_Punch_ called the _furore_ over the spirit rope-tyers the "tie-fuss fever," and said the mediums were "Ministers of the Interior, with a seat in the Cabinet." J. N. Maskelyne, the London conjurer of Egyptian Hall, wrote of them: "About the Davenport Brothers' performances, I have to say that they were and still remain the most inexplicable ever presented to the public as of spiritual origin; and had they been put forth as feats of jugglery would have awakened a considerable amount of curiosity though certainly not to the extent they did." In September, 1865, the Brothers arrived in Paris, and placarded the city with enormous posters announcing that the Brothers Davenport, spirit-mediums, would give a series of public séances at the _Salle Herz_. Their reputation had preceded them to France and the _boulevardiers_ talked of nothing but the wonderful American mediums and their mysterious cabinet. Before exhibiting in Paris the Davenports visited the _Chateau de Gennevilliers_, whose owner was an enthusiastic believer in Spiritism, and gave a séance before a select party of journalists and scientific men. The exhibition was pronounced marvellous in the extreme and perfectly inexplicable. The Parisian press was divided on the subject of the Davenports and their advertised séances. Some of the papers protested against such performances on the ground that they were dangerous to the mental health of the public, and, one writer said, "Particularly to those weaker intellects which are always ready enough to accept as gospel the tricks and artifices of the adepts of sham witchcraft." M. Edmond About, the famous journalist and novelist, in the _Opinion Nationale_, wrote a scathing denunciation of Spiritism, but all to no purpose, except to inflame public curiosity. The performances of the Davenports were divided into two parts: (1) The light séance, (2) the dark séance. In the light séance a cabinet, elevated from the stage by three trestles, was used. It was a simple wooden structure with three doors. In the centre door was a lozenge-shaped window covered with a curtain. Upon the sides of the cabinet hung various musical instruments, a guitar, a violin, horns, tambourines, and a big dinner bell. [Illustration: FIG. 22. THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS IN THEIR CABINET.]