Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-23
FAKE CABINET
EXPOSED ONCE
IN LOS ANGELES

While the Arnold Dickson brothers
were in Los Angeles they conducted
their business at 449A South Spring
street, and when they left it was be-
cause the newspapers made it too hot
for them.
The room which they rented was
fitted UP with black curtains and their
cabinet, from which the spirits issued
was a framework surrounded by placK
curtains and built up against the WIN,
dow. At the climax of the meeting all
light was excluded from the room ex-
cept a little which came into the cap-
met from the window.
They, advertised extensively and every
night some forty or more people gave
up u half dollar each.
The men in charge of the meeting
handed everyone pad of paper, upon
which they wrote the name or names
of the dead friends they wanted to
speak of. The paper was then torn OIL
by the writer and he could destroy 1t
or do anything he wished with it. The
rpiritualists were supposed to know
what they had written through some
spirit messenger, but accidentally there
was a piece of tracing paper in the pad.
Dummies in Front Row
The two first rows of seats were al
ways filled with dummies, people who
had been there before and knew eX-
actly what to do
When everything was ready for the
seance to begin the lights were turned
down to the lowest capacity, boy
started q music box and the medium
went into the cabinet and fell into a
trance. The noise the music box made
drowned all sounds in the cabinet.
The medium with a sheet over his
head then parted the curtains of the
cabinet a trifle and said in sepulchral
tones: This is Howard Smith" A
dummy in the first seat cried, MY
darling husband, and it is really you
who have come back to me after all
these years"
Thus it went on, the medium showing
himself i'm several different guises and
each time some one of the dummies
recognized him as one of their rela-
tives. BY the time seven or eight of
these dummies had talked to the dead
of the reality Of the thing, whether their
friends had appeared or not.
Reporter on the Alert
on this particular evening, the one
of it's exposure, the reporter had grad
ually changed seats until he had worm
ed his way couple of rows from the
front.
The feature of the evening came now.
The lights were all turned out and
there wasn't a ray of light anywhere
except faint reflection in the cabinet
which came from the street outside
In the darkness a young woman got
up from the front row of dummies and
slipped into the cabinet unseen by the
audience. The reporter. also aided by
the darkness, slipped into her seat as
soon as she left It. He was thus right
beside the cabinet. so close that he could
hear the breathing of the two occu-
pants and hear their low whispering.
Through a tiny rift in the curtain
he watched the medium help the girl
into a luminous garment and then get
into one himself. When they appeared
there were abs and obs of appreciation
from the rows Of dummies, and the
darkness and weirdness of the whole
proceeding easily fooled the rest Of the
people.
Joke on the Girl
Immediately afterward the girl came
out OF the cabinet to regain
her seat before the light was turned
on. She was horrified to find some one