Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-09-17
A BOY PHENOMENON.
Flavius Taylor Develops a Marvellous
Occult Power.

Kentucky has produced a mind-readrr
who is likely to rival Bishop and the most
famous performers of the age.
Flavius Taylor, a boy of nineteen, has
discovered that he is the possessor of mar
velous faculties which are as much a mys-
terry to him as they are to the people who
have seen them applied. He has been
living in Glasgow, that state, all his life
and is the son of DR.. F. j. Taylor, a ply
stefan of standing. The boy is what, for
lack of a better name, can be called a
mind reader. He knows and learns the
thoughts and actions of others through
some medium which has yet to be dis
covered. Little objects are hid away, and
by simply bodily contact with the person
who hid them he can so to the spot and
find whatever has been concealed.
This trait in the boy was simply dis
covered aud not developed. DIR. P. c.
Sotphin, physician at Glasgow, and an
intimate friend of the boys family, has
taken an active interest in the case and
made study of it. He is trying to de-
fac the powers and find how far it is
muscle reading and Eow much it is men
tai sympathy. At first his impression
was simple muscle reading, or, in other
words, that the boy could tell from the
| feeling whether he was nearly right or en-
tirely wrong when searching for lost arti-
cles, but when the test of telling what any
particular person was thinking of was ap-
piled, the muscle theory furnished no ex-
PLANTATION. DR.. Sotphin says about the
boy:
at is not improbable that in nearly
every instance the gift of mind reading
has been OF accidental discovery on the
part of the one possessing it, and thus it
was accidentally made known to young
| Taylor. Several months ago an itinerant
mind reader exhibited in this place, and
young Taylor attended his performance
Returning home, he playfully remarked to
young man who had accompanied hiA
that he thought he would make
good mind reader, and that
if the other would blindfold him
and hiie something he would find it for
him. To have little amusement ne was
duly blindfolded and told to find book
that had been hidden in an adjacent room.
| He grasped the hand of the young man who
had hidden the book, but was utterly sur
prised TO find not only the book, but also
its place OF concealment, were impressed on
his mind He readily took the young man
! to the place where the book was and
handed it to him. After this there more
or less frequent tests of his powers in find
ing things thus while all hidden articles
were promptly located by him. Intermin-
gled with these tests were others, such as
willing him to do certain things. Say,
for instance, that it was willed for him to
take particular flower from number of
flowers In a vase in the room, and to hand
it to certain young lady present; to re-
move the watch from the pocket of a gen
tleman and put into that of another GER
tain gentleman; to 60 to library and
take out some particular volume in 1t,
and to turn to certain page an d para
graph or sentence in it, and so on of other
reauests of the sort.
But he has done better than even this.
Any figure or any number OF figures, be-
ing thought of, he has readily announced
what it or they were, calling them ont
singly or IN combination as desired. For
instances, suppose that the figures 5, 3
and were separately thought of. Then
these were promptly told out one by one,
and announced singly as thous ht of; or
suppose, again, these were thought of as
538, then this number, or 538, would be
told. Some time ago. knowing that he
did not understand Latin, | lmprovlse a
short Latin sentence-'est mihi voIuntas
ut legis mean nlentum and asked hi IN
to tell me what it was This was made
out very slowly, but quite accurately, the
words being spelled out, letter by letter.
1t is proper to say, too, that these were
called out at once without going over the
alpha ,et and getting at them in this way,
one by one, on the order of table rapping.'
Nothing was said, really, more than to
call out the letters in their proper order.
The boys performances are often at.
tended with fatigue and weakness, but so
far he has suffered no harm from the
demonstration of his powers.