known to but very few persons, and sent some messages to members of the family which had no meaning but to the persons to whom they were sent.

Now what is this? If it is mind reading, then Mr. C. is the most wonderful mind reader I have ever met, and I have met many of them. But, granting that he could read minds so wonderfully, how does he produce the voice through the trumpet? A person who has heard the genuine phenomena, and knows anything about ventriloquism, would scout the idea of its being produced in that way. It was impossible for Mr. or Mrs. C. to have manipulated the trumpet, for their hands were securely held on both sides, and their slightest movement was easily detected. The condition

of darkness which is required to concentrate the forces makes it easier for a fraud to be perpetrated on persons who are unaccustomed to these phenomena, but one who has seen much of it, if on the alert, can easily detect any fraud.

A few nights later I had a second sitting with Mr. C., at the residence of a friend in Detroit. The medium's wife was not present. During the whole evening he was firmly held upon both sides by my friends, so that it was quite impossible for him to have produced the manifestations. At one time Willie spoke to me through the trumpet of family matters, and after he had said "good-bye," I remarked: "I will sing Willie's song," and began the first verse of "Old Kentucky Home." After a minute several persons in the circle said, "Hush, some one is speaking in the trumpet." I stopped, and immediately a voice in the trumpet said, "Go on, papa, I was singing with you." I said: “All right, Willie, I will begin again and you can sing the verse through with me." This I did, singing in a low tone, and Willie was heard by every one present to sing the entire verse through with me in the trumpet.

On 'four occasions subsequently, previous to this writing, with different mediums, twice in my own house, Willie has sung “Old Kentucky Home" with me; once he sang, "Swanee River;" and once, "Nearer My God to Thee," Although he had not gained strength to speak much above a whisper under ordinary circumstances, the vibrations given to the air by a physical voice enabled him to accompany a physical singer in distinct tones. On several occasions also Willie has spoken a few words to me in conversation, in distinct and full tones, so that I have been able to recognize his voice.

In trumpet seances at my residence other remarkable phenomena have occurred. Once Willie's violin, which had been placed at the further end of a long table at which I was sitting, was taken up, and while floating in the air was played upon. When it came down it was laid upon my left hand, and while resting there was played upon, both with the bow, and as though struck with the

fingers. While this was in progress the medium's right hand was held by Mrs. Sherman, who knew that he did not move a muscle. On another occasion the violin was twice brought to me from the further end of the table, and while resting upon my hand was played upon. A small harp was also taken from the table on several occasions, and while floating about the room accompaniments to our singing, and independent pieces, were played upon it. On two occasions a cap which Willie wore during life was taken from the further end of the table and placed upon Mrs. Sherman's head, and she felt two child's hands upon her forehead. Twice Willie has placed his materialized hands in and upon mine, and I have pressed them.

On one occasion when a gentleman who had been a friend of Senator Chandler during his earth-life was present, a voice spoke to us through the trumpet, and announced itself as that of Mr. Chandler. He spoke of the conditions of existence in spirit life; said he took but little interest in politics; and announced his expectation of some time speaking to his earth friends from a public rostrum. Many other voices have also spoken through trumpets at my residence, when the conditions were such that deception was impossible.

On one occasion a light was turned on in an adjoining room when a voice was speaking in the trumpet, suspended near the ceiling. As the light shone dimly into the room the trumpet fell, and I saw it before it struck the table. The light also disclosed the medium sitting in a trance, and every person present clasping hands. Demonstration of the fact that the trumpet had been suspended in the air by spirit power, and that no physical voice was speaking through it, was absolute.

At a trumpet seance held at my residence during the early part of July, 1895, the trumpet at the time being suspended by spirit power near the ceiling, a voice said through it: "Willie says ask Nan Shipman who it was that waked her up the other night. She waited on him at the beach last summer." No one present had ever heard of "Nan Shipman," and the matter was a mystery. Subsequently I learned upon inquiry that Nan Shipman had been a waitress in the dining room at Huronia beach for several seasons, and had always served the table occupied by Mr. John W. Porter and family. Willie had been their guest on several occasions, and must have been waited upon by her, as reported through the trumpet. And upon inquiry of Miss Shipman, she said she was waked up one night in some mysterious manner, and thinking she

had been called by the girls in an adjoining room, went there to inquire, but found them all asleep.

To attempt to account for this combination of circumstances upon any other theory than that they were produced by spirit intelligence and power, just as claimed, would be absurd. Willie as a spirit had power to wake Miss Shipman, and his conscious intelligence reported the circumstance in our circle, where no one knew of the existence of the young lady. And no physical voice could have spoken in a trumpet suspended over our heads near the ceiling, as the report was brought to us.

Mr. A. H. Dailey reports the following convincing demonstration of the genuineness of trumpet phenomena:

A tin tube or horn with a certain class of mediums is used for the concentration of the necessary substances to enable the formation of organs to articulate words. I was once suspicious, while listening to whispered utterances inside of a horn, holding one end to my ear, that there was some tube near the other end, through which some person was whispering into the horn. The room was quite dark, and the horn, about three feet in length, was resting one end on the table. I quietly slipped my hand unobserved down to the other end of the horn, expecting to expose a trick, and stop the whispering. I covered it with my hand, and was astonished to find that I had only improved the conditions, and the whispering went on. I then put various articles into the horn. No person present in the physical form could have known what they were, but the voice from within invariably told me correctly what I had done, even to the correction of an error of my own as to what I supposed to be the color of some flowers taken at random from a bouquet.

Although voices not physical speak in trumpets and independently, it is not to be assumed that the intelligence producing them may not. sometimes be that of an incarnate soul. In all study and investigation of occult, psychic and spirit phenomena, it should be borne in mind that the attributes and powers of the soul are essentially the same, whether incarnate or excarnate. In the production of physical manifestations physical forces must be used, and this can seldom be done by a soul acting independently of a physical organism. The soul of the medium must always act an important part in producing such manifestations, and it is quite possible for a sitter to get a

reflection of his own thought, even through a trumpet.

Development for physical manifestations guided by spirit intelligence must be by processes similar to those employed to develop any new branch of physical science and apply it to practical uses. The work must be done largely by spirits themselves; but to enable them to produce results, physical organisms, in a passive condition, must be placed at their disposal. The work is much like that of a chemist in his laboratory. He knows the qualities and attributes of certain elements and combinations of elements, but the field for experiment is yet large, and the results of new combinations and conditions are quite uncertain.

A

So it is with the spirit chemist and scientist. new physical organism is offered to him for experiment and psychic development. He tries it for automatic writing, for slate writing, for inspirational speaking, and perhaps for other forms of spirit influence and control, with indifferent results. Then he tries it for trumpet speaking and independent voices, and finds that by placing the medium in deep hypnosis excellent results are secured. Or in other cases he finds that the best results are obtained by placing the medium under only partial control; and in others that the medium can be used while in his normal condition of

physical consciousness. As no two souls have exactly the same characteristics, and no two physical organisms are alike in themselves or in their relations to the souls which animate them, it follows that there will be wide divergence in many cases, and variation in all cases of development for communication with the spirit world, and manifestations of soul guidance and control of physical forces.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

MANIFESTATIONS THROUGH A CLAIRVOYANT AND TRUMPET MEDIUM-CLOSED WRITINGS READ AND ANSWERED-ComMUNICATIONS THROUGH TRUMPETS - FRUITS, FLOWERS AND OTHER ARTICLES BROUGHT-SPIRIT WRITINGS AND PICTURES-WILLIE FULFILLS A PROMISE PERFECTLY.

On Friday, June 28, 1895, I called upon Mrs. F., at the

residence of an acquaintance, where she had arrived but a few hours previously from her home in another city. She was an entire stranger to me. Mrs. Sherman accompanied me. Mrs. F. is a clairaudient, and does not usually pass under spirit control. Her most faithful spirit attendant, a child who calls herself Daisy, whispers in her ear.

At this sitting many of my spirit friends manifested themselves. My father gave his full name and told me not to feel the least uneasiness about business matters; that everything would come out all right. The significance of this was that certain complications which had arisen a week before had caused me some apprehension, and the matter had been on my mind at intervals since that time. Within four days thereafter the threatened complications and difficulties disappeared.

My wife's brother Le Grand reported himself by name, and gave an account of his death (which was a mystery), substantially the same as that we had previously received through four other mediums. Other relatives of Mrs. Sherman and myself also manifested, some of them giving their names.