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Show THICKS OF MEDIUMS. Supposed. Spiritual Phenomena Merely Legerdemain. Some of tbe Tricks Employed by Pro fesalonala to Hoodwink the People Peo-ple Kot Genuine Spiritualism. Spir-itualism. A well-known magician who has been before the public m'any years in his professional capacity contributes an' interesting article to the Scientific American in t he nature of an exposure of spiritualistic frauds. I The article was not written for the purpose of antagonizing sincere believers be-lievers in spiritualism, but merely to! explain how several professional "me-! diums" and a number of unbelievers in' spiritualism have secured their release from cabinets- in which they had been fastened. The writer frankly states that during the many years he has given exhibitions of the magician's art he has met many test "mediums," and can say without qualification that all of them have been imposters. On the other hand, this writer has himself performed cabinet tricks many times, and before intelligent and alert ; audiences,- and has -never- been ex- former uses any pair of handcuffs furnished fur-nished by the audience, and by them put on him; Yet In a very few moments after he takes his place in the cabinet his eoat is thrown out, but on examination examina-tion the handcuffs nre found to be on his wrists just as they were placed by the audience. As a final test, the performer per-former comes out of the cabinet hold-, ing the handcuffs in his hand, removed from the wrist, but locked. The explanation of this trick is very simple. There are only a few styles of handcuffs made in this country, and all that a "medium" has to do is to secure se-cure the proper key for each style, which keys are concealed about the person, and by the cid of the fihsrers and teeth the proper key can be fitted to the handcuffs. In. some types of handcuffs it is impossible to get the fingers to the keyhole. If such a pair is placed on the performer, and he : rannot use hfis .teeth to hold .the key, he slips the key in a crack in tbe chair, or cabinet, which crack he makes sure is there before undertaking the test, .thus holding the key and unlocking the handcuffs. The spirit collar trick, when once exposed, ex-posed, appears as easy of performance as those, already dealt with. The whole secret is found in a number of false bolts and a gemrine one which the "medium" "me-dium" knows how to remove without . difficultyX. ,Y. Herald. . posed. ' 1 In these tricks , of the cabinet, so old and yet still so frequently performed, the. methods used are many, but all mystifying. ; Among . the many successful . rope tests, the following is about the best: A piece of soft cotton: rope about six feet long, and of the size known as sash cord, is securely tied around the. performers per-formers left wrist, dividing the rope so that the ends will be of an equal length. When the committee are satisfied sat-isfied that they have made the knots secure, the performer places his hands; behind him, with the right wrist rest-' ing over tbe knots on the left wrist, and the ends of the rope are securely tied together, bringicg the knots down tight car the right wrist. This appears fair enough,, but it is not as fair as it appears, because, .while, the knots are quite secure, there is sufficient slack between the wrists to enable the performer, per-former, by giving his right wrist a half turn, to withdraw this hand from the rope encircling it. The reader may say: "That is all well enough, but how: and by what means does he secure this slack?" In placing his hands behind him after the rope is tied i bout the left wrist he gives the rope a twist, crossing one. end over. the other, pressing the twist down on' the knot and covering the twist and knot with the right wrist, which is then tied. When ready to release re-lease himself, the performer gives his right hand and wrist a half turnf releasing re-leasing the twist lying on the knot, which thus become a part of the loop tied around the right WTist, and enlarging en-larging it sufficien tly to enable the performer per-former to pull the rlghtt hand free from the rope, when he can perform- any trick he chooses with the free hand. By replacing the hand in the loop and giving the hand a half turn the knots can be shown as secure as- when first tied. The handcuff test is a great favorite rf the "medium." In this test the per- |