The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1881-03-05
SUPERNATURAL sHAMs
How CreduIous People are Tricked
and Taased by sharp SwindIers.

have controlled large portion Of the
in every community. Those
80 controlled are in most cases persons
with minds Unbalanced or rendered
feeble through sympathy with that
particular bump which Psychologists
are wont to call "marvelOusness well
Hence, those who are 80
affected or afflicted rather have the
power of hearing sounds to which
common ears are deaf, and of see
ing sights to which ordinary eyes
are blind. In the United States super
stitions are modified, but they are by
no means extinct, and even educated
people are sometimes to be found who
are not ashamed to confess that they
believe in spirit-rappings, the material
izatiOn of the souls of the dead, and
the possibility of familiar intercourse
with ghosts To cater to this super
sttion and to make capital out of it,
every community has its "clairvoy-
ant" its fortune-teller, its "medium,"
its seer or its sOoth-sayer and to these
mysterious sharpers the credulous and
the ignorant, with a faith beyond the
comprehension of persons who prefer
more palpable and tangible facts than
are presented in the legerdemain of
mediums or the well-known tricks of
We have all heard of
the visions and charms which attend
and who has not read
with delight the "unco' sight" which
greeted the eyes of Tam O'Shanter in
passing Kirk Alloway, in which
"ghaists and howlets" night y made
revel than even good natured,
Tam INDUCED in at the tav-
ern near by. Among distinguished in
SUPERNATURAL VISIONS
were attributed to Socrates, Tasso and
Joan of Arc, while the visions of
Swedenborg have served to found a
new religions faith, tOe i6eogy Of
which substantially is that the COM
ing or spirit life is an intensification
of what gives us most pleasure in the
mortal state. Giving all credit for
national superstitions, which, through
the credulous and those who love to
be tricked, become as much part of
national education as religion itself,
1t is needless to say that so-called
spirit--rappings, apparitions, blood
colored initial letters on the the arm,
etc., can generally be traced to some
cause, which, by II disordered
is converted into some
thing beyond the realm of the normal,
invariably attend brain
fever, and at such times are not re-
garded as remarkable; it is only when
they are seen by or communications
are received from them, by people
to be in the full possession
of their faculties-if, indeed, they ever
visit or communicate with people Of
sound mind and body-that they fur
nish food for surprise or speculation.
Hence a disordered condition of the
brain may be given as the handspring
Of all spectral illusions, and, as a rule,
and counter irritants
have remedied the evil. The faculty
Of ghost-seeing or communicating
with the spirits of the dead, does not
belong to man in his normal state,
and when a " wonderful clarivoyant
for moneyed considera-
ton, to act as the medium of such
communications, he should not only
be regarded as a sharper, but the
parties patronizing him should be
cooked to by their friends as exhibit
ng symptoms of organic or function
ii disorder of the brain. In insanity,
dreaming and in de-
irium tremens, large proportion of
persons are troubled with
ASPIRATIONS.
Sometimes these appearances to dis
ordered minds have assumed the sig
lificance of prophecy; but though we
nay admit that dreams, and even
waking presentments may have been
tent to person from the mind of the
)mnicient for direct purpose, the
heory of spirit-rappings, bloOd-red in
tials, etc, is sufficiently explained
lpon natural causes TO explode the
dea that they are produced by SUPER
natural agencies.
To produce the so-called spirit-rap-
,ings the hands must be placed fiat on
he table with the thumbs parallel and
ouching each other, when with lit
lie practice by rubbing the nails to-
'ether raps can be produced which
will be plainly audible all over the
DOM, and which cannot be detected
y even those whoare sceptical enough
o watch the hands of the clever per-
primer. Another, and we may add
he most frequent plan resorted to by
mediums" to produce these manifes- |
atoms which 30 astonish the eredu-
Dus, is TO place the ball of the foot |
which should be incased in leathern |
Upper against the foot or ball of the |
able leg, when. without any percep-
ible movement of the foot raps can |
G produced at will, and which will |
nswer the various questions pro-
ounded according to the ability and
cuteness of the cunning medium.
he wonderful (?) production Of "blood
ed letters" on a "shapely arm"
'hich has been vauntingly pro-
laimed by spiritualists as great
induction of the theory of supernat-
raj manifestations, and which was
Ohs!" and exclamation points by a
ldy writer in one of our city papers,
even less difficult of execution than
le production of raps with the
or feet, though ii requires
,me circumspection on the part of
ne performer to prevent his dups
etecting the operation. Hence, to
xecute 1t cleverly, the "medium"
enerally leaves the room on the os-
'nsible plea Of lighting his pipe or
pom some other frivolous excuse, and
hen outside, he takes from his pock-
a watch key or some other equally
lunt instrument, aud, after tracing
D his arm the initials Of the name OF
,me deceased friend of the party he
tends to astorish, he returns to the
'om'. where, after rubbing his arm a
loment to create rapid ejaculation
the blood and bring out the tracing
7 his
"sHAPELY ARM"
3 announces In a grave tone, that
Ie spirit who wishes TO commune
tie will write the first letter OF his
anne of his (the medinm's) arm, and
Hing up his sleeve he exhibits the
itals he had traced TO the wonder
g and amazing eyes Of his gullible
ipe who, unaware Of the trick that
being played upon his arm and con-
unded and specifies at what he be-
ewes to be a miraculous message from
s friend in the spirit land, as the :
edium has already forseen, he gives :
It little attention to subsequent de- .
ptions and after listening for awhile
the same COMMUNICATIONS which
i've been given TO thousands before
M, he pays the required fee and !
ayes the apartment, TO make room I
! the neyt oonvert, fully impressed |
Ith the belief that he has been In 3
an ~ q. To-. ~.,skl. III. lorn rfrl frtanAs