Los Angeles Herald, Volume 43, Number 38, 18 November 1894 — THE DEADLY FOLDING BED. [ARTICLE]

THE DEADLY FOLDING BED.

Miss Jeffreys Lewis Barely Escapes Death.

Her Life Was Saved by Her Foot Alone.

She ff.l Imprisoned Kirc.ni> Minntni and Had Uty.n Up All Hop., Whin a Watchman C'amo to U.r A.slfltauce.

MiBS Jeffreys Lewis, the actress, came very near being smothered to death in a folding bod last Sunday evening, and the details are thus told by tbe San Frauoisco Kxaminer:

For several months paat Misa Lewis baa made her home when in Sau Francisco at the California hotel, The hotel throughout ia fitted up with handaome folding beda of the latest approved fashion. The wood ia beautifully carved and polished, tbo springs elastic, mattreaaee aoft enough to delight tbe hearts of the grandmothers of olden times, and the downiest of pillows invite to luxurious alumber.

On Sunday evening Misa Lewia prepared to retire. Her heud had barely touched the pillowa when tbe bed sprung closed. Mist Lewis' foot caught between the sides of the framework as it rose and was bold as in a vice. The little space tbni afforded aaved her from suffocation. In vain she exerted nil her Btrength to push back the treacherous framework. She might aa well hr.ye tried to move back a peakoi tbe Sierras. Powerless to move, head downward, with the blood coursing through iter veins like f'.re, and the sound of rushing waters filling her ears, with strange lights flashing before her eyes, and a thousand fancies crowding on ber brain, Bbc vainly sought to call for hoip. For more than a quarter oi an hour, every second of which was fraught with horror indescribable, she struggled in this way, her voice smothered by the bed and reaching the outer air in a succession of weak cries.

Fifteen minutes of tbia misery—hours they seemed to the impriaoued woman — and finally aome of the hotel people thought thoy heard a child wailing and orying. The Bound contiuuing tbey went to one of the rooms where a sick child lay, only to find everything quiet there. It remained for the night watchman of the hotel to locate the stifled cnea aa coming from Miss Lewis' room. Immediately there arose a great commotion. The housekeeper was called for and the door of Miss Lewis' room opened, but when the bed was seen to be eloaed and thia fearful moaning and crying waa beard iaaniug from it, the housekeeper rnßhed wildly back into tbe hall, Burmiaing what had happened and shocked into a dread of the very worst. Cool heads soon appeared upon the scene, and the framework of the bed was lowered to the floor. Miaa Lewie was discovered in a semi-conscious

state, ber her hair streaming in disorder, her tace white and drawn. I pen regaining consoioueneoa, ehe went into byaterica. Her naturally strong will and excellent recuperative power, however, aoon reasserted their sway, and aha recovered aufficiently to insist that medical aid should not be summoned. But for one little toot, which, though bruided, was so opportunely caught in the bed, the wires ere thia would have been Hashing the news of the death of the once favorite actress.

Miss Lewis, when eeen yesterday, showed very plainly that ahe bad undergone a severe nervous shock. The shadow still reeled under her eyes, and her pallor was in striking contrast to the maaa of black hair coiled upon ber head.

"What were my feelings?" ahe aaid, smiling faintly. "Tbey were simply indescribable. I thought of everything in ths world—past, present and future—of the telegram that would be aent to Mr. Mainhall in New York, of my mother, of the many happy hours upon the stage when eucceaa had crowned my efforts. Of much that bad happened io dear old San Franoisco, and then—the thought of dying such a horrible death. I seemed to see it all before my eyeß— oven tbe bulletin boards around the city witb tbe notice, 'Tragic end of a wellknown actress! Jeffreys Lewis suffocated in a iolding bed !' And it seemed Buch an iguomiuiuuß close oi life that I shrieked and laughed at tbe horror of it. And then I must bavo loet consciousness, for I remember nothing more until 1 found myself surrounded by kind friends, aud that horrible sense of weight and suffocation removed." Miss Lewis cannot tell just how tbe accident occurred, but save that she sat on the pillowa at the head of the bed to read a while, aa is her cußtom before going to Bleep. She had not yet settled herself in a comfortable position when the bottom of the bed sprang up and Bhe was a prisoner. The hotel people say that an automatic enap lock holds the bada down wheh they are lowered and that it ia impoeaible for the bed to close until the lock is released. The probabilities, they say. are that Misa Lewis failed to lower the bed far enough fur tbe lock to catch, and her weight on the head of the bed caused the foot to spring up.

LETTER BAG.

[The Hkrald under this heftdin? prints cothi i :ii a j us, dut die* not assume respousibiliiy for tue seutim uts eipre^sedj. That Spiritual Ueanoc. Editor Herald: —In the Sunday Herald of November 10th, among tho church notices, 1 iound tbe following: "Petersilea psychical research meeting's Caledonia hall, llO}*, Spring Btreet, Sunday evenings at 8. Rev. Arthur Howton, celebrated medium. Full form materializations in gaslight; 25 cents." Although mßny times deceived Dy similar announcements of humbug performances, the idea of "fall iorni materializations in gaslight" was attractive, and being at the meeting and apparently under the direction of Mr. Petersilea, whom 1 bad heard highly commended as honest and reliable, it caught me and many others by ita apparent plausibility. I bad often witnessed so-called materializations in little less then Egyptian darkness, where "spirits," white lohed and phosphoreecently illuminated, emerged from cabiuete; but to witness materializations in a public ball, by gaslight, would seem to be a much more eatiefactory performance. At the appointed hour tbe hall wae well filled, the audience doubtless being mainly drawn, as I had been, by the materialization announcement. Mrs. Petersilea gathered in the quarters and Mr. Petersilea conducted tbe exercises. He took the rostrum and

announced a two hours'programme, the ii ret hour to be devoted to the piano and reading by himseli from his own book, inepirationally and automatically written, and the necond hour devoted to materializations by the Key. Mr. Howton, His playing, I understood him to say, is inspirational, the same as bis writing. I can neither ailirra nor deny, as lam no judge either oi inspiration or piano playing; but of his inspired writing I will say, if bis claim is a correct one, by all mean, give me the product of an uninspired hand. If inspiration produces only absurdity and nonsense, it were far better to depend upon our own individual brains than upon some imaginary spiritual influence from an imaginary world.

The impatiently waited-for honr (or materialization!; at length arrived, and tho Rev. Mr. Kowton came forward. He is a young man, rather diminutive physically, and as to o Hward appearance decidedly so mentally. He very compassionately spared us the infliction of any of his philosophy, as we had already had . a surfeit of tbat kind from another inspired source. Ie was not philosophy, but materialization in gaslight we were hankering for. The reverend gentleman went to the "cabinet," raised the curtains hung on wires at a corner of the hall enclosing a space sufficiently large for him to operate in, permitting us to see that no ghost-creating machinesy waa therein concealed. He cautioned us not to touch the curtains or the spirits as they appeared, unless permission was given. When individuals were called for, be said Mr. Petersilea would lead them up for communications. He inatruoted his attendant to turn oil ths gas, which he prooeeded to do, till only the faint glimmer of a single burner ont near the door remained. A tallow can. die in a 10-acre lot, or a lightning bug in en orohard, would make a brilliant illumination in comparison; and this was gaslight materializations. He went behind the curtains, requesting the audience to sing, which they proceeded to comply witb, and, after 10 or 15 minutes murdering of Nearer My God to Thee, Benlah Land, Shall We Gather at tbe River, etc., etc, a white form appeared al the junctions of the curtains. If it was not the Rev. How,on fixed up for tbe occasion, it was something else equally mundane. The Indian, an irrepressible intruder at almost all seances, waa there as usual; whether in paint and feathers or simply in materialized blanket, I am unable to state, aa he kept safely behind the curtains, and only vouched for bia presence by tbe stentorian gibberish the Rev. Howton tried to palm oil on a suffering audience as the dialect of aome dead scalper of white men. I suppose that juat as long as credulous fools—l waa one of tbem—are duped by the announeementa nf such charlatans, just so long will such bumbuggery be perpetrated. There is a constantly increasing multitude honeetly and earnestly seeking for evidence that death ia not the end of individual conaoiousneee. In tbeir hope and struggle to find the evidence they meet with auch men aa tbia Rev. Howton until hope dies out and the search for evidence is given np in discouragement and disgust. By Peterailea's letter in Tuesday's HuitAi.D it Beams he waa a humbugged victim, like the reat of us, but with thia difference: Ms waa the direot cause aud furnished the oppcrtunity for swindling h a patrona; he made money out of tbe performance, while the rest of ub were swindled out of ours. We pocketed the disgust, he the numerous quarters. If hia occult power ia real and not a similar pretension to that of Rev. Howton, it would have done him and the audience good service by detecting the fraudulent pretension of "Rev. Arthur Howton, celebrated medium." Had his spirit control been as capable of detecting a fraud as the common sense of tbe audience was, he ought in the early part of the performance to have discovered that the Rev. Arthur Howton, whom he had so conspicuously advertised un a "celebrated medium," was perpetrating a fraud. In that caee it was clearly his duty to announce such fact, stop the performance and refund the to fraudulently 0b-!..1m-d entrance fee. But he did not do it, and now, with the money in bie pocket, he reponts and promises not to do bo any more. One of the Victims. Eiat Loa Angeles. Nov. 14, 1894.

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