"Jock” Graham in Melbourne.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 223, 17 February 1874, Page 7

"Jock” Graham in Melbourne.

(From the. Ary ns.) ! An individual named John Graham, whoj calls himself the editor of Graham's Review, f New Zealand, managed to draw about eighty | people together at the Trades Hall in Lygou-! street, on the evening of January 23, by the announcement that he was going to expose spiritism. After stating that he was hot actuated by any mercenary motive, he put a I money-taker at the door, and then went' round himself among his audience, saying—- “ Come, put your hands in your pockets, and let’s see what you are going to give.” After this practical commencement he began a loud-.! voiced abuse of Mr Tyonnan and spiritists in • general. The speaker read his “ credentials” ! at length with great unction, and asked if thev were not something like credentials. “ He stood there upon his native heath, and they wore most unimpeachable credentials.” He commenced his operations upon a little four-legged table, upon whose top the hands \ of a number of little boys were placed, and ' after observing that the phenomena about to j be explained were the result of natural laws, j and not of the intervention of spirits, he gave | the table a preliminary tilt with his own i powerful hands, and then left it to the little boys to manage it at the word of command given by himself. He declined the services of three volunteer adults from amongst the audience, stating that “he was the lecturer, and that he had already been taught a lesson j jin Otago.” It was indeed a most contemp-j j tible exhibition. A. repitition of it was an- j | nonneed for to-morrow night, when the elec- 1 i tricity necessary “to work the thing” would i | be in better order. Some irreverent questions ‘ ; having been asked from the body of the; | meeting on the subject of “ fish,” the speaker' 1 admitted that he had had profitable dealings ; i in that kind of food, and that, like “ Whit- ; tington,” he had made a good thing by send- ’ : ing live cats to the West Coast. He had been | for twenty-one years chairman of a working I man’s association in New Zealand somewhere, ! was the founder of the eight-hours movement, ! and was so much beloved b ,T the working, i men of this city'that thev had already pre- | sented him with a requisition asking him to j stand at the next election as the working I man’s candidate for Collingvvuod. He hailed l from no university, but belonged to the U.W., or brotherhood of the Universal World—he went in for the brawny sons of toil and the rights of all ; besides that, “ look at his credentials.” The speaker, who posesses dauntless effrontery, was rewarded throughout the evening with the most lively marks of derision.