CHAPTER III. SOME STARTLING DAYLIGHT SEANCES. It was on September 4, 1893, that a number of the most prominent citizens of San Francisco held a daylight seance (at high noon) at the office of Mayor Ellert. The company had assembled in response to the _Examiner's_ invitation, and all of the witnesses had agreed in advance to observe everything closely and write an absolutely fair account of what they saw, adding any theory or explanation that seemed sufficient to account for the phenomena. It is as well to say that is was a mirthful assembly at the outset, and the newspaper man who had arranged for the experiments was the butt of many little jokes. The idea that the medium could do anything more than a little clever juggling seemed farthest from anybody's thoughts. Dr. Louis Schlesinger, then a man about sixty-one years of age, was the spiritualist medium who said he could convince all present that the dead return, and that he could hold communion with the living. The following spectators were present, and the written reports of some of them are given in full in the subjoined narrative: Mayor Levi R. Ellert, District Attorney W. S. Barnes, President Theodore F. Bonnet, of the San Francisco Press Club, Ex-President Grant Carpenter, of the same club, H. H. McCloskey, then a State Central Committeeman of the Republican party, and many other casual observers. At another seance Chief of Police Crowley, Judge Robert Ferral, Dr. R. E. Bunker, and Attorney Charles L. Patton were the principal investigators, though Captain Wright and many others saw all that was done. At this seance the observations were conducted under the test conditions arranged by Chief Crowley, Dr. Bunker, and Attorney Patton. The reader should satisfy himself concerning the mental and moral qualifications of all the witnesses named by glancing at the biographical sketches elsewhere in this volume. At the Mayor's office Dr. Schlesinger was announced as a resident of No. 1 Polk Street. He said he knew none of the committee, and nobody present except the _Examiner's_ representative knew the Doctor.[1] [1] He now lives in Boston.--Editor. "I can converse with the spirits of your deceased friends," said the medium, "and I am giving my life to this work. I gave up a great tea business to teach my fellow men that life does not end at the grave. My home is constantly filled with bands of angels from the celestial depths, but I am able to call a few spirits around any box, table, or desk. I want you to satisfy yourself that all that is done here is absolutely honest."