"You needn't dirty your face, Friend Spook. You've scored your points already." The "Spook" had, indeed.
Despite the exposures, many women and a few men who had come to hear the cases, expressed their devotion to the persons arrested and to the "cause."
They finally became so demonstrative that Justice Prindiville ordered the court room cleared of the "devotees."
"This is not a matinee, a spiritualists' meeting or a circus," said the Justice. "Let the devotees meet in the outer hall."
Fifty women, of all ages and many conditions of life, stood with mouths wide open and eyes bulging as Wooldridge went through his performance. They were the victims of the Nichols women.
Jennie Nichols and Sarah Nichols were fined $100 each.
Arrest South Side Mediums.
To conclude the record of the day, Detectives Wooldridge and Barry, accompanied by two officers from the Cottage Grove station, visited a seance given by Clarence A. Beverly and Mrs. M. Dixon at Arlington hall, Thirty-first street and Indiana avenue. The officers bought tickets and awaited the performance. After a lecture on psychic problems by "Dr." Beverly and a programme of music rendered by children, "Dr." Dixon took the rostrum and went through a series of clairvoyant discoveries.
Among the things which she professed to predict while in her "trance" was a prognostication which had not a little to do with the developments of the evening. After she had pointed out a number of persons in the audience and told what they had done or should do, she discovered Wooldridge and singled him out.
"I see a man with glasses who has his hands crossed over his knees," she said. "I am governed by the spirit of John Googan, an Irishman. He gives you a message," pointing to Wooldridge, "and says that whatever John orders must be done."