The Washington bee., 1911-06-24
Public Men And ThinDs
(By the Sage of the Potomac.)

(By the Sage of the Potomac.)
Well, | heard Louis Gregory, who
IS back from the Orient, whittier he
repaired, wrapped up in imagination
many weeks ago, 10 get a strangle
mold on that Bahaian substitute for
orthodox religion, talk on the beau
ties OF the substitute, and the high
mOnke-monk who's head OF that cult
l enjoyed his talk, for Louis is a
bright, bralny fellow. But of his re-
llgion-what? The old fashion relig-
IONS or creeds don't seem to appease
the thirst of high-brows and fadists
any longer. MethOdism. which toll
crates shouting, mOurners 5 benches
ana TeVlvals, Is too boisterous. The
baptlst creed which tells YOU to come
IN the waters fine is too moist for
the twentieth century religious CON
nolseur Ep1scopalianism, which puts
rubber IN your conscience and sane
tines all amuSementS, is too aristo-
cratic; PresbyteTianism, which sug-
gests long faces, and "get-behind-me-
satan Is too defined for them. Con-
gTegdtlOnalISm as Tehearsed bV Rev.
Howard and eXemplihed bv Judge
Terrell IS a too indefinite assimilation
OF ant1hydrOplc doses of antipodal de-
signs. There's a disposition to shunt
the old creeds aside and take uD these
Oriental get-riCh-quick creeds thar
teach an indefinite something about an
alleged goldman" Now what is all
this high-brow talk about "god-men? ?"
1t IS heard in Cambridge where the
fourteen proud gates of Harvard
swing wide, and from where a belated
Assistant Attorney General came; it
is heard IN New York, in Chicago.
and in Frisco, where Hindoo TEMPLES
show their gilded minarets, and even
here in Washington. God-menl
Whittier will cOmmercialized cults and
imaginative isms lead us next? Now
suppose we get down to what they
call brass tacks right away about this
goldman business. Gated to trous-
ers, and finding his aesthetic limit in
rainbow haberdashery, the male of the
human species is very much earth
earthly If by word of mouth, loud
spoken to the many or soft whispered
TO the few, a he-DerSOn tells of mans
duality with the GODS, mark him down
as a fakir.
= < X
There IS no such thing as god
man, and happy is the privilege of
thrusting the black ink point of the
pen to the very heart of the doctrine.
We were going along sanely enough
with respect to this particular brain
storm until there came from the East
the HlndoO with sO-called religious
message missionary. if you
please, with Abou Ben Adhems Sc
lected route to the celestial realms
under his arm and a story to tell Of
neW-fOund side trips which might
with perfect propriety be taken while
forging forward on the main journey.
From India he came-India. known
for ten centuries for the wonders of
its fakirs. Fakir Look at your die
MOhammedan asCetic, re-
lIgIOus mendICant. or mendiCant priest.
A HindOO Yogi or mendicant devo-
tee" And more to that effect. One
may not bundle his worldly goods on
a shOuldeTbOrne staff for the Vedanta
journey until he or she-for men
felix's seem to have engaged passage
by other trunk lines-has become
Yogi. But heaven help the woman
who tries 1t. Up New England way
new grass IS growing over the bodies
of women who died before they saw
half of the hidden mysteries of it; in
the asylumS there are others who
in phrases which the sane do
not understarT-Only guess at-and
in Boston, New York and here there
are more than a round hundred
known by the name of nOviCeS, young
and older, who have waved aside all
sober warnings to follow whittier the
path may lead Through the door
marked religion to the mystic mum
merry Of the Orient; from hOcus-I
DOcus to hallucinatiOns; from a chatter
Of meaningless jargon called truths"
to practices which elsewhere are as
5OCiated with unbalanced minds. and
At one point in the journey to accept
as part OF the end of wisdom that
few, not al, men are the reincarna-
lion of the gods When a woman ac-
,epts as truth, either of Eastern
)r Western origin, that a man is halft
god she is bound to have tantrums. |
Bet your hObble on that
This Yogi business began at the
Worlds Fair in Chicago The Orient |
sent thither attractions for the Mid |
way. and one Swami Vivekananda, a |
HindoO monk. who sat in the Parlia- |
nent of Religions and gave his public
ecture on the control of the mind by |
Raja Yoga. Funny it is that some of |
is are unwilling to accept the good, |
moral code which places
tight on one side and wrong on the |
lther, and does the same with good
and evil The swami offered some |
hing new and mysterious, and after |
he parliament had closed and while |
others of his race still piped to the |
,obras TO entertain the gaping crowds |
n the sideshows, he slipped out ofl
own to appear next at gatherings of
hose who studied religion from pecu-
lar angles. Then, after a while, he
vas asked to teach the Yogi to a Sc
eCted few, and the cult got its real |
tart. The Swami Vivekananda was a |
ound, oily, chocolate person of two
weight, with dubious nose
nd thick lips. He wore six yards of
heese-cloth wound about his head