The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-05-14

appeal to you, as man to man. l chal-
lenged mediums to come here and 90
their feats, exhibit their phenomena,
and if l cannot explain every one or
them | am fraud. Where is Professor
Chester? let him come forward. But
no Chester came, and someone shouted
that he and Parks had skipped out. AT
this moment a crowd of boys who had
distributed dodgers came to the stage
and wanted their pay, but the holder OF
the rostrum declared he had no money,
and did not know what had become OF
his agent. In piteous appeal he turn
ed to DR.. Craig, who responded and
again took the stage.
Ladies and gentlemen, you came
here to see fraud exposed! Well, you
have seen fraud. That's all l have to
say" Craig seemed to be sincere and
received motions to appoint a commit
tee to have the alleged De Forrest ar
rested for obtaining money on false
pretenses, a motion to go to the own
ers of the hall and demand the peoples
money of them and a lot of other I'M
possible motions. In the meantime the
lecturer was covering in the rear,
with a voci9erous crowd around him.
There was a babel of voices and a con-
fusion of tongues, that made, with
wildly gesticuiating men and women
swaying here and there toward the
stage and its TANKS, a lively scene, and
while a lot of boys and men cornered
the unhappy DE Forrest" and refused
him leave to pass into the stage
rooms.
Finally someone charged that the
I.,ox no hn rGOn1a \
| Record Union" reporter resented this,
and said the men, whoever they are,
had advertised regularly, and the pa
pers had announced what they adver-
tised The agent had brought press
clippings from other cities and notices
of exposures performed by De Forrest
in Portland and elsewhere, but the
press knew nothing of them beyond
that 1t was evident that the people
had been swindled, and the best thing
to do was to pocket the loss and go
home.
In the roar of suggestions and mo-
tions and debates a Mr.. Allen took the
stage and said he sympathized with the
fellow against whom the people were
so wrathy. AS he understood it the
man had advertised to expose any feat
the mediums would do. AS fair
proposition, then, the mediums should
come up and do something wonderful,
and if the man in the corner with the
| boys couldn't expose the feats then he
was a fraud; if not, then not, and there
you had it.
But this did not answer at all. One of
the De Forrest circulars was produced
and handed to Craig, who said the fellow
had promised to do certain feats of So
called mediums, and then expose the
methods of doing them. He had not
| done it. He had no cabinets nor trick
machinery. There was a table on the
stage and he had not even tried to show
how rappings and table tippings are
done. The man was fakir. and that
was all there was to it. A dozen voices
! here interposed, saying they believed
| Craig was in it too; that the missing
agent, the missing Chester. the present
| Craig and the half dead with fright De
! Forrest were all in together. This Craig
| holly denied, and asked for any possible
motive TO be cited against him. Certainly
nothing Craig did or said indicated that
| he was a party to the affair. He acted
as an enthusiastic sincere spiritualist
throughout. If a party to the thing he
! is cleverer than most men.
In the midst of the confusion a job
printer got in and wanted to know
when his bill was to be paid; the hard
working expressman who had carried
the sign of the show around the city for
two days and hammered a bass drum,
piteously asked where he got off for his
pay; the dodger boys became belligerent,
angry men demanded the arrest of the
alleged De Forrest, and there was for a
| time evidences that some one would get
hurt.
| However, better judgment prevailed;
| il was argued that the mediums had not
| advertised the show, had not promised
| anythng, but that the De Forrest crowd
/ had done all that, and il alone was to
blame. In the confusion some one let
| the unhappy De Forrest, who half the
time forgot his own name slip out, just
as the landlady of Parks put in an ap-
pearance and announced her belief that
that individual had skipped.
Then the meeting faded sadly away.
But while il lasted it was redhot and lots
of fun. The news gatherers enjoyed it
| things going, and haven't had such an
evening out since long ago.
The moral Of it all is that the public
| has really no safeguard against such
consummate frauds. That now and then
a pair or a trio of fakirs will get in and
do an audience and no one can prevent
it, The belief is that the man who ap-
peared is not De Forrest, since in press
notices where the combination has APP
peared, he is spoken Of as venerable"
The fellow on the stage last night was
| anything but that. But he was fright
ened half out of his wits all the same.
The only people who got real satisfac-
tion out of the evening were the sincere
spiritualists. They went away tri-
umphant.
There is now strong reason for believ-
ing that the scheme was to coldly, bodily
/ swindle just as was done. That is to say,
that the plan was to get mediums or in
default of them, put forward alleged
mediums. TO accept challenges to appear
Then to have them give, or attempt to
give, manifestations of spirit power. If
they failed the swindlers could say,
There is nothing to expose" If they
succeeded apparently. then the cheat
could say. We acknowledge defeat: we
are beaten" In either event it was to
be sWindie.
BL00MBERG'S DUMMY.
1t Was Stripped In Broad Daylight by