Arizona republican., 1899-07-05
CLEVER Ir1pOSTORS
Some Interesting Facts About inc
 Three Fox Sisters.

Ow, who afterW1Td was Mrs. UnderhNl,
 the wife Of the president of a New
 York insurance company; Margaret, | better known as Maggie, and Cather-
 inc, also. known generally as Kate. Leah was naf sister. and much old
 CT than Maggie and Kate and evidl lt- | ly an experienced woman Maggie was
 born in 1886, and therefore could only
 be from twelve to thirteen years of age
 when the mysterious noises were nrst
 heard at Hydesville. Wayne county.
 N. Y, in 1S4S. Kate was younger than l Maggie by nearly three years. and her
 age, consequently, would be about 10
 years. Mrs. Fox, the mother, staysd
 in an interview with her several years
 subsequent to the commencement of
 the ''rapIingS" that the relative ages
 Of Maggie and Kate were 14 and 12 | when the IDise5 were first heard at l Hydesville. It is highly probable t1lls
 this simple minded old lady spoke in
 Rn offhand sort of way and made a
 mistake of a year or two. But whe h. | GIT she did or not, it IS certain that | both the young sisters were msre,y | children. And this faC1 Is dwelt upon by spiTitualtsts believers as showing y
 practice deception, and it went far to
 induce many Intelligent people to be-
 leve there must be some foundation
 for the manifestation exhibited aft:r-
 ward by the little Fox girls.
 All three, Leah, Maggie and Kate
 are dead. Although Leah was much
 l1lSs known to the public in the incsp,
 ton and progress of sp:ritualism than her sisters in fact, not protesting to be a medium, she had nevertheless
 most to do with working up and car
 ry'lng on the so-called spirit manifes- | d1;lons. She was a shrewd, cunning
 and determined woman. Her little sis ts'rs were completely under her con- | trol, as also was the mother, who w13s
 a plain, uncultivated. good natured
 and credulous country woman.
 Maggie, in later years. speaking ore Guy to me of the credulity of the "old
 sp.rituaEsts, as she called them, told
 rrfo that her mother even was a baCev-
 CT in spfri tuaMsm and disd believing
 in 1t, so well were the secret practices
 of her children kept from her Then people sometimes hear or tell l;as 50
 long and pe-sistently that they finally forget the orgin of them and believe
 them to be true.
 The so-called phenomena arose at the house of Michi3el Weekman, VII lage of Hydesville, Wayne county, N
 Y. Weekman, it was said, heard mys-
 teIious noises or knockings at his door. It was an old. dilapidated building
 He left it in 1S47, and then the Fox family went to live there, the rent be- ing low and they being poor. They reported that mysterious sounds were heard by them in the house in March, 1S48
 When. Mrs. Fox, some years after, spoke of the matter she said: '"The ncises seemed to be in one of the bel rooms, and sounded as if some one was knocking on the floor or moving chairs. On Friday night we concludad to go to bed very early, because we had been broken of our rest So much. I had just laid down in bed when the noise began. Maggie and Kate, who slept in the other bed of the room, | heard the noise and tried to make 9 | similar nose by snapp.ng their fin | gers. As fast as the youngest one | made the noise with her hands CT 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 ! do-count one, two, thr5z, four, etc, i she striking one hand in the other at | the same time The blows which she i made were repeated as before, blow after blow. She then began to Ee | startled. I then said to the noise, Count ten in the same way it making ten strokes. The ages Of the children were rapped out. I asked if it wen3 a human being making the noise, but no response came. I asked if it were a spirit to signify by two sounds, and two were made
 A few months after these alleged !. manifestations the Fox family re- moved from Hydesvi1le to Rochester, where they resided with Ms. Leah Fish, the half-sister of the two EttIe girls. The rappings continued in that city and other people began to have like rapp-ngs. Generally the rappLags of the Fox sisters were. only heard when they were together. Th5y went to Auburn and other places in that section of New York. where in 1849 they mads their manifestations be- fore an audience in public hall.
 In May, 1850, they went to New York city, where the-r proceedings be came the topic of much public discus sion At the same time spirituaIist mediums sprang up in many differ ! ent parts of the country, the bu-ine.s 1c1N Ing U6COIlC IOO 611I4C1HS5, W4lu poets of profit, to escape adventures {. n it.
 When spiritualism had become dOurishing business Maggie and Kate I Lsed to make noises by snapping their l ]oe and finger joints. Maggie espe- I ;ially was an adept in thus making Y -istinct and sharp sounds. Besldes C every skilled cOnjurer knows there ' Lre different ways of producing sounds )r rapp-ngs the source of which would Q )e unknown to an audience. [
 While the family remained at s 1ydesville the sensation was only b. f al, and invest gation did not go far, g put when, three months after, they l5ft t he haunted" house and went to live t lt Rochester With Leah Fish qu.ta 9 t .tt-.,l ;.-A: - (