 The magician Henry R. Evans sat with Keeler in April, 1895 suspected that he had written the 'spirit' messages on the slates himself.According to Evans "I was sure he was writing under the table; I heard the faint rubbing of a soft bit of pencil upon the surface of a slate... several times I saw him put his fingers into his vest pockets, and he appeared to bring up small particles of something, which I believe were bits of the white and coloured crayons used in writing the messages.