The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1921-04-10
Chicanery in All Spirit
Phenomena Says an In
vestigator
NOT ONE IS HONEST
Leo Weiner, Once Kansas City
School Teacher, Grows Rem
iniscent of Early Days

many WIN uNr tu dslyc in things
supposedly OF the Hugruitur1l Loo
Wiener former Kansas titihu.
writing Zoo the W'pNB Review grows
reminiscent ot early day efforts a.
psychical research In this city.
~ flood of rccollcctioua comes
back" be- bcEiuF. from my ambi-
tious youth. about 90 years ago. whom
teacher OF mathematics, German.
Greek and at one time Of 'iNli gov
ornmcnt lu the Kansas city high
school, ! surrendered iuysolf 20 ths
refined pursultg of the Gilt" ui
Kansas CITY. whose intellectual pom.
duium swung from Robert Brown
ing to spiriJism The coryphu,us OF
the new Thought WIS Warren Wat
son. clerk Of the superior court. and
around him gathered the choice
spirits Or. browning dreamy
phyMCian with greater love for
riudlr and Mmc Uiayatski than Tor
pcstcring patienla, Dr. BruWn n
dentist who was moro deNtorous
with the billiard cue than with
csoteric Browningism 4. 81 cannot
recall his uamcJ % lawyer whose
wisdom. accumulated from BlaCk-
stone. reduced Psychic phenomena
to cases Of evidence, ana myself,
whom tho experience gained aa
president of the Browning society
and OF the Gaelic society worc sup
posed TO have prepared for active
work as psychic research inycail-
gator.
bishops Divine Madness.
There was nothing HmRtcurlsh
about our research. We plunged
into IL with vim, aud | brought To
bear upon II all the Vervc of my
Slavic education. We not only
studied the literary sources OF psy-
chic phenomena. we produced them
wherever chance was offered
4 near relative Of warren Watson
gave frequent illustrntiunH uf mCdi
umistic powers which consisted Of
knockings in the piano whenever
she put her hauds upuu II. | regret
10 say that these phenomena were
never properly examined, she being
a lady and a relative ut orr worthy
president But there were cases a.
plenty which we scrutiui2cd closely
~ Mr. Bishop, whose marvellous
mlndrcading and recovery OF lost
objects was on cverybody's Hips
came 20 Kansas cay and performed
to "a crowded house. ! waR one OF
the committee upon whom he was TO
try his powers. Unfortunately for
him | had In my early youth studied
miudrcading, card tricks Und lcgcr-
demaiu, aud | know well enough
that the gcntln, innocent public Is
the mediums best accomplicc. As
he p-rsped my wrist, with the pur-
pose that should uuCousciuusly lead
him Go n key hidden 10y me In aud
fence. my pulse was not awcd into be-
trnyal. and his attempt NIs a total
failure. When Bishop became aware
that | was not fair sample OF
the innocent public, but a prospec-
tive medium like himself, he did not
smile as one augur To another, but
broke forth into flood OF curses
In order to impress the eNpectan.
public with his divine madness.
Plenty of GrundfaihcrS.
'The spirituallsta ncvcr gave up
the hope of converting me. A Mr.
Olmstead came to me once ana told
me that at last he had found a
famous slate-writinE medium, whose
performances were miraculous, We
went TO the medium ana met him AT
the door, just AZ he was going out
to fetch Jug of beer, lie tried the
usual trick OF medium to postpone
the meeting by registering FOR
future date In order to gain time
in which to gather Information about
me. / was adam0nt, and my sad
expressions bespoke IA host of spirit
relatives with whom | must speak
at once. lie took me to "A small
room. placed me In a chair. put
three states on my head, which |
held with thumb and index finger
on each side.
After a while my hands became
numb. lie told mo to drop now ono
hand, now another and rest it. Tn
fortunately for him a black curtain
In front of me turned nay eyeglasses
into n mirror, ana | could see that
the medium behind mo removed the
middle slate, while my one numb
hand was unable TO perceive the
difference between two states and
three. and substituted another before
my second hand returned TO itS
place.
"At that time Kansas city became
the home OF the most widely known
Undertaking. medium, Thomas Mott,
whose name eventually got into the
encyclopedias. His house was al
ways crowded with anxious relatives
of the departed, and it was with
some difficulty that | obtained a
sitting. There were present u Judge,
a physician, n Quakcross, ana the
music OF tho music box the singing
OF the duNOlOEy and the suhducd
lights put an in an cNpcctaut mood.
Then 1 was called To the box Ia
which Mott was In trance. and
spirit forms fitted by who claimed
~ po my lfltiANfSs Two bIlllu-
fathers appeared, albeit one or my
grandfathcrs was stlll alive and the
other members of my family, OF
whose existence ! there learned for
tho first time.
Fraud in All Cases.
tine visit was repeated, with no
better results. Later "a Mrs Rcase.
who was connected with a local
paper. succeeded I'm iuicctins son1r
aniline dye into tho box and by the
presence OF tho dye ON Motifs face
proved concluslvcly that he was him
self the several ghosts. Mott was sued
for obtaining money under false pre-
lenses, and the case was heard for
many days before hundreds of in
terested auditors. ] attended many
OF these hearings, ana was struck by
the inadequacy and peryersity OF
human testimony whore tho matter
OF faith was concerned Mott was
driven out Of town, hut his worsh hip
ers are sSill quite unwilling To hear
"Ail i can say is this, have
faithfully investigated hundreds OF
cases Of spiritual phenomena, each
.t,,,a ouardinR TuNstlf 10 tho hest