The Washington times., 1923-10-20
PASTOR-|NED|UN
SUBSTITUTED
OWN CARDS
Scientific American Committee
Says Alleged Spirit Mes
sages Are Fakes.

NEW IOIkhS OCIs GV'-CACNCA
substitution by selight OF hand
methods Of cards on which spirit"
writings previously had been pre-
pared was charged to the Rev.
Josie X. Stewart, pastor Of the
First Independent Church Of Cleve-
land, in attempting to prove her
self q. medium who receives psychic
messages from the beyond, by the
committee that examined MRS.
Stewart in four seances after she
had applied for the prize offered by
the Scientific American for the
production Of objective psychic
phenomena.
AS a result Mrs. Stewart will
not receive the prize, although, &C.
cording to a member of the COM
mittee, she left New York yesterday
noon confident of getting the money.
The report was made public last
night in the Scientific American
office by J. Malcolm Bird, associate
committee that examined Mrs.
Stewart.
Not Called Fraud.
While the committee does not go
so far as to brand Mrs. Stewart
a fraud, the report reads:
MRS. Stewart undertook to pro-
duce for the Scientific American In
vestigating committee Independent
spirit writings upon cards supplied
by the committee.
The subcommittee in charge OF
Mrs. Stewards sittings finds that
she has failed to do this. She
has produced writings only on
cards brought to the sitting by her
and substituted by her for those
supplied by the committee.
Not until the fourth seance, held
on the lawn at the home of Mrs.
Ned Wayburn, Bayside, Tuesday,
did Mrs. Stewart say she had be-
come in touch with the spirits and
produced the cards, written in
heliotrope and gold ink, purported
to be messages from ghost land.
The three other sittings had not
produced results.
Five Cards Missing.
At the first sitting forty-nine
cards, about 3 by inches, had been
given to her. The COMMITTEES said
that at the close of the sitting only
forty-four cards were returned. At
the second sitting the committee
gave Mrs. Stewart the forty-four
cards, but she threw out eleven
and tore them to bits, saying they
were soiled and worthless.
This apparently left thirty-three
cards, but at the close Of the sit
tlng only twenty-five cards were re-
turned. The torn fragments of the
discarded cards, gathered and care
ruby weighed by the committee.
were equal to only eight, Mr.. Bird
said, instead Of eleven, the number
apparently thrown out. Nor did
the cards balance again in the third
seance.
All the cards had been marked
secretly, but Mr.. Bird believed Mrs.
Stewart discovered the marking.
however, before the fourth sitting
the cards given to Mrs. Stewart
Tor the expected spirit writings
were slightly trimmed at one edge
SO there were three lengths Of
cards In the pack. The trimming
naroly was noticeable when the
CARDS had been shuffled.
Extra Cards Found.
~AS AONA ia 61lIHS Mrs. Stewart
sat at a table, tore up some flow
ers that were before her and
sprlnkIed the petals throughout the
pack. While she talked ranidIv ~
various things she held the cards
over her own head and over the
neaos OF others. Some she threw
on flower bed. Eventually she
produced the cards with the writing
But when the COMMITTEES ARRANGED
the cards as to their proper lengths
there were four sizes instead n
three and, according to BIRD the
i've cards on which the writing
was shown were Of the fourth or
extra length. va -
1t seems apparent to us R,rd
SAID, that Mrs. Stewart tool ot
least rive OF our cards and obtained
i've other which she nreviomsIv
prepared with the writing ana nv
a clever trick inserted them into
the pack. The texture. wajoht
color and thickness all were ,1iffor'
emit under the microscope than ours
Inc ink and the panmanshin ora
now being examined by a chemical
process and by a handwritina 20
pert. The examination has not
oeen completed. All the cerds
showed evidence of being written
upon with the same kind Of tool