hing is damnable, and it should long ago
have been trampled, out as one would trample out the life of a
serpent."

CHAPTER V.

SOLEMN ABJURATION.

The news that Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane and Mrs. Catherine Fox Jencken had
renounced and exposed Spiritualism, flew from one end of the country to
the other, and caused excitement among spiritualists and
non-spiritualists. Every newspaper in every city of the United States, and
many in Europe, repeated the story published in New York.

The general opinion everywhere, where the wish was not the opposite, was
that Spiritualism as such had received its death-blow.

Letters began to pour in upon Mrs. Kane which were strongly significant of
the effect of her action. Many of them were written by persons who had
been believers from the very first of the public exhibitions of the
"rappings," and who had based their whole faith on the truth and veritable
inspiration of the "Fox Sisters." It was almost pitiable to witness the
honest-hearted distress of people of this sort, who now saw the fondest
illusion of their lives dissolve before their eyes; their dearest, assured
hope of an invisible world ruthlessly torn from them.

The anger of those who now anathematized the founders of the
spiritualistic faith, and declared that all that they could now say in way
of recantation was utterly false, while all that they had formerly said or
performed as miraculous proof, was, of course, as true as gospel, or as
the fact that the sun shines, was quite as ridiculous as the other
sentiment was worthy of sympathy.

It was natural that those who had fed their baser passions upon
Spiritualism--as the harpy upon carrion--should resort to the vilest
methods of attacking Mrs. Kane, and in doing so should shelter themselves
behind the cowardly refuge of anonymity.

A single communication from one of those who thus set the gauge for our
estimate of spiritualistic hypocrisy, will suffice to complete the
reader's impression regarding them. It was written on a postal card and
unsigned, and the italics and other literary peculiarities are wholly
those of the person who wrote it:

"Mrs. Kane. Your anticipated action Thursday night reminds me _very
forcibly_ of several lines of 'Beautiful snow' only your Course is
even _more despicable_ and your rank in the history of the present
day will be on a par with Benedict Arnold in 'Beautiful Snow' we find
'Selling her