While the detectives were waiting for the materialization, a woman
they knew entered the room. Barry put his handkerchief up to his
face for fear she would recognize him. They wanted to know what was
the matter with him, and Barry said that he guessed he had something
in his eye. They wanted to take it out, and he had to put his
handkerchief away. He thought he was discovered, but the woman, Mrs.
Ella Hoobler, 319 West Madison street, said nothing about him. After
they had arrested the Nichols woman, Mrs. Hoobler told Barry she had
recognized him when she first entered the room, but she thought he was
"bug" in the game, and said nothing.
After about ten materializations of husbands and children had keyed
the spectators up to a high pitch, Mrs. Hoobler asked for the spirit
of her daughter, Helen. In a few minutes the figure of a young girl,
clad in white from head to foot, appeared before the curtain.
"Oh, Helen, my Helen!" Mrs. Hoobler exclaimed, rushing to the
apparition. "Oh, mamma!" came the answer in a shrill falsetto voice.
[Illustration: Medium's Paraphernalia Seized by Police in Raid.]
Jennie Nichols and the big assistant seized Mrs. Hoobler's hands just
as she was about to clasp what she believed to be the spirit of her
daughter in her arms.
"You must not touch it," Jennie Nichols told her, "or the spirit will
go away."
The poor, almost frantic woman kneeled before the apparition. Barry
thought it was time to get busy, and he whispered softly to Carroll:
"Watch out, there's going to be a pinch." Then he threw on the
flashlight and whistled for the squad outside to come in.
Just as he did this the "spook" in front of him looked so realistic
that for the life of him he couldn't decide whether he was going up
against a real spirit or not. But he took a chance and grabbed for it.
Even when he had hold of it and knew it must be flesh and blood, it
seemed so slimy, with the white stuff rubbed over it, that he felt his
hair rising.
Just about that time the medium outfit got busy. The big man who had
been helping Jennie Nichols hold the hands of the people who were
trying to grab the spirits of their dead hit Barry over the head with
some sort of a club that knocked him to the floor. Jennie Nichols put
out the light entirely, grabbed Barry's flashlight and began pounding
him over the head with it. They went to the floor in a rough and
tumble scrimmage, the crowd on top of them, yelling and screaming.
In the next room Carroll was busy, too. He got hold of Mrs. Catherine
Nichols, the mother, who had been helping with the show, and he was
beset by spectators who were incensed because the seance had been
broken up.