'Appropriate answer to my mental question, _Will my deceased wife communicate with me?_--I. A. B.'"
"May 28th. At the breakfast-table Mr. G. expressed a great desire to see Planchette perform, and she was brought from her box. Miss W. was also present. After several communications, Miss W. asked a mental question, and Planchette immediately wrote:
'Miss W., that is hardly possible in the present state of the money market; but later, I dare say you will accomplish what you desire to undertake.'
_Miss W._ 'Planchette is entirely off the track. My question was, _Can you tell me anything about my nephew?_'
_Mr. G._ 'Well, it is certainly very queer. _I_ asked a mental question to which this is to a certain extent an answer.'
Mr. G. was seated beside me, thoroughly intent upon Planchette. Miss W. was at a distance, and not in any way _en rapport_ with me. If this phenomenon of answering mental questions be clairvoyance, the situation of these two persons may account for the mixed nature of the answer, beginning with Miss W. and finishing with Mr. G."
_Putnam's Monthly Magazine_ for December, 1868, contains an interesting article entitled "_Planchette in a New Character_." What the "new character" is in which it appears, may be learned from the introductory paragraph, as follows:
"We, too, have a Planchette, and a Planchette with this signal merit: it disclaims all pretensions to supermundane inspirations; it operates freely--indeed, with extraordinary freedom; it goes at the tap of the drum. The first touch of the operators, no matter under what circumstances it is brought out to reveal its knowledge, sets it in motion. But it brings no communications from any celestial or spiritual sources. Its chirography is generally good, and frequently excellent. Its remarks evince an intelligence often above that of the operators, and its talent at answering or evading difficult questions is admirable. We have no theories about it."
It seems, from other passages in the article, that this Planchette disclaims the ability to tell anything that is not contained in the minds of the persons present, although it frequently gives theories in direct contradiction to the opinions of all present, and argues them with great persistence until driven up into a corner. It simply assumes the name of "Planchet," leaving off the feminine termination of the word; and "on being remonstrated with for illiteracy, it defended itself by saying, 'I always was a bad _speler_,'--an orthographical blunder," says the writer, "that no one in the room was capable of making."