The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1874-10-29
WONDERS OF MAGIC.

VA uAAU1Oa
So eminent scientist as Prof. Alfred
Ii. Wallace has written several elabor-
ate articles in an English periodical in
support OF the claim that the physical
phenomenon called spirituahstic is pro-
duced by spirits which. once inhabited
human bodies. Many marvellous things
are reported almost daily of this spirit
manifestation. A few years ago moth
ing more startling than raps and table
tipping was produced, but now we are
asked to believe, not only that mediums
like Home elongate their bodies from
3 TO IL feet carry red-hot Goals in their
hands without injury, and float visibly
IN the air, but that the "spirits " can
materialize themselves so as to be-
come the solid flesh and bone that they
were IN this life. Nay, more: Col.
Olcott, a clear-headed praticaI lawyer
and a gentleman of unimpeachable
veracity, who is at Chittenden, Vt. in
yestlgatlng the alleged phenomena pro-
duced by the Eddy mediums, tele-
graphs to New York in triumph that he
has succeeded in catching one of the
spirits-a female one, and weighing her
on Fairbanks scales.
PROFESSIONAL MAGICIANs.
Now, all this from Messrs. Wallace.
Crooks and Marley, from Col. Olcott.
from Philadelphia, from Moravia, New
York. and other places haunted by ma
terialized spirits, and from persons who
have sat with Slade, Foster and Mans
field, is very wonderful; but is it con-
elusive proof that the claims of Spirit
ualism are right? What if it can be
shown thatphenomena quite as extraor-
binary have been produced by pro-
fessionaI jugglers, men who have made
no pretense that they we're assisted by
occult powers, and who have even ex
planned the mechanism of their tricks
Ii this can be done, the inference must
necessarily follow either that the Spirit
ualistic mediums ere cunning impostors,
or that the professional necremancers
are liars when they declare that their
phenomena are mere trickery, and that
they are really assisted by supermun-
dane agents. All history is full of the
deceptiOns pract1ced either by these
professional characters CT others who
pretended to supernatural powers, and
were subsequently exposed as charla-
tans. Jugglery was allied to the an
Client religions of the Greeks, Romans,
Egyptians and Chaldeans. Hellas had
its oracle, with it's cunning priesthood
Bone its augurs and OWNERS, and
Chaldee its world-renowned magicians
In the dark ages Of Europe there were
enchanters, sOrcerers and astrologers,
and, little later, witches, who had to
have their conjury burned and drowned
out of them. The Thaumaturgists and
Rosicrucians pretended to magical DOW
ers. There is notanage in thewor1d' Is re-
corded past, hardly year even, that
some lore8tldigitGteAr has not figured
on the scene, either az a court append
age, a religious leader, or an actor per-
forming for the amusement Of the popu-
lace. Lei the Davenport Brothers or
DIR. Slade do more than is related here.
and then they will have right to ask
us to consider if the phenomena thew
show are The work of g spirits"
One of the most remarkable exhibit
tons of clever jugglery is mentioned in
Salverte's PHILOSOPHY of Magic"
Gondon, 1916, vol. l, page 1863. 1t
was seen at Nancy, in France, in 1929.
A man from the audience was induced
to lie down on the stage, and the magi-
clan deliberately chopped off his head
He displayed the severed head to the
audience so that they could recognize
the features he permitted them to
touch it, to open the mouth, which shut
again of its own accord, and to examine
the bleeding section of the neck at the
extremity Of the trunk. He removed
the body and withdrew a curtain, and
almost Immediately the supposed dead
man appeared in perfect health. Sal
yerte says that the beheading trick was
performed by the Mohamedans, and
that HIlian is authority for the state
ment that Esculapius apparently re-
united the heart of woman to her
corpse and restored her to life and
health.
According to Mr.. Goodwin, in his
History of the Necromancers," it was
common practice at the time he wrote
Unity years apo\ for iugoIars in the