Shows how Mrs. Winslow makes a new Move.-- Also introduces
the famous Evalena Gray, Physical Spiritual Medium, at her
sumptuous Apartments on West Twenty-first Street, New
York.-- Reminds the Reader of the Aristocratic Classes
deluded by Spiritualism.-- Describes a Seance and explains
the "Rope-trick," and other Spiritualistic Sleight-of-hand
Performances.
Mrs. Winslow was quite crushed by her failure to evade service of the
notice to take evidence in just those sections of the country where she
had been too well known for her present good, and for a few days seemed
to be in that peculiar mental condition where one may be easily led, or
driven, into committing a desperate act for mere relief from a too great
conflict of emotions.
She flitted about the city in a state of great unrest for a little time,
not being able to dispossess her mind of the fear or feeling of being
pursued; stealing into the houses of those of like belief, and with an
air of great secrecy insisting that they should give her refuge and
protection from Lyon's minions, who, she claimed--and perhaps had come
to believe--would yet in some way do her bodily harm; mysteriously
gliding about the Arcade and in the vicinity of his house, as if
expecting by some occult power to be able to divine what might be the
rich man's plans concerning her; and like the very evil thing that she
was, hiding in uncanny places, scared at her own voice or footsteps,
until the spell had left her.
About this time New York city dailies, and many of the newspapers of
large circulation throughout the interior of the State, were publishing
the following advertisement:
"Immense Success!--Miss Evalena Gray, the celebrated Spiritual
Physical Medium, lately from the Queen's Drawing-room, Hanover
Square, London, also Crystal Palace, Sydenham, and assisted by
Mlle. Willie Leveraux, from Paris, will give one of her
marvellous seances this evening at her elegant parlors, No. 19
West Twenty-first street, opposite the Fifth Avenue Hotel, at
7:30 P.M."
New York city knew Miss Evalena Gray as a new aspirant to the honors and
emoluments derived from her ability to do mysterious things very
gracefully. She was as beautiful a woman as had ever come into New York
on this kind of business, and those who considered her a true medium
were in ecstasies over the magnificent contortions and superb evolutions
which her "great spiritual power" enabled her to execute with
bewildering rapidity, while disbelievers in the source of these
phenomena originating in celestial spheres could not resist her
fascinating powers; and the consequence was that her adroitness and
beauty had created a great sensation, so much so in fact that
respectable people had begun arguing about her, which answered just the
purpose sought.
New York also knew her as a woman so full of soul--that latter-day
substitute for brains and personal purity--as to have readily confused
and silenced great throngs in Europe wherever she had appeared; and she
had invariably challenged investigation, and that, too, with as much
audacity as success, which had in every instance been wonderfully marked
and complete.
Mrs. Winslow knew her as a little sprite she had met three years before
at Chardon, Ohio, a pleasant little village of about 3,000 inhabitants,
twelve miles south of Painesville, where Mrs. Winslow had been giving
seances. Miss Gray was then just starting in her Spiritualistic career,
and Mrs. Winslow, seeing her aptitude and general fascinating qualities,
endeavored to persuade her to accompany her.
Miss Gray evidently believed in her own powers, at least had considered
the proposition unfavorably; but the two had become warm friends, and
Mrs. Winslow had cheerfully imparted to the demure novitiate all her
supply of manifestations, which she had rapidly acquired, and the two
had parted with the promise to meet again at the very first opportunity,
each drifting away to fulfil her traitorous course against society and
blasphemous satire upon respectability.
So, Mrs. Winslow, being in that condition of mind wherein its possessor
_must_ have some person's confidence, saw this advertisement, and
feeling sure that Miss Evalena Gray had been in clover, concluded that
she could go to her for rest and consolation; accordingly, she threw off
the clouds which had seemed to settle upon her, gathered her baggage
together from various secret places where it had been deposited, took
rooms at the National Hotel for a few days in quite a rational manner,
and after a week of perfect rest and physical care, which told
wonderfully in her favor, in connection with her great recuperative
powers, and having provided a wardrobe of no mean character, left
Rochester for New York as handsome and attractive a woman as one would
meet in a day's journey.
I was apprised of her departure by telegraph, and had a spry little
operative at the Hudson River depot at Thirty-first street, ready to
play the lackey to her. She at once proceeded in a carriage to the Fifth
Avenue Hotel, where she secured fine apartments overlooking the entrance
to Miss Evalena Gray's elegant parlors at No. 19 West Twenty-first
street; and although I had no previous information as to what called
Mrs. Winslow to New York, I was for several reasons satisfied that it
was for the purpose of communicating with Miss Gray, and at once took
measures for securing the substance of the interview.
As Mrs. Winslow had arrived late in the afternoon, I thought probably
she would make no move until the following day, but took the precaution
to secure a room adjoining hers for the use of an operative, sending
another detective to Miss Gray's seance at half-past seven, to ascertain
whether Mrs. Winslow was at any time present, and also, if necessary, to
devise some means to remain in the house until the two women had met,
should they do so.
The detective sent to Miss Gray's place was barely able to secure
admission, on account of having come on foot, that fact alone laying him
liable to suspicion. For an hour's time, splendid equipages, at short
intervals, rolled up to the mansion, and their occupants were turned
over to a negro butler of such gigantic proportions and gorgeous livery
as to give the ordinarily aristocratic place an air of oriental
splendor, the interior appointments being fully in keeping with the
promise of sumptuousness which the reception always gave. Once entered,
my operative had an opportunity to study these appointments.
The carpets were of such rich and heavy texture that they gave back no
sound to the foot-fall, and by an ingenious arrangement, beneath the
lambrequins adorning the windows, two noiseless fan-like blinds opened
or closed instantly, lighting or darkening the room as suddenly, and
evidently for use during day seances, which were sometimes given; while
opposite, two broad parlors led away, _en suite_, to a raised dais at
the rear, upon which Miss Evalena Gray, assisted by Mlle. Leveraux, from
Paris, gave her wonderful spiritual manifestations.
At either side of the centre of the first room, and on a level with the
floor, was a fountain cut in marble, back into the basin of which the
water fell with a dreamy, tinkling sound which suggested poetical
luxuriousness. Rare statuary filled every accessible niche. Heroic
paintings of the olden times, and the softer, more sensual paintings of
the late French schools, blended together until they gave the walls a
rosy glow. Flowers loading the air with fragrance, warmed the room with
the color and life which flowers only can give. Hidden music-boxes gave
forth the rare and blended melodies of sunny, southern climes; while
rich divans, arranged with that pleasant kind of taste that bespeaks no
arrangement at all, were scattered negligently about the room, now
rapidly being filled with the aristocratic people who had arrived and
were constantly arriving.
My operative, having gained a good point for observation, now turned his
attention to the rapidly-increasing assemblage. Almost without
exception, they were men and women of evident wealth and leisure, but
with scarcely a face denoting culture and refinement. They were
representatives of that numerous class who, after the rapid acquirement
of money, have found no good thing with which to occupy their minds, or,
what is more probable, have no minds to be thus occupied; and, while not
giving Spiritualism any public endorsement, secretly follow its, to
them, fascinating superstitions and mysteries, and practice, in an easy
way that prevents scandal or infamous notoriety, the sensualities which
inevitably result from its teachings or association with those
hangers-on of society professing its belief, all the time building a
hope that a lazy, sensuous heaven may be reached without effort or
struggle by merely cherishing a secret faith in what most satisfies
their animal nature, and yearning to live hereafter as they most desire
to live here--were it not for the voice of society--in a brutal freedom
from restraint, utterly devoid of moral and social purity, and without
the slightest semblance of that law, written and unwritten, which, from
the creation of man and woman, has built about the domestic relations a
protection and defence of sacred oneness and sanctified exclusiveness
which no vandal dare attack without eventually receiving some just and
certain punishment.
A conscientious detective will allow but little to escape his attention,
and my operative, who had already had considerable experience with these
illusionists, noticed a few arrangements which the spirits had evidently
insisted on being made to insure the success of Miss Gray's seances,
which were varied in their character, and "never comprised her entire
repertory," as the actors would say, so that she was able to continue an
attraction for some time to those persons who came to see her and
witness her manifestations out of mere curiosity.
The frescoing of the walls of the back parlor had been done in lines and
angles, which admitted of any number of apertures being cut and filled
with noiseless pantomime doors, so neatly as to almost defy detection.
The semi-circular platform was raised fully three feet, sloping
considerably to the front, and--whether it did or not--might have
contained a half-dozen "traps" such as are used for stage effects;
while, as is contrary to all rules for lighting places for public
entertainment, the front parlor was lighted very brilliantly, the back
parlor scarcely at all, while but a few glimmering rays fell from the
chandeliers over the platform, where the spirits, like certain "star"
actors, could not appear unless under certain conditions.
Shortly Mlle. Leveraux conducted Miss Gray through a side door to the
platform, and as the latter smiled recognition to the large number
present, exclamations of "Isn't she sweet?" "How beautiful!" "Almost an
angel as she is!" and other expressions of extreme admiration, filled
the room.
A deft little woman was Evalena Gray; a sprite of a thing, light, airy,
graceful, and with such a gliding, serpentine motion when walking,
glistening with jewels as she always did, that one instinctively thought
of some lithe and splendid leopard trailing along the edge of a jungle
with an occasional angry flash of sunlight upon it. From her feet, both
of which could have rested within your hand, and given room for just
such another pair, to her shoulders, which were sloping and narrow
though beautifully symmetrical, she was as straight as an arrow. Then
her slender, faultless neck carried her head a little forward, with a
slight bend to the side, which gave her face a half-daring or wholly
appealing expression, as people of different temperaments might look at
it, though it always attracted and held an observer, for it was as
strange a face as its owner was a strange woman. The chin stood there by
itself, though shapely, and at the point was prettily depressed by a
little dimple, just needed to save the lower part of the face from a
shrewish look. Above this the lower lip curved gradually to the edge of
the carmine point, but was stopped there by a sort of drawn look, which
with her dazzling white, though slightly irregular teeth, thin upper lip
quickly parting from the lower, at either pleasure or anger, rather
large, thin nostrils, which noticeably expanded and contracted with the
rise and fall of her not over large bosom, and her languid blue eyes,
one a trifle more closed than the other, but both looking demurely from
under lashes of wonderful depth of sweep and length--all gave the face,
which was witchingly attractive notwithstanding these marked features,
either a plaintively spiritual appearance, or a wickedly fascinating
expression beyond the power of description; while her hair, of that
nameless color which might be formed of gold and silver, mingled and
fell from her fine head, half hiding her delicate ears--pretty and
faultless ears they were--in wonderful richness and profusion.
Never were seen more beautiful hands and fingers than those belonging to
Miss Gray, and they had a way of assuming all manner of positions in
harmony with the changes of her expressive face and the motions of her
supple form, while her little body was a mere bundle of pliable bones
and elastic sinews, which could compel all manner of contortions without
change of posture, by mere will-power. She was not a beauty; but
altogether, with her real or assumed languor, her strange eyes that
might mean lasciviousness or might arouse your pity, her parted lips
which would seem to protest of weariness or be ready to whisper a
naughty secret to you, with her elf-like form that made her appear at
once a dainty innocent thing and a pretty witch--she was a woman
possessing a terribly fascinating power and capable of any devilish
human accomplishment.
When the murmurs of admiration had died away, she arose, and in her
languid manner especially prepared for the public, told her audience a
long, though interesting fabrication, of how she first discovered she
was possessed of this blessed spirit-power; how she had at first doubted
it, and endeavored to free herself from its possession; but finally saw
that it could not be forced from her. On thorough conviction that she
was a medium she had begun a laborious scientific investigation into the
subject, and finally resolved to fathom the remotest secret of
Spiritualism.
But even to her the blessed gates had been barred when she came with
this spirit of unclean scepticism. Still, being assured that it had been
given to her to walk with celestials, her future course was only a
natural sequence. What had most sorely tried her in this life, she
remarked, was to be herself morally sure of these wonderful mediumistic
powers, and then realize how cruelly the world scoffed at her as well as
at all others who were anchored upon the same beautiful faith. To
prevent this and find use for her powers in the highest spheres, she had
travelled in Europe from Rome to St. Petersburg, and from Vienna to
London.
In every instance the impossibility of any deception being practised in
her manifestations was admitted; but until she had arrived in London,
she had failed to find anybody of repute honest enough to speak the
truth. But there she had met a high-minded man who had broken through
the barriers of prejudice, and, in an open, manly way, fearless of the
sneers of the common herd, or of his business peers, had thoroughly
investigated her exhibitions, found that they had proceeded from
supernatural power, and had publicly stated his belief in their
genuineness.
With such irrefutable evidence of the possession of this spirit-power,
she was now fulfilling her mission of convincing the public of the
existence of these heaven-inspired phenomena, explainable upon no other
possible theory than that of the inter-communication between this and
the other world of ministering angels, self-determining their actual
existence by more or less perfect materializations.
With this and much more of the same sort, Evalena Gray began her
revelations, all of which had previously been performed and exposed as
ordinary tricks of an illusionary character, but which were given by the
languid, _spirituelle_ lady with such a show of her being on the
threshold of the celestial spheres, that the very atmosphere, already
charged with everything to provoke mystification and solemn curiosity,
now seemed filled with some weird, supernatural influence and presence.
First the little lady, who was dressed in white muslin, with long
flowing sleeves exposing very pretty arms, came down from the platform
and seated herself in the centre of the back parlor, inviting the
forming around her of a circle of from twelve to fifteen persons, who
should sit so closely together that there could be no possibility of her
passing out of the circle, and, if the rest of the audience chose, they
might form a circle around the inner circle so that no confederates
might reach her. This was done, when she requested some gentleman to
place his feet upon her tiny feet to assure the audience that she did
not leave her chair.
Members of the mystic circle then clasped hands, and the lights were
turned off completely. The stillness of death followed, broken only by a
low, shuddering sigh announcing the control of the medium by the
spirits, and immediately after came raps so loud and distinct as to
almost give the impression that an echo followed them. Then the medium
began patting her hands together _as an absolute proof that none of the
succeeding manifestations could by any possible means be produced by
her_. While this continued without interruption, in the face of some
came a whispered "God bless you!" others were patted caressingly upon
the face and head; whiskers and mustaches were delicately tweaked;
watches were taken from one pocket and put into another; a gent's
quizzers would be placed upon a lady's nose, and _vice versa_; music
floated about in the air over the heads of those composing the circle;
lights were seen to glitter like fire-flies above the medium's head, and
a score of other equally startling phenomena occurred. When silence,
with the exception of the soft and delicate, but never-varying
hand-patting, again fell upon the assemblage, a few raps announced the
departure of the spirits; and when the gas was turned on, the dainty
little medium sat in precisely the same position as when the circle was
formed, and the gentleman had taken good care to hold her neat little
feet between his own. A sceptical lady now held Miss Gray's feet--held
them as securely as only a sceptical lady could--when precisely the same
manifestations occurred. Again her feet were secured as before, with the
additional precaution of their being tied. She was then tied to her
chair securely, her hands tied firmly with a large handkerchief, and a
delicate wine-glass filled with water placed upon the floor several feet
from the chair. The lights were again turned off, the raps were heard as
before, and were in turn immediately followed by the hand-patting, and
when the room was again lighted the wine-glass of water was found
delicately poised upon Miss Evalena Gray's head.
Many startling variations of the same general character were introduced,
and when this portion of the seance was concluded, the astounded company
gathered about the pale and interesting medium with expressions of
unbounded wonder almost amounting to awe, mingled with terms of
endearment; for she sweetly conversed with them for a little time, and,
with rare insight into character, gave each a pleasant word of
recognition especially fitted to every case, in a manner winning beyond
expression.
She now retired for a short time, while Mlle. Leveraux entertained the
assemblage with selections from her companion's exceptionally
interesting European experiences, as put in form probably by some
enterprising, though impecunious, New York Bohemian.
When Miss Gray returned she was attired quite differently. Instead of
wearing the white, soft muslin which had given her a peculiarly graceful
appearance, she had donned a closely-fitting basque of black rep silk,
heavily trimmed with the costliest of lace, while the skirts to her
dress were drawn very tightly around her form into a neat panier.
It _might_ have been noticed by any other person in the room, as it
_was_ noticed by my operative, _that her bust and shoulders seemed to
have undergone considerable change during her absence_. She seemed much
more full across the breast, and her waist was certainly not so narrow
and graceful as when she was operating in muslin within the circle. But
then, the spirits might have caused this sudden growth, and she was
still physically handsome and shapely.
A committee of gentlemen was then called for, and Miss Gray announced
that she would submit to being tied to a chair as securely as it was in
the power of the gentlemen selected by the audience to tie her;
whereupon Mlle. Leveraux walked about the room and exhibited the rope to
be used, which, though slender, seemed strong as a Mexican lasso.
There could have been no deception or fraud about this rope.
The three who had been selected to do the work then expressed their
determination to tie Miss Gray "so the devil himself would have to help
her," as one said, proceeding with the interesting operation in the
bright gaslight, while all the people gathered about as if anxious to
see that it was done properly, or curious to notice how the little woman
would bear the ordeal. They certainly did their work well, and as the
rope was wound around and about her, being drawn taut in every instance,
it seemed to sink into her delicate flesh in a cruel way that made her
wince and tremble, the operation calling forth numberless sympathetic
remarks from those present, which she acknowledged by a painful
martyr-like smile as she patiently bore the infliction until thoroughly
tied. At her special request, as she said, to prevent a stoppage of
circulation, her hands were tied at the wrist over a fold of silk to
prevent abrasion of the flesh; and after all the knots had been sealed
with wax, she was pronounced tied so securely that, without connivance
of confederates, it would require superhuman aid to release her.
With a pleasant smile she looked around upon the wondering spectators
and said:
"Good friends, I will absolutely and incontestably prove to you that I
am possessed of that kind of aid. I want you all to form a circle around
me. Every one in the room should join it. Stand so closely together,
clasping hands, that no living person can pass the circle either way."
The circle was then formed as she had requested, half upon the platform
and half upon the floor, Miss Gray being at least ten feet from any of
the persons composing it. She then asked anxiously:
"Are you all really satisfied--yes, convinced, that there can be no
shadow or form of deception about this?"
Some hesitated about giving a decided affirmation to that belief, when
she swiftly singled out the doubters and pressed upon them not only the
privilege, but the desirability and necessity, if they sought the truth,
of personally examining the manner in which she had been tied. After
this had been done and all scepticism had been silenced, she bade them a
cheerful "Good-by!" and closing her eyes in a weary manner, seemed to
pass into a peaceful slumber, as the lights were gradually turned off,
finally leaving the room in total darkness, and with no sound to relieve
the painful stillness save the orthodox rappings announcing the arrival
of the spirits, the hidden music stealing softly to the hushed circle or
the still softer water-wimplings from the fountains making _their_ music
in the carved marble basins.
It seemed a long time to the breathless people composing the circle, but
probably not more than ten minutes had elapsed when the raps again
startled the listeners, and in an instant the full light of the
chandeliers flooded the room.
There sat the marvellous Physical Spiritual Medium utterly free, but as
if just recovering from a swoon--the ropes, their seals unbroken, lying
a few feet from the chair.
[Illustration: _There sat the marvelous Physical-Spiritual medium,
utterly free, but as if just recovering from a swoon.--_]
There was a simultaneous rush to where she was sitting apparently limp
and exhausted from the great struggle which the spirits had had through
her human personality, to release her from bondage, during which Mlle.
Leveraux took occasion to remark that the strain upon Miss Gray's
powers had been too great, and begged that the ladies and gentlemen
would excuse her at once, as the medium's condition would unfortunately
necessitate the immediate termination of the seance for that evening;
whereupon she left the room supporting the delicate Miss Gray in a
manner that would have done credit to any theatre in the world.
There was no illusion and could have been no collusion.
Every one in the parlors had seen the woman tied so firmly that the
ropes had sunk into her very flesh. The circle had been formed so
securely as to admit of the passage out or in of no person whatever.
They had all seen her sitting in the chair in a secure condition, and
could have heard any movement on the part of any person within the
circle who might have attempted to steal to her assistance. But there
were the ropes with unbroken seals, lying there, silent but absolute
evidence that no human agency had uncoiled them.
In the face of all this, what were reasoning people to believe?
They could not but believe the one thing that they generally did believe
after having visited Evalena Gray's seances, and that was that there
_does_ exist an intercommunication between this and the "Land of the
Leal;" that all persons at times feel these spirit forces working upon
or within them in different forms and with different degrees of
intensity; and that there are these fine organisms, so free from earthly
conditions or hinderances, as to almost permit the rehabilitation of
spirit-lives which, as truly friendly aids and assistants, often perform
what seem to the comprehension of ordinary mortals as past belief,
giving in their materializations many blessed glimpses of the
spirit-land.
All of which would be thrillingly pleasant to believe and ruminate over
if it was not true that there are probably hundreds in this country
alone who can do this sort of thing without looking pale and interesting
over it; without necessitating the indorsement of a millionaire brewer
or anybody else; and who would consider it hardly fair to charge two
dollars admission, as Miss Gray did, for the utter humbug of sitting
within a circle as a woman dexterous enough to have her feet held and
then be able with the left hand to pat the right palm for a moment, then
the right arm--made bare from the wrist to the shoulder by the sudden
unloosening of a delicate elastic, clasped into the bracelet--or her
cheek, forehead, or neck, as necessity compelled, but making this
patting incessant and so like that of the two hands, that detection (in
the dark) would be a matter of impossibility; and with this same bared
right arm and hand producing all of these manifestations, ordinarily so
marvellous, even to taking a little music-box out of the pocket,
springing a catch to start the melody, "floating" it all about the heads
of those composing the circle, shutting off the music, and putting the
box in the pocket; or even neatly balancing a wine-glass of water upon
the head.
And when this was all done, without claiming any particular nearness to
heaven regarding it either, I am satisfied that I have lady operatives
in my employ who can step into a room adjoining a seance-parlor, adjust
a rubber jacket, inflate it, hiding the tube of the same under a
closely-fitting collar, allow themselves to be tied so that the ropes
would seem to cruelly sink into the flesh; and that, after a room had
been darkened ten minutes they would be able to have allowed the air to
so escape from the rubber jacket, that, with the contraction of the form
possible to many, the ropes, with unbroken seals, would almost fall from
their forms of their own weight.
This is precisely how Miss Evalena Gray performed her tricks.
They did not reach to the dignity of respectable sleight-of-hand; and I
could go on endlessly multiplying these farces, which are so
continuously and disgustingly played upon the public for just what money
they will bring and nothing more; for who ever saw a Spiritualist that
went about the world bringing ministering spirits from heaven to earth
for the good such materializations might do? And further, who ever saw a
Spiritualistic medium, preacher or lecturer that did not make his
religious faith, assumed or otherwise, yield him his living, and provide
him his luxuries besides?