The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-09-30
WILL OBSERVE
 ANNIE BESANTS BIRTHDAY

Tomorrow the TheO sophiStS Of this mundane sphere. and, doubtless, the Mahatmas spooks, ghosts, ha'nts and goblins of other worlds. will join in a celebration of the birthday of Annie Resant, the remarkable woman who succeeded the obese Russian, Mime. Bla- vatsky, as leader of the occult cult True, there sare many TheosophtSts in America who have never admitted Mme- Bsant's authority, and who turn to Kathrine T1ngley, the purple To- tus mother of California, as the source and fountain of divine fnspir- the disciples of the brotherhood of humanity are divided into warning
 camps.
 Annie Basant was born in London sixty-five years ago tomorrow, but that brief space of. time does not be- gin to measure her real life. On her age runs into the millions of years, and that her last reincarna- ton is but a drop in the great ouckef Of life. She has been a tadpole and a roaring lion, queen and a slave, and she is as familiar with ancient Troy and Babylon as with London Madras and New York. She has i1V- ed on the Moon and on Mars and m the dim Land of Ghosts.
 At the age of twenty she married Rev. Frank Besant. brother Of Sir Walter Besant, the English novelist The life of a minister's wife did not long satisfy the stormy petrel of many
  tained a legal separation. When she divorced her husband she also left the church and became a preacher of atheism. She wrote number of books designed to prove that all superna tur- alism is but the baseless fabric of a dream, and lectured on atheism in many lands.
 In 1877 she became a co-defendant with Charles Brad1augh in a sensa- tional criminal prosecution based on the publication and sale of pr. Knowl- nf .Besant and Bradlaugh were then as- sociated in a, free thought publishing concern and Dr. Knowlton,s book was one of their publications. The book to which the government objected dealt with the Malthusian theory that the l ills of humanity are due to an ex- Der of births should be restricted Mrs. Besant made an eloquent speech to the court. in which she defended the book on the grounds of huIna nifty but was convicted and sentenced to 1 six months imprisonment The yer 1 dict was that the book was calculat-
 ed to deprave although not so in l tended.
 From the most radical rationalism
 which refuses to admit any superna- turalisrn, Mrs. Besant turned tc l 'sAeiatic mildew'' and a wild orgy of 1 superstition. Science and free
 thought, which she once hailed as the 1 saviore of the world, she cast into the rubbish heap. She declared that l the scientists are floundertI& in the | dark, that astronomy is all wrong | that every branch of learning is 8 ] rope of sand that is falling to pieces l In embracing Theosophy, she did not | lay emphasis on that part of the cult 1 which Is simply hun1a anitarfanism. bu1 l chose rather to teach the Theosophy l of black magic Mahatmas and spOOks l She became clairvoyant, and dlscov- cred atom forms" that will yet, she l asserts, revolutionize science Pos l sessed of a powerful and magnetic 1 personality, an eloquent tongue an6 l an excess of egotisrn. she made ar | Irresistible appeal to those who were l dissatisfied with old religions and vel | denra aded more than the 'I don | know of agnoetic science.