dressed to deceased relatives, one to a person not a relative whom I had known in life, and two to men with whom I had never been acquainted. The medium said she was very tired, her spirit guides had told her she ought not to give any more sittings for several days, and under the circumstances good results could not be expected. However, all the questions were correctly read by Daisy, either literally or in substance; and in no case except the last one did I know which question the medium had in her hand at the time. Four of the questions were answered perfectly, and regarding the other two it was reported that my friends were unable to communicate specific answers to the medium on account of bad conditions.

One of the questions read as follows:

If Abraham Lincoln is interested in the work I am doing will he manifest himself to me in some unmistakable manner. L. A. SHERMAN.

When this question was answered I did not know what slip the medium held in her hand. I noticed that she looked fixedly toward the further end of the room, and while thus gazing her hand wrote on a slip of paper, Abraham Lincoln. I took the paper immediately and put it out of her sight. After a few seconds she said:

"What name is that my hand wrote on that paper?"
I said: "Abraham Lincoln."

She replied: “As I took that slip in my hand I saw Mr. Lincoln appear just inside that door. A man in the uniform of a high military officer stands beside him, and at his side is a horse with full military equipment. It is General Sheridan.'

I said: "Will Mr. Lincoln speak to me?'

The medium: "Both Mr. Lincoln and General Sheridan give you the military salute, but they do not speak.”

I then spoke as though addressing Mr. Lincoln, referring to an incidental meeting with him in front of the White House at Washington during the war. The medium said he listened and bowed his head, but did not speak. She then said: "Daisy is afraid of Uncle Abe, he looks so dignified, and gets behind me.

I said: "Don't be afraid, Daisy, Mr. Lincoln likes children; go over and see him."

The medium: "Daisy has gone over there now, and Mr. Lincoln pats her on the head."

Whatever may have been the cause of the presentation of this picture to the soul of the clairvoyant medium, it is certain that it was not produced by or evolved from her physical consciousness. She did not see the writing on the folded slip addressed to Mr. Lincoln before writing his name and perceiving the vision, and I did not know what particular slip she had in her hand. It is true that the same phenomena might have resulted in hypnosis, if there

had been suggestion to that effect; but where was the suggestion? Neither was the medium in hypnotic sleep at the time, but in her normal physical consciousness, although clairvoyant. In view of positive demonstrations of spirit return and presence in other cases, I see no reason to doubt that Mr. Lincoln actually presented himself, in response to my request.

The manifestations at these sittings demonstrate the actuality of many interesting psychic and spirit phenomena, but especially materialization and dematerialization. The hand that stroked my forehead and wrote "Willie" on the front of my shirt was a materialized hand, and the arm that clasped my neck was a materialized arm. The hand and arm were those of a child, and there was no child in the house in the flesh; and the medium could have had nothing to do with it, as I held one of her hands at the time and Mrs. Sherman held the other. And in the bringing of flowers and fruit into the house, all doors and windows being closed at the time, it is evident that they must have been dematerialized. This the spirits declare to be the fact, but those who have spoken to me on the subject say they do not know just how it is done. It is like our imperfect knowledge of electricity. We know that electric energy can be produced and transmitted by certain means and methods, but why it is all so we do not know.

Upon this subject Dr. Deane Clarke says:

It is well known that in the presence of several noted mediums like D. D. Home, Dr. Slade, Mrs. Simpson, and a score more, solid iron, steel, wood, and other material substances are passed, by spirits, through the same or similar objects, without making, or leaving, any perceptible rent. This marvel is accomplished, the spirits say, by partially, or sometimes wholly, dematerializing, or rather disintegrating one or both of the objects, which they do by

transmitting a force through the magnetism of the medium, which, for the time being (the shortest conceivable), overcomes the attraction of cohesion, or chemical affinity of the molecules. In other words, the spirits transmit a force which depolarizes the atoms 、o that they fall apart for an instant, and then their polarity is restored, and they reunite just as before. It requires a peculiar quality of magnetism from the medium to work this seeming "miracle" with, consequently this phase of mediumship is rather rare.

Of the fact of the conveyance of physical substances by psychic and spirit power for long distances, there is positive evidence. Some years ago a persona] friend sat in a circle in a farm house in central New York, in midwinter. During the sitting one of the attendant spirits proposed to bring a carnation from a greenhouse three-fourths of a mile distant, across the fields. Within a minute or two the report was made that the flower was picked, but had been dropped on the way. The next morning a gentleman who had been one of the circle started out to investigate. He proceeded on a direct line toward the greenhouse, and about midway, lying on the untrodden snow, found the carnation the spirits had dropped. Many other perfectly authenticated instances of like phenomena, demonstrating the actuality of this particular phase of spirit power, could be cited.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Independent Slate WritinG-PHILOSOPHY OF THE PHENOMENA-REPORTS OF SPECIFIC CASES-SAMPLES OF SLATE WRITINGS-SIMILARITY OF PHYSICAL AND SPIRIT SIGNATURES-POSSIBILITY OF FRAUD ELIMINATED-SPIRIT TELEGRAPHY AND TYPEWRITING.

NDEPENDENT slate writing is a phase of spirit

INDE

communication and mediumship of a very convincing character, although it is probable that frauds are. sometimes committed by persons claiming to be slatewriting mediums who are in the business for moneymaking. Scores of cases have been reported to me by friends in whose acuteness and honesty I have perfect confidence, where there was no possibility of fraud, the only question being, Are the writings dictated and guided by the spirit intelligences from whom they purport to come, or are they produced by some other psychic intelligence and force? I can see no good reason for doubting that in most cases they are just what they purport to be.

The usual method of procedure is to fasten or hold two slates together, sometimes with a small piece of pencil inside, and sometimes without. Placing the slates together produces the condition of darkness in which the materialization of physical substances and force is most easily effected. This materialization hav

ing been accomplished through the independent power of the medium's soul, or of a decarnate soul, over the animal magnetism and force of his physical organism, the only question is, By what intelligence shall the pencil be guided to write? If questions are honestly asked by the sitters, of decarnate souls, such souls may dictate answers. If attempts are made to deceive by asking questions of living persons, the medium's soul may read them, and through auto-suggestion dictate answers, without realization of such action by his physical consciousness. Or the persistent thought of the sitter himself may intrude itself and dictate an answer through the medium's soul.

The two samples of independent slate-writing reproduced herewith are similar to most other communications of that character. They were obtained in this manner:

The sitting was held in an eastern city, during the afternoon, in full daylight. The medium and sitter were entire strangers to each other, the medium knowing neither the name nor the residence of the sitter. Five slates were taken to the house where the medium was staying, by the sitter, each privately marked so that exchange without her knowledge would have been impossible. Six questions were written on separate slips of paper, one of them in the Morse telegraphic alphabet, each one addressed to a dead relative or friend. The slips were folded into small pellets, the writing inside, and these were laid upon the table.

The medium waved his hand over the slips and touched them with the tips of his fingers. The sitter tied two slates together with a handkerchief and held fast to one end of them, the medium holding the other end, and while so held the messages were written, one at a time, on the inside of one of the slates. All the questions were answered intelligently and correctly, and signed by the names of the deceased persons to whom they were addressed.

The question addressed to a telegraph operator named Thos. Meredith was written entirely in the Morse alphabet by a friend of the sitter, who was not present. It has been read for me by telegraph operators, and is as follows:

THOMAS MEredith:

Write me a message.

H. E. H—.