, however, was perfect while it lasted.

"You do well to expose these infamous frauds, and I thank you for
having enlightened me.

"Sincerely yours,
"H. WEDGEWOOD."

And later Mrs. Kane, in outlining her proposed public lecture, said:

"I am going to expose the very root of corruption in this
spiritualistic ulcer. You talk about Mormonism! Do you know that
there is something behind the shadowy mask of Spiritualism that the
public can hardly guess at? I am stating now what I know, not because
I actually participated in it, for I would never be a party to such
promiscuous nastiness, but because I had plenty of opportunity, as
you may imagine, of verifying it. Under the name of this dreadful,
this horrible hypocrisy--Spiritualism--everything that is improper,
bad and immoral is practiced. They go even so far as to have what
they call 'spiritual children!' They pretend to something like the
immaculate conception! Could anything be more blasphemous, more
disgusting, more thinly deceptive than that? In London I went in
disguise to a quiet seance at the house of a wealthy man, and I saw
a so-called materialization. The effect was produced with the aid of
luminous paper, the lustre of which was reflected upon the operator.
The figure thus displayed was that of a woman--was virtually nude,
being enveloped in transparent gauze, the face alone being concealed.
This was one of those seances to which the privileged non-believing
friends of believing spiritualists could have access. But there are
other seances, where none but the most tried and trusted are
admitted, and where there are shameless goings on that vie with the
secret Saturnalia of the Romans. I could not describe these things to
you, because I would not."

Thus, the only one of the "Fox Sisters" who still adhered to the imposture
practiced for over forty years, and the only spiritualist who could deny
the statements of Margaret Fox Kane with anything approaching to
authority, found her safest and most fitting defense in the kindly shelter
of silence.

This quasi-confession was not needed to complete the conviction in
intelligent minds that Spiritualism was, in its inception, and is now, a
fraud and a lie. But the significance of the negative circumstance is none
the less worthy of note.

CHAPTER III.

A SECOND BLOW.

B