The morning news., 1889-05-22
n,azog ! rR1cK PnRFoRMER.
- charles Howard Montegu Tells
I1-rat ne Knowsof tie Mind Reader.
~, VvorL

question OF mlnu IsaGthe a. Pla~H@0" ~
~ Isrs Washington Irving Bishop, lies in
sa~,iIisritv with the phenomena OF little
things" +v-, ".
~ of I is city, who Is the onty American
"a has accom- plisbed is public, trio <sprac-
10 nv ths we'll known performer who has
go 4ied Mr., Mh@egu, il Will be renem-
l.-o5 attracted much attention IN New
T-lL v,6en in tae spring OF 1887, he ap-
.4.ora5 at Dockstader's theater and went
5-,,,qh the more difficult acts of Bishop
L;,b ~ marked success. His feat OF going
t~on, the. .theater in carriage to the. Hotel
a. With an inverted bandbox covering
tfS face. accompanied by a comnlJtee of
tIyae persoas, and hrdiug diamond pin
sscretej n top OF chest Oh drawers, crea-
ta4 a positive sensation.
NJ Moute2u was merely an amateur,
and in his pe formance be stated explicitly
nat he accomplished the tricks only by
r-s+rral nea S He is the city editor of tEe
Posr6n Globe. and he was busIly engaged in
-oviewing the sheets OF q new novel, which
he will ooa p bliSh, when l called at Els
library to obtain his views regarding the
sudden demise of Bishop.
Mr.. MoNTEGU's EXPOSITION.
81 have read the stories of Mr.. Bishops
cad ending. and | will say, without reserve,
that the act of discovering the word il the
book calls for no great u entail effort. The
rick is one cf the simpler ones. The re-
vote secondary and primary causes of the
e~ilaptlc convulsi0ns and subsequent death
were' entirely dis3ssociated with so-callsd
mind reading. / know the exact cause.
but do not care to discuss the subject
here.
BshoD " Mr. Montegu continued, twas that
h. passed inEo hvpuc tic condition similar
IN hut not ae intense a. the hysterical frances
into which some Of Charcot's patients pass
at La Sapetriere, Paris Hypnot .zed
hit rot completely SO, was Bishops asssr-
+i9n. There'Was, Of course. nothing OF the
kind. There was naught that sagored of
metaphysical phenomenon. 1t was simply
the clever act of very clever and almost
abnormaliy acute man. | have the best Of
reasons for knowing this, aside from the
verv accurate knowledge / possess of the
means aud agencies emf loyed by myself IL
doing the same things.
"Nr. Bishop admitted to me without any
reserve that he depended upou the same
means as myself. The conversation &C.
Cured after exposed his claims of hyp-
potzation. We met and compared notes.
He explained that it was a matter of
business with hiN-dollars aid cents-the
same as with fakirs and sleight-of-hand per-
formers.
PROFESSIONAL TRGCKsTER.
"He was better qualified 10 conduct the
experlments than myself, because he was in
training, 50 to- speaI. / was sn amateur
vita but little p acrics, but yet | succeeded
better than be ia some Of the IS, and
nearly as we'll in others. Mr.. Bishop asso-
ciatei during his earlier days with paIm5rs
maglcians, 5le ght-ot-hand men or whatever
you may call them.
The so-called science of mind reading
was known to some of those people years
age. One in particular, a man named
Brown, used to perform in rat er crude
way the act OF reading names from letters
strung across the stage on line. Mr.
Bi hop obtained bis start from Brown, and
he improved the original idea SO that you
would not have recognized it. He used to
peep down beneath his bandags whenever
he could. and every act was accomplished
in 8 theat ical sort of way. He would
locate satisfactorily to himself the object
borne in the mind Of the person whose
haad he held, and the be would turn away
only TO re urn and reach the object with a
impressive gesture Of his land.
"The SIMPLE act Of touching the object
unaccompadied by STACEY gesture would
not have the impressive effect on the audi
ence that the other method would. He in
form me that be practiced a good deal in
fadi al object in the dark. He would
observe speck on the wall, and then he
would darKeuthe room and train himself
to waiA toward the given point and touch
it with his finger promptly.
THE REASONS WHY.
The whole question Of mind reading
depends upon a ia niharlty with and the
ready observance of trifet. The world is
full Of little things which pass unnoticed by
9s9 men out of ,000 Tie story of the basis
of my success Is tHat depended upon two
rules-First, follow the line # least resist
ance in favorable su blects whose hand or
arm held and seco. d, With contrary sub
lects acted opposite the line Of the great
est resistance. Mr.. Bishop di like wise and
so does the Englishman, Stuart Cumber-
land, by all means the cieyerest mind
reader in the world. Mr.. Cumberland ex-
posed the metaphysical or hypnotic claims
Of Mr.. shop in a recent article in the
Naneteenth Century ReUielO
TO prove a goot natural subject for sue
ceSstuly going through the tric6s you must
be Of delicate ph vSIque, quick II perception,
have keen, active brain and possess a fa-
"'4AaTlty with the ways of mankind. This
last qualification was one of M. Bishops
stro gast points. By concentrating your
mind upon the object und considera Cion,
and by following the involuntary anu
almost Imperceptible muscular movements
OF the person ~hose mind you are supposed
40 be rea ling you will accom- plish your end.
There are subjects who will fool YOU, how
ever, every time. John Boyle O'Reilly, the
editor Of the Pilot. used TO circumvent me
II every experiment. He would like~ iss
cTcumvent Mr.. Cumberland or poor Mr.
Bishop, The 81 ject may not be conscious
OF muscular ac ion. used to induce it by
pulllng the arm IN an opposite direction
NO GREAT MENTAL STRAIN.
| asked Mr.. Montegu especially if the
eHort OF finding an object by holding the
arm OF second person caused intense nsrv-
Gus strain and subsequent pros5ration.
W aShlugtoh Bishop, it IS claimed, died
from tue colvulsions caused by the inten-
slty OF his brain efforts.
The reply was: mot at all. After long
evenings ork with irving unsatisfactory
SUBJECTS used to feel fatigusd. No more,
fancy, than an actor VINO feels his part
BOOTH or Saiyini for instance, or perhaps,
20 a1orda a better illustration, Jane HadIng
or Clara NJ iris feels the strain of hard
nights performance. | think | fell asleep
WIN greater readiness after an evenings
mihd Fadlng' than otherwise MIR Bishops
spieptIoTm attacks-they were not cata-
iePsy Were caused by disc ase from which
ne sutEred for years. Congestion Of the
brain ana death supervened, as it some
unles ioes after epileptic con vulsons
Phbop has recently pulled the wool
oYsr t!e eyes Of some clergynen and alleged
%'sAtnc % eli at st. Louis, ] hear | am
reminded of a remark of his to rae in re-
gar idto G scientific in nyestiyations into his