His early life was spent in Connecticut but whether at the home of his aunt in Waterford or with his mother in Norwich, twelve miles away, is a question, but certain it is that at the death of his mother he went to the aunt’s. This was when he was seventeen, two years after the “Fox Sisters” had begun their career in New York State. How much he had heard of them is uncertain, something no doubt, and it is not strange that a youth of his characteristics might want to emulate them. Then too his mother had the reputation of being possessed of so-called “second-sight” and he may have inherited traits which helped to make the life of a medium look attractive to him. At any rate, claiming the assistance of his mother’s spirit, he tried out his mediumistic powers at the homes of the neighbors with such success that before long he announced to his aunt that he was going to set up as a _professional Spiritualist_. The lady, a devout Trinitarian, was so shocked and disturbed, he tells us, that “in her uncontrollable anger she seized a chair and threw it at me.” But much as she disliked the idea of the young man becoming a medium his performances soon attracted so much attention that she was reconciled to his leaving her home in Norwich to go to Willimantic, Connecticut, where he began his life-long custom of living on the bounty of friends and dupes. His first feats were of the simplest kind such as are in the repertoire of every itinerant sideshow proprietor, but his success seems to have been instantaneous. One reason for this was that while mediums as a class were a lazy lot Home was an untiring worker as well as an unflinching egotist and his personal qualities went far to disarm suspicion and inspire confidence in the minds of his dupes.