Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-12-24
Manufacturing With Royalty.

Mind-Keading With Royalty.
From, an Iatercieeo son1 Iroing Bishop in The
Boston Post.
My experiences abroad have been very
novel. On leaving this country | went
directly to England, and after a brief stay
in that country continued my journey to
Sweden. In both places l gave exhibit
tions. At one exhibition given in London,
Eng, at the residence of the Duchess of
Manchester, l requested the Princess of
Wales, who was present, to fix her mind
on the name OF some one dear to her.
This she did, and pronounced the name
Minnie" TO ner highness' great sur
prise it was correct, she having thought
of her sister, Princess Dagmar OF Den
mark, now Empress OF Russia.
From Sweden L was summoned by the
Gar to the imperial court of Russia. In
tuat country | made several interesting
experiments, among them the delineation
sion IN the Salon de NOblesse, Moscow,
with distinguished Russian painter as
a subject. There were fully 5000 people
present, and they watched me with in
tense interest. | asked this painter to
fl his mind on Tourgenieff, the Russian
poet and novelist, then recently dead.
From the mental picture | drew a like
ness which was pronounced very true
to lite, and the audience maintained
the same opinion after a close eXamina-
ton.
At another time | met SvitchkOff, the
court painter at the headquarters of the
Emperor's Hussar body guard. / asked
Svitchkoff to fix his mind on the Inca
ments of a face. and L produced the pic
ture of the late Emperor Nicholas, giving
even the details of his uniform. At an
I ;.,.I
Chevalier Guard Regiment, and on this
occasion an incident took place of a
curious and interesting character. One
of the royal princes requested me to
sketch a portrait that he had in his mind
quickly produced a sketch of Empress
Catherine H., and so clear was the pic
ture to me that l appended a fac-simile
OF her imperial signature. The servants
became SO frightened. thinking that per-
form the experiments by the aid of evil
spirits, that they refused to enter the
room where | was.
During the stay at St.Petersburg | was
at the Palace of Gatscnina in the pres
ence OF the Gar. His majesty asked me
II had ever attempted to use my power
in the detection OF crime, and told him
that l was gradually acquiring that
power. then asked the imperial party
to enact a murder scene while / was in
Constantine COnstaneowitch, during nv
absence, took dagger from the girdle of
one of the Cossacks forming the Imperial
Guard and went through the pantomime
of inticting a wound upon the Grand
Duchess Elizabeth, Princess of
Hesse and Alice of England. The
Grand daughter OF the late Princess
Duke then concealed the weapon. l was
brought into the room blndfolded. |
str a q
Duke and obtained complete mental
picture of the whole scene Just enacted,
and, selzing the concealed dagger, went
through an exact repetition of the mimic
murder. The imperial party was greatly
astonished and the soldiers terrified.
They tell me that it was Witnessing an
experiment similar to this that suggested
to Hugh Conway the trance incident in
"Called Back"
There was another incident connected
with my visit to the Russian court. The
Empress Of Russia, as 1 have already
stated, is sister to the Princess Of
Wales. Her highness spoke, referred to
some experiments | had tried with her
sister and expressed the desire to have
them repeated. SO L requested the EN-
press to fix her mind on some object at
distance. i was then blndfoded ard
conducted her majesty to a room in her
own part OF the palace in which hung a
number of medallion portraits. told her
that her mind had been fixed upon q pOr-
trait OF the late Emperor Nicoloi, which
had hung with the others, but had been
removed without her knowledge. The
Car was so astonished that he
accused the Empress as being my con-
federate.
His majesty then challenged me to
penetrate his thoughts. In q moment
told him that his mind was fixed upon an
object that certainly had not been re-
moved, ana led him to distant part of
the palace TO room in which light was
dimly burning, On the table was bell
which | struck in peculiar manner.
The effect upon the Gar was singular
enough. lie was almost dumiou nded,
for the object upon which his thoughts
had been fixed was bell in the apart
ments OF the late Alexander III. Every
article in the room had, by special de-
mand, been left exactly as 1t was in the
lifetime OF the assassinated Emperor.
From that time his majesty was a firm
believer in my abilities as a mind
reader.
To return to my visit TO England. One
evening when l was entertaining the
Prince OF Wales at Keats House,
Chelsea, his highness was suffering from
an acute pain in the foot, and 4 located
the spot exactly in which he most sew
erely suffered. 1t WAS on this occasion,
at the request of his royal highpess, that
Edwin Booth was first presented to the
Prince OF Wales, who compllmented the
actor very highly on his histrlonio ability.
You Will remember the late Duke OF
Albany lie suffered acutely from
neuralgia, and l was able to locate his
ailment with an accuracy surprising
somewhat 10 my self.
In Sweden l located certain documents,at
the request OF the King, which his ma jesty
had concealed and no one but himself
knew their whereabouts. The King re-
garded the experiment from r scientific
standpoint, and was highly pleased with
the result. have also reproduced through