[The foregoing note by the Stenographer is somewhat incoherent, owing to his unfamiliarity with Slade's séances; yet we prefer to let it remain as it is.—G.S.F.]
(Mr. Sellers adds, parenthetically): That is, I watched the Medium's operations specially with a view of informing myself whether the slate used in both instances was the same.
(Resuming, from notes): The Medium proposed that the Committee should retain the slate upon which the long message appeared. The slate was accordingly retained by the Committee.
Professor Thompson (addressing Mr. Sellers): Was not that slate the one that I held at the time referred to?
Mr. Sellers: It was. The slate was held by you at the same time that it was held by the Medium.
Professor Thompson: Then there is an additional fact to be noted in regard to it. That fact is this. When the sounds indicating the writing process had ceased, I endeavored to pull the slate away from under the table, but the Medium resisted my effort, and by powerful exertion jerked the slate out toward himself. The substitution of one slate for the other was probably made at this time, and the slate so substituted was then placed on the table.
Mr. Sellers: That is true, most assuredly I saw the substitution, and Mr. Furness also saw it very plainly. From his position Mr. Furness saw the Medium take up the other slate.
NOTE.—An explanation was here made by Mr. Furness to the effect that his knowledge of the substitution here spoken of was inferential, but that at another period of the séance he did distinctly see the Medium grasp an unused slate.
Mr. Sellers here resumed, from his notes:
The Medium then proposed to attempt the experiment of causing the chair upon which Professor Thompson sat, to rise from the floor, without external agency other than that of the hand of the Medium on the back of the chair. In answer to the question, 'Will you try to lift the chair?' the response was 'Yes.' Mr. Sellers, being requested to write a question on the back of the slate near him, wrote the following, 'What is the time?' After some little time, during which the Medium furtively glanced at the slate, the answer was given, 'A little after twelve.'