The Missing Link In Modern Spiritualism Part 9

"I, for one, can find an apology for the penny-a-liners who have poured their puerile effusions _at_ the knocking mystery. They do but cater for a public sentiment and public ignorance in this matter; and their bread-and-b.u.t.ter demands of them that they shall not wave their inky wands beyond the line of that opinion. But there are some for whom we cannot make this apology. I notice in your paper of 23d inst. a communication over the signature of C. D. The writer of said article lays claim (and not a groundless one) to the reputation of a man of wisdom. He is known among us as the expounder of laws natural and divine. His picture, so he tells us, hangs from the walls of the Athenaeum, and looks down complacently upon its visitors as a teacher of the exact and occult sciences. The community in which he lives has nourished him during a long lapse of years, has accredited to him the prerogatives he has claimed, and has looked up to him, as one clothed with authority, to enlighten it upon all abstruse subjects. And yet, with the knowledge (which he must possess) that if anything be spoken of it must be spoken of understandingly,--that a man in his position utterly disregards the safety of his reputation who rushes to record an opinion without ascertaining that it is tenable, and that he has facts to sustain him; this self-same C. D., this Solon of the closet and pulpit, without a particle of evidence, in the absence of all personal observation, rushes in the hot haste of blind folly to the press, and tells the "good people" that the phenomenon in question is no phenomenon at all, but only a sheer humbug! a miserable delusion, cunningly contrived, but fit only to deceive such fanatical fools as have been chasing shadows from time immemorial, down to the advent of Mormonism.

"This word _humbug_ is in great request. It is of modern origin, and the moderns are making the most of it. Everything new, while going through its incipient stage, is denominated 'humbug.' Everything and everybody a whit in advance of the age or its intelligence is looked at askance by the gaping crowd, and 'humbug' is the ready watchword. The community's acknowledged leaders, and whose antics, at times, should have taught them that

'A little learning is a dangerous thing,'

are asked by their too credulous disciples to give them their opinion on some new and startling development in physics or man's intellectual nature, and immediately these 'learned Thebans,' scorning the patient toil and honest purpose of the true student, turn their blear eyes upon the interrogations and shout Humbug! Humbug!

"In such cases their visual organs are of about as much service to them as the sun is to that burrowing animal which shuns the light of day.

When will men, even whose gray hairs seem to ask us to expect better things of them, learn that bareface a.s.sertion weighs not as evidence with those who choose to think for themselves? Ours is a thinking age, and requires something more than the bold _say so_ of any man to convince people that a thing _may_ or _may not_ be. We live at a period, too, and in the midst of minds which have learned that much that was received as unadulterated truth by the past, upon which the dust of buried centuries had gathered and seemed to hallow, has been proved erroneous by the light of advancing knowledge and the searching a.n.a.lysis of science. And who shall say where that knowledge is to stop? Is there to be no new unfolding of man's intellectual powers? Is he ever to remain in the comparative ignorance he now is in respecting the relations which he, while here in this life, sustains to the spiritual world? Are the laws of his being and its attributes as yet entirely revealed to him? Is the physical of this world of so much importance that the astounding developments of this and the coming cycles of time are to be confined entirely to that, to the exclusion of man's higher and more ethereal nature? These questions I leave your correspondent C. D. and his coadjutor J. W. H. to answer for themselves in their more reflective hours.

"C. D. says 'the wary and eagle-eyed are kept out, and excluded from opportunity of investigation.' Now, to be perfectly plain, this remark borders very much upon misrepresentation. _It is not so._ And if the gentleman would have 'the good people' understand that he is thus denied, I would undeceive them. Mr. Dewey has on more than one occasion been urged by those who would have afforded him every opportunity for investigation, to test the reality of the said phenomena. He could have had, and may have, a.s.sociated with him in such investigation, men whom he or others may select, as his equals in every respect, to aid him; and before he has the temerity to repeat his uttered cry of humbug, and brand again, with most unchristian readiness, as deceivers, individuals whom he does not know, I call upon him to avail himself of the senses which G.o.d has given him for that purpose. He need feel no repugnance to visiting so obscure a locality as Troup Street. His equals (to say the least) have been there before him, and he would not have to tarry long in that region to meet with visitors who possess more intelligence, a wider charity, greater modesty, and a better purpose than he has manifested in his communications.

"A man's practice is the touchstone of his faith, and I want no better evidence of the practical infidelity of any one, than to know that while he preaches for so much the square yard the doctrine of an after-life, he scouts anything which comes to us in the shape of tangible evidence of the soul's immortality.

"Mr. Dewey says he will be 'glad to see the truth advanced, lead where it may.' In this I join him, and such motive must be my apology for trespa.s.sing upon your columns and patience.

"Respectfully yours, "JOHN E. ROBINSON.

"ROCHESTER, February, 25, 1850."

CHAPTER IX.

ALBANY AND TROY. 1850.

EXCURSION TO ALBANY--DELAVAN HOUSE AND VAN VECHTEN HALL--REV. DR.

STAATS AND THE JUDGES--HIGH CLa.s.s OF MINDS INTERESTED--PRESIDENT ELIPHALET NOTT--PECUNIARY ARRANGEMENTS--EXCURSION TO TROY--TROJAN LADIES--MOB ATTEMPTS ON LIFE OF MARGARETTA.

EXCURSION TO ALBANY.

We were directed (by the spirits) to "go forth and let the truth be known." We had already pa.s.sed through a terrible experience, and feared to make another such hazardous attempt; but the fiat had gone forth. We had debated the question a long time before we could consent to subject ourselves to another public contest. However, there was no alternative.

We were compelled to "do our duty," regardless of consequences, so far as it was in our power.

It was the first of April, 1850, when the Rev. R. P. Ambler and Mr.

D. F. Coman, of Springfield, Ma.s.s., called on us for an evening seance.

They came with an introduction from our friend Apollus Munn. Mr. Ambler was a Universalist minister, had preached in Albany, and was much respected there. They were greatly astonished by the evidence they received during the seance; and it proved to them clearly that their communications were received from spirits, or from some power entirely beyond our knowledge. Various circ.u.mstances point to the conclusion that these arrangements had been planned and directed for us by our spirit friends and guides.

We had been informed by the spirits that we should have a proper person to lecture for us; and were told that we should first go to Albany, engage a public hall, and allow the spirit-rapping to be heard by the audience. We did not, however, dare to attempt such a venture until we had made another experiment in our own city (Rochester). Only five months previously we had left Corinthian Hall, triumphantly indeed, but amid a howling mob. But they had been kept at bay and overpowered by superior forces, and we tried by the public, and not found guilty.

Once again we engaged a hall, at our own expense, and gave notice to the public that Mr. Ambler would deliver a lecture, and "the three sisters would accompany him on the platform." The hall was crowded. The lecturer was eloquent and the audience pleased. The rappings were profuse. Public opinion had changed since the first lectures on the subject. _Friends_ rushed to the platform to congratulate us on our triumphant success.

Many good wishes for our happiness and prosperity in our great enterprise were showered upon us; and we little dreamed that we had given our last public entertainment to our true and tried friends in Rochester. We did not even imagine that we were then leaving our dear old home for a new one in a new city, when the proper time should arrive. There was much and arduous consultation respecting the mode in which we should go forth into the world on the travels and toils that lay before us.

Our father had been interrupted in all his business arrangements, and could not possibly leave home, and Calvin, who had grown up in our family (a son and brother by adoption), was the best personal protector we could have. We left with our father's sympathy and blessing.

We reached Albany the last of April, 1850. We engaged a suite of rooms in the Delavan House. Mr. Ambler was our lecturer, and Mr. Coman our business man--mother, Maggie, Katie, and myself, with Calvin as our escort. We engaged Van Vechten Hall. It had been previously announced through the papers that "the Fox Family" would appear at the hall, with Mr. Ambler, who would deliver a course of lectures, preparatory to our giving seances at the Delavan House.

Our career was now commenced. After all our resolving not to go any more before the public, we had been forced to let the world know what was revealed to us, and what was meant not for us alone.

Our rooms were thronged by the _elite_ of Albany and of many other places adjacent. Our success was great, as the spirits had promised. We received both public and private parties from all parts of the country.

The spirits had performed their parts admirably for nearly two weeks, when I received a note from the editor of the _Albany Morning Express_.

(It will be remembered that at one of the Rochester investigations, a Second Advent minister had deemed it his duty to rise in public and express his idea that all this was of diabolic origin, and that _we_, the mediums, ought to be sent to prison. But the good old days of Cotton Mather and of the hangings at Salem were past, and after the conscientious but narrow bigot resumed his seat, no further notice was taken of the good man or of his suggestion. I may remark in pa.s.sing, that the spirits who extorted from Mr. MacNaughton the Lord's Prayer, which he had been taught in childhood to repeat at the knees of his "puir auld mither," and had converted him to Spiritualism and a belief in the immortality of the soul, would seem to have been strange emissaries of Satan.)

At Albany we met a somewhat similar experience, both in the attempt made against us and in its results. A certain respectable minister, I do not know of what denomination, named Dr. Staats, was so far exercised in his mind by the reports of our meetings at the Delavan House, that he applied to the courts for a warrant for our arrest. I had the surprise of receiving the following note from the highly respected editor of the _Morning Express_:

"ALBANY MORNING EXPRESS, "May 13, 1850.

"MRS. FISH: I have just this moment been called upon by the judges of the court before whom Rev. Dr. Staats would have brought you, had he been able so to do, who say they would be pleased to call on you this afternoon, at four o'clock, as they will then be at leisure. Can you accommodate them? I think it will be a grand move to have them witness the demonstrations. I would call, but am so busy this morning that even ---- is out of my mind.

"In great haste, "Yours respectfully, "JACOB C. CUYLER."

At precisely the appointed time the expected party of judges and lawyers arrived, numbering seventeen, all men of distinction. They were just and honest men, with open, judicial minds, seeking only the truth, and not the gratification of hostile prejudices. The proprietor of the house, Mr. Rozelle, was ill in bed; but he rose, dressed himself, and went down to meet the judicial party before they left his house. They said to him, when they left, "It will take wiser judges than we are to p.r.o.nounce against them."

The judges came frequently to see us afterward; and thus, through the Rev. Dr. Staats's efforts to injure us, and have us arrested for "blasphemy against the holy scriptures," a strong army was raised up for our protection. And this result we found was invariably the case through all our subsequent public career.

Wherever and whenever an attempt was made to show to the world that it was not true, however hostile and powerful the men engaged against us, we always--without a single exception--were brought through our difficulties in triumph, although, at times, we could not see how we were to escape the entanglements often thrown around us. We placed ourselves wholly under the directions of our spirit friends, and invariably came out with safety and honor, as they told us we should, if we but acted our parts faithfully.

Before the time arrived for us to leave Albany, we had been deluged with letters, by reputable parties, from all parts of the country, urging us to come and afford them an opportunity for themselves to investigate. Of course we could not comply with all these requests, as we could at the time only give attention to the princ.i.p.al cities.

During our stay in Albany our rooms were thronged with anxious investigators from all the neighboring towns and cities. We usually met the higher order of intelligences; as the conceited nabob and the equally conceited representative of the (morally) lower cla.s.ses, were seldom attracted to subjects beyond their comprehension and above their sympathies.

My books of registration plainly show the cla.s.s of minds which became interested in Spiritualism at that early day. I shall preserve them.

They should be placed in some historical library, so that generations yet to come may realize the fact that Spiritualism was first sought after by the most enlightened and progressive minds of the nineteenth century.

I will not here record the names of my attached friends and constant visitors (with but two exceptions) of that most interesting period--two remarkable for their advanced years as well as for their high personal distinction, the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Nott, President of Union College, Schenectady, and Mr. Edward C. Delavan, the owner (though not the proprietor) of the house at which we resided. The latter was nearly, if not quite, an octogenarian, and certainly cut a somewhat remarkable figure by the side of his young wife and their baby of ten months. On one occasion he was so delighted with some communication, addressed to him by his pet name of childhood, from his long-departed mother, that he was overflowing in his expressions of grat.i.tude, and he forced into my hand a twenty-dollar gold piece. The not less venerable Dr. Nott once laid his hand on my head and said, "My child, I am not far from the time when I shall go to the world of spirits, of which you reveal and prove so much; and you must, naturally, long survive me in the present life; but if it shall be in my power I will strive to be one of your guardian spirits."

This is the proper place to state the pecuniary arrangement dictated to us by our spirit friends for the support and prosecution of this mission to the world, which they had imposed upon us. Our public meetings were held in Van Vechten Hall, then the princ.i.p.al one in Albany. Our suite of rooms in the Delavan was the best in the house. Of course our expenses were very heavy; often amounting to $150 a week. Our regular charge was $1 each person, and, for a private seance of an hour, $5 for two or more persons. These figures had been prescribed to us. We never heard of any complaints of dissatisfaction, on the part of our visitors, with the evidences which they used to receive; and no language would suffice to tell of the hundreds of a.s.surances of delight and grat.i.tude, which were the better part of our compensation for the time thus absorbed, and for the fatigue and exhaustion of these labors under the direction of our friends in the spirit life.

EXCURSION TO TROY.

It is with regret that I dismiss so briefly, as has been done above, our experiences in Albany, where we began in May, 1850, what may be called the first stage of the fulfilment of our mission. I might fill this volume with my reminiscences and notes of them.

It was on May 24, 1850, that we left Albany and went to Troy. Many Trojans had visited our rooms in Albany, and urged us to spend a few days in Troy before going to New York. We consented to do so, much against our own wishes, as we had made our arrangements to go from Albany direct to New York. We were kindly received at the Troy House, and our rooms were thronged as elsewhere. Our success was gratifying to us all. But we were not long permitted to enjoy such peace and prosperity. A murmur arose among the "women," whose conduct toward us in Troy was cruel and unchristianlike. They insinuated that if the mediums were men their husbands would not become so deeply enlisted in this unpopular, and, seemingly, weird subject. They adopted the absurd theory of toe and knee rapping. One lady especially distinguished herself by her intellectual antics in this her line of procedure. (Her husband was much younger than herself, handsome and prosperous.) She became violent in her denunciations. I well knew that, with the aid of Heaven, we could easily prove such accusations false. We met our combatants on their own premises. A committee of "investigators" was gotten up, composed of three ladies and two ministers. We submitted to all of their suggestive whims, and came off, as usual, triumphant. The course and result of this committee of investigation induced many persons to visit our rooms who had never before been interested in the subject. We made many life friends in Troy, and left promising to visit them soon again (which we did a few months later).

The evening before we left we were honored by a band of music in front of the Troy House. The proprietor, Mr. Coleman, and General Viele came to our rooms and announced the fact, saying, "Ladies, this is expressly for you." He accompanied us to the balcony, where, with uncovered heads, the crowd saluted us with their hearty applause of approbation. The following evening we took the night boat from Albany, and were soon on the beautiful Hudson wending our way to the city of New York.

But as this chapter is so short, I may as well, at the expense of chronology in my narrative, antic.i.p.ate a few months, to introduce here a serious adventure which befell my young child-sister Margaretta, or Maggie, at this same city of Troy, or rather West Troy, in the following month of November, 1850. It is a curious ill.u.s.tration of the desperate bitterness of feeling which arose in some portions of the more ignorant cla.s.ses in some of our American communities.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Margaretta Fox Kane._]

In it we see a striking revival of the old Salem (and mediaeval) spirit of animosity against the so-called "witchcraft;" a spirit which was perhaps stimulated by the same mistaken and misguided religious zeal which some couple of centuries before had hurried to the stake, the scaffold, or the nearest pond or river, many a poor victim to the unhappy and misunderstood gift of what we now know as mediums.h.i.+p. In the month of November, 1850, a mob attempt was made to destroy the life of Margaretta while visiting at the house of Mr. R. M. Bouton. The mob was composed of a very low order of society, and were urged to do the work by prompters, who kept themselves in the background. Though not on the same scale of dimensions in numbers, mother and I at a later day concurred in recognizing in the riotous mob in New York, in July, 1863, features in the conduct of the men and women (the latter seemed not less savage than the former) that curiously reminded us of the terrible scenes of West Troy. They had evidently been put up to regard this communication with spirits as deviltry which it was right and proper to crush out even by taking our lives. They doubtless supposed, that by destroying our lives the whole matter would be put to rest. Accordingly her (Margaretta)'s every movement was watched, so that it was not safe for her to leave the house unattended. Finally the house was forcibly attacked; but being well barricaded and garrisoned the 'fort was held'

and the a.s.sa.s.sins were not successful. The following letter from Mr.