The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-22

story and grew angry when 1t was scoffed
at, because she believed in ghosts. Her
theory about them was amusing, for though
she was bitterly sarcastic about the theories
or SolritualistS. and denunciatory of their
practices, she believed in some of the pne-
nomena She used to say that it was not
uncommon for person to be dead several
days before he knew it. In such a case,
she said, the spirit of a man might go
around his house and on the streets, utterly
unconscious of the absence of his body, and
not infrequently would get into a tower
ing rage because nobody paid any attention
TO him.
Col. Olcott, who was for years and is still
a co-worker with her, was man of strange
qualities. His character was tried in diff
hcult government position during the civil
war, and no accusation was ever made
against his honor Enthusiastic and i'm
pulslve, as one must needs be to surrender
his entire life to such a cause, he was re-
markably critical and prided himself on
his skepticism while he was, as matter of
fact, nearly as credulous as Mime. Blavat-
sky herself. They were, and are still, the
two leaders in the society.
He lodged with Nine. Blavatsl1y, as did
Wlmbrfge, the artist, all of them being
callous TO the cruel and unfounded scandals
that were set afoat. And there ina modest
nat IN Forty-seventh street they held open
house to all who came with proper creden-
tlals, and some unfortunately who proved
to he exceedingly undesirable guests.
MajorGeneral Doubleday, who after
wards became the President of the Theo-
sophical Society, when the founders had
sailed for India in December, 1875 was one
of the early and enthusiastic converts.
His tall, soldierlv form was frequently
seen in her little parlor, and the soft, gem
tie voice of the old warrior seemed a strange
vehicle for the startling defiances of all
accepted doctrine which he would calmly
utter.
1t did not seem out of place when Wong
Chin Foo arrived In New York for him to
go there, for he was as bizarre in appear
ance as any other of the curioslties that
crowded the room. Among the tropical
palms, the tigers heads, the stuffed apes,
the rare birds, the curious foreign clocks,
the Eastern draperies, the heather idols
and the innumerable caravan of other Gu
rios he looked like the rest of the furniture.
AT least he would have looked as if he
could have kept still for a moment, but
frisking and skipping from spot to spot as
he did, he was for all the world like a tropi-
cal bird of rarely gorgeous plumage,
brought captive thither 10y magic art.
And how gorgeous that plumage was /!
Aside from his abominably abundant jew
elry his garb must have cost at least 81 600
Velvets, lustreless silk, fine linen and golden
buttons were combined in that marvellous
tumble of odd shapes which only China
man can achieve, and which satisfactorily
explain why Chinese artists make no
attempt to include perspective in their pic
lures.
He was even more Chinese in his resem-
blance to fireworks in his career here, for
be went up with a tremendous whiz from
the Lamasery, exploded in Steinway Hall
with lecture on his religious views, and
subsidized into "Space writer" on various
newspapers.
AS vivacious as he and far more beauti-
full, though by no means so gorgeous, was
the favorite actress, Linda Dietz, then in
the full course of a successful career at the
Union Square Theater. The somewhat
tragical story of her life was just beginning,
and she had not left New York for the
other side of the Atlantic.