A Magician Among the Spirits

by Harry Houdini

There is a form of slate where the slab is invisibly hinged on the side so that it opens like a door and is held shut by a secret catch. This slate can be used in a dark seance or under the table at a light one. It can also be used on a cloth-top table with an invisible trap. The trap and the hinged slate drop down together and the medium is able to write on the slate by reaching under the table.

Still another scheme used with a pair of hinged slates is to have a hole through both frames at one end and locking them with a padlock. In working this the pins are pushed out of the hinges and the frames, moving easily on the shackle of the padlock, permit the medium to write on the inside of the slates without difficulty, afterwards fastening the slates together again by simply replacing the pins in the hinges.

A method of concealing an extra slate is to have it a trifle smaller than the rest and then hidden in some convenient place, say the seat of a chair. A large slate is first examined and laid on the chair. Later it is picked up with the extra one under it. Sometimes the extra one is hidden under the edge of a rug on the floor and worked in the same way. At other times it is hidden on the medium’s body and slipped under a large slate when the medium stands with his right side on a line with the sitter’s vision.

An entirely different method is employed to some extent by mediums who are very rapid and interesting talkers. Throughout the seance the medium walks nervously about the room, keeping up a continual flow of conversation. He passes two slates to the sitter for examination. A third, the same size, with a previously written message on one side, being concealed in a large pocket inside the breast of his coat. While the slates are being examined he walks about the room sometimes behind and sometimes in front of the sitter, tapping him on the shoulder to emphasize his remarks. As soon as the slates are examined he takes them and, passing behind the sitter, places them on his head and asks him to hold them there and at the same time continuing his walk and talk. Of course when the slates are examined there is a message on the inside of one of them. When the medium steps behind the sitter with the slates in his hand he quickly changes the slate with a message which he has hidden for one of the blank ones. This is no more bold or difficult than many mediumistic tricks but it requires a particularly fluent conversationalist to successfully produce the needed amount of misdirection when the slates are switched. Women mediums effect a similar exchange sometimes by the aid of a special pocket in the dress.

A very effective method of getting a direct answer to a question on the inside of a sealed double slate is as follows. The slates are thoroughly cleansed by the sitter, who writes a question on a slip of paper, folds it and places it between the slates, with a bit of pencil. The medium keeps at a distance during the writing and cannot see what has been written. The slates are then sealed with strips of paper and placed on the table and the sitter holds both hands of the medium. After a time, as no sound of writing is heard, the medium shows some concern as to the possibility of failure and suggests that the sitter hold the slates at the top of his own head. Still there is no sound and the slates are returned to the table, where they remain for some time without any sign of writing. The medium becomes very much worried and suggests that the slates be placed on the sitter’s head again, remarking that if no sound is heard he will be obliged to postpone that test till a future sitting. This time the writing is heard almost as soon as the slates touch the head and when it ceases and the slates are unsealed a complete answer is found written on the inner surface of one or both slates.

This seeming marvel is produced in the following simple manner. The medium’s assistant steals into the room with a duplicate pair of sealed slates and stands behind the sitter. In the act of placing the slates on the head a switch is made, and the sitter holds the duplicates while the originals are taken into an adjoining room by the assistant. He lifts the seals with a hot table knife and after reading the question he writes an appropriate answer, reseals the slates and returns to his position behind the sitter. Another exchange is made when the slates are placed on the sitter’s head the second time. The sound of writing is made by the medium under the table with a piece of slate pencil and a bit of slate, but it is so faint that the sitter cannot locate it.

HOUDINI, MRS. HOUDINI, AND MR. TEALE DEMONSTRATING A METHOD OF SWITCHING SLATES OVER A SITTER’S HEAD

In Bohemia, Province of Prague, I ran across a medium who was especially good in slate writing. At first I could not “get” his work. When I was playing in Berlin, at the Wintergarten, he came in one night and wanted to give a performance to the directors. I was guest but went prepared for him. His work was so designed that he walked behind us and in so doing he baffled me. I asked for a private sitting and he readily consented.

When he did the slate writing at this sitting I felt someone’s presence, and, sure enough, when he took the slates away there was an almost imperceptible hesitation. In this fraction of a second the slates were switched through a trap in the panel behind me. I had a mirror on a rubber elastic fastened to my vest and as I took my seat I pulled the elastic so I could sit on it. I managed to secure this mirror and keep it palmed in my hand, and with it saw the panel slide open, the arm extended with the duplicate slates, and the exchange made.