Some of the means of working these slate tests may appear simple and impossible of deceiving, but in the hands of the medium they are entirely successful. It should be remembered it is not so much the apparatus employed as it is the shrewd, cunning, ever-observing sharper using it. The devices and methods employed by slate writing frauds seem innumerable. No sooner are they caught and exposed while employing one system than they immediately set their wits to work and evolve an entirely different idea. It is almost impossible at the first sitting with a slate writing medium to know what method he will employ, and should you, after the sitting, go away with the idea that you have discovered his method of operation and come a second time ready to expose him, you may be sadly disappointed, for the medium will undoubtedly lead you to believe he is going to use his former method, and so mislead you. He accomplishes his test by another method, while you are on the lookout for something entirely different. The great success of the medium is in disarming the suspicions of the skeptic, and at that very moment the trick is done. Slate writing is of course the great standby of mediums, but there are many other tricks which they employ which are described in the present volume. The publishers have added a chapter on “Miscellaneous Tricks” which may serve as a supplement to their “Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, Including Trick Photography,” which has already obtained an enviable position in the literature of magic, and has been even translated into Swedish. These tricks are by Mr. W. B. Caulk and the author. NEW YORK, November, 1898. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE The Single Slate 3 CHAPTER II. The Double Slate 32 CHAPTER III. Miscellaneous Slate Tests 41 CHAPTER IV. Mind Reading and Kindred Phenomena 51 CHAPTER V. Table Lifting and Spirit Rapping 71 CHAPTER VI. Spiritualistic Ties 82 CHAPTER VII. Post Tests, Handcuffs, Spirit Collars, etc. 93 CHAPTER VIII. Séances and Miscellaneous Spirit Tricks 101 CHAPTER IX. Miscellaneous Tricks 115 SPIRIT SLATE WRITING AND KINDRED PHENOMENA. CHAPTER I. THE SINGLE SLATE.