The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-08-13

For nearly a month we lave hesitated
about printing the communication which
appears below. The inquiry addressed to
us opens n question of national Importance.
1t has not seemed clear whether public in
terests would be served better by the pub
LEGATION of this letter or by its suppression:
ITO THE EDITOR OF THE SuS-Sir: Feelings Of appre-
hension prompt me to inquire as to the whereabouts
and doings OF Col. ABE SLUrsKT, whose fllustrious
name has not recently appeared in your columns.
Very respectfully,
GEORGE JOHNSTON. lts West l17th street.
NEW YoRK. July 90"
With hope and apprehension alternately
uppermost in our own minds, we have de-
layed the performance of a duty which can
nc longer be avoided. There is proba-
bly, no statesman in the United States
of America whose whereabouts and
deeds are n matter of greater con-
Germ to a greater number of people
than those of Col. ABE SLUPsKY, the cham
pion of School Reform. There is probably
no newspaper in the United States to
which the anxious admirers of the great
School Reformer are more likely to apply
for information than to THE sun. And
what shall we saya What can we sayi
Has Col. ABE SLUPsKY gone into retire
ment in some small university town, some.
where in the remote West, where there is a
good library and a respectable establish.
mcnt near by holding a license for the sale
of stimulating beveragesl Hardly, for
the smaller the town and the less con-
spicuous the college, the more certain.
ly would his presence become a matter
of notoriety. Has he departed for the Klon.
dix to procure funds for the prosecution of
the nobly unselfish enterprise with which
his name and fame are inseparably connect
ed2 We should ave heard of him at Seattle,
at Juneau, at st. Michael, at Dawson, or at
Circle City. He can no more escape his own
kin than he can pass beyond the boun-
daries of his unprecedented reputation. Has
his heroic soul weakened, and has he
changed his name to evade responsibility
for the failure and abandonment of the
Causei We cannot believe it. No man that
knows Col. ABE SLUPsKY can believe it.
The most recent and by far the most ad.
vanccd project of educational innovation
is the School for the Revival of the
Lost Mysteries of Antiquity, established
by the T~heosophical brethren at Point
Iona in California. Just what is going on
at Point Iona, how far the dormitories and
lecture halls and laboratories have beer
erected, what the curriculum is, who are
the professors and tutors composing the
faculty, how many students have been ma,
circulated, what they are doing daily for
the Revival, are mysteries quite as dense
as any lost mystery of antiquity. The facts
about the Point Iona School are jealousy
guarded. Yet we find in the August mum,
of 2hcOSOphy, the organ of the Society,
this intimation of an impending disclosure
of surprising Importance:
much quiet work is being done by Mrs. TiSoLEY IL
connection with the School for the Revival OF the
Lost Mysteries of Antiquity at Point Iona. Tho
School has some near surprises in store for us. by
which the interest OF the general public should be
most %sanguine. Point Iona is a strange place. will
a wonderful future"
This is official. 1t is signed with the mi
tials of Mr.. f.. Il. HARGRovE himself.
Does this mean that the Lost Champion
of School Reform will soon turn up at the
School of Lost Mysteries, perhaps as its
President, perhaps rs its Resident Sage
We can only surmise. Has Col. ABF
SLUPsKY gone to meet KooT HooMI? II
so, he has good and sufficient reasons, and
we can say no more.