Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/123

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��<barg«. There vas do daikcning of rooms, no concealing hands under tables, no fear that spirits would refuse to coine at t!ie bidding of ft sceptic, DO trickery of any sort. The oppor- tunities for observation were entirely unre- Btrioted.

Miss Lulu was a rosy country' girl, some- hat above the average height, but did not ive tbe impressionof muscular training; still, iirhen she was presented to those pi-esent. the it thing which struck the writer was the weight of her arm. Shaking bauds with her felt like moving the arm of a giant, and led lo the impression that she had a much better muscular development than would have lieen

��Before proceeding to the tests which had Fbeen pre-arranged, it was thought best lo try

■ irhHt she could do under oniiuary circuin- t stances. Among the first performances to be Ktried was that of the hat. A spectator held a Blight straw hat in his hands, the opening up- Iwards. Miss Hurst extended her bauds over FH so that the balls of her thumbs just touched ■the inner face of the rim. At Brat there was

■ fio result, but after a few trials the hat was Rgently attracted upwards as if bj electricity. KHnd those iu charge been professionals, I cau- tnot doubt that they would have stopped right ■there, and declined to repeat the performance.

Tfot being such, they yielded to the invittlion 'o go on, 80 that the bolder could see how it ) done. This was soon effected without ■difficulty. Whenever the apparent attraction s exerted, it was through the inner edge of the brim being caught iu the fold of the ball of " e extended hand. After a few moments the iobserver was enabled to say. " She cannot lifl I now, because her hand is not rightly ar- ranged," anil be learned to adjust her baud so "lat the lining could be executed. Of course, the force was not very strong. The idea that mid have been in uuy danger had a reight been iu it was simply a mistake. Nest the jumping-sLiff was tried. The '-'writer took the latter in his hands, and Miss Loin placed the palm of her hand and her ex- tended thumb against the staff near its two ends, while the bolder firmly gras]>ed it near the middle. He was then warned to resist with all his force, with the added assurance that the resistance would be vain. Sure enough, the statr began to be affected with a jerking Knotion, producing the disastrous effects which i been described upon the holder's equilib- nnwise Tejtetition of the perform- Ivdoe, however, did away with all its mystery : although the performer l)egan will] a

��delicate touch of the staff, the holder soon per- ceived that she changed the iwsition of her hands every moment, sometimes seizing the staff with a Srm grip, and that it never moved in any direction unless her hands were in such a {xisitton that she could move it in that direc- tion by ordinary pressure. An estiraste of the force vhich she exerted on the stuff could be roughly made. It might have been as high as forty pounds. A very little calculation will show that this would be sufficient to [ipaet the equilibrium of a very heavy mau. It is im- possible for the latter so to place his feet that be will be supported on a rectangle of more than one foot in breadth. He may indeed change at pleasure the direction of the longer side of this rectangle by extending his feet in different directions; but, arrange them as he will, his base will under any circumstances be a rectangle whose length is equal to the dis- tance between his feet, and whose breadth is at the very maximum equal to the length of his feet. A pressure of one-fifth his weight would. under the most favorable circumslauces. throw him ofl his balance, and make a new adjust- ment necessary. The motion given by the performer to the rod was not a regular one, which could be anticipated and guarded against, but a series of jerks, first in one direction, and then in another; so that it was impossible for the holder to brace himself against them : con- sequently, by a force which might not have exceeded fortj' pounds, he was put through a series of most undignified contortions, and finally compelled to retire in total defeat.

The holder of the rod then asked that it might be made to whirl in his hands in the manner which had been described to him. No attempt was made to do it, and no satisfaction on tite subject could be obtained. It was evi- dently a simple mistake in memory or narration, for not even Miss Lulu seemed to have any idea of producing such an effect. The lifting of the chair with the sitter's own hands under it, and Miss Lulu's hands under his, was then tried. The simplicity of the blunder was most striking. It was quite true that the fingers of the performer were under those of the sitter. But the chair refused to budge until the ball of her hand came firmly in contact with it ; and then it proceeded, not indeed to lift the sitter, but to incline itself in such a way that he felt com[)elled togetoutof it. The chair was made to repeat its performance a great number of times. The writer watched most carefully. and, in every instance in which he was able to see the performer's hands at the lime of the motion, the ball was pressed firmly against the

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