Page:Weird Tales Volume 4 Number 2 (1924-05-07).djvu/172

 posed upon, two nights were to be devoted to this noble attempt to save the world from credulity and folly. The prices of admission were 5s, 3s, 6d, 2s, and a few 1s seats; but as money was far from the object in view, it was reiterated in every corner that the vindication of truth and the saving of the weak-minded was the sole aim this gentleman of independent means had in coming to Glasgow. All the proceeds were to be devoted to the Western Infirmary.

"It will scarcely be credited that amongst the names of those who signed the requisite document which brought this adventurer into our midst were John Caird, the veneifeted principal of the university, and his scholarly brother Edward, now master of Balliol College, Oxford; Professor Berry, afterwards sheriff of Lanarkshire; Professor's Blackburn, Buchanan, Clelland, Cowan, Dickson, Veitch, Grant, Jebb, Nicol, and Sir William Gardner, who had said clairvoyance came from a diseased condition of the faculty of wonder, whatever oracular meaning this might have. The most prominent advocate and supporter of the man Bishop, however, was Sir William Thomson, now Lord Kelvin. A few years later he acted even more ridiculously than that opponent of Galileo, the professor of philosophy of Padua, of whom I have spoken. Mr. Stead had asked Lord Kelvin to interest himself in borderland subjects, but he replied: 'I have nothing to do with borderland. I believe that nearly everything in hypnotism and clairvoyance is imposture, and the rest bad observation.' Mr. Stead very aptly says: 'This oracular dictum will probably live in the history of the progress of mankind side by side with the equally positive assertions of the Lord Kelvins of their day in condemnation of Galvani and of Harvey, whose discovery of the circulation of the blood exposed, him to the ridicule of the leading scientists of his time.'

"It was not the university professors alone who interested themselves in Irving Bishop's beneficent work of exploding what they considered—if they considered the matter at all—a hurtful fallacy, but all sections of the church, the defenders of ancient superstitions, were determined that no new claimant should ever enter the field. So we had Archbishop Eyre and the Father Munro, as representatives of that church which has ever sought to stifle everything new. The Established Church had its representative in Dr. Burns, of the Cathedral, while the Free Church had its liberal Marcus Dods, Ross Taylor and others. Episcopalians and United Presbyterians had also their share in the great honor of extending the invitation to the marvelous, self-sacrificing and truth-devoted man of independent means who was to put an end to the existence of spiritualism.

"The night came when the so-called spirit manifestations, which had for so long eluded the detection and imposed upon the credulity of men, would be laid bare. Lord Kelvin, who never, I suppose, attended a genuine spirit circle in his life, was in the chair, and helped the magician just as boys carry out the instructions of the showman at juggling and mesmeric entertainments. He had crowds of his educated colleagues with him, who seemed to enjoy what was presented. Those in the audience who had seen good conjuring thought it a most tame exhibition of legerdemain, but the prominent names on the committee carried it through. There was no exposition of clairvoyance, materialization or rapping, only an exposition of the folly of learned professors. The spiritualists present laughed at the clumsy performance, and if it had been repeated for years it could not have affected the beliefs of a single spiritualist. There had been many conjurers who, with the aid of machinery, had done some clever things which caused people to wonder; but Irving Bishop was a man who had not even well learned his business.

"I wondered what the newspapers would say the next day, and for once I was ashamed of the press. I recollect reading a leading article in the 'Evening Times' of the period, and saying to myself, 'This leader will be quoted some day as an example of the ignorant and bigoted spirit which prevailed.' I recently took the trouble to hunt it up in the Mitchell Library, and there it was, as I had remembered it. In these days when men like Sir Oliver Lodge, Professor Richet, F. W. H. Myers, and others, have spoken out so clearly as to the objective reality of the phenomena, it looks as if it had been dug out of some ancient manuscript.

Maniacs, illusions, and impostures are difficult to kill. It is doubtful whether the startling exposure which Washington Irving Bishop is giving of the thing called modern spiritualism, the silliest delusion and wickedest imposture of our time, will be its death-blow in Glasgow. With few exceptions, the immense audience assembled did not require to be convinced of the supreme humbug of spiritualism. They want to see the barefaced lie exposed by a clever man, who has sounded all its miserable shallow's, pretty much as they would go to see an infamous scoundrel exposed in a court of law. Mr. Bishop is an American of independent means, whose dear friend, while in a state of feeble health, fell into the fangs of the spiritualists and became insane under their precious trickeries. He has succeeded in discovering their vulgar but skilfully-veiled secrets, and is engaged in laying them bare to the world.'

"Then we had a description of the tricks which had been the stock-in-trade of the regular conjurer for years. Lord Kelvin's appropriate remarks regarding the pernicious influence of the delusion are quoted, as being masterful and conclusive, and the leader concludes with these words: 'A few presumably strong men have had their brains softened by seriously touching the imposture.' (I suppose Sir William Crookes, Wallace, and Varley were meant?) 'Mr. Bishop's crusade may help to clear the noxious vapours from the eyes and minds of a few.'

"There were two nights of the show, and at the conclusion the Western Infirmary naturally waited for the proceeds with which the benevolent American was to dower them; but professors and infirmary had alike been sold. Mr. Bishop was needy, and had made sure that his own people would draw the money, and that he would keep it, once it was drawn. He cooly pocketed the entire proceeds, several hundred pounds, less some twenty pounds or so as their share of the spoil. All had been duped alike. It was a clever swindle. The professors and clergymen, and the potent assertion of independent means and avenging his dear friend's wrongs, had the desired effect with the public, and the modern Cagliostro rushed away with the 'takings,' leaving his silly dupes lamenting. It had been sufficient for Mr. Bishop to seem good and excellent, and although his credentials would not have stood any test, the eager desire on the part of the learned to believe anything unfavorable to spiritualism made them liable to fall into the net which he had prepared.

"The press had little to say about the robbery when it was found out. The matter was never fully opened to public gaze, and was soon forgotten. Professor Huxley would be blamed, no doubt, for introducing such an arrant knave to respectable Glasgow society."

Answer

You are wrong. Magicians do not war against the religion of spiritualism, but against fraud mediums and miracle monger's. I do not deny that there may be honest mediums, but in my investigations of more than a quarter of a century I have never found any medium who stood the acid test of a legitimate in-