The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-01-28
KATIE KING AGAIN.
Her History MS Related by Uerself---stnte-
ment Under Oath---The Decentralization
Tricks Explained.

public are concerned my name is Katie
King, and this only 1 propose to use.
Like all others, 1 have, of course, q real
name, but the public have no interest in
knowing what it is. L was married
when was between fourteen and fifteen
years of age. ] have one child eight
years old. My husband died upwards
of two years ago, leaving me without
any means of support, and through my
own exertions L have provided for my
child and an aged mother. After my
furniture was sold Mr.. Holmes proposed
that L should take what little money /
had left, purchase as much furniture
with it as L could, hire another house,
and they would assist me in furnishing
it, board with me, and would also assist
me i'll paying the rent. acceded to this
proposition. No. so North Ninth street
was the house selected, Mr.. and Mrs.
Holmes using the second floor for their
business purposes the balance of the
house, except the storeroom on the first
floor, was used by us jointly. They
commenced giving their pretended
spiritual manifestations while we occu-
pied the house on North Thirteenth
street. Katie King" however, did
not make her appearance, for very good
reasons, until after we occupied the
house on North Ninth street This was
about the middle of April, 1874. Shortly
after we were settled in the Ninth street
house Katie King became the subject of
daily conversation. Katie had taken her
departure from Florence Cook, in Lon
don, and announced that eha would
never appear on earth again" That
could be easily fixed, however, by Katie
announcing here that cher friends in
London were mistaken that she only
meant she would never appear in London
again, but America should thereafter be
the field of operations. The Spiritual
lists would believe it, and outsiders knew
nothing about it. One day while con-
versing about the probable success of
the seances, q white cloth was thrown
over my head by the lady medium, ac-
companied with the remark, "You wonld
make a good Katie King I wish you
would try it. Go in the cabinet once
look out at the audience and speak; say
something, just to see how it will take. -
1t is useless to repeat all the conversa-
ton that passed between us at various
times on the subject.
They offered me 50 seance, and
agreed that if Katie King would "take -
they would hold three day. Imade up
my mind to play the part for short
time, hoping that something better
would turn up in my interest. In the
mean time / would be earning my ex-
penses and doing no one any harm. All
the necessary preparations were made for
my de6ut, which was to take place on
the evening of the 10Th of May. A robe
had been prepaeed of thin, white French
muslin, reaching to the floor, with long,
flowing sleeves, and fastened around the
waist with a belt, which, when 1 put it
on, gave, me very graceful appearance.
A white veil was then thrown loosely
over my head. [ had taken great pains
to give my face, arms and hands white,
corpse-l1ke appearance. Altogether, /
looked very much like spirit. The
manner if which [ entered and left the
cabinet will be hereafter described. I
entered it the first time, after the dark
seance was over, from the bedroom. Mr.
Holmes was in the cabinet. After one
or two false faces had been exhibited, [
gently drew aside the curtain hanging
over one of the apertures, showing the
audience my face, and, in very low
whisper, scarcely audible, said, "Good
evening, friends" then drew back my
head and drew down the curtain. The
sensation in the audience was great.
Although somewhat excited, [ was
amused to hear the different remarks,
"Did you hear it speak 2" 81 wonder
who it is?" Chow beautiful it was. -
81 do wish it would appear again." The
lady medium, who was on the outside of
the cabinet, among the audience, ap-
peared very much pleased, indeed, at the
reception L had received, and remarked
that "she thought something unusual
would occur, for the spirits had been
drawing from her so hard all the evening
to enable them 10 materialize, that she
had scarce any vitality left" After the
excitement had subsided little and va
rious requests had been made that |
should appear again, L pulled the curtain
to one side, showed my face at the aper-
ture, and three or four voices at the
same time said, "Who are you ?-please
to tell us your name" L answered in q
low whisper, as before, {" l am Katie
King, you stupid" These cant phrases,
"You stupid, 81 shant," " Be sure |
am" " ETC., were used by Florence Cook
$50 1 was informed by Mr.. and Mrs.
Holmes) when persOnating Katie King,
and it was very important that 1 should
use them, so that the people would think
l was the same Katie who had appeared
in London.
The sensation among the audience
was greater than ut first, and often was
the question asked, "Can this possibly
he tha X Kntia x inc who oD,,aora5 tlro,, =, Il
the midiumship of Florence Cook in
Londonl" After a few moments L again
showed my face and sald "Of course it
is, you stupid" The sensation was even
greater that before. L again withdrew.
The lady medium remarked that
"spirits could not remain materialized
but few moments at time, they had
to retire into the cabinet to gather
strength" On my appearance again at
the aperture, Mr.. Childs asked me
"when had been in London" l re-
piled, 81 attended a seance there to-day,
you stupid" and again retired. Mr..
Holmes suggested that | had said enough
for the first time, and / left the cabinet,
passed through the bedroom, upstairs
to my own room, on the third floor.
The audience soon after retired, con-
graduating each other " that the ma
terializations of spirits was a fact be-
yond all doubt" Katie's first appear
ance was an entire success the mediums
were overioyed and the audience highly
pleased. The news that a spirit had ap-
peared and talked to the audience spread
through the ranks of the faithful with
immense rapidity. So great was the
L l. I