The story at hand represents a snapshot of an era in transition. It brings together a number of unique characters, battling in 1894 over the subject of Spiritualism and the ‘exposure’ of materialising medium, Mrs. Annie Fairlamb Mellon.

For the magicians who walked into the argument, there were opportunities to defend the ethics of their own craft, new fields of magic performance which would broaden into the escapology routines of Harry Houdini and the Mentalism of today, and an ideal platform upon which to promote themselves and further their own careers. Today, little has changed; only the names are different.

No particular attempt at impartiality is made by this author; the tale is told from a conclusion that Mrs Annie Mellon was a fraud and that the physical manifestations of spirit mediums ranged from well-intentioned error to outright deception.

Up until 1876, the secrets of theatrical magic were difficult to find and carefully guarded. Performers had to learn from mentors, purchase mechanical apparatus from a small number of manufacturers, learn from unhelpful books on the subject, or to copy other magicians as best they could. While there were magicians who worked on a part-time basis and probably had other occupations, by and large the craft of magic was restricted to professionals earning a living. The concept of the amateur conjurer was little known, until the publication of a revolutionary book titled “Modern Magic” (1) by Angelo Lewis, (‘Professor Hoffmann’) which explained in detail many of the methods and mechanics of magicians in that period. Suddenly the world of magic was open to all who could obtain a copy of Hoffmann, and the advent of the amateur magician, and magic clubs, took off.

In Australia, the first magic club to be founded (and now the fourth-oldest magical society in the world) was the Australian Society of Magicians, established in Sydney on January 15, 1907, later expanding to cover ‘Assemblies’ in Melbourne and  Adelaide (both still active), Mt. Gambier, Port Pirie, Ballarat, Hobart and Launceston.(2)  Early membership of these clubs, which were fraternal groups almost exclusively male, was often made up of successful businessmen for whom magic was a passionate and serious hobby. Frank Albert, of the Sydney music-publishing dynasty -  Bill Bailey, famous for his role as “Dad” in the movie versions of Steele Rudd’s “On Our Selection” – Sir James Joynton Smith, Sydney Lord Mayor and wealthy hotelier, newspaper and racecourse owner – were among the movers and shakers of the early days of ‘amateur’ magic clubs. Many professional magicians also fraternised with the club, a situation which is less prevalent today.

A native of Ballarat, Victoria (4) , Ernest Garibaldi Hosking was born in 1861,  the seventh child of Samuel Hosking and Mary Murch Opie.

He was to become friends with the magician and pseudo-spiritualist performer, Professor Samri (Samuel Spencer) Baldwin (6) who presented imitations of the feats of the Davenports, Anna Eva Fay and others. Baldwin was an early exponent of the Handcuff Escape. Billed as the “White Mahatma”, he visited Australia four times between 1878 – 1890. He somewhat blurred the line between entertainer and psychic, either exposing fraud spiritualists or selling psychic readings and implying that his own performances might be real, depending on his financial circumstances which, at the end of his life, were straitened.

Hosking would also, in later years, claim to have been involved in the exposure of several spirit mediums, including the American slate writer Fred Evans. While it is true that Evans’ methods were exposed by an anonymous writer for a Brisbane newspaper in 1889, no link with Hosking’s name can be located.  (7)

As a magician, ventriloquist and harmonica player he had been active as early as 1884 in Victoria (“for some time has been foremost in all movements in aid of charities &c; his pronounced talent in conjuring and ventriloquism attracting large and attentive audiences”,  according to the Town and Country Journal of June 1888), and he performed as part of a show under the patronage of the Governor of Victoria at the Bijou Theatre in November 1892.

Magician and ventriloquist, ‘Professor’ W.A. Davis is a character requiring further research, as his decade or so performing in Australia has not been well documented to date.

Based mainly in Melbourne, he is not to be confused with E.D. Davies, another ventriloquist who travelled as part of the Davenport Brothers performance troupe (and whose daughter married William Davenport) before eventually suiciding in Australia.

Davis’ full identity has not yet been penetrated; his initials are never expanded in press reports, and even the name Davis may have been a stage name. Charles Waller, from a personal friendship, states that he came from England, and recalled seeing such performers as Verbeck, Hartz, and De Kolta.

However, New Zealand magic historian, Bernard Reid has documented Davis’ time in New Zealand during 1895, and reveals that local newspapers connect Davis originally to Christchurch. “Professor Davis has arrived at the City of the Plains, where he has been recognised as an old Christchurch boy having served his time at the Lyttelton Times office as a bookbinder. The Professor is a pupil of Chalet, one of the best ventriloquists that ever came to the colony.” [Observer]

As both a ventriloquist and conjuror, Davis was seen in Australia as early as 1875 and had a consistently good press coverage over many years. He worked in 1892 at Kreitmayer’s WaxWorks and by 1893 was giving a “Second Sight” exhibition with a Miss Grace Stanley. As will be seen, pseudo-psychic and spirit routines formed a large part of his repertoire from this time.

Sydney magician, Gordon A. Barker, is likewise difficult to identify beyond his press notices. He is seen from December 25, 1875 presenting at a Monster Protestant Picnic ‘a series of novel and pleasing Illusions, dancing plates, Witches’ Pole, Fantastic Clock, Glass Balancing, Strange Discoveries, Obedient Rings, the Wonderful Pigeons and numerous other tricks … ‘ in association with the Star Minstrels troupe.  If he was an amateur, or part-time performer, he was certainly very active, appearing frequently in conjunction with a constantly changing assemblage of “troupes”, and including Blood Writing on the Arm and Spirit Rapping in his repertoire. In 1876 he was at the Queen’s Theatre . Overall, however, he seems to have been an occasional performer for concerts and picnics; the Evening News, April 9, 1879 said, “a concert was given [for widows and orphans] ... The performance was by amateurs and went well. Professor Barker bewildered the audience with his wonderful sleight-of-hand tricks…”

If we assume that Barker might have been in his early twenties around 1875, he would have been in his fifties in 1909, when a photograph was taken at the Australian Society of Magicians gathering to welcome pseudo-Chinese magician, Chung Ling Soo. The photograph features both Ernest Hosking (first President of the society) and a man identified only as “Barker”; so he may have been a magic society member, but the image shown here is unverified.

T. S. Henry was the catalyst, but a somewhat unprepared participant, in the blow-up which took place in 1894.

  

Born in 1850 at Newcastle upon Tyne, Annie Fairlamb (8) was a British ‘materialisation’ medium who had developed a talent for automatic writing as a young girl. After an association with the Newcastle Spiritual Evidence Society, she resigned due to personal conflicts, later moving to Australia as the wife of James Barr Mellon, where she continued to offer sittings. Her husband (20) “whilst not a committee member [in England], sought to interfere in the conduct of test séances when security was vital, if the results were to be generally accepted … it would appears that her fiancé had considerable influence over her working life.”

The more physical aspects of spiritualism and séances varied; Mrs Mellon specialised in the most spectacular, the most suspicious, and the riskiest form of spirit phenomena. Where a séance might once have been a matter of serious and sincere attention, with sitters gathered around a table singing hymns and awaiting contact from those who had ‘passed’, more tangible results started to be produced, starting with the Fox Sister’s spirit “rapping” and extending to the vastly more theatrical manifestations by the Davenport Brothers. The most notable example of the extreme “materialisation” was that of the supposed spirit, Katie King in the 1870s, and it ended in controversy and ultimate calamity for the progress of the Spiritualist movement.

Messages were commonly received in chalk placed between school slates;  but those who produced them were often exposed as frauds (Henry Slade as an example) with catastrophic damage to their reputations.

Mediums who conducted “Dark Séances” might have objects such as spirit trumpets flying around the darkened room, or producing flowers in the middle of the séance table. Magicians, of course, had a field day in duplicating or surpassing these phenomena – replication did not disprove the truth of spiritualism but it opened people’s eyes to the ease with which deception could occur.

Venturing further into the realms of “materialisation” might involve a pot of molten wax producing moulds of spirit hands, or blobs of ‘ectoplasmic material’ emanating from various bodily orifices of the spirit medium; but again, when sceptical sitters decided to flash a light, or worse, to grab at the objects, the result was frequently an ignominious exposure of the medium. In an attempt to forestall this, the word was put about that grabbing the medium while in trance state could seriously affect the psychic energy and injure or even kill the medium.

Mrs. Mellon worked at the furthest reaches of risky performance, and as early as 1875 her mediumship was described by significant researchers as inconclusive or suspicious. (9) She materialised three alleged spirits in physical form, Josephine, Cissie and Geordie, all of whom she permitted to be photographed, either during her time in England or at the test of 1894. Spiritualist William Thomas Stead (10) , writing in 1892, voiced his strong support: (11) “The phenomena of spiritualism, at least so far as relates to the materializing of spirits, seems to be much less frequent in London at present than they were some years ago. During these investigations I have made great efforts to obtain the services of a trustworthy materializing medium who has not at any time been detected in fraud. There are three or four materializing mediums who give séances in London; but, whether from misfortune or their own fault, their names have all been associated at one time or another with the production of fraudulent phenomena ….. The net result of my inquiries came to this: that, in the whole of the United Kingdom, so far as was known to the spiritualist community, there was only one person of undoubted materializing faculty and undoubted character who could almost always secure the presence of phenomena, and who had never been detected in a trick of any kind... I refer to Mrs. Mellon, late of Newcastle-on-Tyne, whose success as a materializing medium is undoubted."

His support would be severely put to the test in 1894, when Mrs. Mellon was ruthlessly exposed.

What is clear from MacCarthy’s writings and his energetic defence of Mrs Mellon after 1894 is that he was an honest man but a ‘true believer’ for whom no amount of evidence was enough to change his mind.  “…Even with the present evidence before me, my belief in Mrs. Mellon's great and undoubted psychic faculty remains unshaken. The evidence is so utterly conflicting, the positive and reiterated denials, especially of a non-spiritualist present, is so strong, and my own constant and keen observation (notwithstanding Mr Henry's all-wise opinions to the contrary) are so directly opposed to the idea of even the necessity for her to resort to artificial aid to heighten her powers, that I cannot reasonably adopt another view.”

However, MacCarthy, a staunch Catholic, was not in agreement with the theories put forward by Spiritualists as to the origins of spirit forms; he had his own theories related to a primal psychic force which might be put to use by science. From a magician’s viewpoint, MacCarthy was the classic type of educated man who believed he could not be fooled, and that his powers of observation were well up to the challenge; a notion that magicians can, and regularly do, prove false.

Armand Jerome is a bit-player in this story, though an important one. He either edited or authored the booklet “A Counterblast to Spookland” (1895), which vigorously defended Mrs. Mellon and attacked her critics. Jerome was a society journalist, who in 1894 took over editorship of  “Cosmos” magazine, which aimed to provide a ‘purely Australian’ voice and outlet for colonial authors of poetry and fiction. But Jerome’s reputation would not last; he was not all that he seemed, and by 1896 he was on the run from police.

Links are given below (13) to newspaper reporting on the case, and for a concise “for and against” debate, the two books published, “Spookland” and “A Counterblast to Spookland” are recommended and linked on this page.

T.S Henry regarded himself as an objective and careful participant in spiritual sittings and séances. He had attended, as an interested party, a number of séances at which, according to later argument, he was deeply affected and even overpowered by his experiences; however Henry was determined to be seen publicly as a rational and calm thinker, and something of an investigator. As he would write in late 1894:-

“In dealing with a field of research which necessitates the employment of a class of individuals at all times more or less associated with trickery or imposture, it behoves the investigator to be upon his guard, and while retaining an impartial judgement, to be fully alive to every possibility of fraud and trickery … humanity embraces a large class of people predisposed to dabble in occult mysteries, and with a tendency to still believe in supernatural interference with their personal welfare. These cannot be considered investigators in any sense of the word, but emotional, credulous, and ready-made dupes … Numbers of persons will witness an exhibition of this sort, and because they cannot themselves detect how it is done, ascribe the performance at once to supernatural or abnormal agency  ... and yet the same persons after witnessing a clever conjuring entertainment, however far beyond their powers of explanation, would never think of ascribing such to other than the  true cause.

On September 10, 1894, Henry was one of a group in attendance at a sitting conducted by Mr and Mrs Mellon at the residence of Dr. Charles MacCarthy (at 223 Elizabeth Street Sydney, almost opposite where the Hyde Park Obelisk now stands). He was witness to Mrs. Mellon sitting behind a curtained-off corner of the room, in low gaslight controlled by Mr Mellon, giving just enough light to make out the various objects in the room.

Mrs Mellon, on this occasion, produced some general figures robed in white drapery, following which her regular spirit, “Cissie” appeared between the curtains, growing gradually until the form of a child about 3’ 6” in height  was formed. Cissie was noted as having a black, chubby face.  After she retreated,  “Geordie” appeared. ‘He’ was a Scotsman of more than middle height, a bearded face, and likewise robed in white. After faded back behind the curtains, “Josephine” came forward; a female of indistinct features. Each of these appearances, in turn, interacted in some way with the sitters, placing flowers on the table, speaking a few hoarse words (only Geordie spoke), or in the case of Cissie, helping herself to a couple of chocolate creams from a box.

At a further sitting on September 30, the famous Theosophist, Mrs Annie Besant was present, and again the spirit figures materialised, to the apparent satisfaction of those present. Mrs Besant, also present at the “cage test” sitting of November 1894, glides in and out of this story as a mere observer, simply stating that she had seen no trickery, and without expressing strong views or imposing her Theosophical outlook.

Privately, Henry was not happy with the demonstration. With lax protocol and too much reverential credence given by believers, he wanted something more. By agreement with Dr. MacCarthy, “some intimate friends and fellowship investigators proposed to form a committee and to carry out some interesting experiments and ‘tests’ with a view to clearly establishing the genuineness or otherwise of the phenomena occurring through Mrs. Mellon, I readily consented to join with and assist them.”

The tests were arranged with the assistance of Doctor MacCarthy, who is said to have influenced Mrs. Mellon to agree, and the committee would include three spiritualists as sympathetic witnesses. According to Henry, Mrs. Mellon made repeated references to “cruel” test conditions which had been supposedly applied to her in earlier times in England - strait jackets, wire cages, bags, wires, seals and cords. Henry could find no record of such test restraints in any documentation of her previous tests, and formed the opinion that Mellon was invoking sympathy in order to avoid being put under any difficult test conditions this time.

T.S. Henry, at this point, was still of the inquisitive mind and prepared to give testimony to whatever results occurred. He even contemplated issuing a book to be called ‘Miracles in our Midst’ after the tests. It seems that, although he was currently satisfied with the existence of the phenomena, he was not in agreement with the Spiritualist view of how these took place, preferring the theory of some concentrated natural “thought force”.

Without extensively detailing each test (which can be read in “Spookland”), a series of six sittings were held, at each of which Mrs. Mellon was controlled by her three regular spirits. Henry was observant about the way in which they made their appearance in the darkened conditions, noting that, for instance, the little “Cissie” did not emerge any great distance from the curtains and it could not be confirmed that she was not still connected to anything behind the curtain. Also, Josephine, in moving from one side to another, did not move straight across the front of the curtains, but retreated in through the middle split, to re-emerge at the other end; suggestive that she again was connected to something behind the curtains.

Test 1 - June 26, 1894 – appearance by Cissie, Geordie and Josephine.Cissie

2 – July 15 – A number of Spirit photographs were taken. The images were to be taken in a much bolder form than most mediums would allow, with the room curtains briefly flashed open to admit enough light to take a photograph. The sitters, by agreement, would not look during this time as in theory to do so might “bore holes” in the spirit apparition. It was discovered later that some other sitters had brought small hand mirrors, to get a sneak peek while turned away.  At this test, Henry’s observation was that Geordie’s face was ‘highly coloured’ and ‘not at all life-like’, while another nameless lady spirit which appeared bore a strong resemblance to the medium. Henry was also dissatisfied by only have one witness to the searching of Mrs. Mellon, prior to the sitting.

3 – August 5 – The use of mirrors by a number of sitters, including Henry, was discovered and Mrs. Mellon, via the spirits, was very displeased. An apology and a gift of jewellery smoothed things over, and the tests continued.

4 – August 9 - more photos were taken, with good results.

5 – July 30 – This sitting, held at the home of the Mellons in Woollhara, was not intended as a proper test, but an informal gathering. The outcome of the evening was that the various spirits were weighed on a scale, and their weights compared with that of Mrs. Mellon; the theory being that her weight would decrease in proportion to the amount of ectoplasmic ‘form’ she put out from her body. Ultimately, Henry was unsatisfied with the whole procedure, easily demonstrating how the scales could be manipulated to give false readings.

The question of Cissie was a strong cause for suspicion. “I also noticed” wrote Henry, “that Cissie varied considerably in height, and that whenever she made her first appearance (to receive chocolates, touch the auto-harp etc. ) she was about four feet high and had hands but no feet. She would then retire again behind the curtains (ostensibly to gain strength), and next appear with her pattering sound of feet, but without hands, and measuring less than three feet high. Her movements were wonderfully quick and childlike, and at first rather non-plussed me; but I found, by experimenting in such a position myself, that it would be quite possible for the medium to move about quickly and noiselessly behind the curtains with her hands upon the floor, the weight of her body resting upon her knees, her hands and head only, projecting in front of the curtains.” Cissie never came into the room away from the curtains, would not be photographed like the others, and in a photograph taken years before (1890) she had a markedly “doll-like” appearance.

Ultimately, Henry decided the time had come, despite his friendships with some of the main players, to take action regardless of the accepted protocols. In the final sitting on October 12, a number of anonymous ‘spirits’ manifested themselves, claiming to be relatives or friends of individual sitters (and causing a Mrs Gale to break down in tears, believing her niece had appeared).  ‘Josephine’ took some flowers from a sitter, ‘Cissie’ then put in an appearance, bobbing its head but never coming away from the curtains. Cissie was handed the usual box of chocolates and then was requested to use a pencil on a low table to draw something.  Henry noticed that “the table appeared to be too far away from the ‘cabinet’, and her arm, in reaching over for it, had to be extended, and I noticed that it was much longer than any arm a child of that height would naturally have.

“When the so-called Cissie tried to draw the table closer, the two pencils rolled off on to the floor. I went over on the pretext of picking up the pencils, seized the form of the so-called ‘Cissie’, and found that I had hold of Mrs. Mellon, and that she was on her knees, and had a white material like muslin round her head and shoulders.”

Henry says that Mrs. Mellon struggled in vain. Mr J.B.Mellon, in charge of the gas lamp, appears to have turned the light off and, when matches were struck, Henry saw that the medium had a mask of black material over her face, white drapery around her shoulders, her sleeves drawn up above the elbows, the skirt of her dress turned up, and her feet bare.  The matches were blown out but despite being grabbed by Mr. Mellon, Henry held on to the medium until lights could be re-established, when everyone could see Mrs. Mellon lying in the position she had been caught, and a false beard lying inside the cabinet. Once he released his grip, the medium tore all the incriminating evidence off and placed them under her skirt. More material and a small black cotton bag were also found in the curtained-off area.

The evening, naturally, ended in chaos but it seems that rather than remaining to confront the medium and consolidate everybody’s understanding of what had happened, the sitters scattered into the night, meaning that in the following days every person had a varied view on what they had seen or what had occurred. There was apparently a meeting held in the next day or so, at which the majority of sitters declared that they had been duped, and were prepared to state so under oath.

To the skeptic, such nonsense is barely worth entertaining, but arguments such as these would continue to muddy the waters and cause much argument in the months to come:-

“Truth” magazine, in particular, was cynical and happy to take pot-shots at both the Mellons and spiritualism in general, through several full page stories.

<< Mrs. Mellon becomes fodder for political cartooning featuring Sir Henry Parkes. [Ensor Scrapbooks]

Doctor Charles MacCarthy, of all those involved, was to become the most vocal defender of Mrs. Mellon and spiritualist investigation in general. He had good cause to speak out as, not only was he still a firm supporter, his own reputation was likely to be held up to mockery for its unquestioning belief. It should be noted that Henry and his co-skeptic, Mr. Wallis, had chosen a day to take action when MacCarthy would not be present because as Henry said, “I knew he was so much influenced by the medium, and had such an unreasoning faith in her powers, that he would absolutely refuse to listen to any suspicions … since borne out by his unreasonable line of action in the face of the most conclusive evidence.”

In July, as the Mellon tests were just beginning, MacCarthy had written to the Australian Star, “I am chiefly indebted to the famous materialising, sensitive Mrs. Mellon, of Sydney, whose marvellous psychic developments are indeed a revelation to me, and who, while quite aware of my one object in this research [the possible discovery of a further means for the relief of bodily suffering] , has graciously afforded me every possible opportunity for a searching investigation. I, with others, have thus collected an array of unassailable testimony, a tenth part of which, even in a trial for life, would be taken as final and conclusive evidence by any jury in any court in the civilised world.” Clearly, MacCarthy could not now afford to back away from his unequivocal statements.

“Truth” of October 21, re-published an older article, written for  ‘Cosmos’ magazine prior to the exposure, in which MacCarthy quite broadly defended the whole realm of spiritualism. Of Mrs. Mellon he stated she was “a lady who has already undergone at the hands of investigators the barbarous and unnecessary test of iron cages with Chubb’s lock, cat-gut thongs, ropes with letter locks, copper-wire drawn through the ears and fastened to the floor, handcuffs, straitjacket etc. but whose power was exhibited in spite of such treatment – a lady whose extraordinary gift should mark her as one of the prodigies of the present century…”, but he failed to provide evidence that any of those alleged test methods had ever been used.

It was in this early article that Doctor MacCarthy proposed a “simple and final means of settling this question of psychic form … which I have called the “Door Test”.  We will examine this short-live sideshow a little later, for it was the means by which magicians became involved in the dispute.  

Following the exposure, and not having been present at the October 12 sitting, MacCarthy found himself unable to comment on the events of that night; but he gave the press columns of text to write about anyway, mostly around previous séances he had attended, and his conviction that Mrs. Mellon had achieved wonderful things in the past which, to his eye, were undoubtedly genuine. As Mr. Henry would comment, MacCarthy was a man of unquestionable integrity, of whom the worst that could be said was that he did not take enough caution.

Now began a heated back-and-forth in the press which, because of its argumentative nature and obstinacy on all sides, we shall skip over.

Covering around 85 pages of actual content, T.S. Henry is at enormous pains to stress his unbiased and impartial view of the events and bemoaning the fact that he has to name or implicate people he regarded as friends. Henry covers earlier types of historical Materialisation Seances, highly detailed descriptions of the Mellon sittings leading up to the exposure, statements from other witnesses at the exposure, a biographical overview of Mrs. Mellon, an essay on the broader concept of spiritualist phenomena, and speculation on possible methods of duplicating the manifestations seen at the Mellon sittings.  Henry’s approach, stated with frequency through the book, is respectful of the participants and make no gratuitous or personal slurs; he attempts at all times to take the moral high ground as a careful observer. Possibly he hoped to publish and then make a graceful retreat; that was not the result.

In a hasty bid to shore up Mrs. Mellon’s reputation, her supporters arranged to hold more sittings (without Mr Henry), which took place on November 16, 23 and 26 but were discontinued due to the alleged poor health of the medium. As a means of lending credibility to these sittings, Mr. Justice (Sir William Charles) Windeyer, an eminent though controversial judge (15) was on the committee, and detailed reports of the sittings were issued, noting that Mrs. Mellon had been placed under conditions previously not used – she was placed in a black calico bag with a sealed tie around the neck; on another occasion seated within a wire mesh cage. The result of these séances did not match the earlier materialisations – there was no Cissie, Josephine or Geordie, though some amorphous figures of ‘intensely white appearance like drapery’ were produced along with some voices and sounds.

Method for ghosts

To Doctor MacCarthy’s mind,  these séances “came like a thunderclap upon those who disbelieved” (16). He wrote to the Sunday Times on December 2, issuing a challenge to magician Ernest Hosking for £50 if, under exactly the same conditions as with Mrs. Mellon, he could produce similar forms.

The Australian Star did not hold back: “It is a pity that [Dr.Knaggs] or some other gentleman possessed of similar knowledge of alleged spiritualistic manifestations was not asked to take part in the performance…  the doctor [MacCarthy] should stick to physic and leave spiritualism alone. Similar advice may be tendered to Mr. Justice Windeyer. When he quotes law, the public will listen to him with respect, for he understands that subject thoroughly, but in defending materialising mediums he exposes himself to deserved ridicule. All that Mrs. Mellon did the other night a professional conjurer would do more skilfully, and without the assistance of a dark curtain between himself and the spectators.”

The Star also took some glee in referring to Dr. MacCarthy as ‘marble man’, a reference to a hoax of 1889 in which a large figure of a man, apparently petrified, was ‘discovered’ near Dubbo NSW. MacCarthy had given strong and vocal support to the figure being a genuine man, before the hoax unravelled when it was proven that a man named Sala had sculpted the ‘marble man’. (17)

In early 1895 another booklet was issued, this time under the title “A Counterblast to Spook-land or Glimpses of the Marvellous”. (17) The author is named only as “Psyche”, though the final chapter is written by Armand Jerome, also named as the ‘Editor’.  It is almost certain that the book was written by Jerome in close consultation with Dr. MacCarthy, since it contains the same style of rhetoric used by MacCarthy in his letters to newspapers. In contrast to “Spookland!”, the book attacks Henry on a personal basis, pointing to his previous defence of spiritualism and his own intense experiences at séances; it also reproduces a poem written by Henry in praise of Mrs. Mellon prior to her exposure. Decrying T.S. Henry’s disloyal behaviour, the book includes statements and interviews with Mrs. Mellon and Annie Besant, a full description of the ‘cage’ sittings of November 1894, a criticism of magician Hosking and the ‘conjuring’ hypothesis, and a lengthy interview with MacCarthy where he rebuts Henry’s version, and gives his own view on the workings of physical materialisation. Included in the book are photographs of Mrs. Mellon with her spirit figures, and a cartoon intended to represent Henry as a “snake in the grass.”

Ernest Hosking was the first to take up the challenge, and came up from Melbourne to Sydney to accept Charles MacCarthy’s offer of £50 for duplicating Mrs. Mellon’s feats, but firstly to investigate the “Door Test” which the doctor had described in ‘Truth’ of October 21, 1894.

“Any door will answer, but preferably one that, though heavy, swings freely on its hinges. The ‘sensitive’ stands in broad or full gaslight, before an unbolted and unopened door, holding her hands flat a few inches away from it. No part of the body or clothes is allowed to touch the door which, if power be present, as it usually is, is seen to tremble or vibrate. The psychic’s unaided power, however, is not sufficient to cause it to open; but when any other person in sympathy with her approaches the door in a similar manner, without contact it flies open, sometimes so forcibly as almost to break the hinges. On one occasion when I gave psychic help, as I generally do in the way mentioned, it dragged into the room a Medical friend and fellow investigator. A modification of this interesting experiment I have frequently tried thus: Two or more persons, specially sensitive, and perhaps sceptical or lacking sympathy, are placed in contact, one behind the other, the hands of the first extended as usual without touching the door, our servant standing beside them, extending her hands. No result follows; but if I touch the individual, even through the dress or sometimes if I come close without contact, the necessary something is supplied and the door flies swiftly open.”

Hosking called upon Dr. MacCarthy, whose maid Maggie was apparently the ‘sensitive’ able to produce the attraction or repulsion of the door. He was welcomed, but the doctor complained of being thrown from a horse and that Maggie was also unwell; the implication being that, when 30 minutes passed with no results or movement from the door, it was because of their ill health. After moving to another room, they tried again, but Hosking said, “as long as I kept my attention concentrated upon the medium there were no results, but the moment I turned my head to reply to an observation of the doctor’s Maggie exclaimed ‘Oh, doctor! The door has gone!” The interference of a small boy, pulling the door shut at one stage, also caused confusion and annoyance from the doctor. Ultimately there were no satisfactory results to this demonstration. Naturally both parties immediately went to the press and issued conflicting stories of the visit.

On December 4, at the Central Coffee Palace with an audience of one hundred, Ernest Hosking was searched by three men, his hands were tied and he was placed in a black bag tied at the neck with a cord which was fastened and sealed to the back of his chair. In a rather brighter room than Mrs. Mellon had allowed, similar forms to hers and Josephine walked around the room to the satisfaction of the audience.  Mr T.S Henry was present at the performance and declared himself unable to explain the tricks.

The response to this was sadly predicable. Doctor MacCarthy complained at length to the press that Hosking had not precisely complied with all the conditions applied to Mrs. Mellon, and demanded that Hosking should submit to testing at the hands of the Doctor and his committee. Hosking responded that the committee had not been able to provide a consistent summary of the exact conditions they had applied previously (were Mrs. Mellon’s hands tied, or not?), and both sides continued a messy and ultimately pointless debate in the newspapers.

After repeating his act twice more at the Opera House in Sydney, Hosking was hired by George Musgrove to appear back in Melbourne at the Princess’s Theatre to present his act on December 19. Melbourne Punch described him as “mild and gentle, apparently childlike and bland … he is a young man of quiet address and modest manner, rather slim, and in consequence of his sex deprived of all costume [i.e., he did not wear a voluminous dress like Mrs. Mellon] … in spite of the quiet exterior there lurks beneath the absent crinoline such a strong “materialising” prowess that in despair the Spiritualists are compelled to claim him as a medium … “

Professor W.A. Davis might have been a little put out by Hosking’s impending return to Melbourne as, on the 14th he had already advertised a series of “Spiritualistic Seances” at Kreitmayer’s Waxworks, and on the 16th he had booked into the Bijou Theatre together with Mr T.Shekleton Henry to lecture on the frauds of mediums and to demonstrate the appearance of Geordie, Cissie and Josephine. Davis’ performance followed similar test conditions to Hosking’s, and three figures draped in white also presented themselves in turn out of a cabinet.

No sooner had Hosking departed from Sydney, than Gordon A. Barker leapt in to fill the void, performing his own exposure routine on December 19 at the Federation Hall.  Barker went one step further. Having caused his spooks to walk out of the cabinet, the ‘Geordie’ spirit was then unmasked to reveal Mr. Barker himself as the ghost. Clearly he had escaped from his confinement in the bag – and a minute later he returned inside the cabinet, where he was then shown to be back inside the bag, securely bound. Magicians today would question whether this was an improvement gone too far, since the entire routine now consisted of boasting that he could escape his confinement.

This ‘addition’ of Barker’s highlights the transition which took place gradually in magicians’ performances. Back when the famous Davenport Brothers would be tied up in their cabinet and cause musical instruments to play, they were supposedly being controlled by spirits. The fact that they were tied was intended only to show that they could not be instrumental in any of the manifestations. By the time the Davenports reached Australia, however, audiences had long reached the conclusion that no spirits were involved, and the entire performance became a challenge exercise between the Davenports and the audience to see whether they could be tied so securely that escape was impossible. (To which the answer was ‘Yes’ – the brothers were defeated with clever knots, and it ended their careers.) In the same way, Barker was saying to his audience “of course I can escape … here I am … but you don’t know how I escape.”  

The clearest evolution of this “tie me if you can” challenge would happen with the rise of Harry Houdini, who dumped the spiritualism aspect and openly dared his audiences to confine him in such a way that he could not escape. Houdini was not the first escape artist, but he perfected the Challenge. So, theatrical magicians took the techniques of spirit mediums and turned them into an entirely new type of act.

For Ernest Hosking, the fame brought about by his confrontation of Dr. MacCarthy and his onstage routine of spook manifestations was enough to propel him into a professional career for at least ten years. Although Henry’s publication of “Spookland!” had caused a vigorous controversy, Hosking’s stage performances were the sledgehammer which fell on the credibility of spirit materialisation. Immediately he launched himself into an extensive tour from January 1895, producing spirits all over the Victorian and Tasmanian countryside. In this he was assisted by another remarkable performer, Miss Ada Fitzroy, who in December 1894, had assisted T.S. Henry when he gave a small number of lectures on the Mellon controversy in Melbourne. Miss Fitzroy had already been performing pseudo-spiritualistic routines in her own act for several years; she was the ideal partner in this new round of anti-spook exposures.

In early 1895 Hosking kept himself in the public eye by issuing a £500 challenge to Mrs. Mellon for a “spirit-producing test” which, unsurprisingly, was not taken up. He spent until at least 1899 roaming about the larger and smaller townships of Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania with his expose, and as late as 1908 had blended the spirits with his conjuring, ventriloquial and harmonica talents in both Victoria and NSW. It seems that for some years at least he must have put aside his profession in the printing trade, though it is known that at the end of his years he had become the Head Printer at the giant firm, James Stedman, makers of “Lion” brand confectionery until at least 1911. After a disastrous fire in Clarence Street Sydney in 1906, which destroyed their entire building, Stedman managed to regroup; they later merged with Hendersen sweets and became “Sweetacres” and, moving in 1918 to the suburb of Rosebery, they  were the manufacturers of Australia’s two most iconic sweets, ‘Minties’ and ‘Jaffas’.

Hosking was by no means done with battling pseudo-psychic fraud. In July 1896 he was directly responsible for the arrest and charging of a “Professor” Bernard Freimann in Tamworth NSW, on a charge of obtaining money by pretending to be able to tell fortunes. Freimann, who billed himself as the Greatest Spiritualistic Medium of the Age was approached in Tamworth by Hosking in disguise as a gold miner. He wrote some phony questions on a slip of paper, which Freimann divined and gave ‘psychic’ answers suggesting that he would have success in his gold prospecting (and that his partner was a crook). The case concluded in October with a jury returning a verdict of Not Guilty against Freimann, but the judge said ‘his occupation was an unlawful one, inasmuch as he received money under false pretenses; he must give it up or suffer the consequences.’ As is often the case with brazen frauds,  Hosking received the publicity, but Freimann, accepting the risks, went merrily on his way and continued to give readings, for money, until at least 1900.

In 1907, with the foundation of the Australian Society of Magicians in Sydney, Hosking became its first President and was re-elected each year to 1912. He greeted and became friends with the visiting magician Chung Ling Soo (stage name of William Robinson) in 1909 and escape artist Harry Houdini in 1910.

Surprisingly, the magazine of the A.S.M, the “Magic Mirror” is notable for its very few mentions of Hosking; there is an early interview with him in 1909, and he advertised through to December 1909 as a “Society Entertainer” but then his advertising ceases and only one further mention can be found of his involvement in a club dinner at which he played the harmonica; unusual for the President – perhaps his printing work was taking more of his time.  He did, however continue to perform as a Society Entertainer and, in 1914, penned these words to the Daily Telegraph [March 18]:

Ernest Hosking died in his early 50s, on June 23, 1915. He was buried at Waverley Cemetery.

Gordon A. Barker likewise had a career boost from taking up the anti-spiritualist cause, presenting his “Spooks” at many local halls and venues. On January 12 1895, he bumped into a final hurrah from the supporters of Mrs. Mellon who, exasperated at his flippant criticisms of her powers and his assertion that he could give exact representations of her manifestations under test conditions, brought the bag and wire cage which had been used in the post-exposure test with Mr. Justice Windeyer to the theatre, and challenged Barker to perform under conditions to which Mrs. Mellon had supposedly been subjected. It mattered not that Mellon had never produced Geordie or his companions at the Windeyer tests; the supporters were delighted when Barker refused to oblige their challenge. The audience, for their part, were just annoyed at the interruption to the performance and Barker later stated that he was convinced nobody, including Mrs. Mellon, would produce results in the cabinet provided.

“Spooks” was featured in frequent performances around NSW to the end of 1897, after which Barker appears to have reverted to being an occasional performer on concert parties and the like, though still keeping the ghosts in his magical repertoire. He is seen in the press as late as 1917 but further research will be needed to fill in the gaps in his biography. As a sidenote to magical historians, the first president of the IMPS (Independent Magical Performers of Sydney), J.Felix Booth, is said to have learned his first magic trick from Barker. (21)

‘Professor’ W.A.  Davis continued to invoke Mrs. Mellon’s name in his anti-spirit performances as late as 1897. In one of the few beautifully produced lithographic magic posters to be printed in Australia (by F. W. Niven & Co.), his “Fantastiques” show features prominent illustrations of “Spookland” and “Fifteen Minutes with the Spirits.” His routine seems to have followed the same structure of Hosking and Barker, being bagged and tied before several spirit figures appeared; he also performed Davenport-style cabinet antics such as having a volunteer’s coat mysteriously turn inside out.

During and after his 1895 tour of New Zealand, Davis’ regular performing partner was named as Madame Stella Davis. ‘Mahatma’ magazine reported that W.A. Davis and ‘Dr. [Arthur]Russell’ were on a trip to London and the United States during 1899, obtaining attractions for the new Waxworks to be set up in Russell’s theatre, St. George’s Hall, Melbourne. It included an exhibit called ‘The Chamber of Death’ in which a living man was visibly transformed into a skeleton ( a version of the Blue Room illusion).

In 1901 he headed to Manilla on tour. By February 1903 it was reported that Davis had just returned to Melbourne after an extended tour in India, Java, China and Japan, praising China as a wonderful place. Davis then disappears from view, and Charles Waller places him back in China, where he went into commerce.

The catalyst of the controversy, Thomas Shekleton Henry, eventually moved to Melbourne in 1903 and, in 1914, returned to England.  He continued his work as an architect and painter. Some of his paintings are as late as 1920, and there was an exhibition of his paintings at Perth, W.A. in October 1920, though it is not known whether Henry was present.  He lived in London during the Great War, and died on July 6 1934 in Dedham, Essex.

Two of the smallest players in the affair, Armand Jerome and Mr. Justice Windeyer, had perhaps the most dramatic followups to the Mellon case.

Mr. Justice Windeyer made a couple of rigorous judgements which, to some, marked him as a hanging judge. In 1895, one George Dean (19) was charged with the attempted murder of his wife by poisoning. He was sentenced to death by Windeyer, but then an uproar arose in the public arena over the possibility of Dean’s innocence. The eventual path of the case included a Royal Commission, a reprieve for Dean, and charges against several people for perverting the course of justice, before Dean finally made a written confession and was sentenced to fourteen years’ gaol. Windeyer was caught up in the campaign to free George Dean; “Truth” magazine in particular launching repeated attacks on his credibility – and they pointed out that a judge who could have lent his name in support of Mrs. Mellon’s séances was not someone who could be trusted to make an objective legal decision. Though his judgement in the Dean case had proven sound, when Windeyer retired in late 1896, ‘Truth’ was loud in its rejoicing.

And Jerome was not only abusing the doctor’s trust. Having taken over as editor of the literary magazine, “Cosmos” he proceeded within months to run it into the ground. By mid-1896 he was on the run from police, who were criticised for their incompetence in failing to find him. Apparently he had come to Australia via New Zealand and, as a confidence-man through his charm alone established himself as a respectable journalist with rooms at the Empire Hotel and numerous romantic liaisons. He became an advertising spruiker for magazines, forging and swindling his way in a casual manner, even forging the name of publishers Gordon and Gotch for profit.

Ultimately Jerome was captured at Ingleburn where he had been living under an assumed name. Facing up to thirty separate charges of forgery, he was sentenced in December 1896 to three years hard labour. He died in Sydney on February 26, 1924.

Dr. Charles MacCarthy seems to have abandoned any further argument and returned to his many other good works. Within a few months after Hosking started performing, the blizzard of letters to the Editor finally blew itself out.

A lengthy tribute in the Freeman’s Journal, June 12, listed MacCarthy’s many admirable talents and contributions to medicine and society.

His interest in the spirits was not mentioned.

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Magic

(2) For histories of the A.S.M. refer particularly to “How to Make a Magician of Yourself” by Rod Cuthbertson, pub. ASM Melbourne 1970, and the writings of magic historian Brian McCullagh including “Deception Downunder” published in 2007 for the Centenary of the Melbourne Assembly of the A.S.M, and “Sydney’s Magic Heritage”, 1994, ISBN 0 646 17280 0

(3) Identified in court reports of the 1896 Freimann case as ‘Ernest Garibaldi Hosking’.

(4) The Australian Star, December 5, 1894 p.6

(5) A brief biography from “The Magic Mirror”, journal of the Australian Society of Magicians, February 15, 1909

(6) https://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php?title=Samri_Baldwin

(7) In the Gundagai Times, February 21, 1896, Hosking relates a story of having a private session with Evans, before which he filled his coat pockets with fake letters telling a tale of his brother having been gored to death by a bullock, then leaving the coat in the hall. When these ‘facts’ surfaced during the séance with Evans, Hosking branded him a fraud and refused to pay him and there was allegedly a confrontation with Evans drawing a gun, but later asking for Hosking’s silence and returning to America shortly thereafter. There is no supporting evidence for this anecdote.

(8) Mrs. Mellon - https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Annie_Fairlamb_Mellon.html

(9) Such as Frederick W.H.Myers and Henry Sidgwick

(10) W.T. Stead - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._T._Stead

(11) 'More Ghost Stories' by W.T. Stead 1892

(12) Dr. Charles William MacCarthy http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/maccarthy-charles-william-7305

(13) Extensive Newspaper reporting on the exposure of Mrs. Mellon can be viewed at Trove online search:

(14) “Spookland!” by T. Shekleton Henry A R.I.B.A [Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects]. Title page as described above, cover title reads “Further Light upon the Mysteries of Spookland”. Wholesale agents Gordon & Gotch, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Capetown. W.M.Macardy & Co. Printers 82 Pitt St. Sydney. 96 pages in orange paper wrapper.  The 1894 edition, cover titled “Spookland”, is rare; a 1902 edition published by The Clyde Publishing Company, Chicago is scarce but available. The online edition linked above is the original 1894 printing.

(15) http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/windeyer-sir-william-charles-1062

(16) In ‘A Counterblast to Spookland’, page 25.

(17) The Marble Man- http://home.yowieocalypse.com/Marble_Man/

(18) “A Counterblast to Spook-Land or Glimpses of the Marvellous” by ‘Psyche’ printed by W.M.MacLardy & Co, 82 Pitt Street, 1895. 98 pages, beige paper wrappers. Original copies appear to be very scarce on the market.

(19) https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/magazine/galleries/the-lemon-syrup-case

(20) Quoted from ‘The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England’ by Alex Owen, University of Chicago Press 1989.  ISBN: 0-226-64205-4

(21) See the Ensor Scrapbooks Vol.1 image 49

(22) Poster of Australian Society of Magicians show, from the W.G.Alma Conjuring Collectio, State Library of Victoria.