The sun., 1891-06-27
oLIpHANT AND "THE PRT-
MATE"


reporter OF THN Sun found Mr. William
Henry Hurlbert at the residence OF Mayor
Cooper In Washington square.
MIR. Hurlbcrt said the reporter. can ron.
as an old friend OF the late Laurence Oil
phant, throw any light Oh this question OF
the relations between Mr. oliphant and Mr..
L. L. Harris. the sc-caled "prmnte Of the
new life" now In California;
lknew Oliphant intimately" said Mr.. Hurl-
bort. and my friendship with him dates back
to period before the civil war, when. with the
younger brother OF Lord Ampthill now Lord
Arthur RUSSELL ho visited the Princles in
south Carolina. and made friendships In this
country winch ne kept up throughout his
cnrlously varied career. But neither / nor
any one VINO knew and loved Laurence OIL
phant as man OF the world. can throw any
lignt on MS relations with harrla'
why notf
because those relations were iu their nature
occult In more than one published work
oliphant himself tried. and In my Judgment
sienally Jailed to throw light on them. / don't
pelieve he was ever any more able to account
to himself for his faith In the rrlmate.' than
VI. Johnson would have been to account for
his oelief that 1t In some way concerned his
happiness not to pass post In the street with
In other words, you think. as some people in
California seem to think. that he was dupe
and victimp
Not exactly. Oliphant came OF a supers.i-
tious race. The Olrhants originally went.I be-
live, from Denmark to Scotland. They con-
meet their family name In some incomrrehensi-
bic fashion with the Danish Order OF the Ee-
phant which. as you know. is sort OF Scandl-
navian order OF the Garter. Their annals In
Scotland are like the annals OF other Northern
families full OF ghostly ira lltions. There is q
house OF theirs in which. have he,n told. the
skeleton OF woman, her long. dark hair flow.
Ing still In long tresses over her fleshless
shoulders was found by some workmen only
few years nGo.prostrated upon the floor OF a So
cret chamber concealed in one OF the massively
thick walls OF the dwelling or course.the ghost
OF that lady has walked in that house for several
centuries and. dnro say. still walks there.
Sir Walter Scott certainly would have believed
this and Sir Walter was not only poet aud n
man OF genius, but lawyer and Il writer to the
Signet, or something OF the sort Furthermore
Laurence Oliphaht was familiar from his
childhood with life In India, whore. as Sir
Alfred Lyall tells you In his marvellous poem.
The Medttations OF a Hindoo Prince deities
swarm In the tree tops All OF this means only
that there ran through Oliphants nature a
intellect and OF sensibility in an age OF ag-
nostic tendencies to take up AS did the un-
believing Lord Herbert OF Cherbnry with signs
and wonders anil special revelations. / think
Oliphants faith In tina prtmate' and the
life' and the use had this root and no other.
Harris was TO him an avatar And not the
llrst. Sir Frederick Bruce. Lord El2tns
brother who was Minister at Washington. told
mo that whom Oltphant. then very young man.
went out with Lord Elgin to India, the COM
msnder OF man. ot-war which was taking them
out complained to Lord Elgin that his private
secretary was interfering with the discipline
OF the ship Pray. how? asked his lordship.
By worshipping one OF my hoatswains. re-
piled tho irate officer He gives the fellow
ten shilings to sit in chair and let him bow
down and worship him. on the rresnce that
divine spirit has entered into him. Jack don't
understand anything about the divine spirit.
but he Is glad OF the shllin2s, out OF which he
can get spirits more to his taste: and, IN short.
your Mr.. Oliphant will have the whole fore
castle full OF divine spirits IL you don't put n
stop to IT."
Did you ever talk with MIR. Oliphant about
the primate" and the life!"
Never willingly. But have many letters
from him full ofQueer exercitations: and once.
when We wore living together in London. next
kept mo up nearly all night reading to mo an
extraordinary series OF poems. three or four
hundred Of them. which he told mo he had
written. as remember under the inspiration
OF his spiritual bride Miss LEstrange, his
first wife. was then living. but, as understood
it. the terrestrial marriage was in no way In.
consistent with another marriage in the other
world. ain told that in California the disci-
pies main'a ain that Oliphant was known in their
fold as 'Woodbine.' My recollection Is that
In London Oliphant himself told me that
Woodbine' was the name OF this extra-ter-
restral bride. Be this us 1t may. the poems
refer to were composed, as he told me. at
Brockton under this inspiration"
Have they ever been published?
i do not think they have? Somo OF them
were remarkable for beauty OF thought and OF
expression. Most OF them seemed to me as In
comprehensible as the prose Of Oliphant's
prose work. Sympneumata composed. rs he
arerred. under Transportation OF his terrestrial
wife, Miss L'Estrangs. either Just b,fore or