ver the foot-lights, knocked
Ferguson backward into the "cabinet;" and when the discomfited agent had
scrambled out and run away, smashed the thing fairly into
kindling-wood, and carried it off, all distributed into splinters and
chips. Early next morning, the terrified Davenports ran away out of
Liverpool; and a number of the audience were, at last accounts,
intending to go to law to get back the money paid for an exhibition
which they did not see.

The very thorough exposure of the Davenports thus made is an additional
proof--if such were needed--of the truth of what I have alleged about
the impostures perpetrated by them and their "mysterious" brethren of
the exhibiting sort.

Once the "spirits" were "stumped" with a shingle--a very proper yankee
jaw-bone of an ass to route such disembodied Philistines. One day a
certain person was present where some tables were rambling about, and
other revolutions taking place in the furniture-business, when he
stepped boldly forth like a herald bearing defiance, and cast down a
common white pine shingle upon the floor. "There," said he, coolly, "if
you can trot those tables about in that style, do it with that shingle.
Make it go about the room. Make it move an inch!" And lo, and behold!
the shingle lay perfectly still.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS SHOWN UP ONCE MORE.--DR. NEWTON AT CHICAGO.--THE
SPIRITUALIST BOGUS BABY.--A LADY BRINGS FORTH A MOTIVE FORCE.--"GUM"
ARABIC.--SPIRITUALIST HEBREW.--THE ALLEN BOY.--DR. RANDALL.--PORTLAND
EVENING COURIER.--THE FOOLS NOT ALL DEAD YET.

Other "spiritual" facts have come to my hand, some of them furnishing
additional details about persons to whom I have already alluded, and
others being important to illustrate some general tendencies of
spiritualism.

And first, about the Davenport Brothers; they have met with another
"awful exposure," at the hands of a merciless Mr. Addison. This
gentleman is a London stockbroker, and his cool, sharp business habits
seem to have stood him in good stead in taking some fun out of the fools
who follow the Davenports. Mr. Addison, it seems, went to work, and,
just to amuse his friends, executed all the Davenport tricks. Upon this
the spiritualist newspapers in England, which, like the Boston Herald of
Progress, claim to believe in the "Brothers," came out and said that
Addison was a very wonderful medium indeed. On this the cold-blooded
Addison at once printed a letter, in which he n