The New York herald., 1922-11-16
SPOOKS AT BILTMORE
TO MATERIALIZE into
100000 Cash FUND
Col. Lee and Black Hawk
Stir CheckbOoks of Tick
nor's Clientele.
TO FORM NEW SOCIETY
Mediums Followers Look
With Contempt Upon
Previous Psychists.
CONTRIBUTIONS PILE UP
Intelligentsia Who Discarded
RattIes Long Ago Pay High
for New Kick

Psychists whose social eminence
(and wealth for the matter of that
may be guessed at in swift thumbing
of that American "Almanach de Gotha.
the Social Register" whose names are
known to Bradstreet and to Dun, or
whose origins and achievements are
in who's Who" and accessible to
any good memory, crowd to the Bilt-
more these days to commune with the
ghosts that cannily take their ease in
Mr. Bowman's famous inn.
Half of New York society vibrates
deliciously to a new thrill as, privi-
legged under bonds of secrecy. they
witness Ticknor the Marvellous. Tick
nor, the familiar Of as mixed a crew
of spooks as ever came wandering
back over the pike, sink to entranced
slumber and metamorphose into Col.
Lee, the old Southerner of naughty
and truculent speech. and Black Hawk,
poor Indian with a Harvard educa-
ton. Vanished now in the eyes of the
true believers of the cult that has
fairly taken New York by storm.
Ticknor himself disappears. The
plump little, pink little person is lost
in the stalwart Red Man whose pidgin
Indian Is SO convincing.
100000 Guarantee.
Men and women with names known
from end to and of this glorious but
credulous republic sit enthralled as
Black Hawk reels off those forgotten
episodes that l give you my solemn
word, my DEAR could not possibly have
been known to human soul except
Algernon and me; nol possibly; and
revives shreds and patches of biography
whose mere recounting makes inter-
ested hearers jump as If stuck with
pins. Social leaders with a new inter-
est in life because of possible old in
terest in death. rich bankers. eminent
lawyers, physicians who would have
Sir before their names If they were
Englishmen, a stray editor or two, with
what emotions heaven knows, and
others to whom novelty and sensa-
tional novelty is the very heartbeat of
life, are attending the Ticknor meetings
and are contributing sums of money
which easily guarantee 100000 foun-
dation for the new Association to Ad-
vance Psychic knowledge"
Strongly intrenched in New York
city, the association. which looks with
contempt upon the American Society
for Psychical Research. which crystal
lied the sincere and serious investiga-
tons of Hodgson. James. Hyslop and
many others, has close relations with a
French society Of the same nature and
with the open mouthed organization to
which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle now
gives his allegiance in England. Illus
trative of the intellectual powers Of the
English organization Is the fact that the
director of 1t. after witnessing the tricks
of Houdni. solemnly reported as mis- be-
lief that Houdni had discovered a
method OF dematerializing himself so
that he could go through steel walls.
bones, liver buttons and all, and then
rematerlalize himself to stand dripping
and mysterious on the other side OF an
otherwise impossible barrier.
Society Gets a "kick.''
1t looks with contempt on the old
Hodgson and Hyslop society. holding
that IL Is out of date, composed of old
truths now illuminng the world, and
Just so much junk from the standpoint
of the real psychist intelligentsia. II
prefers to follow John Ticknor one-t time
Bridgeport, Conn. manufacturer. but
medium now, the same Ticknor who has
been investigated with dubious results
by experimenters In the psychic field.
There are documents concerning Tick
nor that might surprise the celebrated
and wealthy folk who flock secretly
to see him and hear him In this
Col. Lee and Black Hawk business.
But the money rolls in-more money
than the old steady, sober going. pa
tiently investigating American Soci-
ETY. for Psychcal Research ever saw
The Ticknor experiments" are financed
like a subway. Society is getting a
kick" out Of 1t. and seems to think that
old Col. Lee, bluff rascal that he is. and
Black Hawk, the redskin, are the duck =
quack. simon pure goods right from the
bargain counter Of spookdom.
Night after night, following a pleasant
feed the marvellous Ticknor sinks to
sumber which is invariably invaded by
the same pair OF Controls" Col Lee and
Black Hawk The old Colonel Is touchy
and choleric. As you sit back with the
tense believers you can fairly see him
elb.w w Lo the Poor Indian out OF the
way with that Southern intolerance OF
the inferior races 80 familiar to the
culture OF Connecticut Ticknor is un-
ticknored.
Something happens to the little plump
man, the little gray and pink man, who
so resembled the corresponding secretary
of the Rotary Club OF South Muncie, Ind.
He departs. He Is nix. That.is. II you
believe your babu and not your eyes.
The intelligence that remains. the vital
spark which has mysteriously borrowed
the physical capsule OF John Ticknor,
springs to its feet. shoulders back, feet
rather apart. chin up. In deep. vibrant
and bombastic voice IL ''orates" to the
true believers an old fashioned. long ago