-or
perhaps its only--origin, in the morbid imaginations of those who were the
first to set it going.

CHAPTER VIII.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE FRAUD.

Now we come to the moment when Ann Leah Fox Fish, the eldest sister,
thirty-one years of age at that time, appears upon the scene of the
wondrous and so-called supernatural commotion at the little rustic hamlet
of Hydesville.

No "mediumistic" suggestions or impulses had ever come to her. Not one,
though she had lived twenty-three years longer in the world than the
dark-eyed, fascinating little girl who produced the first mysterious
sounds in her mother's home.

The excitement had reached a great height, and a pamphlet was already in
the press detailing the whole of the wonderful performances at Hydesville,
when Leah first heard of them. She hastened thither at once. Some idea of
the profit which could be derived from awakened public interest in the
matter, seems to have come to her very promptly. She found that the family
had moved from the "haunted" house to that of her brother, David. She
investigated the source of the "raps." Mrs. Kane says that one of the
first things which she did upon her arrival at the house, was to take both
her and Katie apart and to cause them to undress and to show her the
manner of producing the mysterious noises. Never for a moment was the cold
and calculating brain of the eldest sister a dupe to the cunning pranks of
the little children. So interested was she in the matter, that she
insisted upon taking back with her to Rochester, at the end of a
fortnight, her daughter Lizzie, and Katie, her sister--Maggie not being
inclined to go with her. And, in the interval, she practised "rapping"
herself, with her toes, after the manner illustrated by the girls. She
found great difficulty in producing the same effect, however, as the
joints of her feet were no longer as pliable as in childhood. The effort
required was also much greater, and never during her whole lifetime did
she succeed in attaining to much proficiency in this method of deception.
The pronounced movement, necessary in her case to cause even a faint sound
to be heard, was easy to detect.

"Often," says Mrs. Kane, "when we were giving seances together, I have
been ashamed and mortified by the awkward manner in which she would do it.
People would observe the effort she made to produce even moderate
'rappings,' and then they would look at me in suspicion and surprise. It
requi