Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-11
BAD FOR THE SPOOKS.
Spiritualists Had q Bad Year Of 1t at
Cassadaga and Onset Bay.
THEY CONDEMNED EACH OTHER.
How New York lawyer renounced the
Tricks of the Mediums,
EXPOSURES THAT SHOULD CONVINCE
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH,

tional conventions of the summer outing
season furnished nothing startling in th'
way of sensations, and were in the maiI
humdrum, the Spiritualist assemblies wer'
decidedly otherwise. At Cassadaga Lake
two mediums were exposed as frauds and 8
demand has grown up that these shall be
expelled in disgrace and be debarred from
exercising their tricks and coming money
by imposing upon the most sacred feelings
of mankind. At Onset Bay, as related in
the Boston Globe occurred the main rumpus
of the year.
This noted assemblage is attended by the
most prominent members of society who
have faith in ghosts and spooks generally,
and such manifestations as the materializing
of spirit forms, slate writing by invisible
hands, clairvoyant visions, double souls,
astral bodies, table tippings, knocks from
the other world and all the other tests that
are conclusive to many minds.
The frequent frauds and the disgrace
brought upon the cause of Spiritualism by
unworthy mediums has walked up some of
the leaders. The exposure Of the notorious
Dis De Bar, who imposed so outrageously
upon Luther B. Marsh, who was considered
| good medium at onset, as was also Mrs
Roberts whose fraudulent tricks were ex-
posed last year
A New York Lawyers Row.
Nh. c. P. Poole, New York lawyer
as the story goes-was the man who stirred
up things over the proceedings at a mate
| rialIzing seance. His remarks were so ex-
citing that they nearly resulted in q mob in
| the auditorium. In his statement of the
| trouble he says Mrs. Helen Stuart Rich
| ings, who claims to speak under inspiration
from the spirit world, was given
among other subjects the follow
and falsity." Mrs. Richings spoke as
she was moved by the spirit Strange to
| say, she strongly denounced materializations;
| said "she had waded through the filth of
them up to her knees, ave, up to her waist,
| and her deliberate conclusion was that
nine-tenths of all materializations were
| frauds" In her Sunday lecture she re-
peated this assertion, and took her position
plainly. DR.. Storer, the President of the
Onset Association, thereupon took it upon
himself to publicly rebuke her, and told
her in an excited manner that she had bet
ter go home and learn before she attempted
to teach. This public insult to one who
had been invited to give her views upon
the subject stirred up the strife prodigiously.
Mr.. Poole declared he had the documents
in his pocket to prove that nine-tenths of
the materializations at Onset were frauds
DR.. Storer ordered him to stop. and the
howls and hIsses showed the temper of the
mob. Mrs. 81. V. Ross, q materializing
medium, appeared upon the platform and
denounced everything that Mr.. Poole had
said as false. The melee deepened, and
Mr.. Poole left the place, doubtless shaking
the dust from his feet in wrath.
I's a Fight Among Believers.
As appears by his statement Mr.. Poole
is an ardent Spiritualist, being one of the
oldest, and having, in company with Judge
Edmonds, helped to incorporate the first
Spiritualist society in New York. It is
bitter quarrel DIR. Storer heads the ma
teriaIizing element, and Mr.. Poole is one of
the most determined upon excluding tricky
and fraudulent mediums from the Spiritual
ist campmeetings.
Another thing that adds fuel to their
fires of contention is a pamphlet recently
published under the title of ''The Vampires
of Onset-Past and Present." which is
compilation Of the newspaper reports of
naterializing mediums who have been ex-
posed as frauds and tricksters. The man
who got up this expose Of frauds claims to
be friend of Splritualism, and interested
only in behalf of truth and honesty. He
shows up the records thus:
They are vile creatures, who under the
mask of mediumsbip have been coming
money from the most holy feelings OF the
human heart; who, with diabolical cunning
and all the articles OF the mountebank and
prostitute have piled their wiles to victim
iZe and demoralize heart-broken mourners
seeking knowledge OF their beloved dead.
That such vermin are permitted among
civilized and respectable people is a matter
of profound astonishmens to.many spiritual
lists, and that these pests should be reco5-
nized publicly and be treated with courtesy
and consideration by the officers of the On
set Bay Camp and by prominent spiritualists
Is a matter for serious alarm and energetic
protest.
Slate wririn. Is Very Easy.
These are strong words It is little won-
der that the professional mediums and clair
voyants are greatly excited about it. Spirit
ualism must stand the test Of honest and
earnest investigation. Slate writing by
spirits Is regarded BY some to be q convinc-
ing proof OF the truthof spiritualism. Joseph
Cook has told Of visit to a celebrated
medium who produced this spirit slate writ
ing. Mr. Cook gave o description Of the
process, and staked his reputation that
there was no trick about it, that it must
have been produced by invisible agencies. |
Now comes out Prof J. NJ. Shook, who |
claims to be able to explain and produce |
this wonderful phenomenon just as Mr.. |
Cook saw 1t, without spirits having any |
hand in it. Rev. j. A Crusan, pastor of |
the First Congregational Church in Port |
land, Ore, eertifes that the professor |
publicly, in his church, stripped this part |
of the delusion of spiritualism of its mar /
velous features and showed clearly that |
most, if not all, of this class Of tests can be |
accounted for by triekery and sleight of |
hand. His rope-tying, bell-ringing. spirit |
hands and slate-writ1ng tests, he adds, are
capitally done, and his explanations very |
simple. In Sacramento Prot. Shook ad- |
vertised that he would sell the slate-writing
trick for 50, and related that two men who |
were quite willing to pay the 80 if they
could not detect the trick were very much !
ashamed when shown how simple it was.
This Fall of the Famous slade.
Dr.. Slade, who created such a sensation
in this business years ago, was exposed in
San Francisco and the account of his fraud /
and detection was published in the San
Francisco Call. together with his promise
to refrain from the practice hereafter
1t would seem with all these accusations
and contradictions, with all these bitter
discussions and wide differences, with SO
much of doubt on one side and credulity on
the other, that the spirits ought to take
hand and furnish spch proof as would settle
these yexed questions without further
trouble. With Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
and all the saints, philosophers and wise
men in the great beyond furnishing
heavenly inspiration to mediums; with all
'he wisdom and intelligence shown by the
mighty dead in knocking on tables and
blowing horns; with all the slate writings
md manifestations and materializations as
presented at seauces, surely such knowledge
If spiritualsm could be obtained as would