nd the gas had been turned partly off, leaving just enough
light to make objects look ghostly.

In order to get "harmonized," singing was indulged in for a short time
by members of the "circle." Soon a number of raps would be heard in the
direction of the table, and one side of that piece of furniture would be
seen to rise about an inch from the floor. Some very naturally wanted to
rush to the table and investigate the matter more closely, but Paine
forbade that--the necessary "conditions" must be observed, he said, or
there would be no further manifestation of spirit-power. As there was no
one nearer to the table than six or eight feet, the fact of its moving,
very naturally astonished the skeptics present. Several "seeing mediums"
who attended Mr. Paine's seances, were able to see the spirits--so they
declared--who moved the table. One was described as a "big Injun," who
cut various capers, and appeared to be much delighted with the turn of
affairs. Believers were wonderfully well-pleased to know that at last a
medium was "developed" through whom the inhabitants of another world
could manifest their presence to mortals in such a way that no one could
gainsay the fact. The "invisibles" freely responded, by raps on the
table, to various questions asked by those in the "circle." They thumped
time to lively tunes, and seemed to have a decidedly good time of it in
their particular way. When the seance was concluded, Mr. Paine freely
permitted an examination of his table.

In the Sunday Spiritual Conferences, then held in Clinton Hall, leading
spiritualists gave an account of the "manifestations of the spirits"
through Mr. Paine, and, as believers, congratulated themselves upon the
existence of such "indubitable facts." The spiritualist in whose house
this exhibition of table-moving "without contact" took place, was well
known as a man of strict honesty; and it was reasonably presumed that no
mechanical contrivance could be used without his cognizance, in thus
moving a piece of his furniture--for the table belonged to him--and that
he would countenance a deception was out of the question.

There were in the city three gentlemen who had, for some time, been
known as spiritualists; but they were, at the period of Paine's debut as
a medium in New York, very skeptical with regard to "physical
manifestations." They had, a short time before, detected the Davenports
and other professed mediums in the practice of imposture; and th