“Allen Putnam.
“Roxbury, July 10, 1857.”
I must here bear testimony to the uniform politeness—I may say kindness—with which I was personally treated by Prof. Agassiz, however rough may have been his occasional treatment of some of the other mediums. So far as we were concerned, he exhibited nothing but that perfect gentlemanhood which lent another grace to his mental greatness and scientific attainment. There has always remained on my mind the impression of something mysterious as having clouded his general conduct in this “investigation.” He was indeed in a false position, and ought never to have been a member of that committee of professors, inasmuch as it was of such serious importance to Prof. Felton (afterwards president), who was virtually the prosecuting officer against Spiritualism, and so vehement in his public antagonism to it, and who was also so closely connected by marriage with Agassiz, his father-in-law (I believe), that a failure to support Felton in this must have complicated family relations. I must also add that I found Prof. Horsford unexceptionable as a kind and courteous gentleman. I think that at the bottom of the committee’s strange conduct in only making an “award” on a money question, which no longer existed before them, and then remaining in the ridiculous position of never making their promised “report,” notwithstanding the challenges and the jeers of the Spiritualist papers and orators, lay, in some degree at least, the facts of this awkwardness of domestic difficulties, and the impossibility of getting the professors united upon any report.
But that noble man, who has long since gone to his reward, Dr. Gardner, did not let the matter drop at this point. No sooner was the “award” promulgated than he engaged his mediums to postpone their departure from the city, and, under like circumstances, in the same room, furniture unchanged, to repeat their sittings before a different set of investigators, namely, the representatives of the Press. A large body of these gentlemen attended, besides their friends and other spectators, and it is sufficient for me to say that the results were entirely satisfactory. But Dr. Gardner had requested that their reports should be withheld from publication until after the committee’s full report should have appeared.
In Mr. Allan Putnam’s pamphlet above referred to (“Agassiz and Spiritualism”), is given an account of this convening of the members of the Press, by Dr. Gardner, written by the temporary editor of The New England Spiritualist, and signed “One Present,” and commencing:
“It is well known that the ‘award’ of the committee entirely failed to meet the rational demands of inquirers. It took the form of a decree rather than a decision. Such being the facts, Dr. Gardner thought it due, not only to himself but to the community, to make another effort to have the matter fairly and deliberately tested. Accordingly, immediately after the appearance of the committee’s ‘award,’ he invited the editors of the principal newspapers in the city to attend the séances and witness manifestations through the same mediums he had employed before the professors.
“The gentlemen who responded to this invitation were: Messrs. Carter, Robinson, and Brown, of The Boston Traveller; Stockwell, of The Journal; Bulger, of The Post; Clapp and Shillaber, of The Gazette; Marsh, of The Bee; Tracy, of The Herald; Hill, of The Ledger; and the editors of The Banner of Light, and New England Spiritualist. There were also present at a portion of the sittings, Hon. L. V. Bell, A. Putnam, Esq., Alvin Adams, Esq., and others.”
I extract only the following, which relates to ourselves:
“SECOND SESSION.
“At the second session, on Thursday afternoon, July 2d, Mrs. Brown and Miss Kate Fox were present as mediums. The precaution was taken again to examine the furniture and appliances of the room, to guard against any mechanical trickery. The company then seating themselves, raps were in a few moments heard upon the floor and table. The sounds were various and complicated, from the lightest tap to quite heavy blows. The heavier sounds had a peculiar softness, as if they had been made by a padded drum-stick worked by a spring.
“The next step was to test the intelligence manifested through the sounds. The method of doing this will be understood from the following, which is but a small part of the proceedings—as a report of the whole would be but a repetition of questions similar in their character, and eliciting equivalent results.