Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-02-26

AN INTERVIEW WITH oUIJA

Washington, D. C.. Feb A.
why don't you interview ouija!
asked . friend the other day.
5. We thought It over. Our re-
lations with "weeEee' have always
been rather distant We have met
q parties and 1t the home OF ouija
fans. But always We have passed
the time OF day In a few trtfng
queries, and let It go at that Ger
tainiy, We never expected to start
interviewing spirit celebrities so
long as the earthly supply held out.
Still, we reflected, there were ad-
vantages to this kind Of interview.
Ouiia. once cornered, could not
plead q previous engagement or
a conference, and judging by his
reputation he would have . lot to
say.
So we decided to borrow q staid.
serious minded old ouija and ask
him about the Sims-Daniels' scrap.
and who ought to be the next pres
ident, and il there we're any mes
sages from cousin Lon, who is
either dead or in Chicago. We
knew the very board 20 borrow. 1t
belongs to an elderly lady who
goes in for higher thought and con-
centration, and undoubtedly her
ouija has never been asked a silly
question in its life.
The old lady promptly offered to
get the board, and also a book on
how to get the best results with
ouija. We hauled ouija home, cor
raled a friend to act as accomplice,
and with the setting arranged, set
tied down for the interview.
First, however, We read the book
carefully. We found out that 'the
solar plexus-that never sleeping
brain of the individuals the
switchboard or receiving station for
the messages" We also discovered
that "the great secret why some in
dividuals can successfully use the
board and some cannot is that the
successful person must have, so to
speak, q diseasedly sensitive solar
plexus." That worried us, as our
solar plexus has always been pref
ty healthy, and we feared the mes
sage germs might not have any ef-
feet For a while We held on to the
hope that maybe the writer was
mistaken about the solar p1exus be-
ing the brain Of the soul, but furth-
er on we found that ouija himself
had told her, "The solar plexus is
the spiritual BRAIN" With this in
side information and warning that
to get best results you must think
high thoughts we invited little
weegee" to the interview.
For the property of a higher
thought sort of person this ouiia
board certainly had remarkable
line of talk and interesting opin-
ions. It told use that here would
be a big war in 1882, that ouiia
meant spirits, and it advised US tc
forget it" when we politely in
lquired if it had a message for us.
| After a rest it condescended tc
tell US that Aunt Harriet, who died
some years ago is very happy, but
when We asked for Dumas to came
and tell US who was the man ir
the iron mask, it wouldn't write
anything except, They don't an.
swer."
When we returned the board we
commented on the rather fiippan1
attitude it seemed to have. WELL
said the old lady, 81 never tried
this board myself. It's a maids
board"
| Having talked to little weegee'
We decided to find out something
about his life history. The mes.
senger at the patent office wa;
frankly amused at our mission.
"Weegee?" he repeated with G
huge grin. "Yassuh. Try de toy
ldiyision, sub"
The toy division was also moved
to laughter over the password, bu,
soon recovered sufficiently for G
pleasant young patent examiner te
get out collection of the patents
There are about thirty or forty
patents along this line" he explain.
ed. "Some are ouija board type
worked by a moving index, ant
iothers are planchettes and, have {
lpencil to write the message.
1.-The first ouija board, called
"little wonder" was patented
around 1868. Since then, the idea
has been adapted and the board i'm.
proved by numerous inventors
mostly toy makers. The ouiia
board and similar inventions car
be patented in the United States
only as a toy4 The patent. offic.
does not inquire into any mystic
properties, and it does not permit
inventors to claim or describe sucf
properties in their patent papers.
In England, however, inventor.
often go into detail to explain tn,
supernormal power of such de
vices. Thus, one British patente,
inserts the following On his patent
IF the person OR persons ar,
OF a temperament suitable for tn,
reception of spiritualistic or tele
pathic messages, sentences may b,
spelt out obtained from sucl
sources and possibly conveying in
formation unknown to the opera
tors: the larger number of mes