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 circumstances 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 damning 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 “damnable 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 principal 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 participation 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. Nobody 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 astonishing 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 exposé, 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 naîveté, ‘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 naîveté, “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 clientèle, and who gives only private séances, 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 exposé 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 passage:
“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 circumstances 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:
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 séances 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 participated 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 séance 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 lustre 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 séances to which the privileged non-believing friends of believing spiritualists could have access. But there are other séances, 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 circumstance is none the less worthy of note.