The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1866-01-24
The Original "Lord Dundrealy y >
on Spirltu alism.
A CURIOUS LETTER FROM MIR. sornERN

Mr.. +. A. Sothern, who has made
reputation by his representation of the
character of Lord Duadreay, writes a
long letter to Glasgow paper in which
he gives the following bits of his personal
history
''There is an article in the Spiritual
Magazine in which am referred to. Tie
main count in the indictment against Inc
is thus stated:
"a few years ago party Of spiritual
lists in New York, composed chiefly of ac-
tors and actresses, held regular slttings for
the production ofspiritual phenomena. Onv
of the members OF this circle was an actor
named Stuart, who was recognized by all
as Il most powerful medium. The mani
festations witnessed at these seunces were
so wonderful as to give to the meetings
the distinguished title of "NIracle Circle
They created so much interest that it was
considered a special privilege to be ad-
mitted to thls magic chamber Mr..
Stuart at that period was better known
as.Stuart the magnetism, or magic-worker
than Stuart the actor"
"The 'actor named Stuart is now bet
ter known as the actor iamed SOthern.'
Following sufficiently illus,rious prece-
dents, | used an assumed name when |
entered on my profession. and / only re-
sumed my own by the advice of my friend
Mr.. james Wallack. The party of
splritualists was not composed chiefly Of
ACTORS and actresses. 1t would have
been none the worse if it had been but
in reality IT was composed of twelve gem
tlemcn Of high position in their respective
professions, who, actuated by common
curiosity and interest, joined in thor
ough, practical and exhaustive investiga-
ton OF the phenomena Of 'spirtualism.
We were quite ready for either result
to believe 1t if it were true to reject it if
found false; and in the latter case | at
least resolved in due time to expose it,
For more than two years we had weekly
meetings. At these, by practice, we had
succeeded in producing not only all the
wonderful manifestations of the profes-
sional media, hut other effects still more
startling. We simply tried to reproduce
the appearances and the results which we
hal heard of, and seen-and we succeeded.
Flushing our practice and experiments fur
ther, we attained the capacity to execute
ieats much more remarkable than those
presented at any of the spiritual Sea,,ces.
An American gentleman and myself took
the part of the media the rest of the
company assisted and do not hesitate
TO say that we outdid everything ever at
tempted or accomplished by Home or the
Davenports, OF any of the other more no.
torious spiritual exhibitors.
"Not the least of our discoveries was
that the whole thing was myth. We
did all that the spiritualists did, and more,
but we were our own agents, and had
no need of recourse to supernatural infu-
euces, had we had the power 10 command
them. We commenced our seances in a
spirit OF legitimate Investigation we con-
tlnued them for the sake of the amuse-
ment they gave ourselves and our friends.
We became famous in small way, We
had to start an engagement book, and tc
make appointments. People came from
all parts of America, and waited for theil
turn. We got into larger line of busi
ness than any Of the professional exhibit
ors, and we were extensively patronzed
The only difference was we didn't charge
anything. We took no money directly or
indirectly. Our entertainment being free
was literally supported and when add
that the evenings invariably wound W
with a jolly little supper, given solely al
our own expense, it may be understood
that The Miracle Circle was much fa
vored and warmly encouraged The in
dulgence of our love of fun cost Us some
money, but yielded us an mmensity Of
pleasure. To speak colloquially, it wa.
an expensive but extensive SELL w,
did put pens under the table, and get sig
natures Of Shakespeare and Garrick, ant
other valuable autographs; we did pro
duce sprit-hand sprt-torms people d,C
float in the air-at least we made our
audience really believe they did, which
was quite sufficient for our purpose aut
theirs. We exhibited phenomena which
were startling enough in all conscience
and we made our visitors believe in thtir
reality. How we succeeded in doing thi.
how we produced results the causes OF
which were not apparent to the physical
senses OF the pectators-how, in fine, We
did things which must have seemed to be
and what many of our visitors believed 10
be, supernatural and mirncnlous-I do
not intend 10 explain. We did them ;
how we did them do not feel any motive
TO declare; but have not the slightest
hesitation in saying that we did not do
them by spiritual agencies. Yet profes-
sional and paid media came and saw,
and themselves avowed our superior pew
er over the spirits.
"The object of this writer in
the Spiritual Magazine hos been to rep
resent me as having exhibited spiritual
manifestations in America, and having
exposed them here. have stated, |
hope clearly, that dId produce all the
manifestations and did exhibit them, but
they were not spiritual, and | did not
| exhibit them in public. nor for money.
] therefore consider myself free frnm the
imputatlons oi having obtained money
under false pretsnceS encouraged idle
superstitions, or perpetrated blasphemous