Packed Courtroom As the trial got under way, the prosecutor announced that stage magician John Nevil Maskelyne was prepared to reproduce all the “alleged phenomena” that were observed at the séance. The judge, in turn, warned that performing magic slate tricks in court would prove nothing; the question was whether Lankester and Donkin had actually caught the defendants faking the alleged spirit writing.
Both scientists turned out to be terrible witnesses; their observational skills, developed in anatomy and physiology labs, were useless in detecting fraud by professional cheats. As Huxley later noted, “In these investigations, the qualities of the detective are far more useful than those of the philosopher.... A man may be an excellent naturalist or chemist; and yet make a very poor detective.”
Indeed, Lankester and Donkin apparently could not agree on anything much beyond their charge that Slade was an impostor. Did the medium use a thimble device for writing, or did he hold a pencil stub while his thumb was visible on the tabletop? Did he switch the blank slate for one that was previously written on? Was the table of ordinary construction, or did it have sliding bars and trick panels? The two could not establish when or how the writing had been done.
Maskelyne’s courtroom conjuring, in contrast, was perfect. In answer to a question about instant writing—and before the judge could stop him—he began scrubbing a blank slate with a wet sponge until writing appeared: “THE SPIRITS ARE HERE!” Then he wiped the slate clean and ran the sponge over it again. The message reappeared, and Slade’s partner, Simmonds, was fascinated. “Marvelous!” he exclaimed. “May I examine the slate?” Maskelyne shot back, “Oh, you know all about it.”
Whenever the prosecutor could, he had Maskelyne slip in another slate trick until the judge finally barred them. The prosecutor then offered Slade two small slates joined by hinges and a hasp lock. Why not make writing appear inside the locked slates and convince the world? Slade replied he had been so pestered by such tests that Allie, his wife’s spirit, had vowed never to write on a locked slate.
A chemist named Alexander Duffield was one of many witnesses for the prosecution. He said Slade had convinced him “that there could be established a sort of post office in connection with the ‘other place.’” But now he had his doubts. Another witness testified that a few years earlier, in the U.S., someone had similarly snatched a slate from Slade in mid-séance and exposed him in fraud.
The high point of the trial was Wallace’s appearance for the defense. His integrity and candor were known to all. When called, he said that he had witnessed the alleged phenomena but refused to speculate on whether the writings were caused by spirits. He considered Slade to be an honest gentleman, “as incapable of an imposture...as any earnest inquirer after truth in the department of Natural Science.”
In his summation, Slade’s lawyer argued that there was no real evidence against his client. No one had proved the table was rigged, and Maskelyne’s demonstrations of how the trick could have been done were irrelevant. The writing’s appearance before the corresponding question was asked proved nothing about its origin, and Lankester and Donkin could not agree on exactly what they had seen during the séance. Moreover, such an eminent scientist as Wallace should be considered at least as credible as young Lankester. The barrister concluded by invoking Galileo, remarking that innovative scientists who challenge the beliefs of their time are always vilified. His irony was not lost on the evolutionists.
But nothing could save Slade. The judge said that he understood that spiritualism was “a kind of new religion” and did not wish to offend sincere believers. Still, the question before the court was whether Slade and Simmonds had fraudulently represented their own actions as paranormal phenomena. Concluding that he must decide “according to the well-known course of nature,” the judge sentenced the defendant to three months’ hard labor in the House of Corrections.
Slade never served his sentence. On appeal, another judge ruled that the Vagrancy Act, which prohibited palmistry, was not applicable to claims of spirit writing. Slade and his partner fled England for Germany. Within a short time, Slade had convinced his landlord, a local conjurer, the chief of police and several prominent German scientists (including the physicist Johann Zöllner of the University of Leipzig) that he was in contact with spirits and various paranormal forces. When his act wore thin, he took to the road again. Eventually he wound up an alcoholic in a run-down New York boardinghouse, easy prey for tabloid editors who sent cub reporters to expose him one more time.
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Add CommentThe idea of evolution by natural selection is provably false; it contradicts the facts. It rests on rampant assumptions, speculation, and extrapolations (such as the peppered moth obsession). It is as much a matter of faith as is creationism. It is not science. Darwinism has nothing to do with evolution. Natural selection works to preserve the species, not change it into something else. The only reason that it continues to bind our minds is that no fact or objective evidence is allowed to refute it. Evolutionists are deliberately blind to any other possible process. Creationist beliefs also have problems. These beliefs rest upon misinterpretations of much of the Old Testament record. An objective analysis of both sides reveals contradictions. An alternative to both is clearly required. The evolutionists, hamstrung by gradualism, will never explain the origin of consciousness or of language. But if we recognize the inefficacy of gradualism, and if we recognize that the Genesis creation account is not all completely literal, and if we consider a new perspective, a rational paradigm presents itself. (Pardon my breathless sentence.) We must revise our world view. Also, Darwins inability to objectively analyze the disaster at the Tower of Babel (i.e., no new languages) doesnt speak well of his credibility. Check out
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Both Charles Darwin & Abraham Lincoln were born on this date 200 years ago, while the NAACP was founded on this date one hundred years ago. All you have to do is to look around, evolution is everywhere. I'm evolving as I write this, we all are, everything is. My favorite saying is, "You don't see any short neck giraffes", is my way of saying, mutation which are counterproductive, cease to exist. Read my full post at www.whatteddsedd.com just search for "Darwin".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd what alternative theory are you proposing?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are postulating that the giraffe neck evolved in the first place. Natural selection surely takes place cross-sectionally and longitudinally however the mutation-based evolution of morphologiacally changed species is flawed. Two distinct arguments based on two very differrent processes!
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