“CEASE SHUFFLING"

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 402, 10 July 1928, Page 1

“CEASE SHUFFLING"

MR. LIDDLE TO ARGUS CONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE “Mr. Copeland has successfully fulfilled my prophecy of discovering a loop-hole for escape,” says Mr. K. W. Liddle in a reply to the “conditional acceptance” of his challenge to the “boy prophet,” Argus. Mr. Liddle continues: “His challenge was for me to reproduce the Argus tests. In his letter he states: ’Of course. Argus does not use a concealed assistant.* I have not examined the blindfolds of Argus for the familiar needleholes, nor have I examined Mr. Copeland’s stage for the piston that may' be there, or for the assistant who maybe concealed. How can I expose fraud in any other way* than a demonstrable one? “What I have to do is to have cards freely selected and remain silent, while my assistant, blindfolded on the stage, names them. Similarly with numbers. Retire from the theatre w-hile my assistant reads numbers on a blackboard. How delightfully simple! Why any further shuffling? I have already exposed the series of phrases for indicating to Argus the description of articles and questions—irrefutably may I add. I have recognised Mr. Copeland using my own familiar method of body signals for the coding of cards, and Professor Segar has caught Mr. Copeland with a marked pack. Does the public require further proof? If Mr. Copeland uses faked cards to establish the truth of mind-reading, surely I may- use the same pack to disprove it? In other words. Mr. Copeland, cease shuffling, keep to your contract, hire the concert chamber, pay over the £2O for advertising expenses, and get on with the business.”