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SEARCHLIGHT ON PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

JOSEPH F. RINN The Author

HARRY HOUDINI

SEARCHLIGHT ON PSYCHICAL RESEARCH A record of sixty years* work—interwoven with an intimate biographical sketch of Houdini

JOSEPH F. RINN

With 15 Illustrations

RIDER AND COMPANY Hutchinson House, Stratford Place, London, W. 1 NEW YORK

TORONTO

MELBOURNE

SYDNEY

CAPE TOWN

Printed in Great Britain by The Anchor Press, Ltd., Tiptree, Essex

CONTENTS CHAPTER I . • • • . . . • - ' . . • •

' •:,

" ••

Early Days with Houdini. The Search Begins. Society for Psychical Research. The Feats of Stuart Cumberland. Tests in Muscle-Reading. Herrmann the Great. The Hen that Laid Gold Pieces. The Talking Kettle

Page

CHAPTER 2

The Seybert Commission. A Seance with Henry Slade. Spirit Slate Writing at its Best. Martinka's Magic Shop. Sir William Barrett. The Fox Sisters. Ghostly Materializations

CHAPTER 3 The Twilight Club. The Tricks of Washington Irving Bishop. A Sensational Carriage Driving Test. Mr. Pulitzer's Challenge. Mrs. Frank Leslie Recovers Her Hidden Pin. The Mysterious Wallace L. Hight. I Learn about MuscleReading. Kissing a Baby Ghost. Cabinet Seances with Mrs. Ross

CHAPTER 4

The Uncanny Madame Diss Debar. Spirit Paintings. The Bar Association and Luther Marsh. Inspector Byrnes Investigates. A Public Scandal. The Trial and Conviction of a Famous Fraud

CHAPTER 5 The New York Press Club. Herrmann and His Dancing Table. Ringing Bells and Rattling Tambourines. Oil-Painted Portraits from the Spirit World. The Career of Madame Diss Debar Comes to a Close. More Sittings with Slade. Methods of Slate Writing Exposed

CHAPTER 6 Katie and Margaret Fox. A Crusade against Fakers. The Founders of Spiritualism Turn State Evidence. Creelman and the New York Herald. An Expose in the Academy of Music. Richmond Reads Bank Note Numbers. Houdini Turns Professional Magician. Dr. Hodgson and Professor Hyslop. Numerous Seances. A Mysterious Champagne Bottle. Professor William James and Mrs. Piper. Kellogg and His Mystifying Performance. A Noted Medium Gives Her Tricks Away

CHAPTER 7 Minnie Williams and "Little Bright Eyes". The Spirit of Henry Ward Beecher. Barnum's Museum. "The Revelations of a Spirit Medium." Houdini and I Practice Rope Ties. Houdini's Early Struggles 69

CONTENTS CHAPTER 8 Page

Swami Vivakananda. The Theosophical Society. Occultism from the Gobi Desert. A Psychic Bombshell Explodes. Mrs. Garret's Affidavit. Joseph Jastrow's Warning. The Revelations of Henry Archer. The Decline and Fall of Katie Fox. Spirits Operate a Typewriter. The Clever Henry Rogers. George Yost Loses His Mind and His Fortune. A Gigantic Swindle

CHAPTER 9 The Handcuff King. Tony Pastor Books the Houdinis. Trapping Rogers. Roughhouse at a Seance. Arresting a Ghost

CHAPTER IO

The Exposure of Minnie Williams. Materializations. Dr. Stevens Marries a Ghost. Can a Pistol Shot Injure a Spirit? â&#x20AC;˘

CHAPTER

Hypnotism. A Buried Alive Experiment. Charcot Stages an Astounding Feat. Tommy Minnock, the Painless Marvel CHAPTER

Mrs. Piper and Dr. Phinuit. Do Spirits Lose Their Memories? Trance Mediumship. F. B. Morse and the Spirit Bell. Anna Eva Fay and Her Mentalist Act. Clairvoyance and Thought Transference. A Seance with Bert Reese 104

CHAPTER 13 Houdini Gives a Spirit Seance in the Light. Ups and Downs in Show Business. An Escape from a Scotland Yard Prison Cell 113 CHAPTER 1 4 Mrs. Piper and the Connor Case. Clairvoyance on the Wrong Track. Seeing Things that Never Happened 116 CHAPTER 15 Mrs. Piper and the Spirit "G. P." Edward Clodd Unearths Some Facts. Professor Pellew Takes a Hand. John Fiske Repudiates Dr. Hodgson's Claim. A $5,000 Challenge to Mediums. Test Letters Left Behind. Static in the Spirit Realm 122 CHAPTER I 6 Charles Washburn and Christine Beauchamp. Dr. Morton Prince and Multiple Personalities 132

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 17 Page

Mrs. Piper's Confession. Disclaims Contact with the Spirit World

CHAPTER

135

Hoodwinking Professor Hyslop. Demonstrations in the Art of Trickery. Edwin C. Hill Writes Up Rinn's "Seance". The "Reincarnation" of Helene Smith. Professor Quackenbos and Dr. Funk 138

CHAPTER 1 9 The Feats of May S. Pepper. A Challenge and its Consequences. I Stage a "Psychic" Demonstration. Thought Waves and Clairvoyance by Fraud. Mrs. Pepper Filches Sealed Messages. Unmasking a Notorious Cheat 152

CHAPTER

The Pepper Court Trial. "Little Bright Eyes" and a Weakhy Dupe. Ghosts Have an Easy Time at Swindling. The Tragic Ending of a Comedy 172

CHAPTER

Simon Newcomb Finds Nothing in Psychical Research. A Test Letter Left Behind. Myers' Ghost Forgets What He Wrote. Carrington Comes to Town with Palladino. The Plot Thickens for an Expos6. The Fade-out of Horace Kanouse 187 CHAPTER 2 2 Rinn, Bound to a Chair, Does a Seance in Bright Light. Committee, Blindfolded, Sits as if in Darkened Room. Audience Sees How the Committee is Fooled. "Outdoes Madame Palladino," says New York Tribunal 205

CHAPTER 2 3 Telepathy. Blackburn and Smith. Myers and Gurney Deceived by a Code. Blackburn Admits Fakery 213 CHAPTER 2 4 Escape from a Wooden Packing Case. The Water-Filled Torture Cell. Houdini and the Convict Prison Ship. The "Breeze" from Palladino's Forehead. Carrington Left Holding an Empty Bag. "The Angels of Mons." Photographing the Invisible 217 CHAPTER

Houdini Walks Through a Brick Wall. The Feat Explained

224

CONTENTS CHAPTER

z6 Page

Sir Oliver Lodge Hears from "Raymond". A Pathetic Case. Silly Season in the Summerland 227 CHAPTER

The Tweedale Ghost. A Mail-Pouch Escape. Bank Vaults and How to Get Out

CHAPTER

The Disappearing Elephant. The Swallowing of Needles. Lodge and Rinn Clash

CHAPTER

230

242

Dr. Abrams's Electronic Quackery. The Scientific American Exposes His Paraphernalia as Fakes 247 CHAPTER

•• ';

A Philadelphia Symposium. Rinn's Mediumistic Performance Mystifies the Experts. A Notable Debate at Carnegie Hall. Messages from Those Who Never Lived. Eva and Her Ectoplasm. Kathleen Goligher and Dr. Crawford. Scientists and the Public CHAPTER

.•..••'••.:•

Johnny Coulon, the Man Who Couldn't be Lifted

CHAPTER 32

255

;

.: .

John Slater and a Challenge. A Near Riot among the Ghosts

CHAPTER

249

r 260

How Harry Kcllar Fooled the Seybert Commission. Super Slate Writing by a Magician 265 CHAPTER

The Pathetic Case of Arthur Conan Doyle. Nino Pecoraro Does His Stunts. Declines to be Tied with a Spool of Thread. Doyle Dines with American Magicians . .^. . 267 CHAPTER 35 Ada Bessinet and Her Forty Ghosts. Fulton Oursler Gives a Report. More Sham in the Spirit World

273

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 36 Page

Wax and Ghostly Hands. Finger-printing the Spirits. Kathleen Goligher and the Gullible Dr. Crawford. Dr. Fournier d'Albe Detects a Fraud. A Gruesome Test 278 CHAPTER 3 7 Magic Among the Magicians. The Coin That Moved About. Hands from the Spirit World. The Penalties of Being Credulous. Battle between Doyle and Rinn. Cenotaph Spirits. Medium Tricked by Electric Contacts. Science and Invention Magazine Posts a Challenge. Harry Blackstone Reveals His Stage "Clairvoyance". Argamasalla, the Man with the X-ray Eyes 280

CHAPTER 38 "Margery" of Boston. A Long, Long Trail of Fraud. Cheating in the Dark. The Harvard Committee Reports on "Margery" Phenomena. "Performed by Trickery" is the Verdict 3째6

CHAPTER 3 9 The Gilbert Murray Experiments in Thought Transference. Houdini Reveals How a Committee can be Duped. Staging a "Telepathy" Stunt 313

CHAPTER 4 0 Rose Mackenberg, Houdini's Aide, Ferrets Out Fraudulent Mediums. The Washington, D.C., Congressional Hearing. Rahmen Bey and His Burial Stunt. Into the River in a Sealed Casket. Houdini's Coffin Feat. Ectoplasm Made to Order. A Fatal Accident and Houdini's Death 318

CHAPTER

A Flashlight Starts a Riot. Therese Neumann. A Mysterious Swinging Ball

CHAPTER

Nino Pecoraro and a $21,000 Test. The Ghosts Fail to Show Up. Houdini's Widow Waits in Vain CHAPTER

335

344

Houdini's Code-word Turns Up. A Hoax Comes to Grief. Arthur Ford Obtains a Secret

347

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 4 4 Page

Dunninger and John Slater Come to Grips. Frank Decker Invokes the Ghosts. More Fraud Comes to Light. The Society of American Magicians Takes a Hand. Martin Sunshine's Affidavit. A Vicarage Seance. Walter Franklin Prince Reports on the Margery Case. Thumb-prints from Spiritland. The Facts Leak Out 352 CHAPTER 45 Dr. J. B. Rhine and Extra-Sensory Perception. His Tests Analysed. A Summary Report on Telepathy and Clairvoyance. The Mulholland-Pitkin Card Tests. Harry Price Summarizes His Findings. Rinn States His Conclusion

374

LIST OF

ILLUSTRATIONS

Joseph F. Rinnl r . .y Harry HoudiniJ The Fox Sisters J

T- .. , â&#x20AC;˘ Frontispiece Facing page 192

Madame Diss Debar

19 2

May S. Pepper

19 2

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Oliver Lodge Professor James H. Hyslop Sir William Crookes

193

Houdini's Escape from Water Tank

208

Houdini's Needle Feat

208

Houdini's Escape from a Strait Jacket

208

Eusapia Palladino

209

Madame Eva C. Producing Ectoplasm

209

Thumb-prints

209

N the field of psychical research, my friend Harry Houdini and I were destined to play similar and, in some respects, parallel roles. Although both of us were sons of poor parents, we both rose to the highest positions, he in the amusement world and I in the commercial field. The name of Harry Houdini may mean little to the younger generation, but between 1900 and 1926 he was so noted as a performer of mystifying feats that many persons credited him with possessing supernatural powers. It was little known, however, to the general public that Houdini and I from our boyhood days worked together, exposing those who claimed to possess supernormal or supernatural powers. He named me "Ghost Breaker" because of the feats of a psychic character that I performed before large audiences. Many were convinced by these feats that I possessed supernormal powers, only to have disclosed to them later how they had been deceived through trickery. As a member of the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research, I began over fifty years ago to investigate the claims of psychics and mediums in co-operation with Professor James H. Hyslop, Dr. Richard Hodgson, Professor William James, Dr. Isaac K. Funk, Professor Joseph Jastrow, Dr. Henry Frank, Professor J. E. Coover, Professor Simon Newcomb, the Rev. Minot J. Savage, Dr. Walter Franklin Prince, Harry Houdini and others. Houdini and I became friends in 1889 while we were members of the Pastime Athletic Club of New York City. Our friendship lasted until his death in 1926, when he was president of the Society of American Magicians and I a member. All through his life I was his devoted friend, and he often called on me for assistance in his feats whenever he required the help of someone he could trust. Since the death, in 1930, of my colleague James Kellogg, and, in 1931, of W. S. Davis, I have been one of the few still alive who attended the seances of the Fox sisters, the founders of Spiritualism, as well as the performances of most of the noted psychic charlatans of the past sixty years. On this account I have been urged to record my experiences. It now seems almost incredible that Margaret Fox, eight years old, and her sister Catherine, six and a half years old, were responsible in 1848 for launching a cult that spread over the civilized world and produced some of the most despicable charlatans the world has ever known, and that knocks by young children were accepted as conclusive proof of communication with the spirit world. My first experience with psychic phenomena was in 1882, when my father, manager of Smith & McNeil's Hotel, then the largest in New York, was invited by Sam Everett, owner of the Everett House on Barclay Street, to attend an affair in his hotel. My father took me along. When we arrived at the Everett House, we learned that Major Pond, an impresario, was giving a demonstration of the psychic powers of 13

SEARCHLIGHT ON PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

Stuart Cumberland, a young Englishman. Major Pond informed us that his protege would undertake to find anything hidden while he was out of the room or locate anything thought of by a selected person. A committee of reporters took Cumberland out of the room while the tests were being arranged. Then a reporter was selected to hide something and to grasp Cumberland by the hand when he returned. Cumberland was led in blindfolded; he pressed the reporter's hand to his forehead for a moment and then began to pull him about the room. In a short time Cumberland touched a doorknob, then the gas fittings, as had previously been done by the reporter. Cumberland, after dragging the reporter about, located another reporter to whom a coin had been given to hide in some place difficult to find. Cumberland, holding this man's hand, pulled him about the room several times and finally located the coin, which had been hidden in the lining of a hat. It was then suggested by Cumberland that somebody should think of some object while he was out of the room. A reporter selected Major Pond's watch charm, and on his return blindfolded, Cumberland, after dragging the reporter about, stopped beside Major Pond and, pointing to his watch charm, said, "That is the object thought of." In another test, a man was asked to think of the number of cocktails he had taken that afternoon. Cumberland, on his return, grasped the man's hand and wrote on the wall the figure 9. A roar of laughter went up when the man admitted that it was the number of cocktails he had consumed. In a short speech Cumberland explained that mind reading operated through the muscular system. If a person concentrated on anything, another person with an acute perception could, by holding the hand of that person or touching him, easily feel a muscular quiver or directing guide indicating where the hidden object was. Major Pond then brought in a lady whom he introduced as Mrs. Margaret Kane. "This lady," he said, "is believed to be able to contact the spirit world, which will answer questions through knocks. Three knocks mean yes, one rap no. Two raps mean neither yes nor noâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;undecidedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;while five raps mean use the alphabet to spell." Mrs. Kane, a demure little woman in her forties, with a nervous manner, stated that she could work only while seated behind a table, and one was quickly procured. Seating herself, she smiled genially and asked for somebody to call upon the spirit world to manifest itself. Major Pond, after hemming and coughing, whispered, "Are there any spirits present?" When, after several minutes, no response came, Major Pond repeated the question, which was again met with silence. One reporter, winking at his companions, whispered that he thought that if the hotel bell were touched some bottled spirits might be made to appear. The levity made Major Pond frown, and, on his repeating the question, all were startled when they heard ghostly knocks. Mrs. Kane seized a pencil and paper from a reporter and wrote rapidly from right to left, but nobody could decipher the writing until she suggested using a mirror. It was then discovered that the message was written backwards and was from Horace Greeley, who announced that he was ready to answer questions.

SEARCHLIGHT ON PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

Many questions were then put to the so-called spirit that could be answered by "yes" or "no" knocks, but the spirit world displayed such ignorance that there was unfavourable criticism. Other communications in writing came from other spirits through Mrs. Kane, who answered several questions incorrectly. One reporter said he had seen a movement of Mrs. Kane's foot under her black skirt whenever knocks occurred. Cumberland said, "Just watch me," and knocks were heard similar to those made through Mrs. Kane, who angrily declared that sceptics were all fools.

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Cumberland then announced that he would soon have a meeting at Chickering Hall, and he invited Mrs. Kane to give a demonstration there. This she refused to do. Cumberland then denounced all mediums as fakers. "I'll bet you have hammer toes like mine and made the knocks the same way as I did," he said to Mrs. Kane. Mrs. Kane angrily denied the charge and promised that she would soon give a public seance and produce such wonders that no scoffer could disbelieve. "Spirit phenomena are all produced by trickery," said Cumberland. "While I was in Europe I tested Mrs. Jencken (Mrs. Kane's sister) and found that her slate-writing phenomena were produced fraudulently. I was to obtain a message on a slate placed on the floor, and when I heard a scratching noise near the slate I brought my foot down on it hard and it struck Mrs. Jencken's foot, causing her to scream with pain and end the seance." After denying Cumberland's accusation against her sister, Mrs. Kane hurriedly left the room. A discussion then followed on mind reading, a subject in which Cumberland asserted he was first in the field. An old reporter, questioning this, stated that he had seen J. Randall Brown perform similar stunts long before Cumberland was heard of. Major Pond closed the discussion by handing us all passes for Cumberland's show. I was mystified, so on our way home I asked my father about what had occurred. I was not yet fifteen. He replied that many things occurred that seemed contrary to natural law. In Ireland the peasant class believed in fairies and that one called a leprechaun, if caught and threatened, would give up a bag of gold. On December 11, 1882, I attended Cumberland's performance in Chickering Hall, New York. Among those in the audience were some of the most prominent men in many fields of endeavour. A committee, consisting of Henry Bergh, General Louis Fitzgerald, Stephen Massett and William Tice, was selected to take charge of tests. A number of feats were then performed by Cumberland similar to those I had seen him perform before. Then a cabinet test was decided on, in which he was securely tied by William Tice, one of the committee, after which the knots were examined by the others on the committee. The curtain of the cabinet was then dropped. Almost immediately musical instruments placed in the cabinet were heard being played, a

SEARCHLIGHT ON PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

glass of water was drunk and the glass thrown over the top of the cabinet. Two nails were driven through a block of wood and musical instruments were tossed out of the cabinet. After each feat the committee would rush to the cabinet but, every time, found Cumberland securely tied. Many tricks, such as slate writing, were performed. The curtains of the cabinet were then draw aside and you could hear a pin drop as the audience watched Cumberland reveal his trickery. He was then tied up in a bag and placed in the cabinet and the curtains dropped. In a short time we saw what appeared to be materialized spirits come out of the cabinet one by one. Cumberland did not explain how the last tests were performed and I and others were baffled. Some twenty years later, while securely bound, I performed similar stunts before large audiences. I determined to make a deep study of psychic phenomena but a breakdown in health compelled me to postpone my investigations for two years. Early in 1883 I was threatened with tuberculosis and was ordered by my physician to resign from St. Peter's School and take up some outdoor occupation. My father obtained for me a position in the wholesale fruit and produce line in West Washington Market. I quickly learned the business and regained my health. When my employer was laid up by an accident, I ran the business successfully until his death in July, when the business was closed. The experience I had gained convinced me that I could be equally successful in a venture of my own. I approached an importer named John Marsh, with whom I had done considerable business, and announced my desire to go into business for myself if he would back me financially, which he agreed to do. I was just fifteen years of age when I rented a store in West Washington Market and set up for myself. I was successful from the first. In a few weeks I was making three hundred dollars a week, and the business grew steadily until by the time I was twenty I was the largest wholesale fruit and produce broker in the United States and Canada and remained so for thirty years. I cite these financial facts so that my readers can understand why I had money at my command so early in youth and all through my life. As soon as myfinancespermitted, I began buying books on philosophy, science and psychic phenomena. While I was quite religious, I had the type of mind that demanded more than faith alone. I sought scientific assurance that a spirit world existed, and I felt this assurance might be found in psychic phenomena if really true. Therefore I determined to investigate. It was in 1884 that I became acquainted with Alexander Herrmann, the magician, and his wife, Adelaide Herrmann, while they were stopping at Smith & McNeil's Hotel arranging with my father to put over a publicity stunt to boost his magic show. The friendship then established with Adelaide Herrmann continued until her death in 1932. The newspapers at that time frequently published stories about the

SEARCHLIGHT ON PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

types of persons brought before Judge Duffy in the Jefferson Market Police Court and the quaint characters selling goods in West Washington Market. Alexander Herrmann, after being posted by my father on the most likely victim, decided to put over some magical stunts. The reporters, of course, were glad to get a story and worked with him. After my father's co-operation had been arranged for, Herrmann went to the restaurant and ordered three soft-boiled eggs. On opening the first one, Herrmann gave a cry, "Hello, what do you think of this!" that attracted the attention of those about him. He stood up, holding the egg in one hand, and with the other withdrew from it a twenty-dollar gold piece. After breaking another egg, from which he also took a twenty-dollar gold piece, Herrmann cried: "Waiter! Waiter! Call the manager!" My father, who had been waiting for his cue, rushed up as Herrmann broke the third egg and extracted another twenty-dollar gold piece from it. "What can I do for you, sir?" asked my father. In an excited manner Herrmann asked, "Do you know where these eggs came from?" "Why, yes," replied my father. "They were bought from Mary Donnelly in West Washington Market." "Hurryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;lead me to her," said Herrmann, as he started for the door, followed by many guests and the reporters. "I mean to buy all her eggs." "This is Mary Donnelly, from whom I bought the eggs," said my father when Herrmann and the crowd reached her stand in the market. In an excited voice Herrmann asked, "Have you any more of the lot of eggs you sold today to Smith & McNeil's?" "Sure I have. Here they are," replied Mary, puzzled to account for the grinning faces of the market men who recognized Herrmann and knew what to expect. "Well, I want to buy some, provided they are fresh," said Herrmann. "Fresh, is it?" said Mary with an indignant sniff. "Of course they are. They came from Mike Dolan's farm in Red Bank this morning. The price is twenty-five cents a dozen." "Well, I'll just take half a dozen at first, till I test them," said Herrmann as he gave her the money. "There you are, sir," said Mary, handing Herrmann the eggs, "and you never ate better in your life." Herrmann took one of the eggs from the bag and cracked it on the side of the counter. Mary's eyes bulged and she gasped for breath when she saw him take a twenty-dollar gold piece right out of the egg. "Katie Mahoney!" Mary called to her neighbour. "Come quick!" Katie rushed over and reached Mary's side just as Herrmann pulled another twenty-dollar gold piece from an egg. "Glory be to Godâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it's a miracle!" gasped Katie in wonder. "I guess there must be gold on that farm and that the chickens ate it," said Herrmann, holding up an egg to the light. He then cracked the egg and withdrew from it another twenty-dollar gold piece which caused Katie to bless herself and cry: "Be careful, Mary! It must be the divil himself!" B

SEARCHLIGHT ON PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

"Here, I'll buy all your eggs," said Herrmann, as he shoved a roll of bills towards Mary. "The divil another one you'll get!" cried Mary angrily. "It's arrested you should be for taking all that gold from a dacent widow woman." "But I'll pay more," persisted Herrmann. "I'll give you a dollar apiece for your eggs." "Don't let him tempt you, Mary," said Katie, blessing herself. "Look at him. You can see he's the divil himself." The crowd roared, as Herrmann, for business reasons, dressed to resemble the popular conception of Mephistopheles. He was tall and thin, with dark hair, heavy eyebrows and a moustache, and his close-clipped vandyke beard helped to give him a Satanic appearance. After giving him a tongue lashing, Mary and Katie began firing onions and potatoes at Herrmann until he made a hasty retreat. When old New Yorkers read the story in the newspapers and saw the amazed faces of Mary and Katie as drawn by the cartoonists, they would roar, for Herrmann had performed the trick before. A number of Spiritualists spoke very highly of the psychic power of R. W. Flint, a medium, so I called at his office to arrange for a sitting and found he was booked for that day. I therefore arranged for a meeting at a later date. When I kept my appointment with Flint he first collected five dollars from me and said, "I shall go into a trance, and I am sure you will receive convincing evidence of our contact with the spiritual world." He handed me an ordinary kettle and said, "While I am in trance, you are to address private questions to the spirit world into the kettle as you stand in the centre of the roomâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;questions to which only you know the answersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; then hold the spout of the kettle to your ear and the spirit world will answer your questions." Flint then reclined on a couch some fifteen feet away from me and apparently sank into a trance. I was quite sceptical, but in a low voice I spoke into the kettle and said, "What is the name of my grandfather on my mother's side?" I placed the spout of the kettle to my ear and to my amazement I heard a whispered reply: "Peter McGovern. He died in Ireland. His spirit is here now." One after another I asked questions of the kettle: "When was I born? Where was I born?" and many other personal questions. Each time I received the correct answer in a whisper. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded by my experience and almost convinced of the truth of psychic phenomena and of contact with a spirit world. I was unaware at the time that persons who regularly attend spiritualistic seances of meetings are trailed, after they leave, by employees of the medium, who manage to acquire information about them, or that a sham lawyer looking for lost heirs may call on their relatives and obtain intimate details about a family. You may say, "But that does not explain how you obtained correct answers from the spout of a kettle to questions that you asked into the kettle in a low voice."

SEARCHLIGHT ON PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

That kettle test was responsible for the conversion of more persons to Spiritualism than any other one thing I know of. The secret I did not know until many years later, when I heard it from David Abbott, of Omaha, Nebraska, who was using it in an act in a stage entertainment. The explanation is that the kettle had a false bottom in which there were copper disks similar to those used in a telephone receiver. The rug on the floor had copper wire interwoven through it, and when you stood on it the nails in your shoes made an electrical contact with a man behind a panel in the room who was also electrically contacted and heard your question. He made the whispered reply that you heard in the spout of the kettle, in the same way one hears a voice over the telephone. The apparatus required for this kettle stunt was installed years later in Powers's magic store on Forty-second Street, New York, by Guy Jarret, a mechanical genius who made apparatus for magicians. During the earlier years of my investigations, when I was inclined to doubt the truth of psychic phenomena, some medium would put over on me some new stunt that I could not fathom and that would restore my faith.

N 1884 Henry Seybert, of Philadelphia, left in his will to the University of Pennsylvania the sum of $10,000, with the provision that a commission be appointed to investigate Spiritualism. The university accepted the bequest and appointed a commission of professors and doctors, with Dr. H. H. Furness as chairman, who tested many prominent mediums, many of whom they caught in barefaced trickery in slate writing and other tests. They admitted that the slate-writing tests made with Harry Kellar, the magician, appeared to have been produced without fraud. But Kellar subsequently explained to the chairman of the commission, Dr. H. H. Furness, how he had resorted to trickery and deceived the commission. In order to save their faces, the members of the commission never disclosed how Kellar had fooled them, but Kellar told Harry Houdini and me, many years later, just how he had tricked them. The details will appear elsewhere in my story. The Seybert Commission tested Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane, under her own conditions, and found nothing wrong, but when they told her that in their second test they would demand scientific conditions she pleaded illness and never submitted to a test by them again. Henry Slade would submit to tests by the Seybert Commission only under his own conditions, which prevented them from detecting him in any false moves in a slate-writing test, so he came out of the test with no accusation of fraud against him. In 1885, Spiritualists still considered Henry Slade one of their best slate-writing mediums, although accusations of fraud against him had been made in Europe many years before. I decided to visit Slade and arranged for a sitting with him through his business manager, Wilson. Slade impressed me rather favourably on the date of my appointment. He was over six feet tall, with a small dark moustache and silky greyish hair as fine in texture as that of a woman. After seating himself on one side of a black walnut table, he motioned to me to take the seat opposite him and said, "I understand from my manager that you have already attended seances." "Oh yes, quite a number," I replied, and I mentioned some that I had attended. "I should judge, then," commented Slade, "that if not a full convert you are favourably inclined towards a belief in Spiritualism. Kindly examine these slates and wash them off while I wash my hands, as I have just finished eating." While Slade was out of the room, I examined the slates and washed them off with alcohol, feeling that it was pretty smart of me to remove all traces of any chemical writing already there. It never occurred to me, however, that Slade might have gone outside to look up any information mediums might have acquired about me or my family. On his return, Slade shifted the table closer to the wall, so that I was 20

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compelled to shift my seat and the back of my chair rested against the wall as we sat opposite each other. "You must try and be passive," said Slade impressively, "as anything antagonistic prevents the spirit world from contacting a medium." After handing me one of the slates, he added: "We require darkness for this test. Place the slate under the table where we can both hold it until the psychic conditions become favourable." We had been holding the slate together under the table a few moments when Slade shuddered and moaned. The slate was suddenly snatched from my hands under the table but almost immediately returned. After a few moments he said, "Kindly look at the slate and see if there is any message on it." I withdrew the slate and was amazed to see written on it in slate pencil: "Joe, dear, have faith. Henry Slade has genuine psychic power. Aunt Eliza." I was dumbfounded, for although I had a dead Aunt Eliza I could not figure out how this fact could have been known to Slade nor how by any normal means he had got a message on a slate that I had cleaned with alcohol only a few minutes before. "Suppose we try another test," said Slade. "Very well," I replied, "but this time I would like to have the slate kept above the table." "All right," Slade answered, placing one of the slates on the table, "as you are passive, we may get results that way. We'll both place our hands on the slate." After our hands had been resting on the slate a few moments, he said, "See if there is a message on the slate." I looked and shook my head. "There is no message on it," I said. Slade gave a deep sigh. "I feared as muchâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;you were slightly antagonistic. We'll try another method." Picking up a slate, he rose with it in his hand and said, "This time I'll place the slate on top of your head, where you can hold it until your magnetism affects it." I grasped the slate as he placed it on top of my head, and after a few moments Slade said, "Now look at the slate." I withdrew it from my head and was amazed to see written on the slate: "Have faith, Joe. You must believe. Grandma McGovern." Just before Slade had picked up the slate, I had wiped it off again with alcohol, and how a message could have been written except through psychic or spirit power was beyond my understanding. I suggested having some more tests, but Slade begged to be excused on the ground that for the moment his psychic power was exhausted. I was invited to attend more of his seances, which I did, only to be more mystified. When I had expressed to Alexander Herrmann a desire to take up the practice of magic, he directed me to Martinka's Magic Shop on Sixth Avenue, near Thirtieth Street, where he told me I could obtain any magical apparatus I required. After I had visited Martinka's and bought some apparatus, I learned

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that he made big illusions for professional magicians. His store was a rendezvous not only for magicians but for many in the theatrical profession. There was a small stage and auditorium in the rear where they could test out acts or apparatus. It was in that very hall that I was initiated as a member of the Society of American Magicians while Harry Houdini was its president. I was a constant visitor at Martinka's, where I made the acquaintance of many magicians and actors. One day in 1885, while pleading with Francis Martin ka to sell me some apparatus that he felt I was too young to own, I said: "I'll bet that if Alexander Herrmann were here he'd convince you I could be trusted. But he won't be here with his show this year." This was news to Francis Martin ka, who was a great friend of the Herrmanns, and I had to show him a letter I had just received from Adelaide Herrmann saying they were booked up in Spain for that year. My acquaintance with the Herrmanns was a bond that brought me and Francis Martinka into a more friendly relationship, and I discussed with him many of my experiences with mediums. "Mediums are all fakers, Joe," said Martinka with a laugh. "Don't waste money on them. I sell them extension rods, phosphorescent paint and most of the apparatus they use." "Well, some mediums may be fakers," I said stubbornly, "but I'm convinced by what he did for me that Henry Slade is a genuine psychic and no faker." Martinka grinned and said: "Is that so? Well, tell me what he did and I may be able to explain how he tricked you." When I told Martinka what Slade had done he laughed. "You're certainly an easy mark, Joe. When Slade left the room to wash his hands, as he told you, he really went to look at the mediums' Blue Book, in which they keep a history of persons who frequent seances. Then he wrote with a slate pencil appropriate messages on slates which he kept on his person in the pockets of the Prince Albert coat he wore." "But he could put anything over on me! I washed the slate we used with alcohol before I placed it under the table," I protested. "But that wasn't the slate you drew above the table with the message on it," said Martinka with a laugh. "When you felt the slate jerked from your hand and immediately replaced, you thought you got the same one back, but he had shoved a slate from his pocket into your hands and pocketed your original one." "I catch the idea," I said, rather crestfallen. "But," I added triumphantly, "he couldn't trick me with the slate he placed on top of my head, which I had also just cleaned with alcohol. He never touched it during the test and I removed it myself from my head and read the message on it." Martinka smiled. "You were tricked just the same. You sat against the wall, so you couldn't see a window open over your head behind which stood a confederate. When Slade reached over to place the slate on your head, this confederate grabbed it and placed a slate with a message on it in Slade's hand, which slate he then placed on your head." "Well, I'll be darned!" I said in a disgusted tone. "And I never

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suspected I was being tricked! I thought he presented genuine psychic phenomena." It was while roller-skating at Sea Beach Palace, Coney Island, in 1885 that I became acquainted with Albert Creelman, the brother of James Creelman, the special writer on the New York Herald. We attended seances together. At all seances the mediums impressed on the visitors the fact that to sei2e a medium while in trance or a spirit that came out of a cabinet meant death to the medium, so while Al Creelman and I often felt tempted to test whether the materialized spirits were flesh and blood or spirits, the fear that it might kill a medium deterred us from doing so. I often had dinner at the Creelman home on Twenty-third Street, where London Terrace now stands, and when Al and I talked of what had occurred at a seance James Creelman, a hard-boiled newspaperman, would look disgusted and tell us we were suckers to spend money to see a lot of fakers putting over tricks. In 1885, Sir William Barrett, of the British Society for Psychical Research, delivered an address on psychical research in New York City, which I attended. The lecture made a deep impression on the cultured audience who listened to him. As a result, Simon Newcomb, the astronomer, formed the first Society for Psychical Research in the United States and was elected president. It merged with the British organization in 1890 and under the directorship of Dr. Richard Hodgson offices were established in Boston, where psychic investigations were carried out.1 It was impressed on all members that in witnessing psychic phenomena we were not to be antagonistic to a medium but to allow the medium to proceed without hampering him in any way, so as to permit him to produce genuine psychic phenomena. This method was followed by me and all psychical researchers through the years, and this fact, of course, made it only too easy for tricksters to produce fraudulent phenomena. One medium who was highly regarded by Spiritualists in 1885 was Mrs. Eugene Beste. She impressed me as an honest psychic. I was surprised to learn in October 1885 that she had been exposed as a fraud by W. J. Shea and Patrick Keefe of the Hartford, Connecticut, Daily Times. In order to avoid imprisonment, she had made a confession and signed an affidavit to that effect before a notary. In this affidavit Mrs. Beste gave detailed information of how she performed her trickery, yet in spite of her confession she was accepted by Spiritualists as a genuine psychic and was again giving seances in New York City in 1886. At a meeting of the Spiritualist Alliance late in 1885,1 learned that Dr. Gray, an enthusiastic supporter of Katie Fox Jencken, had urged her to come from Rochester and give a series of seances in New York City, and that she had agreed to do so. She and her sister, Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane, were to hold some seances at the apartment of Maud Lord, the medium. Al Creelman and I decided to attend. On the night of the seance, Maud Lord greeted us pleasantly and 1

From here on, except where reference is explicitly made to the Society of Psychical Research in Great Britain, i.e. the parent body, reference to the Society of Psychical Research is to the American branch.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Publishers' note.

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collected a dollar each from about twenty of us. Dr. Gray, whom I knew, introduced us to a Mr. Livermore, who he said was a sceptic he hoped to convert, as his wife had recently passed on. Maud Lord, after introducing Mrs. Jencken and Mrs. Kane, announced that Mrs. Jencken would give a materializing seance but that Mrs. Kane did not follow that phase of phenomena but made contact with the spirit world through knocks and writing. Mrs. Lord requested all of us to be passive and sing "Bringing in the Sheaves". At the conclusion of the hymn, we heard several loud knocks, and Mrs. Kane said, "Our spirit friends are present." "Try and get a message from my wife," urged Dr. Gray. "Will the spirit of Dr. Gray's wife write him a message?" asked Mrs. Kane. In reply we heard three loud knocks, but it was impossible to determine from what direction they had come. "That means yes," said Mrs. Lord, handing Mrs. Kane a pad and a pencil. Mrs. Kane wrote quickly from right to left and then handed the message to Dr. Gray, who read it with the aid of a mirror. De Witt C. Hough, who we were told was also a medium, then came in with Mrs. Jencken and announced that she was ready for the cabinet test and that he would act as master of ceremonies after those present had examined the cabinet and were satisfied that everything was honest and above board. The cabinet was examined, and then Mrs. Jencken took a seat inside it, and the curtains were dropped by Mr. Hough, who turned out the gaslight, leaving the room lighted only by a candle, located in the far corner of the room, that was shaded by red cloth or paper. We were then requested to sing "Jesu, Lover of My Soul", which we did. Presently the cabinet curtains opened and we detected in the dim light a figure clad in a glowing garment. Mr. Hough whispered to the apparition and announced, "It's for you, Dr. Gray." Dr. Gray extended his arms as he approached the cabinet and enfolded the figure in a warm embrace. "My darling, I'm so glad you could come," he said. After a short period of whispering, Dr. Gray kissed thefigureand it retired into the cabinet. Other figures then came out of the cabinet, some male and some female, and were recognized as departed relatives by many of those present. Creelman ejaculated, "I'll swear they're " "Hush!" cried many as they looked in his direction, and he subsided. When the seance was over, Mrs. Jencken announced that she would give some more seances during her visit and she distributed cards. "Well, are you convinced of spirit return?" asked Dr. Gray as he turned to Mr. Livermore. Mr. Livermore looked puzzled and replied: "I admit I'm amazed. If you recognized the spirit as your wife, there must be some truth in Spiritualism. I mean to attend more seances." Later, Mr. Livermore became one of Mrs. Jencken's devoted followers and, with Dr. Gray, her main financial support towards the end of her career.

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On leaving the house, Creelman exploded. "I tell you, Joe, the whole seance was a fake," he said emphatically. "Even though the light was dim, I'm sure the medium played the part of several spirits." "Well, Al, if you're right," I asked, "how do you account for the fact that so many persons recognized their departed loved ones?" Creelman shook his head. "I don't know. Possibly their tears and emotion affected their eyesight." On the following Sunday Creelman and I attended the services of the First Spiritualist Society, where Craig Wright, a medium, gave some psychometry tests or character readings about dead persons some of whose belongings he handled. We then had inspirational discourses from Mrs. Nellie Brigham, Emma Hardinge and W. J. Colville. At the close of the meeting Mrs. Brigham said, "I wish to announce, friends, that we'll soon have a book on Spiritualism written by one of our most loved members, Mrs. Underhill." "Thank you, Mrs. Brigham," said Mrs. Underhill. "The book is now in the hands of the printers. It will be called The Missing Link of Spiritualism.'1''

On our way out I stopped to speak to Mrs. Underhill and said, "I recently had the pleasure of attending a seance given by your sisters." Mrs. Underhill seemed to freeze up and turned her back on me. Daniel Underhill drew me aside and said: "You touched a sore spot, Joe, when you praised my wife's sisters. On account of their excessive drinking, they are no longer recognized by us or any reputable Spiritualist." "I wasn't aware of the fact, Underhill," I said apologetically. On making inquiries I learned that the wealthier class of Spiritualists no longer had any respect for either of the Fox sisters. I learned, too, that in 1886, when Mrs. Jencken went back to Rochester, she was arrested for drunkenness, and that Mr. Livermore, who was a banker, and who had become a convert to Spiritualism since I met him, had induced her and her children to come to live in New York City under a promise of some financial backing. Mrs. Margaret Fcx Kane had no financial backer and leaned heavily on Mrs. Jencken for support, but Luther Colby, the venerable editor of the Banner of Lights frequently obtained engagements for her at the Shawmut Lyceum in Boston.

N 1886 the Twilight Club was one of the prominent clubs of New York City. Its membership consisted exclusively of newspapermen, and it held monthly dinners at the St. Denis Hotel, at Broadway and Eleventh Street, to each of which some prominent person was invited as a guest speaker. James Creelman, who was a member, invited his brother Al and me to be his guests at the January dinner. Among our table companions, to whom he introduced us, was Dr. Austin Flint. Jim said, "Doctor, I wish you who know would open the eyes of my brother Al and his friend Rinn here to the folly of spending money attending spirit seances." The venerable face of Dr. Flint lighted up with a smile as he said: "So the spiritualistic bug has bitten them, eh? It recalls to me my younger days, when I became acquainted with the Fox sisters at the very beginning of Spiritualism." "Were you present at the beginning of the cult, Doctor?" I asked, astonished. "That was a long time ago." "I know it was," said Dr. Flint, "and I'm a very old man. In 1851 I lived in Buffalo, and some other doctors and I tested Margaret Fox and her married sister, Leah Fox Fish, and denounced them as frauds." "Wasn't it Margaret and Katie Fox you tested, Doctor?" "The writers who made that statement were wrong," replied Dr. Flint. "At the time of the test Horace Greeley had sent Katie to Albany to school, and Leah took her place after learning the knocking trick from the youngsters, whom she had been exploiting. "At that time I had a patient named Mrs. Patchen in Buffalo who had a disease of the joints. Mrs. Patchen showed me that by rubbing or pressing her knee against something solid she could make knocks like the Fox sisters. "At that time Dr. Charles A. Lee, Dr. C. B. Coventry and I were connected with the University of Buffalo. After witnessing a performance of the Fox sisters, we sent a statement to the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser denouncing the sisters as frauds and challenging them to a test. The statement was published on February 17, 1851. "Our challenge was accepted by Ann Leah Fox Fish and the test took place shortly afterwards in the Phelps House in Buffalo. "In our test we found that the sisters could cause knocks when seated in a chair with their feet resting on the floor, where they had a solid fulcrum to press against, but when we placed them on a couch with their feet resting on pillows they were unable to make any knocks. "In an article I published in the Buffalo Medical Journal, of which I was editor, I stated that the knocks were made either directly by the knee action or by some muscular contractions of the lower limb." "Stuart Cumberland asserted that Margaret had hammer toes with which she made the knocks." "That might have been the solution," said Dr. Flint, as he handed me 26

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his card. "Why not come over to my offxe and look over my old scrapbooks? I'm sure they would interest you." I took advantage of Dr. Flint's invitation before he died the following summer, and I found great pleasure in reading in his scrapbooks the history of the early days of Spiritualism. •,••', An editorial by Horace Greeley, entitled "An Evening with the Spirits", published in the New York Tribune of June 6, 1850, gives an account of the first sitting in New York City with the Fox sisters. Among the notables present were James Fenimore Cooper, George Bancroft, the Rev. Dr. Hawks, William Cullen Bryant, Dr. J. W. Francis, Dr. Marcy, Nathaniel P. Willis, John Bigelow, of the Evening Post, Richard B. Kimball, H. T. Tuckerman and General Lyman. The concluding comment by Horace Greeley was: "The girls have no theories to offer. Their manner was in their favour. They apparently have no control of the incomings or the outgoings. Are the sounds made by spirits of the departed? We wait for further disclosures and recommend our readers to see for themselves." Towards the end of 1886, when I paid a visit to Martinka's to buy some magical apparatus, I found Francis Martinka in conversation with a slight-built, frail-looking man. "Hello, Joe, let me make you acquainted with Washington Irving Bishop, who can open your eyes about spirit mediums," said Martinka. "Joe Rinn here has been daft for some time, Bishop, about psychic phenomena and spends his money attending seances in spite of my advice. He is tied up with that psychical research crowd, however, and through them might get you the kind of publicity that will force the theatrical bunch to book you." "From what I've heard of Mr. Bishop's work abroad, Martinka," I said, "I should think he'd have no trouble getting bookings here." Bishop sighed. "Not while Major Pond opposes it. He was formerly my manager but we had a quarrel." Martinka drew me aside and whispered: "He used to be assistant to Anna Eva Fay when she was a medium. Try and give him a lift. He's practically broke." In his room in the Paisley House, Bishop gave me demonstration after demonstration in mind or muscle reading that satisfied me that he was superior to Stuart Cumberland in that line of work. "I feel certain, Bishop," I said when he concluded, "that I can get you a hearing before the psychical research crowd that will give you publicity and result in your getting bookings. In the meantime you may be short of funds, so here are fifty dollars, which you can repay later." Bishop, with tears in his eyes, said: "That's mighty kind of you, Rinn, and I'll never forget it. I was nearly broke." I was acquainted with Anthony Comstock, one of our psychical research society members, who had great power with the group because of his connection with the anti-vice society. I spoke to him about Bishop and convinced him that Bishop had strange and unusual powers that would interest psychical research members if they tested him. Comstock got in touch with some psychical research members of the

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high society group and they arranged to give Bishop a test in the rooms of the Hoffman House, then at Broadway and Twenty-fifth Street. A committee was selected, consisting of Dr. Robinson, Dr. Hoyt and two other gentlemen. They accepted the loan of a diamond brooch from Mrs. Frank Leslie, owner of the Police Gazette, which they decided to hide some distance from the Hoffman House. Bishop, while blindfolded, was to drive a horse and carriage containing the committee to the place where the brooch was hidden and discover it. On the day of the test, the committee first drove off in the carriage and hid the pin. It was fully half an hour before they returned. When everything was ready, Bishop said to the committee, "Gentlemen, I must request that during the test the committee shall seat themselves in the carriage with me and hold their hands on my body." After the committee had blindfolded Bishop, he was led to the driver's seat. They took seats with him, and each of them grasped some part of Bishop's body. Without any hesitation Bishop started the horses and whipped them into a furious gallop. He drove right through traffic for about a mile and finally stopped in front of a tenement house. After grabbing hold of the hands of the committee, Bishop hurried upstairs, with a number of reporters and me following. After a short search Bishop located the diamond brooch hidden in a room and handed it to the committee, saying, "This is what you had hidden." The committee admitted that Bishop had found the hidden object, and the reporters wrote a dramatic story about his feat and told of similar feats he had performed in England. As a result of the publicity, the theatrical group quickly booked him for performances in Wallack's Theatre on Broadway, where he played for a long time. After his New York City triumph, Bishop was booked out of town. Before he left on his trip, I advised him to stick to the carriage-driving test, as it was spectacular and made good copy for the newspapers. From clippings Bishop sent me, I learned that he had opened in Boston on November 20, 1886, in a sensational carriage-driving test, and that, while blindfolded, he had found an object concealed by a committee consisting of Mayor O'Brien, Professor William James, Dr. Morton Prince, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and a number of others equally prominent. The publicity given Bishop through his Boston engagement caused him to be booked in many cities. I did not see him again until February 27, 1887, when he returned to New York and we had dinner together, after which he took me to Wallack's Theatre, where he was performing that night. The theatre was crowded with persons prominent in every line of endeavour. A committee to work with Bishop was selected, consisting of Abe Hummell, the leading criminal lawyer of the time, Harrison Fiske and Robert Hilliard, well known in the theatrical profession, Jesse Williams, Mr. Case, Max Freeman, J. Donnelly and Dr. Robertson. The first test decided on was that while Bishop was outside, Mr. Case

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was to simulate stabbing somebody with a knife and that on his return Bishop was to find the person stabbed and duplicate the test. In another test Jesse Williams, while Bishop stood outside, took a watch from one person, an eyeglass from another, and a watch from a third person, and all the articles were put in a handkerchief and hidden. On his return Bishop took hold of Williams's hand and led him about the crowded theatre until he found the hidden handkerchief and returned the articles in it to their owners. In another test a committee consisting of Williams, Fiske and Freeman obtained from a Miss Leigh a diamond pin that they were to conceal outside the theatre but within three minutes' walking distance of it. After the pin had been concealed, Bishop was brought in blindfolded and a black cloth bag was drawn over his head. One end of a copper wire was attached to Bishop's wrist and the other end to the wrists of the committee. Bishop, leading the way, drew the members of the committee out of the theatre and led them rapidly down Broadway to Twenty-ninth Street, followed by many from the theatre. Bishop led the committee through the side door of the Sturtevant House, where, after a moment's hesitation, he climbed over the counter or bar and found the diamond pin enclosed in an envelope in a letter-box. On the return of Bishop and the committee to the theatre, it was announced that he had been successful and he was loudly applauded. When the applause subsided, a man in a front seat rose and, waving a bank note, said: "I am a reporter on the New York World named Cunningham. I have been sent here by Mr. Pulitzer to have Mr. Bishop tell us the number on this bank note. In a similar test in England he failed when challenged by Henry Labouchere." "I accept the test," said Bishop, "but if I win I'll claim the money and donate it to the Actors' Fund. I'll need two or three gentlemen as subjects in this test and I would like the committee to select them." A Mr. Henriquez, Professor Hunyadi and Walter Kingsland were selected as subjects. The bill was handed to Mr. Henriquez to hold while a blackboard was brought in and divided into squares for figures. After being blindfolded, Bishop asked Professor Hunyadi to memorize the numbers on the bill. This having been done, Bishop took Professor Hunyadi by the hand and tried to read his mind but could not. The reporter stood grinning while Bishop tried with Henriquez and wrote on the blackboard the numbers "4, 6, o, 2, 8, 7, 6, 4", which he changed to read: "4, 6, o, 2, 3, 7, 6, 4". After taking off his blindfold, Bishop said: "I cannot work with Henriquez. In my conditions with Labouchere I reserved the right for myself to two trials. May I ask if the number is nearly right or wholly wrong?" The committee announced: "There are six figures right." Bishop was again blindfolded and, after grasping Henriquez's hand, he wrote: "4, 6, o, 2, 3, 5, 3, 4". That Bishop was victorious was indicated by the applause of the committee, in which the audience joined. Bishop took the bill and everybody laughed when he announced that it was only a one-dollar bill.

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"Kindly send this bill to the Actors' Fund, Mr. Henriquez," said Bishop as he handed him the bill. The victory of Bishop over Mr. Pulitzer delighted the reporters on other newspapers and they unmercifully guyed all those working on the New York World. One night, not long after the Bishop-Pulitzer affair, while James Creelman, his brother Al and I were dining, Henry Guy Carleton of the World came in and took a seat with us. Jim Creelman grinned and said, "Well, Henry, that boss of yours was taken in by Bishop all right." Carleton's face flushed and he angrily replied: "That Bishop is a faker and you know it. Cunningham must have been bribed to tell the number of the bill." "Bishop is not a faker, Carleton," I replied with some heat. "He only claims to get his answers through muscle reading." "That's all bunk," said Carleton scornfully. "I'll bet a hundred dollars he couldn't do that stunt for me." "Of course not, because you would not play fair," I replied. "In order to defeat him, you would not think of the number on the bill." "Well, I'm convinced that his driving a carriage blindfolded and finding something hidden a mile away is a fake," jeered Carleton. "I'll bet he can't do it for me." "I'll take you up on your offer of a one-hundred-dollar bet for that test, Carleton," I replied, "provided that two others besides you are permitted to know where the object is hidden." "O.K.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;it's a bet," said Carleton, as he put a hundred dollars in Jim Creelman's hand. "Put your money in Jim's hands as soon as you make arrangements with Bishop." When I saw Bishop and explained what had led up to the bet with Carleton, he said grimly: "So he thinks I'm a faker, does he? Well, you go ahead with the arrangements and I'll win your bet for you. Make a proviso, however, that during the test all who know where the object is hidden must be connected to me with a copper wire." A committee consisting of Henry Guy Carleton, Colonel Thomas Knox, Dr. E. F. Hoyt and H. C. Bunner assembled at Hoffman House on the afternoon of March 5, 1887, when the test was to be made. Broadway around Twenty-fifth Street was crowded with carriages and people eager to witness the test. A medallion pin was offered by Mrs. Frank Leslie for the test. Henry Guy Carleton decided to hide the pin himself and to impart the knowledge of its location to the others on the committee just before they started. When Carleton returned in about half an hour, after hiding the pin, he was compelled to reveal its hiding-place to the others on the committee, for Bishop spread out a city map before them and asked each member of the committee to place his hand over Bishop's heart while he pointed to spots on the map for a location of the hidden object. Carleton then proceeded to blindfold Bishop, but after he had done so he saw me grinning and decided that Bishop might in some way be

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able to see through his blindfold. He reblindfolded Bishop carefully with a heavy strip of cotton batting and on top of this he put a handkerchief, which he knotted tightly at the back of his head. Over the whole blindfold he then drew a black cloth bag that reached down to the neck, where it was securely tied. One of the committee, Mr. Bunner, then put in an envelope a written account of the location of the hidden article, which he gave to Judge Gedney to retain until after the test. Mr. Bunner then attached one end of a number 18 copper wire to Bishop's wrist and the other end to the wrists of Henry Guy Carleton, Dr. Hoyt and Colonel Knox. They were requested to keep their free hand near the body of Bishop during the test but without touching it. All then proceeded to the carriage, where Bishop took the driver's seat, with Colonel Knox beside him and Dr. Hoyt and Carleton in the seat behind. The spirited pair of horses balked at first when Bishop tried to start, because they were startled by the shouting of the immense crowd that surrounded them. Then they made a wild dash towards Sixth Avenue. Bishop managed to calm them and bring them back to the Hoffman House and finally began to cross Broadway, closely followed by a carriage containing reporters, James Creelman, his brother Al and me. It was a strange sight to see a man whose head was covered with a black bag driving a spirited team of horses in a street crowded with carriages and hundreds of running men in close pursuit. The drivers of horsecars reined in their horses to let Bishop and those following him get through. Bishop drove straight up Fifth Avenue to Twenty-sixth Street, then turned right and went towards Fourth Avenue. After battling through traffic down Fourth Avenue, he turned into Eighteenth Street to Irving Place, where he turned uptown. At Nineteenth Street he stopped the team for a moment, then dashed up Irving Place at full speed and whirled into Twentieth Street, through which he drove, finally stopping at the south-east corner of Gramercy Park. For a moment, Bishop showed signs of exhaustion, but he braced up and jumped out of the carriage, dragging the committee after him, and led the way through the crowd on the east side of the park to number 3 5, the Gramercy Park Hotel, where he pulled the committee straight to the reception-room on the ground floor with the reporters, the Creelmans and me following. Bishop tried to lift a bronze statue from the mantel but, being exhausted, he motioned to the committee to do so. When they did he picked up Mrs. Leslie's pin where Carleton had hidden it. On the return of all to the Hoffman House, Carleton informed Judge Gedney that there was no need to open the envelope, since Bishop had complied with all conditions and had found the hidden pin. "Well, Carleton," I called out with a grin on my face, "how about it? Do you still think Bishop is a faker?" With a chagrined look on his face Carleton mumbled: "You win the bet, Rinn. It was cleverly done." The committee, after considering all the facts, announced that the

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test had been performed by Bishop without collusion with anybody, but that they could not decide through what power the feat had been performed. The publicity given to Bishop's sensational feat resulted in his obtaining bookings for a long tour of the principal cities. It was while Bishop was being black-listed by the theatrical agencies without a hearing on charges made by Major Pond that I heard of the Manhattan Liberal Club, which I soon joined. The club had been formed by Horace Greeley in 1869 as a public forum where any advocate of a new cult or of an unorthodox point of view would be given a tolerant hearing, or where any alleged victim of injustice could voice his grievance before a fair-minded audience who, in short speeches, would uphold or criticize the remarks of the speaker. I received a liberal education by listening at their meetings to the views expressed by prominent speakers on subjects that were tabooed elsewhere. After Bishop had started on his tour, I heard that a newcomer, Wallace L. Hight, was duplicating his feats in Philadelphia. The New York Herald sent James Creelman to Philadelphia to write up Hight's feats and I accompanied him. We attended a performance, on March 25, 1887, in the Chestnut Street Opera House and an account of it was printed in the next day's issue of the Herald. We were impressed by Hight's performance, which was almost the equal of Bishop's. After it was over, Creelman and I discussed it with Hight, who told us that during a test no mind reader can tell what an object is or describe its colour or appearance until he has discovered it. Locality, and nothing more definite than locality, is aH a mind reader knows. , When the hand of a subject is held, an impulse or muscular tremor, unconscious and involuntary, is transmitted to the holder. The subject is unaware of it and is unwilling to believe that he gives any impulse, yet the tremor given when nearing a hidden object is sufficient to indicate to an expert operator that it is nearby. By making careful trials in different directions, the operator ascertains precisely the locality as though he had received verbal communication. "How can a subject deceive an operator?" I asked Hight. Hight smiled. "I'll be giving away the secrets of my craft, but on your honour not to let it go outside, I'll tell you. If a subject selects some object on the person of a muscle reader the operator cannot tell it. Also, if the subject selects one of the fingers or fingernails of his own hand that is held by the muscle reader and keeps the arm perfectly stiff, the operator cannot find either direction or locality. You can deceive an operator by using muscle tension in the wrong direction and muscular relaxation in a wrong locality." "Do you know who was the originator of muscle reading?" I asked Hight. â&#x20AC;˘ -, , "The most reliable information we have," he replied, "was given in an address delivered before the Social Science Association of Philadelphia by Professor Persifor Frazer, Jr., on May 12, 1875. Professor Frazer discussed what he called muscle reading and gave credit to J. Randall Brown and

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a person named Whitehouse as the originators. There was nothing to justify the assumption, said the professor, that the results obtained by Brown and others had been brought about through the agency of any unknown or occult force. The professor then told of tests tried by Brown to a distance over a Western Union wire. 'It was a solemn moment while we waited,' he said, 'for in the next few minutes it was to be determined whether an inscrutable force had evolved or not. Mr. Brown, blindfolded, holding a wire between his hands, waited as the tap, tap, tap of the telegraph instrument announced that those on the other end of the wire were ready for the test. Three trials made between Philadelphia and Wilmington were made without results.' " "You're a pretty good performer, Hight," said I, "but I'll bet you can't do that blindfolded carriage-driving test that Bishop does." "You have me there," answered Hight with a grin. "I haven't the nerve to attempt that stunt." In autumn 1886 Mrs. Hannah V. Ross, of Boston, had a reputation as a high-class medium. When Richmond and I learned that she was to give a seance in New York, we decided to attend it. At that seance the materialized spirits we saw looked so much like living persons that Richmond suggested that we grab one of them and find out. I prevailed on him not to do so, for my connection with such an act would hurt my standing in the Society for Psychical Research. But I was not surprised when some reporters on the Boston Post exposed her as a fraud on January 31, 1887. In her trial before Judge Parmenter, the witnesses, Lieutenant Walker and Officer James G. Arbecan, testified that they had found her disrobed in the cabinet and in man's attire, and that she used an inflated rubber dummy which she threw into the air and then drew back into the cabinet. A Spiritualist named Wetherbee testified that he had kissed a real baby at Mrs. Ross's seance, but it was proved that she had had a baby's face painted on her bosom, which she placed against a slit in the curtain for patrons to kiss. The Banner of Light, the Spiritualist paper, refused to publish the facts, although they had been sworn to by Mr. and Mrs. Whitney, Dr. N. W. Gilbert and seven other Spiritualists, as well as by the reporters.

N the late eighties there were over a hundred mediums in business in New York City who used to advertise in the personal columns of the newspapers, mostly the New York Herald, as palmists, astrologers, occultists or fortune tellers. In many cases, however, such advertising was only a cover for prostitution or the "badger game". This continued for many years until the Rev. Parkhurst, a prominent clergyman, visited many places, playing the part of a playboy, and collected evidence showing that all the malefactors were in collusion with the police. The goody-goody people were shocked to learn what had been well known to all up-to-date New Yorkers. Many of the police were demoted or removed from the force, and laws were passed making the newspapers responsible for the kind of "ads" they published. The "ads" of a young girl in distress needing the help of a kind gentleman no longer appeared and there was a general housecleaning of places considered of ill repute. Late in 1887, while playing cards with my friend, Detective Reynolds, he said: "I know you visit mediums, Joe, and I wish you would post me if you hear of anything crooked going on at Madame Diss Debar's. She's opened up a place on Bank Street, near Hudson." This was only a short distance from where I lived on North Moore Street, and I got Albert Creelman to go with me to attend one of Madame Diss Debar's seances. I still recall her remarkable personality. She was of medium height, with black hair and flashing eyes. She had a vivid scar on the left side of her face and looked as heavy as the fat woman in a circus. She was clever, however, and quickly mystified us with slate-writing phenomena and impressed us with her knowledge of occult philosophy. Her daughter Alice appeared to be about fifteen and was quite pretty. As Creelman was attracted to the daughter, we attended a number of Madame's seances. At one of them we made the acquaintance of John L. O'Sullivan, former minister to Portugal, who introduced us to Luther Marsh, a slight-built, grey-haired man of about seventy who was much impressed. We learned from the daughter, at a later date, that Luther Marsh was a prominent lawyer and that he had become one of her mother's best customers. By questioning Alice we learned something of her family history and that General Diss Debar was only her stepfather. During one seance I attended, at which O' Sullivan and Marsh were present, Madame announced that her spirit guides had promised to have the spirits of some of the great painters of the past produce paintings for her on perfectly blank canvases. "Will this phenomenon take place in light or in darkness?" inquired Marsh. "It will be light enough for you all to see the spirit form gradually develop," she replied, and rang a bell. In a moment General Diss Debar entered with a framed blank canvas which he placed on an easel in the middle of the room. 34

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Madame urged us to examine the canvas and assure ourselves that it was, as she said, a plain, unpainted artist's canvas. After we had passed our hands over it, Marsh said, "It seems to be an ordinary blank canvas free and clear of any picture," to which Creelman and I, after examination, agreed. â&#x20AC;˘ . "Let us sing 'Rock of Ages','' said Madame, "as we require harmony for this test." During the singing, Madame walked about snapping her fingers but did not go near the canvas. "Now let all be passive and watch the canvas," commanded Madame. As we watched the canvas, we were amazed to see something appearing on it. The outline of a head was seen developing and it became clearer and clearer until a perfect head was visible. Marsh felt the canvas and showed us paint on his fingers. What we had witnessed stumped both Creelman and me. It seemed as if a miracle had been performed. I was not so much impressed at other seances where pictures were produced because there were opportunities to switch a canvas. I did hear that during one seance at which I was not present a picture appeared, in good light, on a bank canvas held on top of a visitor's head. As I knew that Alexander Herrmann was booked for an expose of Spiritualism in the near future, I thought I had better inform him of Madame Diss Debar's new stunt, and I went to see him. Boumski, his stalwart Ethiopian bodyguard, let me in with a grin, for he knew I was a favoured visitor. After I had related to Alexander and Adelaide Herrmann what I had seen, they looked puzzled. "You are sure," said Herrmann, "that Madame did not pass her hand over the canvas before the picture developed?" I assured him that nobody touched the canvas after the seance commenced until it had developed a perfect head. At a card game, in which Detective Reynolds and Fogarty took part, I told the boys what we had witnessed at Madame Diss Debar's. Detective Reynolds said, "Joe, I advise you to get your eyes or your head examined." It was in the fall of 1887 that Alice Diss Debar informed us that they were going to move, as Luther Marsh had invited them to make their home in his four-story dwelling on Madison Avenue. We later learned that he had sold the house to Madame for one dollar. At the time that Marsh made the acquaintance of Madame Diss Debar, he was regarded as a man of great ability and one of the smartest attorneys in New York. He had been a law partner of Daniel Webster, the founder and vice-president of the Union League Club. Marsh was credited with many reforms in the city government, among them the banning of any more cemeteries or burials within the city limits. When the Bar Association of New York City learned that Luther Marsh had sold his valuable residence to Madame Diss Debar for one dollar and that shortly afterwards she had mortgaged the house for $11,000, they concluded that he was growing senile, as he was over seventy, so they engaged the leading firm of lawyers in New York City, Howe & Hummel, to protect Marsh's interests. In a short time Howe & Hummel called on Inspector Byrnes of the New York Police Department

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to make an investigat'on of the Marsh case and the record of Madame Diss Debar. When Inspector Byrnes inquired of his men what they knew about Madame Diss Debar, he could not uncover anything criminal in her career. Detective Reynolds, however, advised him to get in touch with me, as I had been in close contact with her. I received an invitation from Inspector Byrnes shortly afterwards to call on him, as he felt I might be able to assist him in a case he was working on. When I called at Police Headquarters, then on Mulberry Street, and had an interview with the Inspector, he said, "Mr. Rinn, I have been informed by Detective Reynolds that as a member of the Society for Psychical Research you have attended many spiritualistic seances, among them those given by Madame Diss Debar, and that you would probably be willing to co-operate with the police in uncovering a crooked medium." "I'm willing to do all in my power to help you, Inspector," I replied. "The Bar Association of New York City, Mr. Rinn, in an effort to protect one of its members, Luther Marsh, from having his property taken away from him by Madame Diss Debar, whom they consider a clever crook, have brought me into the case. What information can you give me about this woman?" "Well, Inspector, I've attended many of her seances and consider her a very clever medium. She claims to be the daughter of King Louis I of Bavaria, and Lola Montez. But this I believe to be untrue, for her daughter Alice informed me that she had a grandmother named Salomon living in Kentucky and that she had several aunts living there. I recall that one time she said she had an uncle by the name of Salomon in the real estate business in New York City." "Good," said Inspector Byrnes with a smile. "If at a trial Madame swears to the Lola Montez story, we may get her for perjury. Marsh has been telling the reporters some wonderful stories about spirit messages she gets on paper for him. What do you know about that?" "She gets messages all right, as he says, Inspector, but I believe she does it by substitution or sleight-of-hand. I believe that if you will get in touch with Francis Martinka, who has a magic supply store on Sixth Avenue, near Thirtieth Street, he can recommend a magician to you who can duplicate that part of her work." "Marsh is convinced that Madame has supernatural power, Mr. Rinn. He told the reporters that she obtained for him an oil painting of the actress Adelaide Neilson on a blank canvas that was painted by the spirit of Raphael." "I assure you that I saw a similar stunt done in good light, Inspector, and it stumped me. I saw a so-called spirit picture develop on a framed blank canvas in front of many of us and it was done in oil. Substitution in the case mentioned was impossible. I don't believe there was anything supernatural about it, but I can't explain how it was done if it was a trick." "Humâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;I'd be in a bad spot if she could do that stunt for a jury," said Inspector Byrnes thoughtfully. "I may lose my scalp if I arrest Madame without considerable proof that she is a fraud, for Henry Newton, Judge

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Edmunds, Judge Hooker, Professor Kiddle and other prominent Spiritualists will charge me with framing her." It was in April 1888, before Inspector Byrnes had taken any action against Madame Diss Debar, that David Valkenburgh, administrator for the estate of an art dealer named Samuel Loewenherz, swore out a warrant for the arrest of Madame, charging that Loewenherz had delivered some forty pictures to her before his death which she had never returned. It seems that after the delivery of the pictures Loewenherz had taken some wine and cake at Madame's and then gone back to his place of business, where he fell asleep. A few days later he was found there in a coma and was removed to hospital, where he died. Unfortunately no autopsy was taken, so although it was rumoured that Madame had poisoned Loewenherz, no proof could be produced. At the very time that David Valkenburgh was swearing out a warrant for Madame Diss Debar's arrest, Howe & Hummel and the police had located George C. T. Salomon, who made an affidavit that Madame Diss Debar was his sister, whom he denounced as one of the most vicious and disreputable characters that ever lived. A former manager of hers, John W. Randolph, made an affidavit charging her with fraudulent practices and declaring that she had admitted to him that she was out to defraud Marsh. Howe & Hummel, the Bar Association lawyers, presented these two affidavits to Judge Kilbreath, who, on April 12, 1888, issued warrants for the arrest of Madame Diss Debar and her husband, General Diss Debar. Inspector Byrnes arrested the pair and he placed them in the Tombs. Luther Marsh pleaded for their release and offered bail, but Judge Kilbreath refused to release them. David Valkenburgh, accompanied by A. M. Friedlander, an artist, went with Inspector Byrnes to the Madison Avenue home of Luther Marsh, where thirty-nine pictures were surrendered by Marsh after Friedlander had identified them as the property of Loewenherz. At the preliminary hearing before Judge Kilbreath on April 13, 1888, the General Sessions courtroom was crowded with Spiritualists and persons of prominence in New York City. Through the assistance of Albert Creelman, then a reporter on the New York Herald, I was able to get in. The first witness called was George Salomon, who identified Madame Diss Debar as his sister, Ann O'Delia Salomon, and stated that she was born in his father's house in Mercer County, Kentucky, in 1849. A photograph submitted was identified by Salomon as that of Ann O'Delia Salomon which she had sent him ten years before. Another picture was identified as that of Ann O'Delia's daughter Alice, who was born on February 5, 1874, at his mother's home in Kentucky. Some letters addressed to George Salomon, calling him "Dear Brother", were then offered in evidence. Madame Diss Debar, to the surprise of everybody, admitted they were in her handwriting. Salomon then told the story of the wanderings of his sister from girlhood and of her disreputable character. In conclusion he said, "She has

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destroyed the peace of mind of everyone who has even said 'Good Morning' to her." Turning on Madame, Salomon added bitterly, "We had hoped to lose sight of you altogether." Madame's face flushed and her eyes flashed angrily when Lawyer William F. Howe sprang to his feet and, pointing an accusing finger at her, shouted, "She is an adventuress who has been at large too long for the public good, and she should be placed on the stand for examination on the charge of conspiracy." The Diss Debars were held for further examination under $5,000 bail each by Judge Kilbreath. At the second examination, on April 20, the court officers found great difficulty in keeping order because of the boos of sceptics and the cheers of Spiritualists at different times. After Judge Kilbreath, Judge Ford and Judge Smith had taken their places on the bench, Lawyer Hummel called as the first witness Carl Hertz, a small, wiry young man, with brown hair, sharp eyes and a small blond moustache, who the judges were informed was not a Spiritualist but an illusionist or magician. Hummel then proceeded to question Hertz: "Do you know anything about a trick by which a communication is alleged to be produced from someone in the spirit world?" "Yes, sir," replied Hertz. - "Is it really a trick?" asked Hummel. "Yes, sir, at least the one I perform is," answered Hertz. "Can you illustrate it here, publicly?" asked Hummel. "Yes, sir," replied Hertz, who obtained some pieces of paper from the court clerk. These he handed to Hummel, who, after examining them, passed them to the judges, who declared that there was no writing on them. The name of Luther Marsh was then called. When it was found that he was not present, Hertz called on somebody else to assist him in a test. When nobody responded, Hertz requested his wife to assist him, and she took the witness chair. Hertz handed his wife a piece of paper that the judges had declared free of writing, and requested her to fold it three times. After Mrs. Hertz had followed instructions, Hertz took the folded paper from her and apparently placed it in her other hand, and held her hand against her forehead for a moment while he made a few passes. He then told his wife to pass the piece of paper in her hand to Judge Kilbreath. When the paper was opened by the judge, he found written on it, "Luther Marshâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Editha". As a murmur of surprise ran through the courtroom, Madame's lawyer, Mr. Townsend, sprang to his feet and said to Hertz, "Can you perform that trick with anyone who is present?" "Yes, I can," replied Hertz. â&#x20AC;˘ "Then Madame Diss Debar would like you to try it with her," said Townsend. "All right," said Hertz. "Let her come up here." After Madame Diss Debar had taken a seat in the raised witness chair,