Some performers do not cover the medium with a sheet. In this case one of the rear legs of the chair, in which she sits, comes directly over a small hole in the stage. The leg of the chair is hollow and this opening extends up the back of the chair, the chair being one of the bent-wood variety.
The medium has a small rubber tube, one end connected to her ear, the other end running around her head and down the back of her neck. This tube is concealed by her hair and dress. The performer, in blind-folding the medium, slips the free end of this tube into a small hole in the back of the chair which opens into the hollow back and leg. One end of another tube is passed up through the hole in the floor into the hollow chair leg; the other end of this tube is in the hands of the assistant where he has concealed himself. Anything whispered into this end, to which is attached a mouth-piece, is distinctly heard by medium.
The rest is easy, for instead of medium having a list of questions to read they are in possession of assistant, who reads them to her through the speaking tube, together with notes regarding the answers and all other information passed into him by performer. In my opinion, this is a very much neater way of performing the trick, for there has never been a good reason advanced for covering the medium with a sheet.
CLOSING REMARKS.
It must be remembered that in this little volume the author has not been able to enumerate and discuss all the methods used by clairvoyants or mind-readers on the public stage, or suggest what methods they will next use, for they will surely plan and contrive new ones as soon as the old methods are discovered. But I think, however, by the aid of the preceding explanations and suggestions the reader will perceive how most of the performances of this kind are now accomplished, and by the knowledge of these secrets discover other methods and, possibly, those to come in the future.
I hope I have been successful in removing my readers from the hazy clouds of occultism and bringing them to earth, where we are all predestined to remain, both body and soul, until death. The only mind that any of us can read is that of our own, and that, many times, not too well. If any of us could fathom the thoughts of others an interview with financiers of Wall Street would enable us to own the world in a short time, especially if we could also predict the future, which would be, in my opinion, an easier and shorter way of gaining earthly riches than two performances a day at popular prices.
CHAPTER V.
PARLOR AMUSEMENTS.
I will now explain a few simple little tricks in second sight which may be performed by any one in his own home, but which, if well done, will be very mystifying.