Morning journal and courier., 1889-03-11
GAY FEAST OF THE SPIRITS

The Spirit of Hamlet Obeys Miss Saw.
 yer and Writes ssI Am Thy Fathers
 Ghost,,-The Pretty Medium and a
 Tall Committeeman "Are My
 Hands Upon Your Armss''-H1de
 and Seek An a Cabinet-The Spirits
 Good Bye.
 The expose of spiritualism at the New Ha- ven Opera House last night by Miss Helen Sawyer was a very thorough affair and highly interesting one, too, by the way. Miss Sawyer, who is a charming young lady. was once 'test medium" herself it is stated and those who were present last night will readily believe the statement. It was not 8 very large audience, but it was 8 very bash ful one, and Miss Sawyer was obliged to make numerous coaxing appeals to the gen tlemen to come up on the stage and assist her in doing the tricks.
 One of the first things exposed was the slate writing trick. A long, lean and ca- daverous looking person volunteered to act as a committee. Any ordinary silicate book slate was used and the tall individual and Miss Sawyer sat down to a table placed up- on the stage near the front. The slate was wiped off by good-looking young man who assisted the medium and was then passed under the table. The tall man was told to take hold of one end of it while Miss Saw yer held the other. After few moments the lady lifted the slate frcm under the tabls and asked the committee to read the writing inside. He read as follows:
 "I am thy fathers ghost, Hamlet"
 Every body thought it was very funny, and then Miss Sawyer proceeded to tell how it was done. She was attired in black satin gown, with black velvet overskirt. In the gown was 8 wide mouthed pocket, which was neatly concealed by her oyerskirt. In passing the slate out from under the table Miss Sawyer had dropped it in the pocket, and with the same motion had brought out another slate which contained the writing. The tall committee man wasn't satisfied. He had seen the slate writing business done in different way and he proceeded to tell the audience how Slade had done 1t. Miss Sawyer admitted that there might be other ways of doing the writing, but she didn't pretend to know all of them. She was only trying to show the audience how some of the impositions are worked.
 Several minor tricks were done and ex- plained to the satisfaction of everybody and then there was a very amusing perform ance.
 Two gentlemen from the audience were seated on a sota beside Miss Sawyer. The man in the middle was told to place his hands on his knees and the gentleman on her right put his left hand on the middle mans right. Miss Sawyer placed both her
 
 and then her assistant proceeded to cover tue whole party up with black robe, save az to their faces. This act of course produced much merriment Miss Sawyer's right hand then appeared to view back of the head of the man on whose arm she had placed both hands.
 "Are you sure both of my hands are on your arm?" she asked.
 Yes, the gentleman was quite sure they were both there. One hand was in full view of the audience, all the time producing the the regular t'spirit manifestations" with the tambourine and bells. All the time Miss Sawyer7s right hand was in view of the audi- ence man next to her was confident she had both hands on his arm.
 The trick WAS explained this way: In placing her hands on the gentleman's arm, the medium had taken care to let the left hand touch his coat-sleeve first. The fingers of the hand were we'll spread out and when she placed her right hand there, she let it fall on her left thumb. When the right hand was steadily removed, the pressure of her left thumb, made the gentleman think both hands were still on his arm. The last exposure of the evening was that of the 'smateriatized spirits" trick. The lights in the house were turned out entirely and the house was as black as midnight. Somebody had made mistake and the audi ence proceeded to have lots of fun. The foot lights were then turned on just q little bit and presently ghost appeared from the cab inet. This looked like 8 male spirit. He waved his arms about in a very ghostlike manner and retired to the cabinet. Then 8 female spirit appeared, although when the lights were put out there was no one in the cabinet but Miss Sawyer. The lights were turned on presently and Miss Sawyer and her assistant appeared, clad in robes of white linen. How the assistant had gotten into the cabinet was 8 mystery until it was explained that he had passed in from the side when the light went out. There was & committee of six on the stage at the time, but as he was dressed in black they had not seen him pass them.
 Miss Sawyer explained that in all seances of the kind there was always convenient door to the room through which an assistant could make his way to the cabinet. In some cases the baseboard to the room contains secret door.
 This ended the expose and the lively young lady dismissed her tall committeeman and his companions with a pleasing little smile as she bid her audience goodbye.