Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

Transcriber’s Notes:

Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_
in the original text.
Equal signs “=” before and after a word or phrase indicate =bold=
in the original text.
Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals.
Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs.
Old or antiquated spellings have been preserved.
Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.

(_See p. 8._) (From a drawing by Mr. Barnard Chalon.)]

THE TRUE HISTORY
OF
THE GHOST;
AND
_ALL ABOUT METEMPSYCHOSIS_.

BY
PROFESSOR PEPPER,

AUTHOR OF “CYCLOPÆDIC SCIENCE SIMPLIFIED,” “THE PLAYBOOK
OF METALS,” AND “BOY’S PLAYBOOK OF SCIENCE,” ETC. ETC.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
_LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_.
1890.

[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]

POLYTECHNIC,
309, Regent Street, London, W.,
_Christmas, 1889_.

_To_ WALTER HUGHES, Esq.,
Messrs. Hughes, Masterman, & Rew,
59, New Broad Street.

MY DEAR SIR,

Will you allow me to dedicate this little work to you, as
some small recognition of the patience, care, and legal knowledge
you displayed in bringing to a successful issue the difficult
proceedings before the Attorney-General, Sir Roundell Palmer (now
Lord Selborne), and also those in Chancery, connected with the
sealing of my Ghost Patent by order of the late Lord Chancellor
Westbury, in September, 1863?

With a grateful sense of the personal kindness and attention
I have received from yourself and the other members of your Firm,

I am, my dear Sir,
Your old Client and sincere Friend,
THE AUTHOR.

THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE GHOST.

When the Hyde Park second Great Exhibition in 1862 had closed its doors, and the reaction from the bustle attendant on the arrival and departure of country visitors had set in, so that the halls and lecture rooms lately crowded with the numerous patrons of the old Royal Polytechnic were somewhat deserted, there came to the aid of the Institute a new invention, which people by common consent called “The Ghost.”

The latter was matured in this wise:—Mr. Dircks, a patent agent, who had saved some property and was an independent man, wrote a paper for the _Athenæum Literary Journal_, in which he described an optical effect that could be performed with sheets of glass. This paper excited no attention because the explanation of it was somewhat vague and unsatisfactory. The Christmas of 1862 was fast approaching, when Messrs. Horne, Thornthwaite, and Wood, philosophical instrument makers, of Newgate Street, invited the author to see a model which Mr. Dircks had caused to be constructed. This was the beginning of the Ghost; but as Mr. Dircks said that an entirely new theatre must be built to show the effects which he allowed could only be seen by a few people placed in an upper gallery, and then only by _daylight_, it was no wonder that the Crystal Palace, the Colosseum, and other places had all declined to have anything to do with Mr. Dircks or his model, which was now placed in the hands of Professor Pepper—so called because the Directors of the then Royal Polytechnic had determined that his title should be Professor of Chemistry and Honorary Director of the above Institution. The title was not that of a hair-dresser or a dancing-master, but was conferred upon him by express minute of the Board of Directors. Professor Pepper had had his services in establishing classes at the Royal Polytechnic already recognised by the authorities at South Kensington, who gave him an honorary diploma in Physics and Chemistry of the Committee of Council on Education some two or three years before the ghost was brought out, and at a time when he was sole lessee of the Polytechnic at a rental of £2,480 per annum, which had to be paid before a single lecture or entertainment was brought before the public. The classes Mr. Pepper established were for the study of Drawing, French, German, Arithmetic, and Mathematics, with, of course, Chemistry and Physics; and pupils were admitted at very low fees in order to encourage the working men to attend. He also arranged Monday evening lectures for the working classes, and reduced the admission to sixpence if the workmen came with proper tickets supplied by Professor Pepper, but signed by the foreman under whom the men worked.

All this took place about the years 1858-9, and was continued until the Institute finally closed its doors, principally caused by the fall of the stone staircase, and sold all off to a new limited liability company when Mr. Pepper was giving courses of lectures at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham. Again, for the last time, and during the absence of Professor Pepper in Australia, where he stopped ten years, viz., from 1879 to 1889, a sale of the plant and machinery, &c., of the Royal Polytechnic took place, on the 28th of February and three following days in 1882. Mr. George Buckland and his friends tried to secure the lease by purchase; but, not completing the purchase in time, it was bought by Quintin Hogg, Esq., who has greatly added to the size of the building, which is chiefly devoted to classes, at least fifty in number, teaching all kinds of useful knowledge, with a large day school for boys, who are numbered by hundreds, and are well and most efficiently taught by competent masters. The Laboratory has also been enlarged, and is now under the able guidance of Mr. Ward, the teacher of Chemistry and Physics.

But to return to the Christmas of 1862, ever memorable in the annals of the Institute because Mr. Pepper brought out the illusion in quite a different manner from that contemplated by Mr. Dircks, and so improved and simplified the ghost that it could be shown in any lecture hall or theatre, if sufficiently large to contain the necessary apparatus.

The following is a narrative from the lips of the inventor of the ghost improvement:—“Just before Christmas Day in 1862, I invited a number of literary and scientific friends, and my always kind supporters, the members of the press, to a private view of the new illusion to be introduced into Bulwer’s romantic and dramatic literary creation, called ‘A Strange Story.’ The effect of the first appearance of the apparition on my illustrious audience was startling in the extreme, and far beyond anything I could have hoped for and expected, so much so that, although I had previously settled to explain the whole _modus operandi_ on that evening, I deferred doing so, and went the next day to Messrs. Carpmael, the patent agents, and took out a provisional patent for the ghost illusion, in the names, at my request, of Dircks and Pepper. The day after the first evening I showed the ghost, Mr. Dircks came down to the Polytechnic, and after saying how much pleased he was with the manner in which I had introduced the illusion, ended by handing me a letter, in which he spoke highly of my work in respect of the ghost, and gave me spontaneously whatever profits might accrue from the invention. Moreover, he went to Carpmael with me, and, being an old and experienced patent agent himself, assisted in drawing up the patent which is here copied, with my original drawing of the improved method of showing the ghost by the use of a ‘Double Stage,’ at the old Royal Polytechnic Institute.”

A.D. 1863, _5th FEBRUARY_. Nᵒ 326.

APPARATUS FOR EXHIBITING DRAMATIC AND OTHER PERFORMANCES.

LETTERS PATENT to Henry Dircks, of Blackheath,
in the County of Kent, Civil Engineer, and John Henry
Pepper, of No. 309, Regent Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Professor of Chemistry, and Honorary Director
of the Polytechnic Institution, for the Invention
of “IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE
EXHIBITION OF DRAMATIC AND OTHER LIKE PERFORMANCES.”

Sealed the 25th September 1863, in pursuance of an Order of
the Lord Chancellor, and dated the 5th February 1863.

* * * * *

PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry
Dircks and John Henry Pepper at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the
5th February 1863.

We, HENRY DIRCKS, of Blackheath, in the County of Kent, Civil Engineer, and JOHN HENRY PEPPER, of No. 309, Regent Street, in the County of Middlesex, Professor of Chemistry, and Honorary Director of the Polytechnic Institution, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for “IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE EXHIBITION OF DRAMATIC AND OTHER LIKE PERFORMANCES,” to be as follows:—

The object of our said Invention is by a peculiar arrangement of apparatus to associate on the same stage a phantom or phantoms with a living actor or actors, so that the two may act in concert, but which is only an optical illusion as respects the one or more phantoms so introduced.

The arrangement of the theatre requires in addition to the ordinary stage a second stage at a lower level than the ordinary one, hidden from the audience as far as direct vision is concerned; this hidden stage is to be strongly illuminated by artificial light, and is capable of being rendered dark instantaneously whilst the ordinary stage and the theatre remain illuminated by ordinary lighting. A large glass screen is placed on the ordinary stage and in front of the hidden one.

The spectators will not observe the glass screen, but will see the actors on the ordinary stage through it as if it were not there; nevertheless the glass will serve to reflect to them an image of the actors on the hidden stage when these are illuminated, but this image will be made immediately to disappear by darkening the hidden stage. The glass screen is set in a frame so that it can readily be moved to the place required, and it is to be set at an inclination to enable the spectators, whether in the pit, boxes, or gallery, to see the reflected image.

The glass is adjustable and it is readily adjusted to the proper inclination, by having a person in the pit and another in the gallery to inform the party who is adjusting the glass when they see the image correctly.

* * * * *

SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions
of the Letters Patent, and of an Order of the Lord
Chancellor, by the said Henry Dircks and John Henry
Pepper in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 31ˢᵗ
October 1863.

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY DIRCKS, of Blackheath, in the County of Kent, Civil Engineer, and JOHN HENRY PEPPER, of No. 309, Regent Street, in the County of Middlesex, Professor of Chemistry, and Honorary Director of the Polytechnic Institution, send greeting.

WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters Patent, bearing Date the Fifth Day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said Henry Dircks and John Henry Pepper, Her special licence that we, the said Henry Dircks and John Henry Pepper, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Henry Dircks and John Henry Pepper, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for “IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN THE EXHIBITION OF DRAMATIC AND OTHER LIKE PERFORMANCES,” upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Henry Dircks and John Henry Pepper, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office on or before the Third day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.

NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Pepper, on behalf of myself and the said Henry Dircks, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:—

The nature and object of our said Invention is by a peculiar arrangement of apparatus to associate on the same stage a phantom or phantoms with a living actor or actors, so that the two may act in concert, but which is only an optical illusion as respects the one or more phantoms so introduced.

The arrangement of the theatre requires in addition to the ordinary stage a second stage at a lower level than the ordinary one, hidden from the audience as far as direct vision is concerned; this hidden stage is to be strongly illuminated by artificial light, and is capable of being rendered dark instantaneously whilst the ordinary stage and the theatre remain illuminated by ordinary lighting. A large glass screen is placed on the ordinary stage and in front of the hidden one. The spectators will not observe the glass screen, but will see the actors on the ordinary stage through it as if it were not there; nevertheless the glass will serve to reflect to them an image of the actors on the hidden stage when these are illuminated, but this image will be made immediately to disappear by darkening the hidden stage. The glass screen is set in a frame so that it can readily be moved to the place required, and it is to be set at an inclination to enable the spectators, whether in the pit, boxes, or gallery, to see the reflected image. The glass is adjustable and it is readily adjusted to the proper inclination by having a person in the pit, and another in the gallery, to inform the party who is adjusting the glass when they see the image correctly.

Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, we will proceed more fully to describe the manner of performing the same.

* * * * *

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.—Fig. 1. (_Frontispiece_).

Figure 1 of the annexed Drawings illustrates the arrangement of a theatre for carrying our Invention into effect; the Figure shows a section taken through the stage, the orchestra, the pit, and gallery.

_a_, _a_, is an opening which is formed in the ordinary stage. In the front part of the stage, but at a lower level, is the hidden stage _b_. The opening _a_ is capable of being closed at the top by trap doors, a plan of which is shewn at Figure 2. When the trap doors are closed, actors on the ordinary or visible stage can pass freely to and fro above the lower or hidden stage. The ordinary stage and trap doors are covered with green baize or other dark material, so that when the trap doors are opened, the audience, even those in the gallery, will not readily be able to perceive the opening. The actors or objects corresponding with the phantom images, which it is desired to represent to the audience, are on the lower or hidden stage _b_, and are strongly illuminated by the lime light or the electric light, or other powerful illuminating means may be employed. This light must accompany the actor in any movement he has to make. The hidden stage _b_, and the lanterns _c_, may be mounted on a carriage on rails (a plan of which is shown at Figure 3), so that when it is necessary for the phantom actor or object on the lower stage to be moved, the lanterns may be caused to move also, or the lanterns may remain stationary whilst the actor moves, provided the whole space through which he moves is sufficiently illuminated. The lanterns are to be provided with means for instantaneously extinguishing or masking the light, and for reproducing it so that the phantom may be made to disappear and reappear at pleasure, whilst the audience and the ordinary stage will be more or less lighted in the ordinary manner according to the effects desired to be obtained. For this purpose a board _b_¹ is employed, which is capable of being raised into the position shewn by dotted lines so as entirely to cut off the light from the hidden stage when desired, or an ordinary opaque shade attached to each lantern may be used for the purpose, or when using the lime light the desired effects are caused by gradually or instantaneously (as the case may require) cutting off the supply of gases, and the phantom image may by any of these means be caused gradually or instantaneously to fade away. When the trap doors over the hidden stage are open, the part _d_ thereof assists in hiding the lanterns and the opening from the audience. The part _e_ is raised into the position shown in the Drawing and acts (together with the part _d_) to screen the lanterns from the audience, and also to insure that any actor or object on the hidden stage shall not accidentally appear above the level of the visible stage. The phantom actor, when standing on the stage _b_, leans against the screen _k_, which is inclined so as to be parallel with the glass screen, and is covered with black velvet or other dark material, as is also the stage _b_, in order that no image of either the screen _k_ or the stage _b_ may be seen in the reflection. _f_ (the glass screen) is a large sheet of plate glass on the ordinary stage, of sufficient size to reflect the full length of the actors or objects on the hidden stage to the audience in the pit, boxes, and galleries of the theatre. The hidden stage is between the glass and the audience. The glass may be mounted in a swing frame so that it may be adjusted to the angle required, or it may readily be done by screws or ropes and pulleys, or otherwise. The glass screen is to be set at such an inclination as to bring the reflected image to the level of the visible or ordinary stage. This will enable the spectators, whether in pit, boxes, or gallery, to see the reflected image without any obstruction to the view above the foot-lights, and it will be visible from all parts of the house except those extreme positions which cannot command a view through the glass of that part of the stage where the image is reflected.

The proper angle of inclination of the glass is ascertained experimentally by having persons in the different parts of the house to say when the image is shewn to them correctly. The scenery is so disposed as to conceal the frame of the glass, and we prefer that the glass should be able to descend into an opening or box _g_ beneath the stage, in which case we counterbalance the glass and frame so that they may easily be raised into the position desired by means of a rope _h_, by which, aided by the bolts _i_, the glass is supported in the required position. The glass may either be adjusted when screened from the audience, and remain in position during the scene, or (the proper angle of inclination having been previously ascertained by experiment) the glass may be raised on to the ordinary or visible stage, and placed in position whilst the scene is before the eyes of the audience under a subdued light without the movement being observed, for which latter purpose the top bar of the frame of the glass should be made very light or be omitted altogether. This arrangement admits of an actor on the visible stage passing across the space which the glass is to occupy, and this he can do just before the appearance of the phantom, and then immediately the glass is run up, the trap doors are opened, the actor or image on the hidden stage is illuminated and the phantom appears. This arrangement will render it less likely that the audience should imagine that there is anything interposed between them and the actors than if the glass plate remained permanently in position during the scene. The hidden or lower stage may be provided with a well or hole up which an actor can rise; he will then appear as a spectre rising out of the visible stage. The lanterns may be provided with coloured glasses in order to heighten the effect. As the actors on the visible stage do not themselves see the spectral images, marks should be placed on the stage or other indications made in order that they may know the position which the spectres appearing to the audience are to occupy. In order to appear upright upon the visible stage the actor or object on the hidden stage should be inclined so as to be as nearly as practicable parallel with the surface of the glass screen. In effecting this assistance is afforded by the screen _k_ of the hidden stage. Several sheets of glass may be similarly employed at the same time if one is not of sufficient width to cover the different parts of the stage at which it is desired that the spectre should appear, the interval or junction being concealed by the introduction of a tree or column or some other piece of scenery.

Having thus described the nature of our Invention and the manner of performing the same, we would have it understood that we make no claim to any of the parts separately, but what we claim is the combined arrangement as herein described of a glass inclined forwards towards the audience, and two stages, one the ordinary visible stage, and the other a hidden stage at a lower level than the ordinary visible stage and illuminated with a much stronger light than either the ordinary visible stage or the body of the house, and which light is capable of being instantaneously, or, if so required, gradually withdrawn and restored.

In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Pepper, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day
of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three.
J. H. PEPPER. (L.S.)

Returning to the author’s narrative:—The Ghost illusion was first shown in what was called the small theatre of the Royal Polytechnic, but as the audience increased so rapidly it was removed by the following Easter and shown on a grander scale in the large theatre of the Institution, and where the dissolving views were usually exhibited.

The late Mr. O’Connor, of the Haymarket, painted the first scene used, representing the laboratory of “The Haunted Man,” which Christmas story the late Charles Dickens, by his special written permission, allowed me to use for the illustration of the Ghost illusion. This ghost scene ran for fifteen months, and helped to realise, in a very short time, the sum of twelve thousand pounds, not counting what I received for granting licences to use the Ghost, and also the sums realised during many successive years as new ghost stories were brought out.

Sylvester now patented the use of looking-glass in the performance of the Ghost, which I thought very good, and bought of him—he could only infringe my patent by attempting to use it, and therefore his patent was useless to anybody else but myself.

Mr. King, of Bath, brought out what he termed a “New Patent Ghost”; but my solicitors, Messrs. Hughes, Masterman, and Hughes, very soon quashed the alleged patent by appearing against Mr. King, when he tried to get his patent passed before the Solicitor-General, the result of which is thus described by

THE
London New Music Hall Journal.

MANCHESTER, AUGUST 10, 1863.

WITHDRAWAL OF THE GHOST FROM THE LONDON
NEW MUSIC HALL.

It is with unfeigned regret that I have to announce to
my numerous patrons the withdrawal of the Ghost from the
London New Music Hall. The reason is as follows:—My
engagement with Mr. King, to whom a large sum of money
was paid down, was with the understanding that he should
personally superintend the first representation of the
“Great Optical Illusion, the Marvellous Ghost,” which,
however, he failed to do, and to which is attributable the
failure and disappointment which ensued. I also distinctly
understood that his representation was free from any
infringement of the right of patent, and that it was in
every respect equal to the original production of Professor
Pepper. I beg, therefore, in order to acquit myself from
the odium of disappointment which may have been felt by
the unusually large attraction which it has occasioned to
“The London” during the past week, to state that I have
received an intimation from Professor Pepper that Mr. King’s
representation is an infringement upon his own, and that
I have no course left open to me but at once to bear the
disappointment, and allow its immediate withdrawal. It is my
intention, however, to seek redress in the proper quarter.

I therefore trust that my numerous friends will see the
predicament in which I have been placed, and readily acquit
me of all blame; assuring them that I am at all times,
regardless of expense, anxious to secure the most sterling
talent that can be procured, and to avoid anything in the
shape of disappointment.
JAMES HARWOOD.

I now introduced a Miniature Ghost of a danseuse, which, being only about fifteen inches high, danced on the stage to the great amusement of my very numerous kind patrons.

I took out a provisional patent for this addition to the Ghost Mysteries, and shall reproduce it this Christmas at the Polytechnic.

A Manchester man, under the _nom de plume_ of Kit Skewift, thus ridicules the efforts made by King to produce the Ghost at Manchester:—

TH’ GHOST!!!

“When aw wur a lad—(but that wurnt yusterday, nor th’
day before, nor any day last wick)—aw used to be trayted
neaw and then to wot wur cawd a good ghost story. Owd foak
then wur vast fond o’ ticklin’ yung foaks’ yers wi’ tales
abeawt hobgoblins, ghosts, carnivorous giants, vampyres,
ogres, un aw macks o’ uncouth beeins. Aw railly believe they
thowt sitch tales wur profitable, morally un’ religiously
speighkin’, un’ had little thowt abeauwt th’ uproar ’ut they
caused amung eawr juvenoile nerves. Weel con aw remember
beein’ neaw un then freetunt till it wur th’ herdest job i’
th’ world to keep my heart fro’ other roisin’ up into my
meawth, or skutterin’ deawn in t’ clugs. My yure would ha’
stood up loike th’ bristles uv a dleetin’ brush, un’ th’
best com ut ever wur made would ha’ fawn a victim to any
attempt to smooth it deawn to its gradely place; nay, aw
believe if anybuddy had tried wi’ a par o’ curlin’ tungs to
make it twist, they’d ha’ brokken um loike owd chips. These
tales gien me no partikilur noshun as to wot ghosts wur;
praps th’ tellers had no very clear ideo theirsels; but aw
geet o sort uv a general inklin’ ’ut they wur a very quare,
a very extriordinary, un a very wilful set o’ beeins; some
on um vast fond uv a toidy practical joke; un aw on um i’
their element when they wur potterin’ foaks’ plucks to make
eawt wot the dickens they meant by their merlocks.

“For some days th’ good foaks o’th’ city o’ Manchester have
had before their een uppo’ th’ waws, un’ i’th’ shop windows,
bills printed i’ black un flarin’ red ink, th’ letters
big enoof welly for a bloint chap to see, anneawncin’ at
th’ Lunnun New Music Haw th’ appearance uv a ‘Mervellous
Ghost’—_King’s_ Ghost! as a roival to that uv
Professor Pepper. Loike aw curious foak ’ut are made hongry
wi’ expectashun, aw went th’ other neet to have a look at
it, imaginin’, as aw went alung through th’ streets, that at
last aw should get a peep at a spectre uz would carry back
my moind to my yung days, un gie me some inseet into th’
naytur and essence uv sperrits—not sitch as one beighs at
th’ keawnter uv a _vault_, but sitch as proceed fro’
th’ clay tenement that lies, moshunless, decayin’ within.
Aw durnt know but aw felt a little bit sayrious too, un’ a
tunchy bit groiped wi’ fear, for it met be that th’ seet
would be made doubly awful by th’ appearance uv my gronny’s
ghost; if it wur, un hoo seed me, hoo’d be shure t’ gie me
a blisterin wi’ hur tung, for hoo wur a raddler at takkin’
th’ sheighne eawt on me wi’ that glib little member uv hus.
But when th’ ghost did appear—or _should_ have appeart
in its full proposhuns, by th’ mack aw fun’ mysel as far fro
th’ possesshun uv a genuine crumb o’ ghostly wisdum uz ever
aw wur i’ my born days. It should ha’ bin an illustrious
ghost—no less a chap than Owd Hamlet, th’ suvverin uv
anyshunt Denmark; un’ theerefore a rail _King’s_ ghost
(beawt patent). But that may akeawnt fer its peevishness,
its tricks, un’ its uncommon way o’ introducin’ itsel’. It
wouldn’t appear aw at wonst; at fust it showed its yed;
then, giving itsel’ a wry neck, it lugged in its showders un
its breast; then it disappeart, un’ shortly begun to ascend
wi’ its legs un’ feet, or else a pair uz it had borrowed
fro’ a nayburin’ corpse, uppermost; un’ when it had getten
so far in seet as its sternum, it flittert abeawt in an
ungrayshus manner, as if tryin’ to doance th’ Cure on its
yed. Praps it wur _because_ it wur a _King’s_
ghost that it wur so wilful, un’ tried to be so unnatural in
its ways, for some o’ th’ owd kings wur rum jockies, un’,
for owt we know, owd Hamlet met be loike owd George Thard,
who, Byron says, geet into heaven by mistake, wi’ his yed
under his arm, not havin’ any use for it in a place wheere
good thowts un good principles are alone acceptable. Owd
Hamlet met be labburin’ under an idea that Lankishire wur a
place in which a chap would be uv as mitch service to his
felly crayturs when stonnin’ on his yed as when reort up i’
th’ ushual style on his feet.

“This ghostly bizness is cawd an ‘optical illushun.’
Shouldn’t it be cawd an ‘optical _delushun_’? Aw know
aw never seed as monny pairs o’ optics so noicely chetted as
there wur on this occashun. Professor Buck’s kunjurashuns
we know beforehond are nowt but decepshuns; but aw’ll be
flogged if i’th’ way o’ bamboozlin’ one’s wits, un’ makin
th’ sense uv seet counifogle aw eawr other senses, he isn’t
far ayed o’ King’s ghost—a very prince besoide a regilur
muff.

“Neaw Pepper’s ghosts, they say, are genuine, are wot
they’re professed to be—foine specimens uv wot true science
un’ profershunal skill con accomplish. When aw th’ whole
bevy o’ King’s ghosts are _mustert_, they’re not, placed
alungsoide o’ one _Pepper_, wuth so mitch as a pinch o’
_sawt_; though, by th’ way ’at they try to catch owd
brids, they met have a lerge stock on hond o’ th’ latter
herticle.

“But, moind yoa, aw dunnot blame Mestur Harwood, th’ lesse
o’ th’ Haw. Now, not I; he, aw understond, has been done as
weel, nay to a bigger tune, than th’ public; un’ that he’s
doubly vext to think that he should, aimin’ at producin’
every novelty ’ut’s wuth presentin’ to th’ public, pay his
good money for a bad ghost! Un’ to aw th’ professhunals
engaged at th’ establishment it mun be awfully mortifyin’;
for wot gives ’um th’ horrors mooar than an ominous
convicshun that th’ _ghost winnot wawk_? Heawever, if
awm reetly informt, King’s ghost is to vanish, un’ Pepper’s
is to appear in its place. This shows a determinashun not to
be done wi’ a pousy Jack-o-lantern.

“By th’ _Music Haw Journal_ aw see too that Stead, th’
original Cure, un’ Mestur Ware, th’ author uv so monny comic
sungs, are to appear next wick. Booath o’ theese chaps aw
seed i’ Lunnun, when aw went to look at th’ Eggsibishun;
un’, my word, if they dunnot make Lankishire foak lowf
away aw unpleasant dreoms, un’ shift aw th’ bile left by
th’ ghost, awm no judge, that’s aw! So, there’s no need to
despair. As Shakspere says, ‘Shadows avaunt!’ un’ make way
for substanshul entertainments.—Yours gradely,

“August 7, 1863. KIT SKEWIFT.”

Towards the end of May, 1863, the audiences increased enormously at the Royal Polytechnic, so that it became necessary to have a select afternoon performance, the admission fee being raised from 1s. to 2s. 6d. on Saturday mornings only. It was at this period that I was honoured with a visit from their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales and suite; and after the performance had been witnessed by them, I showed the Prince and Princess how the ghost was raised, and explained to my distinguished audience all the machinery and appliances used. Some of the suite amused the Prince by becoming ghosts, and the following notice appeared the next morning in the _Times_, May 20th, 1863:—

“Yesterday morning, by special command, Professor
Pepper had the honour of delivering his ghost lecture
before their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess
of Wales, and the Prince and Princess Louis of Hesse,
who were attended by the Countess of Macclesfield,
Baroness Von Schenck, Major Teesdale, and Captain
Westerweller. The distinguished party were received by
Professor Pepper, and after being conducted round the
galleries passed to the large theatre, where a commodious
Royal box had been prepared for their reception. At the
conclusion of the lecture, by the invitation of Professor
Pepper, they went behind the scenes, and examined with
much interest the machinery and appliances for producing
the Polytechnic ‘ghost.’ At the conclusion, their Royal
Highnesses graciously thanked the directors of the institution,
and after shaking hands with Professor Pepper,
retired.”—_The Times, May 20th, London, England._

“The ghosts of the Polytechnic, which manifest themselves
as a startling appendix to Mr. Pepper’s ‘Strange
Lecture’ on optical illusions, have proved singularly attractive,
and when the hour arrives for their appearance the
lecture room becomes as crowded as the pit of a theatre on
the night of Boxing-day.”—_(Second Notice), The Times, Jan.
20th, London, England._

The real element of success in the production of “The Strange Story,” however, must be assigned to the ghost.

So many base and servile imitators now appeared with a sorry imitation of the Polytechnic ghost that it became necessary to send the following advertisement to all the London papers:—

ADVERTISEMENT.

“Caution to persons pirating Professor Pepper’s Ghost.
—Messrs. Dircks and Pepper are the sole Patentees of the
Ghost invention. The third and last hearing took place
before Sir Roundell Palmer, the Solicitor-General, on
Saturday the 15th August, 1863, when he decided in favour
of Messrs. Dircks and Pepper.”

I also addressed the following letter to the Press:—

“POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION,
“309, Regent Street, London,
“_21st August, 1863_.

“To the Editor of ______
“Sir,

“On public grounds I venture to call your attention to the
fact that many persons are now going about the country
endeavouring to pirate effects to be produced by the
apparatus patented by Mr. Dircks and myself, and to deceive
the public by giving them an exhibition with which they are
certain to be disgusted, and with which I have nothing to do.
I beg to enclose one of the numerous statements I have received
from different parts of the country alluding to the imposture
now so commonly practised. I shall esteem it a favour if you
would insert this and the accompanying statement in your
valuable journal.

“I am, Sir,
“Your obedient Servant,
“JOHN HENRY PEPPER.”

I won all the cases taken into Court against persons using my name in a fraudulent manner, and in one flagrant instance the Magistrates gave the impostor fourteen days’ imprisonment for “getting money under false pretences.”

The famous _savant_ Mon. l’Abbé Moigné, of Paris, wrote the brief notice of the ghost which is here copied from his journal called _Les Mondes_, May, 1863:—

NOUVELLES ET FAITS DIVERS.

ROYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION.

“Les énergiques directeurs de l’Institution royale polytechnique ont inauguré une série de matinées fashionables amusantes du samedi qui, à en juger par les deux séances déjà données, promettent un très-heureux succès. On a surtout remarqué le leçon expérimentale de M. Pepper, sur le thallium, sur les merveilles de l’analyse spectrale, et la part qu’elle a eue à la découverte du nouveau métal. En raison du beau monde qu’elles devaient recevoir, les galeries avaient été tapissées et décorées avec goût de plantes exotiques rares. Comme intermède, on avait choisi le _Freischütz_, qui n’a rien perdu de sa fraîcheur et de son attrait, au triple point de vue musical, optique et humoristique. La semaine dernière, LL. AA. RR. le prince et la princesse de Galles ont fait une visite privée à cet incomparable établissement, et elles ont voulu qu’on les initiât aux mystères des fantômes. M. Pepper n’a pas cru pouvoir mieux répondre à leurs désirs qu’en faisant apparaître, sous forme de spectre, à leur grande surprise, une des personnes même de leur suite.

“Depuis que ce petit article a paru dans les journaux anglais, notre ami, M. Pepper, est venu installer à Paris, au théâtre impérial du Châtelet, le mystérieux appareil avec lequel il réalise ses apparitions fantastiques. De son côté, M. Robin a inauguré, samedi dernier, dans la salle déjà si fréquentée du faubourg du Temple, ses représentations de spectres vivants impalpables. L’attention publique étant ainsi vivement excitée, il nous semble que le moment est venu de rappeler l’article suivant inséré par nous dans le _Cosmos_ de 1858, tome XIII, p. 563, et qui ne fut pas assez remarqué, parce que le moment n’était sans doute pas venu:—

“‘_Fantômes optiques._—MM. Dircks et Pepper ont inventé une charmante disposition optique à l’aide de laquelle il fait apparaître des spectres et produit des illusions singulières. Il partage en deux compartiments, par une large glace sans tain, comme on en fait beaucoup aujourd’hui, la salle dans laquelle la scène doit se jouer. Dans le premier compartiment, en avant, il place les acteurs dont on ne devra voir que les images, destinées à représenter les spectres ou revenants; dans le second compartiment, à droite, il installe les acteurs qui devront être vus en personne; les spectateurs sont installés dans l’obscurité, au-dessus du premier compartiment en avant. Dans cette disposition, évidemment, si la scène commence, les spectateurs verront directement, à travers la glace, les acteurs du second compartiment; ils verront par réflexion seulement, ou dans leurs images formées au sein du premier compartiment et mêlés aux acteurs vus en personne, les acteurs situés au-dessous d’eux, dans le premier compartiment. Ces images refléchies, beaucoup moins lumineuses, feront l’effet d’ombres vivantes, d’êtres revenus de l’autre monde; on pourra les faire avancer, rétrograder, sortir ou rentrer à travers les murs, en faisant varier la distance à la glace des acteurs qu’elles représentent, et l’on obtiendra des effets vraiment extraordinaires. C’est assurément une excellente idée.’

“C’est bien aussi là le secret de ces photographes spirites dont l’Amérique a eu l’initiative et qui ont tant fait de bruit.”

And now Mr. Dircks, who had hitherto been most friendly to me, began to be otherwise, and to write me offensive letters, which I forbear to publish. Every morning and evening at the Royal Polytechnic I mentioned his name as a co-inventor. The daily programme always contained his name, and I can appeal to numbers who know me well that I have never attempted to borrow other people’s honours from them, and if a discovery was made always gave to the person making it full credit for the same. It is certain that Dircks’ apparatus was comparatively useless and that he knew nothing of the use of my double stage, and in fact the Solicitor-General, Sir Roundell Palmer, declined to grant a patent on Dircks’ crude idea, as it was only when he understood the great improvement made by the use of the double stage and the employment of the electric light that he granted (as stated in the copy of the advertisement) at the third hearing the Ghost Patent which the Lord Chancellor subsequently ordered to be sealed after great opposition made by several Music Hall proprietors. It is a very curious fact that the original model which Horne, Thornthwaite and Wood sent me was stolen by some person, who in my absence gave a fictitious verbal order as if from the firm named, and I never saw it again. The thief could not, however, have derived much benefit from the robbery, as the model was more likely to lead the possessor in the wrong than the right direction. I suppose the model went to America or Australia, as my imitators in those countries mostly made a terrible fiasco of the ghost when they first attempted to show it.

The following notice by a newspaper, of which unfortunately the name was cut off and lost, gives a very fair criticism on the ghost and its inventors:—

THE PATENT GHOST.

“Modern researches in Spiritualism have led to one practical result—the discovery of a ghost. Not of an ordinary old-fashioned ghost, appearing in the midnight hour to people with a weak digestion, haunting graveyards and old country mansions, and inspiring romance-writers into the mischief of three-volume novels; but of a well-behaved, steady, regular, and respectable ghost, going through a prescribed round of duties, punctual to the minute—a Patent Ghost, in fact. This admirable ghost is the offspring of two fathers, of a learned member of the Society of Civil Engineers, Henry Dircks, Esq., and of Professor Pepper, of the Polytechnic. To Mr. Dircks belongs the honour of having invented him, or, as the disciples of Hegel would express it, evolved him from out of the depths of his own consciousness; and Professor Pepper has the merit of having improved him considerably, fitting him for the intercourse of mundane society, and even educating him for the stage. After having bowed to the public at the Polytechnic Institution, he some weeks ago made his _début_ upon the boards of the Britannia Theatre, in a new and highly original drama, entitled, ‘The Widow and Orphans,—Faith, Hope, and Charity,’ in which piece he continues to present himself nightly to crowded audiences with the greatest imaginable success.

“Possibly, all Britons do not know where the Britannia Theatre is situated, and it may not be necessary, therefore, to state that it has its place in the metropolitan suburb of Hoxton, inhabited chiefly by toy-makers and doll-dressers, and marked under the letter =N= by the Postmaster-General. Sceptics may smile at the idea of a Patent Ghost making his first appearance in a neighbourhood so little fashionable, and so far removed from the residence of Master Home, commander-in-chief of spirits and mediums, and solicitor-general of demons, ghosts, and shadows of the universe. It is no mere accident; for it appears that there are good spiritual reasons why the ghost should have come out at Hoxton and nowhere else. Here, in this toy-making quarter, there lived, about a hundred years ago, a worthy citizen and officer of the Lord Mayor, Mr. Francis Bancroft, who was haunted all his life long with the one great idea that his body was predestined to arise visibly from the dead, and to wander over British earth in the shape of a tangible ghost. So deeply impressed was he with this belief that, while walking in the flesh, his chief object was to take measures towards insuring his safe and speedy resurrection. With considerable faith in the celebrated maxim of Luther’s active Roman antagonist, indulgence-selling Monk Tetzel:

‘_Sobald das Geld im Kasten klingt
Die Seel’ aus dem Fegfeuer springt_’

(As soon as the money rattles in the boxes,
The soul jumps out of purgatory.)

citizen Bancroft took great care, during his mortal career, to accumulate a respectable amount of cash with the object of forming a bribe for the guardians of his body. Accordingly, in his will he left the sum of twenty-eight thousand pounds for the establishment of schools and almshouses, with this proviso, that his body should be ‘preserved within a shew glass’ in the church.”

During the time I was in Paris, and arranging the ghost for exhibition at the Théâtre du Châtelet under Mons. Hostein, I was surprised to find that the conjuror, Mons. Robin, was showing the ghost at his séances. My lawyers interviewed him, and discovered that, some years before, a little toy had been brought out and patented in France by which a miniature ghost could be shown. It consisted of a box with a small sheet of glass, placed at an angle of forty-five degrees, and it reflected a concealed table, with plastic figures, the spectre of which appeared behind the glass, and which young people who possessed the toy invited their companions to take out of the box, when it melted away, as it were, in their hands and disappeared.

In France at that time all improvements on a patent fell to the original patentee, and under that law I lost the patent in France; but Mons. Hostein honourably paid me a large sum of money for the use of my improved ghost at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris. Query.—Had Mr. Dircks’ patent agent, in his searches after patents, ever come across the toy invented in Paris? Because it is substantially the ghost apparatus and produced that illusion; and thus it shows how correct are the words of Solomon, who has told us “There is nothing new under the sun.”

If the reader will consult a book written by me, entitled “Cyclopædic Science Simplified,” formerly published by Messrs. Frederick Warne and Co., but now bought and published by Messrs. Lippincott, the great American publishers of Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A., he will find a very near approach to the ghost apparatus copied from Robinson’s “Recreative Memories” published in 1831. The same author describes how the famous magician (so-called) Nostrodamus deceived even the astute and wily Marie de’ Medicis by a vision which appeared in a looking-glass. Moreover, Sir Walter Scott, in his beautiful poem, “The Lay of the Last Minstrel,” has introduced the use of mirrors for producing ghostly appearances, in the vision seen by the ill-fated Earl of Surrey, in the mirror huge and high of Cornelius; the vision being “That fair and lovely form, the Lady Geraldine” (verses 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, canto vi.).

Before travelling about so much I had a trunk full of letters referring to the ghost illusion, many treating it as a supernatural phenomenon, and not an effect from natural causes.

In about four months my secretary wrote at least 1,000 letters in answer to those addressed to me.

I was offered house property in exchange for the right to exhibit the ghost and a full description of the apparatus on attendance at the Polytechnic to see how things were manipulated.

I publish one of the most amusing letters, which has no address or proper signature, but only the initials “R. C.”:—

“Whereas the directors and managers of the Polytechnic
Institution believe and maintain the phenomenon called
‘spirit-rapping’ to be produced by trickery, jugglery, or some
natural agency, and to be an imposture, I, the undersigned,
on the contrary maintain that there is some non-human agent
which moves the tables, chairs, etc., and carries on an intelligent
conversation with spectators by knocking, or tilting, or
other signs. I am ready to wager from £5 to £50 with
any one who chooses to accept my challenge that the phenomenon
shall take place, and that no one present shall be
able to detect any sort of trickery or jugglery in the matter.
It is to be clearly understood that mere opinions that the
thing is done by natural agency are to go for nothing. The
natural agency _must be proved_. On the other hand I defy
any one to produce the same phenomenon by natural
agency _without my being able to detect that agency_. In
making this proposal I wish it to be distinctly understood
that I do not place any trust or confidence in the so-called
‘spirits,’ as I maintain, in opposition to the whole body of
so-called ‘spiritualists,’ that the intelligent agent which
moves the tables, chairs, etc., and converses and answers
questions by knocking, is nothing more or less than _the evil
spirit_ which dwells in humanity, and is found in every
human being. This proposition can be clearly demonstrated.
As to the so-called ‘spirits’ being the ‘souls of the
dead,’ the idea is absurd, and this absurdity also can be
made abundantly manifest. This spiritualism is doing an
immensity of mischief, and ought to be exposed, but it will
never be exposed if people shut their eyes _to the fact_.
It will not be the less a fact, and will not the less impose on
all who witness it, because there are men and women who
_predetermine_ in their own minds that it cannot be true,
and refuse to be convinced _by either their senses or their
understandings_. In all ages there have been deaf adders whom
no music could charm, and there are in these days also many
‘who having eyes will not see, and who having ears will not
hear.’ _On what grounds_ does any one assume as a certainty
that such a thing is impossible?
“RICHARD CRUIN.”

“If any one is so unwise as to be willing to pay £100 in the event of the phenomenon taking place in his presence, and of his being unable to detect any imposture, I undertake that the ‘medium’ shall exhibit _in any private room, in any home, and with any furniture_ (provided it be not too heavy), and that the said medium shall submit _to be searched both before and after the exhibition_.

“Nothing is easier than to lift a table by means of a concealed apparatus. The knocking also may be produced by means of muscular motion or otherwise. But can any one lift a table _without any apparatus_, simply by placing the hand on it; or can any one contrive an apparatus so cunning that no one present, having full liberty to examine everything, shall be able to detect it?

“By collusion or otherwise questions also might be answered, but I maintain that the agent in spiritualism can tell all the most secret and hidden things of one’s life, and even one’s secret thoughts, and also that it understands and can converse _in any language_. I have verified this _by repeated experience_. But it will not always speak when it is wanted to speak, and the ‘medium’ has no power over it to make it answer questions. But the fact that it often tells lies and often refuses to tell anything, does not make void the fact that it does also at times answer _every question which one can ask it_. It is by this sort of capricious behaviour that it succeeds in completely deluding some to trust in it, and others to disbelieve in it altogether. But let a man confine himself at first to the physical phenomenon and try if he can make a table to rise up into the air completely off the ground, simply by placing his hand on it, and _without any apparatus whatever_. If he cannot do this, and if no human being can do it, let it be acknowledged that there is some non-human agent. A little experience will very soon convince any one that it is an intelligent, and a wonderfully intelligent, agent, and then it will remain to be considered whether this intelligent agent is good or evil—_I say it is evil_.

R. C.”

During the year 1863, when the ghost illusion was one of the topics of the day, the famous George Cruikshank wrote a pamphlet, entitled—“A Discovery concerning Ghosts, with a Rap at the ‘Spirit Rappers,’ illustrated with Cuts, and dedicated to the ‘Ghost Club.’” Curious to say, he says nothing respecting the Polytechnic ghost, but is exercised chiefly with famous stories of ghosts and apparitions, which it is alleged have appeared to various persons. The author examines analytically a number of them, and comes to the conclusion that the persons relating them usually deceived themselves or other people, and that most of the stories are mental hallucinations. The inimitable George, as his friends delighted to call him, treats with profound contempt the spirit rappers, and all the cheats and fortune-telling mendicants who try to impose on innocent people with their bad conjuring tricks—people who might have got through the world safely; but the fatal chord is struck, and they go from bad to worse, until they end in a mad house.

The whole tribe of persons who made money directly or indirectly out of what they called spirit mediums, &c., fairly howled upon me in the lecture room, and, threatening personal violence, I was for some time attended home at night by the most stalwart of our Polytechnic employés; for, like Cruikshank, I vigorously denounced the traders in spirits, founding my arguments on the belief that God was too merciful to us to add to the troubles of this world the fear and trembling brought about by pretended communication with the invisible world.