TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
SPIRIT SLATE WRITING
AND
KINDRED PHENOMENA
BY
WILLIAM E. ROBINSON
Assistant to the late Herrmann
SIXTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS
MUNN & COMPANY
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN OFFICE
New York City
1898
Copyrighted, 1898, by Munn & Company.
All rights reserved.
PREFACE.
The author of the present volume is not anopponent of spiritualism—on the contrary, he wasbrought up from childhood in this belief; andthough, at the present writing, he does not acknowledgethe truth of its teachings, nevertheless herespects the feelings of those who are honest in theirconvictions. At the same time he confidently believesthat all rational persons, spiritualists as wellas others, will heartily indorse this endeavor toexplain the methods of those who, under the maskof mediumship, and possessing all the artifices of thecharlatan, victimize those seeking knowledge oftheir loved ones who have passed away. As a greatNew York lawyer once said, it was not spiritualismhe was fighting, but fraud under the guise of spiritualism.
Owing to the fact that the author has for manyyears been engaged in the practice of the professionof magic, both as a prestidigitateur and designer ofstage illusions for the late Alexander Herrmann, andhas also been associated with Prof. Kellar, he feels[iv]that he is fitted to treat of clever tricks used bymediums. He has attended hundreds of séancesboth at home and abroad, and the present volumeis the fruit of his studies.
Some of the means of working these slate testsmay appear simple and impossible of deceiving, butin the hands of the medium they are entirely successful.It should be remembered it is not so muchthe apparatus employed as it is the shrewd, cunning,ever-observing sharper using it. The devicesand methods employed by slate writing frauds seeminnumerable. No sooner are they caught and exposedwhile employing one system than they immediatelyset their wits to work and evolve anentirely different idea. It is almost impossible atthe first sitting with a slate writing medium to knowwhat method he will employ, and should you, afterthe sitting, go away with the idea that you havediscovered his method of operation and come asecond time ready to expose him, you may be sadlydisappointed, for the medium will undoubtedly leadyou to believe he is going to use his former method,and so mislead you. He accomplishes his test byanother method, while you are on the lookout forsomething entirely different. The great success ofthe medium is in disarming the suspicions of theskeptic, an