A test I once received was, I thought, quite clever. I was asked to write a question on a piece of paper furnished by myself and place it between two slates without the wooden frames. The medium said I would in a short time receive an answer. He then opened the slates, stating the answer must be there, but none was found. He remarked that perhaps we did not give the spirits time enough. So he replaced the slates together with the paper containing the question between. Again, on taking the slates apart, they were devoid of writing, but, strange to say, the answer in what looked like lead pencil was found on the paper containing the question. When the slates were removed the first time, the medium got a glimpse of the question on the piece of paper and then gave me one slate to examine, and apparently was looking at the other one himself. What he really was doing was this: On the side of the slate toward him he was writing a brief answer to my question with a pencil composed of mutton tallow and lampblack pressed very hard. This pencil was attached to his thumb. He held the slate at the ends with both hands, thumbs behind and fingers in front, the writing being done backward. When the slates were replaced the writing, being black, was not seen against the black slate, and was placed immediately over the paper and the writing transferred to it. This is the reason the slates were used without the wooden frame, because with the frame the two slates would not come close together to press hard enough to transfer the answer. A test, using a half dozen or so of slates, is as follows: Two slates are cleaned and examined and given to be held together by a skeptic, and the other slates cleaned on both sides and placed on the table. The medium now takes the two slates apart, but no writing is found; one slate is given to the skeptic and the other is placed on the table by the medium, who picks up another slate and places that with the one held by the unbeliever. After a short time the slates are again removed by the medium and no writing is found. As if in despair, the medium takes one slate away, placing it on the table, picks up another, showing both sides, places it with the one in the spectator’s hand, and in a little while the skeptic himself separates the slates and writing is found on one of them.