In October of 1904 the Antimedium Association of the United States issued a challenge to the National Spiritualistic Association to provide proof of their spiritualistic beliefs. Both groups were holding their national conventions right here in St Louis at the time and as they stated "now is a good time and this is a good place to prove it".
Harrison D Barrett of the Spiritualists accepted the challenge asking them to send three of their number to attend their sessions the next three nights assuring them that they would see "such proofs of spiritualism as could not be sincerely disputed”
The Antimediums responded with a demand that they send a committee of Spiritualists to meet with them and perform these challenges under fair conditions, saying they should 'get down to business" or "back square-out" of the challenge altogether.
This response was met mostly with dismissal by the Spiritualists who said that no test could prove more conclusive than those performed by them that very evening in front of an audience of 500 people.
The convention for the National Spiritualistic Association was held from October 18 through October 22, 1904 at the Temple of Spiritualism located at 3015 Pine Street led by Reverend Thomas Grimshaw (this building is no longer standing but would have been located in Midtown close to Jefferson and Olive). Three hundred delegates from twenty-two state organizations participated in the convention. On their agenda, along with these spiritualist performances every evening of the convention, was the adoption of their own official marriage ceremony, which left out the inequalities seen in most ceremonies between men and women, the election of new officers, a resolution to protect their number against prosecution by city officials as 'frauds and fortune-tellers" and the derisive topic of discounted railroad tickets.
images from the St Louis Post Dispatch Oct 1904