Henry Slade,
Medium Henry Slade
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Henry Slade Medium
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Above is a photograph of a hinged, wooden edged, slate used by the Physical Medium Henry Slade in the 1855-ish until his death in 1905. Notice the catch on the lower slate that goes through the lid so a lock can be fixed on the top when it is closed. You can see other aids on the Aids pages.
It is impossible to record the many Mediums of various shades of power, and
occasionally of honesty, who have demonstrated the effects which outside
intelligences can produce when the material conditions are such as to enable
them to manifest upon this plane. There are a few, however, who have been so
pre-eminent and so involved in public polemics that no history of the
movement can disregard them, even if their careers have not been in all ways
above suspicion. We shall deal in this chapter with the histories of Slade
and Monck, both of whom played a prominent part in their days.
Henry Slade, the celebrated slate-writing medium, had been before the public
in America for fifteen years before he arrived in London on July 13, 1876.
Colonel H. S. Olcott, a former president of the Theosophical Society, states
that he and Madame Blavatsky were responsible for Slade's visit to England.
It appears that the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, desiring to make a
scientific investigation of Spiritualism, a committee of professors of the
Imperial University of St. Petersburg requested Colonel Olcott and Madame
Blavatsky to select out of the best American mediums one whom they could
recommend for tests.
They chose Slade, after submitting him to
exacting tests for several weeks before a committee of sceptics, who in
their report certified that "messages were written inside double slates,
sometimes tied and sealed together, while they either lay upon the table in
full view of all, or were laid upon the heads of members of the committee,
or held flat against the under surface of the table-top, or held in a
committeeman's hand without the Medium touching it." It was en route to
Russia that Slade came to England.
A representative of the
London World, who had a sitting with Slade soon after his arrival, thus
describes him: "A highly-wrought, nervous temperament, a dreamy, mystical
face, regular features, eyes luminous with expression, a rather sad smile,
and a certain melancholy grace of manner, were the impressions conveyed by
the tall, lithe figure introduced to me as Dr. Slade. He is the sort of man
you would pick out of a roomful as an enthusiast." The Seybert Commission
Report says, "he is probably six feet in height, with a figure of unusual
symmetry," and that "his face would attract notice anywhere for its uncommon
beauty," and sums him up as "a noteworthy man in every respect."
Directly after his arrival in London Slade began to give sittings at his
lodgings in 8 Upper Bedford Place, Russell Square, and his success was
immediate and pronounced. Not only was writing obtained of an evidential
nature, under test conditions, with the sitter's own slates, but the
levitation of objects and materialized hands were observed in strong
sunlight.
The editor of THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE, the soberest and
most high-class of the Spiritualist periodicals of the time, wrote: "We have
no hesitation in saying that Dr. Slade is the most remarkable medium of
modern times."
Mr. J. Enmore Jones, a well-known psychic
researcher of that day, who afterwards edited THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE, said
that Slade was taking the place vacated by D. D. Home. His account of his
first sitting indicates the business-like method of procedure: "In Mr.
Home's case, he refused to take fees, and as a rule the sittings were in the
evening in the quiet of domestic life; but in Dr. Slade's case it was any
time during the day, in one of the rooms he occupies at a boarding-house.
The fee of twenty shillings is charged, and he prefers that only one person
be present in the large room he uses. No time is lost; as soon as the
visitor sits down the incidents commence, are continued, and in, say,
fifteen minutes are ended." Stainton Moses, who was afterwards the first
president of the London Spiritualist Alliance, conveys the same idea with
regard to Slade. He wrote: "In his presence phenomena occur with a
regularity and precision, with an absence of regard for 'conditions,' and
with a facility for observation which satisfy my desires entirely. It is
impossible to conceive circumstances more favourable to minute investigation
than those under which I witnessed the phenomena which occur in his presence
with such startling rapidity. There was no hesitation, no tentative
experiments. All was short, sharp, and decisive. The invisible operators
knew exactly what they were going to do, and did it with promptitude and
precision."*
* THE SPIRITUALIST, Vol. IX, p. 2.
Slade's
first seance in England was given on July 15, 1876, to Mr. Charles
Blackburn, a prominent Spiritualist, and Mr. W. H. Harrison, editor of THE
SPIRITUALIST. In strong sunlight the Medium and the two sitters occupied
three sides of an ordinary table about four feet square. A vacant chair was
placed at the fourth side. Slade put a tiny piece of pencil, about the size
of a grain of wheat, upon a slate, and held the slate by one corner with one
hand under the table flat against the leaf. Writing was heard on the slate,
and on examination a short message was found to have been written. While
this was taking place the four hands of the sitters and Slade's disengaged
hands were clasped in the centre of the table. Mr. Blackburn's chair was
moved four or five inches while he was sitting upon it, and no one but
himself was touching it. The unoccupied chair at the fourth side of the
table once jumped in the air, striking its seat against the under edge of
the table. Twice a life-like hand passed in front of Mr. Blackburn while
both Slade's hands were under observation. The medium held an accordion
under the table, and while his other hand was in clear view on the table
"Hone, Sweet Home" was played. Mr. Blackburn then held the accordion in the
same way, when the instrument was drawn out strongly and one note sounded.
While this occurred Slade's hands were on the table. Finally, the three
present raised their hands a foot above the table, and it rose until it
touched their hands. At another sitting on the same day a chair rose about
four feet, when no one was touching it, and when Slade rested one hand on
the top of Miss Blackburn's chair, she and the chair were raised about half
a yard from the floor.
Mr. Stainton Moses thus describes an
early sitting which he had with Slade:
A midday sun, hot enough to
roast one, was pouring into the room; the table was uncovered; the Medium
sat with the whole of his body in full view; there was no human being
present save myself and him. What conditions could be better? The raps were
instantaneous and loud, as if made by the clenched fist of a powerful man.
The slate-writing occurred under any suggested condition.
It
came on a slate held by Dr. Slade and myself; on one held by myself alone in
the corner of the table farthest from the medium; on a slate which I had
myself brought with me, and which I held myself. The latter writing occupied
some time in production, and the grating noise of the pencil in forming each
word was distinctly audible. A chair opposite to me was raised some eighteen
inches from the floor; my slate was taken out of my hand, and produced at
the opposite side of the table, where neither Dr. Slade nor I could reach
it; the accordion played all round and about me, while the doctor held it by
the lower part, and finally, on a touch from his hand upon the back of my
chair, I was levitated, chair and all, some inches.
Mr. Stainton
Moses was himself a powerful medium, and this fact doubtless aided the
conditions. He adds:
I have seen all these phenomena and many others
several times before, but I never saw them occur rapidly and consecutively
in broad daylight. The whole seance did not extend over more than half an
hour, and no cessation of the phenomena occurred from first to last.*
* THE SPIRITUALIST, Vol. IX, p. 2.
All went well for six
weeks, and London was full of curiosity as to the powers of Slade, when
there came an awkward interruption.
Early in September, 1876,
Professor Ray Lankester with Dr. Donkin had two sittings with Slade, and on
the second occasion, seizing the slate, he found writing on it when none was
supposed to have taken place. He was entirely without experience in psychic
research, or he would have known that it is impossible to say at what moment
writing occurs in such seances. Occasionally a whole sheet of writing seems
to be precipitated in an instant, while at other times the author has
clearly heard the pencil scratching along from line to line. To Ray
Lankester, however, it seemed a clear case of fraud, and he wrote a letter
to THE TIMES* denouncing Slade, and also prosecuted him for obtaining money
under false pretences. Replies to Lankester's letter and supporting Slade
were forthcoming from Dr, Alfred Russel Wallace, Professor Barrett, and
others. Dr. Wallace pointed out that Professor Lankester's account of what
happened was so completely unlike what occurred during his own visit to the
Medium, as well as the recorded experience of Serjeant Cox, Dr. Carter
Blake, and many others, that he could only look upon it as a striking
example of Dr. Carpenter's theory of preconceived ideas, He says: "Professor
Lankester went with the firm conviction that all he was going to see would
be imposture, and he believes he saw imposture accordingly." Professor
Lankester showed his bias when, referring to the paper read before the
British Association on September 12 by Professor Barrett, in which he dealt
with Spiritualistic phenomena, he said, in his letter to THE TIMES: "The
discussions of the British Association have been degraded by the
introduction of Spiritualism."
* September 16, 1876.
Professor Barrett wrote that Slade had a ready reply, based on his ignorance
of when the writing did actually occur. He describes a very evidential
sitting he had in which the slate rested on the table with his elbow resting
on it. One of Slade's hands was held by him, and the fingers of the medium's
other hand rested lightly on the surface of the slate. In this way writing
occurred on the under surface of the slate. Professor Barrett further speaks
of an eminent scientific friend who obtained writing on a clean slate when
it was held entirely by him, both of the medium's hands being on the table.
Such instances must surely seem absolutely conclusive to the unbiased
reader, and it will be clear that if the positive is firmly established,
occasional allegations of negative have no bearing upon the general
conclusion.
Slade's trial came on at Bow Street Police Court on
October t, 1876, before Mr. Flowers, the magistrate. Mr. George Lewis
prosecuted and Mr. Munton appeared for the defence. Evidence in favour of
the genuineness of Slade's mediumship was given by Dr. Alfred Russel
Wallace, Serjeant Cox, Dr. George Wyld, and one other, only four witnesses
being allowed. The magistrate described the testimony as "overwhelming" as
to the evidence for the phenomena, but in giving judgment he excluded
everything but the evidence of Lankester and his friend Dr. Donkin, saying
that he must base his decision on "inferences to be drawn from the known
course of nature." A statement made by Mr. Maskelyne, the well-known
conjurer, that the table used by Slade was a trick-table was disproved by
the evidence of the workman who made it. This table can now be seen at the
offices of the London Spiritualist Alliance, and one marvels at the audacity
of a witness who could imperil another man's liberty by so false a
statement, which must have powerfully affected the course of the trial.
Indeed, in the face of the evidence of Ray Lankester, Donkin, and Maskelyne,
it is hard to see how Mr. Flowers could fail to convict, for he would say
with truth and reason, "What is before the Court is not what has happened
upon other occasions-however convincing these eminent witnesses may be-but
what occurred upon this particular occasion, and here we have two witnesses
on one side and only the prisoner on the other." The "trick-table" probably
settled the matter.
Slade was sentenced, under the Vagrancy Act,
to three months' imprisonment with hard labour. An appeal was lodged and he
was released on bail. When the appeal came to be heard, the conviction was
quashed on a technical point. It may be pointed out that though he escaped
on a technical point, namely, that the words "by palmistry or otherwise"
which appeared in the statute had been omitted, it must not be assumed that
had the technical point failed he might not have escaped on the merits of
his case. Slade, whose health had been seriously affected by the strain of
the trial, left England for the Continent a day or two later. From the
Hague, after a rest of a few months, Slade wrote to Professor Lankester
offering to return to London and to give him exhaustive private tests on
condition that he could come without molestation. He received no answer to
his suggestion, which surely is not that of a guilty man.
An
illuminated testimonial to Slade from London Spiritualists in 1877 sets out:
In view of the deplorable termination of Henry Slade's visit to this
country, we the undersigned desire to place on record our high opinion of
his mediumship, and our reprobation of the treatment he has undergone.
We regard Henry Slade as one of the most valuable Test Mediums now
living. The phenomena which occur in his presence are evolved with a
rapidity and regularity rarely equalled.
He leaves us not only
untarnished in reputation by the late proceedings in our Law Courts, but
with a mass of testimony in his favour which could probably have been
elicited in no other way.
This is signed by Mr. Alexander Calder
(President of the British National Association of Spiritualists) and a
number of representative Spiritualists. Unhappily, however, it is the Noes,
not the Ayes, which have the ear of the Press, and even now, fifty years
later, it would be hard to find a paper enlightened enough to do the man
justice.
Spiritualists, however, showed great energy in
supporting Slade. Before the trial a Defence Fund was raised, and
Spiritualists in America drew up a memorial to the American Minister in
London. Between the Bow Street conviction and the hearing of the appeal, a
memorial was sent to the Home Secretary protesting against the action of the
Government in conducting the prosecution on appeal. Copies of this were sent
to all the members of the Legislature, to all the Middlesex magistrates, to
various members of the Royal Society, and of other public bodies. Miss
Kislingbury, the secretary to the National Association of Spiritualists,
forwarded a copy to the Queen.
After giving successful seances
at the Hague, Slade went to Berlin in November, 1877, where he created the
keenest interest. He was said to know no German, yet messages in German
appeared on the slates, and were written in the characters of the fifteenth
century. The BERLINER FREMDENBLATT of November 10, 1877, wrote: "Since the
arrival of Mr. Slade at the Kronprinz Hotel the greater portion of the
educated world of Berlin has been suffering from an epidemic which we may
term a Spiritualistic fever." Describing his experiences in Berlin, Slade
said that he began by fully converting the landlord of the hotel, using the
latter's slates and tables in his own house. The landlord invited the Chief
of Police and many prominent citizens of Berlin to witness the
manifestations, and they expressed themselves as satisfied. Slade writes:
"Samuel Bellachini, Court Conjurer to the Emperor of Germany, had a week's
experience with me free of charge. I gave him from two to three seances a
day and one of them at his own house. After his full and complete
investigation, he went to a public notary and made oath that the phenomena
were genuine and not trickery."
Bellachini's declaration on
oath, which has been published, bears out this statement. He says that after
the minutest investigation he considers any explanation by conjuring to be
"absolutely impossible." The conduct of conjurers seems to have been usually
determined by a sort of trade union jealousy, as if the results of the
medium were some sort of breach of a monopoly, but this enlightened German,
together with Houdin, Kellar, and a few more, have shown a more open mind.
A visit to Denmark followed, and in December began the historic
seances with Professor Zollner, at Leipzig. A full account of these will be
found in Zollner's "Transcendental Physics," which has been translated by
Mr. C. C. Massey. Zollner was Professor of Physics and Astronomy in the
University of Leipzig, and associated with him in the experiments with Slade
were other scientific men, including William Edward Weber, Professor of
Physics; Professor Scheibner, a distinguished mathematician; Gustave
Theodore Fechner, Professor of Physics and an eminent natural philosopher,
who were all, says Professor Zollner, "perfectly convinced of the reality of
the observed facts, altogether excluding imposture or "prestidigitation."
The phenomena in question included, among other things, "the production of
true knots in an endless string, the rending of Professor Zollner's
bed-screen, the disappearance of a small table and its subsequent descent
from the ceiling in FULL LIGHT, in a private house and under the observed
conditions, of which the most noticeable is the apparent passivity of Dr.
Slade during all these occurrences."
Certain critics have tried
to indicate what they consider insufficient precautions observed in these
experiments. Dr. J. Maxwell, the acute French critic, makes an excellent
reply to such objections. He points out* that because skilled and
conscientious psychic investigators have omitted to indicate explicitly in
their reports that every hypothesis of fraud has been studied and dismissed,
in the belief that "their implicit affirmation of the reality of the fact
appeared sufficient to them," and in order to prevent their reports from
being too unwieldy, yet captious critics do not hesitate to condemn them and
to suggest possibilities of fraud which are quite inadmissible under the
observed conditions.
* "Metapsychical Phenomena" (Translation 1905),
p. 405.
Zollner gave a dignified reply to the supposition that he
was tricked in these cord-tying experiments: "If, nevertheless, the
foundation of this fact, deduced by me on the ground of an enlarged
conception of space, should be denied, only one other kind of explanation
would remain, arising from a moral code of consideration that at present, it
is true, is quite customary. This explanation would consist in the
presumption that I myself and the honourable men and citizens of Leipzig, in
whose presence several of these cords were sealed, were either common
impostors, or were not in possession of our sound senses sufficient to
perceive if Mr. Slade himself, before the cords were sealed, had tied them
in knots. The discussion, however, of such a hypothesis would no longer
belong to the dominion of science, but would fall under the category of
social decency."*
* Massey's Zollner, pp. 20-21.
As a
sample of the reckless statements of opponents of Spiritualism, it may be
mentioned that Mr. Joseph McCabe, who is second only to the American Houdini
for wild inaccuracies, speaks of Zollner as "an elderly and purblind
professor," whereas he died in 1882, in his forty-eighth year, and his
experiments with Slade were carried out in 1877-78, when this distinguished
scientist was in the vigour of his intellectual life.
So far
have opponents pushed their enmity that it has even been stated that Zollner
was deranged, and that his death which occurred some years later was
accompanied with cerebral weakness. An inquiry from Dr. Funk set this matter
at rest, though it is unfortunately easy to get libels of this sort into
circulation and very difficult to get the contradictions. Here is the
document:
"Spiritualism. A Popular History from 1847," p. 161.
"The Widow's Mite," p. 276.
Your letter addressed to the Rector
of the University, October 20, 1903, received. The Rector of this University
was installed here after the death of Zollner, and had no personal
acquaintance with him; but information received from Zollner's colleagues
states that during his entire studies at the University here, until his
death, he was of sound mind; moreover, in the best of health. The cause of
his death was a hemorrhage of the brain on the morning of April 25th, 1882,
while he was at breakfast with his mother, and from which he died shortly
after. It is true that Professor Zollner was an ardent believer in
Spiritualism, and as such was in close relations with Slade.
(Dr.) KARL BUCHER, Professor of Statistics and National Economy at the
University.
The tremendous power which occasionally manifests
itself when the conditions are favourable was shown once in the presence of
Zollner, Weber, and Scheibner, all three professors of the University. There
was a strong wooden screen on one side of the room:
A violent crack
was suddenly heard as in the discharging of a large battery of Leyden jars.
On turning with some alarm in the direction of the sound, the
before-mentioned screen fell apart in two pieces. The strong wooden screws,
half an inch thick, were torn from above and below, without any visible
contact of Slade with the screen. The parts broken were at least five feet
removed from Slade, who had his back to the screen; but even if he had
intended to tear it down by a cleverly devised sideward motion, it would
have been necessary to fasten it on the opposite side. As it was, the screen
stood quite unattached, and the grain of the wood being parallel to the axis
of the cylindrical wooden fastenings, the wrenching asunder could only be
accomplished by a force acting longitudinally to the part in question. We
were all astonished at this unexpected and violent manifestation of
mechanical force, and asked Slade what it all meant; but he only shrugged
his shoulders, saying that such phenomena occasionally, though somewhat
rarely, occurred in his presence. As he spoke, he placed, while still
standing, a piece of slate-pencil on the polished surface of the table, laid
over it a slate, purchased and just cleaned by myself, and pressed the five
spread fingers of his right hand on the upper surface of the slate, while
his left hand rested on the centre of the table. Writing began on the inner
surface of the slate, and when Slade turned it up, the following sentence
was written in English: "It was not our intention to do harm. Forgive what
has happened." We were the more surprised at the production of the writing
under these circumstances, for we particularly observed that both Slade's
hands remained quite motionless while the writing was going on.*
*
"Transcendental Physics," p. 34, 35.
In his desperate attempt to
explain this incident, Mr. McCabe says that no doubt the screen was broken
before and fastened together afterwards with thread. There is truly no limit
to the credulity of the incredulous.
After a very successful
series of seances in St. Petersburg, Slade returned to London for a few days
in 1878, and then proceeded to Australia. An interesting account of his work
there is to be found in Mr. James Curtis's book, "Rustlings in the Golden
City." Then he returned to America. In 1885 he appeared before the Seybert
Commission in Philadelphia, and in 1887 again visited England under the name
of "Dr. Wilson," though it was well known who he was. Presumably his alias
was due to a fear that the old proceedings would be renewed.
At
most of his seances, Slade exhibited clairvoyant powers, and materialized
hands were a familiar occurrence. In Australia, where psychic conditions are
good, he had materializations. Mr. Curtis says that the medium objected to
sitting for this form of manifestation, because it left him weak for a time,
and because he preferred to give seances in the light. He consented,
however, to try with Mr. Curtis, who thus describes what took place at
Ballarat, in Victoria:
Our first test of spirit appearance in the
form took place at Lester's Hotel. I placed the table about four or five
feet from the west wall of the room. Mr. Slade sat at the end of the table
furthest from the wall, whilst I took my position on the north side. The
gaslight was toned down, not so much but that any object in the room could
be clearly seen. Our hands were placed over one another in a single pile. We
sat very still about ten minutes, when I observed something like a little
misty cloud between myself and the wall. When my attention was first drawn
towards this phenomenon, it was about the size and colour of a gentleman's
high-crowned, whitish-grey felt hat. This cloudlike appearance rapidly grew
and became transformed, when we saw before us a woman-a lady. The being thus
fashioned, and all but perfected, rose from the floor on to the top of the
table, where I could most distinctly observe the configuration. The arms and
hands were elegantly shaped; the forehead, mouth, nose, cheeks, and
beautiful brown hair showed harmoniously, each part in concord with the
whole. Only the eyes were veiled because they could not be completely
materialized. The feet were encased in white satin shoes. The dress glowed
in light, and was the most beautiful I ever beheld, the colour being bright,
sheeny silvery grey, or greyish shining white. The whole figure was
graceful, and the drapery perfect. The materialized spirit glided and walked
about, causing the table to shake, vibrate, jerk and tilt considerably. I
could hear, too, the rustling of the dress as the celestial visitant
transiently wended from one position or place to another. The spirit form,
within two feet of our unmoved hands, still piled up together in a heap,
then dissolved, and gradually faded from our vision.
The
conditions at this beautiful seance-with the Medium's hands held throughout,
and with enough light for visibility-seem satisfactory, provided we grant
the honesty of the witness. As the preface contains the supporting testimony
of a responsible Australian Government official, who also speaks of Mr.
Curtis's initial extremely sceptical state of mind, we may well do so. At
the same seance a quarter of an hour later the figure again appeared:
The apparition then floated in the air and alighted on the table,
rapidly glided about, and thrice bent her beautiful figure with graceful
bows, each bending deliberate and low, the head coming within six inches of
my face. The dress rustled (as silk rustles) with every movement. The face
was partially veiled as before. The visibility then became invisible, slowly
disappearing like the former materialization.
Other similar
seances are described.
In view of the many elaborate and
stringent tests through which he passed successfully, the story of Slade's
"exposure" in America in 1886 is not convincing, but we refer to it for
historical reasons, and to show that such incidents are not excluded from
our review of the subject. The BOSTON HERALD, February 2, 1886, heads its
account, "The celebrated Dr. Slade comes to grief in Weston, West Virginia,
writes upon slates which lie upon his knees under the table, and moves
tables and chairs with his toes." Observers in an adjoining room, looking
through the crevice under the door saw these feats of agility being
performed by the medium, though those present in the room with him were
unaware of them. There seems, however, to have been in this as in other
cases, occurrences which bore the appearance of fraud, and Spiritualists
were among those who denounced him. At a subsequent public performance for
"Direct Spirit Writing" in the Justice Hall, Weston, Mr. E. S. Barrett,
described as a "Spiritualist," came forward and explained how Slade's
imposture had been detected. Slade, who was asked to speak, appeared
dumbfounded, and could only say, according to the report, that if his
accusers had been deceived he had been equally so, for if the deceit had
been done by him, it had been without his consciousness.
Mr. J.
Simmons, Slade's business manager, made a frank statement which seems to
point to the operation of ectoplasmic limbs, as years later was proved to be
the case with the famous Italian medium, Eusapia Palladino. He says: "I do
not doubt that these gentlemen saw what they assert they did; but I am
convinced at the same time that Slade is as innocent of what he is accused
of as you (the editor) yourself would have been under similar circumstances.
But I know that my explanation would have no weight in a court of justice. I
myself saw a hand, which I could have sworn to be that of Slade, if it had
been possible for his hand to be in that position. While one of his hands
lay upon the table and the other held the slate under the corner of the
table, a third hand appeared with a clothes-brush (which a moment previously
had brushed against me from the knee upwards) in the middle of the opposite
edge of the table, which was forty-two inches long." Slade and his manager
were arrested and released on bail, but no further proceedings seem to have
been taken against them. Truesdell, also, in his book, "Spiritualism, Bottom
Facts," states that he saw Slade effecting the movement of objects with his
foot, and he asks his readers to believe that the medium made to him a full
confession of how all his manifestations were produced. If Slade ever really
did this, it may probably be accounted for by a burst of ill-timed levity on
his part in seeking to fool a certain type of investigator by giving him
exactly what he was seeking for. To such instances we may apply the judgment
of Professor Zollner on the Lankester incident: "The physical facts observed
by us in so astonishing a variety in his presence negatived on every
reasonable ground the supposition that he in one solitary case had taken
refuge in wilful imposture." He adds, what was certainly the case in that
particular instance, that Slade was the victim of his accuser's and his
judge's limited knowledge.
At the same time there is ample
evidence that Slade degenerated in general character towards the latter part
of his life. Promiscuous sittings with a mercenary object, the subsequent
exhaustions, and the alcoholic stimulus which affords a temporary relief,
all acting upon a most sensitive organization, had a deleterious effect.
This weakening of character, with a corresponding loss of health, may have
led to a diminution of his psychic powers, and increased the temptation to
resort to trickery. Making every allowance for the difficulty of
distinguishing what is fraud and what is of crude psychic origin, an
unpleasant impression is left upon the mind by the evidence given in the
Seybert Commission and by the fact that Spiritualists upon the spot should
have condemned his action. Human frailty, however, is one thing and psychic
power is another. Those who seek evidence for the latter will find ample in
those years when the man and his powers were both at their zenith.
Slade died in 1905 at a Michigan sanatorium to which he had been sent by
the American Spiritualists, and the announcement was followed by the
customary sort of comment in the London Press. THE STAR, which has an evil
tradition in psychic matters, printed a sensational article headed "Spook
Swindles," giving a garbled account of the Lankester prosecution at Bow
Street. Referring to this, LIGHT says*:
* 1886, p. 433.
Of course, this whole thing is a hash of ignorance, unfairness and
prejudice. We do not care to discuss it or to controvert it. It would be
useless to do so for the sake of the unfair, the ignorant, and the
prejudiced, and it is not necessary for those who know. Suffice it to say
that the STAR only supplies one more instance of the difficulty of getting
all the facts before the public; but the prejudiced newspapers have
themselves to blame for their ignorance or inaccuracy.
It is the
story of the Davenport Brothers and Maskelyne over again.
If
Slade's career is difficult to appraise, and if one is forced to admit that
while there was an overpowering preponderance of psychic results, there was
also a residuum which left the unpleasant impression that the medium might
supplement truth with fraud, the same admission must be made in the case of
the medium Monck, who played a considerable part for some years in the
'seventies. Of all mediums none is more difficult to appraise, for on the
one hand many of his results are beyond all dispute, while in a few there
seems to be an absolute certainty of dishonesty. In his case, as in Slade's,
there were physical causes which would account for a degeneration of the
moral and psychic powers.
The History
of Spiritualism
Volume I,
Chapter 13
by Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle
Morning Star, October 17, 1993, pg. 6
Continuing with our October series on Riverside Cemetery stories, there is a 12-foot high monument erected right (south) of the cemetery receiving vault. The vault, by the way, is the place where they stored dead frozen bodies during the winter months when the ground was too frozen to dig and bury corpses. The vault contains holding shelves built to house caskets. Today, lawn mower and trimming equipment occupy these spaces. Anyway, the aforementioned monument stands next to a towering pin tree. It is the resting place of Henry Slade, once a world-famous spiritualist. Spiritualism was big in Albion during the 19th century, and many prominent Albion families were involved in it.
Henry Slade was a famous 19th century spiritualist medium known for his independent slate writing abilities. Slade came to Albion in 1855 at the age of 20, and resided here and in Marengo. The story of this man is best recalled again by Dr. Elmore Palmer, who was a clerk in a local drug store during the year Slade came to town. Palmer writes:
In the year 1855 when this writer [Dr. Palmer] was a clerk in S. Tuttle & Son’s drug store in Albion, there came to reside in the village a young man, who claimed to be a spiritual doctor. He was well dressed, very affable and soon became quite well known. My position as a drug clerk brought me in daily contact with him. Our acquaintance grew quite intimate as he purchased all of his drugs and medicines at the store where I was employed.
Occasionally he gave demonstrations of his spirit rappings, slate writings, moving of tables, etc. that seemed quite miraculous.
Dr. Henry Slade was born in 1835 at Johnson’s Creek, Niagara County, New York. When he was a mere child of eight or ten years old, he seemed possessed of strange powers and manifestations. When he was only 18 years o age he could stand five feet from a table and cause it to tip over by a wave of his hand, while a lighted lamp standing upon it never lost its equilibrium. He could hold his hand a few inches from the cottage organ and cause it to rise from the floor.
Slade was one of the greatest slate writing mediums ever known. His fame grew so rapidly that many curious people as well as spiritualists from all over the country were attracted by his demonstrations. At twenty years of age he started on a tour of the cities of the United States, and he astonished and puzzled everyone by the mysterious and wonderful things he performed.
As he grew older his miraculous powers seemed to grow stronger. Soon his fame reached the old world. About 1865 or 1866 he went to Europe and spend several years in giving demonstrations in all the large cities on the continent. He created a great furor wherever he went. He gave seances before many of the royalty. When he returned home he had many valuables that had been given to him by the crowned heads, and among others a three-carat diamond which Emperor Napoleon III had presented to him.
At one time Slade was reputed to be worth $1 million. When he was at the height of his fame it was impossible to gain an audience with him without making arrangements weeks in advance. He lived with great prodigality, but as he grew older, his wonderful powers weakened and gave way under the strain of his dissipation. His fortune was soon squandered and he eked out a miserable existence by slate writings at 50 cents a sitting.
Slade visited his old home near Lockport, N.Y. for the last time in 1899. He was then a poor old man, nearly or quite penniless and friendless. In 1905 he had wandered to Michigan, at Battle Creek he fell ill and was placed in the sanitarium in that city, where he died September 8, 1905. He had no known relatives living and no friends to claim the body. He died in dire poverty.
When it became known that Slade’s remains were buried at Battle Creek in a pauper’s grave, some of the greater spiritualites started a subscription among themselves to re-inter the body at Riverside Cemetery in Albion, where it was ascertained Slade had a lot. This work was accomplished under the supervision of Dr. A.B. Spinney and Grant, in September 1906. Is there not a moral to be drawn from this man’s life?"
Again, Dr. Palmer’s firsthand account of Henry Slade is available in his Biographical Sketches series which is available at the Albion Chamber of Commerce. Another account of Slade appeared in a local newspaper at the turn of the century, and reveals more about this man and his fate:
Henry Slade, the most famous slate writing Medium in the world, who has dropped completely out of sight for several years past, and by many was thought to be dead, has gone to the Phelps Sanitarium at Battle Creek for treatment, said the Detroit Evening News recently. Four years ago while in New York, he was sandbagged on night and robbed of $10,000 worth of diamonds and his money. One side of his body became paralyzed from the effects of his injuries.
With the paralysis of his body, his remarkable mediumistic powers vanished away. Broken in health and shattered in fortune, he dropped out of sight. Slade probably gained more notoriety than any other medium who ever lived. He has appeared before almost every crowned head and royal family in Europe. In Germany he was subjected to the most rigid tests by the most famous scientists in that land of eminent scientists, among whom was Professor Zolner, and baffled them all.
In London he was arrested and placed on trial, charged with fraud and trickery, and gained his freedom by allowing himself to be searched, handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded, and while in this condition in open court, gave a seance. The fact that his wonderful power, whatever it may be, is returning to him will be welcome news to the thousands of spiritualists throughout the country. Mr. Slade has relatives in this city as well as Marengo, and they will be glad to learn that his wonderful powers are commencing to return to him."
Slade’s tombstone in Riverside Cemetery reads, "Henry Slade, renowned throughout the world as the first spiritualist medium for the independent slate writing. Retired to spirit life September 8,1 905 after an earthly visit of 69 years, 5 months and 22 days. With toil now finished, with soul set free, he now enters eternity."
Charles Darwin and Associates, Ghostbusters
When the scientific
establishment put a spiritualist on trial, the co-discoverers of natural
selection took opposing sides
By Richard Milner
Editor's Note: We
are reposting this article from the October 1996 issue of Scientific
American in commemoration of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday this week.
After lunch on September 16, 1876, Charles Darwin stretched out on his
drawing-room sofa, as was his unvarying routine, smoked a Turkish cigarette
and read the “bloody old Times.” He often fumed at its politics (the editors
supported the South in the American Civil War), and his wife, Emma,
suggested that they give up the paper altogether. But he replied he would
sooner “give up meat, drink and air.”
In the “Letters” column, he
noticed a report that a young zoologist named Edwin Ray Lankester was bent
on jailing a celebrated spirit medium, “Dr.” Henry Slade, who was bilking
gullible Londoners. By hauling Slade into court as “a common rogue,”
Lankester would become the first scientist to prosecute a professional
psychic for criminal fraud--an action Darwin thought long overdue. Although
he was delighted at Lankester’s attack on Slade, Darwin was distressed to
learn that Alfred Russel Wallace, his friendly rival and co-discoverer of
the theory of natural selection, was also a target.
The Slade trial
was to become one of the strangest courtroom cases in Victorian England.
Some saw it as a public arena where science could score a devastating
triumph over superstition. For others, it was the declaration of war between
professional purveyors of the “paranormal” and the fraternity of honest
stage magicians. Arthur Conan Doyle, the zealous spiritualist whose
fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, was logic personified, characterized
it as “the persecution [rather than prosecution] of Slade.” But what made
the trial unique was that the two greatest naturalists of the century ranged
themselves on opposite sides. The “arch-materialist” Darwin gave aid and
comfort to the prosecution, and his old friend Wallace, a sincere
spiritualist, was to be the defense’s star witness--making it one of the more
bizarre and dramatic episodes in the history of science.
Wallace was
respected as an author, zoologist, botanist, the discoverer of scores of new
species, the first European to study apes in the wild and a pioneer in the
study of the distribution of animals. But he constantly courted ruin by
championing such radical causes as socialism, pacifism, land
nationalization, wilderness conservation, women’s rights and spiritualism.
In addition to his classic volumes on zoogeography, natural selection,
island life and the Malay Archipelago, he had written Miracles and Modern
Spiritualism, which lauded Spirit-Mediums. And he had just allowed a
controversial paper on “thought transference” to be read at a meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science--touching off an uproar
that led him to avoid scientific meetings for the rest of his life.
Wallace wanted the best of both worlds. With insects or birds, he was even
more rigorous than Darwin in applying the principle of natural selection,
but he questioned its efficacy for humans. If early hominids required only a
gorilla’s intelligence to survive, Wallace asked, why had they evolved
brains capable of devising language, composing symphonies and doing
mathematics? Although our bodies had evolved by natural selection, he
concluded, Homo sapiens has “something which he has not derived from his
animal progenitors--a spiritual essence or nature . . . [that] can only find
an explanation in the unseen universe of Spirit.” Wallace’s position did not
stem from any conventional religious belief but from his long-standing
interest in spiritualism: a melding of ancient Eastern beliefs with the
Western desire to “secularize” the soul and prove its existence. When
Wallace published this view in 1869, Darwin wrote him: “I differ grievously
from you; I can see no necessity for calling in an additional and proximate
cause [a supernatural force] in regard to Man.... I hope you have not
murdered too completely your own and my child”---meaning their theory of
natural selection.
Darwin the “Materialist” Like Wallace (and his
New Age intellectual descendants), many Victorians recoiled from the
materialism axiomatic in physical science; they sought a “wireless
telegraph” to an intangible world. Although Darwin and most other scientists
kept miracles out of their theories, a few shared Wallace’s views. Among
them were the physicist Oliver Lodge and the chemist William Crookes,
discoverer of the element thallium.
Spiritualism attracted people
with a wide spectrum of interests, but its major focus was on the
possibility of communication with the dead. This part of the movement began
in 1848, with the rise of Margaret and Kate Fox, sisters from Hydesville,
N.Y. When the teenage girls conversed with “Spirits,” mysterious rapping
sounds spelled out lengthy messages. (Thirty years later, after gaining fame
and fortune, one of the sisters admitted that she had always produced the
taps by snapping her big toe inside her shoe.) In England, the U.S. and
Europe, over the next 80 years, spiritualism enjoyed tremendous popularity.
In the early 1870s Darwin’s cousin and brother-in-law Hensleigh Wedgwood
became a convert. Wedgwood yearned to become a respected savant like Darwin,
their cousin Francis Galton and Darwin’s grandfather Erasmus. But a pair of
swindlers, Charles Williams and Frank Herne, recognized that he was the most
gullible of the clan. At their urging, Wedgwood begged Darwin to come and
see the self-playing accordions, levitating tables, automatic writing and
glowing spirit hands at Williams’s seances. Darwin always managed to be too
tired, too busy or too ill to attend. “I am a wretched bigot on the
subject,” he once admitted.
In January 1874, however, Darwin sent two
close members of his circle to attend a seance with Williams. His friend and
lieutenant, the famous zoologist Thomas H. Huxley, was introduced as “Mr.
Henry” (his middle name). Darwin’s son George, then 29 years old, went as
well. Although bottles moved around and a guitar played by itself, the two
concluded they had observed nothing but crude trickery. George, a budding
astronomer, wrote that he was shocked to find his uncle Hensleigh’s account
of Williams’s seances “so worthless.” Later that year Darwin wrote to a
newspaperman, urging him to expose Williams as “a scoundrel who has imposed
on the public for so many years.”
"The following year Huxley’s young laboratory assistant, Edwin Ray
Lankester, decided to catch Williams and Herne in fraud-an act he knew would
impress his heroes Darwin and Huxley. But after Huxley and George’s visit,
the medium became wary, avoiding anyone connected to Darwin’s Circle. Then,
in April 1876, a tempting new target moved into Lankester’s sights: a
celebrated American psychic, “Dr.” Henry Slade, had come to London “to prove
the truth of communication with the dead.” Slade claimed that his wife’s
spirit wrote him messages on slates.
Lankester and his fellow medical
student, Horatio Donkin, went to Slade’s pretending to be believers. They
paid the admission fee, asked questions of the spirits and received
mysteriously written answers. Then, in the darkened room, Lankester suddenly
snatched a slate out of Slade’s hands, found the written answer to a
question he had not yet asked, and proclaimed him “a scoundrel and an
impostor.”
The next day Slade and his partner, Geoffrey Simmonds,
were in the hands of the police, charged with violating the Vagrancy Act, an
old law intended to protect the public from traveling palm readers and
sleight-of-hand artists. Throughout the fall of 1876, all London was abuzz
over the Slade trial. The little courtroom was packed with Slade’s
supporters and detractors and 30 journalists, who spilled out into the
street. The Times of London carried trial transcripts day after day.
Darwin, whose beloved 10-year-old daughter Annie had died in 1851, had
nothing but contempt for the “clever rogues” who preyed on grieving
relatives. Yet he avoided saying so publicly---On the Origin of Species had
stirred up enough controversies for a lifetime. Privately, he wrote
Lankester an effusive letter of congratulations. Jailing Slade was a public
benefit, he said, and insisted on contributing £10 to the costs of
prosecution. (Under English law, the complainant paid court costs; £10 was a
substantial sum, comparable to a month’s wages for a workingman.)
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 seance. 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-seance 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.
After
the Trial The controversy took a toll on participants other than Slade. In
1879 Darwin tried to drum up support for a government pension in recognition
of Wallace’s brilliant contributions to natural history. Wallace, he knew,
had to earn his meager living by grading examination papers. But when Darwin
wrote to his friend Joseph Hooker, director of Kew Gardens, the botanist
refused to help. “Wallace has lost caste terribly,” he replied nastily, “not
only for his adhesion to Spiritualism, but by the fact of his having
deliberately and against the whole voice of the committee” allowed the paper
on mental telepathy at the scientific meetings. In addition, he thought the
government “should in fairness be informed that the candidate is a public
and leading Spiritualist!”
Undaunted, Darwin replied that Wallace’s
beliefs were “not worse than the prevailing superstitions of the country”--
meaning organized religion. Darwin and Huxley twisted a few more arms, then
Darwin personally wrote to Prime Minister William Gladstone, who passed the
petition on to Queen Victoria. In the end, Wallace got his modest pension
and was able to continue writing his articles and books; he died in 1913, at
the age of 90.
In the years after the trial, Wedgwood and Darwin did
not see much of each other. In 1878 a reporter for the journal Light had
finally managed to unmask Charles Williams, the medium who had attempted to
use Wedgwood to win over Darwin’s family. When the journalist suddenly
turned on the lights at a séance, Williams was found to be wearing a false
black beard, phosphorescent rags and, as Darwin later put it, “dirty
ghost-clothes.”
“A splendid exposure,” crowed Darwin when he read of
it. But even then, his brother-in-law’s faith remained unshaken; a few faked
performances indicated only that the medium was having difficulty getting
through to the other side and was under pressure not to disappoint his
sitters. For Darwin, this was the last straw: “Hensleigh Wedgwood admits
Williams is proved a rogue,” he fumed, “but insists he has seen real ghosts
[at Williams’s séances]. Is this not a psychological curiosity?”
In
1880 Wedgwood sent Darwin a long handwritten manuscript: a spiritualist
synthesis of science and religion. Would Darwin read it and perhaps suggest
where it might be published? In a melancholy mood, Darwin sat down to reply
to his cousin. He may have remembered the times Wedgwood had gone to bat for
him many years before: he had helped persuade Darwin’s uncle and father to
let him go on the HMS Beagle expedition, and it was to his cousin that
Darwin had once entrusted publication of his theory of natural selection.
“My dear Cousin,” Darwin wrote, “It is indeed a long time since we met,
and I suppose if we now did so we should not know one another; but your
former image is perfectly clear to me.” He refused even to read Hensleigh’s
paper, writing that “there have been too many such attempts to reconcile
Genesis and science.” The two cousins, who had once been so close, were now
hopelessly estranged over the question of science and the supernatural.
That same year Lankester, now a professor of zoology, declined requests
to continue ghostbusting. “The Spirit Medium,” he wrote in an 1880 letter to
the Pall Mall Gazette, “is a curious and unsavoury specimen of natural
history, and if you wish to study him, you must take him unawares . . . . I
have done my share of the skunk-hunting; let others follow.” He was later
appointed director of the British Museum of Natural History.
Ironically, in 1912 Lankester, the nemesis of fakers, was completely fooled
by the Piltdown man hoax, one of the most notorious frauds in the history of
evolutionary biology. For the next 40 years, scientists accepted the
“ape-man” fragments, dug up about 25 miles from Darwin’s home, as remains of
the “missing link.” Fired with enthusiasm for the Darwin-Wallace theory,
Lankester and the younger generation of evolutionists uncritically embraced
this fossil forgery.
Huxley, who died in 1895, knew full well that
more than a few scientists were prone to develop their own irrationally held
beliefs. While young, he had battled churchmen to establish the scientific
approach to unraveling human origins but later quipped to an educator that
“we or our sons shall live to see all the stupidity in favour of science”---a
fitting prophecy of Piltdown, the ersatz “Stone Age” Tasaday tribe of the
Philippines, and cold fusion. In The Descent of Man, Darwin himself had
urged a skeptical approach to unconfirmed observations; he believed that
accepting flimsy evidence is much more dangerous than adopting incorrect
theories. “False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for
they often long endure,” he wrote. “But false views, if supported by some
evidence, do little harm, as everyone takes a salutary pleasure in proving
their falseness.”
A Diffferent point of view.
from http://spiritualismlink.forumotion.com/t306-darwin-versus-wallace-the-trial-of-henry-slade-medium
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