AMONG THE MEDIUMS. 463
⟨religion⟩, but felt that he was to be its ⟨prophet⟩. Hitherto seers and mediums ⟨had⟩ been chosen from the illiterate and ⟨vulgar⟩, but next Thursday night was to ⟨mark⟩ a new era in Spiritualism and an ⟨epoch⟩ in his life.
When Thursday evening came we were, ⟨as⟩ we had anticipated, at the Allyn House ⟨in⟩ Hartford. A slate and pencil were provided for Doctor Franklin's use, and placed upon the centre-table in our room. A large easy-chair was drawn up for him, if he saw fit to visit us as he had done Mr. Owen's friends in New York. At nine o'clock the gas was turned off, and we took our seats at the table. A pale light shining through the transom dimly revealed the expression of my friend's face. His great gray eyes seemed to gather and concentrate its feeble rays, and flash them out with a feline ⟨lustre⟩ into the dark corners of the room ⟨in⟩ eager search for the token. This intense desire had almost a transforming energy, for when he pointed to the shadow of a pillar (which supported the ceiling in the hall) that fell upon the transom, I looked up sympathetically, and for a moment its Corinthian coronal took on the likeness of a Continental hat.
At ten o'clock the doctor's chair was still vacant and the pencil undisturbed. I whispered the hour, and proposed to adjourn. "No, we must sit thirty minutes longer." Faith may remove mountains, but it will not bring Doctor Franklin from his grave. Half-past ten, and no token. Furious with disappointment, my friend sprang from his chair, threw the slate upon the hearthstone, shivering it to atoms, and denounced the whole thing as a fraud and humbug.
Soon after daylight next morning Rost wakened me to say that he had not slept: he had been revolving the matter in his mind, and had come to the conclusion that he had been too hasty—that I was to blame for the doctor's non-appearance, as the morning before I had spoken of him as "a heartless old kite-flyer," and it was but natural for him to resent the affront by disappointing us. We must return to New York. By the next mail a letter was sent to "Mrs. Doctor Kane," saying we would call on her on Sunday morning at ten o'clock. Promptly at that hour we were at her door. "She was not feeling well: would we call at three in the afternoon?" At three "she had gone riding, but would return by seven." At seven "she was out to tea: call to-morrow at ten." At ten next morning "she was out shopping, but would certainly be at home to us at four." At that hour "she had taken a run into the country for a few weeks."
She had been given no clew to our disappointment in the Hartford letter: indeed, it was intentionally so worded that if she had not practiced a deliberate fraud she might have inferred the complete fulfillment of the promise. But the evidence of her trickery did not stop here, for in less than a month, as I was relating our experience to a party of gentlemen, one of them drew from his pocket an exact duplicate of our message from Doctor Franklin. This promise he had also failed to keep, and the chances are, if men had the candor to confess, the country is full of these broken pledges from the heartless old kite-flyer.
Rost, convinced that she was a humbug and charlatan, turned with new interest to Doctor Slade. The doctor welcomed us as disciples. By a singular caprice of memory he inverted my friend's name, and saluted him as "Mr. Henry." When he withdrew for a moment I suggested that this mistake would furnish an interesting test. If the messages received came from a member of the Henry family, we might know they originated in his mind. The doctor announced his readiness, and we gathered round the table. "The conditions were never so favorable," he remarked. "I am in a fine mood, and the atmosphere is full of electricity." A miscellaneous rapping was heard over the room, a heavy chair appeared to move itself from the opposite wall to the table, and my own chair was wrenched half round, the doctor's hands meantime remaining on the table with ours. It was evident the spirits regarded us as familiar acquaintances, and were resolved upon a
