for
various banknotes deposited in strong-boxes, to be turned over to any
one who would read the numbers. Just why success was never attained
under these conditions it would be hard to say. The writer once made a
slight observation in this direction. When matching pennies with his
brother he found that if the other looked at the penny he could match it
nearly every time. There may have been some unconscious expression of
face that gave the clue. Persons in hypnotic trance are expert muscle
readers. For instance, let such a person take your hand and then go
through the alphabet, naming the letters. If you have any word in your
mind, as the muscle reader comes to each letter the muscles will
unconsciously contract. By giving attention h the muscles you can make
them contract on the wrong letters and entirely mislead such a person.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Confessions of Medium.--Spiritualistic Phenomena Explained on Theory
of Telepathy.--Interesting Statement of Mrs. Piper, the Famous Medium of
the Psychical Research Society.

The subject of spiritualism has been very thoroughly investigated by the
Society for Psychical Research, both in England and this country, and
under circumstances so peculiarly advantageous that a world of light has
been thrown on the connection between hypnotism and this strange
phenomenon.

Professor William James, the professor of psychology at Harvard
University, was fortunate enough some years ago to find a perfect medium
who was not a professional and whose character was such as to preclude
fraud. This was Mrs. Leonora E. Piper, of Boston. For many years she
remained in the special employ of the Society for Psychical Research,
and the members of that society were able to study her case under every
possible condition through a long period of time. Not long ago she
resolved to give up her engagement, and made a public statement over her
own signature which is full of interest.

A brief history of her life and experiences will go far toward
furnishing the general reader a fair explanation of clairvoyant and
spiritualistic phenomena.

Mrs. Piper was the wife of a modest tailor, and lived on Pinckney
street, back of Beacon Hill. She was married in 1881, and it was not
until May 16, 1884, that her first child was born. A little more than a
month later, on June 29, she had her first trance experience. Says she:
"I remember the date distinctly, because it was two days after my first
birthday f