The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-10-07
AN EXPERT FAKIR.
Old and Half Insane, One Famous
Medium" Dies in Poverty.

There died the other day in a Michi-
gan sanitarium man who not a great
many years ago was one of the most
famous mediums" in the world. His
speciality was SLATE. writing which
once had such a vogue in spiritualistic
seances, and he was so clever hum
bug that he impressed. not only the ig-
norant and the credulous. but many
whose position and intelligence should
have made them proof against the in
genious tricks of one who at his best
was no more than an expert sleight of
hand artist
The fact that DR., Henry Slade was
endorsed as having genuine powers by
men like Henry Ward Beecher and
that he had exhibited before most of
the monarchs Of EurolIe make inter
esting d brief history of his career.
As one of the greatest OF spiritualistic
fakes the exposure of his methods
ought also TO be valuable as throw
ing light on the whole Science" of
which he was a distinguished expon-
emit Catholics are not likely to be
influenced to any belief in mediums.
but it is well sometimes that they
should have a practical and concrete
argument for the benefit of their more
unsettled and gullible neighbors.
According to the New York Sun.
Slade started as farmer boy in Nj
agara county. New York He was
scarcely in his teens when he began
to astonish the other BOYS by table
tipping. slate writing and the like He
was in New York in the late Cos and
early '70s. His slate writing created
Juror Henry Ward Beecher saw him.
and admitted that the thing was past
him. Many believing Spiritualists. who
admit that Slade was proved fraud
later, think that he had real occult
power IN his early days. but that his
control" was uncertain. and that he
resorted to fraud in order to make re-
suits a certainty.
Spiritualism was having a big run
just then. SHADES earnings were large.
He was already rich man. when. in
1876, he went to England. and was
nine days wonder. Committees of
savants had sittings with him, and
reported that they could not explain it,
The celebrated Dr. Carpenter said that
he was shaken in his disbelief" in
soiritualism.
On Sept. IL. 1879, Professor Lancaster
attended d seance. He got a theory.
and came back four days later to
prove it.
The seance took place in a we'll light
ed room The medium and his sit
ters' sat on opposite sides of a ia
bic. Slade brought out a slate. with
pencils, and showed both sides to prove
that it was blank. Placing a piece of
pencil on the face of the State Slade
pressed the face against the under sur
face of the table so closely that no
hand. not even a finger. could be in
troduced between. There would be a
slight scratching noice. and Slade
would show the slate with a message
on it
Professor Lancaster. who pretended
absolute belief all through. noticed that
there was an interval between the
showing of the clean slate and the
placing of the slate under the table.
During that interval Slade coughed as
though he had bad cold. and did I'M
expected things to turn his sitters at
tention to another part of the room.
Also he thought he saw "a slight mo-
ton in the muscles of the arm with
which Slade held his slate under the
table
On the second visit the professor and
all assistant caught and held Slade just
as he was placing the slate under the
table. Although the slate was supposed
to be clean, they found a message all
written out. Slade tried to shake
something out of his hand They found
it, and found that he Wore "a thimble
colored like his skin, with d bit of
slate pencil on the end. He had writ
ten the message on his knee during
his coughing spell If that failed, with
his thimbled finger he could scrawl off
a message while holding the slate UNI
der the table. This brought the mes
sage on the wrong side of fhe slate
but he would distract attention for a
moment While he Topped the slate
over
Slade was arrested. convicted and got
three months in Jail. The case at
tracted some attention in Europe. The
Russian court wanted medium, real
or false, for its diversion They sent
for Slade. He exhibited before the Car.
and was q court sensation for a st.
Petersburg season. He dropped out of
sight very suddenly, but bobbed up
again in this country in the early sos.
dead broke, and showing in small
towns He went abroad again. and
had a renewal of popularity in Berlin.
where he exploited ideas about a fourth
dimension. He was even honored by
heavy German treatise. "Transcen-
dental Psychics." by Professor zollner.
For ten years the world lost sight
of him until. in 1895. he appeared again
on the streets of New York. old. ia O.
ged. walking on crutches
He went west, and showed up at
last in Detroit. There he lived. old
broken and half insane, in one room.
and made his living by giving tests"
to servant girls, at 10 cents sitting.
In time he got too broken even for
that and was sent to q sanitariun.
where he died.