A very effective method of getting a direct answer to a question on the inside of a sealed double slate is as follows. The slates are thoroughly cleansed by the sitter, who writes a question on a slip of paper, folds it and places it between the slates, with a bit of pencil. The medium keeps at a distance during the writing and cannot see what has been written. The slates are then sealed with strips of paper and placed on the table and the sitter holds both hands of the medium. After a time, as no sound of writing is heard, the medium shows some concern as to the possibility of failure and _suggests_ that the sitter hold the slates at the top of his own head. Still there is no sound and the slates are returned to the table, where they remain for some time without any sign of writing. The medium becomes very much worried and suggests that the slates be placed on the sitter’s head again, remarking that if no sound is heard he will be obliged to postpone that test till a future sitting. This time the writing is heard almost as soon as the slates touch the head and when it ceases and the slates are unsealed a complete answer is found written on the inner surface of one or both slates. This seeming marvel is produced in the following simple manner. The medium’s assistant steals into the room with a duplicate pair of sealed slates and stands behind the sitter. In the act of placing the slates on the head a switch is made, and the sitter holds the duplicates while the originals are taken into an adjoining room by the assistant. He lifts the seals with a hot table knife and after reading the question he writes an appropriate answer, reseals the slates and returns to his position behind the sitter. Another exchange is made when the slates are placed on the sitter’s head the second time. The sound of writing is made by the medium under the table with a piece of slate pencil and a bit of slate, but it is so faint that the sitter cannot locate it. [Illustration: HOUDINI, MRS. HOUDINI, AND MR. TEALE DEMONSTRATING A METHOD OF SWITCHING SLATES OVER A SITTER’S HEAD] In Bohemia, Province of Prague, I ran across a medium who was especially good in slate writing. At first I could not “get” his work. When I was playing in Berlin, at the Wintergarten, he came in one night and wanted to give a performance to the directors. I was guest but went prepared for him. His work was so designed that he walked behind us and in so doing he baffled me. I asked for a private sitting and he readily consented.