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.
Fig. 41.—Ground Plan
of Cabinet.
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.
Fig. 42.—The Trick Cabinet.
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.
Fig. 43.—The Wire Cage.