of the
center door was heard to shoot into its socket
in less than second after the door was clos
ell. This destroyed tnc theory that the Dav
exports unite themselves.
BY way Of finale Mr.. Lacy suggested that
wheat -four should be placed in the hands of
the Messrs. Davenport while they we're still
tightly tied. This was accordingly done hy
the committee, and any Of the -four that had
fallen within the box during the operation
was neatly brushed away. The doors were
then closed for the last time. and still tbs
manifestations continued. Nos@s were heard
an opcn hand was shown at til. wiadow, and
the trumpet was thrown out. The doors were
opened, and there stood he Daverport broth
ers, unbound and holding the wheat -four in
their hands. Tie committee failed 10 find
aqv of the -four about the closet or upon the
clothes Of the Dayenports; and yet thew could
not have avoided sp;lIing some of it had they
opened their hands ever SO little. For such
wonders, and for those performed by NJ FAY,
in the room above, the hy?o thesis Of legerde-
main or iu12iery does not seem reasonable
exp,auation No modern jlggler has ever
performed such dccepiions, if they are !ecep-
tions, and, during the many years that the
Dayenports have appeared in public, no ONE
not even the professors Of Harvard College
has detected thcm in their "iInpositiopS" as
some people call the manifesto ions. The
Davcnports, although they are sbiGitualists,
NC believe, do not announce that these phe-
nomena are spiritual. They simply prcdvcc
the manifestations and ask others 20 explain
them, rcsersng their own theory, whatever it
may be, as their private property.