pages: unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf, 246
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unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf | 246 | SECOND SIGHT having trained his son's eye and memory by patient effort so as to have a mutual transferrence of thought, I will next show that animals had been trained for years to do tricks by secret signals before the alleged "discovery" of second sight. Two rare old bills in my collection advertise the mar- vellous "mind-reading" performances of a goose and a blindfolded dog respectively. The first, dated 1789, announces that a Mr. Beckett, a trunk-maker of No. 3I Haymarket, is exhibiting "a Learned Goose, just lately arrived from abroad. "It performs the following tricks: performing upon cards, money, and watches, telling the time of the month, year, and date, also the value of any piece either English or foreign, distinguishing all sorts of colors and (most prodigiously and certainly unbelieving to those who know the intellects of a goose) she tells the number of ladies and gentlemen in the company or any person's thoughts; any lady or gentleman drawing a card out of the pack, though ever so secret, the Goose, blindfolded at the same time, will find out the card they drew. Admittance two shillings each person." The second bill features Don Carlo, the Double- Sighted dog, which gave an exhibition of his mysterious skill at the Pavillion by special command, before King William and the royal family on December 17th, 1831. This dog was blindfolded and could present almost in duplicate the second-sight tests offered by the Highland lad who five days later gave a similar exhibition before the royal family at the same place. This proof regarding the use of animals as "mediums" |