The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-02
sPIRITUALIsT IMPOSTURE.
Confessions of Man who Has Man.
aged Such Shows.
From The Ne,r York Sun

From the Ne,c York Sun.
well known manager of travelling the
otrical companies at present in this city had
handed TO him on the street yesterday q
dodger announcing the Death to Spiritual
ism entertainment that Dr. Richmond, the
dentist, promises to give in the Academy OF
Music Sunday evening. He laughed as he
glanced it over, and then said
This chap ought to hire me; 1 could
give him lots Of points on splritualism. I've
been something of a spiritualist myself, in
fact"
This is how it was, according TO his story,
told in the White Elephant to party of
friends little later:
II had my first experience with spiritual
ism about eight years ago, when | was pro-
prietor of theater in a city on the Pacific
slope, and, besides, used TO take charge of
combinations that wanted to make a tour
of a number of theaters in smaller towns in
the same part of the country. An advance
agent came along one day and said he
wanted to get the house for the next Sun
dav evening for the Miller Brothers to
give a spiritualist show. He wanted my
Starring terms. took in his get-up, which
wasn't Of the most prosperous sort, and con
Guided that | didn't care to share. Ny
terms. | told him, were SIS down for the
night and he could take them or leave them,
didn't care which. After some hesitation
he took the offer. Before he left | asked
him to show me his printing. He didn't
carry any, he said, doing all his advertising
bv dodgers. He showed me one of the
dodgers. 1t said the Miller Brothers
would make piano float in the air, produce
spirit rappings, and do all the o-her spirit
ualistic things. AT the bottom was little
foot-note: GA small admission fee will be
charged to pay the expenses.
Sunday night, long before the hour to
open, there was the biggest crowd ever seen
in town waiting to get in, and those fellows
didn't sell ticket under 25 cents, and
charged so and rs cents for most of the
seats. They took in over 5000 at the door,
of which / received the munificent sum of
SIS, when l might just as well have had 20
per cent.
sSome time after that the advance agent
of Anna Eva Fay came along and wanted
to hire the house. | didn't hire that time
| wanted shares or nothing, and as | had
the only theatre in town he had to accept
my terms. They had a big house and after
ward engaged me to manage their tour
through the small towns where | controlled
the houses had to go with the company,
and in that way got my first insight into
the business. | wasn't taken into any Sc
never give themselves away except to their
actual confederates, but man with half an
eye could see easy enough what a humbug
the whole business was. One of Anna Eva's
great tricks then was the production of the
spirit of some well-known person who had
died in the place. and the verifcation of
the identity by the production Of its name
and other particulars written on slip of
paper which some one in the audience had
inc rfo OH a c N hn nQ hIVNnf
made the countrymen get right down on
their knees and groan when they saw those
blank slips come out, with names and dates
of which the medium was thought to be
absolutely ignorant, written on them.
Sometimes they used even to recognize the
handwriting.
1t was simple enough. Part of the bust
ness of the advance agent was to visit the
graveyard in each town where he billed the
company. From the tombstones he copied
names, dates of death and other particulars
especially of recently deceased persons
or of parsons who seemed to
have been OF some prominence in
the community. He also went through files
of the recent issues of the local papers, and
copied particulars from death notices and
obituary columns. The mass of memoranda
thus gathered he inclosed in an envelope
and left at the hotel for Anna Eva when
names and other matters were copied
upon slips of paper exactly like
those the audience was to have; and the
slips thus written on were concealed upon
the mediums person when she went into
the cabinet. After that the substitution of
the written slips for the blank ones put in
by the audience was a perfectly simple
matter. OF course, it goes without saying
that the tying in the cabinet was all
hot &c xx,1tl, oil Of Tbo
staples to which the ropes are fastened seem
solid enough to any ordinary examination,
but any one who knows the trick can pull
them out without trouble. As to the hands,
any one with a slender hand can, with
practice. double it up so that it will slip out
Of any knot that can be tied or out of the
smallest size of handouts.
THE trick of materializing flowers and
making them float in the air before the
cabinet was another strong card for Miss
Fay. We used to buy the flowers Of some
florist as far away from the center of town
as possible. They had very long stems, and
She simply stuck them through holes in the
cabinet and waved them about. In the dim
light nobody could tell that they were not
floating in the air, and the poor fools in
the audience used to snatch them up after
the performance and carry them away as
sacred
several Ddu breaks W6re fIllu6 On UnaU
tnp, but she was never really caught. Miss
ray IS the cleverest woman | ever knew at
The business, and | don't believe she ever
can be actually caught in one of her tricks.
Even when things look pretty dark for her
Sshe manages to slip out of the trap some
now. For one thing, she is a dreadfully
sweet and pretty little thing, and she can
put on most appealing look when it is
necessary, and few men can withstand that.
lhey drop the subject and let her go on
Without giving the trick away.
The greatest time ever had in my life
was several years later at Chicago Miss
ray met me there by chance at the Palmer
mousse one day, and said she was 80 glad to
see me; She wanted to give a performance
iAChlcago and had nobody to attend to the
BUSINESS for her. 1t turned out that she
Ial lost lot of money and hadn't a cent
l mad Just S460, but undertook the job. |
Wuered $4,000 quarter-sheet bills, which
we're $3.50, but which / got on credit. |
anTed Battery d for 800 for the next
sunday night. | had to pay S25 down.
a furniture man taxed me $3.50 for
9 ,,lUNOO chairs, and had to put up another
so There. That left me just $40, and |
oleht every cent of il in putting as big an
aau'ertlsement as the money would get into
Ie sunday editions Of the Herald, Times,
Ir!0ane and LlteT-O Ocean. There was a
lpVural picture ins The advertisement, and
nv tyI OF other saDctinonious business, along
esu Jne announcements, as usual, about
Mating pianos, materialized flowers and all
uIal sort of thing The doors would be
Vf'ea4Ted, 1t was announced, at o'clock.