The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-22
THE ORIGIN OF SPIRITUALISM
4 CONFIDANT OF THE FOX SISTERS
 TELLS THE STORY
Of the Rise of the Delusion and the Contempt the Sisters Felt for Believers fr.U

Fifty years ago modern Spiritualism
 arose near and in Rochester, in New
 York. There were three Fox sisters
 namely, Mrs. Leah Fish, a young wid-
 oW, who afterward was Mrs. Underhill,
 the wife of the president of a New York
 Insurance company; Margaret, better
 known as Maggie, and Catherine, also
 known generally as Kate. Leah was a
 half-sister, and much older than Maggie
 and Kate, and evidently an experienced
 woman. Maggie was born in 1886, and
 therefore could only be from twelve to
 thirteen years of age when the mysteri-
 ous noises were first heard al Hydes-
 vile, Wayne county, N. Y, in 1S4S. Kate was younger than Maggie by near
 ly three years, and her age, consequent
 ly, would be about ten years. Mrs. Fox,
 the mother, stated in an interview with
 her several years subsequent to the com
 mencement of the "rappings'' that the
 relative ages of Maggie and Kate were
 fourteen and twelve when the noises
 were first heard at Hydesville. It is
 highly probable that this smple-minded
 old lady spoke in an off-hand sort of
 way and made a mistake of a year or
 two. But whether she did or not, it is
 certain that both the young sisters were
 merely children. And this fact is dwelt
 upon by Spiritualist believers as show
 ing that these children were too young
 to practice deception, and it went far to
 induce many intelligent people to be-
 1ieve there must be some foundation for
 the manifestations exhibited afterward
 by the little Fox girls.
 All three, Leah, Maggie and Kate, are dead. Although Leah was much less
 known to the public in the inception and
 progress of Spiritualism than her sisters,
 in fact, not professing to be medium,
 she had nevertheless most to do with
 working up and carrying on the so-
 called spirit manifestations. She was a
 shredw, cunning and determined woman.
 Her little sisters were completely under
 her control, as also was the mother, who was a plain, uncultivated, good-natured and credulous country woman
 Maggie, in later years, speaking one
 day to me of the credulity of the "old
 Spiritualists,' as she called them, told
 me that her mother even was believer in Spiritualism and died believing it, so well were the secret practices of her children kept from her. Then people .SOInGLlIHGS JGdI UT lCll llCS so ioiis5 cllNi consistently that they finally forget the origin of them and believe them to be true The so-called prenomena arose at the house of Michael Weekman, village of Hydesville, Wayne county, N. Y, Weekmkan, it was said, heard mysterl- cus noises or Enockings at his door, It was an old, dilapidated building. He left it in 1847, and then the Fox family went to live there, the rent being low and they being poor. They reported that mysterious sounds were heard by them in the house in March, 1S4S.
 When Mrs. Fox, some years after, spoke of the matter, she said: The | noises seemed to be in one of the bed- rooms and sounded as if some one was knocking on the floor or moving chairs. On Friday night we concluded 10 go to | bed very early because we had been | broken of our rest so much. had 1 lust laid down in bed when the noise began. It commenced as usual l knew it from all other noises had ever heard. The girls (Maggie and Kate), who slept in the other bed of the room heard the noise and tried to make similar noise by enapping their fingers As fast as the youngest one made the noise with her hands or fin gers the sound was followed up in the room, it making the same number of noises the girl did. When she stopped it stopped. The other girl then spoke in sport and said: Now, do just as I do, count one, two, three, four, etc. she striking one hand in the other at the same time. The blows which she made were repeated as before, blow after blow. She then began to be star tied. I then said to the noise, Count 10 in the same way, it making ten strokes. The ages of the children were rapped out. I asked if it were hu- man being making the noise, but no came. I asked if it were a spirit to signify by two sounds, and two were made
 A few months after these alleged the Fox family removed from Hydesville to Rochester, where they resided with Mrs. Leah Fish, the half sister of the two little girls. The rappings~ continued in that city and other people began to have like rap pings. Generally the rappings of the Fox sisters were only heard when they were together They went to Auburn dAd OtuSI pla1CS III tilol CCNtiOli OL 4NCN York, where in 1S49 they made their manifestations before an audience in 3 public hall. In May, 1850, they went to New York ,ity, where their proceedings became ; he topic of much public discussion. At , the same time Spiritualst mediums" sprung up in many different parts of ] he country, the business having be- come too enticing, with prospects of profit, to escape adventures in it. . When Spiritualism had become a f business Maggie and Kate I lsed to make noises by snapDing their i oe and finger joints. Maggie especial f y was an adept in thus making dis ' inct and sharp sounds. Besides every r killed conjurer knows there are diff r erent ways of producing sounds or ! the source of which would be c unknown to an audience. Q While the family remained at Hydes- 1 r lille the sensation was only local and e investigation did not go far but when, f hree months after, they left the V haunted house and went to live at i Rochester with Leah Fish quite a SpiS- q tra1istic revival commenced, Mrs. ! ', Fox, the mother. practically disap- il eared and only knew what her dauph- | o