The Death of Bishop

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 6, 29 June 1889, Page 4

The Death of Bishop

« At one of the Saturday evening entertainments of the Lamb's Club in Brooklyn, an organisation of lawyers, doctors, artists, journalists, and professional men, Irving Bishop, the mind-reader, was invited to give an exhibition of his powers. Though just recovering from a severe illness, and against the advice of his physician he consented, and executed some marvellous feats. At the close of one of these he went off into a cataleptic trance, from which he was only resuscitated with difficulty. He insisted iv spite of remonstrances, on going on with the performance, with the result that he overstrained his powers and went into another trance, in which he expired. Erery member of the Club was profoundly impressed with what had occurred, and left the building, when the Coroner was summoned. Before the latter functionary arrived, however, a number of physicians, believing that the mind-reader was dead, commenced to dissect his body for the purpose of obtaining and examining his brain. None of Bishop's relations had been consulted, and when his widow and mother were apprised of what had occurred their grief and indignation knew no bounds. They said Bishop was not dead at the time, but only in a trance, and asserted further that he lived in constant fear that his fate would be that which had befallen him. The affair created most intense excitement. The leading scientists seem to believe that Bishop was really dead.