FOSTER,'THE MEDIUM.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1820, 5 June 1874, Page 2

FOSTER,' THE MEDIUM.

The t Melbourne Daily iTdec/raph publishes an. .exposure ;of the mediunvFoster. It ; is printed beipw,:J; The, tw^Vpersons who sign it are 'competent observers, and, if necessary^ they would have given their statement the force of a statutory: declaration,' : but : this ; seemed > urineccessary. The narrative ' how 'Foster r was caught in 'performing a trick, wMchdegrades'Mm at once -from, a .'", sfee^"'' to/ a i; ; conjuror, carries its own conviction Our informants tell their ''fele' in their own words. ..They say— . . ; !? ..-.,■. „.,-.; Though 'we thoroughly and honestly convinced in our own minds of the impossibility of the things printed about JBlpster. being, true, yet our egotism was not sufficient to induce, usitoiput our condemnation of these matters on paper without a personal, jinyestigationv • Being thoroughly conversant with what iskftown as magic rand sleight-pf-hand^ {IWBl WB felt assured thiit if there. were any trickery, thepro.babilities I [were .'greatly > in favbfof its being discovered should w,e r pay,rhini a visit. Accqrdjngly. ,we went." 'We will not occupy ybur"spa«e 'with a description of his apartments or himself, subjects .fully-f dwelt upon v by? pfher writers,, but at once describe— as others have done— • . — ■i.'VTHErSEAH'OE, and ; , afterwards, analyse it. , Our party consisted of' three, our two ( selves (the writers of ,this) and a gentlemal^rho is a professed ; believer ' in' spiritualism, -and who' rather -inadvertently avowed so to Mr Foster at the very commencement of the business, , at , the same time .denominating us, as sceptic's.. ;In compliance r with Mr Foster's 1 request we drew F ouf chairs close to the t&bleV and *bn slip's of papef Jwith which he:: furnished ius,'.'wr:ote!the names of deceased persons with whom we wished to communicate. ; We also, in accordance with the, medium's instructions,- placed any.; articles* belongmgrtq those deceased persons "which., we- had with jus on the table 1 . These consisted of a watch. and cigarette case hroughjtvby the writers, and photographs by the third party, whorii^e shalltfjpeak of as Mr H. Mr Foster fnlded'onSbpthe photographs in aislipiof hisi own' paper, Apparently to increase the value of the test. We had our hands* on the ; (able about tine minute when the medium- was impressed, with a communication from'a relative 6f M*H.'s, and r whose nam& was signed infttllltd "the massage :asv written f out iiby f Mr .Foster. This, though not containing anynvery important information, -was remarkably ac,curate with respectip se^der^^^ceiver, and a third person who was mentioned. This was all the more remarkable-as-Mr H. had-vnutlinvited'spirifi't'by writing their names onslips^obut remarked that he was "a. bdltSverl 5 and if anything came, well and gobdi'^' We may here remark .that Vthe slips '■ witbv n'amek' r §lre 'folded closely lengthways^dd ihfe^ nonV of the -writing 5 Was 'visible/^d^diei placed in; at heap > before ( Mr) Fd^ter.- The next ;^^occurrence^:wa^ theTmeaitoa-'taTtffig^t^Hie slips in a heapj .and- feeling them nervously said, that the spirit of Hjjnry^W. was present, a communication f r<^wfiom he quickly wrote out. ; This, was one. of the names which .we had 1 written down, and when Mr Foster, handed us the slip cintaining it, you may imagine our aston shment. Two other, names were now called out as present, and the slips in each case picked from the heap correctly. After ■! a very short' cessati6n of- knSpks .and conversation!, the medium straightened Himself up ' in',, his '. ( chair, and* looked mysteriously and : wildly about him, assuming somewhat, .of that air which the . American papers accommodatingly term , f '■ introspective./.-;■ " A spirit pf, one who has died a violent death-rrfhaa been drowned— drowned," gasped the medium, looking towards Mr H. "He impresses me most powerfully, and comes'with great force," ,;Mr, H. shook, his head, and^ repudiated" any acquaintanceship" with^e drowned party. The.medium'then turned his head tin our and. one of us having missed a brother, for some years, iand.:whom: we believed; to ;be drowned, •ndtifiedithisto'thejmedium^whbinstantly assured us of his identity, and in answer c told"aU^partftmlaW !^ i fcß? ! Bße place where, [he. ntet ; his f death, the mode (purely accidental), and the very-name of ; the 1 ship (6ne, by ! £he>byej which we'h^yer heard of before). ; i > He" ) was also strongly impressed t]ie"recipieß[i'of i&is. intelligence "-woiild 'spbh'.ex^eHenWah iniportant change jthaifi'hVybTjidgo to Sydney, The spirit ; of P.J[,F V next appeared, and the i slip, 'f;''unopeiLe^y'.^s'.']Khß)^m.'' to .tie owner, with ; .the remark that there, was no .cpmmnnicatiQiii ■■: The medium^ ihowever, ,on being asked, - told when othat peison died, -but.failed'tottell the disease. xThis was the former owner of the watch. What' is related above occupied about half an hour, and the ! seance was abruptly^rottghit io a close by Mr Foster intimating that there were no further communication^ at the same time rising from his chair. ; ':

THE ANALYSTS.

/ We/left with very mixed feelings}' .even our Spiritist friend wa^disfeiiiisfiea,, " We compared ; notes, a^d interchalbged ! our auspicions. On examination of the photographs,, we found that one which medium had bo carefully wrappod in paper had the name' ;of the original written on the back. iThis "was a discovery, 1 and accounted for-the tender manner in -which he handled' it- 'attd'foi* bnepfthd nam^a coming but- cbrrViictl^ We e^tdihMfiie ietters~which the. medium; also hjapdlpd —and with a very superficial glancej^: covered that, one of? them was addressed to i " Dear H ," as was also the trashy communication/ .which he -received; from the supposed spirit The other names, which astonished us ab : muct,' 1 WW^ ott t he outward fold of the letton With

respect to our drowned friend, though we had voluntarily claimed him, rather than have .the opportunity; go by default by which, j. we might by, any possibility gain any information of one- whoi was dear to vs — he, though present in the spirit, and identified as our friend by the medium, did not allow his ownname or relationship to us, and even gave us another man's name as his — that is one of the others which we had written, and whom we saw die in his bed. We did not know anything about the whereabouts of our missing friend ; he may be dead, or he may not. The locality which the medium mentioned in connection with his death was not unlikely; in fact it was rather in accordance with our opinion, and impressed us at the time. Of course, as we acknowledged to Mr Foster that we knew nothing of our friend's whereabouts, the ** purely accidental,,' and the name of the unknown ship, go for nothing. The name of the late owner of the watch was I not told without several guesses. The disease of which he died was guessed for six times, and was then not named, though a list of diseases was written, including the right one. Respecting the other spirits which he intimated were present, he could tell us nothing, though he guessed and guessed until we — if possible in the case of a man making about L 250 a- week— could pity him, _ At this seance we discovered that his usual mode is to announce the spirit of a person who had died a violent death— a very ÜBual mode of entrance to the spirit land in Victoria. If no one claims this, he particularises. He talks of the presence of spirits who were transported to the summer land by means of consumption, apoplexy; fever, heart disease, &c. With such a miscellaneous assortment he is bound to make, a bit. He will mention the names Mary, John, George, William, &c., much as he does the diseases, and if it is a reasonably sized circle he will undoubtedly obtain a claimant for one or more of them, whereupon the dear departed shade sends a stereotyped message of love to the wondering ' recipient. But there was still something which we could not understand, and that was, how he read names written on folded slips of paper ; and how, as we had read, the spirits, wrote in letters of blood on his flesh. So one of us— he who had the most practical acquaintance with the art of magic— r repeated his visit to make asdoubly sure, and the following is Qa& relation of

most difficult to explain on paper. It is, however, accomplished by him in the following manner. Ho sits facing the light, and the spills are between him and it. I noticed him patting and fingering the spills in an unconcerned manner ; he thus straightened them broadside on to him. There didn't seem much in this, but I find that with a great deal of practice a sharp sighted person may occassionally see sufficient, in the way of shadow, to make a good guess But this is not what he relies on. I saw him, as usual, lift the bundle of spills and hold them in front with his two hands, that is, with his thumb between the spills and his chest ; and though he engagaed my attention with the alphabetical card to dot over another party, I kept one eye for his movements, and saw, by the motion of his thumb knukcle near me and his sudden glanoe downwards, that he had opened what from my position I. would call one of the back spills, and read it. He made good use of this in a very decided tone that that spirit was present, at the same time throwing the spill on the table. I saw it all then. It was disgustingly simple. He af erwards read one of my enclosures in the same manner, \ " tinder cover " of the envelope to which it belonged— St. P. F. , _ ' If any of your readers still have faith in Mr Foster's spirit power, let them ask his permission to stand behind him while he invokes the spirits, and tell you the result. But Mr Foster knows better. Like some party mentioned in "Hudibras!'—

"He knows what's what, and that's an .■:,-.. vhigh^.-'.- ' ■■; .:"•;.,'. As nietaphyeic gent could fly." ■ Surely, with seances of this nature, "What is hit is history, what is missed is mystery." ■ Edward Fitzgerald. ! St. Pierre Folbt.

, ( For remainder of News, see Athpage.)