Then the name of the sitter’s deceased uncle was properly announced, though it had not been written on any of the slips. Correct information was also given concerning the uncle’s religion while “in the flesh.”
S. S. Chamberlain, now Managing Editor of the Philadelphia North American, (then News Editor of the Examiner) was one of the investigators. He wrote down, on separate slips of paper, the names of many living and dead persons, but, contrary to the medium’s request, he did not write the names of persons he had ever known. In a few moments Dr. Schlesinger read the names correctly while the slips were beyond his reach, and firmly clasped in Chamberlain’s hand. They were of such persons as John Ruskin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Shakespeare, Longfellow, etc.
A faithful report of all that occurred was submitted to the managing editor of the paper, who at once decided that a series of similar experiments, conducted at the office of the Mayor of the city and others, in broad daylight, would make the basis for some interesting Sunday specials. Under his instructions I arranged the seances, and was present at all of them. I subsequently wrote a faithful account of what occurred, but the articles were rejected by the editor of the Sunday Examiner for personal reasons. This volume embraces the substance of what was then prepared.
CHAPTER III.
SOME STARTLING DAYLIGHT SEANCES.
It was on September 4, 1893, that a number of the most prominent citizens of San Francisco held a daylight seance (at high noon) at the office of Mayor Ellert. The company had assembled in response to the Examiner’s invitation, and all of the witnesses had agreed in advance to observe everything closely and write an absolutely fair account of what they saw, adding any theory or explanation that seemed sufficient to account for the phenomena.
It is as well to say that is was a mirthful assembly at the outset, and the newspaper man who had arranged for the experiments was the butt of many little jokes. The idea that the medium could do anything more than a little clever juggling seemed farthest from anybody’s thoughts.
Dr. Louis Schlesinger, then a man about sixty-one years of age, was the spiritualist medium who said he could convince all present that the dead return, and that he could hold communion with the living. The following spectators were present, and the written reports of some of them are given in full in the subjoined narrative: Mayor Levi R. Ellert, District Attorney W. S. Barnes, President Theodore F. Bonnet, of the San Francisco Press Club, Ex-President Grant Carpenter, of the same club, H. H. McCloskey, then a State Central Committeeman of the Republican party, and many other casual observers.