The mirror., 1914-06-25


his hands. palm down, on the slate,
while the palms of her hands were
pressed down on the backs of bis.
All at once the lights would go out
and mysteriously hands would brush
about his face, rap on his chair and
tap about his body. Meanwhile a
strange light would appear and float
about the room, and voices would
come from a trumpet which bump.
ed about the floor.
The deception in this case was
also practiced in an ingenious man
ner. When the lights went out the
medium took up one hand and deft-
~ kept the other in contact with the
backs of the subjects hands. In
the darkness the sitter was unable
to detect this change and the me-
dunn was given one free hand to
work with, and cause the mysterious
taps and other manifestations of the
presence of the spirits
Mr.. Abbott says that favorite
scheme of the mediums is to have a
trap in the base eboard behind cab
met. or in the ceiling concealed by
"a heavy border of wall paper.
The Bridal Veil
One famous medium made use of
a piece of silk bridal yelling so deli
cate that although two yards wide
and 2l yards long it could be con-
tanned in pint cup. By soaking
this in luminous paint and exposing
1t to the light it appeared.
when shown in the dark, as a
soft luminous vapor. Using this
for hair, the spirit of Cleopatra the
Egyptian queen" is inpersonated
by the medium. The appearance
of the medium in dark room with
the luminous effect of such cloth
and the play of cleverly arranged
lights is very impressive, as he
speaks with a carefully modulated
voice in imitation of some de ad and
gone hero or heroine.
One seer encountered bv Mr.. Alb
bott was so clever in his work that
the discovery of his secret was rath-
er difficult. In this case the occult
ist with his manager appeared be-
fore an audience and remained seat
ed on the stage while the manager
made an address. A boy was then
called from the audience and given
envelopes with instruction to .distri-
butte these among the audience.
Each person was to write a ques-
tion on the card and seal it in an
envelope. A committee was then
invited from the audience to blind
fold the medium who was seated by
the manager at the rear of the stage,
by table on which were some
flowers and a music box. Then the
boy was sent into the audience with
a hat to collect the sealed envelopes.
When he returned he was seated at
the front edge of the stage holding
the hat, covered by handkerchief,
while the manager made another
short address.
After the lecture the manager
asked for one of the envelopes in
the hat; the boy handed him one
which he held up with the tips of
fingers and asked the seer for an
answer to the question written in it.
After a slight shiver au answer
was given which satisfied the
person in the audience who had
written the question. This
was done with all the questions and
after few other manifestations the
cards in their envelopes were re-
turned to the audience.
The Envelope Fake
When the boy returns to the stage
with the hat the manager received
it with his right hand and directed
him to a seat on the stage. The
manager then turned quickly to The
table at the back of the stage and
apparently took from it a large
handkerchief; with this and the hat,
apparently the one the boy had re-
turned to him, he stepped over to
the boy, and handed him the hat
with its questions and the handker-
chief, instructing him to keep the
hat covered with the handkerchief
and to hand out the cards, one at a
time. when he called tor them.
When the manager picked up the
handkerchief at the table he ex-
changed the hat for another exactly
similar and filled with dummy en-
velopes. This trick was not sus-
pected by the audience of course
because it was so deity executed.
While the manager talked to the
audience the medium tore open the