Arising, I turn to the audience and say: "Ladies and gentlemen, now that the blindfold is securely fastened so that there is no chance of seeing, I will instruct the committee and, incidentally, the audience as to the procedure of this entertainment. In the first place. I will ask one of the committeemen to take an ordinary pocket knife and hide it in some convenient place in the audience. This is to give me an opportunity to get worked up gradually toward the more difficult feats. When this gentleman has returned, I am to take his hand and he is to hold his mind on my movements. thinking of the way he wishes me to go, of turning out of the way of am thing that is in my way and of stopping when I reach the object. I want him to think of my stopping and then he is to think of the movements my hand is to make when I am to pick up the object. For this first experiment, do not put the knife in a pocket or any place difficult to find. These other experiments will be taken up later. Kindly remember that you are to think and I am to read your thoughts and translate them into action".

One of the men goes down into the audience. As a guarantee of good faith, I have turned my face away from the audience. The knife is securely hidden and the gentleman returns to the stage.

"Now, remember, keep your arm limp, your thoughts concentrated on the actions you wish me to perform and let me take your hand. Thanks. I will go first. Now, center your thoughts, ready!"

The mind-reader knows the sensations that come to him when he grasps the hand of the man who is thinking. I start out at once. The first experiment is usually the hardest one. Not always, I admit. But the mind of the operator has to get worked up to that point wherein he can perform his feats without any more fatigue than is absolutely necessary and with more accuracy than he would show in his first experiment. As I go I do not think of the chairs, or the people or anything but getting that knife. I do not listen to hear if the audience are informing me as to where it is hidden. I wait for the impressions to come from the man I am with. As I rush down what is likely an aisle, a sudden brake has been applied. I stop and the gentleman whose hand I hold nearly stumbles over me. Then I move restlessly from side to side and my right hand goes down toward the floor. I am nearly on my knees when my hand touches the knife and as I hold it aloft the audience is well pleased and greets me with applause.

In hypnotism the operator knows just what he is doing. In mind-reading, he is deprived of the light. All is chaotic darkness. He soon forms strange ideas and forgets just what he is doing. Here he is using the subconscious powers. He goes through his acts without really knowing just what movements he makes, without any idea of the routes he takes and wholly at the mercy of the men who aid him. It is this fact that appeals to the audience, to the committee and makes your work a success. They soon see that, if they think wrongly - and they are sure to test you - you will obey their thoughts. When they realize that, no matter what force it is you use, you are genuine, and that you are at their mercy to produce exact phenomena, they will do their part and do it well.

Take it on the whole, there is no entertainment in the psychic line that is open to success as is that of contact mind-reading.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, for the next experiment, I will ask another of these gentlemen to take some object that I do not know. He is to take something that is not too large, something that I am not inconvenienced in carrying. Then he is to place it in any place that can be reached without any especial danger to myself. After he comes back I will take his hand as I did that of the other gentleman and will find the object".

Here there is a little whispering on the part of the committee and finally I hear one of them going down among the audience. He does a great deal of walking. I can plainly hear him, as his shoes have a slight squeak. When he returns he tells me that he is ready and I take his hand and push him behind me.

Student, you are giving genuine work. All you want is to have the committeemen think and you will do your part. But the audience want to see every sign of honesty on the part of the operator. They must be shown that there is nothing fraudulent. They want your proof and they are willing to give their own. Therefore, to the student, to the one who has not spent the days of his "apprenticeship" in this line of work, I caution you against anything that will reflect upon your work. If you find that, with one man, you cannot "read," don't be afraid of telling him and the audience how things stand. Don't try to make light of the mental powers of your assistant. He has brains, but you cannot get the impressions from him. Politely tell him that this sometimes happens and there will be no ill feelings. And, it is for this same reason that I take the gentleman and push him back of me. If I lead and his arm is seen to be limp, it is clear that he is not leading me. Let everything reflect to your credit; not against it.

The operator in these lines who has had enough experience to do his work well will find that he does many little things of which he is not aware while performing his experiments during the course of his evening's entertainment. He will make little moves, take steps here and there that he does not realize he takes. These may be made to dodge a chair, to step over someone's extended foot or something of the kind. The audience see these things and the operator is held in view as a wonderful being.