Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-19

on the place or it's aims. / am very
glad to exempt the organization which
owns the place and conducts the meet
ings there from any Intentional COM
plicity in tho phenomena which are
here the subject of criticism"
When Mr.. Darlington arrived at Lily
Dale he found everything in full blast.
There he registered under the name Of
Charles Henderson. In one corner of
the hotel yeranda was an excited group
of men discussing some problem con-
nected with spiritualism. On the wall
of the hotel was a sign inscribed:
philosophers Corner"
Spook Photos to Order
His first experience was with A. Nor
man, one of the "spirit photographers" i"
Mr. Darlington proceeds to tell what
happened:
"Mr. Norman explained to me that he
had no control over the phenomena. but
would obtain for me what he could. I
sat on the veranda and he disappeared
into the house and brought out large
camera and two plates-already in the
slide, prepared 1 noticed that there
was a small white chalk mark on one
side of the 'double-back' plate slide "a
slide that holds two plates), and this
side was carefully inserted foremost
MT. NOrf1dH erased lIlS Clldlh lildhh
with his finger as he inserted the slide
into the camera. The movement was
very slight. and would probably have
escaped detection in the vast majority
of cases. However, posed. =
After much delay, I finally succeed
ed in securing the two photographs,
and not only are none of the faces
recognizable, but they do not bear the
slightest trace of any family resem-
blance whatever. They are as alien as
possible One of the faces Is that of a
woman; the other three of men-ope of
them wearing a turban. More than
that, the photo shows signs of un-
doubted fraudulent manipulation. One
of the faces Chat of the woman) upon
being examined through a magnifying
glass clearly shows the miniature in
dentations made by the electric needle
used in reproducing newspaper cuts.
This is clearly noticeable on the fore
head, but can be seen to extend all over
the face, even with the naked eye,
when examined carefully. This face
was, therefore, copied from some news
paper or from some magazine reproduce
ing it from the paper in which 1t ori-
ginally appeared. One of the other
faces shows clear marks of manipula-
ton also
"Since Mr.. Norman would submit to
and inasmuch as the photograph shows
perfectly clear indications of manipu-
lation, I think we need have no hesita-
tfon in attributing all that transpired
through this individuals mediumship,
at least on the occasion of my own sit
ting, to perfectly ordinary methods of
deception, and the resort to spirits is
absurd"
SIate-Writing in Plenty
Mr.. Darlington had various sittings
with Pierre l.. o. A. Keeler of Wash
ington, d. c., one of the most remark
able slate writing mediums in the coun-
try. Keeler informed Darlington that
he had visited Lily Dale every summer
for twenty-three years, and had taken
away $4,000 on each occasion. Many
evidences convinced Mr.. Darlington
that Keeler produced his writings
fraudulently. One of many proofs was,
according to Mr. Darlington, that states
in which he, Darlington, had imprinted
his thumb nails were not the ones re-
turned with the spirit messages"
"There is conclusive proof" says Mr..
Darlington, that the two original
states had been substituted for others.
Since I had been enabled to follow the
whole process throughout and had seen