"I am here to-night as one of the founders of Spiritualism, to denounce it as an absolute falsehood from beginning to end, as the flimsiest of superstitions, the most wicked blasphemy known to the world. "I ask only your kind attention and forgiveness, and as I may prove myself worthy by the step I am now taking, may you extend to me your helping hands and sustain me in the better path I have chosen." The demonstration of the method by which the "rappings" were produced was a perfect success, as is best shown by the following succinct account, which formed a part of the article on the subject published by the New York _World_ on the following morning: A plain wooden stool or table, resting upon four short legs, and having the properties of a sounding board, was placed in front of her. Removing her shoe, she placed her right foot upon this table. The entire house became breathlessly still, and was rewarded by a number of little short, sharp raps--those mysterious sounds which have for more than forty years frightened and bewildered hundreds of thousands of people in this country and Europe. A committee, consisting of three physicians taken from the audience, then ascended to the stage, and having made an examination of her foot during the progress of the "rappings," unhesitatingly agreed that the sounds were made by the action of the first joint of her large toe. Only the most hopelessly prejudiced and bigoted fanatics of Spiritualism could withstand the irresistable force of this common-place explanation and exhibition of how "spirit rappings" are produced. The demonstration was perfect and complete, and if "spirit rappings" find any credence in this community hereafter, it would seem a wise precaution on the part of the authorities to begin the enlargement of the State's insane asylums without any delay. III. HISTORY. CHAPTER VI. ORIGIN OF THE FRAUD. There are spiritualists who pretend that so-called "spirit rappings" originated long before the Hydesville disturbances took place. These declarations, however, are of no value as actual evidence. In any event, there is no claim that in their cause and general character these manifestations, so-called, were very different from similar ones of the present day. The "rappings" produced by the "Fox Sisters" are certainly the first of which there is an authentic account. They began in a little rustic cottage at a place called Hydesville, in the town of Arcadia, near Newark, Wayne County, New York. Here John D. Fox and his wife Margaret dwelt with their two daughters, Margaret and Catherine. Two other children, Ann Leah and David S., lived elsewhere. There was sometimes a fifth member of the household, also a child. This was Elizabeth Fish, the daughter of Leah, and therefore the niece of Margaret and Catherine. She was seven years older than the elder of the two latter.