A MONTHLY MAGAZINE

Devoted to the Science of Religion, the Religion of Science, and the Extension of the Religious Parliament Idea.

VOL. XX. (No. 4)

APRIL, 1906.

Copyright by The Open Court Publishing Company, 1906.

TO MY ARMY.

A Poem by His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan.

Done into verse by Dr. Paul Carus.

NO. 599

MEDIUMISTIC READING OF SEALED WRI

TINGS.*

BY DAVID P. ABBOTT.

IN

I.

response to a request from the editor of The Open Court, accompanied by a letter from Mr. I. G. Bartel of Nelson, New Zealand, I have decided to give to the readers of this magazine (in so far as I am at liberty to do so) the methods which I use in reading sealed writings, to which I alluded in the paper entitled "Some Mediumistic Phenomena," which appeared in the August number.

Perhaps, as Mr. Bartel says, it is somewhat inconsistent in me to say, "An explanation of the methods used would be out of place here," while at the same time explaining other things of a similar nature. But, the fact is, when making this statement I was looking at the matter from the magician's point of view. While magicians frequently publish or allow to be published many valuable secrets, yet the secrets of their very latest and best work are jealously guarded from the public. The reason for this is because if the secrets become too generally known, it lessens the value of the experiments for purposes of entertainment, by rendering them common, Consequently, from the magician's point of view, it is regarded as out of place to allow such secrets to become public property through publication.

In some instances secrets of this class are sold by certain dealers to performers, and to professional mediums, at prices that might astonish an outsider. If the secrets are regarded as exceptionally good and a high price placed upon them by the vendor, so few will buy them that the performance of the experiments will be very rare, and the performer can well afford to pay the high price asked. * Copyrighted by The Open Court Publishing Co. Infringements liable to prosecution.

When such sale is made, it is generally accompanied by a request that the purchaser faithfully guard the secret from the public.

The fundamental principles of these experiments are not new, but the details make them useful for practical purposes. I purchased them from dealers who place considerable value on them; as they are catalogued at prices which, for the four I am about to describe, make an aggregate of some seventy dollars.

As received by me from the vendors, I found some of them im-. practicable until I had added certain improvements to the ideas. In the improved form I assure the readers of this paper that they are thoroughly practicable, as I have performed them some hundreds of times with such success as would astonish one who has not seen them. I have never yet made a failure in performing them; nor have I found even one person, among the many who have witnessed their performance, who could even remotely guess at the methods employed. There are many methods of reading such writings, but the ones I am about to describe are the very best of which I have ever even heard.

Still, my readers must not expect me to explain a miracle. Miracles are never performed. The experiments are pure trickery; but if properly performed, have the appearance of being produced by some occult or psychic power. However, all that is necessary is a few simple articles, and their proper manipulation. When one reads the explanation of a trick before seeing it performed, the value of the trick is seldom realized. It would be much better, were it possible to do so, to see it performed first and then read the explanation afterwards. However, as this is impossible in this instance, I will first give the effect, or appearance of the experiments as I perform them, and follow this with an explanation of the methods employed. Performers who may read this paper, will notice that most of the articles employed have been previously used in such experiments; and they may not at first sight attach the importance to these experiments which they deserve, owing to the fact that as used heretofore such tricks were by no means a decided success. The ideas have gradually been improved upon, and the perfected tricks are the result of a process of evolution. A few little improvements will frequently make a poor trick one of the best and most difficult of detection.

Each of the four is performed on a different principle, and is fine when performed singly. They should first be practiced in this manner; but as I produce them, I work them as one experiment, or rather as a combination trick. I have performed two of them