every letter comprising the various answers. And taking note of this from the beginning, I was able to compose those answers in my mind, and would have undertaken to rap them out with my knuckles, in my present earthly and corporeal state, to the full as accurately as I (and the reader, for the matter of that) may be expected to sound our replies, when summoned into some Chicago or Melbourne drawing-room by a Mrs. Marshall of the twentieth century.
This statement, it may be objected by the believer, is a mere fancy engendered by incredulity, and cannot be accepted as true. A circumstance, however, which I have already hinted at, as, in any case, marring to some slight degree, the value of the experiment, may here be mentioned. While the stupor caused by the late revelation still lingered on the faces of some of the party, one of our friends who had been standing round the table, ventured a remark. “Mrs. Cn,” said he, “while you were sitting on the sofa with Mrs. Marshall some short time ago, I heard you tell her that you were extremely anxious to question the spirits about your relative, George Collins, whom you supposed to have been murdered in Spain.” This being admitted, after a while, by Mrs. Cn (if this paper should chance to meet her eye, she will, I suppose, never forgive me for remarking that she is somewhat advanced in age and apt to be forgetful), it was agreed that some further questions should be put to our mysterious visitor, previous to his dismissal. He was accordingly asked for the name of his murderer, which nobody knew. He refused so far to further the ends of justice, and indeed to all further queries opposed a dead silence. In a short time he was replaced by a spirit which proclaimed itself that of the writer’s father. I shall not weary the reader by stating the exact questions which I put to the new-comer, but shall content myself with assuring him that to every one of them a wrong answer was given. Or, to speak more correctly, I caused Mrs. Marshall’s niece to rap out any reply that I chose, by the simple process above referred to, of pausing at a particular letter. In only one case did this mode of proceeding fail, and it happened to be the one single case in which I desired to put a correct reply into the spirit’s mouth. It occurred on my asking him to spell one of my names, a family one, “Delaware,” which being somewhat uncommon, proved too much even for the spirit of my own parent, so that, despite all the guidance afforded him, he fairly broke down in the middle of the word, and retired in dudgeon. He was followed, in succession, by other spirits, not one of whom, to the best of my recollection, gave a correct answer to a single question. Indeed, when not absolutely guided, they generally adopted the safer course of not answering at all. Only in one instance did they venture on what may be termed an independent shot, which was in the case of a gentleman asking for his Christian name (some one present said, loud enough to be heard by the medium, that it began with E), upon which they rapped out “Edward,” and then “Edmond,” neither of which happened to be anywhere near the mark.
The majority of the company, at this period, presenting anything but an awe-struck appearance, and, on the contrary, strongly inclining to mirth, the spirits rapped out “Small table,” (this time without any guidance on our part, or hesitation on theirs), and a fresh set of experiments commenced. This consisted in four persons—the two mediums and myself included—placing their hands on a small table which stands, or alas! rather stood, in my front drawing-room. The table being unmistakeably pushed by Mrs. Marshall and her niece, naturally began to move across the carpet, and two or three times jumped up with a jerking motion from the floor. I am relieved from all conjecture as to the probable cause of this latter movement by having myself distinctly seen Mrs. Marshall’s niece place her foot under one of the legs and tilt it upwards. On the third occasion of this very clumsy operation being performed, the table was discovered to be broken, and the experiment, of course, came to an end.
We now returned to the larger table, for the purpose of being touched by “spirit hands.” The first person selected by Mrs. Marshall as the subject of this manifestation was a lady seated close to herself. A long pause ensuing, and nothing appearing to take place, Mrs. Marshall suddenly exclaimed: “You’ll feel them immediately, ma’am; they’re a-pulling at my legs.” Directly after which the lady in question certainly did feel something pulling at her legs. A sceptic might be inclined to surmise that the younger medium having, in the first instance made a mistake, her aunt took this means of setting her right and directing the instrument with which she was operating under the table a little further to the left. However this might be, I now requested the niece to favour me by leaving her seat for a short time, in order that we might feel the “spirit hands” without any suspicion of collusion on her part. This, I added, would no doubt be more satisfactory to her as well as to ourselves. She declined to do this. After which, the reader will not be surprised to learn that several persons felt something tugging at their legs and feet, every one of these being in the immediate vicinity of the younger medium, and no effect of the kind being once produced upon those seated at a little distance.
I can only afford to glance at several other “manifestations” which took place during the séance, and which it would be an abuse of the reader’s patience to dwell upon at length. Thus, a tray was produced which, under the manipulation of the two mediums, shuffled up and down on the surface of the mahogany, and on one occasion tilted up on one end, a performance which I again most distinctly saw to be due to a sharp movement of the fingers on the part of the niece. The spirit of some one’s father danced to the air of “God Save the Queen.” Spirits were ordered to rap on the walls, and inside the piano, which they entirely failed to do, rapping all the time unmistakeably under the table, with slight variations of sound. And every time that one of these raps was produced, it was impossible for the younger medium to repress a slight, almost imperceptible,