San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-12-18
"HE WAS A CRANK"
Washington irving Bishop Goes for
the Light Criticism.

his second appearance at the Opera
house last night and poor little Wash
ington was mad, in fact LIGHT headed.
1t don't take much to upset the equi-
librum of his brain, especially If he
fails in his experiments which he
sometimes does, and he is the most
sensitive man in any profession as re-
CARDS newspaper criticism. After q
few relevant remarks, Mr.. Bishop
asked the audience to elect their COM
mittee and this was done. Then Mr..
Bishop gave CHASTITY smile and said
| that according to custom he had at
least right to elect three members of
| the commi ttee, but he would only
claim exception in one case. The
LIGHT had called him a 'crank,"
had criticised his appearance,
his manner of speaking and he
| was very anxious to invite
the editor or representative in the
theatre to be q member of the commit
tee. At this time the only represen-
tative of the LIGHT in the theatre was
Mr.. Ryder-Taylor. He waited to see
whether the editor was present, and
as no response was made, he amid
cheers and laughter assembled the
stage in acceptation of Mr.. Bishops
invitation. This rather disconnected
the performer, who thought that his
"pungent" remarks would scare the
LIGHT, but the LIGHT and its staff
are not easily intimidated. During
the remainder Of the performance Mr..
Bishop tried to get two or three points
upon the LIGHT, and in one remark
he suggested that the loaded pistol
lying on the table was the only way
of dealing with newspaper men, and
pointed in a dramatic way to it. Mr..
Ryder-Taylor fired that pistol, showed
that it was a toy arrangement tor
shooting out fan and that it was
quite evident that no reporter need
be scared by any such artifice.
Mr.. Bishop then went to work with
his experiments and showed that he
was entitled to the commentator
that the LIGHT has given him. He
read name given in a sealed envel-
ope, he detected mimic murderer's
victim, the weapon with which the
crime was committed, and stabbed the
latter in the same place as the pseudo
murderer; he read ard wrote the num-
Der of bank bill he had never seen,
and he badly fooled DIR. johns in the
location of sounds, giving a good
pointer for investigators of spiritual
ism. The last test he gave
was good one. He instructed
his committee to select three
or five from the audience
form tableaux, send the various
"tableauxists" to their seats, and he
would find them blindfolded and Fin
the same way reproduce the tableaux
he had not seen, which he did to the
satisfaction Of those present. Then
the irritated Mr.. Bishop closed his
performance and dismissed his au-
| dience.
How Mr.. Bishop attains his wonder
full ends is matter, of course, of con-
lecture, but he performs remarkable
| feats that have given rise to great dis
cussion among scientists. Some de-
clared it is a species of mesmerism,
while the balance of critics places
those powers i'm Hypnotism, where it
virtually belongs. The fact is Bishop
has such an ultro-sensitive organiza-
ton that he can subvert his entire
organization to the will Of the sub
ject, and is capable of receiving such
Impressions as is the essence of his
work. In what would, in ordinary
cases, be q painful malady to citi-
| izen is turned to good account, and
makes Mr.. Bishop modern wonder,
person of note, and a recipient of q
| good income, where, in others, it
would be a painful state of semi
idiocy.
Perhaps Mr.. Bishop is not to be
blamed, but rather pitied for his ex-
treme constituencies and irritability,
but we are surpriZed that he should
be mad at being called "a
crank" The papers in Eng
land, in all parts of Europe,
and all parts of the United States,
have, like the LIGHT, admitted his
ability but denounced his cranky
ways, and some have even gone farth-
er, denouncing him as an itinerant
fraud. He ought to have got used to
it by this time and appreciated the
truth of the epithet. His conduct
here alone justifies the LIGHT in call
ing him crank and the LIGHT is
confirmed as shown by other papers.
| That Mr.. Bishop is a clever artistic
| the LIGHT will reiterate, and give
him the credit of generally doing
what he says that he will do, but it
also maintains the accuracy of its
criticism upon Mr.. Bishop and is
quite sure that it will be sustained in
by the public. And those who know
Mr.. Bishop best will the better sus-
tain that criticism.
The LIGHT has received a cordial
invitation to attend the Sylvester ball
| TO be given Deem Der 81 by the A r.