Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania Part 12

My friends,--

Paul's injunction was "add to your faith knowledge." this knowledge, has encouraged the desponding, and given comfort to the mourner, and gives hope to the Hopeless. I am truly

William Clark.

The appearance of this writing was much the same as that of the first day, when another long written communication was produced, but it bore no resemblance to the scrawls which were exhibited in answer to questions.

A special minute is here made of observations by members of the Committee upon certain features of the Medium's operations, which tended to discredit the a.s.sumption of a supernatural agency in the production of the slate writings. In the above instance a slate which had been noted as standing against a leg of the table and behind the chair of the Medium, but conveniently within his reach, was dexterously subst.i.tuted by the Medium for the slate taken from the table and the one upon which ostensibly writing was to appear. This was observed by one member. In another instance a member (Mr. Sellers) observed the same subst.i.tution, so far as the motion of the Medium's hand and arm was concerned. By certain private marks, adroitly applied, the same member noted the fact that the slate on which the writing was exhibited was not, as the Medium represented it to be, the same slate which had been taken from the table.

[The foregoing note by the Stenographer is somewhat incoherent, owing to his unfamiliarity with Slade's seances; yet we prefer to let it remain as it is.--G.S.F.]

(Mr. Sellers adds, parenthetically): That is, I watched the Medium's operations specially with a view of informing myself whether the slate used in both instances was the same.

(Resuming, from notes): The Medium proposed that the Committee should retain the slate upon which the long message appeared. The slate was accordingly retained by the Committee.

Professor Thompson (addressing Mr. Sellers): Was not that slate the one that I held at the time referred to?

Mr. Sellers: It was. The slate was held by you at the same time that it was held by the Medium.

Professor Thompson: Then there is an additional fact to be noted in regard to it. That fact is this. When the sounds indicating the writing process had ceased, I endeavored to pull the slate away from under the table, but the Medium resisted my effort, and by powerful exertion jerked the slate out toward himself. The subst.i.tution of one slate for the other was probably made at this time, and the slate so subst.i.tuted was then placed on the table.

Mr. Sellers: That is true, most a.s.suredly I saw the subst.i.tution, and Mr. Furness also saw it very plainly. From his position Mr. Furness saw the Medium take up the other slate.

NOTE.--An explanation was here made by Mr. Furness to the effect that his knowledge of the subst.i.tution here spoken of was inferential, but that at another period of the seance he did distinctly see the Medium grasp an unused slate.

Mr. Sellers here resumed, from his notes:

The Medium then proposed to attempt the experiment of causing the chair upon which Professor Thompson sat, to rise from the floor, without external agency other than that of the hand of the Medium on the back of the chair. In answer to the question, 'Will you try to lift the chair?'

the response was 'Yes.' Mr. Sellers, being requested to write a question on the back of the slate near him, wrote the following, 'What is the time?' After some little time, during which the Medium furtively glanced at the slate, the answer was given, 'A little after twelve.'

Upon being requested to open his left hand and hold it thus extended in a position beneath the top of the table to his left, Mr. Sellers complied with the request, when a slate, which had been held by the Medium under the opposite leaf, was pa.s.sed across, and, after touching Mr. Sellers's hand, fell to the floor. After several repet.i.tions, the slate was pa.s.sed into Mr. Sellers's hand, but the experiment was accompanied by a motion of the Medium which was evidently such as would have been made if the Medium had pa.s.sed the slate across by his foot.

[At his seances Dr. Slade wears slippers, into and out of which he can readily slip his feet.--G.S.F.]

In answer to the question, 'Are you ready to lift the gentleman?' the response, in writing, was given, 'Yes.' Clasping the back of the chair firmly with his right hand, and approaching it close enough to enable him to place his knee under the seat of the chair, the Medium, after very considerable effort, caused the chair to rise from the floor an inch or two. The physical strain on the part of the Medium was evident.

Professor Thompson, having obtained the permission of the Medium, wrote the following upon the slate, 'Can a Spirit, still in the body, write with a slate pencil without touching the pencil?' After some delay, and frequent surrept.i.tious glances at the slate by the Medium, the answer was, 'Yes, we can tell.' This trial not being satisfactory, the same question was repeated. The answer, which was longer delayed than the one preceding it, was, 'We can do so, if the conditions are favorable.'

Professor Thompson (interposing): Do you remember the Medium's remarks about the resistance of the Spirits?

Mr. Sellers: I do.

Professor Thompson: When he was pus.h.i.+ng and pulling the slate, and meanwhile looking at it--while moving it backward and forward--the Medium remarked, 'There seems to be some kind of resistance; they don't seem to know what to make of it'--meaning that the Spirits were making some resistance to his moving the slate.

Mr. Sellers here resumed and completed the reading of his minutes, as follows:

The experiment attempted on the second day, of causing a slate pencil to jump from a slate without any disturbance of the slate, was here repeated. A line was drawn upon the slate, and upon this line a small bit of pencil was placed, the success of the experiment depending upon this small piece remaining immovable upon the line. After several trials this was accomplished. The experiment of playing an accordion beneath the table was next made, and in one instance the top of the instrument was thrown upon the table.

Mr. Sellers verbally made the following addition to his minutes:

The response to the question propounded by Professor Thompson was attended with more than ordinary delay. Upon hearing the response, viz.: 'We can do so if the conditions are favorable,' Professor Thompson remarked that this did not answer the question at all.

Professor Thompson: I made that statement in regard to both of the responses.

Mr. Sellers: The statement, then, was, that neither of the responses answered the question. Whereupon the Medium at once obliterated the question from the slate, and remarked, 'Well, that is the best they can do,' or something of that kind, or, 'They cannot understand that.' The fact was that the Medium did not understand the question himself, as it was purposely a somewhat involved question.

Professor Thompson: The fact appears to have been demonstrated that the Medium seemed to have no difficulty in catching the purport of questions of simple construction at a glance, and that a question of more than average length, which he could not perceive the sense of, or which was somewhat misleading in its terms, was not answered intelligently.

Professor Thompson here further explained that, when writing the question spoken of, he concealed his hand from the observation of the Medium. Mr. Sellers here imitated the motions of the body of the Medium and the position of his hands at the time--the left resting on the table, and the right hand beneath the table, near the slate--after which the writing was displayed.

Mr. Sellers next presented the minutes of the meeting of January 24th, as follows:

The Committee met on January 24th, 1885, at the Girard House, Philadelphia, in Room 24.

There were present: Dr. Leidy, Mr. H.H. Furness and Mr. Coleman Sellers, with the Medium, Dr. Henry Slade. Dr. Leidy occupied the position previously held by Professor Thompson, to the right of the Medium; Messrs. Sellers and Furness were seated as at the former sittings.

Slates were produced and held as at the previous seances. Upon one slate the following interrogatories and responses were recorded:

'Spirits, are you ready to work?' Answer: 'Soon,'

'Will you write for the gentlemen?' Answer: 'We are trying to do so.'

At this point the Medium subst.i.tuted another slate for the one which he had held in his hand, and almost immediately thereafter, upon the new slate being placed under the table, the sound of writing began and was carried on with little interruption. The writing continued for a very long time, during which the Medium, removing his hand from the hands of the other gentlemen, said, 'You see that if I take my hand away from the circle and thus break the circle, the sound of the writing ceases; if I place my hand back again, the writing is repeated.' The sound of the writing, which had been temporarily suspended, recommenced when the hand of the Medium returned to its former position. The Medium further stated, by way of qualifying his statement on this point, 'If I do not jerk it away I can raise my hand a little.' He ill.u.s.trated his meaning by slightly elevating his hand and withdrawing it from the other hands, at the same time calling attention to the fact that the sounds of the writing on the slate were continued.

This modification by the Medium of his original statement was regarded as intended to cover instances in which the circle had been surrept.i.tiously broken by members of the Committee without any of the results which, had been predicted. Several such breaks had been made by the writer (Mr. Sellers) unknown to any one but himself; and the Medium, finally becoming aware of this fact, observed that the circle might frequently be broken a little without any effect being apparent.

Professor Thompson: But did not the Medium make that statement at the very first seance?

Mr. Sellers: He stated that at the first seance.

(Resuming, from notes): The communication inscribed upon the slate when beneath the table was in the same handwriting as the other long communications, and was evidently written with a sharpened pencil under favorable conditions. It was as follows:

'My friends:

I have been made happy by the advent of my dear wife into this land of souls. The name of my dear wife is Ann Louisa Tiers, of Germantown. Now we shall part no more by death, as there is no death in this life.

My friends, never grieve because your friends meet the change called death, as death is but the blooming of the soul.

I am

John Tiers.'

Mr. Sellers, in reply to an inquiry by Dr. Leidy concerning the ident.i.ty of the alleged author of the communication, here explained that a newspaper advertis.e.m.e.nt of even date set forth that Ann Louisa Tiers, widow of John Tiers, died on the day preceding the day of the meeting.

The advertis.e.m.e.nt had been noticed by Mr. Furness, and it appeared to furnish the foundation for what had been imposed upon the Committee.

The slate used at the meeting here referred to was one which Mr. Furness saw subst.i.tuted, and which the writer (Mr. Sellers) is confident was subst.i.tuted.

Dr. Leidy here stated that the communication now referred to, unlike all the other communications of the Medium, which were miserable little scrawls of a few words, was a lengthy one, which covered the entire slate. He felt convinced that the slate upon which it was contained was subst.i.tuted for the other one which the Medium ostensibly continued to use.

Mr. Sellers (resuming the reading of his minutes): Dr. Leidy then wrote on the slate the following question, 'Dr. Le Conte--are you engaged now in the study of Coleoptera?' The slate was then placed below the table, and, after the Medium had been observed to glance at it repeatedly, as in the case of former exhibitions of this kind, the slate was finally reproduced with this answer written upon it, 'Dr. L.C. is not present.'