Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-08-21
A Remarkable Power.

n
A case singuIarly different from all
except one heretofore reported, turned up
! in this city last Monday, in the person ana
| Gifts of a young man named John n.
! Brown. whose residence is in Red Oak,
Iowa. where, in partnership with broth
or he conducts q machine manufacturing
business. This individual arrived in the
! ci,y on Saturday, accompanied by Mr. NJ.
| r Kelly. td0Superintendent Of Schools
| in Whiteside County, ILL.,, who formerly
was his teacher The visit to chicago
was ON affairs of trade On Monday, at
the solicitation of friends who were cog.
| infant Of his powers, he was prevailed
upon to exhibit its workings in the pres
ence of several gentlemen, among whom
were few attaches of the Iater-Ocedn.
His faculty, it may be promised, consists
mainly in his ability 70 lead persons to
apy object mentally selected, no matter
where placed, so that it is accessible by
ordinary means to ordinary people, he
being blindfolded and uniformed as to
the shape or identity of the thing so Sc
lected. Other curious things are also in
his power to do, as will be related, but
| this is his forte. He requires no special
surrounding conditions, no harmonious
action" of temperaments or influences, as
the majority of media do, further than
the person making the test must be,
| sober-that is, free from the intellectual
haziness consequent upon bibulous per-
formances-and that this person must be
possessed of a sound left arm and hand.
| That he is medium, in the ordinary ac-
| ceptation of the term, he does not assert;
| nor does he claim TO be clairvoyant or
believer in mesmerism. The parental
Browns are Methodists, and not at all in
clined toward spiritualism; their son fol
| lows in their opinion.
The first test made was by gentleman
! who, communicating to no one what was
passing in his mind, inwardly desired to
be conducted to a certain vest pocket
wherein was . particular key. The pro-
prietor of the vest was at that moment
wearing il in distant room. Mr. Brown
was blind-folded, took the gentleman's
left hand, placed it upon his own fore
| head, and, after number Of vacillating
movements, started out through the door
| With few deviations he traversed the var
| ious passages, never tripping or stumD-
| ling against chairs or tables, and going
through doorways without a bump
| straight to the party who wore the vest,
and placed the subjects hand upon the
identical pocket wherein was ensconced
the key. The same test in different forms
was subsequently applied by others, and
invariably with the same result.
Next he was blindfolded, and dozen
or more photographs produced by an
adolescent in the company, who, with a
nervous tremor in his voice and flush
upon his downy cheek, requested to be in
formed whether Mr.. Brown could pick
out the picture of the lady he Ohe Adde'S
cent was going to marry?" Certainly he
could, was the reply-provided it was
among the photographs. 1t was among
them, and so, with shaky fingers, the
youth distributed the pictures in various
parts of the room. Immediately his
hand had been carried to Mr.. Browns
head the latter started with surprising
promptncss, took direct line to bureau
in corner, and placed the trembling
manual extremity grasped within his own
upon one of the cards, whereupon with a
"sigh like furnace blast" and smile that
opened to view his entire dental treasure
the happy boy acknowledged the success
full issue of the trial in the words, "That's
andah to palpitate alone. Mr.
|
album, placing the subjects finger upon
the one desired directly it came to view
upon the leaves being turned; spelled
out, upon small-written alphabet the name
of dead sister of one of the spectators
whose only part in the transaction was to
think it, and did variety Of other things
equally strange. a prominent clairvOy
ant who was of the party was at loss
how to name this gift, it being one quite
new to his observation. He Opined, he
said, that the mind of the subject influ
enced the mind of the operator through 9
current Of magnetic sympathy conveyed
along the arm to his brain. The Other
spectators were silent as to opinions, be
yond that the faculty was wonderful.
Mr. Brown himself is not aware Of the
cause of the means producing these re
suits. He says that when the subjects
hand is placed against his head, rays o.
lambert light appear to emanate from al
sides of his brain, following, as he sup
poses, the thoughts Of the other person
:. When an object is selected to be pointed
out, the mind of the subject being direct
ed to it, an unusual line of light appears
and this he follows until it rests steadily
, which it always does, upon the object
The size of this light varies with the size
of the object. For instance, should ,
newspaper be spread upon table, and ,
particular printed letter be selected, thu
point of light would be small as the let
| ter; but II the entire sheet were taken
! the light would be correspondingly large
, When the object is of the size of hat o
of cup, the ray gathers about it in a ball
The article is not seen by this light. MI
, Brown is not aware of its character unit
, the bandage is removed, when it is re
vealed to him by his ordinary visua
sense.
Being asked how long he had possessed
this power, he answered that he could no
tell any more than he could relate whel
he learned to speak. Up to his sixth yea
. he was unaware Of its being singular. A
that period, when playing with othe
children, he found that contact with then
produced in him peculiar sensations
sometimes pain; that in a dark room
sparks Of what seemed FIRE would fly from
the ends of his fingers if his hands wer
, brought suddenly together. His mothe
: used frequently to remark oddities abon
him, and often spoke of them. Eigh
, years ago he was led to experiment by tn
accidental passage of companions han,
| ocroca hic fnrah ood raculfiu ~ IN q novchi