“Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring,” was the suggestion of Pope; and if Mr. Bishop or any of those who have been sipping at this fountain of knowledge would call upon me (at 6 James Street, Franklin Square) I would take pleasure in showing them the unsuspected extent of their own powers, and showing how thoroughly the questions they are interested in were investigated over forty years ago, to scatter the mystery and bring the wonderful and almost incredible powers of the mind into correlation with biology and anatomy.
I might show them, too, that mind-readers are not such extraordinary persons as they are commonly supposed. There are many millions in the world who can exercise the class of faculties to which mind-reading belongs—a class of faculties long neglected by superficial scientists, from the cultivation of which more may be expected for the future intellectual progress of mankind than from anything else now known to the universities.
I mean no disrespect in styling Mr. Bishop a sciolist (or undeveloped scientist). That very sciolism brought him into sympathy with Dr. Carpenter and other distinguished gentlemen who would not have listened to him if he had come in any nobler manner, and enabled him to open their eyes. Perhaps if he will take another step in advance he can lead the majority of his pupils to a higher position, and thus render a signal service to society. I hope he will have the candor and courage to advance far beyond his present position.
Jos. Rodes Buchanan.
Since Mr. Bishop’s exhibitions have been so successful and profitable, several others have repeated his performances of telling the number of a bank note, finding hidden articles, and going through any performance that was enacted during his absence from the hall. Mr. Montague, an editor of the Globe, Mr. George, Mr. Wilder, and several others have shown the same powers. A dispatch from St. John, New Brunswick, to the Herald describes a remarkable performance at that place as follows:
“St. John, N. B., Jan. 17, 1887. In a ‘mind reading’ performance Saturday night, after several examples indoors, the ‘reader,’ a young man who belongs to this city, asked for an outdoor test. The party separated, one remaining with the reader, and hid a pin in the side of a little house used by the switchman of the New Brunswick railway at Mill Street. In their travels they went over the new railway trestle, a most difficult journey. The reader was blindfolded, and one took his wrist, but at the trestle hesitated, fearing to venture, and was told by the reader to let go his wrist and place his hand on his head. The subject did so, and the reader went upon the trestle. Some of the party suggested that the bandage should be removed, but he told them not to mind, and, the subject again taking his wrist, he went on over the icy and snow-covered sleepers. With a firm step he crossed to the long wharf, went over as far as the mill gates, then quickly turned, retraced his steps and went back to the corner of Mill Street. Here he rested a moment, then again took the subject’s hand, and in less than five minutes afterward found the pin. At the conclusion of the test, the reader inquired what the matter had been when they first reached the trestle. It was easily explained. The storm had covered the sleepers with snow, and it was thought dangerous even for a man not blindfolded to cross them. The subject felt anxious for the reader’s safety, and hesitated about going across. The tests were most satisfactory.”
Temperance.—“There has not been a liquor saloon in Hancock County, W. Va., for forty years. This accounts for the fact that there is not a prisoner in the county jail, and the grand jury failed to find a single indictment.”