'Twixt two worlds : a narrative of the life and work of William Eglinton

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Twixt Two Worlds.
The room in which Eglinton sat was quite dark, the other in half light, sufficient, however,
for every object to be visible. At Eglinton's expressed wish, both his hands were sewn
together behind his back, in such a manner that the most extraordinary skill could not disengage
them, or, if disengaged, fasten them together again unaided. Eglinton likewise
requested my friend, after the first manifestation, to make sure again that everything was
secure. The guitar, musical box, etc., were placed about half a yard from the curtain on the
floor, and subsequently even nearer, and on his knees was laid a heavy volume, the curtains
being arranged so that the book was quite visible. Although this seance lasted nearly an
hour, nothing took place except that the cover and several pages of the book were opened
without anyone touching it, and the book itself after some movements was thrown behind
Eglinton's chair. Some motion of the curtains was also observed, as trough a hand was trying
to pull them back. The seance terminated ; my friend took his leave, and we three remained
some time longer drinking tea. Suddenly Eglinton drew himself together and asked for paper and
pencil, with which, after making several strokes, he began to write in English from right to left.
We had to place it before a mirror to read it, and there we found written that we might see
still further manifestations at that time, only that the medium should be allowed to move about.
We were overjoyed and much surprised, and occupied the time in the following experiments :
Eglinton placed himself on four strong drinking glasses on the top of the closed piano, and
requested us to ask for certain raps in rotation. These were correctly given as though they
were struck from under the lid of the piano. Eglinton then descended from the piano and
asked that the knockings should be repeated on the floor, and under the thick Persian
carpet. This also was accomplished. Eglinton then made us sew his hands together behind
his back, and everything was arranged as it had been before. The table stood this time only
a foot distant from his knees, and we placed ourselves from five to six feet from the table,
one to the right the other to the left. I sat on an easy chair by the window ; my relative
stood by the piano so that we could see everything both above and below. Scarcely had
we taken our places than the book sprang violently from the table, and opened as it had done
before, the guitar was taken by an unseen hand from the table, flung through the curtains
into the next room, where it floated about playing (at least so it sounded) ; a violin which
I had purposely placed behind Eglinton in the dark room flew through the curtains at my
feet ; the guitar, after it had audibly manifested its presence in the dark room, sometimes by
playing, sometimes by knocking against things, returned to its place on the table, and a long
and large hand took the musical box from the table and carried it into the next room, where
it commenced playing. All this happened at the outside in five minutes, at the expiration of
which time I entered the dark room to convince myself of the security of the sewing. But
admitted as it must be that it would be perfectly impossible for the sleeves of a coat which
were securely sewn together behind the back to be unsewn and resewn in so short a space of
time, the disappearance of the guitar without hands, the removal from the table of the book
which was visibly lying on it, and lastly, the long form of the hand and arm, must be perfectly
convincing proofs for anyone of common understanding that there could be no question of
ordinary physical phenomena or of jugglery.
"The second of this kind of seances took place in the presence of a lady and two gentlemen,
besides myself and Eglinton. The same manifestations were repeated, only rather more