WCP5231

[1]^1,2

The QUINCY

AMERICAN

and EUROPEAN

PLANS.

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500 ROOMS.

_______

J. W. Johnson & Co.

BOSTON

J.W.JOHNSON GEORGE G.MANN

Tuesday Eve[nin]^{g. Dec[ember] 21st.} 1886

Dear Mr. James

Yours and Mr. Brackett’s³ just received. I stay in Boston till Thursday week — Dec[ember]. 30th. and should much like to join you in a private séance with Mrs. Ross either at her home or yours if you can arrange a party of 10 half ladies. Monday & Tuesday are days on which she does not give regular séances & is therefore open to private engagement.

I think your constant allegation of fraud or mere suspicion unreasonable & unscientific[.] You ask for facts & proof on our side, but offer only suspicion on your side. If all materialisations [2] ^{are frauds} then there must be several confederates engaged by each medium, and elaborate contrivances in the way of well-made traps & concealed doors in the houses they occupy. When you prove the existence of these traps & the constant use of these confederates in any one case, you will have grounds for suspicion. But all these mediums go out to private houses, where they certainly do not always fail. How then about the trap-doors & confederates?

And if in any one case materialisation has occurred as a fact, then the presumption of imposture from its mere occurrence wholly falls to the ground.

Believe me | Yours faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]