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
I will now explain the method pursued on the second evening. After
the questions were written and sealed, the manager went among the
spectators collecting the envelopes in a cloth bag. He first
numbered the envelopes, at the same time instructing each spectator
to remember his number, after which the envelopes were dropped into
the bag. When all the envelopes were collected, the manager lifted
the bag in the tips of his fingers and ascended to the stage with
it in plain view. He quickly attached it to the cord and drew it
up to the ceiling. So far all was fair; but just at this moment a
person in the rear of the hall made the statement that he desired
to place his envelope in the bag also. The performer asked a
gentleman on the floor to take the bag, which he now lowered and
detached, and to kindly go to the gentleman and get his envelope.
While he was doing this the manager held the audience by his
discourse. The two gentlemen were, of course, paid confederates;
and when they met behind the spectators, they merely exchanged the
first bag for a duplicate under the coat of the rear confederate,
who then slipped around behind the stage with the original.
When the other confederate returned to the stage with the duplicate
bag and handed it to the manager he ran this one up to the ceiling.
This method can be varied by the manager making the exchange under
his own coat in the first place when in the rear of the hall after
collecting the envelopes.
Meanwhile an assistant behind the scenes opened and copied the
questions neatly on a sheet of paper, and NUMBERED EACH ONE. As he
did this he slipped each one into a duplicate envelope, which was
also numbered by the manager with a ring drawn around the figure.
This he sealed. As soon as all were copied this assistant
carefully drew the medium's Bible just out of sight from the table
near the flies where it rested, inserted the sheet containing the
copied questions, and pushed it back into view again.
During this time the medium was walking slowly about at the front
of the stage while the manager delivered his lecture. At the close
of the lecture the medium stepped back to the table where he had
laid his Bible a short time before, picked it up and came forward
taking a seat facing the audience. He next opened the Bible and
turned the leaves over slowly, passing the sheet of paper and
reading and memorizing the first question quickly. He then turned
the leaves beyond this sheet of paper and finally selected a verse
and began reading it impressively. As he read this verse he
allowed the Bible to tilt forward sufficiently for the spectators
to see that there was nothing like a loose sheet in it, should such
an idea occur to anyone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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