PSYCHOLOGICAL CURIOSITIES OF SPIRITUALISM. 



119 



The inditer of this precious stuff is the trust- 

 worthy witness whose assurance that he has 

 proved, " under the most rigid test-conditions," 

 that " Katie King " could not have been person- 

 ated by Eliza White, is adduced by Messrs. Wal- 

 lace and Crookes in support of the above charge ! 



Mr. Crookes and his "Scientific Tests." 

 As Mr. Crookes has in more than one instance 

 pledged his scientific reputation to the genuine- 

 ness of the performances of " mediums," on the 

 strength of what he describes as "scientific 

 tests," the probative value of these tests consti- 

 tutes a most legitimate subject of inquiry ; and 

 the following history will afford some means of 

 estimating this : 



About three years ago, there came to London 

 from Louisville, Kentucky, a good-looking young 

 woman, who, having come out as "a physical 

 and mental test medium," and having in that 

 capacity made the tour of the principal cities 

 and towns of the United States, gave a series of 

 performances in the Hanover Square Rooms, at 

 one of which I was myself present. A short 

 preliminary lecture was given by a gentlemanly- 

 looking man, styling himself "Colonel" Fay, 

 whose relation to the lady was then spoken of 

 as paternal, though elsewhere it seems to have 

 been marital. The " colonel " candidly informed 

 his audience that he purposely abstained from 

 saying anything about the nature of the "mani- 

 festations ; " he did not claim for them a " spirit- 

 ualistic" character; on the other hand, he did 

 not present them as conjuring tricks. He left 

 every one free to judge for himself or herself; as 

 the showman said to the little girl, it was "which- 

 ever you please, my pretty dear." 



The performance consisted of two parts : the 

 first, or "light seance" being a new version of 

 the " cabinet-trick " originally introduced by 

 the Davenport brothers ; while the second was 

 a " dark seance," for " manifestations" of a differ- 

 ent order. Having previously seen Maskelyne 

 and Cooke's presentation of the cabinet-trick, 

 " with new and startling effects," I felt perfectly 

 sure that they could, without the least difficulty, 

 reproduce everything done by Eva Fay ; her per- 

 formances being all explicable on the very simple 

 hypothesis that her hands were not really tied 



what he puts forward as a public document. And I 

 may add that it is fully borne out by information I 

 have received direct from New York ; which, without 

 at all calling his honesty in question, makes it clear 

 that he is the very type of those gdbe-monches who, as 

 Mr. Home says, are ready to swallow anything from 

 gnats to camels. 



behind her so tightly as they seemed to be. And 

 Mr. Maskelyne states ("Modern Spiritualism," 

 page 121) that while these "manifestations" 

 were running on at the Hanover Square Rooms, 

 Mr. Cooke was actually giving an exact reproduc- 

 tion of them twice a week at the Egyptian Hall. 



At the conclusion of the first part of the per- 

 formance, the cabinet was moved out of the way ; 

 and Eva Fay having taken her seat on a stool in 

 the centre of the stage, the "colonel" requested 

 the occupants of the two front rows of reserved 

 seats to come up and sit on a circle of chairs 

 placed around her, joining their hands together, 

 so that the " circle " (of which the colonel, like 

 myself, was a component) should be complete. 

 Eva Fay then began clapping her hands together 

 with a steady rhythmical beat; and we were 

 directed to keep our attention fixed upon the 

 continuity of this, after the lights should be 

 turned down, as a proof that any "manifesta- 

 tion" which should require manual instrumen- 

 tality could not be her doing. Various " proper- 

 ties " — such as guitars, bells, and fans — were 

 then laid about "promiscuously," some of them 

 on the knees of the sitters ; and the gas having 

 been put out on and near the stage, and turned 

 " down to the blue " elsewhere, the darkness 

 on the stage was so complete that nothing 

 whatever could be discerned by any one not 

 habituated to it. Immediately there was a 

 rustling sound within the circle, as of " spirits " 

 moving stealthily about ; guitar-strings were 

 twanged, bells were rung, open fans were moved 

 before our faces, our legs were struck, our arms 

 were pinched, our whiskers were pulled, and 

 some " old fogies " were chucked under the chin 

 — while all this time the clapping sound was con- 

 tinuously heard ! Now, granting that there was 

 no confederacy, that the " colonel's " hands were 

 held during the whole time, so that he could not 

 give any assistance to his partner, would it not 

 become clear to any man of average shrewdness 

 not "possessed" by an idea, that, while Eva Fay 

 was doing all this " business " with one hand, she 

 could keep up the clapping sound by striking her 

 forehead, cheek, or bared arm, with the other ? 

 But if this should be openly suggested by any 

 troublesome skeptic (which did not happen when 

 I was myself present), the " colonel " was pre- 

 pared with another " manifestation." " To show 

 the impossibility of such a thing, one gentleman 

 shall now be allowed to hold the medium's hands ; 

 still, a bell shall be rung, a guitar be thrummed, 

 and possibly the gentleman holding the medium's 

 hands shall have his face fanned." All this, says 



