Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1891-09-19
A BOY PHENOMENON.
Flavius Taylor Develops Marvellous
Occult Power.

Kentucky has produced mind-readtr
who is likely to rival Bishop and the most
famous performers of the age.
Flavius Taylor, 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
nave seen them applied. lie has been
living in Glasgow that state, all his life
and is the son of Dr. L. J. Taylor, a ply
stefan of standing The boy is what, for
lack of a better name, can be called
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 60 to the spot and
find Whatever has been concealed
This trait in the boy was simply dis
covered aud not developed Dr. 2. 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-
hae the powers and find how far it is
muscle reading and how much il 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 APP
piled, the muscle theory furnished no ex-
PLANTATION. Dr.. Sotphin says about the
boy:
ut 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 pla} fully remarked to
young man who had accompanied him
that he thought he would make
good mind reader, and that
if the other would bindfold him
and hi e something he would find it for
him. To have a little amusement he was
duly bGndfolded 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 ind not only the book hut also
its place of eoncealment, were impressed on
bis mind. He readily took the youn 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 tes We're others such as
willing him TO do certain things Say.
for instance, that 1t was wllled for him to
take a particular flower from number of
flowers in a vase in the room and to hand
1T to acertaiu young lady present; to re-
move the watch from the pocket of gem
t'eman and put into that of another GER
tain gentleman; to 60 to library and
take out some particular yolur,e in 1T,
and TO turn to a certain page an d uara
graph or sentence In It, and SO on of other
reluests of the sort
but he mas done better than even this.
Amy figure or any number of figures, be
lug thought OF, he has readily announced
what II or they were, calling them ONT
slngIy 0r In com Wnatlou as desired For
instances, suppose hat the figures ;, 3
and were separately hougGt OF Then
THESE were promptly told out one 10y one,
and announced sIngiy as thou bt of; or
suppose, gam, these were thought of as
5.S then tnIs number. or 53S, would be
told Some tima age, knowing taat Ee
a.duot understand latin. | improyised a
short Latin senteuce-'est mini voluntas
MT legis mean meutum and asked him
TO Tell me what ii was This was made
out very slowly. but quite accurately, the
words being spelled out, letter by letter.
Ii is proper to say, too, shat these wore
called out az once without going over sne
ipha ct and getting at them in this way.
one by one on the order OF table rappiug
Nothing was said, really. more than 10
call out the letters in their proper order
The boys performances IRE often at
tended with fatigue and weakness, but So
far he has suffered no harm from the
demonstration Of his powers.