Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-03
BLAVATSKY is DYING,
The World Famous Exponent of
Theosophy Is Suffering From
an Incurable Illness.
SKETCH OF HER STRANGE CAREER.
Her Childhood Remarkable for Phenomena
Which She Refused to Admit
We're Spiritualistic.
WHAT SHE CLAIMS FOR HERSELF.
Ehs Investigation Of the Instance Of the Society Of
Pyehiesl Research.
SKETCH OF HER STRANGE CAREER,
WHAT SHE CLAIMS FOR HERSELF.
Ehs lrSusgstun Ut the Instance Of the Society d
Psyehiesl Research.
WRITTEN FOR rHR DISPATCH. J

can section of the Theosophical Society,
which opened in Boston last Sunday, a few
words in relation to the founder and leader
of the theosophical movement in general
may not come amiss. That much has al
ready been said and written concerning the
lady in question, is to those who know
whereof they speak an argument without
point. Few women have been 50 persist.
emily misrepresented and slandered as
Madam Helena Blavatsky-a fact in itselt
far from surprising, seeing that most of the
alleged information regarding her given out
TO confding public has come from the
mouths and pens either OF her bitterest ene-
mics or of those whom ignorance and preju-
dice have rendered incapable Of correct
judgment
As usual there are two sides to the ques-
ton; the exclusive representation of one
only is, to say the least, un-AmericsD, in
that it is unfair and misleading. Moreover,
with all due regard to the feelings of those
who believe to the contrary, "H. P. b. is
too considerable o person to be forever
palmed off on the public as an "unmiti-
gated fraud, ""a clever sharper" or 10 be
vilifed as ''infamous" anr notorious, %
without some indisputable proof to back
such statements.
The New York Libel Suit.
The fate OF the law suit instituted for libel
by Madame's friends, now pending in New
York, is case in point; nothing can be
proved against her fair name and honor, nor
ever will be, simply because the gross
charge made by a certain disgruntled and
self-centered individual, expelled from the
ranks Of the society as unworthy of member
ship therein, is based only on j fgment sof
dir4artad inn ation To The hrr.
tai onslaught of such a one, q work of spite
because Madame would not play the part of
tail to his own particular kite does the pub
hc at large owe most Of its prejudice and
misconception concerning lady who is, to
use the words of one who knows her inti-
mately and we'll, ''constitutionally incapable
apart from all questions Of morality-of
carrying out an elaborate and prolonged
system of fraud. She is hasty, impulsiye,
unconventional, frank to unWisdom Gas the
world estimates wisdom) and most transpar-
emily honest"
Were the whole correspondence, of which
there are hundreds OF letters still in exist
ence, leading up to the dastardly attack of
last year made public by this same eX-mem-
Der, the world would quickly see where
charges of fraud and of immoral character
rightiully belonged.
To the Psychicsl Research Society also, do
we owe much OF the widespread prejudice
against Madame B. This sapient group of
hunters afte7 ghosts and the supernatural,
hearing OF the wonder ul occult phenomena
at Madsme's headquarters at Adiar India,
sent out in the spring of 1884 young man
Mr.. r. Hodgson, OF st. Johns College,
Cambridge-to investigate and to take EVIL
dence concerning the genuineness of its
character. A piece OF purely gratuitous
work, this, since no one had appealed to its
opinion or judgment in the matter. Their
choice of emissary was also. to say the least,
singularly unfortunate, as his own report
proves him prejudiced from the start, ignor-
ant Of Hindu modes of thought, gullible to
to the extreme, and what is worse, untrust-
worthy, and whether Intentionally so or
not, dishonest in at least one very i'm
portant, if not the most important, particu-
lar
The Room of the Rriestess
I re- ar to the sketch of Madame's room at
Adjar, which Mr.. Hodgson produces as his
own, from measurements taken by him.
self" As matter of fact the "plan" is
that drawn up by Mr.. William @. Judge,
OF New York City, and which shows this
room as the treacherous and ungrateful
Coulombs left it, with all its recent addenda
OF helps toward fraud, gotten up during
Madame's absence in Europe that year.
Now Mr.. Judge arrived on the scene before
Mr.. Hodgson did; he saw the room pre-
eisely as it had been left the day before by
the expelled housekeeper and her husband,
drew a plan of it and had witnesses to prove
the recent and therefore impracticable uu-
finished character OF the work, NJ. Couomb
having to clear out before completing
his little "piece de convenience" and
finally had the walls OF the room
restored to their former intact eondi-
tion. Mr.. Hodgson therefore never saw
the place as it then appeared: nor could be
as a consequence, have drawn a "plan" of
il from sight 1t follows therefore that the
sketch in question was either a copy of MIR.
Judges or of one obtained elsewhere.
And yet be claimed it as his own, taken
from measurements of what he sawl The
bulk of his report, moreover, rests upon the
evidence of the Coulombs-people confess
edly foresworn and in the pay of others
inimical to Madame. Threateued.with dis
missal for gross misconduct, they sold
themselves TO the highest bidder, engaging
in a conspiracy TO rum Madame Blavatskv
by charges OF fraud. For a full account of
the whole matter, however, the reader is
referred to the official statements of the So
clety and the Reply TO Mr.. Hodgson's
report by Major General II. B. Morgan, as
well as to Mrs. Annie Besant's clever and
sarcastic article in the London Time Tor
March of the present year, on the Great
Mares Nest of the Psychical Research So
ciety."
Charged With Being a Russian Spy.
But the funniest thing, perhaps, in the
whole OF this most remarkable misreport
was the sage conclusion that all this and
that was simply and solely cloak for
Madame's action as a Russian spyl For
after taking into due consideration all the
rubbisby statements scraped together from
such sources as the Coulombs and those in
10 conclude that she is "neither a religious
monomaniae, nor mercenary person bent |
on gain, nor vet one with a morbid yearn-
ing for nOtoriety." Puzzled to account for
q motive for all her-to him-fraudulent |
and mysterious doings, he finally de- |
cides in favor of the theory that she |
is an agent of the Czar-spying
out English political affairs. And the proof |
he has to offer is principally torn" scrap |
picked out of Madame's waste basket by |
Nine. Coulomb, which torn scrap was |
nothing more nor less than discarded page |
of Russian translation, published in the |
Ponce and ordered and paid ior by its |
editorl ABother torn scrap about completes |
his ''cvidence," and this time it is frag- I
meut OF 'Zdnzar, which Mr.. Hodgson took |
for a political cypherl Meantime the Rus
sian spy" resides in honored security in the |
midst OF a people whose political interests |
she WIS Supposed to have betrayed. The |
whole thing was a most gigantic sell, only /
in this case il was not the intended victim i
Madame Blayatsky who was sold by the /
Psychial Research Society through its /
youthful and, alas, too con6ding agent, r. /
Hodgseu, +. p. Il. 5.
Il l.