St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-12
NO SIGNS OF SPIRITS.
At the Exhibition Of Rapid Writing BY
George L. Woods.
THE SPIRITS WANTED TIM
E1OZ tfE
What Several Gentlemen Said Last
II Night Of Alleged Wonderful Per-
19F' fOrmances.

., Al party or gentlemen assembled at
the residence of DR.. f. l.. Larpenteur,
81 Exchange street, last evening. hav-
ingbeen invited to witness promised
manifestations by George c. Wood, of
Minneapolis, the principal of which was
stated would be writing upon a topic to
be selected by committee, some in
Visible agency directing the oper-
ater, who also promised to write with
both hands at the same time.
Sitting on the comfortable chairs scat
tered through the double parlors were
DrS. j. G. MarkOe, f. w. Richardson,
L. N. HornitZ, E. M. Raymond: Messrs.
G. ID. Larpenteur, j. W. Taylor, r. A.
Lisk, c. e.. Secor, J. A. Howard, and
John MarkOe. Very little time
was lost in arranging the prelim-
inarieS, which consisted in an exam
ination of the writing tablets to be used,
Messrs. SecOr and Richardson putting
marks upon them, by which they could
be identified, and the selection of a
topic by DR.. j. c. Markoe. Then the
manifestor was brought in from an adj
jacent apartment and took position
which was door that had been
wrenched from friendly hinges to do
duty in holding an ordinary parlor card
table and chair. Pine boxes placed
under the door elevated it above the
floor about three feet, and it was
steadied by number of handsomely
bound books, conspicuous among
bound edition ~ OF Shakespeare.
Pulling off his coat. loosening his vest
and cravat, Mr.. Wood mounted the
platform and announced himself ready
Tor the topic of the evening. Three
writing-pads lay upon the table, and
these were carefully inspected by the
committee as we'll as the stubs of lead
pencils that Mr.. Wood produced from
his right vest pocket. While seated
at the table he was observed
TO be cOmpactly-built individual be-
tween forty and forty-fiye years of age,
black muStache, which entirely con-
were missing, judging from the action
of the gums. He wore a black suit,
standing collar and polka-dot scarf, from
the center of which a faint ray Of light
CLEANED from a pinchbeck setting
around on Alaska stone. DR.. Markoe
opened the entertainment by PROFOUND
ing his topic, ''St. Thomas Aquinas'
Proofs of the Existence of God" sup
plementing it with the declaration that
it had been originally written in the
Latin, but afterwards translated into
English and French. There was
A CONvULSIvE TWITCH
Of the hands of the operator succeeded
by demand that the coal-oil lamp sit
ting on the table opposite should be
TURNED down a trifie. This was COM
piled with, and as some of the curious
persisted in rising to their feet, Mr..
Wood peremptOrily ordered all hands to
sit down before he would proceed fur
ther. Meanwhile the twitchings grew
more numerous and the breathing of
of paper began to fly off with4a few
words of jargon upon them, which were
unintelligible and of most atrocious
penmanship. But the operator kept
at his work, stopping occasionally
to ..quaff the contents of blue
glass goblet, which Mr.. Larpenteur
filleh with water from convenient
pitcher. Finally there came pounding
on the table from the brawny fists of
Mr., Wood. and he announced that the;
mysterious agent had stopped work for.
The, night, and he submitted; his manu-
script to the audience.
There were many SkepticS even among
such a small party, and when it was
found that the topic given the spirits
agent had not been treated, but that
he contented himself with scrib-.
bling a lot of balderdash
about psychology and the human
anatomy, the doctors present denounced
the operator as a humbug., This brought
out proposition from him to bet $500
that his manipulations were the reyela-
lions of some invisible power that con-
trOlled him temporarily, and that he
would submit to some other tests
than the one proposed. Incident
ally it was divulged that he was a
clairvoyant or test medium, whose prin-
cipal business was to answer sealed
questions at 50 per question, as he
claimed, through spiritual inspiration
that had been vOuchsafed to him since
he quit running an engine on the Mani
tOba railroad.
AS matter Of fact, the nearest APP
pTOach to enlightening his hearers on
DIR. MarkOe'S topic that the operator
made was to write on the last sheets of
paper that he used, 1.-The spirits cannot
afford to treat such subject lightly and
will have more to say upon it at some
future time" 1t was an old chestnut,
and those present were not at all chary
in expressing themselves to that effect.
Mr.. Wood, however, insisted that he
wac aIairvovant