APPENDIX.

 

SINCE writing the body of this volume, two or three facts have come under my notice which I take this means of noticing.

 

 

1. Henry Slade, being then resident at Berlin, was visited by the Court Conjurer and Prestidigitator to the Emperor of Germany, Samuel Bellachini, No. 14 Grossbaron-strasse, who subsequently made affidavit before a public notary, Gustav Haagen, in the following terms:—

 

Executed at Berlin on the sixth of December, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven, and entered in the Notary's register under the number four hundred and eighty-two, for the year eighteen hundred and seventy-seven.

 

Signed and officially stamped.

GUSTAV HAAGEN, Counseller and Notary.

 

I hereby declare it to be a rash action to give decisive judgment upon the objective medial performance of the American medium, Mr. Henry Slade, after only one sitting, and the observations so made.

 

After I had, at the wish of several highly-esteemed gentlemen of rank and position, and also for my own interest, tested the physical mediumship of Mr. Slade in a series of sittings by full daylight, as well as in the evening, in his bedroom, I must, for the sake of truth, hereby certify that the phenomenal occurrences with Mr. Slade, have been

150                                         Psychography.

 

thoroughly examined by me, with the minutest observation and investigation of his surroundings, including the table, and that I have not in the smallest instance found anything to be produced by means of prestidigitative manifestations, or by mechanical apparatus, and that any explanation of the experiments which took place under the circumslances and conditions then oblaining, by any reference to prestidigitation, to be absolutely impossible.

 

It must rest with such men of science as Crookes and Wallace, in London; Perty, in Berne; Boutlerof, in St. Petersburg, to search for the explanation of this phenomenal power, and to prove its reality. I declare, moreover, the published opinions of laymen, as to the "how" of this subject to be premature, and according to my view and experience, false and one-sided. This, my declaration, is signed and executed before a notary and witnesses.

(Signed) SAMUEL BELLACHINI.

Berlin, 6th December, 1877.

 

2. Henry Slade having proceeded to St. Petersburg in order to fulfil his engagement with M. Aksakof and Professor Boutlerof, and to present the phenomenon of Psychography to the scrutiny of a committee of scientific experts, has had a series of successful sittings, in the course of which writing has been obtained in the Russian language. At one recent sitting writing in six different languages was obtained on a single slate.

 

On Wednesday, Feb. 20, accompanied by M. Aksakof and Professor Boutlerof, Slade had a most successful sitting with the Grand Duke Constantine, who received them cordially, and himself obtained writing on a new slate held by himself alone.

 

3. The Rev. Thomas Colley thus testifies, under date January 17, 1878:—

Appendix.                                               151

 

This afternoon I had a sitting with Dr. Monck of a somewhat unique character. I had purchased this morning a transparent drawing-slate; and, taking out one of the pictures, I wrote my name on the edge of it, with a request that it and the five objects of the composite sketch might be traced on the rough side of the ground glass. Not letting Dr. Monck know what I had done, I placed the marked picture between the five others—three before it and the glass, and two behind it and the back of the frame. Then, taking it with me, and not allowing him once to touch it, and scarcely to see it, as I took it from the side-pocket of my coat, I placed it, with a lead pencil, beneath the easy chair in which Dr. Monck was sitting (around the lower part of which I had placed a carriage-rug, to make a sort of camera­obscura), and held his hands, placing my feet on his feet, and my knees to his knees, as I sat facing him.

Under these conditions, not asking orally for what I desired to be done, or intimating in any way to Dr. Monck the nature or particulars of the experiment I was making, "Samuel" took momentary control, and told me he had accomplished the matter, affirming that not only had be drawn the marked picture and traced my autograph, but also that he had written on the back of the picture these words, "Take this to Serjeant Cox," particularly calling my attention at the time to the fact that he had, in a peculiar way, abbreviated the word Serjeant.'

Control then instantly passed off; and not relinquishing Dr. Monck's hands, or removing my feet from his, with partially disengaged fingers I took the transparent slate as it was pushed up from under the chair, and found a picture traced on the glass, and my name over, written in my own characters. But this did not agree with the picture next the glass; it manifestly was a copy of the drawing I had marked and placed between the others. This was verified later on in the day, for, taking the transparent slate with me, I went straight to the adjourned debate on Psychography at the Psychological Society, and handed it to the President (Serjeant Cox), who publicly opened it and found the marked picture where I had originally placed it—the fourth from the glass and third from the back; and on