Evening star., 1922-03-26

! nounce ment that he was prepared to
produce spirit likeness which. in
| Photographic quality and otherwise.
would be indistinguishab from
Hopes and under even more rigid
test conditions.
And he did In the presence of
James Douglas. Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle and other leading members of
the cult of spiritism, and making use
of the same studio, Mr.. Marriott ac-
complished not only what he had
undertaken to. but more For when
, the four exposed plates had been de-
veloped and prints made. there on
| one. between the two sitters, was
| djmly perceptibie spirit" form. And
| on another. apparently dancing
around Sir Conan Doyle, was a bevy
| of spriteS exactly akin to those that
appeared in the alleged fairy photo
graphst whose discovery Sir Arthur
| announced with so much impressive
ness in the early part of last year,
and which were supposed to have
| been taken by two youthful sisters
| aged, il one remembers correctly. re-
| spectively. ten and sixteen!
With the same consummate ease
| with which he thus seemingly ex-
posed as sheer fake spiritualistic
stunt which previously had baff1ed
| explanation even by Photographic ex-
perts Mr.. Marriott has previously
| succeeded in detecting and repro
ducing every typS.of so-called "phe-
| nomena" produced by psychic practi-
TONERS during the past seventy years.
Today he can do "materialization'
for you Che did most realistic one
for mel as easily as he can produce
spirit "raps' for your benefit Gas he
did for me, and in a crowded tea
room. too). He can perform the zap
port" stunt (Which consists of con-
juring objects from the empty air)
and put himself into the trance"
condition with equal readiness to that
with which he also reproduces William
Hopes other stunt of obtaining "psy-.
chographs"-in other words, pro-
ducing ghostly extras on photo
graphic plates which have not been
exposed in a camera, but have merely
been held for space between the
hands of the ''medium"-to the ac-
compartment of prayer!
NOW verging on fifty, he has been
A> attending spiritualistic seances
and showing up bogus spook mer-
chants ever since he was in his late
4f
history and literature of spiritism,
he can tell you offhand the exact
year in which any particular psychic"
of renown first attracted public at
tention. and, generally, by whom and
under what circumstances he or she
was proven guilty of trickery. A
native Of, ,Somersetshire. during four
teen years which he spent in India
he Investigated every type of native
magician. yogi and wizard, and
failed, he told me, to find any element
Of the supernatural in their perform
ances. His many inventions range
from appliances for shackling and
boading mules to house ventilation,
periscopes, san apparatus for project
cubators. With his long. lean. satur-
nine face, hawks eyes and nose and
waxed. upturned mustache. he looks
strikingly like Mephistopheles, and
in the minds of the mediumistic fra
ternity this is no chance resemblance,
for they regard him as the very devil.
Early in my interview with him, he
commented on the fact that modern
spiritualism had its origin in the
United States; and that practically
all the most renowned mediums" and
"psychics" who have operated during
the Intervening seventy-odd years
have been Americans.
-''The cult was founded by the Amer
lean Fox sisters" he said. "who did
rappings and table turning in 1s47.
They also produced 'materializations'
and got the first 'appoEts' for Nine.