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Shooting at Ghosts

Wonderful Manifestations Through the Mediumship of C.B. Cutler

He Submits to the Remarkable Test of the Materialized Hands and Face Being Shot At.

His Mysterious Passage through Two Solid Walls

Rocky Mountain News
Published: May 7, 1876

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As was noticed by The News a day or two since, Charlie Cutler, the medium, is again at home, after an absence of three or four months in the east, during which time he has been giving seances, very successfully, through several of the middle and southern states.

The history of Mr. C. is too familiar with Denverites generally to render any reference to it, at this time, necessary. Some time last winter The News gave an extended report of what transpired at one of his seances, is which was described some very wonderful and truly astonishing occurrences; but at two or three seances held since his return far more wonderful and strange occurrences have taken place - wonders which surpass the comprehension of man, and which, we think, will baffle all the scientific acumen of the present age to explain.

The purpose of this article will be simply to truthfully relate just what occurred, in the presence of reliable witnesses and leave the reader to analyze the occurrences and judge for themselves of their significance and import.

The first seance was held on last Sunday evening, at the house of Mr. Arthur W. Cheesewright, in West Denver, at which there were present Mr. Cutler's mother and sister, a few invited friends and a reporter, in all twelve or fourteen persons. The cabinet used upon this occasion was simply an ordinary clothes closet -- four feet square and 9 feet high - with the shelves removed, and in the top of which was securely fastened a staple and ring. In the upper part of the door was cut an aperture, 15x18 inches, over which hung loosely a dark cambric curtain resting on a shelf that was fastened to the door just under the lower edge of the aperture. An ordinary kitchen chair was then placed inside, upon which the medium took his seat, his hands, feet and arms being very securely and intricately bound thereto. A couple of medium sized dinner bells, some blank paper and a pencil were then placed within and the door was closed. A verse or two of a familiar song was then sung, when, in about two or three minutes, a voice, in the coarse, gutteral dialect of an Indian speaking broken English, said, "look in." On opening the door of the closet, the medium was found entranced, but out of the rope's very knot and loop remaining intact, and just as they had been placed upon him. The door was again closed, and in a very few minutes the medium was bound again, but tied in a very different and more complex manner.

Immediately after this the following written communication was thrust out through the aperture in the door, addressed to the reporter: "Examine the medium thoroughly! We are going to give you a good test! Watch it close!" The medium was again examined, and found tied just as before. In a very short time the voice above referred to said, "Look in quick!" On instantly opening the door a scene was presented which might be described as a mock representation of the infliction of the legally prescribed death penalty, which the quadruple murderer, Gallotti, has just escaped. In short, the medium was found

HANGING BY THE NECK,

with his head drawn well up to the ring in the top of the closet, and his feet eighteen inches from the floor, The noose and knot around his neck was precisely the same as those used by officers of the law in executions, and designated as the "Hangman's knot." The medium was "cut down," placed in the chair and retied, very securely, but the door was scarcely closed before hands and arms were displayed at the aperture. Arms were thrust out as far up as the elbow and held stationary for five or six seconds, while simultaneously the bells were rung with a force and accuracy of time rarely witnessed under the manipulations of the of the most artistic of professional bell ringers. At this juncture in the proceedings, a written communication was received by the reporter, as follows: "Select your own circle - not to exceed twelve in number - and come on next Wednesday evening, and we will give you a test séance and allow you to shoot at the materialized hand and faces!"

Accordingly on last Wednesday evening, the 3d inst., a party consisting of six gentlemen of undisputable integrity, and three ladies, assembled at an early hour at the dwelling of Mr. Cheesewright, and at once proceeded with the closest scrutiny to examine the floors, walls and ceiling of the closet above described. This closet was found to be without any possible means of ingress or egress except through the door opening into the lighted room, where the party remained throughout the séance. Everything being in readiness, the medium was place in a strong wooden chair and his hands tied together by a most complex knot, both ends of the cord being passed downward on each side toward the lower run of the chair, around which they were carefully and doubly knotted; thence taken to the corresponding rung at the back of the chair, and again securely knotted; thence passed under and around the medium's arms, crossed in a knot upon his chest and taken over the back of the chair, about which they were again carefully knotted; thence taken to the lower cross brace of the rear legs of the chair, where they remained in a extremely multiplex knot. In this position the medium was placed inside the closet, and in exactly one minute and thirty seconds, on examinations, he was found sitting in a "trance" outside of and entirely free from the ropes, which, however, were found tied in the identical manner was when they involved the medium. The tying was done by a well-known surgeon of the city, who consumed ten minutes in doing it, and made, as he asserts, regular surgical knots. The door being closed but a moment, the medium was found again securely tied, in a very different manner, and so intricately that it took three of the gentlemen present, with good light, seven minutes to untie him. The door being once more closed, in exactly three minutes and forty-five seconds he was found hanging with a "hangman's loop and knot" about his neck, as described in the foregoing account of the first séance. His hands were securely bound in a most intricate and painfully close knot behind his back. His feet were six or seven inches from the floor, and his legs closely wrapped from the feet to above the knee. In this position he was suspended, with his head three feet from the beam and ring that supported the rope he was hanging by. He was "cut down," and the noose and knot can be seen at The News office.

THE SHOOTING TEST.

A breech-loading rifle was mounted on a frame at the side of the room occupied by the party, about ten feet from the closet, and carefully range so that a ball from it would pass through the vertical center of the aperture within six inches of its lower edge. Boards were also nailed to the rear wall of the closet to receive the bullets that might be discharged from the rifle, and to prove the range in any given shot. The medium was then carefully examined, and found to have nothing upon his person except his ordinary clothing. He was then tied in the manner before described and placed in the cabinet, the door of which was not yet fastened before hands of various sized were thrust through the aperture in plain sight of all. A message was then written by one of these hands, in plain view, as follow: "Load the rifle and prepare to shoot at the word 'fire!' ". The first shot was laughed at by the "control," who said: "You shoot too high; lower your gun and shoot whenever you see a hand." Several hands were shown for the purpose, and one was distinctly seen to bear the mark of the bullet after the rifle was discharged. Instruction were then received to fire at faces that might be shown, and to make this test as prefect as possible, the rifle was so range that every subsequent shot passed through the aperture within three inches of its lower edge. Altogether eleven shots were fired at many hands and faces, and at least three or four of these shots were seen by all to penetrate the objects at which there were aimed. They would flutter tremulously for an instant after the shot, and then dissolve.

At the close of the cabinet seance, and before the medium was released, he and the cabinet, or closet, were sufficiently examined by all to reassure the witnesses that he had in no way been aided by mortal confederates or appliances. The boards in the rear of the cabinet are still in the same position, and can be examined by any and all who wish; skilled mechanics, with ax, hammer, or any other tools, are at liberty to detect, if they can, any secret trap, springs or other means of perpetrating fraud or practicing deception.

The doors and windows of the room in which the party sat were securely fastened and sealed, and a dark circle was held, the medium being seated between two of the investigators, and forming part of the circle. Bright lights rose from floors or descended from ceilings, there being at times half a dozen or more of them moving irregularly overhead and around the circle. Two large dinner bells, a guitar, and several pieces of clothing, were carried about overhead; the bells ringing their loudest, and the guitar thrumming in loud and discordant note was it passed about the ceiling. Hands innumerable, and of varied temperature and sizes, touched in ways that suggested the rollicking sad familiar, as well as the caress of affection. Voices were heard in different parts of the room. Once of the party was addressed by three different voices, each giving the full name of deceased friends whom he had known years ago, in the east, and none of whom, he believes, were ever known to anybody in Denver outside his own household. A number of others received similar tests of equal significance.

PASSED THROUGH TWO WALLS.

The most remarkable and incomprehensible of the many occurrences related in connection with Mr. Culter's mediumship occurred on last Tuesday evening, the 2d inst., at the residence of his mother, 282 Curtis street, in the presence of about fifteen ladies and gentlemen, including a News reporter. The house occupied by Mrs. Cutler is an ordinary five-room frame cottage, and faces north. The front door opens into the parlor, on the left of which is a small room, entered by a door from the parlor. This little room is lighted by one window, its walls and ceiling being well plastered, flooring sound and unbroken, and there is no possible means of egress from it except through the window fronting on the street or through the door connecting it with the parlor. The three or four gentlemen in the party were invited to prepare this little room - in which was a bureau, a trunk, and bed - for use as a cabinet; and, after thoroughly inspecting it and finding it as before described, they secured the window, and by means of pins and tacks fastened a heavy bed comfort over the entire length so as to render escape through it without detection impossible, as well as to render it perfectly dark. The door opening into the room was filled in the upper half by a temporary frame, in which was a small aperture, and below the frame was hung loosely a heavy bed quilt. Mr. Cutler, the medium, was then placed in a chair, and his hands tied behind him in such a manner as to suggest pain - the ropes being passed tho' the back of the chair to the lower cross brace, around which they were wrapped an double knotted; thence separately taken to the front legs of the chair and wrapped about the medium's legs so as to secure each to its corresponding chair leg by quadruple knots. Another rope was then passed around the medium's neck and passed tho' the chair's back to the lower cross braces, around each of which it was with equal care knotted. The medium was then placed in the darkened room, which was, however, again examined with light and found tact as before explained. The circle joined hands in the parlor, which was well lighted, and in less than three minutes from the time the medium was placed in the dark room, a stunning crash was heard in the dining room, in the southwest corner of the house, -- between which and the dark room there intervened two solidly-plastered walls - where the medium was found, in a trance, lying prostrate on the floor! An immediate inspection of the room where he had been placed disclosed no the least change of anything; the window was secured precisely as it had been, and the ropes which had bound and involved the medium were found with knots and wrapped intact, and precisely as they were tied, excepting only that they did not involve a human body.

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