The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-30
THE OLD REpoRTER's STORY.

NN ih'ii tile liulL ul tIlS SOOu dlllOLs the Spiritualsts that so many frauds
 are committed in the name of their cult | The surroundings lend themselves SC l readily to reception that in this fact tn,
 sharper finds his best weapon.
 It was just twelve years ago that tht | editor of a Chicago paper called ir | three reporters and a detective from | Central. He told them that he wished 6 case for the detective and a good story for the reporters worked up out of some "doings" that were going on over in 8 fine residence on ogden avenue.
 It was queer tale that the city edi- tor had to tell. Even police reporters and a detective who know all about how people seemed actually to like to be sold, could hardly believe that any
 person was fool enough to be taken in
 by such a palpable fraud as the city ed-
 itor said had been perpetrated in the
 Ogden avenue house. It seems that a
 man and his wife and their daughter
 and son had opened a parlor for the
 giving of seances. The wife was the
 medium, They gathered nightly in
 their large double parlor a dozen or so
 of the true believers in Spiritualism.
 One was young woman of a sensitive
 temperament and utterly unused to
 ways that are dark, and any one who
 ever entered a seance knows that the
 ways of spurious Spiritualists are al-
 ways dark
 The city editor told his reporters that
 the young woman was Well-to-do; that
 cb h,1 tN
 and the spirit of her read sister was
 through the mediums supposed power brought to the parlor. The sisters raj ment was all glistening. She kept her head down however, and recognition on the living sisters part was not com- plete. The living, however believed strongly enough that her sisters spirit was with her to induce her to give up diamond ring which the spirit prom ised she would "dematerialize and take to heaven with her.
 The next night the gullible one was again present at the seance This time the spirit of a dead brother appeared in the room. The wrath declared that his living sister was showing partiality in the distribution of her gifts. You see, Mary" the spirit said, Helen has a dematerialized ring, and if you give her one I think you ought to be willing to do the same thing by me"
 So it was that Mary purchased an- other diamond ring valued at the amount of one hundred and fifty dol lars and gave it to her brother Henrys spirit to take to heaven. Some friends Df a1 r6 Of bo md nt wishing her to be swindled any further, tried to induce her to stay away from the spurious spiritualist's place. She believed, however, and nothing could move her, and the story coming to the 1ity editor, he agreed to get evidence against the place and get a scoop for lis sheet at the same time.
 Nobody but the men employed on that
 lob can realize how hard they had to work in order to get into the confidence of the people. They went there sepa- 'ately on different nights and each paid lis dollar admission. It was ten nights before one of them succeeded in getting spirit to come to see him. The ghosts were too foxy.
 Every night there were many other 'isitors, most of them believers. The eporters and the detective, John Brod- rick, had knowledge that back of the cenes was bouncer or two who would ut up a stiff fight when an attempt hould be made to seize and hold one of he spirits and to light the gas jets. It vas the duty of one reporter to catch he spirit; of another when the howl l I. szAI n the chandelier; of another, with the i etective, to care for the two bouncers l nd any of the guests who might want 0 put up a fight. '
 The reporter whose business it was to ! atch the spirit was known to the . ledium and her aids as Mir. Olds | Ie tried for twelve nights to get a satisfactory interview with the spirit of is supposed deceased sister This was he spirit that Olds wanted to grab ound the waist as he yelled for light. Warrants had been sworn out for the hole gang of "spirltualists'' on the harge of obtaining money under alse pretenses, the basis of the narge being that they had taken pay T a promise to bring baick the deaid nd that they had failed to live up to leir obligation. If the spirit was aught and proved to be flesh and blood le case was made.
 The spirit of Old's sister came out me after time, but she always kept at rms length. She wore glistening own that afterwards turned out to be : cheap metal covered with illumina- nig paint.
 But the night came at last. The lSpicions of the 'ShoWmen" were lied. The spirit of Miss Olds came 1t from the side of the cabinet with e evident intentions of at last em- 'acing her birother. There was an nbrace and a rather more strenuous le than the spirit bargained for. Olds ing on and yelled for light A fellow reporter lighted every gas t in the room and the beams fell on a ot. Olds had a buxom woman, from ( hose head a blond wig had fallen, fast
 his arms burly bouncer emerged 1 om the rear of the cabiiniet and cllled the reporter, who, until few { onths before had been quarterback on l Q Princeton football team. Detective rgeant Broderick tackled another uncer and one of the believing