Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-21
|PRIESTESS 0F-FRAUD.
Madame Blavatsky, the Oracle Of
the Theosophie School,
ARRAIGNED AS AN lMPOSTOR'
A Smithsonian Professor Makes Some
Startling Revelations of
so.CALLED MAHATMIC MYSTERIES

sO-CALLED MAHATMIC MYSTERIES
WASHINGTON, July 20.-A newspaper
man who has been here for some time look
ing up the record of Madame Blavatsky
and the so-called Theosophists. has written,
as the result of his researches, an account
that will probably create a commotion
among the believers in the mystic Mahatma.
For the information he desired he called
uponr Professor Elliott Cones, of the Smith
sonian Institution. After telling what he
knew of Madame Blavatsky's partner and
how the two became acqua inted, he went on
to speak of the madame herself, and said:
Little is known &C curately Of her early
life. 1t appears that she was Mile. Hahn.
born at Ekaterinslow, Russia, in 1881. She
is consequently now about SO or so years
old.
WANTS TO APPEAR OLD.
"One of the curiosities about her is that
she has always tried to pass for older than
she really is, if not of fabulous antiquity.
I must leave it to the ladies to divine the
motive of this freak. Six years ago she
gravely informed me that she was then 81
years old. I did not tell her she looked it,
but accepted the statement with equal
gravity.
'tHere is private letter, signed by
Madame Coulomb, written in 1885 to
Colonel John G. Bundy, of Chicago, but
feminine stroke: Madame Blavatsky Is not
Madame Blavatsky. She is Madame Met
| rovitch. I have known her husband in
Egypt 1 have kept this always to myself.
but now that she has tried to injure me in
any way she could. I am not bound
to be secret any more Afterward
Blavatsky is said by Sinnett
| to have returned home to Odessa late in 1872.
| But in point OF fact she was expelled from
Egypt by the police or other Government
authority. Here is letter stating that Hon.
Eugene Schuyler, our Consul General at
| Cairo, could probably procure copy of the
authorized to do so by the State Depart
| ment. This affair foreshadows her hasty re-
| treat from probable arrest at Madras, India,
| in 1885, when she was wanted by the police
after the Coulomb exposure.
RUSSIAN SPY.
"Early in 1873 she went to Paris, where
|
| fresh fields and pastures green, the tireless
| adventures landed at New York on July Z,
1873. Her real business at that time was in
| the secret service of her Government as O
| Russian spy, and she was instructed, as
| usual, to play any part that would divert
attention from the facts in the case. She
was in favor then; and later, as we shall
see, was transferred to India for the same
| political purposes.
1.-THE Punch and Judy show she set up in
India is thus easily explained. 1t amused
the people and concealed her real designs.
| Had she succeeded in political intrigue it
would have been all right. But she failed,
was exposed, ,disgraced, had her pay stopped
and was as usual incontinently dropped by
! her Government. One corroboration of this
is that to this day she flies into her worst
RACES whenever the Russian spy matter
comes up, and 'repudiates the vile insinu-
alton, with fury. That is just where the
shoe pinches her,pet corn, not that she should
be accused of being Russian spy, but that
she was Russian spy, made mess of it,
and was promptly ignored. But am an
ticipating. Whatever the nature of the
| instructions from Russia under which
she landed at New York in July,
| 1873, she was ostensibly exploiting
spiritualism, then, as before and since.
| But we first hear of anything to your
present purpose alter she had met Olcott in
| Vermont in the fall of 1874, and been writ
ten up by him. Early in 1876, I think in
In January or February of that year, she
married Betanelly. This man was fore
| igner, think from Tifis, in business in
Philadelphia. have seen letters bearing
on this marriage, including some of his to
her, and have talked with persons cognizant
okher brief and stormy married life. among
fha phr1 1oda lou hr tad in
the speedy divorce suit.
RIvALING DIss DEBAR.
''This affair was short, sharp and disas-
astrous to- Door Betanelly, who in his infat-
uation had scratched the proverbial Russian
and caught the very cream of Tartar. I
| think it lasted two or three months, when
| her brutal treatment sent him to court for
relief. The legal aspects of the case are of
course ON public record in Philadelphia,
| and can be verified by anyone who thinks it
| worth while to take the trouble. This mat
| rimonial episode is curious case of wom-
| ans perversity; for why should Blavat-
| sky become suddenly 80 ceremonious? She
slipped the hymeneal halter very early in
| life, and never before or since this Betanelly
business submitted to be bridled in affairs
/ of the heart.
cat this time, as we have seen, Mrs. Bla-
/ Observation-Disclosures udu uOt Deeu
metempsychosed into theosophist. She
was simply exploiting as q spiritualistic
medium, setting a style and fashion later
developed into fine art in New York by
Della Ann O'Sullivan, better known as the
Diss Debar woman. In fact, Princess
Debar and Countess Blavatsky are as like
as two peas in person, pursuits and pro-
clivities, though one went to Jail for lack of
wits, which have kept the other out of the
clutches of the law, excepting the Betanelly
episode. Blavatsky rivals Diss Debar in
producing spirit pictures, from her real
skill with pen and pencil.
1.-THE 'Theosophioal Society was founded
in New York November II, 1875. Many
| New Workers will remember the cock-and-
bull stories set afoat about that time of the
appearance of mysterious Hindu adept in
his astral body in the solemn stiffness OF the
night time to give his awed and hushed au-
dience behind the locked doors in the lama
sery' on Forty-seveDth street instructions
| from the spheres supernal for the formation
of theosophical society, to carry out the
mighty Mahatmic movement OF turning the
world upside down. Olcott's function in
THE MAHATMIc PROGRAMME
was comparatively simple. He was to have
a vision, likeIunto those ofprophets still more
out of date; in this dream he was to see the
astral body of Mahatma Koot Hoomi, con-
veying conviction and instructions viva