“Pause, Young Man, Before you Marry an Irreligious Wife”: Or: Advice on Choosing a Partner in the 1850’s:

Marriage advice for young men:

In the choice of a wife, excellence of moral and religious character must be the first great essential. – your own religious interests on Earth are deeply involved in marriage. What comfort, what piece of mind can the husband have, where there is inconstancy, irreligion and infidelity on part of the wife? Marry an irreligious woman, and you will have no domestic resource to flee to in the hour of religious need. There will be none to admonish you when you neglect your religious duties. An irreligious wife can not counsel you when you are under the influence of deep temptation, neither can she assist to resolve your doubts in cases of conscience. To all matters of religious experience the friend of your bosom will be a stranger and an alien. She cannot help you, she cannot understand you, she cannot sympathise with you.

1 Cor. ii. 14: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Sad must be the condition of the husband whose griefs his spouse cannot relieve, and whose trials she cannot share. Many young men have great difficulty in maintaining their hold of religion and in discharging its duties even when single. How will that difficulty be increased if they marry irreligious wives! If now you find it hard work to keep the commands of your maker, if you now make such indifferent progress in religion, what will you do when united with one who has no religion, one who has never even sought it with success?

Women: Immoral

Religion is worth more than beauty, accomplishments and talent. “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. She will do him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.”

It frequently happens that an ungodly wife uses her husband’s profession of religion as the instrument of persecution. Unchristianising him for the least provocation, and often, without any cause whatsoever, she shakes his faith and harrows his heart. You may demur to this and say, although the female I should like to marry is not religious, she is mild and gentle, and therefore will not put a stumbling block in my path. The scriptures tell us that “the carnal mind in enmity against God.” You must either deny the Scripture doctrine, or grant that your quiet intended may one day turn upon you.

Pause, young man, before you marry an irreligious wife. Men have been more than conquerors through the blood of the Lamb, and gone home safe to heaven, although their wives did not serve God. But are you equal to such a task? Can you roll the stone of Sisyphus? Let your own unfaithfulness answer the question. Let your meager religious attainments answer it. Let the frequency with which you have gone astray from God, and brought yourself into condemnation, answer the question. You have no grace to spare. Be honest with yourself, and you will feel that, so far from needing one to hinder you in the way to heaven, you require one to assist you in your progress.

This earth is not the only world in which you will be religiously influenced by your marriage. Its results will make you happier among the spirits of just men made perfect, or more miserable in the unknown regions of the lost. The influences of marriage go beyond earth’s narrow confines, and cleave to the disembodied spirit throughout the mighty cycle of the eternal years. The wife on earth that best deserves the name of angel is she who

“Tries each art, reproves each dull delay, allures to brighter worlds, and leads the way.”

Good health is too important a matter to be overlooked in choosing a partner for life. – Health is next to piety in the scale of ascertained value of blessings. It is more than fortune. Fortunes have been wasted in vain to supply its lack of service. Continual sickness is a continual calamity.

- Leisure Hour, Thursday August 9, 1855

“The Medium Went Through a Series of Facial Contortions, Most of Which Looked the Reverse of Pleasing” Or: An Evening With The Higher Spirits

In my first post regarding Victorian séances from two weeks ago, I mentioned a piece of Victorian journalism I had at home which I had only read a few pages of. The piece, entitled ‘Mystic London’ was written in 1875 by Charles Maurice Davies.

Davies was an Anglo-Catholic clergyman, who, along with five other such men founded the Society of the Holy Cross in the 1850’s.

In 1861 he left the church to become headmaster of the West London College, before eventually returning to the church where he was increasingly drawn into explorations of spiritualism and psychical research, producing a series of widely-read books, including ‘Mystic London’

Davies’ article on his attendance at a séance is far more analytical and critical that the somewhat dramatic and romanticised piece featured previously from the anonymous author in The Leisure Hour, but is still an interesting critique upon what was, and still is, a dubious practise, but was, at the time, gaining popularity.

I am sure I have seen somewhere that ‘Mystic London’ is to be released as a book in May this year, but, if you prefer, you can also read the whole piece for free on Project Gutenberg (at the time of writing, at least)

Here I have reproduced only the chapter in which he records his visit to a medium, a chapter entitled:

An Evening With The Higher Spirits:

At the head of social heresies, and rapidly beginning to take rank as a religious heresy as well, I have no hesitation in placing modern Spiritualism.

Those who associate this latest mystery only with gyrating articles of furniture, rapping tables, or simpering planchettes, are simply in the abyss of ignorance, and dangerously underrate the gravity of the subject. The later development of Spirit Faces and Spirit Forms, each of which I have examined thoroughly, and made the results of my observations public, fail to afford any adequate idea of the pitch to which the mania - if mania, it be - has attained.

To many persons Spiritualism forms the ultimatum, not only in science, but also in religion. Whatever the Spirits tell them they believe and do as devoutly as the Protestant obeys his Bible, the Catholic his Church, or the scientific man follows up the results of his demonstrations. That is, in fact, the position they assume. They claim to have attained in matters of religion to demonstration as clear and infallible as the philosopher does in pure science. They say no longer "We believe," but "We know." These people care little for the vagaries of Dark Circles, or even the doings of young ladies with "doubles." The flight of Mrs. Guppy through the air, the elongation of Mr. Home's braces, the insertion of live coals among the intricacies of Mr. S. C. Hall's exuberant locks, are but the A B C which have led them to their present advanced position.

These physical "manifestations" may do for the neophytes. They are the initiated. I am the initiated; or I ought to be, if patience and perseverance constitute serving an apprenticeship. I have devoted a good portion of my late life to the study. I have given up valuable evenings through several consecutive winters to dark séances; have had my hair pulled, my head thumped with paper tubes, and suffered other indignities at the hands of the "Invisibles;" and, worse than all, my friends have looked upon me as a lunatic for my pains, and if my enemies could have wrought their will they would have incarcerated me as non compos, or made an auto-da-fe of me as a heretic years ago.

Through sheer length of service, then, if on no other account, I had grown somewhat blasé with the ordinary run of manifestations. Spirit Faces no longer interest me; for I seek among them in vain the lineaments of my departed friends. Spirit Hands I shake as unconcernedly as I do those of my familiar acquaintances at the club or in the street. I have even cut off a portion of the veil of Miss Florence Maple, the Aberdeen Spirit, and gone away with it in my pocket: so that it was, at all events, a new sensation when I received an invitation to be present at a trance dance, where one of the Higher Spirits communicated to the assembled things undreamed of in mundane philosophy. The sitting was a strictly private one; so I must not mention names or localities; but this does not matter, as I have no marvels in the vulgar sense of the word to relate: only Higher Teachings, which will do just as well with asterisks or initials as with the names in full.

The scene, then, was an artist's studio at the West End of London, and the medium a magnetic lady with whom I had frequently sat before, though not for the "Higher" teachings. Her instruction had so far come in the shape of very vigorous raps, which ruined my knuckles to imitate them, and in levitation of a small and volatile chess table, which resisted all my efforts to keep it to the paths of propriety. This lady was not young; and I confess frankly this was, to my thinking, an advantage. When I once told a skeptical friend about Miss Florence Cook's dance, and added, triumphantly, "Why, she's a pretty little simple girl of sixteen," that clenched the doubts of this Thomas at once, for he rejoined, "What is there that a pretty little simple girl of sixteen won't do?" Miss Showers is sweet sixteen, too; and when "Peter" sings through her in a clear baritone voice, I cannot, despite myself, help the thought occasionally flitting across my mind, "Would that you were six-and-twenty, or, better still, six-and-thirty, instead of sixteen!"

Without specifying to which of the two latter classes our present medium belonged, one might venture to say she had safely passed the former. She was of that ripe and Rubens-like beauty to which we could well imagine some "Higher" spirit offering the golden apple of its approval, however the skittish Paris of the spheres might incline to sweet sixteen. I had a short time before sat infructuously with this lady, when a distressing contretemps occurred. We were going in for a dark séance then, and just as we fancied the revenants were about to justify the title, we were startled by a crash, and on my lighting up, all of the medium I could see were two ankles protruding from beneath the table. She had fainted "right off," as the ladies say, and it required something strong to bring her to. In fact, we all had a "refresher," I recollect, for sitting is generally found to be exhausting to the circle as well as to the medium.

On the present occasion, however, everything was, if not en plein jour, en plein gaz. There was a good deal of preliminary difficulty as to the choice of a chair for the medium. Our artist-friend had a lot of antique chairs in his studio, no two being alike, and I was glad to see the lady select a capacious one with arms to it, from which she would not be likely to topple off when the spirits took possession. The rest of us sat in a sort of irregular circle round the room, myself alone being accommodated with a small table, not for the purposes of turning (I am set down as ‘too physical’) but in order to report the utterances of the Higher Spirits. We were five “assistants” in all - our host, a young lady residing with him, another lady well known as a musical artiste, with her mamma and my unworthy self.

Installed in her comfortable chair, the medium went through a series of facial contortions, most of which looked the reverse of pleasing, though occasionally she smiled benignantly par parenthese. I was told - or I understood it so - that this represented her upward passage through different spheres. She was performing, in fact, a sort of spiritualistic "Excelsior." By way of assimilating our minds to the matter in hand, we discussed the Apocryphal Gospels, which happened to be lying on the table; and very soon, without any other process than the facial contortions having been gone through, the medium broke silence, and, in measured tones of considerable benignity, said: "Friends, we greet you in the name of our Lord and Master. Let us say the Lord's Prayer."

She then repeated the Lord's Prayer, with considerable alterations from the Authorized Version, especially, I noticed, inserting the Swedenborgian expressions, "the Heavens," "on earth;" but also altering the order of the clauses, and omitting one altogether. She then informed us that she was ready to answer questions on any subject, but that we were not bound to accept any teaching which she - or let us say they, for it was the spirits now speaking - might give us. "What did we wish to know?" I always notice that when this question is asked at a spirit circle everybody simultaneously shuts up, as though the desire for knowledge were dried at its source. Nobody spoke, and I myself was not prepared with a subject, but I had just been reviewing a Swedenborgian book, and I softly insinuated "Spiritual Marriage." It was graciously accepted; and our Sibyl thus delivered herself:-

Mankind, the higher Spirit or Spirits, said was originally created in pairs, and the soul was still dual. Somehow or other - my notes are not quite clear how - the parts had got mixed up, separated, or wrongly sorted. There were, however, some advantages in this wrong sorting, which was so frequent an accident of terrestrial marriage, since it was possible for people to be too much alike - an observation I fancied I had heard before, or at least not so profound a one as to need a ghost "Come from the dead to tell us that, Horatio!" When the right halves did get together on earth the good developed for good, the evil for evil, until they got to the heavens or the other places - they were all plurals. Swedenborgianism has an objection to the singular number; and I could not fail to identify the teaching of the Higher Spirit at once with that of the New Jerusalem Church.

Two preliminary facts were brought before us; the Higher Spirits were in theology Swedenborgian, and in medical practice homoeopaths. So was the Medium. Although there was no marriage in the spiritual world, in our sense of the term, there was not only this re-sorting and junction of the disunited bivalves, but there were actual "nuptials" celebrated. We were to be careful and understand that what terrestrials called marriage celestials named nuptials - it seemed to me rather a distinction without a difference. There was no need of any ceremony, but still a ceremony was pleasing and also significant. I asked if it was true, as I had read in the Swedenborgian book, that all adult angels were married. She replied, "Yes; they married from the age of 15 to 24, and the male was always a few years older than the female."

There was a tendency, which I continually had to check, on the part of the Medium to wander off from matrimonial to theological subjects; and the latter, though trite, were scarcely so heterodox as I expected. I had found most "spiritualistic" teaching to be purely Theistic. Love to God and man were declared to be the great essentials, and creeds to matter little. If a man loved truth, it was no matter how wild or absurd his ideas might be. The love of God might seem a merely abstract idea, but it was not so. To love goodness was to love God. The love of the neighbour, in the sense of loving all one's kind, might seem hard, too; but it was not really so. There were in the sphere where this Intelligence dwelt millions of angels, or good spirits, working for the salvation of men.

I ought to mention that this lady, in her normal condition, is singularly reticent, and that the "communications" I chronicle were delivered fluently in one unbroken chain of what often rose into real eloquence.
So Christ came for the good of man, and Christ was not the only Messiah who had appeared on earth. In the millions of ages that had passed over our globe, and in the other planets of our solar system, there had risen up "other men filled with the spirit of good, and so Sons of God." I here tried to get at the views of the Higher Spirits on the Divinity of Christ, but found considerable haziness; at one time it was roundly asserted, at another it seemed to me explained away by such expressions as I have quoted above.

Our planet, I was informed, had been made the subject of special care because we were more material, more "solid" than the inhabitants of any other orb. There was an essential difference between Christ and all other great teachers, such as Buddha; and there were no historical records of any other manifestation of the Messiah than that we possessed; but such manifestations had taken place.
The Spirit then gave us an account of its surroundings, which is, I believe, purely Swedenborgian. The "celestial" angels were devoted to truth, the "spiritual" angels to goodness; and so, too, there were the Homes of the Satans, where falsehoods prevailed, and of the Devils, where evils predominated. Spirits from each of these came to man and held him in equilibria; but gained power as his will inclined towards them. The will was not altogether free, because affected by inherited tendencies; but the "determination" was. I have no idea what the Higher Spirit meant by this; and I rather fancy the Higher Spirit was in some doubt itself. It rather put me in mind of the definition of metaphysics: "If you are talking to me of what you know nothing about, and I don't understand a word of what you are saying - that's metaphysics."

All can do good, continued the Sibyl. Evil cannot compel yon. Utter only such an aspiration as, "God help me," and it brings a crowd of angels round you. From those who came to them from this world, however, they (the Higher Spirits) found that teachers taught more about what we were to think than what we were to do. Goodness was so easy. A right belief made us happier; but right action was essential.

Pushed by our host, who was rather inclined to "badger" the Higher Spirit, as to irresistible tendencies, the Intelligence said they were not irresistible. When we arrived in the Spirit World we should find everything that had occurred in our lives photographed. You will condemn yourselves, it was added. You will not be "had up" before an angry God. You will decide, in reference to any wrong action, whether you could help it. Even in the act of doing it a man condemns himself; much more so there. The doctrine of the Atonement was summarily disposed of as a "damnable heresy." "Does the Great Spirit want one man to die? It hurts us even to think of it!"

I then questioned the Medium with regard to the resurrection of the body; and was told that man, as originally created, was a spiritual being, but had "super-induced" his present body of flesh - how he managed it I did not quite gather. As to possible sublimation of corporeal integument, the case of ghosts was mentioned. It was to no purpose I gently insinuated I had never seen a ghost, or had the existence of one properly authenticated. I was told that if I fired a pistol through a ghost only a small particle of dust would remain which could be swept up. I was not aware that even so much would remain. Fancy "sweeping up" a Higher Spirit!

I could not help once or twice pausing to look round on this strange preacher and congregation. The comfortable-looking lady propped in an armchair, and with an urbane smile discoursing on these tremendous topics, our little congregation of five, myself writing away for dear life, the young hostess nursing a weird-looking black cat; the other young lady continually harking back to "conjugal" subjects, which seemed to interest her; the mamma slightly flabbergastered at the rather revolutionary nature of the communications; and our host every now and then throwing in a rude or caustic remark. I dreaded to think what might have been the result of a domiciliary visit paid by a Commissioner in Lunacy to that particular studio!

Back, then, the musical young lady took us to conjugal pairs. It was very difficult to convey to us what this conjugal love was like. Was it Elective Affinity? I asked. Yes; something like that, but still not that. It was the spontaneous gravitation in the spheres, either to other, of the halves of the dual spirit dissociated on earth. Not at all - again in reply to me - like flirting in a corner. The two, when walking in the spheres, looked like one. This conjugal puzzle was too much for us. We "gave it up;" and with an eloquent peroration on the Dynamics of Prayer, the séance concluded.

The Lord's Prayer was again said, with even more varieties than before; a few extemporaneous supplications were added. The process of coming-to seemed even more disagreeable, if one may judge by facial expression, than going into the trance. Eventually, to get back quite to earth, our Sibyl had to be demesmerized by our host, and in a few minutes was partaking of a ham sandwich and a cup of coffee as though she had never been in nubibus at all.

What the psychological condition had been I leave for those more learned than myself to determine. That some exaltation of the faculties took place was clear. That the resulting intelligence was of deep practical import few, I fancy, would aver. Happily my mission is not to discuss, but to describe; and so I simply set down my experience in the same terms in which it was conveyed to me as "An Evening with the Higher Spirits."

"I Regard Spiritualism As One of the Greatest Curses that the World Has Ever Known." Or: The Fox Sisters & The Davenport Brothers:

Continuing with the theme of ghosts and Spiritualism, I thought I would write a little about two of the most famous families associated with it. Firstly, the Fox sisters, whom, in 1848, effectively began the Spiritualist movement after an event in their New York bedroom attracted the attention of, first the neighbours, then the whole of America and the world.

Secondly, the Davenport Brothers, mentioned by the writer of the article from The Leisure Hour  in my previous post, who toured America and Britain with a supposedly spiritual show in the mid-to-late 1850’s and throughout the ‘60’s.

The Fox Sisters:

The Fox Sisters, from New York, are considered to be the founders of the Modern Spiritualist movement. At the very least they were crucial to its creation, but were they just young girls having a laugh and playing a game, or could they really communicate with the dead?

The sisters, Leah, (1814 - 1890), Margaretta, (also called Maggie, 1833 - 1893) and Kate (1837 - 1892) claimed to be able to communicate with the spirits of dead people.

On March 31, 1848 Kate and Margaretta (then aged 11 and 15) reported strange knocking sounds in their bedroom at night. Kate spoke aloud to the source of the knocking sound, and invited it to play a game. She would click her fingers a certain number of times and the spirit would repeat the number using knocks upon the wall. The sisters claimed that the source of the knocking was a spirit they called Mr. Splitfoot.

Locals were invited to witness the mysterious goings-on, and over the next couple of days, the spirits communicated with them as much as possible. A code was established for yes and no answers, and over time it was established through extensive questioning of the spirit, that the beings knew a lot about the Fox family.

The story spread that the girls were communicating with spirits and people were fascinated to see the strange phenomena. Leah, the oldest sister, also claimed to have the ability to communicate with spirits and soon the three found themselves touring the region and demonstrating their abilities.

Thus began the Spiritualist movement. In the late 1800s in America, many families would gather in their parlours for séances in which they would try, using Tarot cards and Ouija boards, to communicate with dead sons, brothers, or fathers lost in war. Many ‘mediums’ began to pop up, who (depending on your beliefs) preyed upon people's grief and desperation to extract cash from them in exchange for vague ‘facts’ and stories about their deceased loved ones, who were, of course, all having a great time in Heaven and waiting for their living relatives to come and join them.

The Fox sisters, meanwhile, became celebrities, and popular with the upper class and members of high society who would ‘hire’ them for an evening of after dinner entertainment, allowing their guests a chance to communicate with the spirit world. During this period of fame they were also studied, observed and their mysterious messengers probed by skeptics. This attention added to their notoriety, and the sisters turned their unique situation into a career, touring music halls and giving 'performances' both in the U.S. and overseas.

By the late 1880's, however, the sisters were beginning to quarrel. Kate and Margaretta argued and fell out with their older sibling Leah, who claimed to be a medium, and the three of them had fallen out of favour with the advocates of Spiritualism. They endured plenty of criticism and fell on hard times. The two younger Fox sisters had become alcoholics over the past few years and, perhaps tired of their situation, publicly confessed to the true source of the mysterious knocks.

So, what was the secret to their ability to communicate with the dead? Bizarrely, it was their toe joints, which the girls were able to crack loudly at will. They even did so before an audience of over two thousand people in 1888 at the New York Academy of Music. Upon the stage they denounced their ability to commune with spirits, and proceeded to show how they were able to make their toe joints produce the knocking sounds which reverberated around the theatre. Kate would even go so far as to say to a newspaper; "I regard Spiritualism as one of the greatest curses that the world has ever known."

Strangely, (though perhaps because they needed money and wished to tour again?) a year later, in 1889, they retracted that confession and dismissed their ‘toe joint’ performance.

Kate and Margaret continued to tour, only this time audiences came to hear about how the young ladies had earlier defrauded them. On the side, the sisters continued to give séances to those who still believed that they were contacting spirits.

Their alcoholism continued, however, and went on to reach alarming levels, and both sisters eventually became unable to tour. Within five years, both Kate and Margerita died in poverty, shunned by former friends, and were buried in pauper's graves.

Skeptics claim the sisters were frauds who made a living out of pretending to talk to the spirits of the dead, whilst believers still maintain the truth of the sisters' original story, claiming that they were forced into ‘confessing’ that their ability was merely a prank.

The Davenport Brothers:

The Davenport Brothers, Ira Erastus Davenport (1839 - 1911) and William Henry Davenport (1841 - 1877) were American magicians in the late 19th century and sons of a New York policeman.

The brothers became famous by performing illusions that they claimed to be supernatural.

They began their careers in 1854, six years after the first instance of supposed spiritualism occurred in the Fox sisters’ bedroom. By now, the Spiritualist movement had taken off in America and after hearing the stories of the Fox sisters, the Davenports began to report similar occurrences. Their father took up managing his sons and the group was joined by William Fay, a Buffalo resident with an interest in conjuring.

Their shows were introduced by a former Restoration Movement minister, Dr. J. B. Ferguson, a follower of Spiritualism, who assured the audience that the brothers worked by spirit power rather than deceptive trickery. Ferguson was apparently sincere in his belief that the Davenports possessed spiritual powers.

The brothers' most famous effect was the box illusion. They were tied inside a box which contained musical instruments. When the box was closed, the instruments would begin to ‘be played’, but upon opening the box, the brothers would be observed still tied in the positions in which they had started the illusion. Those who witnessed the effect were made to believe supernatural forces had caused the trick to work, and spirits had been playing the instruments.

The Davenports toured America with their performances for ten years and then traveled to England where Spiritualism was beginning to become popular. Their "spirit cabinet" was investigated by the Ghost Club, who were challenging the brothers’ claim of being able to contact the dead. The result of the Ghost Club investigation was never made public.

Magicians including John Henry Anderson and Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin tried to expose the Davenport Brothers, writing exposés and performing duplicate effects without the aid of spirits. Also trying to expose the brothers’ as frauds were a pair of amateur magicians who followed them around Britain, tying the Davenports into their box with a knot that could not be easily removed.

By doing this, they exposed the trick to audiences who demanded their money back.

The Davenports embarked on a final American tour before younger brother William Henry's death in 1877. William Fay settled in Australia and elder brother Ira Erastus lived in America until the two reunited in 1895 and toured with a show that failed.

Ira told famous escape artist Harry Houdini – a skeptic of Spiritualism – that he and his brother had never confirmed belief in Spiritualism to their audiences and that announcements by Dr. Ferguson were part of the act. Houdini made clear to audiences that his escapes were feats of skill, not supernatural, and that performances by others were likewise, regardless of claims to the contrary.

Today Spiritualism continues to have hundreds of thousands of followers all over the world.

“I Felt Invisible Hands Playing With My Hair” Or: At a Victorian Spiritual Séance:

The Victorian fascination with, scepticism of, and attitude toward spiritualism, spiritual mediums and séances is something that I have been meaning to read about and to cover, but it is a subject that I have so far not managed to dip my toe into other than with reading Sarah Waters’ Affinity, John Harwood’s The Séance, and Faye L. Booth’s Cover the Mirrors. A journalistic piece about all things spiritual also lays largely unread at home save for a few chapters, in the shape of by Charles Maurice Davies’ Mystic London, written in 1875.

The séance, with the gas turned down and the woman sitting behind the curtain as onlookers gasp at various feats and ‘spiritual tricks’ is one of the primary images that comes to my mind when I think ‘Victorians’. This was an age of discovery and invention, but also one of freak-shows and con artists, ready to prey on the susceptible and, perhaps more pertinently depending on your beliefs, the gullible. The Victorian age was also one of science versus religion. It was an age when church attendances began to dwindle, and knowledgeable men began to raise a questioning finger at the idea of religion.

These conflicts are what fascinate me about the Victorian attitude to ghosts, séances and mediums, and so I was thrilled to come across the following article in The leisure Hour from August 1877, in which the author describes his attendance at a Spiritual Séance.

What I like about the article is that this was clearly a gentleman whose bias fell down upon the side of science. He has raised his questioning finger against the dubious practices he has seen performed before him and sought a scientific explanation to them. There is a line he writes which I love, because it symbolizes the attitude to religion-based rule in the mid to late 1800’s, in which people began to see church going as a chore, which lead to them eventually staying away. For me, this line encapsulates the entire idea of the Victorians who turned from religion to science. The line is:

“I began to mistrust him, but said nothing.”

Science was now providing the answers, the progress, the wealth and the lifestyle that religion no longer did. Educated gentlemen said nothing, they merely stopped going to church.

Onto the article. Apologies if it is rather long. It may be this, but it is also (I think) quite interesting.

At a Spiritual Séance

By invitation I attended, some time ago, what is called “a spiritual séance.” It was a private and preliminary meeting, confined chiefly to “representatives of the press.”

As this particular exhibition has disappeared from London I feel no hesitation in now publishing the results of my visit, although I refrained from doing so at the time.

The “medium” was a young lady, whose manifestations were described as of a most wonderful and mysterious character. The time was at eight o’clock p.m. I met several gentlemen, whose speech showed them as representing England, Ireland, Scotland and America, all apparently anxious to investigate the marvellous phenomena. They appeared to be men of education and ability. Some of them had witnessed similar exhibitions, while others had never seen anything of the kind.

There were two rooms, separated by folding doors. We were asked to examine the rooms as much as we wished, to see that there were no persons and no machines, electrical or other, concealed in them. We found several musical instruments on the tables and on the piano, to be played upon by the spirits during the séance.

When we had taken our seats in the larger saloon, the doors were locked and the key given to one of the gentlemen. The lady said that we might choose the one who was to keep the key, so as to know that no one could go through the doors in the dark to assist her.

She then asked if one of us would take some strips of cotton cloth, about an inch in breadth, and tie one around each arm a few inches above the wrist. One gentleman tied one with several knots quite fast to the arm, and then another gentleman tied the other piece of cloth fast to the other arm, while we watched them closely. A thread and needle were then taken by a third person, and the knots were firmly sewed together. The four ends, which were about eight inches in length, were now tied together behind the lady’s back, and then fastened securely to an iron ring about two inches in diameter, having a staple attached to it with a thread cut upon it, so that it could be screwed into the woodwork surrounding one of the windows.

Another iron staple was likewise fastened in the wall about two feet above the one to which the arms were tied.

The lady was seated on a stool with her hands securely fastened behind her in the staple, which had been first secured in its place. A piece of cotton cloth, about an inch in diameter, was also placed around her neck and well tied by one of the party to the upper ring. A small cord was next fastened around her ankles, binding them together, and the end was given to one of the gentlemen to hold fast, to show that she did not move her feet. A curtain was held up before her by a gentleman belonging to the house, who assisted her by holding one corner of it in his hands while the other end was fastened to the wall by a nail. The gas-light was now turned down very low, when the manifestations immediately commenced.

The first thing that the spirit did was to tie a knot in the strip of cotton cloth that had been tied around the lady’s neck by one of the party. It required but a moment, when the light was turned on, the curtain drawn aside, we found the lady securely tied to the rings.

A guitar was now placed on her lap, the room partly darkened, and the curtain again drawn up in front of her. Immediately we heard the sounding of the guitar, as though someone was playing upon it. We could also see the instrument pushed against the curtain, and then heard it thrown upon the floor, where the spirit continued to play upon it until the lady called “light,” which was again turned on, when we were requested to examine the fastenings. This we did, finding them all perfect.

Two small bells were now placed in her lap, and the curtain arranged as before, when the bells were taken, rung, and thrown upon the floor.

A small, square piece of board, about six inches across, was placed on a chair by her side, while a hammer and a nail were put into her lap. We soon heard the spirit driving the nail into the board, and when the curtain was drawn aside we examined the board, and found the nail well driven into it, while the hammer was lying on the floor.

A violin was next placed upon he lap, when we heard some one performing upon it very distinctly for a few minutes, when upon dropping the curtain we found the instrument lying on the chair by her side.

A pair of scissors and a folded paper were put in her lap, when a piece was, in a short time, cut out in the shape of a heart. A tambourine was now placed in her lap, with a glass of water on the top of it, when in a moment the glass was empty, - the spirit of the boy having drank the water, she said.

The mouth organ, tambourine and violin were all placed together on her lap, when we heard them all sound at one time. A circle or hoop was laid on her lap, which was afterwards found around her neck. A large wooden pail was put on her lap, and in a few seconds we saw it turned upside down over her head. 

After each experiment the room was lighted, and we were all invited to examine the bands and the rings, which apparently remained the same as when we securely tied them. A knife was now placed in the lady’s lap, and the bands were cut open by the spirit, so the medium stated.

Having examined the knots we found that they had not been untied. The gentlemen who were present said that it was beyond their comprehension, and really a great mystery.

The lady, after a few minutes conversation, seated herself in the centre of the parlour, and we all formed a complete circle around her by joining our hands. Before beginning the manifestations which were now to take place, she asked us to observe that, during this séance, she would continually strike her hands together so that we could hear them, that we might know that she did not use them while the spirits were performing their work.

The room was then darkened by turning down the gas. Soon an English gentleman felt the spirit unbutton his vest and take his watch out of his pocket. The Scotchman had his nose pulled and his spectacles taken off. I felt the spirit fanning my face, and invisible hands playing with my hair, and gently tapping my arms and legs.

After we had all felt the mysterious manifestations several times, the lady asked for someone to hold her hands firmly within theirs. The Scotchman volunteered to secure her hands, while a guitar was placed upon her head. The gentleman who held the curtain and turned off the gas each time was seated on my left. I observed that he placed my left hand into his left hand, so that his right hand was free.

I began to mistrust him, but said nothing.

We now heard music on the guitar for a short time. Then the Irishman on my right was hit on the head with the instrument, which, after touching some of the other gentlemen, returned over the lady’s head.

While the guitar was sounding sweetly, I leaned my head towards it, when I came into contact with an arm which drew back so suddenly that it threw the instrument on the floor. I had accidentally and unintentionally put an end to the wondrous manifestations.

None but the gentleman on my left, whose arm my head had touched, and myself, knew why the spirits had so very unceremoniously left the room.

The lady asked “what had happened,” and appeared rather surprised, while the gentleman on my left appeared somewhat confused. The room was now lighted. The lady explained that the spirits were sometimes suddenly called away to other scenes and other séances. The “gentlemen of the press” seemed however, quite contented with what they had seen, promising to give a good report of it to their friends.

After the others left, I remained, although my presence was probably not very acceptable after what had occurred. I examined the rings, and found how they might easily be taken from the wall if the lady could not free her hands by stretching the cotton bands sufficiently to withdraw them. It is quite a clever trick, as much so, perhaps, as the feats of the Davenport Brothers. Should the bands be so well ties that the lady cannot get her hands out of them or unscrew the ring, she is provided with a knife with which she can cut the bands from the arms after she has broken loose from the ring, and then substitute new bands concealed in her pocket, already tied and sewn together similar to those placed upon her by the party, with an extra ring.

Or she can use the same ring, quickly making the ends of the cotton fast to it, as gentlemen do not desire to scrutinize the fastenings very closely, and have not the least idea how the trick is performed.

It is one by which the credulous could easily be deceived.

In order to make the sound as though the lady was striking the back of her right hand into the palm of her left, she could strike on the cheek or forehead, or she could use two pieces of wood or other material fastened to the inside of each knee, so that she could beat them together. Sometimes ladies attach small cymbals to their knees and strike them together during their spiritual séances. The continual knocking is to make parties believe that both hands are occupied and therefore could not be otherwise engaged in pulling peoples noses, boxing their ears or playing other pranks which the spirits seem to take much delight in.

One hand is free, and with this hand, a fan or bell or other instrument can be putinto the mouth of an accomplice in the circle.

Sometimes spirit hands are seen as well as spirit faces in the dark. A mask is rubbed over with phosphorus, which is concealed by the medium until she desires to have it appear in the dark. Sometimes ladies’ and children’s gloves are covered with phosphorus and cleverly connected with a rubber tube, by blowing into which the hands of spirits are made to appear. The Davenport Brothers used to put them through the holes in their cabinet, sometimes a dozen at once, and then let out the air and conceal the gloves in their pockets.

In the performance I witnessed, of course the gentleman who sat on my left was the spirit who played the guitar and struck the Irishman over the head while the Scotchman was holding the hands of the medium. The Englishman found the Scotchman’s spectacles in his vest pocket after the séance was finished. I believe that at least two of the gentlemen present were in collusion with the lady.

The modus operandi may be varied. Sometimes a person enters the room to assist, using a false key. At other times the person is concealed in a wardrobe fitted up as the Proteus at the Polytechnic Institution, or in the mysterious cabinet of Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke, with looking glasses or spacious mirrors which reflect the sides or the top of the cabinet, giving it the appearance of the back part of the cabinet, while the person or persons are concealed behind the mirrors.

Other “spiritual” rooms have the marvellous trunk with a person placed inside of it, and when the room is darkened, the person easily gets out or in by means of a secret spring, which allows the end, side or bottom to open inwardly, although it may have several locks upon it, and a dozen cords wound around it, and different seals placed upon the knots.

Mr Maskelyne says “by special request of many who are desirous of entirely stamping out the superstitious doctrine falsely called spiritualism,” he gives his famous light and dark séances. I went to see the séances at the Egyptian Hall, and amidst various performances making up a really interesting “entertainment,” I saw the old Proteus cabinet used many years ago by Professor Pepper at the Royal Polytechnic, slightly altered.

Instead of having two mirrors to reflect the two sides of the cabinet, giving it the appearance of the back part of the box, there is substituted one mirror fixed on hinges at the top of the cabinet, by which the top of the box is reflected while the person is concealed behind the glass on a shelf which the mirror closes upon, giving the impression to the spectators that they are looking at the back of the cabinet, when they only see the top of the cabinet reflected in the mirror.

Psycho, which Mr. Maskelyne claims to be the “greatest wonder” of the nineteenth century, I take to be a clever repetition of the automaton chess-player. Having played chess with the famous “automaton,” I will give my explanation of how it is performed. The figure is first opened so that you can look through it near the middle of it, so as to allow you to examine a portion of it, and show you that there is no person concealed within. The little door is now closed, and the exhibitor commences to wind, or assumes to wind, up the machinery by turning a handle near the figure, which passes into the floor. This winding-up is simply to deceive, and to make a noise while the boy climbs through the floor beneath the figure, so that you cannot hear him. In the Psycho it is not necessary to have so intelligent a lad, and consequently Mr. Maskelyne has made his mask for the boy much smaller than that used for the chess player.

Mr. Maskelyne keeps his boy but a little while confined, while Mr. Hooper is obliged to keep his lad sometimes for several hours. Some may think Mr. Hooper’s boy too young to play chess so well, and to pass the knight over the chess-board so rapidly without missing a square, as he is able to, commencing from any square on the board.

I would remind them that Mr. Paul Morphy was one of the best chess-players in New Orleans when only ten or twelve years of age, and at the age of twenty-one he beat the best chess-players of Europe. When he came over the Atlantic and challenged Mr. Staunton, the acknowledged English champion of chess, Mr. Staunton refused to play with him, asking for several months’ time to prepare himself, although he had been preparing for twenty years constantly in playing and writing books on chess.

Mr Bennett, of the “New York Herald,” and many other wealthy men of America, were ready to back their countryman to any amount. Mr. Paul Morphy did not play for money, but for honour. He could easily have won his millions of dollars if he had played for them, and if that had been his ambition and aim.

When Mr. Maskelyne says that Psycho is only a “mechanical figure twenty-two inches high,” he does not include the box upon which it sits, and to which it is attached, wishing to make us believe that there is no space for a small human being to work the mask which is placed around the person. He could not make a small window or door in the in the body of Psycho without exposing the boy, and consequently the trick.

Opening the box below the figure does not in the least interfere with the boy inside the figure. Having no trap-door to pass through, as in the case with the chess-player, the boy must sit caged up like a monkey or a mummy during the examination of the box. The boy “Psycho” could perform just as well suspended by a cord, or seated on top of Maskelyne’s head, as while on the glass cylinder, provided another person could take the place that Mr. Maskelyne usually fills during the performance.

When it is stated in the public newspapers that “Psycho can play a game of whist, and perform a series of conjuring tricks without the aid of confederates or the assistance of Mr. Maskelyne,” the public must remember that the profession and trade of a magician is to deceive the people, and it is not expected that they will let the world know their secrets.

Those who believe that an automaton or mere mechanical figure can be made to multiply, add, or subtract any four numbers which any person in the audience may request, and in a few moments give a correct result, or, like the new marvel, Zoe, can make various drawings with skill and intelligence, such people are – well, we shall merely say that they quite misunderstand the object of such “entertainments.”

In justice to Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke I must add that they have the least “humbug” about them of any “professors” of the art, and in calling themselves “illusionists and anti-spiritualists” they candidly tell the public that they are deceiving them for their amusement, as well as for their own profit.

I was introduced some years ago to a family of Jews in Constantinople, and in their house witnessed far more feats in open daylight than I have seen performed in London by Dr. Lynn, Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke, Professor Peopper, or by any pretended spiritual medium. One of the younger Jewish maidens could cause a heavy table to rise several feet in the air while a dozen person were watching her closely, apparently by placing her fingers to the top of it.

She could keep it suspended but a short time in the air, when it would fall to the floor. It had fallen so heavily on many occasions that the legs were broken off, and when I witnessed the experiments there were several pieces of iron fastened to the legs in order to strengthen them.

She performed it twice the same day; the second time, however, required several minutes more than the first. She not only performed this experiment in her father’s house, but many times with another table at the residence of Mr. John P. Brown, Secretary of the American Legation. She did not profess to know how or why she was able to perform this and many other curious experiments, unless it was throught the assistance of some supernatural power.

There was no doubt some scientific and natural explanation; but I never heard it, nor ascertained the cause of the wonderful exhibitions. I am more puzzled by them now than by all that I have since witnessed in London or in America.