le in front of him (still controlling with his left hand the hands of
his sitters), and removes the pencil from the first slate to the second,
and on top of the second so places the first slate that the prepared
message is underneath, on the inside and next to the other slate. The
trick is done. All that now remains for the Medium to do is to hold the
two slates under the table for awhile, or rest them on the shoulder
close to the ear of the sitter on the Medium's right, and, by scratching
with the finger nail on the frame of the slate, to imitate the writing
by the Spirits with the enclosed pencil. When there are two or more
sitters it is only the one on the right of the Medium who is privileged
to hear the writing. To apply the slate to the ear of any other would
disclose the way in which the sound of the writing is counterfeited. To
him, therefore, who sits on the Medium's left, so that the Medium's
hand, while holding the slates on the shoulder of the sitter on the
right, is sharply outlined against the light, the motions of the
Medium's fingers while the sound of writing is imitated by him may be
distinctly seen.

By such elementary tricks of legerdemain as these are guileless, honest
folk deceived.

Dr. Slade prefers to have only two sitters at a time, one on his right
and one opposite. The fourth side of the table he prefers to have
unoccupied; his manipulations of the slate can be from that side more
readily observed; moreover, strange Spiritual antics may be there
manifested, such as upsetting chairs which happen to be there, making
slates appear above the edge of the table, etc. These manifestations are
executed by the Medium's foot, which, on one occasion, was distinctly
seen before it had time to get back into its slipper by one of our
number, who stooped very quickly to pick up a slate which had
accidentally fallen to the floor while the Spirits were trying to put it
into the lap of one of the sitters.

At the first two seances an ordinary wooden table was used belonging to
the hotel where Dr. Slade lodged. At the third seance a similar but
larger table was used, somewhat the worse for wear, and the joints of
its leaves were far from fitting close. Every crack, however, and every
chink had been carefully filled up with paper to prevent, so the Medium
said, 'the electricity from flowing through.'

The method of producing the long message which opened the seance has
been described above. Whenever we recei