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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |The Firman Fiasco in Paris| 3-10}} | {{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |The Firman Fiasco in Paris| 3-10}} | ||
{{Style P-No indent|ceiling. True, it may be supposed that there was imposture at Dr. Huguet’s, though the phenomena were genuine on the other occasions. But why so superfluous a false personation with a difficult make-up, when the medium had only to let the real Kibosh, or Frank, show for himself? And how could Firman within those few rapid moments, under}} | {{Style P-No indent|ceiling. True, it may be supposed that there was imposture at Dr. Huguet’s, though the phenomena were genuine on the other occasions. But why so superfluous a false personation with a difficult make-up, when the medium had only to let the real Kibosh, or Frank, show for himself? And how could Firman within those few rapid moments, under {{Style S-HPB SB. Restored|the grasp of the angry lady, have got rid of such articles as a mask, gloves, and feather head-dress, without being arrested in the act, and such fatal proofs triumphantly seized and detained? One of the spectators (who has since regretted having been led with a levity repented of to sign the proces ''verbal)'' describes the scene as having been one of great excitement, amid outcries of anger, in which “every one saw what he wanted to see,” meaning what he ''supposed. ''And the same gentleman says that when they all rushed immediately up with the light Firman’s face and hands were ''white. ''Frank has since said that he had no time to make the shawl invisible before he vanished himself. The recess itself is not larger than a closet. It is easily conceivable how the lady, in the dark, may have grasped Firman and pulled him to the ground, and how the then immediate disappearance of Frank, leaving the shawl and piece of muslin dropped on the half-prostrate medium, may have caused her to believe that she had realized that which was her belief in advance, that the Firman in her hands was the person who had worn the shawl, and falsely personated the vanished dwarf. And on her saying so, how could the spectators, most of them also prepossessed with the same conviction, have failed to show that belief?}}}} | ||
{{Style P-HPB SB. Restored|}} | {{Style P-HPB SB. Restored|}} | ||
It is a not immaterial point in the case that the declarations of the Firmans were made and sent for publication to the ''American Register before ''the descent of the police on his residence and his arrest, which took place on Thursday. He had invited a number of persons, besides myself, including three journalists, to witness on Friday another ''seance ''which was to be under test conditions, and at which the appearance of the spirit and himself, distinct and separate while simultaneous, was expected, as it had already four times been witnessed by the four persons above referred to. And I know that he intended, on a subsequent occasion, to invite Dr. Huguet himself to witness the same demonstration of his innocence of the presumption, which I conclude by repeating that I believe to be nothing more than a case of strongly apparent but really delusive appearances against him. | It is a not immaterial point in the case that the declarations of the Firmans were made and sent for publication to the ''American Register before ''the descent of the police on his residence and his arrest, which took place on Thursday. He had invited a number of persons, besides myself, including three journalists, to witness on Friday another ''seance ''which was to be under test conditions, and at which the appearance of the spirit and himself, distinct and separate while simultaneous, was expected, as it had already four times been witnessed by the four persons above referred to. And I know that he intended, on a subsequent occasion, to invite Dr. Huguet himself to witness the same demonstration of his innocence of the presumption, which I conclude by repeating that I believe to be nothing more than a case of strongly apparent but really delusive appearances against him. | ||