Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-10


which instantaneously transported its
possessor whittier he wished to go, was
not a more wonderful vehicle than a
mans memory. And Karl, even thus
early in life, had a way of talking that
compelled attention. He spoke to the
point in simple words. Evidently he
had a horror of eXaggeratiOn. His eX-
plantations were clear, logical as a pro-
position of Euclid, and he was hardly
ever at loss for a simile when illustrating
one of the less easily understood features
of his new and extraordinary force.
Being his senior by good many years,
| thought it my duty to point out the
hazardous nature of these excursions into
the unknown | was fascinated by his
story, of course, together with Hooper's
singularly definite Ccrroboration of its
chief features, yet l feared lest such
playing with nervous excitability might
result in paralysis or mental trouble.
But Karl's CHEEKY laugh treasured me.
Il have taken precise set of notes OF a
lecture on seismic waves this morning,
he said, land at this moment | could
break that poker across my knee. There's
little wrong with my brains and still less
with my muscles | can assure you"
He leaned forward, picked up the poker
and examined it critically. 1t was an old
fashioned heavy implement, with its point
sharpened by years of forgetfulness.
Now that l come to examine it, l
don't think | can break it. Being honest
wrought iron, it will bend into a hoop.
But III polarize it, by way of change"
He pulled up his coat-sleeves and
turned back the cuffs of his shirt so as to
bare his wrists. Then holding the poker
point downward on the hearth-rug, he
began to stroke it softly with the tips of
his fingers and thumbs. His hands were
white, long fingered and finely nodded
his wrists square and hard. Looking at
him, watching the smile playing on his
eager face, and the athletic poise of his
body as he kept the poker from falling,
| was struck by his physical resemblance
to the Vatican Discobolus, with its Won
derful combination of repose at the
completion of the backward movement
of the thrower and of action at the be-
ginning of the powerful forward cast
But such thoughts were dispelled by
the uncanny acts of the poker. 1t was
broad daylight, and any sleight-of-hand
performance was out of the question in
every sense. Yet both Hooper and
myself saw Karl withdraw his support
from the poker, continuing the stroking
movement in the air, and gradually
widening the distance between his hands.
And the poker did not fall! 1t stood
there immovable, as though its point was
stuck in the floor through the rug. At
first | candidly admit that | was certain
Grier had found a hole in the carpet
which conceded with a crack in the floor
/ ing. But when he inclined the imaginary
. axis of his hands, thus changing the
direction of the magnetic current that
/ flowed between them, the poker djusted
its poise to the new line of force 1t
described circles, leaned over at impos-
| sibe angles, and twice traced in space
the figure of a Maltese cross.
/ Certainly | was amazed, and even
Hooper, Notwithstanding the marvels he
had witnessed, expressed his surprise at
the new feature of his friends astound-