ey
determined not to accept, as true, Paine's pretence to mediumship, till
after a thorough investigation of his "manifestations," they should fail
to find a material cause for them. After attending several of his
seances, these gentlemen concluded that Paine moved the table by means
of a mechanical contrivance fixed under the floor. One of this trio of
investigators was a mechanic, and he had conceived a way--and it seemed
to him the only way--in which the "manifestation" could be produced
under the circumstances that apparently attended it. Paine was a
mechanic, and these parties were aware of that fact. They made an
appointment with him for a private seance. The evening fixed upon,
having arrived, they met with him at his room. The table was raised and
raps were made upon it, as had been done on previous occasions. One of
the three investigators stepped to the door of the room, locked it, put
the key in his pocket, took off his coat, and told Mr. Paine that he was
determined to search his (Paine's) person, and that if he did not find
about him a small short iron rod, by means of which, through a hole in
the floor, a lever underneath was worked in moving the table, he (the
speaker) would beg his (Mr. Paine's) pardon, and be forever after a firm
believer in the power of disembodied spirits to move ponderable bodies.
This impressive little speech had a decided and instant effect upon the
"medium." "Gentlemen," said the latter, "I might as well own up. Please
to be quietly seated, and I will tell you all about it." And he did tell
them all about it; subsequently repeating his confession before quite a
number of disgusted and cheaply sold spiritualists at the "New York
Spiritual Lyceum." The theory formed by one of the three investigators
referred to, as to Paine's method of moving the table, was singularly
correct.

Whilst the family with whom Paine boarded was away, one day, in
attendance at a funeral, he took up several of the floor boards of the
back parlor, and on the under side of them affixed a lever, with a
cross-piece at one end of it; and, in the ends of the cross-piece, bits
of wire were inserted, the wire being just as far apart as the legs of
the table to be moved. Small holes were made in the floor-boards for the
wire to come through to reach the table-legs. The other end of the lever
came within an inch or two of the wall. When all the arrangements were
completed, and the table being properly placed in orde