WILLIAM S. BARNES, son of the eloquent and famous General W. H. L. Barnes (known all over America as the greatest living after-dinner orator, and known all over the United States as a Republican orator), is a graduate of Harvard and a man of fine legal attainments. He is one of the most prominent Native Sons, and is famous for his shrewdness as Prosecuting Attorney for the great City and County of San Francisco. It was he who prosecuted and convicted Theodore Durrant in one of the most marvelous criminal cases of the century. He was also the star lawyer in the prosecution of the great Sydney Bell footpad case. Mr. Barnes was the organizer and president of the Association of District Attorneys of California; is an active member of California Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M., a member of the Pacific-Union Club, also of the Union League, of which he is one of a committee on political action, of the Juarez Manufacturing Company, of which he is President. Thus his mastery in the legal profession is no less equaled in his social and business associations. Attorney CHARLES L. PATTON is Grand Master of California Masonic fraternity, and is a gentleman of the highest personal and professional character. He was a strong competitor against Mayor Phelan, and was chosen by the Republican party a few years ago as the best candidate against the present (1900) Mayor of the city. Mr. Patton is a man of much erudition and wide experience with men and books. He, like all his associates, and like the writer of this book, was and is a skeptic regarding the truth of so-called spiritual phenomena. His account speaks for itself. Mayor L. R. ELLERT is a man of legal attainments and of wide business interests. He was a popular reform Mayor, and was in office at the time of the occurrences narrated. He is to-day one of the best-known and most highly respected lawyers and business men of San Francisco. For many years he was a skillful pharmacist, and his wide knowledge of drugs and physiology was useful in the attempted solution of the various problems presented by the medium. Judge ROBERT FERRAL is the warhorse of Democracy, and one of the Nestors of the California bar. He made some of the most spirited races ever entered upon for Congress, and polled the largest vote ever known for an unpopular political party in the old days. As a judge and criminal lawyer of wide experience, as well as by reason of his unexcelled literary attainments and extended experience in the science of hypnotism and kindred phenomena, the Judge was an invaluable spectator and participant, especially as his native wit usually enables him to see through many things that puzzle other men. Here, however, he stood dumbfounded.