1. Picture: Owl flying out of umbrella.
UMBRELLA or PARASOL. Take, open, hold above owner’s head, shut and replace. 2. Picture: NOAH, programme or newspaper, coming out of the ark.
PROGRAMME or NEWSPAPER. Tear into two pieces. The action to tear or pull. 3. PERSON. ME. Action, to touch any part of lady indicated.
4. Picture: An arrow shot through a ring.
RING. Take off one finger, place on another, Fingers indicated counting 1 to 10 from per- son’s left hand little finger.
5. Picture: IVY, with flowers growing through it.
FLOWERS. Take, smell them, pin on person indicated. No sign of the giver of flowers (1) the person on your right, (2) the person on your left, (3) yourself.
6. Picture: A bee flying out of a card case.
POCKETS and CARDCASE. The action to take things out of certain pockets counting from my right hand.
Top pocket No. 1—to No. 10.
10. Inside pocket under handkerchief pocket if it exists. 4. Inside breast pocket.
7. Picture: A watch on a tea table.
WATCH. Take out, listen to ticking, replace. 8. Picture: A lovely pin in a shoe.
PIN. Lady’s hat pin, withdraw and hand to her. Gentleman’s tie pin, touch.
9. KEYS. Bunch of keys, shake by largest or smallest. If single key go through action of un- locking door or box.
10. Picture: A lass with pretty hat.
HAT. Place on your own head or other object indicated. 11. Picture: A lily embroidered on a handkerchief. HANDKERCHIEF. Tie number of knots indicated. 12. Picture: A fur or boa round neck of a lion. FUR or BOA. Roll into ball and throw up in air. 13. Picture: A lamb with muff round its legs. MUFF. Pass nearest walking stick through it.
14. Picture: A lyre with walking stick twisted in strings. WALKING-STICK. Use as violin bow.
15. Picture: A loaf, with opera glasses inside.
OPERA GLASSES. Take, adjust them, put first large ends to your eyes, then small. 16. Picture: Treading on pair of eyeglasses in a lobby.
EYEGLASSES. Place on your own nose. 17. Picture: A lad making a handbag.
HANDBAG. Empty contents in person’s lap, if found empty pick up things and put inside bag.
18. Picture: Stabbing a pen or pencil among leeches. PEN or PENCIL Pretend to write if paper put on it. 19. Picture: Purse dropped into lake.
20. Picture: String formed into noose. STRING. Tie person’s hands together. 21. Picture: Nail in place of buttons.
BUTTONS. Take hold of or pull certain button by performer touching with his left hand the part of clothing immediately after signing you (21). Action to unfasten.
22. Picture: A nun’s veil or shawl.
VEIL or SHAWL. Drape over my own head and shoulders. 23. Picture: A gnome smoking a cigar.
CIGAR CASE. Take, open, take cigar, hand to owner, shut case. 24. Picture: Matches made in Norway.
MATCHES, PIPE, etc. Fill pipe from pouch and light match (if all articles present)—or do with either as indicated.
25. Picture: A Knife cutting your gloves.
GLOVES. Put under, in, or on object or nearest vacant chair. 26. Picture: Playing Nap on floor.
FLOOR. Pick up anything from floor or place anything there. 27. Picture: Net full of tickets.
TICKETS. Take and give to programme seller. 28. Picture: Money hidden in a niche in wall.
MONEY. Of any kind. Hide in part of hall indicated. 29. Picture: Necklace on neck.
NECKLACE or PENDANT. Touch object. Action to touch. 30. Picture: A stage covered in moss.
STAGE. Action is walking or doing anything on stage. 31. Picture: A mole running up sleeve.
BRACELETS or SLEEVE. Action of putting up sleeve. 32. Picture: Man in moon powdering his face.
POWDER PUFF or SCENt BOTTLE. Go through action of powdering face; if scent bottle, go through action of removing cork and smelling.
33. Picture: A mummy made of sweets.
34. Picture: Yourself the Lady Mayoress.
MYSELF. Touch any part of my body indicated. 35. Picture: A lovely mauve fan.
FAN. Take, open, fan myself, fan owner, shut up and tap back of chair. Action to tap. 36. Picture: An old map rolled up in a tie.
TIE. Gent’s tie, pull ends out of waistcoat. Lady’s tie—twist. 37. Picture: A mat with brooches or sleeve links stuck in it. BROOCH or SLEEVE-LINKS. Take, drop in person’s lap. 38. Picture: Match being cut with a knife.
KNIFE or Scissors. Cut anything. Action to cut. 39. Picture: Monkey with charms or chain on neck. CHARM or CHAIN. Put over left hand, stroke with right. 40. Picture: A rose in gentleman’s coat.
COATS or CLOAKS. Act of folding—put on back of chair. 41. Picture: Reel of cotton with needle or pin stuck in it. NEEDLE or PIN. Pin folds of dress together.
42. Picture: Fruit soaked with rain. FRUIT. Take, wrap up. Action to wrap.
43. Picture: A lot of stamps stuck together with rum. STAMPS. Action to take out and put back.
44. Picture: A rower with pocket-book in mouth. POCKET BOOK, Count the leaves. Action of counting. 45. Picture: A letter stuck in a roof.
LETTER. Take out of envelope, put envelope in fold of letter. Act of transposing. 46. Picture: Lot of girls in orchestra in robes.
ORCHESTRA. Take violin up, conduct with bow. Action of doing two things at once. 47. Picture: A rat “squeaking,” or playing with whistle.
WHISTLE. Take and blow as many times as indicated. Action, to point. 48. Picture: A rush-bottomed chair.
49. Picture: Rubbing on a rock. Action to rub or clean.
50. WALLS of ROOM. (Where performance is.) Take article to wall of room indicated hang up or put on suitable projection, such as shelf, etc.
Action to hang up: 1 Right hand. 2 Left hand. 3 Facing you.
No sign. Stage behind you. 51. Picture: File.
BILLIARDS. Action of playing with cue, etc. 52. Picture: Fan.
TENNIS. Action of serving with racquet or striking. 53. Picture: Foam.
SWIMMING. Action of swimming. 54. Picture: Fire. Fighting fire.
BOXING. Action of pugilistic pose, etc.
Now, supposing someone asked to have his glasses taken from his nose and cleaned with his handkerchief, I should sign to my sister I wanted her to take 16 and 11 and 49. She would then clean the glasses, that being understood between us. Supposing, on the other hand, he simply wanted us to put his glasses on his nose, I should simply give her 16. Sup- posing again he wanted her to take his case from his pocket, take out the cleaning cloth therein and then clean the glasses, I should simply give her pocket, say, Number 3, there she would find the case, open it, and know what to do.
Supposing another person wanted her to waltz. I should give her Number 3 repeated, which means herself, and 36, the action to twist. Supposing another gentleman wanted her to take his watch from his pocket and transfer it to the pocket opposite, take a sovereign purse from the pocket opposite and put it where the watch had been. I should give her 6 and the two pockets in question, and the number to transpose, which is 45. Now supposing a gentleman wanted the lady to put her hand on her head, the performer would give Num- ber 3 repeated twice, and Number 8 on body diagram, and also Number 1 of body diagram. Now comes the question, how am I to sign to my sister these numbers without being de- tected? I divided my sister’s body in imagination into five zones or circles, as shown by the diagram. One circle is above her head from the chin upwards; the next circle is from chin to waist, and the last one from waist to feet; two more from shoulders outwards—these are numbered 1, 2, 3 from head to foot, and 4 and 5 shoulder-piece, and pointing in the direc- tion of these, or either of these zones, gives her the number instantly. Thus, if I point with
outstretched hand anywhere above her head it means 1. I have only to lower the hand a lit- tle to come beneath the chin and it means 2, and lowering the hand still more it means 3, so that lowering the hand a short distance means 1, 2, 3.
The other five numbers are accounted for by numbering the zones again with the higher numbers, viz. 6, 7, 8, 9, o; these were indicated by dropping the fingers of the right hand and pointing to the particular zone required. Thus, for 16 I merely pointed to Number 1 zone and then dropped my fingers which meant 6, while both together meant 16.
The whole thing was therefore very simple. You first memorise the list of articles, which you can add to to any extent you wish, then you have to associate with those a list of ac- tions. Each article should suggest its own action. Sometimes a definite one followed by a general one, such as the action to pull out a gentleman’s tie by the ends or to twist a lady’s tie. If the subject finds neither of these articles present, she takes the word “twist” as a gen- eral term, but supposing a gentleman asked to have his tie pulled out and twisted, she would naturally pull it out first. I would then again sign her to twist, so in effect the sign would be 36, 36. Supposing she was wanted to kiss a person. I should give her 3 for a per- son, 3, 3, for herself, 3 meaning mouth in body diagram, and 3 meaning her own mouth; this would be indicated by pointing below the knees, and withdrawing the hand five times with outstretched fingers.
As I have explained, the list I have given may be added to to any extent, but I have found the above list quite enough for all practical purposes.
In learning the words it may be advantageous to know that each word contains in itself a clue to the name; a, e, i, o, u, and w were only used as fillings, the sound of “ch” or “sh,” the sound of “k” or “ck ”, and the sound of “ss” meant different things. For instance, assume that the word is “Owl.” The most important letter in this is “L.” You think of “1" and one stroke that leads you to think ”L," and you immediately think “Owl.” Then you have to think what the “Owl” was doing, there you get the article, and following that, the action. The second word is “Noah,” in this the important letter is “N,” representing two by its two strokes. Again, it is easy to think of what “Noah” was doing, and you immediately think of the further action. The next word is “Me,” represented by three strokes in the letter “M.” “R” is kept to represent the sound of four, therefore, “Arrow” reminds one of 4, discarding the “a” and “o” and “w,” 5 is represented by “V” or “F,” therefore we pick on the word “Ivy,” the I and “Y” being neutral. “B” or “P” represent 6, therefore in this sentence you have to make a picture of a “Bee.” “T” or “D” represents 7, again the simple word “Tea” will answer our purpose. Then you come to “Shoe,” the “sh” sound is 8. The simple word “Key” repre- sents by its hard sound 9, whereas the sound of “ss” represents 10, you have it in the word “Lass.”
Now we come to double figures. You want two strokes for 11, therefore you pick on the word “Lily,” and make a picture of that. Then you want one stroke and two strokes for 12. What can be better than “Lion.” 13 is represented by “Lamb,” the stroke of the “L” and the three of the “M” just remind you. In 14 you want one stroke and an" R," you have" Lyre."
Then in “Loaf” you get one stroke and the sound of “F” which is 5, therefore 15. Now we come to 16, which is “Lobby,” one stroke and “B,” the “L.B.” which is 16. “D” or “T”. repre- sents 7, therefore we use the “D” in this case and the one stroke “L”—"Lad," which gives us 17. Then “Leech” that will do for 18. Then in 19, the “Lake” again the stroke for one and the “K” represents 9, so we have 19. In 20, we come to another series of words, all commencing with “N,” representing 2. So we have Noose, Nail, Nun, Gnome, Norway, Knife, Nap, Net, Niche, Neck. You will notice that two of these examples start with “G” and “K,” but these letters in these words are silent, therefore, neutral.
I think I have said enough to show the system on which the memory aid is based. Each fig- ure is a picture and each picture has an action following.
In practice, I used to carry a small note-book to keep my left hand occupied. I also found it very useful to make a note of a request, this I did with one word describing the leading arti- cle and the action, not using the code figures in case they should be overlooked by the spec- tators.
No doubt you have been wondering how my sister found a person. In a small intimate theatre my sister and I went amongst the audience. I waved her to the entrance of one of the aisles then gave her two signs, say, 4 and 6, the four meant the number of rows and the six meant the person in the row, and just as she was entering the aisle I gave a final sign, ei- ther one or two, which meant right and left respectively.
In a larger theatre I invited twelve to eighteen members of the audience, both ladies and gentlemen, to come on the stage, and seated them in a semi-circle, my sister being down stage in the centre to keep her out of hearing of the requests. There was usually dead si- lence while these requests were being taken, but I remember on one occasion when the si- lence was broken. A gentleman with a long beard was seated in the centre of the semicircle and he beckoned me towards him and as I bent to receive his order, a voice in the gallery went “Baa-aa” in perfect imitation of the bleating of a goat. There was, of course a shout of laughter which continued for about half a minute. The gentleman went on with his request without taking the slightest notice of the disturbance. I found out afterwards he was stone deaf.
In the case of finding a person in these seats, my sister would simply take a number from me, counting from where she stood at the moment, and as I said before my sister very often seemed to know intuitively what was wanted.
I remember one occasion at an annual dinner of the Savage Club at which his late Majesty King George was present (he was then Prince of Wales). Sitting next to him was Lord Char- les Beresford, and the Prince requested that my sister should kiss Lord Charles. My sister walked up to him, put her hands on his shoulders and suddenly blew him a kiss.
Romance is never far from the stage. Here is one connected with this telepathy trick. I one day received a letter from a young man who told me he had been out of a job so long that he had had serious thoughts of suicide. In his wanderings he passed St. George’s Hall and was
attracted therein. That evening I was doing the Mental Magnetism, and he, amongst oth- ers, had offered suggestions. His idea was to have a ring taken from one of his fingers, and placed on a similar finger belonging to a lady seated some distance away. This my sister did and in going out after the show was over, this lady and gentleman found themselves to- gether. She made some remark about the performance and asked him if the signet ring be- longed to So-and-so, an old friend of her father’s. It turned out to be the same person. This led to further conversation and an appointment for another meeting, which led on and on and on and finally ended ih a happy marriage.
“Translucidation” is another experiment that caused some sensation. I was very fortunate in having my sister to help me with this also. She was an ideal assistant, exhibiting all the coolness in action that was necessary.
For this experiment my sister was seated on a chair close to the footlights, with the semi- circle of spectators up stage and behind her. I came forward with a black bag, half a dozen envelopes, and six blank visiting cards. I distributed these to six members of the audience, with the request that they should write some quotation, or a few words of any sort as se- cretly as possible, and when they had written them, to put the card in the envelope and seal it down carefully, marking the envelope in any way they pleased. When this was done I asked a gentleman to take the black bag, thoroughly examine it, and then collect the enve- lopes in it. When he had done this, I took the bag from him with the tips of my fingers and at arm’s length, and laid it on my sister’s lap. She put one of her hands inside it, and I said a few words of explanation to the audience, explaining again that I used no means but natu- ral ones.
My sister would simply take an envelope out and put it on her forehead and then read the contents. This was duly carried out with the six envelopes. Each one, after it had been read, was handed over the footlights immediately, and passed on to the person who claimed it. It seemed impossible and inexplicable, so much so, that one day Sir Oliver Lodge came to the performance armed with a specially-sealed envelope, which he challenged my sister to read. She read it with the rest and he was so surprised that he got up from his seat in the stalls and made a short speech to the audience. He said he could not understand by what means this marvel had been accomplished, as he knew nothing in science that could ac- count for it, and finally, hinted that I was using some higher powers. Mr. Nevil Maskelyne and I saw him after the performance and tried to assure him it was trickery, but he frankly said that he did not believe it. I promised one day to disclose the secret and here it is. Had the audience been able to see beneath my sister’s skirt they would have seen a small trapdoor in the stage open and another lady’s hand emerge, take hold of a piece of speaking-tube which was attached to my sister’s dress, and join it up with another piece which had also come through the trap, thus connecting a speaking-tube from a cabinet be- neath the stage to my sister’s ear. When the hand had done this business it went exploring still further until it rested under a slit in my sister’s lap. This slit was concealed in her dress, the edges being covered with suitable embroidery. My sister simply pushed the envelopes which she had gathered together within the bag; she pushed them into the hand of the lady, who immediately handed them down to a man who took them into the cabinet in