The last rap was rapped; the spirits sadly departed. For two weeks the little group of faithful in Rochester lived under a cloud. Then there came to Rochester from Auburn a Mr. E. W. Capron, at whose house Katie was staying, and who also had developed or discovered the mysterious gift. He became one of the leading apostles of the early movement, and its chief historian. Whatever words of persuasion he used, they were effective. Leah (Mrs. Fish) and Margaretta opened a public hall in Rochester, and became professional mediums. Mr. Capron went back to Auburn, and that town also was soon busy with professional mediums.
The town of Rochester was rent in twain. Do you, or do you not believe it, was a question that dwarfed every political issue and all interest in the harvest. Committees were appointed with American facility, and came to no conclusion. Leah Fish (who about this time married her lodger, Mr. Brown) bore her younger sisters triumphantly through the ordeal. The professors of Buffalo University, not far away, challenged her. They held that the sounds were produced, as it is possible to do, by the girls cracking their knee-joints. Leah boldly accepted the challenge. It was really with the joints of their toes that the sisters produced the noises, and Leah felt that they were safe. In point of fact, the professors so placed or bound their legs that they could not use their toes, and there were no "raps."
In spite of this crucial experiment, the movement spread like a fire on a prairie in autumn. The august
