Part 3

Mr. * * * commenced at once with an account of his previous interviews and then proceeded to inquire for his beloved spirit. Rap, rap, indicated her presence, and he asked some several questions which were answered to his satisfaction, the Fox mother repeating over and over the alphabet, so fast that we could not follow to get the answer for ourselves, but the rappers being in good _practice_, seemed to find no difficulty in keeping pace. We saw in this individual, a degree of infatuation rarely to be met with in intelligent _men of the world_, and unmistakable evidence of entire mental hebetude upon this particular subject. We, however, turned his fascination to a very good account, as we shall presently show. We inquired if these rappings ever occurred any where except immediately about the persons of these girls. "Oh yes," was the mother's answer, "the sounds have been made in that wardrobe, and upon the door," etc. We pressed hard to have the raps from the wardrobe, but to our surprise and disappointment the girl got into the wardrobe, leaving the door open, and so snugly was she encased there in consequence of a partition in the wardrobe, that her dress was largely in contact with three sides or walls of the little apartment. Of course we did not expect any better or different performance from that with which we had been entertained outside the wardrobe. "Will the spirit rap here?" says the girl, and rap, rap, it came on the floor of the wardrobe. She was then requested to have the rappings made upon the sides and back of the wardrobe, which she did, taking a little extra time to arrange herself for these performances. She then requested us to put our ear to the top of the wardrobe and the rap would proceed from that quarter. We were not to be entrapped by this trick, for we knew full well the old and trite experiment of placing the ear upon one end of a long stick when a sound is made upon the other end. In this experiment the sound will always appear to be made near the ear. We therefore kept our attention fixed upon the bottom or lower part of the wardrobe, and while some present, misled by the artifice, supposed the sound came from the upper part of the wardrobe, we observed that the sound was produced where it was at first, down below, and that it was not modified in the least, which certainly ought to have been the case, if the sound had been made opposite to the person's ear. The girl then called attention to several points in the upper part of the wardrobe, and it appeared to the satisfaction of some present that the sounds came from those points, while to us it was perfectly evident that the sounds were not at all changed in direction or character, and in reality proceeded from the old quarter. Our knowledge of ventriloquism also fortified us against this trick. Ventriloquism is a deception, the success of which depends upon a certain power of modulating the voice, a correct ear for imitation of sounds, and skill and judgment in selection of time, place and circumstances for the performance. When persons present are not aware or apprised of the attempt to deceive them, the ventriloquist is not obliged to be very particular in his selection. But when his intention is announced or anticipated, his art is exercised to direct the attention of his auditors to the quarter from which he wishes the sound to appear to come. If our readers will turn to Brewster's Natural Magic on this subject, they will find many interesting tricks described on this principle. Nothing is more easy than to deceive completely, by calling the attention of persons present to sounds from a certain position or direction, while in reality the sounds are made elsewhere and in a remote quarter, provided the real origin of the sounds be concealed from the sight. So it was in the case of the raps, with those whose eyes and _expectations_ were fixed upon the top of the wardrobe. The trick was poorly done however, for the sound did not undergo the proper modification, and in fact it was out of the girl's power to modify it to suit this case. For the origin of the raps, being concealed under her dress, she could not divest it of its muffled character without exposing her art. It is particularly worthy of note here, that for these experiments in the wardrobe no particular spirit was invoked, and the raps were continued as long as necessary for the gratification of the bystanders, and were several times commenced without any particular invocation on the part of the girl, she evidently forgetting the dignity of the spirit in the excitement of the moment. This over, it was desired to have the spirits knock at the door, but they could not manifest without the girl's immediate presence, and accordingly, she placed herself against the outside of the room door, which was about two thirds open, she taking hold of the latch. We were about to take position outside, in the passage, when she remarked that the spirits would rap much better if we took hold of the door. This was rather more necessary than cunning, and the rapper knew of course that unless she or some one held the door, the knock upon it would move the door on its hinges away from her. When she was fairly fixed with her dress in contact with the door, the raps commenced upon the door. After this she turned her head and asked if the spirit would please to rap in the passage, when she gave rather a feeble rap, which suited the trick tolerably well and here the rapping ended for this visit. The rap from the passage explained the purpose of keeping us in the room, for if we had gone into the passage the trick would have failed for us, as we should have been able from our position there, to refer the sound to the right quarter viz., about the girl's feet. On the second visit we were there with our former coadjutor and several other gentlemen of eminence, and a lady of the highest respectability, strong mind, and distinguished for her indomitable energy and perseverance. Our quondam enthusiast we found there at his matins, in company with several persons eminent in political life. One of them, a member of Congress, had been endeavoring to get some spiritual communications, but became so disgusted with the _bad guessing_ of the Fox girls, that he left the room. The enthusiast, Mr. * * *, then invoked his favorite spirit and proposed a question, the answer to which was spelled out by the Fox mother as before, and he expressed himself perfectly satisfied with the answer. We then took our turn. We put down upon paper the names of three departed spirits, three diseases, and three places. In pointing to these names with the pencil, we took good care to conceal the pencil movement behind a book, and carefully guarded against any emphatic movement which should betray our will to the practiced eyes of the girls. The raps came for the wrong spirit, and rapped the wrong disease, and place of death. We then made another effort. Three names were selected, as follows, Webster, Clay, and Calhoun; Webster's was the spirit we invoked, and they hit it right this time for the name, but mark the sequel. The answer was that Webster died of CROUP! and at Salem, Mass. Of course we did not indicate by any look or movement that our inquiries had been answered correctly or incorrectly until we had got through. Our scientific friend next made a trial, and his answers were more ludicrous if possible then those we had obtained. He attempted in several ways to get replies from the spirits, being always careful to give no clue to his thoughts by outward signs, but all to no purpose. The spirits, judging from the raps, were there in abundance, but no intelligence, or correct answers could be had from them. Next another friend of ours came to the trial. He had not been accustomed to investigate such tricks, and very imprudently suffered Mr. * * * to put the questions for him. The answers came in accordance with the facts, that is the right spirit was designated by the raps, and the manner of his death. Mr. * * * put the questions each in different tone and shape, and the girls undoubtedly read him as they had done before. Noticing this, we remarked to Mr. * * * that as he had been so successful we would like to have him inquire for us, to which he readily assented. We, however premised, that he must use the same _intonation_ and _language_ in asking each question, which he agreed to do, as far as he could. This we exacted, not because we had any suspicion of collusion in this case, but as we explained it at the time, because many persons would unwittingly by emphasis or some significance indicate to the rappers, or any shrewd person, the particular object he had in view. With these precautions, the question was put to the rappers. We were to fix our thoughts upon a particular spirit, the disease of which the person died, and the place where; the name with two others was put down upon paper, the disease with several others, and also the place of death with two others. Mr. * * * propounded as follows: Will the spirit inform us of the spirit the gentleman is thinking of? Rap, rap! Yes. Will it inform us correctly? Rap, rap! Yes. Pointing to a name with a pencil, he asked, Is it this? Rap! No. Is it this? Rap, rap! Yes. Pointing to the diseases and places, with the same question each time; when the whole was gone through with, Mr. * * * asked, Has the spirit informed us correctly? Rap, rap! Yes. We were thinking of Webster's spirit, and the result was this. The rappers hit it right as to the name, but they informed us this time that Mr. Webster died of FUNGUS HÆMATODES, in Newark, New Jersey.

This was too much for forbearance, but still we kept our purpose of investigation in view, and again pleaded our own wickedness as the probable cause of these failures. "Oh! no," said they, "it will happen so sometimes." What a deeply disgusting spectacle! These girls and their mother sitting there, with all gravity, and pretending to be the "_mediums_" of communication with disembodied spirits, and dealing out such nonsense as that just related.

The rappers were then sitting some distance from the table, and we asked if the "Spirits would rap upon the table?" Rap! No. "Will the spirit _please_ to rap upon the table?" Rap, rap, rap. "Not now." It seems that three raps for the expression "Not now" was a part of the spiritual stenography, as they had occasion to use this evasion quite often to escape difficulties. "Will the spirit please to explain why it will not rap upon the table?" Rap, rap, rap! "Not now." "When will it?" "This evening, at such an hour," naming it. This last communication was spelled out by the Fox mother, and a time was named at which it would be impossible to get an opportunity to propound such a question, as they held their spiritual levee in the evening to crowds. Moreover, we had no desire to repeat the question to these tricksters, to be shuffled, as we most certainly should have been, with the same prevarication. On the occasion of our first visit, Mr. * * * said that the spirits had rapped upon his foot, while sitting at a table. The experiment was repeated by request, and very likely would have been successful, if we had not fixed our eyes very intently upon his and the rappers' feet. As it was, this feat was not performed. On the second visit, we implored the spirits to rap upon our feet. "Not now," was the answer. It was evident that we were not receiving our money's worth of spiritual manifestations according to the show-bill; but, as every failure was our gain, we were not disposed to quarrel with the rappers or the spirits. One of my scientific friends then asked if they would not rap if they were suspended in a swing, or stood upon a pillow? "Oh yes," was the reply, "we have done that; that has all been tried." One of the Fox girls proposed to send upstairs for a pillow, but it occurred to us that they _might_ rap while standing upon any _common-sized pillow_, for the reason that their dresses would cover and extend beyond the pillow, and thus give them an opportunity to get their rapping instrument down upon the floor over the sides of the pillow. We therefore proceeded immediately, while they were engaged in some conversation, to make up a cushion upon the floor to suit our own views. We gathered a number of cloaks, and laid them folded upon the floor, so as to make a circular cushion of about three and a half feet diameter, and so thick that we were persuaded no ordinary raps with their instrument could be heard through the soft mass, or if any sound should be produced it would be so modified as to betray its origin. The Fox mother objected to this preparation; but the girls said, "We know we can rap; the spirits will rap there, for they have always done so." By way of an excuse for making this cushion, we remarked that one of the coats was silk, and that we would ascertain if electricity had any thing to do with it. The Fox mother said, "All that had been tried before; and that the girls[5]could rap standing upon glass tumblers, and that she knew it must be the spirits, for these manifestations had been with them now for six years." We replied (to keep up our argument), "You know that there are persons who think these sounds are all due to some modification of electricity, and others who think that electricity is the very essence of spirituality,[6] and we wish to see in this case how far it may be concerned in the phenomena." There was no resisting this, and we were allowed to proceed. The result was exactly as we anticipated. While standing upon the cushion _they could not rap at all_. The principal rapper saw her predicament, and took her stand upon the cushion so that her dress was partly over the edge of the cushion, but this we objected to, and requested her to stand upon the centre of the cushion, upon the plea that if her dress touched the floor, it would conduct away the electricity. A perfectly empirical reason, of course; but they were none the wiser for that, and as soon as every thing was arranged to our liking, she invoked the spirit to rap. No rap came. Again and again the spirit was besought, but no response was given. She then asked her sister to come and stand upon the cushion with her, thinking, in her subtlety, that two of them would occupy so much room as to give one, at least, a chance to have her dress over the edge of the cushion. But this we were prepared for; and gathered in the skirts of their dresses upon the cushion, upon the same plea as before. The result was the same as with one. No raps. The fact was, their arts were completely baffled, the spirits had fled, and the experiment not only proved the falsity of the assertion that they could rap standing on cushions, or when suspended in a swing, but afforded the most conclusive evidence of the immediate and wilful agency of these Fox girls in producing these sounds.

Thinking to redeem themselves from the inevitable verdict of this trial, the principal rapper proposed to stand upon glass tumblers, to see if the spirits would rap then, as they had done on former occasions. She took her stand upon the tumblers. This elevated the lower border of her dress above the floor, and it so happened that one of our number was sufficiently far from her that he could have seen her feet on the rapping instrument. She invoked the spirit. "Will the spirit please to rap?" No rap. She then stooped a little, as if addressing the spirit below. "Will the spirit please to rap now?" No rap. She then stooped a little more, and by this time her dress was fairly down upon the floor, so as to cover feet and tumblers. "Will the spirit please to rap now?" Rap, rap. This was very adroitly done, but the trick was clear to us. How strange it is, that she should have been obliged to stoop, and to have invoked the spirit three times before the answer came; and, moreover, that she should look down to the floor for the spirit; and how passing strange it is that these modern spirits should have such a fondness for _long dresses_ and _girls' toes_. We then requested her to stand upon a chair, and rap. This she did promptly, and the rap came at a bidding. The sound was different from that produced upon the carpeted floor, and underwent just the proper modification of a blow struck upon a hard, uncovered, wooden seat. Here we stopped, having seen quite enough of this game of "_Fox_ and _Geese_." Before leaving the room, one of the rappers requested our scientific friend not to publish them, and another stepped up to the lady present, saying, "You do not think that I have any machinery about me to make these sounds, do you?" We have it on the authority of this lady, who seemed determined to leave nothing untried to lead to the detection of this imposture, that she asked these rappers if they would consent to a private examination of their persons, and that they refused it positively, adding that if she had any doubt as to the reality of these spiritual manifestations she would have satisfactory revelations made to her in her bed-chamber five weeks from that time. This prophetic intelligence they rapped out for the occasion according to their own fancy and usual evasive duplicity in such cases. The five weeks have passed, but the lady has, of course, received no spiritual visitations as predicted.