Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-01-04
TRICKS OF THE TRADE.
A Medium Exposed at Seance il
Camden


An exciting episode took place last
night at Il spiritualistc Seanee in
private house on Hudson street. Cam
den, says the Philadelphia Record,
which resulted in Maurice Barnett.
determined young Englisnman, living
at No. 80 Warwick street. this city.
exposing the tricks of Il medium named
Henry Lollar, of No. 1899 North
Twelfth street, who is assisted in his
work of defrauding the public by his
wife and Il man named Brown. Bar
nett was accompanied to the seamce
by Harry Upham, of No. 1877 South
Eighteenil street. and Dr. w S. Bray,
of No. 902 North Second street Cam
den, and both gentlemen materially
assisted, in exposing the fraud.
Barnett is Il beardleSS young man
Of spiritualistic tendencies, but not at
all spirituelle in appearance He is
tall and muscular, and has more than
ordinary strength in his hands and
arms He has been attending the cir
cles given by Lollar for some time,
and on account of his belief in spirit
ualiSm was at first an easy mark for
the medium and his assistants. Hear
ing, however, that the spirit NANTES
tatiOnS rs produced by LOllar were
rank deceptiOns, he determined to
fathOm the mystery, if possible, and
last night his opportunity came. He
was invited by DR.. Bray to attend Il
private circle in Camden, and, after
/ i
Accompanied by his friends he went
to the seance, but his story is best told
i'll his own words:
/ Having attended the dark circles
given at his roons by Lollar, and wit
messed many strange manifestations
and celestial lights, and experienced
spirit touches, | was thoroughly con
/ WINGED of the man claims that he was
Il spirit medium. All my experiences
were most uncanny, and | can tell you
| was frightened at the apparently
/ wonderful manifestations Oh several
occasions. But my faith was some
what shaken by other people present
at the circles telling me that the spirit
/ touches l experienced We're produced
/ by a gloved hand, which they saw
moving around the darkened room by
means Of q chink Of light that came
through Il crack in the door. AS l
always held the mediums hands,
! thought possibly Lollar's assistants
administered the spirit touches, ana
/ determined to investigate.
There We're seventeen people at the
seance when we arrived there tonight,
and although we were not expected
| Lollar invited NE TO join the circle.
/ The eighteen of US sat around in the
darkened room, and, | must confess
| was somewhat nervous. The first
thing suspicious that l noticed was
W hen we lad to move a diyan i'll the
room to complete the circle. In shoy-
ing this piece Of furniture about we
were startled by flashes Of light shoot
/ ing across the room and apparently
emanating from the carpet on the
floor. This was an uncanny clrcum-
stance, and l Determined TO investigate
it. Reaching down / rubbed my hand
over the carpet and found that l could
produce the spirit lights myself. A
/
lights, convincing me that this effect
was produced by phosphorus thrown
on the floor.
After completing the circle Lollar
asked where he should begin to make
the spirits manifest themselves, and,
although he was on the opposite side OF
the room from me, Mr.. Brown sug-
gested that he call some of my rela-
tives forth from the spirit world. Lol-
lar crossed the room, and, taking me
by the two hands, knelt down III front
: of me- Almost instantly [ experienced
the spirit touches and felt Il hand tap
me on various parts of the body. Is
that you, fatherY l asked. The hand
tapped me once, meaning no. Is that
you, Milly" L next inquired
The spirit hand tapped three times,
meaning yes, and l wondered what
Milly wanted to communicate to me.
as she was a niece of mine who died
twenty years ago in England. L
couldn't understand why she spirit
should cross the ocean to call on me,
and to make sure of her identity |
said: If that is you, Milly, tap me
three times on the left shoulder The
three taps came and to convince my
self I said: Now, tweak my nose
This strange request caused the others
present to laugh, but | was in earnest
and repeated the words. Instead Of
tWeaking my nose l felt the cold,
clammy hand chucking me under the
chin.
The sensation was not enjoyable, l
can tell you, but [ knew my oppoftu-
nifty had come to learn if any one was
ia collision with Lollar l thought
Brown or his wife was back of him,
and wrenching my hands from his,
clutched the spirit hand and called
eXcitedly for a light. My friend, Harry
Upham, instantly sprung cigar
lighter on the scene and DR.. Bray
struck q match. By the dim light of
the two we saw Lollar had been opef-
ating the spirit hand himself. He had
a stuffed, black kid glove fastened to
an eight-celt two-foot rule, and
worked the arrangement with his
mouth. We were not quick enough to
get the stuffed glove, but we got part
of the rule, which was broken i'll the
struggle for it's possession.
The spirit glove apparently disap-
peared. but Mr.. Upham saw one of the
men slip it into a 1ift-pocket' in the
inside of his coat. Of course this
broke up the circle and the seance, al
IL ii 70