Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-03-06
SLATE-WRITER EXPOSED.
THE FAMOUS DIR. SLADE COMES
TO GRIEF.
Writes on States on His Knee and
Manipulates States and Chairs
with His Toes.
From the Boston Herald.

true vi the Vdunteu Slale-Wrlter, Henry
Slade, who, two weeks ago was attracted to
Weston, W. Va, on the guarantee of mon
ey and patronage to the amount of $500 or
over. He was installed at the Bailey House.
and, with the assistance of. Simmons. his
agent, was soon astounding the natives by
his wonderful exhibitions of spirit power
DR.. Slade also delivered lecture on Spirit
ualism, which is characterized bv the local
paper, the Weston World, as desultory
harangue of one and half hours, in which
the speaker made but one point in favor of
spiritualism, and that one point showed
the very fraud of the transaction on its
face" The lecture diu not leave an agreea
bic impression, and latter the lecture
there were not a few who were ready to de-
nollnce the man as fraud, and public SEN
timent rapidly cemented against him." At
his room at the hotel Slade was still master
of the situation-at least he thought so.
But an evil combination of conditions ex
posed him to the fate be most dreaded-de-
lection.
How exposure was brought about is thus
described by the Weston World "Slade's
room was next to the room of A. A. Lewis.
the floor of which is several inches lower
than that Of SHADES. There is door
door considerable of vacancy. 1t occurred
to some of the investigators that if, as they
suspected, Slade made the spiritual mani
festations by physical means, he could be
detected by watching under the door above
mentioned. Accordingly, to convince
themselves, a new subject for sitting was
sent in, after the watchers had been posted
at the door, and the usual phenomena oc-
CURED. at the same time the watchers
were rewarded with complete expose of the
great (2) mediums wonderful powers He
possesses most remarkable agile foot, and
while the attention of the visitor was di-
rected to the top of the table, he actively
| moved his foot around under the table, or
out to the side of the table, and by working
! his foot in between the rungs of chair
would lit 1t up, or cause it to move two or
three feet one way or the other across the
room. He would take the slate in his foot.
| or between his toes somehow, and cause it
! to appear at the edge of the table opposite
| the visitor, or throw it across under the
table into the lap of the investigator. He
was seen to place the slate on his knee I'M
der the table, while apparently waiting the
coming 81 the spirits, and write with his
| own hands the messages said to have come
from the departed, and, strange to relate.
at the same time would be talking in dis
| connected way on various subjects, appa-
| rently to distract attention from his work.
During all these manifestations he was
twitching and comforting, as if undergoing
the most extreme agony. One after an
other of the Investigators went to the room
of Mr.. Lewis, and, looking under the door.
saw plainly ana clearly the trickery of the
| world renowned. This plan of operation
was begun on Sunday afternoon last. and
continued until Monday evening, when
L
justify the arrest of the parties on a char e
of procuring money under false pretense
Everything was kept quiet None but the
initiated knew of the discovery and detec-
ton, but complaint was made and a war
rant placed III the hands of Deputy Sheriff
Whelan. During the day bills were circu-
lated for free lecture by Dr. Slade at the
Courthouse, on the subject of independent
Slate Writing This announcement brought
out large crowd, which seemed to stimu-
late the doctor to his best efforts, and the
address was at least fifty per cent better
than the former
AT the close of the lecture E. S. Barrett.
a Spiritualist, came forward and explained
the manner in which Slade had been caught
in his tricks as related above, and charac-
terizing him as " the most consummate
fraud of the age" The World thus graphi-
cally pictures the scene:
During the progress of Barrett's re-
marks showing his perfidy, Slade was a
picture to behold. At first he thought Mr..
Barrett was going to give him good send
off. He imagined he had covered himself
all over with glory in Weston, as his face
very plainly indicated. But change came
DER the spirit of his dream. and when
Barrett closed his remards amid the APP
plause of the audience, NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
of whom believed him to be base fraud,
he was certainly more dumbfounded man
than any of his visitors had ever been"
Mr.. Barrett was followed by several other
gentlemen who had witnessed Shades
tricks through the crack under the door.
To say that the audience was greatly sur
prised,' says the World, is hardly suffi-
GENTLY expressed-it was SO wildly de-
lighted that it wanted to hear from Slade,
but he said he had no argument to offer,
and especially when everybody was against
him-that he had been deceived if the
speakers had been deceived-implying that
if the tricks mentioned had been per-
formed by him it was outside of his knowl-
edge"
Slade and Simmons were held until the
following day, when, on being brought be-
fore magistrate, they waived an examina-
ton, and were allowed to recognize each to
the amount of $500 to appear before the
March Court in answer to an indictment.
1t is safe to say, however, that both worth
les will not put in an appearance in March
at the Court in question.
The Reiigio- Philosophical Journal of Jan
uary 23d, with a view to giving both sides
of the case, prints letter from the s. E.
Barrett above named, detailing infinitely
the attraction of Slade to Weston and his
exposure at that place. To this are ap-
pended certificates indorsing Mr. Barrett's
statements.
J. Simmons, SHADES agent also gives his
version of the affair. In this he says: "a
never doubted that those men saw what
they said they did; at the same time l was
just as sure that Slade was as innocent of
what they charged him as you 1.-THE editorl
are, wherever you may have been at that
time. But / also realized that my theory
would be of no avail In Court of justice.
Have myself seen hand which, if Slade
had been where it was possible for his hand
to appear, | would have been willing to
swear was SHADES hand. When one of his
hands was resting on the table. the other
holding the slate under the leaf at the cor
ner, the third hand holding clothes brush
thai a moment before was brushing me
from the knee down. came up at the end of
the table opposite Slade, which was forty
two inches long One word more
in this direction before l leaveit 1t is well
known that the pencil is hidden from view
while Independent writing is produced
DR.. SHADES guides have often told me there
is force going out from the human eye
that interfered with the subtle conditions
to such an extent that so far they have been
unable to overcome it-although persons
have seen the bit of pencil as it was finish
ing the last words" Mr.. Barrett, referring
to the agent of Slade, says: After the ex-
posture ]. Simmons did not DENY. but. on
the contrary, said that he believed we had
work of spirits who had materialized the
foot and hand that were seen producing the
phenomena Mr.. Simmons would make
G,,a xIeolar l,ut h 49,,