There has probably been nothing that has made more converts to spiritualism than the much talked of “Slate Writing Test,” and if we are to believe some of the stories told of the writings mysteriously obtained on slates, under what is known as “severe test conditions,” that preclude, beyond any possible doubt, any form of deception or trickery, one would think that the day of miracles had certainly returned; but we must not believe half we hear nor all that we see, for the chances are that just as you are about to attribute some unaccountable spirit phenomena to an unseen power, something turns up to show that you have been tricked by a clever device which is absurd in its simplicity.

There are a large number of methods of producing slate writing, but the writer will describe a few which will be sufficient to give an idea of the working of slate tests in general. First we have the ordinary one in which the writing is placed on the slate beforehand, and then hidden from view by a flap or loose piece of slate. (Fig. 1.) After both sides of the slate have been cleaned, the false flap is dropped on the table, the side which is then uppermost being covered with cloth similar to the table top, where it will remain unnoticed, or the flap is allowed to fall into a second slate with which the first is covered. In the latter case no cloth is pasted on the flap. Sometimes the flap is covered with a piece of newspaper and is allowed to drop into a newspaper lying on the table, then the newspaper containing the flap is carelessly removed, thus doing away with any trace of trickery.

Another way of utilizing the false flap is as follows: The writing is not placed beforehand on the slate, but on the flap, which, as before, is covered with the same material as the table top. This is lying on the table writing downward. The slate is handed around for inspection, and, on being returned to the performer, he stands at the table and cleans the slate on one side, then turns it over and cleans the other. As he does so he lifts the flap into the slate. The flap is held in firmly by an edging of thin pure sheet rubber cemented on the flap between the slate and the cloth covering of the slate. This grips the wooden sides of the frame hard enough to prevent the false piece from tumbling out accidentally.

We now come to another style, wherein a slate is cleaned on both sides, and, while held in the hand facing the audience, becomes suddenly covered with writing, and the slate is immediately given for inspection. The writing is on the slate previous to the cleaning, and is hidden from view by a flap of slate colored silk, held firmly in place by a pellet of wax in each of the corners of the silk. Attached to this silk flap or covering (at the end that is nearest to the performer’s sleeve) is a stout cord or string, which is also made fast to a strap around the wrist of the hand opposite to that holding the slate. If the arms are now extended their full length, the piece of silk covering will leave the slate and pass rapidly up the sleeve out of the way, and thus leave the writing exposed to view. (Fig. 2.) The slate is found to be still a little damp from the cleaning with the sponge and water it had been given previously. This is easily accounted for. The water from the sponge penetrates just enough through the cloth to dampen the slate.

There is still another slate on which we can make the writing appear suddenly. It is composed of a wooden frame, such as all wooden-edged slates have, but the slate itself is a sham. It is a piece of cloth painted with a kind of paint known as liquid, or silicate slating, which, when dry and hard, is similar to the real article. This cloth is twice the length of the slate and just the exact width. The two ends of the cloth are united with cement, so as to make an endless piece or loop. There is a small rod or roller in both the top and bottom pieces of the frame, the ends being made hollow to receive them. Over these rollers runs the cloth, stretched firmly and tightly. Just where the cloth is joined or cemented is a little black button, or stud of hard rubber or leather. This allows the cloth to be pushed up and down, bringing the back to the front; and by doing so quickly, the writing which is written on the cloth at the rear of the frame is made to come to the front in plain view. (Fig. 3.)

Still another idea in a single slate is as follows: An ordinary looking slate is given out for examination, and, on its being returned to the medium, he takes his handkerchief and cleans or brushes both sides of the slate with it; and, upon again showing that side of the slate first cleaned, it is found covered with writing apparently done with chalk. The following is the simple explanation of it: Take a small camel’s hair brush and dip it in urine or onion juice, and with it write or trace on the slate whatever you desire, and when it becomes dry, or nearly so, the slate can be given for examination without fear of detection. The handkerchief the performer uses to clean the slate with is lightly sprinkled with powdered chalk. He makes believe to clean the one side devoid of preparation, but the side containing the invisible writing is gently rubbed with the handkerchief, not too hard just enough to let the powdered chalk fall on the urine or onion juice, where it leaves a mark not unlike a chalk mark.

It will not be out of place to describe a trick by which writing is produced upon an ordinary china plate by a somewhat similar means. The plate is examined and cleaned with a borrowed handkerchief, and then the performer requests the loan of a pinch of snuff, or uses a little sand or dust, which he places on the plate. He now commences to move the plate around in circles, and while doing so the snuff or sand is seen to gradually form itself into writing. The explanation is simple—whatever writing you desire to appear on the plate is placed beforehand on it. It is done with a camel’s hair brush dipped in the white of an egg and allowed to become dry before being handed around for inspection. As the performer cleans the plate he breathes on both sides of it, as if to give it moisture enough to help take off any dirt that might be thereon when rubbed with the handkerchief. In breathing on the front of the plate containing the writing done with the white of the egg, he moistens the writing enough to make the snuff or sand, as the case may be, adhere to it. Of course, in cleaning the front of the plate, care must be taken not to brush or disturb the invisible writing.

It may not be amiss to also mention another method of producing writing, employed by mediums to obtain a message on a blank piece of paper which has been placed between two slates, which are held by the medium in his hand, high above his head, and, on afterwards taking the slate apart, the paper is covered with writing. This again calls into use the extra or false flap. (Fig. 1.) A piece of paper with writing on it is placed face downward on one of the slates and covered with the false flap. It then looks like an ordinary slate. On this is placed the plain piece of paper, and over this is laid the second slate. The slates are now held up in plain view of the audience, and on being lowered to the table they are turned over, thus bringing the blank piece of paper under the false flap and the one with the writing on it on the top of the flap, which has fallen from the slate, which is now the top, but originally the bottom one, on or into the under one, and, of course, on the removal of the present top slate, the writing is found on what is supposed to be the original blank paper.

If the paper is to have a private mark put on it by an observer, so as to prove the writing really does appear on that identical piece of paper, the operation is varied as follows: The false flap is done away with, and the paper, which is furnished by the medium, has written on it the desired communication with ink, which is made visible and brought out black by means of heat. For the invisible ink you can use sulphuric acid, very much diluted, so as not to destroy the paper. The necessary heat is obtained in the following manner: The table (Fig. 4) on which the slates are resting is hollow, and has concealed in it a spirit lamp filled with alcohol. This lamp sits directly under a trap in the table top, which is covered underneath for safety with sheet iron, so it will not catch fire. When the slates are placed on the table they are laid over the little trap door, which, in conjuring parlance, is known as a “trap.” This is now opened, and the slates allowed to become well heated and the trap then closed, and the prepared paper, upon coming in contact with the hot slate, is thus covered with writing.

Another medium employed a somewhat similar method, only the paper in this case was placed in a glass vial (Fig. 5) which had been lying on the iron trap door. The medium’s hand covered the vial, which was corked and sealed, while the writing was making its appearance. You can also produce writing on the paper in the vial without resorting to the use of heat by using a vial that has been washed out with ammonia and kept well corked, and writing on the paper with a weak solution of copper sulphate, which is invisible until the paper is placed in the vial, when the two chemicals produce writing in blue. Still another message is produced as follows: The writing is done with iron sulphate on blank cards. Of course this is invisible. These cards are placed in envelopes and sealed up. Upon opening the envelopes shortly afterward the cards are covered with the writing which was before invisible, but is brought out by a solution of nut galls with which the inside of the envelopes had been slightly moistened.

The subject of sympathetic inks is such an interesting one that we give thirty-seven formulas, which include all those which are liable to be used by the medium.

The solutions used should be so nearly colorless that the writing cannot be seen till the agent is applied to render it visible. Sympathetic inks are of three general classes.

Inks that Appear through Heat.

1. Write with a concentrated solution of caustic potash. The writing will appear when the paper is submitted to strong heat.

2. Write with a solution of ammonium hydrochlorate, in the proportion of 15 parts to 100. The writing will appear when the paper is heated by holding it over a stove or by passing a hot smoothing iron over it.

3. A weak solution of copper nitrate gives an invisible writing, which becomes red through heat.

4. A very dilute solution of copper perchloride gives invisible characters that become yellow through heat.

5. A slightly alcoholic solution of copper bromide gives perfectly invisible characters which are made apparent by a gentle heat, and which disappear again through cold.

6. Write upon rose colored paper with a solution of cobalt chloride. The invisible writing will become blue through heat, and will disappear on cooling.

7. Write with a solution of sulphuric acid. The characters will appear in black through heat. This ink has the disadvantage of destroying the paper. (See the caution given on page 9.)

8. Write with lemon, onion, leek, cabbage or artichoke juice. Characters written with these juices become very visible when the paper is heated.

9. Digest 1 oz. of zaffre, or cobalt oxide, at a gentle heat, with 4 oz. of nitro-muriatic acid till no more is dissolved, then add 1 oz. common salt and 16 oz. of water. If this be written with and the paper held to the fire, the writing becomes green, unless the cobalt should be quite pure, in which case it will be blue. The addition of a little iron nitrate will then impart the property of becoming green. It is used in chemical landscapes for the foliage.

10. Put in a vial ½ oz. of distilled water, 1 drm. of potassium bromide and 1 drm. of pure copper sulphate. The solution is nearly colorless, but becomes brown when heated.

11. Nickel nitrate and nickel chloride in weak solution form an invisible ink, which becomes green by heating when the salt contains traces of cobalt, which usually is the case; when pure, it becomes yellow.

12. When the solution of acetate of protoxide of cobalt contains nickel or iron, the writing made by it will become green when heated; when it is pure and free from these metals, it becomes blue.

13. Milk makes a good invisible ink, and buttermilk answers the purpose better. It will not show if written with a clean new pen, and ironing with a hot flat iron is the best way of showing it up. All invisible inks will show on glazed paper; therefore unglazed paper should be used.

14. Burn flax so that it may be rather smoldered than burned to ashes, then grind it with a muller on a stone, putting a little alcohol to it, then mix it with a little gum water, and what you write, though it seem clear, may be rubbed or washed out.

15. Boil cobalt oxide in acetic acid. If a little common salt be added, the writing becomes green when heated, but with potassium nitrate it becomes a pale rose color.

16. A weak solution of mercury nitrate becomes black by heat.

Inks that Appear under the Influence of Light.

17. Gold chloride serves for forming characters that appear only as long as the paper is exposed to daylight, say for an hour at least.

18. Write with a solution made by dissolving one part of silver nitrate in 1,000 parts of distilled water. When submitted to daylight, the writing appears of a slate color or tawny brown.

Inks Appearing through Reagents.

19. If writing be done with a solution of lead acetate in distilled water, the characters will appear in black upon passing a solution of an alkaline sulphide over the paper.

20. Characters written with a very weak solution of gold chloride will become dark brown upon passing a solution of tin perchloride over them.

21. Characters written with a solution of gallic acid in water will become black through a solution of iron sulphate and brown through the alkalies.

22. Upon writing on paper that contains but little sizing with a very clear solution of starch, and submitting the dry characters to the vapor of iodine, or passing over them a weak solution of potassium iodide, the writing becomes blue, and disappears under the action of a solution of sodium hyposulphite in the proportions of 1 to 1,000.

23. Characters written with a 10 per cent. solution of nitrate of protoxide of mercury become black when the paper is moistened with liquid ammonia, and gray through heat.

24. Characters written with a weak solution of the soluble platinum or iridium chloride become black when the paper is submitted to mercurial vapor. This ink may be used for marking linen. It is indelible.

25. C. Widemann communicates a new method of making an invisible ink to Die Natur. To make the writing or the drawing appear which has been made upon paper with the ink, it is sufficient to dip it into water. On drying, the traces disappear again, and reappear by each succeeding immersion. The ink is made by intimately mixing linseed oil, 1 part; water of ammonia, 20 parts; water, 100 parts. The mixture must be agitated each time before the pen is dipped into it, as a little of the oil may separate and float on top, which would, of course, leave an oily stain upon the paper.

26. Write with a solution of potassium ferro-cyanide, develop by pressing over the dry, invisible characters a piece of blotting paper moistened with a solution of copper sulphate or of iron sulphate.

27. Write with pure dilute tincture of iron; develop with a blotter moistened with strong tea.

28. Writing with potassium iodide and starch becomes blue by the least trace of acid vapors in the atmosphere or by the presence of ozone. To make it, boil starch, and add a small quantity of potassium iodide in solution.

29. Copper sulphate in very dilute solution will produce an invisible writing, which will turn light blue by vapors of ammonia.

30. Soluble compounds of antimony will become red by hydrogen sulphide vapor.

31. Soluble compounds of arsenic and of tin peroxide will become yellow by the same vapor.

32. An acid solution of iron chloride is diluted till the writing is invisible when dry. This writing has the remarkable property of becoming red by sulphocyanide vapors (arising from the action of sulphuric acid on potassium sulphocyanide in a long necked flask), and it disappears by ammonia, and may alternately be made to appear and disappear by these two vapors.

33. Writing executed with rice water is visible when dry, but the characters become blue by the application of iodine. This ink was much employed during the Indian mutiny.

34. Write with a solution of paraffin in benzol. When the solvent has evaporated, the paraffin is invisible, but becomes visible on being dusted with lampblack or powdered graphite, or smoking over a candle flame.

35. To Write Black Characters with Water.—Mix 10 parts nutgalls, 2½ parts calcined iron sulphate. Dry thoroughly, and reduce to fine powder. Rub this powder over the surface of the paper, and force into the pores by powerful pressure, brush off the loose powder. A pen dipped in water will write black on paper thus treated.

36. To Write Blue Characters with Water.—Mix iron sesquisulphate and potassium ferrocyanide. Prepare the paper in the same manner as for writing black characters with water. Write with water, and the characters will appear blue.

37. To Produce Brown Writing with Water.—Mix copper sulphate and potassium ferrocyanide. Prepare the paper in the same manner as before. The characters written with water will be reddish brown.

Here is another trick calling for the use of sympathetic ink. A medium suggests a number of questions to write on a paper, one of which you select and write on a slip of paper furnished by the medium. Writing is done with pen and ink. You are requested to dry it with a blotter, and not to remove the blotter for a time, the medium says, so as to keep the paper in the dark, thus giving the “spirits” better conditions under which to work. After a while the blotter is removed, and an answer to the question is found on the same paper. The questions suggested were all of such a character that one answer would nearly do for any one. The paper the question was written on had this answer written with invisible ink brought out by a reagent on the blotter, with which it was saturated, and thus another mystery is easily dispelled.

We will now take up a few slate tests, in which the slates are brought or furnished by the spectator or investigator. The tests in which the slates are brought by skeptics and tied and sealed by them, and still writing is obtained upon them, are the ones that are the most convincing and most talked about, and they are offered to the unbeliever as proof absolute of spirit power.

First we will begin with the single slate which has just been handed to the medium, after being thoroughly cleaned by the person bringing it. The skeptic holds one end of the slate in one hand and the medium the opposite end in one of his hands, and both persons clasp their disengaged hands. In a short time the slate is turned over and a few words written in a scrawling style are found. I must acknowledge that when I first witnessed this test it somewhat staggered me, but afterward, on seeing it the second time, I was enabled to fathom its mystery. It is patterned somewhat after the style claimed to have been used by Slade, wherein he used a piece of slate pencil fastened to a thimble, and with apparatus attached to his forefinger of the same hand holding the slate he did the writing. The thimble (Fig. 6) was fastened to an elastic which pulled the thimble out of sight up the sleeve or under the coat when it was done with. But it always required a little scheming and maneuvering both to use and conceal the device and get rid of it, and there was always the fear of being detected with this bit of machinery about the person; so someone of an ingenious turn of mind hit upon another method. There are some slate pencils made the same as lead pencils, that is, a very small piece of slate pencil, about the size of a match, is enclosed in the wood after the manner of lead pencils. A tiny piece of this pencil is placed at the tip of the forefinger and over it is placed a piece of flesh-colored court plaster well fastened to the finger (Fig. 7) and well blended in with aniline dye with the finger, so both are exactly the same color. After everything becomes dry and hard a little hole is made in the court plaster, so as to allow the point of the piece of pencil to come through enough to mark on the slate. The finger thus prepared is what does the writing. The message or name must be written backward, so that when the slate is reversed it will appear in its correct position. To learn to do this quickly, stand in front of a looking-glass with the slate in your hand and watch your writing in the glass as you go along. You do not need to hold the slate underneath the table in this test; hold it in the air with a handkerchief over it, so as to disguise the movement of the finger. The message must necessarily be short, on account of the radius through which the medium’s finger can travel.

We now come to another method of using the single slate. The medium takes the slate and places it on the table and requests the spectator to write a question on a piece of paper. He, the medium, gains knowledge of the contents of the paper in various ways; one is by using a pad of paper which contains underneath the second or third layer of paper a carbon sheet made of wax and lampblack. Whatever is written on the first sheet of paper will be transferred or copied by means of the carbon paper to the sheet underneath it. Another way is by requesting a person to fold the paper and hold it against his head, and, under the pretense of showing the person how to hold it, exchange it for a paper of his own folded in like manner. This exchanged paper is then opened and read by the medium while his hand is below the level of the table top, and while he is holding a conversation with the auditor. After it is read, the paper is again folded and kept in the performer’s lap until needed. As he now knows the contents of the paper, he can frame in his mind a suitable answer. He remarks: “I will ask the spirits first to give you a decided answer, through me as an independent trance slate writing medium, whether they will answer your question during this sitting.” So the medium takes a pencil in hand and writes on one side of the slate, apparently under spirit control, and then on the other side. The message is read, and it says the conditions are very favorable, and no doubt, if the skeptic will place the utmost confidence in the medium, there will be satisfactory results. After the slate has been shown with both sides covered with writing, it is thoroughly cleaned and placed on the table. The medium now picks up the original paper from his lap and asks the person to give him the paper he is holding. This the medium apparently places under the slate; however, he really holds this one back and introduces the one he has had in his hand, which is the one originally written upon. He has now his own paper in his hand, and the one with the question is under the slate. On the slate being turned over in a short time, it is covered with writing, forming a sensible reply to the question on the paper, which is now opened and read to compare it with the answer. All that remains to be explained is how the writing on the slate appeared there. The false flap is again used, but in a directly opposite manner to which it has been employed heretofore. One side of this flap is covered with a portion of the writing that the medium first wrote under spirit control. Let us say the first half supposed to have been written on the one side of the slate, and which he afterward reads off in connection with that written on the last or second side of the slate. What he really wrote on the first half of the slate was a correct answer to the question, and after he turns the slate over to write on the opposite side he slips the false flap over the answer on the slate. Of course it is what is on this false flap and on the other side of the slate that the spectator really reads, and when the slate is cleaned it is this flap and the opposite side of the slate. The writing, covered by the flap, which is the answer to the question, is never seen or touched until after the flap is allowed to drop into the medium’s lap. The slate can be examined; and, of course, no trickery can be found in connection with it. The method described above, in the hands of a calm and cool person, is a convincing one, and never fails to satisfy the most exacting of skeptics.

I wish to remark that, if any person tells you he took two slates of his own to a medium, thoroughly well tied or sealed, and that the slates never left his (the skeptic’s) hands, and that there was writing obtained upon the interior surface of the slates under those conditions, he was sadly mistaken, and has failed to keep track of everything that actually took place at the time of the sitting. Suppose two slates tied together are brought to the medium. Both he and the stranger sit at a table. The slates are held under the table, the medium grasping one corner and the skeptic the opposite corner, each with one hand, and the disengaged hands clasped together above the table. After a while the slates are laid upon the table, the string untied, the slates taken apart, but no writing is found. The medium states it must have been because there was no slate pencil between them. So a small piece of pencil is placed between the slates, and again they are tied with the cord by the medium, and he again passes them under the table, both persons holding the slates as before. Presently writing is heard, and, upon the skeptic bringing the slates from under the table and untying the cord himself, he finds one of the slates covered with writing, although but shortly before they were devoid of even a scratch. Here is the explanation: The medium does not pass the slates under the table the first time, but drops them in his lap, with the side on which the string is tied or knotted downward, and really passes a set of his own for the skeptic to hold; he (the medium) supporting his end by pressing against the table with his knee, which leaves his hand disengaged. There is a slate pencil, called the soapstone pencil, which is softer than the ordinary. This is the one used by the medium. He now covers the face of the slate which is uppermost in his lap with writing, doing so very quietly and without any noise. Now, as he brings the slates above the table, he leaves his own in his lap and brings up the skeptic’s with the writing side down. The slates are untied and taken apart and shown, devoid of writing upon the inside, which he claims was caused by not having any slate pencil inside. The medium now places the pencil upon the slate which was originally the upper one, and covers this with what was the bottom slate, which is covered with the writing inside on the back or bottom of slate. This maneuver or action brings the slate on top with the writing upon its inside. Nothing could be more simple and natural. The slates are again tied together, and in doing so the slates are turned over, bringing the slate containing the writing, still upon the inside, at the bottom instead of the top, and the string tied or knotted above the top slate. Of course, when again separated, the writing is found upon the inside of the lower slate. When the slates are passed under the table the second time, the spectator himself is allowed to do this, and the medium, with one of his finger nails, while holding his end of the slate, produces a scratching noise on the slate closely resembling the tracing of a pencil. It is not really necessary to pass the slates under the table the second time, but they can be held above it if preferred.

Now, suppose two slates are brought that are riveted or screwed or sealed at the four corners. How can writing be obtained upon them without disturbing any of the above arrangements? The slates are held under the table in the same manner as in previous tests. To produce the writing upon the slates the medium is provided with a few simple, though effective devices, one of which is a little hard wood tapering wedge, and a piece of thin steel wire, to one end of which is fastened a tiny piece of slate pencil. An old umbrella rib will be found to work admirably, because there is a small clasp at one end and at its other end a small eye. The pencil is made to fit into the end with the clasp. Now take the wooden wedge and push it between the wooden frames of the slates at the sides. The frames and slates will give enough to allow the wire and pencil to be inserted and the writing be accomplished with it, after which the wire is withdrawn, and then also the wooden wedge, and all is done without leaving any trace or mark behind as to how it is all performed. (Fig. 8.)

A well known conjuror at one time made a remark that he could duplicate any slate writing test he ever witnessed, he having publicly declared, time and time again, the slate writing test to be a fraud. He gave a test in private at his own home and hit upon a rather unique idea. A slate would be cleaned on both sides and a private mark placed on it, and the slate allowed to lie flat on the table, and the magician and the committee sat around it and placed their hands upon the slate. Presently writing was heard, and upon lifting the slate the side underneath was found covered with writing. The table was a kitchen table with the ordinary hanging cloth cover, or table cloth. The table had a double top with room enough between the two to conceal a small boy. There was a neatly made trap in both the table cloth and the top of the table; the cloth being glued around the opening to keep it in place. The trap door opened downwards. The boy concealed in the table opened the trap door and did the necessary writing on the slate, and closed the opening. The idea of having the committee hold their hands on the slate was to prevent the slate from being accidentally moved by the boy when writing. The above idea was improved upon by doing away with the use of the boy and the double top of the table. The trap in the cloth and table top was still used. But the test was done with the lights turned out or down low, and the medium had a confederate sitting at his right hand side. This allowed the medium to take away his right hand, introduce it under the table, open the trap, do the writing, shut the trap, replace his hand, and on the lights being turned up the writing is found. It should be stated that the medium and committee sat around the table with their hands resting on the slate, and each person’s hand touching that of his neighbor; so neither could move without the other being aware of the fact, but the medium’s right hand neighbor, being one of his confederates, allows him to take his (the medium’s) hand away without any one being the wiser.

I will now describe how the writing is obtained upon the interior of two slates sealed together, and all hands placed on them, and without the assistance of a confederate. The table is the same as previously described, that is, it contains the trap. The slates are two single ones hinged together and sealed around the edges in any manner the committee may see fit. One of the slates is a trick slate made in this fashion: The slate part itself is made to work on a pivot or hinge along one of its sides. (Fig. 9.) The side opposite to where both slates are hinged together, by touching a portion of the hinges that hold the two slates together, a catch concealed in the wooden framework is released, which allows the slate part itself to drop down on its own hinge or pivot. So when the slates are placed on the table they are put directly over the trap in the table, and with the hinges of the two slates toward the medium. The medium, as he places the slates over the trap in the table, pushes the hinge releasing the catch, which allows the underneath slate to drop as far as the table. Now, when the trap in the table is opened, the slate opens or drops far enough for the medium to write on that part, also on the slate above it. He closes both the slate and the table, and the slates, upon being unsealed, are found covered with writing. The only thing that remains to be explained is how the medium gets his hand free to do the writing without being detected. The lamp or gas jet is close to the medium’s right hand, where he can reach it. Now, all the persons are seated around the table with their hands on the slates, and each other’s hands or fingers touching one another. The medium takes his right hand away to turn down the light, and his next door neighbor, as soon as the light goes out, feels his (the medium’s) hand or finger replaced. At least, so he thinks. What really happens is this: The thumb of the medium’s left hand is stretched far enough over to touch the hand or finger of the person sitting on the performer’s right hand side. (Fig. 10.) The medium immediately goes to work and produces the writing, and when finished, just as he goes to relight the gas or lamp, he removes the left thumb to create the impression that he has just taken his right hand away again for the light.

Here is a trick I once saw a medium do. He had a number of slates piled on top of the table; he would clean these, one at a time, showing each, and after they had been thoroughly examined, he placed them on the floor. He would then pick them all up together and replace them on the table, and select two of them, put them together, holding them in his hand above his head, would shortly separate them and show one covered with writing. The slates were devoid of all trickery, as was easily proved in allowing them to be thoroughly examined.

The explanation is as follows: The floor was covered with carpet. In this there was a slit or cut just large enough to pass or draw a slate through. A slate with writing on one side is previously placed under the carpet, with that side down. (Fig. 11.) The slates, as they are cleaned, are laid on the carpet immediately over or near this concealed one, and, on lifting the slates from the floor, this one is also carried with them, and all placed on the table.

Of course, it is this slate and one of the prepared ones that are afterward used. There is little likelihood of any one taking notice of there being one more slate in the pile.

Some mediums use two single slates, and, after cleaning them on both sides, hold one in each hand. They sit a little way from the table and place the right hand, with the slate, under the chair, as if to draw the chair closer to the table. What the medium really accomplishes is an exchange of slates. There is a little shelf, or drawer, under the seat of the chair. On this lies a slate, one side of which is prepared with writing. The medium picks up the slate and leaves behind in its place the one held in his right hand as he moves the chair. This is a method used to a considerable extent and always successfully.

The following is a clever ruse, ofttimes used by mediums to destroy all traces of the use of the false flap when it is employed. It is the test where the flap is used to cover the writing on one slate, and then that slate is covered with another. Now, if the slates are turned over or reversed, the writing is uncovered and the flap remains in the opposite or underneath slate. Now, to get rid of that flap, the medium deliberately presses his knee against that slate, breaking not only the slate, but also the flap contained in it. The broken flap mingles in with the broken slate, and nobody is any the wiser. Nobody for a moment thinks of picking up the pieces to see if there are one or more slates. Of course, when the slates are broken, it is done secretly under the table, and the medium remarks: “The spirit force is so strong it has smashed the slate.” A test with a single slate that I once saw done was rather neat in its way, and I think it worth describing. The slate was examined and cleaned on both sides, and placed on a small table covered with a little fancy cloth. On lifting the slate afterward, its underneath side was found with writing on it. The top of the table was no larger than the slate. When the slate was laid on the table, the medium remarked: “To convince you there is no trickery about the table, I will remove the cloth;” which he did, with the slate still on or in it, and then replaced the slate and cloth. Now, on this table top was resting another slate covered with writing on one side, and that side upward, and this covered with the table cloth. When the medium picked up the cloth and the slate, which had just been cleaned, he also carried along the second slate with it, which was under the cloth, and in replacing the cloth he simply reversed the sides, laying the first slate on the table, where it was covered by the cloth, and the second one was thus brought to view. It is astonishing how such barefaced and simple devices will deceive the spectator. It is the boldness and air of conviction of his assertions that carry a medium’s test successfully through.