CHAPTER V.

TABLE LIFTING AND SPIRIT RAPPING.

So much has been heard about table tipping and floating tables, it will, I think, prove interesting to explain a few of the clever devices employed to produce the above phenomena. Small, light tables are lifted by the mere “laying on of hands.” The arms are raised in the air and the table is seen to cling to the hands and follow every motion. This is accomplished by a pin driven well into the table, and a ring with a slot in it (Fig. 27) worn on one of the medium’s fingers. The body of the pin easily enters the slot in the ring, but the head of the pin, being larger, prevents the table from falling away from the hand. After the table has been floated successfully, an extra strong upward pressure of the hand pulls the pin out, and the table can be examined. Another test on somewhat similar lines is the lifting of a bowl of water by immersing the hand in the basin of water. In this case a pin is fastened firmly into a leather or rubber sucker, and the finger ring again does the work. (Fig. 28.) This can also be used to lift anything that is not of a porous nature. A table with a well polished top can be easily lifted. In lifting large tables the medium is assisted by a confederate among the assembled guests. It is his duty to get as near opposite the medium as possible. The medium and the confederate have fastened to their wrists, by means of a leather cuff and straps, a bent hook. (Fig. 29.) Their hands rest on top and the hooks under the table. By this means it is a simple task to raise the table. Sometimes the above device is varied; instead of hooks fastened to their wrists they use hooks from under their vests, hanging by a loop from their necks. (Fig. 30.) I have seen a square table lifted without the use of either of the above devices. The medium and his confederate simply got the linen cuffs of their right hands well under the corner of the table, and with their hands on top they found no difficulty in raising the table by this improvised means.

Although spiritualists claim they have, and can, make pianos float in the air, I have never seen it accomplished, and I could never get a medium who was able to produce the effect, and I sincerely doubt if any one can honestly and truthfully acknowledge they have witnessed it.

I saw a small, round table once floated in the air without the medium touching it. It was accomplished by means of two threads running across the room and worked by two confederates. The threads were on the floor and lifted up and allowed to catch under the table.

I have also seen a letter raised from a table and float in the air into the medium’s hand. This was done also with a thread, one end fastened in the wall above the table the letter rested on, the other near the medium. The letter is not sealed. This allows the thread to go between the flap and letter, or envelope, and when the medium pulled the thread taut, it made an incline for the envelope to travel on, right up to the outstretched hand.

Years ago Robert-Houdin, the celebrated French conjurer, produced, at his pretty little theater in Paris, an illusion which, for startling effects, has not since that time been excelled; and the means which he employed for operating the stage machinery have been employed in many stage tricks of more recent date. The stage is set to represent a drawing-room, and, in stage parlance, would be called a “box set.” There are side scenes, as well as a “drop” or back piece. In the center of the room is a large door, and a grand piano rests against one of the side scenes, a small table being placed near the door. When the illusion is to be performed, a lady enters carrying a bouquet, which she leaves on the table and advances to the piano. (See Frontispiece.) She seats herself, opens the cover of the piano and plays a short piece; then, closing down the cover, remarks that she does not feel in the humor to play. She extends her hand toward the bouquet on the table, which mysteriously rises and falls through the air into her hand; and, at the same time, she is seen to rise upward in the air still seated upon the piano stool. When she reaches a point midway between the ceiling and the floor she glides toward the opposite sides of the room, and the piano, which seems as if it will not be outdone, rises also and follows her through the air. This is usually received with great applause by the audience, and the curtain falls. The explanation of the phenomena is the following (Fig. 31): In the first place, the piano case is cleverly made out of _papier maché_, and is really a mere shell containing no keyboard or action. The back of the piano is open; immediately behind it, in the side scene, is a trap, and at the back of this scene is a real piano mounted on a truck, so that it can be easily moved backward and forward. Our engraving shows both the piano and the trap. When the real piano is run into the _papier maché_ case the keyboard is in its normal position, so that the lady can play upon it. When the lady finishes playing she closes the lid of the false piano. As soon as this is done an assistant behind the scene moves the piano back, thus leaving the empty shell, and the trap in the scene is closed. The false piano is, of course, very light, and to it are fastened fine wires, which are invisible at a short distance; one is secured to each corner. These wires run up over pulleys on a truck overhead, which can be run backward and forward immediately over the scene. Each wire is terminated by a bag of sand or shot, which counter-balances the weight of the piano. It will be noticed that there is a fifth wire secured to the false case. It is run up also over the pulley in the truck, and then off to the side of the stage beyond the side scenes. By pulling this wire the piano is raised or lowered to any desired distance. Counterweights hold the instrument at any position. There is a rope attached to the overhead truck, so that it can be pulled back and forth, thus causing the piano to move across the stage. There are, of course, slits in the ceiling of the mimic stage which allow the wires to pass through.

The lady is raised by a curious device. There is attached to the piano stool a clear piece of plate glass, which comes up through a slot in the stage technically known as a “slider.” This glass is made to raise or lower by means of a windlass. The glass rests on a cross-piece of wood and works up and down in a grooved frame, which is secured to a movable truck under the stage. The slot in the stage is continued in the direction in which the glass is to move, and the carpet is of a marked design which will cover the narrow opening.

The bouquet is secured with a thread attached to the piano, and it then goes through the door, where an assistant holds the loose end. A small loop of wire is attached to the bouquet, and a thread runs through it. When the lady enters the room and lays the bouquet on the table, this thread is passed through the loop of wire. When the bouquet is desired to travel to the lady, the assistant has only to raise the end of the thread high enough and the bouquet slides down the incline into the lady’s hand.

A medium in Detroit, Mich., has lately been hoodwinking the public and coining money with an idea that was quite original. He employed a small, shallow box, composed of wooden sides and ends and slate top and bottom. The box and its lid were about of even height, and were hinged together. (Fig. 32.) The box contained a telegraph key connected up to a sounder and a dry battery sitting outside of the box on the table. The medium allowed everything to be well examined. It was proved that the battery on the table was the only means of operating the sounder whenever the key was worked. If one of the wires were disconnected, or the box were closed and the key thus out of the way of manipulation, the sounder would not work. After everything was satisfactorily explained, notes were written on pieces of paper, which were folded and placed upon the table. These are taken, one at a time, and placed in the box and the lid closed. If conditions are favorable, the spirits will be enabled to read one of the inclosed notes, and will send a telegraphic reply over the sounder; and such is ofttimes the result. Of course, we know spirits do nothing of the sort; it is the medium who accomplishes all of this. How does he know the contents of the note? How does he cause the ticker to work with the key inclosed in the box? The visitor is placed on one side of the table, generally facing a window, so as to have the light shine into his or her eyes. The medium sits opposite with his back toward the window; the box containing the key is at his side of the table, with the hinges, or the back of the box, toward the visitor. Now, if the lid of this box is opened and a paper taken off the table and placed in the box and the lid closed, you could not tell for certain if the paper was actually placed in or not, for the simple reason that the cover of the box, when up, completely masked the operation. It is by the above scheme that the medium obtains the notes on the paper. The first one or two are actually placed in the box; then the next one is deliberately dropped into the medium’s lap instead of the box. He unfolds it, reads it, refolds it, and, on opening the box, apparently takes it from there and places it back on the table and does not lose track of it. Two or three other papers are placed in it by the visitor, and again taken out by him. Again the visitor is asked to place in it the one the medium knows the contents of. Now the ticker commences to work. With his left hand carelessly resting on the corner of the closed box, the medium writes with his right hand, with a pencil, on a pad of paper, the communication received over the ticker. The visitor removes the paper from the box, and the answer just written by the medium on the pad is found to be a reasonable one to the written request.

All that remains to be explained is the working of the sounder. It is very simple. In the first place, the lid and box are hinged so as to be hinge bound; that is, they will not, of their own weight, quite touch each other, possibly about an eighth of an inch, or less, apart. But by the pressure or weight of the hand they will come together. Now, the telegraph key, like all such instruments, is provided with a tension screw, which can be screwed one way or the other. When the medium desires his instrument to work, he raises this tension screw, to which is fastened the button of the key, just high enough to touch the lid on the inside of the box when it is closed of its own weight. Now, when the hand is resting on the box, he proceeds to make the sounder “speak” at will, with no perceptible movement of his hand. A simple muscular contraction of the palm of the hand, which cannot be detected, is sufficient to control the sensitive key, by pressure of the box cover on it. The whole thing is so simple, and at the same time puzzling, that it makes one laugh to think how little it takes to make a fool of a man.

In the case of this medium, the head of the tension screw was brass, and left a brassy mark on the slate top. He soon observed this, and changed it for a hard rubber one, which left no telltale marks behind. Sometimes he did not raise the tension screw, but laid the folded paper the question was written on on top of it. This made up the required height. Other mediums improved on the above method by working the key through the box by an electro-magnet concealed in the table top. The current to the magnets was turned on and off, or broken, as the line is used, by means of a small button in the body of the table, pressed by the medium’s leg. This method allowed him to keep his hand off the box.

The raps, or noises, are produced in various manners. Press your boot heel gently against a table leg. The slipping of the leather against the wood makes perfect spirit raps, wood being a good conductor of sound. The raps apparently come from the table top if attention is directed in that direction. Some mediums, with the tips of their fingers pressed firmly on a table top, slip them, by a dexterous movement, along the varnished surface, thus making very fair examples of raps or thuds. Some mediums, in their own homes, have tables provided with electro-magnets concealed in them, by which the knocks are accomplished. Medical experts claim that a very good result can be obtained by the mere displacement of the tendons of the muscle called _peroneus longus_, in the sheath in which it slides behind the external _malleolus_. Others again produce it by snapping the toe or knee joints. Watch a boy some day as he snaps his finger joints, and if he were to rest his elbows on the table while doing so, the sound would be intensely strengthened.