“One would think that Margaret Fox got drunk, and in that condition, was induced to confess that she was a fraud, but when she became sober she renounced her confession. That is what we would think to hear some Spiritualists talk. _She was sober when the made her confession; she was sober when she appeared in the theatre and gave her exposé. In fact she was usually sober._ She drank considerably during the later years of her life, and often drank too much, _but usually she was sober_. One of her reasons for drinking was that her hypocrisy had become more and more distasteful to her. Living a constant lie got on her nerves, and, when the later years came, she didn’t have the same degree of vital force that she had in her younger days to battle off the dictates of her conscience.” [9] _New York World_, October 22, 1888. [10] From Ruben Briggs Davenport’s “The Death Blow to Spiritualism.” [11] _Ibid._ [12] These statements are fully corroborated by letters on file in my library and I consider it not only a privilege, but a duty as well to truthfully present them here. [13] Ira, the surviving brother, was so touched by this little act that he taught me the famous Davenport rope-tie, the secret of which had been so well kept that not even his sons knew it. [14] It was in Paris too that the other brother, William Henry Harrison Davenport, met the great Adah Isaacs Menken, called the “Bengal Tiger,” and though not generally known she later became his wife. She was considered one of the “Ten Super-Women of the World.” She was born within a few miles of New Orleans, La., in 1835. Upon the death of her father she embarked on her stage career and instantaneously won success.... She made her first appearance in New York City at the National Theatre in 1860. She was married a number of times. Her first marriage was to John C. Heenan, the prize fighter, better known as “Benicia Boy.” She was the first woman to do the Mazeppa in tights, playing the rôle both in America and Europe. While in London she became the literary and professional star of the hour and her hotel was the meeting place for such men as Charles Dickens, Swinburne, Alexander Dumas, Charles Reade, Watts Phillips, John Oxenford, The Duke of Hamilton and many others. She wrote a book of poems named “Infelicity,” which she dedicated to Charles Dickens. She had a penchant for being photographed with many of her admirers and there is a rare photograph of her and Swinburne which he tried hard to suppress. Another famous one is of Dumas and the fair lady. [15] They were married in London during March, 1866. [16] Long after Ira died his only daughter, Zellie, a well known actress, told me that while her father and I were so absorbed in discussing and experimenting with the rope trick she and her mother cautiously slipped behind the curtains and watched us through the bedroom window.