In the Arena for June 1892 Mr. Underwood continues:-

My presence has been and is now one of the conditions of Mrs. Underwood's getting connected and coherent writing. Only a few words and a sentence or two have been written occasionally in my absence. Once when I was absent from home the peculiar sensation which had always been felt in Mrs. Underwood's right hand before the writing began, was felt in the left hand, with which a name was written with letters reversed, and she could read it only when impressed to do so. She held it before the mirror. It was the name of a person two hundred miles distant, who was still alive, but, as was subsequently learned, in an unconscious state at the time, and very near death, which occurred two or three days afterwards.

The word "death" is never used except with "so-called" before it, or "which is a new birth," or some other explanatory or qualifying expression. The writing purports to be from extra-mediumistic and extra-mundane sources - from invisible human beings who once inhabited this earth. The writing always, whether purporting to be from a person of high or low degree, claims that the controlling intelligence is a spirit - a discarnate human being. Any intimation that the communicating intelligence may be the medium's subconscious ego, a fraction of which only rises to the level of conscious knowledge, is met with responses to the effect that it is strange anybody can believe such a vagary. One claim, to which there has never been exception in any writing purporting to be a message, is that a "spirit," a discarnate human being, moves the hand that holds the pen. Generally names and dates are not given; and when they are, they are as liable to be wrong as correct. In answer to questions as to the reason of this, it has been said substantially that memories and reminiscences are only gathered up as the departed are able to come in contact with persons and objects of earth.

Strange as it may seem, I get tired and nervous when this writing is prolonged; it exhausts me much more than it does Mrs. Underwood, on whom it never leaves any depressing influence.

The intelligence which seems to be extraneous, which invariably claims to be a departed spirit, now one, now another, is sometimes inferior intellectually to the medium; at other times, in certain lines of thought, in the use of words, and in the statement of facts, the intelligence that directs the pen evinces larger knowledge than Mrs. Underwood consciously possesses. The spelling is sometimes different from her own, and the style is often stilted, and even grandiose, while her style is simple and natural. In some cases the writing relates to what is entirely unknown to the writer - to her ordinary consciousness - though in some of these cases I can conceive it as possible, and deem it probable, that the writing relates to what has been noted or learned by the passive consciousness, and is evoked therefrom even though there is no recognition of its having been included in the person's experience.

But in other cases the writing has contained evidence of knowledge that Mrs. Underwood never could have obtained in any known way. She gave one or two instances in the August Arena. I will relate another of her experiences which, in my opinion, proves that there are supernormal methods of obtaining knowledge.

One morning a message purporting to be from a young man recently deceased was received. Neither Mrs. Underwood nor I had ever seen his handwriting. We knew his name only as William S. The message was signed "Z. W. S." At the time I remarked that I did not believe there was any Z in his name, and in this opinion Mrs. Underwood concurred. A few days afterwards we met the father and the mother of the young man, who were so impressed with the resemblance between the handwriting and that of their son that they wished to take the writing with them. There was a Z in the name, but it was the initial of his second name, and not of the first, as it was written. In the presence of the young man's mother, Mrs. Underwood's hand was moved to write, and the lady asked if her father would give a test by writing his name. The first name, Solomon, was written slowly; and after a pause, the surname was written very quickly. Mrs. Underwood did not know and never had known the name, which was written correctly; and Mr. S., who is a lawyer and a man of critical and discriminating mind, and his wife both declared that the signature closely resembled that of the old gentleman.

Some days ago I wrote to Mr. S., asking him whether, after further reflection, he could suggest a possible explanation of what Mrs. Underwood wrote without recourse to any occult theory. He replied and referred to the message purporting to be from his son, thus: "I have compared it with signatures of our boy. As I told you in Chicago at the time, the writing bears a very strong resemblance to his writing. Mrs. Underwood did not, in my opinion, either consciously or unconsciously, have any knowledge of Will's full name. The writing, while quite similar to Will's, is very different from Mrs. Underwood's. My wife's father's name had not been mentioned at all. Never had been in Mrs. Underwood's presence. I don't think she had ever met a member of Mrs. S.'s family by that name, yet she certainly wrote the name of Mrs. S.'s father, Solomon M., very plainly, when asked to write the name of the person who had just written that he had something to say. This writing was also very, very similar to the handwriting of the old gentleman".

Fully aware that incidents long forgotten may be recalled, that possibly no lapse of memory is irrevocable, and that under certain conditions from the submerged self may be sent up memories which cannot be distinguished from newly-acquired knowledge, still, I am confident that Mrs. Underwood's hand has written names and statements of facts not only once, but several times, which were not and never had been any part of her conscious knowledge.