e handkerchief. We watched most closely the juggler's right hand,
while the trick was done with his left. The one minute circumstance has
been omitted that would have converted the trick into no-trick. It is
likely to be the same in the accounts of most of the wonderful phenomena
of Spiritualism.

For these two reasons, we laid down for ourselves at the start that in
cases demanding close observation we would endeavor to have as many
members as possible of the Commission present at every seance. In
dealing with phenomena, where all ordinary methods of investigation are
excluded, we perceived clearly that our best resource lay in having the
largest possible number of observers.

In dismissing this subject of Independent Slate Writing, we repeat, what
we think Spiritualists will generally grant, that this phenomenon can be
performed by legerdemain. The burden of proof that it is not so
performed rests with the Mediums. This proof the Mediums will neither
offer themselves, nor permit others to obtain. Investigators, therefore,
are forced to bring to bear their own powers of close observation,
sharpened and educated by experience. Be it remembered that what we have
here stated applies solely to the process whereby the communication is
written on the slate; with the substance of the communication, whether
pertinent answers to questions or dreary platitudes, we are not now
dealing. Whether these answers be ascribed to Spirits, or to what is
termed clairvoyance, they would be none the less true or false if
delivered orally by the Medium; all that we are sure of is that the
writing down of these communications, be their substance what it may, is
performed in a manner so closely resembling fraud as to be
indistinguishable from it. It would be a mere matter of opinion that all
Independent Slate Writing is fraudulent; what is not a matter of opinion
is the conviction, which we have unanimously reached as a Commission, of
its non-spiritual character in every instance that has come before us.

An eminent professional juggler performed, in the presence of three of
our Commission, some Independent Slate Writing far more remarkable than
any which we have witnessed with Mediums. In broad daylight, a slate
perfectly clean on both sides was, with a small fragment of slate
pencil, held under a leaf of a small ordinary table around which we were
seated; the fingers of the juggler's right hand pressed the slate tight
against the underside