The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-12-05

worth, where he was Il guest for days
at a time, Home is SAID TO have caused
chairs and tables TO float in mdair Here
also guests solcmnly declared that they
saw the 'master of the mediums rise
and float about a room, sometimes sail.
ing TRANQUILITY out Of one window, then
around the house and in again through
another. The Earl of DuDraven also
took him up and declared that he had
sometimes seen him elongatc and short
en- his body at will or cause a closed
piano 10 play by simply placing his
fingers upon the lid. AT Florence in
1855 he is said to have caused grand
piano and noblewoman who was play
ing ii to float III the air while the play
ing continued. A Polish count next
took Home to Naples whence he went
10 Rome, there joining the Catholic
church, after being abiured by the pope
TO abandon spirit seaDces forever. By
1858 he had established n social posi-
tion so high as to marry a Russian
countess, a goddaughter of the ear,
and their brilliant wedding brought Al.
eXaIder Dumas all of the way from
Paris. But after his young wife s
death, four years later, Homo returned
10 Rome. where reports of a return of
his spirit manifestations reached the
papal authorities, who preferred charges
of sorcery against him, as in the case
Of Cagliostro, and compelled him TO re-
turn to England, where his seances CON
tinued.
Handled Fire With Ease.
lie now handled fire with ease, il was
said, and kncclipg before n hearth he
would take out a large, glowing coal,
break of n large piece and hold it in his
hand while discoursing 10 his audiences
on his power over solids. Then he
would place the coal upon a folded
newspaper and burn hole through it
But public confidence III Home some
what abated when one Jane Lyons
sued him for %l65, ,000-which he
claimed TO have obtained from her for
communications from her departed hus.
band-aud later when n bottle of
phosphorus was found at one of his
scances, Nevertheless, some of his phe-
nomcna were indorsed by that ccle-
| brated chemist. Professor (now SiT)
| William Crookes, whom Home started
upon the high road to spiritualsm,
| Crookes submitted the medium to severe
| laboratory tests, such as the fastening
in secure cage of an accordion which
| Home, from n distance. caused TO play.
| The great chemist also arranged at one
end OF his laboratory a sort of letter
scale. with a recording point which
marked down the pressure cXcrtcd.
| Homo stood at the other end of the
laboratory and by cXcrtlng what
Croo5es admitted TO be only his "psy-
chic force caused the platform of the
scale to bear down and record a con
| siderable pressure
This man of mystery married another
| Russian noblewoman in 1871, after
which he fell into a slow consumption,
which caused his death in 1856. What
was the mystery of his psychic
force, and was it bona fide, as Crookcs
| still maintains, or was 1T the result Of
ingenious fraudulent phenomena not
yet detected by men of science?
Strange Vision in the Desert.
4 cloud Of incense smoke rising from
| the Syrian desert, on n night in 1870,
assumed the shape Of an old man with
long, white beard 81 am Hero, one
of the priests of great temple erected
to the gods that stood upon this spot. -
quoth the grim spcctcr. 'fThis monu-
ment was the altar. Bohold,'
'Thereupon $50 the story goes a
| phantasmagoric vision of gigantic
temple appeared supported by ponder.
GUS columns, aud great city was seen
covering the distant plain, but all soon
| faded into thin AIR.
Two caravans had met in the desert.
One had contained the alleged per.
former of this miracle, the first mod
ern woman to gain worldwide fame IN
tho role of the Great Unknown. Like
| Home, the Master of the Mediums, this
sphinx boasted of childhood rcpletc
| with abnormal occurrences, She was
born in Southern Russia, amid the piled
up cofiins of victims of the awful chol,
era epidemic of 1881. aud while they
were baptiZing her in the Greek church
she snatchcd a lighted taper and SET
fire to the flowing robes of the priest
Then, carly in her childhood, it was
discovered that while asleep she would
/ give correct answer to questions asked
by persons who would take her hand
; Thus would she reveal the hiding place
Of lost property, and, It's said, impart
ether mcdiumistic information.
This uncanny child was Helena Pc
trovna Hahn. daughter of General Alexi
Hahn. II noble German settled in south
crn Russia When she was seven, he
mother s death sent her TO live will
her grandfather, the governor Of Sara
that she was possessed of the devil. SHE
went into frances, soaring tho ol,
| governor into goosehcsh Then at tn
age of I she married General Couu
Blavatshy, n groutv old Russian Of "a
: from whom she separated after a bric
period of domestic unhappincss, Mex
she attempted TO penetrate the forbid
den boundaries of Tibet. but was turuc
back by the fanatlcal natives. Attc
wandering in India aud elsewhere /
the orient, she now returned to Russia
where mt the gloomy and grcwsom
chateau of one Of the princes sh
frightened thc nocturnal guests viii
weird demonstrations of table tipping>