We now come to another method of using the single slate. The medium takes the slate and places it on the table and requests the spectator to write a question on a piece of paper. He, the medium, gains knowledge of the contents of the paper in various ways; one is by using a pad of paper which contains underneath the second or third layer of paper a carbon sheet made of wax and lampblack. Whatever is written on the first sheet of paper will be transferred or copied by means of the carbon paper to the sheet underneath it. Another way is by requesting a person to fold the paper and hold it against his head, and, under the pretense of showing the person how to hold it, exchange it for a paper of his own folded in like manner. This exchanged paper is then opened and read by the medium while his hand is below the level of the table top, and while he is holding a conversation with the auditor. After it is read, the paper is again folded and kept in the performer’s lap until needed. As he now knows the contents of the paper, he can frame in his mind a suitable answer. He remarks: “I will ask the spirits first to give you a decided answer, through me as an independent trance slate writing medium, whether they will answer your question during this sitting.” So the medium takes a pencil in hand and writes on one side of the slate, apparently under spirit control, and then on the other side. The message is read, and it says the conditions are very favorable, and no doubt, if the skeptic will place the utmost confidence in the medium, there will be satisfactory results. After the slate has been shown with both sides covered with writing, it is thoroughly cleaned and placed on the table. The medium now picks up the original paper from his lap and asks the person to give him the paper he is holding. This the medium apparently places under the slate; however, he really holds this one back and introduces the one he has had in his hand, which is the one originally written upon. He has now his own paper in his hand, and the one with the question is under the slate. On the slate being turned over in a short time, it is covered with writing, forming a sensible reply to the question on the paper, which is now opened and read to compare it with the answer. All that remains to be explained is how the writing on the slate appeared there. The false flap is again used, but in a directly opposite manner to which it has been employed heretofore. One side of this flap is covered with a portion of the writing that the medium first wrote under spirit control. Let us say the first half supposed to have been written on the one side of the slate, and which he afterward reads off in connection with that written on the last or second side of the slate. What he really wrote on the first half of the slate was a correct answer to the question, and after he turns the slate over to write on the opposite side he slips the false flap over the answer on the slate.