CHAPTER VIII.

SÉANCES AND MISCELLANEOUS SPIRIT TRICKS.

A test which made the Eddy Brothers famous was their “light” and “dark” séances. Horatio Eddy gave what he termed a “light séance,” and William was famous for the “dark séance.” Instead of using a cabinet of wood, Horatio formed one simply by stretching a couple of shawls or curtains across a corner of the room, thus making a triangular inclosure. A table containing the usual musical instruments, bells, tambourine, guitar, etc., is placed in this space. The medium sits on a chair in front of this curtain, to the left hand side. Next to him, on his right, sits a gentleman selected from the audience, and to the right of this gentleman, a lady similarly chosen. William Eddy now pins across the breasts of the two gentlemen a third shawl, attaching the ends to the curtain. (Fig. 39.) Previously to this, however, Horatio has grasped with both his hands the gentleman’s left arm; the lady is requested to grasp the gentleman’s right arm. In this position neither can make a movement but what one of the others would be immediately cognizant of it. Presently there is a commotion among the articles on the table behind the screen; they appear floating in the air above the top of the curtains, some coming through and tapping the trio on the head. A hand comes through the curtain and writes a message on the slate held by William Eddy. Numerous other tests are performed--all in subdued light, not darkness. Now, to raise the veil from this mystery: In grasping the left arm of the person in the center, the medium first grasps the gentleman’s left arm with his, the medium’s, left hand, fingers being spread apart as far as possible. With this hand he presses quite hard, and takes a light hold of the same arm, but above the left hand. If the medium gently and carefully removes the right hand, the action cannot, by sense of touch, be detected. Sometimes, so as to enable him to use both hands, another ruse is also employed. A piece of heavy sheet lead is cut in the shape of the medium’s hand. This is placed in his left hand. With this hand he grasps the skeptic’s arm. Being made of lead, the hand easily conforms or bends to the shape of the arm, and, what is more, if the real hand of the medium be quietly removed, the leaden hand remains behind, giving the same sense of touch as if the actual hand were there. (Fig. 40.) Of course, with the hands free, the medium can stealthily glide between the curtains, grasp and manipulate the instruments, and throw them to the floor, immediately replacing his hands gently.

A rather clever test used in a dark séance, given by Miss Annie Eva Fay, is one in which the hands are not bound. Miss Fay made cotton, bandage and tape-ties a success, and sometimes varied her séance by not using a tie, but by continually clapping her hands together during the darkness. She also had her mouth filled with water. Nevertheless, the usual manifestations occurred. The horn “tooted,” the tambourine and guitar floated, bells rang, etc. The dodge she employed was this: Instead of clapping her hands together, she slapped one against her forehead, which gave the same sound, and gave her one hand at liberty. She also swallowed the water. She was now at liberty to blow the horn, ring bells or the like. When she was finished, she refilled her mouth with water from a bottle concealed on her person, and again resumed, clapping her hands together instead of striking one hand against her forehead. An investigator suspected the idea of the water and once came prepared with a glass of milk, which he requested the medium to use instead. She consented. The horn tooted just the same, and the medium’s mouth still contained the milk. She had simply inserted the end of the horn in one of her nostrils. Another time she merely emptied the liquid into one of the hand bells on the table and held it upside down in her lap. Still another “wrinkle” is the use of a rubber ball with a hole in it. This can readily be attached to the horn, and squeezing the ball does the tooting.

Dr. Henry Slade was, of course, identified and recognized as the principal slate-writing medium, but at various times he presented other phenomena, one of which was the playing of an accordion while held in one hand under the table. The accordion was taken by him from the table with his right hand, at the end containing the strap, the keys or notes at the other end being away from him. He thus held the accordion beneath the table, and his left hand was laid on top of the table, where it was always in plain view. Nevertheless, the accordion was heard to give forth melodious tunes, and at the conclusion was brought up on top of the table as held originally; the whole dodge consisting in turning the accordion end for end as it went under the table. The strap end being now downward, and held between the legs, the medium’s hand grasped the keyboard end, and worked the bellows and keys, holding the accordion firmly with the legs and working the hand, not with an arm movement, but mostly by a simple wrist movement. Of course, at the conclusion, the hand grasped the accordion at the strap end, and brought it up in this condition. Sometimes an accordion is tied with strings and sealed so the bellows cannot be worked. This is for the dark séance. Even in this condition the accordion is played by inserting a tube in the air-hole or valve and by the medium’s using his lungs as bellows.

In regard to dark séances and materializations, I would state that they are so barefaced and bold it is hardly worth while to worry about them. What cannot be done in the dark? Spirit costumes, to be donned later by the medium to impersonate people from the other world, are concealed in strange places under the very eyes of the investigators--in the body of the guitar, in a drum, about the person of one of the circle of skeptics, who is really a confederate, or behind the surface of a wall. Time and place make all the difference in the method of work used by mediums. In their homes mediums have any number of accomplices, who enter the room under cover of darkness by various means--one way, by means of a trap in the floor. This opens upwardly; the carpet does not have to be cut, and can also be well tacked down. The trap is not cut square, but triangularly, across the two sides of the room in one corner. Through this trap the confederates, disguised as spirits, enter from the cellar below and vanish. Another method is to gain admittance from an adjoining room. Between the two rooms are sliding doors, misnamed “folding” doors. The space in one of the walls is not only large enough to receive its own single door, but also a portion of the other. Before commencing the séance, the doors are locked and the key kept by a committee. The doors are also sealed with court plaster across their joints, and said court plaster sealed with sealing-wax. The confederates are not obliged to push the doors apart; they simply slide both at the same time toward the side previously mentioned. This side receives one door and a portion of the other, thus leaving an opening for a person slyly to creep through.

Sometimes, in the circle of investigators, there are five or six confederates. Three of these are placed or seated together. Now, if all in the circle join hands, it seems no one could assist the medium without the fact being discovered; but in the center, one of three confederates, sitting together, releases the hands of his companions, and, in the dark, “cuts up” all the tricks he wishes and returns to the circle again, no one being any the wiser. Of course, if one confederate were seated between two of the skeptics, he would not dare let go his hands; but when a friend is placed each side of him, it makes no difference. A test often used, when everybody, medium included, is sitting at a table, is the wire test. A copper wire is threaded through the shirt sleeve of every male member present, and through the sleeve of the ladies’ dresses, the wire being fastened to the table by staples. When the lights are put out, the spirits “raise Cain” again. It is the medium again. The wire did not go through his shirt sleeves, but through two short extra shirt sleeves, or cuffs, which he wears over the real sleeves. All he has to do is to slip out of these, produce the manifestations, and slip back into the cuffs again.

A test that caused more talk and wonderment than all the rest of the cabinet tricks combined is the chair and net test. The medium enters a very small cabinet, just large enough to contain him when sitting down in a chair. The cabinet is closed by a single door, locked with a padlock, the keyhole of which is sealed; the door is also sealed all around the edges. A fish-net so finely meshed that even the finger of the medium could not be pushed through, is now placed over this cabinet and tacked to it all around the bottom. This miniature cabinet is set in the cabinet proper, and a chair, with the usual bell, tambourine, etc., placed beside it. Doors are closed, and immediately the fun begins. Bells, tambourine, and horns all play together. A sudden fall of the chair and instruments is heard, and the cabinet doors being opened, everything is found strewn about; the smaller cabinet is, however, still found as it was left, with the netting over it and seals undisturbed. Again the large cabinet is closed, and almost immediately it is opened from the inside, and out walks the medium; and the netting on the smaller cabinet is examined once more, and likewise the padlock and seals, everything is found intact. The whole trick depends upon the construction of the smaller cabinet. Fig. 41 represents a ground plan of the apparatus. The floor is not nailed or fastened to the sides. There are four battens or strengthening pieces, one in each corner of the cabinet, running from top to bottom; these are securely fastened to the floor, but not to the sides of the cabinet. Over these battens is laid a strip of wood that is really made fast to the cabinet. This leaves in each corner a socket or pocket the height of the cabinet, and in these work, telescopic fashion, the four battens which are made fast to the bottom. The bottom is set inside of the cabinet, not on the outside. It is only tacked to the sides of the bottom of cabinet. It will now be readily observed that the medium has only to stand up in order to raise the main part of the cabinet quite a height above the bottom, as seen at Fig. 42. It is held in the above position by a concealed catch. The medium can now produce manifestations, and, as he is about to drop the cabinet back into the bottom, he gives the leg of the chair a jerk and over it goes, and down drops the cabinet. There is also a catch that automatically locks the bottom firm to the cabinet, so as to allow inspection of the same.

The above manifestation was in use long before the wire cage test, and is considered by some mediums more convincing than the latter. While speaking about the wire cage test, I may as well describe one form of it. There are numerous makes, but the one explained will serve as a sample of the rest. A cage composed of uprights and cross-bars of iron is made fast to an iron frame containing a small door through which the medium enters. Sometimes the door is done away with and the bottom of the cage is separated from it. The medium sits on this bottom, and the cage is lifted and placed over him. The bottom and cage are padlocked together or bound with wires and sealed.

No matter what method is used, the results are the same; the medium can play the instruments or escape, as he may see fit. The wire cage is, we shall say, of a design similar to that shown in Fig. 43. There is no door to it, and the cage being secured by a wire bottom padlocked on or nailed fast to the floor. A close inspection of Fig. 44 will help to expose the fraud. The lower cross-bar is not riveted through the frame at its end, but ends square against it, and a false rivet head, having no connection with it, is riveted on the frame where this cross-bar is supposed to emerge. All of the upright rods are made fast only to this cross-bar. In the other cross-bars they simply go through holes, not closely, but loosely, to ensure then to be slid up and down. The tops of these rods are riveted, but not made fast to the frame at the top. The center rod is not made permanent in the lower cross-bar, but is fastened so it can be turned around one way or the other. Now, where all these rods are supposed to come through the lower part of the iron frame are rivet-heads representing the heads of the rods, should they have come through. The bottom frame is drilled half way through for the end of each rod to enter a little, the middle rod is tapped with a thread like a screw on its end, and its corresponding hole is also tapped. It will now be seen why this rod was left to turn. By pulling cross-bar down and then screwing this middle rod tight, everything is solid; but unscrew the rod and raise the cross-bar, and all the upright rods will travel with it and the medium is at liberty. And we have another spirit mystery laid bare. I could describe numerous other tricks and devices of a like nature, but a few are as good as a quantity; sufficient, in fact, to place the investigator on his guard against being duped by like contrivances.

I believe a few words in regard to spirit photography will not be amiss. These are made or produced in various ways: First, a glass with an image on it of the desired spirit form could be placed in the plate holder, in front of the sensitive plate, so that the image on the glass would act on the sensitive plate. The size and distinctness of the resulting spirit form would vary according to the distance between the two plates. Second, a figure clothed in white can be introduced for a moment behind the sitter and then be withdrawn before the sitting is over, leaving a shadowy image on the plate. Third, a microscopic picture of the spirit form can be inserted in the camera box alongside of the lens, and by a small magnifying lens its image can be thrown on the sensitive plate with that of the sitter. This is the trick used when the skeptic brings his own plate for the negative. Fourth, a glass with the spirit image can be placed behind the sensitive plate after the sitting is completed, and afterward, by a feeble light, the image can be impressed upon the plate with that of the sitter. Fifth, the silver nitrate bath could have a glass side, and the image impressed by a secret light while the glass plate apparently was being coated with the sensitive film. Sixth, the spirit form can be printed first on the negative and then the living sitter by a second printing, or the spirit can be printed on the paper and the sitter’s portrait printed over it. Seventh, a sensitive plate can be prepared by what is known as the dry process, the spirit form being impressed on it; and then, at a subsequent time, the portrait of the living sitter can be taken on this same plate, so that the two will develop together. Eighth, take a solution of sulphate of quinine and paint on the background screen a picture of any one; when it dries it is invisible to the naked eye. Still, when the picture is taken, the painted picture is very plainly seen on the glass negative. Ninth, small pictures are taken on thin, transparent celluloid and fastened against the front lens of the camera, and when the photograph is taken the picture appears. Of course, the above are by no means all the methods, but enough to illustrate the possibilities of obtaining two pictures on the same plate or at one sitting.