Arizona republican., 1910-02-10
The PaIladino , Fake. ?


 sor of psychology at Harvard univer- sity. has completed the work, already pretty thoroughly accomplished by American newspaper reporters. of de- molishing the reputation of Madame Eusapia Palladino. the Italian me dium." For many years Madame Pal ladino has had a great vogue in Eu- rope. The late Cesare Lombroso, Sir William Crookes and other eminent scientists attended her "seances" un. der test conditions arranged under their supervision. and she fooled all performances were the achievements of spirits She camo to the United States last fall. touted by magazines and special writers as the real thing" But as soon as our newspa- per reporters had a chance to observe her '.seances" her stock began to fall. It was proved once more that keen-eyed. hard-headed reporter is a far better detective in such cases than the profound scientist Prof Munsterburg. who has d good fund of common sense. arranged for "sittings." and his report of the performance warrants the conclusion that the Pal ladino woman is an. accomplished acrobat rather than d medium Of the last seance he says:
 "One week before Christmas. at the midnight hour, I sat again at Ma dame Palladino's left side A widely known scientist was on her right. We had her under strictest supervision. Her left hand grasped my hand. Her right hand was held by her right neighbor. Her left foot rested on my foot. while her right WIS pressing the foot of her other neighbor
 For an hour the regulation per- formance had gone on. We sat in the darkened room in the highest ex- pectancy. John was begged to touch my arm and then to lift the table in the cabinet behind Palladino. John really came. He touched me distinct ly on my hip, and then on my arm. and at last he pulled my sleeves at the elbow. l plainly felt the thumb and the fingers It was most un- canny.
 And finally John was to lift the table in the cabinet. We held both her feet. and yet the table, three feet behind her, began to scratch the floor and we expected it to be lifted. But instead there suddenly came wild, gurgling scream. It was such a scream as l have never heard before in my life, not even in Sarah Bern hardts most thrilling scenes. It was scream as if a dagger had stabbed Eusapia right through the heart.
 What had happened? Neither she nor any of the others had the slight est idea that a man was lying flat on the floor and had succeeded in slip ping noiselessly. like snail, below the curtain into the cabinet l had told him that 1 expected wires stretched out from her body and he looked out for them. What a surprise when he saw that she had simply freed her foot from her shoe, and with an athletic backward movement of the leg was reaching out and fish ing with her toes for the guitar and the table in the cabinet, And then, lying on the floor. he grasped her foot and caught her heel, with firm hand. She responded with that wild scream which indicated that she knew that at last she was trapped and her glory shattered.
 Her achievement was splendid She had lifted her unshod foot to the height of my arm when she. as John had touched me under cover of the curtain. She did it without changing in the lcact the position of her body"
 It may be that the spirits of the dead do. under certain peculiar con- ditions. communicate in some form with some living people. There is. at any rate, such a mass of respect able testimony on the subject that millions of intelligent people have been led to believe that spirits re- turn. To say the least, dogmatic de- nial of this belief is out of place in this age in which puny man has learned that there are mysterious laws of the universe of which he can but faintly conceive. But happily for those whose lives would be miserable if they could not have a faith in immortality. a belief in life beyond the grave does not need to rest upon such flimsy foundation as the taw-