Of course it is what is on this false flap and on the other side of the slate that the spectator really reads, and when the slate is cleaned it is this flap and the opposite side of the slate. The writing, covered by the flap, which is the answer to the question, is never seen or touched until after the flap is allowed to drop into the medium’s lap. The slate can be examined; and, of course, no trickery can be found in connection with it. The method described above, in the hands of a calm and cool person, is a convincing one, and never fails to satisfy the most exacting of skeptics. I wish to remark that, if any person tells you he took two slates of his own to a medium, thoroughly well tied or sealed, and that the slates never left his (the skeptic’s) hands, and that there was writing obtained upon the interior surface of the slates under those conditions, he was sadly mistaken, and has failed to keep track of everything that actually took place at the time of the sitting. Suppose two slates tied together are brought to the medium. Both he and the stranger sit at a table. The slates are held under the table, the medium grasping one corner and the skeptic the opposite corner, each with one hand, and the disengaged hands clasped together above the table. After a while the slates are laid upon the table, the string untied, the slates taken apart, but no writing is found. The medium states it must have been because there was no slate pencil between them. So a small piece of pencil is placed between the slates, and again they are tied with the cord by the medium, and he again passes them under the table, both persons holding the slates as before. Presently writing is heard, and, upon the skeptic bringing the slates from under the table and untying the cord himself, he finds one of the slates covered with writing, although but shortly before they were devoid of even a scratch. Here is the explanation: The medium does not pass the slates under the table the first time, but drops them in his lap, with the side on which the string is tied or knotted downward, and really passes a set of his own for the skeptic to hold; he (the medium) supporting his end by pressing against the table with his knee, which leaves his hand disengaged. There is a slate pencil, called the soapstone pencil, which is softer than the ordinary. This is the one used by the medium. He now covers the face of the slate which is uppermost in his lap with writing, doing so very quietly and without any noise. Now, as he brings the slates above the table, he leaves his own in his lap and brings up the skeptic’s with the writing side down. The slates are untied and taken apart and shown, devoid of writing upon the inside, which he claims was caused by not having any slate pencil inside. The medium now places the pencil upon the slate which was originally the upper one, and covers this with what was the bottom slate, which is covered with the writing inside on the back or bottom of slate.