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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Death-Blow to Spiritualism, by 
+Reuben Briggs Davenport
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Death-Blow to Spiritualism
+       Being the True Story of the Fox Sisters
+
+Author: Reuben Briggs Davenport
+
+Release Date: August 23, 2010 [EBook #33506]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEATH-BLOW TO SPIRITUALISM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  0807. THE DEATH BLOW TO SPIRITUALISM.
+
+  Being the true story of the Fox sisters, as revealed by authority
+  of Margaret Fox Kane and Catherine Fox Jencken. Written by R. B.
+  Davenport. 147 pages. Deathblow to Spiritualism. R. B. Davenport    1.00
+
+  OCT. 1897. ISSUED MONTHLY. $5.00 PER YEAR.
+  ENTERED AT THE NEW YORK POST OFFICE AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER.
+
+
+
+
+  THE DEATH-BLOW TO SPIRITUALISM:
+
+  BEING THE TRUE STORY OF THE FOX SISTERS,
+  AS REVEALED BY AUTHORITY OF MARGARET FOX
+  KANE AND CATHERINE FOX JENCKEN.
+
+
+  BY REUBEN BRIGGS DAVENPORT.
+
+
+  NEW YORK:
+  _G. W. Dillingham Co., Publishers._
+  MDCCCXCVII.
+
+
+
+  Copyright, 1888.
+  BY REUBEN BRIGGS DAVENPORT.
+
+  [_All Rights Reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+  TO MRS. HESTER S. DWINELLE.
+
+
+     "ALONSO. This is as strange a maze as ere men trod,
+  And there is in this business more than nature
+  Was ever conduct of: some oracle
+  Must rectify our knowledge.
+
+     "PROSPERO.     Sir, my liege,
+  Do not infest your mind with beating on
+  The strangeness of this business: at picked leisure,
+  Which shall be shortly, single I'll resolve you
+  (Which to you shall seem probable) of every
+  These happen'd accidents: till when be cheerful,
+  And think of each thing well.--Come hither, spirit;
+  Set Caliban and his companions free:
+  _Untie the spell._"
+                                  SHAKESPEARE.--_The Tempest._
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+This book has been written in extreme haste. It does not pretend to
+literary style. But it pretends to absolute truthfulness and a reverent
+regard for justice.
+
+Its sole value is its character as a contribution to the real history of
+Spiritualism. As such, it is unquestionably of great importance, greater
+even than any work of the kind that has been published since the beginning
+of modern Spiritualism.
+
+It is, in fact, what its title sets forth--"THE DEATH-BLOW TO
+SPIRITUALISM."
+
+No one who does not love illusion for illusion's sake--better, in other
+words, than he loves the truth--can, after reading this volume, remain a
+follower of Spiritualism and its hypocritical apostles.
+
+The full authorization of Mrs. MARGARET FOX KANE and Mrs. CATHERINE FOX
+JENCKEN for the publication of this work will be found on the next to the
+following page.
+
+_29th October, 1888._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MARGARET FOX KANE IN HER 18TH YEAR.]
+
+[Illustration: KATIE FOX JENCKEN]
+
+
+
+
+We hereby approve of Mr. Reuben B. Davenport's design to write a true
+account of the origin of Spiritualism and of our connection therewith, and
+we authorize him to make proper use of all data and material that we
+furnish him.
+
+New York, 15th Oct., 1888.
+
+  Margaret Fox Kane
+  Catherine Fox Jencken
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  I. INTRODUCTION.
+
+     Poetic Justice of the Exposure               13
+
+  II. RENUNCIATION.
+
+      Chapter.                                  Page
+
+          I. "God Has Not Ordered It."            25
+         II. The Discomfited Enemy.               39
+        III. A Second Blow.                       53
+         IV. The Hand of the Persecutor.          60
+          V. Solemn Abjuration.                   65
+
+  III. HISTORY.
+
+         VI. Origin of the Fraud.                 81
+        VII. Garbled and Distorted Testimony      94
+       VIII. Development of the Fraud            102
+         IX. The Mercenary Campaign.             121
+          X. Spiritualistic Boomerangs.          131
+         XI. The Supreme Audacity of Fraud.      150
+        XII. A Scientific Jury.                  164
+       XIII. The Unalterable Verdict.            201
+
+  IV. REPENTANCE.
+
+        XIV. The Heart Pleads for the Soul.      209
+         XV. From Shadow to Light.               231
+
+  INDEX.                                         241
+
+
+
+
+I. INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+POETIC JUSTICE OF THE EXPOSURE.
+
+
+That the inventors of an infamous fraud should deal to it its death-blow,
+is the poetic justice of fate.
+
+Over the creature, the creator has power of life and death.
+
+The creators of Spiritualism abjure its infamy.
+
+They decree its death.
+
+They condemn it to final destruction.
+
+They fasten upon those who continue to practice it the obloquy of history,
+and the scorn of mankind for all time to come.
+
+Margaret and Catharine Fox, the youngest of three sisters, were the first
+to produce "spiritualistic manifestations."
+
+They are now the most earnest in denunciation of those impostures; the
+most eager to dissipate the foolish belief of thousands in the flimsiest
+system of deception that was ever cloaked with the hypocrisy of so-called
+religion.
+
+When, as by accident, they discovered a method of deceiving those around
+them by means of mysterious noises, they were but little children,
+innocent of the thought of wrong, ignorant of the world and the world's
+guile, and imagining only that what they did was a clever lark, such as
+the adult age easily pardons to exuberant and sprightly youth.
+
+Not to them did the base suggestion come that this singular, this simple
+discovery, should be the means of deluding the world, of exalting them in
+the minds of the weakly credulous and of bringing them fame and splendor
+and sumptuous pleasure.
+
+No one who learns their true history can still believe them guilty of the
+willful inception of this most grotesque, most transparent and corrupting
+of superstitions.
+
+The idea had its monstrous birth in older heads, heads that were seconded
+by hearts lacking the very essence of truth and the fountain of honest
+human sympathy.
+
+The two children, who had at first delighted, as younglings will, in what
+was but a laughable mystification, were dragged into a sordid, wicked and
+loathsome speculation, built upon lying and fraud, as unforgivable as the
+sin of Satan, and of which they were but the unthinking instruments, often
+reluctant and remorseful, yet docile and compliant by nature.
+
+Thus the "Rochester knockings," the example and prototype of all later
+so-called spiritualistic "phenomena," began merely in a curious childish
+freak, disguised without effort, and which, from the first, was encouraged
+to partly formed understandings by the wonder and intense spirit of
+inquiry it provoked.
+
+The young operators were carried away by the undreamt-of current of
+enthusiasm and awe in which they soon became involved. They felt the
+natural need of maintaining with unabating dexterity, that false sense of
+the miraculous which by chance they had called forth.
+
+Thus they went from one stage to another of this queer illusion, and,
+being compelled by a harder and more mature intelligence to repeat their
+part over and over again, became the chief means of establishing that
+injurious belief in communications from the spirits of the departed, of
+which such great numbers have become the victims.
+
+Many an older offender against common sense, reason and strict morality
+persists through force of circumstance in the pathway he has chosen, and
+does not turn backward, merely because he cannot do so without wearing the
+face of shame.
+
+From such slight and trivial beginning came the great movement--great
+because of the number which it comprised and of the sensation which
+attended its progress--that for more than forty years has alternately
+surprised, puzzled, disgusted and amused the world.
+
+From so little a plant has grown a gigantic weed of deceit, corruption and
+fraud, nurtured upon the fattening lust of money, and of the flesh.
+
+What has developed from it is not alone a system of so-called
+communications through a puerile code of signals with an unseen world;
+but, as Dante describes, in his incomparable epic, forms of monstrosity
+which combine a hideous human semblance and a loathly animal foulness, so
+this venomous evil has become conglomerate in its hateful phases of
+delusion, and its petty sordidness and depravity.
+
+Thus the Tuscan bard describes the spirit of fraud:
+
+     "'Lo! the fell monster with the deadly sting!
+  Who passes mountains, breaks through fenced walls
+  And firm embattled spears, and with his filth
+  Taints all the world! Thus me my guide addressed,
+  And beckon'd him, that he should come to shore,
+  Near to the stony causeway's utmost edge.
+     "Forthwith that image vile of fraud appear'd,
+  His head and upper part expos'd on land,
+  But laid not on the shore his bestial train.
+  His face the semblance of a just man's wore.
+  So kind and gracious was its outward cheer;
+  The rest was serpent all; two shaggy claws
+  Reach'd to the armpits, and the back and breast,
+  And either side, were painted o'er with nodes
+  And orbits. Colors variegated more
+  Nor Turks nor Tartars e'er on cloth of state
+  With interchangeable embroidery wove,
+  Nor spread Arachne o'er her curious loom.
+  As ofttimes a light skiff, moor'd to the shore,
+  Stands part in water, part upon the land;
+  Or, as where dwells the greedy German boor,
+  The beaver settles watching for his prey;
+  So on the rim, that fenced the sand with rock,
+  Sat perched the fiend of evil. In the void
+  Glancing, his tail upturn'd its venomous fork,
+  With sting like scorpion's armed."
+
+The world has not seen in all its long procession of follies, vagaries,
+and strange mania, one so utterly devoid of a reasonable foundation as
+this.
+
+Yet none has been more eagerly believed; and this very tendency has
+evolved into so strong a desire to believe that thousands of those who
+have professed to investigate it have done so only ostensibly, their eyes,
+figuratively speaking, tightly bandaged, to shut out everything but the
+artificial vision that they were most eager to see.
+
+It is to be hoped that the world will now form its ultimate conclusion
+upon this flagrant and audacious system of humbuggery:--that, regarded as
+a superstition, it ranks even below voudooism and fetich-worship, and, as
+an illusion, below the effects produced by the most ordinary magician at a
+country fair.
+
+Dragged into this life when infants, rescued from it for an interval by
+two men[1] whose names are historical, the one as a hero and explorer, the
+other as a journalist and daily philosopher; borne back to it again by the
+tide of ill-fortune; used and controlled, by those whose heart's were "dry
+as summer's dust," for their own hateful purposes; menaced when conscience
+rebelled and suggested retraction and amends; driven to seek momentary
+oblivion of their present degradation in a vice that was the result of
+their enforced public career; finally, persecuted in a stealthy and
+treacherous way by those who had profited most by the fraud that they had
+set up, because it was feared that sooner or later they could no longer
+keep silent and would betray its real origin; seeing their existence
+slipping away from them with nothing but Dead Sea fruit remaining to their
+bitter portion; feeling more and more the need of an atonement to
+conscience and the opinion of the world--Margaret and Catherine Fox now
+denounce and anathematize Spiritualism as absolutely and utterly false
+from beginning to end; and they declare their solemn intention to devote
+themselves henceforth to the noble task of undoing the great evil which
+they have done, and of leaving no single stone of foundation behind them
+for weak-minded future generations to base a futile faith upon.
+
+In these pages will be found the full and truthful story of Spiritualism,
+as it was and is, as gathered from the lips of both Margaret Fox Kane and
+Catharine Fox Jencken, and verified by letters, documents and published
+data. It is written with their full knowledge and earnest sanction.
+
+The bold fabric of lies built up to sustain the claim that the "rappings"
+in which all spiritualistic so-called phenomena originated were
+unaccountable except on the supernatural hypothesis, can no longer be
+cited to an intelligent mind. The elaborate narrative published by the
+eldest sister, Mrs. Ann Leah Fox Underhill, who is now the only remaining
+stay of spiritualistic deception, is proven to be false from title-page to
+finis.
+
+I have given in the following pages, the real lives of Mrs. Kane and Mrs.
+Jencken, in so far as they bear in any important degree upon the
+development of the fraud of Spiritualism.
+
+
+
+
+II. RENUNCIATION.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+GOD HAS NOT ORDERED IT.
+
+
+The world of "spiritualists" and non-spiritualists was startled on the
+24th of September, 1888, by the publication in the New York _Herald_, of
+an article with the following head-lines:
+
+  "GOD HAS NOT ORDERED IT."
+
+  A Celebrated Medium Says the
+  Spirits Never Return.
+
+  CAPTAIN KANE'S WIDOW.
+
+  One of the Fox Sisters Promises an
+  Interesting Exposure of Fraud.
+
+To many, an article of this kind seemed in a degree sensational. Not to
+those, however, who had previously had some inkling of the secret history
+of Spiritualism, and who for years had looked for the day of its
+inevitable confounding.
+
+A sudden disclosure like this, by one of the "Mothers of Spiritualism," if
+the term may be used, suggested a sort of reckless vagary, a species of
+extravagance, due, as might have been fancied, to some abnormal condition
+of the mind.
+
+Yet to those who had had an intimate acquaintance with Maggie Fox Kane
+this step had long been foreshadowed. As will appear later, no one could
+have imagined the real intensity of moral pain that for years she had
+endured.
+
+In recent years, both she and her sister, Catharine Fox Jencken, had been
+but poorly provided with this world's goods. Obliged to depend almost
+wholly on themselves for support, they had dropped more and more out of
+sight, till the public at last hardly recognized their names, if perchance
+they appeared in print, as those of the principal instruments in the
+founding of Spiritualism. For this, there was a reason. It was a
+deep-seated and long increasing disgust with their fraudulent
+profession--the fuller realization to their minds, as their knowledge of
+the world grew broader, of the monstrous evil to which, innocently at
+first, they had given birth. So at intervals they were filled with
+despairing despondency and remorse. Their weaknesses, their
+self-indulgence, their lack of providence for themselves, are largely
+attributable to these causes. It could not be said of them that they were
+ever remarkably selfish, or cold-hearted or calculating. Such a character,
+however, has of right been coupled with the name of their elder sister,
+who by reason of the ties of blood and of her older experience ought long
+ago to have led them out of the by-ways of imposture, instead of
+persistently seeking to shut off their escape from this horrible bondage,
+and to plunge them deeper into the mire of guilt and infamy, so that the
+chance of their rising above it, and denouncing it, might grow less and
+less.
+
+The impulse to set herself right on the record of the world, after years
+of enslavement in the hateful gyves of charlatanism, must stand to Maggie
+Fox's credit alone. It sprang from her own bosom, not from the
+inspiration, suggestion or persuasion of any one else. Returning from
+Europe in September, 1888, after a peculiar experience, which had
+convinced her that those chiefs of spiritualistic fraud who feared her and
+her sister, because they held the key of the whole of the artificial
+mystery, were bent upon persecuting them into an abject silence, she at
+once put in execution the resolution which had been so long in process of
+growth, but until then had never been fully ripened.
+
+This was to effect the unqualified exposure of the false system of
+Spiritualism. She naturally chose as a medium for her repentant message to
+the world, that great cosmopolitan journal, the _New York Herald_, which
+is known in every corner of the earth, and is ever ready to perform an
+important service to mankind. Before she started on her homeward voyage,
+she committed herself once and for all to this courageous and worthy step.
+
+The disclosures regarding the notorious Madam Diss De Barr had offended
+Mrs. Kane more than anything which had occurred in Spiritualism in a long
+time, for they presented the enforced association of her name and the
+simple, childish origin of the "Rochester knockings," with the gross and
+revolting frauds which had been their outgrowth. So imbued had she become,
+by this time, with the idea that the developed system of Spiritualism was
+something to be loathed, as Milton loathed the hideous creature who sat by
+the inner portals of hell, that words could not express her utter scorn
+and hatred of this common woman, who posed as an agent of sacred
+communications between the living and the dead.
+
+The New York _Herald_ of May 27, 1888, contained this letter, written by
+Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane in London:
+
+     THE CURSE OF SPIRITUALISM.
+
+     GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, W. C.,
+     LONDON, MAY 14, 1888.
+
+     TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:
+
+     I read in the _Herald_ of Saturday, May 5, an account of the sad
+     misfortune that has befallen my dear sister Katie, Mrs. Kate Fox
+     Jencken, and in the article it is stated that I am still a resident
+     of New York, which is a mistake. I sailed for England on the 22d of
+     March, and I presume my absence has added to my darling sister's
+     depressed state of mind. The sad news has nearly killed me. My
+     sister's two beautiful boys referred to are her idols.
+
+     Spiritualism is a curse. God has set His seal against it! I call it a
+     curse, for it is made use of as a covering for heartless persons like
+     the Diss De Barrs, and the vilest miscreants make use of it to cloak
+     their evil doings. Fanatics like Mr. Luther R. Marsh, Mr. John L.
+     O'Sullivan, ex-Minister to Portugal, and hundreds equally as learned,
+     ignore the "rappings" (which is the only part of the phenomena that
+     is worthy of notice) and rush madly after the glaring humbugs that
+     flood New York. But a harmless "message" that is given through the
+     "rappings" is of little account to them; they want the "spirit" to
+     come to them in full form, to walk before them, talk to them, to
+     embrace them, and all such nonsense, and what is the result? Like old
+     Judge Edmonds and Mr. Seybert, of Philadelphia, they become crazed,
+     and at the direction of their fraud "mediums" they are induced to
+     part with all their worldly possessions as well as their common
+     sense, which God intended they should hold sacred. Mr. Marsh's
+     experience is but another example of hundreds who have preceded him.
+
+     No matter in what form Spiritualism may be presented, it is, has been
+     and always will be a curse and a snare to all who meddle with it. No
+     right minded man or woman can think otherwise.
+
+     I have found that fanatics are as plentiful among "inferior men and
+     women" as they are among the more learned. They are all alike. They
+     cannot hold their fanaticism in check, and it increases as their
+     years increase. All they will ever achieve for their foolish
+     fanaticism will be loss of money, softening of the brain and a
+     lingering death.
+
+     MARGARET F. KANE.
+
+This anathema dismayed those who had basely profited by Spiritualism, and
+it brought a deeper shock to the hearts of many who were sincere
+believers. The publication, however, in the _Herald_, three months later,
+of an interview with Mrs. Kane on her arrival in this city, the striking
+head-lines of which I have cited above, capped the climax of
+consternation. This article is well worthy of reproduction.
+
+     The eccentric circles wherein "isms" reign in discordant supremacy
+     will be probably as deeply exercised over an approaching exposure of
+     the tricks and illusions of Spiritualism, as they were over the rude
+     logic of common sense and justice which drew aside the thin veil of
+     fraud in the case of Madam Diss De Barr, and revealed the real nature
+     of her flimsy system of deception in all its vulgar absurdity.
+
+     I called yesterday at a modest little house in West Forty-fourth
+     street, and was received by a small, magnetic woman of middle age,
+     whose face bears the traces of much sorrow and of a world-wide
+     experience. She was negligently dressed, and she was not in the
+     calmest possible mood. But she knew what she was talking about when,
+     in response to my questions, she told a story of as strange and
+     fantastic a life as has ever been recorded, and declared over and
+     over again her intention of balancing the account which the world of
+     humbug-loving mortals held against her, by making a clean breast of
+     all her former miracles and wonders. In intervals of her talk, when
+     she had risen from her chair, and paced the room, or had covered her
+     face with her hands and almost sobbed with emotion, she would seat
+     herself suddenly at a piano and pour forth fitful floods of wild,
+     incoherent melody, which coincided strangely with that reminiscent
+     weirdness which, despite its cynical reality, still characterized the
+     scene.
+
+     This woman, albeit a notorious career has classed her with
+     mountebanks and worse in the minds of reasonable beings, had yet by
+     some element or other in her character retained a degree of public
+     respect. Perhaps it is because months ago she abandoned the art of
+     deception and has since to her intimate friends evinced no ordinary
+     measure of contempt for all who still pursue it. She is known on both
+     sides of the Atlantic, and when in London, is entertained by some of
+     the best-to-do of the great and comprehensive middle class.
+
+     Circumstances had brought me to this house, and I did not at first
+     know her. I soon found, however, that this was the most famous of the
+     celebrated trio of witches, the Fox sisters, among the earliest
+     spiritualistic mediums in this country. She is also the widow of Dr.
+     Elisha Kent Kane, the heroic Arctic explorer, who died of the effects
+     of his exposure in searching for Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated
+     party. Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane has lately returned from England for a
+     brief visit here, and she purposes in a very short time to deliver
+     just one lecture, and no more, which shall shame and dumfound all the
+     spiritualistic frauds who have not yet repented into poverty or exile
+     of their nebulous ways. She will reveal one after another of the
+     methods by which willing believers have been so briskly duped and
+     robbed, and will herself demonstrate how simple, natural and easy are
+     most of those methods.
+
+Brooding upon the troubles that had been brought upon her by Spiritualism
+and on her personal guilt in connection with it, it is hardly strange that
+Mrs. Kane, even when bent upon making a sweeping confession of the whole
+imposture, should in intervals of nervous excitement have turned to the
+thought of suicide.
+
+"'My troubles weighed upon me,' she said, 'and when I was coming over on
+the _Italy_, I do believe that I should have gone overboard but for the
+Captain and the doctor and some of the sailors. They prevented me, and
+when I landed, I could not express to them the gratitude I felt. I had
+very little English money with me, but all of that I distributed to the
+men.'"
+
+As Mrs. Kane told of her impulse to commit suicide her manner became
+tragic and she clutched her listener's arm. After a moment, however, she
+reverted quietly enough to the original subject.
+
+But she speedily became much excited again, as what follows will show. It
+was but natural:
+
+     "Since you now despise Spiritualism, how was it that you were engaged
+     in it so long?" I asked.
+
+     "Another sister of mine," and she coupled the name with an injurious
+     adjective, "made me take up with it. She's my damnable enemy. I hate
+     her. My God! I'd poison her! No, I wouldn't, but I'll lash her with
+     my tongue. She was twenty-three years old the day I was born. I was
+     an aunt seven years before I was born. Ha! ha!
+
+     "Yes, I am going to expose Spiritualism from its very foundation. I
+     have had the idea in my head for many a year, but I have never come
+     to a determination before. I've thought of it day and night. I loath
+     the thing I have been. As I used to say to those who wanted me to
+     give a séance, 'You are driving me into hell.' Then the next day I
+     would drown my remorse in wine. I was too honest to remain a
+     'medium.' That's why I gave up my exhibitions.
+
+     "When Spiritualism first began Kate and I were little children, and
+     this old woman, my other sister, made us her tools. Mother was a
+     silly woman. She was a fanatic. I call her that because she was
+     honest. She believed in these things. Spiritualism started from just
+     nothing. We were but innocent little children. What did we know? Ah,
+     we grew to know too much! Our sister used us in her exhibitions and
+     we made money for her. Now she turns upon us because she's the wife
+     of a rich man, and she opposes us both wherever she can. Oh, I am
+     after her! You can kill sometimes without using weapons, you know.
+
+     "Dr. Kane found me when I was leading this life. [The woman's voice
+     trembled just here and she nearly broke down.] I was only thirteen
+     when he took me out of it and placed me at school. I was educated in
+     Philadelphia. When I was sixteen years old he returned from the
+     Arctic and we were married. Now comes the sad, sad tale. He was very
+     ill. The physicians ordered him to London, but before he arrived he
+     had a paralytic stroke of the heart. Then he was sent back from
+     London and to Havana. Newsboys shouted in the streets of New York
+     the news of his critical condition. Oh, my God! it was anguish to my
+     ears! Mother and I were to have joined him in two weeks. He died
+     before we arrived. Then I had brain fever. No one but God can know
+     what sorrows I have had!
+
+     "When I recovered I was driven again into Spiritualism, and I gave
+     exhibitions with my sister Katie. I knew, of course, then, that every
+     effect produced by us was absolute fraud. Why, I have explored the
+     unknown as far as human will can. I have gone to the dead so that I
+     might get from them some little token. Nothing ever came of
+     it--nothing, nothing. I have been in graveyards at dead of night,
+     having permission to enter from those in charge. I have sat alone on
+     a gravestone, that the spirits of those who slept underneath might
+     come to me. I have tried to obtain some sign. Not a thing! No, no,
+     the dead shall not return, nor shall any that go down into hell. So
+     says the Catholic Bible, and so say I. The spirits will not come
+     back. God has not ordered it.
+
+     "You want to know what are the points of my coming exposé? First the
+     'rappings.'"
+
+     Mrs. Kane paused here, and I heard first a rapping under the floor
+     near my feet, then under the chair in which I was seated, and again
+     under a table on which I was leaning. She led me to the door and I
+     heard the same sound on the other side of it. Then, when she sat on
+     the piano stool, the legs of the instrument reverberated more loudly,
+     and the tap, tap, resounded throughout its hollow structure.
+
+     "It is all a trick?"
+
+     "Absolutely. Spirits, is he not easily fooled?"
+
+     Rap, rap, rap!
+
+     "I can always get an affirmative answer to that question," she
+     remarked.
+
+     Then I addressed certain suppositions to her. At last she said, "Yes,
+     you have hit it. It is, as you say, the manner in which the joints of
+     the foot can be used without lifting it from the floor. The power of
+     doing this can only be acquired by practice begun in early youth. One
+     must begin as early as twelve years. Thirteen is rather late. We
+     children, when we were playing together, years ago, discovered it,
+     and it was my eldest sister who first put the discovery to such an
+     infamous use.
+
+     "I call it infamous, for it was."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE DISCOMFITED ENEMY.
+
+
+What has gone before is the whole story, in a sense.
+
+The article in the _Herald_ either relates or suggests it. Indeed, no
+refutation of it has been attempted. If there is one striking negative
+feature in the circumstances surrounding this exposure of Spiritualism, it
+is the entire absense of any reply from the great body of professional
+spiritualists commensurate with the accusation made.
+
+This confession of Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane was to them the handwriting on
+the wall, the "_Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin_," of Spiritualism.
+
+Leah Fox Fish-Brown-Underhill, who has published a book of the flimsiest
+and most absurd narrative, intended to be accepted as a proof of
+Spiritualism, is the one person in all the world who could be expected to
+defend the system from this fatal attack, if any defense were possible.
+Reporters of the daily press would have been but too glad to record
+whatever she might say, were it even the veriest drivel, on an issue that
+jeopardized the existence of the brazen and pretentious "ism" which, as by
+an obscene spell, still enlists the curiosity of a great proportion of the
+world.
+
+But as Mrs. Underhill's book itself, which I shall notice more in detail
+hereafter, shows to the critical mind how futile would be an attempted
+refutation on her part, the public can very readily understand the reason
+of this most careful silence. Blunderingly, however, prior to having
+consulted her, Mr. Daniel Underhill, her husband, consented to talk upon
+the subject. The statements hostile to Mrs. Kane, to be found in the
+excerpt here given, were, of course, to be expected. Were they ever so
+true, however, they could not in any way lesson the damning force of her
+repentant avowals:--
+
+     Mr. Daniel Underhill, president of a wealthy insurance company, whose
+     office is in Wall street, and who is the husband of the eldest of the
+     Fox sisters, whom Margaret declares to be her "damnable enemy," is a
+     Spiritualist, but in a moderate sense. Mrs. Underhill's maiden name
+     was Ann Leah Fox. She was twice married before she met her present
+     husband, and she is twenty-three years older than Margaret.
+
+     A large part of the public do not realize that Ann Leah, Margaret and
+     Cathie Fox were the founders of what is specifically known as
+     Spiritualism. The first so-called phenomena came to the two youngest
+     girls in 1848, at Hydesville, in this State, while their sister Leah
+     was residing elsewhere. When she heard of what had taken place and of
+     the intense public excitement which it had created, she joined them,
+     and then began the public history of Spiritualism. She took the
+     incipient "ism" vigorously in hand, and for a series of years gave
+     exhibitions in all the principal cities, which were attended by the
+     most eminent men and the most brilliant women in the country.
+
+     Of late years Mrs. Underhill has entirely withdrawn from public
+     participation in spiritualistic exhibitions. She is still held,
+     however, in high estimation by all who accept supernatural
+     communications, and her reply to what her sister Margaret has said
+     regarding the practice of fraud, would at this time be interesting.
+     Unfortunately she is now in the country, and there is no person in
+     the city to speak for her excepting her husband. I obtained an
+     interview with him yesterday. He was reluctant to be brought into the
+     controversy, but, while speaking in a most uncomplimentary manner of
+     Margaret and denouncing her proposed new departure, did not evince
+     any great amount of indignation.
+
+     "I have for years," he began, "helped both Maggie and Katie, and my
+     wife has done everything in the world for them. We have furnished
+     apartments for Maggie twice. They might both do well if they would
+     only keep sober. Maggie can be as nice as you please or as vicious as
+     a devil. Several persons have undertaken to manage her, but all have
+     failed. Nobody can do anything with her. The first I knew that she
+     was back in the city was through the _Herald_.
+
+     "I don't think she's in her right mind. I have done so much for her
+     and she has behaved so badly in return that I have given her up now
+     and will have nothing to do with her. She says she will lecture, does
+     she? Well, I don't believe she ever will. She's incapable of it.
+
+     "It's a great pity, though, that she should say such things about
+     Spiritualism, because of the odium which will result from it. But it
+     isn't the first time she has said that she would declare against
+     Spiritualism. She has had such spells before. It is astonishing to me
+     that people have stuck to her and Katie as they have. It is all bosh
+     about revealing the manner of producing the raps. I don't believe she
+     can do it. I don't believe she knows how they are produced, except
+     that it is done by an occult agency. Of course, there are frauds in
+     Spiritualism. Mme. Diss De Barr was one of them. I don't believe much
+     in materialization, but I've seen some real manifestations. They were
+     in my own house. Nearly all my spiritualistic experience has been in
+     my own house, and these sisters were the mediums.
+
+     "Of course Maggie's statement will be something of a shock to
+     spiritualists the world over, because they regard her and her sisters
+     as the founders of their belief. In my opinion she is not accountable
+     for what she says."
+
+Mrs. Underhill remained quietly in the country many weeks after the
+exposé, safe from the keen inquisition of reporters.
+
+The notorious "mediums" in New York who were approached on the subject,
+were all excessively guarded in their comments upon the step taken by
+Mrs. Kane, yet they admitted her personal importance as an originator of
+Spiritualism. Mrs. E. A. Wells, whose fraudulent exhibitions have had a
+certain success, expressed herself as much shocked at the determination of
+Mrs. Kane; "'but,' she added to the reporter, with seeming naîveté, 'you
+don't believe she will do it, do you?'"
+
+The account from which I am quoting, continues as follows:
+
+     "I sought the presence of Mrs. E. A. Wells, a medium of great
+     celebrity, whose abode is not far from Adelphi Hall, where
+     spiritualists congregate on Sunday." Mrs. Wells expressed herself as
+     shocked at the determination of Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane, "but," she
+     added, with seeming naîveté, "you don't believe she will do it, do
+     you?"
+
+     "How have you regarded Mrs. Kane heretofore, Mrs. Wells?"
+
+     "Why, with a good deal of respect as one of the first to get messages
+     from the unseen world. The Fox sisters have a great name. I have no
+     idea, though, if she really intends to do what she says she will,
+     that she's in her right senses."
+
+Another "medium," who has a wealthy clientèle, and who gives only private
+séances, whence all unfriendly influences are rigorously excluded, did not
+desire to appear in print, as she told her visitor, since it would look
+like "bad form" to those who came to her for supernatural enlightenment.
+
+     She was asked, however, if she held the Fox sisters in much esteem as
+     the pioneers of Spiritualism. She said she did, but personally knew
+     nothing of them.
+
+     When told about the threatened exposure she expressed very great
+     surprise, and declared that it would be a deep mortification to
+     believers in Spiritualism.
+
+     "I don't believe she can expose any fraud. But if fraud exists, why,
+     then, I say let it be exposed; the sooner the better. There's no
+     fraud about me, that's very certain, and I've some of the very best
+     people in New York to come here."
+
+     "I'll tell you what! I have heard that the Fox sisters are dreadfully
+     addicted to drink. I don't know how far it is true, but I wouldn't
+     believe anything she might say in the way of exposure. May be she's
+     out of money and thinks the spiritualists ought to do something for
+     her. I shouldn't wonder."
+
+     "Now, if you'll come up here some time, and if you'll give me a fair
+     report, I shall be glad to show you how I can materialize."
+
+     I thought there was a good deal of material about her already, and so
+     I thanked her.
+
+At their public gatherings in Adelphi Hall, New York, now most meagerly
+attended, the spiritualists, just after the initial exposé in the
+_Herald_, refrained very wisely from taking up the gauntlet of truth
+thrown down by their chief apostle, Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane. In an
+interview, however, which was had by a reporter with Mr. Henry J. Newton,
+the President of the First Spiritual Society of New York, the latter
+indulged in a number of emphatic statements regarding the "manifestations"
+produced by the "Fox Sisters," all of which rested upon his own veracity
+only. The spirit of what he said may be easily gleaned from this passage:
+
+     "I had supposed all along," he said, "that Mrs. Kane was still in
+     Europe, and that she would never return to this country. I even heard
+     at the time when Katie, her sister, was sent abroad, that Maggie was
+     in Rome, in company with a well known gentleman. I am very much
+     surprised to know that she is in this city, and more surprised that
+     she threatens to make such silly pretended revelations as you say she
+     proposes. They can only be revelations in name. She cannot reveal
+     anything that can injure the spiritualist cause or that will weaken
+     in any one's mind the truth of what we teach.
+
+     "I have been absent in the country and have not read all that the
+     _Herald_ has published on this matter. I have read enough, however,
+     to show me how utterly absurd and ridiculous her position is.
+
+     "The idea of claiming that unseen 'rappings' can be produced with
+     joints of the feet! If she says this, even with regard to her own
+     manifestations, she lies! I and many other men of truth and position
+     have witnessed the manifestations of herself and her sisters many
+     times under circumstances in which it was absolutely impossible for
+     there to have been the least fraud.
+
+     "_Nothing that she could say in that regard would in the least change
+     my opinion_, nor would it that of any one else who has become
+     profoundly convinced that there is an occult influence connecting us
+     with an invisible world, I have seen Margaret Fox Kane herself, when
+     lying on a bed of sickness and unable to rise, produce 'rappings' in
+     various parts of the room in which she was, and upon the ceilings,
+     doors and windows several feet away from her. I have seen her produce
+     the same effects when too drunk to realize what she was doing."
+
+On the 25th of September, 1888, the following, which was published in the
+New York _Herald_, expressed very tersely the situation among the
+spiritualists, who had by that time partly recovered from the first effect
+of the blow:
+
+     Recrimination against the two younger Fox sisters, Margaret and
+     Katie, has begun with characteristic violence, and many unlovely
+     truths are betrayed which do not alter the essential significance of
+     the former's denunciation of spiritualistic fraud. Several of the
+     mediums said that they could hardly believe their eyes when they read
+     of Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane's determination, and they declared almost
+     unanimously that "she would not do it if she were in her senses."
+     They accuse her of excessive indulgence in drink and hint that she is
+     not responsible for what she says. It appears, however, that in
+     private, on many occasions, but never before in public, she has
+     stated that Spiritualism was a tissue of fraud, and that some day she
+     would prove the charge to the world. She has during the last few
+     mouths given many séances in London, but always disclaimed any
+     personal supernatural connection in producing the effects at which
+     others wondered. With a number of rich patrons, among them Mr. H.
+     Wedgewood, of Cavendish Square, she proceeded to a certain point in
+     the process of delusion and then frankly undeceived them, convincing
+     them of the ease with which they could be practiced upon.
+
+Prior to this, the following had been published:
+
+     As Mrs. Kane's sincerity in making her proposed exposures is
+     questioned by her enemies, the following brief note from a well known
+     English spiritualist is of interest:
+
+     "31 QUEEN ANNE STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE,
+     "LONDON, W., JULY 19, 1888.
+
+     "DEAR MRS. KANE: I am not so much surprised as I might be at what you
+     have revealed to me if I had not already been led to believe that
+     many spiritualistic mediums practice upon the credulous.
+
+     "The illusion, however, was perfect while it lasted.
+
+     "You do well to expose these infamous frauds, and I thank you for
+     having enlightened me.
+
+     "Sincerely yours,
+     "H. WEDGEWOOD."
+
+And later Mrs. Kane, in outlining her proposed public lecture, said:
+
+     "I am going to expose the very root of corruption in this
+     spiritualistic ulcer. You talk about Mormonism! Do you know that
+     there is something behind the shadowy mask of Spiritualism that the
+     public can hardly guess at? I am stating now what I know, not because
+     I actually participated in it, for I would never be a party to such
+     promiscuous nastiness, but because I had plenty of opportunity, as
+     you may imagine, of verifying it. Under the name of this dreadful,
+     this horrible hypocrisy--Spiritualism--everything that is improper,
+     bad and immoral is practiced. They go even so far as to have what
+     they call 'spiritual children!' They pretend to something like the
+     immaculate conception! Could anything be more blasphemous, more
+     disgusting, more thinly deceptive than that? In London I went in
+     disguise to a quiet séance at the house of a wealthy man, and I saw
+     a so-called materialization. The effect was produced with the aid of
+     luminous paper, the lustre of which was reflected upon the operator.
+     The figure thus displayed was that of a woman--was virtually nude,
+     being enveloped in transparent gauze, the face alone being concealed.
+     This was one of those séances to which the privileged non-believing
+     friends of believing spiritualists could have access. But there are
+     other séances, where none but the most tried and trusted are
+     admitted, and where there are shameless goings on that vie with the
+     secret Saturnalia of the Romans. I could not describe these things to
+     you, because I would not."
+
+Thus, the only one of the "Fox Sisters" who still adhered to the imposture
+practiced for over forty years, and the only spiritualist who could deny
+the statements of Margaret Fox Kane with anything approaching to
+authority, found her safest and most fitting defense in the kindly shelter
+of silence.
+
+This quasi-confession was not needed to complete the conviction in
+intelligent minds that Spiritualism was, in its inception, and is now, a
+fraud and a lie. But the significance of the negative circumstance is none
+the less worthy of note.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A SECOND BLOW.
+
+
+Barely had the professional spiritualists a breathing-spell--after the
+shock of Mrs. Kane's confession--when a new blow fell upon them.
+
+Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken arrived from Europe, and though ignorant until
+landing, of the grave step her sister Margaret had taken, at once
+announced her intention of joining and sustaining her in the complete
+exposure of Spiritualism in all its phases of deception and hypocrisy.
+
+This news staggered the spiritualistic world.
+
+And now it but remains for the other of the three "Fox Sisters" to see the
+hopeless folly of continued imposture, and to add her confession to the
+historical record of the dissipation of this unholy fraud. That she will
+ever do this, however, those who are aware that to her malevolent will
+was due the first evil growth and the wide extension of Spiritualism,
+cannot easily bring themselves to believe.
+
+The following account of Mrs. Jencken's arrival in New York and of her
+determination to add her testimony to that of her sister Margaret against
+the fraud of Spiritualism, was published on the 10th of October, 1888, and
+is of sufficient interest to excuse my quoting it here at large:
+
+     AND KATY FOX NOW.
+
+     The Youngest of the Mediumistic Pioneers
+     Will "Give the Snap Away."
+
+     SHE ARRIVES FROM EUROPE.
+
+     Spiritualism a Humbug from Beginning
+     to End--Alleged Immoralities.
+
+     Katie Fox Jencken arrived yesterday from England on the _Persian
+     Monarch_ and she intends to co-operate with her sister--Margaret Fox
+     Kane--in her proposed exposé of the fraudulent methods of so-called
+     Spiritualism.
+
+     Mrs. Jencken's coming was unexpected to her sister, and it will
+     surprise the enemies of both.
+
+     The blow to Spiritualism which Maggie Fox struck not long ago, caused
+     a good deal more of consternation than spiritualists generally have
+     cared to confess. There is ample reason for stating that underneath a
+     plausible surface of enforced calm there have been the hurried
+     exchange of forbodings and doubtings, and many consultations and
+     goings to and fro. It is known that an overture was made to Maggie
+     Fox suggestive of a money consideration for her silence, and that she
+     rejected it with much indignation.
+
+     Mrs. Jencken walked into the parlor where Mrs. Kane was sitting about
+     five o'clock yesterday, and the sisters at once fell on each other's
+     necks, in an ecstasy of affection and delight at being together once
+     again. Mrs. Kane had but just been talking to me about her projected
+     lecture on "The Curse of Spiritualism," and Mrs. Jencken, who had
+     heard nothing of the proposed exposé, except as it was casually
+     rumored in her ear at the steamship dock, promptly gave her
+     acquiescence to it as soon as she understood the situation.
+
+     "I do not care a fig for Spiritualism," she said, "except so far as
+     the good will of its adherents may affect the future of my boys. They
+     are all I have in this life, and I live or die for them."
+
+     Mrs. Jencken looks a far different person than she was when in deep
+     trouble in this city and when she had to do with the rather
+     unsympathetic measures of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
+     to Children. No matron could bear a more placid and comely
+     expression, and she declares with heartfelt earnestness that she is
+     done forever with her once-besetting vice.
+
+     "Mrs. Jencken, are you willing to join with your sister in exposing
+     the true modus operandi of Spiritualism?" I asked.
+
+     "I care nothing for Spiritualism," was her reply. "So far as I am
+     concerned I am done with it. I will say this, I regard it as one of
+     the very greatest curses that the world has ever known. If I knew
+     those powerful spiritualists who have done their utmost to harm me in
+     the past could not do so in the future, I would not hesitate a moment
+     to expose it. The worst of them all is my eldest sister, Leah, the
+     wife of Daniel Underhill. I think she was the one who caused my
+     arrest last spring, and the bringing of the preposterous charge
+     against me that I was cruel to my children and neglectful of them. I
+     don't know why it is, she has always been jealous of Maggie and me;
+     I suppose because we could do things in Spiritualism that she
+     couldn't."
+
+     "Why don't you come squarely out, then, with the truth, and make the
+     public your friends? You needn't fear any persecution if you do
+     that."
+
+     "Well, if my sister's health were only fully restored and I knew she
+     was fully herself I would certainly join her in showing Spiritualism
+     to be what it really is. I want to be sure of that, however. I want
+     the thing done properly when it is done."
+
+     "Then you will not deny that what she has said of Spiritualism is
+     true?"
+
+     "I will not deny it. Spiritualism is a humbug from beginning to end.
+     It is the greatest humbug of the century. I don't know whether she
+     has told you this, but Maggie and I started it as very little
+     children, too young, too innocent, to know what we were doing. Our
+     sister Leah was twenty-three years older than either of us. We got
+     started in the way of deception, and being encouraged in it, we went
+     on, of course. Others, old enough to have been ashamed of the infamy,
+     took us out into the world. My sister Leah has published a book
+     called 'The Missing Link of Spiritualism.' It professes to give the
+     true history of this movement, so far as it originated with us. Now,
+     there's nothing but falsehood in that book from beginning to end,
+     excepting the fact that Horace Greeley educated me. The rest is
+     nothing but a string of lies."
+
+     "And about the manifestations at Hydesville in 1848 and the finding
+     of bones in the cellar and so on?"
+
+     "All humbuggery, every bit of it."
+
+     "And yet Maggie and I are the founders of Spiritualism!" concluded
+     Mrs. Jencken.
+
+On the next day Mrs. Jencken made the statement which appears in the
+following:
+
+     Mrs. Jencken was asked about the alleged spirit manifestations which
+     have taken place in Carlyle's old home at Chelsea, London, where she
+     has lately resided. The English papers have been filled with stories,
+     more or less sceptical, regarding these queer occurrences. Mrs.
+     Jencken said: "All that took place there of that nature is utterly
+     false. I haven't the slightest idea that the noises which we heard in
+     the house had any connection with Carlyle's spirit. I certainly know
+     that every so-called manifestation produced through me in London or
+     anywhere else was a fraud. Many a time have I wept because when I was
+     young and innocent I was brought into such a life. The time has now
+     come for Maggie and I to set ourselves right before the world. Nobody
+     knows at what moment either of us might be taken away. We ought not
+     to leave this base fabric of deceit behind us unexposed."
+
+As may be seen, nothing could be stronger than the language employed in
+these interviews by both of the repentant sisters, in denouncing their
+former adhesion to a system of humbug and hypocrisy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE HAND OF THE PERSECUTOR
+
+
+The public had every reason to feel a deep sympathy with the two younger
+Fox sisters in the courageous attitude which they had taken.
+
+The deadliest hatred is always to be feared, by those who abandon a faith
+or a system, from those who still adhere to it.
+
+Think you, if Mahomet had turned about, forty years after the Hegira, and
+had boldly anathematized the religion he had established, he might not
+have been reviled and persecuted, even by those in whom he had first
+inculcated his bastard faith?
+
+Who can doubt this who knows human nature?
+
+Even the lies of an impostor rebel against him, when, with a repentant
+word, he would damn them again to all eternity.
+
+Mrs. Jencken had ample reason to fear that the disclosures which had been
+made by her and her sister would redouble the hostile zeal of those who
+before had persecuted her. In the first account which had been published
+of her return to this country, it was not stated that her two boys had
+accompanied her. In fact, however, they had.
+
+The pressure brought to bear to induce her to retract her denunciation of
+Spiritualism, and the ground of her fear for the safety of her children,
+are well set forth in the following, which appeared on October 11th,
+1888:
+
+     FEARING THEIR ENEMIES.
+
+     THE JENCKEN BOYS WERE HERE, BUT ARE SENT AWAY.
+
+     There are signs of gathering thunder all around the spiritualistic
+     sky.
+
+     A leading spiritualist, a lawyer, who had read the _Herald's_ recent
+     articles on the subject, demanded of Mrs. Katy Fox Jencken,
+     immediately upon her arrival in New York on Tuesday, that she refuse
+     to support her sister Maggie in her exposé of mediumistic fraud, and,
+     to use his own words, that she "throw herself upon the sympathy of
+     the spiritualists."
+
+     This proposition she emphatically rejected and declared that she had
+     done forever with Spiritualism and spiritualists. She firmly believes
+     that leading men and women among the latter, particularly her eldest
+     sister Leah, are her secret persecutors, and that it was due to their
+     animus that she was arrested last spring and deprived of her two
+     boys, to whom she is immeasurably devoted.
+
+     There is much to sustain this charge, and the inference that this
+     mysterious persecution, of which, as she alleges, the Society for the
+     Prevention of Cruelty to Children was only the instrument, was
+     inspired by the fear that she and Mrs. Kane, having long been
+     exploited for the financial benefit of others, might do the very
+     thing they are doing now--betray the secrets of deception, which have
+     from the beginning of the spiritualistic movement been so well
+     guarded.
+
+     As was said in the _Herald_ yesterday, Mrs. Jencken knew nothing of
+     the course which her sister Maggie had taken until she landed on the
+     wharf of the Monarch line company. The _Herald_ did not state
+     yesterday that Mrs. Jencken was accompanied by her two boys, whom the
+     Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children made such great
+     efforts to keep apart from their mother in last May. As soon as she
+     heard the news of Maggie's disclosures from a friend who met her at
+     the steamer, she was overcome with fear lest, being now aware of the
+     means that had been employed to secure their release and her own, the
+     society would again attempt to deprive her of her children. She was
+     advised by a lawyer who knew the real source of the hostility to her
+     and the motives that prompted it, to send them back at once to
+     England. The boys declared that they did not want to fall into the
+     hands of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children again.
+     Both of them are now strapping big fellows for their age, and are
+     able and willing to earn their own living. One is fourteen years old
+     and the other will be soon sixteen. But for a misunderstanding as to
+     their ages on the part of the police justice last spring there would
+     never have been any question of retaining them in the custody of Mr.
+     Gerry's over-zealous myrmidons.
+
+     Mrs. Jencken's apprehensions, however, were not to be quieted, and
+     early in the morning she bundled off the two lads [and they are now
+     safely beyond the jurisdiction of the dreaded society of which Mr. E.
+     T. Gerry is the chief].[2]
+
+     "This shows," said a gentleman yesterday, "how far certain wealthy
+     spiritualists are powerful to inspire a kind of terrorism even in New
+     York city among those who have left their ranks."
+
+     "Now that my boys are out of danger," said Mrs. Jencken, "I will
+     stand by my sister Maggie and go to the very fullest length of any
+     exposure that she may make. We have been the tools and victims of
+     others long enough. I approve and I affirm all that she has said
+     about the immoral practices hidden under the ridiculous cloak of
+     Spiritualism. The whole thing is damnable, and it should long ago
+     have been trampled, out as one would trample out the life of a
+     serpent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+SOLEMN ABJURATION.
+
+
+The news that Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane and Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken had
+renounced and exposed Spiritualism, flew from one end of the country to
+the other, and caused excitement among spiritualists and
+non-spiritualists. Every newspaper in every city of the United States, and
+many in Europe, repeated the story published in New York.
+
+The general opinion everywhere, where the wish was not the opposite, was
+that Spiritualism as such had received its death-blow.
+
+Letters began to pour in upon Mrs. Kane which were strongly significant of
+the effect of her action. Many of them were written by persons who had
+been believers from the very first of the public exhibitions of the
+"rappings," and who had based their whole faith on the truth and veritable
+inspiration of the "Fox Sisters." It was almost pitiable to witness the
+honest-hearted distress of people of this sort, who now saw the fondest
+illusion of their lives dissolve before their eyes; their dearest, assured
+hope of an invisible world ruthlessly torn from them.
+
+The anger of those who now anathematized the founders of the
+spiritualistic faith, and declared that all that they could now say in way
+of recantation was utterly false, while all that they had formerly said or
+performed as miraculous proof, was, of course, as true as gospel, or as
+the fact that the sun shines, was quite as ridiculous as the other
+sentiment was worthy of sympathy.
+
+It was natural that those who had fed their baser passions upon
+Spiritualism--as the harpy upon carrion--should resort to the vilest
+methods of attacking Mrs. Kane, and in doing so should shelter themselves
+behind the cowardly refuge of anonymity.
+
+A single communication from one of those who thus set the gauge for our
+estimate of spiritualistic hypocrisy, will suffice to complete the
+reader's impression regarding them. It was written on a postal card and
+unsigned, and the italics and other literary peculiarities are wholly
+those of the person who wrote it:
+
+     "Mrs. Kane. Your anticipated action Thursday night reminds me _very
+     forcibly_ of several lines of 'Beautiful snow' only your Course is
+     even _more despicable_ and your rank in the history of the present
+     day will be on a par with Benedict Arnold in 'Beautiful Snow' we find
+     'Selling her soul to whoever would buy' &c. you are going to sell
+     your soul to an ignorant public by _pretending to Expose_ what _you
+     very well Know cannot be Exposed_ by any man, woman or child dwelling
+     in the Mortal sphere of Life--shame on you, but you will soon meet
+     your reward in other spheres and suffer for your wickedness."
+
+It is hard to determine whether the above communication emanated from a
+professional spiritualist of the mercenary type or from one who finds his
+or her profit of self-gratification in the licentious tendencies and
+opportunities of private spiritualistic intercourse. In any event, it
+bears the stamp of ignorant selfishness and narrow vulgarity.
+
+It is with a degree of pleasure that one may turn to letters which were
+written by the sincere disciples of the "Fox Sisters," and which breathe a
+deep anxiety for the fate of that fantastic creed in which they have so
+much delighted.
+
+The reader has but to think for an instant of the actual meaning of this
+long-deferred exposé to these persons. They had greedily fed their souls
+upon the delusion that they had held intercourse with the spirits of their
+dear departed. The supposed messages which they had received seemed a sure
+earnest of that union with those they loved on earth for which the true
+heart most longs. In view of this expectation and in the light of this
+exposure of its utter fallacy--so far as any material evidence is
+concerned--it is most difficult to find adequate terms with which to
+characterize the work of those who still persist in contributing to a
+delusion which has numbered so many victims.
+
+Here is a letter from a resident of Southern California, enclosing a
+clipping from a newspaper containing Mrs. Kane's renunciation of
+Spiritualism:
+
+     "BUENA PARK, LOS ANGELES CO., CAL.,
+     SEPT. 29, A. D. 1888.
+
+     "MRS. MARGARET FOX KANE,
+
+     "DEAR MADAM:
+
+     "I have just read the enclosed item, taken from one of our Los
+     Angeles city papers. Please let me know if the statements therein
+     contained are true, and you will greatly oblige,
+
+     "Yours for truth,
+     "T. J. HOUSE."
+
+The following was written by one of the best known early settlers of San
+Francisco, a man whose example and absolute faith have influenced
+hundreds, probably, to embrace Spiritualism:
+
+     "SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., OCT. 2, 1888.
+
+     "MRS. MARGARET FOX KANE,
+
+     "DEAR MADAM:
+
+     "I inclose a cutting from one of our local papers, purporting to be
+     an interview with you in regard to the subject of Spiritualism. I
+     have taken the liberty to inquire of you if the statements therein
+     contained are true.
+
+     "I have been a believer in the phenomena from its first inception
+     through you and your sister, believing it to be true since that time.
+
+     "I am now eighty-one years old and have but a short time, of course,
+     to remain in this world, and I feel great anxiety to know through you
+     if I have been deceived all this time in a matter of vital interest
+     to us all.
+
+     "Will you greatly oblige me with an answer?
+
+     "Very respectfully yours,
+     "E. F. BUNNELL.
+     "No. 319 Kearny St."
+
+And here is a communication which is signed by what is evidently only a
+part of the writer's name, but which carries with it in every line the
+absolute impress of truth and of a deep and pathetic earnestness:
+
+     "BOSTON, MASS., OCT. 15, 1888.
+
+     "MRS. MARGARET FOX KANE,
+
+     "DEAR MADAM:
+
+     "Hundreds of thousands have believed through you and you alone.
+     Hundreds of thousands eagerly ask you whether all the glorious light
+     that they fancied you have given them, was but the false flicker of a
+     common dip-candle of fraud.
+
+     "If, as you say, you were forced to pursue this imposture from
+     childhood, I can forgive you, and I am sure that God will; for he
+     turns not back the truly repentant. I will not upbraid you. I am sure
+     you have suffered as much as any penalty, human or divine, could
+     cause you to suffer. The disclosures that you make take from me all
+     that I cherished most. There is nothing left for me now but to hope
+     for the reality of that repose which death promises us.
+
+     "It is perhaps better that the delusion should be at last swept away
+     by one single word, and that word 'fraud.'
+
+     "I know that the pursuit of this shadowy belief has wrought upon my
+     brain and that I am no longer my old self. Money I have spent in
+     thousands and thousands of dollars within a few short years to
+     propitiate the 'mediumistic' intelligence. It is true that never once
+     have I received a message or the token of a word that did not leave a
+     still unsatisfied longing in my heart, a feeling that it was not
+     really my loved one after all, who was speaking to me, or if it was
+     my loved one, that he was changed, that I hardly knew him and that he
+     hardly knew me. Oh! how I have hated the thought that used to come to
+     me sometimes, in spite of myself, that it was not really he. But that
+     must have been the true intuition. It is better that the delusion is
+     past, after all, for had I kept on in that way, I am sure I should
+     have gone mad. The constant seeking, the frequent pretended response,
+     its unsatisfying meaning, the sense of distance and change between me
+     and my loved one--oh! it has been horrible, horrible!
+
+     "He who is dying of thirst and has the sweet cup ever snatched from
+     his lips, just as the first drop touches them--he alone can know what
+     in actual things is the similitude of this spiritualistic torture.
+
+     "God bless you, for I think that you now speak the truth. You have my
+     forgiveness at least, and I believe that thousands of others will
+     forgive you, for the atonement made in season wipes out much of the
+     stain of the early sin.
+
+     "Yours sincerely,
+     "ANNA SUZANNE."
+
+To these letters and to hundreds of others which Mrs. Kane and her sister
+Mrs. Jencken have received, this volume is their response.
+
+But besides this, they have appeared in public on the platform, as an
+earnest of their present sincerity, and will probably continue so to
+appear in various parts of this country and Europe.
+
+On the 21st of October, 1888, Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane first fulfilled her
+intention of publicly denouncing, with her own lips, Spiritualism and its
+attendant trickery. She appeared at the Academy of Music in New York
+before a large and distinguished audience, and without reservation
+demonstrated the falsity of all that she had done in the past in the guise
+of spiritualistic "mediumship."
+
+The ordeal was a severe one. The great nervous strain under which she had
+labored rendered her mind highly excitable, and the large number of
+spiritualists in the house tried to create a disturbance, or a traitorous
+diversion which would break the force of her renunciation. In this they
+utterly failed, however, thanks to the superior character of a majority of
+her auditors.
+
+The moral effect of the exposure could not have been greater.
+
+Mrs. Kane stood before the footlights trembling with intense feeling, and
+made the following most solemn abjuration of Spiritualism, while Mrs.
+Catharine Fox Jencken sat in a neighboring box and gave assent by her
+presence to all that she said:
+
+"That I have been chiefly instrumental in perpetrating the fraud of
+Spiritualism upon a too confiding public, most of you doubtless know.
+
+"The greatest sorrow of my life has been that this is true, and though it
+has come late in my day, I am now prepared to tell the truth, the whole
+truth and nothing but the truth,--so help me God!
+
+"There are probably many here who will scorn me for the deception I have
+practiced, yet did they know the true history of my unhappy past, the
+living agony and shame that it has been to me, they would pity, not
+reproach.
+
+"The imposition which I have so long maintained began in my early
+childhood, when, with character and mind still unformed, I was unable to
+distinguish between right and wrong.
+
+"I repented it in my maturity. I have lived through years of silence,
+through intimidation, scorn and bitter adversity, concealing as best I
+might, the consciousness of my guilt. Now, thanks to God and my awakened
+conscience, I am at last able to reveal the fatal truth, the exact truth
+of this hideous fraud which has withered so many hearts and has blighted
+so many hopeful lives.
+
+"I am here to-night as one of the founders of Spiritualism, to denounce it
+as an absolute falsehood from beginning to end, as the flimsiest of
+superstitions, the most wicked blasphemy known to the world.
+
+"I ask only your kind attention and forgiveness, and as I may prove myself
+worthy by the step I am now taking, may you extend to me your helping
+hands and sustain me in the better path I have chosen."
+
+The demonstration of the method by which the "rappings" were produced was
+a perfect success, as is best shown by the following succinct account,
+which formed a part of the article on the subject published by the New
+York _World_ on the following morning:
+
+     A plain wooden stool or table, resting upon four short legs, and
+     having the properties of a sounding board, was placed in front of
+     her. Removing her shoe, she placed her right foot upon this table.
+     The entire house became breathlessly still, and was rewarded by a
+     number of little short, sharp raps--those mysterious sounds which
+     have for more than forty years frightened and bewildered hundreds of
+     thousands of people in this country and Europe. A committee,
+     consisting of three physicians taken from the audience, then ascended
+     to the stage, and having made an examination of her foot during the
+     progress of the "rappings," unhesitatingly agreed that the sounds
+     were made by the action of the first joint of her large toe.
+
+     Only the most hopelessly prejudiced and bigoted fanatics of
+     Spiritualism could withstand the irresistable force of this
+     common-place explanation and exhibition of how "spirit rappings" are
+     produced. The demonstration was perfect and complete, and if "spirit
+     rappings" find any credence in this community hereafter, it would
+     seem a wise precaution on the part of the authorities to begin the
+     enlargement of the State's insane asylums without any delay.
+
+
+
+
+III. HISTORY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ORIGIN OF THE FRAUD.
+
+
+There are spiritualists who pretend that so-called "spirit rappings"
+originated long before the Hydesville disturbances took place. These
+declarations, however, are of no value as actual evidence.
+
+In any event, there is no claim that in their cause and general character
+these manifestations, so-called, were very different from similar ones of
+the present day.
+
+The "rappings" produced by the "Fox Sisters" are certainly the first of
+which there is an authentic account. They began in a little rustic cottage
+at a place called Hydesville, in the town of Arcadia, near Newark, Wayne
+County, New York. Here John D. Fox and his wife Margaret dwelt with their
+two daughters, Margaret and Catherine. Two other children, Ann Leah and
+David S., lived elsewhere. There was sometimes a fifth member of the
+household, also a child. This was Elizabeth Fish, the daughter of Leah,
+and therefore the niece of Margaret and Catherine. She was seven years
+older than the elder of the two latter.
+
+The elder Fox and his wife had not been always united since their
+marriage. They were separated for a number of years. The three older
+children, Ann Leah, Maria and David S., were conceived before this
+separation took place, and Margaret and Catherine afterwards. The two
+broods had distinctive characteristics. The father, in the interval, is
+said to have become addicted to intemperate habits. The taint of heredity
+may excuse much in the younger generation that sprang from a weakness of
+will-power and made them the too easy victims of colder and more mercenary
+natures. To many it is well known that they are still incapable of
+guarding their interests in a business way, and that they have always been
+too largely at the mercy of any one who could acquire an influence over
+them.
+
+Margaretta, or Margaret, Fox, as she always signs herself, was born in the
+year 1840, and Catherine Fox a year and a half later. The eldest sister
+Leah was born twenty-three years before the former. The little girls, one
+eight years old and the other six and a half, had rarely seen this sister
+prior to the beginning of the spiritualistic movement. She knew nothing of
+it until the popular excitement over the "rappings" had almost reached its
+climax. Very early in life she had married a man named Fish, who had
+deserted her, and she was supporting herself at this time in the city of
+Rochester by teaching the rudiments of music. David S. Fox, son of John
+and Margaret Fox, lived about two miles from the home of his father in
+Arcadia.
+
+Maggie and Katie Fox were as full of petty devilment as any two children
+of their age ever were. They delighted to tease their excellent old
+mother, who by all who knew her is described as simple, gentle and
+true-hearted. In their antics, they would resort to all sorts of ingenious
+devices, and bed-time witnessed almost invariably the gayest of larks. One
+of their frequent amusements was to plague their niece, Elizabeth, who
+slept in the same bed with them, by kicking and tickling her, and by
+frightening her at almost any hour of the night out of sound sleep.
+
+Their riotous fancy soon hit upon the plan of bobbing apples up and down
+on the floor in their bedchamber, as a means of scaring Elizabeth and of
+puzzling their mother without much risk of detection. They tied strings to
+the stems of the apples, and thus let them hang down beside the bed. The
+noise of dropping them more or less quickly upon the floor resembled
+almost anything that the imagination chose to liken it to, from raps on
+the front door to slippered foot-falls on the narrow stairway. Whenever a
+search was made for the cause of the noises, the apples were easily
+hauled up into the bed and hidden in the bedclothes, where no one would
+think of looking for them, at least at that stage of the investigation.
+
+The plan had everything in it to charm a juvenile mischief-maker. It
+succeeded admirably. It was not till the wonder which was caused by these
+strange "knockings" had extended beyond the humble Fox household, that the
+suggestion of any other means of affording to that growing feeling its
+daily food of seeming evidence came to the roguish youngsters.
+
+The family had moved into the house at Hydesville on December 11, 1847.
+The mother began to hear strange sounds almost from that date--strange
+because they occurred with great frequency and were oddly repeated. The
+children slept in what was called the East Room; the parents in an
+adjoining chamber. At all hours of the night, almost, the sounds were
+heard; but it happened that they always occurred when one or both of the
+children were wide awake. The mother, in a statement which has been
+published as one of the so-called proofs of the genuineness of these
+manifestations, says that the sounds could with difficulty be located.
+"Sometimes it seemed as if the furniture was moved; but on examination we
+found everything in order. The children had become so alarmed that I
+thought best to have them sleep in the room with us. * * * On the night of
+the first disturbance we all got up and lighted a candle and searched the
+house, the noises continuing during the time, and being heard near the
+same place."
+
+How natural it was that little children, being averse to sleeping away
+from their elders in a dark room in a lone country neighborhood, should
+take advantage of a pretext such as this to get their bed placed nearer to
+that of their parents! Such, indeed, was the immediate result.
+
+The third night of the "rappings" was the 31st of March, 1848. Mrs. Fox
+says:
+
+"_The children who slept in the other bed in the room heard the rappings
+and tried to make similar sounds with their fingers._
+
+"Katie exclaimed:
+
+"'Mr. Splitfoot,' (the imaginary person who was supposed to make the
+noises), 'do as I do;' clapping her hands. The sound instantly followed
+her with the same number of raps; when she stopped, the sound ceased for a
+short time. Then Margaret said in sport: 'Now, do just as I do; count one,
+two, three, four,' striking one hand against the other at the same time,
+and the raps came as before. * * * I then thought I could put a test that
+no one in the place could answer. I asked the noises to rap my children's
+ages, successively. Instantly, each one of my children's ages was given
+correctly, pausing between them sufficiently long to individualize them
+until the seventh, at which a longer pause was made, and then three more
+emphatic raps were given, corresponding to the age of the little one that
+died, which was my youngest child. I then asked: 'Is this a human being
+that answers my questions so correctly?' There was no rap. I asked: 'Is
+it a spirit? If so, make two raps,' which were instantly given as soon as
+the request was made. I then said: 'If it is an injured spirit, make two
+raps,' which were instantly made, causing the house to tremble. I asked:
+'Were you injured in this house?' The answer was given as before. 'Is the
+person living that injured you?' Answer by raps in the same manner. I
+ascertained by the same method that it was a man, aged thirty-one years;
+that he had been murdered in this house; and his remains were buried in
+the cellar; that his family consisted of a wife and five children, two
+sons and three daughters, all living at the time of his death, but that
+his wife had since died."
+
+Then the supposed spirit was asked if it would continue to "rap" if the
+neighbors were called in to listen. The answer was affirmative.
+
+And so they were called in.
+
+This caused the commencement of that great excitement which so soon spread
+from neighborhood to village, from the village to the near-by city of
+Rochester, and thence all over the country.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane says at the present time:
+
+"The apple-dropping trick appeared to us small children so simple and
+innocent, that we could only wonder that any one attached so great an
+importance to the sounds we produced. Only think of our ages at that time,
+and then ask, if you will, how we could have even the shade of a
+realization of the real meaning of this deception!
+
+"This lying book of Mrs. Underhill's, notwithstanding its abominable
+object, does give some slight inkling of the truth here and there.
+
+"It is thus that the wicked confound themselves.
+
+"She quotes, as you see here, what she says to be my mother's words: 'The
+children who slept in the other bed in the room, heard the rapping and
+tried to make similar sounds by snapping their fingers.'
+
+"Now that is really just how we first got the idea of producing with the
+joints similar sounds to those we had made by dropping apples with a
+string. From trying it with our fingers we then tried it with our feet,
+and it did not take long for us to find out that we could easily produce
+very loud raps by the action of the toe-joints when in contact with any
+substance which is a good conductor of sound. My sister Katie was the
+first to discover that we could make such peculiar noises with our
+fingers. We used to practice first with one foot and then the other, and
+finally we got so we could do it with hardly an effort.
+
+"Of course, I was so young then that many incidents have escaped my
+memory. I assert positively, however, that much of the effect of the
+'rappings' is greatly exaggerated in this statement which my mother was
+made to write. I say that she was _made_ to write it, because the wording
+of the statement, if not largely dictated by others in the first
+place--men who desired to make public the details of the 'rappings' and to
+make money by the sale of a pamphlet describing them--was afterwards
+grossly garbled, that it might be used to suit the dishonest purposes of
+professional spiritualists. I am not even certain that mother ever signed
+the document, of which Mrs. Underhill makes such great parade. The same is
+true regarding the other pieces of so-called evidence in her work. Utterly
+futile as they are, when confronted with my living testimony, and when
+judged by their own internal weakness, I should not regard them as in any
+sense genuine unless I could see the original handwriting and could
+recognize the signatures. I say to you now, that professional
+spiritualists are capable of going to any lengths to bolster up their
+impostures. No forgery, so long as there was the least chance of its
+succeeding, as a furtherance to their object, would in the least repel
+them. Some of the so-called statements in Leah's book I believe were
+manufactured from beginning to end, though to tell you the truth I have
+avoided reading the greater part of it because of the disgust I have felt
+for a long time for that whole infamous system of pretense and falsehood.
+
+"Well, we were led on unintentionally by my good mother in the
+perpetration of this great wrong. She used to say when we were sitting in
+a dark circle at home: 'Is this a disembodied spirit that has taken
+possession of my dear children?' And then we would 'rap' just for the fun
+of the thing, you know, and mother would declare that it was the spirits
+that were speaking.
+
+"Soon it went so far, and so many persons had heard the 'rappings' that we
+could not confess the wrong without exciting very great anger on the part
+of those we had deceived. So we went right on.
+
+"It is wonderful, indeed, how two little children could have made this
+discovery, and how, by simply obeying the natural thirst for the
+marvelous, in others, and their inherent superstition, they should have
+advanced step by step, in the fraud, deluding those who most ardently
+wished to be deluded.
+
+"Until first suggested to us by our mother, who was perfectly innocent in
+her belief, the thought of 'spirits' had never entered our heads. We were
+too young and too simple to imagine such a thing."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+GARBLED AND DISTORTED TESTIMONY.
+
+
+So the neighbors were called in at the Hydesville house and the "rappings"
+were continued.
+
+By diligent questioning on the part of the older persons in the Fox
+household and of the neighbors, the mysterious noises were made to affirm
+or to deny almost anything which was suggested to the "mediums," often in
+accordance with knowledge that, it had been believed, was only possessed
+by a few persons.
+
+And so the wonder grew, day by day.
+
+Pursuing the idea that a man had been murdered in the house, the whole of
+a very horrible history was obtained, and the name even of the supposed
+murderer was indicated by affirmative "raps" when mentioned together with
+others in a tentative way. The occupation of the victim was said to be
+that of a pedler. He had $500 in money and was buried in the creek which
+ran past the house.
+
+Mrs. Underhill admits that some of the neighbors were misled and went to
+digging in the creek, called Ganargua, the water of which was then very
+low. But they speedily recognized the absurdity of this undertaking, and
+the girls, Maggie, Katie and Lizzie laughed at them for their pains. The
+bones of an old horse were found there and nothing more.
+
+By this time the two sisters had arrived at very great proficiency in
+producing the raps. Such a crude and easily detected means as the bobbing
+of apples on the floor was early discarded. Often in the morning, before
+they dressed, and after the old folks had left their room, the sisters
+would stand in their bare feet on the floor and vie with each other in the
+laughable exercise of making the "strange" noises. It was impossible, of
+course, that Lizzie should not know the whole truth, although being about
+thirteen years old at this time, she was unabled to imitate the "raps"
+very successfully. Indeed, it is said that she was too frank and outspoken
+in disposition to engage long in any deception. When the children
+persisted in deluding their mother, partly for their amusement and partly
+because they were ashamed to retract what had already caused so much
+excitement and had drawn so much attention to themselves, Lizzie used to
+break out indignantly:
+
+"_Now, Maggie, how can you say that it was done by spirits! You know
+yourself that it's all a story. It's a great shame to pretend such
+things._"
+
+Many occurrences of this description I have gathered from Mrs. Kane.
+
+But Mrs. Leah Underhill, in her jumbled up narrative, states that "_When
+the raps broke out suddenly close to some of the family, or at the table,
+one of the girls would accuse the other of having caused them, saying,
+'Now you did that, etc., etc.'_"
+
+Thanks to Mrs. Leah Underhill, such hints of the true explanation of
+these "manifestations" are plentiful throughout her book, and one needs
+only to bring some little intelligence to bear upon it to read between the
+lines the whole story of the fraud.
+
+And here let me quote a passage which only goes to show how very strong
+was the love of deviltry in the children:
+
+"Father had always been a regular Methodist in good standing, and was
+invariable in his practice of morning prayers; and _when he would be
+kneeling upon his chair, it would sometimes amuse the children to see him
+open wide his eyes as knocks would sound and vibrate on his chair itself_.
+He expressed it graphically to mother: 'When I am done praying that
+jigging stops.'"
+
+Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane distinctly remembers incidents like this one; only
+she qualifies the narrative by saying that her father never opened his
+eyes when these annoyances came while he was at prayer, but went devoutly
+on to the end without heeding them.
+
+How absurd for any one to suppose that if these sounds were produced by a
+cause unknown to the children, they would laugh at them and regard them as
+very great sport, instead of trembling and crying with affright!
+
+"The sounds which were heard at those times," says Mrs. Kane in her
+statement to the writer, "were all produced by Katie and myself, and by no
+other being or spirit under the sun. Nor did we always do it with our
+feet. Frequently in that early stage of the excitement about the
+'rappings,' we would make the sounds with our fingers, provided it was
+easy to do so without causing suspicion. In order to do it unknown to any
+one, we would sit with one hand hidden by an elbow resting upon the table,
+or the woodwork of a chair.
+
+"Of course, our mother in her earnest belief, poor soul, excited us to do
+a great deal more than otherwise we would had done. The mystery of the
+sounds absorbed her entire being for the time. She became pale and
+worn-looking and thought that great misfortunes were to happen, and
+prayed often and fervently. I can well remember how my heart used to smite
+me at times when I looked upon her and knew that Katie and I were the
+cause of all her trouble. In later years, long after I had come to the age
+of understanding, I had very bitter reasons for such pangs of remorse,
+especially towards the last of mother's life, when, as I know, she was in
+a great measure undeceived and feared for the perdition of the souls of
+her children."
+
+In Mrs. Underhill's book, (written for her by another,) there is an effort
+to convey the impression that John D. Fox, her father, shared in the
+belief which she sought to establish in the spiritual origin of the
+"knockings." Such an implication Mrs. Kane declares to be utterly false.
+He never manifested in any way a tendency toward such belief; on the
+contrary, he always showed by his conduct and his manner of speech, the
+utmost repugnance to it, and a perfect contempt for the weakness which
+could lead one into it.
+
+Margaret Fox, the mother, used to say to her husband:
+
+"Now, John, don't you see that it's a wonderful thing?"
+
+"No, I don't," he would answer. "Don't talk to me about it. I don't want
+to hear a word about it!"
+
+Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane says, further: "My father did not believe in
+Spiritualism. The excitement which we caused annoyed him a great deal. He
+signed a statement which merely amounted to his declaring that he did not
+know how the noises originated. He was cajoled into doing this. He wanted
+to get rid of the importunities of those who believed, or affected to
+believe, in the 'rappings.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such is the story of the earliest "rappings" at Hydesville.
+
+It is embellished by Mrs. Underhill with many transparent falsehoods. But
+still further to bolster it up, it was thought necessary to discover
+traditions, or to invent "hearsay" anecdotes, giving to the house in which
+they lived a ghostly history. There are few country houses about which the
+memory of the oldest neighboring inhabitant does not recall something or
+other remarkable and strange, which was told him by some one or other
+whose identity is very indefinite, in the dim, distant past. Thus it is
+stated that odd noises had been heard in the Hydesville house during
+several previous years by successive occupants. But it is confessed that
+none of those persons (whose testimony no one pretends to give) had
+obtained any intelligible messages from another world.
+
+Mrs. Kane states that all of this alleged neighborhood gossip was totally
+unknown to her at the time, and she believes that it had its chief--or
+perhaps its only--origin, in the morbid imaginations of those who were the
+first to set it going.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+DEVELOPMENT OF THE FRAUD.
+
+
+Now we come to the moment when Ann Leah Fox Fish, the eldest sister,
+thirty-one years of age at that time, appears upon the scene of the
+wondrous and so-called supernatural commotion at the little rustic hamlet
+of Hydesville.
+
+No "mediumistic" suggestions or impulses had ever come to her. Not one,
+though she had lived twenty-three years longer in the world than the
+dark-eyed, fascinating little girl who produced the first mysterious
+sounds in her mother's home.
+
+The excitement had reached a great height, and a pamphlet was already in
+the press detailing the whole of the wonderful performances at Hydesville,
+when Leah first heard of them. She hastened thither at once. Some idea of
+the profit which could be derived from awakened public interest in the
+matter, seems to have come to her very promptly. She found that the family
+had moved from the "haunted" house to that of her brother, David. She
+investigated the source of the "raps." Mrs. Kane says that one of the
+first things which she did upon her arrival at the house, was to take both
+her and Katie apart and to cause them to undress and to show her the
+manner of producing the mysterious noises. Never for a moment was the cold
+and calculating brain of the eldest sister a dupe to the cunning pranks of
+the little children. So interested was she in the matter, that she
+insisted upon taking back with her to Rochester, at the end of a
+fortnight, her daughter Lizzie, and Katie, her sister--Maggie not being
+inclined to go with her. And, in the interval, she practised "rapping"
+herself, with her toes, after the manner illustrated by the girls. She
+found great difficulty in producing the same effect, however, as the
+joints of her feet were no longer as pliable as in childhood. The effort
+required was also much greater, and never during her whole lifetime did
+she succeed in attaining to much proficiency in this method of deception.
+The pronounced movement, necessary in her case to cause even a faint sound
+to be heard, was easy to detect.
+
+"Often," says Mrs. Kane, "when we were giving séances together, I have
+been ashamed and mortified by the awkward manner in which she would do it.
+People would observe the effort she made to produce even moderate
+'rappings,' and then they would look at me in suspicion and surprise. It
+required every bit of my skill and my best tact to prevent them from going
+away convinced of the imposture."
+
+On the way to Rochester by canal, the "rappings," according to Mrs.
+Underhill, pursued her. The "Spirits became quite bold and rapped loudly"
+at the dinner-table in the cabin; "and occasionally" she adds, "_one end
+of the table would jump up and nearly spill the water out of our glasses;
+but there was so much noise on the boat (going through the locks, etc.)
+that only we, who recognized the sounds, knew of them_."
+
+It would be easy, indeed--on this very thin reservation, to the effect
+that "only we, who recognized the sounds, knew of them"--to denounce the
+whole of this statement as the grossest falsehood. I have, however, the
+personal assurance of Mrs. Catharine Fox Jencken that the "rappings" were
+really heard, but that they were done by her with her feet. On the other
+hand, she declares that the joggling or lifting of the table never took
+place; nor did she ever hear of it till Mrs. Underhill's book was
+published. It may be observed here that the latter carefully refrains from
+informing us whether the passengers also failed to observe the singular
+disturbance of the cabin table, at which they were dining.
+
+At Rochester, Mrs. Fish seems to have devoted herself to developing and
+elaborating the falsehood of Spiritualism. Singularly enough, to this
+matron, who had never before evinced the least possession of so-called
+"mediumistic" qualities, all sorts of grotesque and terrorizing wonders
+now arrived. This is a fair specimen of her narrative, relating to the
+period in question:
+
+"In the evening, my friend, Jane Little, and two or three other friends,
+called in to spend an hour or two with us. We sang and I played on the
+piano; but even then, while the lamp was burning brightly(!), I felt the
+deep throbbing of the dull accompaniment of the invisibles, keeping time
+to the music as I played; but I did not wish to have my visitors know it,
+and the spirits seemed kind enough not to make themselves heard (!) that
+others would observe what was so apparent to me."
+
+The book to which I am obliged to refer so constantly, and which is a good
+example of the bulk of spiritualistic literature, is full of passages ten
+times as absurd as this one, and having just as strongly the stamp of the
+crudest and most clumsy invention. For the most part, the only appropriate
+treatment for such absurdities is contemptuous silence. Occasionally,
+however, I shall find it necessary, for the sake of completeness in this
+exposition, to meet them with positive refutation, which in reality they
+do not deserve.
+
+Having thus got one of the clever and lively little girls under her own
+control, Leah soon induced her mother to come to Rochester with the other.
+Nothing could show more clearly that she had already formed the resolve to
+reap a harvest of gain and renown from this auspicious beginning, than her
+decisive course, instantly upon realizing the public wonder and curiosity
+which the "rappings" had excited.
+
+It was absolutely necessary to delude some people who were near, and who
+should have been dear to her, as well as the careless and easily gullible
+public. The good and simple-hearted old mother would never have been a
+partner in conscious deception. The matter-of-fact, unspeculative father,
+must be brought to a point where he would at least not deny the claims of
+the so-called "mediums," his daughters. The honest and outspoken Lizzie
+must be awed into discretion by the prospect of great prosperity, which
+was opened before them, and the lesson that if she spoke too freely they
+would surely be deprived of it. Some stalwart and docile sympathizers must
+be enlisted outside of her own people who could be depended upon to stand
+by them as against too strenuous inquiry, or hot-tempered public assault.
+
+Immediately upon Margaret's arrival at the house in Rochester, in which
+Mrs. Fish lived, and which adjoined a graveyard, the "manifestations"
+redoubled. They were produced by the combined efforts of Leah, Margaret
+and Katie. Mrs. Underhill narrates that one night, about this time, a
+"spirit" walked about in their room, as if in his bare feet, when they
+were all supposed to be in bed. She continues: "He answered my question by
+stamping on the floor. I was amused--although afraid. He seemed so willing
+to do my bidding that I could not resist the temptation of speaking to him
+as he marched around my bed. I said, 'Flat Foot, can you dance the
+Highland fling?' This seemed to delight him. I sang the music for him, and
+he danced most admirably. This shocked mother and she said: 'O, Leah, how
+can you encourage that fiend by singing for him to dance?' I soon found
+that they took advantage of my familiarity, and gathered in strong force
+around us. And here language utterly fails to describe the incidents that
+occurred. Loud whispering, giggling, scuffling, groaning, death-struggles,
+murder scenes of the most fearful character--I forbear to describe them.
+Mother became so alarmed that she called to Calvin to come up stairs. He
+came--angry at the spirits--and declared that 'he would conquer or die in
+the attempt.' This seemed to amuse them. They went to his bed, raised it
+up and let it down, and shook it violently. He was still determined not to
+yield to them.
+
+"Before Calvin came up stairs, and during a short lull in their
+performances, we quickly removed our beds to the floor, hoping thereby to
+prevent them from raising us up and letting us down with such violence.
+Calvin said as he came up, that we were foolish to make our beds on the
+floor, as it pleased the spirits to see how completely they had conquered
+us. So he laid down on his bed, and quietly awaited developments. Mother
+said, 'Calvin, I wish your bed was on the floor, too. We have not been
+disturbed since we left the bedstead.' Calvin remarked, 'They are up to
+some deviltry now. I hear them.' He no sooner uttered these words, than a
+shower of slippers came flying at him as he lay in his bed. He bore this
+without a murmur. The next instant he was struck violently with his cane.
+He seized it and struck back, right and left, with all his strength,
+without hitting anything; but received a palpable _bang_ in return for
+every thrust he made. He sprang to his feet and fought with all his might.
+Everything thrown at him he pitched back to them, until a brass
+candlestick was thrown at him, cutting his lip. This quite enraged him. He
+pronounced a solemn malediction and throwing himself on the bed, he vowed
+he would have nothing more to do with 'fiendish spirits.'
+
+"He was not long permitted to remain in quiet there. They commenced at his
+bedstead and deliberately razed it to the floor, leaving the headboard in
+one place, the footboard in another, the two sides at angles, and the
+bedclothes scattered about the room. He was left lying on his mattress,
+and for a moment there was silence; after which some slight movements were
+heard in the 'green room.' I had stowed a large number of balls of carpet
+rags in an old chest standing on the floor, with two trunks and several
+other articles on the top of it. It seemed but the work of a moment for
+them to get at the carpet balls, which came flying at us in every
+direction, hitting us in the same place every time. They took us for their
+target, and threw with the skill of an archer. Darkness made no difference
+with them, and if either of us attempted to remonstrate against such
+violence, they would instantly give _the remonstrant_ the benefit of a
+ball."
+
+Mrs. Kane remembers with tolerable distinctness the antics that
+distinguished this sojourn of her mother, herself and her sisters in the
+Rochester house. She and Katie did indulge in wild larks in the sleeping
+rooms of the family at all hours of the night. The "whispering" and
+"giggling," the "scuffling" and "groaning," and the tragic mimicry were
+natural to childish daredevils like themselves, and one can well
+understand how, with the attendant "rappings," the showers of slippers
+hurled from the "green room," the shaking of Calvin's bed and the
+"banging" of him on the head, these things may have made the desired
+impression upon both him and the mother. Mrs. Kane says that this is the
+true and only explanation of it all, and that in comparatively recent
+years, at séances in Adelphi Hall, New York, she has done the most
+audacious things, similar in character to these, under cover of
+semi-darkness, and has not been detected, simply because nearly all of
+those who were present were believers and were not too curious.
+
+There is another "evidence" given by Ann Leah which is too pitiably
+ridiculous to be considered, except as a subject of laughter.
+
+"Often at meal-time," she says, "the table would be gradually agitated,
+and Calvin in particular, [alas, poor Calvin!] would be more disturbed
+than the rest of us. Once he arose from his chair and reached across the
+table for a heavy pitcher of water, when _the chair was instantly removed
+and he sat down on the floor, spilling the water all over himself_!"
+
+Mrs. Kane's sole comment upon this is: "Of course, we slily did it, as we
+did many other hoydenish tricks.
+
+"We also used to twitch mother's cap off and gently jerk the comb out of
+her hair, just to tease her. Leah says that these things were done by the
+spirits! How silly to address such a puerile pretense to any one gifted
+with common sense!"
+
+As a companion picture to what has gone before, let the reader also
+engrave this "miraculous" scene upon the retina of his imagination:
+
+"We had stored our winter provisions in the cellar. Among them were
+several barrels of apples, potatoes, turnips, etc. From this cellar came
+the apples, potatoes and turnips flying across our room, hitting all in
+precisely the same place every time. It will now be remembered that these
+articles were in the cellar under the ground floor, and had to come from
+the rear of the cellar, through the door, into the kitchen, up the stairs,
+into the pantry on the second floor, through the pantry into the dining
+room, up the second flight of stairs, into the large room in which we
+slept, hitting us as we lay in our beds near the front window. * * *
+
+"A cabinet shop was the next thing represented by the spirits. They seemed
+to be possessed of all kinds of tools to work with. After sawing off
+boards they would let them fall heavily on the floor, jarring everything
+around them. Then, after planing, jointing, driving nails, and screwing
+down the lid of a coffin, they would shove the hollow sounding article
+about the room. (This we understood at a later day.) Often to our utter
+amazement, pickets from the discarded lots in the cemetery came flying
+through the room over our heads, on our beds, like debris in a tornado.
+They came from the extreme west side of the burying-ground, through _that_
+lot, and the distance of about two hundred feet through _our_ lot; an
+entire distance of about four hundred feet. That they came by no visible
+means, we knew; as no human power could have thrown them through the air
+into our chamber window, hitting us in our beds, in the same place every
+time."
+
+In July, 1848, Leah, her sisters and mother, revisited the Hydesville
+house, which was then unoccupied. David, the brother, had fallen by this
+time into the plans of Leah, whether a dupe or an accomplice, Margaret,
+even at this day, is unable to say. To him was due the very first
+suggestion that the so-called spirits might communicate with the living by
+means of the alphabet. And since then, this has been the chief stay of
+spiritualism, literally the A B C of all its so-called science. It is a
+singular commentary upon the consistency of the "spirits," or the good
+faith of those who professed to interpret their messages, that the code of
+communication at first employed in their circles was entirely different in
+the meaning of the simple signals used from the one which finally was
+adopted. Would the "spirits," think you, who are divorced from the
+trammels of this world, have been guilty of this simple error and have
+been obliged to correct it afterward, had they not been impostors?
+
+The object of Mrs. Fish in going back to Hydesville is quite apparent.
+There was yet an unworked mine of wonder and superstition, out of which
+the dust of dross might be thrown into the eyes of the credulous, as the
+pure gold of revelation.
+
+In the first place, it was necessary to get from the so-called invisible
+intelligence an injunction to seek for proofs of the foul murder which it
+had been said had been committed in the house where the "rappings" were
+originally heard.
+
+Mind you, months had then elapsed since the digging had been first done in
+the cellar and the Ganargua creek near by, and David S., who was now
+wholly in sympathy with Leah in her view of the future importance of the
+new superstition, had lived in the neighborhood ever since, while nobody
+had remained in the "haunted" house to be cognizant of what might have
+taken place there in the mean time.
+
+By the new code system of obtaining answers to queries, a mandate to dig
+up the cellar and to search for something or other there was obtained, and
+obeyed, the work lasting two or three days. It is stated by Leah that some
+fragments of an earthen bowl, a few bones, some teeth and some bunches of
+hair were found. She says that doctors pronounced the bones to be human.
+
+Of course, the names of these doctors are nowhere to be found in her
+volume, nor does any one, unwarped by prejudice, really believe more than
+a very small part of this story.
+
+That there was digging is certain.
+
+That there had been plenty of time to hide anything that David Fox had
+desired to hide in the cellar, is certain.
+
+Yet Mrs. Kane remembered absolutely nothing about anything having been
+found in the cellar that bore the slightest semblance to any portion of
+the human frame. If any bones (perchance, like those found in the creek,
+the skeleton of a horse) were uncovered, she denies positively that any
+doctor ever gave the opinion that they were the remains of a man.
+
+She pronounces equally false, the statement of Leah that about the time
+the digging was abandoned, on account of the angry interference of a mob,
+the spades of the diggers struck upon a hollow-sounding, wooden substance,
+which might or might not have been a box of ill-gotten plunder, or the
+rough sepulchre of the slain pedler.
+
+The indignation of the neighbors of the Foxes in Arcadia was not so much
+due to the fact that the latter persisted in pretending to communicate
+with ghosts and uncanny elfs, as it was to the totally unwarranted
+suspicion which had been cast through the early "rappings" upon a man
+named Bell, who had formerly lived in the house, which it was now
+pretended was haunted. This, as well as other evidence of the public
+feeling at that time, was cleverly employed for her own benefit by Leah,
+who easily foresaw how anything that might bear the semblance of religious
+persecution would promote her cause, false though it was, by bringing to
+it both greater notoriety and widespread sympathy.
+
+There is no doubt, too, that if there had not been a very strong vein of
+superstition in the Fox family, the first "rappings" would never have
+produced the deep impression that they did on the mother and her son
+David. Many strange stories, which had been handed down from a grandfather
+or a great-grandfather, a great uncle or a great aunt, were told at the
+fireside with such embellishment as will inevitably come from recital and
+repetition to a wonder-delighting audience. There were traditions of
+prophecies fulfilled and of dumb cattle behaving queerly, all of which
+Mrs. Underhill has very carefully set down and magnified in her own
+peculiar manner to her own unholy purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE MERCENARY CAMPAIGN.
+
+
+The public campaign of Spiritualism was now begun.
+
+A sufficient hubbub had been made over it to induce attention from all
+sorts and conditions of people.
+
+The mother and her daughters went again to Rochester, and there placed
+themselves in the hands of the first of many "committees of friends" who
+were used as tools or confederates, according to their character, to
+"humbug" the public more completely. The character and functions of these
+committees may be judged from the following, which is found in Leah's
+book: "The names of this committee were Isaac Post, R. D. Jones, Edward
+Jones, John Kedzie and Andrew Clackner. _They were faithful friends, who
+never permitted any one to visit us unattended by themselves or some
+reliable person._"
+
+The so-called spirits soon urged in laborious communications that it was
+needful to make their demonstrations more public, and that an
+"investigation" of the "rappings," ought therefore to be made by some
+well-known men. The "spirits" were even so kind as to spell out by means
+of the tentative alphabet, the names of those whom they wished to have
+appointed to perform this part. The desire for advertisement, indeed, was
+not likely to cause the rejection of the name of any available person,
+whose prominence would increase the public interest in the movement. We
+are not astonished, then, to find that Frederick Douglass was one of those
+present at this earliest farce of investigation. It was the forerunner of
+many others which were like unto it, and gradually, in their stations in
+various cities, the "Fox Sisters" drew to their séances nearly all of the
+conspicuous persons of the time, who regarded the effects exhibited to
+them in as many different lights as their minds and characters were
+different.
+
+Naturally enough, after this compliance with their desires, the "spirits"
+directed that a public exhibition should be given. The largest hall in
+Rochester was hired for the purpose.
+
+And here the infamy of bringing forward two little girls to do the work of
+base and vulgar charlatanism, appears in all its revolting character. The
+eldest of the children was then but nine years old. Had she been dressed
+in accordance with her tender age, it would have taken only very slight
+observation to detect the secret of the "rappings." Those persons now
+living, who were present at this and at other public exhibitions of
+Spiritualism at that time, will easily remember that Margaret and
+Catherine Fox appeared on a platform in long gowns, as if they had been
+full-grown women. The dresses were expressly prepared by order of Mrs. Ann
+Leah Fox Fish, the evil genius of these unfortunate victims. Without
+these robes nothing whatever could have been done in the way of "spirit
+rappings," under the matter-of-fact scrutiny of the public.
+
+To carry out the delusion to the utmost, every detail touching these
+earliest exhibitions was directed through "spirit rappings," even to the
+insertion of grandiloquent notices in the newspapers.
+
+In all of the "investigations" of the "rappings," at this or at any other
+time, the attentive student will find somewhere a loop-hole of escape from
+observation, an unguarded avenue of detection. In some of the principal
+séances, described at great length by Leah, the conditions favorable to
+fraud and illusion were so very obvious that they ought to have excited
+derision in the veriest child.
+
+The following passage in the report of a so-called investigation, is
+pointed to by professional spiritualists as one of the best "evidences" of
+the genuineness of Spiritualism:
+
+"One of the committee placed one of his hands on the feet of the ladies
+and the other on the floor, and though the feet were not moved, there was
+a distinct jar of the floor."
+
+Here, then, there were three operators and one investigator. The latter
+puts his hand on the feet of the ladies. How many feet, pray you? There
+were six feet on the platform, as we know, all of which had been carefully
+educated in the production of "raps." Could one man's hand cover them all?
+And if it could not, does not this pretended "evidence" fall at once to
+the ground?
+
+All of the recitals made by spiritualistic writers concerning the doings
+of the "Fox Sisters," contain this element of vagueness, the lack of
+precision and completeness, which to persons unaccustomed to analysis may
+possibly appear plausible enough, but to the experienced inquirer is
+merely a more certain proof of weakness and prevarication.
+
+Volumes might be written to meet the statements advanced in every case,
+and to show how clumsily misleading they are. It is not worth while at
+this late day, and in that direction, to do more than I have already
+accomplished in this chapter.
+
+Indeed, the actual demonstration of the fact that the far-famed "rappings"
+are produced in the manner described at the beginning of this work, should
+be quite sufficient to all logical minds, to condemn every claim that the
+professional mediums have advanced as being the agents of any supernatural
+manifestations.
+
+The good old Latin maxim never applied with greater force than it does
+here: _Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus_.
+
+The operations of the eldest sister all tended to the one end: fame and
+money. In Rochester, fees for the first time were accepted by "mediums,"
+and shortly afterward a tariff of prices for admission to the séances and
+the "private circles" was adopted and made public. No jugglers ever drove
+a more prosperous business than did the "Fox family" for a number of
+years, when once fairly launched upon that sea of popular wonder, which
+somebody has said is supplied by the inherent fondness of mankind for
+being humbugged.
+
+Mrs. Fish had actually the project of founding a new religion, and she
+tried hard to convince her younger sisters and her own child that there
+were really such things as spiritual communications, notwithstanding that
+all of those that were produced in their séances they knew to be perfectly
+false. She asserted that even before Maggie and Katie were born she had
+received messages warning her that they were destined to do great things.
+
+"In all of our séances, while we were under her charge," says Mrs. Kane,
+"we knew just when to rap 'yes' and when to rap 'no' by signals that she
+gave us, and which were unknown to any one but ourselves. Of course, we
+were too young, then, to have been successful very long in deluding
+people, had it not been for an arrangement such as this.
+
+"Her own daughter, Lizzie, had no manner of patience with her transparent
+pretence.
+
+"'Ma,' she would exclaim, when Leah attempted to impress her with a belief
+in some of the frauds which she perpetrated, 'how can you ever pretend
+that that is done by the spirits? I am ashamed to know even that you do
+such things--it's dreadfully wicked.'"
+
+Some day it will be known that one other person beside Lizzie, who
+afterwards occupied a filial relation to this woman, detested even more
+strongly the atmosphere of hypocrisy and deceit with which the latter
+surrounded herself, and hated, too, the rankling obligation under which an
+unkind fate had placed her.
+
+It is not so wonderful that men of learning and originality were drawn to
+the mysterious séances of the Fox girls, when it is considered that they
+became a sort of fashionable "fad," as the receptions of Mesmer did in the
+last century in Paris. There were great opportunities there for studying
+human nature, and the period was one of a notable awakening of scientific
+and transcendental speculation. Such men as Greeley, Bancroft, Fenimore
+Cooper, Bryant, N. P. Willis, Dr. Francis, John Bigelow, Ripley, Dr.
+Griswold, Dr. Eliphalet Nott, Theodore Parker, William M. Thackeray, James
+Freeman Clarke, Thomas M. Foote and Bayard Taylor, and women of the
+intellectual strength of Alice Cary and Harriet Beecher Stowe became
+deeply interested. But nearly all of these lost their interest in
+Spiritualism in time, for they became morally, if not positively
+convinced, that the effects produced were the mere result of fraud.
+
+There was another attraction, however, in those early days. The younger
+"mediums" were both very pretty and very young. Sympathy and
+commiseration, as much as aught else, often drew visitors to them, and
+caused such visitors to continue their friends. Thus, we find that Horace
+Greeley and Dr. Elisha Kent Kane became important factors in the lives of
+both of these interesting creatures, the former educating Katie, and the
+latter striving to form Maggie's mind and to reform her character with
+the express object of making her his wife.
+
+Mrs. Kane, in commenting upon the life which she led at that time, says:
+
+"When I look back, I can only say in defense of my depraved calling, that
+I took not the slightest pleasure in it. The novelty and the excitement
+that had half intoxicated me as a child were fast being dissipated. The
+true conception of this infamous thing soon dawned upon me. The awakening
+was full of anguish--the anguish of hope, as well as the anguish of grief.
+I then first knew Dr. Kane, and with that acquaintance entered the new
+light into my life."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+SPIRITUALISTIC BOOMERANGS.
+
+
+In nearly all of the so-called investigations of the "rappings" produced
+by the "Fox Sisters," there was an absolute absence of genuine scientific
+inquiry. Only once in this critical stage of their career, did they submit
+to experiment and examination by doctors of unquestioned repute and
+learning. The result of this investigation has been held up by
+professional spiritualists as a triumphant proof that the source of
+"rappings" was beyond any mortal finding out. The fact is that the doctors
+hit upon the right principle at the inception of the inquiry, but were
+misled into a wrong application of it, an error which the "mediums," of
+course, encouraged up to a certain point, so that they might gain prestige
+afterwards by refuting it. Following out this policy, Mrs. Underhill has
+incorporated in her book the testimony of the doctors, heedless of the law
+of destiny, that truth must prevail finally.
+
+I propose to take this same statement of the doctors, based as it is upon
+an erroneous assumption and a correct theory, and show how strongly it
+sustains and plainly corroborates the explanation of the "rappings" now
+given by Mrs. Kane and Mrs. Jencken.
+
+The gentlemen who made this notable investigation are usually spoken of as
+the "Buffalo doctors." They were members of the faculty of the University
+of Buffalo. Austin Flint, who afterward held the highest medical rank in
+the metropolis, was the most prominent of the three. The other two were
+Drs. Charles A. Lee and C. B. Coventry.
+
+The theory that they advanced was that the mysterious noises were produced
+by some one of the articulations of the body. Their assumption was that it
+was the great joint of the knee which produced them. Had they worked upon
+their theory alone, and left all assumption aside, until actual evidence
+had led up to them; or, even had they investigated other joints of the
+lower limbs, besides that of the knee, they must have inevitably arrived
+at the correct conclusion. Unfortunately, however, the idea which so beset
+them as to render their labor abortive, arose from the actual existence in
+Buffalo of a woman whose knee-joints could be snapped audibly at will.
+
+The closeness of the scrutiny applied by these gentlemen displeased the
+eldest "medium," and her resentment finds characteristic expression in her
+volume, printed thirty-seven years after the occurrence. She declares that
+she found Dr. Lee to be "a wily, deceitful man."
+
+If anything can circumvent cunning, it is certainly cunning itself, and in
+this sense, it is entirely laudable when exerted in a proper cause. There
+is no doubt that strategy had to be used to induce this woman, conscious
+of her falsity, and schooled in subterfuges and evasions, to submit to a
+coldly scientific test. The challenge, however, came under such
+circumstances, public suspicion being so whetted by the fact that a woman
+had been discovered whose knee-joints possessed the peculiar quality of
+making sound, that it could not well be avoided, without it becoming
+generally known that the declination was a tacit confession of fraud.
+
+The doctors published very promptly the result of their preliminary
+examination, which was made without any special faculties being afforded
+them.
+
+They said:
+
+"Curiosity having led us to visit the rooms at the Phelps House, in which
+two females from Rochester, Mrs. Fish and Miss Fox, profess to exhibit
+striking manifestations from the spirit world, by means of which communion
+may be had with deceased friends, etc.; and having arrived at a
+physiological explanation of the phenomena, the correctness of which has
+been demonstrated in an instance which has since fallen under our
+observation, we have felt that a public statement is called for, which
+may, perhaps, serve to prevent a further waste of time, money and
+credulity (to say nothing of sentiment and philosophy) in connection with
+this so long successful imposition.
+
+"The explanation is reached almost by a logical necessity, on the
+application of a method of reasoning much resorted to in the diagnosis of
+diseases, namely, _the reasoning by exclusion_.
+
+"It was reached by this method prior to the demonstration which has
+subsequently occurred.
+
+"It is to be assumed, first, that the manifestations are not to be
+regarded as spiritual, provided they can be physically or physiologically
+accounted for. Immaterial agencies are not to be invoked until material
+agencies fail. We are thus to _exclude_ spiritual causation in this stage
+of the investigation.
+
+"Next, it is taken for granted that the 'rappings' are not produced by
+artificial contrivances about the persons of the females, which may be
+concealed by the dress. This hypothesis is excluded because it is
+understood that the females have been repeatedly and carefully examined by
+lady committees.
+
+"It is obvious that the 'rappings' are not caused by machinery attached to
+tables, doors, etc., for they are heard in different rooms, and in
+different parts of the same room in which the females are present, _but
+always near the spot where the females are stationed_. This mechanical
+hypothesis is then to be excluded. So much for the negative evidence, and
+now for what positively relates to the subject.
+
+"_On carefully observing the countenances of the two females it is evident
+that they involve an effort of the will. They evidently attempted to
+conceal any indications of voluntary effort, but did not succeed. A
+voluntary effort was manifested, and it was plain that it could not be
+continued very long without fatigue._ Assuming, then, this _positive
+fact_, the inquiry arises, how can the will be exerted to produce sounds
+('rappings') without obvious movements of the body? The voluntary muscles
+themselves are the only organs, save those which belong to the mind
+itself, over which volition can exercise any direct control. But
+contractions of the muscles do not, in the muscles themselves, occasion
+obvious sounds. The muscles, therefore, to develop audible vibrations,
+must act upon parts with which they are connected. Now, it was
+sufficiently clear that the 'rappings' were not _vocal_ sounds; these
+could not be produced without movements of the respiratory muscles, which
+would at once lead to detection. Hence, excluding vocal sounds, _the only
+possible source of the noises in question, produced as we have seen that
+they must be, by voluntary muscular contraction, is in one or more of the
+movable articulations of the skeleton_, from the anatomical construction
+of the voluntary muscles. This explanation remains as _the only
+alternative_.
+
+"By an analysis prosecuted in this manner we arrive at the conviction that
+the 'rappings,' assuming that they are not spiritual, _are produced by the
+action of the will, through voluntary action on the joints_.
+
+"Various facts may be cited to show that the motion of the joints, under
+certain circumstances, is adequate to produce the phenomena of the
+'rappings.' * * * By a curious coincidence, after arriving at the above
+conclusion respecting the source of the sounds, _an instance has fallen
+under our observation, which demonstrates the fact that noises precisely
+identical with the spiritual 'rappings' may be produced in the
+knee-joints_."
+
+The doctors then describe how the sounds may be produced in certain
+subjects by the partial dislocation of the knee joint; and they add:
+
+"The visible vibrations of articles in the room, situated near the
+operator, occur if the limb, or any portion of the body, is _in contact
+with them_ at the time the sounds are produced. _The force of the
+semi-dislocation of the bone is sufficient to occasion distinct jarring of
+the doors, tables, etc., if in contact._ The intensity of the sound may be
+varied in proportion to the force of the muscular contractions, and this
+will render the apparent source of the 'rappings' more or less distinct."
+
+I have italicized the portions of these extracts which apply in a measure
+to the action of the toe-joints, as well as to that of the knee. No
+especial comment upon them is needed. The reader may easily comprehend the
+relation of these peculiar facts.
+
+Knowing, from this brief of their supposed case, exactly what she had to
+apprehend from them, and anxious to prove triumphantly that she and her
+sisters did not make the "rappings" with their knees, Mrs. Fish rushed
+into print, and challenged the doctors to a more public investigation, to
+be made by three men and three women, the latter of whom were to disrobe
+the "mediums," if they so desired. The doctors, of course, accepted.
+
+In her account of this scene, Mrs. Fish speaks of herself and her sister
+Maggie as "two young creatures thus baited as it were by cruel enemies."
+It should be remembered at this point that her age at that time was about
+thirty-four years, whilst that of Maggie was only eleven! So much for the
+disingenuousness of the narrator.
+
+She herself says that during the test, Maggie and she sat on a sofa
+together a long time and no raps came. The watch was too close. Then a
+zealous and indiscreet friend rapped on the back of her chair, and to
+shield herself from seeming complicity, she rebuked him with great
+ostentation. How kindly she felt toward fraud, however, is shown by the
+excuses which she makes for his conduct.
+
+"It was certainly a severe and cruel ordeal for us," she goes on, "as we
+sat there under that accusation, surrounded by all these men, authorities,
+some of them persecutors, _while the raps, usually so ready and familiar,
+would not come to our relief. Some few and faint ones did indeed
+come--some nine or ten. The doctors say in their account that it was while
+they intermitted the holding of our feet_. Such was not my _impression_,
+but _I_ attach _small importance_ to that."
+
+There were several sittings of the investigators in company with the
+"mediums," and Mrs. Underhill asserts that at times plentiful "rappings"
+were heard, both when their feet and knees were held and when they were
+not held. And then she introduces this weak and transparent piece of
+hypocrisy so familiar to those who have ever had to do with so-called
+"mediums":
+
+"We are now familiar with the fact that spirits often refuse to act in the
+presence of those who bring to the occasion, not a candid and fair spirit
+of inquiry for the satisfaction of an honest skepticism, but a bitter and
+offensive bigotry of prejudice and invincible hostility, which does not
+really seek, but rather repels the truth, and but little deserves the
+favor of its exhibition to them by the spirits."
+
+The further report of the doctors contained these points:
+
+"_The two females were seated upon two chairs placed near together, their
+heels resting on cushions, their lower limbs extended, with the toes
+elevated and the feet separated from each other._ The object of this
+experiment was to secure a position in which the ligaments of the
+knee-joint should be made tense, and no opportunity offered to make a
+pressure with the foot. _We were pretty well satisfied that the
+displacement of the bones requisite for the sounds could not be effected,
+unless a fulcrum were obtained by resting one foot upon the other, or on
+some resisting body. The company waited half an hour, but no sounds were
+heard in this position._
+
+"The position of the _younger_ sister was then changed to a sitting
+posture, with the lower limbs extended on the sofa, _the elder sister
+sitting in the customary way_, at the other extremity of the sofa. The
+'Spirits' did not choose to signify their presence under these
+circumstances, although repeatedly requested to do so. The latter
+experiment went to confirm the belief that the _younger sister alone_
+produced the 'rappings.' These experiments were continued until the
+females themselves admitted that it was useless to continue any longer at
+that time, with any expectation of manifestations being made.
+
+"_In resuming the usual position on the sofa, the feet resting on the
+floor, the knockings soon began to be heard._"
+
+Then the doctors held the knees of the fair performers to ascertain if
+there was any movement when the sounds were heard:
+
+"The hands were kept in apposition for several minutes at a time, and the
+experiments repeated frequently, for the space of half an hour and more,
+with negative results; that is to say, _there were plenty of 'raps' when
+the knees were not held, and none when the hands were applied, save once;
+as the pressure was intentionally relaxed (Dr. Lee being the holder) two
+or three faint single 'raps' were heard, and Dr. Lee immediately averred
+that the motion of the bone was plainly perceptible to him. The experiment
+of seizing the knees as quickly as possible, when the knockings first
+commenced, was tried several times, but always with the effect of putting
+an immediate quietus upon the demonstrations_."
+
+No sensible person can doubt that the statements of facts within their
+actual knowledge, made by these three eminent physicians, are absolutely
+true. They say finally:
+
+"_Had our experiments, which were first directed to this joint failed, we
+should have proceeded to interrogate, experimentally, other articulations.
+But the conclusions seemed clear that the 'Rochester knockings' emanate
+from the knee-joint._"
+
+What a pity they did _not_ "interrogate" other articulations!
+
+The report, erroneous as it was in its conclusions, contained so much
+significant truth that Mrs. Fish was at first staggered by its purport.
+But in March, 1851, she wrote again to the press a lengthy letter, in
+which she feebly attempted to counteract the effect of the doctor's
+opinion, and incidentally made some grave admissions. Referring to the
+fact that whenever the "mediums" were kept in constrained positions there
+were no "manifestations," she made this remarkable admission:
+
+"_It is true that when our feet were placed on cushions stuffed with
+shavings, and resting on our heels, there were no sounds heard, and that
+sounds were heard when our feet were resting on the floor_; and it is just
+as true that if our friendly spirits retired when they witnessed such
+harsh proceedings on the part of our persecutors, it was not in our power
+to detain them."
+
+Then she remarks that certain things happened _after the medical gentlemen
+left_:
+
+"Our feet were held from the floor by Dr. Gray and Mr. Clark, in presence
+of the whole committee, on the evening of the investigation made by the
+medical gentlemen (after they left); and the sounds were distinctly heard,
+which was allowed by the committee to be a far more satisfactory test, as
+they could distinctly hear the sounds under the feet, and feel the floor
+_jar_ while our feet were held nearly or quite a foot from the floor."
+
+About this time, a suspicion that the "raps" were made by use of the toes,
+first found expression, but it never seems to have been followed up to
+the point of verification. Indeed, the secret seems to have been kept
+absolutely for forty years, and was only revealed by the lips of Mrs.
+Margaret Fox Kane.
+
+I cannot refrain from quoting in this place an incident from the record of
+the common enemy, which further illustrates the imbecile audacity with
+which they parade their abominable fraud before the eyes of sensible
+persons. At a séance, in which wonderous things were done under a table,
+around which the company including Mrs. Fish and one of her sisters were
+closely seated, one, Mr. Stringham, apparently a doubter, asked:
+
+"May I leave the table while the others remain, that I may look and see
+the bells ringing?"
+
+The "spirits" answered:
+
+"What do you think we require you to sit close to the table for?"
+
+And the veracious writer adds:
+
+"_When spirits make these physical demonstrations, they are compelled to
+assume shapes that human eyes must not look upon._"
+
+     !     !     !     !     !     !     !     !     !     !     !
+
+I should be guilty of an historical omission did I not also notice a
+somewhat formal investigation made by a committee of Harvard Professors
+and others, appointed to satisfy the exigencies of a newspaper controversy
+in Boston in 1857, and which Mrs. Ann Leah Fox Brown and Miss Catherine
+Fox attended. The results were wholly unsatisfactory and inconclusive from
+a scientific standpoint, though the moral effect of this outcome was
+strongly against the spiritualists, who were, of course, bound to prove
+their positive side of the case, and failed ignominiously to do so. The
+committee consisted of Professors Agassiz, Pierce and Horsford, Mr. George
+Lunt, editor of the Boston _Courier_, Dr. A. B. Gould, Mr. Allen Putnam,
+Dr. H. F. Gardner and Mr. G. W. Rains. The last three were pronounced
+spiritualists.
+
+Professor Agassiz, who in particular had studied mesmerism and so-called
+clairvoyance most carefully, and who believed to some extent in the
+former, declared with emphasis that there was an easy physiological
+explanation of all the effects that the "Fox Sisters," or any other
+"rappers," produced. The raps caused by the "Fox Sisters" on this occasion
+were but feeble and uncertain. When other "mediums" were under
+examination, the close watch kept upon them by the learned investigators
+seemed greatly to disconcert them and prevented the possibility of any
+pronounced "manifestations" taking place.
+
+The _Courier_ had issued a challenge offering five hundred dollars to any
+one who would "communicate a single word imparted to the 'spirits,'" by
+its editor "in an adjoining room," who would "read a single word in
+English, written inside a book or sheet of paper folded in such a manner
+as we may suggest; who would answer with the aid of all the higher
+intelligences he or she can invoke from the other world, _three questions_
+* * *;" and it added:
+
+"And we will not require Dr. Gardiner or the 'mediums' to risk a single
+cent on the experiment. If one or all of them can do one of these things,
+the five hundred dollars shall be paid on the spot. If they fail, they
+shall pay nothing; not even the expense incident to trying the
+experiment."
+
+The Committee made a report which declared that nothing had been done
+which entitled any one to receive the sum offered by the _Courier_.
+Therefore no award was made.
+
+A library might be written containing only accounts of private
+investigations of "spiritual phenomena" by able and scientific observers,
+all of which conduced to but one verdict, that every pretense of
+Spiritualism is a fraud. I deem it more appropriate, however, and entirely
+adequate to my purpose, to restrict my citations from such inquiries to
+those which had an absolutely undeniable official or authoritative
+character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE SUPREME AUDACITY OF FRAUD.
+
+
+The multitude of forms that a certain kind of deception, when once it
+obtains a foothold in the public mind, will assume, is often wonderful.
+
+Spiritualism has resorted to all the trickery that for ages has been used
+to delude and delight the populace.
+
+Much of it could be traced back to the very first mountebanks who wandered
+about the streets of the ancient cities, or squatted at the gates of
+palaces or in market-places to catch the frequent obolus from the curious
+passer-by.
+
+In every country under the sun, the trade of deception has been turned to
+the account of religious superstition. The Hindus, in particular, excel in
+this branch of necromancy. The marvelous things that Aaron and the
+Egyptian sorcerers did before Pharaoh, are really as nothing compared with
+what the modern jugglers of India and China perform. All of the
+developments of the art that have taken place in the West, seem but
+trivial imitation beside these, and indeed they are little better.
+
+No sooner had Spiritualism made many proselytes, than there was no limit
+to its audacious pretensions. Its apostles imagined that they could go on
+duping the world and even hoodwinking the scientists, and that by
+appealing to the Federal government for a formal investigation of its
+claims, which they could not have believed for a moment would be granted,
+they could obtain a sort of quasi-official recognition of their so-called
+new religion.
+
+Accordingly, on the 17th of April, 1854, a petition was sent to Congress,
+bearing fifteen thousand names, and was presented in executive session by
+Senator Shields of Illinois. As a rather skillful contemporaneous
+characterization of the matter, what he said on this occasion is of
+historical interest. The following were his words:
+
+     I beg leave to present to the Senate a petition, with some fifteen
+     thousand names appended to it, upon a very singular and novel
+     subject. The petitioners declare that certain physical and mental
+     phenomena of mysterious import, have become so prevalent in this
+     country and Europe, as to engross a large share of public attention.
+     A partial analysis of these phenomena attest the existence, first, of
+     an occult force which is exhibited in sliding, raising, arresting,
+     holding, suspending, and otherwise disturbing ponderable bodies,
+     apparently in direct opposition to the acknowledged laws of matter,
+     and transcending the accredited power of the human mind. Secondly,
+     lights of different degrees of intensity appear in dark rooms, where
+     chemical action or phosphorescent illumination cannot be developed,
+     and where there are no means of generating electricity, or of
+     producing combustion. Thirdly, a variety of sounds, frequent in
+     occurrence, and diversified in character, and of singular
+     significance and importance, consisting of mysterious rapping,
+     indicating the presence of invisible intelligence. Sounds are often
+     heard like those produced by the prosecution of mechanical
+     operations, like the hoarse murmer of the winds and waves, mingled
+     with the harsh creaking of the masts and rigging of a ship laboring
+     in a sea. Concussions also occur, resembling distant thunder,
+     producing oscillatory movements of surrounding objects, and a
+     tremulous motion of the premises upon which these phenomena occur.
+     Harmonious sounds, as those of human voices, and other sounds
+     resembling those of the fife, drum, trumpet, etc., have been produced
+     without any visible agency. Fourthly, all the functions of the human
+     body and mind are influenced in what appear to be certain abnormal
+     states of the system, by causes not yet adequately understood or
+     accounted for. The occult force, or invisible power, frequently
+     interrupts the normal operations of the faculties, suspending
+     sensation and voluntary motion of the body to a death-like coldness
+     and rigidity, and diseases hitherto considered incurable, have been
+     entirely eradicated by this mysterious agency. The petitioners
+     proceed to state that two opinions prevail with respect to the origin
+     of these phenomena. One ascribes them to the power and intelligence
+     of departed spirits operating upon the elements which pervade all
+     natural forms. The other rejects this conclusion, and contends that
+     all these results may be accounted for in a rational and satisfactory
+     manner.
+
+     The memorialists, while thus disagreeing as to the cause, concur in
+     the opinion as to the occurrence of the alleged phenomena; and in
+     view of their origin, nature and bearing upon the interests of
+     mankind, demand for them a patient, rigid, scientific investigation,
+     and request the appointment of a scientific commission for that
+     purpose.
+
+     I have now given a faithful synopsis of this petition, which, however
+     unprecedented in itself, has been prepared with singular ability,
+     presenting the subject with great delicacy and moderation. I make it
+     a rule to present any petition to the Senate, which is respectful in
+     its terms; but having discharged this duty, I may be permitted to say
+     that the prevalence of this delusion at this age of the world, among
+     any considerable portion of our citizens, must originate, in my
+     opinion, in a defective system of education, or in a partial
+     derangement of the mental faculties, produced by a diseased condition
+     of the physical organization. I cannot, therefore, believe that it
+     prevails to the extent indicated in this petition.
+
+     Different ages of the world have had their peculiar delusions.
+     Alchemy occupied the attention of eminent men for several centuries;
+     but there was something sublime in alchemy. The philosopher's stone,
+     or the transmutation of base metals into gold, the _elixir vitæ_, or
+     'water of life' which would preserve youth and beauty, and prevent
+     old age, decay and death, were blessings which poor humanity ardently
+     desired, and which alchemy sought to discover by perseverance and
+     piety, Roger Bacon, one of the greatests alchemists and greatest men
+     of the thirteenth century, while searching for the philosopher's
+     stone, discovered the telescope, burning glasses, and gunpowder. The
+     prosecution of that delusion led, therefore, to a number of useful
+     discoveries. In the sixteenth century flourished Cornelius Agrippa,
+     alchemist, astrologer, and magician, one of the greatest professors
+     of hermetic philosophy that ever lived. He had all the spirits of the
+     air and demons of the earth under his command. Paulus Jovious says
+     that the devil, in the shape of a large black dog, attended Agrippa
+     wherever he went. Thomas Nash says, at the request of Lord Surrey,
+     Erasmus, and other learned men, Agrippa called up from the grave,
+     several of the great philosophers of antiquity, among others, Sully,
+     whom he caused to deliver his celebrated oration for Roscius, to
+     please the emperor, Charles IV. He summoned David and King Solomon
+     from the tomb, and the Emperor conversed with them long upon the
+     science of government. This was a glorious exhibition of spiritual
+     power, compared with the insignificant manifestations of the present
+     day. I will pass over the celebrated Paracelsus, for the purpose of
+     making allusion to an Englishman, with whose veracious history every
+     one ought to make himself acquainted. In the sixteenth century, Dr.
+     Dee made such progress in the talismanic mysteries, that he acquired
+     ample power to hold familiar conversation with spirits and angels,
+     and to learn from them all the secrets of the universe. On the
+     occasion, the angel Uriel gave him a black crystal of a convex form,
+     which he had only to gaze upon intently, and by a strange effort of
+     the will, he could summon any spirit he wished, to reveal to him the
+     secrets of futurity. Dee, in his veracious diary, says that one day
+     while he was sitting with Alburtus Laski, a Polish nobleman, there
+     seemed to come out of the oratory a spiritual creature, like a pretty
+     girl of seven or nine years of age, with her hair rolled up before
+     and hanging down behind, with a gown of silk, of changeable red and
+     green, and with a train. She seemed to play up and down, and to go in
+     and out behind the books, and as she seemed to get between them, the
+     books displaced themselves and made way for her. This I call a
+     spiritual manifestation of the most interesting and fascinating kind.
+     Even the books felt the fascinating influence of this spiritual
+     creature; for they displaced themselves and made way for her. Edward
+     Kelly, an Irishman, who was present, and who witnessed this beautiful
+     apparition, verifies the doctor's statement; therefore it would be
+     unreasonable to doubt a story so well attested, particularly when the
+     witness was an Irishman. Dr. D. was the distinguished favorite of
+     kings and queens, a proof that spiritual science was in high repute
+     in the good old age of Queen Elizabeth. But of all the professors of
+     occult science, hermetic philosophy or Spiritualism, the Rosicrucians
+     were the most exalted and refined. With them the possession of the
+     philosopher's stone was to be the means of health and happiness, an
+     instrument by which man could command the services of superior
+     beings, control the elements, defy the abstractions of time and
+     space, and acquire the most intimate knowledge of all the secrets of
+     the universe. These were objects worth struggling for. The refined
+     Rosicrucians were utterly disgusted with the coarse, gross, sensual
+     spirits who had been in communication with man previous to their day;
+     so they decreed the annihilation of them all, and substituted in
+     their stead, a race of mild, beautiful and beneficent beings.
+
+     The "spirits" of the olden time were a malignant race, and took
+     especial delight in doing mischief; but the new generation is mild
+     and benignant. These "spirits," as this petition attests, indulge in
+     the most innocent amusements and harmless recreations, such as
+     sliding, raising and tipping tables, producing pleasing sounds and
+     variegated sights, and sometimes curing diseases which were
+     previously considered incurable; and for the existence of this simple
+     and benignant race our petitioners are indebted to the brethren of
+     the rosy cross. Among the modern professors of Spiritualism,
+     Cagliostro was the most justly celebrated. In Paris, his saloons
+     were thronged with the rich and noble. To old ladies he sold
+     immortality, and to the young ones he sold beauty that would endure
+     for centuries, and his charming countess gained immense wealth, by
+     granting attendant sylphs to such ladies as were rich enough to pay
+     for their services. The "Biographies des Contemporains," a work which
+     our present mediums ought to consult with care, says there was hardly
+     a fine lady in Paris who would not sup with the shade of Lucretius in
+     the apartments of Cagliostro. There was not a military officer who
+     would not discuss the art with Alexander, Hannibal or Cæsar, or an
+     advocate or counselor who would not argue legal points with the ghost
+     of Cicero. These were spiritual manifestations worth paying for, and
+     all our degenerate "mediums" would have to hide their diminished
+     heads in the presence of Cagliostro.
+
+     It would be a curious inquiry to follow this occult science through
+     all its phases of mineral magnetism, animal mesmerism, etc., until we
+     reach the present, latest and slowest phase of all spiritual
+     manifestation; but I have said enough to show the truth of Burk's
+     beautiful aphorism, "The credulity of dupes is as inexhaustible as
+     the invention of knaves."
+
+A writer of that time says:
+
+"A pleasant debate followed. Mr. Petit proposed to refer the petition of
+the Spiritualists to three thousand clergymen. Mr. Weller proposed to
+refer it to the Committee on Foreign Relations, as it might be necessary
+to inquire whether or not when Americans leave this world they lose their
+citizenship. Mr. Mason proposed that it should be left to the Committee on
+Military affairs. General Shields himself said he had thought of proposing
+to refer the petition to the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads,
+because there may be a possibility of establishing a spiritual telegraph
+between the material and spiritual worlds. The petition was finally, by a
+decisive vote, laid upon the table. The table did not, as we learn, tip in
+indignation at this summary disposal of Spiritualism in the Senate, by
+which we must infer that the 'spirits,' if there were any in the Senate at
+that time, endorsed its action and considered the same all right."
+
+I might here enter into a description of the various forms of modern
+spiritualistic representations. It would be a waste of time. I wish,
+however, to allude more particularly just here to one of the "evidences"
+which Mrs. Ann Leah Underhill apparently values most highly in connection
+with the claim of inherent and hereditary "mediumistic" powers residing in
+certain individuals and families. This is the somewhat noted so-called
+exhibition of "mediumistic" ability by a child of Mrs. Kate Fox Jencken, a
+babe, only about six weeks old at the time that it began. It is needless
+to go into all the details of the wonders attributed to little "Ferdie"
+Jencken, now a fine lad of fifteen, which rest wholly upon the testimony
+of persons who were interested in magnifying them to the greatest extent.
+Shadowy forms are said to have appeared to his nurse while she was
+watching him. At three months he was said to have articulated "Mamma!" But
+the cap of the climax is the feat he is said to have performed when not
+six months old. As he was restless one day, his mother gave him a piece of
+blotting paper and a pencil to play with. He made some marks on the paper
+and dropped it. When his mother picked it up she exclaimed to Mrs.
+Underhill, the only other person present:
+
+"See here, he was written something."
+
+It is pretended that on one side of the blotting paper was the message:
+
+      "Grandma is here.
+                "BOYSIE."
+
+Later and up to the close of his first year, he was said to write other
+messages, but all under like circumstances.
+
+Mrs. Underhill lays great stress upon these "manifestations" in two
+portions of her work.
+
+The simple and only comment to be made upon them is, that Mrs. Catherine
+Fox Jencken now declares that they were fraudulent. The messages were in
+every case written upon the paper before it was placed in the baby's
+hands, the mother knowing, of course, that a child a few months old would
+not retain anything very long in its grasp, that those who chanced to be
+present would not observe, unless previously warned, whether it was
+wholly blank or not, and that the picking up of the paper from the floor
+would give ample opportunity to turn undermost the side on which the child
+may have really scratched some unmeaning marks.
+
+So much for that and kindred marvels of infant "mediumship."
+
+"Ferdie" Jencken, so far as is known, has never, since that early period
+of his existence, exhibited any "mediumistic power."
+
+The character of the communications purporting to come from the
+"spirit-land" has always been such as to condemn them, even if nothing
+else would, in the mind of any one gifted with a clear judgment. How many
+have read with a bitter sneer those pretended words from "the great ones
+of the earth," which would place them, if they had really written or
+uttered them in the unseen life, on a mere level with the emptiest-headed
+mortals whom we know in this!
+
+"Alas!" exclaims Nathaniel Hawthorne in "The Blythedale Romance,"
+"methinks we have fallen on an evil age! If these phenomena have not
+humbug at the bottom, so much the worse for us. What can they indicate in
+a spiritual way, except that the soul of man is descending to a lower
+point that it has ever reached while incarnate? We are pursuing a downward
+course in the eternal march, and thus bring ourselves into the same range
+with beings whom death--in requital of their gross and evil lives--has
+degraded below humanity. To hold intercourse with spirits of this order,
+we must stoop and grovel in some elements more vile than earthly dust.
+These goblins, if they exist at all, are but the shadows of past
+mortality--mere refuse stuff, adjudged unworthy of the eternal world, and
+as the most favorable supposition, dwindling gradually into nothingness.
+The less we have to say to them, the better, lest we share their fate."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A SCIENTIFIC JURY.
+
+
+At one period of her strange career, Mrs. Kane entered the service of Mr.
+Henry Seybert, the famous and wealthy spiritualist of Philadelphia, who
+proposed to found what he called a "Spiritual Mansion."
+
+Mrs. Kane's salary and appointments were liberal, and her situation was
+one which would have met the fondest wishes of many noted and ambitious
+"mediums." She was the high priestess of this new temple of the unseen
+entities, and as such she was honored and treated with most exalted
+respect.
+
+The conditions of the "Spiritual Mansion" were in all respects favorable
+to the intercourse of dwellers in the flesh with those who inhabit the
+realm of shadows, if such there had been.
+
+The taking up of her abode in this singular institution was one of her
+earliest steps, after the throwing off of her deep weeds of mourning, worn
+in memory of the untimely termination of her dream of happiness. It was
+then that she found that the professional life of a "medium" was the only
+refuge left her from the cruel pursuit of poverty and want.
+
+But her stay in the "Spiritual Mansion" was short. She had thought that
+the quiet existence afforded her there would be preferable to the daily
+and distasteful practice of public "mediumship," which she must have
+resorted to at once, had she not accepted the proposition of Mr. Seybert.
+But the hypocrisy unconsciously required of her by him, while of a more
+fantastic description, was altogether too much for her to endure. Her
+intense hatred of her profession as a "medium" appeared in a strong light
+to those who were then in her confidence.
+
+Mrs. Kane, at the "Spiritual Mansion," not only produced pretended
+messages from the departed friends of her patron, but also from nearly
+every martyr and saint in the Protestant calendar, and from the famous
+sages and rulers of old. But her imposture stopped short of actual
+sacrilege. Beyond that line she never has gone.
+
+When it came to transmitting messages demanded by the living of the
+apostles and fathers of the church, she revolted against this mania for
+the supernatural and the impossible, and she refused to continue longer
+the instrument of pure religious insanity.
+
+She declined to produce "spirit rappings," as emanating from St. Paul, St.
+Peter, Elijah and the angel Gabriel.
+
+It has often been said that Henry Seybert had an undoubted vein of madness
+in his brain. Mrs. Kane herself so declares. I believe the same is true of
+every person (not a knave at heart) who persistently, after reason and
+conscientious research have demonstrated the truth of the charges against
+Spiritualism, still refuses to be convinced.
+
+There was, however, a method in the madness of Seybert. Mrs. Kane has
+always been most careful not to make any positive asseveration of the
+claims of Spiritualism. Her guarded and, in some measure, candid course,
+no doubt tended very far towards influencing him to desire an honest and
+thorough investigation of the so-called spiritualistic phenomena, to be
+conducted according to the most rigid scientific methods. In his will, he
+left provision for the founding of a chair of philosophy in the University
+of Pennsylvania, with the careful stipulation that a certain portion of
+the income to be derived from the foundation should be devoted to the
+investigation of "all systems of morals, religion or philosophy which
+assume to represent the truth; and particularly of modern Spiritualism."
+
+Thus this legacy gave birth to the celebrated "Seybert Commission," whose
+labors have resulted in the most valuable exposé, prior to this present
+publication, of the fraudulent methods of Spiritualism--"the tricks of the
+trade," as it were--which has ever been made.
+
+Even the investigation of the remarkable "rappings," produced by Mrs.
+Kane, in which the Commission engaged--while less successful than any
+other branch of their researches--went so far as fully to convince them
+that these alleged manifestations were entirely fraudulent, and that they
+were produced by physical action on the part of the "medium," probably by
+or in the vicinity of her feet.
+
+This they were unable to prove, however, by any use of their five senses,
+which they were permitted to make. Mrs. Kane gave them no such chance of
+examination, on this occasion, as had been vouchsafed to the Buffalo
+doctors some thirty-six years before, almost with the result of throttling
+Spiritualism in its infancy. No; she was much too clever for that. She
+would greatly have preferred, to being ignominiously found out, to make a
+public and unreserved confession.
+
+The fact is that no other scientific committee ever enjoyed the facilities
+of close observation of the production of the "raps" which were accorded
+to the "Buffalo doctors," and that, up to this final day, when Mrs. Kane
+herself tells the truth, there has been not one single positive exposure
+of the primitive fraud of the "toe-knockings." Conjectures, it is true,
+have groped in that direction, time and again--but they never have done
+more than to grope.
+
+The members of the "Seybert Commission" were extremely eager to obtain
+sittings with Mrs. Kane, and were successful at an early stage of their
+studies in doing so. Mr. Horace Howard Furness of Philadelphia was acting
+chairman of the Commission a good part of the time, and as such he wrote
+to Mrs. Kane in the following very urgent manner:
+
+     "222 WEST WASHINGTON SQUARE.
+
+     "DEAR MRS. KANE:
+
+     "I wrote to you some ten days ago, but, since I have not heard from
+     you, fear that my letter has miscarried, and will therefore repeat
+     it.
+
+     "I am anxious, very anxious, that the 'Seybert Commission,' of which
+     I am the chairman, should have an opportunity of investigating the
+     'Rappings.' Will you, therefore, appoint some day and hour, at your
+     earliest convenience, when I can visit you in New York and make
+     arrangements with you personally?
+
+     "I sincerely trust that your summer has been healthful and peaceful,
+     and beg to subscribe myself
+
+     "Yours respectfully,
+     "HORACE HOWARD FURNESS.
+
+     "22nd October, 1884."
+
+Mrs. Kane became the guest of Mr. Furness at his house, and there produced
+the "rappings" at two séances which were full of important significance.
+
+The first was on the 5th of November, 1884, in the evening. The company
+consisted of Dr. William Pepper and his wife, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Dr. George
+A. Koeing, Prof. Robert Ellis Thompson, Mr. Horace Howard Furness, Mr.
+George S. Fullerton, Mr. Coleman Sellers, all, excepting the lady, members
+of the Commission, and Mr. George S. Pepper, Miss Logan, and the
+"medium." All seated themselves around an open dining-table, Mrs. Kane at
+one end and Mr. Sellers at the other. The report of the Commission says:
+
+"The medium sat with her feet partly under the table, and consequently
+concealed from most of those present--her feet were hidden also by her
+dress."
+
+After the usual preliminaries of an introduction to denizens of the
+"spirit land," the soul of Henry Seybert was announced. He declared
+through the "medium" that he knew the names of the members of the
+Commission, and particularly of the one who was addressing him. Mr.
+Sellers, who happened to be this person, requested the spirit to spell his
+name by the aid of a written alphabet, each letter of which was pointed to
+in turn, the letter intended by the "spirit" being indicated by three
+"raps." The result was that the name spelled out was the following:
+
+  "CHARLES CERI!"
+
+Without commenting upon this blunder of the "spirit," the Commission
+encouraged Mrs. Kane to proceed. She took a station at some distance from
+the table, her hands resting upon the back of a chair, and "raps" were
+heard which seemed to come from a point very near or under her. Again,
+when she stood close to a bookcase, "raps" were produced which she
+declared to proceed from the glass door upon which Mr. Sellers rested his
+hand. The latter felt not the slightest vibration of the glass. Mrs. Kane
+then produced written messages, addressed to two persons present, whose
+names she might have ascertained with very great ease. The writing was an
+irregular scrawl, running from the left, and leaning backward, and could
+only be read from the observe side by holding the paper up to the light.
+
+The second séance in which Mrs. Kane acted as "medium" took place at the
+same place on the 6th of November, 1884. Dr. Leidy, Mr. Furness, Dr.
+Koeing, Mr. Fullerton and Mr. Sellers, members of the Commission, Mr.
+George S. Pepper, Mrs. Kane and a stenographer were present. The
+experiments of this evening were more lengthy and exhaustive than those of
+the previous one. For convenience of narration I shall divide them into
+two series: those made while the "medium" either stood upon the floor or
+sat upon an ordinary seat in an ordinary position; those in which she was
+separated from the floor, either by glass or by some object of
+considerable height, upon which she stood; and those in which she produced
+writing upon ordinary paper, said to have been dictated by the "spirits."
+The experiments did not always take place in the consecutive order in
+which I shall note them.
+
+The report says: "The 'spirit rappings' during the evening, aside from
+those heard during the test with glass tumblers, were apparently confined
+to the floor space in the immediate vicinity of and directly beneath the
+table around which the company were seated."
+
+The stenographic report of this part of the investigation proceeds as
+follows:
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Is any spirit present now?
+
+"Three raps--faint and partly distinct--are almost instantly audible. The
+raps apparently emanate from the floor-space directly beneath, or in the
+immediate vicinity of the table. This remark is applicable to all the
+'rappings' during the séance at the pine table.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (interpreting the sounds). That was 'yes.'
+
+"MR. SELLERS (aside). They sounded like three.
+
+"The raps are immediately repeated with more distinctness.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (aside). There are three, and they are quite distinct. Is the
+spirit the same that was present last night?
+
+"Three raps, apparently identical with those last heard, are again
+audible.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (aside). It says it is the same spirit. I presume then, that
+it is Henry Seybert? (No response.) Is it Henry Seybert?
+
+"Three raps--distinct and positive.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. You promised last evening to give a communication to Mr.
+Pepper. Are you able to communicate with him now?
+
+"Two raps--comparitively feeble.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (interpreting). One, two: that means not now.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (repeating). Not now?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (reflectively). But probably before he leaves.
+
+"Three raps--quickly, distinctly and instantly given.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' He said 'Yes, before he leaves.' (To Mr. Sellers.) You
+asked that question, I think?
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Yes. Will you communicate with him before Mr. Pepper leaves
+to-night?
+
+"Three raps--instantaneous, quick and vigorous."
+
+Afterwards, the experiment of standing near a table, the "medium" not
+touching it, to see if sounds similar to those of the previous evening
+could be produced, was repeated. The "medium" insisted, however, that
+there should be no breaking of the circle formed about her by those who
+were present.
+
+"All of the gentlemen, and the 'medium,'" says the report, "rise and
+remain standing. * * *
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' This is test, something I have not gone through since I was
+a little child, almost.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (after an interval of waiting). There seem to be no raps.
+(Another short interval.) Now Mr. Seybert, cannot you produce some raps?
+
+"Eighty seconds here elapse with no response, when the 'medium' made an
+observation which was partly inaudible at the reporter's seat, the purport
+of which was that the 'spirit communications' are sometimes retarded or
+facilitated by a compliance by the listeners with certain conditions.
+Another interval of probably two minutes elapsed, when the 'medium'
+suggested to Dr. Leidy to place his hands upon the table. The suggestion
+was complied with.
+
+"Mr. Sellers inquires of the 'medium' whether a change in her position,
+with regard to the table, would do any good.
+
+"'MEDIUM.' I will change positions with you.
+
+"The change was made accordingly, but without result, and another period
+of waiting followed.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (to Dr. Leidy). Suppose you ask some questions. You may have
+some friend who will respond.
+
+"DR. LEIDY. Is any spirit present whom I know, or who knows me?
+
+"After a pause of ten seconds, three light raps are heard.
+
+"DR. LEIDY. Who am I?
+
+"The 'medium' explains that the responses by rappings are mainly
+indicative only of affirmation or negation.
+
+"DR. LEIDY. Will you repeat your taps to indicate that you are present
+yet?
+
+"Three taps are heard.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Those are very clearly heard.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (to Dr. Leidy). Ask if that is Mr. Seybert.
+
+"DR. LEIDY. Is Mr. Seybert present?
+
+"Three raps--very feeble.
+
+"DR. LEIDY (to Mr. Sellers). Was there an answer to that?
+
+"MR. SELLERS. There was. The answer was three raps. (After an interval, in
+which no response is received.) There seem to be no further
+communications."
+
+Later in the evening efforts to engage the defunct Mr. Seybert in
+conversation were again made. The company were as before gathered about
+the table. "Raps" were made by Mrs. Kane on the floor. The "spirit" was
+asked if he knew the members of the Commission present, and to state their
+number. When it came to the response to the latter part of the question
+there were "seven slow, deliberate and distinct raps."
+
+Alas! the "spirit" had mistaken the guest of the Commission, Mr. George S.
+Pepper, and the stenographers for members!
+
+The latter were seated at a separate table.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Are there seven members of the Committee present?
+
+"Three raps.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Are they all seated around one table?
+
+"No response. About forty seconds elapse.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Are they seated at two tables?
+
+"Three raps--quite feeble.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (to his associates). We still must go back to the one thing.
+The information we receive through these responses is of little importance
+to us compared with the information which we must obtain as to whether
+these sounds are produced by a disembodied Spirit or by some living
+person; that is, in deference to the 'Medium.' (To Mr. Furness.) Do you
+not think so?
+
+"Mr. Furness is understood to assent.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. We have tried the glass tumblers. We have the sounds here. I
+would ask Mrs. Kane if it is proper for us to look below the top of the
+table at the time the sounds are being produced, and in such a way as to
+see her feet.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Yes, of course, you could do that, but it is not well to
+break, when you are standing, suddenly. As you know, you have to conform
+to the rules, else you will get no rappings.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. What are the rules?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (disconnectedly.) The rules are--every test condition, that
+I am perfectly willing to go through, and have gone through a thousand
+times--at the same time, there are times when you can break the rules. So
+slight a thing as the disjoining of hands may break the rules. I do not
+think the standing on the glass has been fully tried.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. We will try that later.
+
+"MR. FURNESS (to the 'medium,' informally). This investigation is one of
+great importance to us. There is no question about it--we have heard
+these curious sounds. Now as to whether they come from 'spirits' or
+not--that would seem to be the very next logical step in our inquiry. I
+think you are entirely at one with us in every possible desire to have
+this phenomenon investigated.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Oh, certainly. But I pledge myself to conform to nothing,
+for--as I said in Europe--_I do not even say the sounds are from
+'spirits_;' and, what is more, it is utterly beyond human power to detect
+them. _I do not say they are the spirits of our departed friends, but I
+leave others to judge for themselves._
+
+"MR. FURNESS. Then you have come to the conclusion that they are entirely
+independent of yourself.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' No, _I do not know that they are entirely independent of
+myself_.
+
+"MR. FURNESS. Under what conditions can you influence them?
+
+"The response, which was partly inaudible at the reporter's seat, was
+understood to be: 'I cannot tell.'
+
+"MR. FURNESS. You say that in the generality of cases they are beyond your
+control?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Yes.
+
+"MR. FURNESS. How in the world shall we test that?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Well, by--
+
+"MR. FURNESS. By--what? Isolating you from the table?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Yes.
+
+"MR. FURNESS (applying his right hand, by her permission, to the
+'Medium's' head). Are you ever conscious of any vibration in your bones?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' No; but sometimes it causes an exhaustion, that is, under
+circumstances when the raps do not come freely.
+
+"MR. FURNESS. The freer the raps come, the better for you?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Yes, the freer the better--the less exhaustion.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. But do you feel now, to-night, any untoward influence
+operating against you?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' No, not to-night, for it takes quite a little while before
+we feel these things.
+
+"MR. FURNESS. Do these raps always have that vibratory
+sound--tr-rut--tr-rut--tr-rut?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Sometimes they vary.
+
+"MR. FURNESS. As a general rule I have heard them sound so.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Every rap has a different sound. For instance, when the
+'spirit' of Mr. Seybert rapped, if the sound was a good one, you would
+have noticed that his rap was different from that of another. Every one is
+entirely different from another.
+
+"MR. FURNESS. Do you suppose that the present conditions are such that you
+can throw the raps to a part of the room other than that in which you are?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' I do not pretend to do that, but I will try to do it.
+
+"Mr. Furness and Dr. Leidy station themselves in the corner of the room,
+diagonally, and most remote from the pine table, at which their
+associates remain seated, with their hands upon the table, and 'their
+minds intent on having the raps produced at the corner indicated,' as
+requested by the 'medium,' who also remains at the table. The 'medium'
+asks, '_Will the "Spirit" rap at the other side of the room?_' and, after
+twelve seconds, and again after forty-three seconds, repeats the inquiry.
+_No response is received._ The experiment is repeated with Mr. Furness and
+Dr. Koenig at the corner, but with a like negative result."
+
+Let us now turn to the experiments made while the "medium" was not in a
+position in which her feet could touch the floor. The report says:
+
+"Mr. Sellers made this inquiry:
+
+"'It is proposed that the "medium" shall stand upon tumblers. Are we
+likely to have any demonstration?'
+
+"Three raps--promptly given, though feeble in delivery and but faintly
+audible.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' There were three--a kind of tardy assent.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (to the 'Medium'). As if the 'Spirits' might or might not
+communicate?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Well, that a trial might be made.
+
+"Three raps are here again distinctly heard--the characteristics of the
+sounds in this instance being rapidity and energy, or positiveness.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' That is a quick answer.
+
+"At this point, attention is directed to the first of a series of
+experiments with four glass tumblers, which are placed together, with the
+bottoms upward, on the carpeted floor, in the center of a vacant space.
+The 'medium' stands directly upon these, the heels of her shoes resting
+upon the rear tumblers and the soles upon the front tumblers. The
+Committee co-operate with the 'medium,' and, in conformity with her
+suggestions, all the men clasp hands and form a semi-circle in front of
+the 'medium,' the hands of the latter being grasped by the gentlemen
+nearest to her on either side.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (after a notification from the medium to proceed). Is Mr.
+Seybert still present?
+
+"No response.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' It may be a few minutes before you will hear any rapping
+through these glasses.
+
+"Ten seconds elapse.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' This test is a very satisfactory one, if they do it. And
+they have done it a hundred times.
+
+"Five seconds elapse.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (to Mr. Furness). The glasses are not placed over the
+marble, are they?
+
+"MR. FURNESS. No, the floor is of wood.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (after another interval of waiting) informally remarked to
+Mr. Furness: 'We will wait probably for another minute to see if anything
+comes. As you know, the 'medium' claims that it is impossible for her to
+control these things--that she is merely one who is operated through.'
+
+"Another interval expires.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' That was a very faint rap. Suppose we change the position
+of the glasses.
+
+"Note by the stenographer. No intimation is given that the rap here spoken
+of was heard by any one other than the 'medium' herself. Pursuant to the
+request just stated, the carpet is removed and the glass tumblers are
+located on the bare floor at a point about five feet distant from the
+place at which the test was first tried. The new location is in the center
+of a passage-way, about three feet in width, between a side-board on one
+side, and a wall projection on the other. Its selection is apparently,
+though not specifically, dictated by the position and movements of the
+'medium.' The 'medium' and the Committee resume their positions, the
+former standing on the glasses and the gentlemen facing her in a group.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Now, Spirits, will you rap on the floor?
+
+"Thirty seconds here elapsed with no response, when one glass was heard to
+click against the other, and the 'medium' exclaimed 'Oh!'
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (repeating). Will you rap on the floor?
+
+"Thirty seconds now elapse without any demonstration.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (aside). It seems to be a failure. They have done it.
+
+"Another click of the glasses which passes without comment.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. We will have to set down the result of the experiment on
+glass tumblers as negative. It may be well to try it later.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (evidently reluctant to abandon the test). Suppose now, as
+we have gone so far, we kind of form a chain.
+
+"The company retained their positions with hands joined, and the 'Spirits'
+were repeatedly requested to make their presence known. Mr. Pepper, at the
+suggestion of the 'medium,' asking the 'Spirit' of his friend, Henry
+Seybert, to manifest its presence by one rap--but all efforts to elicit
+such response proved ineffectual.
+
+"When the same experiments were resumed, the lady proceeded to the space
+_between the side-board and the wall_, where the last preceding test had
+been made, and there the tumblers were again arranged. The 'medium'
+resumed her position upon them, with Drs. Leidy and Koeing, and Messrs.
+Sellers and Furness facing her.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Will the Spirit rap here?
+
+"Twenty-three seconds elapse.
+
+"DR. LEIDY. Is any 'Spirit' present.
+
+"An interval of thirty-nine seconds here followed, when the attention of
+the Committee was momentarily diverted by an inquiry addressed to Mr.
+Furness by Mr. Sellers, viz.: Whether a glass plate of sufficient strength
+to bear the weight of the 'medium' was procurable. At this moment the
+'medium' suddenly exclaimed: 'I hear a rap. You said, "Get a glass," and
+there was a rap.'
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (repeating for the information of Mr. Furness). Somebody
+proposed a glass and there were three raps.
+
+"Dr. Koenig inquires of the 'medium' whether the meaning intended to be
+conveyed by the sounds is that the 'spirits' desire to have the glass
+plate produced.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' I do not know. I know there were raps. (Turning to Mr.
+Sellers, the 'medium' adds:) They may have been made by your heel on the
+floor, but certainly there were sounds.
+
+"MR. FULLERTON. Then it was not the regular triple rap?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' I could not tell.
+
+"Just before calling attention to the alleged rap or raps, the 'medium'
+grasped with her right hand the wood-work of the side-board, as if for
+support. It was then that she stated she heard the sounds. They were
+apparently not heard by any one but the 'medium.'
+
+"MR. SELLERS (addressing the 'spirit'). Will you repeat the raps we heard
+just now, assuming that there were some?
+
+"Ten minutes elapse without a response.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' There is no use of my standing any longer, for when they
+come at all, they come right away.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (after scrutinizing the position of one of the feet of the
+'medium'). The edge of the heel of the shoe rests on the back tumbler.
+(Assuming a stooping posture for a more prolonged scrutiny.) We will see
+whether the raps will be produced now.
+
+"The 'medium' now proposes that all the members of the committee shall
+stand up and join hands.
+
+"Mr. Sellers and his associates accordingly stand, facing the 'medium,'
+with hands joined. Changes in their positions were made by some of the
+gentlemen from time to time, as suggested by the 'medium,' Mr. Pepper and
+Dr. Koenig being the first to exchange places. This occurred after a
+silence of thirty seconds, without any response.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Now, Mr. Seybert, if your 'spirit' is here, will you have
+the kindness--I knew Mr. Seybert well in life--to rap?
+
+"Fifteen seconds elapse.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' No, he does not seem to respond.
+
+"At the suggestion of Mr. Sellers, all of the gentlemen approach the
+'medium' for the purpose of inducing some acknowledgment by the 'spirit,'
+and inquiries similar to those already stated are repeated without result.
+
+"The Commission temporarily abandon the test. When the tumblers are again
+produced the 'medium' takes her position upon them, with Mr. Fullerton
+standing next to her upon the right and Mr. Furness to the left. Mr.
+Sellers remains for some moments kneeling on the floor to enable himself
+better to hear any sounds that may be but faintly audible. The 'spirits'
+are repeatedly importuned by the 'medium' to produce the 'rappings,' but
+no response is heard until the company is about to abandon the experiment.
+Three raps are then audible. The raps are very light, but very distinct.
+
+"Mr. Fullerton states that he heard the raps.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. I heard a sound then, but it seemed as if it was around
+there. (Indicating the wall immediately in the rear of the 'medium.')
+
+"The tumblers are here moved further away from the wall, and the 'medium'
+resumes her position upon them.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Will the 'Spirit' rap again? (No response.)
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Were any of you gentlemen acquainted with Mr. Seybert in
+his lifetime?
+
+"MR. FULLERTON. I saw him several times before his death. If he can give
+an intimation now of anything he said at that time, it will indicate that
+he remembers it.
+
+"A very faint rap is heard.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' There is a rap. It seems to be there again. (Indicating the
+spot to which attention was previously called by Mr. Sellers.)
+
+"The 'medium' again importunes, first, 'Mr. Seybert,' and next the
+'spirits,' to rap; and the importunities are repeated. Three raps are
+distinctly, but faintly heard.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. I heard them. They sounded somewhat like the others, not
+exactly.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' I heard one rap, but it is nothing for me to hear them; I
+want you gentlemen to hear them.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Probably we will hear them again.
+
+"While Mr. Sellers and Mr. Furness are conversing, several raps are heard,
+though less distinct than the preceding ones.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' There they are, as though right under the glass. (After a
+silence of forty seconds) Now I hear them again, very light--oh, very
+light.
+
+"Mr. Furness, with the permission of the 'medium,' _places his hand upon
+one of her feet_.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' There are raps now, strong--yes, I hear them.
+
+"MR. FURNESS (to the 'medium'). This is the most wonderful thing of all,
+Mrs. Kane; _I distinctly feel them in your foot_. There is not a particle
+of motion in your foot, but there is an unusual pulsation.
+
+"Mr. Sellers here made some inquiries of the 'medium,' concerning the
+shoes now worn by her. The replies, which were not direct, are here given.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Are those the shoes which you usually wear?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' I wear all kinds of shoes.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Are the sounds produced in your room when you have no shoes
+on?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' More or less. They are produced under all circumstances.
+
+"Following the suggestion of the 'medium,' all present proceed through an
+intervening apartment to the library, where the 'medium' selects various
+positions--standing upon a lounge, then upon a cushioned chair, next upon
+a step-ladder, and finally upon the side of a book-case--but all with a
+like unsuccessful result, no response by 'rappings' being heard.
+
+"In the midst of the experiments at the table Mrs. Kane exclaimed to Mr.
+Sellers: Well, my hand does feel like writing. Will you give me a piece of
+paper? and, maybe they will give me some directions.
+
+"MR. FULLERTON (to the 'medium'). How does your hand feel when affected in
+that way?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' It is a peculiar feeling, like that from taking hold of
+electrical instruments. I do not know but that you might possibly feel it
+in my hand.
+
+"The lady here extended her right hand upon the table toward Mr.
+Fullerton. The latter placed his left hand upon the extended hand of the
+'medium,' and subsequently remarked that the pulsation of her wrist was a
+little above the ordinary rate.
+
+"The 'medium,' ostensibly under 'spirit' influence, with lead-pencil in
+hand, proceeded to write two communications from the 'spirit' of the late
+Henry Seybert. The first of these covered two pages of paper of the size
+of ordinary foolscap. The 'medium' wrote in large characters, with
+remarkable rapidity, and in a direction from the right to the left, or the
+reverse of ordinary handwriting. The writing, consequently, could be read
+only from the reverse side of the paper, and by being held up so as to
+permit the gaslight to shine through it.
+
+"The communications, as deciphered by Mr. Sellers, with the aid of Mr.
+Fullerton and the 'medium,' were as follows:
+
+     "You must not expect that I can satisfy you beyond all doubt in so
+     short a time as you have yet had. I want to give you all in my power,
+     and will do so if you will give me a chance. You must commence right
+     in the first place or you shall all be disappointed for a much longer
+     time. _Princiipis Obsta Sereo Medicina Paratum._
+
+          "HENRY SEYBERT.
+
+          "Mend the fault in time or we will all be puzzled.
+
+          "HENRY SEYBERT."
+
+The fault in the Latin of the above quotation attracted the attention of
+the Commission.
+
+Mr. George S. Pepper, who had been well acquainted with Mr. Seybert in his
+lifetime, declared that he had never known any Latin at all!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The investigations of the "Seybert Commission" in other directions than
+that of the "rappings," were far more fascinating and productive of
+results. It would be impossible to give an adequate idea of them here. The
+Commission employed the most celebrated "mediums" within their reach, and
+paid them liberally to place them in communication with the "Spirit
+world." They saw (and they show in their report that they did see) the
+secret of every "wonderful" thing done by the "mediums," and found it in
+most instances exceedingly simple, and generally rather clumsily
+performed. Professional jugglers constantly outdo professional "mediums."
+This, the latter cannot deny, and they seek--oh, monumental impudence!--to
+make people believe that jugglers are nothing more nor less than
+"mediums," and that "mediums" are never in any sense jugglers!
+
+Thus the notorious Slade:
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Do you know a man named Kellar, who is exhibiting in this
+city?
+
+"DR. SLADE. I do not. I never knew him.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. You may, however, be able to explain to me a very remarkable
+slate writing experiment which Kellar has performed. (Mr. Sellers here
+describes at length Mr. Kellar's trick with the fastened slates.) How did
+Mr. Kellar do that?
+
+"DR. SLADE. He is a 'medium.' _He does that work precisely as I do it._
+
+"MR. SELLERS. But can he not do it by trickery?
+
+"DR. SLADE. No, it is impossible. He is a 'medium' and a powerful
+'medium.'"
+
+This is from a memorandum of Mr. Sellers. He says further:
+
+"The inquiry was then addressed to Mr. Slade: Do you know a man named
+Guernilla, who, with his wife, gave séances?
+
+"MR. SLADE. Yes, I know him very well.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Well, how does he perform his wonderful exploits in
+'rappings,' etc.?
+
+"MR. SLADE. He is a 'medium,' a powerful 'medium.' I know him very well
+indeed. I can assure you that all he does is done solely by means of his
+mediumistic powers.
+
+"I now state to the Committee that the Guernillas exhibited in
+Philadelphia some years ago as exposers of Spiritualism. They did not
+expose it, but they performed experiments which, prior to that time, were
+said to have been accomplished by the aid of 'spirits.' Guernilla himself,
+at my house, in my presence, in broad daylight, performed all the feats
+and exhibited the phenomena that were produced at the dark and other
+séances, and he repeated them until I myself became as expert as he in
+performing them; for which I paid him a consideration. So much for the
+mediumistic power."
+
+Mr. Sellers explained with reference to Mr. Kellar:
+
+"I pause here for the express purpose of having the fact noted that, being
+thoroughly familiar with the details of the methods of those experiments,
+I can positively assure the Committee that there is no mediumistic power
+in Mr. Kellar, so far as his methods are concerned, that those methods are
+as easy of solution as are any other physical problems."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE UNALTERABLE VERDICT.
+
+
+The "Seybert Commission"[3] examined every known form of spiritualistic
+manifestation to which they had access, and implicitly under conditions
+imposed by the "mediums" themselves. These conditions are everything that
+could be devised and plausibly used to prevent the hoped-for dupe from
+detecting the fraud that is practised upon him.
+
+The Commission put the indelible stamp of fraud upon all so-called
+spiritualistic manifestations. Of the "spiritual rappings" they say:
+
+"To the subject of 'spirit-rappings' we have devoted some time and
+attention, but our investigations have not been sufficiently extensive to
+warrant us at present in offering any positive conclusions. The difficulty
+attending the investigation of this mode of spiritualistic manifestation
+is increased by the fact, familiar to physiologists, that sounds of
+varying intensity may be produced in almost any portion of the human body
+by voluntary muscular action. To determine the exact location of this
+muscular activity is at times a matter of delicacy.
+
+"What we can say thus far, with assurance, is that, in the cases which
+have come under our observation, the theory of the purely physiological
+origin of the sounds has been sustained by the fact that the 'mediums'
+were invariably, and confessedly, cognizant of the 'rappings' whenever
+they occurred, and could at once detect any spurious 'rappings,' however
+exact and indistinguishable to all other ears might be the imitation."
+
+Mrs. Kane has expressed amusement over the manner in which she eluded the
+inquisitions of the grave and conscientious Commission and left them
+puzzled over the "rappings."
+
+Even then, however, she cared so little for the preservation of the
+secret, that when she declined to be further examined by the Commission,
+she admitted to Mr. Furness that the gentlemen had ample ground for
+looking upon the manifestations which she had given as unsatisfactory. Mr.
+Furness says:
+
+"I told her that the Commission had now had two séances with her, and that
+_the conclusion to which they had come is that the so-called raps are
+confined wholly to her person_, whether produced by her voluntarily or
+involuntarily they had not attempted to decide; furthermore, that although
+thus satisfied in their own minds they were anxious to treat her with all
+possible deference and consideration, and accordingly had desired me to
+say to her that if she thought another séance with her would or might
+modify or reverse their conclusion, they held themselves ready to meet her
+again this evening and renew the investigation of the manifestations; at
+the same time I felt it my duty to add that in that case the examination
+would necessarily be of the most searching description.
+
+"Mrs. Kane replied that the manifestations at both séances had been of an
+unsatisfactory nature, so unsatisfactory that _she could not really blame
+the Commission for arriving at their conclusion_. In her present state of
+health she _really_ doubted whether a third meeting would prove any better
+than the two already held. It might even be more unsatisfactory, and
+instead of removing the present belief of the Commission it might add
+confirmation of it. In view of these considerations, she decided not to
+hold another séance."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Kane declares that with her muscles and the joints of her toes so
+educated by long practice, and her ability to produce the noise of "raps"
+with no perceptible movement, she could have gone on deceiving the world
+indefinitely without being detected. She explains that the making of the
+"raps," when she is stationed on glass tumblers, requires a far greater
+effort than when her feet are in contact with the carpet or floor. The
+shock must in that case be conveyed through a comparatively non-conducting
+substance. For this reason, when the floor was especially hard or thick
+and lacking in sonorousness, she sometimes failed in the expected effect.
+In every instance, it was most difficult to produce the "raps" under those
+circumstances.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The verdict, however, is now complete. Spiritualism is guilty.
+
+The court of mankind so declares it.
+
+
+
+
+IV. REPENTANCE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE HEART PLEADS FOR THE SOUL.
+
+
+The most interesting feature, after all, of Margaret Fox's career, was
+perhaps that sad and abortive romance of which Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the
+gallant Arctic explorer, was the hero. This history should be known to the
+reader in order that the exact aspect of Spiritualism to her developed
+conscience in after years may be understood.
+
+Dr. Kane first saw Maggie Fox in the autumn of 1852, when she was staying
+with her mother at a hotel in Philadelphia, being then engaged in
+"spiritualistic manifestations." Dr. Kane, whose heart had never before
+been touched, at once succumbed to the sweet charm of this erratic child,
+and conceived the romantic idea of removing her from the life she then was
+leading, educating her and marrying her. The project, when it became
+known, awakened the bitter hostility of his friends, and from this
+hostility, the unfortunate separation between them which it caused, and
+Dr. Kane's untimely death, all of the sorrow that afterwards engulfed her
+life and deprived her of the ambition for a nobler career, directly
+sprang.
+
+Margaret was but thirteen years old when Dr. Kane first saw her. A
+friendly hand[4] has thus traced her portrait:
+
+"Her beauty was of that delicate kind which grows on the heart, rather
+than captivates the sense at a glance; she possessed in a high degree that
+retiring modesty which shuns rather than seeks admiration. The position in
+which she was placed imposed on her unusual reserve and self-control, and
+an ordinary observer might not have seen in her aught to make a sudden
+impression. But there was more than beauty in the charm about her
+discerned by the penetrating eyes of her new acquaintance. The winning
+grace of her modest demeanor, and the native refinement apparent in every
+look and movement, word and tone, were evidences of a nature enriched with
+all the qualities that dignify and adorn womanhood; of a soul far above
+her present calling, and those who surrounded her. To appreciate her real
+superiority, her age and the circumstances must be considered. She was yet
+a little child--untutored, except in the elements of instruction to be
+gained in country district schools, when it was discovered that she
+possessed a mysterious power,[5] for which no science or theory could
+account. This brought her at once into notoriety and gathered around her
+those who had a fancy for the supernatural, and who loved to excite the
+wonder of strangers. Most little girls would have been spoiled by that
+kind of attention. The endurance of it without having her head turned,
+argued rare delicacy, simplicity and firmness of character. After
+exhibitions given in different cities, to find herself an object of public
+attention, and of flattering notice from persons of distinction, would
+naturally please the vanity of a beautiful young girl; and it would not be
+surprising if a degree of self-conceit were engendered. But Margaret was
+not vain, and could not be made self-conceited. If she had any
+consciousness of her exquisite loveliness,--if it pleased her to possess
+pretty dresses and ornaments--her delight was that of a happy child taking
+pleasure in beautiful things, without reference to any effect they might
+enable her to produce. Perhaps no young girl ever lived more free from the
+least idea of coquetry or conquest. She heeded not the expressions of
+admiration that reached her ear so frequently. She had seen enough of the
+world at this time to be aware of the advantages of a superior education,
+and it was the most ardent wish of her heart to make herself a
+well-educated woman."
+
+Margaret showed a disposition to devote herself with great industry to the
+acquirement of knowledge. In fact, at her first meeting with Dr. Kane, he
+found her conning over a French exercise in an interval of the public
+receptions which were given by herself and her mother. Dr. Kane easily
+enlisted her thoughts in a better and higher career. The deception which
+was required of her already appeared in something of its true light to her
+young mind, and she was restless under its abhorrent shackles. Dr. Kane's
+interest in her was certainly pure and elevated, and it led him to gloomy
+apprehensions of the fate of so fair, yet so misguided, a creature. He
+wrote in verse a prophecy that she would "live and die forlorn." There
+have been many times when the latter part of this warning seemed most
+likely to come true; and that, doubtless, would have been her fate had she
+not found in a final renunciation of her past, a solace to her heart for
+the lack of that falsely won prosperity which had been hers during but
+brief intervals.
+
+Dr. Kane was but an indifferent versifier; but some of the trifles in
+rhyme which he addressed to Margaret may well illustrate certain facts
+that I shall state at length hereafter. One day, he sent her "Thoughts
+that Ought to Be Those of Maggie Fox," the first refrain of which is as
+follows:
+
+  "Dreary, dreary, dreary,
+    Passes life away,
+  Dreary, dreary, dreary,
+    The day
+  Glides on, and _weary
+    Is my hypocrisy_."
+
+At the close of the second stanza were these lines:
+
+  "Happy as the hopes
+    Which filled my trusting heart,
+  Before I knew a sinful wish
+    Or learned a _sinful art_."
+
+Again:
+
+             "So long this secret have I kept
+                I can't forswear it now.
+              It festers in my bosom,
+                It cankers in my heart,
+  _Thrice cursed is the slave fast chained
+              To a deceitful art_!"
+
+And last:
+
+  "Then the maiden knelt and prayed:
+      'Father, my anguish see;
+  Oh, give me but one trusting hope
+    Whose heart will shelter me;
+  One trusting love to share my griefs,
+    To snatch me from a life forlorn;
+  That I may never, never, never,
+    Thus endlessly from night to morn,
+        Say that _my life is dreary
+        With its hypocrisy_!'"
+
+Among the first words that Dr. Kane spoke to Margaret were these: "This is
+no life for you, my child." As their reciprocal attraction grew stronger,
+he bent all of his deep influence over her in one direction, to effect
+once and for all her release from the fatal snare of deceit that fate had
+cast about her. Only a few weeks later we find him writing her a note from
+New York, in which he says:
+
+"Look at the _Herald_ of this morning. There is an account of a suicide
+which causes some excitement. Your sister's[6] name is mentioned in the
+inquest of the coroner. Oh, how much I wish that you would quit _this life
+of dreary sameness and unsuspected deceit_. We live in this world only for
+the good and noble. How crushing it must be to occupy with them a position
+of ambiguous respect!"
+
+Dr. Kane, a short time afterwards, described Maggie as follows:
+
+"But it is that strange mixture of child and woman, of simplicity and
+cunning, of passionate impulse and extreme self-control, that has made you
+a curious study. Maggie, you are very pretty, very childlike, very
+deceitful, but to me as readable as my grandmother's Bible."
+
+"And again he said: 'When I think of you, dear darling, _wasting your time
+and youth and conscience for a few paltry dollars_, and think of the
+crowds who come nightly to hear of the wild stories of the frigid North, I
+sometimes feel that we are not so far removed after all. My brain and your
+body are each the sources of attraction, and I confess that there is not
+so much difference.'"
+
+Never for an instant did the manly and robust intellect of Dr. Kane stoop
+to the level of even a partial belief in the pretended wonders of
+"Spiritualism." The allusions made to it in his letters, when not grave or
+indignant, are full of a certain contemptuous playfulness, well calculated
+to reprove the conscious deceitfulness practised by the childish Maggie,
+while not offending the natural pride which was yet apart of her
+imperfectly formed character. When the doctor was in Boston, he wrote to
+her sister Katie:
+
+"Well, now for talk. Boston is a funny place, and 'the spirits' have
+friends here. You would be surprised if I told you what I have heard. * * *
+There are some things that I have seen which I think would pain you.
+Maggie would only laugh at them; but with me it gave cause for sadness. I
+saw a young man with a fine forehead and expressive face, but a
+countenance deeply tinged with melancholy, seize the hand of this
+'medium,' whose name--as I never tell other's secrets--I cannot tell you.
+He begged her to answer a question which I could not hear. Instantly she
+rapped, and his face assumed a positive agony; the rapping continued; his
+pain increased; I leaned forward, feeling an utter detestation for the
+woman who could inflict such torment; but it was too late. A single rap
+came and he fell senseless in a fit. This I saw with my own eyes.
+
+"Now, Katie, although you and Maggie have never gone so far as this, yet
+circumstances must occur where you have to lacerate the feelings of other
+people. I know that you have a tender heart; but practice in anything
+hardens us. You do things now which you would never have dreamed of doing
+years ago; and there will come a time when you will be worse than Leah; a
+hardened woman, gathering around you _the victims of a delusion_. * * *
+The older you grow the more difficult it will be to liberate yourself from
+this thing. And can you look forward to a life unblessed by the
+affections, unsoothed by the consciousness of doing right! * * * _When
+your mother leaves this scene, can you and * * * Maggie be content to live
+that life of constant deceit?_"
+
+To Maggie, Dr. Kane wrote from the sincerest depths of his heart,
+recalling the first moment when he saw her, "a little Priestess, cunning
+in the mysteries of her temple, and weak in everything but the power with
+which she played her part. A sentiment almost of pity stole over his
+wordly heart as he saw through the disguise."
+
+And again: "Waddy[7] called on me to-day, as did Tallmadge;[8] I was kind
+to both for your sake. Waddy talked much about you. He said that he
+feared for you, and spoke long and well upon the dangers and temptations
+of your present life. I said little to him other than my convictions of
+your own and your sister's excellent character and '_pure simplicity_;'
+for thus, Mag, I always talk of you. And it pained me to find that others
+viewed your life as I did, and regarded you as occupying an ambiguous
+position. Depend upon it, Maggie, no right-minded gentleman--whether he be
+believer or sceptic--can regard your present life with approval. Let this,
+dear sweet, make you think over the offer of the one friend who would
+stretch out an arm to save you. Think wisely, dear darling, ere it be too
+late. * * *
+
+"Maggie, you cannot tell the sadness that comes over me when I think of
+you. What will become of you? you, the one being that I regard even before
+myself! * * *
+
+"If you really can make up your mind to abjure the spirits, to study and
+improve your mental and moral nature, it may be that a career of
+brightness will be open to you; and upon this chance, slender as it is, I
+offer, like a true friend, to guard and educate you. But, Mag, clouds, and
+darkness rest upon the execution of your good resolves; and I sometimes
+doubt whether you have the firmness of mind to carry them through."
+
+The author of "The Love-Life of Dr. Kane," says of this period:
+
+"Dr. Kane was very often in the habit of saying--as if with melancholy
+presentiment--'What would become of you if I should die? What would you
+do? I shudder at the thought of my death, on your account.'
+
+"In the buoyant confidence of youth, the poor girl could not then
+understand his fears. But _he_ knew that in separating her from
+Spiritualism he was isolating her from all her friends and associates, and
+depriving her of the only means she possessed of earning a livelihood. In
+compensation for the sacrifices required of her, he was giving her a hope
+only; a hope that might be blissfully realized, but might be sadly
+disappointed; and in the event of losing him, what must be her destiny!"
+
+Dr. Kane met with malignant opposition from Leah, Maggie's elder sister,
+in his efforts to detach her from the damning career into which she had
+been thrown. The "shekels" were then pouring in in great abundance at the
+séances, and this explains sufficiently the hostile attitude of the one
+person who was chiefly responsible for the ruin of her young life. Thus
+the doctor wrote to Maggie in New York:
+
+"Is the old house dreary to you? * * * Oh, Maggie, are you never tired of
+_this weary, weary sameness of continual deceit_? Are you thus to spend
+your days, doomed never to rise to better things?--you and that dear
+little open-minded sister Kate (for she, too, is still unversed in
+deception)--are you both to live on thus forever? You will never be happy
+if you do; for you are not, like Leah, able to exult and take pleasure in
+the simplicity of the poor, simple-hearted fools around you.
+
+"Do, then, Maggie, keep to your last promise. Show this to Katie, and urge
+her to keep to her resolution."[9]
+
+By this time, Maggie had pledged herself to her lover to abandon the
+"rappings" altogether; but they were both very cautious lest this
+resolution should be known to her elder sister. Maggie appears to have
+yielded to the influences around her, in spite of her respect and regard
+for the doctor, and once or twice to have lapsed back into the ways that
+he dreaded and abhorred. We find him then, writing from New York to
+Washington:
+
+"Don't rap for Mrs. Pierce.[10] Remember your promise to me. * * *
+
+"Begin again, dearest Maggie, and keep your word. No 'rapping' for Mrs.
+Pierce or ever more for any one. I, dear Mag, am your best, your truest,
+your only friend. What are they to my wishes? Oh, regard and love me, and
+listen to my words; and be very careful lest in an idle hour you lose my
+regard and your own respect."
+
+And later:
+
+"All last night did this good friend of yours think about you and your
+probable future.
+
+"I can see that this is one of the turning points of your life, and upon
+your own energy and decision now depend the success and happiness of your
+future career. Dear Maggie, think it over well and _do not be turned aside
+from what is right_ by the sincere but still misguided advice of others.
+* * * But remember, Maggie, that all this will not last. * * * What will
+it be when, looking back upon * * * misspent and dreary years, you feel
+that there have been no acts really acceptable to your Maker, and that for
+the years ahead, all will be sorrow, sameness and disgust! * * *
+
+"Why, you know that sometimes, even now, when Leah is cross, or the
+company coarse and vulgar, or the day tiresome, or yourself out of sorts,
+that low spirits and disgust come over you and you long like a bird to
+spread your wings and fly away from it all."
+
+Very soon afterwards, Dr. Kane wrote:
+
+"At present, you have nothing to look forward to, nothing to hope for.
+Your life is one constant round of idle excitement. Can your mother, who
+is an excellent woman, look upon you, a girl of thirteen, as doomed all
+your life to live surrounded by such as now surround you, _deprived of all
+the blessings of home and love and even self-respect_?"
+
+Dr. Kane, looking upon Margaret as his future wife, was exceedingly
+anxious that the true explanation of the "rappings," the fact that they
+were entirely fraudulent, should never be discovered. He hoped that
+Spiritualism would have but an ephemeral existence, and that when once it
+had died out, the public would so far forget the persons who originated
+it, that it would cease to associate with them the woman who would then
+bear his name. So he wrote in this vein to Maggie:
+
+"You know I am nervous about the 'rappings.' I believe the only thing I
+ever was afraid of was this confounded thing being found out. I would not
+know it myself for ten thousand dollars."
+
+How both Margaret and Dr. Kane regarded the elder sister may be judged
+from this sentence, written by the latter at this time: "Be careful not to
+mention me before the Tigress."
+
+At last the object dearest to Dr. Kane's heart seemed to be drawing near
+to its accomplishment. He says: "Your kind promise 'solemnly never to rap
+again' so pleases me, that I cannot help thanking you. Adhere to that, and
+you will be a dear, good, happy girl." * * *
+
+Maggie went to school at Crookville, near Chester, Pennsylvania, and was
+in charge of Dr. Kane's aunt, Mrs. Leiper, who resided near the house
+where Maggie lodged. Just prior to this, Dr. Kane wrote as follows:
+
+"_Never do wrong any more; for if now 'the spirits move' it will be a
+breach of faith._ From this moment, our compact begins."
+
+After Dr. Kane had reached the Arctic seas, I find this passage at the end
+of a long letter, full of solicitude and noble counsel about the education
+of his future wife: "One final wish--the only thing like restraint that
+your true friend can find it in his heart to utter: See little of Leah,
+and never sleep within her house."
+
+For a short time, on his return from his second Arctic voyage, Dr. Kane
+allowed himself to be swayed by interest and the vehement efforts of his
+relatives, so far as to require from Margaret a written declaration that
+they had never been engaged, and that she had no claim whatever upon his
+hand in matrimony. There was a quick reaction, however, and the old
+relations were renewed. One who wrote of these facts said: "Amid all his
+sorrow, one fear seemed to harass him perpetually--that Miss Fox might be
+induced to return to the professional life she had abandoned years ago for
+his sake. She was surrounded by spiritualists." * * *
+
+In his letters to her, Dr. Kane still harped upon the one anxiety that
+continually possessed him. He says: "_Do avoid 'spirits.' I cannot bear to
+think of you as engaged in a course of wickedness and deception._ * * *
+Pardon my saying so; but is it not deceit even to listen when others are
+deceived? * * * In childhood it was a mere indiscretion; but what will it
+be when hard age wears its wrinkles into you, and like Leah you grow old!
+Dear Maggie, I could cry to think of it. * * * A time will come when you
+will see the real ghost of memory--an awful specter!"
+
+And again he wrote: "_Maggie, I have but one thought_, how to make you
+happier; _how to withdraw you from deception; from a course of sin and
+future punishment, the dark shadow of which hung over you like the wing of
+a vampire_."
+
+Then, as he claimed her more and more openly as his own, "he would not
+permit her," says the writer already quoted, "even to witness any
+spiritual manifestations, nor to remain in the room when the subject was
+discussed. * * * 'You never shall be brought in contact with such things
+again,' he would say."
+
+The ending of this very sad tale of love, which throws a peculiar light
+athwart the colder theme of this volume, was bitterly tragic. A secret
+marriage under the common law was entered into, and Dr. Kane, whose health
+was shattered never to be mended, went first to Europe and then to Cuba to
+die. Margaret and her mother were to join him at Havana, but ere their
+departure from New York he was already a corpse.
+
+And so, a noble and generous, if sometimes faltering heart, ceased to
+beat, and a gentle creature, who at last had learned to love as much as
+she had honored him, was on the shores of that deep sea of infamy against
+which, had he only lived, he would surely have shielded her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+FROM SHADOW TO LIGHT.
+
+
+More than thirty years after this sorrowful event, Margaret Fox Kane, in
+reviewing the past, attributes to the evil of Spiritualism all the
+ill-fortune which afterwards befell her.
+
+For fourteen years she wore the weeds of mourning for his sake; but when
+at last they were torn from her by a friendly, though unwise hand, she
+drifted again, through the various phases of a worldly and dissipated
+life, to that very vocation of dreary mercenary deceit which he had
+predicted would be her lot. She was never happy afterwards, however, and
+he who possesses any true sensibility must at least pity, quite as much as
+he may condemn her unfortunate destiny, when he reads the sad avowals
+which are made in this volume.
+
+Mrs. Kane says at the present day:
+
+"From the very first of our intimate acquaintance, Dr. Kane knew that the
+'rappings' which I practiced were fraudulent. Of course, he was too
+keen-sighted intellectually, too sensible, ever to have believed them
+genuine for a single instant; and I simply obeyed the impulse of my candid
+regard for him, when the knowledge of his devotion grew upon me, and
+confided to him the whole secret of the fraud, together with my increasing
+repugnance to the life I was leading. He hated it, he despised it, he
+abhorred it, and he taught me from the beginning the same sentiment. We
+had to combat with the sordid interest of others. Whatever good he
+accomplished for me, was done against the set purpose of Leah.
+
+"I do not exaggerate in any way when I say that I have feared that woman
+all my life. Remember, she is twenty-three years older than I am. Her
+influence over both myself and my sister Kate began when we were infants.
+Katie, even to this day, acknowledges some sinister influence about her
+sister Leah, even if she but chance to meet her in the street. It is a
+mixture of terrorism and cajolery.
+
+"For years I have had the shame of this vile thing before me. All my life,
+it has made me miserable. It is a load which I now throw off with a free
+heart and a great and thrilling sense of relief.
+
+"You must know that it was a dark and hateful influence that kept me aloof
+from Dr. Kane so long, when he declared his true love for me, over and
+over again, and desired to rescue me from the evil by which I was
+surrounded. I gave him my whole heart in return, though at that time I did
+not know how deep and how tender was my love for him.
+
+"It is this same baleful influence which has been the nightmare of my
+existence. Every morning of my life on awaking, I have had this horrid
+thought before me. And even in those younger days I would brood and brood
+over it, and Dr. Kane would often say to me:
+
+"'Maggie, I see the vampire is hovering over you still.'
+
+"Our whole family was at that time under bondage, as it were, to Ann Leah
+Brown. She ruled over us as with a rod of iron.
+
+"All through this dreadful life--from the time when I first realized its
+enormity--I protested against it. Dr. Kane, after our marriage, would
+never permit me to allude to my old career--he wanted me to forget it. He
+hated its publicity.
+
+"But when I was poor after his death, I was driven back to it. I have told
+my sister Leah over and again: 'Now that you are rich, why don't you save
+your soul?' But she would only fly into a passion. The truth is that
+nothing can excuse the work she has done. She entered upon it at the age
+of judgment and experience, fully aware of its falsity and evil effect.
+She knows that the world cannot forgive her, and I have no hope that she
+will ever confess her sin, or offer an atonement for it.
+
+"What can I add to the revelations of those letters? They are proofs of
+the mutual knowledge of Dr. Kane and myself that the 'spiritual' rappings
+were fraud, and nothing but fraud. And even if he had not been told of the
+fact by myself, his opportunities of observation in our household were
+unequaled by any granted to others, and his verdict would have been in any
+case, therefore, almost as authoritative.
+
+"What fools are they who still pretend to believe against all this
+evidence!
+
+"It would hardly seem necessary that I should denounce Spiritualism after
+all that others have said against it.
+
+"I have never in my life professed to be a spiritualist, and I have never
+believed in Spiritualism, although I have seen it in all its phases, some
+of which I am unable to produce myself.
+
+"Even when I was compelled to go back to the 'rappings' for a livelihood,
+and when I charged the most exorbitant fees, so that as few people as
+possible might be deceived, I had on my cards an emphatic disclaimer of
+any occult inspiration."
+
+Mrs. Kane at this point showed the following on the back of one of her
+cards:
+
+  MRS. KANE DOES NOT CLAIM
+  ANY SPIRIT POWER; BUT PEOPLE
+  MUST JUDGE FOR THEMSELVES.
+
+"My poor father and mother," she continued, "both knew before their death
+that all that we had practised for so many years was a fraud and a
+deception. Mother was greatly troubled about it, and she turned to the
+church for comfort. She used to say to us:
+
+"'Oh, my dear children, I do hope that you will get out of this sort of
+life soon.'
+
+"Peace be unto her!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The evil effects of Spiritualism upon the moral and mental condition of
+its followers is the deepest stain upon its history. The wrecks of
+thousands of intellects are monuments to its heartless fraud and malign
+influence.
+
+Mrs. Kane has often said that if in her late years she had wholly
+submitted herself to its foolish vagaries and its base temptations, she
+would undoubtedly be now a raving maniac.
+
+There are many who, if they would but speak truly, could declare that ruin
+of conscience, brain and health, has resulted either from their willing
+faith in flimsy illusions or their weak connivance in puerile deception.
+
+I have touched but little upon the unclean side of Spiritualism. Thousands
+upon thousands of virtuous men and women entertain its theory or hold to
+its faith. But the manipulators of the supernatural machinery, the members
+of the inner circle, the prestidigitateurs and clumsy magicians, who seek
+to make simpletons of mankind, I now accuse of the grossest practices and
+abominations, the loosest social ideas, the most utter absence of
+principle that has been exhibited by any one set of people in the
+nineteenth century.
+
+They are wholly corrupt, and there is no good in them.
+
+If Spiritualism in any form survives the blow now given it by Margaret and
+Catherine Fox, who were its creators, it will only be because of the
+veiled licentiousness introduced into it by those who have enlarged upon
+its original plan.
+
+This licentiousness, like the bruised serpent, will not down, but still
+will lift its head, and lurk amid deepest shadows.
+
+Spiritualism, however, cannot again deceive the world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And it is written:
+
+"The dead shall not return; nor any that go down into Hell!"
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+  ABJURATION by Margaret Fox Kane of Spiritualism at the Academy of Music,
+      New York, 65, 74.
+
+  ADMISSIONS of Mrs. Leah Fox Fish regarding the results of the Buffalo
+      medical investigation, 140, 144.
+
+  AGASSIZ (Professor) investigates Spiritualism, 147.
+
+  ANTICS of the Fox Children at Hydesville near Rochester, 83, 87, 89, 96.
+
+  ATTRACTIONS of the younger Fox Sisters, 129.
+
+  AUDACITY (Imbecile) of spiritualistic imposters, 146.
+  --(Supreme) of fraud, 150.
+
+  AUTHORIZATION of the publication of this work by Margaret Fox Kane and
+      Catherine Fox Jencken, 7.
+
+
+  "BABY mediumship"
+  --How the trick was done with the child of Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken,
+      160.
+
+  BELIEF in Spiritualism,
+  --Mrs. Kane never pretended to any, 167, 181, 236.
+  --John D. Fox never had any, 99.
+
+  "BOBBING" of apples on the floor in the Hydesville house, 84, 90, 95.
+
+  BOOMERANGS (Spiritualistic), 131.
+
+  BROWN (Mrs. Ann Leah Fox),
+  --Malignant opposition to Dr. Kane's efforts to detach her sister Maggie
+      from Spiritualism, 222, 232.
+  --Exulting in deception, 223.
+  --Maggie warned against her by Dr. Kane, 227.
+  --Sinister influence over her sisters, 232.
+
+  "BUFFALO Doctors"
+  --Their investigation of the "rappings," 131.
+  --Their correct theory, but wrong hypothesis, 131.
+  --How their investigation if further pursued, would have led to the
+      truth, 133.
+
+
+  "CHARLES Ceri"
+  --The "spirit of Mr. Seybert" mistakes the name of Mr. Sellers, of the
+      "Seybert Commission," 171.
+
+  CLAIMS of Spiritualism as set forth in petition to Congress, 1854, 151,
+      152.
+
+  COMMITTEES of tools and accomplices, 121.
+
+  CONDEMNATION of Spiritualism
+  --The substantial effect of the report of Harvard professors on the
+      tests in Boston, 1857, 149.
+
+  CONCERTED signals used in the early séances, 127.
+
+  CONSPICUOUS persons interested in the "Fox Sisters," 129.
+
+  CONTACT of person while producing the "raps," 90, 138.
+
+  CORRUPT practices in secret spiritualistic circles, 50, 64, 237.
+
+  COVENTRY (Dr. C. B.), one of the Buffalo investigators, 132.
+
+  CROOKVILLE, near Philadelphia--Maggie Fox goes to school there, 226.
+
+
+  DEAD (The) do not return, 37, 238.
+
+  DEATH of Dr. Kane, 37.
+
+  DERANGEMENT of mental faculties the cause of the prevalence of the
+      spiritualistic delusion, 154.
+  --Resulting from Spiritualism, 166.
+
+  DISGUST (Dr. Kane's) at spiritualistic circles, 225, 229.
+  --(Mrs. Kane's) at the baser spiritualistic practices, 29, 30.
+
+  DISS De Bar (Madam)
+  --Mrs. Kane's abhorrence of her, 29.
+  --Daniel Underhill pronounces her a fraud, 43.
+
+
+  EARLY sorcery the prototype of modern Spiritualism, 150.
+
+  EDUCATION (Defective) the cause of the prevalence of the spiritualistic
+      delusion, 154.
+
+  ELEVATION
+  --Failure of Mrs. Kane to produce "rappings" when standing upon a
+      lounge, a cushioned chair or a step-ladder, 195.
+
+  EXPOSURE, Poetic justice of the, 13.
+  --Mrs. Kane's first public intimation of intended, 29, 30.
+  --Details of Mrs. Kane's, 32, 35, 37, 65, 77.
+  --Of Spiritualism by the Guernillas, 199.
+
+
+  FEAR of the Fox Sisters of their sister, Leah, 232.
+
+  FISH (Ann Leah Fox) First to conceive the idea of profiting by the
+      "rappings," 102.
+  --Learns to "rap" from the little children, 103.
+  --Using the little girls, Maggie and Katie, for her purposes, 123.
+  --Challenges to the "Buffalo doctors," 139.
+
+  FISH (Lizzie)
+  --Protesting against her mother's hypocrisy and deception, 96, 128.
+
+  FLINT (Dr. Austin), one of the Buffalo investigators, 132.
+
+  FOOT (Movement of the) in producing "rappings," 38, 103, 143.
+  --Detected by a member of the "Seybert Commission," 194.
+  --"Rappings" not heard when held, but heard again when released, 143.
+
+  FORGED testimony, 91.
+
+  FOX (Catherine)
+  --First to discover that "raps" could be produced with the joints, 90.
+
+  FOX (David S.)
+  --First to suggest use of the alphabet in the so-called "spirit
+      messages," 115.
+  --Dupe or accomplice of Leah, 115.
+
+  FOX (John D.)
+  --Never a believer in Spiritualism, 99.
+
+  FOX (Mrs. Margaret)
+  --An honest fanatic, deceived by her children, 36, 93.
+  --Disabused at the last, 236.
+
+  FOX (Maggie)
+  --Her beauty at thirteen years, 210.
+  --Petty devilment in childhood, 83.
+  --Sent to school at Crookville, Pa., by Dr. Kane, 226.
+  --Protests all through her earlier life against "spiritualistic"
+      deception, 234.
+
+  FOX (Maria), 82.
+
+  FULCRUM, necessary for the limb in order to produce sound by the action
+      of the joints, 142.
+
+  FURNESS (Horace Howard), acting chairman of the "Seybert Commission"
+  --Letter to Mrs. Kane, 169.
+  --Explanation of her refusal to continue the séances with the
+      Commission, 204.
+
+  FRAUD.
+  --Dante's image of, 17.
+  --Origin of the, 81.
+  --Development of the, 105.
+  --Various forms of the, 201.
+
+  FRAUDULENT
+  --The "mediumship" of Mrs. Jencken's baby, "Ferdie," 160.
+
+
+  GARBLED testimony, 90, 94.
+
+  "GOD has not ordered it," 25, 37.
+
+  GOWNS (Long) put on the younger Fox girls on their first public
+      appearance, to conceal manner of producing "raps," 123.
+
+  GREELEY (Horace)
+  --Aids Katie, 19, 58, 129.
+  --Influence upon her life, 129.
+
+  GUERNILLAS (The)
+  --Exposure of Spiritualism, 199.
+
+
+  "HERALD" (The N. Y.), 25, 28, 29, 32, 39, 42, 46, 62.
+
+  HISTORY of the "rappings," 79.
+
+  HARVARD professors investigate Spiritualism, 147.
+
+  HUMBUG (Spiritualism a,) according to Mrs. Kate Fox Jencken, 57.
+
+  HYDESVILLE, N. Y.
+  --When mysterious sounds were first heard in John D. Fox's house, 81.
+  --Digging in the creek, 95.
+  --Bones of a horse found, 118.
+  --Digging in the cellar, 117.
+  --Alleged finding of human bones, unconfirmed by any evidence, 117.
+  --House said to be haunted--an afterthought, 101.
+  --The "spirits" when asked tentatively say a murder was committed in the
+      house and mention the name of the murderer, 119.
+
+  HYPOCRISY of professional spiritualists, 165.
+  --Dr. Kane characterizes, 214, 215.
+
+
+  INQUISITIVENESS as to spiritualistic methods prevents the "spirits" from
+      acting, 146.
+
+  INSULATION
+  --Experiments with Mrs. Kane while standing on glass tumblers, 185.
+  --The results negative, 188.
+  --Partial success when placed near a sideboard and wall, 189, 192.
+
+  INVESTIGATION
+  --First farcical. 122, 124.
+  --By the "Buffalo doctors," 131, 134.
+  --By "Buffalo doctors" again, 131.
+  --By "Seybert Commission," 170.
+  --By Harvard professors and others, 147.
+
+
+  JENCKEN (Mrs. Catherine Fox) denounces Spiritualism, 62, 64.
+
+  JOINTS of the fingers.
+  --Children try to imitate sounds with them, 87.
+
+  JOINT of the knee used in the production of "raps," 133.
+
+  JOINTS of the toes used in producing the famous "rappings" of the Fox
+      sisters, 139, 145.
+
+  JUGGLERY
+  --Spiritualists attribute it to "mediumship," 198.
+  --Confess that "spiritualistic" effects are produced in the same way,
+      199.
+  --Older and more skillful than Spiritualism so-called, 150, 154.
+
+
+  KANE (Dr. Elisha Kent)
+  --First meeting with Maggie Fox, 209.
+  --Influence upon her life, 129.
+  --Effect of his death on her career, 230, 231.
+  --Character of his interest in her, 213.
+  --Gloomy foresight, 213.
+  --Efforts to save her from a life of fraud, &c., 129, 228.
+  --Characterizes the deceit and hypocrisy of "mediumship," 214, 215, 216,
+      228.
+  --Never believed in a single pretense of Spiritualism, 217, 232.
+  --Knew from their first acquaintance that the "rappings" were
+      fraudulent, 232.
+  --Repeatedly exacts her promise not to have anything more to do with
+      Spiritualism, 223, 226.
+  --Solicitude lest she return to the practice of Spiritualism, 228.
+  --Fear lest the source of the "rappings" be discovered, 226.
+  --Places her at school, 226.
+  --Engagement broken off and renewed, 227.
+  --Secret marriage with her, 229.
+  --Death at Havana, 229.
+
+  KNEES
+  --Seized by investigators to detect movement while "rappings" being
+      produced, 143.
+  --When so seized, sounds arrested, and when released, renewed, 143.
+
+
+  LEE (Dr. Charles A.), one of the Buffalo investigators, 132.
+
+  LETTER of Mrs. Kane first publicly denouncing Spiritualism, 30.
+
+  LICENTIOUSNESS under the cloak of Spiritualism, 237, 238.
+
+
+  "MEDIUMS" (Well-known)
+  --How they received the exposé, 45, 46.
+
+  "MEDIUMSHIP"
+  --Mrs. Kane driven back to it, 37.
+
+  MESSAGES (Written)
+  --How produced by Mrs. Kane, 172, 196.
+
+  MESSAGES ("Spirit")
+  --Internal evidence sufficient to prove their falsity, 162.
+
+  MERCENARY campaign
+  --Begins in Rochester, 121, 126.
+  --Tour of principal cities, 212, 222.
+
+  MOVEMENT of knees of "medium" noted by Dr. Lee while "raps" were heard,
+      143.
+
+
+  ORIGIN of the fraud, 81, 83, 87, 92.
+
+
+  PERSECUTION of Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken and her children by
+      spiritualistic enemies, 60.
+
+  PROPHECY of Dr. Kane concerning the future of Maggie Fox, 213.
+
+  PROMISES of Maggie Fox to Dr. Kane never to "rap" any more, 223, 226.
+
+  PRESIDENT Pierce's wife and Maggie Fox, 223.
+
+  PROFESSION of spiritualistic belief
+  --Mrs. Kane expressly disclaims it, 181, 234.
+
+
+  "RAPS"
+  --Failure to "throw" them to different parts of a room, 184.
+  --Always heard near the spot where "medium" is stationed, 136, 172, 173.
+  --Effort of the will in producing them apparent, 136.
+  --Muscular contractions their possible cause, 137.
+  --Not produced while "mediums" in constrained position, 142.
+  --Not produced while feet of "mediums" are prevented from touching
+      sonorous substances, 185.
+  --Vibrations in foot of Mrs. Kane, felt by Mr. Sellers of the "Seybert
+      Commission," 194.
+  --Their physiological origin, 202, 203.
+
+  REPENTANCE
+  --Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken, 58, 59.
+  --Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane, 233.
+
+  REPORTS on investigations of "rappings," 134, 141, 149, 173.
+
+  ROCHESTER
+  --Outlandish doings told by Mrs. Underhill, 106, 113.
+  --Mrs. Kane gives the true explanation of them, 112.
+  --First public appearances of the Fox Sisters, 121.
+
+
+  SENATE ridicules Spiritualism in debate, 159.
+
+  SLADE (Henry) admits that certain magicians produce their effects in the
+      same way that he does, 199.
+
+  SEYBERT (Henry)
+  --Crazed by Spiritualism, 166.
+  --Mrs. Kane enters the "Spiritual Mansion," 164.
+  --She draws the line at the Apostles and the Angel Gabriel, 166.
+  --His legacy for the investigation of Spiritualism, 167.
+  --His "spirit" mistakes the identity of a member of the "Seybert
+      Commission" and calls him by a queer name, 171.
+  --Though he knew no Latin in the flesh, his "spirit" is made to write
+      Latin, 197.
+
+  "SEYBERT Commission" (The)
+  --Its origin and labors, 167.
+  --Experiments with Mrs. Kane, 169.
+  --Its conclusions regarding the "rappings," 168, 201.
+  --On other phases of Spiritualism, 201.
+
+  SPIRITUALISM
+  --Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken says it is the greatest curse the world has
+      ever known, 56.
+
+  SUPERSTITION
+  --Traditions in the Fox family about queer happenings, 119.
+
+
+  UNDERHILL (Ann Leah)
+  --Her narrative proven false, 38.
+  --Sinister influence over her younger sisters, 233.
+
+
+  VERDICT (The unalterable), 201.
+
+  VIBRATION of articles when "medium's" body is in contact with them while
+      producing raps, 138, 145.
+
+
+  WARNINGS of Dr. Kane to Maggie and Katie Fox against a life of
+      deception, 216, 219, 222, 225, 228, 229.
+  --Against intercourse with her sister, Leah, 227.
+
+
+FINIS.
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+[1] Dr. Kane and Horace Greeley.
+
+[2] It was erroneously stated that the boys were immediately sent back to
+Europe.
+
+[3] "The Seybert Commission on Spiritualism," J. B. Lippincott Company,
+Philadelphia, 1887. The author is under obligations to the publishers of
+this volume, for material which he has taken from it.
+
+[4] The author of "The Love-Life of Dr. Kane;" published by Carleton,
+1865, New York.
+
+[5] This form of expression was here used because the author of "The
+Love-Life," while not a believer in Spiritualism, did not wish to imply in
+a work that had Mrs. Kane's personal sanction, the slightest doubt of the
+sincerity of her professions or of her claims as a "medium."
+
+[6] Leah.
+
+[7] General Waddy Thompson.
+
+[8] Ex-Governor Tallmadge.
+
+[9] Katie, as well as her sister, had promised to abjure the "spirits,"
+and she had also said that she would go to live with Maggie on the
+latter's marriage with Dr. Kane.
+
+[10] The wife of the President of the United States.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+Punctuation has been corrected without note.
+
+The following misprints have been corrected:
+  "seances" standardized to "séances" (page 45)
+  "intrument" corrected to "instrument" (page 62)
+  "arnold In" corrected to "Arnold in" (page 67)
+  "prepetrating" corrected to "perpetrating" (page 75)
+  "affimative" corrected to "affirmative" (page 94)
+  "siezing" corrected to "seizing" (page 143)
+  "significent" corrected to "significant" (page 144)
+  "herditary" corrected to "hereditary" (page 160)
+  "seances" standardized to "séances" (page 170)
+  "seance" standardized to "séance" (page 174)
+  "Spirititualism" corrected to "Spiritualism" (page 217)
+
+Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and
+hyphenation have been retained from the original.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Death-Blow to Spiritualism, by 
+Reuben Briggs Davenport
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Death-Blow to Spiritualism, by 
+Reuben Briggs Davenport
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Death-Blow to Spiritualism
+       Being the True Story of the Fox Sisters
+
+Author: Reuben Briggs Davenport
+
+Release Date: August 23, 2010 [EBook #33506]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEATH-BLOW TO SPIRITUALISM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">0807. THE DEATH BLOW TO SPIRITUALISM.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Being the true story of the Fox sisters, as revealed by authority of Margaret<br />
+Fox Kane and Catherine Fox Jencken. Written by R. B. Davenport. 147 pages.<br />
+Deathblow to Spiritualism. R. B. Davenport<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>1.00</p>
+
+<p class="center">OCT. 1897. ISSUED MONTHLY. $5.00 PER YEAR.<br />
+ENTERED AT THE NEW YORK POST OFFICE AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>THE<br />DEATH-BLOW<br />TO<br />SPIRITUALISM:</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">BEING<br />THE TRUE STORY OF THE FOX SISTERS, AS REVEALED<br />
+BY AUTHORITY OF MARGARET FOX<br />KANE AND CATHERINE FOX JENCKEN.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/line.png" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center">BY<br />REUBEN BRIGGS DAVENPORT.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/title.png" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center">NEW YORK:<br /><i>G. W. Dillingham Co., Publishers.</i><br />MDCCCXCVII.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1888.<br /><small>BY</small><br />
+<span class="smcap">Reuben Briggs Davenport.</span><br />[<i>All Rights Reserved.</i>]</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">TO<br />MRS. HESTER S. DWINELLE.</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Alonso.</span> This is as strange a maze as ere men trod,</span><br />
+And there is in this business more than nature<br />
+Was ever conduct of: some oracle<br />
+Must rectify our knowledge.<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Prospero.</span>&nbsp; &nbsp;  Sir, my liege,</span><br />
+Do not infest your mind with beating on<br />
+The strangeness of this business: at picked leisure,<br />
+Which shall be shortly, single I&#8217;ll resolve you<br />
+(Which to you shall seem probable) of every<br />
+These happen&#8217;d accidents: till when be cheerful,<br />
+And think of each thing well.&mdash;Come hither, spirit;<br />
+Set Caliban and his companions free:<br />
+<i>Untie the spell.</i>&#8221;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span>&mdash;<i>The Tempest.</i></span></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<div class="note">
+<p>This book has been written in extreme haste. It does not pretend to
+literary style. But it pretends to absolute truthfulness and a reverent
+regard for justice.</p>
+
+<p>Its sole value is its character as a contribution to the real history of
+Spiritualism. As such, it is unquestionably of great importance, greater
+even than any work of the kind that has been published since the beginning
+of modern Spiritualism.</p>
+
+<p>It is, in fact, what its title sets forth&mdash;&#8220;<span class="smcap">The DEATH-BLOW to
+SPIRITUALISM</span>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>No one who does not love illusion for illusion&#8217;s sake&mdash;better, in other
+words, than he loves the truth&mdash;can, after reading this volume, remain a
+follower of Spiritualism and its hypocritical apostles.</p>
+
+<p>The full authorization of Mrs. <span class="smcap">Margaret Fox Kane</span> and Mrs. <span class="smcap">Catherine Fox
+Jencken</span> for the publication of this work will be found on the next to the
+following page.</p>
+
+<p><i>29th October, 1888.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/portraits.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="note">
+<p>We hereby approve of Mr. Reuben B. Davenport&#8217;s design to write a true
+account of the origin of Spiritualism and of our connection therewith, and
+we authorize him to make proper use of all data and material that we furnish him.</p>
+
+<p>New York, 15th Oct., 1888.</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/auth.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#I_INTRODUCTION">I. INTRODUCTION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>Poetic Justice of the Exposure</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#II_RENUNCIATION">II. RENUNCIATION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Chapter.</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="right">Page</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">I.</td><td>&#8220;God Has Not Ordered It.&#8221;</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">II.</td><td>The Discomfited Enemy.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">III.</td><td>A Second Blow.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">IV.</td><td>The Hand of the Persecutor.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">V.</td><td>Solemn Abjuration.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#III_HISTORY">III. HISTORY.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VI.</td><td>Origin of the Fraud.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VII.</td><td>Garbled and Distorted Testimony</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>VIII.</td><td>Development of the Fraud</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">IX.</td><td>The Mercenary Campaign.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">X.</td><td>Spiritualistic Boomerangs.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XI.</td><td>The Supreme Audacity of Fraud.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XII.</td><td>A Scientific Jury.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XIII.</td><td>The Unalterable Verdict.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#IV_REPENTANCE">IV. REPENTANCE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XIV.</td><td>The Heart Pleads for the Soul.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XV.</td><td>From Shadow to Light.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td><span class="smcap">Index.</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><a name="I_INTRODUCTION" id="I_INTRODUCTION"></a>I. INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+<h3>POETIC JUSTICE OF THE EXPOSURE.</h3>
+
+<p><br />That the inventors of an infamous fraud should deal to it its death-blow,
+is the poetic justice of fate.</p>
+
+<p>Over the creature, the creator has power of life and death.</p>
+
+<p>The creators of Spiritualism abjure its infamy.</p>
+
+<p>They decree its death.</p>
+
+<p>They condemn it to final destruction.</p>
+
+<p>They fasten upon those who continue to practice it the obloquy of history,
+and the scorn of mankind for all time to come.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret and Catharine Fox, the youngest of three sisters, were the first
+to produce &#8220;spiritualistic manifestations.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>They are now the most earnest in denunciation of those impostures; the
+most eager to dissipate the foolish belief of thousands in the flimsiest
+system of deception that was ever cloaked with the hypocrisy of so-called
+religion.</p>
+
+<p>When, as by accident, they discovered a method of deceiving those around
+them by means of mysterious noises, they were but little children,
+innocent of the thought of wrong, ignorant of the world and the world&#8217;s
+guile, and imagining only that what they did was a clever lark, such as
+the adult age easily pardons to exuberant and sprightly youth.</p>
+
+<p>Not to them did the base suggestion come that this singular, this simple
+discovery, should be the means of deluding the world, of exalting them in
+the minds of the weakly credulous and of bringing them fame and splendor
+and sumptuous pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>No one who learns their true history can still believe them guilty of the
+willful inception of this most grotesque, most transparent and corrupting
+of superstitions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>The idea had its monstrous birth in older heads, heads that were seconded
+by hearts lacking the very essence of truth and the fountain of honest
+human sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>The two children, who had at first delighted, as younglings will, in what
+was but a laughable mystification, were dragged into a sordid, wicked and
+loathsome speculation, built upon lying and fraud, as unforgivable as the
+sin of Satan, and of which they were but the unthinking instruments, often
+reluctant and remorseful, yet docile and compliant by nature.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the &#8220;Rochester knockings,&#8221; the example and prototype of all later
+so-called spiritualistic &#8220;phenomena,&#8221; began merely in a curious childish
+freak, disguised without effort, and which, from the first, was encouraged
+to partly formed understandings by the wonder and intense spirit of
+inquiry it provoked.</p>
+
+<p>The young operators were carried away by the undreamt-of current of
+enthusiasm and awe in which they soon became involved. They felt the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+natural need of maintaining with unabating dexterity, that false sense of
+the miraculous which by chance they had called forth.</p>
+
+<p>Thus they went from one stage to another of this queer illusion, and,
+being compelled by a harder and more mature intelligence to repeat their
+part over and over again, became the chief means of establishing that
+injurious belief in communications from the spirits of the departed, of
+which such great numbers have become the victims.</p>
+
+<p>Many an older offender against common sense, reason and strict morality
+persists through force of circumstance in the pathway he has chosen, and
+does not turn backward, merely because he cannot do so without wearing the
+face of shame.</p>
+
+<p>From such slight and trivial beginning came the great movement&mdash;great
+because of the number which it comprised and of the sensation which
+attended its progress&mdash;that for more than forty years has alternately
+surprised, puzzled, disgusted and amused the world.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>From so little a plant has grown a gigantic weed of deceit, corruption and
+fraud, nurtured upon the fattening lust of money, and of the flesh.</p>
+
+<p>What has developed from it is not alone a system of so-called
+communications through a puerile code of signals with an unseen world;
+but, as Dante describes, in his incomparable epic, forms of monstrosity
+which combine a hideous human semblance and a loathly animal foulness, so
+this venomous evil has become conglomerate in its hateful phases of
+delusion, and its petty sordidness and depravity.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the Tuscan bard describes the spirit of fraud:</p>
+
+<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">&#8220;&#8217;Lo! the fell monster with the deadly sting!</span><br />
+Who passes mountains, breaks through fenced walls<br />
+And firm embattled spears, and with his filth<br />
+Taints all the world! Thus me my guide addressed,<br />
+And beckon&#8217;d him, that he should come to shore,<br />
+Near to the stony causeway&#8217;s utmost edge.<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">&#8220;Forthwith that image vile of fraud appear&#8217;d,</span><br />
+His head and upper part expos&#8217;d on land,<br />
+But laid not on the shore his bestial train.<br />
+His face the semblance of a just man&#8217;s wore.<br />
+So kind and gracious was its outward cheer;<br />
+The rest was serpent all; two shaggy claws<br />
+Reach&#8217;d to the armpits, and the back and breast,<br />
+And either side, were painted o&#8217;er with nodes<br />
+And orbits. Colors variegated more<br />
+Nor Turks nor Tartars e&#8217;er on cloth of state<br />
+With interchangeable embroidery wove,<br />
+Nor spread Arachne o&#8217;er her curious loom.<br />
+As ofttimes a light skiff, moor&#8217;d to the shore,<br />
+Stands part in water, part upon the land;<br />
+Or, as where dwells the greedy German boor,<br />
+The beaver settles watching for his prey;<br />
+So on the rim, that fenced the sand with rock,<br />
+Sat perched the fiend of evil. In the void<br />
+Glancing, his tail upturn&#8217;d its venomous fork,<br />
+With sting like scorpion&#8217;s armed.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The world has not seen in all its long procession of follies, vagaries,
+and strange mania, one so utterly devoid of a reasonable foundation as
+this.</p>
+
+<p>Yet none has been more eagerly believed; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> this very tendency has
+evolved into so strong a desire to believe that thousands of those who
+have professed to investigate it have done so only ostensibly, their eyes,
+figuratively speaking, tightly bandaged, to shut out everything but the
+artificial vision that they were most eager to see.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be hoped that the world will now form its ultimate conclusion
+upon this flagrant and audacious system of humbuggery:&mdash;that, regarded as
+a superstition, it ranks even below voudooism and fetich-worship, and, as
+an illusion, below the effects produced by the most ordinary magician at a
+country fair.</p>
+
+<p>Dragged into this life when infants, rescued from it for an interval by
+two men<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small> whose names are historical, the one as a hero and explorer, the
+other as a journalist and daily philosopher; borne back to it again by the
+tide of ill-fortune; used and controlled, by those whose heart&#8217;s were &#8220;dry
+as summer&#8217;s dust,&#8221; for their own hateful purposes; menaced when conscience
+rebelled and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> suggested retraction and amends; driven to seek momentary
+oblivion of their present degradation in a vice that was the result of
+their enforced public career; finally, persecuted in a stealthy and
+treacherous way by those who had profited most by the fraud that they had
+set up, because it was feared that sooner or later they could no longer
+keep silent and would betray its real origin; seeing their existence
+slipping away from them with nothing but Dead Sea fruit remaining to their
+bitter portion; feeling more and more the need of an atonement to
+conscience and the opinion of the world&mdash;Margaret and Catherine Fox now
+denounce and anathematize Spiritualism as absolutely and utterly false
+from beginning to end; and they declare their solemn intention to devote
+themselves henceforth to the noble task of undoing the great evil which
+they have done, and of leaving no single stone of foundation behind them
+for weak-minded future generations to base a futile faith upon.</p>
+
+<p>In these pages will be found the full and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> truthful story of Spiritualism,
+as it was and is, as gathered from the lips of both Margaret Fox Kane and
+Catharine Fox Jencken, and verified by letters, documents and published
+data. It is written with their full knowledge and earnest sanction.</p>
+
+<p>The bold fabric of lies built up to sustain the claim that the &#8220;rappings&#8221;
+in which all spiritualistic so-called phenomena originated were
+unaccountable except on the supernatural hypothesis, can no longer be
+cited to an intelligent mind. The elaborate narrative published by the
+eldest sister, Mrs. Ann Leah Fox Underhill, who is now the only remaining
+stay of spiritualistic deception, is proven to be false from title-page to
+finis.</p>
+
+<p>I have given in the following pages, the real lives of Mrs. Kane and Mrs.
+Jencken, in so far as they bear in any important degree upon the
+development of the fraud of Spiritualism.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="II_RENUNCIATION" id="II_RENUNCIATION"></a>II. RENUNCIATION.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+<h3>GOD HAS NOT ORDERED IT.</h3>
+
+<p><br />The world of &#8220;spiritualists&#8221; and non-spiritualists was startled on the
+24th of September, 1888, by the publication in the New York <i>Herald</i>, of
+an article with the following head-lines:</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<big>&#8220;GOD HAS NOT ORDERED IT.&#8221;</big><br />
+<img src="images/line.png" alt="" /><br />
+A Celebrated Medium Says the<br />
+Spirits Never Return.<br />
+<img src="images/line.png" alt="" /><br />
+CAPTAIN KANE&#8217;S WIDOW.<br />
+<img src="images/line.png" alt="" /><br />
+One of the Fox Sisters Promises an Interesting<br />
+Exposure of Fraud.</p>
+
+<p>To many, an article of this kind seemed in a degree sensational. Not to
+those, however, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> had previously had some inkling of the secret history
+of Spiritualism, and who for years had looked for the day of its
+inevitable confounding.</p>
+
+<p>A sudden disclosure like this, by one of the &#8220;Mothers of Spiritualism,&#8221; if
+the term may be used, suggested a sort of reckless vagary, a species of
+extravagance, due, as might have been fancied, to some abnormal condition
+of the mind.</p>
+
+<p>Yet to those who had had an intimate acquaintance with Maggie Fox Kane
+this step had long been foreshadowed. As will appear later, no one could
+have imagined the real intensity of moral pain that for years she had
+endured.</p>
+
+<p>In recent years, both she and her sister, Catharine Fox Jencken, had been
+but poorly provided with this world&#8217;s goods. Obliged to depend almost
+wholly on themselves for support, they had dropped more and more out of
+sight, till the public at last hardly recognized their names, if perchance
+they appeared in print, as those of the principal instruments in the
+founding of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>Spiritualism. For this, there was a reason. It was a
+deep-seated and long increasing disgust with their fraudulent
+profession&mdash;the fuller realization to their minds, as their knowledge of
+the world grew broader, of the monstrous evil to which, innocently at
+first, they had given birth. So at intervals they were filled with
+despairing despondency and remorse. Their weaknesses, their
+self-indulgence, their lack of providence for themselves, are largely
+attributable to these causes. It could not be said of them that they were
+ever remarkably selfish, or cold-hearted or calculating. Such a character,
+however, has of right been coupled with the name of their elder sister,
+who by reason of the ties of blood and of her older experience ought long
+ago to have led them out of the by-ways of imposture, instead of
+persistently seeking to shut off their escape from this horrible bondage,
+and to plunge them deeper into the mire of guilt and infamy, so that the
+chance of their rising above it, and denouncing it, might grow less and
+less.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>The impulse to set herself right on the record of the world, after years
+of enslavement in the hateful gyves of charlatanism, must stand to Maggie
+Fox&#8217;s credit alone. It sprang from her own bosom, not from the
+inspiration, suggestion or persuasion of any one else. Returning from
+Europe in September, 1888, after a peculiar experience, which had
+convinced her that those chiefs of spiritualistic fraud who feared her and
+her sister, because they held the key of the whole of the artificial
+mystery, were bent upon persecuting them into an abject silence, she at
+once put in execution the resolution which had been so long in process of
+growth, but until then had never been fully ripened.</p>
+
+<p>This was to effect the unqualified exposure of the false system of
+Spiritualism. She naturally chose as a medium for her repentant message to
+the world, that great cosmopolitan journal, the <i>New York Herald</i>, which
+is known in every corner of the earth, and is ever ready to perform an
+important service to mankind. Before she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> started on her homeward voyage,
+she committed herself once and for all to this courageous and worthy step.</p>
+
+<p>The disclosures regarding the notorious Madam Diss De Barr had offended
+Mrs. Kane more than anything which had occurred in Spiritualism in a long
+time, for they presented the enforced association of her name and the
+simple, childish origin of the &#8220;Rochester knockings,&#8221; with the gross and
+revolting frauds which had been their outgrowth. So imbued had she become,
+by this time, with the idea that the developed system of Spiritualism was
+something to be loathed, as Milton loathed the hideous creature who sat by
+the inner portals of hell, that words could not express her utter scorn
+and hatred of this common woman, who posed as an agent of sacred
+communications between the living and the dead.</p>
+
+<p>The New York <i>Herald</i> of May 27, 1888, contained this letter, written by
+Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane in London:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>THE CURSE OF SPIRITUALISM.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Gower Street, Bedford Square, W. C.</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">London, May 14, 1888</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">To the Editor of the Herald</span>:</p>
+
+<p>I read in the <i>Herald</i> of Saturday, May 5, an account of the sad
+misfortune that has befallen my dear sister Katie, Mrs. Kate Fox
+Jencken, and in the article it is stated that I am still a resident
+of New York, which is a mistake. I sailed for England on the 22d of
+March, and I presume my absence has added to my darling sister&#8217;s
+depressed state of mind. The sad news has nearly killed me. My
+sister&#8217;s two beautiful boys referred to are her idols.</p>
+
+<p>Spiritualism is a curse. God has set His seal against it! I call it a
+curse, for it is made use of as a covering for heartless persons like
+the Diss De Barrs, and the vilest miscreants make use of it to cloak
+their evil doings. Fanatics like Mr. Luther R. Marsh, Mr. John L.
+O&#8217;Sullivan, ex-Minister to Portugal, and hundreds equally as learned,
+ignore the &#8220;rappings&#8221; (which is the only part of the phenomena that
+is worthy of notice) and rush madly after the glaring humbugs that
+flood New York. But a harmless &#8220;message&#8221; that is given through the
+&#8220;rappings&#8221; is of little account to them; they want the &#8220;spirit&#8221; to
+come to them in full form, to walk before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> them, talk to them, to
+embrace them, and all such nonsense, and what is the result? Like old
+Judge Edmonds and Mr. Seybert, of Philadelphia, they become crazed,
+and at the direction of their fraud &#8220;mediums&#8221; they are induced to
+part with all their worldly possessions as well as their common
+sense, which God intended they should hold sacred. Mr. Marsh&#8217;s
+experience is but another example of hundreds who have preceded him.</p>
+
+<p>No matter in what form Spiritualism may be presented, it is, has been
+and always will be a curse and a snare to all who meddle with it. No
+right minded man or woman can think otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>I have found that fanatics are as plentiful among &#8220;inferior men and
+women&#8221; as they are among the more learned. They are all alike. They
+cannot hold their fanaticism in check, and it increases as their
+years increase. All they will ever achieve for their foolish
+fanaticism will be loss of money, softening of the brain and a
+lingering death.</p>
+
+<p class="right">MARGARET F. KANE.</p></div>
+
+<p>This anathema dismayed those who had basely profited by Spiritualism, and
+it brought a deeper shock to the hearts of many who were sincere
+believers. The publication, however, in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> <i>Herald</i>, three months later,
+of an interview with Mrs. Kane on her arrival in this city, the striking
+head-lines of which I have cited above, capped the climax of
+consternation. This article is well worthy of reproduction.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>The eccentric circles wherein &#8220;isms&#8221; reign in discordant supremacy
+will be probably as deeply exercised over an approaching exposure of
+the tricks and illusions of Spiritualism, as they were over the rude
+logic of common sense and justice which drew aside the thin veil of
+fraud in the case of Madam Diss De Barr, and revealed the real nature
+of her flimsy system of deception in all its vulgar absurdity.</p>
+
+<p>I called yesterday at a modest little house in West Forty-fourth
+street, and was received by a small, magnetic woman of middle age,
+whose face bears the traces of much sorrow and of a world-wide
+experience. She was negligently dressed, and she was not in the
+calmest possible mood. But she knew what she was talking about when,
+in response to my questions, she told a story of as strange and
+fantastic a life as has ever been recorded, and declared over and
+over again her intention of balancing the account which the world of
+humbug-loving mortals held against her, by making a clean breast<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> of
+all her former miracles and wonders. In intervals of her talk, when
+she had risen from her chair, and paced the room, or had covered her
+face with her hands and almost sobbed with emotion, she would seat
+herself suddenly at a piano and pour forth fitful floods of wild,
+incoherent melody, which coincided strangely with that reminiscent
+weirdness which, despite its cynical reality, still characterized the
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>This woman, albeit a notorious career has classed her with
+mountebanks and worse in the minds of reasonable beings, had yet by
+some element or other in her character retained a degree of public
+respect. Perhaps it is because months ago she abandoned the art of
+deception and has since to her intimate friends evinced no ordinary
+measure of contempt for all who still pursue it. She is known on both
+sides of the Atlantic, and when in London, is entertained by some of
+the best-to-do of the great and comprehensive middle class.</p>
+
+<p>Circumstances had brought me to this house, and I did not at first
+know her. I soon found, however, that this was the most famous of the
+celebrated trio of witches, the Fox sisters, among the earliest
+spiritualistic mediums in this country. She is also the widow of Dr.
+Elisha Kent Kane, the heroic Arctic explorer, who died of the effects
+of his exposure in searching for Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated
+party. Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> lately returned from England for a
+brief visit here, and she purposes in a very short time to deliver
+just one lecture, and no more, which shall shame and dumfound all the
+spiritualistic frauds who have not yet repented into poverty or exile
+of their nebulous ways. She will reveal one after another of the
+methods by which willing believers have been so briskly duped and
+robbed, and will herself demonstrate how simple, natural and easy are
+most of those methods.</p></div>
+
+<p>Brooding upon the troubles that had been brought upon her by Spiritualism
+and on her personal guilt in connection with it, it is hardly strange that
+Mrs. Kane, even when bent upon making a sweeping confession of the whole
+imposture, should in intervals of nervous excitement have turned to the
+thought of suicide.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;My troubles weighed upon me,&#8217; she said, &#8216;and when I was coming over on
+the <i>Italy</i>, I do believe that I should have gone overboard but for the
+Captain and the doctor and some of the sailors. They prevented me, and
+when I landed, I could not express to them the gratitude I felt.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> I had
+very little English money with me, but all of that I distributed to the
+men.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As Mrs. Kane told of her impulse to commit suicide her manner became
+tragic and she clutched her listener&#8217;s arm. After a moment, however, she
+reverted quietly enough to the original subject.</p>
+
+<p>But she speedily became much excited again, as what follows will show. It
+was but natural:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;Since you now despise Spiritualism, how was it that you were engaged in it so long?&#8221; I asked.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Another sister of mine,&#8221; and she coupled the name with an injurious
+adjective, &#8220;made me take up with it. She&#8217;s my damnable enemy. I hate
+her. My God! I&#8217;d poison her! No, I wouldn&#8217;t, but I&#8217;ll lash her with
+my tongue. She was twenty-three years old the day I was born. I was
+an aunt seven years before I was born. Ha! ha!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I am going to expose Spiritualism from its very foundation. I
+have had the idea in my head for many a year, but I have never come
+to a determination before. I&#8217;ve thought of it day and night. I loath
+the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>thing I have been. As I used to say to those who wanted me to
+give a s&eacute;ance, &#8216;You are driving me into hell.&#8217; Then the next day I
+would drown my remorse in wine. I was too honest to remain a
+&#8216;medium.&#8217; That&#8217;s why I gave up my exhibitions.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When Spiritualism first began Kate and I were little children, and
+this old woman, my other sister, made us her tools. Mother was a
+silly woman. She was a fanatic. I call her that because she was
+honest. She believed in these things. Spiritualism started from just
+nothing. We were but innocent little children. What did we know? Ah,
+we grew to know too much! Our sister used us in her exhibitions and
+we made money for her. Now she turns upon us because she&#8217;s the wife
+of a rich man, and she opposes us both wherever she can. Oh, I am
+after her! You can kill sometimes without using weapons, you know.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Dr. Kane found me when I was leading this life. [The woman&#8217;s voice
+trembled just here and she nearly broke down.] I was only thirteen
+when he took me out of it and placed me at school. I was educated in
+Philadelphia. When I was sixteen years old he returned from the
+Arctic and we were married. Now comes the sad, sad tale. He was very
+ill. The physicians ordered him to London, but before he arrived he
+had a paralytic stroke of the heart. Then he was sent back from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>London and to Havana. Newsboys shouted in the streets of New York
+the news of his critical condition. Oh, my God! it was anguish to my
+ears! Mother and I were to have joined him in two weeks. He died
+before we arrived. Then I had brain fever. No one but God can know
+what sorrows I have had!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When I recovered I was driven again into Spiritualism, and I gave
+exhibitions with my sister Katie. I knew, of course, then, that every
+effect produced by us was absolute fraud. Why, I have explored the
+unknown as far as human will can. I have gone to the dead so that I
+might get from them some little token. Nothing ever came of
+it&mdash;nothing, nothing. I have been in graveyards at dead of night,
+having permission to enter from those in charge. I have sat alone on
+a gravestone, that the spirits of those who slept underneath might
+come to me. I have tried to obtain some sign. Not a thing! No, no,
+the dead shall not return, nor shall any that go down into hell. So
+says the Catholic Bible, and so say I. The spirits will not come
+back. God has not ordered it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You want to know what are the points of my coming expos&eacute;? First the &#8216;rappings.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kane paused here, and I heard first a rapping under the floor
+near my feet, then under the chair in which I was seated, and again
+under a table on which I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> was leaning. She led me to the door and I
+heard the same sound on the other side of it. Then, when she sat on
+the piano stool, the legs of the instrument reverberated more loudly,
+and the tap, tap, resounded throughout its hollow structure.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is all a trick?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Absolutely. Spirits, is he not easily fooled?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Rap, rap, rap!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can always get an affirmative answer to that question,&#8221; she remarked.</p>
+
+<p>Then I addressed certain suppositions to her. At last she said, &#8220;Yes,
+you have hit it. It is, as you say, the manner in which the joints of
+the foot can be used without lifting it from the floor. The power of
+doing this can only be acquired by practice begun in early youth. One
+must begin as early as twelve years. Thirteen is rather late. We
+children, when we were playing together, years ago, discovered it,
+and it was my eldest sister who first put the discovery to such an
+infamous use.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I call it infamous, for it was.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+<h3>THE DISCOMFITED ENEMY.</h3>
+
+<p><br />What has gone before is the whole story, in a sense.</p>
+
+<p>The article in the <i>Herald</i> either relates or suggests it. Indeed, no
+refutation of it has been attempted. If there is one striking negative
+feature in the circumstances surrounding this exposure of Spiritualism, it
+is the entire absense of any reply from the great body of professional
+spiritualists commensurate with the accusation made.</p>
+
+<p>This confession of Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane was to them the handwriting on
+the wall, the &#8220;<i>Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin</i>,&#8221; of Spiritualism.</p>
+
+<p>Leah Fox Fish-Brown-Underhill, who has published a book of the flimsiest
+and most absurd narrative, intended to be accepted as a proof of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+Spiritualism, is the one person in all the world who could be expected to
+defend the system from this fatal attack, if any defense were possible.
+Reporters of the daily press would have been but too glad to record
+whatever she might say, were it even the veriest drivel, on an issue that
+jeopardized the existence of the brazen and pretentious &#8220;ism&#8221; which, as by
+an obscene spell, still enlists the curiosity of a great proportion of the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>But as Mrs. Underhill&#8217;s book itself, which I shall notice more in detail
+hereafter, shows to the critical mind how futile would be an attempted
+refutation on her part, the public can very readily understand the reason
+of this most careful silence. Blunderingly, however, prior to having
+consulted her, Mr. Daniel Underhill, her husband, consented to talk upon
+the subject. The statements hostile to Mrs. Kane, to be found in the
+excerpt here given, were, of course, to be expected. Were they ever so
+true, however, they could not in any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> way lesson the damning force of her
+repentant avowals:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Mr. Daniel Underhill, president of a wealthy insurance company, whose
+office is in Wall street, and who is the husband of the eldest of the
+Fox sisters, whom Margaret declares to be her &#8220;damnable enemy,&#8221; is a
+Spiritualist, but in a moderate sense. Mrs. Underhill&#8217;s maiden name
+was Ann Leah Fox. She was twice married before she met her present
+husband, and she is twenty-three years older than Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>A large part of the public do not realize that Ann Leah, Margaret and
+Cathie Fox were the founders of what is specifically known as
+Spiritualism. The first so-called phenomena came to the two youngest
+girls in 1848, at Hydesville, in this State, while their sister Leah
+was residing elsewhere. When she heard of what had taken place and of
+the intense public excitement which it had created, she joined them,
+and then began the public history of Spiritualism. She took the
+incipient &#8220;ism&#8221; vigorously in hand, and for a series of years gave
+exhibitions in all the principal cities, which were attended by the
+most eminent men and the most brilliant women in the country.</p>
+
+<p>Of late years Mrs. Underhill has entirely withdrawn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> from public
+participation in spiritualistic exhibitions. She is still held,
+however, in high estimation by all who accept supernatural
+communications, and her reply to what her sister Margaret has said
+regarding the practice of fraud, would at this time be interesting.
+Unfortunately she is now in the country, and there is no person in
+the city to speak for her excepting her husband. I obtained an
+interview with him yesterday. He was reluctant to be brought into the
+controversy, but, while speaking in a most uncomplimentary manner of
+Margaret and denouncing her proposed new departure, did not evince
+any great amount of indignation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have for years,&#8221; he began, &#8220;helped both Maggie and Katie, and my
+wife has done everything in the world for them. We have furnished
+apartments for Maggie twice. They might both do well if they would
+only keep sober. Maggie can be as nice as you please or as vicious as
+a devil. Several persons have undertaken to manage her, but all have
+failed. Nobody can do anything with her. The first I knew that she
+was back in the city was through the <i>Herald</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think she&#8217;s in her right mind. I have done so much for her
+and she has behaved so badly in return that I have given her up now
+and will have nothing to do with her. She says she will lecture, does
+she? Well, I don&#8217;t believe she ever will. She&#8217;s incapable of it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>&#8220;It&#8217;s a great pity, though, that she should say such things about
+Spiritualism, because of the odium which will result from it. But it
+isn&#8217;t the first time she has said that she would declare against
+Spiritualism. She has had such spells before. It is astonishing to me
+that people have stuck to her and Katie as they have. It is all bosh
+about revealing the manner of producing the raps. I don&#8217;t believe she
+can do it. I don&#8217;t believe she knows how they are produced, except
+that it is done by an occult agency. Of course, there are frauds in
+Spiritualism. Mme. Diss De Barr was one of them. I don&#8217;t believe much
+in materialization, but I&#8217;ve seen some real manifestations. They were
+in my own house. Nearly all my spiritualistic experience has been in
+my own house, and these sisters were the mediums.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course Maggie&#8217;s statement will be something of a shock to
+spiritualists the world over, because they regard her and her sisters
+as the founders of their belief. In my opinion she is not accountable
+for what she says.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Mrs. Underhill remained quietly in the country many weeks after the
+expos&eacute;, safe from the keen inquisition of reporters.</p>
+
+<p>The notorious &#8220;mediums&#8221; in New York who were approached on the subject,
+were all <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>excessively guarded in their comments upon the step taken by
+Mrs. Kane, yet they admitted her personal importance as an originator of
+Spiritualism. Mrs. E. A. Wells, whose fraudulent exhibitions have had a
+certain success, expressed herself as much shocked at the determination of
+Mrs. Kane; &#8220;&#8216;but,&#8217; she added to the reporter, with seeming na&icirc;vet&eacute;, &#8216;you
+don&#8217;t believe she will do it, do you?&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The account from which I am quoting, continues as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#8220;I sought the presence of Mrs. E. A. Wells, a medium of great
+celebrity, whose abode is not far from Adelphi Hall, where
+spiritualists congregate on Sunday.&#8221; Mrs. Wells expressed herself as
+shocked at the determination of Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane, &#8220;but,&#8221; she
+added, with seeming na&icirc;vet&eacute;, &#8220;you don&#8217;t believe she will do it, do you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How have you regarded Mrs. Kane heretofore, Mrs. Wells?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, with a good deal of respect as one of the first to get messages
+from the unseen world. The Fox sisters have a great name. I have no
+idea, though, if she really<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> intends to do what she says she will,
+that she&#8217;s in her right senses.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Another &#8220;medium,&#8221; who has a wealthy client&egrave;le, and who gives only private
+<ins class="correction" title="original: seances">s&eacute;ances</ins>, whence all unfriendly influences are rigorously excluded, did not
+desire to appear in print, as she told her visitor, since it would look
+like &#8220;bad form&#8221; to those who came to her for supernatural enlightenment.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>She was asked, however, if she held the Fox sisters in much esteem as
+the pioneers of Spiritualism. She said she did, but personally knew nothing of them.</p>
+
+<p>When told about the threatened exposure she expressed very great
+surprise, and declared that it would be a deep mortification to
+believers in Spiritualism.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t believe she can expose any fraud. But if fraud exists, why,
+then, I say let it be exposed; the sooner the better. There&#8217;s no
+fraud about me, that&#8217;s very certain, and I&#8217;ve some of the very best
+people in New York to come here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll tell you what! I have heard that the Fox sisters are dreadfully
+addicted to drink. I don&#8217;t know how far it is true, but I wouldn&#8217;t
+believe anything she might <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>say in the way of exposure. May be she&#8217;s
+out of money and thinks the spiritualists ought to do something for
+her. I shouldn&#8217;t wonder.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, if you&#8217;ll come up here some time, and if you&#8217;ll give me a fair
+report, I shall be glad to show you how I can materialize.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I thought there was a good deal of material about her already, and so I thanked her.</p></div>
+
+<p>At their public gatherings in Adelphi Hall, New York, now most meagerly
+attended, the spiritualists, just after the initial expos&eacute; in the
+<i>Herald</i>, refrained very wisely from taking up the gauntlet of truth
+thrown down by their chief apostle, Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane. In an
+interview, however, which was had by a reporter with Mr. Henry J. Newton,
+the President of the First Spiritual Society of New York, the latter
+indulged in a number of emphatic statements regarding the &#8220;manifestations&#8221;
+produced by the &#8220;Fox Sisters,&#8221; all of which rested upon his own veracity
+only. The spirit of what he said may be easily gleaned from this passage:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>&#8220;I had supposed
+all along,&#8221; he said, &#8220;that Mrs. Kane was still in
+Europe, and that she would never return to this country. I even heard
+at the time when Katie, her sister, was sent abroad, that Maggie was
+in Rome, in company with a well known gentleman. I am very much
+surprised to know that she is in this city, and more surprised that
+she threatens to make such silly pretended revelations as you say she
+proposes. They can only be revelations in name. She cannot reveal
+anything that can injure the spiritualist cause or that will weaken
+in any one&#8217;s mind the truth of what we teach.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have been absent in the country and have not read all that the
+<i>Herald</i> has published on this matter. I have read enough, however,
+to show me how utterly absurd and ridiculous her position is.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The idea of claiming that unseen &#8216;rappings&#8217; can be produced with
+joints of the feet! If she says this, even with regard to her own
+manifestations, she lies! I and many other men of truth and position
+have witnessed the manifestations of herself and her sisters many
+times under circumstances in which it was absolutely impossible for
+there to have been the least fraud.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Nothing that she could say in that regard would in the least change
+my opinion</i>, nor would it that of any one else who has become
+profoundly convinced that there is an occult influence connecting us
+with an invisible world, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>I have seen Margaret Fox Kane herself, when
+lying on a bed of sickness and unable to rise, produce &#8216;rappings&#8217; in
+various parts of the room in which she was, and upon the ceilings,
+doors and windows several feet away from her. I have seen her produce
+the same effects when too drunk to realize what she was doing.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>On the 25th of September, 1888, the following, which was published in the
+New York <i>Herald</i>, expressed very tersely the situation among the
+spiritualists, who had by that time partly recovered from the first effect
+of the blow:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Recrimination against the two younger Fox sisters, Margaret and
+Katie, has begun with characteristic violence, and many unlovely
+truths are betrayed which do not alter the essential significance of
+the former&#8217;s denunciation of spiritualistic fraud. Several of the
+mediums said that they could hardly believe their eyes when they read
+of Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane&#8217;s determination, and they declared almost
+unanimously that &#8220;she would not do it if she were in her senses.&#8221;
+They accuse her of excessive indulgence in drink and hint that she is
+not responsible for what she says. It appears, however, that in
+private, on many occasions, but never <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>before in public, she has
+stated that Spiritualism was a tissue of fraud, and that some day she
+would prove the charge to the world. She has during the last few
+mouths given many s&eacute;ances in London, but always disclaimed any
+personal supernatural connection in producing the effects at which
+others wondered. With a number of rich patrons, among them Mr. H.
+Wedgewood, of Cavendish Square, she proceeded to a certain point in
+the process of delusion and then frankly undeceived them, convincing
+them of the ease with which they could be practiced upon.</p></div>
+
+<p>Prior to this, the following had been published:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>As Mrs. Kane&#8217;s sincerity in making her proposed exposures is
+questioned by her enemies, the following brief note from a well known
+English spiritualist is of interest:</p>
+
+<p class="right">&#8220;<span class="smcap">31 Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square,<br />
+&#8220;London, W., July 19, 1888.</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Kane</span>: I am not so much surprised as I might be at what you
+have revealed to me if I had not already been led to believe that
+many spiritualistic mediums practice upon the credulous.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>&#8220;The illusion, however, was perfect while it lasted.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You do well to expose these infamous frauds, and I thank you for
+having enlightened me.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">&#8220;Sincerely yours,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;">&#8220;H. WEDGEWOOD.&#8221;</span></p></div>
+
+<p>And later Mrs. Kane, in outlining her proposed public lecture, said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I am going to expose the very root of corruption in this
+spiritualistic ulcer. You talk about Mormonism! Do you know that
+there is something behind the shadowy mask of Spiritualism that the
+public can hardly guess at? I am stating now what I know, not because
+I actually participated in it, for I would never be a party to such
+promiscuous nastiness, but because I had plenty of opportunity, as
+you may imagine, of verifying it. Under the name of this dreadful,
+this horrible hypocrisy&mdash;Spiritualism&mdash;everything that is improper,
+bad and immoral is practiced. They go even so far as to have what
+they call &#8216;spiritual children!&#8217; They pretend to something like the
+immaculate conception! Could anything be more blasphemous, more
+disgusting, more thinly deceptive than that? In London I went in
+disguise to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>a quiet s&eacute;ance at the house of a wealthy man, and I saw
+a so-called materialization. The effect was produced with the aid of
+luminous paper, the lustre of which was reflected upon the operator.
+The figure thus displayed was that of a woman&mdash;was virtually nude,
+being enveloped in transparent gauze, the face alone being concealed.
+This was one of those s&eacute;ances to which the privileged non-believing
+friends of believing spiritualists could have access. But there are
+other s&eacute;ances, where none but the most tried and trusted are
+admitted, and where there are shameless goings on that vie with the
+secret Saturnalia of the Romans. I could not describe these things to
+you, because I would not.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Thus, the only one of the &#8220;Fox Sisters&#8221; who still adhered to the imposture
+practiced for over forty years, and the only spiritualist who could deny
+the statements of Margaret Fox Kane with anything approaching to
+authority, found her safest and most fitting defense in the kindly shelter
+of silence.</p>
+
+<p>This quasi-confession was not needed to complete the conviction in
+intelligent minds that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> Spiritualism was, in its inception, and is now, a
+fraud and a lie. But the significance of the negative circumstance is none
+the less worthy of note.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+<h3>A SECOND BLOW.</h3>
+
+<p><br />Barely had the professional spiritualists a breathing-spell&mdash;after the
+shock of Mrs. Kane&#8217;s confession&mdash;when a new blow fell upon them.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken arrived from Europe, and though ignorant until
+landing, of the grave step her sister Margaret had taken, at once
+announced her intention of joining and sustaining her in the complete
+exposure of Spiritualism in all its phases of deception and hypocrisy.</p>
+
+<p>This news staggered the spiritualistic world.</p>
+
+<p>And now it but remains for the other of the three &#8220;Fox Sisters&#8221; to see the
+hopeless folly of continued imposture, and to add her confession to the
+historical record of the dissipation of this unholy fraud. That she will
+ever do this, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>however, those who are aware that to her malevolent will
+was due the first evil growth and the wide extension of Spiritualism,
+cannot easily bring themselves to believe.</p>
+
+<p>The following account of Mrs. Jencken&#8217;s arrival in New York and of her
+determination to add her testimony to that of her sister Margaret against
+the fraud of Spiritualism, was published on the 10th of October, 1888, and
+is of sufficient interest to excuse my quoting it here at large:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center"><big>AND KATY FOX NOW.</big><br />
+<img src="images/line.png" alt="" /><br />
+The Youngest of the Mediumistic Pioneers<br />
+Will &#8220;Give the Snap Away.&#8221;<br />
+<img src="images/line.png" alt="" /><br />
+SHE ARRIVES FROM EUROPE.<br />
+<img src="images/line.png" alt="" /><br />
+Spiritualism a Humbug from Beginning<br />
+to End&mdash;Alleged Immoralities.</p>
+
+<p>Katie Fox Jencken arrived yesterday from England on the <i>Persian
+Monarch</i> and she intends to co-operate <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>with her sister&mdash;Margaret Fox
+Kane&mdash;in her proposed expos&eacute; of the fraudulent methods of so-called
+Spiritualism.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jencken&#8217;s coming was unexpected to her sister, and it will
+surprise the enemies of both.</p>
+
+<p>The blow to Spiritualism which Maggie Fox struck not long ago, caused
+a good deal more of consternation than spiritualists generally have
+cared to confess. There is ample reason for stating that underneath a
+plausible surface of enforced calm there have been the hurried
+exchange of forbodings and doubtings, and many consultations and
+goings to and fro. It is known that an overture was made to Maggie
+Fox suggestive of a money consideration for her silence, and that she
+rejected it with much indignation.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jencken walked into the parlor where Mrs. Kane was sitting about
+five o&#8217;clock yesterday, and the sisters at once fell on each other&#8217;s
+necks, in an ecstasy of affection and delight at being together once
+again. Mrs. Kane had but just been talking to me about her projected
+lecture on &#8220;The Curse of Spiritualism,&#8221; and Mrs. Jencken, who had
+heard nothing of the proposed expos&eacute;, except as it was casually
+rumored in her ear at the steamship dock, promptly gave her
+acquiescence to it as soon as she understood the situation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I do not care a fig for Spiritualism,&#8221; she said, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>&#8220;except so far as
+the good will of its adherents may affect the future of my boys. They
+are all I have in this life, and I live or die for them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jencken looks a far different person than she was when in deep
+trouble in this city and when she had to do with the rather
+unsympathetic measures of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
+to Children. No matron could bear a more placid and comely
+expression, and she declares with heartfelt earnestness that she is
+done forever with her once-besetting vice.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mrs. Jencken, are you willing to join with your sister in exposing
+the true modus operandi of Spiritualism?&#8221; I asked.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I care nothing for Spiritualism,&#8221; was her reply. &#8220;So far as I am
+concerned I am done with it. I will say this, I regard it as one of
+the very greatest curses that the world has ever known. If I knew
+those powerful spiritualists who have done their utmost to harm me in
+the past could not do so in the future, I would not hesitate a moment
+to expose it. The worst of them all is my eldest sister, Leah, the
+wife of Daniel Underhill. I think she was the one who caused my
+arrest last spring, and the bringing of the preposterous charge
+against me that I was cruel to my children and neglectful of them. I
+don&#8217;t know why it is, she has always been jealous of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>Maggie and me;
+I suppose because we could do things in Spiritualism that she
+couldn&#8217;t.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why don&#8217;t you come squarely out, then, with the truth, and make the
+public your friends? You needn&#8217;t fear any persecution if you do
+that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, if my sister&#8217;s health were only fully restored and I knew she
+was fully herself I would certainly join her in showing Spiritualism
+to be what it really is. I want to be sure of that, however. I want
+the thing done properly when it is done.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then you will not deny that what she has said of Spiritualism is
+true?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I will not deny it. Spiritualism is a humbug from beginning to end.
+It is the greatest humbug of the century. I don&#8217;t know whether she
+has told you this, but Maggie and I started it as very little
+children, too young, too innocent, to know what we were doing. Our
+sister Leah was twenty-three years older than either of us. We got
+started in the way of deception, and being encouraged in it, we went
+on, of course. Others, old enough to have been ashamed of the infamy,
+took us out into the world. My sister Leah has published a book
+called &#8216;The Missing Link of Spiritualism.&#8217; It professes to give the
+true history of this movement, so far as it originated with us. Now,
+there&#8217;s nothing but falsehood in that book from beginning to end,
+excepting the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>fact that Horace Greeley educated me. The rest is
+nothing but a string of lies.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And about the manifestations at Hydesville in 1848 and the finding
+of bones in the cellar and so on?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All humbuggery, every bit of it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And yet Maggie and I are the founders of Spiritualism!&#8221; concluded
+Mrs. Jencken.</p></div>
+
+<p>On the next day Mrs. Jencken made the statement which appears in the
+following:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Mrs. Jencken was asked about the alleged spirit manifestations which
+have taken place in Carlyle&#8217;s old home at Chelsea, London, where she
+has lately resided. The English papers have been filled with stories,
+more or less sceptical, regarding these queer occurrences. Mrs.
+Jencken said: &#8220;All that took place there of that nature is utterly
+false. I haven&#8217;t the slightest idea that the noises which we heard in
+the house had any connection with Carlyle&#8217;s spirit. I certainly know
+that every so-called manifestation produced through me in London or
+anywhere else was a fraud. Many a time have I wept because when I was
+young and innocent I was brought into such a life. The time has now
+come for Maggie and I to set ourselves right before the world. Nobody
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>knows at what moment either of us might be taken away. We ought not
+to leave this base fabric of deceit behind us unexposed.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>As may be seen, nothing could be stronger than the language employed in
+these interviews by both of the repentant sisters, in denouncing their
+former adhesion to a system of humbug and hypocrisy.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+<h3>THE HAND OF THE PERSECUTOR</h3>
+
+<p><br />The public had every reason to feel a deep sympathy with the two younger
+Fox sisters in the courageous attitude which they had taken.</p>
+
+<p>The deadliest hatred is always to be feared, by those who abandon a faith
+or a system, from those who still adhere to it.</p>
+
+<p>Think you, if Mahomet had turned about, forty years after the Hegira, and
+had boldly anathematized the religion he had established, he might not
+have been reviled and persecuted, even by those in whom he had first
+inculcated his bastard faith?</p>
+
+<p>Who can doubt this who knows human nature?</p>
+
+<p>Even the lies of an impostor rebel against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> him, when, with a repentant
+word, he would damn them again to all eternity.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jencken had ample reason to fear that the disclosures which had been
+made by her and her sister would redouble the hostile zeal of those who
+before had persecuted her. In the first account which had been published
+of her return to this country, it was not stated that her two boys had
+accompanied her. In fact, however, they had.</p>
+
+<p>The pressure brought to bear to induce her to retract her denunciation of
+Spiritualism, and the ground of her fear for the safety of her children,
+are well set forth in the following, which appeared on October 11th,
+1888:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>FEARING THEIR ENEMIES.</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE JENCKEN BOYS WERE HERE, BUT ARE SENT AWAY.</p>
+
+<p>There are signs of gathering thunder all around the spiritualistic sky.</p>
+
+<p>A leading spiritualist, a lawyer, who had read the <i>Herald&#8217;s</i> recent
+articles on the subject, demanded of Mrs. Katy Fox Jencken,
+immediately upon her arrival in New York on Tuesday, that she refuse
+to support her sister Maggie in her expos&eacute; of mediumistic fraud, and,
+to use his own words, that she &#8220;throw herself upon the sympathy of
+the spiritualists.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This proposition she emphatically rejected and declared that she had
+done forever with Spiritualism and spiritualists. She firmly believes
+that leading men and women among the latter, particularly her eldest
+sister Leah, are her secret persecutors, and that it was due to their
+animus that she was arrested last spring and deprived of her two
+boys, to whom she is immeasurably devoted.</p>
+
+<p>There is much to sustain this charge, and the inference that this
+mysterious persecution, of which, as she alleges, the Society for the
+Prevention of Cruelty to Children was only the <ins class="correction" title="original: intrument">instrument</ins>, was
+inspired by <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>the fear that she and Mrs. Kane, having long been
+exploited for the financial benefit of others, might do the very
+thing they are doing now&mdash;betray the secrets of deception, which have
+from the beginning of the spiritualistic movement been so well
+guarded.</p>
+
+<p>As was said in the <i>Herald</i> yesterday, Mrs. Jencken knew nothing of
+the course which her sister Maggie had taken until she landed on the
+wharf of the Monarch line company. The <i>Herald</i> did not state
+yesterday that Mrs. Jencken was accompanied by her two boys, whom the
+Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children made such great
+efforts to keep apart from their mother in last May. As soon as she
+heard the news of Maggie&#8217;s disclosures from a friend who met her at
+the steamer, she was overcome with fear lest, being now aware of the
+means that had been employed to secure their release and her own, the
+society would again attempt to deprive her of her children. She was
+advised by a lawyer who knew the real source of the hostility to her
+and the motives that prompted it, to send them back at once to
+England. The boys declared that they did not want to fall into the
+hands of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children again.
+Both of them are now strapping big fellows for their age, and are
+able and willing to earn their own living. One is fourteen years old
+and the other will be soon sixteen. But for a misunderstanding as to
+their <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>ages on the part of the police justice last spring there would
+never have been any question of retaining them in the custody of Mr.
+Gerry&#8217;s over-zealous myrmidons.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jencken&#8217;s apprehensions, however, were not to be quieted, and
+early in the morning she bundled off the two lads [and they are now
+safely beyond the jurisdiction of the dreaded society of which Mr. E.
+T. Gerry is the chief].<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This shows,&#8221; said a gentleman yesterday, &#8220;how far certain wealthy
+spiritualists are powerful to inspire a kind of terrorism even in New
+York city among those who have left their ranks.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now that my boys are out of danger,&#8221; said Mrs. Jencken, &#8220;I will
+stand by my sister Maggie and go to the very fullest length of any
+exposure that she may make. We have been the tools and victims of
+others long enough. I approve and I affirm all that she has said
+about the immoral practices hidden under the ridiculous cloak of
+Spiritualism. The whole thing is damnable, and it should long ago
+have been trampled, out as one would trample out the life of a
+serpent.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+<h3>SOLEMN ABJURATION.</h3>
+
+<p><br />The news that Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane and Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken had
+renounced and exposed Spiritualism, flew from one end of the country to
+the other, and caused excitement among spiritualists and
+non-spiritualists. Every newspaper in every city of the United States, and
+many in Europe, repeated the story published in New York.</p>
+
+<p>The general opinion everywhere, where the wish was not the opposite, was
+that Spiritualism as such had received its death-blow.</p>
+
+<p>Letters began to pour in upon Mrs. Kane which were strongly significant of
+the effect of her action. Many of them were written by persons who had
+been believers from the very first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> of the public exhibitions of the
+&#8220;rappings,&#8221; and who had based their whole faith on the truth and veritable
+inspiration of the &#8220;Fox Sisters.&#8221; It was almost pitiable to witness the
+honest-hearted distress of people of this sort, who now saw the fondest
+illusion of their lives dissolve before their eyes; their dearest, assured
+hope of an invisible world ruthlessly torn from them.</p>
+
+<p>The anger of those who now anathematized the founders of the
+spiritualistic faith, and declared that all that they could now say in way
+of recantation was utterly false, while all that they had formerly said or
+performed as miraculous proof, was, of course, as true as gospel, or as
+the fact that the sun shines, was quite as ridiculous as the other
+sentiment was worthy of sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>It was natural that those who had fed their baser passions upon
+Spiritualism&mdash;as the harpy upon carrion&mdash;should resort to the vilest
+methods of attacking Mrs. Kane, and in doing so should shelter themselves
+behind the cowardly refuge of anonymity.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>A single communication from one of those who thus set the gauge for our
+estimate of spiritualistic hypocrisy, will suffice to complete the
+reader&#8217;s impression regarding them. It was written on a postal card and
+unsigned, and the italics and other literary peculiarities are wholly
+those of the person who wrote it:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Mrs. Kane. Your anticipated action Thursday night reminds me <i>very
+forcibly</i> of several lines of &#8216;Beautiful snow&#8217; only your Course is
+even <i>more despicable</i> and your rank in the history of the present
+day will be on a par with Benedict <ins class="correction" title="original: arnold In">Arnold in</ins> &#8216;Beautiful Snow&#8217; we find
+&#8216;Selling her soul to whoever would buy&#8217; &amp;c. you are going to sell
+your soul to an ignorant public by <i>pretending to Expose</i> what <i>you
+very well Know cannot be Exposed</i> by any man, woman or child dwelling
+in the Mortal sphere of Life&mdash;shame on you, but you will soon meet
+your reward in other spheres and suffer for your wickedness.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>It is hard to determine whether the above communication emanated from a
+professional<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> spiritualist of the mercenary type or from one who finds his
+or her profit of self-gratification in the licentious tendencies and
+opportunities of private spiritualistic intercourse. In any event, it
+bears the stamp of ignorant selfishness and narrow vulgarity.</p>
+
+<p>It is with a degree of pleasure that one may turn to letters which were
+written by the sincere disciples of the &#8220;Fox Sisters,&#8221; and which breathe a
+deep anxiety for the fate of that fantastic creed in which they have so
+much delighted.</p>
+
+<p>The reader has but to think for an instant of the actual meaning of this
+long-deferred expos&eacute; to these persons. They had greedily fed their souls
+upon the delusion that they had held intercourse with the spirits of their
+dear departed. The supposed messages which they had received seemed a sure
+earnest of that union with those they loved on earth for which the true
+heart most longs. In view of this expectation and in the light of this
+exposure of its utter fallacy&mdash;so far as any material evidence is
+concerned&mdash;it is most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> difficult to find adequate terms with which to
+characterize the work of those who still persist in contributing to a
+delusion which has numbered so many victims.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a letter from a resident of Southern California, enclosing a
+clipping from a newspaper containing Mrs. Kane&#8217;s renunciation of
+Spiritualism:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Buena Park, Los Angeles Co., Cal.</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Sept. 29, A. D. 1888</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">&#8220;Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane</span>,</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">&#8220;Dear Madam</span>:</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have just read the enclosed item, taken from one of our Los
+Angeles city papers. Please let me know if the statements therein
+contained are true, and you will greatly oblige,</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">&#8220;Yours for truth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">T. J. House</span>.&#8221;</span></p></div>
+
+<p>The following was written by one of the best known early settlers of San
+Francisco, a man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> whose example and absolute faith have influenced
+hundreds, probably, to embrace Spiritualism:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right">&#8220;<span class="smcap">San Francisco, Cal., Oct. 2, 1888.</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane</span>,</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dear Madam</span>:</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I inclose a cutting from one of our local papers, purporting to be
+an interview with you in regard to the subject of Spiritualism. I
+have taken the liberty to inquire of you if the statements therein
+contained are true.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have been a believer in the phenomena from its first inception
+through you and your sister, believing it to be true since that time.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am now eighty-one years old and have but a short time, of course,
+to remain in this world, and I feel great anxiety to know through you
+if I have been deceived all this time in a matter of vital interest
+to us all.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Will you greatly oblige me with an answer?</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">&#8220;Very respectfully yours,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">E. F. Bunnell.</span></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;">&#8220;No. 319 Kearny St.&#8221;</span></p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>And here is a communication which is signed by what is evidently only a
+part of the writer&#8217;s name, but which carries with it in every line the
+absolute impress of truth and of a deep and pathetic earnestness:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Boston, Mass., Oct. 15, 1888.</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane,</span></p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dear Madam</span>:</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hundreds of thousands have believed through you and you alone.
+Hundreds of thousands eagerly ask you whether all the glorious light
+that they fancied you have given them, was but the false flicker of a
+common dip-candle of fraud.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If, as you say, you were forced to pursue this imposture from
+childhood, I can forgive you, and I am sure that God will; for he
+turns not back the truly repentant. I will not upbraid you. I am sure
+you have suffered as much as any penalty, human or divine, could
+cause you to suffer. The disclosures that you make take from <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>me all
+that I cherished most. There is nothing left for me now but to hope
+for the reality of that repose which death promises us.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is perhaps better that the delusion should be at last swept away
+by one single word, and that word &#8216;fraud.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I know that the pursuit of this shadowy belief has wrought upon my
+brain and that I am no longer my old self. Money I have spent in
+thousands and thousands of dollars within a few short years to
+propitiate the &#8216;mediumistic&#8217; intelligence. It is true that never once
+have I received a message or the token of a word that did not leave a
+still unsatisfied longing in my heart, a feeling that it was not
+really my loved one after all, who was speaking to me, or if it was
+my loved one, that he was changed, that I hardly knew him and that he
+hardly knew me. Oh! how I have hated the thought that used to come to
+me sometimes, in spite of myself, that it was not really he. But that
+must have been the true intuition. It is better that the delusion is
+past, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>after all, for had I kept on in that way, I am sure I should
+have gone mad. The constant seeking, the frequent pretended response,
+its unsatisfying meaning, the sense of distance and change between me
+and my loved one&mdash;oh! it has been horrible, horrible!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He who is dying of thirst and has the sweet cup ever snatched from
+his lips, just as the first drop touches them&mdash;he alone can know what
+in actual things is the similitude of this spiritualistic torture.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;God bless you, for I think that you now speak the truth. You have my
+forgiveness at least, and I believe that thousands of others will
+forgive you, for the atonement made in season wipes out much of the
+stain of the early sin.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">&#8220;Yours sincerely,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Anna Suzanne</span>.&#8221;</span></p></div>
+
+<p>To these letters and to hundreds of others which Mrs. Kane and her sister
+Mrs. Jencken have received, this volume is their response.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>But besides this, they have appeared in public on the platform, as an
+earnest of their present sincerity, and will probably continue so to
+appear in various parts of this country and Europe.</p>
+
+<p>On the 21st of October, 1888, Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane first fulfilled her
+intention of publicly denouncing, with her own lips, Spiritualism and its
+attendant trickery. She appeared at the Academy of Music in New York
+before a large and distinguished audience, and without reservation
+demonstrated the falsity of all that she had done in the past in the guise
+of spiritualistic &#8220;mediumship.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The ordeal was a severe one. The great nervous strain under which she had
+labored rendered her mind highly excitable, and the large number of
+spiritualists in the house tried to create a disturbance, or a traitorous
+diversion which would break the force of her renunciation. In this they
+utterly failed, however, thanks to the superior character of a majority of
+her auditors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>The moral effect of the exposure could not have been greater.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kane stood before the footlights trembling with intense feeling, and
+made the following most solemn abjuration of Spiritualism, while Mrs.
+Catharine Fox Jencken sat in a neighboring box and gave assent by her
+presence to all that she said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That I have been chiefly instrumental in <ins class="correction" title="original: prepetrating">perpetrating</ins> the fraud of
+Spiritualism upon a too confiding public, most of you doubtless know.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The greatest sorrow of my life has been that this is true, and though it
+has come late in my day, I am now prepared to tell the truth, the whole
+truth and nothing but the truth,&mdash;so help me God!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There are probably many here who will scorn me for the deception I have
+practiced, yet did they know the true history of my unhappy past, the
+living agony and shame that it has been to me, they would pity, not
+reproach.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The imposition which I have so long <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>maintained began in my early
+childhood, when, with character and mind still unformed, I was unable to
+distinguish between right and wrong.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I repented it in my maturity. I have lived through years of silence,
+through intimidation, scorn and bitter adversity, concealing as best I
+might, the consciousness of my guilt. Now, thanks to God and my awakened
+conscience, I am at last able to reveal the fatal truth, the exact truth
+of this hideous fraud which has withered so many hearts and has blighted
+so many hopeful lives.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am here to-night as one of the founders of Spiritualism, to denounce it
+as an absolute falsehood from beginning to end, as the flimsiest of
+superstitions, the most wicked blasphemy known to the world.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I ask only your kind attention and forgiveness, and as I may prove myself
+worthy by the step I am now taking, may you extend to me your helping
+hands and sustain me in the better path I have chosen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>The demonstration of the method by which the &#8220;rappings&#8221; were produced was
+a perfect success, as is best shown by the following succinct account,
+which formed a part of the article on the subject published by the New
+York <i>World</i> on the following morning:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>A plain wooden stool or table, resting upon four short legs, and
+having the properties of a sounding board, was placed in front of
+her. Removing her shoe, she placed her right foot upon this table.
+The entire house became breathlessly still, and was rewarded by a
+number of little short, sharp raps&mdash;those mysterious sounds which
+have for more than forty years frightened and bewildered hundreds of
+thousands of people in this country and Europe. A committee,
+consisting of three physicians taken from the audience, then ascended
+to the stage, and having made an examination of her foot during the
+progress of the &#8220;rappings,&#8221; unhesitatingly agreed that the sounds
+were made by the action of the first joint of her large toe.</p>
+
+<p>Only the most hopelessly prejudiced and bigoted fanatics of
+Spiritualism could withstand the irresistable force of this
+common-place explanation and exhibition of how &#8220;spirit rappings&#8221; are
+produced. The demonstration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> was perfect and complete, and if &#8220;spirit
+rappings&#8221; find any credence in this community hereafter, it would
+seem a wise precaution on the part of the authorities to begin the
+enlargement of the State&#8217;s insane asylums without any delay.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="III_HISTORY" id="III_HISTORY"></a>III. HISTORY.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+<h3>ORIGIN OF THE FRAUD.</h3>
+
+<p><br />There are spiritualists who pretend that so-called &#8220;spirit rappings&#8221;
+originated long before the Hydesville disturbances took place. These
+declarations, however, are of no value as actual evidence.</p>
+
+<p>In any event, there is no claim that in their cause and general character
+these manifestations, so-called, were very different from similar ones of
+the present day.</p>
+
+<p>The &#8220;rappings&#8221; produced by the &#8220;Fox Sisters&#8221; are certainly the first of
+which there is an authentic account. They began in a little rustic cottage
+at a place called Hydesville, in the town of Arcadia, near Newark, Wayne
+County, New<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> York. Here John D. Fox and his wife Margaret dwelt with their
+two daughters, Margaret and Catherine. Two other children, Ann Leah and
+David S., lived elsewhere. There was sometimes a fifth member of the
+household, also a child. This was Elizabeth Fish, the daughter of Leah,
+and therefore the niece of Margaret and Catherine. She was seven years
+older than the elder of the two latter.</p>
+
+<p>The elder Fox and his wife had not been always united since their
+marriage. They were separated for a number of years. The three older
+children, Ann Leah, Maria and David S., were conceived before this
+separation took place, and Margaret and Catherine afterwards. The two
+broods had distinctive characteristics. The father, in the interval, is
+said to have become addicted to intemperate habits. The taint of heredity
+may excuse much in the younger generation that sprang from a weakness of
+will-power and made them the too easy victims of colder and more mercenary
+natures. To many it is well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> known that they are still incapable of
+guarding their interests in a business way, and that they have always been
+too largely at the mercy of any one who could acquire an influence over
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Margaretta, or Margaret, Fox, as she always signs herself, was born in the
+year 1840, and Catherine Fox a year and a half later. The eldest sister
+Leah was born twenty-three years before the former. The little girls, one
+eight years old and the other six and a half, had rarely seen this sister
+prior to the beginning of the spiritualistic movement. She knew nothing of
+it until the popular excitement over the &#8220;rappings&#8221; had almost reached its
+climax. Very early in life she had married a man named Fish, who had
+deserted her, and she was supporting herself at this time in the city of
+Rochester by teaching the rudiments of music. David S. Fox, son of John
+and Margaret Fox, lived about two miles from the home of his father in
+Arcadia.</p>
+
+<p>Maggie and Katie Fox were as full of petty devilment as any two children
+of their age ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> were. They delighted to tease their excellent old
+mother, who by all who knew her is described as simple, gentle and
+true-hearted. In their antics, they would resort to all sorts of ingenious
+devices, and bed-time witnessed almost invariably the gayest of larks. One
+of their frequent amusements was to plague their niece, Elizabeth, who
+slept in the same bed with them, by kicking and tickling her, and by
+frightening her at almost any hour of the night out of sound sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Their riotous fancy soon hit upon the plan of bobbing apples up and down
+on the floor in their bedchamber, as a means of scaring Elizabeth and of
+puzzling their mother without much risk of detection. They tied strings to
+the stems of the apples, and thus let them hang down beside the bed. The
+noise of dropping them more or less quickly upon the floor resembled
+almost anything that the imagination chose to liken it to, from raps on
+the front door to slippered foot-falls on the narrow stairway. Whenever a
+search was made for the cause of the noises, the apples were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> easily
+hauled up into the bed and hidden in the bedclothes, where no one would
+think of looking for them, at least at that stage of the investigation.</p>
+
+<p>The plan had everything in it to charm a juvenile mischief-maker. It
+succeeded admirably. It was not till the wonder which was caused by these
+strange &#8220;knockings&#8221; had extended beyond the humble Fox household, that the
+suggestion of any other means of affording to that growing feeling its
+daily food of seeming evidence came to the roguish youngsters.</p>
+
+<p>The family had moved into the house at Hydesville on December 11, 1847.
+The mother began to hear strange sounds almost from that date&mdash;strange
+because they occurred with great frequency and were oddly repeated. The
+children slept in what was called the East Room; the parents in an
+adjoining chamber. At all hours of the night, almost, the sounds were
+heard; but it happened that they always occurred when one or both of the
+children were wide awake. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> mother, in a statement which has been
+published as one of the so-called proofs of the genuineness of these
+manifestations, says that the sounds could with difficulty be located.
+&#8220;Sometimes it seemed as if the furniture was moved; but on examination we
+found everything in order. The children had become so alarmed that I
+thought best to have them sleep in the room with us. * * * On the night of
+the first disturbance we all got up and lighted a candle and searched the
+house, the noises continuing during the time, and being heard near the
+same place.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>How natural it was that little children, being averse to sleeping away
+from their elders in a dark room in a lone country neighborhood, should
+take advantage of a pretext such as this to get their bed placed nearer to
+that of their parents! Such, indeed, was the immediate result.</p>
+
+<p>The third night of the &#8220;rappings&#8221; was the 31st of March, 1848. Mrs. Fox says:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>The children who slept in the other bed in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> the room heard the rappings
+and tried to make similar sounds with their fingers.</i></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Katie exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Mr. Splitfoot,&#8217; (the imaginary person who was supposed to make the
+noises), &#8216;do as I do;&#8217; clapping her hands. The sound instantly followed
+her with the same number of raps; when she stopped, the sound ceased for a
+short time. Then Margaret said in sport: &#8216;Now, do just as I do; count one,
+two, three, four,&#8217; striking one hand against the other at the same time,
+and the raps came as before. * * * I then thought I could put a test that
+no one in the place could answer. I asked the noises to rap my children&#8217;s
+ages, successively. Instantly, each one of my children&#8217;s ages was given
+correctly, pausing between them sufficiently long to individualize them
+until the seventh, at which a longer pause was made, and then three more
+emphatic raps were given, corresponding to the age of the little one that
+died, which was my youngest child. I then asked: &#8216;Is this a human being
+that answers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> my questions so correctly?&#8217; There was no rap. I asked: &#8216;Is
+it a spirit? If so, make two raps,&#8217; which were instantly given as soon as
+the request was made. I then said: &#8216;If it is an injured spirit, make two
+raps,&#8217; which were instantly made, causing the house to tremble. I asked:
+&#8216;Were you injured in this house?&#8217; The answer was given as before. &#8216;Is the
+person living that injured you?&#8217; Answer by raps in the same manner. I
+ascertained by the same method that it was a man, aged thirty-one years;
+that he had been murdered in this house; and his remains were buried in
+the cellar; that his family consisted of a wife and five children, two
+sons and three daughters, all living at the time of his death, but that
+his wife had since died.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then the supposed spirit was asked if it would continue to &#8220;rap&#8221; if the
+neighbors were called in to listen. The answer was affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>And so they were called in.</p>
+
+<p>This caused the commencement of that great excitement which so soon spread
+from neighborhood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> to village, from the village to the near-by city of
+Rochester, and thence all over the country.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane says at the present time:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The apple-dropping trick appeared to us small children so simple and
+innocent, that we could only wonder that any one attached so great an
+importance to the sounds we produced. Only think of our ages at that time,
+and then ask, if you will, how we could have even the shade of a
+realization of the real meaning of this deception!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This lying book of Mrs. Underhill&#8217;s, notwithstanding its abominable
+object, does give some slight inkling of the truth here and there.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is thus that the wicked confound themselves.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She quotes, as you see here, what she says to be my mother&#8217;s words: &#8216;The
+children who slept in the other bed in the room, heard the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> rapping and
+tried to make similar sounds by snapping their fingers.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now that is really just how we first got the idea of producing with the
+joints similar sounds to those we had made by dropping apples with a
+string. From trying it with our fingers we then tried it with our feet,
+and it did not take long for us to find out that we could easily produce
+very loud raps by the action of the toe-joints when in contact with any
+substance which is a good conductor of sound. My sister Katie was the
+first to discover that we could make such peculiar noises with our
+fingers. We used to practice first with one foot and then the other, and
+finally we got so we could do it with hardly an effort.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course, I was so young then that many incidents have escaped my
+memory. I assert positively, however, that much of the effect of the
+&#8216;rappings&#8217; is greatly exaggerated in this statement which my mother was
+made to write. I say that she was <i>made</i> to write it, because the wording
+of the statement, if not largely dictated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> by others in the first
+place&mdash;men who desired to make public the details of the &#8216;rappings&#8217; and to
+make money by the sale of a pamphlet describing them&mdash;was afterwards
+grossly garbled, that it might be used to suit the dishonest purposes of
+professional spiritualists. I am not even certain that mother ever signed
+the document, of which Mrs. Underhill makes such great parade. The same is
+true regarding the other pieces of so-called evidence in her work. Utterly
+futile as they are, when confronted with my living testimony, and when
+judged by their own internal weakness, I should not regard them as in any
+sense genuine unless I could see the original handwriting and could
+recognize the signatures. I say to you now, that professional
+spiritualists are capable of going to any lengths to bolster up their
+impostures. No forgery, so long as there was the least chance of its
+succeeding, as a furtherance to their object, would in the least repel
+them. Some of the so-called statements in Leah&#8217;s book I believe were
+manufactured from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> beginning to end, though to tell you the truth I have
+avoided reading the greater part of it because of the disgust I have felt
+for a long time for that whole infamous system of pretense and falsehood.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, we were led on unintentionally by my good mother in the
+perpetration of this great wrong. She used to say when we were sitting in
+a dark circle at home: &#8216;Is this a disembodied spirit that has taken
+possession of my dear children?&#8217; And then we would &#8216;rap&#8217; just for the fun
+of the thing, you know, and mother would declare that it was the spirits
+that were speaking.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Soon it went so far, and so many persons had heard the &#8216;rappings&#8217; that we
+could not confess the wrong without exciting very great anger on the part
+of those we had deceived. So we went right on.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is wonderful, indeed, how two little children could have made this
+discovery, and how, by simply obeying the natural thirst for the
+marvelous, in others, and their inherent superstition,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> they should have
+advanced step by step, in the fraud, deluding those who most ardently
+wished to be deluded.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Until first suggested to us by our mother, who was perfectly innocent in
+her belief, the thought of &#8216;spirits&#8217; had never entered our heads. We were
+too young and too simple to imagine such a thing.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+<h3>GARBLED AND DISTORTED TESTIMONY.</h3>
+
+<p><br />So the neighbors were called in at the Hydesville house and the &#8220;rappings&#8221; were continued.</p>
+
+<p>By diligent questioning on the part of the older persons in the Fox
+household and of the neighbors, the mysterious noises were made to affirm
+or to deny almost anything which was suggested to the &#8220;mediums,&#8221; often in
+accordance with knowledge that, it had been believed, was only possessed by a few persons.</p>
+
+<p>And so the wonder grew, day by day.</p>
+
+<p>Pursuing the idea that a man had been murdered in the house, the whole of
+a very horrible history was obtained, and the name even of the supposed
+murderer was indicated by <ins class="correction" title="original: affimative">affirmative</ins>
+&#8220;raps&#8221; when mentioned together with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+others in a tentative way. The occupation of the victim was said to be
+that of a pedler. He had $500 in money and was buried in the creek which
+ran past the house.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Underhill admits that some of the neighbors were misled and went to
+digging in the creek, called Ganargua, the water of which was then very
+low. But they speedily recognized the absurdity of this undertaking, and
+the girls, Maggie, Katie and Lizzie laughed at them for their pains. The
+bones of an old horse were found there and nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the two sisters had arrived at very great proficiency in
+producing the raps. Such a crude and easily detected means as the bobbing
+of apples on the floor was early discarded. Often in the morning, before
+they dressed, and after the old folks had left their room, the sisters
+would stand in their bare feet on the floor and vie with each other in the
+laughable exercise of making the &#8220;strange&#8221; noises. It was impossible, of
+course, that Lizzie should not know the whole<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> truth, although being about
+thirteen years old at this time, she was unabled to imitate the &#8220;raps&#8221;
+very successfully. Indeed, it is said that she was too frank and outspoken
+in disposition to engage long in any deception. When the children
+persisted in deluding their mother, partly for their amusement and partly
+because they were ashamed to retract what had already caused so much
+excitement and had drawn so much attention to themselves, Lizzie used to
+break out indignantly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Now, Maggie, how can you say that it was done by spirits! You know
+yourself that it&#8217;s all a story. It&#8217;s a great shame to pretend such
+things.</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Many occurrences of this description I have gathered from Mrs. Kane.</p>
+
+<p>But Mrs. Leah Underhill, in her jumbled up narrative, states that &#8220;<i>When
+the raps broke out suddenly close to some of the family, or at the table,
+one of the girls would accuse the other of having caused them, saying,
+&#8216;Now you did that, etc., etc.&#8217;</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to Mrs. Leah Underhill, such hints of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> the true explanation of
+these &#8220;manifestations&#8221; are plentiful throughout her book, and one needs
+only to bring some little intelligence to bear upon it to read between the
+lines the whole story of the fraud.</p>
+
+<p>And here let me quote a passage which only goes to show how very strong
+was the love of deviltry in the children:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Father had always been a regular Methodist in good standing, and was
+invariable in his practice of morning prayers; and <i>when he would be
+kneeling upon his chair, it would sometimes amuse the children to see him
+open wide his eyes as knocks would sound and vibrate on his chair itself</i>.
+He expressed it graphically to mother: &#8216;When I am done praying that
+jigging stops.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane distinctly remembers incidents like this one; only
+she qualifies the narrative by saying that her father never opened his
+eyes when these annoyances came while he was at prayer, but went devoutly
+on to the end without heeding them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>How absurd for any one to suppose that if these sounds were produced by a
+cause unknown to the children, they would laugh at them and regard them as
+very great sport, instead of trembling and crying with affright!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The sounds which were heard at those times,&#8221; says Mrs. Kane in her
+statement to the writer, &#8220;were all produced by Katie and myself, and by no
+other being or spirit under the sun. Nor did we always do it with our
+feet. Frequently in that early stage of the excitement about the
+&#8216;rappings,&#8217; we would make the sounds with our fingers, provided it was
+easy to do so without causing suspicion. In order to do it unknown to any
+one, we would sit with one hand hidden by an elbow resting upon the table,
+or the woodwork of a chair.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course, our mother in her earnest belief, poor soul, excited us to do
+a great deal more than otherwise we would had done. The mystery of the
+sounds absorbed her entire being for the time. She became pale and
+worn-looking and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> thought that great misfortunes were to happen, and
+prayed often and fervently. I can well remember how my heart used to smite
+me at times when I looked upon her and knew that Katie and I were the
+cause of all her trouble. In later years, long after I had come to the age
+of understanding, I had very bitter reasons for such pangs of remorse,
+especially towards the last of mother&#8217;s life, when, as I know, she was in
+a great measure undeceived and feared for the perdition of the souls of
+her children.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In Mrs. Underhill&#8217;s book, (written for her by another,) there is an effort
+to convey the impression that John D. Fox, her father, shared in the
+belief which she sought to establish in the spiritual origin of the
+&#8220;knockings.&#8221; Such an implication Mrs. Kane declares to be utterly false.
+He never manifested in any way a tendency toward such belief; on the
+contrary, he always showed by his conduct and his manner of speech, the
+utmost repugnance to it, and a perfect contempt for the weakness which
+could lead one into it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>Margaret Fox, the mother, used to say to her husband:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, John, don&#8217;t you see that it&#8217;s a wonderful thing?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, I don&#8217;t,&#8221; he would answer. &#8220;Don&#8217;t talk to me about it. I don&#8217;t want
+to hear a word about it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane says, further: &#8220;My father did not believe in
+Spiritualism. The excitement which we caused annoyed him a great deal. He
+signed a statement which merely amounted to his declaring that he did not
+know how the noises originated. He was cajoled into doing this. He wanted
+to get rid of the importunities of those who believed, or affected to
+believe, in the &#8216;rappings.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>Such is the story of the earliest &#8220;rappings&#8221; at Hydesville.</p>
+
+<p>It is embellished by Mrs. Underhill with many transparent falsehoods. But
+still further to bolster it up, it was thought necessary to discover<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+traditions, or to invent &#8220;hearsay&#8221; anecdotes, giving to the house in which
+they lived a ghostly history. There are few country houses about which the
+memory of the oldest neighboring inhabitant does not recall something or
+other remarkable and strange, which was told him by some one or other
+whose identity is very indefinite, in the dim, distant past. Thus it is
+stated that odd noises had been heard in the Hydesville house during
+several previous years by successive occupants. But it is confessed that
+none of those persons (whose testimony no one pretends to give) had
+obtained any intelligible messages from another world.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kane states that all of this alleged neighborhood gossip was totally
+unknown to her at the time, and she believes that it had its chief&mdash;or
+perhaps its only&mdash;origin, in the morbid imaginations of those who were the
+first to set it going.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+<h3>DEVELOPMENT OF THE FRAUD.</h3>
+
+<p><br />Now we come to the moment when Ann Leah Fox Fish, the eldest sister,
+thirty-one years of age at that time, appears upon the scene of the
+wondrous and so-called supernatural commotion at the little rustic hamlet of Hydesville.</p>
+
+<p>No &#8220;mediumistic&#8221; suggestions or impulses had ever come to her. Not one,
+though she had lived twenty-three years longer in the world than the
+dark-eyed, fascinating little girl who produced the first mysterious sounds in her mother&#8217;s home.</p>
+
+<p>The excitement had reached a great height, and a pamphlet was already in
+the press detailing the whole of the wonderful performances at Hydesville,
+when Leah first heard of them. She hastened thither at once. Some idea of
+the profit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> which could be derived from awakened public interest in the
+matter, seems to have come to her very promptly. She found that the family
+had moved from the &#8220;haunted&#8221; house to that of her brother, David. She
+investigated the source of the &#8220;raps.&#8221; Mrs. Kane says that one of the
+first things which she did upon her arrival at the house, was to take both
+her and Katie apart and to cause them to undress and to show her the
+manner of producing the mysterious noises. Never for a moment was the cold
+and calculating brain of the eldest sister a dupe to the cunning pranks of
+the little children. So interested was she in the matter, that she
+insisted upon taking back with her to Rochester, at the end of a
+fortnight, her daughter Lizzie, and Katie, her sister&mdash;Maggie not being
+inclined to go with her. And, in the interval, she practised &#8220;rapping&#8221;
+herself, with her toes, after the manner illustrated by the girls. She
+found great difficulty in producing the same effect, however, as the
+joints of her feet were no longer as pliable as in childhood. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> effort
+required was also much greater, and never during her whole lifetime did
+she succeed in attaining to much proficiency in this method of deception.
+The pronounced movement, necessary in her case to cause even a faint sound
+to be heard, was easy to detect.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Often,&#8221; says Mrs. Kane, &#8220;when we were giving s&eacute;ances together, I have
+been ashamed and mortified by the awkward manner in which she would do it.
+People would observe the effort she made to produce even moderate
+&#8216;rappings,&#8217; and then they would look at me in suspicion and surprise. It
+required every bit of my skill and my best tact to prevent them from going
+away convinced of the imposture.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>On the way to Rochester by canal, the &#8220;rappings,&#8221; according to Mrs.
+Underhill, pursued her. The &#8220;Spirits became quite bold and rapped loudly&#8221;
+at the dinner-table in the cabin; &#8220;and occasionally&#8221; she adds, &#8220;<i>one end
+of the table would jump up and nearly spill the water out of our glasses;
+but there was so much noise on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> boat (going through the locks, etc.)
+that only we, who recognized the sounds, knew of them</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It would be easy, indeed&mdash;on this very thin reservation, to the effect
+that &#8220;only we, who recognized the sounds, knew of them&#8221;&mdash;to denounce the
+whole of this statement as the grossest falsehood. I have, however, the
+personal assurance of Mrs. Catharine Fox Jencken that the &#8220;rappings&#8221; were
+really heard, but that they were done by her with her feet. On the other
+hand, she declares that the joggling or lifting of the table never took
+place; nor did she ever hear of it till Mrs. Underhill&#8217;s book was
+published. It may be observed here that the latter carefully refrains from
+informing us whether the passengers also failed to observe the singular
+disturbance of the cabin table, at which they were dining.</p>
+
+<p>At Rochester, Mrs. Fish seems to have devoted herself to developing and
+elaborating the falsehood of Spiritualism. Singularly enough, to this
+matron, who had never before evinced the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> least possession of so-called
+&#8220;mediumistic&#8221; qualities, all sorts of grotesque and terrorizing wonders
+now arrived. This is a fair specimen of her narrative, relating to the
+period in question:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In the evening, my friend, Jane Little, and two or three other friends,
+called in to spend an hour or two with us. We sang and I played on the
+piano; but even then, while the lamp was burning brightly(!), I felt the
+deep throbbing of the dull accompaniment of the invisibles, keeping time
+to the music as I played; but I did not wish to have my visitors know it,
+and the spirits seemed kind enough not to make themselves heard (!) that
+others would observe what was so apparent to me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The book to which I am obliged to refer so constantly, and which is a good
+example of the bulk of spiritualistic literature, is full of passages ten
+times as absurd as this one, and having just as strongly the stamp of the
+crudest and most clumsy invention. For the most part, the only appropriate
+treatment for such absurdities is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>contemptuous silence. Occasionally,
+however, I shall find it necessary, for the sake of completeness in this
+exposition, to meet them with positive refutation, which in reality they do not deserve.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus got one of the clever and lively little girls under her own
+control, Leah soon induced her mother to come to Rochester with the other.
+Nothing could show more clearly that she had already formed the resolve to
+reap a harvest of gain and renown from this auspicious beginning, than her
+decisive course, instantly upon realizing the public wonder and curiosity
+which the &#8220;rappings&#8221; had excited.</p>
+
+<p>It was absolutely necessary to delude some people who were near, and who
+should have been dear to her, as well as the careless and easily gullible
+public. The good and simple-hearted old mother would never have been a
+partner in conscious deception. The matter-of-fact, unspeculative father,
+must be brought to a point where he would at least not deny the claims of
+the so-called<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> &#8220;mediums,&#8221; his daughters. The honest and outspoken Lizzie
+must be awed into discretion by the prospect of great prosperity, which
+was opened before them, and the lesson that if she spoke too freely they
+would surely be deprived of it. Some stalwart and docile sympathizers must
+be enlisted outside of her own people who could be depended upon to stand
+by them as against too strenuous inquiry, or hot-tempered public assault.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately upon Margaret&#8217;s arrival at the house in Rochester, in which
+Mrs. Fish lived, and which adjoined a graveyard, the &#8220;manifestations&#8221;
+redoubled. They were produced by the combined efforts of Leah, Margaret
+and Katie. Mrs. Underhill narrates that one night, about this time, a
+&#8220;spirit&#8221; walked about in their room, as if in his bare feet, when they
+were all supposed to be in bed. She continues: &#8220;He answered my question by
+stamping on the floor. I was amused&mdash;although afraid. He seemed so willing
+to do my bidding that I could not resist the temptation of speaking to him
+as he marched around<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> my bed. I said, &#8216;Flat Foot, can you dance the
+Highland fling?&#8217; This seemed to delight him. I sang the music for him, and
+he danced most admirably. This shocked mother and she said: &#8216;O, Leah, how
+can you encourage that fiend by singing for him to dance?&#8217; I soon found
+that they took advantage of my familiarity, and gathered in strong force
+around us. And here language utterly fails to describe the incidents that
+occurred. Loud whispering, giggling, scuffling, groaning, death-struggles,
+murder scenes of the most fearful character&mdash;I forbear to describe them.
+Mother became so alarmed that she called to Calvin to come up stairs. He
+came&mdash;angry at the spirits&mdash;and declared that &#8216;he would conquer or die in
+the attempt.&#8217; This seemed to amuse them. They went to his bed, raised it
+up and let it down, and shook it violently. He was still determined not to
+yield to them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Before Calvin came up stairs, and during a short lull in their
+performances, we quickly removed our beds to the floor, hoping thereby to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+prevent them from raising us up and letting us down with such violence.
+Calvin said as he came up, that we were foolish to make our beds on the
+floor, as it pleased the spirits to see how completely they had conquered
+us. So he laid down on his bed, and quietly awaited developments. Mother
+said, &#8216;Calvin, I wish your bed was on the floor, too. We have not been
+disturbed since we left the bedstead.&#8217; Calvin remarked, &#8216;They are up to
+some deviltry now. I hear them.&#8217; He no sooner uttered these words, than a
+shower of slippers came flying at him as he lay in his bed. He bore this
+without a murmur. The next instant he was struck violently with his cane.
+He seized it and struck back, right and left, with all his strength,
+without hitting anything; but received a palpable <i>bang</i> in return for
+every thrust he made. He sprang to his feet and fought with all his might.
+Everything thrown at him he pitched back to them, until a brass
+candlestick was thrown at him, cutting his lip. This quite enraged him. He
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>pronounced a solemn malediction and throwing himself on the bed, he vowed
+he would have nothing more to do with &#8216;fiendish spirits.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He was not long permitted to remain in quiet there. They commenced at his
+bedstead and deliberately razed it to the floor, leaving the headboard in
+one place, the footboard in another, the two sides at angles, and the
+bedclothes scattered about the room. He was left lying on his mattress,
+and for a moment there was silence; after which some slight movements were
+heard in the &#8216;green room.&#8217; I had stowed a large number of balls of carpet
+rags in an old chest standing on the floor, with two trunks and several
+other articles on the top of it. It seemed but the work of a moment for
+them to get at the carpet balls, which came flying at us in every
+direction, hitting us in the same place every time. They took us for their
+target, and threw with the skill of an archer. Darkness made no difference
+with them, and if either of us attempted to remonstrate against such
+violence, they would instantly give <i>the remonstrant</i> the benefit of a ball.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>Mrs. Kane remembers with tolerable distinctness the antics that
+distinguished this sojourn of her mother, herself and her sisters in the
+Rochester house. She and Katie did indulge in wild larks in the sleeping
+rooms of the family at all hours of the night. The &#8220;whispering&#8221; and
+&#8220;giggling,&#8221; the &#8220;scuffling&#8221; and &#8220;groaning,&#8221; and the tragic mimicry were
+natural to childish daredevils like themselves, and one can well
+understand how, with the attendant &#8220;rappings,&#8221; the showers of slippers
+hurled from the &#8220;green room,&#8221; the shaking of Calvin&#8217;s bed and the
+&#8220;banging&#8221; of him on the head, these things may have made the desired
+impression upon both him and the mother. Mrs. Kane says that this is the
+true and only explanation of it all, and that in comparatively recent
+years, at s&eacute;ances in Adelphi Hall, New York, she has done the most
+audacious things, similar in character to these, under cover of
+semi-darkness, and has not been detected, simply because nearly all of
+those who were present were believers and were not too curious.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>There is another &#8220;evidence&#8221; given by Ann Leah which is too pitiably
+ridiculous to be considered, except as a subject of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Often at meal-time,&#8221; she says, &#8220;the table would be gradually agitated,
+and Calvin in particular, [alas, poor Calvin!] would be more disturbed
+than the rest of us. Once he arose from his chair and reached across the
+table for a heavy pitcher of water, when <i>the chair was instantly removed
+and he sat down on the floor, spilling the water all over himself</i>!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kane&#8217;s sole comment upon this is: &#8220;Of course, we slily did it, as we did many other hoydenish tricks.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We also used to twitch mother&#8217;s cap off and gently jerk the comb out of
+her hair, just to tease her. Leah says that these things were done by the
+spirits! How silly to address such a puerile pretense to any one gifted
+with common sense!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As a companion picture to what has gone before, let the reader also
+engrave this &#8220;miraculous&#8221; scene upon the retina of his imagination:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>&#8220;We had stored our winter provisions in the cellar. Among them were
+several barrels of apples, potatoes, turnips, etc. From this cellar came
+the apples, potatoes and turnips flying across our room, hitting all in
+precisely the same place every time. It will now be remembered that these
+articles were in the cellar under the ground floor, and had to come from
+the rear of the cellar, through the door, into the kitchen, up the stairs,
+into the pantry on the second floor, through the pantry into the dining
+room, up the second flight of stairs, into the large room in which we
+slept, hitting us as we lay in our beds near the front window. * * *</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A cabinet shop was the next thing represented by the spirits. They seemed
+to be possessed of all kinds of tools to work with. After sawing off
+boards they would let them fall heavily on the floor, jarring everything
+around them. Then, after planing, jointing, driving nails, and screwing
+down the lid of a coffin, they would shove the hollow sounding article
+about the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> room. (This we understood at a later day.) Often to our utter
+amazement, pickets from the discarded lots in the cemetery came flying
+through the room over our heads, on our beds, like debris in a tornado.
+They came from the extreme west side of the burying-ground, through <i>that</i>
+lot, and the distance of about two hundred feet through <i>our</i> lot; an
+entire distance of about four hundred feet. That they came by no visible
+means, we knew; as no human power could have thrown them through the air
+into our chamber window, hitting us in our beds, in the same place every
+time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In July, 1848, Leah, her sisters and mother, revisited the Hydesville
+house, which was then unoccupied. David, the brother, had fallen by this
+time into the plans of Leah, whether a dupe or an accomplice, Margaret,
+even at this day, is unable to say. To him was due the very first
+suggestion that the so-called spirits might communicate with the living by
+means of the alphabet. And since then, this has been the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> chief stay of
+spiritualism, literally the A B C of all its so-called science. It is a
+singular commentary upon the consistency of the &#8220;spirits,&#8221; or the good
+faith of those who professed to interpret their messages, that the code of
+communication at first employed in their circles was entirely different in
+the meaning of the simple signals used from the one which finally was
+adopted. Would the &#8220;spirits,&#8221; think you, who are divorced from the
+trammels of this world, have been guilty of this simple error and have
+been obliged to correct it afterward, had they not been impostors?</p>
+
+<p>The object of Mrs. Fish in going back to Hydesville is quite apparent.
+There was yet an unworked mine of wonder and superstition, out of which
+the dust of dross might be thrown into the eyes of the credulous, as the
+pure gold of revelation.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, it was necessary to get from the so-called invisible
+intelligence an injunction to seek for proofs of the foul murder which it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+had been said had been committed in the house where the &#8220;rappings&#8221; were
+originally heard.</p>
+
+<p>Mind you, months had then elapsed since the digging had been first done in
+the cellar and the Ganargua creek near by, and David S., who was now
+wholly in sympathy with Leah in her view of the future importance of the
+new superstition, had lived in the neighborhood ever since, while nobody
+had remained in the &#8220;haunted&#8221; house to be cognizant of what might have
+taken place there in the mean time.</p>
+
+<p>By the new code system of obtaining answers to queries, a mandate to dig
+up the cellar and to search for something or other there was obtained, and
+obeyed, the work lasting two or three days. It is stated by Leah that some
+fragments of an earthen bowl, a few bones, some teeth and some bunches of
+hair were found. She says that doctors pronounced the bones to be human.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the names of these doctors are nowhere to be found in her
+volume, nor does any one, unwarped by prejudice, really believe more than
+a very small part of this story.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>That there was digging is certain.</p>
+
+<p>That there had been plenty of time to hide anything that David Fox had
+desired to hide in the cellar, is certain.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Mrs. Kane remembered absolutely nothing about anything having been
+found in the cellar that bore the slightest semblance to any portion of
+the human frame. If any bones (perchance, like those found in the creek,
+the skeleton of a horse) were uncovered, she denies positively that any
+doctor ever gave the opinion that they were the remains of a man.</p>
+
+<p>She pronounces equally false, the statement of Leah that about the time
+the digging was abandoned, on account of the angry interference of a mob,
+the spades of the diggers struck upon a hollow-sounding, wooden substance,
+which might or might not have been a box of ill-gotten plunder, or the
+rough sepulchre of the slain pedler.</p>
+
+<p>The indignation of the neighbors of the Foxes in Arcadia was not so much
+due to the fact that the latter persisted in pretending to communicate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+with ghosts and uncanny elfs, as it was to the totally unwarranted
+suspicion which had been cast through the early &#8220;rappings&#8221; upon a man
+named Bell, who had formerly lived in the house, which it was now
+pretended was haunted. This, as well as other evidence of the public
+feeling at that time, was cleverly employed for her own benefit by Leah,
+who easily foresaw how anything that might bear the semblance of religious
+persecution would promote her cause, false though it was, by bringing to
+it both greater notoriety and widespread sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt, too, that if there had not been a very strong vein of
+superstition in the Fox family, the first &#8220;rappings&#8221; would never have
+produced the deep impression that they did on the mother and her son
+David. Many strange stories, which had been handed down from a grandfather
+or a great-grandfather, a great uncle or a great aunt, were told at the
+fireside with such embellishment as will inevitably come from recital and
+repetition to a wonder-delighting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> audience. There were traditions of
+prophecies fulfilled and of dumb cattle behaving queerly, all of which
+Mrs. Underhill has very carefully set down and magnified in her own
+peculiar manner to her own unholy purpose.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+<h3>THE MERCENARY CAMPAIGN.</h3>
+
+<p><br />The public campaign of Spiritualism was now begun.</p>
+
+<p>A sufficient hubbub had been made over it to induce attention from all
+sorts and conditions of people.</p>
+
+<p>The mother and her daughters went again to Rochester, and there placed
+themselves in the hands of the first of many &#8220;committees of friends&#8221; who
+were used as tools or confederates, according to their character, to
+&#8220;humbug&#8221; the public more completely. The character and functions of these
+committees may be judged from the following, which is found in Leah&#8217;s
+book: &#8220;The names of this committee were Isaac Post, R. D. Jones, Edward
+Jones, John<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> Kedzie and Andrew Clackner. <i>They were faithful friends, who
+never permitted any one to visit us unattended by themselves or some
+reliable person.</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The so-called spirits soon urged in laborious communications that it was
+needful to make their demonstrations more public, and that an
+&#8220;investigation&#8221; of the &#8220;rappings,&#8221; ought therefore to be made by some
+well-known men. The &#8220;spirits&#8221; were even so kind as to spell out by means
+of the tentative alphabet, the names of those whom they wished to have
+appointed to perform this part. The desire for advertisement, indeed, was
+not likely to cause the rejection of the name of any available person,
+whose prominence would increase the public interest in the movement. We
+are not astonished, then, to find that Frederick Douglass was one of those
+present at this earliest farce of investigation. It was the forerunner of
+many others which were like unto it, and gradually, in their stations in
+various cities, the &#8220;Fox Sisters&#8221; drew to their s&eacute;ances nearly all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> of the
+conspicuous persons of the time, who regarded the effects exhibited to
+them in as many different lights as their minds and characters were
+different.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally enough, after this compliance with their desires, the &#8220;spirits&#8221;
+directed that a public exhibition should be given. The largest hall in
+Rochester was hired for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>And here the infamy of bringing forward two little girls to do the work of
+base and vulgar charlatanism, appears in all its revolting character. The
+eldest of the children was then but nine years old. Had she been dressed
+in accordance with her tender age, it would have taken only very slight
+observation to detect the secret of the &#8220;rappings.&#8221; Those persons now
+living, who were present at this and at other public exhibitions of
+Spiritualism at that time, will easily remember that Margaret and
+Catherine Fox appeared on a platform in long gowns, as if they had been
+full-grown women. The dresses were expressly prepared by order of Mrs. Ann
+Leah<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> Fox Fish, the evil genius of these unfortunate victims. Without
+these robes nothing whatever could have been done in the way of &#8220;spirit
+rappings,&#8221; under the matter-of-fact scrutiny of the public.</p>
+
+<p>To carry out the delusion to the utmost, every detail touching these
+earliest exhibitions was directed through &#8220;spirit rappings,&#8221; even to the
+insertion of grandiloquent notices in the newspapers.</p>
+
+<p>In all of the &#8220;investigations&#8221; of the &#8220;rappings,&#8221; at this or at any other
+time, the attentive student will find somewhere a loop-hole of escape from
+observation, an unguarded avenue of detection. In some of the principal
+s&eacute;ances, described at great length by Leah, the conditions favorable to
+fraud and illusion were so very obvious that they ought to have excited
+derision in the veriest child.</p>
+
+<p>The following passage in the report of a so-called investigation, is
+pointed to by professional spiritualists as one of the best &#8220;evidences&#8221; of
+the genuineness of Spiritualism:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>&#8220;One of the committee placed one of his hands on the feet of the ladies
+and the other on the floor, and though the feet were not moved, there was
+a distinct jar of the floor.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Here, then, there were three operators and one investigator. The latter
+puts his hand on the feet of the ladies. How many feet, pray you? There
+were six feet on the platform, as we know, all of which had been carefully
+educated in the production of &#8220;raps.&#8221; Could one man&#8217;s hand cover them all?
+And if it could not, does not this pretended &#8220;evidence&#8221; fall at once to
+the ground?</p>
+
+<p>All of the recitals made by spiritualistic writers concerning the doings
+of the &#8220;Fox Sisters,&#8221; contain this element of vagueness, the lack of
+precision and completeness, which to persons unaccustomed to analysis may
+possibly appear plausible enough, but to the experienced inquirer is
+merely a more certain proof of weakness and prevarication.</p>
+
+<p>Volumes might be written to meet the statements advanced in every case,
+and to show how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> clumsily misleading they are. It is not worth while at
+this late day, and in that direction, to do more than I have already
+accomplished in this chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the actual demonstration of the fact that the far-famed &#8220;rappings&#8221;
+are produced in the manner described at the beginning of this work, should
+be quite sufficient to all logical minds, to condemn every claim that the
+professional mediums have advanced as being the agents of any supernatural
+manifestations.</p>
+
+<p>The good old Latin maxim never applied with greater force than it does
+here: <i>Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The operations of the eldest sister all tended to the one end: fame and
+money. In Rochester, fees for the first time were accepted by &#8220;mediums,&#8221;
+and shortly afterward a tariff of prices for admission to the s&eacute;ances and
+the &#8220;private circles&#8221; was adopted and made public. No jugglers ever drove
+a more prosperous business than did the &#8220;Fox family&#8221; for a number of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+years, when once fairly launched upon that sea of popular wonder, which
+somebody has said is supplied by the inherent fondness of mankind for
+being humbugged.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fish had actually the project of founding a new religion, and she
+tried hard to convince her younger sisters and her own child that there
+were really such things as spiritual communications, notwithstanding that
+all of those that were produced in their s&eacute;ances they knew to be perfectly
+false. She asserted that even before Maggie and Katie were born she had
+received messages warning her that they were destined to do great things.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In all of our s&eacute;ances, while we were under her charge,&#8221; says Mrs. Kane,
+&#8220;we knew just when to rap &#8216;yes&#8217; and when to rap &#8216;no&#8217; by signals that she
+gave us, and which were unknown to any one but ourselves. Of course, we
+were too young, then, to have been successful very long in deluding
+people, had it not been for an arrangement such as this.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>&#8220;Her own daughter, Lizzie, had no manner of patience with her transparent
+pretence.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Ma,&#8217; she would exclaim, when Leah attempted to impress her with a belief
+in some of the frauds which she perpetrated, &#8216;how can you ever pretend
+that that is done by the spirits? I am ashamed to know even that you do
+such things&mdash;it&#8217;s dreadfully wicked.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Some day it will be known that one other person beside Lizzie, who
+afterwards occupied a filial relation to this woman, detested even more
+strongly the atmosphere of hypocrisy and deceit with which the latter
+surrounded herself, and hated, too, the rankling obligation under which an
+unkind fate had placed her.</p>
+
+<p>It is not so wonderful that men of learning and originality were drawn to
+the mysterious s&eacute;ances of the Fox girls, when it is considered that they
+became a sort of fashionable &#8220;fad,&#8221; as the receptions of Mesmer did in the
+last century in Paris. There were great opportunities there for studying
+human nature, and the period<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> was one of a notable awakening of scientific
+and transcendental speculation. Such men as Greeley, Bancroft, Fenimore
+Cooper, Bryant, N. P. Willis, Dr. Francis, John Bigelow, Ripley, Dr.
+Griswold, Dr. Eliphalet Nott, Theodore Parker, William M. Thackeray, James
+Freeman Clarke, Thomas M. Foote and Bayard Taylor, and women of the
+intellectual strength of Alice Cary and Harriet Beecher Stowe became
+deeply interested. But nearly all of these lost their interest in
+Spiritualism in time, for they became morally, if not positively
+convinced, that the effects produced were the mere result of fraud.</p>
+
+<p>There was another attraction, however, in those early days. The younger
+&#8220;mediums&#8221; were both very pretty and very young. Sympathy and
+commiseration, as much as aught else, often drew visitors to them, and
+caused such visitors to continue their friends. Thus, we find that Horace
+Greeley and Dr. Elisha Kent Kane became important factors in the lives of
+both of these interesting creatures, the former educating Katie, and the
+latter striving to form Maggie&#8217;s mind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> and to reform her character with
+the express object of making her his wife.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kane, in commenting upon the life which she led at that time, says:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When I look back, I can only say in defense of my depraved calling, that
+I took not the slightest pleasure in it. The novelty and the excitement
+that had half intoxicated me as a child were fast being dissipated. The
+true conception of this infamous thing soon dawned upon me. The awakening
+was full of anguish&mdash;the anguish of hope, as well as the anguish of grief.
+I then first knew Dr. Kane, and with that acquaintance entered the new
+light into my life.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+<h3>SPIRITUALISTIC BOOMERANGS.</h3>
+
+<p><br />In nearly all of the so-called investigations of the &#8220;rappings&#8221; produced
+by the &#8220;Fox Sisters,&#8221; there was an absolute absence of genuine scientific
+inquiry. Only once in this critical stage of their career, did they submit
+to experiment and examination by doctors of unquestioned repute and
+learning. The result of this investigation has been held up by
+professional spiritualists as a triumphant proof that the source of
+&#8220;rappings&#8221; was beyond any mortal finding out. The fact is that the doctors
+hit upon the right principle at the inception of the inquiry, but were
+misled into a wrong application of it, an error which the &#8220;mediums,&#8221; of
+course, encouraged up to a certain point, so that they might gain prestige
+afterwards by refuting it. Following out this policy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> Mrs. Underhill has
+incorporated in her book the testimony of the doctors, heedless of the law
+of destiny, that truth must prevail finally.</p>
+
+<p>I propose to take this same statement of the doctors, based as it is upon
+an erroneous assumption and a correct theory, and show how strongly it
+sustains and plainly corroborates the explanation of the &#8220;rappings&#8221; now
+given by Mrs. Kane and Mrs. Jencken.</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen who made this notable investigation are usually spoken of as
+the &#8220;Buffalo doctors.&#8221; They were members of the faculty of the University
+of Buffalo. Austin Flint, who afterward held the highest medical rank in
+the metropolis, was the most prominent of the three. The other two were
+Drs. Charles A. Lee and C. B. Coventry.</p>
+
+<p>The theory that they advanced was that the mysterious noises were produced
+by some one of the articulations of the body. Their assumption was that it
+was the great joint of the knee which produced them. Had they worked upon
+their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> theory alone, and left all assumption aside, until actual evidence
+had led up to them; or, even had they investigated other joints of the
+lower limbs, besides that of the knee, they must have inevitably arrived
+at the correct conclusion. Unfortunately, however, the idea which so beset
+them as to render their labor abortive, arose from the actual existence in
+Buffalo of a woman whose knee-joints could be snapped audibly at will.</p>
+
+<p>The closeness of the scrutiny applied by these gentlemen displeased the
+eldest &#8220;medium,&#8221; and her resentment finds characteristic expression in her
+volume, printed thirty-seven years after the occurrence. She declares that
+she found Dr. Lee to be &#8220;a wily, deceitful man.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>If anything can circumvent cunning, it is certainly cunning itself, and in
+this sense, it is entirely laudable when exerted in a proper cause. There
+is no doubt that strategy had to be used to induce this woman, conscious
+of her falsity, and schooled in subterfuges and evasions, to submit to a
+coldly scientific test. The challenge, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>however, came under such
+circumstances, public suspicion being so whetted by the fact that a woman
+had been discovered whose knee-joints possessed the peculiar quality of
+making sound, that it could not well be avoided, without it becoming
+generally known that the declination was a tacit confession of fraud.</p>
+
+<p>The doctors published very promptly the result of their preliminary
+examination, which was made without any special faculties being afforded them.</p>
+
+<p>They said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Curiosity having led us to visit the rooms at the Phelps House, in which
+two females from Rochester, Mrs. Fish and Miss Fox, profess to exhibit
+striking manifestations from the spirit world, by means of which communion
+may be had with deceased friends, etc.; and having arrived at a
+physiological explanation of the phenomena, the correctness of which has
+been demonstrated in an instance which has since fallen under our
+observation, we have felt that a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> public statement is called for, which
+may, perhaps, serve to prevent a further waste of time, money and
+credulity (to say nothing of sentiment and philosophy) in connection with
+this so long successful imposition.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The explanation is reached almost by a logical necessity, on the
+application of a method of reasoning much resorted to in the diagnosis of
+diseases, namely, <i>the reasoning by exclusion</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It was reached by this method prior to the demonstration which has
+subsequently occurred.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is to be assumed, first, that the manifestations are not to be
+regarded as spiritual, provided they can be physically or physiologically
+accounted for. Immaterial agencies are not to be invoked until material
+agencies fail. We are thus to <i>exclude</i> spiritual causation in this stage
+of the investigation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Next, it is taken for granted that the &#8216;rappings&#8217; are not produced by
+artificial contrivances about the persons of the females, which may be
+concealed by the dress. This hypothesis is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> excluded because it is
+understood that the females have been repeatedly and carefully examined by
+lady committees.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is obvious that the &#8216;rappings&#8217; are not caused by machinery attached to
+tables, doors, etc., for they are heard in different rooms, and in
+different parts of the same room in which the females are present, <i>but
+always near the spot where the females are stationed</i>. This mechanical
+hypothesis is then to be excluded. So much for the negative evidence, and
+now for what positively relates to the subject.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>On carefully observing the countenances of the two females it is evident
+that they involve an effort of the will. They evidently attempted to
+conceal any indications of voluntary effort, but did not succeed. A
+voluntary effort was manifested, and it was plain that it could not be
+continued very long without fatigue.</i> Assuming, then, this <i>positive
+fact</i>, the inquiry arises, how can the will be exerted to produce sounds
+(&#8216;rappings&#8217;) without obvious movements of the body?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> The voluntary muscles
+themselves are the only organs, save those which belong to the mind
+itself, over which volition can exercise any direct control. But
+contractions of the muscles do not, in the muscles themselves, occasion
+obvious sounds. The muscles, therefore, to develop audible vibrations,
+must act upon parts with which they are connected. Now, it was
+sufficiently clear that the &#8216;rappings&#8217; were not <i>vocal</i> sounds; these
+could not be produced without movements of the respiratory muscles, which
+would at once lead to detection. Hence, excluding vocal sounds, <i>the only
+possible source of the noises in question, produced as we have seen that
+they must be, by voluntary muscular contraction, is in one or more of the
+movable articulations of the skeleton</i>, from the anatomical construction
+of the voluntary muscles. This explanation remains as <i>the only
+alternative</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By an analysis prosecuted in this manner we arrive at the conviction that
+the &#8216;rappings,&#8217; assuming that they are not spiritual, <i>are produced by the
+action of the will, through voluntary action on the joints</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>&#8220;Various facts may be cited to show that the motion of the joints, under
+certain circumstances, is adequate to produce the phenomena of the
+&#8216;rappings.&#8217; * * * By a curious coincidence, after arriving at the above
+conclusion respecting the source of the sounds, <i>an instance has fallen
+under our observation, which demonstrates the fact that noises precisely
+identical with the spiritual &#8216;rappings&#8217; may be produced in the
+knee-joints</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The doctors then describe how the sounds may be produced in certain
+subjects by the partial dislocation of the knee joint; and they add:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The visible vibrations of articles in the room, situated near the
+operator, occur if the limb, or any portion of the body, is <i>in contact
+with them</i> at the time the sounds are produced. <i>The force of the
+semi-dislocation of the bone is sufficient to occasion distinct jarring of
+the doors, tables, etc., if in contact.</i> The intensity of the sound may be
+varied in proportion to the force of the muscular contractions, and this
+will render the apparent source of the &#8216;rappings&#8217; more or less distinct.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>I have italicized the portions of these extracts which apply in a measure
+to the action of the toe-joints, as well as to that of the knee. No
+especial comment upon them is needed. The reader may easily comprehend the
+relation of these peculiar facts.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing, from this brief of their supposed case, exactly what she had to
+apprehend from them, and anxious to prove triumphantly that she and her
+sisters did not make the &#8220;rappings&#8221; with their knees, Mrs. Fish rushed
+into print, and challenged the doctors to a more public investigation, to
+be made by three men and three women, the latter of whom were to disrobe
+the &#8220;mediums,&#8221; if they so desired. The doctors, of course, accepted.</p>
+
+<p>In her account of this scene, Mrs. Fish speaks of herself and her sister
+Maggie as &#8220;two young creatures thus baited as it were by cruel enemies.&#8221;
+It should be remembered at this point that her age at that time was about
+thirty-four years, whilst that of Maggie was only eleven! So much for the
+disingenuousness of the narrator.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>She herself says that during the test, Maggie and she sat on a sofa
+together a long time and no raps came. The watch was too close. Then a
+zealous and indiscreet friend rapped on the back of her chair, and to
+shield herself from seeming complicity, she rebuked him with great
+ostentation. How kindly she felt toward fraud, however, is shown by the
+excuses which she makes for his conduct.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It was certainly a severe and cruel ordeal for us,&#8221; she goes on, &#8220;as we
+sat there under that accusation, surrounded by all these men, authorities,
+some of them persecutors, <i>while the raps, usually so ready and familiar,
+would not come to our relief. Some few and faint ones did indeed
+come&mdash;some nine or ten. The doctors say in their account that it was while
+they intermitted the holding of our feet</i>. Such was not my <i>impression</i>,
+but <i>I</i> attach <i>small importance</i> to that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There were several sittings of the investigators in company with the
+&#8220;mediums,&#8221; and Mrs. Underhill asserts that at times plentiful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> &#8220;rappings&#8221;
+were heard, both when their feet and knees were held and when they were
+not held. And then she introduces this weak and transparent piece of
+hypocrisy so familiar to those who have ever had to do with so-called
+&#8220;mediums&#8221;:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We are now familiar with the fact that spirits often refuse to act in the
+presence of those who bring to the occasion, not a candid and fair spirit
+of inquiry for the satisfaction of an honest skepticism, but a bitter and
+offensive bigotry of prejudice and invincible hostility, which does not
+really seek, but rather repels the truth, and but little deserves the
+favor of its exhibition to them by the spirits.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The further report of the doctors contained these points:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>The two females were seated upon two chairs placed near together, their
+heels resting on cushions, their lower limbs extended, with the toes
+elevated and the feet separated from each other.</i> The object of this
+experiment was to secure a position in which the ligaments of the
+knee-joint<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> should be made tense, and no opportunity offered to make a
+pressure with the foot. <i>We were pretty well satisfied that the
+displacement of the bones requisite for the sounds could not be effected,
+unless a fulcrum were obtained by resting one foot upon the other, or on
+some resisting body. The company waited half an hour, but no sounds were
+heard in this position.</i></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The position of the <i>younger</i> sister was then changed to a sitting
+posture, with the lower limbs extended on the sofa, <i>the elder sister
+sitting in the customary way</i>, at the other extremity of the sofa. The
+&#8216;Spirits&#8217; did not choose to signify their presence under these
+circumstances, although repeatedly requested to do so. The latter
+experiment went to confirm the belief that the <i>younger sister alone</i>
+produced the &#8216;rappings.&#8217; These experiments were continued until the
+females themselves admitted that it was useless to continue any longer at
+that time, with any expectation of manifestations being made.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>In resuming the usual position on the sofa,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> the feet resting on the
+floor, the knockings soon began to be heard.</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then the doctors held the knees of the fair performers to ascertain if
+there was any movement when the sounds were heard:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The hands were kept in apposition for several minutes at a time, and the
+experiments repeated frequently, for the space of half an hour and more,
+with negative results; that is to say, <i>there were plenty of &#8216;raps&#8217; when
+the knees were not held, and none when the hands were applied, save once;
+as the pressure was intentionally relaxed (Dr. Lee being the holder) two
+or three faint single &#8216;raps&#8217; were heard, and Dr. Lee immediately averred
+that the motion of the bone was plainly perceptible to him. The experiment
+of <ins class="correction" title="original: siezing">seizing</ins> the knees as quickly as possible, when the knockings first
+commenced, was tried several times, but always with the effect of putting
+an immediate quietus upon the demonstrations</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>No sensible person can doubt that the statements of facts within their
+actual knowledge,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> made by these three eminent physicians, are absolutely
+true. They say finally:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Had our experiments, which were first directed to this joint failed, we
+should have proceeded to interrogate, experimentally, other articulations.
+But the conclusions seemed clear that the &#8216;Rochester knockings&#8217; emanate
+from the knee-joint.</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>What a pity they did <i>not</i> &#8220;interrogate&#8221; other articulations!</p>
+
+<p>The report, erroneous as it was in its conclusions, contained so much
+<ins class="correction" title="original: significent">significant</ins> truth that Mrs. Fish was at first staggered by its purport.
+But in March, 1851, she wrote again to the press a lengthy letter, in
+which she feebly attempted to counteract the effect of the doctor&#8217;s
+opinion, and incidentally made some grave admissions. Referring to the
+fact that whenever the &#8220;mediums&#8221; were kept in constrained positions there
+were no &#8220;manifestations,&#8221; she made this remarkable admission:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>It is true that when our feet were placed on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> cushions stuffed with
+shavings, and resting on our heels, there were no sounds heard, and that
+sounds were heard when our feet were resting on the floor</i>; and it is just
+as true that if our friendly spirits retired when they witnessed such
+harsh proceedings on the part of our persecutors, it was not in our power
+to detain them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then she remarks that certain things happened <i>after the medical gentlemen left</i>:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Our feet were held from the floor by Dr. Gray and Mr. Clark, in presence
+of the whole committee, on the evening of the investigation made by the
+medical gentlemen (after they left); and the sounds were distinctly heard,
+which was allowed by the committee to be a far more satisfactory test, as
+they could distinctly hear the sounds under the feet, and feel the floor
+<i>jar</i> while our feet were held nearly or quite a foot from the floor.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>About this time, a suspicion that the &#8220;raps&#8221; were made by use of the toes,
+first found expression, but it never seems to have been followed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> up to
+the point of verification. Indeed, the secret seems to have been kept
+absolutely for forty years, and was only revealed by the lips of Mrs.
+Margaret Fox Kane.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot refrain from quoting in this place an incident from the record of
+the common enemy, which further illustrates the imbecile audacity with
+which they parade their abominable fraud before the eyes of sensible
+persons. At a s&eacute;ance, in which wonderous things were done under a table,
+around which the company including Mrs. Fish and one of her sisters were
+closely seated, one, Mr. Stringham, apparently a doubter, asked:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;May I leave the table while the others remain, that I may look and see the bells ringing?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The &#8220;spirits&#8221; answered:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What do you think we require you to sit close to the table for?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And the veracious writer adds:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>When spirits make these physical demonstrations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> they are compelled to
+assume shapes that human eyes must not look upon.</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p class="center">!<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>!<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>!<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>!<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>!<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>!<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>!<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>!<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>!</p>
+
+<p>I should be guilty of an historical omission did I not also notice a
+somewhat formal investigation made by a committee of Harvard Professors
+and others, appointed to satisfy the exigencies of a newspaper controversy
+in Boston in 1857, and which Mrs. Ann Leah Fox Brown and Miss Catherine
+Fox attended. The results were wholly unsatisfactory and inconclusive from
+a scientific standpoint, though the moral effect of this outcome was
+strongly against the spiritualists, who were, of course, bound to prove
+their positive side of the case, and failed ignominiously to do so. The
+committee consisted of Professors Agassiz, Pierce and Horsford, Mr. George
+Lunt, editor of the Boston <i>Courier</i>, Dr. A. B. Gould, Mr. Allen Putnam,
+Dr. H. F. Gardner and Mr. G. W. Rains. The last three were pronounced
+spiritualists.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Agassiz, who in particular had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> studied mesmerism and so-called
+clairvoyance most carefully, and who believed to some extent in the
+former, declared with emphasis that there was an easy physiological
+explanation of all the effects that the &#8220;Fox Sisters,&#8221; or any other
+&#8220;rappers,&#8221; produced. The raps caused by the &#8220;Fox Sisters&#8221; on this occasion
+were but feeble and uncertain. When other &#8220;mediums&#8221; were under
+examination, the close watch kept upon them by the learned investigators
+seemed greatly to disconcert them and prevented the possibility of any
+pronounced &#8220;manifestations&#8221; taking place.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Courier</i> had issued a challenge offering five hundred dollars to any
+one who would &#8220;communicate a single word imparted to the &#8216;spirits,&#8217;&#8221; by
+its editor &#8220;in an adjoining room,&#8221; who would &#8220;read a single word in
+English, written inside a book or sheet of paper folded in such a manner
+as we may suggest; who would answer with the aid of all the higher
+intelligences he or she can invoke from the other world, <i>three questions</i> * * *;&#8221; and it added:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>&#8220;And we will not require Dr. Gardiner or the &#8216;mediums&#8217; to risk a single
+cent on the experiment. If one or all of them can do one of these things,
+the five hundred dollars shall be paid on the spot. If they fail, they
+shall pay nothing; not even the expense incident to trying the
+experiment.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Committee made a report which declared that nothing had been done
+which entitled any one to receive the sum offered by the <i>Courier</i>.
+Therefore no award was made.</p>
+
+<p>A library might be written containing only accounts of private
+investigations of &#8220;spiritual phenomena&#8221; by able and scientific observers,
+all of which conduced to but one verdict, that every pretense of
+Spiritualism is a fraud. I deem it more appropriate, however, and entirely
+adequate to my purpose, to restrict my citations from such inquiries to
+those which had an absolutely undeniable official or authoritative
+character.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+<h3>THE SUPREME AUDACITY OF FRAUD.</h3>
+
+<p><br />The multitude of forms that a certain kind of deception, when once it
+obtains a foothold in the public mind, will assume, is often wonderful.</p>
+
+<p>Spiritualism has resorted to all the trickery that for ages has been used
+to delude and delight the populace.</p>
+
+<p>Much of it could be traced back to the very first mountebanks who wandered
+about the streets of the ancient cities, or squatted at the gates of
+palaces or in market-places to catch the frequent obolus from the curious
+passer-by.</p>
+
+<p>In every country under the sun, the trade of deception has been turned to
+the account of religious superstition. The Hindus, in particular, excel in
+this branch of necromancy. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> marvelous things that Aaron and the
+Egyptian sorcerers did before Pharaoh, are really as nothing compared with
+what the modern jugglers of India and China perform. All of the
+developments of the art that have taken place in the West, seem but
+trivial imitation beside these, and indeed they are little better.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had Spiritualism made many proselytes, than there was no limit
+to its audacious pretensions. Its apostles imagined that they could go on
+duping the world and even hoodwinking the scientists, and that by
+appealing to the Federal government for a formal investigation of its
+claims, which they could not have believed for a moment would be granted,
+they could obtain a sort of quasi-official recognition of their so-called
+new religion.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, on the 17th of April, 1854, a petition was sent to Congress,
+bearing fifteen thousand names, and was presented in executive session by
+Senator Shields of Illinois. As a rather skillful contemporaneous
+characterization<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> of the matter, what he said on this occasion is of
+historical interest. The following were his words:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I beg leave to present to the Senate a petition, with some fifteen
+thousand names appended to it, upon a very singular and novel
+subject. The petitioners declare that certain physical and mental
+phenomena of mysterious import, have become so prevalent in this
+country and Europe, as to engross a large share of public attention.
+A partial analysis of these phenomena attest the existence, first, of
+an occult force which is exhibited in sliding, raising, arresting,
+holding, suspending, and otherwise disturbing ponderable bodies,
+apparently in direct opposition to the acknowledged laws of matter,
+and transcending the accredited power of the human mind. Secondly,
+lights of different degrees of intensity appear in dark rooms, where
+chemical action or phosphorescent illumination cannot be developed,
+and where there are no means of generating electricity, or of
+producing combustion. Thirdly, a variety of sounds, frequent in
+occurrence, and diversified in character, and of singular
+significance and importance, consisting of mysterious rapping,
+indicating the presence of invisible intelligence. Sounds are often
+heard like those produced by the prosecution of mechanical
+operations, like <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>the hoarse murmer of the winds and waves, mingled
+with the harsh creaking of the masts and rigging of a ship laboring
+in a sea. Concussions also occur, resembling distant thunder,
+producing oscillatory movements of surrounding objects, and a
+tremulous motion of the premises upon which these phenomena occur.
+Harmonious sounds, as those of human voices, and other sounds
+resembling those of the fife, drum, trumpet, etc., have been produced
+without any visible agency. Fourthly, all the functions of the human
+body and mind are influenced in what appear to be certain abnormal
+states of the system, by causes not yet adequately understood or
+accounted for. The occult force, or invisible power, frequently
+interrupts the normal operations of the faculties, suspending
+sensation and voluntary motion of the body to a death-like coldness
+and rigidity, and diseases hitherto considered incurable, have been
+entirely eradicated by this mysterious agency. The petitioners
+proceed to state that two opinions prevail with respect to the origin
+of these phenomena. One ascribes them to the power and intelligence
+of departed spirits operating upon the elements which pervade all
+natural forms. The other rejects this conclusion, and contends that
+all these results may be accounted for in a rational and satisfactory
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>The memorialists, while thus disagreeing as to the cause, concur in
+the opinion as to the occurrence of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>alleged phenomena; and in
+view of their origin, nature and bearing upon the interests of
+mankind, demand for them a patient, rigid, scientific investigation,
+and request the appointment of a scientific commission for that
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>I have now given a faithful synopsis of this petition, which, however
+unprecedented in itself, has been prepared with singular ability,
+presenting the subject with great delicacy and moderation. I make it
+a rule to present any petition to the Senate, which is respectful in
+its terms; but having discharged this duty, I may be permitted to say
+that the prevalence of this delusion at this age of the world, among
+any considerable portion of our citizens, must originate, in my
+opinion, in a defective system of education, or in a partial
+derangement of the mental faculties, produced by a diseased condition
+of the physical organization. I cannot, therefore, believe that it
+prevails to the extent indicated in this petition.</p>
+
+<p>Different ages of the world have had their peculiar delusions.
+Alchemy occupied the attention of eminent men for several centuries;
+but there was something sublime in alchemy. The philosopher&#8217;s stone,
+or the transmutation of base metals into gold, the <i>elixir vit&aelig;</i>, or
+&#8216;water of life&#8217; which would preserve youth and beauty, and prevent old
+age, decay and death, were blessings which poor humanity ardently
+desired, and which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> alchemy sought to discover by perseverance and
+piety, Roger Bacon, one of the greatests alchemists and greatest men
+of the thirteenth century, while searching for the philosopher&#8217;s
+stone, discovered the telescope, burning glasses, and gunpowder. The
+prosecution of that delusion led, therefore, to a number of useful
+discoveries. In the sixteenth century flourished Cornelius Agrippa,
+alchemist, astrologer, and magician, one of the greatest professors
+of hermetic philosophy that ever lived. He had all the spirits of the
+air and demons of the earth under his command. Paulus Jovious says
+that the devil, in the shape of a large black dog, attended Agrippa
+wherever he went. Thomas Nash says, at the request of Lord Surrey,
+Erasmus, and other learned men, Agrippa called up from the grave,
+several of the great philosophers of antiquity, among others, Sully,
+whom he caused to deliver his celebrated oration for Roscius, to
+please the emperor, Charles IV. He summoned David and King Solomon
+from the tomb, and the Emperor conversed with them long upon the
+science of government. This was a glorious exhibition of spiritual
+power, compared with the insignificant manifestations of the present
+day. I will pass over the celebrated Paracelsus, for the purpose of
+making allusion to an Englishman, with whose veracious history every
+one ought to make himself acquainted. In the sixteenth century, Dr.
+Dee made such progress in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>talismanic mysteries, that he acquired
+ample power to hold familiar conversation with spirits and angels,
+and to learn from them all the secrets of the universe. On the
+occasion, the angel Uriel gave him a black crystal of a convex form,
+which he had only to gaze upon intently, and by a strange effort of
+the will, he could summon any spirit he wished, to reveal to him the
+secrets of futurity. Dee, in his veracious diary, says that one day
+while he was sitting with Alburtus Laski, a Polish nobleman, there
+seemed to come out of the oratory a spiritual creature, like a pretty
+girl of seven or nine years of age, with her hair rolled up before
+and hanging down behind, with a gown of silk, of changeable red and
+green, and with a train. She seemed to play up and down, and to go in
+and out behind the books, and as she seemed to get between them, the
+books displaced themselves and made way for her. This I call a
+spiritual manifestation of the most interesting and fascinating kind.
+Even the books felt the fascinating influence of this spiritual
+creature; for they displaced themselves and made way for her. Edward
+Kelly, an Irishman, who was present, and who witnessed this beautiful
+apparition, verifies the doctor&#8217;s statement; therefore it would be
+unreasonable to doubt a story so well attested, particularly when the
+witness was an Irishman. Dr. D. was the distinguished favorite of
+kings and queens, a proof that spiritual science was in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>high repute
+in the good old age of Queen Elizabeth. But of all the professors of
+occult science, hermetic philosophy or Spiritualism, the Rosicrucians
+were the most exalted and refined. With them the possession of the
+philosopher&#8217;s stone was to be the means of health and happiness, an
+instrument by which man could command the services of superior
+beings, control the elements, defy the abstractions of time and
+space, and acquire the most intimate knowledge of all the secrets of
+the universe. These were objects worth struggling for. The refined
+Rosicrucians were utterly disgusted with the coarse, gross, sensual
+spirits who had been in communication with man previous to their day;
+so they decreed the annihilation of them all, and substituted in
+their stead, a race of mild, beautiful and beneficent beings.</p>
+
+<p>The &#8220;spirits&#8221; of the olden time were a malignant race, and took
+especial delight in doing mischief; but the new generation is mild
+and benignant. These &#8220;spirits,&#8221; as this petition attests, indulge in
+the most innocent amusements and harmless recreations, such as
+sliding, raising and tipping tables, producing pleasing sounds and
+variegated sights, and sometimes curing diseases which were
+previously considered incurable; and for the existence of this simple
+and benignant race our petitioners are indebted to the brethren of
+the rosy cross. Among the modern professors of Spiritualism,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>Cagliostro was the most justly celebrated. In Paris, his saloons
+were thronged with the rich and noble. To old ladies he sold
+immortality, and to the young ones he sold beauty that would endure
+for centuries, and his charming countess gained immense wealth, by
+granting attendant sylphs to such ladies as were rich enough to pay
+for their services. The &#8220;Biographies des Contemporains,&#8221; a work which
+our present mediums ought to consult with care, says there was hardly
+a fine lady in Paris who would not sup with the shade of Lucretius in
+the apartments of Cagliostro. There was not a military officer who
+would not discuss the art with Alexander, Hannibal or C&aelig;sar, or an
+advocate or counselor who would not argue legal points with the ghost
+of Cicero. These were spiritual manifestations worth paying for, and
+all our degenerate &#8220;mediums&#8221; would have to hide their diminished
+heads in the presence of Cagliostro.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a curious inquiry to follow this occult science through
+all its phases of mineral magnetism, animal mesmerism, etc., until we
+reach the present, latest and slowest phase of all spiritual
+manifestation; but I have said enough to show the truth of Burk&#8217;s
+beautiful aphorism, &#8220;The credulity of dupes is as inexhaustible as
+the invention of knaves.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>A writer of that time says:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>&#8220;A pleasant debate followed. Mr. Petit proposed to refer the petition of
+the Spiritualists to three thousand clergymen. Mr. Weller proposed to
+refer it to the Committee on Foreign Relations, as it might be necessary
+to inquire whether or not when Americans leave this world they lose their
+citizenship. Mr. Mason proposed that it should be left to the Committee on
+Military affairs. General Shields himself said he had thought of proposing
+to refer the petition to the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads,
+because there may be a possibility of establishing a spiritual telegraph
+between the material and spiritual worlds. The petition was finally, by a
+decisive vote, laid upon the table. The table did not, as we learn, tip in
+indignation at this summary disposal of Spiritualism in the Senate, by
+which we must infer that the &#8216;spirits,&#8217; if there were any in the Senate at
+that time, endorsed its action and considered the same all right.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I might here enter into a description of the various forms of modern
+spiritualistic representations.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> It would be a waste of time. I wish,
+however, to allude more particularly just here to one of the &#8220;evidences&#8221;
+which Mrs. Ann Leah Underhill apparently values most highly in connection
+with the claim of inherent and <ins class="correction" title="original: herditary">hereditary</ins> &#8220;mediumistic&#8221; powers residing in
+certain individuals and families. This is the somewhat noted so-called
+exhibition of &#8220;mediumistic&#8221; ability by a child of Mrs. Kate Fox Jencken, a
+babe, only about six weeks old at the time that it began. It is needless
+to go into all the details of the wonders attributed to little &#8220;Ferdie&#8221;
+Jencken, now a fine lad of fifteen, which rest wholly upon the testimony
+of persons who were interested in magnifying them to the greatest extent.
+Shadowy forms are said to have appeared to his nurse while she was
+watching him. At three months he was said to have articulated &#8220;Mamma!&#8221; But
+the cap of the climax is the feat he is said to have performed when not
+six months old. As he was restless one day, his mother gave him a piece of
+blotting paper and a pencil to play with. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> made some marks on the paper
+and dropped it. When his mother picked it up she exclaimed to Mrs.
+Underhill, the only other person present:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;See here, he was written something.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It is pretended that on one side of the blotting paper was the message:</p>
+
+<p class="center">&#8220;Grandma is here.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Boysie.</span>&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>Later and up to the close of his first year, he was said to write other
+messages, but all under like circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Underhill lays great stress upon these &#8220;manifestations&#8221; in two
+portions of her work.</p>
+
+<p>The simple and only comment to be made upon them is, that Mrs. Catherine
+Fox Jencken now declares that they were fraudulent. The messages were in
+every case written upon the paper before it was placed in the baby&#8217;s
+hands, the mother knowing, of course, that a child a few months old would
+not retain anything very long in its grasp, that those who chanced to be
+present would not observe,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> unless previously warned, whether it was
+wholly blank or not, and that the picking up of the paper from the floor
+would give ample opportunity to turn undermost the side on which the child
+may have really scratched some unmeaning marks.</p>
+
+<p>So much for that and kindred marvels of infant &#8220;mediumship.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ferdie&#8221; Jencken, so far as is known, has never, since that early period
+of his existence, exhibited any &#8220;mediumistic power.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The character of the communications purporting to come from the
+&#8220;spirit-land&#8221; has always been such as to condemn them, even if nothing
+else would, in the mind of any one gifted with a clear judgment. How many
+have read with a bitter sneer those pretended words from &#8220;the great ones
+of the earth,&#8221; which would place them, if they had really written or
+uttered them in the unseen life, on a mere level with the emptiest-headed
+mortals whom we know in this!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Alas!&#8221; exclaims Nathaniel Hawthorne in &#8220;The Blythedale Romance,&#8221;
+&#8220;methinks we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> have fallen on an evil age! If these phenomena have not
+humbug at the bottom, so much the worse for us. What can they indicate in
+a spiritual way, except that the soul of man is descending to a lower
+point that it has ever reached while incarnate? We are pursuing a downward
+course in the eternal march, and thus bring ourselves into the same range
+with beings whom death&mdash;in requital of their gross and evil lives&mdash;has
+degraded below humanity. To hold intercourse with spirits of this order,
+we must stoop and grovel in some elements more vile than earthly dust.
+These goblins, if they exist at all, are but the shadows of past
+mortality&mdash;mere refuse stuff, adjudged unworthy of the eternal world, and
+as the most favorable supposition, dwindling gradually into nothingness.
+The less we have to say to them, the better, lest we share their fate.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+<h3>A SCIENTIFIC JURY.</h3>
+
+<p><br />At one period of her strange career, Mrs. Kane entered the service of Mr.
+Henry Seybert, the famous and wealthy spiritualist of Philadelphia, who
+proposed to found what he called a &#8220;Spiritual Mansion.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kane&#8217;s salary and appointments were liberal, and her situation was
+one which would have met the fondest wishes of many noted and ambitious
+&#8220;mediums.&#8221; She was the high priestess of this new temple of the unseen
+entities, and as such she was honored and treated with most exalted
+respect.</p>
+
+<p>The conditions of the &#8220;Spiritual Mansion&#8221; were in all respects favorable
+to the intercourse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> of dwellers in the flesh with those who inhabit the
+realm of shadows, if such there had been.</p>
+
+<p>The taking up of her abode in this singular institution was one of her
+earliest steps, after the throwing off of her deep weeds of mourning, worn
+in memory of the untimely termination of her dream of happiness. It was
+then that she found that the professional life of a &#8220;medium&#8221; was the only
+refuge left her from the cruel pursuit of poverty and want.</p>
+
+<p>But her stay in the &#8220;Spiritual Mansion&#8221; was short. She had thought that
+the quiet existence afforded her there would be preferable to the daily
+and distasteful practice of public &#8220;mediumship,&#8221; which she must have
+resorted to at once, had she not accepted the proposition of Mr. Seybert.
+But the hypocrisy unconsciously required of her by him, while of a more
+fantastic description, was altogether too much for her to endure. Her
+intense hatred of her profession as a &#8220;medium&#8221; appeared in a strong light
+to those who were then in her confidence.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>Mrs. Kane, at the &#8220;Spiritual Mansion,&#8221; not only produced pretended
+messages from the departed friends of her patron, but also from nearly
+every martyr and saint in the Protestant calendar, and from the famous
+sages and rulers of old. But her imposture stopped short of actual
+sacrilege. Beyond that line she never has gone.</p>
+
+<p>When it came to transmitting messages demanded by the living of the
+apostles and fathers of the church, she revolted against this mania for
+the supernatural and the impossible, and she refused to continue longer
+the instrument of pure religious insanity.</p>
+
+<p>She declined to produce &#8220;spirit rappings,&#8221; as emanating from St. Paul, St.
+Peter, Elijah and the angel Gabriel.</p>
+
+<p>It has often been said that Henry Seybert had an undoubted vein of madness
+in his brain. Mrs. Kane herself so declares. I believe the same is true of
+every person (not a knave at heart) who persistently, after reason and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>conscientious research have demonstrated the truth of the charges against
+Spiritualism, still refuses to be convinced.</p>
+
+<p>There was, however, a method in the madness of Seybert. Mrs. Kane has
+always been most careful not to make any positive asseveration of the
+claims of Spiritualism. Her guarded and, in some measure, candid course,
+no doubt tended very far towards influencing him to desire an honest and
+thorough investigation of the so-called spiritualistic phenomena, to be
+conducted according to the most rigid scientific methods. In his will, he
+left provision for the founding of a chair of philosophy in the University
+of Pennsylvania, with the careful stipulation that a certain portion of
+the income to be derived from the foundation should be devoted to the
+investigation of &#8220;all systems of morals, religion or philosophy which
+assume to represent the truth; and particularly of modern Spiritualism.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Thus this legacy gave birth to the celebrated &#8220;Seybert Commission,&#8221; whose
+labors have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>resulted in the most valuable expos&eacute;, prior to this present
+publication, of the fraudulent methods of Spiritualism&mdash;&#8220;the tricks of the
+trade,&#8221; as it were&mdash;which has ever been made.</p>
+
+<p>Even the investigation of the remarkable &#8220;rappings,&#8221; produced by Mrs.
+Kane, in which the Commission engaged&mdash;while less successful than any
+other branch of their researches&mdash;went so far as fully to convince them
+that these alleged manifestations were entirely fraudulent, and that they
+were produced by physical action on the part of the &#8220;medium,&#8221; probably by
+or in the vicinity of her feet.</p>
+
+<p>This they were unable to prove, however, by any use of their five senses,
+which they were permitted to make. Mrs. Kane gave them no such chance of
+examination, on this occasion, as had been vouchsafed to the Buffalo
+doctors some thirty-six years before, almost with the result of throttling
+Spiritualism in its infancy. No; she was much too clever for that. She
+would greatly have preferred, to being ignominiously found out, to make a
+public and unreserved confession.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>The fact is that no other scientific committee ever enjoyed the facilities
+of close observation of the production of the &#8220;raps&#8221; which were accorded
+to the &#8220;Buffalo doctors,&#8221; and that, up to this final day, when Mrs. Kane
+herself tells the truth, there has been not one single positive exposure
+of the primitive fraud of the &#8220;toe-knockings.&#8221; Conjectures, it is true,
+have groped in that direction, time and again&mdash;but they never have done
+more than to grope.</p>
+
+<p>The members of the &#8220;Seybert Commission&#8221; were extremely eager to obtain
+sittings with Mrs. Kane, and were successful at an early stage of their
+studies in doing so. Mr. Horace Howard Furness of Philadelphia was acting
+chairman of the Commission a good part of the time, and as such he wrote
+to Mrs. Kane in the following very urgent manner:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="right">&#8220;<span class="smcap">222 West Washington Square</span>.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Kane</span>:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I wrote to you some ten days ago, but, since I have not heard from
+you, fear that my letter has miscarried, and will therefore repeat it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>&#8220;I am anxious, very anxious, that the &#8216;Seybert Commission,&#8217; of which
+I am the chairman, should have an opportunity of investigating the
+&#8216;Rappings.&#8217; Will you, therefore, appoint some day and hour, at your
+earliest convenience, when I can visit you in New York and make
+arrangements with you personally?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I sincerely trust that your summer has been healthful and peaceful,
+and beg to subscribe myself</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">&#8220;Yours respectfully,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 16em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Horace Howard Furness</span>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">&#8220;22nd October, 1884.&#8221;</span></p></div>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kane became the guest of Mr. Furness at his house, and there produced
+the &#8220;rappings&#8221; at two <ins class="correction" title="original: seances">s&eacute;ances</ins> which were full of important significance.</p>
+
+<p>The first was on the 5th of November, 1884, in the evening. The company
+consisted of Dr. William Pepper and his wife, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Dr. George
+A. Koeing, Prof. Robert Ellis Thompson, Mr. Horace Howard Furness, Mr.
+George S. Fullerton, Mr. Coleman Sellers, all, excepting the lady, members
+of the Commission, and Mr. George S. Pepper, Miss Logan, and the
+&#8220;medium.&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> All seated themselves around an open dining-table, Mrs. Kane at
+one end and Mr. Sellers at the other. The report of the Commission says:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The medium sat with her feet partly under the table, and consequently
+concealed from most of those present&mdash;her feet were hidden also by her
+dress.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>After the usual preliminaries of an introduction to denizens of the
+&#8220;spirit land,&#8221; the soul of Henry Seybert was announced. He declared
+through the &#8220;medium&#8221; that he knew the names of the members of the
+Commission, and particularly of the one who was addressing him. Mr.
+Sellers, who happened to be this person, requested the spirit to spell his
+name by the aid of a written alphabet, each letter of which was pointed to
+in turn, the letter intended by the &#8220;spirit&#8221; being indicated by three
+&#8220;raps.&#8221; The result was that the name spelled out was the following:</p>
+
+<p class="center">&#8220;CHARLES CERI!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Without commenting upon this blunder of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> &#8220;spirit,&#8221; the Commission
+encouraged Mrs. Kane to proceed. She took a station at some distance from
+the table, her hands resting upon the back of a chair, and &#8220;raps&#8221; were
+heard which seemed to come from a point very near or under her. Again,
+when she stood close to a bookcase, &#8220;raps&#8221; were produced which she
+declared to proceed from the glass door upon which Mr. Sellers rested his
+hand. The latter felt not the slightest vibration of the glass. Mrs. Kane
+then produced written messages, addressed to two persons present, whose
+names she might have ascertained with very great ease. The writing was an
+irregular scrawl, running from the left, and leaning backward, and could
+only be read from the observe side by holding the paper up to the light.</p>
+
+<p>The second s&eacute;ance in which Mrs. Kane acted as &#8220;medium&#8221; took place at the
+same place on the 6th of November, 1884. Dr. Leidy, Mr. Furness, Dr.
+Koeing, Mr. Fullerton and Mr. Sellers, members of the Commission, Mr.
+George S. Pepper, Mrs. Kane and a stenographer were present. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+experiments of this evening were more lengthy and exhaustive than those of
+the previous one. For convenience of narration I shall divide them into
+two series: those made while the &#8220;medium&#8221; either stood upon the floor or
+sat upon an ordinary seat in an ordinary position; those in which she was
+separated from the floor, either by glass or by some object of
+considerable height, upon which she stood; and those in which she produced
+writing upon ordinary paper, said to have been dictated by the &#8220;spirits.&#8221;
+The experiments did not always take place in the consecutive order in
+which I shall note them.</p>
+
+<p>The report says: &#8220;The &#8216;spirit rappings&#8217; during the evening, aside from
+those heard during the test with glass tumblers, were apparently confined
+to the floor space in the immediate vicinity of and directly beneath the
+table around which the company were seated.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The stenographic report of this part of the investigation proceeds as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> Is any spirit present now?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>&#8220;Three raps&mdash;faint and partly distinct&mdash;are almost instantly audible. The
+raps apparently emanate from the floor-space directly beneath, or in the
+immediate vicinity of the table. This remark is applicable to all the
+&#8216;rappings&#8217; during the <ins class="correction" title="original: seance">s&eacute;ance</ins> at the pine table.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>&#8217; (interpreting the sounds). That was &#8216;yes.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers</span> (aside). They sounded like three.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The raps are immediately repeated with more distinctness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers</span> (aside). There are three, and they are quite distinct. Is the spirit the same that was present last night?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three raps, apparently identical with those last heard, are again audible.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers</span> (aside). It says it is the same spirit. I presume then, that
+it is Henry Seybert? (No response.) Is it Henry Seybert?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three raps&mdash;distinct and positive.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> You promised last evening to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>
+give a communication to Mr. Pepper. Are you able to communicate with him now?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Two raps&mdash;comparitively feeble.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>&#8217; (interpreting). One, two: that means not now.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers</span> (repeating). Not now?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>&#8217; (reflectively). But probably before he leaves.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three raps&mdash;quickly, distinctly and instantly given.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; He said &#8216;Yes, before he leaves.&#8217; (To Mr. Sellers.) You
+asked that question, I think?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> Yes. Will you communicate with him before Mr. Pepper leaves to-night?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three raps&mdash;instantaneous, quick and vigorous.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Afterwards, the experiment of standing near a table, the &#8220;medium&#8221; not
+touching it, to see if sounds similar to those of the previous evening
+could be produced, was repeated. The &#8220;medium&#8221; insisted, however, that
+there should be no breaking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> of the circle formed about her by those who
+were present.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All of the gentlemen, and the &#8216;medium,&#8217;&#8221; says the report, &#8220;rise and remain standing. * * *</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium.</span>&#8217; This is test, something I have not gone through since I was a little child, almost.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers</span> (after an interval of waiting). There seem to be no raps.
+(Another short interval.) Now Mr. Seybert, cannot you produce some raps?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Eighty seconds here elapse with no response, when the &#8216;medium&#8217; made an
+observation which was partly inaudible at the reporter&#8217;s seat, the purport
+of which was that the &#8216;spirit communications&#8217; are sometimes retarded or
+facilitated by a compliance by the listeners with certain conditions.
+Another interval of probably two minutes elapsed, when the &#8216;medium&#8217;
+suggested to Dr. Leidy to place his hands upon the table. The suggestion
+was complied with.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Sellers inquires of the &#8216;medium&#8217; whether<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> a change in her position,
+with regard to the table, would do any good.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium.</span>&#8217; I will change positions with you.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The change was made accordingly, but without result, and another period of waiting followed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>&#8217; (to Dr. Leidy). Suppose you ask some questions. You may have
+some friend who will respond.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dr. Leidy.</span> Is any spirit present whom I know, or who knows me?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;After a pause of ten seconds, three light raps are heard.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dr. Leidy.</span> Who am I?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;medium&#8217; explains that the responses by rappings are mainly
+indicative only of affirmation or negation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dr. Leidy.</span> Will you repeat your taps to indicate that you are present yet?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three taps are heard.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> Those are very clearly heard.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium&#8217;</span> (to Dr. Leidy). Ask if that is Mr. Seybert.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dr. Leidy.</span> Is Mr. Seybert present?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three raps&mdash;very feeble.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dr. Leidy</span> (to Mr. Sellers). Was there an answer to that?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> There was. The answer was three raps. (After an interval, in
+which no response is received.) There seem to be no further communications.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Later in the evening efforts to engage the defunct Mr. Seybert in
+conversation were again made. The company were as before gathered about
+the table. &#8220;Raps&#8221; were made by Mrs. Kane on the floor. The &#8220;spirit&#8221; was
+asked if he knew the members of the Commission present, and to state their
+number. When it came to the response to the latter part of the question
+there were &#8220;seven slow, deliberate and distinct raps.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Alas! the &#8220;spirit&#8221; had mistaken the guest of the Commission, Mr. George S.
+Pepper, and the stenographers for members!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>The latter were seated at a separate table.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> Are there seven members of the Committee present?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three raps.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> Are they all seated around one table?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No response. About forty seconds elapse.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> Are they seated at two tables?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three raps&mdash;quite feeble.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers</span> (to his associates). We still must go back to the one thing.
+The information we receive through these responses is of little importance
+to us compared with the information which we must obtain as to whether
+these sounds are produced by a disembodied Spirit or by some living
+person; that is, in deference to the &#8216;Medium.&#8217; (To Mr. Furness.) Do you not think so?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Furness is understood to assent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> We have tried the glass tumblers. We have the sounds here. I
+would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> ask Mrs. Kane if it is proper for us to look below the top of the
+table at the time the sounds are being produced, and in such a way as to see her feet.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Yes, of course, you could do that, but it is not well to
+break, when you are standing, suddenly. As you know, you have to conform to the rules, else you will get no rappings.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> What are the rules?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>&#8217; (disconnectedly.) The rules are&mdash;every test condition, that
+I am perfectly willing to go through, and have gone through a thousand
+times&mdash;at the same time, there are times when you can break the rules. So
+slight a thing as the disjoining of hands may break the rules. I do not
+think the standing on the glass has been fully tried.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> We will try that later.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness</span> (to the &#8216;medium,&#8217; informally). This investigation is one of
+great importance to us. There is no question about it&mdash;we have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> heard
+these curious sounds. Now as to whether they come from &#8216;spirits&#8217; or
+not&mdash;that would seem to be the very next logical step in our inquiry. I
+think you are entirely at one with us in every possible desire to have
+this phenomenon investigated.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Oh, certainly. But I pledge myself to conform to nothing,
+for&mdash;as I said in Europe&mdash;<i>I do not even say the sounds are from
+&#8216;spirits</i>;&#8217; and, what is more, it is utterly beyond human power to detect
+them. <i>I do not say they are the spirits of our departed friends, but I
+leave others to judge for themselves.</i></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness.</span> Then you have come to the conclusion that they are entirely
+independent of yourself.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; No, <i>I do not know that they are entirely independent of
+myself</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness.</span> Under what conditions can you influence them?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The response, which was partly inaudible at the reporter&#8217;s seat, was
+understood to be: &#8216;I cannot tell.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness.</span> You say
+that in the generality of cases they are beyond your control?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Yes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness.</span> How in the world shall we test that?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Well, by&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness.</span> By&mdash;what? Isolating you from the table?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Yes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness</span> (applying his right hand, by her permission, to the
+&#8216;Medium&#8217;s&#8217; head). Are you ever conscious of any vibration in your bones?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; No; but sometimes it causes an exhaustion, that is, under
+circumstances when the raps do not come freely.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness.</span> The freer the raps come, the better for you?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Yes, the freer the better&mdash;the less exhaustion.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> But do you feel now, to-night, any untoward influence
+operating against you?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; No,
+not to-night, for it takes quite a little while before we feel these things.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness.</span> Do these raps always have that vibratory
+sound&mdash;tr-rut&mdash;tr-rut&mdash;tr-rut?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Sometimes they vary.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness.</span> As a general rule I have heard them sound so.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Every rap has a different sound. For instance, when the
+&#8216;spirit&#8217; of Mr. Seybert rapped, if the sound was a good one, you would
+have noticed that his rap was different from that of another. Every one is
+entirely different from another.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness.</span> Do you suppose that the present conditions are such that you
+can throw the raps to a part of the room other than that in which you are?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; I do not pretend to do that, but I will try to do it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Furness and Dr. Leidy station themselves in the corner of the room,
+diagonally, and most remote from the pine table, at which their
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>associates remain seated, with their hands upon the table, and &#8216;their
+minds intent on having the raps produced at the corner indicated,&#8217; as
+requested by the &#8216;medium,&#8217; who also remains at the table. The &#8216;medium&#8217;
+asks, &#8216;<i>Will the &#8220;Spirit&#8221; rap at the other side of the room?</i>&#8217; and, after
+twelve seconds, and again after forty-three seconds, repeats the inquiry.
+<i>No response is received.</i> The experiment is repeated with Mr. Furness and
+Dr. Koenig at the corner, but with a like negative result.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Let us now turn to the experiments made while the &#8220;medium&#8221; was not in a
+position in which her feet could touch the floor. The report says:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Sellers made this inquiry:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;It is proposed that the &#8220;medium&#8221; shall stand upon tumblers. Are we
+likely to have any demonstration?&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three raps&mdash;promptly given, though feeble in delivery and but faintly
+audible.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; There were three&mdash;a kind of tardy assent.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers</span> (to the
+&#8216;Medium&#8217;). As if the &#8216;Spirits&#8217; might or might not communicate?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Well, that a trial might be made.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three raps are here again distinctly heard&mdash;the characteristics of the
+sounds in this instance being rapidity and energy, or positiveness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; That is a quick answer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;At this point, attention is directed to the first of a series of
+experiments with four glass tumblers, which are placed together, with the
+bottoms upward, on the carpeted floor, in the center of a vacant space.
+The &#8216;medium&#8217; stands directly upon these, the heels of her shoes resting
+upon the rear tumblers and the soles upon the front tumblers. The
+Committee co-operate with the &#8216;medium,&#8217; and, in conformity with her
+suggestions, all the men clasp hands and form a semi-circle in front of
+the &#8216;medium,&#8217; the hands of the latter being grasped by the gentlemen
+nearest to her on either side.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers</span> (after a notification from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>
+medium to proceed). Is Mr. Seybert still present?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No response.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; It may be a few minutes before you will hear any rapping
+through these glasses.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ten seconds elapse.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; This test is a very satisfactory one, if they do it. And
+they have done it a hundred times.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Five seconds elapse.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>&#8217; (to Mr. Furness). The glasses are not placed over the
+marble, are they?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness.</span> No, the floor is of wood.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers</span> (after another interval of waiting) informally remarked to
+Mr. Furness: &#8216;We will wait probably for another minute to see if anything
+comes. As you know, the &#8216;medium&#8217; claims that it is impossible for her to
+control these things&mdash;that she is merely one who is operated through.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Another interval expires.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; That
+was a very faint rap. Suppose we change the position of the glasses.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Note by the stenographer. No intimation is given that the rap here spoken
+of was heard by any one other than the &#8216;medium&#8217; herself. Pursuant to the
+request just stated, the carpet is removed and the glass tumblers are
+located on the bare floor at a point about five feet distant from the
+place at which the test was first tried. The new location is in the center
+of a passage-way, about three feet in width, between a side-board on one
+side, and a wall projection on the other. Its selection is apparently,
+though not specifically, dictated by the position and movements of the
+&#8216;medium.&#8217; The &#8216;medium&#8217; and the Committee resume their positions, the
+former standing on the glasses and the gentlemen facing her in a group.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Now, Spirits, will you rap on the floor?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thirty seconds here elapsed with no response, when one glass was heard to
+click<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> against the other, and the &#8216;medium&#8217; exclaimed &#8216;Oh!&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>&#8217; (repeating). Will you rap on the floor?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thirty seconds now elapse without any demonstration.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>&#8217; (aside). It seems to be a failure. They have done it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Another click of the glasses which passes without comment.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> We will have to set down the result of the experiment on
+glass tumblers as negative. It may be well to try it later.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>&#8217; (evidently reluctant to abandon the test). Suppose now, as
+we have gone so far, we kind of form a chain.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The company retained their positions with hands joined, and the &#8216;Spirits&#8217;
+were repeatedly requested to make their presence known. Mr. Pepper, at the
+suggestion of the &#8216;medium,&#8217; asking the &#8216;Spirit&#8217; of his friend, Henry
+Seybert, to manifest its presence by one rap&mdash;but all efforts to elicit
+such response proved ineffectual.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>&#8220;When the same experiments were resumed, the lady proceeded to the space
+<i>between the side-board and the wall</i>, where the last preceding test had
+been made, and there the tumblers were again arranged. The &#8216;medium&#8217;
+resumed her position upon them, with Drs. Leidy and Koeing, and Messrs.
+Sellers and Furness facing her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Will the Spirit rap here?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Twenty-three seconds elapse.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dr. Leidy.</span> Is any &#8216;Spirit&#8217; present.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;An interval of thirty-nine seconds here followed, when the attention of
+the Committee was momentarily diverted by an inquiry addressed to Mr.
+Furness by Mr. Sellers, viz.: Whether a glass plate of sufficient strength
+to bear the weight of the &#8216;medium&#8217; was procurable. At this moment the
+&#8216;medium&#8217; suddenly exclaimed: &#8216;I hear a rap. You said, &#8220;Get a glass,&#8221; and
+there was a rap.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>&#8217; (repeating for the information of Mr. Furness). Somebody
+proposed a glass and there were three raps.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>&#8220;Dr. Koenig inquires of the &#8216;medium&#8217; whether the meaning intended to be
+conveyed by the sounds is that the &#8216;spirits&#8217; desire to have the glass
+plate produced.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; I do not know. I know there were raps. (Turning to Mr.
+Sellers, the &#8216;medium&#8217; adds:) They may have been made by your heel on the
+floor, but certainly there were sounds.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Fullerton.</span> Then it was not the regular triple rap?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; I could not tell.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just before calling attention to the alleged rap or raps, the &#8216;medium&#8217;
+grasped with her right hand the wood-work of the side-board, as if for
+support. It was then that she stated she heard the sounds. They were
+apparently not heard by any one but the &#8216;medium.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers</span> (addressing the &#8216;spirit&#8217;). Will you repeat the raps we heard
+just now, assuming that there were some?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ten minutes elapse without a response.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; There is no use of my standing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>
+any longer, for when they come at all, they come right away.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers</span> (after scrutinizing the position of one of the feet of the
+&#8216;medium&#8217;). The edge of the heel of the shoe rests on the back tumbler.
+(Assuming a stooping posture for a more prolonged scrutiny.) We will see
+whether the raps will be produced now.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;medium&#8217; now proposes that all the members of the committee shall
+stand up and join hands.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Sellers and his associates accordingly stand, facing the &#8216;medium,&#8217;
+with hands joined. Changes in their positions were made by some of the
+gentlemen from time to time, as suggested by the &#8216;medium,&#8217; Mr. Pepper and
+Dr. Koenig being the first to exchange places. This occurred after a
+silence of thirty seconds, without any response.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Now, Mr. Seybert, if your &#8216;spirit&#8217; is here, will you have
+the kindness&mdash;I knew Mr. Seybert well in life&mdash;to rap?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Fifteen seconds elapse.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; No, he does not seem to respond.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;At the suggestion of Mr. Sellers, all of the gentlemen approach the
+&#8216;medium&#8217; for the purpose of inducing some acknowledgment by the &#8216;spirit,&#8217;
+and inquiries similar to those already stated are repeated without result.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Commission temporarily abandon the test. When the tumblers are again
+produced the &#8216;medium&#8217; takes her position upon them, with Mr. Fullerton
+standing next to her upon the right and Mr. Furness to the left. Mr.
+Sellers remains for some moments kneeling on the floor to enable himself
+better to hear any sounds that may be but faintly audible. The &#8216;spirits&#8217;
+are repeatedly importuned by the &#8216;medium&#8217; to produce the &#8216;rappings,&#8217; but
+no response is heard until the company is about to abandon the experiment.
+Three raps are then audible. The raps are very light, but very distinct.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Fullerton states that he heard the raps.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> I heard a sound then, but it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>
+seemed as if it was around there. (Indicating the wall immediately in the rear of the &#8216;medium.&#8217;)</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The tumblers are here moved further away from the wall, and the &#8216;medium&#8217;
+resumes her position upon them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> Will the &#8216;Spirit&#8217; rap again? (No response.)</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; Were any of you gentlemen acquainted with Mr. Seybert in
+his lifetime?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Fullerton.</span> I saw him several times before his death. If he can give
+an intimation now of anything he said at that time, it will indicate that he remembers it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A very faint rap is heard.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; There is a rap. It seems to be there again. (Indicating the
+spot to which attention was previously called by Mr. Sellers.)</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;medium&#8217; again importunes, first, &#8216;Mr. Seybert,&#8217; and next the
+&#8216;spirits,&#8217; to rap; and the importunities are repeated. Three raps are
+distinctly, but faintly heard.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> I heard
+them. They sounded somewhat like the others, not exactly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; I heard one rap, but it is nothing for me to hear them; I
+want you gentlemen to hear them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> Probably we will hear them again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;While Mr. Sellers and Mr. Furness are conversing, several raps are heard,
+though less distinct than the preceding ones.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; There they are, as though right under the glass. (After a
+silence of forty seconds) Now I hear them again, very light&mdash;oh, very light.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Furness, with the permission of the &#8216;medium,&#8217; <i>places his hand upon one of her feet</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; There are raps now, strong&mdash;yes, I hear them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Furness</span> (to the &#8216;medium&#8217;). This is the most wonderful thing of all,
+Mrs. Kane; <i>I distinctly feel them in your foot</i>. There is not a particle
+of motion in your foot, but there is an unusual pulsation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>&#8220;Mr. Sellers here made some inquiries of the &#8216;medium,&#8217; concerning the
+shoes now worn by her. The replies, which were not direct, are here given.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> Are those the shoes which you usually wear?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; I wear all kinds of shoes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> Are the sounds produced in your room when you have no shoes on?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; More or less. They are produced under all circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Following the suggestion of the &#8216;medium,&#8217; all present proceed through an
+intervening apartment to the library, where the &#8216;medium&#8217; selects various
+positions&mdash;standing upon a lounge, then upon a cushioned chair, next upon
+a step-ladder, and finally upon the side of a book-case&mdash;but all with a
+like unsuccessful result, no response by &#8216;rappings&#8217; being heard.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In the midst of the experiments at the table Mrs. Kane exclaimed to Mr.
+Sellers: Well, my hand does feel like writing. Will you give me a piece of
+paper? and, maybe they will give me some directions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Fullerton</span> (to the
+&#8216;medium&#8217;). How does your hand feel when affected in that way?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;<span class="smcap">Medium</span>.&#8217; It is a peculiar feeling, like that from taking hold of
+electrical instruments. I do not know but that you might possibly feel it in my hand.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The lady here extended her right hand upon the table toward Mr.
+Fullerton. The latter placed his left hand upon the extended hand of the
+&#8216;medium,&#8217; and subsequently remarked that the pulsation of her wrist was a
+little above the ordinary rate.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;medium,&#8217; ostensibly under &#8216;spirit&#8217; influence, with lead-pencil in
+hand, proceeded to write two communications from the &#8216;spirit&#8217; of the late
+Henry Seybert. The first of these covered two pages of paper of the size
+of ordinary foolscap. The &#8216;medium&#8217; wrote in large characters, with
+remarkable rapidity, and in a direction from the right to the left, or the
+reverse of ordinary handwriting. The writing, consequently, could be read
+only from the reverse side of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> paper, and by being held up so as to
+permit the gaslight to shine through it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The communications, as deciphered by Mr. Sellers, with the aid of Mr.
+Fullerton and the &#8216;medium,&#8217; were as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;You must not expect that I can satisfy you beyond all doubt in so
+short a time as you have yet had. I want to give you all in my power,
+and will do so if you will give me a chance. You must commence right
+in the first place or you shall all be disappointed for a much longer
+time. <i>Princiipis Obsta Sereo Medicina Paratum.</i></p>
+
+<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 2em;">&#8220;HENRY SEYBERT.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">&#8220;Mend the fault in time or we will all be puzzled.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 2em;">&#8220;HENRY SEYBERT.&#8221;</span></p></div>
+
+<p>The fault in the Latin of the above quotation attracted the attention of
+the Commission.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. George S. Pepper, who had been well acquainted with Mr. Seybert in his
+lifetime, declared that he had never known any Latin at all!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>The investigations of the &#8220;Seybert Commission&#8221; in other directions than
+that of the &#8220;rappings,&#8221; were far more fascinating and productive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> of
+results. It would be impossible to give an adequate idea of them here. The
+Commission employed the most celebrated &#8220;mediums&#8221; within their reach, and
+paid them liberally to place them in communication with the &#8220;Spirit
+world.&#8221; They saw (and they show in their report that they did see) the
+secret of every &#8220;wonderful&#8221; thing done by the &#8220;mediums,&#8221; and found it in
+most instances exceedingly simple, and generally rather clumsily
+performed. Professional jugglers constantly outdo professional &#8220;mediums.&#8221;
+This, the latter cannot deny, and they seek&mdash;oh, monumental impudence!&mdash;to
+make people believe that jugglers are nothing more nor less than
+&#8220;mediums,&#8221; and that &#8220;mediums&#8221; are never in any sense jugglers!</p>
+
+<p>Thus the notorious Slade:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> Do you know a man named Kellar, who is exhibiting in this
+city?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dr. Slade.</span> I do not. I never knew him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> You may, however, be able to explain to me a very remarkable
+slate writing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> experiment which Kellar has performed. (Mr. Sellers here
+describes at length Mr. Kellar&#8217;s trick with the fastened slates.) How did Mr. Kellar do that?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dr. Slade.</span> He is a &#8216;medium.&#8217; <i>He does that work precisely as I do it.</i></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> But can he not do it by trickery?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dr. Slade.</span> No, it is impossible. He is a &#8216;medium&#8217; and a powerful
+&#8216;medium.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This is from a memorandum of Mr. Sellers. He says further:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The inquiry was then addressed to Mr. Slade: Do you know a man named
+Guernilla, who, with his wife, gave s&eacute;ances?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Slade.</span> Yes, I know him very well.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Sellers.</span> Well, how does he perform his wonderful exploits in
+&#8216;rappings,&#8217; etc.?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">Mr. Slade.</span> He is a &#8216;medium,&#8217; a powerful &#8216;medium.&#8217; I know him very well
+indeed. I can assure you that all he does is done solely by means of his mediumistic powers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>&#8220;I now state to the Committee that the Guernillas exhibited in
+Philadelphia some years ago as exposers of Spiritualism. They did not
+expose it, but they performed experiments which, prior to that time, were
+said to have been accomplished by the aid of &#8216;spirits.&#8217; Guernilla himself,
+at my house, in my presence, in broad daylight, performed all the feats
+and exhibited the phenomena that were produced at the dark and other
+s&eacute;ances, and he repeated them until I myself became as expert as he in
+performing them; for which I paid him a consideration. So much for the
+mediumistic power.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Sellers explained with reference to Mr. Kellar:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I pause here for the express purpose of having the fact noted that, being
+thoroughly familiar with the details of the methods of those experiments,
+I can positively assure the Committee that there is no mediumistic power
+in Mr. Kellar, so far as his methods are concerned, that those methods are
+as easy of solution as are any other physical problems.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+<h3>THE UNALTERABLE VERDICT.</h3>
+
+<p><br />The &#8220;Seybert Commission&#8221;<small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">[3]</a></small> examined every known form of spiritualistic
+manifestation to which they had access, and implicitly under conditions
+imposed by the &#8220;mediums&#8221; themselves. These conditions are everything that
+could be devised and plausibly used to prevent the hoped-for dupe from
+detecting the fraud that is practised upon him.</p>
+
+<p>The Commission put the indelible stamp of fraud upon all so-called
+spiritualistic manifestations. Of the &#8220;spiritual rappings&#8221; they say:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To the subject of &#8216;spirit-rappings&#8217; we have devoted some time and
+attention, but our <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>investigations have not been sufficiently extensive to
+warrant us at present in offering any positive conclusions. The difficulty
+attending the investigation of this mode of spiritualistic manifestation
+is increased by the fact, familiar to physiologists, that sounds of
+varying intensity may be produced in almost any portion of the human body
+by voluntary muscular action. To determine the exact location of this
+muscular activity is at times a matter of delicacy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What we can say thus far, with assurance, is that, in the cases which
+have come under our observation, the theory of the purely physiological
+origin of the sounds has been sustained by the fact that the &#8216;mediums&#8217;
+were invariably, and confessedly, cognizant of the &#8216;rappings&#8217; whenever
+they occurred, and could at once detect any spurious &#8216;rappings,&#8217; however
+exact and indistinguishable to all other ears might be the imitation.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kane has expressed amusement over the manner in which she eluded the
+inquisitions of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> the grave and conscientious Commission and left them
+puzzled over the &#8220;rappings.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Even then, however, she cared so little for the preservation of the
+secret, that when she declined to be further examined by the Commission,
+she admitted to Mr. Furness that the gentlemen had ample ground for
+looking upon the manifestations which she had given as unsatisfactory. Mr.
+Furness says:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I told her that the Commission had now had two s&eacute;ances with her, and that
+<i>the conclusion to which they had come is that the so-called raps are
+confined wholly to her person</i>, whether produced by her voluntarily or
+involuntarily they had not attempted to decide; furthermore, that although
+thus satisfied in their own minds they were anxious to treat her with all
+possible deference and consideration, and accordingly had desired me to
+say to her that if she thought another s&eacute;ance with her would or might
+modify or reverse their conclusion, they held themselves ready to meet her
+again this evening and renew the investigation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> of the manifestations; at
+the same time I felt it my duty to add that in that case the examination
+would necessarily be of the most searching description.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mrs. Kane replied that the manifestations at both s&eacute;ances had been of an
+unsatisfactory nature, so unsatisfactory that <i>she could not really blame
+the Commission for arriving at their conclusion</i>. In her present state of
+health she <i>really</i> doubted whether a third meeting would prove any better
+than the two already held. It might even be more unsatisfactory, and
+instead of removing the present belief of the Commission it might add
+confirmation of it. In view of these considerations, she decided not to
+hold another s&eacute;ance.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>Mrs. Kane declares that with her muscles and the joints of her toes so
+educated by long practice, and her ability to produce the noise of &#8220;raps&#8221;
+with no perceptible movement, she could have gone on deceiving the world
+indefinitely without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> being detected. She explains that the making of the
+&#8220;raps,&#8221; when she is stationed on glass tumblers, requires a far greater
+effort than when her feet are in contact with the carpet or floor. The
+shock must in that case be conveyed through a comparatively non-conducting
+substance. For this reason, when the floor was especially hard or thick
+and lacking in sonorousness, she sometimes failed in the expected effect.
+In every instance, it was most difficult to produce the &#8220;raps&#8221; under those
+circumstances.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>The verdict, however, is now complete. Spiritualism is guilty.</p>
+
+<p>The court of mankind so declares it.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IV_REPENTANCE" id="IV_REPENTANCE"></a>IV. REPENTANCE.</h2>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+<h3>THE HEART PLEADS FOR THE SOUL.</h3>
+
+<p><br />The most interesting feature, after all, of Margaret Fox&#8217;s career, was
+perhaps that sad and abortive romance of which Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the
+gallant Arctic explorer, was the hero. This history should be known to the
+reader in order that the exact aspect of Spiritualism to her developed
+conscience in after years may be understood.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kane first saw Maggie Fox in the autumn of 1852, when she was staying
+with her mother at a hotel in Philadelphia, being then engaged in
+&#8220;spiritualistic manifestations.&#8221; Dr. Kane, whose heart had never before
+been touched, at once succumbed to the sweet charm of this erratic child,
+and conceived the romantic idea of removing her from the life she then was
+leading, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>educating her and marrying her. The project, when it became
+known, awakened the bitter hostility of his friends, and from this
+hostility, the unfortunate separation between them which it caused, and
+Dr. Kane&#8217;s untimely death, all of the sorrow that afterwards engulfed her
+life and deprived her of the ambition for a nobler career, directly
+sprang.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was but thirteen years old when Dr. Kane first saw her. A
+friendly hand<small><a name="f4.1" id="f4.1" href="#f4">[4]</a></small> has thus traced her portrait:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Her beauty was of that delicate kind which grows on the heart, rather
+than captivates the sense at a glance; she possessed in a high degree that
+retiring modesty which shuns rather than seeks admiration. The position in
+which she was placed imposed on her unusual reserve and self-control, and
+an ordinary observer might not have seen in her aught to make a sudden
+impression. But there was more than beauty in the charm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> about her
+discerned by the penetrating eyes of her new acquaintance. The winning
+grace of her modest demeanor, and the native refinement apparent in every
+look and movement, word and tone, were evidences of a nature enriched with
+all the qualities that dignify and adorn womanhood; of a soul far above
+her present calling, and those who surrounded her. To appreciate her real
+superiority, her age and the circumstances must be considered. She was yet
+a little child&mdash;untutored, except in the elements of instruction to be
+gained in country district schools, when it was discovered that she
+possessed a mysterious power,<small><a name="f5.1" id="f5.1" href="#f5">[5]</a></small> for which no science or theory could
+account. This brought her at once into notoriety and gathered around her
+those who had a fancy for the supernatural, and who loved to excite the
+wonder of strangers. Most little girls would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> have been spoiled by that
+kind of attention. The endurance of it without having her head turned,
+argued rare delicacy, simplicity and firmness of character. After
+exhibitions given in different cities, to find herself an object of public
+attention, and of flattering notice from persons of distinction, would
+naturally please the vanity of a beautiful young girl; and it would not be
+surprising if a degree of self-conceit were engendered. But Margaret was
+not vain, and could not be made self-conceited. If she had any
+consciousness of her exquisite loveliness,&mdash;if it pleased her to possess
+pretty dresses and ornaments&mdash;her delight was that of a happy child taking
+pleasure in beautiful things, without reference to any effect they might
+enable her to produce. Perhaps no young girl ever lived more free from the
+least idea of coquetry or conquest. She heeded not the expressions of
+admiration that reached her ear so frequently. She had seen enough of the
+world at this time to be aware of the advantages of a superior education,
+and it was the most ardent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> wish of her heart to make herself a
+well-educated woman.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Margaret showed a disposition to devote herself with great industry to the
+acquirement of knowledge. In fact, at her first meeting with Dr. Kane, he
+found her conning over a French exercise in an interval of the public
+receptions which were given by herself and her mother. Dr. Kane easily
+enlisted her thoughts in a better and higher career. The deception which
+was required of her already appeared in something of its true light to her
+young mind, and she was restless under its abhorrent shackles. Dr. Kane&#8217;s
+interest in her was certainly pure and elevated, and it led him to gloomy
+apprehensions of the fate of so fair, yet so misguided, a creature. He
+wrote in verse a prophecy that she would &#8220;live and die forlorn.&#8221; There
+have been many times when the latter part of this warning seemed most
+likely to come true; and that, doubtless, would have been her fate had she
+not found in a final renunciation of her past, a solace to her heart for
+the lack of that falsely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> won prosperity which had been hers during but
+brief intervals.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kane was but an indifferent versifier; but some of the trifles in
+rhyme which he addressed to Margaret may well illustrate certain facts
+that I shall state at length hereafter. One day, he sent her &#8220;Thoughts
+that Ought to Be Those of Maggie Fox,&#8221; the first refrain of which is as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Dreary, dreary, dreary,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Passes life away,</span><br />
+Dreary, dreary, dreary,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The day</span><br />
+Glides on, and <i>weary</i><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Is my hypocrisy</i>.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>At the close of the second stanza were these lines:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Happy as the hopes<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which filled my trusting heart,</span><br />
+Before I knew a sinful wish<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or learned a <i>sinful art</i>.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>Again:</p>
+
+<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 4em;">&#8220;So long this secret have I kept</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">I can&#8217;t forswear it now.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">It festers in my bosom,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">It cankers in my heart,</span><br />
+<i>Thrice cursed is the slave fast chained</i><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>To a deceitful art</i>!&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>And last:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Then the maiden knelt and prayed:<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">&#8216;Father, my anguish see;</span><br />
+Oh, give me but one trusting hope<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose heart will shelter me;</span><br />
+One trusting love to share my griefs,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To snatch me from a life forlorn;</span><br />
+That I may never, never, never,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thus endlessly from night to morn,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Say that <i>my life is dreary</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>With its hypocrisy</i>!&#8217;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>Among the first words that Dr. Kane spoke to Margaret were these: &#8220;This is
+no life for you, my child.&#8221; As their reciprocal attraction grew stronger,
+he bent all of his deep influence over her in one direction, to effect
+once and for all her release from the fatal snare of deceit that fate had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>
+cast about her. Only a few weeks later we find him writing her a note from
+New York, in which he says:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Look at the <i>Herald</i> of this morning. There is an account of a suicide
+which causes some excitement. Your sister&#8217;s<small><a name="f6.1" id="f6.1" href="#f6">[6]</a></small> name is mentioned in the
+inquest of the coroner. Oh, how much I wish that you would quit <i>this life
+of dreary sameness and unsuspected deceit</i>. We live in this world only for
+the good and noble. How crushing it must be to occupy with them a position
+of ambiguous respect!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kane, a short time afterwards, described Maggie as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But it is that strange mixture of child and woman, of simplicity and
+cunning, of passionate impulse and extreme self-control, that has made you
+a curious study. Maggie, you are very pretty, very childlike, very
+deceitful, but to me as readable as my grandmother&#8217;s Bible.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>&#8220;And again he said: &#8216;When I think of you, dear darling, <i>wasting your time
+and youth and conscience for a few paltry dollars</i>, and think of the
+crowds who come nightly to hear of the wild stories of the frigid North, I
+sometimes feel that we are not so far removed after all. My brain and your
+body are each the sources of attraction, and I confess that there is not
+so much difference.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Never for an instant did the manly and robust intellect of Dr. Kane stoop
+to the level of even a partial belief in the pretended wonders of
+&#8220;<ins class="correction" title="original: Spirititualism">Spiritualism</ins>.&#8221; The allusions made to it in his letters, when not grave or
+indignant, are full of a certain contemptuous playfulness, well calculated
+to reprove the conscious deceitfulness practised by the childish Maggie,
+while not offending the natural pride which was yet apart of her
+imperfectly formed character. When the doctor was in Boston, he wrote to
+her sister Katie:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, now for talk. Boston is a funny place, and &#8216;the spirits&#8217; have
+friends here. You would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> be surprised if I told you what I have heard. * *
+* There are some things that I have seen which I think would pain you.
+Maggie would only laugh at them; but with me it gave cause for sadness. I
+saw a young man with a fine forehead and expressive face, but a
+countenance deeply tinged with melancholy, seize the hand of this
+&#8216;medium,&#8217; whose name&mdash;as I never tell other&#8217;s secrets&mdash;I cannot tell you.
+He begged her to answer a question which I could not hear. Instantly she
+rapped, and his face assumed a positive agony; the rapping continued; his
+pain increased; I leaned forward, feeling an utter detestation for the
+woman who could inflict such torment; but it was too late. A single rap
+came and he fell senseless in a fit. This I saw with my own eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, Katie, although you and Maggie have never gone so far as this, yet
+circumstances must occur where you have to lacerate the feelings of other
+people. I know that you have a tender heart; but practice in anything
+hardens us. You<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> do things now which you would never have dreamed of doing
+years ago; and there will come a time when you will be worse than Leah; a
+hardened woman, gathering around you <i>the victims of a delusion</i>. * * *
+The older you grow the more difficult it will be to liberate yourself from
+this thing. And can you look forward to a life unblessed by the
+affections, unsoothed by the consciousness of doing right! * * * <i>When
+your mother leaves this scene, can you and * * * Maggie be content to live
+that life of constant deceit?</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>To Maggie, Dr. Kane wrote from the sincerest depths of his heart,
+recalling the first moment when he saw her, &#8220;a little Priestess, cunning
+in the mysteries of her temple, and weak in everything but the power with
+which she played her part. A sentiment almost of pity stole over his
+wordly heart as he saw through the disguise.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And again: &#8220;Waddy<small><a name="f7.1" id="f7.1" href="#f7">[7]</a></small> called on me to-day, as did Tallmadge;<small><a name="f8.1" id="f8.1" href="#f8">[8]</a></small> I was kind
+to both for your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> sake. Waddy talked much about you. He said that he
+feared for you, and spoke long and well upon the dangers and temptations
+of your present life. I said little to him other than my convictions of
+your own and your sister&#8217;s excellent character and &#8216;<i>pure simplicity</i>;&#8217;
+for thus, Mag, I always talk of you. And it pained me to find that others
+viewed your life as I did, and regarded you as occupying an ambiguous
+position. Depend upon it, Maggie, no right-minded gentleman&mdash;whether he be
+believer or sceptic&mdash;can regard your present life with approval. Let this,
+dear sweet, make you think over the offer of the one friend who would
+stretch out an arm to save you. Think wisely, dear darling, ere it be too
+late. * * *</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maggie, you cannot tell the sadness that comes over me when I think of
+you. What will become of you? you, the one being that I regard even before
+myself! * * *</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If you really can make up your mind to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> abjure the spirits, to study and
+improve your mental and moral nature, it may be that a career of
+brightness will be open to you; and upon this chance, slender as it is, I
+offer, like a true friend, to guard and educate you. But, Mag, clouds, and
+darkness rest upon the execution of your good resolves; and I sometimes
+doubt whether you have the firmness of mind to carry them through.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The author of &#8220;The Love-Life of Dr. Kane,&#8221; says of this period:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Dr. Kane was very often in the habit of saying&mdash;as if with melancholy
+presentiment&mdash;&#8216;What would become of you if I should die? What would you
+do? I shudder at the thought of my death, on your account.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In the buoyant confidence of youth, the poor girl could not then
+understand his fears. But <i>he</i> knew that in separating her from
+Spiritualism he was isolating her from all her friends and associates, and
+depriving her of the only means she possessed of earning a livelihood. In
+compensation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> for the sacrifices required of her, he was giving her a hope
+only; a hope that might be blissfully realized, but might be sadly
+disappointed; and in the event of losing him, what must be her destiny!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kane met with malignant opposition from Leah, Maggie&#8217;s elder sister,
+in his efforts to detach her from the damning career into which she had
+been thrown. The &#8220;shekels&#8221; were then pouring in in great abundance at the
+s&eacute;ances, and this explains sufficiently the hostile attitude of the one
+person who was chiefly responsible for the ruin of her young life. Thus
+the doctor wrote to Maggie in New York:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is the old house dreary to you? * * * Oh, Maggie, are you never tired of
+<i>this weary, weary sameness of continual deceit</i>? Are you thus to spend
+your days, doomed never to rise to better things?&mdash;you and that dear
+little open-minded sister Kate (for she, too, is still unversed in
+deception)&mdash;are you both to live on thus forever? You will never be happy
+if you do; for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> you are not, like Leah, able to exult and take pleasure in
+the simplicity of the poor, simple-hearted fools around you.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do, then, Maggie, keep to your last promise. Show this to Katie, and urge
+her to keep to her resolution.&#8221;<small><a name="f9.1" id="f9.1" href="#f9">[9]</a></small></p>
+
+<p>By this time, Maggie had pledged herself to her lover to abandon the
+&#8220;rappings&#8221; altogether; but they were both very cautious lest this
+resolution should be known to her elder sister. Maggie appears to have
+yielded to the influences around her, in spite of her respect and regard
+for the doctor, and once or twice to have lapsed back into the ways that
+he dreaded and abhorred. We find him then, writing from New York to
+Washington:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t rap for Mrs. Pierce.<small><a name="f10.1" id="f10.1" href="#f10">[10]</a></small> Remember your promise to me. * * *</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>&#8220;Begin again, dearest Maggie, and keep your word. No &#8216;rapping&#8217; for Mrs.
+Pierce or ever more for any one. I, dear Mag, am your best, your truest,
+your only friend. What are they to my wishes? Oh, regard and love me, and
+listen to my words; and be very careful lest in an idle hour you lose my
+regard and your own respect.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And later:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All last night did this good friend of yours think about you and your
+probable future.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can see that this is one of the turning points of your life, and upon
+your own energy and decision now depend the success and happiness of your
+future career. Dear Maggie, think it over well and <i>do not be turned aside
+from what is right</i> by the sincere but still misguided advice of others.
+* * * But remember, Maggie, that all this will not last. * * * What will it
+be when, looking back upon * * * misspent and dreary years, you feel that
+there have been no acts really acceptable to your Maker, and that for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> the
+years ahead, all will be sorrow, sameness and disgust! * * *</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, you know that sometimes, even now, when Leah is cross, or the
+company coarse and vulgar, or the day tiresome, or yourself out of sorts,
+that low spirits and disgust come over you and you long like a bird to
+spread your wings and fly away from it all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Very soon afterwards, Dr. Kane wrote:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;At present, you have nothing to look forward to, nothing to hope for.
+Your life is one constant round of idle excitement. Can your mother, who
+is an excellent woman, look upon you, a girl of thirteen, as doomed all
+your life to live surrounded by such as now surround you, <i>deprived of all
+the blessings of home and love and even self-respect</i>?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kane, looking upon Margaret as his future wife, was exceedingly
+anxious that the true explanation of the &#8220;rappings,&#8221; the fact that they
+were entirely fraudulent, should never be discovered. He hoped that
+Spiritualism would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> but an ephemeral existence, and that when once it
+had died out, the public would so far forget the persons who originated
+it, that it would cease to associate with them the woman who would then
+bear his name. So he wrote in this vein to Maggie:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You know I am nervous about the &#8216;rappings.&#8217; I believe the only thing I
+ever was afraid of was this confounded thing being found out. I would not
+know it myself for ten thousand dollars.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>How both Margaret and Dr. Kane regarded the elder sister may be judged
+from this sentence, written by the latter at this time: &#8220;Be careful not to
+mention me before the Tigress.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At last the object dearest to Dr. Kane&#8217;s heart seemed to be drawing near
+to its accomplishment. He says: &#8220;Your kind promise &#8216;solemnly never to rap
+again&#8217; so pleases me, that I cannot help thanking you. Adhere to that, and
+you will be a dear, good, happy girl.&#8221; * * *</p>
+
+<p>Maggie went to school at Crookville, near<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> Chester, Pennsylvania, and was
+in charge of Dr. Kane&#8217;s aunt, Mrs. Leiper, who resided near the house
+where Maggie lodged. Just prior to this, Dr. Kane wrote as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Never do wrong any more; for if now &#8216;the spirits move&#8217; it will be a
+breach of faith.</i> From this moment, our compact begins.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>After Dr. Kane had reached the Arctic seas, I find this passage at the end
+of a long letter, full of solicitude and noble counsel about the education
+of his future wife: &#8220;One final wish&mdash;the only thing like restraint that
+your true friend can find it in his heart to utter: See little of Leah,
+and never sleep within her house.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For a short time, on his return from his second Arctic voyage, Dr. Kane
+allowed himself to be swayed by interest and the vehement efforts of his
+relatives, so far as to require from Margaret a written declaration that
+they had never been engaged, and that she had no claim whatever upon his
+hand in matrimony. There was a quick reaction, however, and the old
+relations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> were renewed. One who wrote of these facts said: &#8220;Amid all his
+sorrow, one fear seemed to harass him perpetually&mdash;that Miss Fox might be
+induced to return to the professional life she had abandoned years ago for
+his sake. She was surrounded by spiritualists.&#8221; * * *</p>
+
+<p>In his letters to her, Dr. Kane still harped upon the one anxiety that
+continually possessed him. He says: &#8220;<i>Do avoid &#8216;spirits.&#8217; I cannot bear to
+think of you as engaged in a course of wickedness and deception.</i> * * *
+Pardon my saying so; but is it not deceit even to listen when others are
+deceived? * * * In childhood it was a mere indiscretion; but what will it
+be when hard age wears its wrinkles into you, and like Leah you grow old!
+Dear Maggie, I could cry to think of it. * * * A time will come when you
+will see the real ghost of memory&mdash;an awful specter!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And again he wrote: &#8220;<i>Maggie, I have but one thought</i>, how to make you
+happier; <i>how to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>withdraw you from deception; from a course of sin and
+future punishment, the dark shadow of which hung over you like the wing of
+a vampire</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then, as he claimed her more and more openly as his own, &#8220;he would not
+permit her,&#8221; says the writer already quoted, &#8220;even to witness any
+spiritual manifestations, nor to remain in the room when the subject was
+discussed. * * * &#8216;You never shall be brought in contact with such things
+again,&#8217; he would say.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The ending of this very sad tale of love, which throws a peculiar light
+athwart the colder theme of this volume, was bitterly tragic. A secret
+marriage under the common law was entered into, and Dr. Kane, whose health
+was shattered never to be mended, went first to Europe and then to Cuba to
+die. Margaret and her mother were to join him at Havana, but ere their
+departure from New York he was already a corpse.</p>
+
+<p>And so, a noble and generous, if sometimes faltering heart, ceased to
+beat, and a gentle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> creature, who at last had learned to love as much as
+she had honored him, was on the shores of that deep sea of infamy against
+which, had he only lived, he would surely have shielded her.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+<h3>FROM SHADOW TO LIGHT.</h3>
+
+<p><br />More than thirty years after this sorrowful event, Margaret Fox Kane, in
+reviewing the past, attributes to the evil of Spiritualism all the
+ill-fortune which afterwards befell her.</p>
+
+<p>For fourteen years she wore the weeds of mourning for his sake; but when
+at last they were torn from her by a friendly, though unwise hand, she
+drifted again, through the various phases of a worldly and dissipated
+life, to that very vocation of dreary mercenary deceit which he had
+predicted would be her lot. She was never happy afterwards, however, and
+he who possesses any true sensibility must at least pity, quite as much as
+he may condemn her unfortunate destiny, when he reads the sad avowals
+which are made in this volume.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>Mrs. Kane says at the present day:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;From the very first of our intimate acquaintance, Dr. Kane knew that the
+&#8216;rappings&#8217; which I practiced were fraudulent. Of course, he was too
+keen-sighted intellectually, too sensible, ever to have believed them
+genuine for a single instant; and I simply obeyed the impulse of my candid
+regard for him, when the knowledge of his devotion grew upon me, and
+confided to him the whole secret of the fraud, together with my increasing
+repugnance to the life I was leading. He hated it, he despised it, he
+abhorred it, and he taught me from the beginning the same sentiment. We
+had to combat with the sordid interest of others. Whatever good he
+accomplished for me, was done against the set purpose of Leah.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I do not exaggerate in any way when I say that I have feared that woman
+all my life. Remember, she is twenty-three years older than I am. Her
+influence over both myself and my sister Kate began when we were infants.
+Katie, even to this day, acknowledges some sinister<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> influence about her
+sister Leah, even if she but chance to meet her in the street. It is a
+mixture of terrorism and cajolery.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For years I have had the shame of this vile thing before me. All my life,
+it has made me miserable. It is a load which I now throw off with a free
+heart and a great and thrilling sense of relief.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You must know that it was a dark and hateful influence that kept me aloof
+from Dr. Kane so long, when he declared his true love for me, over and
+over again, and desired to rescue me from the evil by which I was
+surrounded. I gave him my whole heart in return, though at that time I did
+not know how deep and how tender was my love for him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is this same baleful influence which has been the nightmare of my
+existence. Every morning of my life on awaking, I have had this horrid
+thought before me. And even in those younger days I would brood and brood
+over it, and Dr. Kane would often say to me:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>&#8220;&#8216;Maggie, I see the vampire is hovering over you still.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Our whole family was at that time under bondage, as it were, to Ann Leah
+Brown. She ruled over us as with a rod of iron.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All through this dreadful life&mdash;from the time when I first realized its
+enormity&mdash;I protested against it. Dr. Kane, after our marriage, would
+never permit me to allude to my old career&mdash;he wanted me to forget it. He
+hated its publicity.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But when I was poor after his death, I was driven back to it. I have told
+my sister Leah over and again: &#8216;Now that you are rich, why don&#8217;t you save
+your soul?&#8217; But she would only fly into a passion. The truth is that
+nothing can excuse the work she has done. She entered upon it at the age
+of judgment and experience, fully aware of its falsity and evil effect.
+She knows that the world cannot forgive her, and I have no hope that she
+will ever confess her sin, or offer an atonement for it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What can I add to the revelations of those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> letters? They are proofs of
+the mutual knowledge of Dr. Kane and myself that the &#8216;spiritual&#8217; rappings
+were fraud, and nothing but fraud. And even if he had not been told of the
+fact by myself, his opportunities of observation in our household were
+unequaled by any granted to others, and his verdict would have been in any
+case, therefore, almost as authoritative.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What fools are they who still pretend to believe against all this
+evidence!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It would hardly seem necessary that I should denounce Spiritualism after
+all that others have said against it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have never in my life professed to be a spiritualist, and I have never
+believed in Spiritualism, although I have seen it in all its phases, some
+of which I am unable to produce myself.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Even when I was compelled to go back to the &#8216;rappings&#8217; for a livelihood,
+and when I charged the most exorbitant fees, so that as few people as
+possible might be deceived, I had on my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> cards an emphatic disclaimer of
+any occult inspiration.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kane at this point showed the following on the back of one of her cards:</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 15em; height: 5.5em;">
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Kane does not claim</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">any Spirit power; but people</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">must judge for themselves.</span></p></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My poor father and mother,&#8221; she continued, &#8220;both knew before their death
+that all that we had practised for so many years was a fraud and a
+deception. Mother was greatly troubled about it, and she turned to the
+church for comfort. She used to say to us:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Oh, my dear children, I do hope that you will get out of this sort of
+life soon.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Peace be unto her!&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>The evil effects of Spiritualism upon the moral and mental condition of
+its followers is the deepest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> stain upon its history. The wrecks of
+thousands of intellects are monuments to its heartless fraud and malign
+influence.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kane has often said that if in her late years she had wholly
+submitted herself to its foolish vagaries and its base temptations, she
+would undoubtedly be now a raving maniac.</p>
+
+<p>There are many who, if they would but speak truly, could declare that ruin
+of conscience, brain and health, has resulted either from their willing
+faith in flimsy illusions or their weak connivance in puerile deception.</p>
+
+<p>I have touched but little upon the unclean side of Spiritualism. Thousands
+upon thousands of virtuous men and women entertain its theory or hold to
+its faith. But the manipulators of the supernatural machinery, the members
+of the inner circle, the prestidigitateurs and clumsy magicians, who seek
+to make simpletons of mankind, I now accuse of the grossest practices and
+abominations, the loosest social ideas, the most utter absence of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>
+principle that has been exhibited by any one set of people in the
+nineteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>They are wholly corrupt, and there is no good in them.</p>
+
+<p>If Spiritualism in any form survives the blow now given it by Margaret and
+Catherine Fox, who were its creators, it will only be because of the
+veiled licentiousness introduced into it by those who have enlarged upon
+its original plan.</p>
+
+<p>This licentiousness, like the bruised serpent, will not down, but still
+will lift its head, and lurk amid deepest shadows.</p>
+
+<p>Spiritualism, however, cannot again deceive the world.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>And it is written:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The dead shall not return; nor any that go down into Hell!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INDEX.</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INDEX.</h2>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>ABJURATION by Margaret Fox Kane of Spiritualism at the Academy of Music, New York, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.<br />
+<br />
+ADMISSIONS of Mrs. Leah Fox Fish regarding the results of the Buffalo medical investigation, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.<br />
+<br />
+AGASSIZ (Professor) investigates Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br />
+<br />
+ANTICS of the Fox Children at Hydesville near Rochester, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.<br />
+<br />
+ATTRACTIONS of the younger Fox Sisters, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br />
+<br />
+AUDACITY (Imbecile) of spiritualistic imposters, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br />
+&mdash;(Supreme) of fraud, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br />
+<br />
+AUTHORIZATION of the publication of this work by Margaret Fox Kane and Catherine Fox Jencken, <a href="#Page_viii">7</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;BABY mediumship&#8221;<br />
+&mdash;How the trick was done with the child of Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br />
+<br />
+BELIEF in Spiritualism,<br />
+&mdash;Mrs. Kane never pretended to any, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.<br />
+&mdash;John D. Fox never had any, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;BOBBING&#8221; of apples on the floor in the Hydesville house, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.<br />
+<br />
+BOOMERANGS (Spiritualistic), <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br />
+<br />
+BROWN (Mrs. Ann Leah Fox),<br />
+&mdash;Malignant opposition to Dr. Kane&#8217;s efforts to detach her sister Maggie from Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Exulting in deception, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Maggie warned against her by Dr. Kane, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Sinister influence over her sisters, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;BUFFALO Doctors&#8221;<br />
+&mdash;Their investigation of the &#8220;rappings,&#8221; <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Their correct theory, but wrong hypothesis, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>&mdash;How their investigation if further pursued, would have led to the truth, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;CHARLES Ceri&#8221;<br />
+&mdash;The &#8220;spirit of Mr. Seybert&#8221; mistakes the name of Mr. Sellers, of the &#8220;Seybert Commission,&#8221; <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br />
+<br />
+CLAIMS of Spiritualism as set forth in petition to Congress, 1854, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.<br />
+<br />
+COMMITTEES of tools and accomplices, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.<br />
+<br />
+CONDEMNATION of Spiritualism<br />
+&mdash;The substantial effect of the report of Harvard professors on the tests in Boston, 1857, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.<br />
+<br />
+CONCERTED signals used in the early s&eacute;ances, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.<br />
+<br />
+CONSPICUOUS persons interested in the &#8220;Fox Sisters,&#8221; <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br />
+<br />
+CONTACT of person while producing the &#8220;raps,&#8221; <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.<br />
+<br />
+CORRUPT practices in secret spiritualistic circles, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.<br />
+<br />
+COVENTRY (Dr. C. B.), one of the Buffalo investigators, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br />
+<br />
+CROOKVILLE, near Philadelphia&mdash;Maggie Fox goes to school there, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+DEAD (The) do not return, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.<br />
+<br />
+DEATH of Dr. Kane, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.<br />
+<br />
+DERANGEMENT of mental faculties the cause of the prevalence of the spiritualistic delusion, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Resulting from Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br />
+<br />
+DISGUST (Dr. Kane&#8217;s) at spiritualistic circles, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.<br />
+&mdash;(Mrs. Kane&#8217;s) at the baser spiritualistic practices, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.<br />
+<br />
+DISS De Bar (Madam)<br />
+&mdash;Mrs. Kane&#8217;s abhorrence of her, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Daniel Underhill pronounces her a fraud, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+EARLY sorcery the prototype of modern Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br />
+<br />
+EDUCATION (Defective) the cause of the prevalence of the spiritualistic delusion, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br />
+<br />
+ELEVATION<br />
+&mdash;Failure of Mrs. Kane to produce &#8220;rappings&#8221; when standing upon a lounge, a cushioned chair or a step-ladder, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.<br />
+<br />
+EXPOSURE, Poetic justice of the, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Mrs. Kane&#8217;s first public intimation of intended, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Details of Mrs. Kane&#8217;s, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Of Spiritualism by the Guernillas, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span><br />
+<br />
+FEAR of the Fox Sisters of their sister, Leah, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FISH (Ann Leah Fox) First to conceive the idea of profiting by the &#8220;rappings,&#8221; <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Learns to &#8220;rap&#8221; from the little children, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Using the little girls, Maggie and Katie, for her purposes, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Challenges to the &#8220;Buffalo doctors,&#8221; <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FISH (Lizzie)<br />
+&mdash;Protesting against her mother&#8217;s hypocrisy and deception, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FLINT (Dr. Austin), one of the Buffalo investigators, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FOOT (Movement of the) in producing &#8220;rappings,&#8221; <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Detected by a member of the &#8220;Seybert Commission,&#8221; <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.<br />
+&mdash;&#8220;Rappings&#8221; not heard when held, but heard again when released, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FORGED testimony, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FOX (Catherine)<br />
+&mdash;First to discover that &#8220;raps&#8221; could be produced with the joints, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FOX (David S.)<br />
+&mdash;First to suggest use of the alphabet in the so-called &#8220;spirit messages,&#8221; <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Dupe or accomplice of Leah, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FOX (John D.)<br />
+&mdash;Never a believer in Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FOX (Mrs. Margaret)<br />
+&mdash;An honest fanatic, deceived by her children, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Disabused at the last, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FOX (Maggie)<br />
+&mdash;Her beauty at thirteen years, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Petty devilment in childhood, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Sent to school at Crookville, Pa., by Dr. Kane, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Protests all through her earlier life against &#8220;spiritualistic&#8221; deception, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FOX (Maria), <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FULCRUM, necessary for the limb in order to produce sound by the action of the joints, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FURNESS (Horace Howard), acting chairman of the &#8220;Seybert Commission&#8221;<br />
+&mdash;Letter to Mrs. Kane, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Explanation of her refusal to continue the s&eacute;ances with the Commission, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.<br />
+<br />
+FRAUD.<br />
+&mdash;Dante&#8217;s image of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Origin of the, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Development of the, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Various forms of the, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span><br />
+FRAUDULENT<br />
+&mdash;The &#8220;mediumship&#8221; of Mrs. Jencken&#8217;s baby, &#8220;Ferdie,&#8221; <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+GARBLED testimony, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;GOD has not ordered it,&#8221; <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.<br />
+<br />
+GOWNS (Long) put on the younger Fox girls on their first public appearance, to conceal manner of producing &#8220;raps,&#8221; <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.<br />
+<br />
+GREELEY (Horace)<br />
+&mdash;Aids Katie, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Influence upon her life, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br />
+<br />
+GUERNILLAS (The)<br />
+&mdash;Exposure of Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;HERALD&#8221; (The N. Y.), <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.<br />
+<br />
+HISTORY of the &#8220;rappings,&#8221; <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.<br />
+<br />
+HARVARD professors investigate Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br />
+<br />
+HUMBUG (Spiritualism a,) according to Mrs. Kate Fox Jencken, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.<br />
+<br />
+HYDESVILLE, N. Y.<br />
+&mdash;When mysterious sounds were first heard in John D. Fox&#8217;s house, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Digging in the creek, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Bones of a horse found, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Digging in the cellar, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Alleged finding of human bones, unconfirmed by any evidence, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.<br />
+&mdash;House said to be haunted&mdash;an afterthought, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.<br />
+&mdash;The &#8220;spirits&#8221; when asked tentatively say a murder was committed in the house and mention the name of the murderer, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br />
+<br />
+HYPOCRISY of professional spiritualists, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Dr. Kane characterizes, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+INQUISITIVENESS as to spiritualistic methods prevents the &#8220;spirits&#8221; from acting, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.<br />
+<br />
+INSULATION<br />
+&mdash;Experiments with Mrs. Kane while standing on glass tumblers, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.<br />
+&mdash;The results negative, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Partial success when placed near a sideboard and wall, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br />
+<br />
+INVESTIGATION<br />
+&mdash;First farcical. <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.<br />
+&mdash;By the &#8220;Buffalo doctors,&#8221; <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.<br />
+&mdash;By &#8220;Buffalo doctors&#8221; again, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.<br />
+&mdash;By &#8220;Seybert Commission,&#8221; <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.<br />
+&mdash;By Harvard professors and others, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+JENCKEN (Mrs. Catherine Fox) denounces Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span><br />
+JOINTS of the fingers.<br />
+&mdash;Children try to imitate sounds with them, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.<br />
+<br />
+JOINT of the knee used in the production of &#8220;raps,&#8221; <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br />
+<br />
+JOINTS of the toes used in producing the famous &#8220;rappings&#8221; of the Fox sisters, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br />
+<br />
+JUGGLERY<br />
+&mdash;Spiritualists attribute it to &#8220;mediumship,&#8221; <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Confess that &#8220;spiritualistic&#8221; effects are produced in the same way, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Older and more skillful than Spiritualism so-called, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+KANE (Dr. Elisha Kent)<br />
+&mdash;First meeting with Maggie Fox, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Influence upon her life, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Effect of his death on her career, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Character of his interest in her, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Gloomy foresight, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Efforts to save her from a life of fraud, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Characterizes the deceit and hypocrisy of &#8220;mediumship,&#8221; <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Never believed in a single pretense of Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Knew from their first acquaintance that the &#8220;rappings&#8221; were fraudulent, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Repeatedly exacts her promise not to have anything more to do with Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Solicitude lest she return to the practice of Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Fear lest the source of the &#8220;rappings&#8221; be discovered, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Places her at school, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Engagement broken off and renewed, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Secret marriage with her, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Death at Havana, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.<br />
+<br />
+KNEES<br />
+&mdash;Seized by investigators to detect movement while &#8220;rappings&#8221; being produced, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.<br />
+&mdash;When so seized, sounds arrested, and when released, renewed, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+LEE (Dr. Charles A.), one of the Buffalo investigators, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br />
+<br />
+LETTER of Mrs. Kane first publicly denouncing Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.<br />
+<br />
+LICENTIOUSNESS under the cloak of Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;MEDIUMS&#8221; (Well-known)<br />
+&mdash;How they received the expos&eacute;, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;MEDIUMSHIP&#8221;<br />
+&mdash;Mrs. Kane driven back to it, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.<br />
+<br />
+MESSAGES (Written)<br />
+&mdash;How produced by Mrs. Kane, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span><br />
+MESSAGES (&#8220;Spirit&#8221;)<br />
+&mdash;Internal evidence sufficient to prove their falsity, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br />
+<br />
+MERCENARY campaign<br />
+&mdash;Begins in Rochester, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Tour of principal cities, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.<br />
+<br />
+MOVEMENT of knees of &#8220;medium&#8221; noted by Dr. Lee while &#8220;raps&#8221; were heard, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+ORIGIN of the fraud, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+PERSECUTION of Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken and her children by spiritualistic enemies, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.<br />
+<br />
+PROPHECY of Dr. Kane concerning the future of Maggie Fox, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.<br />
+<br />
+PROMISES of Maggie Fox to Dr. Kane never to &#8220;rap&#8221; any more, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br />
+<br />
+PRESIDENT Pierce&#8217;s wife and Maggie Fox, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.<br />
+<br />
+PROFESSION of spiritualistic belief<br />
+&mdash;Mrs. Kane expressly disclaims it, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;RAPS&#8221;<br />
+&mdash;Failure to &#8220;throw&#8221; them to different parts of a room, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Always heard near the spot where &#8220;medium&#8221; is stationed, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Effort of the will in producing them apparent, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Muscular contractions their possible cause, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Not produced while &#8220;mediums&#8221; in constrained position, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Not produced while feet of &#8220;mediums&#8221; are prevented from touching sonorous substances, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Vibrations in foot of Mrs. Kane, felt by Mr. Sellers of the &#8220;Seybert Commission,&#8221; <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Their physiological origin, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br />
+<br />
+REPENTANCE<br />
+&mdash;Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.<br />
+<br />
+REPORTS on investigations of &#8220;rappings,&#8221; <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.<br />
+<br />
+ROCHESTER<br />
+&mdash;Outlandish doings told by Mrs. Underhill, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Mrs. Kane gives the true explanation of them, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.<br />
+&mdash;First public appearances of the Fox Sisters, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+SENATE ridicules Spiritualism in debate, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br />
+<br />
+SLADE (Henry) admits that certain magicians produce their effects in the same way that he does, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.<br />
+<br />
+SEYBERT (Henry)<br />
+&mdash;Crazed by Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>&mdash;Mrs. Kane enters the &#8220;Spiritual Mansion,&#8221; <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.<br />
+&mdash;She draws the line at the Apostles and the Angel Gabriel, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br />
+&mdash;His legacy for the investigation of Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.<br />
+&mdash;His &#8220;spirit&#8221; mistakes the identity of a member of the &#8220;Seybert Commission&#8221; and calls him by a queer name, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Though he knew no Latin in the flesh, his &#8220;spirit&#8221; is made to write Latin, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br />
+<br />
+&#8220;SEYBERT Commission&#8221; (The)<br />
+&mdash;Its origin and labors, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Experiments with Mrs. Kane, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Its conclusions regarding the &#8220;rappings,&#8221; <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br />
+&mdash;On other phases of Spiritualism, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br />
+<br />
+SPIRITUALISM<br />
+&mdash;Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken says it is the greatest curse the world has ever known, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.<br />
+<br />
+SUPERSTITION<br />
+&mdash;Traditions in the Fox family about queer happenings, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+UNDERHILL (Ann Leah)<br />
+&mdash;Her narrative proven false, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Sinister influence over her younger sisters, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+VERDICT (The unalterable), <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br />
+<br />
+VIBRATION of articles when &#8220;medium&#8217;s&#8221; body is in contact with them while producing raps, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+WARNINGS of Dr. Kane to Maggie and Katie Fox against a life of deception, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.<br />
+&mdash;Against intercourse with her sister, Leah, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FINIS.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> Dr. Kane and Horace Greeley.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> It was erroneously stated that the boys were immediately sent back to Europe.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> &#8220;The Seybert Commission on Spiritualism,&#8221; J. B. Lippincott Company,
+Philadelphia, 1887. The author is under obligations to the publishers of this volume, for material which he has taken from it.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f4" id="f4" href="#f4.1">[4]</a> The author of &#8220;The Love-Life of Dr. Kane;&#8221; published by Carleton, 1865, New York.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f5" id="f5" href="#f5.1">[5]</a> This form of expression was here used because the author of &#8220;The
+Love-Life,&#8221; while not a believer in Spiritualism, did not wish to imply in
+a work that had Mrs. Kane&#8217;s personal sanction, the slightest doubt of the
+sincerity of her professions or of her claims as a &#8220;medium.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><a name="f6" id="f6" href="#f6.1">[6]</a> Leah.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f7" id="f7" href="#f7.1">[7]</a> General Waddy Thompson.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f8" id="f8" href="#f8.1">[8]</a> Ex-Governor Tallmadge.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f9" id="f9" href="#f9.1">[9]</a> Katie, as well as her sister, had promised to abjure the &#8220;spirits,&#8221;
+and she had also said that she would go to live with Maggie on the latter&#8217;s marriage with Dr. Kane.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f10" id="f10" href="#f10.1">[10]</a> The wife of the President of the United States.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><b>Transcriber&#8217;s Notes:</b></p>
+
+<p>Punctuation has been corrected without note.</p>
+
+<p>Other than the corrections noted by hover information, inconsistencies in
+spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Death-Blow to Spiritualism, by
+Reuben Briggs Davenport
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Death-Blow to Spiritualism
+       Being the True Story of the Fox Sisters
+
+Author: Reuben Briggs Davenport
+
+Release Date: August 23, 2010 [EBook #33506]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEATH-BLOW TO SPIRITUALISM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  0807. THE DEATH BLOW TO SPIRITUALISM.
+
+  Being the true story of the Fox sisters, as revealed by authority
+  of Margaret Fox Kane and Catherine Fox Jencken. Written by R. B.
+  Davenport. 147 pages. Deathblow to Spiritualism. R. B. Davenport    1.00
+
+  OCT. 1897. ISSUED MONTHLY. $5.00 PER YEAR.
+  ENTERED AT THE NEW YORK POST OFFICE AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER.
+
+
+
+
+  THE DEATH-BLOW TO SPIRITUALISM:
+
+  BEING THE TRUE STORY OF THE FOX SISTERS,
+  AS REVEALED BY AUTHORITY OF MARGARET FOX
+  KANE AND CATHERINE FOX JENCKEN.
+
+
+  BY REUBEN BRIGGS DAVENPORT.
+
+
+  NEW YORK:
+  _G. W. Dillingham Co., Publishers._
+  MDCCCXCVII.
+
+
+
+  Copyright, 1888.
+  BY REUBEN BRIGGS DAVENPORT.
+
+  [_All Rights Reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+  TO MRS. HESTER S. DWINELLE.
+
+
+     "ALONSO. This is as strange a maze as ere men trod,
+  And there is in this business more than nature
+  Was ever conduct of: some oracle
+  Must rectify our knowledge.
+
+     "PROSPERO.     Sir, my liege,
+  Do not infest your mind with beating on
+  The strangeness of this business: at picked leisure,
+  Which shall be shortly, single I'll resolve you
+  (Which to you shall seem probable) of every
+  These happen'd accidents: till when be cheerful,
+  And think of each thing well.--Come hither, spirit;
+  Set Caliban and his companions free:
+  _Untie the spell._"
+                                  SHAKESPEARE.--_The Tempest._
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+This book has been written in extreme haste. It does not pretend to
+literary style. But it pretends to absolute truthfulness and a reverent
+regard for justice.
+
+Its sole value is its character as a contribution to the real history of
+Spiritualism. As such, it is unquestionably of great importance, greater
+even than any work of the kind that has been published since the beginning
+of modern Spiritualism.
+
+It is, in fact, what its title sets forth--"THE DEATH-BLOW TO
+SPIRITUALISM."
+
+No one who does not love illusion for illusion's sake--better, in other
+words, than he loves the truth--can, after reading this volume, remain a
+follower of Spiritualism and its hypocritical apostles.
+
+The full authorization of Mrs. MARGARET FOX KANE and Mrs. CATHERINE FOX
+JENCKEN for the publication of this work will be found on the next to the
+following page.
+
+_29th October, 1888._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MARGARET FOX KANE IN HER 18TH YEAR.]
+
+[Illustration: KATIE FOX JENCKEN]
+
+
+
+
+We hereby approve of Mr. Reuben B. Davenport's design to write a true
+account of the origin of Spiritualism and of our connection therewith, and
+we authorize him to make proper use of all data and material that we
+furnish him.
+
+New York, 15th Oct., 1888.
+
+  Margaret Fox Kane
+  Catherine Fox Jencken
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  I. INTRODUCTION.
+
+     Poetic Justice of the Exposure               13
+
+  II. RENUNCIATION.
+
+      Chapter.                                  Page
+
+          I. "God Has Not Ordered It."            25
+         II. The Discomfited Enemy.               39
+        III. A Second Blow.                       53
+         IV. The Hand of the Persecutor.          60
+          V. Solemn Abjuration.                   65
+
+  III. HISTORY.
+
+         VI. Origin of the Fraud.                 81
+        VII. Garbled and Distorted Testimony      94
+       VIII. Development of the Fraud            102
+         IX. The Mercenary Campaign.             121
+          X. Spiritualistic Boomerangs.          131
+         XI. The Supreme Audacity of Fraud.      150
+        XII. A Scientific Jury.                  164
+       XIII. The Unalterable Verdict.            201
+
+  IV. REPENTANCE.
+
+        XIV. The Heart Pleads for the Soul.      209
+         XV. From Shadow to Light.               231
+
+  INDEX.                                         241
+
+
+
+
+I. INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+POETIC JUSTICE OF THE EXPOSURE.
+
+
+That the inventors of an infamous fraud should deal to it its death-blow,
+is the poetic justice of fate.
+
+Over the creature, the creator has power of life and death.
+
+The creators of Spiritualism abjure its infamy.
+
+They decree its death.
+
+They condemn it to final destruction.
+
+They fasten upon those who continue to practice it the obloquy of history,
+and the scorn of mankind for all time to come.
+
+Margaret and Catharine Fox, the youngest of three sisters, were the first
+to produce "spiritualistic manifestations."
+
+They are now the most earnest in denunciation of those impostures; the
+most eager to dissipate the foolish belief of thousands in the flimsiest
+system of deception that was ever cloaked with the hypocrisy of so-called
+religion.
+
+When, as by accident, they discovered a method of deceiving those around
+them by means of mysterious noises, they were but little children,
+innocent of the thought of wrong, ignorant of the world and the world's
+guile, and imagining only that what they did was a clever lark, such as
+the adult age easily pardons to exuberant and sprightly youth.
+
+Not to them did the base suggestion come that this singular, this simple
+discovery, should be the means of deluding the world, of exalting them in
+the minds of the weakly credulous and of bringing them fame and splendor
+and sumptuous pleasure.
+
+No one who learns their true history can still believe them guilty of the
+willful inception of this most grotesque, most transparent and corrupting
+of superstitions.
+
+The idea had its monstrous birth in older heads, heads that were seconded
+by hearts lacking the very essence of truth and the fountain of honest
+human sympathy.
+
+The two children, who had at first delighted, as younglings will, in what
+was but a laughable mystification, were dragged into a sordid, wicked and
+loathsome speculation, built upon lying and fraud, as unforgivable as the
+sin of Satan, and of which they were but the unthinking instruments, often
+reluctant and remorseful, yet docile and compliant by nature.
+
+Thus the "Rochester knockings," the example and prototype of all later
+so-called spiritualistic "phenomena," began merely in a curious childish
+freak, disguised without effort, and which, from the first, was encouraged
+to partly formed understandings by the wonder and intense spirit of
+inquiry it provoked.
+
+The young operators were carried away by the undreamt-of current of
+enthusiasm and awe in which they soon became involved. They felt the
+natural need of maintaining with unabating dexterity, that false sense of
+the miraculous which by chance they had called forth.
+
+Thus they went from one stage to another of this queer illusion, and,
+being compelled by a harder and more mature intelligence to repeat their
+part over and over again, became the chief means of establishing that
+injurious belief in communications from the spirits of the departed, of
+which such great numbers have become the victims.
+
+Many an older offender against common sense, reason and strict morality
+persists through force of circumstance in the pathway he has chosen, and
+does not turn backward, merely because he cannot do so without wearing the
+face of shame.
+
+From such slight and trivial beginning came the great movement--great
+because of the number which it comprised and of the sensation which
+attended its progress--that for more than forty years has alternately
+surprised, puzzled, disgusted and amused the world.
+
+From so little a plant has grown a gigantic weed of deceit, corruption and
+fraud, nurtured upon the fattening lust of money, and of the flesh.
+
+What has developed from it is not alone a system of so-called
+communications through a puerile code of signals with an unseen world;
+but, as Dante describes, in his incomparable epic, forms of monstrosity
+which combine a hideous human semblance and a loathly animal foulness, so
+this venomous evil has become conglomerate in its hateful phases of
+delusion, and its petty sordidness and depravity.
+
+Thus the Tuscan bard describes the spirit of fraud:
+
+     "'Lo! the fell monster with the deadly sting!
+  Who passes mountains, breaks through fenced walls
+  And firm embattled spears, and with his filth
+  Taints all the world! Thus me my guide addressed,
+  And beckon'd him, that he should come to shore,
+  Near to the stony causeway's utmost edge.
+     "Forthwith that image vile of fraud appear'd,
+  His head and upper part expos'd on land,
+  But laid not on the shore his bestial train.
+  His face the semblance of a just man's wore.
+  So kind and gracious was its outward cheer;
+  The rest was serpent all; two shaggy claws
+  Reach'd to the armpits, and the back and breast,
+  And either side, were painted o'er with nodes
+  And orbits. Colors variegated more
+  Nor Turks nor Tartars e'er on cloth of state
+  With interchangeable embroidery wove,
+  Nor spread Arachne o'er her curious loom.
+  As ofttimes a light skiff, moor'd to the shore,
+  Stands part in water, part upon the land;
+  Or, as where dwells the greedy German boor,
+  The beaver settles watching for his prey;
+  So on the rim, that fenced the sand with rock,
+  Sat perched the fiend of evil. In the void
+  Glancing, his tail upturn'd its venomous fork,
+  With sting like scorpion's armed."
+
+The world has not seen in all its long procession of follies, vagaries,
+and strange mania, one so utterly devoid of a reasonable foundation as
+this.
+
+Yet none has been more eagerly believed; and this very tendency has
+evolved into so strong a desire to believe that thousands of those who
+have professed to investigate it have done so only ostensibly, their eyes,
+figuratively speaking, tightly bandaged, to shut out everything but the
+artificial vision that they were most eager to see.
+
+It is to be hoped that the world will now form its ultimate conclusion
+upon this flagrant and audacious system of humbuggery:--that, regarded as
+a superstition, it ranks even below voudooism and fetich-worship, and, as
+an illusion, below the effects produced by the most ordinary magician at a
+country fair.
+
+Dragged into this life when infants, rescued from it for an interval by
+two men[1] whose names are historical, the one as a hero and explorer, the
+other as a journalist and daily philosopher; borne back to it again by the
+tide of ill-fortune; used and controlled, by those whose heart's were "dry
+as summer's dust," for their own hateful purposes; menaced when conscience
+rebelled and suggested retraction and amends; driven to seek momentary
+oblivion of their present degradation in a vice that was the result of
+their enforced public career; finally, persecuted in a stealthy and
+treacherous way by those who had profited most by the fraud that they had
+set up, because it was feared that sooner or later they could no longer
+keep silent and would betray its real origin; seeing their existence
+slipping away from them with nothing but Dead Sea fruit remaining to their
+bitter portion; feeling more and more the need of an atonement to
+conscience and the opinion of the world--Margaret and Catherine Fox now
+denounce and anathematize Spiritualism as absolutely and utterly false
+from beginning to end; and they declare their solemn intention to devote
+themselves henceforth to the noble task of undoing the great evil which
+they have done, and of leaving no single stone of foundation behind them
+for weak-minded future generations to base a futile faith upon.
+
+In these pages will be found the full and truthful story of Spiritualism,
+as it was and is, as gathered from the lips of both Margaret Fox Kane and
+Catharine Fox Jencken, and verified by letters, documents and published
+data. It is written with their full knowledge and earnest sanction.
+
+The bold fabric of lies built up to sustain the claim that the "rappings"
+in which all spiritualistic so-called phenomena originated were
+unaccountable except on the supernatural hypothesis, can no longer be
+cited to an intelligent mind. The elaborate narrative published by the
+eldest sister, Mrs. Ann Leah Fox Underhill, who is now the only remaining
+stay of spiritualistic deception, is proven to be false from title-page to
+finis.
+
+I have given in the following pages, the real lives of Mrs. Kane and Mrs.
+Jencken, in so far as they bear in any important degree upon the
+development of the fraud of Spiritualism.
+
+
+
+
+II. RENUNCIATION.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+GOD HAS NOT ORDERED IT.
+
+
+The world of "spiritualists" and non-spiritualists was startled on the
+24th of September, 1888, by the publication in the New York _Herald_, of
+an article with the following head-lines:
+
+  "GOD HAS NOT ORDERED IT."
+
+  A Celebrated Medium Says the
+  Spirits Never Return.
+
+  CAPTAIN KANE'S WIDOW.
+
+  One of the Fox Sisters Promises an
+  Interesting Exposure of Fraud.
+
+To many, an article of this kind seemed in a degree sensational. Not to
+those, however, who had previously had some inkling of the secret history
+of Spiritualism, and who for years had looked for the day of its
+inevitable confounding.
+
+A sudden disclosure like this, by one of the "Mothers of Spiritualism," if
+the term may be used, suggested a sort of reckless vagary, a species of
+extravagance, due, as might have been fancied, to some abnormal condition
+of the mind.
+
+Yet to those who had had an intimate acquaintance with Maggie Fox Kane
+this step had long been foreshadowed. As will appear later, no one could
+have imagined the real intensity of moral pain that for years she had
+endured.
+
+In recent years, both she and her sister, Catharine Fox Jencken, had been
+but poorly provided with this world's goods. Obliged to depend almost
+wholly on themselves for support, they had dropped more and more out of
+sight, till the public at last hardly recognized their names, if perchance
+they appeared in print, as those of the principal instruments in the
+founding of Spiritualism. For this, there was a reason. It was a
+deep-seated and long increasing disgust with their fraudulent
+profession--the fuller realization to their minds, as their knowledge of
+the world grew broader, of the monstrous evil to which, innocently at
+first, they had given birth. So at intervals they were filled with
+despairing despondency and remorse. Their weaknesses, their
+self-indulgence, their lack of providence for themselves, are largely
+attributable to these causes. It could not be said of them that they were
+ever remarkably selfish, or cold-hearted or calculating. Such a character,
+however, has of right been coupled with the name of their elder sister,
+who by reason of the ties of blood and of her older experience ought long
+ago to have led them out of the by-ways of imposture, instead of
+persistently seeking to shut off their escape from this horrible bondage,
+and to plunge them deeper into the mire of guilt and infamy, so that the
+chance of their rising above it, and denouncing it, might grow less and
+less.
+
+The impulse to set herself right on the record of the world, after years
+of enslavement in the hateful gyves of charlatanism, must stand to Maggie
+Fox's credit alone. It sprang from her own bosom, not from the
+inspiration, suggestion or persuasion of any one else. Returning from
+Europe in September, 1888, after a peculiar experience, which had
+convinced her that those chiefs of spiritualistic fraud who feared her and
+her sister, because they held the key of the whole of the artificial
+mystery, were bent upon persecuting them into an abject silence, she at
+once put in execution the resolution which had been so long in process of
+growth, but until then had never been fully ripened.
+
+This was to effect the unqualified exposure of the false system of
+Spiritualism. She naturally chose as a medium for her repentant message to
+the world, that great cosmopolitan journal, the _New York Herald_, which
+is known in every corner of the earth, and is ever ready to perform an
+important service to mankind. Before she started on her homeward voyage,
+she committed herself once and for all to this courageous and worthy step.
+
+The disclosures regarding the notorious Madam Diss De Barr had offended
+Mrs. Kane more than anything which had occurred in Spiritualism in a long
+time, for they presented the enforced association of her name and the
+simple, childish origin of the "Rochester knockings," with the gross and
+revolting frauds which had been their outgrowth. So imbued had she become,
+by this time, with the idea that the developed system of Spiritualism was
+something to be loathed, as Milton loathed the hideous creature who sat by
+the inner portals of hell, that words could not express her utter scorn
+and hatred of this common woman, who posed as an agent of sacred
+communications between the living and the dead.
+
+The New York _Herald_ of May 27, 1888, contained this letter, written by
+Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane in London:
+
+     THE CURSE OF SPIRITUALISM.
+
+     GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, W. C.,
+     LONDON, MAY 14, 1888.
+
+     TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:
+
+     I read in the _Herald_ of Saturday, May 5, an account of the sad
+     misfortune that has befallen my dear sister Katie, Mrs. Kate Fox
+     Jencken, and in the article it is stated that I am still a resident
+     of New York, which is a mistake. I sailed for England on the 22d of
+     March, and I presume my absence has added to my darling sister's
+     depressed state of mind. The sad news has nearly killed me. My
+     sister's two beautiful boys referred to are her idols.
+
+     Spiritualism is a curse. God has set His seal against it! I call it a
+     curse, for it is made use of as a covering for heartless persons like
+     the Diss De Barrs, and the vilest miscreants make use of it to cloak
+     their evil doings. Fanatics like Mr. Luther R. Marsh, Mr. John L.
+     O'Sullivan, ex-Minister to Portugal, and hundreds equally as learned,
+     ignore the "rappings" (which is the only part of the phenomena that
+     is worthy of notice) and rush madly after the glaring humbugs that
+     flood New York. But a harmless "message" that is given through the
+     "rappings" is of little account to them; they want the "spirit" to
+     come to them in full form, to walk before them, talk to them, to
+     embrace them, and all such nonsense, and what is the result? Like old
+     Judge Edmonds and Mr. Seybert, of Philadelphia, they become crazed,
+     and at the direction of their fraud "mediums" they are induced to
+     part with all their worldly possessions as well as their common
+     sense, which God intended they should hold sacred. Mr. Marsh's
+     experience is but another example of hundreds who have preceded him.
+
+     No matter in what form Spiritualism may be presented, it is, has been
+     and always will be a curse and a snare to all who meddle with it. No
+     right minded man or woman can think otherwise.
+
+     I have found that fanatics are as plentiful among "inferior men and
+     women" as they are among the more learned. They are all alike. They
+     cannot hold their fanaticism in check, and it increases as their
+     years increase. All they will ever achieve for their foolish
+     fanaticism will be loss of money, softening of the brain and a
+     lingering death.
+
+     MARGARET F. KANE.
+
+This anathema dismayed those who had basely profited by Spiritualism, and
+it brought a deeper shock to the hearts of many who were sincere
+believers. The publication, however, in the _Herald_, three months later,
+of an interview with Mrs. Kane on her arrival in this city, the striking
+head-lines of which I have cited above, capped the climax of
+consternation. This article is well worthy of reproduction.
+
+     The eccentric circles wherein "isms" reign in discordant supremacy
+     will be probably as deeply exercised over an approaching exposure of
+     the tricks and illusions of Spiritualism, as they were over the rude
+     logic of common sense and justice which drew aside the thin veil of
+     fraud in the case of Madam Diss De Barr, and revealed the real nature
+     of her flimsy system of deception in all its vulgar absurdity.
+
+     I called yesterday at a modest little house in West Forty-fourth
+     street, and was received by a small, magnetic woman of middle age,
+     whose face bears the traces of much sorrow and of a world-wide
+     experience. She was negligently dressed, and she was not in the
+     calmest possible mood. But she knew what she was talking about when,
+     in response to my questions, she told a story of as strange and
+     fantastic a life as has ever been recorded, and declared over and
+     over again her intention of balancing the account which the world of
+     humbug-loving mortals held against her, by making a clean breast of
+     all her former miracles and wonders. In intervals of her talk, when
+     she had risen from her chair, and paced the room, or had covered her
+     face with her hands and almost sobbed with emotion, she would seat
+     herself suddenly at a piano and pour forth fitful floods of wild,
+     incoherent melody, which coincided strangely with that reminiscent
+     weirdness which, despite its cynical reality, still characterized the
+     scene.
+
+     This woman, albeit a notorious career has classed her with
+     mountebanks and worse in the minds of reasonable beings, had yet by
+     some element or other in her character retained a degree of public
+     respect. Perhaps it is because months ago she abandoned the art of
+     deception and has since to her intimate friends evinced no ordinary
+     measure of contempt for all who still pursue it. She is known on both
+     sides of the Atlantic, and when in London, is entertained by some of
+     the best-to-do of the great and comprehensive middle class.
+
+     Circumstances had brought me to this house, and I did not at first
+     know her. I soon found, however, that this was the most famous of the
+     celebrated trio of witches, the Fox sisters, among the earliest
+     spiritualistic mediums in this country. She is also the widow of Dr.
+     Elisha Kent Kane, the heroic Arctic explorer, who died of the effects
+     of his exposure in searching for Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated
+     party. Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane has lately returned from England for a
+     brief visit here, and she purposes in a very short time to deliver
+     just one lecture, and no more, which shall shame and dumfound all the
+     spiritualistic frauds who have not yet repented into poverty or exile
+     of their nebulous ways. She will reveal one after another of the
+     methods by which willing believers have been so briskly duped and
+     robbed, and will herself demonstrate how simple, natural and easy are
+     most of those methods.
+
+Brooding upon the troubles that had been brought upon her by Spiritualism
+and on her personal guilt in connection with it, it is hardly strange that
+Mrs. Kane, even when bent upon making a sweeping confession of the whole
+imposture, should in intervals of nervous excitement have turned to the
+thought of suicide.
+
+"'My troubles weighed upon me,' she said, 'and when I was coming over on
+the _Italy_, I do believe that I should have gone overboard but for the
+Captain and the doctor and some of the sailors. They prevented me, and
+when I landed, I could not express to them the gratitude I felt. I had
+very little English money with me, but all of that I distributed to the
+men.'"
+
+As Mrs. Kane told of her impulse to commit suicide her manner became
+tragic and she clutched her listener's arm. After a moment, however, she
+reverted quietly enough to the original subject.
+
+But she speedily became much excited again, as what follows will show. It
+was but natural:
+
+     "Since you now despise Spiritualism, how was it that you were engaged
+     in it so long?" I asked.
+
+     "Another sister of mine," and she coupled the name with an injurious
+     adjective, "made me take up with it. She's my damnable enemy. I hate
+     her. My God! I'd poison her! No, I wouldn't, but I'll lash her with
+     my tongue. She was twenty-three years old the day I was born. I was
+     an aunt seven years before I was born. Ha! ha!
+
+     "Yes, I am going to expose Spiritualism from its very foundation. I
+     have had the idea in my head for many a year, but I have never come
+     to a determination before. I've thought of it day and night. I loath
+     the thing I have been. As I used to say to those who wanted me to
+     give a seance, 'You are driving me into hell.' Then the next day I
+     would drown my remorse in wine. I was too honest to remain a
+     'medium.' That's why I gave up my exhibitions.
+
+     "When Spiritualism first began Kate and I were little children, and
+     this old woman, my other sister, made us her tools. Mother was a
+     silly woman. She was a fanatic. I call her that because she was
+     honest. She believed in these things. Spiritualism started from just
+     nothing. We were but innocent little children. What did we know? Ah,
+     we grew to know too much! Our sister used us in her exhibitions and
+     we made money for her. Now she turns upon us because she's the wife
+     of a rich man, and she opposes us both wherever she can. Oh, I am
+     after her! You can kill sometimes without using weapons, you know.
+
+     "Dr. Kane found me when I was leading this life. [The woman's voice
+     trembled just here and she nearly broke down.] I was only thirteen
+     when he took me out of it and placed me at school. I was educated in
+     Philadelphia. When I was sixteen years old he returned from the
+     Arctic and we were married. Now comes the sad, sad tale. He was very
+     ill. The physicians ordered him to London, but before he arrived he
+     had a paralytic stroke of the heart. Then he was sent back from
+     London and to Havana. Newsboys shouted in the streets of New York
+     the news of his critical condition. Oh, my God! it was anguish to my
+     ears! Mother and I were to have joined him in two weeks. He died
+     before we arrived. Then I had brain fever. No one but God can know
+     what sorrows I have had!
+
+     "When I recovered I was driven again into Spiritualism, and I gave
+     exhibitions with my sister Katie. I knew, of course, then, that every
+     effect produced by us was absolute fraud. Why, I have explored the
+     unknown as far as human will can. I have gone to the dead so that I
+     might get from them some little token. Nothing ever came of
+     it--nothing, nothing. I have been in graveyards at dead of night,
+     having permission to enter from those in charge. I have sat alone on
+     a gravestone, that the spirits of those who slept underneath might
+     come to me. I have tried to obtain some sign. Not a thing! No, no,
+     the dead shall not return, nor shall any that go down into hell. So
+     says the Catholic Bible, and so say I. The spirits will not come
+     back. God has not ordered it.
+
+     "You want to know what are the points of my coming expose? First the
+     'rappings.'"
+
+     Mrs. Kane paused here, and I heard first a rapping under the floor
+     near my feet, then under the chair in which I was seated, and again
+     under a table on which I was leaning. She led me to the door and I
+     heard the same sound on the other side of it. Then, when she sat on
+     the piano stool, the legs of the instrument reverberated more loudly,
+     and the tap, tap, resounded throughout its hollow structure.
+
+     "It is all a trick?"
+
+     "Absolutely. Spirits, is he not easily fooled?"
+
+     Rap, rap, rap!
+
+     "I can always get an affirmative answer to that question," she
+     remarked.
+
+     Then I addressed certain suppositions to her. At last she said, "Yes,
+     you have hit it. It is, as you say, the manner in which the joints of
+     the foot can be used without lifting it from the floor. The power of
+     doing this can only be acquired by practice begun in early youth. One
+     must begin as early as twelve years. Thirteen is rather late. We
+     children, when we were playing together, years ago, discovered it,
+     and it was my eldest sister who first put the discovery to such an
+     infamous use.
+
+     "I call it infamous, for it was."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE DISCOMFITED ENEMY.
+
+
+What has gone before is the whole story, in a sense.
+
+The article in the _Herald_ either relates or suggests it. Indeed, no
+refutation of it has been attempted. If there is one striking negative
+feature in the circumstances surrounding this exposure of Spiritualism, it
+is the entire absense of any reply from the great body of professional
+spiritualists commensurate with the accusation made.
+
+This confession of Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane was to them the handwriting on
+the wall, the "_Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin_," of Spiritualism.
+
+Leah Fox Fish-Brown-Underhill, who has published a book of the flimsiest
+and most absurd narrative, intended to be accepted as a proof of
+Spiritualism, is the one person in all the world who could be expected to
+defend the system from this fatal attack, if any defense were possible.
+Reporters of the daily press would have been but too glad to record
+whatever she might say, were it even the veriest drivel, on an issue that
+jeopardized the existence of the brazen and pretentious "ism" which, as by
+an obscene spell, still enlists the curiosity of a great proportion of the
+world.
+
+But as Mrs. Underhill's book itself, which I shall notice more in detail
+hereafter, shows to the critical mind how futile would be an attempted
+refutation on her part, the public can very readily understand the reason
+of this most careful silence. Blunderingly, however, prior to having
+consulted her, Mr. Daniel Underhill, her husband, consented to talk upon
+the subject. The statements hostile to Mrs. Kane, to be found in the
+excerpt here given, were, of course, to be expected. Were they ever so
+true, however, they could not in any way lesson the damning force of her
+repentant avowals:--
+
+     Mr. Daniel Underhill, president of a wealthy insurance company, whose
+     office is in Wall street, and who is the husband of the eldest of the
+     Fox sisters, whom Margaret declares to be her "damnable enemy," is a
+     Spiritualist, but in a moderate sense. Mrs. Underhill's maiden name
+     was Ann Leah Fox. She was twice married before she met her present
+     husband, and she is twenty-three years older than Margaret.
+
+     A large part of the public do not realize that Ann Leah, Margaret and
+     Cathie Fox were the founders of what is specifically known as
+     Spiritualism. The first so-called phenomena came to the two youngest
+     girls in 1848, at Hydesville, in this State, while their sister Leah
+     was residing elsewhere. When she heard of what had taken place and of
+     the intense public excitement which it had created, she joined them,
+     and then began the public history of Spiritualism. She took the
+     incipient "ism" vigorously in hand, and for a series of years gave
+     exhibitions in all the principal cities, which were attended by the
+     most eminent men and the most brilliant women in the country.
+
+     Of late years Mrs. Underhill has entirely withdrawn from public
+     participation in spiritualistic exhibitions. She is still held,
+     however, in high estimation by all who accept supernatural
+     communications, and her reply to what her sister Margaret has said
+     regarding the practice of fraud, would at this time be interesting.
+     Unfortunately she is now in the country, and there is no person in
+     the city to speak for her excepting her husband. I obtained an
+     interview with him yesterday. He was reluctant to be brought into the
+     controversy, but, while speaking in a most uncomplimentary manner of
+     Margaret and denouncing her proposed new departure, did not evince
+     any great amount of indignation.
+
+     "I have for years," he began, "helped both Maggie and Katie, and my
+     wife has done everything in the world for them. We have furnished
+     apartments for Maggie twice. They might both do well if they would
+     only keep sober. Maggie can be as nice as you please or as vicious as
+     a devil. Several persons have undertaken to manage her, but all have
+     failed. Nobody can do anything with her. The first I knew that she
+     was back in the city was through the _Herald_.
+
+     "I don't think she's in her right mind. I have done so much for her
+     and she has behaved so badly in return that I have given her up now
+     and will have nothing to do with her. She says she will lecture, does
+     she? Well, I don't believe she ever will. She's incapable of it.
+
+     "It's a great pity, though, that she should say such things about
+     Spiritualism, because of the odium which will result from it. But it
+     isn't the first time she has said that she would declare against
+     Spiritualism. She has had such spells before. It is astonishing to me
+     that people have stuck to her and Katie as they have. It is all bosh
+     about revealing the manner of producing the raps. I don't believe she
+     can do it. I don't believe she knows how they are produced, except
+     that it is done by an occult agency. Of course, there are frauds in
+     Spiritualism. Mme. Diss De Barr was one of them. I don't believe much
+     in materialization, but I've seen some real manifestations. They were
+     in my own house. Nearly all my spiritualistic experience has been in
+     my own house, and these sisters were the mediums.
+
+     "Of course Maggie's statement will be something of a shock to
+     spiritualists the world over, because they regard her and her sisters
+     as the founders of their belief. In my opinion she is not accountable
+     for what she says."
+
+Mrs. Underhill remained quietly in the country many weeks after the
+expose, safe from the keen inquisition of reporters.
+
+The notorious "mediums" in New York who were approached on the subject,
+were all excessively guarded in their comments upon the step taken by
+Mrs. Kane, yet they admitted her personal importance as an originator of
+Spiritualism. Mrs. E. A. Wells, whose fraudulent exhibitions have had a
+certain success, expressed herself as much shocked at the determination of
+Mrs. Kane; "'but,' she added to the reporter, with seeming naivete, 'you
+don't believe she will do it, do you?'"
+
+The account from which I am quoting, continues as follows:
+
+     "I sought the presence of Mrs. E. A. Wells, a medium of great
+     celebrity, whose abode is not far from Adelphi Hall, where
+     spiritualists congregate on Sunday." Mrs. Wells expressed herself as
+     shocked at the determination of Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane, "but," she
+     added, with seeming naivete, "you don't believe she will do it, do
+     you?"
+
+     "How have you regarded Mrs. Kane heretofore, Mrs. Wells?"
+
+     "Why, with a good deal of respect as one of the first to get messages
+     from the unseen world. The Fox sisters have a great name. I have no
+     idea, though, if she really intends to do what she says she will,
+     that she's in her right senses."
+
+Another "medium," who has a wealthy clientele, and who gives only private
+seances, whence all unfriendly influences are rigorously excluded, did not
+desire to appear in print, as she told her visitor, since it would look
+like "bad form" to those who came to her for supernatural enlightenment.
+
+     She was asked, however, if she held the Fox sisters in much esteem as
+     the pioneers of Spiritualism. She said she did, but personally knew
+     nothing of them.
+
+     When told about the threatened exposure she expressed very great
+     surprise, and declared that it would be a deep mortification to
+     believers in Spiritualism.
+
+     "I don't believe she can expose any fraud. But if fraud exists, why,
+     then, I say let it be exposed; the sooner the better. There's no
+     fraud about me, that's very certain, and I've some of the very best
+     people in New York to come here."
+
+     "I'll tell you what! I have heard that the Fox sisters are dreadfully
+     addicted to drink. I don't know how far it is true, but I wouldn't
+     believe anything she might say in the way of exposure. May be she's
+     out of money and thinks the spiritualists ought to do something for
+     her. I shouldn't wonder."
+
+     "Now, if you'll come up here some time, and if you'll give me a fair
+     report, I shall be glad to show you how I can materialize."
+
+     I thought there was a good deal of material about her already, and so
+     I thanked her.
+
+At their public gatherings in Adelphi Hall, New York, now most meagerly
+attended, the spiritualists, just after the initial expose in the
+_Herald_, refrained very wisely from taking up the gauntlet of truth
+thrown down by their chief apostle, Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane. In an
+interview, however, which was had by a reporter with Mr. Henry J. Newton,
+the President of the First Spiritual Society of New York, the latter
+indulged in a number of emphatic statements regarding the "manifestations"
+produced by the "Fox Sisters," all of which rested upon his own veracity
+only. The spirit of what he said may be easily gleaned from this passage:
+
+     "I had supposed all along," he said, "that Mrs. Kane was still in
+     Europe, and that she would never return to this country. I even heard
+     at the time when Katie, her sister, was sent abroad, that Maggie was
+     in Rome, in company with a well known gentleman. I am very much
+     surprised to know that she is in this city, and more surprised that
+     she threatens to make such silly pretended revelations as you say she
+     proposes. They can only be revelations in name. She cannot reveal
+     anything that can injure the spiritualist cause or that will weaken
+     in any one's mind the truth of what we teach.
+
+     "I have been absent in the country and have not read all that the
+     _Herald_ has published on this matter. I have read enough, however,
+     to show me how utterly absurd and ridiculous her position is.
+
+     "The idea of claiming that unseen 'rappings' can be produced with
+     joints of the feet! If she says this, even with regard to her own
+     manifestations, she lies! I and many other men of truth and position
+     have witnessed the manifestations of herself and her sisters many
+     times under circumstances in which it was absolutely impossible for
+     there to have been the least fraud.
+
+     "_Nothing that she could say in that regard would in the least change
+     my opinion_, nor would it that of any one else who has become
+     profoundly convinced that there is an occult influence connecting us
+     with an invisible world, I have seen Margaret Fox Kane herself, when
+     lying on a bed of sickness and unable to rise, produce 'rappings' in
+     various parts of the room in which she was, and upon the ceilings,
+     doors and windows several feet away from her. I have seen her produce
+     the same effects when too drunk to realize what she was doing."
+
+On the 25th of September, 1888, the following, which was published in the
+New York _Herald_, expressed very tersely the situation among the
+spiritualists, who had by that time partly recovered from the first effect
+of the blow:
+
+     Recrimination against the two younger Fox sisters, Margaret and
+     Katie, has begun with characteristic violence, and many unlovely
+     truths are betrayed which do not alter the essential significance of
+     the former's denunciation of spiritualistic fraud. Several of the
+     mediums said that they could hardly believe their eyes when they read
+     of Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane's determination, and they declared almost
+     unanimously that "she would not do it if she were in her senses."
+     They accuse her of excessive indulgence in drink and hint that she is
+     not responsible for what she says. It appears, however, that in
+     private, on many occasions, but never before in public, she has
+     stated that Spiritualism was a tissue of fraud, and that some day she
+     would prove the charge to the world. She has during the last few
+     mouths given many seances in London, but always disclaimed any
+     personal supernatural connection in producing the effects at which
+     others wondered. With a number of rich patrons, among them Mr. H.
+     Wedgewood, of Cavendish Square, she proceeded to a certain point in
+     the process of delusion and then frankly undeceived them, convincing
+     them of the ease with which they could be practiced upon.
+
+Prior to this, the following had been published:
+
+     As Mrs. Kane's sincerity in making her proposed exposures is
+     questioned by her enemies, the following brief note from a well known
+     English spiritualist is of interest:
+
+     "31 QUEEN ANNE STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE,
+     "LONDON, W., JULY 19, 1888.
+
+     "DEAR MRS. KANE: I am not so much surprised as I might be at what you
+     have revealed to me if I had not already been led to believe that
+     many spiritualistic mediums practice upon the credulous.
+
+     "The illusion, however, was perfect while it lasted.
+
+     "You do well to expose these infamous frauds, and I thank you for
+     having enlightened me.
+
+     "Sincerely yours,
+     "H. WEDGEWOOD."
+
+And later Mrs. Kane, in outlining her proposed public lecture, said:
+
+     "I am going to expose the very root of corruption in this
+     spiritualistic ulcer. You talk about Mormonism! Do you know that
+     there is something behind the shadowy mask of Spiritualism that the
+     public can hardly guess at? I am stating now what I know, not because
+     I actually participated in it, for I would never be a party to such
+     promiscuous nastiness, but because I had plenty of opportunity, as
+     you may imagine, of verifying it. Under the name of this dreadful,
+     this horrible hypocrisy--Spiritualism--everything that is improper,
+     bad and immoral is practiced. They go even so far as to have what
+     they call 'spiritual children!' They pretend to something like the
+     immaculate conception! Could anything be more blasphemous, more
+     disgusting, more thinly deceptive than that? In London I went in
+     disguise to a quiet seance at the house of a wealthy man, and I saw
+     a so-called materialization. The effect was produced with the aid of
+     luminous paper, the lustre of which was reflected upon the operator.
+     The figure thus displayed was that of a woman--was virtually nude,
+     being enveloped in transparent gauze, the face alone being concealed.
+     This was one of those seances to which the privileged non-believing
+     friends of believing spiritualists could have access. But there are
+     other seances, where none but the most tried and trusted are
+     admitted, and where there are shameless goings on that vie with the
+     secret Saturnalia of the Romans. I could not describe these things to
+     you, because I would not."
+
+Thus, the only one of the "Fox Sisters" who still adhered to the imposture
+practiced for over forty years, and the only spiritualist who could deny
+the statements of Margaret Fox Kane with anything approaching to
+authority, found her safest and most fitting defense in the kindly shelter
+of silence.
+
+This quasi-confession was not needed to complete the conviction in
+intelligent minds that Spiritualism was, in its inception, and is now, a
+fraud and a lie. But the significance of the negative circumstance is none
+the less worthy of note.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A SECOND BLOW.
+
+
+Barely had the professional spiritualists a breathing-spell--after the
+shock of Mrs. Kane's confession--when a new blow fell upon them.
+
+Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken arrived from Europe, and though ignorant until
+landing, of the grave step her sister Margaret had taken, at once
+announced her intention of joining and sustaining her in the complete
+exposure of Spiritualism in all its phases of deception and hypocrisy.
+
+This news staggered the spiritualistic world.
+
+And now it but remains for the other of the three "Fox Sisters" to see the
+hopeless folly of continued imposture, and to add her confession to the
+historical record of the dissipation of this unholy fraud. That she will
+ever do this, however, those who are aware that to her malevolent will
+was due the first evil growth and the wide extension of Spiritualism,
+cannot easily bring themselves to believe.
+
+The following account of Mrs. Jencken's arrival in New York and of her
+determination to add her testimony to that of her sister Margaret against
+the fraud of Spiritualism, was published on the 10th of October, 1888, and
+is of sufficient interest to excuse my quoting it here at large:
+
+     AND KATY FOX NOW.
+
+     The Youngest of the Mediumistic Pioneers
+     Will "Give the Snap Away."
+
+     SHE ARRIVES FROM EUROPE.
+
+     Spiritualism a Humbug from Beginning
+     to End--Alleged Immoralities.
+
+     Katie Fox Jencken arrived yesterday from England on the _Persian
+     Monarch_ and she intends to co-operate with her sister--Margaret Fox
+     Kane--in her proposed expose of the fraudulent methods of so-called
+     Spiritualism.
+
+     Mrs. Jencken's coming was unexpected to her sister, and it will
+     surprise the enemies of both.
+
+     The blow to Spiritualism which Maggie Fox struck not long ago, caused
+     a good deal more of consternation than spiritualists generally have
+     cared to confess. There is ample reason for stating that underneath a
+     plausible surface of enforced calm there have been the hurried
+     exchange of forbodings and doubtings, and many consultations and
+     goings to and fro. It is known that an overture was made to Maggie
+     Fox suggestive of a money consideration for her silence, and that she
+     rejected it with much indignation.
+
+     Mrs. Jencken walked into the parlor where Mrs. Kane was sitting about
+     five o'clock yesterday, and the sisters at once fell on each other's
+     necks, in an ecstasy of affection and delight at being together once
+     again. Mrs. Kane had but just been talking to me about her projected
+     lecture on "The Curse of Spiritualism," and Mrs. Jencken, who had
+     heard nothing of the proposed expose, except as it was casually
+     rumored in her ear at the steamship dock, promptly gave her
+     acquiescence to it as soon as she understood the situation.
+
+     "I do not care a fig for Spiritualism," she said, "except so far as
+     the good will of its adherents may affect the future of my boys. They
+     are all I have in this life, and I live or die for them."
+
+     Mrs. Jencken looks a far different person than she was when in deep
+     trouble in this city and when she had to do with the rather
+     unsympathetic measures of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
+     to Children. No matron could bear a more placid and comely
+     expression, and she declares with heartfelt earnestness that she is
+     done forever with her once-besetting vice.
+
+     "Mrs. Jencken, are you willing to join with your sister in exposing
+     the true modus operandi of Spiritualism?" I asked.
+
+     "I care nothing for Spiritualism," was her reply. "So far as I am
+     concerned I am done with it. I will say this, I regard it as one of
+     the very greatest curses that the world has ever known. If I knew
+     those powerful spiritualists who have done their utmost to harm me in
+     the past could not do so in the future, I would not hesitate a moment
+     to expose it. The worst of them all is my eldest sister, Leah, the
+     wife of Daniel Underhill. I think she was the one who caused my
+     arrest last spring, and the bringing of the preposterous charge
+     against me that I was cruel to my children and neglectful of them. I
+     don't know why it is, she has always been jealous of Maggie and me;
+     I suppose because we could do things in Spiritualism that she
+     couldn't."
+
+     "Why don't you come squarely out, then, with the truth, and make the
+     public your friends? You needn't fear any persecution if you do
+     that."
+
+     "Well, if my sister's health were only fully restored and I knew she
+     was fully herself I would certainly join her in showing Spiritualism
+     to be what it really is. I want to be sure of that, however. I want
+     the thing done properly when it is done."
+
+     "Then you will not deny that what she has said of Spiritualism is
+     true?"
+
+     "I will not deny it. Spiritualism is a humbug from beginning to end.
+     It is the greatest humbug of the century. I don't know whether she
+     has told you this, but Maggie and I started it as very little
+     children, too young, too innocent, to know what we were doing. Our
+     sister Leah was twenty-three years older than either of us. We got
+     started in the way of deception, and being encouraged in it, we went
+     on, of course. Others, old enough to have been ashamed of the infamy,
+     took us out into the world. My sister Leah has published a book
+     called 'The Missing Link of Spiritualism.' It professes to give the
+     true history of this movement, so far as it originated with us. Now,
+     there's nothing but falsehood in that book from beginning to end,
+     excepting the fact that Horace Greeley educated me. The rest is
+     nothing but a string of lies."
+
+     "And about the manifestations at Hydesville in 1848 and the finding
+     of bones in the cellar and so on?"
+
+     "All humbuggery, every bit of it."
+
+     "And yet Maggie and I are the founders of Spiritualism!" concluded
+     Mrs. Jencken.
+
+On the next day Mrs. Jencken made the statement which appears in the
+following:
+
+     Mrs. Jencken was asked about the alleged spirit manifestations which
+     have taken place in Carlyle's old home at Chelsea, London, where she
+     has lately resided. The English papers have been filled with stories,
+     more or less sceptical, regarding these queer occurrences. Mrs.
+     Jencken said: "All that took place there of that nature is utterly
+     false. I haven't the slightest idea that the noises which we heard in
+     the house had any connection with Carlyle's spirit. I certainly know
+     that every so-called manifestation produced through me in London or
+     anywhere else was a fraud. Many a time have I wept because when I was
+     young and innocent I was brought into such a life. The time has now
+     come for Maggie and I to set ourselves right before the world. Nobody
+     knows at what moment either of us might be taken away. We ought not
+     to leave this base fabric of deceit behind us unexposed."
+
+As may be seen, nothing could be stronger than the language employed in
+these interviews by both of the repentant sisters, in denouncing their
+former adhesion to a system of humbug and hypocrisy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE HAND OF THE PERSECUTOR
+
+
+The public had every reason to feel a deep sympathy with the two younger
+Fox sisters in the courageous attitude which they had taken.
+
+The deadliest hatred is always to be feared, by those who abandon a faith
+or a system, from those who still adhere to it.
+
+Think you, if Mahomet had turned about, forty years after the Hegira, and
+had boldly anathematized the religion he had established, he might not
+have been reviled and persecuted, even by those in whom he had first
+inculcated his bastard faith?
+
+Who can doubt this who knows human nature?
+
+Even the lies of an impostor rebel against him, when, with a repentant
+word, he would damn them again to all eternity.
+
+Mrs. Jencken had ample reason to fear that the disclosures which had been
+made by her and her sister would redouble the hostile zeal of those who
+before had persecuted her. In the first account which had been published
+of her return to this country, it was not stated that her two boys had
+accompanied her. In fact, however, they had.
+
+The pressure brought to bear to induce her to retract her denunciation of
+Spiritualism, and the ground of her fear for the safety of her children,
+are well set forth in the following, which appeared on October 11th,
+1888:
+
+     FEARING THEIR ENEMIES.
+
+     THE JENCKEN BOYS WERE HERE, BUT ARE SENT AWAY.
+
+     There are signs of gathering thunder all around the spiritualistic
+     sky.
+
+     A leading spiritualist, a lawyer, who had read the _Herald's_ recent
+     articles on the subject, demanded of Mrs. Katy Fox Jencken,
+     immediately upon her arrival in New York on Tuesday, that she refuse
+     to support her sister Maggie in her expose of mediumistic fraud, and,
+     to use his own words, that she "throw herself upon the sympathy of
+     the spiritualists."
+
+     This proposition she emphatically rejected and declared that she had
+     done forever with Spiritualism and spiritualists. She firmly believes
+     that leading men and women among the latter, particularly her eldest
+     sister Leah, are her secret persecutors, and that it was due to their
+     animus that she was arrested last spring and deprived of her two
+     boys, to whom she is immeasurably devoted.
+
+     There is much to sustain this charge, and the inference that this
+     mysterious persecution, of which, as she alleges, the Society for the
+     Prevention of Cruelty to Children was only the instrument, was
+     inspired by the fear that she and Mrs. Kane, having long been
+     exploited for the financial benefit of others, might do the very
+     thing they are doing now--betray the secrets of deception, which have
+     from the beginning of the spiritualistic movement been so well
+     guarded.
+
+     As was said in the _Herald_ yesterday, Mrs. Jencken knew nothing of
+     the course which her sister Maggie had taken until she landed on the
+     wharf of the Monarch line company. The _Herald_ did not state
+     yesterday that Mrs. Jencken was accompanied by her two boys, whom the
+     Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children made such great
+     efforts to keep apart from their mother in last May. As soon as she
+     heard the news of Maggie's disclosures from a friend who met her at
+     the steamer, she was overcome with fear lest, being now aware of the
+     means that had been employed to secure their release and her own, the
+     society would again attempt to deprive her of her children. She was
+     advised by a lawyer who knew the real source of the hostility to her
+     and the motives that prompted it, to send them back at once to
+     England. The boys declared that they did not want to fall into the
+     hands of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children again.
+     Both of them are now strapping big fellows for their age, and are
+     able and willing to earn their own living. One is fourteen years old
+     and the other will be soon sixteen. But for a misunderstanding as to
+     their ages on the part of the police justice last spring there would
+     never have been any question of retaining them in the custody of Mr.
+     Gerry's over-zealous myrmidons.
+
+     Mrs. Jencken's apprehensions, however, were not to be quieted, and
+     early in the morning she bundled off the two lads [and they are now
+     safely beyond the jurisdiction of the dreaded society of which Mr. E.
+     T. Gerry is the chief].[2]
+
+     "This shows," said a gentleman yesterday, "how far certain wealthy
+     spiritualists are powerful to inspire a kind of terrorism even in New
+     York city among those who have left their ranks."
+
+     "Now that my boys are out of danger," said Mrs. Jencken, "I will
+     stand by my sister Maggie and go to the very fullest length of any
+     exposure that she may make. We have been the tools and victims of
+     others long enough. I approve and I affirm all that she has said
+     about the immoral practices hidden under the ridiculous cloak of
+     Spiritualism. The whole thing is damnable, and it should long ago
+     have been trampled, out as one would trample out the life of a
+     serpent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+SOLEMN ABJURATION.
+
+
+The news that Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane and Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken had
+renounced and exposed Spiritualism, flew from one end of the country to
+the other, and caused excitement among spiritualists and
+non-spiritualists. Every newspaper in every city of the United States, and
+many in Europe, repeated the story published in New York.
+
+The general opinion everywhere, where the wish was not the opposite, was
+that Spiritualism as such had received its death-blow.
+
+Letters began to pour in upon Mrs. Kane which were strongly significant of
+the effect of her action. Many of them were written by persons who had
+been believers from the very first of the public exhibitions of the
+"rappings," and who had based their whole faith on the truth and veritable
+inspiration of the "Fox Sisters." It was almost pitiable to witness the
+honest-hearted distress of people of this sort, who now saw the fondest
+illusion of their lives dissolve before their eyes; their dearest, assured
+hope of an invisible world ruthlessly torn from them.
+
+The anger of those who now anathematized the founders of the
+spiritualistic faith, and declared that all that they could now say in way
+of recantation was utterly false, while all that they had formerly said or
+performed as miraculous proof, was, of course, as true as gospel, or as
+the fact that the sun shines, was quite as ridiculous as the other
+sentiment was worthy of sympathy.
+
+It was natural that those who had fed their baser passions upon
+Spiritualism--as the harpy upon carrion--should resort to the vilest
+methods of attacking Mrs. Kane, and in doing so should shelter themselves
+behind the cowardly refuge of anonymity.
+
+A single communication from one of those who thus set the gauge for our
+estimate of spiritualistic hypocrisy, will suffice to complete the
+reader's impression regarding them. It was written on a postal card and
+unsigned, and the italics and other literary peculiarities are wholly
+those of the person who wrote it:
+
+     "Mrs. Kane. Your anticipated action Thursday night reminds me _very
+     forcibly_ of several lines of 'Beautiful snow' only your Course is
+     even _more despicable_ and your rank in the history of the present
+     day will be on a par with Benedict Arnold in 'Beautiful Snow' we find
+     'Selling her soul to whoever would buy' &c. you are going to sell
+     your soul to an ignorant public by _pretending to Expose_ what _you
+     very well Know cannot be Exposed_ by any man, woman or child dwelling
+     in the Mortal sphere of Life--shame on you, but you will soon meet
+     your reward in other spheres and suffer for your wickedness."
+
+It is hard to determine whether the above communication emanated from a
+professional spiritualist of the mercenary type or from one who finds his
+or her profit of self-gratification in the licentious tendencies and
+opportunities of private spiritualistic intercourse. In any event, it
+bears the stamp of ignorant selfishness and narrow vulgarity.
+
+It is with a degree of pleasure that one may turn to letters which were
+written by the sincere disciples of the "Fox Sisters," and which breathe a
+deep anxiety for the fate of that fantastic creed in which they have so
+much delighted.
+
+The reader has but to think for an instant of the actual meaning of this
+long-deferred expose to these persons. They had greedily fed their souls
+upon the delusion that they had held intercourse with the spirits of their
+dear departed. The supposed messages which they had received seemed a sure
+earnest of that union with those they loved on earth for which the true
+heart most longs. In view of this expectation and in the light of this
+exposure of its utter fallacy--so far as any material evidence is
+concerned--it is most difficult to find adequate terms with which to
+characterize the work of those who still persist in contributing to a
+delusion which has numbered so many victims.
+
+Here is a letter from a resident of Southern California, enclosing a
+clipping from a newspaper containing Mrs. Kane's renunciation of
+Spiritualism:
+
+     "BUENA PARK, LOS ANGELES CO., CAL.,
+     SEPT. 29, A. D. 1888.
+
+     "MRS. MARGARET FOX KANE,
+
+     "DEAR MADAM:
+
+     "I have just read the enclosed item, taken from one of our Los
+     Angeles city papers. Please let me know if the statements therein
+     contained are true, and you will greatly oblige,
+
+     "Yours for truth,
+     "T. J. HOUSE."
+
+The following was written by one of the best known early settlers of San
+Francisco, a man whose example and absolute faith have influenced
+hundreds, probably, to embrace Spiritualism:
+
+     "SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., OCT. 2, 1888.
+
+     "MRS. MARGARET FOX KANE,
+
+     "DEAR MADAM:
+
+     "I inclose a cutting from one of our local papers, purporting to be
+     an interview with you in regard to the subject of Spiritualism. I
+     have taken the liberty to inquire of you if the statements therein
+     contained are true.
+
+     "I have been a believer in the phenomena from its first inception
+     through you and your sister, believing it to be true since that time.
+
+     "I am now eighty-one years old and have but a short time, of course,
+     to remain in this world, and I feel great anxiety to know through you
+     if I have been deceived all this time in a matter of vital interest
+     to us all.
+
+     "Will you greatly oblige me with an answer?
+
+     "Very respectfully yours,
+     "E. F. BUNNELL.
+     "No. 319 Kearny St."
+
+And here is a communication which is signed by what is evidently only a
+part of the writer's name, but which carries with it in every line the
+absolute impress of truth and of a deep and pathetic earnestness:
+
+     "BOSTON, MASS., OCT. 15, 1888.
+
+     "MRS. MARGARET FOX KANE,
+
+     "DEAR MADAM:
+
+     "Hundreds of thousands have believed through you and you alone.
+     Hundreds of thousands eagerly ask you whether all the glorious light
+     that they fancied you have given them, was but the false flicker of a
+     common dip-candle of fraud.
+
+     "If, as you say, you were forced to pursue this imposture from
+     childhood, I can forgive you, and I am sure that God will; for he
+     turns not back the truly repentant. I will not upbraid you. I am sure
+     you have suffered as much as any penalty, human or divine, could
+     cause you to suffer. The disclosures that you make take from me all
+     that I cherished most. There is nothing left for me now but to hope
+     for the reality of that repose which death promises us.
+
+     "It is perhaps better that the delusion should be at last swept away
+     by one single word, and that word 'fraud.'
+
+     "I know that the pursuit of this shadowy belief has wrought upon my
+     brain and that I am no longer my old self. Money I have spent in
+     thousands and thousands of dollars within a few short years to
+     propitiate the 'mediumistic' intelligence. It is true that never once
+     have I received a message or the token of a word that did not leave a
+     still unsatisfied longing in my heart, a feeling that it was not
+     really my loved one after all, who was speaking to me, or if it was
+     my loved one, that he was changed, that I hardly knew him and that he
+     hardly knew me. Oh! how I have hated the thought that used to come to
+     me sometimes, in spite of myself, that it was not really he. But that
+     must have been the true intuition. It is better that the delusion is
+     past, after all, for had I kept on in that way, I am sure I should
+     have gone mad. The constant seeking, the frequent pretended response,
+     its unsatisfying meaning, the sense of distance and change between me
+     and my loved one--oh! it has been horrible, horrible!
+
+     "He who is dying of thirst and has the sweet cup ever snatched from
+     his lips, just as the first drop touches them--he alone can know what
+     in actual things is the similitude of this spiritualistic torture.
+
+     "God bless you, for I think that you now speak the truth. You have my
+     forgiveness at least, and I believe that thousands of others will
+     forgive you, for the atonement made in season wipes out much of the
+     stain of the early sin.
+
+     "Yours sincerely,
+     "ANNA SUZANNE."
+
+To these letters and to hundreds of others which Mrs. Kane and her sister
+Mrs. Jencken have received, this volume is their response.
+
+But besides this, they have appeared in public on the platform, as an
+earnest of their present sincerity, and will probably continue so to
+appear in various parts of this country and Europe.
+
+On the 21st of October, 1888, Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane first fulfilled her
+intention of publicly denouncing, with her own lips, Spiritualism and its
+attendant trickery. She appeared at the Academy of Music in New York
+before a large and distinguished audience, and without reservation
+demonstrated the falsity of all that she had done in the past in the guise
+of spiritualistic "mediumship."
+
+The ordeal was a severe one. The great nervous strain under which she had
+labored rendered her mind highly excitable, and the large number of
+spiritualists in the house tried to create a disturbance, or a traitorous
+diversion which would break the force of her renunciation. In this they
+utterly failed, however, thanks to the superior character of a majority of
+her auditors.
+
+The moral effect of the exposure could not have been greater.
+
+Mrs. Kane stood before the footlights trembling with intense feeling, and
+made the following most solemn abjuration of Spiritualism, while Mrs.
+Catharine Fox Jencken sat in a neighboring box and gave assent by her
+presence to all that she said:
+
+"That I have been chiefly instrumental in perpetrating the fraud of
+Spiritualism upon a too confiding public, most of you doubtless know.
+
+"The greatest sorrow of my life has been that this is true, and though it
+has come late in my day, I am now prepared to tell the truth, the whole
+truth and nothing but the truth,--so help me God!
+
+"There are probably many here who will scorn me for the deception I have
+practiced, yet did they know the true history of my unhappy past, the
+living agony and shame that it has been to me, they would pity, not
+reproach.
+
+"The imposition which I have so long maintained began in my early
+childhood, when, with character and mind still unformed, I was unable to
+distinguish between right and wrong.
+
+"I repented it in my maturity. I have lived through years of silence,
+through intimidation, scorn and bitter adversity, concealing as best I
+might, the consciousness of my guilt. Now, thanks to God and my awakened
+conscience, I am at last able to reveal the fatal truth, the exact truth
+of this hideous fraud which has withered so many hearts and has blighted
+so many hopeful lives.
+
+"I am here to-night as one of the founders of Spiritualism, to denounce it
+as an absolute falsehood from beginning to end, as the flimsiest of
+superstitions, the most wicked blasphemy known to the world.
+
+"I ask only your kind attention and forgiveness, and as I may prove myself
+worthy by the step I am now taking, may you extend to me your helping
+hands and sustain me in the better path I have chosen."
+
+The demonstration of the method by which the "rappings" were produced was
+a perfect success, as is best shown by the following succinct account,
+which formed a part of the article on the subject published by the New
+York _World_ on the following morning:
+
+     A plain wooden stool or table, resting upon four short legs, and
+     having the properties of a sounding board, was placed in front of
+     her. Removing her shoe, she placed her right foot upon this table.
+     The entire house became breathlessly still, and was rewarded by a
+     number of little short, sharp raps--those mysterious sounds which
+     have for more than forty years frightened and bewildered hundreds of
+     thousands of people in this country and Europe. A committee,
+     consisting of three physicians taken from the audience, then ascended
+     to the stage, and having made an examination of her foot during the
+     progress of the "rappings," unhesitatingly agreed that the sounds
+     were made by the action of the first joint of her large toe.
+
+     Only the most hopelessly prejudiced and bigoted fanatics of
+     Spiritualism could withstand the irresistable force of this
+     common-place explanation and exhibition of how "spirit rappings" are
+     produced. The demonstration was perfect and complete, and if "spirit
+     rappings" find any credence in this community hereafter, it would
+     seem a wise precaution on the part of the authorities to begin the
+     enlargement of the State's insane asylums without any delay.
+
+
+
+
+III. HISTORY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ORIGIN OF THE FRAUD.
+
+
+There are spiritualists who pretend that so-called "spirit rappings"
+originated long before the Hydesville disturbances took place. These
+declarations, however, are of no value as actual evidence.
+
+In any event, there is no claim that in their cause and general character
+these manifestations, so-called, were very different from similar ones of
+the present day.
+
+The "rappings" produced by the "Fox Sisters" are certainly the first of
+which there is an authentic account. They began in a little rustic cottage
+at a place called Hydesville, in the town of Arcadia, near Newark, Wayne
+County, New York. Here John D. Fox and his wife Margaret dwelt with their
+two daughters, Margaret and Catherine. Two other children, Ann Leah and
+David S., lived elsewhere. There was sometimes a fifth member of the
+household, also a child. This was Elizabeth Fish, the daughter of Leah,
+and therefore the niece of Margaret and Catherine. She was seven years
+older than the elder of the two latter.
+
+The elder Fox and his wife had not been always united since their
+marriage. They were separated for a number of years. The three older
+children, Ann Leah, Maria and David S., were conceived before this
+separation took place, and Margaret and Catherine afterwards. The two
+broods had distinctive characteristics. The father, in the interval, is
+said to have become addicted to intemperate habits. The taint of heredity
+may excuse much in the younger generation that sprang from a weakness of
+will-power and made them the too easy victims of colder and more mercenary
+natures. To many it is well known that they are still incapable of
+guarding their interests in a business way, and that they have always been
+too largely at the mercy of any one who could acquire an influence over
+them.
+
+Margaretta, or Margaret, Fox, as she always signs herself, was born in the
+year 1840, and Catherine Fox a year and a half later. The eldest sister
+Leah was born twenty-three years before the former. The little girls, one
+eight years old and the other six and a half, had rarely seen this sister
+prior to the beginning of the spiritualistic movement. She knew nothing of
+it until the popular excitement over the "rappings" had almost reached its
+climax. Very early in life she had married a man named Fish, who had
+deserted her, and she was supporting herself at this time in the city of
+Rochester by teaching the rudiments of music. David S. Fox, son of John
+and Margaret Fox, lived about two miles from the home of his father in
+Arcadia.
+
+Maggie and Katie Fox were as full of petty devilment as any two children
+of their age ever were. They delighted to tease their excellent old
+mother, who by all who knew her is described as simple, gentle and
+true-hearted. In their antics, they would resort to all sorts of ingenious
+devices, and bed-time witnessed almost invariably the gayest of larks. One
+of their frequent amusements was to plague their niece, Elizabeth, who
+slept in the same bed with them, by kicking and tickling her, and by
+frightening her at almost any hour of the night out of sound sleep.
+
+Their riotous fancy soon hit upon the plan of bobbing apples up and down
+on the floor in their bedchamber, as a means of scaring Elizabeth and of
+puzzling their mother without much risk of detection. They tied strings to
+the stems of the apples, and thus let them hang down beside the bed. The
+noise of dropping them more or less quickly upon the floor resembled
+almost anything that the imagination chose to liken it to, from raps on
+the front door to slippered foot-falls on the narrow stairway. Whenever a
+search was made for the cause of the noises, the apples were easily
+hauled up into the bed and hidden in the bedclothes, where no one would
+think of looking for them, at least at that stage of the investigation.
+
+The plan had everything in it to charm a juvenile mischief-maker. It
+succeeded admirably. It was not till the wonder which was caused by these
+strange "knockings" had extended beyond the humble Fox household, that the
+suggestion of any other means of affording to that growing feeling its
+daily food of seeming evidence came to the roguish youngsters.
+
+The family had moved into the house at Hydesville on December 11, 1847.
+The mother began to hear strange sounds almost from that date--strange
+because they occurred with great frequency and were oddly repeated. The
+children slept in what was called the East Room; the parents in an
+adjoining chamber. At all hours of the night, almost, the sounds were
+heard; but it happened that they always occurred when one or both of the
+children were wide awake. The mother, in a statement which has been
+published as one of the so-called proofs of the genuineness of these
+manifestations, says that the sounds could with difficulty be located.
+"Sometimes it seemed as if the furniture was moved; but on examination we
+found everything in order. The children had become so alarmed that I
+thought best to have them sleep in the room with us. * * * On the night of
+the first disturbance we all got up and lighted a candle and searched the
+house, the noises continuing during the time, and being heard near the
+same place."
+
+How natural it was that little children, being averse to sleeping away
+from their elders in a dark room in a lone country neighborhood, should
+take advantage of a pretext such as this to get their bed placed nearer to
+that of their parents! Such, indeed, was the immediate result.
+
+The third night of the "rappings" was the 31st of March, 1848. Mrs. Fox
+says:
+
+"_The children who slept in the other bed in the room heard the rappings
+and tried to make similar sounds with their fingers._
+
+"Katie exclaimed:
+
+"'Mr. Splitfoot,' (the imaginary person who was supposed to make the
+noises), 'do as I do;' clapping her hands. The sound instantly followed
+her with the same number of raps; when she stopped, the sound ceased for a
+short time. Then Margaret said in sport: 'Now, do just as I do; count one,
+two, three, four,' striking one hand against the other at the same time,
+and the raps came as before. * * * I then thought I could put a test that
+no one in the place could answer. I asked the noises to rap my children's
+ages, successively. Instantly, each one of my children's ages was given
+correctly, pausing between them sufficiently long to individualize them
+until the seventh, at which a longer pause was made, and then three more
+emphatic raps were given, corresponding to the age of the little one that
+died, which was my youngest child. I then asked: 'Is this a human being
+that answers my questions so correctly?' There was no rap. I asked: 'Is
+it a spirit? If so, make two raps,' which were instantly given as soon as
+the request was made. I then said: 'If it is an injured spirit, make two
+raps,' which were instantly made, causing the house to tremble. I asked:
+'Were you injured in this house?' The answer was given as before. 'Is the
+person living that injured you?' Answer by raps in the same manner. I
+ascertained by the same method that it was a man, aged thirty-one years;
+that he had been murdered in this house; and his remains were buried in
+the cellar; that his family consisted of a wife and five children, two
+sons and three daughters, all living at the time of his death, but that
+his wife had since died."
+
+Then the supposed spirit was asked if it would continue to "rap" if the
+neighbors were called in to listen. The answer was affirmative.
+
+And so they were called in.
+
+This caused the commencement of that great excitement which so soon spread
+from neighborhood to village, from the village to the near-by city of
+Rochester, and thence all over the country.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane says at the present time:
+
+"The apple-dropping trick appeared to us small children so simple and
+innocent, that we could only wonder that any one attached so great an
+importance to the sounds we produced. Only think of our ages at that time,
+and then ask, if you will, how we could have even the shade of a
+realization of the real meaning of this deception!
+
+"This lying book of Mrs. Underhill's, notwithstanding its abominable
+object, does give some slight inkling of the truth here and there.
+
+"It is thus that the wicked confound themselves.
+
+"She quotes, as you see here, what she says to be my mother's words: 'The
+children who slept in the other bed in the room, heard the rapping and
+tried to make similar sounds by snapping their fingers.'
+
+"Now that is really just how we first got the idea of producing with the
+joints similar sounds to those we had made by dropping apples with a
+string. From trying it with our fingers we then tried it with our feet,
+and it did not take long for us to find out that we could easily produce
+very loud raps by the action of the toe-joints when in contact with any
+substance which is a good conductor of sound. My sister Katie was the
+first to discover that we could make such peculiar noises with our
+fingers. We used to practice first with one foot and then the other, and
+finally we got so we could do it with hardly an effort.
+
+"Of course, I was so young then that many incidents have escaped my
+memory. I assert positively, however, that much of the effect of the
+'rappings' is greatly exaggerated in this statement which my mother was
+made to write. I say that she was _made_ to write it, because the wording
+of the statement, if not largely dictated by others in the first
+place--men who desired to make public the details of the 'rappings' and to
+make money by the sale of a pamphlet describing them--was afterwards
+grossly garbled, that it might be used to suit the dishonest purposes of
+professional spiritualists. I am not even certain that mother ever signed
+the document, of which Mrs. Underhill makes such great parade. The same is
+true regarding the other pieces of so-called evidence in her work. Utterly
+futile as they are, when confronted with my living testimony, and when
+judged by their own internal weakness, I should not regard them as in any
+sense genuine unless I could see the original handwriting and could
+recognize the signatures. I say to you now, that professional
+spiritualists are capable of going to any lengths to bolster up their
+impostures. No forgery, so long as there was the least chance of its
+succeeding, as a furtherance to their object, would in the least repel
+them. Some of the so-called statements in Leah's book I believe were
+manufactured from beginning to end, though to tell you the truth I have
+avoided reading the greater part of it because of the disgust I have felt
+for a long time for that whole infamous system of pretense and falsehood.
+
+"Well, we were led on unintentionally by my good mother in the
+perpetration of this great wrong. She used to say when we were sitting in
+a dark circle at home: 'Is this a disembodied spirit that has taken
+possession of my dear children?' And then we would 'rap' just for the fun
+of the thing, you know, and mother would declare that it was the spirits
+that were speaking.
+
+"Soon it went so far, and so many persons had heard the 'rappings' that we
+could not confess the wrong without exciting very great anger on the part
+of those we had deceived. So we went right on.
+
+"It is wonderful, indeed, how two little children could have made this
+discovery, and how, by simply obeying the natural thirst for the
+marvelous, in others, and their inherent superstition, they should have
+advanced step by step, in the fraud, deluding those who most ardently
+wished to be deluded.
+
+"Until first suggested to us by our mother, who was perfectly innocent in
+her belief, the thought of 'spirits' had never entered our heads. We were
+too young and too simple to imagine such a thing."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+GARBLED AND DISTORTED TESTIMONY.
+
+
+So the neighbors were called in at the Hydesville house and the "rappings"
+were continued.
+
+By diligent questioning on the part of the older persons in the Fox
+household and of the neighbors, the mysterious noises were made to affirm
+or to deny almost anything which was suggested to the "mediums," often in
+accordance with knowledge that, it had been believed, was only possessed
+by a few persons.
+
+And so the wonder grew, day by day.
+
+Pursuing the idea that a man had been murdered in the house, the whole of
+a very horrible history was obtained, and the name even of the supposed
+murderer was indicated by affirmative "raps" when mentioned together with
+others in a tentative way. The occupation of the victim was said to be
+that of a pedler. He had $500 in money and was buried in the creek which
+ran past the house.
+
+Mrs. Underhill admits that some of the neighbors were misled and went to
+digging in the creek, called Ganargua, the water of which was then very
+low. But they speedily recognized the absurdity of this undertaking, and
+the girls, Maggie, Katie and Lizzie laughed at them for their pains. The
+bones of an old horse were found there and nothing more.
+
+By this time the two sisters had arrived at very great proficiency in
+producing the raps. Such a crude and easily detected means as the bobbing
+of apples on the floor was early discarded. Often in the morning, before
+they dressed, and after the old folks had left their room, the sisters
+would stand in their bare feet on the floor and vie with each other in the
+laughable exercise of making the "strange" noises. It was impossible, of
+course, that Lizzie should not know the whole truth, although being about
+thirteen years old at this time, she was unabled to imitate the "raps"
+very successfully. Indeed, it is said that she was too frank and outspoken
+in disposition to engage long in any deception. When the children
+persisted in deluding their mother, partly for their amusement and partly
+because they were ashamed to retract what had already caused so much
+excitement and had drawn so much attention to themselves, Lizzie used to
+break out indignantly:
+
+"_Now, Maggie, how can you say that it was done by spirits! You know
+yourself that it's all a story. It's a great shame to pretend such
+things._"
+
+Many occurrences of this description I have gathered from Mrs. Kane.
+
+But Mrs. Leah Underhill, in her jumbled up narrative, states that "_When
+the raps broke out suddenly close to some of the family, or at the table,
+one of the girls would accuse the other of having caused them, saying,
+'Now you did that, etc., etc.'_"
+
+Thanks to Mrs. Leah Underhill, such hints of the true explanation of
+these "manifestations" are plentiful throughout her book, and one needs
+only to bring some little intelligence to bear upon it to read between the
+lines the whole story of the fraud.
+
+And here let me quote a passage which only goes to show how very strong
+was the love of deviltry in the children:
+
+"Father had always been a regular Methodist in good standing, and was
+invariable in his practice of morning prayers; and _when he would be
+kneeling upon his chair, it would sometimes amuse the children to see him
+open wide his eyes as knocks would sound and vibrate on his chair itself_.
+He expressed it graphically to mother: 'When I am done praying that
+jigging stops.'"
+
+Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane distinctly remembers incidents like this one; only
+she qualifies the narrative by saying that her father never opened his
+eyes when these annoyances came while he was at prayer, but went devoutly
+on to the end without heeding them.
+
+How absurd for any one to suppose that if these sounds were produced by a
+cause unknown to the children, they would laugh at them and regard them as
+very great sport, instead of trembling and crying with affright!
+
+"The sounds which were heard at those times," says Mrs. Kane in her
+statement to the writer, "were all produced by Katie and myself, and by no
+other being or spirit under the sun. Nor did we always do it with our
+feet. Frequently in that early stage of the excitement about the
+'rappings,' we would make the sounds with our fingers, provided it was
+easy to do so without causing suspicion. In order to do it unknown to any
+one, we would sit with one hand hidden by an elbow resting upon the table,
+or the woodwork of a chair.
+
+"Of course, our mother in her earnest belief, poor soul, excited us to do
+a great deal more than otherwise we would had done. The mystery of the
+sounds absorbed her entire being for the time. She became pale and
+worn-looking and thought that great misfortunes were to happen, and
+prayed often and fervently. I can well remember how my heart used to smite
+me at times when I looked upon her and knew that Katie and I were the
+cause of all her trouble. In later years, long after I had come to the age
+of understanding, I had very bitter reasons for such pangs of remorse,
+especially towards the last of mother's life, when, as I know, she was in
+a great measure undeceived and feared for the perdition of the souls of
+her children."
+
+In Mrs. Underhill's book, (written for her by another,) there is an effort
+to convey the impression that John D. Fox, her father, shared in the
+belief which she sought to establish in the spiritual origin of the
+"knockings." Such an implication Mrs. Kane declares to be utterly false.
+He never manifested in any way a tendency toward such belief; on the
+contrary, he always showed by his conduct and his manner of speech, the
+utmost repugnance to it, and a perfect contempt for the weakness which
+could lead one into it.
+
+Margaret Fox, the mother, used to say to her husband:
+
+"Now, John, don't you see that it's a wonderful thing?"
+
+"No, I don't," he would answer. "Don't talk to me about it. I don't want
+to hear a word about it!"
+
+Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane says, further: "My father did not believe in
+Spiritualism. The excitement which we caused annoyed him a great deal. He
+signed a statement which merely amounted to his declaring that he did not
+know how the noises originated. He was cajoled into doing this. He wanted
+to get rid of the importunities of those who believed, or affected to
+believe, in the 'rappings.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such is the story of the earliest "rappings" at Hydesville.
+
+It is embellished by Mrs. Underhill with many transparent falsehoods. But
+still further to bolster it up, it was thought necessary to discover
+traditions, or to invent "hearsay" anecdotes, giving to the house in which
+they lived a ghostly history. There are few country houses about which the
+memory of the oldest neighboring inhabitant does not recall something or
+other remarkable and strange, which was told him by some one or other
+whose identity is very indefinite, in the dim, distant past. Thus it is
+stated that odd noises had been heard in the Hydesville house during
+several previous years by successive occupants. But it is confessed that
+none of those persons (whose testimony no one pretends to give) had
+obtained any intelligible messages from another world.
+
+Mrs. Kane states that all of this alleged neighborhood gossip was totally
+unknown to her at the time, and she believes that it had its chief--or
+perhaps its only--origin, in the morbid imaginations of those who were the
+first to set it going.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+DEVELOPMENT OF THE FRAUD.
+
+
+Now we come to the moment when Ann Leah Fox Fish, the eldest sister,
+thirty-one years of age at that time, appears upon the scene of the
+wondrous and so-called supernatural commotion at the little rustic hamlet
+of Hydesville.
+
+No "mediumistic" suggestions or impulses had ever come to her. Not one,
+though she had lived twenty-three years longer in the world than the
+dark-eyed, fascinating little girl who produced the first mysterious
+sounds in her mother's home.
+
+The excitement had reached a great height, and a pamphlet was already in
+the press detailing the whole of the wonderful performances at Hydesville,
+when Leah first heard of them. She hastened thither at once. Some idea of
+the profit which could be derived from awakened public interest in the
+matter, seems to have come to her very promptly. She found that the family
+had moved from the "haunted" house to that of her brother, David. She
+investigated the source of the "raps." Mrs. Kane says that one of the
+first things which she did upon her arrival at the house, was to take both
+her and Katie apart and to cause them to undress and to show her the
+manner of producing the mysterious noises. Never for a moment was the cold
+and calculating brain of the eldest sister a dupe to the cunning pranks of
+the little children. So interested was she in the matter, that she
+insisted upon taking back with her to Rochester, at the end of a
+fortnight, her daughter Lizzie, and Katie, her sister--Maggie not being
+inclined to go with her. And, in the interval, she practised "rapping"
+herself, with her toes, after the manner illustrated by the girls. She
+found great difficulty in producing the same effect, however, as the
+joints of her feet were no longer as pliable as in childhood. The effort
+required was also much greater, and never during her whole lifetime did
+she succeed in attaining to much proficiency in this method of deception.
+The pronounced movement, necessary in her case to cause even a faint sound
+to be heard, was easy to detect.
+
+"Often," says Mrs. Kane, "when we were giving seances together, I have
+been ashamed and mortified by the awkward manner in which she would do it.
+People would observe the effort she made to produce even moderate
+'rappings,' and then they would look at me in suspicion and surprise. It
+required every bit of my skill and my best tact to prevent them from going
+away convinced of the imposture."
+
+On the way to Rochester by canal, the "rappings," according to Mrs.
+Underhill, pursued her. The "Spirits became quite bold and rapped loudly"
+at the dinner-table in the cabin; "and occasionally" she adds, "_one end
+of the table would jump up and nearly spill the water out of our glasses;
+but there was so much noise on the boat (going through the locks, etc.)
+that only we, who recognized the sounds, knew of them_."
+
+It would be easy, indeed--on this very thin reservation, to the effect
+that "only we, who recognized the sounds, knew of them"--to denounce the
+whole of this statement as the grossest falsehood. I have, however, the
+personal assurance of Mrs. Catharine Fox Jencken that the "rappings" were
+really heard, but that they were done by her with her feet. On the other
+hand, she declares that the joggling or lifting of the table never took
+place; nor did she ever hear of it till Mrs. Underhill's book was
+published. It may be observed here that the latter carefully refrains from
+informing us whether the passengers also failed to observe the singular
+disturbance of the cabin table, at which they were dining.
+
+At Rochester, Mrs. Fish seems to have devoted herself to developing and
+elaborating the falsehood of Spiritualism. Singularly enough, to this
+matron, who had never before evinced the least possession of so-called
+"mediumistic" qualities, all sorts of grotesque and terrorizing wonders
+now arrived. This is a fair specimen of her narrative, relating to the
+period in question:
+
+"In the evening, my friend, Jane Little, and two or three other friends,
+called in to spend an hour or two with us. We sang and I played on the
+piano; but even then, while the lamp was burning brightly(!), I felt the
+deep throbbing of the dull accompaniment of the invisibles, keeping time
+to the music as I played; but I did not wish to have my visitors know it,
+and the spirits seemed kind enough not to make themselves heard (!) that
+others would observe what was so apparent to me."
+
+The book to which I am obliged to refer so constantly, and which is a good
+example of the bulk of spiritualistic literature, is full of passages ten
+times as absurd as this one, and having just as strongly the stamp of the
+crudest and most clumsy invention. For the most part, the only appropriate
+treatment for such absurdities is contemptuous silence. Occasionally,
+however, I shall find it necessary, for the sake of completeness in this
+exposition, to meet them with positive refutation, which in reality they
+do not deserve.
+
+Having thus got one of the clever and lively little girls under her own
+control, Leah soon induced her mother to come to Rochester with the other.
+Nothing could show more clearly that she had already formed the resolve to
+reap a harvest of gain and renown from this auspicious beginning, than her
+decisive course, instantly upon realizing the public wonder and curiosity
+which the "rappings" had excited.
+
+It was absolutely necessary to delude some people who were near, and who
+should have been dear to her, as well as the careless and easily gullible
+public. The good and simple-hearted old mother would never have been a
+partner in conscious deception. The matter-of-fact, unspeculative father,
+must be brought to a point where he would at least not deny the claims of
+the so-called "mediums," his daughters. The honest and outspoken Lizzie
+must be awed into discretion by the prospect of great prosperity, which
+was opened before them, and the lesson that if she spoke too freely they
+would surely be deprived of it. Some stalwart and docile sympathizers must
+be enlisted outside of her own people who could be depended upon to stand
+by them as against too strenuous inquiry, or hot-tempered public assault.
+
+Immediately upon Margaret's arrival at the house in Rochester, in which
+Mrs. Fish lived, and which adjoined a graveyard, the "manifestations"
+redoubled. They were produced by the combined efforts of Leah, Margaret
+and Katie. Mrs. Underhill narrates that one night, about this time, a
+"spirit" walked about in their room, as if in his bare feet, when they
+were all supposed to be in bed. She continues: "He answered my question by
+stamping on the floor. I was amused--although afraid. He seemed so willing
+to do my bidding that I could not resist the temptation of speaking to him
+as he marched around my bed. I said, 'Flat Foot, can you dance the
+Highland fling?' This seemed to delight him. I sang the music for him, and
+he danced most admirably. This shocked mother and she said: 'O, Leah, how
+can you encourage that fiend by singing for him to dance?' I soon found
+that they took advantage of my familiarity, and gathered in strong force
+around us. And here language utterly fails to describe the incidents that
+occurred. Loud whispering, giggling, scuffling, groaning, death-struggles,
+murder scenes of the most fearful character--I forbear to describe them.
+Mother became so alarmed that she called to Calvin to come up stairs. He
+came--angry at the spirits--and declared that 'he would conquer or die in
+the attempt.' This seemed to amuse them. They went to his bed, raised it
+up and let it down, and shook it violently. He was still determined not to
+yield to them.
+
+"Before Calvin came up stairs, and during a short lull in their
+performances, we quickly removed our beds to the floor, hoping thereby to
+prevent them from raising us up and letting us down with such violence.
+Calvin said as he came up, that we were foolish to make our beds on the
+floor, as it pleased the spirits to see how completely they had conquered
+us. So he laid down on his bed, and quietly awaited developments. Mother
+said, 'Calvin, I wish your bed was on the floor, too. We have not been
+disturbed since we left the bedstead.' Calvin remarked, 'They are up to
+some deviltry now. I hear them.' He no sooner uttered these words, than a
+shower of slippers came flying at him as he lay in his bed. He bore this
+without a murmur. The next instant he was struck violently with his cane.
+He seized it and struck back, right and left, with all his strength,
+without hitting anything; but received a palpable _bang_ in return for
+every thrust he made. He sprang to his feet and fought with all his might.
+Everything thrown at him he pitched back to them, until a brass
+candlestick was thrown at him, cutting his lip. This quite enraged him. He
+pronounced a solemn malediction and throwing himself on the bed, he vowed
+he would have nothing more to do with 'fiendish spirits.'
+
+"He was not long permitted to remain in quiet there. They commenced at his
+bedstead and deliberately razed it to the floor, leaving the headboard in
+one place, the footboard in another, the two sides at angles, and the
+bedclothes scattered about the room. He was left lying on his mattress,
+and for a moment there was silence; after which some slight movements were
+heard in the 'green room.' I had stowed a large number of balls of carpet
+rags in an old chest standing on the floor, with two trunks and several
+other articles on the top of it. It seemed but the work of a moment for
+them to get at the carpet balls, which came flying at us in every
+direction, hitting us in the same place every time. They took us for their
+target, and threw with the skill of an archer. Darkness made no difference
+with them, and if either of us attempted to remonstrate against such
+violence, they would instantly give _the remonstrant_ the benefit of a
+ball."
+
+Mrs. Kane remembers with tolerable distinctness the antics that
+distinguished this sojourn of her mother, herself and her sisters in the
+Rochester house. She and Katie did indulge in wild larks in the sleeping
+rooms of the family at all hours of the night. The "whispering" and
+"giggling," the "scuffling" and "groaning," and the tragic mimicry were
+natural to childish daredevils like themselves, and one can well
+understand how, with the attendant "rappings," the showers of slippers
+hurled from the "green room," the shaking of Calvin's bed and the
+"banging" of him on the head, these things may have made the desired
+impression upon both him and the mother. Mrs. Kane says that this is the
+true and only explanation of it all, and that in comparatively recent
+years, at seances in Adelphi Hall, New York, she has done the most
+audacious things, similar in character to these, under cover of
+semi-darkness, and has not been detected, simply because nearly all of
+those who were present were believers and were not too curious.
+
+There is another "evidence" given by Ann Leah which is too pitiably
+ridiculous to be considered, except as a subject of laughter.
+
+"Often at meal-time," she says, "the table would be gradually agitated,
+and Calvin in particular, [alas, poor Calvin!] would be more disturbed
+than the rest of us. Once he arose from his chair and reached across the
+table for a heavy pitcher of water, when _the chair was instantly removed
+and he sat down on the floor, spilling the water all over himself_!"
+
+Mrs. Kane's sole comment upon this is: "Of course, we slily did it, as we
+did many other hoydenish tricks.
+
+"We also used to twitch mother's cap off and gently jerk the comb out of
+her hair, just to tease her. Leah says that these things were done by the
+spirits! How silly to address such a puerile pretense to any one gifted
+with common sense!"
+
+As a companion picture to what has gone before, let the reader also
+engrave this "miraculous" scene upon the retina of his imagination:
+
+"We had stored our winter provisions in the cellar. Among them were
+several barrels of apples, potatoes, turnips, etc. From this cellar came
+the apples, potatoes and turnips flying across our room, hitting all in
+precisely the same place every time. It will now be remembered that these
+articles were in the cellar under the ground floor, and had to come from
+the rear of the cellar, through the door, into the kitchen, up the stairs,
+into the pantry on the second floor, through the pantry into the dining
+room, up the second flight of stairs, into the large room in which we
+slept, hitting us as we lay in our beds near the front window. * * *
+
+"A cabinet shop was the next thing represented by the spirits. They seemed
+to be possessed of all kinds of tools to work with. After sawing off
+boards they would let them fall heavily on the floor, jarring everything
+around them. Then, after planing, jointing, driving nails, and screwing
+down the lid of a coffin, they would shove the hollow sounding article
+about the room. (This we understood at a later day.) Often to our utter
+amazement, pickets from the discarded lots in the cemetery came flying
+through the room over our heads, on our beds, like debris in a tornado.
+They came from the extreme west side of the burying-ground, through _that_
+lot, and the distance of about two hundred feet through _our_ lot; an
+entire distance of about four hundred feet. That they came by no visible
+means, we knew; as no human power could have thrown them through the air
+into our chamber window, hitting us in our beds, in the same place every
+time."
+
+In July, 1848, Leah, her sisters and mother, revisited the Hydesville
+house, which was then unoccupied. David, the brother, had fallen by this
+time into the plans of Leah, whether a dupe or an accomplice, Margaret,
+even at this day, is unable to say. To him was due the very first
+suggestion that the so-called spirits might communicate with the living by
+means of the alphabet. And since then, this has been the chief stay of
+spiritualism, literally the A B C of all its so-called science. It is a
+singular commentary upon the consistency of the "spirits," or the good
+faith of those who professed to interpret their messages, that the code of
+communication at first employed in their circles was entirely different in
+the meaning of the simple signals used from the one which finally was
+adopted. Would the "spirits," think you, who are divorced from the
+trammels of this world, have been guilty of this simple error and have
+been obliged to correct it afterward, had they not been impostors?
+
+The object of Mrs. Fish in going back to Hydesville is quite apparent.
+There was yet an unworked mine of wonder and superstition, out of which
+the dust of dross might be thrown into the eyes of the credulous, as the
+pure gold of revelation.
+
+In the first place, it was necessary to get from the so-called invisible
+intelligence an injunction to seek for proofs of the foul murder which it
+had been said had been committed in the house where the "rappings" were
+originally heard.
+
+Mind you, months had then elapsed since the digging had been first done in
+the cellar and the Ganargua creek near by, and David S., who was now
+wholly in sympathy with Leah in her view of the future importance of the
+new superstition, had lived in the neighborhood ever since, while nobody
+had remained in the "haunted" house to be cognizant of what might have
+taken place there in the mean time.
+
+By the new code system of obtaining answers to queries, a mandate to dig
+up the cellar and to search for something or other there was obtained, and
+obeyed, the work lasting two or three days. It is stated by Leah that some
+fragments of an earthen bowl, a few bones, some teeth and some bunches of
+hair were found. She says that doctors pronounced the bones to be human.
+
+Of course, the names of these doctors are nowhere to be found in her
+volume, nor does any one, unwarped by prejudice, really believe more than
+a very small part of this story.
+
+That there was digging is certain.
+
+That there had been plenty of time to hide anything that David Fox had
+desired to hide in the cellar, is certain.
+
+Yet Mrs. Kane remembered absolutely nothing about anything having been
+found in the cellar that bore the slightest semblance to any portion of
+the human frame. If any bones (perchance, like those found in the creek,
+the skeleton of a horse) were uncovered, she denies positively that any
+doctor ever gave the opinion that they were the remains of a man.
+
+She pronounces equally false, the statement of Leah that about the time
+the digging was abandoned, on account of the angry interference of a mob,
+the spades of the diggers struck upon a hollow-sounding, wooden substance,
+which might or might not have been a box of ill-gotten plunder, or the
+rough sepulchre of the slain pedler.
+
+The indignation of the neighbors of the Foxes in Arcadia was not so much
+due to the fact that the latter persisted in pretending to communicate
+with ghosts and uncanny elfs, as it was to the totally unwarranted
+suspicion which had been cast through the early "rappings" upon a man
+named Bell, who had formerly lived in the house, which it was now
+pretended was haunted. This, as well as other evidence of the public
+feeling at that time, was cleverly employed for her own benefit by Leah,
+who easily foresaw how anything that might bear the semblance of religious
+persecution would promote her cause, false though it was, by bringing to
+it both greater notoriety and widespread sympathy.
+
+There is no doubt, too, that if there had not been a very strong vein of
+superstition in the Fox family, the first "rappings" would never have
+produced the deep impression that they did on the mother and her son
+David. Many strange stories, which had been handed down from a grandfather
+or a great-grandfather, a great uncle or a great aunt, were told at the
+fireside with such embellishment as will inevitably come from recital and
+repetition to a wonder-delighting audience. There were traditions of
+prophecies fulfilled and of dumb cattle behaving queerly, all of which
+Mrs. Underhill has very carefully set down and magnified in her own
+peculiar manner to her own unholy purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE MERCENARY CAMPAIGN.
+
+
+The public campaign of Spiritualism was now begun.
+
+A sufficient hubbub had been made over it to induce attention from all
+sorts and conditions of people.
+
+The mother and her daughters went again to Rochester, and there placed
+themselves in the hands of the first of many "committees of friends" who
+were used as tools or confederates, according to their character, to
+"humbug" the public more completely. The character and functions of these
+committees may be judged from the following, which is found in Leah's
+book: "The names of this committee were Isaac Post, R. D. Jones, Edward
+Jones, John Kedzie and Andrew Clackner. _They were faithful friends, who
+never permitted any one to visit us unattended by themselves or some
+reliable person._"
+
+The so-called spirits soon urged in laborious communications that it was
+needful to make their demonstrations more public, and that an
+"investigation" of the "rappings," ought therefore to be made by some
+well-known men. The "spirits" were even so kind as to spell out by means
+of the tentative alphabet, the names of those whom they wished to have
+appointed to perform this part. The desire for advertisement, indeed, was
+not likely to cause the rejection of the name of any available person,
+whose prominence would increase the public interest in the movement. We
+are not astonished, then, to find that Frederick Douglass was one of those
+present at this earliest farce of investigation. It was the forerunner of
+many others which were like unto it, and gradually, in their stations in
+various cities, the "Fox Sisters" drew to their seances nearly all of the
+conspicuous persons of the time, who regarded the effects exhibited to
+them in as many different lights as their minds and characters were
+different.
+
+Naturally enough, after this compliance with their desires, the "spirits"
+directed that a public exhibition should be given. The largest hall in
+Rochester was hired for the purpose.
+
+And here the infamy of bringing forward two little girls to do the work of
+base and vulgar charlatanism, appears in all its revolting character. The
+eldest of the children was then but nine years old. Had she been dressed
+in accordance with her tender age, it would have taken only very slight
+observation to detect the secret of the "rappings." Those persons now
+living, who were present at this and at other public exhibitions of
+Spiritualism at that time, will easily remember that Margaret and
+Catherine Fox appeared on a platform in long gowns, as if they had been
+full-grown women. The dresses were expressly prepared by order of Mrs. Ann
+Leah Fox Fish, the evil genius of these unfortunate victims. Without
+these robes nothing whatever could have been done in the way of "spirit
+rappings," under the matter-of-fact scrutiny of the public.
+
+To carry out the delusion to the utmost, every detail touching these
+earliest exhibitions was directed through "spirit rappings," even to the
+insertion of grandiloquent notices in the newspapers.
+
+In all of the "investigations" of the "rappings," at this or at any other
+time, the attentive student will find somewhere a loop-hole of escape from
+observation, an unguarded avenue of detection. In some of the principal
+seances, described at great length by Leah, the conditions favorable to
+fraud and illusion were so very obvious that they ought to have excited
+derision in the veriest child.
+
+The following passage in the report of a so-called investigation, is
+pointed to by professional spiritualists as one of the best "evidences" of
+the genuineness of Spiritualism:
+
+"One of the committee placed one of his hands on the feet of the ladies
+and the other on the floor, and though the feet were not moved, there was
+a distinct jar of the floor."
+
+Here, then, there were three operators and one investigator. The latter
+puts his hand on the feet of the ladies. How many feet, pray you? There
+were six feet on the platform, as we know, all of which had been carefully
+educated in the production of "raps." Could one man's hand cover them all?
+And if it could not, does not this pretended "evidence" fall at once to
+the ground?
+
+All of the recitals made by spiritualistic writers concerning the doings
+of the "Fox Sisters," contain this element of vagueness, the lack of
+precision and completeness, which to persons unaccustomed to analysis may
+possibly appear plausible enough, but to the experienced inquirer is
+merely a more certain proof of weakness and prevarication.
+
+Volumes might be written to meet the statements advanced in every case,
+and to show how clumsily misleading they are. It is not worth while at
+this late day, and in that direction, to do more than I have already
+accomplished in this chapter.
+
+Indeed, the actual demonstration of the fact that the far-famed "rappings"
+are produced in the manner described at the beginning of this work, should
+be quite sufficient to all logical minds, to condemn every claim that the
+professional mediums have advanced as being the agents of any supernatural
+manifestations.
+
+The good old Latin maxim never applied with greater force than it does
+here: _Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus_.
+
+The operations of the eldest sister all tended to the one end: fame and
+money. In Rochester, fees for the first time were accepted by "mediums,"
+and shortly afterward a tariff of prices for admission to the seances and
+the "private circles" was adopted and made public. No jugglers ever drove
+a more prosperous business than did the "Fox family" for a number of
+years, when once fairly launched upon that sea of popular wonder, which
+somebody has said is supplied by the inherent fondness of mankind for
+being humbugged.
+
+Mrs. Fish had actually the project of founding a new religion, and she
+tried hard to convince her younger sisters and her own child that there
+were really such things as spiritual communications, notwithstanding that
+all of those that were produced in their seances they knew to be perfectly
+false. She asserted that even before Maggie and Katie were born she had
+received messages warning her that they were destined to do great things.
+
+"In all of our seances, while we were under her charge," says Mrs. Kane,
+"we knew just when to rap 'yes' and when to rap 'no' by signals that she
+gave us, and which were unknown to any one but ourselves. Of course, we
+were too young, then, to have been successful very long in deluding
+people, had it not been for an arrangement such as this.
+
+"Her own daughter, Lizzie, had no manner of patience with her transparent
+pretence.
+
+"'Ma,' she would exclaim, when Leah attempted to impress her with a belief
+in some of the frauds which she perpetrated, 'how can you ever pretend
+that that is done by the spirits? I am ashamed to know even that you do
+such things--it's dreadfully wicked.'"
+
+Some day it will be known that one other person beside Lizzie, who
+afterwards occupied a filial relation to this woman, detested even more
+strongly the atmosphere of hypocrisy and deceit with which the latter
+surrounded herself, and hated, too, the rankling obligation under which an
+unkind fate had placed her.
+
+It is not so wonderful that men of learning and originality were drawn to
+the mysterious seances of the Fox girls, when it is considered that they
+became a sort of fashionable "fad," as the receptions of Mesmer did in the
+last century in Paris. There were great opportunities there for studying
+human nature, and the period was one of a notable awakening of scientific
+and transcendental speculation. Such men as Greeley, Bancroft, Fenimore
+Cooper, Bryant, N. P. Willis, Dr. Francis, John Bigelow, Ripley, Dr.
+Griswold, Dr. Eliphalet Nott, Theodore Parker, William M. Thackeray, James
+Freeman Clarke, Thomas M. Foote and Bayard Taylor, and women of the
+intellectual strength of Alice Cary and Harriet Beecher Stowe became
+deeply interested. But nearly all of these lost their interest in
+Spiritualism in time, for they became morally, if not positively
+convinced, that the effects produced were the mere result of fraud.
+
+There was another attraction, however, in those early days. The younger
+"mediums" were both very pretty and very young. Sympathy and
+commiseration, as much as aught else, often drew visitors to them, and
+caused such visitors to continue their friends. Thus, we find that Horace
+Greeley and Dr. Elisha Kent Kane became important factors in the lives of
+both of these interesting creatures, the former educating Katie, and the
+latter striving to form Maggie's mind and to reform her character with
+the express object of making her his wife.
+
+Mrs. Kane, in commenting upon the life which she led at that time, says:
+
+"When I look back, I can only say in defense of my depraved calling, that
+I took not the slightest pleasure in it. The novelty and the excitement
+that had half intoxicated me as a child were fast being dissipated. The
+true conception of this infamous thing soon dawned upon me. The awakening
+was full of anguish--the anguish of hope, as well as the anguish of grief.
+I then first knew Dr. Kane, and with that acquaintance entered the new
+light into my life."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+SPIRITUALISTIC BOOMERANGS.
+
+
+In nearly all of the so-called investigations of the "rappings" produced
+by the "Fox Sisters," there was an absolute absence of genuine scientific
+inquiry. Only once in this critical stage of their career, did they submit
+to experiment and examination by doctors of unquestioned repute and
+learning. The result of this investigation has been held up by
+professional spiritualists as a triumphant proof that the source of
+"rappings" was beyond any mortal finding out. The fact is that the doctors
+hit upon the right principle at the inception of the inquiry, but were
+misled into a wrong application of it, an error which the "mediums," of
+course, encouraged up to a certain point, so that they might gain prestige
+afterwards by refuting it. Following out this policy, Mrs. Underhill has
+incorporated in her book the testimony of the doctors, heedless of the law
+of destiny, that truth must prevail finally.
+
+I propose to take this same statement of the doctors, based as it is upon
+an erroneous assumption and a correct theory, and show how strongly it
+sustains and plainly corroborates the explanation of the "rappings" now
+given by Mrs. Kane and Mrs. Jencken.
+
+The gentlemen who made this notable investigation are usually spoken of as
+the "Buffalo doctors." They were members of the faculty of the University
+of Buffalo. Austin Flint, who afterward held the highest medical rank in
+the metropolis, was the most prominent of the three. The other two were
+Drs. Charles A. Lee and C. B. Coventry.
+
+The theory that they advanced was that the mysterious noises were produced
+by some one of the articulations of the body. Their assumption was that it
+was the great joint of the knee which produced them. Had they worked upon
+their theory alone, and left all assumption aside, until actual evidence
+had led up to them; or, even had they investigated other joints of the
+lower limbs, besides that of the knee, they must have inevitably arrived
+at the correct conclusion. Unfortunately, however, the idea which so beset
+them as to render their labor abortive, arose from the actual existence in
+Buffalo of a woman whose knee-joints could be snapped audibly at will.
+
+The closeness of the scrutiny applied by these gentlemen displeased the
+eldest "medium," and her resentment finds characteristic expression in her
+volume, printed thirty-seven years after the occurrence. She declares that
+she found Dr. Lee to be "a wily, deceitful man."
+
+If anything can circumvent cunning, it is certainly cunning itself, and in
+this sense, it is entirely laudable when exerted in a proper cause. There
+is no doubt that strategy had to be used to induce this woman, conscious
+of her falsity, and schooled in subterfuges and evasions, to submit to a
+coldly scientific test. The challenge, however, came under such
+circumstances, public suspicion being so whetted by the fact that a woman
+had been discovered whose knee-joints possessed the peculiar quality of
+making sound, that it could not well be avoided, without it becoming
+generally known that the declination was a tacit confession of fraud.
+
+The doctors published very promptly the result of their preliminary
+examination, which was made without any special faculties being afforded
+them.
+
+They said:
+
+"Curiosity having led us to visit the rooms at the Phelps House, in which
+two females from Rochester, Mrs. Fish and Miss Fox, profess to exhibit
+striking manifestations from the spirit world, by means of which communion
+may be had with deceased friends, etc.; and having arrived at a
+physiological explanation of the phenomena, the correctness of which has
+been demonstrated in an instance which has since fallen under our
+observation, we have felt that a public statement is called for, which
+may, perhaps, serve to prevent a further waste of time, money and
+credulity (to say nothing of sentiment and philosophy) in connection with
+this so long successful imposition.
+
+"The explanation is reached almost by a logical necessity, on the
+application of a method of reasoning much resorted to in the diagnosis of
+diseases, namely, _the reasoning by exclusion_.
+
+"It was reached by this method prior to the demonstration which has
+subsequently occurred.
+
+"It is to be assumed, first, that the manifestations are not to be
+regarded as spiritual, provided they can be physically or physiologically
+accounted for. Immaterial agencies are not to be invoked until material
+agencies fail. We are thus to _exclude_ spiritual causation in this stage
+of the investigation.
+
+"Next, it is taken for granted that the 'rappings' are not produced by
+artificial contrivances about the persons of the females, which may be
+concealed by the dress. This hypothesis is excluded because it is
+understood that the females have been repeatedly and carefully examined by
+lady committees.
+
+"It is obvious that the 'rappings' are not caused by machinery attached to
+tables, doors, etc., for they are heard in different rooms, and in
+different parts of the same room in which the females are present, _but
+always near the spot where the females are stationed_. This mechanical
+hypothesis is then to be excluded. So much for the negative evidence, and
+now for what positively relates to the subject.
+
+"_On carefully observing the countenances of the two females it is evident
+that they involve an effort of the will. They evidently attempted to
+conceal any indications of voluntary effort, but did not succeed. A
+voluntary effort was manifested, and it was plain that it could not be
+continued very long without fatigue._ Assuming, then, this _positive
+fact_, the inquiry arises, how can the will be exerted to produce sounds
+('rappings') without obvious movements of the body? The voluntary muscles
+themselves are the only organs, save those which belong to the mind
+itself, over which volition can exercise any direct control. But
+contractions of the muscles do not, in the muscles themselves, occasion
+obvious sounds. The muscles, therefore, to develop audible vibrations,
+must act upon parts with which they are connected. Now, it was
+sufficiently clear that the 'rappings' were not _vocal_ sounds; these
+could not be produced without movements of the respiratory muscles, which
+would at once lead to detection. Hence, excluding vocal sounds, _the only
+possible source of the noises in question, produced as we have seen that
+they must be, by voluntary muscular contraction, is in one or more of the
+movable articulations of the skeleton_, from the anatomical construction
+of the voluntary muscles. This explanation remains as _the only
+alternative_.
+
+"By an analysis prosecuted in this manner we arrive at the conviction that
+the 'rappings,' assuming that they are not spiritual, _are produced by the
+action of the will, through voluntary action on the joints_.
+
+"Various facts may be cited to show that the motion of the joints, under
+certain circumstances, is adequate to produce the phenomena of the
+'rappings.' * * * By a curious coincidence, after arriving at the above
+conclusion respecting the source of the sounds, _an instance has fallen
+under our observation, which demonstrates the fact that noises precisely
+identical with the spiritual 'rappings' may be produced in the
+knee-joints_."
+
+The doctors then describe how the sounds may be produced in certain
+subjects by the partial dislocation of the knee joint; and they add:
+
+"The visible vibrations of articles in the room, situated near the
+operator, occur if the limb, or any portion of the body, is _in contact
+with them_ at the time the sounds are produced. _The force of the
+semi-dislocation of the bone is sufficient to occasion distinct jarring of
+the doors, tables, etc., if in contact._ The intensity of the sound may be
+varied in proportion to the force of the muscular contractions, and this
+will render the apparent source of the 'rappings' more or less distinct."
+
+I have italicized the portions of these extracts which apply in a measure
+to the action of the toe-joints, as well as to that of the knee. No
+especial comment upon them is needed. The reader may easily comprehend the
+relation of these peculiar facts.
+
+Knowing, from this brief of their supposed case, exactly what she had to
+apprehend from them, and anxious to prove triumphantly that she and her
+sisters did not make the "rappings" with their knees, Mrs. Fish rushed
+into print, and challenged the doctors to a more public investigation, to
+be made by three men and three women, the latter of whom were to disrobe
+the "mediums," if they so desired. The doctors, of course, accepted.
+
+In her account of this scene, Mrs. Fish speaks of herself and her sister
+Maggie as "two young creatures thus baited as it were by cruel enemies."
+It should be remembered at this point that her age at that time was about
+thirty-four years, whilst that of Maggie was only eleven! So much for the
+disingenuousness of the narrator.
+
+She herself says that during the test, Maggie and she sat on a sofa
+together a long time and no raps came. The watch was too close. Then a
+zealous and indiscreet friend rapped on the back of her chair, and to
+shield herself from seeming complicity, she rebuked him with great
+ostentation. How kindly she felt toward fraud, however, is shown by the
+excuses which she makes for his conduct.
+
+"It was certainly a severe and cruel ordeal for us," she goes on, "as we
+sat there under that accusation, surrounded by all these men, authorities,
+some of them persecutors, _while the raps, usually so ready and familiar,
+would not come to our relief. Some few and faint ones did indeed
+come--some nine or ten. The doctors say in their account that it was while
+they intermitted the holding of our feet_. Such was not my _impression_,
+but _I_ attach _small importance_ to that."
+
+There were several sittings of the investigators in company with the
+"mediums," and Mrs. Underhill asserts that at times plentiful "rappings"
+were heard, both when their feet and knees were held and when they were
+not held. And then she introduces this weak and transparent piece of
+hypocrisy so familiar to those who have ever had to do with so-called
+"mediums":
+
+"We are now familiar with the fact that spirits often refuse to act in the
+presence of those who bring to the occasion, not a candid and fair spirit
+of inquiry for the satisfaction of an honest skepticism, but a bitter and
+offensive bigotry of prejudice and invincible hostility, which does not
+really seek, but rather repels the truth, and but little deserves the
+favor of its exhibition to them by the spirits."
+
+The further report of the doctors contained these points:
+
+"_The two females were seated upon two chairs placed near together, their
+heels resting on cushions, their lower limbs extended, with the toes
+elevated and the feet separated from each other._ The object of this
+experiment was to secure a position in which the ligaments of the
+knee-joint should be made tense, and no opportunity offered to make a
+pressure with the foot. _We were pretty well satisfied that the
+displacement of the bones requisite for the sounds could not be effected,
+unless a fulcrum were obtained by resting one foot upon the other, or on
+some resisting body. The company waited half an hour, but no sounds were
+heard in this position._
+
+"The position of the _younger_ sister was then changed to a sitting
+posture, with the lower limbs extended on the sofa, _the elder sister
+sitting in the customary way_, at the other extremity of the sofa. The
+'Spirits' did not choose to signify their presence under these
+circumstances, although repeatedly requested to do so. The latter
+experiment went to confirm the belief that the _younger sister alone_
+produced the 'rappings.' These experiments were continued until the
+females themselves admitted that it was useless to continue any longer at
+that time, with any expectation of manifestations being made.
+
+"_In resuming the usual position on the sofa, the feet resting on the
+floor, the knockings soon began to be heard._"
+
+Then the doctors held the knees of the fair performers to ascertain if
+there was any movement when the sounds were heard:
+
+"The hands were kept in apposition for several minutes at a time, and the
+experiments repeated frequently, for the space of half an hour and more,
+with negative results; that is to say, _there were plenty of 'raps' when
+the knees were not held, and none when the hands were applied, save once;
+as the pressure was intentionally relaxed (Dr. Lee being the holder) two
+or three faint single 'raps' were heard, and Dr. Lee immediately averred
+that the motion of the bone was plainly perceptible to him. The experiment
+of seizing the knees as quickly as possible, when the knockings first
+commenced, was tried several times, but always with the effect of putting
+an immediate quietus upon the demonstrations_."
+
+No sensible person can doubt that the statements of facts within their
+actual knowledge, made by these three eminent physicians, are absolutely
+true. They say finally:
+
+"_Had our experiments, which were first directed to this joint failed, we
+should have proceeded to interrogate, experimentally, other articulations.
+But the conclusions seemed clear that the 'Rochester knockings' emanate
+from the knee-joint._"
+
+What a pity they did _not_ "interrogate" other articulations!
+
+The report, erroneous as it was in its conclusions, contained so much
+significant truth that Mrs. Fish was at first staggered by its purport.
+But in March, 1851, she wrote again to the press a lengthy letter, in
+which she feebly attempted to counteract the effect of the doctor's
+opinion, and incidentally made some grave admissions. Referring to the
+fact that whenever the "mediums" were kept in constrained positions there
+were no "manifestations," she made this remarkable admission:
+
+"_It is true that when our feet were placed on cushions stuffed with
+shavings, and resting on our heels, there were no sounds heard, and that
+sounds were heard when our feet were resting on the floor_; and it is just
+as true that if our friendly spirits retired when they witnessed such
+harsh proceedings on the part of our persecutors, it was not in our power
+to detain them."
+
+Then she remarks that certain things happened _after the medical gentlemen
+left_:
+
+"Our feet were held from the floor by Dr. Gray and Mr. Clark, in presence
+of the whole committee, on the evening of the investigation made by the
+medical gentlemen (after they left); and the sounds were distinctly heard,
+which was allowed by the committee to be a far more satisfactory test, as
+they could distinctly hear the sounds under the feet, and feel the floor
+_jar_ while our feet were held nearly or quite a foot from the floor."
+
+About this time, a suspicion that the "raps" were made by use of the toes,
+first found expression, but it never seems to have been followed up to
+the point of verification. Indeed, the secret seems to have been kept
+absolutely for forty years, and was only revealed by the lips of Mrs.
+Margaret Fox Kane.
+
+I cannot refrain from quoting in this place an incident from the record of
+the common enemy, which further illustrates the imbecile audacity with
+which they parade their abominable fraud before the eyes of sensible
+persons. At a seance, in which wonderous things were done under a table,
+around which the company including Mrs. Fish and one of her sisters were
+closely seated, one, Mr. Stringham, apparently a doubter, asked:
+
+"May I leave the table while the others remain, that I may look and see
+the bells ringing?"
+
+The "spirits" answered:
+
+"What do you think we require you to sit close to the table for?"
+
+And the veracious writer adds:
+
+"_When spirits make these physical demonstrations, they are compelled to
+assume shapes that human eyes must not look upon._"
+
+     !     !     !     !     !     !     !     !     !     !     !
+
+I should be guilty of an historical omission did I not also notice a
+somewhat formal investigation made by a committee of Harvard Professors
+and others, appointed to satisfy the exigencies of a newspaper controversy
+in Boston in 1857, and which Mrs. Ann Leah Fox Brown and Miss Catherine
+Fox attended. The results were wholly unsatisfactory and inconclusive from
+a scientific standpoint, though the moral effect of this outcome was
+strongly against the spiritualists, who were, of course, bound to prove
+their positive side of the case, and failed ignominiously to do so. The
+committee consisted of Professors Agassiz, Pierce and Horsford, Mr. George
+Lunt, editor of the Boston _Courier_, Dr. A. B. Gould, Mr. Allen Putnam,
+Dr. H. F. Gardner and Mr. G. W. Rains. The last three were pronounced
+spiritualists.
+
+Professor Agassiz, who in particular had studied mesmerism and so-called
+clairvoyance most carefully, and who believed to some extent in the
+former, declared with emphasis that there was an easy physiological
+explanation of all the effects that the "Fox Sisters," or any other
+"rappers," produced. The raps caused by the "Fox Sisters" on this occasion
+were but feeble and uncertain. When other "mediums" were under
+examination, the close watch kept upon them by the learned investigators
+seemed greatly to disconcert them and prevented the possibility of any
+pronounced "manifestations" taking place.
+
+The _Courier_ had issued a challenge offering five hundred dollars to any
+one who would "communicate a single word imparted to the 'spirits,'" by
+its editor "in an adjoining room," who would "read a single word in
+English, written inside a book or sheet of paper folded in such a manner
+as we may suggest; who would answer with the aid of all the higher
+intelligences he or she can invoke from the other world, _three questions_
+* * *;" and it added:
+
+"And we will not require Dr. Gardiner or the 'mediums' to risk a single
+cent on the experiment. If one or all of them can do one of these things,
+the five hundred dollars shall be paid on the spot. If they fail, they
+shall pay nothing; not even the expense incident to trying the
+experiment."
+
+The Committee made a report which declared that nothing had been done
+which entitled any one to receive the sum offered by the _Courier_.
+Therefore no award was made.
+
+A library might be written containing only accounts of private
+investigations of "spiritual phenomena" by able and scientific observers,
+all of which conduced to but one verdict, that every pretense of
+Spiritualism is a fraud. I deem it more appropriate, however, and entirely
+adequate to my purpose, to restrict my citations from such inquiries to
+those which had an absolutely undeniable official or authoritative
+character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE SUPREME AUDACITY OF FRAUD.
+
+
+The multitude of forms that a certain kind of deception, when once it
+obtains a foothold in the public mind, will assume, is often wonderful.
+
+Spiritualism has resorted to all the trickery that for ages has been used
+to delude and delight the populace.
+
+Much of it could be traced back to the very first mountebanks who wandered
+about the streets of the ancient cities, or squatted at the gates of
+palaces or in market-places to catch the frequent obolus from the curious
+passer-by.
+
+In every country under the sun, the trade of deception has been turned to
+the account of religious superstition. The Hindus, in particular, excel in
+this branch of necromancy. The marvelous things that Aaron and the
+Egyptian sorcerers did before Pharaoh, are really as nothing compared with
+what the modern jugglers of India and China perform. All of the
+developments of the art that have taken place in the West, seem but
+trivial imitation beside these, and indeed they are little better.
+
+No sooner had Spiritualism made many proselytes, than there was no limit
+to its audacious pretensions. Its apostles imagined that they could go on
+duping the world and even hoodwinking the scientists, and that by
+appealing to the Federal government for a formal investigation of its
+claims, which they could not have believed for a moment would be granted,
+they could obtain a sort of quasi-official recognition of their so-called
+new religion.
+
+Accordingly, on the 17th of April, 1854, a petition was sent to Congress,
+bearing fifteen thousand names, and was presented in executive session by
+Senator Shields of Illinois. As a rather skillful contemporaneous
+characterization of the matter, what he said on this occasion is of
+historical interest. The following were his words:
+
+     I beg leave to present to the Senate a petition, with some fifteen
+     thousand names appended to it, upon a very singular and novel
+     subject. The petitioners declare that certain physical and mental
+     phenomena of mysterious import, have become so prevalent in this
+     country and Europe, as to engross a large share of public attention.
+     A partial analysis of these phenomena attest the existence, first, of
+     an occult force which is exhibited in sliding, raising, arresting,
+     holding, suspending, and otherwise disturbing ponderable bodies,
+     apparently in direct opposition to the acknowledged laws of matter,
+     and transcending the accredited power of the human mind. Secondly,
+     lights of different degrees of intensity appear in dark rooms, where
+     chemical action or phosphorescent illumination cannot be developed,
+     and where there are no means of generating electricity, or of
+     producing combustion. Thirdly, a variety of sounds, frequent in
+     occurrence, and diversified in character, and of singular
+     significance and importance, consisting of mysterious rapping,
+     indicating the presence of invisible intelligence. Sounds are often
+     heard like those produced by the prosecution of mechanical
+     operations, like the hoarse murmer of the winds and waves, mingled
+     with the harsh creaking of the masts and rigging of a ship laboring
+     in a sea. Concussions also occur, resembling distant thunder,
+     producing oscillatory movements of surrounding objects, and a
+     tremulous motion of the premises upon which these phenomena occur.
+     Harmonious sounds, as those of human voices, and other sounds
+     resembling those of the fife, drum, trumpet, etc., have been produced
+     without any visible agency. Fourthly, all the functions of the human
+     body and mind are influenced in what appear to be certain abnormal
+     states of the system, by causes not yet adequately understood or
+     accounted for. The occult force, or invisible power, frequently
+     interrupts the normal operations of the faculties, suspending
+     sensation and voluntary motion of the body to a death-like coldness
+     and rigidity, and diseases hitherto considered incurable, have been
+     entirely eradicated by this mysterious agency. The petitioners
+     proceed to state that two opinions prevail with respect to the origin
+     of these phenomena. One ascribes them to the power and intelligence
+     of departed spirits operating upon the elements which pervade all
+     natural forms. The other rejects this conclusion, and contends that
+     all these results may be accounted for in a rational and satisfactory
+     manner.
+
+     The memorialists, while thus disagreeing as to the cause, concur in
+     the opinion as to the occurrence of the alleged phenomena; and in
+     view of their origin, nature and bearing upon the interests of
+     mankind, demand for them a patient, rigid, scientific investigation,
+     and request the appointment of a scientific commission for that
+     purpose.
+
+     I have now given a faithful synopsis of this petition, which, however
+     unprecedented in itself, has been prepared with singular ability,
+     presenting the subject with great delicacy and moderation. I make it
+     a rule to present any petition to the Senate, which is respectful in
+     its terms; but having discharged this duty, I may be permitted to say
+     that the prevalence of this delusion at this age of the world, among
+     any considerable portion of our citizens, must originate, in my
+     opinion, in a defective system of education, or in a partial
+     derangement of the mental faculties, produced by a diseased condition
+     of the physical organization. I cannot, therefore, believe that it
+     prevails to the extent indicated in this petition.
+
+     Different ages of the world have had their peculiar delusions.
+     Alchemy occupied the attention of eminent men for several centuries;
+     but there was something sublime in alchemy. The philosopher's stone,
+     or the transmutation of base metals into gold, the _elixir vitae_, or
+     'water of life' which would preserve youth and beauty, and prevent
+     old age, decay and death, were blessings which poor humanity ardently
+     desired, and which alchemy sought to discover by perseverance and
+     piety, Roger Bacon, one of the greatests alchemists and greatest men
+     of the thirteenth century, while searching for the philosopher's
+     stone, discovered the telescope, burning glasses, and gunpowder. The
+     prosecution of that delusion led, therefore, to a number of useful
+     discoveries. In the sixteenth century flourished Cornelius Agrippa,
+     alchemist, astrologer, and magician, one of the greatest professors
+     of hermetic philosophy that ever lived. He had all the spirits of the
+     air and demons of the earth under his command. Paulus Jovious says
+     that the devil, in the shape of a large black dog, attended Agrippa
+     wherever he went. Thomas Nash says, at the request of Lord Surrey,
+     Erasmus, and other learned men, Agrippa called up from the grave,
+     several of the great philosophers of antiquity, among others, Sully,
+     whom he caused to deliver his celebrated oration for Roscius, to
+     please the emperor, Charles IV. He summoned David and King Solomon
+     from the tomb, and the Emperor conversed with them long upon the
+     science of government. This was a glorious exhibition of spiritual
+     power, compared with the insignificant manifestations of the present
+     day. I will pass over the celebrated Paracelsus, for the purpose of
+     making allusion to an Englishman, with whose veracious history every
+     one ought to make himself acquainted. In the sixteenth century, Dr.
+     Dee made such progress in the talismanic mysteries, that he acquired
+     ample power to hold familiar conversation with spirits and angels,
+     and to learn from them all the secrets of the universe. On the
+     occasion, the angel Uriel gave him a black crystal of a convex form,
+     which he had only to gaze upon intently, and by a strange effort of
+     the will, he could summon any spirit he wished, to reveal to him the
+     secrets of futurity. Dee, in his veracious diary, says that one day
+     while he was sitting with Alburtus Laski, a Polish nobleman, there
+     seemed to come out of the oratory a spiritual creature, like a pretty
+     girl of seven or nine years of age, with her hair rolled up before
+     and hanging down behind, with a gown of silk, of changeable red and
+     green, and with a train. She seemed to play up and down, and to go in
+     and out behind the books, and as she seemed to get between them, the
+     books displaced themselves and made way for her. This I call a
+     spiritual manifestation of the most interesting and fascinating kind.
+     Even the books felt the fascinating influence of this spiritual
+     creature; for they displaced themselves and made way for her. Edward
+     Kelly, an Irishman, who was present, and who witnessed this beautiful
+     apparition, verifies the doctor's statement; therefore it would be
+     unreasonable to doubt a story so well attested, particularly when the
+     witness was an Irishman. Dr. D. was the distinguished favorite of
+     kings and queens, a proof that spiritual science was in high repute
+     in the good old age of Queen Elizabeth. But of all the professors of
+     occult science, hermetic philosophy or Spiritualism, the Rosicrucians
+     were the most exalted and refined. With them the possession of the
+     philosopher's stone was to be the means of health and happiness, an
+     instrument by which man could command the services of superior
+     beings, control the elements, defy the abstractions of time and
+     space, and acquire the most intimate knowledge of all the secrets of
+     the universe. These were objects worth struggling for. The refined
+     Rosicrucians were utterly disgusted with the coarse, gross, sensual
+     spirits who had been in communication with man previous to their day;
+     so they decreed the annihilation of them all, and substituted in
+     their stead, a race of mild, beautiful and beneficent beings.
+
+     The "spirits" of the olden time were a malignant race, and took
+     especial delight in doing mischief; but the new generation is mild
+     and benignant. These "spirits," as this petition attests, indulge in
+     the most innocent amusements and harmless recreations, such as
+     sliding, raising and tipping tables, producing pleasing sounds and
+     variegated sights, and sometimes curing diseases which were
+     previously considered incurable; and for the existence of this simple
+     and benignant race our petitioners are indebted to the brethren of
+     the rosy cross. Among the modern professors of Spiritualism,
+     Cagliostro was the most justly celebrated. In Paris, his saloons
+     were thronged with the rich and noble. To old ladies he sold
+     immortality, and to the young ones he sold beauty that would endure
+     for centuries, and his charming countess gained immense wealth, by
+     granting attendant sylphs to such ladies as were rich enough to pay
+     for their services. The "Biographies des Contemporains," a work which
+     our present mediums ought to consult with care, says there was hardly
+     a fine lady in Paris who would not sup with the shade of Lucretius in
+     the apartments of Cagliostro. There was not a military officer who
+     would not discuss the art with Alexander, Hannibal or Caesar, or an
+     advocate or counselor who would not argue legal points with the ghost
+     of Cicero. These were spiritual manifestations worth paying for, and
+     all our degenerate "mediums" would have to hide their diminished
+     heads in the presence of Cagliostro.
+
+     It would be a curious inquiry to follow this occult science through
+     all its phases of mineral magnetism, animal mesmerism, etc., until we
+     reach the present, latest and slowest phase of all spiritual
+     manifestation; but I have said enough to show the truth of Burk's
+     beautiful aphorism, "The credulity of dupes is as inexhaustible as
+     the invention of knaves."
+
+A writer of that time says:
+
+"A pleasant debate followed. Mr. Petit proposed to refer the petition of
+the Spiritualists to three thousand clergymen. Mr. Weller proposed to
+refer it to the Committee on Foreign Relations, as it might be necessary
+to inquire whether or not when Americans leave this world they lose their
+citizenship. Mr. Mason proposed that it should be left to the Committee on
+Military affairs. General Shields himself said he had thought of proposing
+to refer the petition to the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads,
+because there may be a possibility of establishing a spiritual telegraph
+between the material and spiritual worlds. The petition was finally, by a
+decisive vote, laid upon the table. The table did not, as we learn, tip in
+indignation at this summary disposal of Spiritualism in the Senate, by
+which we must infer that the 'spirits,' if there were any in the Senate at
+that time, endorsed its action and considered the same all right."
+
+I might here enter into a description of the various forms of modern
+spiritualistic representations. It would be a waste of time. I wish,
+however, to allude more particularly just here to one of the "evidences"
+which Mrs. Ann Leah Underhill apparently values most highly in connection
+with the claim of inherent and hereditary "mediumistic" powers residing in
+certain individuals and families. This is the somewhat noted so-called
+exhibition of "mediumistic" ability by a child of Mrs. Kate Fox Jencken, a
+babe, only about six weeks old at the time that it began. It is needless
+to go into all the details of the wonders attributed to little "Ferdie"
+Jencken, now a fine lad of fifteen, which rest wholly upon the testimony
+of persons who were interested in magnifying them to the greatest extent.
+Shadowy forms are said to have appeared to his nurse while she was
+watching him. At three months he was said to have articulated "Mamma!" But
+the cap of the climax is the feat he is said to have performed when not
+six months old. As he was restless one day, his mother gave him a piece of
+blotting paper and a pencil to play with. He made some marks on the paper
+and dropped it. When his mother picked it up she exclaimed to Mrs.
+Underhill, the only other person present:
+
+"See here, he was written something."
+
+It is pretended that on one side of the blotting paper was the message:
+
+      "Grandma is here.
+                "BOYSIE."
+
+Later and up to the close of his first year, he was said to write other
+messages, but all under like circumstances.
+
+Mrs. Underhill lays great stress upon these "manifestations" in two
+portions of her work.
+
+The simple and only comment to be made upon them is, that Mrs. Catherine
+Fox Jencken now declares that they were fraudulent. The messages were in
+every case written upon the paper before it was placed in the baby's
+hands, the mother knowing, of course, that a child a few months old would
+not retain anything very long in its grasp, that those who chanced to be
+present would not observe, unless previously warned, whether it was
+wholly blank or not, and that the picking up of the paper from the floor
+would give ample opportunity to turn undermost the side on which the child
+may have really scratched some unmeaning marks.
+
+So much for that and kindred marvels of infant "mediumship."
+
+"Ferdie" Jencken, so far as is known, has never, since that early period
+of his existence, exhibited any "mediumistic power."
+
+The character of the communications purporting to come from the
+"spirit-land" has always been such as to condemn them, even if nothing
+else would, in the mind of any one gifted with a clear judgment. How many
+have read with a bitter sneer those pretended words from "the great ones
+of the earth," which would place them, if they had really written or
+uttered them in the unseen life, on a mere level with the emptiest-headed
+mortals whom we know in this!
+
+"Alas!" exclaims Nathaniel Hawthorne in "The Blythedale Romance,"
+"methinks we have fallen on an evil age! If these phenomena have not
+humbug at the bottom, so much the worse for us. What can they indicate in
+a spiritual way, except that the soul of man is descending to a lower
+point that it has ever reached while incarnate? We are pursuing a downward
+course in the eternal march, and thus bring ourselves into the same range
+with beings whom death--in requital of their gross and evil lives--has
+degraded below humanity. To hold intercourse with spirits of this order,
+we must stoop and grovel in some elements more vile than earthly dust.
+These goblins, if they exist at all, are but the shadows of past
+mortality--mere refuse stuff, adjudged unworthy of the eternal world, and
+as the most favorable supposition, dwindling gradually into nothingness.
+The less we have to say to them, the better, lest we share their fate."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A SCIENTIFIC JURY.
+
+
+At one period of her strange career, Mrs. Kane entered the service of Mr.
+Henry Seybert, the famous and wealthy spiritualist of Philadelphia, who
+proposed to found what he called a "Spiritual Mansion."
+
+Mrs. Kane's salary and appointments were liberal, and her situation was
+one which would have met the fondest wishes of many noted and ambitious
+"mediums." She was the high priestess of this new temple of the unseen
+entities, and as such she was honored and treated with most exalted
+respect.
+
+The conditions of the "Spiritual Mansion" were in all respects favorable
+to the intercourse of dwellers in the flesh with those who inhabit the
+realm of shadows, if such there had been.
+
+The taking up of her abode in this singular institution was one of her
+earliest steps, after the throwing off of her deep weeds of mourning, worn
+in memory of the untimely termination of her dream of happiness. It was
+then that she found that the professional life of a "medium" was the only
+refuge left her from the cruel pursuit of poverty and want.
+
+But her stay in the "Spiritual Mansion" was short. She had thought that
+the quiet existence afforded her there would be preferable to the daily
+and distasteful practice of public "mediumship," which she must have
+resorted to at once, had she not accepted the proposition of Mr. Seybert.
+But the hypocrisy unconsciously required of her by him, while of a more
+fantastic description, was altogether too much for her to endure. Her
+intense hatred of her profession as a "medium" appeared in a strong light
+to those who were then in her confidence.
+
+Mrs. Kane, at the "Spiritual Mansion," not only produced pretended
+messages from the departed friends of her patron, but also from nearly
+every martyr and saint in the Protestant calendar, and from the famous
+sages and rulers of old. But her imposture stopped short of actual
+sacrilege. Beyond that line she never has gone.
+
+When it came to transmitting messages demanded by the living of the
+apostles and fathers of the church, she revolted against this mania for
+the supernatural and the impossible, and she refused to continue longer
+the instrument of pure religious insanity.
+
+She declined to produce "spirit rappings," as emanating from St. Paul, St.
+Peter, Elijah and the angel Gabriel.
+
+It has often been said that Henry Seybert had an undoubted vein of madness
+in his brain. Mrs. Kane herself so declares. I believe the same is true of
+every person (not a knave at heart) who persistently, after reason and
+conscientious research have demonstrated the truth of the charges against
+Spiritualism, still refuses to be convinced.
+
+There was, however, a method in the madness of Seybert. Mrs. Kane has
+always been most careful not to make any positive asseveration of the
+claims of Spiritualism. Her guarded and, in some measure, candid course,
+no doubt tended very far towards influencing him to desire an honest and
+thorough investigation of the so-called spiritualistic phenomena, to be
+conducted according to the most rigid scientific methods. In his will, he
+left provision for the founding of a chair of philosophy in the University
+of Pennsylvania, with the careful stipulation that a certain portion of
+the income to be derived from the foundation should be devoted to the
+investigation of "all systems of morals, religion or philosophy which
+assume to represent the truth; and particularly of modern Spiritualism."
+
+Thus this legacy gave birth to the celebrated "Seybert Commission," whose
+labors have resulted in the most valuable expose, prior to this present
+publication, of the fraudulent methods of Spiritualism--"the tricks of the
+trade," as it were--which has ever been made.
+
+Even the investigation of the remarkable "rappings," produced by Mrs.
+Kane, in which the Commission engaged--while less successful than any
+other branch of their researches--went so far as fully to convince them
+that these alleged manifestations were entirely fraudulent, and that they
+were produced by physical action on the part of the "medium," probably by
+or in the vicinity of her feet.
+
+This they were unable to prove, however, by any use of their five senses,
+which they were permitted to make. Mrs. Kane gave them no such chance of
+examination, on this occasion, as had been vouchsafed to the Buffalo
+doctors some thirty-six years before, almost with the result of throttling
+Spiritualism in its infancy. No; she was much too clever for that. She
+would greatly have preferred, to being ignominiously found out, to make a
+public and unreserved confession.
+
+The fact is that no other scientific committee ever enjoyed the facilities
+of close observation of the production of the "raps" which were accorded
+to the "Buffalo doctors," and that, up to this final day, when Mrs. Kane
+herself tells the truth, there has been not one single positive exposure
+of the primitive fraud of the "toe-knockings." Conjectures, it is true,
+have groped in that direction, time and again--but they never have done
+more than to grope.
+
+The members of the "Seybert Commission" were extremely eager to obtain
+sittings with Mrs. Kane, and were successful at an early stage of their
+studies in doing so. Mr. Horace Howard Furness of Philadelphia was acting
+chairman of the Commission a good part of the time, and as such he wrote
+to Mrs. Kane in the following very urgent manner:
+
+     "222 WEST WASHINGTON SQUARE.
+
+     "DEAR MRS. KANE:
+
+     "I wrote to you some ten days ago, but, since I have not heard from
+     you, fear that my letter has miscarried, and will therefore repeat
+     it.
+
+     "I am anxious, very anxious, that the 'Seybert Commission,' of which
+     I am the chairman, should have an opportunity of investigating the
+     'Rappings.' Will you, therefore, appoint some day and hour, at your
+     earliest convenience, when I can visit you in New York and make
+     arrangements with you personally?
+
+     "I sincerely trust that your summer has been healthful and peaceful,
+     and beg to subscribe myself
+
+     "Yours respectfully,
+     "HORACE HOWARD FURNESS.
+
+     "22nd October, 1884."
+
+Mrs. Kane became the guest of Mr. Furness at his house, and there produced
+the "rappings" at two seances which were full of important significance.
+
+The first was on the 5th of November, 1884, in the evening. The company
+consisted of Dr. William Pepper and his wife, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Dr. George
+A. Koeing, Prof. Robert Ellis Thompson, Mr. Horace Howard Furness, Mr.
+George S. Fullerton, Mr. Coleman Sellers, all, excepting the lady, members
+of the Commission, and Mr. George S. Pepper, Miss Logan, and the
+"medium." All seated themselves around an open dining-table, Mrs. Kane at
+one end and Mr. Sellers at the other. The report of the Commission says:
+
+"The medium sat with her feet partly under the table, and consequently
+concealed from most of those present--her feet were hidden also by her
+dress."
+
+After the usual preliminaries of an introduction to denizens of the
+"spirit land," the soul of Henry Seybert was announced. He declared
+through the "medium" that he knew the names of the members of the
+Commission, and particularly of the one who was addressing him. Mr.
+Sellers, who happened to be this person, requested the spirit to spell his
+name by the aid of a written alphabet, each letter of which was pointed to
+in turn, the letter intended by the "spirit" being indicated by three
+"raps." The result was that the name spelled out was the following:
+
+  "CHARLES CERI!"
+
+Without commenting upon this blunder of the "spirit," the Commission
+encouraged Mrs. Kane to proceed. She took a station at some distance from
+the table, her hands resting upon the back of a chair, and "raps" were
+heard which seemed to come from a point very near or under her. Again,
+when she stood close to a bookcase, "raps" were produced which she
+declared to proceed from the glass door upon which Mr. Sellers rested his
+hand. The latter felt not the slightest vibration of the glass. Mrs. Kane
+then produced written messages, addressed to two persons present, whose
+names she might have ascertained with very great ease. The writing was an
+irregular scrawl, running from the left, and leaning backward, and could
+only be read from the observe side by holding the paper up to the light.
+
+The second seance in which Mrs. Kane acted as "medium" took place at the
+same place on the 6th of November, 1884. Dr. Leidy, Mr. Furness, Dr.
+Koeing, Mr. Fullerton and Mr. Sellers, members of the Commission, Mr.
+George S. Pepper, Mrs. Kane and a stenographer were present. The
+experiments of this evening were more lengthy and exhaustive than those of
+the previous one. For convenience of narration I shall divide them into
+two series: those made while the "medium" either stood upon the floor or
+sat upon an ordinary seat in an ordinary position; those in which she was
+separated from the floor, either by glass or by some object of
+considerable height, upon which she stood; and those in which she produced
+writing upon ordinary paper, said to have been dictated by the "spirits."
+The experiments did not always take place in the consecutive order in
+which I shall note them.
+
+The report says: "The 'spirit rappings' during the evening, aside from
+those heard during the test with glass tumblers, were apparently confined
+to the floor space in the immediate vicinity of and directly beneath the
+table around which the company were seated."
+
+The stenographic report of this part of the investigation proceeds as
+follows:
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Is any spirit present now?
+
+"Three raps--faint and partly distinct--are almost instantly audible. The
+raps apparently emanate from the floor-space directly beneath, or in the
+immediate vicinity of the table. This remark is applicable to all the
+'rappings' during the seance at the pine table.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (interpreting the sounds). That was 'yes.'
+
+"MR. SELLERS (aside). They sounded like three.
+
+"The raps are immediately repeated with more distinctness.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (aside). There are three, and they are quite distinct. Is the
+spirit the same that was present last night?
+
+"Three raps, apparently identical with those last heard, are again
+audible.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (aside). It says it is the same spirit. I presume then, that
+it is Henry Seybert? (No response.) Is it Henry Seybert?
+
+"Three raps--distinct and positive.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. You promised last evening to give a communication to Mr.
+Pepper. Are you able to communicate with him now?
+
+"Two raps--comparitively feeble.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (interpreting). One, two: that means not now.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (repeating). Not now?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (reflectively). But probably before he leaves.
+
+"Three raps--quickly, distinctly and instantly given.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' He said 'Yes, before he leaves.' (To Mr. Sellers.) You
+asked that question, I think?
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Yes. Will you communicate with him before Mr. Pepper leaves
+to-night?
+
+"Three raps--instantaneous, quick and vigorous."
+
+Afterwards, the experiment of standing near a table, the "medium" not
+touching it, to see if sounds similar to those of the previous evening
+could be produced, was repeated. The "medium" insisted, however, that
+there should be no breaking of the circle formed about her by those who
+were present.
+
+"All of the gentlemen, and the 'medium,'" says the report, "rise and
+remain standing. * * *
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' This is test, something I have not gone through since I was
+a little child, almost.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (after an interval of waiting). There seem to be no raps.
+(Another short interval.) Now Mr. Seybert, cannot you produce some raps?
+
+"Eighty seconds here elapse with no response, when the 'medium' made an
+observation which was partly inaudible at the reporter's seat, the purport
+of which was that the 'spirit communications' are sometimes retarded or
+facilitated by a compliance by the listeners with certain conditions.
+Another interval of probably two minutes elapsed, when the 'medium'
+suggested to Dr. Leidy to place his hands upon the table. The suggestion
+was complied with.
+
+"Mr. Sellers inquires of the 'medium' whether a change in her position,
+with regard to the table, would do any good.
+
+"'MEDIUM.' I will change positions with you.
+
+"The change was made accordingly, but without result, and another period
+of waiting followed.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (to Dr. Leidy). Suppose you ask some questions. You may have
+some friend who will respond.
+
+"DR. LEIDY. Is any spirit present whom I know, or who knows me?
+
+"After a pause of ten seconds, three light raps are heard.
+
+"DR. LEIDY. Who am I?
+
+"The 'medium' explains that the responses by rappings are mainly
+indicative only of affirmation or negation.
+
+"DR. LEIDY. Will you repeat your taps to indicate that you are present
+yet?
+
+"Three taps are heard.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Those are very clearly heard.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (to Dr. Leidy). Ask if that is Mr. Seybert.
+
+"DR. LEIDY. Is Mr. Seybert present?
+
+"Three raps--very feeble.
+
+"DR. LEIDY (to Mr. Sellers). Was there an answer to that?
+
+"MR. SELLERS. There was. The answer was three raps. (After an interval, in
+which no response is received.) There seem to be no further
+communications."
+
+Later in the evening efforts to engage the defunct Mr. Seybert in
+conversation were again made. The company were as before gathered about
+the table. "Raps" were made by Mrs. Kane on the floor. The "spirit" was
+asked if he knew the members of the Commission present, and to state their
+number. When it came to the response to the latter part of the question
+there were "seven slow, deliberate and distinct raps."
+
+Alas! the "spirit" had mistaken the guest of the Commission, Mr. George S.
+Pepper, and the stenographers for members!
+
+The latter were seated at a separate table.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Are there seven members of the Committee present?
+
+"Three raps.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Are they all seated around one table?
+
+"No response. About forty seconds elapse.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Are they seated at two tables?
+
+"Three raps--quite feeble.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (to his associates). We still must go back to the one thing.
+The information we receive through these responses is of little importance
+to us compared with the information which we must obtain as to whether
+these sounds are produced by a disembodied Spirit or by some living
+person; that is, in deference to the 'Medium.' (To Mr. Furness.) Do you
+not think so?
+
+"Mr. Furness is understood to assent.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. We have tried the glass tumblers. We have the sounds here. I
+would ask Mrs. Kane if it is proper for us to look below the top of the
+table at the time the sounds are being produced, and in such a way as to
+see her feet.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Yes, of course, you could do that, but it is not well to
+break, when you are standing, suddenly. As you know, you have to conform
+to the rules, else you will get no rappings.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. What are the rules?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (disconnectedly.) The rules are--every test condition, that
+I am perfectly willing to go through, and have gone through a thousand
+times--at the same time, there are times when you can break the rules. So
+slight a thing as the disjoining of hands may break the rules. I do not
+think the standing on the glass has been fully tried.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. We will try that later.
+
+"MR. FURNESS (to the 'medium,' informally). This investigation is one of
+great importance to us. There is no question about it--we have heard
+these curious sounds. Now as to whether they come from 'spirits' or
+not--that would seem to be the very next logical step in our inquiry. I
+think you are entirely at one with us in every possible desire to have
+this phenomenon investigated.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Oh, certainly. But I pledge myself to conform to nothing,
+for--as I said in Europe--_I do not even say the sounds are from
+'spirits_;' and, what is more, it is utterly beyond human power to detect
+them. _I do not say they are the spirits of our departed friends, but I
+leave others to judge for themselves._
+
+"MR. FURNESS. Then you have come to the conclusion that they are entirely
+independent of yourself.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' No, _I do not know that they are entirely independent of
+myself_.
+
+"MR. FURNESS. Under what conditions can you influence them?
+
+"The response, which was partly inaudible at the reporter's seat, was
+understood to be: 'I cannot tell.'
+
+"MR. FURNESS. You say that in the generality of cases they are beyond your
+control?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Yes.
+
+"MR. FURNESS. How in the world shall we test that?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Well, by--
+
+"MR. FURNESS. By--what? Isolating you from the table?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Yes.
+
+"MR. FURNESS (applying his right hand, by her permission, to the
+'Medium's' head). Are you ever conscious of any vibration in your bones?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' No; but sometimes it causes an exhaustion, that is, under
+circumstances when the raps do not come freely.
+
+"MR. FURNESS. The freer the raps come, the better for you?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Yes, the freer the better--the less exhaustion.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. But do you feel now, to-night, any untoward influence
+operating against you?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' No, not to-night, for it takes quite a little while before
+we feel these things.
+
+"MR. FURNESS. Do these raps always have that vibratory
+sound--tr-rut--tr-rut--tr-rut?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Sometimes they vary.
+
+"MR. FURNESS. As a general rule I have heard them sound so.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Every rap has a different sound. For instance, when the
+'spirit' of Mr. Seybert rapped, if the sound was a good one, you would
+have noticed that his rap was different from that of another. Every one is
+entirely different from another.
+
+"MR. FURNESS. Do you suppose that the present conditions are such that you
+can throw the raps to a part of the room other than that in which you are?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' I do not pretend to do that, but I will try to do it.
+
+"Mr. Furness and Dr. Leidy station themselves in the corner of the room,
+diagonally, and most remote from the pine table, at which their
+associates remain seated, with their hands upon the table, and 'their
+minds intent on having the raps produced at the corner indicated,' as
+requested by the 'medium,' who also remains at the table. The 'medium'
+asks, '_Will the "Spirit" rap at the other side of the room?_' and, after
+twelve seconds, and again after forty-three seconds, repeats the inquiry.
+_No response is received._ The experiment is repeated with Mr. Furness and
+Dr. Koenig at the corner, but with a like negative result."
+
+Let us now turn to the experiments made while the "medium" was not in a
+position in which her feet could touch the floor. The report says:
+
+"Mr. Sellers made this inquiry:
+
+"'It is proposed that the "medium" shall stand upon tumblers. Are we
+likely to have any demonstration?'
+
+"Three raps--promptly given, though feeble in delivery and but faintly
+audible.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' There were three--a kind of tardy assent.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (to the 'Medium'). As if the 'Spirits' might or might not
+communicate?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Well, that a trial might be made.
+
+"Three raps are here again distinctly heard--the characteristics of the
+sounds in this instance being rapidity and energy, or positiveness.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' That is a quick answer.
+
+"At this point, attention is directed to the first of a series of
+experiments with four glass tumblers, which are placed together, with the
+bottoms upward, on the carpeted floor, in the center of a vacant space.
+The 'medium' stands directly upon these, the heels of her shoes resting
+upon the rear tumblers and the soles upon the front tumblers. The
+Committee co-operate with the 'medium,' and, in conformity with her
+suggestions, all the men clasp hands and form a semi-circle in front of
+the 'medium,' the hands of the latter being grasped by the gentlemen
+nearest to her on either side.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (after a notification from the medium to proceed). Is Mr.
+Seybert still present?
+
+"No response.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' It may be a few minutes before you will hear any rapping
+through these glasses.
+
+"Ten seconds elapse.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' This test is a very satisfactory one, if they do it. And
+they have done it a hundred times.
+
+"Five seconds elapse.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (to Mr. Furness). The glasses are not placed over the
+marble, are they?
+
+"MR. FURNESS. No, the floor is of wood.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (after another interval of waiting) informally remarked to
+Mr. Furness: 'We will wait probably for another minute to see if anything
+comes. As you know, the 'medium' claims that it is impossible for her to
+control these things--that she is merely one who is operated through.'
+
+"Another interval expires.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' That was a very faint rap. Suppose we change the position
+of the glasses.
+
+"Note by the stenographer. No intimation is given that the rap here spoken
+of was heard by any one other than the 'medium' herself. Pursuant to the
+request just stated, the carpet is removed and the glass tumblers are
+located on the bare floor at a point about five feet distant from the
+place at which the test was first tried. The new location is in the center
+of a passage-way, about three feet in width, between a side-board on one
+side, and a wall projection on the other. Its selection is apparently,
+though not specifically, dictated by the position and movements of the
+'medium.' The 'medium' and the Committee resume their positions, the
+former standing on the glasses and the gentlemen facing her in a group.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Now, Spirits, will you rap on the floor?
+
+"Thirty seconds here elapsed with no response, when one glass was heard to
+click against the other, and the 'medium' exclaimed 'Oh!'
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (repeating). Will you rap on the floor?
+
+"Thirty seconds now elapse without any demonstration.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (aside). It seems to be a failure. They have done it.
+
+"Another click of the glasses which passes without comment.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. We will have to set down the result of the experiment on
+glass tumblers as negative. It may be well to try it later.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (evidently reluctant to abandon the test). Suppose now, as
+we have gone so far, we kind of form a chain.
+
+"The company retained their positions with hands joined, and the 'Spirits'
+were repeatedly requested to make their presence known. Mr. Pepper, at the
+suggestion of the 'medium,' asking the 'Spirit' of his friend, Henry
+Seybert, to manifest its presence by one rap--but all efforts to elicit
+such response proved ineffectual.
+
+"When the same experiments were resumed, the lady proceeded to the space
+_between the side-board and the wall_, where the last preceding test had
+been made, and there the tumblers were again arranged. The 'medium'
+resumed her position upon them, with Drs. Leidy and Koeing, and Messrs.
+Sellers and Furness facing her.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Will the Spirit rap here?
+
+"Twenty-three seconds elapse.
+
+"DR. LEIDY. Is any 'Spirit' present.
+
+"An interval of thirty-nine seconds here followed, when the attention of
+the Committee was momentarily diverted by an inquiry addressed to Mr.
+Furness by Mr. Sellers, viz.: Whether a glass plate of sufficient strength
+to bear the weight of the 'medium' was procurable. At this moment the
+'medium' suddenly exclaimed: 'I hear a rap. You said, "Get a glass," and
+there was a rap.'
+
+"The 'MEDIUM' (repeating for the information of Mr. Furness). Somebody
+proposed a glass and there were three raps.
+
+"Dr. Koenig inquires of the 'medium' whether the meaning intended to be
+conveyed by the sounds is that the 'spirits' desire to have the glass
+plate produced.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' I do not know. I know there were raps. (Turning to Mr.
+Sellers, the 'medium' adds:) They may have been made by your heel on the
+floor, but certainly there were sounds.
+
+"MR. FULLERTON. Then it was not the regular triple rap?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' I could not tell.
+
+"Just before calling attention to the alleged rap or raps, the 'medium'
+grasped with her right hand the wood-work of the side-board, as if for
+support. It was then that she stated she heard the sounds. They were
+apparently not heard by any one but the 'medium.'
+
+"MR. SELLERS (addressing the 'spirit'). Will you repeat the raps we heard
+just now, assuming that there were some?
+
+"Ten minutes elapse without a response.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' There is no use of my standing any longer, for when they
+come at all, they come right away.
+
+"MR. SELLERS (after scrutinizing the position of one of the feet of the
+'medium'). The edge of the heel of the shoe rests on the back tumbler.
+(Assuming a stooping posture for a more prolonged scrutiny.) We will see
+whether the raps will be produced now.
+
+"The 'medium' now proposes that all the members of the committee shall
+stand up and join hands.
+
+"Mr. Sellers and his associates accordingly stand, facing the 'medium,'
+with hands joined. Changes in their positions were made by some of the
+gentlemen from time to time, as suggested by the 'medium,' Mr. Pepper and
+Dr. Koenig being the first to exchange places. This occurred after a
+silence of thirty seconds, without any response.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Now, Mr. Seybert, if your 'spirit' is here, will you have
+the kindness--I knew Mr. Seybert well in life--to rap?
+
+"Fifteen seconds elapse.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' No, he does not seem to respond.
+
+"At the suggestion of Mr. Sellers, all of the gentlemen approach the
+'medium' for the purpose of inducing some acknowledgment by the 'spirit,'
+and inquiries similar to those already stated are repeated without result.
+
+"The Commission temporarily abandon the test. When the tumblers are again
+produced the 'medium' takes her position upon them, with Mr. Fullerton
+standing next to her upon the right and Mr. Furness to the left. Mr.
+Sellers remains for some moments kneeling on the floor to enable himself
+better to hear any sounds that may be but faintly audible. The 'spirits'
+are repeatedly importuned by the 'medium' to produce the 'rappings,' but
+no response is heard until the company is about to abandon the experiment.
+Three raps are then audible. The raps are very light, but very distinct.
+
+"Mr. Fullerton states that he heard the raps.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. I heard a sound then, but it seemed as if it was around
+there. (Indicating the wall immediately in the rear of the 'medium.')
+
+"The tumblers are here moved further away from the wall, and the 'medium'
+resumes her position upon them.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Will the 'Spirit' rap again? (No response.)
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' Were any of you gentlemen acquainted with Mr. Seybert in
+his lifetime?
+
+"MR. FULLERTON. I saw him several times before his death. If he can give
+an intimation now of anything he said at that time, it will indicate that
+he remembers it.
+
+"A very faint rap is heard.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' There is a rap. It seems to be there again. (Indicating the
+spot to which attention was previously called by Mr. Sellers.)
+
+"The 'medium' again importunes, first, 'Mr. Seybert,' and next the
+'spirits,' to rap; and the importunities are repeated. Three raps are
+distinctly, but faintly heard.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. I heard them. They sounded somewhat like the others, not
+exactly.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' I heard one rap, but it is nothing for me to hear them; I
+want you gentlemen to hear them.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Probably we will hear them again.
+
+"While Mr. Sellers and Mr. Furness are conversing, several raps are heard,
+though less distinct than the preceding ones.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' There they are, as though right under the glass. (After a
+silence of forty seconds) Now I hear them again, very light--oh, very
+light.
+
+"Mr. Furness, with the permission of the 'medium,' _places his hand upon
+one of her feet_.
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' There are raps now, strong--yes, I hear them.
+
+"MR. FURNESS (to the 'medium'). This is the most wonderful thing of all,
+Mrs. Kane; _I distinctly feel them in your foot_. There is not a particle
+of motion in your foot, but there is an unusual pulsation.
+
+"Mr. Sellers here made some inquiries of the 'medium,' concerning the
+shoes now worn by her. The replies, which were not direct, are here given.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Are those the shoes which you usually wear?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' I wear all kinds of shoes.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Are the sounds produced in your room when you have no shoes
+on?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' More or less. They are produced under all circumstances.
+
+"Following the suggestion of the 'medium,' all present proceed through an
+intervening apartment to the library, where the 'medium' selects various
+positions--standing upon a lounge, then upon a cushioned chair, next upon
+a step-ladder, and finally upon the side of a book-case--but all with a
+like unsuccessful result, no response by 'rappings' being heard.
+
+"In the midst of the experiments at the table Mrs. Kane exclaimed to Mr.
+Sellers: Well, my hand does feel like writing. Will you give me a piece of
+paper? and, maybe they will give me some directions.
+
+"MR. FULLERTON (to the 'medium'). How does your hand feel when affected in
+that way?
+
+"The 'MEDIUM.' It is a peculiar feeling, like that from taking hold of
+electrical instruments. I do not know but that you might possibly feel it
+in my hand.
+
+"The lady here extended her right hand upon the table toward Mr.
+Fullerton. The latter placed his left hand upon the extended hand of the
+'medium,' and subsequently remarked that the pulsation of her wrist was a
+little above the ordinary rate.
+
+"The 'medium,' ostensibly under 'spirit' influence, with lead-pencil in
+hand, proceeded to write two communications from the 'spirit' of the late
+Henry Seybert. The first of these covered two pages of paper of the size
+of ordinary foolscap. The 'medium' wrote in large characters, with
+remarkable rapidity, and in a direction from the right to the left, or the
+reverse of ordinary handwriting. The writing, consequently, could be read
+only from the reverse side of the paper, and by being held up so as to
+permit the gaslight to shine through it.
+
+"The communications, as deciphered by Mr. Sellers, with the aid of Mr.
+Fullerton and the 'medium,' were as follows:
+
+     "You must not expect that I can satisfy you beyond all doubt in so
+     short a time as you have yet had. I want to give you all in my power,
+     and will do so if you will give me a chance. You must commence right
+     in the first place or you shall all be disappointed for a much longer
+     time. _Princiipis Obsta Sereo Medicina Paratum._
+
+          "HENRY SEYBERT.
+
+          "Mend the fault in time or we will all be puzzled.
+
+          "HENRY SEYBERT."
+
+The fault in the Latin of the above quotation attracted the attention of
+the Commission.
+
+Mr. George S. Pepper, who had been well acquainted with Mr. Seybert in his
+lifetime, declared that he had never known any Latin at all!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The investigations of the "Seybert Commission" in other directions than
+that of the "rappings," were far more fascinating and productive of
+results. It would be impossible to give an adequate idea of them here. The
+Commission employed the most celebrated "mediums" within their reach, and
+paid them liberally to place them in communication with the "Spirit
+world." They saw (and they show in their report that they did see) the
+secret of every "wonderful" thing done by the "mediums," and found it in
+most instances exceedingly simple, and generally rather clumsily
+performed. Professional jugglers constantly outdo professional "mediums."
+This, the latter cannot deny, and they seek--oh, monumental impudence!--to
+make people believe that jugglers are nothing more nor less than
+"mediums," and that "mediums" are never in any sense jugglers!
+
+Thus the notorious Slade:
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Do you know a man named Kellar, who is exhibiting in this
+city?
+
+"DR. SLADE. I do not. I never knew him.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. You may, however, be able to explain to me a very remarkable
+slate writing experiment which Kellar has performed. (Mr. Sellers here
+describes at length Mr. Kellar's trick with the fastened slates.) How did
+Mr. Kellar do that?
+
+"DR. SLADE. He is a 'medium.' _He does that work precisely as I do it._
+
+"MR. SELLERS. But can he not do it by trickery?
+
+"DR. SLADE. No, it is impossible. He is a 'medium' and a powerful
+'medium.'"
+
+This is from a memorandum of Mr. Sellers. He says further:
+
+"The inquiry was then addressed to Mr. Slade: Do you know a man named
+Guernilla, who, with his wife, gave seances?
+
+"MR. SLADE. Yes, I know him very well.
+
+"MR. SELLERS. Well, how does he perform his wonderful exploits in
+'rappings,' etc.?
+
+"MR. SLADE. He is a 'medium,' a powerful 'medium.' I know him very well
+indeed. I can assure you that all he does is done solely by means of his
+mediumistic powers.
+
+"I now state to the Committee that the Guernillas exhibited in
+Philadelphia some years ago as exposers of Spiritualism. They did not
+expose it, but they performed experiments which, prior to that time, were
+said to have been accomplished by the aid of 'spirits.' Guernilla himself,
+at my house, in my presence, in broad daylight, performed all the feats
+and exhibited the phenomena that were produced at the dark and other
+seances, and he repeated them until I myself became as expert as he in
+performing them; for which I paid him a consideration. So much for the
+mediumistic power."
+
+Mr. Sellers explained with reference to Mr. Kellar:
+
+"I pause here for the express purpose of having the fact noted that, being
+thoroughly familiar with the details of the methods of those experiments,
+I can positively assure the Committee that there is no mediumistic power
+in Mr. Kellar, so far as his methods are concerned, that those methods are
+as easy of solution as are any other physical problems."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE UNALTERABLE VERDICT.
+
+
+The "Seybert Commission"[3] examined every known form of spiritualistic
+manifestation to which they had access, and implicitly under conditions
+imposed by the "mediums" themselves. These conditions are everything that
+could be devised and plausibly used to prevent the hoped-for dupe from
+detecting the fraud that is practised upon him.
+
+The Commission put the indelible stamp of fraud upon all so-called
+spiritualistic manifestations. Of the "spiritual rappings" they say:
+
+"To the subject of 'spirit-rappings' we have devoted some time and
+attention, but our investigations have not been sufficiently extensive to
+warrant us at present in offering any positive conclusions. The difficulty
+attending the investigation of this mode of spiritualistic manifestation
+is increased by the fact, familiar to physiologists, that sounds of
+varying intensity may be produced in almost any portion of the human body
+by voluntary muscular action. To determine the exact location of this
+muscular activity is at times a matter of delicacy.
+
+"What we can say thus far, with assurance, is that, in the cases which
+have come under our observation, the theory of the purely physiological
+origin of the sounds has been sustained by the fact that the 'mediums'
+were invariably, and confessedly, cognizant of the 'rappings' whenever
+they occurred, and could at once detect any spurious 'rappings,' however
+exact and indistinguishable to all other ears might be the imitation."
+
+Mrs. Kane has expressed amusement over the manner in which she eluded the
+inquisitions of the grave and conscientious Commission and left them
+puzzled over the "rappings."
+
+Even then, however, she cared so little for the preservation of the
+secret, that when she declined to be further examined by the Commission,
+she admitted to Mr. Furness that the gentlemen had ample ground for
+looking upon the manifestations which she had given as unsatisfactory. Mr.
+Furness says:
+
+"I told her that the Commission had now had two seances with her, and that
+_the conclusion to which they had come is that the so-called raps are
+confined wholly to her person_, whether produced by her voluntarily or
+involuntarily they had not attempted to decide; furthermore, that although
+thus satisfied in their own minds they were anxious to treat her with all
+possible deference and consideration, and accordingly had desired me to
+say to her that if she thought another seance with her would or might
+modify or reverse their conclusion, they held themselves ready to meet her
+again this evening and renew the investigation of the manifestations; at
+the same time I felt it my duty to add that in that case the examination
+would necessarily be of the most searching description.
+
+"Mrs. Kane replied that the manifestations at both seances had been of an
+unsatisfactory nature, so unsatisfactory that _she could not really blame
+the Commission for arriving at their conclusion_. In her present state of
+health she _really_ doubted whether a third meeting would prove any better
+than the two already held. It might even be more unsatisfactory, and
+instead of removing the present belief of the Commission it might add
+confirmation of it. In view of these considerations, she decided not to
+hold another seance."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Kane declares that with her muscles and the joints of her toes so
+educated by long practice, and her ability to produce the noise of "raps"
+with no perceptible movement, she could have gone on deceiving the world
+indefinitely without being detected. She explains that the making of the
+"raps," when she is stationed on glass tumblers, requires a far greater
+effort than when her feet are in contact with the carpet or floor. The
+shock must in that case be conveyed through a comparatively non-conducting
+substance. For this reason, when the floor was especially hard or thick
+and lacking in sonorousness, she sometimes failed in the expected effect.
+In every instance, it was most difficult to produce the "raps" under those
+circumstances.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The verdict, however, is now complete. Spiritualism is guilty.
+
+The court of mankind so declares it.
+
+
+
+
+IV. REPENTANCE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE HEART PLEADS FOR THE SOUL.
+
+
+The most interesting feature, after all, of Margaret Fox's career, was
+perhaps that sad and abortive romance of which Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the
+gallant Arctic explorer, was the hero. This history should be known to the
+reader in order that the exact aspect of Spiritualism to her developed
+conscience in after years may be understood.
+
+Dr. Kane first saw Maggie Fox in the autumn of 1852, when she was staying
+with her mother at a hotel in Philadelphia, being then engaged in
+"spiritualistic manifestations." Dr. Kane, whose heart had never before
+been touched, at once succumbed to the sweet charm of this erratic child,
+and conceived the romantic idea of removing her from the life she then was
+leading, educating her and marrying her. The project, when it became
+known, awakened the bitter hostility of his friends, and from this
+hostility, the unfortunate separation between them which it caused, and
+Dr. Kane's untimely death, all of the sorrow that afterwards engulfed her
+life and deprived her of the ambition for a nobler career, directly
+sprang.
+
+Margaret was but thirteen years old when Dr. Kane first saw her. A
+friendly hand[4] has thus traced her portrait:
+
+"Her beauty was of that delicate kind which grows on the heart, rather
+than captivates the sense at a glance; she possessed in a high degree that
+retiring modesty which shuns rather than seeks admiration. The position in
+which she was placed imposed on her unusual reserve and self-control, and
+an ordinary observer might not have seen in her aught to make a sudden
+impression. But there was more than beauty in the charm about her
+discerned by the penetrating eyes of her new acquaintance. The winning
+grace of her modest demeanor, and the native refinement apparent in every
+look and movement, word and tone, were evidences of a nature enriched with
+all the qualities that dignify and adorn womanhood; of a soul far above
+her present calling, and those who surrounded her. To appreciate her real
+superiority, her age and the circumstances must be considered. She was yet
+a little child--untutored, except in the elements of instruction to be
+gained in country district schools, when it was discovered that she
+possessed a mysterious power,[5] for which no science or theory could
+account. This brought her at once into notoriety and gathered around her
+those who had a fancy for the supernatural, and who loved to excite the
+wonder of strangers. Most little girls would have been spoiled by that
+kind of attention. The endurance of it without having her head turned,
+argued rare delicacy, simplicity and firmness of character. After
+exhibitions given in different cities, to find herself an object of public
+attention, and of flattering notice from persons of distinction, would
+naturally please the vanity of a beautiful young girl; and it would not be
+surprising if a degree of self-conceit were engendered. But Margaret was
+not vain, and could not be made self-conceited. If she had any
+consciousness of her exquisite loveliness,--if it pleased her to possess
+pretty dresses and ornaments--her delight was that of a happy child taking
+pleasure in beautiful things, without reference to any effect they might
+enable her to produce. Perhaps no young girl ever lived more free from the
+least idea of coquetry or conquest. She heeded not the expressions of
+admiration that reached her ear so frequently. She had seen enough of the
+world at this time to be aware of the advantages of a superior education,
+and it was the most ardent wish of her heart to make herself a
+well-educated woman."
+
+Margaret showed a disposition to devote herself with great industry to the
+acquirement of knowledge. In fact, at her first meeting with Dr. Kane, he
+found her conning over a French exercise in an interval of the public
+receptions which were given by herself and her mother. Dr. Kane easily
+enlisted her thoughts in a better and higher career. The deception which
+was required of her already appeared in something of its true light to her
+young mind, and she was restless under its abhorrent shackles. Dr. Kane's
+interest in her was certainly pure and elevated, and it led him to gloomy
+apprehensions of the fate of so fair, yet so misguided, a creature. He
+wrote in verse a prophecy that she would "live and die forlorn." There
+have been many times when the latter part of this warning seemed most
+likely to come true; and that, doubtless, would have been her fate had she
+not found in a final renunciation of her past, a solace to her heart for
+the lack of that falsely won prosperity which had been hers during but
+brief intervals.
+
+Dr. Kane was but an indifferent versifier; but some of the trifles in
+rhyme which he addressed to Margaret may well illustrate certain facts
+that I shall state at length hereafter. One day, he sent her "Thoughts
+that Ought to Be Those of Maggie Fox," the first refrain of which is as
+follows:
+
+  "Dreary, dreary, dreary,
+    Passes life away,
+  Dreary, dreary, dreary,
+    The day
+  Glides on, and _weary
+    Is my hypocrisy_."
+
+At the close of the second stanza were these lines:
+
+  "Happy as the hopes
+    Which filled my trusting heart,
+  Before I knew a sinful wish
+    Or learned a _sinful art_."
+
+Again:
+
+             "So long this secret have I kept
+                I can't forswear it now.
+              It festers in my bosom,
+                It cankers in my heart,
+  _Thrice cursed is the slave fast chained
+              To a deceitful art_!"
+
+And last:
+
+  "Then the maiden knelt and prayed:
+      'Father, my anguish see;
+  Oh, give me but one trusting hope
+    Whose heart will shelter me;
+  One trusting love to share my griefs,
+    To snatch me from a life forlorn;
+  That I may never, never, never,
+    Thus endlessly from night to morn,
+        Say that _my life is dreary
+        With its hypocrisy_!'"
+
+Among the first words that Dr. Kane spoke to Margaret were these: "This is
+no life for you, my child." As their reciprocal attraction grew stronger,
+he bent all of his deep influence over her in one direction, to effect
+once and for all her release from the fatal snare of deceit that fate had
+cast about her. Only a few weeks later we find him writing her a note from
+New York, in which he says:
+
+"Look at the _Herald_ of this morning. There is an account of a suicide
+which causes some excitement. Your sister's[6] name is mentioned in the
+inquest of the coroner. Oh, how much I wish that you would quit _this life
+of dreary sameness and unsuspected deceit_. We live in this world only for
+the good and noble. How crushing it must be to occupy with them a position
+of ambiguous respect!"
+
+Dr. Kane, a short time afterwards, described Maggie as follows:
+
+"But it is that strange mixture of child and woman, of simplicity and
+cunning, of passionate impulse and extreme self-control, that has made you
+a curious study. Maggie, you are very pretty, very childlike, very
+deceitful, but to me as readable as my grandmother's Bible."
+
+"And again he said: 'When I think of you, dear darling, _wasting your time
+and youth and conscience for a few paltry dollars_, and think of the
+crowds who come nightly to hear of the wild stories of the frigid North, I
+sometimes feel that we are not so far removed after all. My brain and your
+body are each the sources of attraction, and I confess that there is not
+so much difference.'"
+
+Never for an instant did the manly and robust intellect of Dr. Kane stoop
+to the level of even a partial belief in the pretended wonders of
+"Spiritualism." The allusions made to it in his letters, when not grave or
+indignant, are full of a certain contemptuous playfulness, well calculated
+to reprove the conscious deceitfulness practised by the childish Maggie,
+while not offending the natural pride which was yet apart of her
+imperfectly formed character. When the doctor was in Boston, he wrote to
+her sister Katie:
+
+"Well, now for talk. Boston is a funny place, and 'the spirits' have
+friends here. You would be surprised if I told you what I have heard. * * *
+There are some things that I have seen which I think would pain you.
+Maggie would only laugh at them; but with me it gave cause for sadness. I
+saw a young man with a fine forehead and expressive face, but a
+countenance deeply tinged with melancholy, seize the hand of this
+'medium,' whose name--as I never tell other's secrets--I cannot tell you.
+He begged her to answer a question which I could not hear. Instantly she
+rapped, and his face assumed a positive agony; the rapping continued; his
+pain increased; I leaned forward, feeling an utter detestation for the
+woman who could inflict such torment; but it was too late. A single rap
+came and he fell senseless in a fit. This I saw with my own eyes.
+
+"Now, Katie, although you and Maggie have never gone so far as this, yet
+circumstances must occur where you have to lacerate the feelings of other
+people. I know that you have a tender heart; but practice in anything
+hardens us. You do things now which you would never have dreamed of doing
+years ago; and there will come a time when you will be worse than Leah; a
+hardened woman, gathering around you _the victims of a delusion_. * * *
+The older you grow the more difficult it will be to liberate yourself from
+this thing. And can you look forward to a life unblessed by the
+affections, unsoothed by the consciousness of doing right! * * * _When
+your mother leaves this scene, can you and * * * Maggie be content to live
+that life of constant deceit?_"
+
+To Maggie, Dr. Kane wrote from the sincerest depths of his heart,
+recalling the first moment when he saw her, "a little Priestess, cunning
+in the mysteries of her temple, and weak in everything but the power with
+which she played her part. A sentiment almost of pity stole over his
+wordly heart as he saw through the disguise."
+
+And again: "Waddy[7] called on me to-day, as did Tallmadge;[8] I was kind
+to both for your sake. Waddy talked much about you. He said that he
+feared for you, and spoke long and well upon the dangers and temptations
+of your present life. I said little to him other than my convictions of
+your own and your sister's excellent character and '_pure simplicity_;'
+for thus, Mag, I always talk of you. And it pained me to find that others
+viewed your life as I did, and regarded you as occupying an ambiguous
+position. Depend upon it, Maggie, no right-minded gentleman--whether he be
+believer or sceptic--can regard your present life with approval. Let this,
+dear sweet, make you think over the offer of the one friend who would
+stretch out an arm to save you. Think wisely, dear darling, ere it be too
+late. * * *
+
+"Maggie, you cannot tell the sadness that comes over me when I think of
+you. What will become of you? you, the one being that I regard even before
+myself! * * *
+
+"If you really can make up your mind to abjure the spirits, to study and
+improve your mental and moral nature, it may be that a career of
+brightness will be open to you; and upon this chance, slender as it is, I
+offer, like a true friend, to guard and educate you. But, Mag, clouds, and
+darkness rest upon the execution of your good resolves; and I sometimes
+doubt whether you have the firmness of mind to carry them through."
+
+The author of "The Love-Life of Dr. Kane," says of this period:
+
+"Dr. Kane was very often in the habit of saying--as if with melancholy
+presentiment--'What would become of you if I should die? What would you
+do? I shudder at the thought of my death, on your account.'
+
+"In the buoyant confidence of youth, the poor girl could not then
+understand his fears. But _he_ knew that in separating her from
+Spiritualism he was isolating her from all her friends and associates, and
+depriving her of the only means she possessed of earning a livelihood. In
+compensation for the sacrifices required of her, he was giving her a hope
+only; a hope that might be blissfully realized, but might be sadly
+disappointed; and in the event of losing him, what must be her destiny!"
+
+Dr. Kane met with malignant opposition from Leah, Maggie's elder sister,
+in his efforts to detach her from the damning career into which she had
+been thrown. The "shekels" were then pouring in in great abundance at the
+seances, and this explains sufficiently the hostile attitude of the one
+person who was chiefly responsible for the ruin of her young life. Thus
+the doctor wrote to Maggie in New York:
+
+"Is the old house dreary to you? * * * Oh, Maggie, are you never tired of
+_this weary, weary sameness of continual deceit_? Are you thus to spend
+your days, doomed never to rise to better things?--you and that dear
+little open-minded sister Kate (for she, too, is still unversed in
+deception)--are you both to live on thus forever? You will never be happy
+if you do; for you are not, like Leah, able to exult and take pleasure in
+the simplicity of the poor, simple-hearted fools around you.
+
+"Do, then, Maggie, keep to your last promise. Show this to Katie, and urge
+her to keep to her resolution."[9]
+
+By this time, Maggie had pledged herself to her lover to abandon the
+"rappings" altogether; but they were both very cautious lest this
+resolution should be known to her elder sister. Maggie appears to have
+yielded to the influences around her, in spite of her respect and regard
+for the doctor, and once or twice to have lapsed back into the ways that
+he dreaded and abhorred. We find him then, writing from New York to
+Washington:
+
+"Don't rap for Mrs. Pierce.[10] Remember your promise to me. * * *
+
+"Begin again, dearest Maggie, and keep your word. No 'rapping' for Mrs.
+Pierce or ever more for any one. I, dear Mag, am your best, your truest,
+your only friend. What are they to my wishes? Oh, regard and love me, and
+listen to my words; and be very careful lest in an idle hour you lose my
+regard and your own respect."
+
+And later:
+
+"All last night did this good friend of yours think about you and your
+probable future.
+
+"I can see that this is one of the turning points of your life, and upon
+your own energy and decision now depend the success and happiness of your
+future career. Dear Maggie, think it over well and _do not be turned aside
+from what is right_ by the sincere but still misguided advice of others.
+* * * But remember, Maggie, that all this will not last. * * * What will
+it be when, looking back upon * * * misspent and dreary years, you feel
+that there have been no acts really acceptable to your Maker, and that for
+the years ahead, all will be sorrow, sameness and disgust! * * *
+
+"Why, you know that sometimes, even now, when Leah is cross, or the
+company coarse and vulgar, or the day tiresome, or yourself out of sorts,
+that low spirits and disgust come over you and you long like a bird to
+spread your wings and fly away from it all."
+
+Very soon afterwards, Dr. Kane wrote:
+
+"At present, you have nothing to look forward to, nothing to hope for.
+Your life is one constant round of idle excitement. Can your mother, who
+is an excellent woman, look upon you, a girl of thirteen, as doomed all
+your life to live surrounded by such as now surround you, _deprived of all
+the blessings of home and love and even self-respect_?"
+
+Dr. Kane, looking upon Margaret as his future wife, was exceedingly
+anxious that the true explanation of the "rappings," the fact that they
+were entirely fraudulent, should never be discovered. He hoped that
+Spiritualism would have but an ephemeral existence, and that when once it
+had died out, the public would so far forget the persons who originated
+it, that it would cease to associate with them the woman who would then
+bear his name. So he wrote in this vein to Maggie:
+
+"You know I am nervous about the 'rappings.' I believe the only thing I
+ever was afraid of was this confounded thing being found out. I would not
+know it myself for ten thousand dollars."
+
+How both Margaret and Dr. Kane regarded the elder sister may be judged
+from this sentence, written by the latter at this time: "Be careful not to
+mention me before the Tigress."
+
+At last the object dearest to Dr. Kane's heart seemed to be drawing near
+to its accomplishment. He says: "Your kind promise 'solemnly never to rap
+again' so pleases me, that I cannot help thanking you. Adhere to that, and
+you will be a dear, good, happy girl." * * *
+
+Maggie went to school at Crookville, near Chester, Pennsylvania, and was
+in charge of Dr. Kane's aunt, Mrs. Leiper, who resided near the house
+where Maggie lodged. Just prior to this, Dr. Kane wrote as follows:
+
+"_Never do wrong any more; for if now 'the spirits move' it will be a
+breach of faith._ From this moment, our compact begins."
+
+After Dr. Kane had reached the Arctic seas, I find this passage at the end
+of a long letter, full of solicitude and noble counsel about the education
+of his future wife: "One final wish--the only thing like restraint that
+your true friend can find it in his heart to utter: See little of Leah,
+and never sleep within her house."
+
+For a short time, on his return from his second Arctic voyage, Dr. Kane
+allowed himself to be swayed by interest and the vehement efforts of his
+relatives, so far as to require from Margaret a written declaration that
+they had never been engaged, and that she had no claim whatever upon his
+hand in matrimony. There was a quick reaction, however, and the old
+relations were renewed. One who wrote of these facts said: "Amid all his
+sorrow, one fear seemed to harass him perpetually--that Miss Fox might be
+induced to return to the professional life she had abandoned years ago for
+his sake. She was surrounded by spiritualists." * * *
+
+In his letters to her, Dr. Kane still harped upon the one anxiety that
+continually possessed him. He says: "_Do avoid 'spirits.' I cannot bear to
+think of you as engaged in a course of wickedness and deception._ * * *
+Pardon my saying so; but is it not deceit even to listen when others are
+deceived? * * * In childhood it was a mere indiscretion; but what will it
+be when hard age wears its wrinkles into you, and like Leah you grow old!
+Dear Maggie, I could cry to think of it. * * * A time will come when you
+will see the real ghost of memory--an awful specter!"
+
+And again he wrote: "_Maggie, I have but one thought_, how to make you
+happier; _how to withdraw you from deception; from a course of sin and
+future punishment, the dark shadow of which hung over you like the wing of
+a vampire_."
+
+Then, as he claimed her more and more openly as his own, "he would not
+permit her," says the writer already quoted, "even to witness any
+spiritual manifestations, nor to remain in the room when the subject was
+discussed. * * * 'You never shall be brought in contact with such things
+again,' he would say."
+
+The ending of this very sad tale of love, which throws a peculiar light
+athwart the colder theme of this volume, was bitterly tragic. A secret
+marriage under the common law was entered into, and Dr. Kane, whose health
+was shattered never to be mended, went first to Europe and then to Cuba to
+die. Margaret and her mother were to join him at Havana, but ere their
+departure from New York he was already a corpse.
+
+And so, a noble and generous, if sometimes faltering heart, ceased to
+beat, and a gentle creature, who at last had learned to love as much as
+she had honored him, was on the shores of that deep sea of infamy against
+which, had he only lived, he would surely have shielded her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+FROM SHADOW TO LIGHT.
+
+
+More than thirty years after this sorrowful event, Margaret Fox Kane, in
+reviewing the past, attributes to the evil of Spiritualism all the
+ill-fortune which afterwards befell her.
+
+For fourteen years she wore the weeds of mourning for his sake; but when
+at last they were torn from her by a friendly, though unwise hand, she
+drifted again, through the various phases of a worldly and dissipated
+life, to that very vocation of dreary mercenary deceit which he had
+predicted would be her lot. She was never happy afterwards, however, and
+he who possesses any true sensibility must at least pity, quite as much as
+he may condemn her unfortunate destiny, when he reads the sad avowals
+which are made in this volume.
+
+Mrs. Kane says at the present day:
+
+"From the very first of our intimate acquaintance, Dr. Kane knew that the
+'rappings' which I practiced were fraudulent. Of course, he was too
+keen-sighted intellectually, too sensible, ever to have believed them
+genuine for a single instant; and I simply obeyed the impulse of my candid
+regard for him, when the knowledge of his devotion grew upon me, and
+confided to him the whole secret of the fraud, together with my increasing
+repugnance to the life I was leading. He hated it, he despised it, he
+abhorred it, and he taught me from the beginning the same sentiment. We
+had to combat with the sordid interest of others. Whatever good he
+accomplished for me, was done against the set purpose of Leah.
+
+"I do not exaggerate in any way when I say that I have feared that woman
+all my life. Remember, she is twenty-three years older than I am. Her
+influence over both myself and my sister Kate began when we were infants.
+Katie, even to this day, acknowledges some sinister influence about her
+sister Leah, even if she but chance to meet her in the street. It is a
+mixture of terrorism and cajolery.
+
+"For years I have had the shame of this vile thing before me. All my life,
+it has made me miserable. It is a load which I now throw off with a free
+heart and a great and thrilling sense of relief.
+
+"You must know that it was a dark and hateful influence that kept me aloof
+from Dr. Kane so long, when he declared his true love for me, over and
+over again, and desired to rescue me from the evil by which I was
+surrounded. I gave him my whole heart in return, though at that time I did
+not know how deep and how tender was my love for him.
+
+"It is this same baleful influence which has been the nightmare of my
+existence. Every morning of my life on awaking, I have had this horrid
+thought before me. And even in those younger days I would brood and brood
+over it, and Dr. Kane would often say to me:
+
+"'Maggie, I see the vampire is hovering over you still.'
+
+"Our whole family was at that time under bondage, as it were, to Ann Leah
+Brown. She ruled over us as with a rod of iron.
+
+"All through this dreadful life--from the time when I first realized its
+enormity--I protested against it. Dr. Kane, after our marriage, would
+never permit me to allude to my old career--he wanted me to forget it. He
+hated its publicity.
+
+"But when I was poor after his death, I was driven back to it. I have told
+my sister Leah over and again: 'Now that you are rich, why don't you save
+your soul?' But she would only fly into a passion. The truth is that
+nothing can excuse the work she has done. She entered upon it at the age
+of judgment and experience, fully aware of its falsity and evil effect.
+She knows that the world cannot forgive her, and I have no hope that she
+will ever confess her sin, or offer an atonement for it.
+
+"What can I add to the revelations of those letters? They are proofs of
+the mutual knowledge of Dr. Kane and myself that the 'spiritual' rappings
+were fraud, and nothing but fraud. And even if he had not been told of the
+fact by myself, his opportunities of observation in our household were
+unequaled by any granted to others, and his verdict would have been in any
+case, therefore, almost as authoritative.
+
+"What fools are they who still pretend to believe against all this
+evidence!
+
+"It would hardly seem necessary that I should denounce Spiritualism after
+all that others have said against it.
+
+"I have never in my life professed to be a spiritualist, and I have never
+believed in Spiritualism, although I have seen it in all its phases, some
+of which I am unable to produce myself.
+
+"Even when I was compelled to go back to the 'rappings' for a livelihood,
+and when I charged the most exorbitant fees, so that as few people as
+possible might be deceived, I had on my cards an emphatic disclaimer of
+any occult inspiration."
+
+Mrs. Kane at this point showed the following on the back of one of her
+cards:
+
+  MRS. KANE DOES NOT CLAIM
+  ANY SPIRIT POWER; BUT PEOPLE
+  MUST JUDGE FOR THEMSELVES.
+
+"My poor father and mother," she continued, "both knew before their death
+that all that we had practised for so many years was a fraud and a
+deception. Mother was greatly troubled about it, and she turned to the
+church for comfort. She used to say to us:
+
+"'Oh, my dear children, I do hope that you will get out of this sort of
+life soon.'
+
+"Peace be unto her!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The evil effects of Spiritualism upon the moral and mental condition of
+its followers is the deepest stain upon its history. The wrecks of
+thousands of intellects are monuments to its heartless fraud and malign
+influence.
+
+Mrs. Kane has often said that if in her late years she had wholly
+submitted herself to its foolish vagaries and its base temptations, she
+would undoubtedly be now a raving maniac.
+
+There are many who, if they would but speak truly, could declare that ruin
+of conscience, brain and health, has resulted either from their willing
+faith in flimsy illusions or their weak connivance in puerile deception.
+
+I have touched but little upon the unclean side of Spiritualism. Thousands
+upon thousands of virtuous men and women entertain its theory or hold to
+its faith. But the manipulators of the supernatural machinery, the members
+of the inner circle, the prestidigitateurs and clumsy magicians, who seek
+to make simpletons of mankind, I now accuse of the grossest practices and
+abominations, the loosest social ideas, the most utter absence of
+principle that has been exhibited by any one set of people in the
+nineteenth century.
+
+They are wholly corrupt, and there is no good in them.
+
+If Spiritualism in any form survives the blow now given it by Margaret and
+Catherine Fox, who were its creators, it will only be because of the
+veiled licentiousness introduced into it by those who have enlarged upon
+its original plan.
+
+This licentiousness, like the bruised serpent, will not down, but still
+will lift its head, and lurk amid deepest shadows.
+
+Spiritualism, however, cannot again deceive the world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And it is written:
+
+"The dead shall not return; nor any that go down into Hell!"
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+  ABJURATION by Margaret Fox Kane of Spiritualism at the Academy of Music,
+      New York, 65, 74.
+
+  ADMISSIONS of Mrs. Leah Fox Fish regarding the results of the Buffalo
+      medical investigation, 140, 144.
+
+  AGASSIZ (Professor) investigates Spiritualism, 147.
+
+  ANTICS of the Fox Children at Hydesville near Rochester, 83, 87, 89, 96.
+
+  ATTRACTIONS of the younger Fox Sisters, 129.
+
+  AUDACITY (Imbecile) of spiritualistic imposters, 146.
+  --(Supreme) of fraud, 150.
+
+  AUTHORIZATION of the publication of this work by Margaret Fox Kane and
+      Catherine Fox Jencken, 7.
+
+
+  "BABY mediumship"
+  --How the trick was done with the child of Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken,
+      160.
+
+  BELIEF in Spiritualism,
+  --Mrs. Kane never pretended to any, 167, 181, 236.
+  --John D. Fox never had any, 99.
+
+  "BOBBING" of apples on the floor in the Hydesville house, 84, 90, 95.
+
+  BOOMERANGS (Spiritualistic), 131.
+
+  BROWN (Mrs. Ann Leah Fox),
+  --Malignant opposition to Dr. Kane's efforts to detach her sister Maggie
+      from Spiritualism, 222, 232.
+  --Exulting in deception, 223.
+  --Maggie warned against her by Dr. Kane, 227.
+  --Sinister influence over her sisters, 232.
+
+  "BUFFALO Doctors"
+  --Their investigation of the "rappings," 131.
+  --Their correct theory, but wrong hypothesis, 131.
+  --How their investigation if further pursued, would have led to the
+      truth, 133.
+
+
+  "CHARLES Ceri"
+  --The "spirit of Mr. Seybert" mistakes the name of Mr. Sellers, of the
+      "Seybert Commission," 171.
+
+  CLAIMS of Spiritualism as set forth in petition to Congress, 1854, 151,
+      152.
+
+  COMMITTEES of tools and accomplices, 121.
+
+  CONDEMNATION of Spiritualism
+  --The substantial effect of the report of Harvard professors on the
+      tests in Boston, 1857, 149.
+
+  CONCERTED signals used in the early seances, 127.
+
+  CONSPICUOUS persons interested in the "Fox Sisters," 129.
+
+  CONTACT of person while producing the "raps," 90, 138.
+
+  CORRUPT practices in secret spiritualistic circles, 50, 64, 237.
+
+  COVENTRY (Dr. C. B.), one of the Buffalo investigators, 132.
+
+  CROOKVILLE, near Philadelphia--Maggie Fox goes to school there, 226.
+
+
+  DEAD (The) do not return, 37, 238.
+
+  DEATH of Dr. Kane, 37.
+
+  DERANGEMENT of mental faculties the cause of the prevalence of the
+      spiritualistic delusion, 154.
+  --Resulting from Spiritualism, 166.
+
+  DISGUST (Dr. Kane's) at spiritualistic circles, 225, 229.
+  --(Mrs. Kane's) at the baser spiritualistic practices, 29, 30.
+
+  DISS De Bar (Madam)
+  --Mrs. Kane's abhorrence of her, 29.
+  --Daniel Underhill pronounces her a fraud, 43.
+
+
+  EARLY sorcery the prototype of modern Spiritualism, 150.
+
+  EDUCATION (Defective) the cause of the prevalence of the spiritualistic
+      delusion, 154.
+
+  ELEVATION
+  --Failure of Mrs. Kane to produce "rappings" when standing upon a
+      lounge, a cushioned chair or a step-ladder, 195.
+
+  EXPOSURE, Poetic justice of the, 13.
+  --Mrs. Kane's first public intimation of intended, 29, 30.
+  --Details of Mrs. Kane's, 32, 35, 37, 65, 77.
+  --Of Spiritualism by the Guernillas, 199.
+
+
+  FEAR of the Fox Sisters of their sister, Leah, 232.
+
+  FISH (Ann Leah Fox) First to conceive the idea of profiting by the
+      "rappings," 102.
+  --Learns to "rap" from the little children, 103.
+  --Using the little girls, Maggie and Katie, for her purposes, 123.
+  --Challenges to the "Buffalo doctors," 139.
+
+  FISH (Lizzie)
+  --Protesting against her mother's hypocrisy and deception, 96, 128.
+
+  FLINT (Dr. Austin), one of the Buffalo investigators, 132.
+
+  FOOT (Movement of the) in producing "rappings," 38, 103, 143.
+  --Detected by a member of the "Seybert Commission," 194.
+  --"Rappings" not heard when held, but heard again when released, 143.
+
+  FORGED testimony, 91.
+
+  FOX (Catherine)
+  --First to discover that "raps" could be produced with the joints, 90.
+
+  FOX (David S.)
+  --First to suggest use of the alphabet in the so-called "spirit
+      messages," 115.
+  --Dupe or accomplice of Leah, 115.
+
+  FOX (John D.)
+  --Never a believer in Spiritualism, 99.
+
+  FOX (Mrs. Margaret)
+  --An honest fanatic, deceived by her children, 36, 93.
+  --Disabused at the last, 236.
+
+  FOX (Maggie)
+  --Her beauty at thirteen years, 210.
+  --Petty devilment in childhood, 83.
+  --Sent to school at Crookville, Pa., by Dr. Kane, 226.
+  --Protests all through her earlier life against "spiritualistic"
+      deception, 234.
+
+  FOX (Maria), 82.
+
+  FULCRUM, necessary for the limb in order to produce sound by the action
+      of the joints, 142.
+
+  FURNESS (Horace Howard), acting chairman of the "Seybert Commission"
+  --Letter to Mrs. Kane, 169.
+  --Explanation of her refusal to continue the seances with the
+      Commission, 204.
+
+  FRAUD.
+  --Dante's image of, 17.
+  --Origin of the, 81.
+  --Development of the, 105.
+  --Various forms of the, 201.
+
+  FRAUDULENT
+  --The "mediumship" of Mrs. Jencken's baby, "Ferdie," 160.
+
+
+  GARBLED testimony, 90, 94.
+
+  "GOD has not ordered it," 25, 37.
+
+  GOWNS (Long) put on the younger Fox girls on their first public
+      appearance, to conceal manner of producing "raps," 123.
+
+  GREELEY (Horace)
+  --Aids Katie, 19, 58, 129.
+  --Influence upon her life, 129.
+
+  GUERNILLAS (The)
+  --Exposure of Spiritualism, 199.
+
+
+  "HERALD" (The N. Y.), 25, 28, 29, 32, 39, 42, 46, 62.
+
+  HISTORY of the "rappings," 79.
+
+  HARVARD professors investigate Spiritualism, 147.
+
+  HUMBUG (Spiritualism a,) according to Mrs. Kate Fox Jencken, 57.
+
+  HYDESVILLE, N. Y.
+  --When mysterious sounds were first heard in John D. Fox's house, 81.
+  --Digging in the creek, 95.
+  --Bones of a horse found, 118.
+  --Digging in the cellar, 117.
+  --Alleged finding of human bones, unconfirmed by any evidence, 117.
+  --House said to be haunted--an afterthought, 101.
+  --The "spirits" when asked tentatively say a murder was committed in the
+      house and mention the name of the murderer, 119.
+
+  HYPOCRISY of professional spiritualists, 165.
+  --Dr. Kane characterizes, 214, 215.
+
+
+  INQUISITIVENESS as to spiritualistic methods prevents the "spirits" from
+      acting, 146.
+
+  INSULATION
+  --Experiments with Mrs. Kane while standing on glass tumblers, 185.
+  --The results negative, 188.
+  --Partial success when placed near a sideboard and wall, 189, 192.
+
+  INVESTIGATION
+  --First farcical. 122, 124.
+  --By the "Buffalo doctors," 131, 134.
+  --By "Buffalo doctors" again, 131.
+  --By "Seybert Commission," 170.
+  --By Harvard professors and others, 147.
+
+
+  JENCKEN (Mrs. Catherine Fox) denounces Spiritualism, 62, 64.
+
+  JOINTS of the fingers.
+  --Children try to imitate sounds with them, 87.
+
+  JOINT of the knee used in the production of "raps," 133.
+
+  JOINTS of the toes used in producing the famous "rappings" of the Fox
+      sisters, 139, 145.
+
+  JUGGLERY
+  --Spiritualists attribute it to "mediumship," 198.
+  --Confess that "spiritualistic" effects are produced in the same way,
+      199.
+  --Older and more skillful than Spiritualism so-called, 150, 154.
+
+
+  KANE (Dr. Elisha Kent)
+  --First meeting with Maggie Fox, 209.
+  --Influence upon her life, 129.
+  --Effect of his death on her career, 230, 231.
+  --Character of his interest in her, 213.
+  --Gloomy foresight, 213.
+  --Efforts to save her from a life of fraud, &c., 129, 228.
+  --Characterizes the deceit and hypocrisy of "mediumship," 214, 215, 216,
+      228.
+  --Never believed in a single pretense of Spiritualism, 217, 232.
+  --Knew from their first acquaintance that the "rappings" were
+      fraudulent, 232.
+  --Repeatedly exacts her promise not to have anything more to do with
+      Spiritualism, 223, 226.
+  --Solicitude lest she return to the practice of Spiritualism, 228.
+  --Fear lest the source of the "rappings" be discovered, 226.
+  --Places her at school, 226.
+  --Engagement broken off and renewed, 227.
+  --Secret marriage with her, 229.
+  --Death at Havana, 229.
+
+  KNEES
+  --Seized by investigators to detect movement while "rappings" being
+      produced, 143.
+  --When so seized, sounds arrested, and when released, renewed, 143.
+
+
+  LEE (Dr. Charles A.), one of the Buffalo investigators, 132.
+
+  LETTER of Mrs. Kane first publicly denouncing Spiritualism, 30.
+
+  LICENTIOUSNESS under the cloak of Spiritualism, 237, 238.
+
+
+  "MEDIUMS" (Well-known)
+  --How they received the expose, 45, 46.
+
+  "MEDIUMSHIP"
+  --Mrs. Kane driven back to it, 37.
+
+  MESSAGES (Written)
+  --How produced by Mrs. Kane, 172, 196.
+
+  MESSAGES ("Spirit")
+  --Internal evidence sufficient to prove their falsity, 162.
+
+  MERCENARY campaign
+  --Begins in Rochester, 121, 126.
+  --Tour of principal cities, 212, 222.
+
+  MOVEMENT of knees of "medium" noted by Dr. Lee while "raps" were heard,
+      143.
+
+
+  ORIGIN of the fraud, 81, 83, 87, 92.
+
+
+  PERSECUTION of Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken and her children by
+      spiritualistic enemies, 60.
+
+  PROPHECY of Dr. Kane concerning the future of Maggie Fox, 213.
+
+  PROMISES of Maggie Fox to Dr. Kane never to "rap" any more, 223, 226.
+
+  PRESIDENT Pierce's wife and Maggie Fox, 223.
+
+  PROFESSION of spiritualistic belief
+  --Mrs. Kane expressly disclaims it, 181, 234.
+
+
+  "RAPS"
+  --Failure to "throw" them to different parts of a room, 184.
+  --Always heard near the spot where "medium" is stationed, 136, 172, 173.
+  --Effort of the will in producing them apparent, 136.
+  --Muscular contractions their possible cause, 137.
+  --Not produced while "mediums" in constrained position, 142.
+  --Not produced while feet of "mediums" are prevented from touching
+      sonorous substances, 185.
+  --Vibrations in foot of Mrs. Kane, felt by Mr. Sellers of the "Seybert
+      Commission," 194.
+  --Their physiological origin, 202, 203.
+
+  REPENTANCE
+  --Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken, 58, 59.
+  --Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane, 233.
+
+  REPORTS on investigations of "rappings," 134, 141, 149, 173.
+
+  ROCHESTER
+  --Outlandish doings told by Mrs. Underhill, 106, 113.
+  --Mrs. Kane gives the true explanation of them, 112.
+  --First public appearances of the Fox Sisters, 121.
+
+
+  SENATE ridicules Spiritualism in debate, 159.
+
+  SLADE (Henry) admits that certain magicians produce their effects in the
+      same way that he does, 199.
+
+  SEYBERT (Henry)
+  --Crazed by Spiritualism, 166.
+  --Mrs. Kane enters the "Spiritual Mansion," 164.
+  --She draws the line at the Apostles and the Angel Gabriel, 166.
+  --His legacy for the investigation of Spiritualism, 167.
+  --His "spirit" mistakes the identity of a member of the "Seybert
+      Commission" and calls him by a queer name, 171.
+  --Though he knew no Latin in the flesh, his "spirit" is made to write
+      Latin, 197.
+
+  "SEYBERT Commission" (The)
+  --Its origin and labors, 167.
+  --Experiments with Mrs. Kane, 169.
+  --Its conclusions regarding the "rappings," 168, 201.
+  --On other phases of Spiritualism, 201.
+
+  SPIRITUALISM
+  --Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken says it is the greatest curse the world has
+      ever known, 56.
+
+  SUPERSTITION
+  --Traditions in the Fox family about queer happenings, 119.
+
+
+  UNDERHILL (Ann Leah)
+  --Her narrative proven false, 38.
+  --Sinister influence over her younger sisters, 233.
+
+
+  VERDICT (The unalterable), 201.
+
+  VIBRATION of articles when "medium's" body is in contact with them while
+      producing raps, 138, 145.
+
+
+  WARNINGS of Dr. Kane to Maggie and Katie Fox against a life of
+      deception, 216, 219, 222, 225, 228, 229.
+  --Against intercourse with her sister, Leah, 227.
+
+
+FINIS.
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+[1] Dr. Kane and Horace Greeley.
+
+[2] It was erroneously stated that the boys were immediately sent back to
+Europe.
+
+[3] "The Seybert Commission on Spiritualism," J. B. Lippincott Company,
+Philadelphia, 1887. The author is under obligations to the publishers of
+this volume, for material which he has taken from it.
+
+[4] The author of "The Love-Life of Dr. Kane;" published by Carleton,
+1865, New York.
+
+[5] This form of expression was here used because the author of "The
+Love-Life," while not a believer in Spiritualism, did not wish to imply in
+a work that had Mrs. Kane's personal sanction, the slightest doubt of the
+sincerity of her professions or of her claims as a "medium."
+
+[6] Leah.
+
+[7] General Waddy Thompson.
+
+[8] Ex-Governor Tallmadge.
+
+[9] Katie, as well as her sister, had promised to abjure the "spirits,"
+and she had also said that she would go to live with Maggie on the
+latter's marriage with Dr. Kane.
+
+[10] The wife of the President of the United States.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+Punctuation has been corrected without note.
+
+The following misprints have been corrected:
+  "seances" standardized to "seances" (page 45)
+  "intrument" corrected to "instrument" (page 62)
+  "arnold In" corrected to "Arnold in" (page 67)
+  "prepetrating" corrected to "perpetrating" (page 75)
+  "affimative" corrected to "affirmative" (page 94)
+  "siezing" corrected to "seizing" (page 143)
+  "significent" corrected to "significant" (page 144)
+  "herditary" corrected to "hereditary" (page 160)
+  "seances" standardized to "seances" (page 170)
+  "seance" standardized to "seance" (page 174)
+  "Spirititualism" corrected to "Spiritualism" (page 217)
+
+Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and
+hyphenation have been retained from the original.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Death-Blow to Spiritualism, by
+Reuben Briggs Davenport
+
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