St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-29
ABOUT SPIRITUALISM
Sunny Italy Is Wonderfully
Stirred Up Over Per-
formanees.
Peculiar Phenomena Are In
vestigated by Scien-
lists.
How q Medium Produced APP
partitions and Frightful
Noises.
Chairs Lifted in Air, Sparks
Seen, Mysterious Marks
Made.

At the earnest invitation Of Signor
Chiaja, wealthy gentleman OF Naples,
standing high III the favor of King
Humbert, a number of distinguished
Italian, German and French scientists
consented to meet at Milan for the pur-
pose of witnessing and testing the ex-
hibition of strange phenomena produced
by Eusapia Paladino, an illiterate Nea-
politan woman of tnirty-five years OF
age, the wife of carpenter, says
the Baltimore Sun. 1t is said of
her that from her early youth she
seemed to possess some strange power.
but owing to the odium cast upon her
manifestations of it she had abandoned
for the bast ten years any exhibition of
them.
1t was only through the insistence of
Signor Chiaja that she consented to go
before the scientists, some seven IN
number, assembled at Milan for the ex-
press purpose of examining her alleged
powers. Those who had consented to
make the investigation were Giovanni
Schiaparelli, director of the astronomical
observatory at Milan; Carl du Prel, doc
or of philosophy at Munich; Angelo
trofi eric. professor of physics at the
Boyal School of Architecture, Portici;
| r. B. Ermac ora and Giorgio FinZi, doc
Gors of physics. These five persons at
| tended regularly the seventeen sittings
| theld from between and II in the even
| in e, and their names are appended to
| the report in the order given above.
| The report has since been published.
Prof. Lombard, the celebrated alien
ist, and Prof. Charles Richet, editor Of
the Revue Sclentifque, were also pre- 81
| ent, but less regularly. The mayor of
| Milan was at one of the slttings. but
seemed to have been scared away on
feeling, as he said, "a large, da mp,
hairy hand passed over his face, which
was certainly not that of the medium"
| The report drawn up by the investi ga
tors is remarkable for it's fairness an d
impartiality. When they insisted that
Eusapia should carry out the pro-
gramme they had agreed upon a mong
| themselves the tests failed. The sttings
were held in the library Of a private
| house with no one present but them
| selves, and they insist that the mani
| festations were absolutely free fro m
any possible collision.
They say at the beginning OF their re-
| port that the results of the expert ments
did not always correspond to their eX-
pectations, "athough they had in great
abundance facts which were apparently
or really important and marvellous, al
| though they could not apply to them
those rules of experimental art which In
| other fields of research are considered
necessary for arriving at incontestable
| certainty" AS in the SeanceS of Amer
lean mediums, they sat part of the
| time around an oblong table holding
each others hands. the two persons
| nearest the medium each holding on e of
| her hands and pressing her feet with
| their feet.
The manifestations sometimes occur
| red in darkness, sometimes in half light
! and occasionally the full blaze of
magnesium light was thrown upon the
| it. Manyof the manifestations reSem-
| bIed thoSeo certain American mediums
which have always been ascribed to
collision. At the Milan seances there
does not appear to be any evidence of
| col fusion, and a confirmation of the
things that were observed by the pro-
fessors was made by one Of the Milan
editors, who, meeting EuSapia in the
| street, induced her to enter his house
| and produce some of the manifestations
| in the presence of members of his FAM
| lily. What those manifestations were
are stated in the report as follows:
| % RapS Oh the table much stronger
| than those which we heard beneath or
inside the table when it was light. (2)
| Knocks and blows given to the chairs
! of those near the medium, so fOrcible at
| times as to turn the chair round, with
| the person seated in it. At times, the
person rising, the char was taken eu-s
tirely away. 81 Flying through the air
| of different objects, such as instruments
OF music: percussion and sounding of
same. a. Elevation upon the table of
the body of the medium, together with
the chair in which she was seated. (5l
Apparition Of phoSphorescent torches of
brief duration IA fraction of seconD
and of sparks of luminous disks,
some millimeters in diameter, which
sometimes unfolded. 6) The sound
of two hands clapping together in the
air. G1 Gusts of air sensibly felt, like
| light wind located in small space. (S
| Contact of a mysterious hand, either on
the portions of our body which were
| covered, OF Oh the uncovered portions,
such as the hands and face, IN which
case one experiences precisely the sem
sation of touch and warmth which hui
man hand produces. (9) Appearance of
one and even TWO hands projected
against phosphorescent background OF
upon window slightly illuminated.
1O) Divers things done by such hands.
such as the tying or untying OF knots,
pencil marks apparently left by same
on sheets of paper and in other places
and impressions of such hands on sheets
of blackened paper. QD Contact of our
hands with mysterious face, which
certainly was not that of the medium.
Among the most important facts OBJ
served was the lifting Of the table to
height of more than three feet, and
remaining in the air sufficiently long to
be photographed Another fact upon
which the report lays stress was the
lifting of Eusapia in her chair bodily.
placing her on the table and lifting her
down again to her former place at the
table. This occurred on two separate oc-
casiops. A vacant chair weighing TWEEN
| ty-eight pounds. three feet distant from
Prot. Schiaparelli. was moved without
hands directly up to where he was sit
ting. He rose and put it back, and he
had scarcely resumed his seat when it
| glided back to him again.
At the opening of curtain drawn
| across the room at the back of the me-
| dium hands annpared and "A human face