The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1881-11-21
AMIMaY lRAup.

tlm-Ine f~FAltkfeNof Aff4Af-A
The entertainment advertised BY Dr.. chaa
H.slade, 70 take place At the Academy Of
Music last night, came OF accordipgto the
printed announcemelts, and was witnessed
by an audience which crowded the large hall
up stairs and down, from the very door close
10 the edge Of the stage. Standing room wasa
a premium a few minutes after the doors were
opened, At least half hour before they
were opened crowd sufficiently numerous
to fill the house had collected at the entrance,
where they formed a compact, tan-shAped
mass, radiating from the hall doors clear
across the street, and reaching on the oppo-
site side from the Mcclure House entrance TO
the sheriffs Office.
and in accordance with this Invitation the
writer with two or three newspaper men,
and few other interested doubters, took
their chairs inside the orchestra railing, and
from this point OF vantage watched the show,
which was
TUE SANE OLD swISDLE
that has been played so often, and SO often
exposed, He had the usual committee,
which In this case was obtained with con-
siderable difficulty. The medium first
chose three OF the most prominent officials,
doubtless knowing that they would not &C.
cept. At any rate the audience was not at
ali surprised when the gentlemen nominated
positively declined. He then picked up
Uncle Dan Rice in the audience, whose APP
peaFance on the stage was the signal for APP
plause, Calls were heard for Mr.. Jacob
Grubb, but the Doctor explained that no
understood that Mr.. Grub was antagonistic
to spiritualism, and that with such person
on the stage part Of his manifestations could
not go on Finally Judge Houston was
added to the committee and after consider
able effort Messrs. John r. MGndel, Harry
List and AL. s. Harden were induced to
serve.
The seance then began, and was inferior to
those heretofore given In Wheeling from the
very start II will DO remembered that the
Davenport brothers, upon going into the
cabinet, allowed members Of the committee
to tic them. Instead Of this, Slade entered
the cabinet with the rope, and shortly allow
cd the curtain to be again drawn aside, when
he was found TO be tied, as the committee tes-
tilted, quite securely. No man could ask O
more favorable condition TO work under,
The manner OF doing this is ridiculously
simple. He first ties loop In the centre Of
the rope sufficiently large to admit both
hands with ease. Alter tying each foot with
one of the ends he slips his hand through
the loop and twists one OF them about twice
so as to form twist between the hands,
which, to any observation made without I'M
twisting the hands, appears 70 be 9 hard knot
He then has the curtain again closed, which
is no sooner done than his hands are un-
twisted and out.
THE BAG TRICK,
next performed, Is justa easy. While In the
tnHn h00 az
him loosely to the floor, isput over him. lie
releases his hands, and ClutChing the bells
and other instruments used 10 produce q
noise, with the bag still over him. has no DIFF
hculty whatever In convincing some people
that his manifestations are produced by an
outside agency OF some mysterious character.
or course It Is not any harder to remove
his hands, place solid metal ring over each
arm, and replace Ills wrists in the loop than
to produce the other manifestations while
| tied In the same manner The feat OF re-
moving the two rings from his arms when
locked together at tho back Is similarly easy,
the shoulders being held rigid while the rings
are locked on, and loose when the medium
Is removing them.
ANOTHER KIND or TRICK
Is employed in the next performance on the
programme, In which steel band Is locked
close about his neck, the keyhole being sealed
up with wax. In this case two rings exactly
similar, are used. One haS previously had
the lock sealed, and Is concealed In the mans
clothes. The wax Is removed, being still soft
as soon as the curtain is closed and the hands
freed from the loop, the lock unlocked with
key taken from the mans pocket, the ring
removed and concealed, and tho other one
handed to the committee when the curtain Is
Inn . al NIL mi
Torrance, but so were most OF those which
seemed so mysterious as done on the stage
last night.
THE SLATE WHITING
was done in two ways. The first time two
states were tied and sealed together, nothing
being upon them. They were then laid upon
the mans lap. As his assistant very bunR.
lingly drew the curtain shut he sub
stituted pair OF states on which message
was already written for the other pair.
That's all there Is In that trick. In the other
case the writing Is also on the slate, which Is,
however, so wet that the writing cannot be
seen. Any school child knows that plain
writing Is invisible when slate Is wet, One
slate was given to committeeman TO wipe,
while the medium very thoroughly wiped
one side OF the other slate. The two are then
placed together with the writing, now near
~ dry, inside, and tied, after which they are
placed on committeemar's head, the medi.
ums hands resting upon the top OF them.
The noise which Is heard by those near and
taken for the movement OF a pencil Is simply
the scraping Of large ring worn by Dr..
Slade, as could easily be seen by those who
observed critically.
Mr. Mendel next entered the cabinet with
theA man. Those who remember seeing Il
prominent physician do the same with Mr..
Baldwin, and declare that Baldwin made no
movement, will also remember that lie after
wards performed the same manifestations on
the open stage with bis hands held by the
same gentleman, and the whole mystery was
how any man could be so deceived as 10 say
that the performer did not move
THE COAT PERFORMANCE
scarcely needs an explanation. There was
not aforementioned man In the audience
who could not have put on a coat as DR..
Sade did II placed In the same position. Nor
Is II any harder TO remove coat which fits
one so loosely as did Mr.. Harden's ht the
medium, when 1t Is sewed together in front
and the sleeves Joined with thread, than when
they are not. This any person can demon.
strata by trial.
After this performance DR.. slade explained
that lie would step to one side an instant ITO
rearrange his hair" What he really went
for was to get rid Of the steel ring and states.
II was remarked at the time that lie did not
invite q search Of bis person or clothing
The whole Of his performance, 30 far referred
to, depended entirely upon the fastening Of
his hands. This was probably the loop de.
scrlbed, though knot. which resembles an
ordinary hard one Is sometimes used.
We have not space TO refer In detail 10 all
the rest Of the programme, nor Is II SUI.
ticiently mystifying 70 justifyi IL We oweit,
however, 10 Officer Wilcox TO explain that he
was not a party to the fraud attempted TO be
played with the handouts. The performer
explained that he had had Chief OF Police
Bennett send pair Of handcuflS TO the hall.
This was lie. One Of SHADES assistants gave
the handouts 10 Wilcox. Capt. Bennett did
send for q pair, and they were handed 10
slade by Squire Philips, but he positively de-
clined 10 repeat the experiment with those
nmlIa Mhinh In liahlf nhnrnnIntland claim