A hoax which usually creates a sensation, but which is apt, ultimately, to have a decidedly bad effect on believers’ nerves, consists in allowing some person to touch or even fondle a materialized Spirit. One such demonstration occurred in a Southern city, where there lived a medium known as Mrs. M----. Her seances were always well attended and largely made up of the elite of the town. On one particular night a Spirit came forth and called for Andrew, saying in the most austere tones: “I am the Spirit of ‘Josie’ and I want to see my beloved whom I left twenty years ago. I know that he is present and that he wants to hear from me, and more important, I know he still loves me, for in those twenty years he has never married.” With trembling knees and shaking hands the man climbed to the stage and in the midst of sobs recognized and embraced his sweetheart. It was a very touching and pathetic scene and the believers were greatly affected, and at some one’s suggestion an ex-minister and editor of a Spiritualistic magazine, who was present, married the Spirit bride to the live groom. It was a sensational proof of mediumship and Mrs. M---- was headlined in all the local papers. Unfortunately, however, for the cause of Spiritualism, my old friend, Professor Harry Cook, happened to be in the neighborhood and on hearing about it hired a hall, challenged the medium to a test, and with a lady assistant performed and exposed the miracle. I recall another instance where one of my friends was investigating a materialization seance. It was claimed that the Spirit of his deceased wife was manifesting and he asked permission to kiss her. This was graciously granted and he told me later that she must have forgotten to shave for she had a stubble beard. Incidentally I might add that while he attended the seance his real wife waited for him at a nearby theatre. Such an eminent scientist as Sir William Crookes evidently fell for the materialization hoax, judging from what he tells us about his experience at a seance where Florence Cook was the medium and Katie King the phantom. I will quote the story in his own words as he tells it in his book “Researches in Spiritualism.” “Several times she took my arm and the impression I received that it was a living woman at my side and not a visitor from the other world was so strong that the temptation to repeat a recent and curious experiment became almost irresistible. “Realizing then that if it were not a Spirit beside me it was in any case a lady, I asked her permission to take her in my arms in order to verify the interesting observation that a bold experimenter had recently made known. This permission was graciously given, and I took advantage of it respectfully, as any gentleman would have done in the same circumstances. The ‘ghost,’ which made no resistance, was a being as material as Miss Cook herself.