Omaha daily bee., 1910-05-14

| II slate writing has deceived its thou
sands, the tricks of the sealed letter and
pellet writer have deceived their tens Of
thousands. The list OF these tricks is so
long, the variations OF each trick are so
many, and the results so thoroughly mys-
tfying to the uninitated, that it is email
wonder that even the highly Intelligent at
least are forced to the conclusion that
there is truth in the work Of
the spiritualist. 1t is OF no use
to trust ones eyes in these things. for
seeing is not always believing. The profits
that grow out OF exhibitions Of sealed letter
tricks are so great that they can be ar
ranged with very elaborate settings.
| Here, for instance is an account OF
seanCe that has mystified every living soul
who has attended 1t, with the possible eN-
| ception of the few experts I'm the arts of
! legerdemain who have come to get ideas.
Sttcrs are asked to write their names and
their questions on paper brought by them
selves, or even to write and seal them
before going TO the seance. Then the man
| after gives each sitter a number which is
placed on the sitters envelope. The med
! ium is duly blindfolded ON the stage,
lady $ glove being placed between the hand
kerchicf and the eyes, to make sure the
! bindfold is sight-proof Then a volunteer
spectator is asked to take the managers
| hat and collect the envelopes and carry
them to the stage. lie does So The man
ager takes the hat, covers II with a cloth,
hands it back to the volunteer, who holds
it in his own lap during the whole per
Torrance.
Then the manager makes fifteen min
ute speech about the miracles of spiritual
ISM after which the performance is ready
TO begin. The medium, seated behind
flower-covered table at the rear of the
stage, announces that he hears the call of
some spirit, the son of a certain sitter
present, who inquired about this spirit
Silence reigns. No one announces that he
made the inquiry: Then the hand of the
blindfolded medium points to a sitter and
declares that he wrote the message, and
proceeds to tell him the answer. The
doubter winces and declares he no longer
doubts. Then the medium hears another
spirit, which wishes to speak to Mrs. So
and So. 1t is a son who was drowned,
The spirit answers her questions to her
satisfaction, and she is convinced. One
after another hears his questions answered,
his location in the crowd pointed out After
all the questions have been answered the
/ Writer'S are requested To call anu get their
letters. They do so and find them intact
And they go away completely mystified.
1t is impossible, you say. Certainly.
But when the manager received the hat
from the volunteer, he substituted another
hat. The medium has a confederate who
secured the messages, opened them and
sent them to the medium, who, behind his
flowers, read them one by one, having
AIa
slightly by moving his eyebrows When
. he got through he returned them to the
confederate. who sealed them in duplicate
numbered envelopes and placed them on
the top of little table in the wings
When the volunteer was through with his
hat-holding performance, the manager tool
the hat, poured the dummy letters on the
! table and babe the sitters claim their mis-
sves. In moving the table from behind
the wings the real letters were substituted
for the dummies and everybody got his
message back according to it's. number
There are a vast number of variations
to this trick. In one the medium wears {
: turban with a large tassel over the ear
which conceals a. watch case telephone re-
= ceiver. His heels are covered with cop
per plate to which the wire leading from
the heel to the ear is soldered. The copper
plate is placed in contact with two secre
tacks in the floor, and a confederate unde
o the stage opens the letters and reads them
In still another variation the sitters writ
, their questions on tablets handed them 70
the purpose. A lower sheet has beef
treated with a coating of invisible para
fine. When the sitters tear of
their questions and fold them up and plac
them in their pockets, the attendants TAX
the pads down to the front and place then
on a table. Here while the attention o
the audience is attracted elsewhere, a con
federate lowers trap door in the tabl
and substitutes dummy pads for the rea
ones. A little plumbago and charcoal make
egible the impressions on the paraffn
and the confederate under the stage com
municates the questions through the tele
phone to the medium. On other occasion
the sitters write their message thei
own paper and put them in their pockets
after having shown them to the assstan
on the floor. lie passes the message by
telegraph code to the medium on the stage
Another trick, very mystifying and seem
ingly conclusive, is that of reading sealet
pellets by the dozen, every one with alb
solute accuracy. This requires, for it's bes
manipulation, a confederate among tn
spectators, though II often is practicet
single-handed Every person present i