t one of the circles of this medium, in St. John's,
Mich., a light was suddenly introduced, and she was seen in the act of
doing what she had asserted to be done by the "spirits." She has also
been exposed as an impostor in other places.

As I have said before, the mediums always insist on having such
"conditions" as will best enable them to deceive the senses and mislead
the judgment.

If there were a few more "detectives" like Doctor Von Vleck, the whole
mediumistic fraternity would soon "come to grief."

CHAPTER XIV.

SPIRITUAL PHOTOGRAPHING.--COLORADO JEWETT AND THE SPIRIT-PHOTOGRAPHS OF
GENERAL JACKSON, HENRY CLAY, DANIEL WEBSTER, STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS,
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, ETC.--A LADY OF DISTINCTION SEEKS AND FINDS A
SPIRITUAL PHOTOGRAPH OF HER DECEASED INFANT, AND HER DEAD BROTHER WHO
WAS YET ALIVE.--HOW IT WAS DONE.

In answer to numerous inquiries and several threats of prosecution for
libel in consequence of what I have written in regard to impostors who
(for money) perform tricks of legerdemain and attribute them to the
spirits of deceased persons, I have only to say, I have no malice or
antipathies to gratify in these expositions. In undertaking to show up
the "Ancient and Modern Humbugs of the World," I am determined so far as
in me lies, to publish nothing but the truth. This I shall do, "with
good motives and for justifiable ends," and I shall do it fearlessly and
conscientiously. No threats will intimidate, no fawnings will flatter me
from publishing everything that is true which I think will contribute to
the information or to the amusement of my readers.

Some correspondents ask me if I believe that all pretensions to
intercourse with departed spirits are impositions. I reply, that if
people declare that they privately communicate with or are influenced to
write or speak by invisible spirits, I cannot prove that they are
deceived or are attempting to deceive me--although I believe that one or
the other of these propositions is true. But when they pretend to give
me communications from departed spirits, to tie or untie ropes--to read
sealed letters, or to answer test-questions through spiritual agencies,
I pronounce all such pretensions ridiculous impositions, and I stand
ready at any time to prove them so, or to forfeit five hundred dollars,
whenever these pretended mediums will succeed in producing their
"wonderful manifestations" in a room of my selecting, and with apparatus
of my providi