A FAMOUS CASE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 530, 13 May 1933, Page 6

A FAMOUS CASE

A.

Beeson.

WOMAN MEDIUM WHISKY AND CIGARETTES SERYED IN * SPACE JUSTICE McCARDIE'S METHOD (Part 3.)

By

WhJaitever degree of truth there may be in the doctrine of Spiritualism or the inter-eommunion of the living and departed spirits, there can he no doubt as to the unsettling character of the varied phenomena associated with the ' belief, as, for instanee, rapping, mysterious and in the main unmeaning, noises and movements, tnance visions and ecstasies. None of it serves a practical purpose or does anything to simplify the problem of life or to make life happier. A year ago in an ilLadvised moment, a well-known London medium, Mrs. Louisa Morris, decided to take action for libel against the Daily Mail claiming a large sum by way of damages for allegations of fraud and dishonesty appearing in that newspaper on January 26, 1931. The ea.se was set down for hearing before Mr. Justice McCardie. Sir Oliver Lodge's Evidence The principal witness for the prosecution was Sir Oliver Lodgie who, cross-examined at length, said he had tested the medium concerned a.nd believed imp'licitly in her supernatural powers. Sir Oliver described his conversations with denizens of the other world and said that soldiers who had been killed in the wiar "went over" very excited and wanted to go on fighting. They had to b:e calmed down by whisky and cigarettes. The Judge asked Sir Oliver Lodge just whereabout in space the whisky and cigarettes were being served. Witness said he did not know. Evidence for the defence disclosed the nature of the alleged libel.^ A British movietone company desired to make a talking film of Mrs. Morris in a trance delivering a sermon copamunicated to her direct from a spiritual divine on the "other side." Daily Mail representatives were present at two preliminary spiritualistic services held before the staging of the final demonstration and in their report of the latter denounced the whole enterprise as a fraud. Justice McCardie sat on the bench, a grave and attentive listener. He suddenly put to the leading witness for the defence who had attended the two introductory seances 'an apparently simple question — Did you look on these things as rehearsals ? — I thought that Mrs. Morris was lceeping herself in practice for her public performances. At this point Mrs. Morris, who was sitting in the centre of the Court burst into tears, crying: — "lt is so dreadful. It is so dreadful to say this sort of thing against me." She was givesn '2l glass of "water and was holped, sobbing, from the Court. Had Its1 Effect The question bad a desired effect. The medium was visibly unnerved. If the two preliminary sittings were of the nature of a rebearsal, belief in the spontaneity or the reality of the spirit voice was at once destroyed and the falsity of the whole trans■action proved beyond a doubt. To a talent for divination, Mrs. Morris had added another of a purely terrestrial nature. She was an accomplished actress; her histrionic gifts were of no mean order and were to be practised on the obdurate Judge. Of what followed we will give the •verbatim report of the Times. In the course of the Judge's summing up Mrs. Morris suddenly closed her eyes, rose from her seat, and, clasping the lapels of her costume, addreissed the Judge in a deep voice, "Heiaken to my voice, Brother Judge," she said. "Really, we cannot go on. She must sit down. We cannot have all this, snid Mr. Justice McCardie. For a moment the voice ceased, and then it oroke out afresh. Counsel for the prosecution said there would be harm in touching Mrs Morris. "Take her out," ordered the Judge The voice continued: "Do not toucl her until I have left the body." The Judge insisted upon the remov al of Mrs. Morris, and she w!a.s car ried out of the Court and taken to ai anteroom by an usher and a friend. Mr. Justice McCardie adjourned th: Court for 'a few minutes. Mrs. Morris was unconscious fo" some time, but eventually recovere sulnciently to leave the building i the company of some friends. This is an instanee in which Mr Justice McOardie vanquished with ease not only Sir Oliver Lodge but a coterie of the most formidable Sp'ritualists in London. His method on .his occasion was the very essence of : m- I plicity. He knew the vulnerable po. -ts. in the Spiritualist armour and iagai ist them with sure effect aimed his at- ' tack. He put questions so plain they I

could not be sidestepped; and this | has ever been the method by which' ] distlnguished lega.1 counsel and Judges j have settled issues otherwise in a i wilderness of jargon. It is scarcely j necessary to add that the jury in the j present instanee found for the defendants.