Anonymous

“ Chief Crowley was particularly opposed to giving serious attention to what he denounced as “trickery and sleight of hand,” and afterwards called “marvelous and beyond power of explanation.” Finally he wrote down a number of names on separate slips, as explained in the foregoing, and among those names appeared that of his mother—her maiden name. The medium at once told the Chief which pellet contained his mother’s name, then read it, and in a few moments told where she died and where she was buried. ”

“ Mayor L. R. Ellert is a man of legal attainments and of wide business interests. He was a popular reform Mayor, and was in office at the time of the occurrences narrated. He is to-day one of the best-known and most highly respected lawyers and business men of San Francisco. For many years he was a skillful pharmacist, and his wide knowledge of drugs and physiology was useful in the attempted solution of the various problems presented by the medium. ”

“ The experiments with Mayor L. R. Ellert, who sprang from his chair and positively declined to be thrown into a [Pg 28] trance condition when the doctor requested him thus to visit the spirit world, were fully as startling as those with Chief Crowley.
Mayor Ellert took a chair in front of his official table, which had thus been dedicated to spiritual uses, and asked if any spirits desired to communicate with him, whereupon the medium grasped his Honor’s hands and the line of communication with the spirits was declared fully established. ”

“ Schlesinger in San Francisco, in 1893, to institute a series of daylight seances in the presence of some of the most distinguished citizens of San Francisco. As I was then a writer of the San Francisco Daily Examiner staff I found rare opportunities for enlisting the men desired in the experiments. I was not then, nor am I now, in any manner affiliated with Spiritualists, nor do I set forth the facts of this narrative for the purpose of making converts to any theory of mind or matter. ”

“ Louis Schlesinger, then a man about sixty-one years of age, was the spiritualist medium who said he could convince all present that the dead return, and that he could hold communion with the living. The following spectators were present, and the written reports of some of them are given in full in the subjoined narrative: Mayor Levi R. Ellert, District Attorney W. S. Barnes, President Theodore F. Bonnet, of the San Francisco Press Club, Ex-President Grant Carpenter, of the same club, H. H. McCloskey, then a State Central Committeeman of the Republican party, and many other casual observers. ”

“ He says he can both see and hear spirits, and that bands of them encircle him, and at times, in the presence of some peculiarly “fit” visitors, manifest themselves with great clearness and power. To prove that the sounds he hears are celestial voices, he does many things which baffle those who witness the strange phenomena which abound in his presence wherever he goes.
It was with much difficulty that those who participated in these seances and [Pg 25] whose accounts of what they saw are subjoined, were induced to give the medium a hearing. ”

“ Having written the names of half a dozen persons, living and dead, each name on a separate slip, carefully folded and looking precisely alike, which were tossed into a hat and well shaken up, the doctor proceeded to name the contents of each paper as it was drawn out. Occasionally he made a mistake, but in nearly every instance succeeded at the first or second trial. He first separated the living from the dead, without [Pg 39] opening the slips, and sometimes not even touching them ”

“ Presently he said: ‘I see two faces over your shoulder; the name of one is J. B. The other says: “I am glad you have commemorated my name by writing it here,” the name is V. [Pg 34] C.;’ the Doctor being correct in naming the deceased person in each instance, and the message being appropriate to the character of the deceased person. I will add, that, so far as I know, Dr. Schlesinger had no possible means of knowing the name or anything about either person. One of the names, I feel confident, was not known to any person in California outside of myself. ”

“ He watched the medium’s movements and convinced himself that there had been no juggling in the shuffle, and said that his visitor out-Hermanned Hermann. He would leave the solution of the phenomena to others learned in the arts of divination. ”

“ I gave up a great tea business to teach my fellow men that life does not end at the grave. [Pg 22] My home is constantly filled with bands of angels from the celestial depths, but I am able to call a few spirits around any box, table, or desk. I want you to satisfy yourself that all that is done here is absolutely honest.”
Before proceeding further the Doctor produced a testimonial from Editor Will S. Green, of the Colusa Sun (afterwards State Treasurer) , which explained that Dr. Schlesinger’s performances could not be explained on the theory of trickery. ”

“ Bonnet is an Elk of high standing, and a man of good family and social position. In addition to all these facts, it should be borne in mind that his long training as a reporter fitted him in a peculiarly advantageous way for the duties of trying to detect what was done by the medium. ”

“ Schlesinger in company with the other gentlemen named, and I saw wonderful things which I am wholly unable to explain. The phenomena, manifestations, or things that occur in the medium’s presence are not only interesting, but marvelous. I went possessed of something like eight or ten slips of paper, on each of which I had previously written (at my office) a name of some person I had known—some living, some dead. Not [Pg 42] a soul ever saw the slips, for I was alone when I wrote the names. Furthermore, they were so folded that no one could possibly have read a single name. Dr. ”

“ Schlesinger looked at the Mayor and said: “You are a medium yourself, sir! My, what a power!”
The Mayor was urged “to sit alone often and be patient,” and was told that he could develop much power by such a course.
HON. L. R. ELLERT.
Mayor Ellert then wrote down ten of fifteen names of living and dead friends, on separate slips of paper. ”

“ The author desires to say that every word here printed is absolutely and literally true. Nothing has been added or suppressed, but the entire truth has been expressed, usually in the exact language of the distinguished gentlemen whose narratives make the bulk of the book. ”

“ I picked up the pellet from the desk where I had put it with a number of others, and handed it to Mayor Ellert, who, without examining it, deposited it in his vest-pocket. Then came rappings on the table, and the medium said: ‘Behind you stands the spirit of the man whose name is on [Pg 49] that paper. He was an eminent person, and he died far away from here. ”

“ It was not mind-reading, however. Of that I am satisfied. For as he picked up the fifth slip and said, ‘This is the name of the dead man,’ he did not get that information by reading my mind, for there were two more slips remaining, and I couldn’t say which was which. That is beyond any explanation. Mind-reading will not fit it at all.
“One of the party—I think it was Mr. Barnes—wrote the name of two dead men in his list. Leaving out the first problem—the picking up of the right slip—putting that aside, how is it to be explained that the Doctor chose the right name of the two dead ones? Mr. ”