The Death-Blow to Spiritualism Part 16

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 a.s.sumed 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 circ.u.mstances 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 a.s.sociates, 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 d.a.m.ning 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 att.i.tude 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 Was.h.i.+ngton:

"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 coa.r.s.e 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 a.s.sociate 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 pa.s.sage at the end of a long letter, full of solicitude and n.o.ble 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 hara.s.s 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 n.o.ble 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 sh.o.r.es of that deep sea of infamy against which, had he only lived, he would surely have s.h.i.+elded 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.