The Death-Blow to Spiritualism Part 3

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 partic.i.p.ated 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 l.u.s.tre 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 circ.u.mstance 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 steams.h.i.+p 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 humb.u.g.g.e.ry, 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. n.o.body 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