Of course a knowledge of these things could not be kept secret. The news soon spread, and the utmost excitement prevailed in the little village and beyond it. Neigh bors flocked in, and the house was besieged, and the time of the family wholly taken up with curious and eager visitors. Formal depositions appeared in more than one publica tion. The earliest of these, published April, 1848—a pamphlet of 40 pages—contains 21 certificates, chiefly given by the immediate neighbors. Most of the witnesses offer to confirm their statements, if necessary, under oath, and express their conviction that the family had no agency in producing these sounds.
It was found that these were more marked in the presence of Kate Fox, and in the hope of getting rid of these annoyances, Kate was sent on a visit to Mrs. Fish, a married sister, at Rochester. The only result being that, while the tappings did not cease at Hydesville, a new and more extended scene of operations was given them at Rochester, whither they followed Kate, and were found also to accompany her sister, and a girl who resided with them.
On one occasion a visitor suggested that the alphabet should be called over, to see if the sounds would respond to the required letters, and so spell out a communication. A shower of raps followed, as if to say: "Yes, that is what we wantl" The first message so given, was: "We are all your dear friends and relatives." Then the name of "Jacob Smith," Mrs. Fish's grandfather, was given. Previous to the spiritual telegraphy thus commenced, the only mode of communication had been by asking questions, one rap being understood as an answer in the negative, three in the affirmative, and two, doubt ful, or that the answer could not then be given. It was now asked that a signal should he given when the alphabet was required; this was responded to by five strokes, which was henceforth understood as a call for the alphabet; and so a code of signals was instituted.
Similar demonstrations occurred about this time, independently, in the homes of some of the most respectable inhabitants of Rochester. At length it was communicated by the rapping that the facts should be given to the world,' with a view to open up a more extended intercourse; and instructions were given as to where, how, and by whom this was to be done. There was much difficulty in getting the parties named to take lthe responsibility, and incur the discredit and ridicule of this step: but their scruples were at length overcome; and on Nov. 14, 1848, a public lecture, giving a simple narra tive of the facts, was delivered in the Corinthian ball, Rochester, to an audience of about 400 people. The rappings, as had been promised, were distinctly heard in all parts of the hall; and a committee was appointed by the audience to investigate the sub ject, and report at a subsequent meeting. The committee all agree that the sounds were heard; but they entirely failed to discover any means by which they were pro duced.
This result was very different to what had been confidently anticipated, and the dis satisfied audience, amazed at the failure, appointed a second committee, which it was expected would make such an investigation as could not fail to find out the trick; and when this committee, after the strictest investigation, only confirmed the judgment of its predecessor, the excitement became intense; and a third- committee was appointed, consisting of those who had shown the most determined hostility to the reports of the previous committees, and who had expressed the utmost confidence in their ability to detect the imposition. It certainly was no fault of theirs that they did not. They resorted to every means their ingenuity could devise; but no fraud could be detected, no explanation given. The "mediums" were separated, and their friends were rigor ously excluded from the sittings of the committee. They were unexpectedly removed, first to one house, then to another. A committee of ladies divested them of their cloth ing; feather pillows were placed under their feet; the stethoscope was applied to see that there was no movement of the lungs by which the sounds could be made. Under every condition imposed the obstinate raps came—on Boors, floors, walls, ceiling; the place seemed alive with them. When this final committee, baffled and mortified, made known their failure, the meeting broke up in the greatest excitement and confusion. ,
But the-object was gained: the facts were reported and commented on in all the journals throughout the country.
Circles for investigation were now everywhere formed, and not only were the rap-4 lugs obtained, but new phases of these strange phenomena were constantly developed. In Forty Years of AMerlea71 Life, by Thomas Low Nichols, we read: "Dials were made with movable hands, which pointed out letters and answered questions without apparent human aid. The hands of mediums, acting convulsively, and, as they averred, without their volition, wrote things apparently beyond their knowledge, in documents purporting to be signed by departed spirits. Their writings were sometimes made upside down, or reversed so as only to be read through the paper or in a mirror. Some mediums wrote with both hands at a time, different messages, without, as they said, being conscious of either. There were speaking mediums, who declared thernselved tp be the merely passive instruments of the spirits. Some represented, most faithfully, it was said, the actions, voices, and appearance of persons long dead; others, blindfolded, drew portraits, said to be likenesses of deceased persons they had never seen—the ordi nary work of hours being done in a few minutes. Sometimes the names of deceased persons and short messages appeared in raised red lines upon the skin of the medium. Ponderous bodies, as heavy dining-tables and piano-fortes, were raised from the floor, falling again with a crash and jar. Tables on which several persons were seated were in like manner raised into the air by souse invisible force. Mediums are said to have been raised into the air and floated about above the heads of the spectators. Writings and pictures were produced without visible hands. • Persons were touched by invisible, and sometimes by visible hands. Various musical instruments were played upon with out visible agency. Strange feats of legerdemain, as the untying of complicated rope knottings in an incredible short time, astonished many.' Voices were heard, which purported to be those of spirits. In a word, over a vast extent of country, from e. to w„ these phenomena existed, or were said to exist, in hundreds of places, aura were witnessed by many thousands of people—numbers of whom were of the highest credibility, and the mass of those people whose testimony no one would think of impeaching in a trial of life and death." Many theories were invented to explain these phenomena; they are now for the most past obsolete or forgotten. Each theory generally began by exploding its predecessors, and was in turn exploded by its successors. No sooner was a theory invented to explain one class of facts than another sprang up for which it made no provision, and to which it was manifestly inadequate. Not only did the flame spread, but sometimes the extin guishers caught fire; and those who at first were its opponents, ended as its advocates. The most obdurate materialists became convinced of a future life for man by the experi mental evidence spiritualism supplied. For instance. prof. Hare instituted a series of experiments intended to prove that the phenomena were wholly due to natural causes; and the public, and men of science in particular, were surprised when, in place of this explanation, there appeared a large work with his name as its author, entitled ASperitual ism Scientifically Demonstrated; and with diagrams of ingenious apparatus invented by him to test the genuineness of the phenomena. The lion. J. W. Edmonds, judge in the supreme court of appeals for the state of New York, brought to bear upon the subject a mind trained by long judicial experience, and the careful sifting of evidence. He investigated with many different mediums, and took notes as carefully as though in court. To his great astonishment he found he was himself a medium, and under the title Spiritualism he published two large volumes, narrating his investigations, and spiritual communications. His daughter, Laura, also became a medium, and under smite foreign influence would sometimes answer freely in languages with which in her normal state she was wholly unacquainted.