HORACE HOWARD FURNESS.

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SEALED LETTERS.

Readers of the Spiritualistic literature of the present day cannot fail to have their attention frequently called to the remarkable power attributed to certain Mediums, not only of reading the contents of envelopes which are securely gummed and sealed, but of returning to the questions therein contained pertinent answers from friends in the other world.  It is far from uncommon to hear of conversions to faith in Spiritualism wrought by these remarkable proofs of Spiritual power.  At this hour, in many a loving home, responses to letters, thus sealed and answered through these Mediums, are treasured as tenderest, completest proofs that love survives the grave and still encircles the living and the dead.

Recognizing in this phase of Mediumship a department of Spiritualism capable of plain, matter-of-fact investigation, which could be conducted in writing and demanding no special powers of observation, the duty of investigation devolved mainly upon the Acting Chairman.

There are only four of these special Mediums whose advertisements I have seen in Spiritual papers.  He who has probably the widest reputation is Dr. James V. Mansfield, Boston.  A second is Mr. R.W.  Flint, New York City.  A third is Mrs. Dr. Eleanor Martin, Columbus, Ohio; and lastly, also of the same name, Mrs. Eliza A. Martin, of Oxford, Massachusetts.

Through the Mediumship of the first, I have seen it stated that upward of a hundred thousand securely sealed letters have been answered; and the names of men high in our business and financial world have been cited to me as of those who had received proofs of his power which could not be questioned, nor explained on any other ground than that of clairvoyance, or of Spirit communication.  To him, therefore, I concluded to apply first.

The choice of a subject whereon to communicate with a denizen of the other world is not easy.  To follow in the well-trodden path and ask after the welfare of departed friends would only end, I well knew, in turning on that stream of generalities, not glittering, but very dull, in which a large experience had taught me that disembodied Spirits chiefly delight when expatiating on the conditions of their changed existence.  Furthermore, it was desirable that from the investigation should be eliminated all elements of thought-transference or of mind-reading.  I must select a subject on which my own mind was a blank, and where the responses would have to be definite and unambiguous, and withal quite within the scope of Spiritual knowledge.

At last, as fulfilling, in all honesty and sincerity, the requisite conditions, a skull in my possession was fixed on.