The 1998 Spittoon Debate in the Lincoln home.

[Anita]

Maybe Mary collected footstools because sitting on footstools facilitated in contacting the spirit world.

According to Jean Baker, "Then, after her return to Chicago, she had discovered that her hotel room resonated with voices. Just that Monday past she had asked a spiritualist who lived down the street from Robert to hold a seance, and on the fifth floor of the Grand Pacific Hotel they had sat on carpet-covered footstools in order to get in touch with the other world." http://tinyurl.com/jej97qp