During the time I was sitting with the Jonsons I met at my hotel one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society for Psychical Research, who informed me that two members of the Council had actually become convinced, through the mediumship of Eusapia Palladino, that the phenomena of telekinesis and materialisation were true ! I hope I received this solemn announcement with the respect and gravity so momentous a statement demanded.

On the morning of January 13, during my first visit to Toledo, my friend Mr. Z. made an appointment with a Mrs Alexander, 719 Superior Street, Toledo, for two people (himself and another) to visit her at 3 p.m. He did not give his own name, nor mine. At 2:30 he kindly called for me in his brougham. Mr. Yaryan was with me when he arrived. Between us we persuaded Mr. Yaryan to put off an engagement and accompany us to this new Medium. We got to the house at 2:45, and sat from 3 to 5pm.

(64) It must be clearly understood that Mrs Alexander had never set eyes on two of us, and only once, for a few moments, had she seen Mr. Z. She was ignorant of our names. Great was our astonishment, therefore, when Viola and Kitty etherialised and said in a low voice, "Uncle Yaryan." Tim also came from Jonson’s cabinet, and spoke through the trumpet. The seance was held in pitch darkness, and we were led to expect etherialisations.

Including re-appearances of the same persons, there were about twenty-five forms seen. The cabinet consisted of a small chamber, which opened into the room where we sat. The psychic sat outside---i.e., in our room. What the use of this cabinet was I could not discover ; perhaps, being a smaller room, it was easier to conserve the power.

About fifteen minutes after we sat down in our easy chairs faintly illuminated forms began to appear. They were, as a rule, phantasmal and unsatisfactory ; but they spoke through the trumpet, and occasionally without it. The interest of this sitting lay in one or two incidents illustrative of the difficulty of establishing identity when the sitter and spirit are both very eager to communicate, and the supernormal knowledge displayed through a medium to whom her visitors were complete strangers.

I have already alluded to the visits of certain habitues of Jonson’s cabinet, Who greeted Mr. Yaryan by his name (an unusual one, we must admit). A woman with a baby in her arms came to Mr. Yaryan. The latter put his hand upon what seemed to him the head of the infant. He could not, at first, recall any friend or acquaintance who had died in child-birth, or under circumstances which demanded a knowledge conveying an association of a mother and her newly-born child. Later, however, he remembered a lady who died, just before her confinement, of disease in the stomach, and whom it was the privilege of Mrs. Yaryan to help materially in some neighborly way. A man also came to him. He had a strong feeling of intuition as to the identity, but demanded his name. No answer. Again the question was asked, "What is your name?" The phantom gasped out, "Can’t give it now." Our attention was then diverted by other phantasms, and the anxiety for the name was in abeyance. Nearly half an hour elapsed, when suddenly there was a hoarse shout from the ceiling of the room, "I’m Lee." This was the name of Mr. Yaryan’s deceased brother, whose form he thought he had seen. The Medium also gave a description of the Spirit, which tallied with his appearance in earth-life.

I have not been able to account, normally, for this incident. It was impossible that Mrs. Alexander could have known Mr. Yaryan or his brother. The anxiety of the brothers to communicate caused a positive condition at first, and prevented the spirit from answering the question. When Mr. Yaryan became passive, merely attending to other sitters’ concerns, his brother gathered sufficient power to pronounce his own Christian name. Throughout this volume other instances of this paralysis on the part of the spirits are recorded, from the same cause. So often has it happened in my investigations in England and America that I now accept the following as a law:

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Identity is never revealed at a time when both sitter and Spirit are eager to communicate. One, at any rate, must be in a passive condition.During this seance Iola and my mother made themselves known ; they came together once, and separately several times, communicating by whispers. Iola brought some narcissi ; the pungent perfume was distinctly smelt in the room.

Towards the end of the seance Mrs. Alexander’s familiar spirit, "Whitesnow," took control. I shall not easily forget the inimitable chuckle of this little Indian maiden. One of the last things she said was, "I hope I am not going to make this house hot for my Medium."

Q: "What do you mean, Whitesnow?"

A: "Well, I guess you make houses hot ; but we no want you heat this house." I can only presume that this was an allusion to one of the many inventions of Mr. Yaryan, who has been the means of heating some twenty-five cities in the United States by the central system.

Both the American Gentlemen remarked with emphasis upon the decided difference of accent in the utterances of the American and English Spirits. I have noticed elsewhere this curious fact ; it is good evidence of the genuineness of the proceedings. I do not pause to inquire which is the purer English---that spoken in Ohio and Michigan, or that spoken in the south of England. Sufficient for me that it is widely different ; for the purpose I had in view it was highly significant and useful.