This Charge Can’t Be True.

For more reasons than one it is unnecessary to see anything serious in the fact that a woman employed by houdini to investigate spiritism and spiritists in Washington says that she was told by a medium that séances had been held in the White House recently.

The President’s cool New England mind is about the very last to have any patience with things of that sort. Moreover, the evidence presented is worse than worthless.

It may be true that the medium did say exactly what was reported. It is the commonest of devices for persons of her profession to boast of distinguished clients. That has a good effect on the less important persons who really do seek such aid.

houdini presumably knows the worthlessness of such testimony, except as it reveals mentality. The particular medium in question vehemently denied making the statement ascribed to her, insisting that all she said was that the séances had been held “in the shadow of the White House.” This might mean nothing or anything, and probably did mean only a sort of advertising.

As for the further statement that certain named Senators were frequenters of the back parlors favored by spirits, one cannot be too sure, either way. Many Senators are in a very nervous state just now, and eager to know what is going to happen in the next few months.

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