Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-04-17

ANNIyERsARy-BRowN, THE ''MINp READER
WHAT HE CLAIMS AND DoEs-UTILITY OF THI
| NEW sCfENoE-THE art LOAN EXHIBITION
BAcKwARDNEss OF CENTENNIAL WORK, dc.
Special Correspondence Of the Commercial
PHILADELPHIA, April 1G.
The troubles in the Coal Regions continue te
attract large Share Of public attenton-more
perhaps than any one other current topic. Peo
pie have taken sides as to the rights of the mat
ter until now it is less usual to hear expressions
Of surprise and indignation than impromptu de-
bates on the comparative Justice OF the claims
of employers and employed. For the most part
| 1t is found that the monied men, people OF sub
stance and Importance, side with the operators
and the remaining social elements with the
workers. This rnle has its exceptions, however,
and the miners have no more earnest friends than
some of the wealthy men OF this city. some Of
them, too, being closely connected with the coal
trade. Prices have not been disturbed much as
yet, but there is great uneasiness among manu-
facturers, as there is no telling what may be the
ultimate effect of the strike upon their business
| There is but one feeling regarding the military
| occupation Of the coal country and that ID that
the ordering out of the militia was exactly the
| right thing to do. Even Mr.. Loves society must
| admit that III this case an armed force was the
only thing that preserved the peace.
The Anti-Slavery Centennial meeting is regard
ed by friends of the movement to have largely
answered its end, although there was a serious
| drawback to its SUCCESS. This drawback was
| the absence of some of the most conspicuous
| abolitonists. The worst of it is that the slight
WAS ntentional-practicaly at least, and despite
| some not very earnest letters OF regret. There
was unhappily, kind of division among anti
| slavery people sometime before emancipation
was proclaimed. This feeling never grew to an
| absolute outbreak but good deal of partisan
ship excited which probably in case the " Insti-
| tuition" had been continued would have
led before long to- the forming of
separate societies. The principal cause
| in this schsm seems to have been a difference
of Judgment between Mr.. Garrison and Mr..
Phillips as to Anti-Slavery policy. These lead
ers are men of powerful and decided character
1 and they were slowly ranging distinct party
wings when the obliteraton Of the subject of
dispute WAS supposed to have quoted all differ
ences But it has not queted them entirely
and reasonable supposition Is that neither
Phillips nor Garrison would take part in this
niyereary unless the meeting would endorse
their side of the dispute. The anniversary it.
self has been 30 fully reported in the CONNER
cIAI. that need say nothing on that head. Not
withstandng the absenteelsm, some of the best
and greatest of the "old abolitionsts" such
Lucreta Mott and Henry Wilson, were here,
per- ons whose share in the work ID scarcely Sc
cond to any.
We are having just now public entertain
ment which is not all an entertainment. Mr.. j.
IL. Browns " Mind-Reading." as it is called, is
offered to the public Mt 30 much head, but it
does not, for all that, rank with the generality of
exhibitions. Professors and Scientists of all
sorts have taken hold of the matter and it has
assumed the character of a learned inquiry. On
the supposition that the subject may be new
one to your readers l will give some account OF
it there 1t certainly was novelty and it has
excited no end of wonder and speculation. Mr..
Brown-who, il he is a necromancer, should
invent some better stage name " - is a
prepossessing young man, native OF North
ern New York, and until recently COM
mercial traveller = otherwise " drummer, for
wholesale business house. Two years ago he
had no idea of ever appearing in public
pacty but was finally led to believe that he
might find better profit in the exhibition Of
his faculty OF Mind Reading than in soliciting
trade. From childhood, he says, he con.
ferent times and with various individuals, TO
divine the thoughts of other people. Some
times the mere presence of another person
would give him indications of the unspoken
thought of the individual this being when some
oyermastering feeling or emotion made the op-
poste party very favorable subject. Gener-
ally speaking however he has to clasp
hands with the ''patient,' placing the
back of the other persons hand to his
forehead. 1t was through noticing the effect
on himself Of mere presence and then by expe-
rimenting 80 AZ to gradually develop the power,
that he found the connection described to rem
der the most satisfactory returns. In talking
with him about his experiences Nj. Brown told
me that he has obtained good results by holding
to his forehead one end Of copper wire several
hundred feet long the other end being held by
the person whose thoughts were to be read and
who was stationed in distant part of the build
ing in which the test was made. The wire-test
has, however, not been made here.
When the relations agreed on, whatever they
may be, are established, Brown declares that on
the instant he sees through the mental vision of
the opposite party. He is blind-foded, 30 as to
remain passive as far as possible and not to have
his attention distracted, and we are asked to be-
lieve the extraordinary fact that the person
whose hand he holds both and thinks for
no q
conviction that such is indeed the truth, for
Brown--entirely blinded-will rush through a
crowded hall, steering clear of every obstacle,
not 30 much as tripping over chair leg or an
outstretched foot, will go in and out the
aisles. and in between the rows of
benches; not gropngy as man would
do in the dark but at such pace that his open
eyed companion has as much as he wants to do
to make equally good time. The promise seemed
to be implied in the name given Mr.. Browns
gift leads in the erd to a kind of disappoint-
ment with persons who had expected too much.
The 'reading" is very limited. Brown docs
not pretend to give a transcript of train of
thought passing through the subjects mind 1t
is his own idea that the science will eventually |
reach that perfection, but with that we have |
nothing now to do. 1t Is enough that what he
does, although it may not satisfy extravagant ex
pectations,s beyond measure extraordinary and
inexplicable. Thus he will designate any per- |
son in the audience upon whom the subject may |
fix his mind lie will locate pain from which |
the seat of an maginarylpain which the oppo- |
site party may mentally assume to exist ; and |
he will find articles hidden by the subject, the |
party's mind being fixed upon the article and
the place where it is secreted. This last test ia
sometimes complicated in mannert that makes |
Mr.. Browns power the more convincing, by hav- |
ing the article handed by one person to a second
aud by the second to third and by the last per- |
son secreted. Brown will then take the first per- |
sonin hand; will by him detect the second person;
will then drop the first man, take the second
and through lin detect the third person, whom
he will lead to the hidden article The first per-
son in this test does not know the location of
the object any more than Brown himself. The
arrangements, it should be mentioned, are made
by committees of well known citizens, and while
discussions are being had, articles hidden, &C.,
the " Reader is in charge of subcommittee
in a room removed from the audience.
1t must be admitted that this Is all sufficiently
strange. The title given the exhibition is some
thing of a misnomer properly speaking it is
mind pointing rather than mind reading but
even that allowed it passes comprehension.
That there is any utility in the subject may be
doubted. If it is truth 1t is no more than to say
that Brown has an exceptional mental develop
ment but that is something that cannot be had
to order. Genius is not to be manufactured.
Poeta ndscitur non fill, nor can the painter be
turned out by rule, nor the larynx of the singer
be supplied otherwise than eccentric Nature
..,s3,V