Czechoslovakian, Endorsed by Houdini, Is Cheered as Magician’s Widow Watches

With all the efficiency, poise and self-assertion of a young business executive, Eugene de Rubini, Czechoslovakian telepathist and the only psychic ever to receive the public endorsement of the late Harry Houdini, mystified a gathering of doctors, professors, journalists and others at a demonstration yesterday afternoon at the Hotel Vanderbilt. Among those who watched tricks that to the laymen’s eye are nothing short of magic was Mrs. Harry Houdini. She was dressed in widow’s weeds. When some one ordered, in his mind and on a sealed sheet of paper, that de Rubini remove Mrs. Houdini’s gold wedding ring, the telepathist refused, only going so far as to touch the ring.

The European psychic, who has just arrived in New York, kept the gathering running about like so many squirrels on a perpetual motion tread.

On one occasion de Rubini was forced to dig a potted palm out of its native (New York) habitat to find a white-headed pin that a stranger had concealed under the roots. De Rubini was cheered for his bit of ratiocination that led to the exposure of the pin.

Things progressed silkily, with de Rubini scoring psychic triumph after triumph and no one doubting his word, deed or methods. He brought the show to its intended close with a clever bit of mind-reading.

Among those present were Dr. Alexander Cummings, President of the University Forum; Dr. Joseph Safian of the Beth-David Hospital, and Dr. Herman Goodwin of the Skin and Cancer Hospital. They were duly impressed. Others who have tested and endorsed de Rubini include Professor Carr of the University of Chicago, Professor Jauregg of the University of Vienna, Professor Twardowsky of the University of Lemberg, Professor Farkacs of the University of Budapest, Professor Reeves of the University of Harmannstadt, Professor Van Rees of the University of Amsterdam, Professor Stratton of the University of California and Professor Father Boland of the University of Santa Clara.

De Rubini, who uses a watch and chain to connect him with his “lay conductor” in some of his experiments, and who requires the conductor, in others, to clench his fists to his bosom, says his feats of telepathy, while not wonderful on the one hand, are not fake on the other.

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