Spirit Slate Writing and Kindred Phenomena

by Chung Ling Soo

3. Hole in catch by which cord is secured.

4. Roller over which cord, 5, runs; cord is attached at one end, 3, to spring catch, and at other end at 6 to bolt in angle piece.

There is another very good rope and mechanical post test sometimes used by mediums. A post in an upright position is securely fastened to the floor. In the upper part of the post a hole is bored clear through, to allow of two small ropes being passed through the opening from side to side. The medium passes the ropes through the post, then invites the committee to tie his hands fast against the post, and then to tie or nail the ends of the rope down on the floor. All the usual manifestations take place. The medium is also instantaneously released, and rope and knots are found undisturbed. By glancing at Fig. 38 the mystery will be cleared up. The post is hollow, and carries a leaden or iron weight. This weight has a horizontally extending passage to correspond with the channel in the post. This weight is held in the top part of the post by a catch, which is released by a projecting bolt-head at the bottom of the post. It will be remembered that the post is made fast to the floor by screws passing through angle irons fastened by bolts to the post. It is one of these bolt-heads that releases the catch. At the bottom of the post is another catch, which will also hold the weight at the bottom. The one bolt will release both catches. The medium runs the ropes through the post, releases the catch, which allows weight to drop, carrying ropes with it; and the catch locks the weight at the bottom of the post. They can now tie the medium. All he has to do is to release the weight; he can then pull the rope up and get as large a slack as he desires, allowing the weight to drop back again. There is a chair—an ordinary-looking wooden kitchen chair—worked on somewhat the same style. There is a hole bored through each rear leg or upright of the back. The medium sits on the chair, facing the back of it, and has a hand tied to each upright. The slack is obtained the same as in the post, with the exception that a spring instead of a weight is used, and it is locked or released by the backward or forward sliding of a portion of the chair-seat.

A convincing trick often employed is the iron ring test. The medium and investigator sit opposite each other, clasping their hands. An iron ring is now placed on the medium’s lap, and the cabinet door is closed; in a few moments the door is opened again, and the ring is found on the investigator’s arm, although he has never released his hold of the medium’s hand. The medium has concealed in his coat sleeve a duplicate of the ring used. When the cabinet door is closed, the medium spreads his legs apart, allowing the ring to drop on the seat of his chair, the bottom of which should be of cane or of cloth, in order to avoid the noise due to the dropping of the ring. He now replaces his legs, and, of course, this ring is hidden merely by his sitting on it. The ring in his sleeve he tosses on to the skeptic’s arm, and, of course, without the hands being unclasped.

The handcuff trick is always a great favorite with the medium. He has no objection to placing his hands in any pair of handcuffs furnished by the audience. A few moments after he has entered the cabinet, he begins throwing out various articles of clothing; but, on examination, the handcuffs are found to be still on his wrists. It is impossible to see how he could have taken off his coat. As a final test the medium comes out of the cabinet holding the handcuffs in his hand still locked. There are only a few styles of handcuffs made, and all the medium has to do is to secure the proper key for each style. He conceals these keys on his person, and by the aid of his fingers and teeth the proper key can be fitted to the handcuffs. It is impossible, with some types of handcuffs, to get the fingers to the keyhole. If such a pair are placed on the performer, and he cannot use his teeth to hold the key, he slips the key into a convenient crack in the cabinet or in the chair. The lock of the handcuffs being forced on to the key, the handcuffs can then be readily unlocked.

The spirit collar is also a favorite instrument of the medium. It consists of a brass collar which fits closely about the performer’s neck. Through the openings in the end of the collar, is placed a chain. After the collar is on the performer’s neck, the chain is placed around a post and carried back and through the padlock used to lock the collar. By this arrangement the performer is securely fastened to a post; but after he is concealed by the use of any convenient means, he suddenly appears before the audience minus the collar, while the collar will be found locked, as before. The trick depends for its success on the series of bolts with which the collar is studded. The bolts, with one exception, are all false, being pieces of metal simply screwed into the top and bottom of the collar, and not penetrating through them. One bolt, however, passes through the collar and engages the two parts thereof; the parts terminate in a tongue which fits in the socket in the other half of the collar. The bolt passes through this tongue so accurately that there is no danger of its being removed with the fingers. The performer uses a small wrench to remove the bolt.

There are numerous other devices, such as trick bolts, which are inserted by a spectator through a post and screwed up tight, the medium being fastened to the bolt. He has simply to give the bolt a half twist, usually toward the right, and the bolt comes apart. The joint is invisible to the eye, and, in fact, is made more so just before it is used each time by being rubbed with sandpaper, which slightly roughens the bolt, making the joint imperceptible to the naked eye. There are staples, ordinary looking staple-plates, which are apparently screwed fast into the bench on which the medium is seated. The hands of the medium are fastened to the staples by wire. The staples are not fastened to the plates by riveting them, as is ordinarily done, but are held by a spring catch, concealed under the plate, and working in a notch in the staple. This is released by the medium’s pushing the catch back by the insertion of a piece of clock spring between the staple plate and the bench. After releasing himself he performs the stereotyped manifestations, and at the finish has simply to jam the staples back into their plate, whereupon they are locked or held fast by the spring catch or bolt. This was a device used by a Boston medium.

There are also trick bags in which the medium is bound up or tied. In one style of bag there is a string running in the selvage, or turned-over portion of the bag at the top. As the string is about to be drawn taut the medium inserts one of his fingers into a portion of this selvage not sewn, and pulls down enough slack of the cord to allow him, after the tying, either to place his arm through or to get out entirely. Another style is this: The medium has a round wooden plug, covered with cloth like the bag. This he has concealed about him. As the mouth of the bag is gathered together to tie the string, the medium inserts this plug, and bag and plug are both tied. After the tying he has simply to remove the plug and he can then place his hand through and release the cord, or shove it off the bag completely. Still another way is to have a duplicate bag concealed down one trousers leg and coming up at the back of the neck under the coat, the mouth of the bag being upward. When the medium gets in, his manager or the director of the séance gathers the mouth of the bag together, and, at the same time, pulls the duplicate bag out from under the medium’s coat. He pulls this up four or five inches higher than the original bag and ties his handkerchief around where the two bags are joined, so the trick will not be detected. He then allows a committee to tie, and even sew, the bag together—of course, the duplicate, not the first one. The medium has simply to pull the first bag down around him, get out of it and conceal it on his body. A “dodge” used sometimes is to borrow one of the investigators’ handkerchiefs and drop it into the duplicate bag; and, after the medium has escaped and the bag is given for inspection, the bag is opened and the handkerchief found inside. This strengthens the effect of the trick, inasmuch as it convinces the onlookers that the medium certainly must have been got out by the aid of spirits, as the handkerchief—a very small article, in comparison to the body of the medium—could not be removed until the string had been released from the bag.

Mediums are great judges of human nature; they know full well the usual action of the human mind, the direction the thoughts are liable to travel in. This is part of their stock-in-trade—to try to do just such things as the handkerchief “dodge,” in order to convince the skeptic of the truth of the wonders witnessed.