Litchfield enquirer., 1874-10-29
MIND BEADING.

In accordance with announcement. Dr Beard was present at Music Hall last evening for the purpose of testing Mir. J R. Browns power of mlnd reading. The audience was large.
 At eight o'clock Judge Foster appeared and called Professor Newton upon the stage. H. P. Hubbard stated that the committee had requested Hon. N. D. Sperry to act as chairman of the meeting, MT. Sperry took the chair and asked the audience to perserve order until the com. mittee should complete their arrange. ments for the experiments. He then call cd upon a representative of the Palladi- um, who was present upon the stage, to read Dr. Beard's acceptance of Mir. Browns challenge and the conditions i'm posed. This was done. The names of the committee were then read, as follows: Chosen by Mir. Brown-Professor Brewer, M. s. Phelps, Judge Foster and Judge Robinson; by Dr. Beard-Dr. s. l.. San- ford, Dr. Charles Linsley, Dr. Burge of Brooklyn, and General Colin NJ. Ingersoll. These chose Professor Newton chairman. They took their places on the stage, and Mir. Brown and Dr. Beard were introduc- cd to the audience.
 Dr. Beard made several suggestions for the benefit of the committee cautioning them chiefly against: 1st, Collision; 2d, Guesswork or chance; 3d, Unconscious Muscular Motion.
 THE EXPERIMENTS.
 l. The first test was to discover the name of the person in the audience thought of by some person selected by the committee. The gentleman selected was Hon. Henry B. Harrison. The ex- pertinent was performed in MT. Browns usual manner, he passing down through the audience with his eyes blindfolded. He first stopped at the person sitting next to J. B. Darlington. and after passing some distance beyond came back and chose Mir. Darlington. This wvs the per- son whose name had been left with the chairman. The audience broke out in vociferous apglause. MT. Harrison stat ed to the audience that during the test he was conscious of no motion or act which could lead MT. Brown to the per- son thought of.
 Dr. Beard desired MT. Brown to repeat the experiment with himself, but MT. Brown stated that he was unwilling to op- crate with Dr. Beard, as he was an inter- ested person. and as he dld not claim to operate successfully with him.
 2. The audience chose Professor Norton as the subject of the second experiment. After this selection Dr. Beard took two or three member of the committee behind the scenes. About this time the audience began to get impatient at the delay, and the whole committee left the stage to com plete arrangements for the tests so that moro than one could be performed in an hour. They soon came back. Brown was blndfolded and was told that he was to find small object which had been hid- den in the room. Taking the professors lett hand, as usual, he passed rapidly be- hind the scenes. After long search he chose the reporters table. He was wrong. The article hidden was a pin, placed in the floor, oear the speakers desk. It was afterward stated that Dr. Beard placed thepin on the floor, and not Professor Nor ton, although the latter had fixed his mind intently upon it.
 3. MT. Brown then suggested an experi- ment Henry c. Kingsley was chosen by the audience as one who should secrete a small object anywhere in the hail. While he was doing this, Brown sat blindfolded with his face from the audience. while they stuffed their feet. Then, taking MT. Kingsley, he passed from the stage, and, after a long search, gave it up. The ob- lect was night-key placed in the hands of J. b. Darlington.
 4. Fl. T. Blake was chosen as the sub- lect. but Dr. Beard had spoken privately to him, Professor Brewer announced that he claimed the same privilege for Mir. Brown. Levi N. Blydenburgh was chosen. He secreted an article while Messrs, Brown and Beard were both taken behind the scenes. Mir. Brown took Mir. Blyden- burgh Tn the usual way and left the stage with him. After long search-nearly ten minutes-he was unable to find the article. Although the committee announc- ed that there were some scientific obiec- tiOns, Brown was allowed to search with another person. This was J. Gallagher, Jr. After five minutes search with him, he called for an older person. Dr. s. G. Hubbard was chosen, and was taken to the object by Mir. Blydenburgh. During the Hull one Crittenden made a few anus ing remarks concerning spiritualism, h1s own power of prophesying battles of Gen. terville. etc, until he was brought to an untimely end by the advice of some un- known genius who told him to "talk about the comet" After search of three minutes the article was found. Great ap- plause. It was a penny placed on a cush- ion in an empty seat.
 6. For this experiment Simeon E. Bald win was chosen. He placed newspaper the Palladium behind the alphabetic string across the stage, and it was desired that Brown should find the paper and place his finger upon the letter r ill the title of the paper. After a short search wrn At,.Na l. stage and placed his finger upon the let ter on the newspaper. Great applause.
 6. Prof: George B. Day was chosen, and instructed to think of any person in the audience. Brown promised to point out the initials of the persons name on his al phabet. The initials thought of were c. 5. N.. but the ones given by Brown were B. 8. T. Trying again he failed. Try- ing Q third time he failed again, indicat ing rightly only the first letter.
 2. Dr. Beard suggested test. Charles E. Graves was chosen as the subject. x A N were the letters chosen, and Brown pointe out T B N. A member of the com mittee remarked that the right letters were the first three of the name Xantippe. Judge Foster inquired if it had been un- derstood that the person whose name was thought of should be in the audience. [Laughter. Brown proceeded to the next test, suggested by himself.
 6. Dr. Frank Gallagher was chosen to imagine pain in himself, which Brown proposed to locate. In this test he was entirely successful Applause. l
 g. Secretary B. G. Northrop was chosen as the subject of similar experiment, and the imagined pain was at once located successfully in his right ear. TContinued applause.
 10. Brown proceeded to perform his double test, receiving an impression through passive thlrd person. Prof. Johnson and Dr. filling were chosen as subjects. At first he failed, but after n longer search he found the obiect-a la- dy's fan.
 II. Tutor Beckwith, of Yale college, was chosen as the subject. Five chairs were placed in a TOW at the rear of the stage. and in each were placed four or five small glass vials. After a short search MT. Brown selected the second vial in the sec.
 II