Evening journal., 1896-03-30
CLEVER TRICK EXPOSED
Wilmingtonians Were Taken
in BY Alleged Occultists.
EVERYONE REMEMBERS THE PAIR

Was SO Successfully Worked Here some
Time Ago-It Was Not Prstsrnaturai,
But the Result of Very Simple Means
It has only beer few months since
WilmingtonIsns and their dollars were
cleverly taken In by q couple Of show
men styling themselves Professor and
Madame Baldwin There are probably
plenty Of persons 10 the community who
still believe that the performances Of this
clever pair OF occultlsts were accom-
plished by preternatural agencies and
influences. The madame answered all
sorts Of questions propounded. but what
was regarded IS most wonderful was that
she repeated questions propounded IN
writing, folded and put In the pockets OF
the auditors and never submitted to her
either orally or peculiarly. To cap the
climax Of the excitement she caused by
her feRts In the regular line OF her work,
she boldly predicted that Market street
would be hre.swapt within two or three
months, a prediction which caused some
uneasiness but which was never fulfilled
While perusing a copy Of the Popular
Science News last evening reporter OF
the EVENING JOURNAL came across an
magic and the simplicity of the means
and apparatus used TO accomplish the
most effective tricks. 1t was written BY
Judge James Bartlett. and large part OF
the article Is devoted 30 the exposure Of
the clever trick which so mystifsd the
intelligent Wilmingtonians and made any
number of converts to second sight
among the more ignorant and impress
sionsble classes. he gays:
"Ths Trick Is performed as follows
Each person In the audience is presented
with slip Of paper. upon which to write
anything he or she may choose. The
paper written upon Is Immediately
sscreted by the writer as much care ss
possible being taken that no one else sees
what is written upon it, The performer,
who has been absent from the room
while this is being done, is brought In
aud led as II In a state OF trance to q
chair within full view of every one
present. A light piece Of drapery
Is thrown over him SO that he is
completely covered by 1t, and yet
1t is thin enough to be trans
lucent, and IL can be seen he has not gone
down through the floor or ascended up
through the ceiling. The audiences Is
told the dlapery prevents the sphere or
influence or spell that surrounds him
from being dissipAted. He now begins
and repeats. word for word, the sentences
written upon any or all the slips Of
paper. Nothing can be done more as
toDishing; the paper has not left the
possession Of the writer's; 1t is equally
/ certain that 1t Ia impossible that another
person could have seen what was thereon
/ written, and yet the trick Is as simple as
1t Is surprising, and that Is certainly
saying q great deal.
THE explanation is as follows: In
order to write anything upon the slip OF
paper given out one must have some
thing firm and fat upon which to place
it, and for this purpose bits Of pastebosrd
OF convenient size are handed about
the audience. The pasteboard however,
Is not solid, as IL seems to be the upper
most layer OF paper can be separated at
one Of the edges from the layers beneath
II, and into this slip white paper intro
duced. The uppsrmost layer of
paper is blscked with crsyon or
soft pencil on its under side, and
whatever is written upon the paper
resting upon II is faithfully stenoiled or
traced upon the white paper inserted.
The pastebosrds, being collected, are
TAX en- out OF the room and given to the
performer by his assistant, who ma or
may not be q confederate. That Is, II
the performer is very akillful, he may
dupe his assistant as well as his audience.
he may tell him, for Instance, It is nee
essary for him TO have these pastsbosrd
rests and pass his fingers over them so
that he csn become in rapport with the
person with whom they were In con-
tact. 1t is better, however, at least
at first, to have a confederate.
The rest is easy enough. The
inserted slips OF tell-tale papers are col
lected and carried with him by the per
l former, who manages TO read them either
through hole in the drspery or by the
light that Sits through 1t as he sit
covered up In bis chair with his back to
the audience Il Is we'll, sometimes, not
to have enough pasteboard cards to 60
round the audience, aud give apparently
At haphszard book an atlas or portfolio
which, OF course has been neatly covered
with paper or cloth aud supplied with
bleckened and with white paper es ere
the pssteboRrd cards
If anything should happen that would
prevent reading any particular strip oi
paper, the performer may at once say
I luaN AD Aoc1 A0b lAcACnA W 10 hblo "
read all, but only such sentences q:
appear to his mental vision This vii
add to the effect, aud make the trich
appear all the more mysterious In sup
plying pencils to your audience be SUR
to give them good. hard ones, that viii
require some pressure to make the
writing legible; be careful. too. that the
paper with which you furnish them Il
rather thin, so that you will get a good
tracing on that you have inserted In th'
pasteboard rest AS each slip is read BY
the performer the assistant should ash
II any one In the audience wrote ths
sentence and II it is correctly repeated
and then stepping TO the writer aD'
taking the slip from him or her hs should
himself read it aloud and show it to Enl
one dssirous Of seeing it, this enhances
the wonder ard interest of the perform
Ance, and also gives the performer tim
to declpher the next slip. IL is well Il
have the sentences take the form o
questions which the performer can read
comment upon and answer in an oraculs
way. especially as this takes up time an'
consequently gives fewer selected slips 4
read duriug the period allotted TO tn
trick. for to read few is quite as won