d on a
piece of paper, to place it in their pockets, and keep it
there without communicating its contents to anyone, and then
when they went to the hall their names were called out and
their question answered without the papers leaving their
possession. About fifty such inquiries were answered each
evening without a single failure by Mrs. Baldwin, who sat
blindfolded with her back to the audience. From my
experience and that of my friends, collusion was impossible,
and the only way of accounting for the performance was by
thought transference or telepathy between Mrs. Baldwin and
those of the audience with whom she was in mental sympathy.
(Signed) "C. A. M."
Commenting on this letter, I wrote to _Light_, and my communication
appeared the following week. It was to this effect:--
"Under the heading of 'Thought Transference,' your
correspondent, C. A. M., gives an account of some
entertainments by Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin, at which he says" (I
here quoted from C. A. M.'s letter, and then continued as
follows):--"I never was present at entertainments given by
Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin, and therefore cannot express an
opinion as to the _modus operandi_ in their particular case,
but I would point out that their entertainments bear a close
resemblance to those given by conjurers. The explanation of
the mystery in a conjurer's case is as follows:--The
conjurer asks members of the audience to write their
questions secretly, to sign their names at the bottom of the
question, and then to fold the pieces of paper on which the
questions are written and place them in their pockets. To
facilitate the writing he hands pencils round and tablets
upon which to rest the pieces of paper during the writing of
the questions, or the members of the audience, if they so
wish, can retire into an adjoining room and write their
questions on a table. The tablets and pencils are then
collected by an assistant who is a confederate, who then
retires from the hall to the room where the table is. The
tablets and table have false surfaces of leather or other
material, which, on being removed by the confederate,
disclose a layer of carbon paper resting on another of white
paper upon which the questions have been recorded unknown to
th
|