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discourse to the Doctor on spiritual science. He grew very excited and kept pacing the floor, advancing to
a position near the Doctor and then returning to the far end of the room. As he made these pilgrimages up
and down the room, he came near stepping on the slate as it lay in his way; so with his foot he pushed it
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Behind the Scenes with Mediums-Chapter 3 Part 13
slightly toward the wardrobe at each journey. Meanwhile he seemed to forget about the slate so intent
was he on his lecture.
Had he been able to control the attention of the Doctor so as to "hold his eye" when secretly shoving the
slate with his foot, as he would have been able to do with ordinary persons, all would have gone well.
The Doctor, however, was not so interested in the lecture as he was in the slate; and he saw it gradually
worked nearer to the wardrobe at each excursion of the medium, until it was partly under this piece of
furniture.
The Doctor now interposed and remarked to the medium that this performance had gone far enough; that
his challenge was to produce a message without the slate leaving his sight, and that the slate was now
nearly out of view. The medium grew very angry and stormed at the Doctor, but all to no avail. Finally
the Doctor said to him that he himself was a magician and a performer of such tricks; that he did not
intend exposing him, so that he might just as well confess. The medium hesitated a moment and then,
laughing, said "Boys, you are too much for me. I own up." He then conducted them to the room adjoining
theirs, where sat the medium's assistant waiting to perform his part of the trick. A small slot had been cut
through the base-board adjoining the floor. This slot was directly underneath the wardrobe in the
adjoining room. The assistant had an old-fashioned "soot scraper" such as is used for cleaning out the
bottom of the old-time cooking stoves. With this useful article his task was to reach through the slot and
draw or scrape the slate through the slot in the wall, and shove a duplicate into view while he wrote the
message. When this was finished he drew back the duplicate and pushed the original slate into view.
When this was all over, the medium, finishing his discourse, would be suddenly reminded of the slate,
look for it, and see it just out from under the wardrobe; then lifting it from the floor he would
triumphantly hand it with its message to the sitter. The business was quite lucrative.
At another time a wonderful medium appeared in the same city and gave psychometric tests in a public
hall to those bringing articles with them. The tests were very marvelous, and the medium carried away
thousands of dollars.
All of this information was furnished to the medium by two prominent gentlemen in Kansas City, who
knew nearly every one who attended spiritualist meetings. One of these gentlemen received a very fine
test; and the medium, looking at him, said, "Did I ever see you before?" And the gentleman said, "You
did not." Now, Dr. Wilson happened to know that at the time the medium was actually stopping at the
home of this gentleman, who feigned that he was a total stranger to the medium.
Much of the work of mediums is performed in an impromptu or extempore manner. They must be
familiar with the various tricks, but can not invariably follow any fixed rule. They must perform one way
for one subject, and maybe in a wholly different manner for another. I can not better illustrate the
extemporaneous nature of their work, than by describing two slate writings given by a professional
medium whom I know.
Mediums are continually working for what they term "cases." This is where the medium exerts his
spiritual influence in behalf of the subject in some matter, and for which he receives usually a goodly
sum. Most ardent believers have some matter wherein they need assistance; and they usually employ a
medium, if he impresses them properly, and if they believe implicitly in his powers.
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Behind the Scenes with Mediums-Chapter 3 Part 13
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