it. Spiritualism is a humbug from beginning to end.
It is the greatest humbug of the century. I don't know whether she
has told you this, but Maggie and I started it as very little
children, too young, too innocent, to know what we were doing. Our
sister Leah was twenty-three years older than either of us. We got
started in the way of deception, and being encouraged in it, we went
on, of course. Others, old enough to have been ashamed of the infamy,
took us out into the world. My sister Leah has published a book
called 'The Missing Link of Spiritualism.' It professes to give the
true history of this movement, so far as it originated with us. Now,
there's nothing but falsehood in that book from beginning to end,
excepting the fact that Horace Greeley educated me. The rest is
nothing but a string of lies."

"And about the manifestations at Hydesville in 1848 and the finding
of bones in the cellar and so on?"

"All humbuggery, every bit of it."

"And yet Maggie and I are the founders of Spiritualism!" concluded
Mrs. Jencken.

On the next day Mrs. Jencken made the statement which appears in the
following:

Mrs. Jencken was asked about the alleged spirit manifestations which
have taken place in Carlyle's old home at Chelsea, London, where she
has lately resided. The English papers have been filled with stories,
more or less sceptical, regarding these queer occurrences. Mrs.
Jencken said: "All that took place there of that nature is utterly
false. I haven't the slightest idea that the noises which we heard in
the house had any connection with Carlyle's spirit. I certainly know
that every so-called manifestation produced through me in London or
anywhere else was a fraud. Many a time have I wept because when I was
young and innocent I was brought into such a life. The time has now
come for Maggie and I to set ourselves right before the world. Nobody
knows at what moment either of us might be taken away. We ought not
to leave this base fabric of deceit behind us unexposed."

As may be seen, nothing could be stronger than the language employed in
these interviews by both of the repentant sisters, in denouncing their
former adhesion to a system of humbug and hypocrisy.

CHAPTER IV.

THE HAND OF THE PERSECUTOR

The public had every reason to feel a deep sympathy with