The ushers, after they have collected all the boards, retire to the back of the house, where they slip the “fake” boards under their coats or vests, and then bring down the genuine ones with some little show, holding them above their heads and throwing them carelessly down upon the stage, where they remain during the entire performance.
The performer also passes out some boards to be written on, but as all eyes are on him he has no opportunity to slip any of these boards under his vest, so he uses only genuine boards, and is not very particular whether they are returned or not. Questions written on these boards are not answered, that is, not by any assistance of the boards, but they may be answered by some of the other methods, which I will describe later.
The ushers now carry their boards around to the back of the stage to the medium, where they are arranged in piles. The usher who distributes the boards on the right side of the house places his in one pile; a pile is also made by the usher from the left of the house, another by the usher from the center of the house, and still another by the usher from the gallery. In this way it is known in what part of the house the questioner sits.
A paper knife is now inserted under the top sheet of board and the top sheet removed and the white sheet with the copy of the questions on it is taken out. The medium and her assistants now either cut these questions out, making little slips of them, or copy them into a little book, making notes regarding the answers under each question where it is necessary. Of course, the sensational part of the performance is in the answers the medium gives, and the quicker and cleverer she is in her answers determines the success of the performance.
The medium and assistants now, while the vaudeville show is taking place on the stage, work up the answers. They are provided with recent issues of local papers from which they can get information about local affairs, and also are able to post themselves on the latest stock quotations, if any question is asked about them, and there usually are a number. They also have a directory of the town they are in, which contains a great deal of useful information for their business. Suppose the medium only has the name of some man in the audience. She can look that person up in the directory, find out his business and his home address, and, by consulting the street directory, can find out his next-door neighbors. If, in her performance, she calls out this man’s name, telling him she cannot seem to catch his question, as he does not concentrate his thoughts upon it, she may bring in, in a very clever manner, the information which she has obtained from the directory, telling him where he lives and naming his neighbors, also telling him where he is employed. This makes a very good impression on the audience, especially if the man is well-known in the town and one who all would know was not in collusion with the performer. The directory also gives a list of all city and town officials, names of all physicians, clergymen and lawyers, names of men in the different departments, such as the police and fire departments, besides giving a list of all stores and manufactories in the town, their owners and officers, and it is all in a very convenient form for reference.
I will now describe a similar method of gaining possession of questions by the aid of the boards, but in this case the boards are free of preparation, but not so with the small slips of paper distributed, on which the questions are written. One side of these slips of paper is prepared by rubbing it over with a piece of hard soap of good quality. Nothing will be noticed about the paper except that one side seems to be glazed. The cardboards used have a hard smooth face. In passing out the slips of paper and boards the soaped side of the paper is placed down upon the face of the board and passed to members of the audience. They write their questions upon these papers, naturally using the side uppermost. The pencils provided have a rather blunt point.
These boards being collected they are carried back of stage as in the former method. Here the boards are dusted over with some pigment, such as bronze powder or lamp black. This is now shaken off, and the questions written will now show up plainly on the boards, the particles of lamp black or whatever is used sticking to the outline of the soap, which adhered to the board in the act of writing the question, and which was not visible until dusted with this fine powdered pigment.
The medium now having a list of questions on which she has made up suitable answers conceals these in her dress and comes forward onto the stage, where she is blind-folded. As soon as the large sheet is thrown over her, however, she pushes this bandage up from her eyes, and the sheet being of thin material or having a number of threads drawn out in that portion which covers her face, she is enabled to read her questions and answers under the sheet.
I think this will fully describe the methods employed where the questions are written upon the performer’s boards.
I will now describe a number of methods by which she obtains questions which are written outside of the theatre, and upon the people’s own paper.