Litchfield enquirer., 1876-10-19
SIade and his Slate.

The story of Slade's experience in Lon don is instructive in many ways. Briefly summed up the story runs thus. He went to London to practice the tricks which he had made profitable here; Professor Lan- kester visited him. set him at work, and. seizing his slate at the right moment, caught him in the act of writing the mes- sages which he meant presently to exhibit as the work of disembodied spirits. This much of the story is only repetition, in substance, of written history, for it has not been many years since writer in one of our own magazines detected this man Slade in his tricks, and published an ac- count of his observations. The English scientific mind is less tolerant, however, than the American literary temper is, and hence the new story changes it's course at this point. The magazine writer's &C., count had no other effect than to advertise Slade and his slate; the English investiga tor wrote to the Times newspaper about the matter, of course, else he would have lost caste as an Englishman, but he went further and did more He was very much in earnest. it appears. and his interest in Shade was not. merely speculative. Hav- ing detected his trickery and exposed it, he lodged complaints against the impos tor, in the interest of an easily-deluded pubic, aud the accredited agent of de. parted spirits is now called upon to an- swer'to the double charge of vagrancy and consplring to fraud persons of their money. He must answer, too, before 8 stolid, unimaginative, beef-eating British court-a coult of the sort III which Charles Reades Yankee says, "You get justice dear-bUt prime" and it must be owned kh,k lnfk l1l xoa1irpo'o a1 are very good indeed for a term of public service upon compnlsion.
 If anybody imagines. however, that de- lection or punishment or anything else under heaven will destroy the business of Slade and such as he, the anticipation is certain to be disappointed. Credulous folk will continue to be credulous, and Slade may drive fair business with his slate in prison, precisely as Flint did with his teapot. To expose the vulgar trickery of these cheats really hurts their business very little or not at all. The Holmeses still have customers in plenty, in spite of Katy King and her awakened conscience exposures have been made time and again, but the believers are believers still. Very weak logic suffices them in the detected mediums answer, and this man Slade has already put Tn plea in the Times news paper, which all devout spiritualists will accept as sufficient, probably. As Pat, when he was accused of being drunk and disorderly, and was told that half dozen witnesses were ready to swear that they saw him in that condition, answered that he could procure dozen who did not see him drunk, SO Slade answers Professor Lankester's account of what he saw with the fact that certain other persons, Dr. Carpenter among them, did not see any thing of the kind when they visited him.
 Dr. Hammond holds that credulity with respect to the alleged phenomena of spir- itualism is 8 species of mental disease; without expressing an opinion upon that point we may safely say that the mental condition which makes such cred llity per- sistent is certainly not sound and vigor- ous one.