Paul's injunction was "add to your faith knowledge." this knowledge, has
encouraged the desponding, and given comfort to the mourner, and gives
hope to the Hopeless. I am truly
William Clark.
The appearance of this writing was much the same as that of the first
day, when another long written communication was produced, but it bore
no resemblance to the scrawls which were exhibited in answer to
questions.
A special minute is here made of observations by members of the
Committee upon certain features of the Medium's operations, which tended
to discredit the assumption of a supernatural agency in the production
of the slate writings. In the above instance a slate which had been
noted as standing against a leg of the table and behind the chair of the
Medium, but conveniently within his reach, was dexterously substituted
by the Medium for the slate taken from the table and the one upon which
ostensibly writing was to appear. This was observed by one member. In
another instance a member (Mr. Sellers) observed the same substitution,
so far as the motion of the Medium's hand and arm was concerned. By
certain private marks, adroitly applied, the same member noted the fact
that the slate on which the writing was exhibited was not, as the Medium
represented it to be, the same slate which had been taken from the
table.
[The foregoing note by the Stenographer is somewhat incoherent, owing to
his unfamiliarity with Slade's séances; yet we prefer to let it remain
as it is.--G.S.F.]
(Mr. Sellers adds, parenthetically): That is, I watched the Medium's
operations specially with a view of informing myself whether the slate
used in both instances was the same.
(Resuming, from notes): The Medium proposed that the Committee should
retain the slate upon which the long message appeared. The slate was
accordingly retained by the Committee.
Professor Thompson (addressing Mr. Sellers): Was not that slate the one
that I held at the time referred to?
Mr. Sellers: It was. The slate was held by you at the same time that it
was held by the Medium.
Professor Thompson: Then there is an additional fact to be noted in
regard to it. That fact is this. When the sounds indicating the writing
process had ceased, I endeavored to pull the slate away from under the
table, but the Medium resisted my effort, and by powerful exertion
jerked the slate out toward himself. The substitution of one slate for
the other was probably made at this time, and the slate so substituted
was then placed on the table.
Mr. Sellers: That is true, most assuredly I saw the substitution, and
Mr. Furness also saw it very plainly. From his position Mr. Furness saw
the Medium take up the other slate.
NOTE.--An explanation was here made by Mr. Furness to the effect that
his knowledge of the substitution here spoken of was inferential, but
that at another period of the séance he did distinctly see the Medium
grasp an unused slate.
Mr. Sellers here resumed, from his notes:
The Medium then proposed to attempt the experiment of causing the chair
upon which Professor Thompson sat, to rise from the floor, without
external agency other than that of the hand of the Medium on the back of
the chair. In answer to the question, 'Will you try to lift the chair?'
the response was 'Yes.' Mr. Sellers, being requested to write a question
on the back of the slate near him, wrote the following, 'What is the
time?' After some little time, during which the Medium furtively glanced
at the slate, the answer was given, 'A little after twelve.'
Upon being requested to open his left hand and hold it thus extended in
a position beneath the top of the table to his left, Mr. Sellers
complied with the request, when a slate, which had been held by the
Medium under the opposite leaf, was passed across, and, after touching
Mr. Sellers's hand, fell to the floor. After several repetitions, the
slate was passed into Mr. Sellers's hand, but the experiment was
accompanied by a motion of the Medium which was evidently such as would
have been made if the Medium had passed the slate across by his foot.
[At his séances Dr. Slade wears slippers, into and out of which he can
readily slip his feet.--G.S.F.]
In answer to the question, 'Are you ready to lift the gentleman?' the
response, in writing, was given, 'Yes.' Clasping the back of the chair
firmly with his right hand, and approaching it close enough to enable
him to place his knee under the seat of the chair, the Medium, after
very considerable effort, caused the chair to rise from the floor an
inch or two. The physical strain on the part of the Medium was evident.
Professor Thompson, having obtained the permission of the Medium, wrote
the following upon the slate, 'Can a Spirit, still in the body, write
with a slate pencil without touching the pencil?' After some delay, and
frequent surreptitious glances at the slate by the Medium, the answer
was, 'Yes, we can tell.' This trial not being satisfactory, the same
question was repeated. The answer, which was longer delayed than the one
preceding it, was, 'We can do so, if the conditions are favorable.'
Professor Thompson (interposing): Do you remember the Medium's remarks
about the resistance of the Spirits?
Mr. Sellers: I do.
Professor Thompson: When he was pushing and pulling the slate, and
meanwhile looking at it--while moving it backward and forward--the
Medium remarked, 'There seems to be some kind of resistance; they don't
seem to know what to make of it'--meaning that the Spirits were making
some resistance to his moving the slate.
Mr. Sellers here resumed and completed the reading of his minutes, as
follows:
The experiment attempted on the second day, of causing a slate pencil to
jump from a slate without any disturbance of the slate, was here
repeated. A line was drawn upon the slate, and upon this line a small
bit of pencil was placed, the success of the experiment depending upon
this small piece remaining immovable upon the line. After several trials
this was accomplished. The experiment of playing an accordion beneath
the table was next made, and in one instance the top of the instrument
was thrown upon the table.
Mr. Sellers verbally made the following addition to his minutes:
The response to the question propounded by Professor Thompson was
attended with more than ordinary delay. Upon hearing the response, viz.:
'We can do so if the conditions are favorable,' Professor Thompson
remarked that this did not answer the question at all.
Professor Thompson: I made that statement in regard to both of the
responses.
Mr. Sellers: The statement, then, was, that neither of the responses
answered the question. Whereupon the Medium at once obliterated the
question from the slate, and remarked, 'Well, that is the best they can
do,' or something of that kind, or, 'They cannot understand that.' The
fact was that the Medium did not understand the question himself, as it
was purposely a somewhat involved question.
Professor Thompson: The fact appears to have been demonstrated that the
Medium seemed to have no difficulty in catching the purport of questions
of simple construction at a glance, and that a question of more than
average length, which he could not perceive the sense of, or which was
somewhat misleading in its terms, was not answered intelligently.
Professor Thompson here further explained that, when writing the
question spoken of, he concealed his hand from the observation of the
Medium. Mr. Sellers here imitated the motions of the body of the Medium
and the position of his hands at the time--the left resting on the
table, and the right hand beneath the table, near the slate--after which
the writing was displayed.
Mr. Sellers next presented the minutes of the meeting of January 24th,
as follows:
The Committee met on January 24th, 1885, at the Girard House,
Philadelphia, in Room 24.
There were present: Dr. Leidy, Mr. H.H. Furness and Mr. Coleman Sellers,
with the Medium, Dr. Henry Slade. Dr. Leidy occupied the position
previously held by Professor Thompson, to the right of the Medium;
Messrs. Sellers and Furness were seated as at the former sittings.
Slates were produced and held as at the previous séances. Upon one slate
the following interrogatories and responses were recorded:
'Spirits, are you ready to work?' Answer: 'Soon,'
'Will you write for the gentlemen?' Answer: 'We are trying to do so.'
At this point the Medium substituted another slate for the one which he
had held in his hand, and almost immediately thereafter, upon the new
slate being placed under the table, the sound of writing began and was
carried on with little interruption. The writing continued for a very
long time, during which the Medium, removing his hand from the hands of
the other gentlemen, said, 'You see that if I take my hand away from the
circle and thus break the circle, the sound of the writing ceases; if I
place my hand back again, the writing is repeated.' The sound of the
writing, which had been temporarily suspended, recommenced when the hand
of the Medium returned to its former position. The Medium further
stated, by way of qualifying his statement on this point, 'If I do not
jerk it away I can raise my hand a little.' He illustrated his meaning
by slightly elevating his hand and withdrawing it from the other hands,
at the same time calling attention to the fact that the sounds of the
writing on the slate were continued.
This modification by the Medium of his original statement was regarded
as intended to cover instances in which the circle had been
surreptitiously broken by members of the Committee without any of the
results which, had been predicted. Several such breaks had been made by
the writer (Mr. Sellers) unknown to any one but himself; and the Medium,
finally becoming aware of this fact, observed that the circle might
frequently be broken a little without any effect being apparent.
Professor Thompson: But did not the Medium make that statement at the
very first séance?
Mr. Sellers: He stated that at the first séance.
(Resuming, from notes): The communication inscribed upon the slate when
beneath the table was in the same handwriting as the other long
communications, and was evidently written with a sharpened pencil under
favorable conditions. It was as follows:
'My friends:
I have been made happy by the advent of my dear wife into this land of
souls. The name of my dear wife is Ann Louisa Tiers, of Germantown. Now
we shall part no more by death, as there is no death in this life.
My friends, never grieve because your friends meet the change called
death, as death is but the blooming of the soul.