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The inability of one man to hold the chair down against her efforts having been fully demonstrated, two more men were invited to assist him. While the first retained his seat the other two took up positions on either side of the chair, each with one foot upon the round and the other on the floor, and each with one hand on the arm of the chair while the other was placed upon the chair's back. When all were thoroughly braced for the fray, the young lady placed her hands again in position and essayed to repeat the performance that had just preceded.

Surely, thought I, she was attempting an Herculean task--she must fail. I watched her muscles intently. they were distended, it is true, but what could the ten or a dozen inches of muscle of her legs avail against the five or six hundred pounds of muscular manhood opposed to it. But the discomfiture of the three men was no less complete, or apparently less easily accomplished than that of the one individual who had first opposed his weight against her strength.

In this first test, the men who took part were all strangers to me, and there was naturally a lurking suspicion in my mind that they might all, or some of them, be confederates of the young woman, but this was entirely dispelled when these men, having left the stage and the invitation having been extended for some muscular man to come up, an acquaintance of mine stepped forward. This gentleman was a fine specimen of physical manhood, standing something over six feet in his stockings, broad shouldered and a trained athlete. He mounted the platform and was given a stout stick, about three feet long, which he was told to grasp, in the middle, in his two hands, extended horizontally, the stick also being held horizontally. He was also told to hold it as rigidly as possible. The young girl then, standing facing him, placed one open hand on either end of the stick so that the ends came in the middle of her palms. The man was to hold the stick still if he could; the girl was to move it and him too if her powers were equal to it. the contest surely seemed an unequal one. She began by giving a slight gyratory motion to the stick, which was easily accomplished and accounted for by the leverage she had. This continued for a moment or two when, quick as a flash, the stick was given such a powerful jerk as to almost throw the big man off his feet. This was followed by another and another, first throwing him one way and then another, until he appeared a perfect baby in the hands of this little girl. In fact, it was only due to a timely cessation of her efforts and a quick recovery on his part that he was saved from being bodily thrown from the platform.

The house was in an uproar, for the man was well known to many of the audience. He, panting and red in the face from his exertion and confusion, descended from the stage to where I stood. In reply to my inquiry as to how it all happened, he said, "I don't know. I was powerless in her hands. She possesses a power which it is absolutely useless to oppose. I am satisfied she could do anything with me that she chose, but I cannot explain it."

She next did the same thing with two men holding the stick, and could probably have done it equally well had there been three or four. The remainder of her performance was not especially worthy of note, but after it was all over a somewhat professional looking old man asked permission to hold the girl's hand a moment, which having been granted, he announced in all seriousness to those around him that he could plainly feel the tingling sensation of electricity while his hand was in contact with hers.

I went home in a thoughtful mood. Here was the most marvelous exhibition of power on the part of a child that I had ever seen. I knew that it was not electricity or magnetism as claimed. I also knew that it was explainable in some way, but how? I tried to perform the same tricks with others and the mystery was solved. With a little practice I found that I became as expert as she, although my performance was not so effective to those witnessing it as hers was, because I was a man of full stature and strength.

Sometime afterward I met a man who had seen the genuine Lulu Hurst and he told me of her, to him, wonderful powers. Upon my claiming that I could do all that she had done he was incredulous, and insisted upon putting me to the test. I tried the chair and the stick tricks just described and was successful in both. He was amazed, and turning to me said, "How did you do that? Your are surely not strong enough to handle me in that manner." He then desired to try his powers on me, to which I assented. I may say here that if one knows how to perform these tricks he can also thwart anyone else who attempts them on him, so I willingly placed myself at his disposal and his failure to throw me around only heightened his respect for my powers.

Some months later, while in Chicago, I saw the announcement of another electric girl who included in her repertoire a new trick, or at least one that I had not yet seen. I went to her performance, and when the audience was invited to represent itself on the stage I embraced the opportunity and went up. Three other men also went up with me and we were given chairs pending further developments. While the manager was dilating to the audience upon the remarkable powers of the girl, I had an opportunity of telling my companions that I knew all the girl's tricks but one, and I promised them that if they would follow my directions implicitly, in case they were called upon to assist in the tricks that I knew, it would be impossible for her to perform them. They did follow my directions for a while and the girl utterly failed for the time, but she and her manager protested so loudly that they would not do as directed that they were finally constrained to obey, and the séance then proceeded successfully. The last trick performed was the one that I had gone especially to see, and I was called upon to assist in it. A stick, about four feet long, and as thick as a broom-stick, was produced, and I and another gentleman were requested to hold it in a vertical position before us while grasping it firmly in both hands. The girl, standing in front of us and facing us, placed the palm of her open hand against the lower portion of the stick, resting it on the side nearest to us and furthest from herself. After rubbing her hand up and down for a few moments, in order "to make better electrical contact" as we were informed, and after enjoining us to hold the stick perfectly vertically, we were told to press down upon it as hard as we could. This we did until the veins seemed to stand out on our foreheads; but, exert ourselves as hard as we could, we, two strong men, were unable to press down hard enough to make the stick slip past the open palm of her hand. Had the girl grasped the stick with her two hands, I am sure she could not have withstood my downward pressure alone. I would have borne her, stick and all, to the floor. But there she stood, with but one open hand bearing against the side of the stick, and both of us could not, by our united efforts, force the stick past that wonderful hand. Surely, there seemed something uncanny about this. But it is very simply explained, as will be seen further on.

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