“And we will not require Dr. Gardiner or the ‘mediums’ to risk a single cent on the experiment. If one or all of them can do one of these things, the five hundred dollars shall be paid on the spot. If they fail, they shall pay nothing; not even the expense incident to trying the experiment.”
The Committee made a report which declared that nothing had been done which entitled any one to receive the sum offered by the Courier. Therefore no award was made.
A library might be written containing only accounts of private investigations of “spiritual phenomena” by able and scientific observers, all of which conduced to but one verdict, that every pretense of Spiritualism is a fraud. I deem it more appropriate, however, and entirely adequate to my purpose, to restrict my citations from such inquiries to those which had an absolutely undeniable official or authoritative character.
CHAPTER XI.
THE SUPREME AUDACITY OF FRAUD.
The multitude of forms that a certain kind of deception, when once it obtains a foothold in the public mind, will assume, is often wonderful.
Spiritualism has resorted to all the trickery that for ages has been used to delude and delight the populace.
Much of it could be traced back to the very first mountebanks who wandered about the streets of the ancient cities, or squatted at the gates of palaces or in market-places to catch the frequent obolus from the curious passer-by.