“When Slade drew his chair close to mine he crossed his legs and was
thus enabled to bring his foot under the rung of my chair. The leg
resting over the knee gave considerable leverage to the limb having a
foot under the rung of my chair. Now he exerted the necessary strength
by pressing upward with his foot, and holding the chair back with
his hand while the other hand steadied the whole, by bearing against
the table. Slade took his hand away from the back of my chair for
the fraction of a second _before he released his foot_. I was thus
naturally tilted forward and had to exert some force to keep myself
from sliding off the chair. This effort kept me from seeing Slade free
himself and get his limbs back to their normal position, viz., one hand
on the table, and his feet and legs fairly under it. Slade was rather
tall and, though somewhat slim, was very muscular. Of course I did not
actually _see_ Slade use his foot to do the lifting, but his position
and all the circumstances surrounding the effect tend to prove my
claim as to what I believe he did. Further, while I was far from being
as strong as Slade, I succeeded in duplicating this ‘Levitation’ by the
means I have described.”
While searching for material about Slade I heard of an old medium
living in Philadelphia by the name of Remigius Weiss, known as Remigius
Albus, who had testified before the Seybert Commission regarding
Slade’s manipulation of the slates. I went over to Philadelphia to
his home and there met the only man who had tangible evidence of Dr.
Slade. This he thoroughly explained to me. I asked him why he had never
exposed it to the world and he told me that he held back at first
because of pity for Slade’s condition and afterwards figured that if
the fraud mediums and other potential criminals knew Slade’s methods
they might make use of the methods to gain control of poor human beings
who wished to get in touch with loved ones who had passed away. He
did not hesitate to give me full details and at my request wrote me
a letter describing his experience with Slade. I quote it because I
believe it to be the best exposé ever written of Slade’s slate writings.
“August 18, 1923.
“My dear Houdini:--
“Please accept, from me, this Lock-book, and the locked
double-slate--as a small token of comradeship--in combating
Spiritualistic deception, popular superstition and Delusion.
“The book and the slate were my own. I put the lock and hinges
on the slate, and prepared the book, and a number of other,
different objects--(such as Professor Zollner had, when he,
in his foolishness, was pleased to be deceived by Dr. Slade’s
Humbug).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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