free to beat a drum or play a zither.
After this test, which is patent to all, we can dismiss the theory of a
Spiritual origin of the hand behind Mr. Keeler's screen. To forestall
the discovery by Mr. Keeler's companion of this trick, and to prevent
its detection by simply feeling with his free right hand after the
suppositious hands of the Medium, which are grasping his left forearm,
a second visitor is requested to share the discomfort of the muslin
envelope, and to sit on the right of the first visitor and to hold the
latter's truant right hand with his left hand, while his right is
exposed to view outside the curtain. Again we refer to the Appendix for
the minutes of our meeting.

We had a seance also with Messrs. Rothermel and Powell, of whom the
former is the Medium, the latter, acting mainly as a reservoir of
psychic force, guides and directs the seance. In this case the Medium's
Spiritual manifestations, as well as his material arrangements, are
similar to those of Mr. Keeler, except that instead of having a visitor
whose arm may be grasped, Mr. Rothermel's hands are fastened in his lap
by bands of tape passed around his legs and sewed to his clothes. After
the black curtain had hid the hands from our sight we were not again
allowed to examine them except in the most hurried and superficial way,
but, even in the brief inspection which was permitted, a glance was
sufficient to show that the tape had been tampered with. The close of
the seance was announced by the sound of clipping scissors, and by Mr.
Rothermel's exclamation, while still concealed, that the Spirits were
cutting him loose. We had no means of knowing whether the tape was cut
at the beginning of the seance or not. When the muslin envelope was
removed, Mr. Rothermel's hands were certainly free. The bands were cut,
and we had no difficulty in believing that the hands which were
dexterous enough to play the zither with very remarkable skill, under
such conditions, behind the curtain, were deft enough to sever the
cords.

Our seances with Mrs. Maud E. Lord were acknowledged by the Medium
herself to be altogether unsatisfactory. This is much to be regretted.
Mrs. Lord is one of the few professional Mediums whose excellence is
acknowledged by all Spiritualists alike, and who, in her attitude
towards the Commission, displayed every desire to aid a full and
complete investigation into the manifestations peculiar to her
Mediumship, and furthermore, without