The Death-Blow to Spiritualism Part 4

The public had every reason to feel a deep sympathy with the two younger Fox sisters in the courageous att.i.tude 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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d 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 d.a.m.n 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 d.a.m.nable, 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, a.s.sured 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 s.h.i.+nes, was quite as ridiculous as the other sentiment was worthy of sympathy.

It was natural that those who had fed their baser pa.s.sions 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 antic.i.p.ated 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, Ma.s.s., OCT. 15, 1888.