ROPETYING AND SPIRITUALISM

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1057, 25 March 1873, Page 4

ROPETYING AND SPIRITUALISM

(From the Ballarat Miner) Since Dr Dunn's public" cabinet seance," challenges of all sorts with reference to what is commonly spoken of as the " Davenport tricks," have been poured in upon him from all sides and 1 am in a position to state that one, at all events, of those challenges has been not only accepted but encountered with what appears to havo been the most unmistakeablo success. The facts, as given to me by a gentleman in whose voracity I have the fullest confidence, occurred as follows :—" Subsequently to the late public seance Mr A. K. Smith, who was on the platform upon that occasion, offered to hand over to Dr Dunn a cheque for £lO if he would submit to be tied in any way that he, Mr Smith, chose, and afterwards got free without /aortal aid. The challenge was accepted, and the experiment took place at Dr Dunn's residence last night. In addition to Mr A. K. Smith, the following gentlemen were present as witnesses, viz.:— Mr Eitzgibbon, town clerk of Melbourne, Councillor M'Uwraith, and Councillor Gatehouse. As soon as the preliminaries had been arranged, Mr Smith proceeded to bind Dr Dunn with a long coil of rope, fasloning both hands behind him, and exercising all his ingenuity to make the bond as secure as possible. A second coil of rope was then wound round tho doctor's body several times over the first rope, and both were tightly knotted several times, the binding occupying fourteen minutes. As there was no "cabinet" proper used upon this occasion, it was arranged that when the tying was finished Mr Dunn should be left alone in the room until he should give a signal for his visitors to re-enter. The door having been closed upon Mr Dunn accordingly, in exactly two minutes and a quarter by the watch, the signal was given, and to the intense suprise of Mr Smith and his friends, the doctor was found perfectly free. Nor was this all, for Mr Dunn volunteered a still more severe test of his powers —or rather, as put by himself —of the power of his spirit friends. He was left in the room free, and Avas shortly afterwards discovered securoly bound. While in that stato he allowed flour to be placed in each hand and took some water in his mouth. Again left to himself he was discovered shortly afterwards again free from the cords with tho flour still in his hands, and with mouth still filled with the water. 1 understand that it was admitted by all present that Mr Dunn had successfully met tho challenge, and the LlO was subsequently placed at his disposal.

Twelve huudrcdweight of rich specimens were taken from Krohmen's mine Now South Wales, one day last week, which has caused increased excitement in mining shares. Another cako of gold has been retorted from the same mine, making 11,000 ounces for the last crushing. There has been a very heavy rainfall all through Victoria and New South Wales. A heavy thunderstorm broke over Bathurst lately. It killed tho racohorse Tempest while exercising, and the groom was rendered insensible for some time.