New-York tribune., 1874-12-16

tricks of legerdemain. IL does not require inc
marvellous skill and dexterity of the we'll
known showmen like Hermann or Houdin 10
bring conviction home to such willing minds.
Nothing more than a dark room with a closet
in one corner is needed tor the evocation OF
ghosts without limit. Last Summer, MIR. owen,
in this state of mind predisposed to believe
anything provided it was only impossible, met
pair of practitioners calling themselves
Mr.. and Mrs. Nelson Holmes. Among their
performances the apparitiOn OF female called
| Katie King was included. Mr.. Owen was
greatly edited by this. and applied to 1t every
possible test, except those which would have
shown what it was. He wrote for the
January number of The atlantic Monthly
singularly ingenious and careful ar
ticle, establishing clearly in his own
mind tho supernatural character of the
performance. Nothing could be more impress
sive than the syllogistic form in which he
embodies his final conclusions. He says the
only axiom to be conceded is this: Human
beings cannot pass at will through the sub
stance of brick wall or of stout wooden
partition If VIC concedc this (Which most people
| will readily enough concede, though HOudin
seems to do things far more wonderfully. Mr..
Owen thus states his case either Katie was Il
vsitant from another phase of being or con-
federate introduced into the cabinet for pur-
poses of deceit; but this was q physical inn
possibility; therefore Katie, not being an
"inhabitant of this world, was q denizen OF
"anOther, made visible to us, for the time, by
some process which has been called ma
| "terializatiOn"
We would give very little thought to a man
who should go to jnggler's show and hear
him say, 9" am the Devil | can eat fire." and
apparently suit the action to the word, and
should then come home and give this as the
result OF his observations: "NO man, unless
he is the Evil One, can eat fire and live i;
SignOr Trismegstus ate fire at Steinway Hall
" and lived; therefore Signor TriSmegistus is
4" the Evil One" If such a man should after
ward happen to 60 into the dressing-roOm and
| see Mr.. Higgins putting on his false chin and
paunCh to hold the live Goals of his Internal
banquet, and should issue a card denounclng
Higgins as no true Satan, he would do pre-
cisely what Mr.. Owen has done. He has found
out that the Nelson Holmeses are what they
must have been, and cou.d not help being,
and, like the perfectly honest and truthful
man that he is, has written to the leading
Spritnalst paper in the country to say that
circumstantal evidence, which he has just
- obtained, induces him to withdraw the as
| surances which he has heretofore given of
has confidence i'll the genuine character OF
certain manifestations presented last Sum-
"mer, in his presence, through Mr.. and Mrs.
Nelson Holiness DR.. Child, who has been
Katic's joint sponsor with Mr.. Owen, also re-
fuses to be any longer responsible for her
ghOstly integrity.
There are few ghost hunters who have the
integrity and honesty OF Mr.. Owen, and few
therefore who come out frankly and admit the
facts, when they discover that they have been
deceived. The trade Of medumship' is there
fore likely to be reasonably good one for
years to come. There are thousands of people
whose love Of the marvellous is not counter
balanced by any sound notions of scientific
possibility or moral probability, who rarely go
to church or to the theatcr, and to whom
hushed seance in the dark, with cheap music
and clasped hands, is a delightful entertain
mcnt. There is no way of preventing these
people from enjoying themselves in their own
way. 1t is of no use to talk of bad taste or
absurdity to those incapable Of percciving
either, or to discuss probabilities with those
who admit no laws and no axioms which do
not square with their own il-reguated fancies.
A man who Is too strong minded to believe
in Christianity, and who yet finds no difficulty
in believing that spirits come out of closet
and dance breakdowns on a platform and spin
mosquito netting out of the air, is scarcely Il
promising subject for argument. To say he
disbelieves the Bible because he cannot under
stand it, and believes in Katie King because
he has seen her, simply shows that he is as
vain of the fecblcness Of his understanding as
he is of the blindness of his eyes.