Chapter V: Solemn Abjuration

The news that Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane and Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken had renounced and exposed Spiritualism, flew from one end of the country to the other, and caused excitement among spiritualists and non-spiritualists. Every newspaper in every city of the United States, and many in Europe, repeated the story published in New York.

The general opinion everywhere, where the wish was not the opposite, was that Spiritualism as such had received its death-blow.

Letters began to pour in upon Mrs. Kane which were strongly significant of the effect of her action. Many of them were written by persons who had been believers from the very first of the public exhibitions of the "rappings," and who had based their whole faith on the truth and veritable inspiration of the "Fox Sisters." It was almost pitiable to witness the honest-hearted distress of people of this sort, who now saw the fondest illusion of their lives dissolve before their eyes; their dearest, assured hope of an invisible world ruthlessly torn from them.

The anger of those who now anathematized the founders of the spiritualistic faith, and declared that all that they could now say in way of recantation was utterly false, while all that they had formerly said or performed as miraculous proof, was, of course, as true as gospel, or as the fact that the sun shines, was quite as ridiculous as the other sentiment was worthy of sympathy.

It was natural that those who had fed their baser passions upon Spiritualism--as the harpy upon carrion--should resort to the vilest methods of attacking Mrs. Kane, and in doing so should shelter themselves behind the cowardly refuge of anonymity.

A single communication from one of those who thus set the gauge for our estimate of spiritualistic hypocrisy, will suffice to complete the reader's impression regarding them. It was written on a postal card and unsigned, and the italics and other literary peculiarities are wholly those of the person who wrote it:

"Mrs. Kane. Your anticipated action Thursday night reminds me _very
forcibly_ of several lines of 'Beautiful snow' only your Course is
even _more despicable_ and your rank in the history of the present
day will be on a par with Benedict Arnold in 'Beautiful Snow' we find
'Selling her soul to whoever would buy' &c. you are going to sell
your soul to an ignorant public by _pretending to Expose_ what _you
very well Know cannot be Exposed_ by any man, woman or child dwelling
in the Mortal sphere of Life--shame on you, but you will soon meet
your reward in other spheres and suffer for your wickedness."

It is hard to determine whether the above communication emanated from a professional spiritualist of the mercenary type or from one who finds his or her profit of self-gratification in the licentious tendencies and opportunities of private spiritualistic intercourse. In any event, it bears the stamp of ignorant selfishness and narrow vulgarity.

It is with a degree of pleasure that one may turn to letters which were written by the sincere disciples of the "Fox Sisters," and which breathe a deep anxiety for the fate of that fantastic creed in which they have so much delighted.

The reader has but to think for an instant of the actual meaning of this long-deferred expose to these persons. They had greedily fed their souls upon the delusion that they had held intercourse with the spirits of their dear departed. The supposed messages which they had received seemed a sure earnest of that union with those they loved on earth for which the true heart most longs. In view of this expectation and in the light of this exposure of its utter fallacy--so far as any material evidence is concerned--it is most difficult to find adequate terms with which to characterize the work of those who still persist in contributing to a delusion which has numbered so many victims.

Here is a letter from a resident of Southern California, enclosing a clipping from a newspaper containing Mrs. Kane's renunciation of Spiritualism:

"BUENA PARK, LOS ANGELES CO., CAL.,
SEPT. 29, A. D. 1888.

"MRS. MARGARET FOX KANE,

"DEAR MADAM:

"I have just read the enclosed item, taken from one of our Los
Angeles city papers. Please let me know if the statements therein
contained are true, and you will greatly oblige,

"Yours for truth,
"T. J. HOUSE."

The following was written by one of the best known early settlers of San Francisco, a man whose example and absolute faith have influenced hundreds, probably, to embrace Spiritualism:

"SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., OCT. 2, 1888.

"MRS. MARGARET FOX KANE,

"DEAR MADAM:

"I inclose a cutting from one of our local papers, purporting to be
an interview with you in regard to the subject of Spiritualism. I
have taken the liberty to inquire of you if the statements therein
contained are true.

"I have been a believer in the phenomena from its first inception
through you and your sister, believing it to be true since that time.

"I am now eighty-one years old and have but a short time, of course,
to remain in this world, and I feel great anxiety to know through you
if I have been deceived all this time in a matter of vital interest
to us all.

"Will you greatly oblige me with an answer?

"Very respectfully yours,
"E. F. BUNNELL.
"No. 319 Kearny St."

And here is a communication which is signed by what is evidently only a part of the writer's name, but which carries with it in every line the absolute impress of truth and of a deep and pathetic earnestness:

"BOSTON, MASS., OCT. 15, 1888.

"MRS. MARGARET FOX KANE,

"DEAR MADAM:

"Hundreds of thousands have believed through you and you alone.
Hundreds of thousands eagerly ask you whether all the glorious light
that they fancied you have given them, was but the false flicker of a
common dip-candle of fraud.

"If, as you say, you were forced to pursue this imposture from
childhood, I can forgive you, and I am sure that God will; for he
turns not back the truly repentant. I will not upbraid you. I am sure
you have suffered as much as any penalty, human or divine, could
cause you to suffer. The disclosures that you make take from me all
that I cherished most. There is nothing left for me now but to hope
for the reality of that repose which death promises us.

"It is perhaps better that the delusion should be at last swept away
by one single word, and that word 'fraud.'

"I know that the pursuit of this shadowy belief has wrought upon my
brain and that I am no longer my old self. Money I have spent in
thousands and thousands of dollars within a few short years to
propitiate the 'mediumistic' intelligence. It is true that never once
have I received a message or the token of a word that did not leave a
still unsatisfied longing in my heart, a feeling that it was not
really my loved one after all, who was speaking to me, or if it was
my loved one, that he was changed, that I hardly knew him and that he
hardly knew me. Oh! how I have hated the thought that used to come to
me sometimes, in spite of myself, that it was not really he. But that
must have been the true intuition. It is better that the delusion is
past, after all, for had I kept on in that way, I am sure I should
have gone mad. The constant seeking, the frequent pretended response,
its unsatisfying meaning, the sense of distance and change between me
and my loved one--oh! it has been horrible, horrible!

"He who is dying of thirst and has the sweet cup ever snatched from
his lips, just as the first drop touches them--he alone can know what
in actual things is the similitude of this spiritualistic torture.

"God bless you, for I think that you now speak the truth. You have my
forgiveness at least, and I believe that thousands of others will
forgive you, for the atonement made in season wipes out much of the
stain of the early sin.

"Yours sincerely,
"ANNA SUZANNE."

To these letters and to hundreds of others which Mrs. Kane and her sister Mrs. Jencken have received, this volume is their response.

But besides this, they have appeared in public on the platform, as an earnest of their present sincerity, and will probably continue so to appear in various parts of this country and Europe.

On the 21st of October, 1888, Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane first fulfilled her intention of publicly denouncing, with her own lips, Spiritualism and its attendant trickery. She appeared at the Academy of Music in New York before a large and distinguished audience, and without reservation demonstrated the falsity of all that she had done in the past in the guise of spiritualistic "mediumship."

The ordeal was a severe one. The great nervous strain under which she had labored rendered her mind highly excitable, and the large number of spiritualists in the house tried to create a disturbance, or a traitorous diversion which would break the force of her renunciation. In this they utterly failed, however, thanks to the superior character of a majority of her auditors.

The moral effect of the exposure could not have been greater.

Mrs. Kane stood before the footlights trembling with intense feeling, and made the following most solemn abjuration of Spiritualism, while Mrs. Catharine Fox Jencken sat in a neighboring box and gave assent by her presence to all that she said:

"That I have been chiefly instrumental in perpetrating the fraud of Spiritualism upon a too confiding public, most of you doubtless know.

"The greatest sorrow of my life has been that this is true, and though it has come late in my day, I am now prepared to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,--so help me God!

"There are probably many here who will scorn me for the deception I have practiced, yet did they know the true history of my unhappy past, the living agony and shame that it has been to me, they would pity, not reproach.

"The imposition which I have so long maintained began in my early childhood, when, with character and mind still unformed, I was unable to distinguish between right and wrong.

"I repented it in my maturity. I have lived through years of silence, through intimidation, scorn and bitter adversity, concealing as best I might, the consciousness of my guilt. Now, thanks to God and my awakened conscience, I am at last able to reveal the fatal truth, the exact truth of this hideous fraud which has withered so many hearts and has blighted so many hopeful lives.

"I am here to-night as one of the founders of Spiritualism, to denounce it as an absolute falsehood from beginning to end, as the flimsiest of superstitions, the most wicked blasphemy known to the world.

"I ask only your kind attention and forgiveness, and as I may prove myself worthy by the step I am now taking, may you extend to me your helping hands and sustain me in the better path I have chosen."

The demonstration of the method by which the "rappings" were produced was a perfect success, as is best shown by the following succinct account, which formed a part of the article on the subject published by the New York _World_ on the following morning:

A plain wooden stool or table, resting upon four short legs, and
having the properties of a sounding board, was placed in front of
her. Removing her shoe, she placed her right foot upon this table.
The entire house became breathlessly still, and was rewarded by a
number of little short, sharp raps--those mysterious sounds which
have for more than forty years frightened and bewildered hundreds of
thousands of people in this country and Europe. A committee,
consisting of three physicians taken from the audience, then ascended
to the stage, and having made an examination of her foot during the
progress of the "rappings," unhesitatingly agreed that the sounds
were made by the action of the first joint of her large toe.

Only the most hopelessly prejudiced and bigoted fanatics of
Spiritualism could withstand the irresistable force of this
common-place explanation and exhibition of how "spirit rappings" are
produced. The demonstration was perfect and complete, and if "spirit
rappings" find any credence in this community hereafter, it would
seem a wise precaution on the part of the authorities to begin the
enlargement of the State's insane asylums without any delay.

III. HISTORY.