puzzled.
"HENRY SEYBERT."
The fault in the Latin of the above quotation attracted the attention of
the Commission.
Mr. George S. Pepper, who had been well acquainted with Mr. Seybert in his
lifetime, declared that he had never known any Latin at all!
* * * * *
The investigations of the "Seybert Commission" in other directions than
that of the "rappings," were far more fascinating and productive of
results. It would be impossible to give an adequate idea of them here. The
Commission employed the most celebrated "mediums" within their reach, and
paid them liberally to place them in communication with the "Spirit
world." They saw (and they show in their report that they did see) the
secret of every "wonderful" thing done by the "mediums," and found it in
most instances exceedingly simple, and generally rather clumsily
performed. Professional jugglers constantly outdo professional "mediums."
This, the latter cannot deny, and they seek--oh, monumental impudence!--to
make people believe that jugglers are nothing more nor less than
"mediums," and that "mediums" are never in any sense jugglers!
Thus the notorious Slade:
"MR. SELLERS. Do you know a man named Kellar, who is exhibiting in this
city?
"DR. SLADE. I do not. I never knew him.
"MR. SELLERS. You may, however, be able to explain to me a very remarkable
slate writing experiment which Kellar has performed. (Mr. Sellers here
describes at length Mr. Kellar's trick with the fastened slates.) How did
Mr. Kellar do that?
"DR. SLADE. He is a 'medium.' _He does that work precisely as I do it._
"MR. SELLERS. But can he not do it by trickery?
"DR. SLADE. No, it is impossible. He is a 'medium' and a powerful
'medium.'"
This is from a memorandum of Mr. Sellers. He says further:
"The inquiry was then addressed to Mr. Slade: Do you know a man named
Guernilla, who, with his wife, gave seances?
"MR. SLADE. Yes, I know him very well.
"MR. SELLERS. Well, how does he perform his wonderful exploits in
'rappings,' etc.?
"MR. SLADE. He is a 'medium,' a powerful 'medium.' I know him very well
indeed. I can assure you that all he does is done solely by means of his
mediumistic powers.
"I now state to the Committee that the Guernillas exhibited in
Philadelphia some years ago as exposers of Spiritualism. They did not
expose it, but they performed experiments which, prior to that time, were
said to have been accompli
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