Suddenly the old man opened his eyes and said: “Gentlemen, are you satisfied that I do not know any of the names on those papers?”
As Senator Spencer was as truthful and honorable a man as ever lived, one whose word was better than most men’s bonds, I replied: “I am sure you have not seen the names and that you do not know one of them.”
“And some of the names are not known to anybody in California,” added the Senator.
“Then I’ll have to show you that I can talk with the spirits of the departed,” said Dr. Schlesinger.
Without further delay he said: “I see the spirit of your mother standing over you. She calls you Dillard, which is your middle name, and she says she died in Kansas City, and was buried in the old cemetery at Westport. Am I right?”
Senator Spencer turned pale and said: “That is absolutely correct. Which one of the pellets bears her name?”
He then held the bits of paper between his right finger and thumb, and when he had picked up three or four of them, the medium said, “That is the one which contains your mother’s maiden name.”
I have now forgotten the maiden name of the Senator’s mother, though I think it was Dillard. The answer, however, was correct.
Next, without asking me to write anything down, the medium thus addressed me: “I see the spirit of your mother’s mother. Her name was Eliza Johnson, and she calls you ‘my son,’ and says, ‘Tell Anne that immortality is the glorious truth of human life.’ Anne was the name of her eldest child—your mother.”
If Senator Spencer was convinced that Dr. Schlesinger had told him the truth, I had the same kind of conviction in my case; for every word uttered was correct. I have never understood how this old man came to the results announced, nor have I ever seen any one who was able to explain his power.