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[[underline]] March 1868 [[underline]]
in order to enlist Father's sympathies before trying any experiments with him. He had a printed alphabet and the person who had someone in his mind with whom he wished to communicate passed his finger down this alphabet--The spirits rapping [[strikethrough]] out [[strikethrough]] when the letters of the name of the person thought of were touched. When Father's turn came he thought of a certain Bill Johnson whom he had known as a young man & who had promised to come back from the world of the dead if he could & tell him about it. He hesitated a little at the letter W thinking he could call him William Johnson by wh. the spirits were deceived & rapped out William Henry. It [[ strikethrough]] the n [[strikethrough]] is not the name I was thinking of said Father. The spirits do not always succeed said the medium. Father
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[[underline]] March 1968 [[underline]]
was interested in the man & would like to have got under this hat. He thought He did not want to come in as he thought it a dangerous matter to meddle with as when once the imagination was affected the judgement was not as he depended upon. I wish I had been there. The interest would have been to me in the questions Father asked and the great ingenuity displayed by the man. It would take a great deal to make me believe that spirits from beyond the grave are coming back for such trivial child's play as picking out names and telling what is in folded papers. If they told us something worthwhile we might be more credulous. The medium evaded all direct questioning as when Father asked him if he could say that he knew what was passing
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