CHAPTER VIII.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE FRAUD.
Now we come to the moment when Ann Leah Fox Fish, the eldest sister, thirty-one years of age at that time, appears upon the scene of the wondrous and so-called supernatural commotion at the little rustic hamlet of Hydesville.
No “mediumistic” suggestions or impulses had ever come to her. Not one, though she had lived twenty-three years longer in the world than the dark-eyed, fascinating little girl who produced the first mysterious sounds in her mother’s home.
The excitement had reached a great height, and a pamphlet was already in the press detailing the whole of the wonderful performances at Hydesville, when Leah first heard of them. She hastened thither at once. Some idea of the profit which could be derived from awakened public interest in the matter, seems to have come to her very promptly. She found that the family had moved from the “haunted” house to that of her brother, David. She investigated the source of the “raps.” Mrs. Kane says that one of the first things which she did upon her arrival at the house, was to take both her and Katie apart and to cause them to undress and to show her the manner of producing the mysterious noises. Never for a moment was the cold and calculating brain of the eldest sister a dupe to the cunning pranks of the little children. So interested was she in the matter, that she insisted upon taking back with her to Rochester, at the end of a fortnight, her daughter Lizzie, and Katie, her sister—Maggie not being inclined to go with her. And, in the interval, she practised “rapping” herself, with her toes, after the manner illustrated by the girls. She found great difficulty in producing the same effect, however, as the joints of her feet were no longer as pliable as in childhood. The effort required was also much greater, and never during her whole lifetime did she succeed in attaining to much proficiency in this method of deception. The pronounced movement, necessary in her case to cause even a faint sound to be heard, was easy to detect.
“Often,” says Mrs. Kane, “when we were giving séances together, I have been ashamed and mortified by the awkward manner in which she would do it. People would observe the effort she made to produce even moderate ‘rappings,’ and then they would look at me in suspicion and surprise. It required every bit of my skill and my best tact to prevent them from going away convinced of the imposture.”
On the way to Rochester by canal, the “rappings,” according to Mrs. Underhill, pursued her. The “Spirits became quite bold and rapped loudly” at the dinner-table in the cabin; “and occasionally” she adds, “one end of the table would jump up and nearly spill the water out of our glasses; but there was so much noise on the boat (going through the locks, etc.) that only we, who recognized the sounds, knew of them.”
It would be easy, indeed—on this very thin reservation, to the effect that “only we, who recognized the sounds, knew of them”—to denounce the whole of this statement as the grossest falsehood. I have, however, the personal assurance of Mrs. Catharine Fox Jencken that the “rappings” were really heard, but that they were done by her with her feet. On the other hand, she declares that the joggling or lifting of the table never took place; nor did she ever hear of it till Mrs. Underhill’s book was published. It may be observed here that the latter carefully refrains from informing us whether the passengers also failed to observe the singular disturbance of the cabin table, at which they were dining.
At Rochester, Mrs. Fish seems to have devoted herself to developing and elaborating the falsehood of Spiritualism. Singularly enough, to this matron, who had never before evinced the least possession of so-called “mediumistic” qualities, all sorts of grotesque and terrorizing wonders now arrived. This is a fair specimen of her narrative, relating to the period in question: