Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1889 — Bishop a Trick Performer. [ARTICLE]

Bishop a Trick Performer.

. **The whole quest on of mind-read-ing as practiced by the late Washington Irving Bishop lies in familiarity with the phenomena *>f little things." The speaker was Charles Howard Montagu of Boston, says a letter from that city to the New York Herald, who is the only American who has "accomplished in public tricks practiced by the welt known performer who has just died. “I have read the? stories of Mr. Bishop’s sad ending, and will say without reserve that the act of discovering the word in the book calls for no mentt! effort. The trick is one Of the-simpler ones. “The claim publicly made by Mr. Bishop,” Mr. Montagu continued, “was that he passed into a hypnotic condition similar to but not as intense as the hysterical trances into which some of Charcot’s patients pass at La fialpetriere, Paris. Hypnotized, but not completely so, was Bishop’s assertion. There was, of course, nothing of the kind. There was naught that savored of a metaphysical phenomenon. It was simply the clever act of a very clever and almost abnormally acute man. “Mr. Bishop admitted to me without any reserve that he depended upon the same means as myself. This conversation occurred after I exposed his claims of hypnotization. We met and compared notes. Ho explained that it was a matter of business with him—dollars and cents —the same as with f jkirs and slelght-of-hand performer* “Mr. Bishop associated during his earlier days with palmers, magicians, slelght-of-hand men or whatever you may call them. The so-called science of mind-reading was known to some of those people years ago. One in particular, a man of the name of Brown, used to perform in a rather crude way the act of reading names from letters strung across the stage on a line. Mr. Bishop obtained his start from Brown, and he improved the original idea so that you would not have recognized it. He used to peek down beneath his bandago whenever he could, and every act was accomplished in a theatrical sort of way. He would locate satisfactorily to himself the object borne in the mind of the person whoso hand he held and then he would turn away only to return and reach the object with an impressive gesture of hi 9 hand, “The simple act of touching the object unaccompanied by a stagy gesture would not have the impressive effect on the audience that the other method would. He informed me that he practiced a great deal in finding an object in the dark. He would observe a speck on the w*all and then he would darken the room and train himself to walk toward the given point and touch it with his finger promptly. “The whole question of ‘mind-read-ing? depends upon a familiarity with and the ready observance of trifles. The world is full of little things which pass unnoticed by 999 men out of 1,000. The story of the basis of my success is that I depended upon two rules. First, I followed the line ol least resistance in favorable subjects whose hand or arm I held. Second, with contrary subjects I acted opposite Ihe line of the greatest resistance. Mr. Bishop did likewise and so does the Englishmen, Stuart Cumberland, by-ail means the cleverest ‘mind-reader’ in the world. Mr. Cumberland exposed the metaphysical or hypnotic claims of Mr. Bishop in a recent article in the Nineteenth Century Review. “Th prove a good natural subject for successfully going through the tricks you must be of a delicate ique, quick of perception, have a keen active brain, and possess a familiarity with the ways of mankind. This last qualification was one of Mr. Bishop’i strongest points. By cmicentrating your mind upon the object under consideration, and by following the involuntary and almost imperceptible muscular movements of the person whose mind you are supposed to be reading, you will accomplish your end. There are subjects who will fool you, however, every time. John Boyle O’Reilly, the editor of the Pilot, used to circumvent me in every experiment. He would likewise circumvent Mr. Cumberland or poor Mr. Bishop. The subject may not be conscious of muscular action. I used to induce it by pulling arm in an opposite direction,” I asked Mr. Montagu especially 1J the effort of finding an object by holdthe arm of a second person caused intense nervous strain and subsequent prostration. Washington Bishop, ii is claimed, died from the convulsions ciased by the intensity of his brain efforts. • m ■ ■■ -I---Ttti--The reply was: “Not all. After a long evening's work with trying unsatisfactory subjects I used to feel fatigued. No more, I fancy, than an actor who feels hU part—Booth or iSalvini for or perhaps, t« jafford a better illustration, Jana '.Hading or Clara Morris—feels the {strain of a hard night’s performance. d think I fell asleep with greator readiness after an evening’s ‘mind •reading’ than otherwise. - Mr. Bishop’s' {epileptiform attacks—they were not jcatalspsy—were caused by a disease which he suffered for years. •Congestion of the brain and death supervened, ub it sometimes does aftei epileptic convulsions. “Bishop has recently pulled th« wool over tha eyes of some clergy me a and alleged scientific man at St »>ouia

I hear. I am reminded of a remark of his to me in regard to the scientific investigations into his case in England. The scientists were the biggest fools I came in contact with.’ h« said. I humbugged them the easiest. A thick-headed fellow, with but little nervous manifestations, was far more difficult to influence.’