The Professor’s Last Trick: Clara Baldwin’s Final Spiritualist Spectacle
In a packed hall in Seattle, the renowned medium Clara Baldwin performed her final show before departing for Portland, captivating the audience with 'wonderful bat' illusions and binding herself in chains to prove her powers were real.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
One of the largest audiences that has ever assembled in this city witnessed the first appearance of Prof. Clara Baldwin at Yesler Hall last night. It is no exaggeration to say she fulfilled to the very letter all the wonderful bat promises contained in the advertisement in this paper. It is so rare that our citizens are willing to pay for what they may pay for, in the way that it is only just that Prof. Baldwin should receive more than ordinary credit.
A committee of six, consisting of Messrs. George Kirkpatrick, Mr. Wirth and Sheriff Wykoff, were selected from the audience, who tied the Professor at his wrists, fastened the manacles upon the Professor's feet, and in every precaution against such ruse until the wonderful and thrilling feat went on just as smoothly as if no other band neom [needed] to bind the body and hand of the intom [incomprehensible] Baldwin. All the most famous phases of the phenomena upon which spiritualism is based, were fully actually duplicated, and the soul was not infrequently near without meaning asked 'If it is not justice, what is it?' To-night Prof. Baldwin will give his last entertainment, as he appears in Portland Monday evening.
The Hack of Yesterday — The race of yesterday attested a large number of citizens... The principal crowd went up by land conveyance, but the steamers W.S. Nat and Utter also took full loads. The entries were Orangebloom by Mr. Howard, Tom Merry by Mr. Tennant and Billyigham by Mr. Crabbe.
The course was 1/2 mile over two and a half miles, and repeated. The purse was $200 and 25 percent of the entrance money added. It stood at two to three to win. The first heat was won by Billyigham, time 1:46. The second heat was won by Tom Merry, time 1:47, and the third by Higham, time 1:48.
After the last heat Tom Merry began to show lame, and on the third was so broken down that he could hardly put one foot to the ground. The race, however, was one of the most hotly contested that we have had for years and excited an infinite degree of interest.
Clara Baldwin’s 1876 performance highlights Seattle's early appetite for spectacle and the booming popularity of Spiritualism—a movement that offered comfort and community in a rough, transient frontier town. While today we might view such 'bat' illusions as mere stage magic, they represent an early form of live entertainment that competed with the city's more brutal pastimes like horse racing and saloon culture.
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