The Sunday Oregonian., July 22, 1906, PART FOUR, Page 48, Image 48

48
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1
ALFRED BENZON
DOE ATTONLTHING THING1'. IN
nmk MIND" READING
of 1 .,-:7-, : 11
"M " ' - - 1
1
TPfE 'WORLW nLSTER
MINP J3EAPET?
'wHREE thousand skeptics," said
I Professor Alfred Benzon with
enthusiasm "Three thousand
skeptics to convince"! He withdrew a
step, quite theatrically, and gazed pro
foundly at my wife and myself. Ve tried
to assume the proportions and aspect of
an Immense audience.
"We are. utterly credulous," I assured
him, utterly unmindful of the injunctions
of the Sunday editor not to believe a
thing we saw or heard. Then I remem
bered the interview I had had with Pro
fessor Benzon the first day I had met
him. He entered The Oregonian office
gently, a man with the manners of one
who had come to inquire for a friend. I
was Bitting near the Sunday editor, read
ing some magazine or other, when the
editor suddenly wheeled round in his
chair and said, "There's a man named
Benzon come up from San Francisco who
ays he can do wonders; he seems to me
worth a story about "
"Yes, It's " suddenly spoke up the
newcomer, rising from his chair.
"Will you kindly be still, thundered
the editor. "He's a mindreader or a
prestidigitator or both," he continued to
me, "and as clever as "
"I am a genuine magician and I "
The Sunday editor glared at the vis
itor. "Now please don't be so impul
sive," he said sternly. "I don't know
what there Is in his pretensions, but I'd
like to have them explained to the public.
You'd better see what you can do with
him. Don't listen to his talk as If you
were fresh off the bunch grass. He has
a line of conversation that's all right for
the multitude "
The visitor was again on his feet, wav
ing a beautifully manicured hand in pro
test. "Sit down," roared the editor, "and
wait till I'm through!"
'Make an appointment with him and
eee what he has to show," were the edi
tor's final orders.
V
Thus It happened that one evening last
week I appeared at the boarding-house
where Professor Benzon stays to see and
hear the wonders that he said he was
able to perform.
When we had arrived at his room it
suddenly struck me how odd it was that
miracles should be wrought in a regular
hotel room, four square, hot and fur
nished as such rooms Inevitably are fur
nished. There was no sign of the in
visible In it, no suggestion of the occult.
Tet here was our host, as splendid a
presence, as enthusiastic, as much the
poseur, as if he were before an audience
of thousands under the bright lights, with
all the glamour of expectancy and the
miraculous about him.
I remarked on It and he said: "Three
thousand skeptics to convince!" as
though that were indeed his great ambt
. tion. But he seemed to think that we
two were worthy of his best, and with
all the manner and the Impressive ges
tures of his calling he started on his
"demonstration."
With Infinite pains he explained to us
his first act. He gave us a card and an
envelope. "Write on this card, while I
am out of the room, the name of a friend
and his callinr. Seal the card In this
envelope and I will tell you the name
you have written and all else that you
write."
So we did as he bid us. It was the name
of a boy long dead. We sealed It In the
envelope and called the professor In. He
took the envelope, which we had thor
oughly examined before, passed his fingers
over it and then listened, as he said, for
the sounds. Holding that thick envelope
lightly in his hand he told us the first
name, and later, after long silence, he
hurst forth with the last name in a
triumphant shout.
Skepticism weakened. There was evi
dently no trick about this.
. 4
"Now, I will show you what I went
clear to Bombay and Calcutta to learn."
he went on, 'the production of the visible
out of the invisible.' "
He showed us a small piece of photo
graphic paper, an envelope and a pack of
cards. The sensitive paper we put into
the envelope and sealed. Then the pro
fessor shuffled a pack of cards and I cut
one of them, not letting him see what It
was. It was the king of dubs, W
JTLEIGHT
HAND
cW2
itltl
irr
had previously known of Professor -Benzon
when we were both in San Francisco.
I asked my wife what she thought of it.
s1.itje: ivjpitjtjvg -
opened the envelope and where had been
the piece of sensitized paper was a small
photograph of the king of clubs, perfect
in every detail.
Skepticism revived. There must have
been a substitution.
But a moment later when a coin fol
lowed the magician's hand over the table
faith grew strong. No one could draw
Inanimate and inert objects over a hotel
table without touching it unless there
were some invisible force.
Then came that most spectacular of all
demonstrations, slate writing. I washed
three slates. They were marked "A,"
"B," and "C." "B" and "C" I rejected.
He took "A" and gave me one-balf of
it to hold. There was a wild rapping and
an Instant later he turned the slate over
and there was written on it, in chalk, a
message which brought the blood to my
face. I thought that no one knew of what
was written boldly on that slate. It was
Incredible that it could be so. There
could be no way for him personally to
acquaint himself with such affairs. I
was almost angry with the, "spirit" that
had disclosed it.
The next thing the professor did was
to pile ten" cards on the table, each card
marked with a number. The numbers
ran from 1 to 10. I . shuffled these,
thought of a number, the professor took
my hand, passed it over the backs of the
cards, then held it about an inch from
them as they lay on the table and be
fore I knew it the card bearing the figure
I had thought of slid quietly to one side.
That is, we found it bore that number
when we turned it face up.
I don't know Just the order in which
things happened thereafter. Cards were
dealt in poker hands and the professor
read my hands before I had lifted them
from the table. I dealt the cards myself
and he called each card. He took a
pocket piece and made it glide along the
table after his sinewy hand. Coins
obeyed his gestures, the atmosphere
grew tense and hot, for credulity la
born of rapid demonstration in a warm
room; with the lights high and the swift
figure of a confident magician forever
moving amid miracles.
Suddenly the whole affair came to an
end. There was no audience of 3000, no
stage, no presence of the powers of
darkness. There were just three of us
in a small hotel room, four square, with
a plain table before us Uttered with
cards. On the sofa lay a slate, the chalk
of the strange message glaring up at
one as if left there by some careless
schoolboy's hand.
"Wasn't it a good show"? demanded
the professor. "Wasn't it the best you
ever saw? And that slate writing is no
fake, either." His bright eyes roved over
the room and met mine again squarely.
"No fake at all," he repeated. "That
was genuine."
I looked at that strange message on
that commonplace - slate, and it sudden
ly struck me that maybe it" was genu
ine; perhaps we had indeed been In tran
sient communication with the invisible,
possibly the tingle- thai had gone over
me at reading it had been nature's slight
horror of the spirit world.
But. are miracles performed In hotel
rooms, with the sound of street-cars com
ing through the windows and the bellboy
rushing down the halls?
I do not know, I remembered what I
3
lA XX. X
yL MINJD RJLblUG 'EX&ERIMEJVT
I 'I don't know she said.
said again, I don't know."
I Neither do I.
Later she
Seven Days in American History
July St.
1686 City of Albany, N. T., incorporated.
1S64 Battle of Atlanta; General McPher
son killed.
1870 Frauds of the Tweed ring first ex
posed by the New York Times.
1873 Professor Alexander Graham Bell
makes a successful test of his - electrical
telephone. .
July 23.
1664 The King's commission-arrives at
Boston and Is opposed as hostile to colonial
liberties. 1 -
1777 General Howe leaves New York and
sails to. sea with 18,000 men .In transports;
his destination is unknown to the Ameri
cans and causes great uneasiness.
1841 Bunker Hill Monument completed.
1883 The Great Eastern begins the laying
of the second Atlantic cable from Valencia.
July
I
1678 By decree of Charles II New Hamp
shire is separated from Massachusetts and
organized as a royal province.
1787 The committee on the details of the
Federal Constitution begins its work.
1847 Brigham Young joins the Mormon
pioneers at Great Salt Lake.
18ti2 Death of Martin Van Buren.
1S70 First through car from the Pacific
arrives in New York. .
July 23.
1684 Virginia becomes a royal provlnce.
" 172S New England declares war against
the Indians.
1759 Fort Niagara surrenders to the Brit
ish after a bloody battle.
1778 The New England fleet is destroyed
by the British ofT the coast of Maine.
1814 Battle of Lundy's Lane fought at
night near Niagara. Both sides claim vic
tory. . -
1865 Confederate prisoners of war re
leased on taking the oath of allegiance. .
1873 Baltimore visited by a destructive
fire. - , .
1898 United States Army, under General
Miles, landed at Guanica. Porto Rico, j
July 28. .
more than 1000
after
1659 Indians massacre
persons In Montreal.
1758 England takes Nova Scotli
besieging Louisburg for weeks.
1759 French garrison abandons . Fort
Tlconderoga at approach of General Am
herst. .
1775 r-Maryland convention meets at An
napolis and resolves to support the meas
ures of Congress.
1788 A mob favorable to the Constitution
destroys the anti-Federal printing office of
Thomas Greenleaf, in New York.
. 1877 Federal cavalry ' called to subdue
mobs of Socialists in Chicago; 19' killed.
1898 The Spanish Government, through
French Ambassador Cambon, asks for terms
of peace.
July 27.
1610--Sir Thomas Smyths discovers the
Delaware Bay.
1660 Whalley and Goffe. two of the fugi
tive judges of Charles I, arrive at Boston
and are concealed from the royal officers.
1681 Schenectady purchased from the
Indians.
1757 Benjamin Franklin arrives In Lon
don as Ambassador from the colony of
Pennsylvania.
1812 A mob In Baltimore attacks mem
bers of the anti-war party; two killed; oth
ers wounded. -
1813 War with, the Creek Indians begins.
1852 Great excitement caused by the
burning of the steamboat Henry Clay while
racing on the Hudsoa River near Yonkers;
70 lives lost. - '
1862 Steamer Golden Gate burned in the
Pacific off the coast of Mexico; 200 lives
lost.
1SS4 First regular trip of an electrio
street car made in Cleveland.
July 18.
1696 The French, under Frontenac, In
vade Northern New York.
1841 Congress finally passes' the bill to
establish foe Fiscal Bank of the United
States. (The bill was vetoed later by Presi
dent Tyler.)
1853 Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War,
sends an expedition to explore a railroad
route from the Missouri to the Pacific.
1S61 The Emperor of Russia sends to the
United States expressions of good will;
hopes the- Ulon will not be dissolved.
1862 The Alabama sails as a Confederate
privateer, from Birkenhead,, England. if
Once Always a Newspaper Man.
Balzap in The Lesser Bourgeoise.
"Whoso has ever been a newspaper man
will ever be oner that horoscope is as
sure and certain as that of a drunkard's.'
Whoso has tasted that feverishly busy
and relatively lazy and Independent life;
whoso has exercised that sovereignty
PACK OF CARDS
-BI.TNEFOLDED.
t"":w-1
I READING
4
AN EXPERIMENT JN VITAL TTAGNETJJY3. TNEJ)0LUIPEEGANTOMOlE
which criticises art, intellect, talent,
fame, virtue, absurdity and even truth;
whoever has occupied that tribune erect
ed by his own hands, fulfilled the func
tions of that magistracy to which he is
self-appointed in short, whoso has been,
for however brief a space,' that proxy of
public opinion, looks upon himself when
remanded to. private life as an exile, and
the moment a chance is offered to him
puts out an-eager hand -to-snatch back
his crown. '