The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-05-09
THEosoPIc cRANKIsM.

THEOSOPIC CRANKISM.
The world is full Of crankism. II
| always has been. But the individual
freedom of the civilization of this fin
de-seicle period puts it more in evil
dence. 1t was dangerous in the past
| to be a crank and let the world know
it. Only crowned heads and others
of political, ecclesiastical or military
| power dared make their cranklsm
| known. All others We're ostraclzeu
or hung, imprisoned or burned and
| otherwise deprived of existence. Now
l anybody can be a crank on any sub
| ject with impunity. In short its rather
| the fashion. To be normal in all other
directions it seems now necessary TO be
cranky in some one. Much of the
| crankism Of the now is of a religious
| cast. Between the views held 10 by
Ingersoll and those promulgated by the
occult fakirs Of the east, there is prob
ably no more extreme phase of the
abnormal in crankism than that held
readers of the Eagle who remember
the wedding in white" which was
celebrated in Washington few weeks
since. in which the bride went to bed
and the groom took sleeper for New
York. also noticed in our dispatches
the other morning an account of the
theosophic marriage in New York City
of Claude Fall Wright and Mary
Katherine Leoline Leonard. This pair
are disciples of the reincarnation craze,
a crankism with Imagination as its sole
basis. There is neither philosophy,
science inspiration or experience in it.
1T is a harmless fad, so long as it does
lot send its victims TO the insane
asylum or incapacitate them for the
ordinary duties of life. This New
York pair seems to have held to more
practical outlook for results in their
new relations, than did the Washing
ton pair, who having united their souls
Immediately severed their destinies by
agreeing never to see each other again,
much less pr0faning their sacred flesh
by touching each other. If the New
York bridegroom is to be believed, or
if his statements could be possibly
made creditable, he was Miss Leon
ards lover thousands of years ago. If
no reference to it now, consequently
Mary Katherine LeOline Leonard must
be tough piece of maiden survival.
This groom in the presence of a pre-
sumably sane audience announced that
ne and Mary X. l.. l.. first met and
wOeed as cave-dwellers, and after
wards travelled together down the Yam
geti Kiang river in the time of the
Wish Wash dynasty in the year 1929
Il. c. They travelled in a houseboat
he says. That may have been all
right then, but it would be tough on
the lovers who should try it now.
Maybe they were only cats at that |
time. 1t would have been all right |
for cats. That this trip was not a |
pltdSdnb III Vi IHeOSOpuIC eAdSSeTd-
ton is shown by the declaration con- |
tanned in the formal consent to this |
long postponed union by 1.-The inner |
circle" to the effect that the contract |
ing parties were fulfilling the destinies |
Of previous lives" and the marital |
pledge that they were finally coming |
together for business" in renewal of |
the promise given ages ago. An
adept as an occult successor" robed
in a veil that concealed his features
and that fell to his very toes, perform
ed the ceremony, after which thee
sophie schedule commonplace alder
man clinched the thing according to
The laws of New York. The reuniting
IF these tender hearts after so many
of separation must have
proved a tender sight In fact it could
only have been a very tender thing
Ill around, but we apprehend the prin-
cipal overflow of tenderness was Iocat-
I'd in the heads Of the cranks of ali
concerned. Logically the next rein
theosophic existence for that
;rowd should be as oysters.