The explanation is as follows: The floor was covered with carpet. In this there was a slit or cut just large enough to pass or draw a slate through. A slate with writing on one side is previously placed under the carpet, with that side down. (Fig. 11.) The slates, as they are cleaned, are laid on the carpet immediately over or near this concealed one, and, on lifting the slates from the floor, this one is also carried with them, and all placed on the table. Of course, it is this slate and one of the prepared ones that are afterward used. There is little likelihood of any one taking notice of there being one more slate in the pile. Some mediums use two single slates, and, after cleaning them on both sides, hold one in each hand. They sit a little way from the table and place the right hand, with the slate, under the chair, as if to draw the chair closer to the table. What the medium really accomplishes is an exchange of slates. There is a little shelf, or drawer, under the seat of the chair. On this lies a slate, one side of which is prepared with writing. The medium picks up the slate and leaves behind in its place the one held in his right hand as he moves the chair. This is a method used to a considerable extent and always successfully. The following is a clever ruse, ofttimes used by mediums to destroy all traces of the use of the false flap when it is employed. It is the test where the flap is used to cover the writing on one slate, and then that slate is covered with another. Now, if the slates are turned over or reversed, the writing is uncovered and the flap remains in the opposite or underneath slate. Now, to get rid of that flap, the medium deliberately presses his knee against that slate, breaking not only the slate, but also the flap contained in it. The broken flap mingles in with the broken slate, and nobody is any the wiser. Nobody for a moment thinks of picking up the pieces to see if there are one or more slates. Of course, when the slates are broken, it is done secretly under the table, and the medium remarks: “The spirit force is so strong it has smashed the slate.” A test with a single slate that I once saw done was rather neat in its way, and I think it worth describing. The slate was examined and cleaned on both sides, and placed on a small table covered with a little fancy cloth. On lifting the slate afterward, its underneath side was found with writing on it. The top of the table was no larger than the slate. When the slate was laid on the table, the medium remarked: “To convince you there is no trickery about the table, I will remove the cloth;” which he did, with the slate still on or in it, and then replaced the slate and cloth. Now, on this table top was resting another slate covered with writing on one side, and that side upward, and this covered with the table cloth. When the medium picked up the cloth and the slate, which had just been cleaned, he also carried along the second slate with it,