their absence, the clergyman making some
question very urgently, I tried the table; and with
a slight and wholly imperceptible movement of
my wrists, I tipped it quite easily and made it
answer exactly in the same way as the medium
had done. This I did twice; no one suspecting,
no one seeing, not even the friend who was
sitting next to me, and who did not believe in
spirits. And if I could so easily move the table,
and on a first trial, what could not one who had
studied its capabilities effect? That table was
as easily manipulated as if it had been made of
paper, and almost as light; and the slightest
movement of the wrists sufficed to tip it.
When the medium returned, and the circle
closed again, we had a few more "experiences."
A spirit announced itself. For whom? Single
raps (negative) came; no, no, no, for one and
the other; until three affirmative tippings pointed
to my friend. Who was the spirit? father?
mother? child? brother? Yes: brother. The
name? The alphabet was called for, and a
name spelt out. " Edward." Now, my friend
never had a brother who died, and never one
at all, living or dead, of the name of Edward.
So much for even the common phenomenon of
this medium's thought-reading.

The spirits now promised to do a great deal
more. The medium, myself, and two others
held an oblong piece of paper by the four
corners. Immediately there was a scratching
and a tapping on the underside of the paper,
close to the medium's hand. It was not
impossible for her to have produced those sounds,
and I, intently watching her face and movements
– having been rendered suspicions by my
own easy performances with the table – can
distinctly affirm that she did produce those sounds;
she and no other. A tray was manipulated in
the same way. It was placed upside down on
the table, and the medium and ourselves laid
our fingers upon it. This tray was of extreme
flexibility; it was a lively tray, and somewhat
eccentric in its movements. Suddenly, as if
tired of being shaken and tapped on, it started
up and rapped the knuckles of one of the party
– I think of the clergyman, but I am not sure.
And here again I distinctly saw the younger
medium lift the tray by a sudden pressure of her
thumbs, and I saw her rapidly strike the edge
against the hand in question. Then the table
reared itself up, and sustained itself in the air
for some seconds; but again the medium's
thumbs were underneath, and her knee was
against the top. This I also most distinctly
saw – for she is not very accomplished yet in
sleight of hand, and a very little careful
observation can detect the manner of her tricks. I
was then touched underneath the table. My
ankle was suddenly grasped by something
flexible and springy, but not muscular. Others
were grasped too; all but my friend, whose feet
were tucked away under the chair, and so were
out of the line of the medium's foot. And all
the while this was going on I felt the young
lady's knee work up and down against mine, as
each person cried out he was touched, and she
pulled the strings of her puppets at her will.
Then an old badly-tuned guitar was held by
the clergyman, and played under the table. The
clergyman sang the Old Hundreth in a low and
tremulous voice, and while he sang a few simple
chords were struck out, such as would have
suited anything; but I deny that there was
any attempt at known melody in the music, or
that it was anything more than could have been
produced by sweeping the hand or foot over the
strings at certain intervals. But some of the
believers were quite overpowered with this
"manifestation," and one or two were deeply
affected. To my ears, not perhaps capable of
appreciating what to them seemed such heavenly
harmony, it was a simple string sound, such as
could have been easily effected by drawing the
toes over the strings.

The light was now put out, and the spirits
rapped us all to another and more commodious
part of the room, where they had promised to
show the hands. A double circle was formed,
and when we were fairly placed, which was not
until we had gone through a great deal of
trouble and annoyance – for the spirits were
suspicious and full of fancies and caprices, and
would not have any one too near, but drove one
over-anxious gentleman clean away from the
place where they were to show – after many
such shiftings and turnings, the mediums got
settled, and the spirits seemed to be content.
But they would not show the hands, though
adjured to do so in the name of God, and also
familiarly scolded and rated for their breach of
faith. A small bell was then set running about
the room – they said it was running through the
air – and ringing as it went. We could not see
it, but we heard it ringing in different paths, or
places, about the room, but always close at
hand. Suddenly it seemed to fall over on its
side, and then the spirits rapped out their
dismissal, and the séance was at an end. One thing
I have forgotten: two gentlemen were asked to
agree between themselves on a certain moment by
the clock when the spirits would rap as soon as the
minute hand reached the spot. They did so, and
the raps did come at the very instant. This
was the only clever thing in the performance,
and, excepting this, the whole affair was a
somewhat dull and most barefaced imposition.
As I sat and looked at it all, I scarcely knew
which filled me with most surprise, the
unblushing impudence of the actors, or the
marvellous credulity of the spectators. There was
not one single thing performed that was not an
open and palpable deception; yet here were
sane, well-educated English men and women
grouped, full of faith and belief, round two
illiterate conjurors, whose tricks would have
been utterly contemptible but for the painful
amount of human trust and reverence given to
them. It was something inexpressibly sad to
see how these two wretched women were able
to play on the holiest and deepest feelings of
their audience; how, for the paltry sum which
they gained from each as the price of their
deceptions, they mocked the most sacred truths,