Hanky-panky

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 11, 13 March 1902, Page 2

Hanky-panky

There is, of course, room for diabolical intervention in the case of spiritism. But as regards ' manifestations' through the agency of mediums, they are simply steeped in fraud. All the really verified ' manifestations' that have been brought under our notice are produced by sundry electric contrivances that it is not necessary to specify here, bits of cheap and sometimes absurdly simple mechanism, ridiculously easy sleight, or by what is called ' hanky panky,' or by prestidigitation. Most of the rapping, tying, handcuff, sealed bag, sealed knot, and such-like exhibitions represent conjuring of so clumsy a kind that, if honestly given as sleight-of-hand, they would not be tolerated by an audience of rustics in the bar of a wayside inn. We have time and again, in private life, exposed the wiles and ways of the spook-medium, and expressed regret that the many Catholic writers who have dealt ex-professo with this noisome class of impostors, did not, before committing their productions to print, consult some first-class conjuror, and exhibit a reasonable hesitancy about accepting as verified fact all the wild stories told by enthusiastic witnesses about this or that medium's supposed marvellous powers. For —even taking the most reliable witness—there is a world of difference between the « method ' of a conjuring trick and what is called its 'effect.' The best efforts of the most 'powerful' of the ordinary mediums are far surpassed by any smart conjuror, and are put completely in the shade by the wonders of the art of modern ' white magic ' as displayed in the splendid exhibitions given by Maskelyne and Cooke in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly (London). It is the conjuror, and not the theologian or even the detective, that is best qualified to judge whether particular c manifestations' are (as they commonly are) the outcome of fraud on the part of the medium, or of spirits called • from the vasty deep' — Of calling shapes and beck'ning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men's nameß. The illusions of the Davenport brothers have long been wel known to the conjuring fraternity. Their famous ' cabine illusion' may be ordered at any good conjuring depot, but it like the others, is about as antiquated as the • flying cage ' and the 'wizard's supper,' and, for that reason, is no longer exhibited on the present-day stage. And yet in the issue of Ckambers's Encyclopedia that was published last year an article on ' Spiritualism * (the proper name is Spiritism) the Davenport sleights are set forth in an exaggerated way and solemnly put forward as preternatural performances ! The article, by the way, is written, not by an adept in conjuring, but by one who seems to have swallowed the whole Spiritistic position without so much as a savoring grain of salt.