Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-05-17

a great many believers In. METHODIST doc
trines are not falling over themselves IN
their fondness for the rule of bishops
The British Methodists have never taken
kindly to the office. They have presiding
officers, but they are not enamored with
the bishopric in connection with Wesley
an Methodism.
There is also we'll defined opposition
sages on their own paper and put them
, in their pockets, after having shown
them to the assistant on the floor. He
passes the message by a telegraph code
to the medium on the stage.
Another trick, very mystifying ana
seemingly conclusive, is that of reading
sealed pellets by The dozen. every one
with absolute accuracy. This REQUIRES
for its lest manipulation, confederate
among the spectators, though it often is
practiced single handed. Every person
present is asked to write a question on a
slip and hand II in carefully folded ana
rolled into tiny pellet All the pellets
are placed before the medium in little
basket He tells what one question is,
and then opers the pellet to verify H.
A sitter Acknowledges IL to be his. iheh
he tells the others one by one, with never
a slip or a word missed. Its very puzzling'
knows in advance the question the con-
federate will ask He also knows his pei
let by an undetectable fold known only
to them. He announces this question
and then picks up pellet to verify H.
But the pellet he takes up and opens Is
not the one written by the confederate
He announces that he was right. lie mas
thus gotten one pellet ahead of the game,
and he reads the message on pellet NUM-
Der two and declares it to correspond
with pellet number three. BY thus OPEN
ing a pellet ahead of the one ne pro-
fesses to have read, he is able TO see
every pellet in advance of announcing
ITS contents.
Ore OF the most mystifying tricks OF
the average medium is to have the sitter
write down the names of half dozen
people, some real, some fictitious, ana one
dead After the names are written they
are cut apart by the sitter, hanoeu 10
the medium who folds the slips and places
them in a basket beneath the table, or IN
a human skull on top the table. Inc siI
ter takes them out, one by one, anu
when the name of the departed friend
appears. the medium promptly announces
the fact, and tells the name.
This trick is one of the most legitimate
| and at the same time the most surprising
of all. Here mediumistic power actually
is brought into play. The medlum reai-
Iv does divine the very thought of the
alter. hut he does 1t by the use of his
most carefully trained powers of observa-
ton. He knows that in writing lhe
names of persons the sitter already mas
made I'D his mind about the departed
friend The others he will think about
r,on,sntarilv before writing them down.
The medium watches the writing opera
tion tntentIy. He notices it may be only
an instantaneous hesitation before each
roroa until the real one comes, ana tha'
gees down without the slightest pause
THE medium notes which name TINS is III
its order on the sheet of paper, anu
xben the list is cut into slips ana hahoeu
70 him. he gives that one an unooseIN
ahlI different fold. When the siips oio
ALI nlaced in the basket and shaken up
and the sitter draws them out one Uy
one the medium recognizes II oy TINS
u.thod of folding. Having seen lne
nanoe when folding the slip he carries ].
&, his memory until the slip is produced
f-or, the basket. Only the most expert
t-utn-seeker ever has been aole 10 uIi
Eel this test. and 1t has converted us
thousands to spiritualism. 1900
MANY a sitter has carried 10 seam
n message in a sealed envelope anu nc"
taken away from it the message uiiuis
| turbed, and has found mis- ahs"et -
message written on the inside OF the en-
1900 itseIf He is at loss to account
| g. tbis nv natural means. AS a matter
| of fact the medium has a nan oo]e'
Uavs in which he may read the messase'
In some he may read 1t by the use OF an
egg tester, which often VIII sho"
through several thicknesses or paper. Ut
! a little alcohol and sponge VIII mar
an envelope temporarily transparent. Inc
e,
and then by the art OF mirror
or reverse. writing, places message on
sIin of paper with a copying pencil.
! The lower flap of an envelope is usually
easv TO open. He opens 1t, Slips IN the
message face to the envelope. and by
running his had over piece OF paper on
! ton Of the envelope, makes the message
! COPY itself on the inside OF the enve-
/ lone He then withdraws his slip OF
paper. seals the lower flap ana returns
| the letter to the sitter.
In one brightly conceived methoo OF
message reading the sitter writes his
ouestions on a tablet. He then lays II
| face downward on a table In this table
| there is a tiny trap door, slightly small
err than the writing pad upon which the
questions are written. Straightway the
medium reads the message and other-
wise describes 1t, and the sitter has his
la at doubt removed. He goes away alb
soluteIy convinced. The medium simply
let down the trap door after the pad
had been properly placed over it, and
series of rejecting glasses made the
questions visible to him but not TO the
sitter.
Sometimes the medium takes the sit
ter's pellet. holds it to his forehead and
shortly after answers the question 1t
contains Substitution is effected here,
and II may be said that there are
hundred different tricks which depend
nm clever substitution When a sitter
displays a tendency to divine the tricks
of the medium there is always conve-
nient refuge behind the excuse that the
sitter does not lend himself to the opera
ton of the occult forces. that the medi
um is exhausted, or one or another of
dozen excuses.