The Lock and Key Library: The Most Interesting Stories of All Nations: Real Life
Science
The Lock and Key Library: The Most Interesting Stories of All Nations: Real Life
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction; Parapsychology
He informed me that sheets of paper or cards were passed to the
spectators in the audience, and at the same time envelopes in which
to seal their questions were furnished for them; that the
spectators wrote questions as directed, many times signing their
own names to them. He was certain that many persons folded their
written questions before sealing them, and that the operator
himself did not even collect the envelopes on many occasions. He
informed me that the best evidence of the genuineness of the
performance lay in the fact that the medium seemed to have no fixed
conditions for his experiments; but seemed to perform them in a
different manner on each occasion. The conditions were different
in every case, yet he always read the questions with the most
marvelous certainty.
I thought the matter over after this, but could in no way think of
any plausible means of accomplishing his work by trickery. I
finally decided to wait and see the performance first, and to
figure afterwards on the method employed.
Accordingly, at eight o'clock that evening I was seated in the hall
with my friend, and shortly afterwards the "Seer" made his
appearance, taking his seat on the stage. He was a very slender
personage, with long hair and a particularly ghostly look. He took
his seat quietly on the stage. In a short time his manager
appeared and made an opening address, which I will not repeat, and
then asked some boy in the audience to pass cards around to the
spectators on which they were to write questions. Envelopes were
also distributed, in which to seal the cards. When the writing was
finished, the manager asked any boy to take a hat which he held in
his hand, and collect the sealed envelopes. After the boy, whom
everyone knew to be a local resident, kindly volunteered for this
service and executed it, a committee was invited to the stage to
properly blindfold the medium. This was done in a satisfactory
manner, and the committee then returned to the audience. The
manager now led the blindfolded medium to the rear of the stage,
where he was seated somewhat behind a table, on which were some
flowers, a music box, etc. However, the medium was in view
plainly; and he never removed the bandage from his eyes or in any
manner molested it.
When the boy came on the stage directly from the front with the hat
full of sealed envelopes, the manager placed a handkerchief over
the hat and asked the boy to take a seat near the front of the
stage facing the audience. He was also directed to hold the hat in
his lap, and to deliver the envelopes to the manager, one at a
time, as he should call for them.
The operator now delivered a lecture, lasting some ten or fifteen
minutes, explaining the strange powers of the blindfolded medium,
who sat at the rear of the stage in full view; while the boy still
maintained the seat at the front of the stage, and held the hat of
envelopes in sight of all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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