Mr. Furness here read to the Committee the following: 

Before Dr. Slade came to Philadelphia to meet this Commission, I was told by a valued Correspondent, an eminent Spiritualist, that much of Dr. Slade’s success in Spiritual manifestations would depend on the way in which he was treated, and that he should be met in a cordial, friendly spirit.  As this was but natural, and as Dr. Slade’s life has been passed among extraordinary scenes the world over, which makes him an entertaining companion, it gave me pleasure to extend to him what little courtesies lay in my power, asking him to dine with me during his visit, and to spend the evenings at my house, if the time hung heavy on his hands at his hotel.  He dined with me several times, and I consequently saw more of him than did the other Commissioners.  I told him more than once that, as a Commissioner, I should watch him with lynx eyes, and he always gave a laughing assent.  I furthermore never concealed from him that he had, by no means, converted me to Spiritualism. [I last saw him in Boston, when, as I was passing along Shawmut Avenue, I caught sight of him at a window; he eagerly beckoned me to come in, and, as I settled myself in a chair, I said to him, ‘Well, and how are the old Spirits coming on?’ Whereupon he laughed and replied, ’Oh, pshaw! you never believed in them, did you?’—­April, 1887.]

I had several seances with him in afternoons after the seances with the Commission, when I was accompanied by my mother, my sister, and by several friends; of course, only by one or two others at a time.

It would be superfluous to rehearse here at length what Mr. Sellers has set before you much better than I can, the steps to the conclusion to which we all arrived:  that the long messages were written beforehand.  The difference between them and the short answers to questions asked at the seance, in the character of the handwriting, is too manifest and too obtrusively patent to be disregarded.  In the long message from ’William Clark’ on the slate which we have preserved and had photographed, ‘Paul’s injunction’ is carefully included within quotation marks.  The short answers to questions were scarcely legible, and at times could be deciphered only by help of the Medium himself. (This illegible handwriting is not without its use; it engrosses the attention of the sitters.)

It follows, therefore, that, if prepared slates are to be used, they must be adroitly substituted for others, which the sitters know to be clean.  The question is thus narrowed to one of pure legerdemain, and the Medium must necessarily have several slates at hand.