The Death-Blow to Spiritualism Part 2

"Another sister of mine," and she coupled the name with an injurious adjective, "made me take up with it. She's my d.a.m.nable enemy. I hate her. My G.o.d! 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 h.e.l.l.' 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 G.o.d! 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 G.o.d 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 h.e.l.l. So says the Catholic Bible, and so say I. The spirits will not come back. G.o.d 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 circ.u.mstances 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 d.a.m.ning 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 "d.a.m.nable 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 princ.i.p.al 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 partic.i.p.ation 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. n.o.body 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 astonis.h.i.+ng 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 pa.s.sage:

"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 circ.u.mstances 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: