Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-12-08
STUARTS SEANCES
mr.. Cumberland, the English '.Thought.
Reader," Undertakes to Expose the
"Frauds" Of Spiritualists.
he spends Day in Looking up Victims
Among the Mediums, and Finds
His Match,

NEW YORK, December The Herald
Puolshes the following: Among the multi.
tuoes who have from time to time expo. ed
the tricks aud impostures of so-called spirit
uai mediums, there are few who have earned
SO much notice or money as the Thought
reader" Stuart Cumberland, whose recent
performances before a small party of WE'LL
kEown gentlemen in this city was noticed In
the Herald some days ago. His success in
thought reading" on that occasion was ad-
United by all present, and he yesterday ad-
dressed himself to looking up victims among
The mediums.
Il went," he told Herald reporter. "to
the house of the first clairvoyant whose ad-
vertlsement saw in the morning paper. 1t
proved 10 be a Nine. -, on Fourteenth
street, and on ringing the bell I was at once
admitted, together with gentleman who ac-
eompaned me. The person who let US in
looked like very slovenly housemaid, but
on asking for Nine. she said che was
that person.
81 told her that wanted to have a seance
with her, and she stfrst refused, saying that
she did NOS see gentlemen excepting in the
evening. However, she asked me TO fold my
hands, and when did so she said she would
see me, as folded my hands the right way.
My companion, however, she refused to ad-
NIT 10 the seance, and even refused to see
him afterward. She led the way 10 an in
ner room and closed all the DOORS and
promptly went into what she called trance.
Then she told me the usual lot of nonsense
about dark woman and light woman, and
said l would have great deal of trouble
and would not be married until late in life.
l told her l wss married already, and she
said: We'll, told you you would have
trouble and when 1 said 1 hadn't any and
cared for my wife she smiled
- l. 4
in her frances, and l asked her il she could
tell my name. She said no, because all that
came to her in frances passed from her mind
when she came cut of the trance state. Then
L asked her how che remembe nv face
and she said was funny and too sm art She
was the commonest kind of a cheat and was
not even adroit enough to answer any ques-
tions. She wanted $40 and gave her seven
ty-fve cents"
In company with the same gentleman Mr..
Cumberland afterward called on DR.. Slade,
but that celebrated medium was out OF town.
Later 10 the day, however, he met a foeman
worthy OF his steel, in the person of Mrs
Margaret Fox-K Kane, one of the original Fox
sisters, who is said TO have married DR.. K ane,
the Arctic explorer. Mre. K ans was brought
by a friend to the Everett House, where, not
being informed of the fact that she was TO
be Exposed" she gave a seance to some
thirty persons who were present on Mr.. Cum
berland's invitation TO witness her discomft-
ure. This, it is only fair 10 say, was not
witnessed.
THE sEANcE.
Mrs. Kane seated herself al a table 1.-THE
handicapped one in the parlor being moved
away and wooden one substituted). and
the rappiug which has IN ade her name we'll
known for the past thirty years began. Then
the usual series of questions from
one and another in the "circle," and the re-
plies OF the Spirits" came with the same
old rat-tat which is familiar to all who have
visited spiritual seancas. Some of these
questions were declared to be correct by
those who asked them, and many more were
declared incorrect. The sitting so far was
in no way different from the ordinary one.
The Herald reporter observed in an under
tone to lady who sat next to him (who
began 10 be frightened) that there were at
least two gentlemen in the room who could
produce similar raps by trickery. Immedi-
a'ely the medium, who it is almost certain
lad not heard the remark, began writing
with her left hand. The paper being after.
ward held to = mirror was found to have a
message on it sigued 81. Wilkes Booth"
saying that the sounds could not be pro-
1uced to sound like those made by the spir- |
its. The reporter asked if the message was
for him and the affirmative three raps |
sounded at once.
Mr.. Booths statement proved to be true |
If the raps from under the mediums dress |
we're produced by spirits), for although Mr.. |
Cumberland and the other gentlemen re-
erred 10, both produced very audible raps |
BY cracking their JOINTS" the sound was |
very different from those under Mrs. Kane's |
chair. Mr.. Cumberland then, still without |
disclosing himself to Mrs. Kane as pro-
essional "exposer," but protesting to be one
L., 49,
understood it and was a disbeliever in it,
lsksd Mrs. Kane to submit to various tests, |
Ill of which were fair enough, though diff. |
,ult, assuming that Mrs. Kane was an i'm
,ostor. Mrs. Kane, however, refused 10
Undertake such tests, the conditions"
we're not right, and, as she stoutly declared |
hat she did not produce the noises herself, |
here seemed TO be no common ground on
which the two could meet. Nearly all |
hose present then Joined in discussion of |
he m after, which proved as fruitless as such |
discussions always prove.