Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-12-05
Spooks and Scientists.

One ..Dr." Henry A. Rogers was ar
rested the other day in this town for
fraudulently obtaining money by charg-
ing admission fees to so-called spirit
ualistic seances; and his accomplice,
woman, has since confessed that she
was hired to impersonate the ghosts.
1t would be mistake to assume that
only ignorant and silly people ere
gulled by such performances, for it
will be remembered that a well-known
American lawyer was the victim of the
impostor calling herself Miss Diss De-
bar: and it is said that the man Ro-
gers, now in custody, managed by a
pseudo-spiritualistic trick to obtain a
large sum Of money from successful
American inventor. In England has
been witnessed recently still more
striking example of the ease with
which trained and acute minds, sup
posed to be proof agaius superstition,
may nevertheless be taken in when al
legged spiritualistic phenomena are the
subject of investigation. We refer to
the exposure by Mr.. Maskelyne of the
fraudulent devices of the woman Eusa-
pia Paladino, whose pretended exhibit
tions of new and mysterious PSYCHE
cal force had been accepted as authen-
tic and conclusive by score of scien-
tifc men in Italy and France as well as
in Great Britain.
Among the wonders performed by
uneducated, middle-aged Neapolitan
woman named Eusapia Paladino, the
following are recorded in the Journal
of the Psvchical Research Society: we
premise that the seances in which the
phenomena are alleged to have been
witnessed were held in partial or total
darkness. An apparently well-quali-
fed observer testified that he mad been
pushed and pinched on the head and
On the back, on the arm and on the
knees. while both the mediums hands
were In his grasp. and while her feet
and head were well controlled. He
had seen, moreover, a large .hand"
aud other vague moving objects out
lined against the dim light OF the
night sky, the medium being at the
time carefully and completely held.
The list of startling exhibitions does
not stop here. a chair in a win
dow several feet behind the Thoroughly
controlled medium and with no one
near it, was seen to move several times
horizontally. and also to rise and
knock on the floor. A table, which
nobody was touching, was heard to
move about and then fall. and on a
light being struck, the table was found
inverted on the floor. We should add
that the woman Eusapia and her watch
ers were several feet from the door,
around which was an empty space;
the door key came from
the keyhole to the table which the
group surrounded, was touched by one
spectator, reentered the door, turned
in the lock, and finally came back to
the table and stayed there.
Who were the men that staked their
on the trustworthiness of
these phenomena? A commission of
Italian scientists, including Prof. Lom- |
broso and Prof. Schiaparelii, exam
med Eusapia's claims at Milan, and
n their report declared that she pow
srs exhibited by her of producing with
but contract the phenomena of move
nent and touch were genuine. marvel
Gus, and inexplicable. In subse-
1uent seance held in the lie Roubandi
md attended by French servants. sew
,ral Englishmen eminent for science
,r learning took part. including Prof
lodge, Mr.. Myers. and Prof. Sidgwick.
The result of this investigation was an !