Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-02-14
SPIRITS OF CLEVER KNAVES.
The University of Pennsylvania Enves-
sigafinS the Mediums.

From the Philadelphia Press
DIR. Henry Slade, spirit medium slate writer
and table-tipper, recently found himself in
| large, weli-ighted room, surrounded by the
| learned men OF the University of Pennsylvania,
| who were appointed under the will of the late
| Henry Seybert, commission to investigate
modern spiritualisn. In the presence of this
| distinguished jury DR.. Slade performed his
slate-writing trick. In doing this he takes two
| clean and apparently new States places them
| together with a scrap OF slate pencil between,
| and holds them under the table. After an in
vocation of some sort q scratching is heard, and
| when the states are opened they are found COW
| cred with writing.
After the performance at which the learned
members of the commission were much aston
lshed, Shade was asked II he could, or would, eX
| messed.
NO." he said. nonchalantly, pulling at his
noustache. Il am merely the instrument, and
know no more about it than you do. | should
be glad to explain if could, but I cannot
One of the members then arose, and. thank
ing Dr. Shade for making the trip at the special
request of the commission, proceeded to count
out to him $500 in crisp new bills. Without
any attempt TO turn the notes into blank paper
with the aid of spirit. the medium took up his
hat and returned TO New York. He had given
six private seances each of twenty minutes
duration, TO the commission, for which he Ie-
celVed the sum mentioned. During his stay
here he remained in private house. and every
secret
The commission has been steadily engaged in
pursuing the investigations, and much valuable
material has been collected. Nearly all the
local mediums have been examined, and even
california has been reached in the effort to
eiucldate the truth. kellar, the magician, will
be the next person examined by the commission,
and possibly Europe will be ransacked to fur-
nlsh Its mediums. If necessary" said men,
Der OF the commission, I'VE Will go TO Kan
schatka. Our labors viii probably occupy us
three years longer, and at the conclusion we
shall publish large volume containing o full
report OF ali that We have Accomplishment
KELLARS EXPLANATION.
Keuar, the magician who is to appear before
the commission, is not a spiritualist. He laughs
at the notion and asserts that everything he does
is sheer trickery and nothing else He under
takes to duplicate any performance given by
mediums, OF whatever nature, after he has been
allowed to see it done three times. He makes
no secret OF the way in which he accom-
pl1Shes slate writing.
II would rather not discuss this matter" he
said yesterday to Press reporter, las the com
mission did not think il necessary to publish it,
but since you appear to know so much about
1t l don't mind giving you the facts. | have
made arrangements to appear before the COM
mission. l know that Slade was here a
week ago. and all WANTED was an opportunity
to see his manifestations. don't know much
about him but from what I am told, ne is
not by any means an extraordinarily bright
man. There is nothing that lie can do that
can't.
"Spiritualists say that you are Medium, Mr.
hellttr said the reporter, land that you are
assisted at your performances by the spirits,
Ing is t a rbh eSeamed apgh
ton with the commission is concerned, for am
going to show them how all my tricks are done,
and they will be able to do them themselves
after little practice. There are as many diff
ferent methods OF slate writing nOw-st-Cavs as
there are of rolling OF log. The mediums per-
feet systems every day, but L keep up with
them one slate writer hoored me once for
little time, but | soon caught up with him.
How do you think he worked? Thir was the
way: Before coming to the seance he wrote out
a sentence on slate in tar carbon, q material
that on a dark surface is invisible and will bear
any amount of aShins without coming away.
When he put the states together he burst
between them little capsule of pure hydrogen
a:ld then quickly closed them. The gas com
bining with the tar carbon made the writing
plain.
.Slade holds the slate in his hands under the
table. Now II his fingers are in contact with it,
and there Is no supervision over the hand. As
there isn't, it is simple for him to write. Did
you ever see the thiniblc slate writcr?r
The reporter admitted that he never had
Mr. kellar thereupon produced n thimble
dangling on the end OF piece of elastic on the
outside top of the thimble there was, securely
fixed a small piece OF slate pencil. The magician
rapidly attached the end OF the elastic to the in
side OF his sleeve, about four inches from the
cuff. The thimbIe sprang up the sleeve at once
Then kellar showed how slate writer's with a
little practice, could adjust the thimble to a
nnger While their hands were under the table
and then write. When they were through with
the thimbc and pencil, they let il 60 and it dis
appeared Then the writing was produced.
A TRICKSTER BY TRADE.
I'm trickster by trade kelar went on,
land / have learned to deceive the public
What mediums do Is always exaggerated by
| their mystifed dupes. remember once when
/ was travelling with the Davenport brothers.
/ The brothers were securely, as people thought
tied to chairs in a double cabinet and a com
mittee were examining the knots to make sure.
suddenly one of them dlsengaged his hand
nom the ropes, slapped one of the committee
over the eye, and rapidly replaced it. Next day
Dion Boucicault, who was one of the number
wrote lot OF bosh IN the papers about how the
committee had beheld light airy hand soar
they had seen it,"
kellar said that all his clairvoyant results
were reached by system of KEY words and
that the answers from the spirit land were got
by the medium having good memory and the
to memory" he added, ''whole strings of names
and fgures. For instance can tell the name in
a moment of any horse that ever won the Derby
have familiariZed myself with descriptions of
localities 1t Is not difficult at q seance to turn
tue minds OF your rdienee In particular drift,
so that you may be on familiar ground. This
you do in way SO that they are totally uncon-
SciouS OF it,"
THE sEYBERT REQUEST.
The endowment of a chair Of mental and
moral philosophy at the university by Henry
Seybert, with The stipulation that spiritualism
should be investigated in all Its branches caused
widespread interest at the time the provisions of
the VIII became known. The testator left an es-
tate valued at 81 300, 900. Large sums ofmoney
were bequeathed to various scientific and char
liable societies. The sum which was to provide
for the new chair OF learning was $50, 900 It
was to be called the Adam Seybert chair after
the father OF the deceased, who was chemist
and mineralogist.
The story of Mr.. Seyberts connection with
splrltuallsn Is an absorbing one. When he
was only 70 years OF age he found himself an
orphan with a fortune OF $500 600 and without
Ties OF any kind. He was absolutely free By
that time ne had studied hard and made some
noteworthy additions TO the sum of knowledge
IN connection with the same sciences that his
rather pursued. The influx of money however
brought with II q taste for leisure, and Seybcrt
IhdlnS that there was Io one to encourage him
10 suck 10 laboratory work, lapsed into c0rnpar-
auSe luIehesS Tor many years. He lived a good
Qeal at PaflS. AT middle age he conceived the
Iuea tnat ne mad mission upon this earth in
regard to spiritualisn- This was after some as
sociatlon with mediums Latterly he was very
Hucn aSltaled over the portions of Scripture
H when say that rich men shall not enter the
Kingdom OF heaven. He thought it applied 10
himself, and took great pains to be Convinced tn
the contrary, but somehow or other he retained
the idea, and 1t had q strong influence over his
whole Life. 1t was this more than ANYTHING else
tnat leo To MS leaving so much of his estate to
societies and to charity. The notion also pos
sessed him that he ought not to spend much
money upon himself ~
Many philanthropic notions possessed him
Az one time he tried to arouse a sentiment in
the community that soda and other mineral
waters were preferable to alcoholic drinks This
qua not meet with much enthusiasm aIthouoh
AIR. Seybert spent both health and wealth In
trying 10 impress 1t upon the public AtanDtbor