The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-27

luse a menthol pencil; and, If possible,
have some one sing Home sweet
home" to get the atmosphere.
In starting out, use little faith;
believe in what you do. Then when you
find the spirits, don't work very we'll;
help them out. But don't be too con-
lscientious
He says that whatever else we do.
use a little astral light made of phos-
lphorus With a telescoping rod 1t
may be made to float about in space.
ITO make the astral light, soak some
matches in water. Never let your
subjects get between you and your
source of supplies Always be careful
Iof a rush, because you don't know
what enterprising reporters are going
Ito do.
4 In sleight Of hand many of the best
tricks are very simple First are card
4 tricks. Cards with rubbers on them,
reversible cards, half-cards, double
cards, magnetic cards.
Afodes OF manipulating cards are in
teresting. Palming them and shooting
them from one hand to the other. The
list of these card tricks is enormous
The history of the playing card began
400 years before our era
The cardinal principle of all sorts Of
Juggling is palming. Then there are
the knots. There are several books on
hnoLS dlone. MetnodS OF tying Knots
is mathematical science.
/ Then there are the codes. Heller be-
gins by having call words. For each
letter of the alphabet was a word and
1t was necessary to invent a number Of
combinations. He then reduced the
number Of words and loaded them
down with accents and finally he de-
veloped one word of 80 many accents
| and intonations that he was able to
/ convey very complex ideas by a single
word
Then there are the mirrors. In
greenfield they captured a medium
who had mirror concealed in the sole
OF his shoe, which he could project by
means Of a spring
/ Among Heller's tricks he lifted
table with his hand lying. on the top.
RMS was done by having a small hook
hidden in the table, which he caught on
! his ring.
There are the. slate tricks. We all
know how they are done. There are the
trap door methods, methods of devel-
oping the writing by acids and double
states.
A conjurer's table is a marvel. and a
very expensive thing, full of trap doors
and machinery of all sorts, good
conJurer has pockets all over him. in
ms hat, in his coat, in his sleeves. Com
lurlng is a matter of machinery more
than tricks
: Changing water into wine. mourning
) several kinds of liquids out Of a single
bottle are all simple. In Changing
water INTO ink, you use a white powder
Whlch YOU place into glasses. When
water is poured in, it becomes black
again.
The .patter" of the conjurer is most
interesting. 1t all has its effect To be
good patterer is half the battle There
Is half dollar that you can make into
; Two malt dollars. and the part of this
LICK is the patter which goes with it.
Inc astral lights play a great part:
1ney are made to float through space.
me piack art chapter, where the stage
nuhg with black and the operator
! dresses In white, is very interesting
In mediumistic circles it is very inn
portant to clasp hands. The hands Of
d seeptic are dangerous. Spirit photo-
sIdphs nave another part. Everybody
VINO knows anything about photog-
raphy knows how they are made.
we nave mind reading, which be-
longs to an analogous series of mvsti-
cisms. once called on one of these
seers and had several sittings She all
tempted to tell me the woman Thought
or, but she was all wrong She tried To
read my thoughts in my face and my
: general obstinacy prevented it.
since then the work is still going on.
Z A colleague of mine saws he has OH
= tained from this same medium conclus-
: I've evidence of the immortality of the
: soul. 1t seems to me that it was never
G SO difficult to be critical, to look with
: science at these mysticisms
we may accept anything that can be
SHOWN at given place at a, given time
under all conditions. The control of con-
ditions is what makes the difference he
> | tween SCIENCE
cant quite swallow some things.
With regard to hypnotism. we have
i: a dlferent phenomenon. If 1t can be
proven that hypnotism can change the
temperature of the body, and we know
IL can, hypnotism can do wonders.
dreams have come in and make a
great part of mysticism People often
dream without knowing it. and It is
often difficult to say whether a thing
VS. a dream or reality. Some of the
dreams arevery persistent.
In all these things we have to remem-,
per mat science is always discovering
new things To discover what is in
splrltuallsm, for example one must
know all the sources of error he must
know what the possibilities are. he
must have knowledge of trickery. An
investigator should know the history Of
THESE Things and he must know the pas
sion people have for mysticisnk The
love Of fooling is a great passion. Slade,
the STATE writer, loved to fool people in
ms youth and developed the passion in
ms life A man must know what cleo
trlcity can do. That lis a great factor in
many OF these mysticisms A man must
nave good knowledge of general psy-
chology to understand the morbid
phases Of some characteristics.
Ihere Is always a battle between
science and superstition, and this is
the most lasting Of the superstitions.
| When speculative mind attempts to
explain morbid phenomena, you find
the solid ground Of science melting UNI
der your feet.
The soundness of our emotional life
depends on what we select to believe.
Science Is an island in the midst of a
sea that Is restless and changeful, and
| u we place our feet soundly on tho
truths Of science. then we shall not
go very far astray. Religion demands
contact with the mysterious, but that
should be kept close to the heart and
in the concepts.
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