724 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in answer to questions asked in writing or verbally, sometimes 

 openly and sometimes in folded slips of paper. It was soon dis- 

 covered that the character of this writing was of two kinds. The 

 long messages were neatly written, with the i's dotted and the Vs 

 crossed, and often produced unasked, or not in direct answer to a 

 question ; while the short ones, in answer to questions asked only 

 shortly beforehand, were scrawly, hardly legible, and evidently 

 written without the aid of the eye. The many methods of pro- 

 ducing the short writings were repeated by a professional presti- 

 digitateur much more skillfully than by Slade. The commission 

 distinctly saw every step in Slade's method, on one occasion or 

 another, but were utterly baffled by the conjurer (Mr. Harry 

 Kellar), who subsequently revealed his methods to Dr. Furness. 

 The long messages are written beforehand, on slates to be substi- 

 tuted for the ones given him at a favorable opportunity. At the 

 last seance with Dr. Slade, two prepared slates were resting against 

 a table behind him, and Dr. Furness kept a sharp watch upon 

 these slates. " Unfortunately, it was too sharp ; for one second 

 the medium saw me looking at them. It was enough. That de- 

 tected look prevented the revelation of those elaborate spirit mes- 

 sages. But when the seance was over, and he was signing the 

 receipt for his money, I passed round behind his chairand pushed 

 these slates with my foot, so as to make them fall over, whereupon 

 the writing on one of them was distinctly revealed." The medium 

 at once pushed back his chair, snatched the slates, hurriedly 

 washed them, and could with difficulty regain sufficient composure 

 to sign the receipt for the exorbitant payment of his services. 

 This is not the first time that Slade has been exposed, and it is 

 hoped that this verdict of the Seybert commission, " fraudulent 

 throughout," will be sufficient to make further exposure unneces- 

 sary.* 



Another medium, Mrs. Patterson, gives a closely similar per- 

 formance. Dr. Knerr had a sitting with her, and adjusted a mirror 



of the supernatural origin of Slade's performances, and one of their number (Zollner) found 

 the theory of their explanation in harmony with the mathematical notions of the fourth 

 dimension of space. Prof. G. S. Fullerton, the secretary of the Seybert commission, has 

 interviewed Zollner's associates, and finds that, "of the four eminent men whose names 

 have made famous the investigation, there is reason to believe one, Zollner, was of unsound 

 mind at the time, and anxious for an experimental demonstration of an already accepted 

 hypothesis (the fourth dimension of space) ; another, Fechner, was partly blind, and believed 

 because of Zollner's observations ; a third, Scheibner, was also afBicted with defective vision, 

 and not entirely satisfied in his own mind as to the phenomena ; and a fourth, Weber, was 

 advanced in age, and did not even recognize the disabilities of his associates." None knew 

 anything about conjuring, and, deservedly honored as these men are in their own special- 

 ties, they were certainly not fitted to compete with a professional like Slade. 



* Another member of the commission (Mr. Coleman Sellers) says, with regard to Slade : 

 " The methods of this medium's operations appear to me to be perfectly transparent, and I 

 wish to say emphatically that I am astonished beyond expression at the confidence of this 



