Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-01-26

IF the Hindus-that Of a boy climbing
Upward out of sight on a string thrown
nto the air by the fakir-I never saw 1t
lone. / found it like the air-walking
s'unt-the man who had seen Il was
always somewhere else. In short, the
seats of Indian magic that can be seen
or ~SubStantiated are such as are Just
rs easily eXplainable as those l have
mentioned. Conan Doyle's astral bell
and three Hindu adopts In his Mystery
Of Cloomber' are magnificent copcep-
ions in fiction. I never was able in
my years in the orient to encounter any
such manifestations, and you may be
sure l was looking for them. The ac-
counts of the magic bowlder' written
by Heinrich Hensholdt in the Arena
some years ago were more specific and
the best authenticated / know Of. The
author In this case explains the phe-
nomena he thought he witnessed on
the theory that he was h~ypnotized by
Koomra Sauna, the Hindu adept in ma
gic. This is probably the correct ex-
PLANTATION. I consider 1t utterly i'm
possible, however, for a hypnotist to
bring an entire audience under his
spell and make them believe they see
things that don't exist.
my deviation act can be done in an
open space. If were travelling In a
romantic country, with your mind pre-
pared to witness strange things, and
saw this trick done for the first time
to the accompaniment Of weird, bar
barrie incantation, with oriental set
tinGs, would you not have hair-raising
tales to tell of the magic of the Hin
dus? America Is as far ahead of India
In c%onjuring as our scientific attain
ments are ahead of those of the most
learned priests of that country.
Most sp~iritualists are brought to
that faith through some private ex-
perience. / had a narrow escape my
self. One night, ten years ago in Buff
falo. after my wife and / had retired, I
| heard spirit rappings.' They were dis
tinct and governed by some intelli-
gence. for by asking questions / was
able to establish Geographic communi-
cations with the spirit. OF course /
jumped at the conclusion that some one
was playing a trick. for everybody likes
to trick the professional trickster. /
| got up, examined the doors and win
| dows, tore up the carpets looking for
| wires and otherwise sought the source
of the rappings. / found nothing. My
wife assured me she heard them as !
had. For nine years the incident was
| a complete mystery to me, and / told
ii frequently to illustrate the unex-
plainable things we all encounter at
times.
About a year ago, during the visit
of a well known actress to my home
on the Hudson, the incident came up,
and my wife confessed she had caused
the ~rappings with her big toe nail
| against the footboard of the bed. She
did IL for a joke, saw took IL seriously
for the instant, and then became afraid
TO disiilusion me. She kept her secret
nine years. Such an experience. how
! ever, il sufficient to drive many peo-
pie to belief in s~piritualism."
AS the conjurer told this incident
there was a series OF distinct rappings
similar TO those heard at seances
See how easy ii is" he said, indicat-
ing the position of his foot against the
table leg. This is a fine table for
spiritualistic purposes"
The movement of the foot was I'M
~perceptibie and the rap were caused
not by a tap against the table. but by
friction between the leather and the
wood as the foot of the conjurer was
pushed slowly down..
THE Davenport brothers got up the
best spirit cabinet ever used, and ]
T, worked with 1t for years. To the men
in my business the work Of the For
sisters was SO ordinary that we would
not use 1t. Spirit devices are usually