Accordingly, on Saturday evening, I journeyed to a city one hundred miles away to witness the work of this modern sorcerer.  On my arrival I suggested to my friend a number of ways by which such things could be performed by trickery, but he informed me that none of my explanations seemed to elucidate this strange work.  The secret did not consist in the use of odorless alcohol, for the reason that the medium never touched the sealed envelopes at all.  In fact he was never nearer to them than ten feet.  This also made it impossible for him to use the principle on which the trick is based, which is known to the profession as “Washington Irving Bishop’s Sealed Letter Reading.”

He informed me that sheets of paper or cards were passed to the spectators in the audience, and at the same time envelopes in which to seal their questions were furnished for them; that the spectators wrote questions as directed, many times signing their own names to them.  He was certain that many persons folded their written questions before sealing them, and that the operator himself did not even collect the envelopes on many occasions.  He informed me that the best evidence of the genuineness of the performance lay in the fact that the medium seemed to have no fixed conditions for his experiments; but seemed to perform them in a different manner on each occasion.  The conditions were different in every case, yet he always read the questions with the most marvelous certainty.

I thought the matter over after this, but could in no way think of any plausible means of accomplishing his work by trickery.  I finally decided to wait and see the performance first, and to figure afterwards on the method employed.

Accordingly, at eight o’clock that evening I was seated in the hall with my friend, and shortly afterwards the “Seer” made his appearance, taking his seat on the stage.  He was a very slender personage, with long hair and a particularly ghostly look.  He took his seat quietly on the stage.  In a short time his manager appeared and made an opening address, which I will not repeat, and then asked some boy in the audience to pass cards around to the spectators on which they were to write questions.  Envelopes were also distributed, in which to seal the cards.  When the writing was finished, the manager asked any boy to take a hat which he held in his hand, and collect the sealed envelopes.  After the boy, whom everyone knew to be a local resident, kindly volunteered for this service and executed it, a committee was invited to the stage to properly blindfold the medium.  This was done in a satisfactory manner, and the committee then returned to the audience.  The manager now led the blindfolded medium to the rear of the stage, where he was seated somewhat behind a table, on which were some flowers, a music box, etc.  However, the medium was in view plainly; and he never removed the bandage from his eyes or in any manner molested it.