under
the table, which was freely granted, but on this occasion, and whenever
I did so, there were no results.

On one occasion we took the trouble to bring Mrs. Patterson to a room in
the house of our departed friend. She was here among a small circle of
intimate friends and members of the family, some inclined to belief and
others skeptics. She failed utterly to obtain as much as even a scratch
inside of the slates, although communications on paper came thick and
fast. I may mention that on this occasion several persons sat with the
slate continually in full view.

I had almost decided to drop Mrs. Patterson and her slate writing,
although reluctant to do so, because I had no certain and positive
evidence of fraud with which to confront my friend, who was getting
impatient at my slowness in accepting all I had seen, when I resolved to
push my investigations to a point of certainty, one way or another, and
hit upon the little scheme of going prepared, at my next visit to Mrs.
Patterson, with a mirror in my pocket which I could hold under the table
at an angle that would reflect whatever occurred on the other side of
the table, in the Medium's lap, the accustomed position of the
mysterious slate. The sitting was held in broad daylight, and the table
was so placed that the Medium was seated with her back to a window,
affording sufficient light for the experiment. I purposely avoided
removing my overcoat on this day, because I wished to hide my movements
as much as possible, and sat down at my side of the table with
considerable misgiving as to the result of taking liberties with the
Spirits. The Medium this time had on her table a new slate, a larger
one, one which she said had belonged to the celebrated Slade who had
himself received messages on it. She said her old slate was broken,
which was probably true; when I had last seen it it was in a battered
condition. She asked if it would make any difference to me if she used
the new slate. The only apparent difference between the slates was that
this one was larger and did not close with a screw, therefore, thought
I, more easily manipulated; consequently I did not withhold my consent.
I wrote upon a slip of paper my question, "Will Dr. H. advise me what
to do for Juliet (an old colored patient)?" I folded over the slip of
paper five times, put it in the slate with a small stub of pencil, and
down the slates went into the lap of the Medium where I could see them,
lying p