know it; we can find that out soon enough.' I took a seat at the table. In a few minutes she was entranced and, reaching out her hand to me, and in broken English in the very voice of the sailor, said, 'How are you, Captain Littlejohn?' I said, 'Who are you?' 'You know,' was the reply. 'No, I don't,' said I. The medium threw her arms over her head and, in the same broken English, said, ' For God's sake, Captain, save me!' and those were the very words the sailor uttered when I threw him a rope as the ship passed him, and he missed catching it. John, I am puzzled." I laughed at him and told him of my Bath experience in mesmerism. "She only read your mind, that is all. That does not satisfy me. I want you to go with me to see her." "No, I won't," I said; "I have no time to fool away, and if I went I should want to go alone."

Soon after that, one night in a terrible storm and dark as pitch, I started to see the medium. It was such a night a child might understand the devil had business on his hands, as Robert Burns said. I knocked at the door; a tall, gaunt man, six feet three inches in height, stood looking at me. I was speechless for a minute and didn't know what to say. Finally, I said, "Is this the house where they entertain ghosts?" He laughed and replied, "Yes, come in." I said, "I don't wish to give my name." "We don't wish to know your name, we can get it quick enough." He led the way to the sittingroom, and there sat a woman of sixty or sixty-five years of age, and of very pleasant appearance. She smiled and said, "I don't care to know your name. I took a seat opposite her. Soon the table began to move and loud raps were heard. I was greatly interested, moved back from the table and looked under it. She went into a trance, took a pencil from the table and wrote "John Todd." The husband spoke and said, "A spirit friend of yours." I, to mislead them, said, "That is my name." He said, "That is it? That is all right then." She threw the pencil upon the table with some violence and, with her eyes closed, turned her head as though she was scanning my every feature and thought, took the pencil from the table and wrote

under the words "John Todd" the words "John M. Todd." She looked at me sternly and said, "John, whose name is that?" pointing at the John M. Todd. I replied, "That is mine." "Well, whose was that?" pointing at the other name. "That was my father's." "John, deal honestly with the medium and I will convince you that I live, and that there is a life after what you call death." I began to question him of my childhood experiences and conversations I had had with him when young. He seemed to remember all. Then I began to question him on theology and about what he had learned over there. He said he had not been there long enough to have learned much, and while on the earth he had not made theology a study; the passage over Jordan had taught him but little, and that I had read much more upon that subject than he, but if the medium was willing he would bring a spirit who would give me the information I wished. I made an appointment with the woman to meet her at two o'clock. I was there. The medium was entranced, and the controlling influence purported to be William Elridge Channing, the great Unitarian preacher. I commenced to question him, and every question I had ever asked in early life of clergymen was answered. He did not put me off with "You must not ask such questions," as I had often been told by ministers, but he encouraged me to ask many, and every one I asked was answered. I said to father, "If this is true that you have survived the shock of death, I must take up the Bible again, and I cannot do that." I had been fighting it so long that I did not see how I could accept its teachings. He replied, "Not necessarily, for you are in no condition to be benefited by so doing. Do you fully realize, John, that there is no one in this city, who has used the word orthodox bigot for years as often as yourself, and are you aware that there is no greater bigot in Portland than you are? For a man can be as bigoted in his negation as in his belief."

Six months after that event, while talking with him, he called my attention to what I said in regard to my accepting the teachings of the Bible. "I want you, when you go home to-night,

to read from the Bible, 1 Corinthians, 12th chapter, where Paul wrote of spiritual gifts. He speaks of the discerning of spirits, healing by the spirits speaking with other tongues, and other gifts that we spiritualists believe in and practice." I went home and read it. My prejudice had left me; I have studied the book much since and, from Genesis to Revelations it teaches that spirits return. As Charles Beecher said at the advent of modern spiritualism: "It is no use to deny the facts of spiritualism, for it is a Bible doctrine. The Bible is full of it. We should preach and teach that it is the work of the devil, that will frighten the people away from it." Another proof that ignorance alone enslaves, for were not the people ignorant they would not fear the devil or any of his imps. I was taught to face the devil and he would flee from me. I found it so, but you must have the faith that Christian had when he faced old Apollyon, according to Bunyan.

On one occasion Postmaster Dunn came in to see me. I was feeling rather cast down, business was dull, and I was heavily in debt. I said, "I must give up my research of spiritualism. I cannot afford to spend so much time and money as I have been doing. I must devote myself to the support of my family and to the payment of my debts." After Mr. Dunn left I thought I would go once more to see a medium and then give it up, at least for the present. I called upon the medium and we sat down at the table to get communication. In a few minutes the door bell rang and she went to the door. As soon as she left the table the raps came and the table commenced moving rapidly. I never had a table move for me before, nor any other physical manifestation without the help of a medium, and I have never had one since. She returned, and I said to her, "Go into the other room, for I am getting the manifestations under my own hands.” I took the alphabet that was on the table for that purpose, and I had written for me thirty-two pages in that manner, and if I wrote a word or letter that was not right the table would not cease shaking until I went over the alphabet again and corrected it. The controlling spirit

purported to be my father. He told me the conversation I just had with Mr. Dunn at my shop, told me that I could not forsake nor abandon spiritualism, that from my childhood the spirits had stood by me and often directed my steps, and saved me from evil, and henceforth I must and will do all in my power, to aid them, to forward the cause of the truth of spirit return and thereby strengthen the belief in the continuity of life that the world is so much in need of. "Now I have a word to say to you in regard to your financial condition. We have heard your complaining and have often pitied you, 'O, ye of little faith.' We know that, from your point of view, the struggle seems hard, but, my dear son, you have always had a bed to sleep on and food to eat; you have never put your children to bed feeling that they had retired with scanty food, as I have mine—no, nor you never will. But you were born a sceptic and a doubter. We have held a consultation and have examined into your case, and have resolved to relieve you. We see you are sinking under your load, and in your state of mind, had you been in Job's place, you would have taken his wife's advice and cursed God and died. 'Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die.' Job 2: 92. O my son, I wish you could walk by faith through this valley of sorrow, but we see you cannot, for you have not yet learned the power and great glory of faith." I said, "If this is my father speaking, or whatever the power may be, all I can say is, I cannot believe that it is in your power to relieve me from my financial embarrassment, though an angel declared it unto me." He wrote in answer, "Wait and see." In eighteen months from that time I had paid two thousand dollars of old debts, most of them outlawed.

One day my landlord, Mr. Boyd, came in to see me and said, "John, I have a compliment for you. I was at a large party last evening on State street, where some of the best people in the city were in attendance. You were spoken of by a gentleman of wealth. He said you had paid him several hundred dollars in outlawed debts, at which they expressed surprise. I

said, 'That is what I should have expected of him."" That compliment gave my modesty a slight twitch and, partly to hide its effect, I said, "Mr. Boyd, I am surprised that you keep such company." "What do you mean, John? They were of the best people in the city." "I hardly think that possible, for it appears to me that the best people would have a higher estimate of honesty than to express surprise that a man had paid his honest debts when able. They may have great reputations, but is that always character?" He smiled and said, "I fear there is too much truth in your suggestion." But to my story. I fear that these everlasting digressions that I indulge in are not in good taste. Besides paying my debts I had over a thousand dollars in the bank. But the reader will inquire how I made money so fast. I will tell you, for truth never shuns the light, seeks no panoply, courts inquiry and answers every honest question. A gentleman from out of the city, and a man of large fortune, came to me and said, "For weeks past I could not get you out of my mind. I don't understand it, for you have never done any business for me. I have a business to do and I want you to do it. I will deposit four thousand dollars in the Mechanics Bank, President Allen Haines, for you to use, and I want you to attend to it at once. I am going over to leave the money now, and I shall tell Mr. Haines to let you draw upon it as you wish." I replied, "I know nothing about the business, and I shall lose your money; I won't touch it. I never could keep my own money, and I won't be able to keep yours." He left the money for me, and I did not touch it. A week went by. He called and said, "Have you done as I wished you to?" "No, I have not dared to." "You go and do as I wished. I will risk it." Another week went by and he called again and said, "John, you are foolish in not doing as I wished you to. Now, if you do not, I shall have to get some one else, for the business must be attended to." I saw Mr. Haines, the president of the bank. He advised me to go ahead. I took hold of the job, and the first three days I made $200.00. That gave me courage. I kept on, and in eighteen