I
In 1848, from the town of Hydeville, New York, came the somewhat
startling announcement that certain knockings, the source of which
had mystified the household of one of its residents, seemed to be
intelligently guided and ready to appear at call. Somewhat later,
communication was established by agreeing that one rap should mean
_no_, and three raps _yes_; to which was afterwards added the device
of calling off the alphabet and noting at which letters the raps
occurred. In this way, the rapper revealed himself as the spirit of
a murdered peddler. Within a short period the news of this simple
and childish invention had called into existence thousands of
spirit-circles; had developed wonderful "mediums" to whose special
gifts the manifestations were ascribed; had amassed a vast store
of strange testimony; had added to the rappings such performances
as moving tables, causing objects to be mysteriously thrown about,
playing on instruments by unseen hands, materializing spirit flowers,
producing spirit forms and faces, gathering messages from spirits on
sealed slates, and so on. In brief, the movement became an epidemic;
and that despite the fact that from the beginning and continuously
satisfactory and rational explanations were offered of what really
occurred, and that mediums were constantly detected in the grossest
fraud. So early as 1851 the peculiar rappings occurring in the
presence of the Fox sisters, the originators of the movement, were
conclusively traced to the partial dislocation and resetting of a
joint of the knee or foot; and the raps failed to occur when the
girls were placed in a position in which the leverage necessary for
this action was denied them. Many years thereafter, in 1888, Margaret
Fox (Mrs. Kane) and Katie Fox (Mrs. Jencken) publicly confessed
that the raps to which they as children gave rise were produced by
dislocation of the toes; and one of them added to their confession
a demonstration of how this was done. It is unfortunate alike that
the character of the confessers leaves much to be desired, that the
confession was both belated and made under sensational surroundings,
and that the sinners have no better excuse to offer for their long
silence than that the movement was started when they were too young
to appreciate what was being done, and that when they realized the
fraud which they were fostering and the success with which they
were meeting, it was too late or too difficult to retract. None the
less, these circumstances do not destroy the interest in tracing the
evidence of deception and the presence of a moral taint to the very
starting-point of one of the most widespread delusions of modern
times.
The psychological aspect of the phenomena of Spiritualism may be
presented in a consideration of these questions: How is it that
the manifestations produced in evidence of spirit-control carry
conviction? What is the origin of this mass of testimony in favor
of spiritualistic marvels? Whence this general tendency to believe
in the reality of spirit-influence as thus manifested? For the
purposes of these inquiries it will be profitable to consider a few
typical manifestations and to observe their true inwardness. Among
the most influential mediums was Henry Slade; through him many were
converted to Spiritualism, including the famous Zöllner coterie, for
whom he gave a spiritual demonstration of the reality of the fourth
dimension of space. After all the prominence which has been given to
the Zöllner sittings and the importance attached to them by reason
of the eminence of the participants, it is somewhat unexpected to
read in the report of a reliable observer who interviewed Zöllner's
associates, that "of the four eminent men whose names have made
famous the investigation, there is reason to believe one, _Zöllner_,
was of unsound mind at the time, and anxious for an experimental
demonstration of an already accepted hypothesis (the fourth dimension
of space); another, _Fechner_, was partly blind, and believed because
of Zöllner's observations; a third, _Scheibner_, was also afflicted
with defective vision, and not entirely satisfied in his own mind as
to the phenomena; and a fourth, _Weber_, was advanced in age, and did
not even recognize the disabilities of his associates." None knew
anything about conjuring, and, deservedly honored as these men were
in their own specialties, they were certainly not fitted to compete
with a professional like Slade. One of Slade's standard performances
was the production of communications on a slate held beneath a
table, in answer to questions asked by his sitters verbally or in
writing, the writing in some cases being concealed in folded slips
of paper. In his performances before the Seybert Commission it was
soon discovered that the character of the writing on the slates was
of two kinds. The long messages were neatly written, with the i's
dotted and the t's crossed, and often produced unasked, or not in
direct answer to a question; while the short ones in prompt answer
to direct questions were scrawled, hardly legible, and evidently
written without the aid of the eye. The many methods of producing
the short writings were repeated by a professional prestidigitateur
much more skillfully than by Slade. The commission distinctly saw
every step in Slade's method on one occasion or another, but were
utterly baffled by the conjurer (Mr. Harry Kellar), who subsequently
revealed his methods to one of their number. The long messages were
written beforehand, on slates to be substituted at a favorable
opportunity for the ones supplied to the medium. At the last séance
with Dr. Slade, two prepared slates were resting against a table
behind him, and one of the investigators kept a sharp watch upon
these slates. "Unfortunately, it was too sharp; for one second the
medium saw me looking at them. It was enough. That detected look
prevented the revelation of those elaborate spirit messages. But
when the séance was over, and he was signing the receipt for his
money, I passed round behind his chair and pushed these slates with
my foot, so as to make them fall over, whereupon the writing on one
of them was distinctly revealed." The medium at once pushed back
his chair, snatched the slates, hurriedly washed them, and could
with difficulty regain sufficient composure to sign the receipt for
the exorbitant payment of his services. Another observer says with
regard to Slade: "The methods of this medium's operations appear
to me to be perfectly transparent, and I wish to say emphatically
that I am astonished beyond expression at the confidence of this
man in his ability to deceive, and at the recklessness of the risks
which he assumes in the most barefaced manner. The only reason of
our having any so-called 'manifestations,' under the circumstances,
was because of the fact that the committee had agreed in advance to
be entirely passive, and to acquiesce in every condition imposed."
Mrs. Sidgwick, an able English observer, detected the fraudulent
character of Slade's performances from the beginning. She points out
five important grounds of suspicion: "His conjurer-like way of trying
to distract one's attention, his always sitting so as to have the
right hand to manipulate the slate, the vague and general character
of the communications, his compelling one to sit with one's hands in
a position that makes it difficult to look under the table, and his
only allowing two sitters at a time."
The Seybert Commission, it should be explained, owes its origin
to the bequest of an ardent believer in Spiritualism, Mr. Henry
Seybert, to the University of Pennsylvania; which was coupled with
the condition that this university should appoint a commission
to investigate modern Spiritualism. It is from their report[6]
that several of my illustrations are taken. The members of this
commission began their investigations with an entire willingness
to accept any conclusion warranted by facts; and their chairman,
Dr. Horace Howard Furness, confessed "to a leaning in favor of the
substantial truth of spiritualism." They examined many of the most
famous mediums and the manifestations that contributed most to
their fame. Their verdict, individually and collectively, is the
same regarding every medium with whom they saw anything noteworthy:
gross, intentional fraud throughout. The mediums were treated with
the utmost fairness and courtesy; their conditions were agreed to
and upheld; every one, in each kind of manifestation, was caught in
the act of trickery, or else the trick was repeated and explained
by one of the commission. This testimony goes far to justify
the substitution of "trick" for "manifestation," of "senseless
cant" for "spiritualistic explanation," of "adroit conjurer" for
"medium." While the accumulative force of this conclusion can only
be appreciated by a reading of the report itself, a few further
illustrations will contribute to a realization of the nature of the
"manifestations" and their typical _milieu_. Mrs. Patterson, medium,
gives a performance similar to that of Slade. Dr. Knerr had a sitting
with her, and adjusted a mirror about his person so as to reflect
whatever was going on beneath the table. "In the mirror I beheld a
hand ... stealthily insert its fingers between the leaves of the
slate, take out the little slip (containing the question), unfold
and again fold it, grasp the little pencil ... and with rapid but
noiseless motion ... write across the slate from left to right a few
lines; then the leaves of the slate were closed, the little pencil
laid on the top," and the spirits were graciously invoked to send a
message.
The monotony of the narrative of somewhat vulgar deception is
agreeably relieved by the entertaining account given by Dr. Furness
of his experiences with mediums. He sent out sealed letters, the
contents of which certain mediums claimed to be able to read and to
answer by the aid of spirits, and found the seals tampered with,
and mucilage and skill used to conceal the crime; he asked the same
question of various mediums and received hopelessly contradictory
answers; he detected the form of the medium in her assumed
materializations, and found the spirit ready to answer to any and
every name in fiction or reality, from "Olivia" of "The Talking Oak"
to Shakespeare. One of the questions asked by Mr. Furness related
to the ownership in life of a skull in his possession, used for a
long time as the "Yorick's skull" at a Philadelphia theatre. He was
told by one medium that it was "Marie St. Clair," by another that
it was "Sister Belle." Hence these remarks: "Marie St. Clair, who,
on spiritual authority as I have shown above, shares the ownership
with Sister Belle of 'Yorick's' skull in my possession, has never
failed to assent whenever I ask a Spirit if it be she. To be sure,
she varies with every different medium, but that is only one of
her piquant little ways, which I early learned to overlook and at
last grew to like. She is both short and tall, lean and plump, with
straight hair and with curls, young and middle-aged, so that now it
affords me real pleasure to meet with a new variety of her." Equally
amusing is the conversation with a Spirit who was led to assent to
the suggestion that she was "Olive," and at length was addressed
thus: "'Oh, Olive, there's one thing I want so much to ask you
about.... What was the matter with you that afternoon, one summer,
when your father rode his hunter to the town, and Albert followed
after upon his; and then your mother trundled to the gate behind
the dappled grays? Do you remember it, dear?' 'Perfectly.' 'Well,
don't you remember, nothing seemed to please you that afternoon,
you left the novel all uncut upon the rosewood shelf, you left your
new piano shut, something seemed to worry you? Do you remember it,
dear one?' 'All of it; yes, yes.' 'Then you came singing down to
that old oak, and kissed the place where I had carved our names with
many vows. Tell me, you little witch, who were you thinking of all
the time?' 'All the while of you,' she sighed. 'And do you, oh, do
you remember that you fell asleep under the oak, and that a little
acorn fell into your bosom and you tossed it out in a pet? Ah, Olive
dear, I found that acorn, and kissed it twice and kissed it thrice
for thee! And do you know that it has grown into a fine young oak?'
'I know it,' she answered softly and sadly, 'I often go to it.' This
was almost too much for me, and as my memory, on the spur of the
moment, of Tennyson's 'Talking Oak' was growing misty, I was afraid
the interview might become embarrassing for lack of reminiscences;"
so the materialization of a very human form was brought to a close.
To this may be added--to illustrate the barefacedness of the medium's
business--the fact, communicated to me by Dr. Furness, that a noted
medium had visited a professional juggler, and, "making no secret to
him of his trickery as a medium for independent slate-writing, had
purchased from the juggler several other tricks with which to carry
on his spiritualistic trade."
There is both entertainment and instruction in Dr. Knerr's account
of a séance in which the spirit of an Indian and the mysterious
use of a drum were to form parts of the performance. He tells of
his success in getting some printer's ink on the drum-sticks just
before the lights were lowered, and of the bewildered astonishment
(when the lights were turned up after the Indian had manifested) at
the condition of the medium's hands. "How in the world printer's
ink could have gotten smeared over them while under the control of
'Deerfoot, the Indian,' no one, not even the medium, could fathom."
We may read how a medium who professed to materialize a "spirit"
right-hand while apparently holding his sitter's hand or arm with
both his own, was shown to imitate this double grip with one hand
and to do the hocus-pocus with the other. We may vary the nature of
the fraud almost indefinitely and observe how universal, how coarse,
how degrading it is, and how readily it may be induced to leave its
hiding-place to snatch at a cunningly offered bait,--until in the
end, if it were not so sad, it would be only ridiculous.
In the reports of the investigations of mediums, published by the
Society for Psychical Research (vol. iv.), we find accounts of the
performances of one Englinton, also with slate-writing, and whose
success, as described by enthusiastic sitters, does not fall short
of the miraculous. Yet the description of this wonder-worker's
doings by a competent observer, Professor Carvill Lewis, renders
the manifestations absolutely transparent. He sat intently watching
Englinton for an hour, and nothing happened; fearing a blank séance,
he purposely diverted his attention. The moment he looked away the
manifestations began, and he could see "the medium look down intently
toward his knees and in the direction of the slate. I now quickly
turned back my head, when the slate was brought up against the table
with a sharp rap." The manœuvre was repeated with the same result;
and while the writing was going on, Professor Lewis distinctly saw
"the movement of the central tendon in his wrist corresponding to
that made by his middle finger in the act of writing. Each movement
of the tendon was simultaneously accompanied by the sound of a
scratch on the slate." Again, for the answer to the request to define
"Idocrase," Englinton required the use of a dictionary, and left the
room for a minute; the answer was then written just as it is given
in Webster's dictionary; but, unfortunately, _albumina_ was read
for _alumina_. When the slate, which acts with a spring, was to be
closed, Englinton suddenly sneezed; when the writing was small and
faint, he shifted his position until he came within a few inches
of it; a postage stamp secretly glued across the two leaves of the
double slate prevented all manifestations; a double fee immediately
caused further manifestations, when, owing to the exhaustion of
power, such had just been declared to be impossible; and the writing
on the slates was identified by an expert as that of Englinton. It
was the same Englinton who was convicted of connivance with Mme.
Blavatsky in the production of a spurious theosophic marvel; and
it is to him that the following story, supplied by Mr. Padshah and
indorsed by Mr. Hodgson (the exposer of Mme. Blavatsky), relates:
Mr. Padshah and a friend had asked for Gujerati writing at a séance,
but without success. Mr. Padshah (without informing his friend) sent
anonymously to Englinton a poem in Gujerati; and the friend received
from the medium a minutely faithful copy of the same on a slate, as
the direct revelation of the spirits!