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 seances 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:
"In the evening, my friend, Jane Little, and two or three other friends,
called in to spend an hour or two with us. We sang and I played on the
piano; but even then, while the lamp was burning brightly(!), I felt the
deep throbbing of the dull accompaniment of the invisibles, keeping time
to the music as I played; but I did not wish to have my visitors know it,
and the spirits seemed kind enough not to make themselves heard (!) that
others would observe what was so apparent to me."
The book to which I am obliged to refer so constantly, and which is a good
example of the bulk of spiritualistic literature, is full of passages ten
times as absurd as this one, and having just as strongly the stamp of the
crudest and most clumsy invention. For the most part, the only appropriate
treatment for such absurdities is contemptuous silence. Occasionally,
however, I shall find it necessary, for the sake of completeness in this
exposition, to meet them with positive refutation, which in reality they
do not deserve.
Having thus got one of the clever and lively little girls under her own
control, Leah soon induced her mother to come to Rochester with the other.
Nothing could show more clearly that she had already formed the resolve to
reap a harvest of gain and renown from this auspicious beginning, than her
decisive course, instantly upon realizing the public wonder and curiosity
which the "rappings" had excited.
It was absolutely necessary to delude some people who were near, and who
should have been dear to her, as well as the careless and easily gullible
public. The good and simple-hearted old mother would never have been a
partner in conscious deception. The matter-of-fact, unspeculative father,
must be brought to a point where he would at least not deny the claims of
the so-called "mediums," his daughters. The honest and outspoken Lizzie
must be awed into discretion by the prospect of great prosperity, which
was opened before them, and the lesson that if she spoke too freely they
would surely be deprived of it. Some stalwart and docile sympathizers must
be enlisted outside of her own people who could be depended upon to stand
by them as against too strenuous inquiry, or hot-tempered public assault.
Immediately upon Margaret's arrival at the house in Rochester, in which
Mrs. Fish lived, and which adjoined a graveyard, the "manifestations"
redoubled. They were produced by the combined efforts of Leah, Margaret
and Katie. Mrs. Underhill narrates that one night, about this time, a
"spirit" walked about in their room, as if in his bare feet, when they
were all supposed to be in bed. She continues: "He answered my question by
stamping on the floor. I was amused--although afraid. He seemed so willing
to do my bidding that I could not resist the temptation of speaking to him
as he marched around my bed. I said, 'Flat Foot, can you dance the
Highland fling?' This seemed to delight him. I sang the music for him, and
he danced most admirably. This shocked mother and she said: 'O, Leah, how
can you encourage that fiend by singing for him to dance?' I soon found
that they took advantage of my familiarity, and gathered in strong force
around us. And here language utterly fails to describe the incidents that
occurred. Loud whispering, giggling, scuffling, groaning, death-struggles,
murder scenes of the most fearful character--I forbear to describe them.
Mother became so alarmed that she called to Calvin to come up stairs. He
came--angry at the spirits--and declared that 'he would conquer or die in
the attempt.' This seemed to amuse them. They went to his bed, raised it
up and let it down, and shook it violently. He was still determined not to
yield to them.
"Before Calvin came up stairs, and during a short lull in their
performances, we quickly removed our beds to the floor, hoping thereby to
prevent them from raising us up and letting us down with such violence.
Calvin said as he came up, that we were foolish to make our beds on the
floor, as it pleased the spirits to see how completely they had conquered
us. So he laid down on his bed, and quietly awaited developments. Mother
said, 'Calvin, I wish your bed was on the floor, too. We have not been
disturbed since we left the bedstead.' Calvin remarked, 'They are up to
some deviltry now. I hear them.' He no sooner uttered these words, than a
shower of slippers came flying at him as he lay in his bed. He bore this
without a murmur. The next instant he was struck violently with his cane.
He seized it and struck back, right and left, with all his strength,
without hitting anything; but received a palpable _bang_ in return for
every thrust he made. He sprang to his feet and fought with all his might.
Everything thrown at him he pitched back to them, until a brass
candlestick was thrown at him, cutting his lip. This quite enraged him. He
pronounced a solemn malediction and throwing himself on the bed, he vowed
he would have nothing more to do with 'fiendish spirits.'
"He was not long permitted to remain in quiet there. They commenced at his
bedstead and deliberately razed it to the floor, leaving the headboard in
one place, the footboard in another, the two sides at angles, and the
bedclothes scattered about the room. He was left lying on his mattress,
and for a moment there was silence; after which some slight movements were
heard in the 'green room.' I had stowed a large number of balls of carpet
rags in an old chest standing on the floor, with two trunks and several
other articles on the top of it. It seemed but the work of a moment for
them to get at the carpet balls, which came flying at us in every
direction, hitting us in the same place every time. They took us for their
target, and threw with the skill of an archer. Darkness made no difference
with them, and if either of us attempted to remonstrate against such
violence, they would instantly give _the remonstrant_ the benefit of a
ball."
Mrs. Kane remembers with tolerable distinctness the antics that
distinguished this sojourn of her mother, herself and her sisters in the
Rochester house. She and Katie did indulge in wild larks in the sleeping
rooms of the family at all hours of the night. The "whispering" and
"giggling," the "scuffling" and "groaning," and the tragic mimicry were
natural to childish daredevils like themselves, and one can well
understand how, with the attendant "rappings," the showers of slippers
hurled from the "green room," the shaking of Calvin's bed and the
"banging" of him on the head, these things may have made the desired
impression upon both him and the mother. Mrs. Kane says that this is the
true and only explanation of it all, and that in comparatively recent
years, at seances in Adelphi Hall, New York, she has done the most
audacious things, similar in character to these, under cover of
semi-darkness, and has not been detected, simply because nearly all of
those who were present were believers and were not too curious.
There is another "evidence" given by Ann Leah which is too pitiably
ridiculous to be considered, except as a subject of laughter.
"Often at meal-time," she says, "the table would be gradually agitated,
and Calvin in particular, [alas, poor Calvin!] would be more disturbed
than the rest of us. Once he arose from his chair and reached across the
table for a heavy pitcher of water, when _the chair was instantly removed
and he sat down on the floor, spilling the water all over himself_!"
Mrs. Kane's sole comment upon this is: "Of course, we slily did it, as we
did many other hoydenish tricks.
"We also used to twitch mother's cap off and gently jerk the comb out of
her hair, just to tease her. Leah says that these things were done by the
spirits! How silly to address such a puerile pretense to any one gifted
with common sense!"
As a companion picture to what has gone before, let the reader also
engrave this "miraculous" scene upon the retina of his imagination:
"We had stored our winter provisions in the cellar. Among them were
several barrels of apples, potatoes, turnips, etc. From this cellar came
the apples, potatoes and turnips flying across our room, hitting all in
precisely the same place every time. It will now be remembered that these
articles were in the cellar under the ground floor, and had to come from
the rear of the cellar, through the door, into the kitchen, up the stairs,
into the pantry on the second floor, through the pantry into the dining
room, up the second flight of stairs, into the large room in which we
slept, hitting us as we lay in our beds near the front window. * * *
"A cabinet shop was the next thing represented by the spirits. They seemed
to be possessed of all kinds of tools to work with. After sawing off
boards they would let them fall heavily on the floor, jarring everything
around them. Then, after planing, jointing, driving nails, and screwing
down the lid of a coffin, they would shove the hollow sounding article
about the room. (This we understood at a later day.) Often to our utter
amazement, pickets from the discarded lots in the cemetery came flying
through the room over our heads, on our beds, like debris in a tornado.
They came from the extreme west side of the burying-ground, through _that_
lot, and the distance of about two hundred feet through _our_ lot; an
entire distance of about four hundred feet. That they came by no visible
means, we knew; as no human power could have thrown them through the air
into our chamber window, hitting us in our beds, in the same place every
time."
In July, 1848, Leah, her sisters and mother, revisited the Hydesville
house, which was then unoccupied. David, the brother, had fallen by this
time into the plans of Leah, whether a dupe or an accomplice, Margaret,
even at this day, is unable to say. To him was due the very first
suggestion that the so-called spirits might communicate with the living by
means of the alphabet. And since then, this has been the chief stay of
spiritualism, literally the A B C of all its so-called science. It is a
singular commentary upon the consistency of the "spirits," or the good
faith of those who professed to interpret their messages, that the code of
communication at first employed in their circles was entirely different in
the meaning of the simple signals used from the one which finally was
adopted. Would the "spirits," think you, who are divorced from the
trammels of this world, have been guilty of this simple error and have
been obliged to correct it afterward, had they not been impostors?
The object of Mrs. Fish in going back to Hydesville is quite apparent.
There was yet an unworked mine of wonder and superstition, out of which
the dust of dross might be thrown into the eyes of the credulous, as the
pure gold of revelation.
In the first place, it was necessary to get from the so-called invisible
intelligence an injunction to seek for proofs of the foul murder which it
had been said had been committed in the house where the "rappings" were
originally heard.
Mind you, months had then elapsed since the digging had been first done in
the cellar and the Ganargua creek near by, and David S., who was now
wholly in sympathy with Leah in her view of the future importance of the
new superstition, had lived in the neighborhood ever since, while nobody
had remained in the "haunted" house to be cognizant of what might have
taken place there in the mean time.
By the new code system of obtaining answers to queries, a mandate to dig
up the cellar and to search for something or other there was obtained, and
obeyed, the work lasting two or three days. It is stated by Leah that some
fragments of an earthen bowl, a few bones, some teeth and some bunches of
hair were found. She says that doctors pronounced the bones to be human.
Of course, the names of these doctors are nowhere to be found in her
volume, nor does any one, unwarped by prejudice, really believe more than
a very small part of this story.
That there was digging is certain.
That there had been plenty of time to hide anything that David Fox had
desired to hide in the cellar, is certain.
Yet Mrs. Kane remembered absolutely nothing about anything having been
found in the cellar that bore the slightest semblance to any portion of
the human frame. If any bones (perchance, like those found in the creek,
the skeleton of a horse) were uncovered, she denies positively that any
doctor ever gave the opinion that they were the remains of a man.
She pronounces equally false, the statement of Leah that about the time
the digging was abandoned, on account of the angry interference of a mob,
the spades of the diggers struck upon a hollow-sounding, wooden substance,
which might or might not have been a box of ill-gotten plunder, or the
rough sepulchre of the slain pedler.
The indignation of the neighbors of the Foxes in Arcadia was not so much
due to the fact that the latter persisted in pretending to communicate
with ghosts and uncanny elfs, as it was to the totally unwarranted
suspicion which had been cast through the early "rappings" upon a man
named Bell, who had formerly lived in the house, which it was now
pretended was haunted. This, as well as other evidence of the public
feeling at that time, was cleverly employed for her own benefit by Leah,
who easily foresaw how anything that might bear the semblance of religious
persecution would promote her cause, false though it was, by bringing to
it both greater notoriety and widespread sympathy.
There is no doubt, too, that if there had not been a very strong vein of
superstition in the Fox family, the first "rappings" would never have
produced the deep impression that they did on the mother and her son
David. Many strange stories, which had been handed down from a grandfather
or a great-grandfather, a great uncle or a great aunt, were told at the
fireside with such embellishment as will inevitably come from recital and
repetition to a wonder-delighting audience. There were traditions of
prophecies fulfilled and of dumb cattle behaving queerly, all of which
Mrs. Underhill has very carefully set down and magnified in her own
peculiar manner to her own unholy purpose.