Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-10-11
An ImpostOr Exposed.

Dr. Henry Slade, who has had great rep
utation in New York city, a. a medium +"
of marvellous power, Is having very I'M
comfortable experience in London. His
speciality has been the marvel of winning
the spirits to write on slate, without the
aid Of human hands. In London, at first,
he had astonishing success, aud drew the at.
teution Of the Association for the Advance.
ment Of Science, which appointed com
mittee 10 investigate the matter. Before
this committee could begin its work, Profess
sor Lancaster, Of University College, and
another gentleman, succeeded in exposing
him as fraud. The slate was held under
a table for the use of the spirits, when their
writing was to be securel These gentle
men were led TO suspect that Slade himself,
10y some sleight of hand operation, wrote
the messages, before placing the slate under
the table or while doing so. Therefore,
they arranged TO snatch the slate from his
hand. Just before the spirit writing was to
brsi This they did, and found the mes
sage already written. The fraud was now
manifest, and could not be denied. OF
course, there was a great excitement among
the London Spirtualists and we notice
that the report Of this exposure of Slade has
| produced a commotion among the Spiritual
lists of New York city. The latest news
from Slade is, that he is now before the
London courts on charges Of vagrancy, and
OF conspiring to obtain money by false
pretenses.
This exposure of Slade, following closel
upon the detection Of tricks by which motel
spiritual mediums" have been humbut
ing their dupes in Portland and Bostop
certainly ought to open the eyes Of all sepsi-
bic people to the character and magnitude
Of these frauds. And singular fact con-
nected with these exposures is, that they have
all been made in the most matterof-fact,
common-sense way, leaving the only wonder
in the case that any performer should be
foolish enough to offer so good chamcs for
detection. When the materialized pirit u
has come out Of the cabinet someof the
spectators have simply prevented it fom re-
turning, and when the gas has been turned
on it has always proved that they lad the
medium in their hands II would eem as
if ssch exposures would satisfy tie most
credulous, but in every case the medium has
asserted that the precious manifestations had
all been real, and has found somt dupes
ready to accept the statement Th, fact is,
there are some people who are determined
to believe in spiritual phenomena anyway
and as fast as one fraud is exposed, they are
ready to pin their faith upon another A
| good illustration of this was given In a
| French court the other day, when a 3irit
| photographer confessed that his calm. was
a fraud, and showed the dolls which he had
employed as spiritual sitters, but in spite OF
all this, two elderly and educated witnesse,
persisted ip believing that two of these pho
tographs which had been given them wer,
actual likenesses of dead relatives Agairs
such superstition argument is useless, and IA,
exposure of one medium only forces IA,
willing dupes to transfer their faith to son,
more skillful operator.