The Washington times., 1922-05-14
Are Supernatural Explained by Mr. Joseph L. Rim,
fCo~tinsed from Preceding Page

p "Mr. Doyle then trumpets: I'd like to con-
front z skeptic with the extraordinary OBJ
jects which Bailey produced. Where does
he get them! had an Indian nest. Does
anyone import Indian nests! Does anyone
import queer little tortoises with long,
thin necks? Is there = depot tor Turkish
copper coins in Australia! How do they
get into the country? II not genuine,
where do they come FROM
These questions sound like Sherlock
Holmes. They are Just the things the old
detective would set himself to find out
But It IL only a passing glimmer OF the
OLD, keen-witted mind No effort is made
to run down these very simple clues-the
medium said they were supernatural;
they are accepted without challenge.
Conan Doyle should have found out
himself the answers to those questions be-
fore putting his Bailey experiences before
the public as genuine spiritual phenomena.
The burden OF proof Is not on his readers,
but On him. n turtles, tablets and what
not material things can be brought BY
sptrtts IN the twinkling Of IN eye from
places thousands Of miles away, here II
miracle second to none OF those OF our
Saviour In its importance to humanity, fts
knowledge and Its destiny.
IT Il q well-knovn fact that there are
many people all over the world who make
a business Of supplying mediums with
paraphernalia for the tricks they perform
at sesnces II Sir Arthur had put Sher-
lock Holmes on the trail he would un
doubtedly have found that Bailey obtained
his stage properties from some such
source.
"Now, I would perform this particular
seance as follows:
"H I we're searched nothing would be
found on me. I would have the two heels
in my shoes hollow and would have them
halt fun of water with tortoise in each
one, the heels being removable. The fifty
six Turkish coins would readily fit in the
two soles OF my shoes, also hollow. Ana
IL wished to make the apports disappear
from the basin I would certainly take care
not to splash any water on the table, re-
place them in my heels and then turn on
the lights, and Conan Doyle would have
beon just as easily fooled by me as he was
by Mr.. Bailey.
why didn't Bailey produce turtles too
big to be concealed In his shoes?
LET us now consider the remarkable
'c,airvoyant' dog of Sir Arthur Conan
Doyles book, which has aroused so much
discussion. This is. indeed, something
new
"'while was at Auckland writes Sir
Arthur, Mr. Poynton, a stipendiary mag
istrate there, told me Of dog In Christ
church which had power OF thought COM
parable not merely to a human being, but
even, as understood him, to clairvoyant
rs II would bark out the number of coins
In your pocket and other such questions.
The alternative to clairvoyance was that
he was a very quick and accurate thought
reader, but in some cases the power
seemed to 60 beyond this. Mr.. Poynton,
who had studied the subject, mentioned
four learned beasts in history: marvel
Ions horse in Shakespeare's time. which
was burned with its master in Florence;
the Boston shippers dog; Hans, the Rus
sian horse, and Darkie, OF Christchurch.
He Investigated the latter himself as one
of a committee Of three. On the first occa-
sion they got no results. On the second.
ninety per cent Of the questions were
rfxht. and they included sums of addition,
subtraction, etc. 1T was uncanny,' he
wrote.
-T called, therefore, upon Mrs. McGib-
bon. the owner who allowed me to see
the dog. He was a dark, vivacious fox
terrier. sixteen years old, blind and deaf.
When a half-crown yas placed
bsfore him and he was asked how many
,ixpences were in It he gave FIVE barks,
and four for form, but when a shilling
was substituted he gave twelve. which
looked as IL he had pennies on his MIND.
The creatures powers were first
discovered when the son OF the mouse re-
marked one day: 81 will give you bis
cult II you bark three times" He at once
aid II. "Now, six times" He did so.
'Now, take three off," He barked three
times once again.
"'Since then they have hardly found any
problem he could not tackle. When asked
how many males in the room he always
Included himself in the number. but omit
ted himself when asked how many human
beings.
zone wonders continues Mr.. Doyle,
with an Alicein- Wonderland naivete, how
many other dogs have human brains with
ont the humans being clever enough to
detect It,
"It is truly pathetic" said Mr.. Rim,
ito note that Conan Doyle comments upon
the possibility of this dog being thought
reader or clairvoyant. All over the world
we have similar dogs that have been taught
to do tricks Of similar character by
code. We even had dog in this country
that was taught to talk in sounds like Ger
man and It was exhibited year ago on
the theatrical stage.
I'm Germany for number Of years they
had an educated horse that did similar
tricks and fooled several scientific investi-
gators by beating the ground with his foot
and stamping out different numbers. Fin
ally one person detected the method that
gave the horse a clue when to stop and
when to go on, and the wonder disap-
peared.